Elsevier

EXPLORE

Volume 14, Issue 1, January–February 2018, Pages 19-35
EXPLORE

REVIEW
A Systematic Review of Transcendent States Across Meditation and Contemplative Traditions

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2017.07.007Get rights and content

Background

Across cultures and throughout history, transcendent states achieved through meditative practices have been reported. The practices to attain transcendent states vary from transcendental meditation to yoga to contemplative prayer, to other various forms of sitting meditation. While these transcendent states are ascribed many different terms, those who experience them describe a similar unitive, ineffable state of consciousness. Despite the common description, few studies have systematically examined transcendent states during meditation.

Objectives

The objectives of this systematic review were to: 1) characterize studies evaluating transcendent states associated with meditation in any tradition; 2) qualitatively describe physiological and phenomenological outcomes collected during transcendent states and; 3) evaluate the quality of these studies using the Quality Assessment Tool.

Methods

Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL, AltHealthWatch, AMED, and the Institute of Noetic Science Meditation Library were searched for relevant papers in any language. Included studies required adult participants and the collection of outcomes before, during, or after a reported transcendent state associated with meditation.

Results

Twenty-five studies with a total of 672 combined participants were included in the final review. Participants were mostly male (61%; average age 39 ± 11 years) with 12.7 ± 6.6 (median 12.6; range 2–40) average years of meditation practice. A variety of meditation traditions were represented: (Buddhist; Christian; Mixed (practitioners from multiple traditions); Vedic: Transcendental Meditation and Yoga). The mean quality score was 67 ± 13 (100 highest score possible). Subjective phenomenology and the objective outcomes of electroencephalography (EEG), electrocardiography, electromyography, electrooculogram, event-related potentials, functional magnetic resonance imaging, magnetoencephalography, respiration, and skin conductance and response were measured. Transcendent states were most consistently associated with slowed breathing, respiratory suspension, reduced muscle activity and EEG alpha blocking with external stimuli, and increased EEG alpha power, EEG coherence, and functional neural connectivity. The transcendent state is described as being in a state of relaxed wakefulness in a phenomenologically different space-time. Heterogeneity between studies precluded any formal meta-analysis and thus, conclusions about outcomes are qualitative and preliminary.

Conclusions

Future research is warranted into transcendent states during meditation using more refined phenomenological tools and consistent methods and outcome evaluation.

Introduction

Transcendent states are ubiquitous within cultures and religions throughout human history. Spiritual practices such as meditation evoke experiences of heightened awareness and interconnectivity commonly associated with transcendence. Transcendence can be defined as an ineffable, qualitative experience of an altered state of consciousness. When transcendent experiences occur spontaneously, with or without practice or training, they are commonly referred to as a peak, religious, or mystical experience.1 While ascribed different names such as Samadhi, nondual, pure consciousness, nondual awareness, and oneness, the state of transcendence is often similarly described across traditions.

Despite the various names, this state is often similarly described. In states of pure consciousness, there is little phenomenological content, and an absence of dualistic perception and sense of self.2 Nondual states are characterized by pure awareness, free from fragmentation into dualistic thinking or experience, such as the sense of separateness between self and other.3, 4 Nonduality can be described as a background awareness, which precedes conceptualization and intention and that contextualizes various perceptual, affective, and cognitive contents outside of dualistic experience.4 Nonduality is distinguished by a continuity of awareness, or beingness that prevails in the absence of fine bodily, emotional, or mental states.5 During nondual states, thoughts are experienced as emerging from, and submerging into, pure awareness, which underlies but is not involved with thought. In this way, the person remains a witness to thoughts, feelings, and perceptual experiences. Transcendence is observing them as they arise from a perspective removed from the normal conscious experience of the self-described as a blissful, superconscious state, in which one perceives the identity of the individualized soul and the Cosmic spirit.6 Samadhi is the Sanskrit word for transcendence, originating from the words sama, meaning even, and dhi meaning intellect. Samadhi is loosely translated as mental equilibrium of a balanced and tranquil state of awareness. Thus, despite various nomenclature, different traditions have common descriptors for the transcendence state, namely a contentless-awareness that is absorptive, unitive, undifferentiated, and adaptive.

Transcendent states are challenging to study, given that they differ from the content of typical subjective experience. Transcendent states are experienced as a continuity of awareness despite the absence of sensory or cognitive perception. Further, transcendence differs from typical experiences that are characterized by content, such as outer objects, inner thoughts, emotions, sensations, and an experiencer’s point of view. In transcendent states, the experience is brought to finer states of being whereby they are “left awake by itself in full awareness of itself without any experience of an object.”7, 8 Therefore, it is difficult to assess when participants are experiencing transcendental states, since by definition they do not involve an individual experiencer who is able to evaluate or signal the onset of the experience. The lack of clear or consistent operational definitions for observed clinical benefits and the underlying mechanisms makes it challenging to study. Other challenges include the inability to discern differences in examined states because of between and within tradition heterogeneity.9

Despite these limitations, some research has been conducted on transcendent states. While many meditation practitioners consider transcendence a goal of their practice, very few experimental studies have systematically examined the transcendent state and its long-term effects. The largest body of research in this area has been completed by Travis at the Maharishi University of Management in the study of Transcendental Meditation.5, 8, 10 Josipovic4, 11 has also conducted a review including neuroimaging research of nondual awareness. Metabolic parameters of the state have been reviewed,12 case studies of advanced practitioners conducted,13, 14 factors facilitating or hindering the Samadhi state elucidated,15 and questionnaires created to evaluate meditative depth and Samadhi characteristics.16, 17

Although the research to date is encouraging, it is still limited given the number of meditation research papers that are now published (4448 on Pubmed 7/5/17). The paucity of research is surprising, considering transcendence’s importance in numerous traditions. A cross-tradition synthesis of completed research is needed to advance the meditation science field. The present review attempts to fill the major gap in this research by collating available data from studies reporting transcendent states of consciousness associated with meditation, across various spiritual traditions.

The goal of this review is to report findings of transcendent states during meditation and their physiological correlates. First, we present a review of the transcendence concept in five major world spiritual traditions: Vedic, Buddhist, Christian, Judaic, and Islamic. We explore the different characteristics and names in the different traditions. We then present the methods and results of the systematic review. The objectives of the systematic review were to: (1) characterize studies evaluating transcendent states associated with meditation across traditions, (2) qualitatively describe physiological and phenomenological outcomes collected during transcendent states, and (3) evaluate the quality of these studies using the Quality Assessment Tool.18, 19

Section snippets

Vedic Tradition

The Vedic approaches are a vast and extensive tradition with many variations and diversities in their application. This section does not attempt to cover the whole of the Vedic tradition but is just a brief overview highlighting those with current experimental research applied to them.

The Indian physician and mystic Patanjali (II BC) compiled the Yoga Sutra, one of Vedic’s oldest meditation scriptures. This Sutra is a collection of 196 brief phrases describing the state of Yoga developed within

Protocol and Registration

Methods of the analysis and inclusion criteria were specified in advance and documented in a protocol with the Joanna Briggs Institute as recommended.47

Literature Search Methods

Studies were identified by scanning reference lists, the Institute of Noetic Science Meditation Library and searching the following electronic databases: MEDLINE (1950—08/03/2016), PsycINFO (1967—08/03/2016), CINAHL (1982—08/03/2016), Alt HealthWatch (1984—08/03/2016), AMED (1980—08/03/2016). Searching was an iterative process as new references

Results

The search terms were purposefully kept broad to spread a wide-net for relevant papers. A total of 491 studies were identified for review (Figure 1). After removing duplicates, 457 titles and abstracts were screened for inclusion criteria. Studies were excluded on the abstract level because the study did not match the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Most of these studies were review or commentary articles that mentioned one of the search terms. Sixty-one potentially relevant full-text

Discussion

The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate phenomenological and experimental studies of transcendent states during meditation across traditions.

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