Forty-seven students were asked to describe their deepest experiences
during Transcendental Meditation program. There were asked to use their
own words, as if they were asked to describe the taste of an exotic fruit.
Content analysis of their descriptions yielded three themes common in
most people’s descriptions, namely the absence of time, space and body
sense. Time, space, and body sense are the framework that gives meaning
to every day experience. An experience occurs at a specific time, in a
specific place, and in relation to me—an inner thought or feeling or an object
in the environment. It is interesting that deep meditation experiences were
described by the absence of the very framework that gives meaning to
waking experiences.
Physiological patterns during a deep meditation experience are presented
in the figure below in a single subject. This person reported the experience
of pure consciousness during this period. The top line is breath rate (BR).
The middle one is electrodermal activity (EDA); when the line goes down the
person is more alert and awake. The bottom one is heart rate variability
(HR). If the line goes up heart rate is speeding up; when it goes down
heart rate is slowing down. Notice pure consciousness is characterized by
the absence of normal inhalation and exhalation, with surges in the
autonomic nervous system—an EDA response and momentary slowing of the
heart beat.
While there was absence of normal respiration during pure consciousness
experiences—research reports that the breath is actually going in
continuously, albeit very slowly, over the 16 seconds. This is called
apneustic breathing. It was not picked up by the nasal thermistor because
the inhale was so slow. However, apneustic breathing can be inferred from
the BR tracing. This period of breath change begins with an exhale and ends
with an exhale. This suggests a slow inhale throughout the period. Future
research could investigate the impact of periods of apneustic breathing that
naturally occur during TM practice on mind and body.