Title: Instrumental measurement of the degree of relaxation with meditation

Authors: Hong-Zhen He, Wen-Bin Xi, Chang Lin Zhang

Addresses: Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory, 205 E Main Street, Huntington, NY 11743, USA. ' Zhejiang Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hangzhou 310000, China. ' College of Life Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China; Department of Music and Music Education, Siegen University, Hochstrasse 57, Siegen D-57076, Germany

Abstract: An experiment evaluating the degree of relaxation by means of a |coherence meter| was conducted in Hangzhou, China. Chinese Qigong, a form of meditation, was used to induce the state of relaxation in this experiment. The results of the experiment show that many subjects were able to reach deep levels of relaxation through meditation. But, the subjects using Qigong training were able to reach deeper levels of relaxation than those using non-Qigong techniques. However, when the inducement language of experienced Qigong masters was used with the non-Qigong subjects, they were able to reach deeper levels of relaxation. The results also show that the degree of relaxation in meditation can be objectively assessed and monitored by the |stress meter| technique employed in this study.

Keywords: meditation; relaxation levels; Qigong; objective measurement; quantitative measurement; stress meter; coherence meter.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIC.2008.023128

International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control, 2008 Vol.5 No.3, pp.236 - 243

Published online: 10 Feb 2009 *

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