Effects of Different Types of Meditations Namely Transcendental Meditation and Heart Rhythm Meditation on Selected Physiological Variable

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to find out the effects of different types of meditations namely Transcendental Meditation and Heart Rhythm Meditation on selected physiological variables namely resting pulse rate among college men students. To achieve this purpose of the study, sixty men students studying for bachelor’s degrees in and around colleges nearby Tiruvannamalai District, Tamil Nadu, India were randomly selected as subjects. The age, height and weight of the selected subjects ranged from 18 to 24 years, 158 to 171 cm and 56 to 69 kilograms respectively. The selected subjects were divided into three equal groups of twenty subjects each at random. Group I underwent Transcendental Meditation, Group II underwent Heart Rhythm Meditation and Group III acted as a control. All the subjects of the three groups were tested on selected dependent variables prior to and immediately after the training programme. The collected data were analyzed statistically by using ANCOVA (analysis of covariance) to find out the effects of different types of meditations on selected physiological variables. Whenever the obtained ‘F’ ratio for the adjusted post-test mean was found to be significant, Scheffe’s test was applied as a post hoc test to determine the paired mean differences, if any. The 0.05 level of confidence was fixed to test the level of significance which was considered appropriate.