Electrophysiological Correlates of Higher States of Consciousness During Sleep in Long-Term

Abstract

The ancient Vedic tradition (as brought to light by Maharishi, 1969) has described permanent "higher states of consciousness" (HSC) in which a distinctive state termed transcendental consciousness (i.e. silent inner-awareness without thought)--is capable of being maintained even during sleep. The Transcendental Meditation (TM) program is predicted to promote transcendental consciousness and is correlated with non-descending theta/alpha (7-9 Hz). We predicted that subjects reporting HSC during deep sleep would display the typical EEG pattern of transcendental consciousness along with delta of stage 3 and 4 sleep. Eleven (9 f, 2 m; mn age = 39.7 yrs.) healthy long-term practitioners of TM (mn = 17.8 yrs.) reporting HSC, and nine (8 f, 1 m; mn age = 27.1 yrs.) short-term meditating controls and 11 healthy non-meditating controls (11f; mn age = 29.45 yrs.) volunteered for ambulatory EEG recording. An EEG montage of C4-A1, C3-A2, EOG, and EMG was employed. Subjects with major psychiatric and physical illness were excluded. Experimentals were selected on the basis of responses to a standard scale and interviews designed to distinguish self-reports of HSC. No significant difference was found between groups in sleep architecture or time spent in sleep stages, 2, 3, 4 and REM, for the night except experimentals had significantly greater stage 1 than controls. Spectral analysis of experimentals first three sleep cycles had significantly more theta2 (6-8 Hz) and alpha1 (8-10 Hz) relative power for sleep stages 3 and 4 as compared to meditating controls (p =.0005) and nonmeditating controls (p =.000003) with no significant differences between groups in time in delta. Along with a pattern of theta/alpha superimposed on delta, experimentals exhibited significantly more low EMG during stage 3 and 4 sleep and significantly greater REM density during REM for the first three cycles compared to meditating controls. These findings of simultaneous theta2-alpha1 with delta, low EMG durin (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)