Running Head: HOW DIFFERENT MEDIAS ADDRESS THE SCIENCE OF YOGA

How Different Medias Address the Science of Yoga

Jordan Dagenais

Michigan Technological University

How Different Medias Address the Science of Yoga 2

Abstract

This study looks into articles from both popular media and scientific journals and seeks to

answer the question of why there is a divide between the information being presented. This is

being done through the claim that there is a certain amount of time that a person can perform

meditation for before they start to see physical results. I chose to research this topic because it is

a claim I have often sought the answer to, only to find that there are many possible answers.
How Different Medias Address the Science of Yoga 3

How Different Medias Address the Science of Yoga

Since approximately 1500 B.C.E., humans have taken part in meditative practices for

various reasons. Whether it be something as large as centering yourself spiritually or as small as

destressing, meditation is practiced by millions of people across the world. However, despite its

common use by many people, there are a lot of conflicting reports or just what the benefits of

meditation are. This is due to the relative lack of research that has been done on the subject. But

there are several benefits most people can agree on: meditation reduces stress and anxiety, helps

keep you present in the moment, and increases your bodys immunity.

One of the aspects of meditation that is often contested is two-fold: how long a person

should do meditation for in one session to see results, and how long a person should practice

meditation for before they start to see results. With the age of the internet, everyone can voice

their opinion about this concept. As a result, there are many conflicting reports on the matter.

Two commonly conflicting areas are popular media and scientific journals. This essay seeks to

discover the differences between the results found by these two mediums and figure out why

they differ so much.

Literature Review

The New York Times article How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body claims that

after only three days of meditation participants were able to feel differences in their bodies,

stating that they felt noticeably refreshed. 35 unemployed men and women undergoing

considerable stress were used for this experiment. Half practiced real meditation while half

practiced fake meditation. After the three days, only changes could be seen in the brain scans of

those that did real meditation. An obvious flaw in this research is the amount of time that the
How Different Medias Address the Science of Yoga 4

study was conducted for. Three days isnt enough time to draw the kinds of conclusions that they

are. While the study was performed by a doctor from a reputable university, the length of the

study and lack of controls on the participants (i.e. there are other factors that affect stress) lead

me to believe that this article supports the claim that there is a definitive amount of meditation

needed to see results.

The Huffington Post article Harvard neuroscientist: Meditation not only reduces stress,

heres how it changes your brain is more conducive to proper research. The scientist in the

study used several markers of good research: a control group, continuous scans of the brain, and

a follow up study. All of this combined led the study to show that it takes eight weeks for one to

see changes from doing meditation. This supports the claim that the exact amount of meditation

needed can be found.

The Psychological Science article Intensive Meditation Training Improves Perceptual

Discrimination and Sustained Attention claims that changes in the brain can be seen after

sustained meditation for three months. This study has many good practices in it. A control group

was used, the actions of the participants were controlled and standardized, and a long period of

time was used to ensure that the initial results werent just a coincidence. Despite this, the study

does not support the claim being investigated. While three months was used as the length of the

study, the resulting brain scans showed different amounts of change in gray matter for different

people. As a result, it could be argued that they all began seeing changes at different times.

An article from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of

America, entitled Neural Correlates of Attentional Expertise in Long-Term Meditation

Practitioners, took the results seen in previous studies a step further by comparing brain changes
How Different Medias Address the Science of Yoga 5

between novices and experienced meditators. Their research showed that the amount of changes

in the brain that occur in a novice are greater than that in an experienced meditator. Exact

amounts of meditation time and control groups help to verify these results. The study goes

further to conclude that there is plasticity in the mechanisms of the brain, causing different

amounts of change for different people. This directly contradicts the claim being researched.

Discussion

It is clear from the popular media sites and may others that quick answers are the name of

the game. People researching meditation practices on popular media sites want to find what they

are looking for quickly, and often arent interested in much of the why? and how?. They

simply go online and search for something pertaining to how long they should do meditation for

before they see results and go with one of the first answers they find. Despite the ease of access

to information, scientific journals prove that it can be dangerous to believe the first piece of

information you find.

While popular media seeks to give people the quickest answers possible, scientific

journals seek to give people the most accurate and scientifically backed answers possible. The

articles used for this study come from the journals Psychological Science and Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Like the popular media articles

discussed above, these journals have an adequate amount of credibility. However, they differ in

that they have more controls in their research, their research goes deeper, and they draw more

profound conclusions, this proving that there is a divide between different medias and their

assessments of meditation.
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Limitations of These Studies

The largest limitation to these studies is that they are only taken from a handful of

sources. If the research scope was widened to include other types of media, it is possible that

different conclusions could be found. However, I believe that the current scope of the research

provides ample information necessary to draw conclusions.

A second limitation could be found in the use of technology. Library databases and a

standard search engine were the only avenues used to find information. This could cause a skew

in information that would not be noticed unless other research methods were used.

A third limitation that has occurred is the lack of a definition for the term physical

results. As seen in the several studies reviewed above, there are many different effects that

meditation has on the entire body. This study could have been more refined by limiting physical

results to one area of the body, such as the brain.

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Conclusions and Future Study

Based on the research presented in the scientific journals, there is no good answer to the

questions regarding meditation. They show that a combination of a lack of research in this field

and the simple fact that everyones body is very different make it impossible to settle on just one

number.

Clearly, there is no short answer to how long someone should meditate for before they

see results. Even if one was to listen to the popular media articles, based on what we can learn

from scientific journals, everyones body differs and they wont be very accurate anyway.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way to fix this divide. With the age of the internet, people can

access information very quickly. As a result, people want information as fast as possible. Until

we are able to find a way to bridge the gap between popular and scientific media, this divide will

continue to get worse. It is up to everyone to find ways to want to learn the most information

possible, instead of what is most convenient. In addition to helping to fight this cause, I hope to

one day just how much time it takes to see physical results from doing meditation.
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Works Consulted

Brefczynski-Lewis, J. A., Lutz, A., Schaefer, H. S., Levinson, D. B., & Davidson, R. J. (n.d.).

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (27th

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MacLean, K. A., Ferrer, E. et al (n.d.). Psychological Science (6th ed., Vol. 21). Retrieved

February 23, 2017, from

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McGreevey, S. (2011, January 21). Eight Weeks to a Better Brain. Retrieved February 23, 2017,

from http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/01/eight-weeks-to-a-better-brain/

Posner, M. I., Tang, Y., et al. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United

States of America (22nd ed., Vol. 106). Retrieved February 23, 2017, from
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Reynolds, G. (2016, February 18). How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body. Retrieved

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Schulte, B. (2015, May 26). Harvard neuroscientist: Meditation not only reduces stress, heres

how it changes your brain. Retrieved January 19, 2017, from

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