Meditation

AUDITORY, VISUAL, KINESTHETIC MEDITATION FOCUS: Exploring “One size fits all”

by Deane H. Shapiro, Jr., Ph.D.

AUDITORY, VISUAL, KINESTHETIC MEDITATION FOCUS:

Exploring “One size fits all”

Preliminary qualitative data and thoughts for matching” meditative strategy to person

This paper presents qualitative data on twenty individual’s reactions to concentrative meditation on different cues: visual (external: candle flame; internal, tip of nose), auditory (external: flute; internal mantra), and kinesthetic (internal: breath; external, mudra touching thumb to fingers). The results clearly show individual differences and preference, and that “one size does not fit all.”  In terms of minimizing distractions and maximizing “enjoyment”, several subjects found external auditory (flute) better, several  found external visual  (focus on candle flame) better. One found internal   auditory (mantra)  better; one found internal kinesthetic  (breath focus)  better. Some had different “distractions” with different focuses: some the same amount of distractions with each focus; a few had cross sense modality  and  altered state experiences.

The paper then explores some preliminary ideas for how to refine and match the “strategy” to the person, including:

  1. Additional subject information: e.g. assessing  a person’s dominant mode; length of meditation experience; contextual variables;
  2. Match the intervention/focus to the person’s preferred mode;
  3. Selection of a dependent variable  in a pre-post design: eg., stress—assessing pre and post cognitive, imagery, and kinesthetic stress.

Additional broader implications of this “matching” of person to focus, from method of teaching (e.g., Chinese “dongjing”, balancing yin and yang) to different schools of yoga as a way to “seek divine union”  are noted.

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Meditations on Meditation

by Deane H. Shapiro, Jr., Ph.D.

A little over ten years ago, in the summer of 1970, I was sitting in the meditation room of a Zen monastery, Daitoku-ji, in Kyoto, Japan. The master has raised a large stick over his head, and was about to give me a KWAT! on my shoulder. I watched his diaphanous white robe quiver, noted the soft movement of the candle flame, and then felt the blow. He bowed, I bowed. My sagging, tired body, my drowsy, thought-filled mind had returned abruptly to the on-going present.

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Johanna’s comments 35 years later

Zen Meditation and Behavioral Self-Control Skills Applied to a Case of Generalized Anxiety

by Deane H. Shapiro, Jr., Ph.D.

Zen meditation and behavioral self-control skills applied to a case of generalized anxiety. Psychologia: An International journal of psychological sciences, 1976, 19,: 134-138.

Reprinted (in part) in William H. Cormier and L. Sherilyn Cormier, “Interviewing Strategies for Helpers: Fundamental Skills and Cognitive Behavioral Interventions,”2nd edition, Monterey, California: Brooks- Cole, 1985,pages 448-457.

Reprinted, in part, in Therapy for Adults: Anxiety, Personality, and Depressive Disorders, Eds, H L Millman; JT Huber; DR Diggins, Jossey Bass Publishers, l982

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The effects of intensive meditation on sex role identification

by Shapiro, D. H., Shapiro, J., Walsh, R. N., Brown, D.

The effects of intensive meditation on sex role identification: Implications for a control model of psychological health. Psychological Reports, 1982, 51, 44-46.

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Supplemental material to the above article.

Effects of Meditation – Editorial

by Deane H. Shapiro, Jr., Ph.D.

Meditation, positive psychological health, and science: A reply to Switkes, Donaldson, and Fenwick. American Journal of Psychiatry, 1982, 139 (9), 1217.

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