EFFECT OF HIGHER STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS THOUGHTLESS AWARENESS ON PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH

Sandeep Rai¹*, Sharma R.C.², Singh C.B.³, Shaunak A. Ajinkya⁴, Gangawane A.K.^5
1Department of Internal Medicine, Mahatma Gandhi Mission Medical College and Hospital, Navi Mumbai, 410209
²Department of Physiology, M.G.M Medical College, Sec-18, Kamothe, Navi Mumbai
³Department of Physiology, M.G.M Medical College, Sec-18, Kamothe, Navi Mumbai
⁴Dept. of Psychiatry, Mahatma Gandhi Mission Medical College and Hospital, Navi Mumbai
⁵School of Biomedical Science, Department of Biotechnology, M.G.M Institute of Health Sciences, Sec-18, Kamothe, Navi Mumbai
* Corresponding Author : clinicalmeeting@mgmuhs.com

Received : -     Accepted : -     Published : 15-06-2010
Volume : 1     Issue : 1       Pages : 1 - 8
Neurosci Res Lett 1.1 (2010):1-8

Conflict of Interest : None declared

Considerable evidence exists for the place of mind-body medicine in maintaining and improving psychological health. Among the approaches used yoga and meditation have shown to improve psychological health and stress-related disorders. However there is considerable interest generated in the development of consciousness through meditation and its preventive and therapeutic benefits. The aim was to study the short term impact of a comprehensive but brief life style intervention programme on the psychological health of participants by achieving the “thoughtless awareness state” or “Sahaja state” (an altered state of consciousness) using Sahaja yoga meditation technique. The study was carried out jointly by the International Sahaja Centre Yoga Research and Health Centre, a holistic health institute located in Navi Mumbai, and the Departments of Medicine and Psychiatry of MGM Medical College and Hospital, Navi Mumbai. The participants were from many different countries and cultures from all over the globe like USA, Canada, Australia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, Russia, the Middle East, India, Hongkong, China, Singapore etc. Some of the subjects had physical ailments like diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, asthma, jaundice, arthritis, hypothyroidism and cancer, while others were physically healthy and had come to improve on their meditation methods. The intervention consisted of a two weeks indoor programme in which the central theme was to achieve a “Sahaja state” (state of “thoughtless awareness”) by practicing Sahaja yoga meditation technique guided by a group of trained instructors on an individual as well as collective basis. The 30-item general health questionnaire (GHQ-30) was administered before the start of the programme to screen for psychological disorders. On the basis of scores obtained, the participants were segregated into 2 groups. Those who were psychologically healthy were placed in group 1 and those with psychological morbidity were assigned group 2. The participants in group 2 were further administered the Clinical Anxiety Scale (CAS) and the Becks Depression Inventory (BDI) to assess the severity of anxiety and/or depression. Administration of all the 3 questionnaires was repeated after two weeks on completion of the programme, i.e. GHQ-30 to group 1 and GHQ-30, CAS and BDI to group 2. On analyzing the results it was found that there was a highly significant improvement (p<0.001) in the psychological health of both these groups including the so-called psychologically healthy group. This suggests that the Sahaja yoga meditation technique makes us better equipped to deal with the psychological stresses of day-to-day life since it is easy to learn and gives results quickly. It is well suited for today’s superfast lifestyle in which people are not willing to wait and expect results quickly.

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