Mantra meditation is easy to practice. "OM" Mantra is the highest sacred symbol in Hinduism. The present study investigated the temporal dynamics of oscillatory changes after OM mantra meditation. Twenty-three naive meditators were asked to perform loud OM chanting for 30 min and the EEG were subsequently recorded with closed eyes before and after it. To obtain new insights into the nature of the EEG after OM chanting, EEG signals were analyzed using spectral domain analysis. Statistical analysis was performed using repeated measures of analysis of variance. It did not reveal any specific band involvement into OM mantra meditation. But significantly increase in theta power was found after meditation when averaged across all brain regions. This is the main effect of OM mantra meditation. However, the theta power showed higher theta amplitude after condition at all regions in comparison to the before condition of meditation. Finding was similar to other studies documenting reduction in cortical arousal during a state of relaxation. The study argues for the potential role of loud 'OM' chanting in offering relaxation. It provides a new perspective of meditation to the naive meditators. This information may help to demystify meditation and encourage those considering this as beneficial practice.

Meditation and yoga both have positive effects on physical, as well as mental health. Om mantra chanting, a simple and easy to practice, also comes under the aspect of meditation. The “Om” mantra is also considered as the very name of the absolute. Om meditation not only affects the various parts of the brain, such as pre-frontal cortex, vagus nerve, amygdala and others but also affects the heart rate and respiratory rate. Considering the healing effects of Om meditation, through this paper, we are trying to explore all the relevant work done in the field of Om meditation. The survey includes a large number of papers covering the research previously conducted by many researchers, their results and different techniques adopted to study the effect of Om meditation on human beings. Studies on Om meditation are categorized under four different heads: Neuroimaging studies, EEG studies, evoked potentials studies and other methods studies. Even though the existing research evidenced capability of Om meditation in curing anxiety and depression, more rigorous studies with better design, with larger sample size and with different control groups are required. Especially the need to explore untouched research areas of Loud Om meditation using EEG is suggested in the paper. Furthermore, future research directions are also suggested.

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