Since I have never been involved in any kind of meditation I can’t really say, but I suspect that the term “meditation” is misused in the same way as the term “qigong”?

One can not just say that one practises qigong alone. Qigong is a general term including, as far as I know, more than 2400 individual schools. So one has to specify the name of that school too, and in that name lies the specifics of exactly that method.

I agree that sometimes articles writing about studies on meditation, qigong, yoga etc, are way too carefree. Especially when I see other methods claiming the benefits from the general term, when their specific method haven’t been tested at all.

Tor

It’s ambiguous to say whether something is “meditation” or not, as the word is used in so many ways by so many writers….But my attempts in my career to clean up terminology in several areas have never met with any success…..So when I read articles on “meditation” I see this as meaning little than “something different” unless the writer specifies very clearly what specific sorts of mental exercises are done and what results from them.
This paragraph is probably another result of my attempt to get folks to use terms more clearly…part of me never gives up! I’m not criticizing you here, Tor, just blowing off a little steam really. Meanwhile keep teaching people your method! Almost any form that teaches people better focus skills can be useful to the usual mind wandering in our ordinary state.

Why not start with basic health effects from each method? I know there are some studies on stress and meditation, but this is surely a field that could benefit from more funding. I practise a form of Qi Gong myself, which I wouldn’t exactly classify as meditation, but the goal is similar as it is for many types of meditation. Having participated in some of the larger training courses (approximately 200 students practising from 9 to 18 days) of my particular method, I’ve seen many different personality types practising this method. I don’t know about other methods, but for this one it doesn’t seem to matter much which kind of personality type you have. Sure, some suffer a bit in the beginning (their mind racing like crazy, emotions flying all over the place), but eventually (and rather fast depending on your own effort) it seems to help everyone get calmer, and the health effects seem to come about even if you’re calm or not.

It is hard to get any health personnel or scientists to participate in (and help fund) studies though. A lot of studies have been done in China, but we’d like to do studies on this method here in Europe.

Tor

See : this link below for mp3 files of a Lucid Dreaming weekend in which his instruction was especially clear regarding basic meditation using Shamatha. During this weekend, in spite of myself (overdoing the alcohol for a few years) I had an experience they call deep Samadhi almost immediately while carefully following Alans instruction. This has quite completely changed my life. I do feel most of us westerners need effective psychotherapy first (not just blah blah chit chat but down in the gut experience) first to crank down invasive afflictive emotional states most of us are saturated with so methods like Shamatha have a chance be the fine tooth comb to clear afflicted emotions and send us into Samadhi and other higher stated, or deeply stabilized crystal clear and focussed attention. It is astonishingly effective.

http://www.whiteheronsangha.or.....ochen/wall aceaudio.htm

I think one of the great accomplishments of Transpersonal Psychology – still way in the future, unfortunately – will be to discover what kind of meditation has what kinds of effects for what kinds of people, so we can steer people to spiritual growth methods that are effective for them, personally. Meanwhile, it’s no surprise that people have different things they are good or not so good at…..

Actually, I’m not really sure it is another place, or even another time. I’m starting to think that there is really only one place, one time, but with different perceptions that filter it in different ways. It seems like everything we need to know is right in front of us if we could just open up our eyes and see it.

I don’t want to be brave. I don’t want to explore facets of consciousness through meditation. I haven’t even tried to meditate. I want to be normal. I just have to figure out how to get there.