# academic studies of meditation?



## jarrod (Dec 4, 2008)

hey all, i'm looking for any sort of academic study on the physical or psychological benefits of meditation, chi kung practice, or anything related.  a peer-reviewed journal article would be nice, but i'd be interested in any publishings by objective researchers.  

thanks for any help,

jf


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## Xue Sheng (Dec 4, 2008)

WHO - World Health Organization may have some 

Other than that as far as academic research on Qigong.. do you read Chinese?


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## Ninjamom (Dec 4, 2008)

OK, here goes a list of places to check - PLEASE SAVE THIS LIST, since you will find it useful in the futire for many related (and not-so-related) searches!!

The New England Journal of Medicine has a 'search' feature for checking the latest in the best-known research-centered US peer-reviewed medical journal.  It returned 11 citations for 'medidation' and 34 articles for 'acupuncture'.

The Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) provides a database of research and technical findings for the use of the military.  It covers an increadibly wide array of government and private reseach papers.  It allows government researchers to do rapid literature searches of academic, industry, and government articles.  A 'multisearch' yielded 659 hits for meditation.

NASA has a similar search feature for reports applicable to space exploration, including human health.

Couldn't find anything on chi kung or meditation here, but the Journal of Sports Medicine provides a peer-reviewed journal covering related topics.

I would NOT call this an 'unbiased source', but the Qigong Institute publishes research on the exact topics you are discussing, in English.

Finally, here is a good, very short article discussing the benefits of deep breathing (related to meditation in its effects and benefits) from a non-spiritual, non-mystical, western/scientific/materialistic frame of reference.


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## MBuzzy (Dec 4, 2008)

I've gotten good reviews of this book:  http://www.lulu.com/content/770689

Also, anything by Master Andy Ah Po is going to be great, he is considered a master of Qi gong and meditation.


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## jarrod (Dec 4, 2008)

Xue Sheng said:


> ... do you read Chinese?


 
do menus count?

jf


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## Ninjamom (Dec 5, 2008)

Wow!  I found another one that's new to me (and I will be using this one a LOT!!!)

*Google* has announced a new search feature called 'Google Scholar'.  It is now available in Beta testing phase, if you want to try it out.  It searches open literatue citations, and even lists the number of other articles that cite a given reference.  I put 'meditation' in the search window on this page and received dozens of citations drawn only from books and peer-reviewed journal articles.

Enjoy!


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## Xue Sheng (Dec 5, 2008)

jarrod said:


> do menus count?
> 
> jf


 
I can't tell you how much I wish they did 

Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine has done extensive academic studies on Qi but I do not think any of it is in English.


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## Empty Hands (Dec 5, 2008)

The end-all-be-all:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed


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## jarrod (Dec 5, 2008)

Xue Sheng said:


> I can't tell you how much I wish they did
> 
> Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine has done extensive academic studies on Qi but I do not think any of it is in English.


 
could you summarize any findings you're familiar with?  IS QI REAL, MAN? IS IT?????

enquiring minds want to know,

jf


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## Xue Sheng (Dec 5, 2008)

jarrod said:


> could you summarize any findings you're familiar with? IS QI REAL, MAN? IS IT?????
> 
> enquiring minds want to know,
> 
> jf


 
All I got so far is 

A) they can't yet measure internal Qi
B) External Qi is pretty easy to prove (see Iron shirt Qigong)
C) Anyone claiming to have vast powers of internal qi and being able to project it for curing illness or knocking someone down is likely a fake
D) Last I knew they were working on trying to develop something to measure it

But anything I have is from about 2001 I have no idea where they are with this at the moment.


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## jarrod (Dec 5, 2008)

so no chi-bolts? *sigh*

from a TCM perspective, what is the difference between external & internal chi?  i'm familiar with iron shirt & the like, but i thought that was just an external manifestation of the same force?  

jf


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## stephen (Dec 5, 2008)

http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Brain-Und...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228537550&sr=8-1


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## GBlues (Dec 6, 2008)

Xue Sheng said:


> All I got so far is
> 
> A) they can't yet measure internal Qi
> B) External Qi is pretty easy to prove (see Iron shirt Qigong)
> ...


 I watched and it's been along time ago. But the chinese of course are very interested on this subject. But I watched a program on the history channel or discovery, and they can measure it. It is real. Your body naturally creates an electrical current, and that's how they measure it, is by measuring the movement of electrical energy through the body. They had some kind of a computer hooked up to the guy, and he was able to manipulate the energy in his body. Able to move it to like his hands or feet, etc... Apparently that's when they went, " Hey that's chi" It's been along time but they were able to see it working in the body. Outside the body for chi ball blasts, and such, well perception is reality I guess.

Now on the flip side the history channel did a special on Star Wars technology. I didn't get the chance to see it yet, but my dad did, and he said that scientists on that show were saying that the force is real. Just humans can't access yet. And probably never will, at least not the way you see yoda, or luke in the movies, but through science, and machines they say that one day we will be able to access such energy. Interesting stuff to be sure. Just thought I would pass that on. 

YOu might be able to find the afore mentioned show, if you look hard enough, and as far as the star wars one I'm sure you can buy a dvd on it right from the History channel.


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## Xue Sheng (Dec 6, 2008)

GBlues said:


> I watched and it's been along time ago. But the chinese of course are very interested on this subject. But I watched a program on the history channel or discovery, and they can measure it. It is real. Your body naturally creates an electrical current, and that's how they measure it, is by measuring the movement of electrical energy through the body. They had some kind of a computer hooked up to the guy, and he was able to manipulate the energy in his body. Able to move it to like his hands or feet, etc... Apparently that's when they went, " Hey that's chi" It's been along time but they were able to see it working in the body. Outside the body for chi ball blasts, and such, well perception is reality I guess.
> 
> Now on the flip side the history channel did a special on Star Wars technology. I didn't get the chance to see it yet, but my dad did, and he said that scientists on that show were saying that the force is real. Just humans can't access yet. And probably never will, at least not the way you see yoda, or luke in the movies, but through science, and machines they say that one day we will be able to access such energy. Interesting stuff to be sure. Just thought I would pass that on.
> 
> YOu might be able to find the afore mentioned show, if you look hard enough, and as far as the star wars one I'm sure you can buy a dvd on it right from the History channel.


 
Who was doing the measuring? Was it actual researchers from one of the Universities in China?

The last thing I new that Beijing University of TCM said was yes they do believe it is real but they cannot yet measure it and that the majority of people out there claiming great powers (projection of outside of the body) of Qi were likely fake.


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## GBlues (Dec 6, 2008)

Yeah it was science study. It's been several years since I've seen that particular show. I haven't seen it on since then. BUt the computers showed the practioners, body heat. At least that is what it looked like to me. He had all kinds of those electrode doo hickies, ( I don't know the technical term) hooked up to him. And they would say ok move the energy to your hands, and the information they got, transferred to the computer which gave them a picture of where that energy was going. They said that they could definitely track the electrical energy being moved throughout his body with this technique. I guess they had several practioners of various arts, like Tai Chi, and Chi gung, in the experiment. IT was really interesting I wish I could remember the name of it. I'll do some research and see if I can find it. I'll let you know if I do. You might try hulu.com, maybe also they have alot of t.v. shows on there. From the past and present. SOme are only clips though, kind of like a youtube type deal. But they may be a source to look into on that. Anyways good luck on your research paper.:asian:


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## Empty Hands (Dec 8, 2008)

GBlues said:


> And they would say ok move the energy to your hands, and the information they got, transferred to the computer which gave them a picture of where that energy was going. They said that they could definitely track the electrical energy being moved throughout his body with this technique.



Come now, that's not even difficult.  Nerve impulses and skin resistance are the electricity changes, which could be generated simply by thinking about flexing your hands, or actually doing it in a subtle way that wouldn't be obvious.  This experiment proves nothing.


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