Peace through health: traditional medicine meditation in the prevention of collective stress, violence, and war.

In the midst of global armed conflicts, notably the Israel-Hamas and Ukraine-Russia wars, there is an urgent need for innovative public health strategies in peacebuilding. The devastating impact of wars, including mortality, injury, disease, and the diversion of healthcare resources, necessitates effective and durable interventions. This perspective aligns with WHO recommendations and examines the role of evidence-based meditation from Ayurveda and Yoga in public health to mitigate collective stress and prevent collective violence and war.

Empirical Evaluation of the Possible Contribution of Group Practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Program to Reduction in Drug-Related Mortality.

CDC data indicate that the U.S. is experiencing a sustained epidemic of drug-related mortality, with such deaths exceeding a record 100,000 in 2021, up 47% from 2019.

Reduction of PTSD in South African University Students Using Transcendental Meditation Practice.

A study was conducted on South African college students using the Transcendental Meditation technique to reduce posttraumatic stress disorder. Students meeting the criteria for possible posttraumatic stress disorder were included. Thirty-four students at the experimental university in South Africa clinically diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder were instructed in and practiced the Transcendental Meditation technique twice daily compared to 34 diagnosed posttraumatic stress disorder comparison students at the comparison university.

DISASTER RELIEF FOR THE JAPANESE EARTHQUAKE-TSUNAMI OF 2011: STRESS REDUCTION THROUGH THE TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION® TECHNIQUE.

This study examined changes in self-reported stress symptoms after instruction in the Transcendental Meditation(®) technique among 171 residents of two cities (Sendai and Ishinomaki) directly affected by the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami disaster compared with 326 non-disaster Tokyo participants previously tested before and after learning the technique and a no-treatment control group (n = 68). The participants completed a rating checklist of mental and physical symptoms. Disaster area participants who learned the Transcendental Meditation(®) technique in contrast to controls showed a significant drop in total symptom score from pre-test to post-test (effect size = -1.

Methodological concerns for meta-analyses of meditation: Comment on Sedlmeier et al. (2012).

We commend Sedlmeier et al. (2012) for their significant undertaking of meta-analysis of all meditation types on all psychological variables, but additional analyses may modify some of their conclusions. Whereas they suggest from visual inspection of funnel diagrams that there may be publication bias of underreporting low-effect studies on the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique, quantitative tests do not indicate the presence of bias for any type of meditation.