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Prisoners of Our Own Mind: The Effective Effects of Meditation as a Tool for Rehabilitation

Abstract

The inability to cope effectively with anxiety and negative feelings may lead to various physical and psychological problems. The main objective of this paper was to examine the effects of Vipassana Meditation (VM) and X Meditation (TM) on the psychological wellness and rehabilitation of inmates. Essentially the most widespread physiological and psychological effects of meditation are: lower heart rate, reduced blood pressure, decreased breathing, decreased metabolism, increased mental alertness, improved cognitive and affective performance, enhanced well-being, decreased discomfort and stress, decreased anxiety, reduced depression, and modification of EEG patterns. Some of the previous findings have highlighted the plasticity of the brain and its adaptive capacity to stressful situations. With the attainment of heightened awareness and better coping capabilities via meditation, inmates possess a self-empowering tool to preserve very good mental health. Furthermore, with the regular practice of meditation, inmates are much better ready to cope with their anger and frustrations, and violence rates as well as recidivism could be lowered.

Positive psychology, a new trend inside the field of psychology, was pioneered by Martin Seligman in 1998. Positive psychology claims that people possess a wide range of psychological strengths and qualities that are crucial for dealing using the challenges encountered in life. Based on Seligman, prior to WWI, psychology had 3 goals: remedy mental illness, make life productive and far more fulfilling, and identify and nurture high talent (Seligman, 2005). The latter two of these goals had been apparently forgotten as psychology shifted to focus on curing the mental illnesses of veterans and traumatized citizens. Today, the field is shifting back to focus on the prevention of mental illness and the promotion of greater good quality of life.

The main objective of positive psychology is to help patients, and in this particular case, inmates, develop their strengths so that you can lead a lot more fulfilling lives and better cope with tension and aggression. Of these coping mechanisms, there has been an increased interest within the application of the Asian methods of meditation as a way of rehabilitation for the prison population.

From a psychological growth perspective, it is necessary for individuals to be ready to free of charge themselves from the imaginary boundaries that limit their worldviews and consciousnesses. By realizing the accurate fleeting nature of emotions and sensations, a single learns not to feel attached to physical or psychological pain, and to let go. The typical practice of meditation teaches one concerning the impermanence of mental and physical states, helping the particular person not to react emotionally and to encounter extra detachment. As a result, meditation induces a state of deep relaxation, inner harmony and heightened consciousness. Diverse strategies might be utilised throughout meditation, but all of them imply concentration on a distinct object or activity along with the elimination of all forms of internal or external distractions.

The first type of meditation presented in this paper is Vipassana Meditation (VM). The teaching of mindfulness or ?insight? meditation focuses on a deep, penetrative nonconceptual seeing into the nature of the mind and the globe and continuity of awareness in all each day activities. Vipassana Meditation is referred to as an opening up meditation, where one is to attend to all internal and external stimuli non-judgmentally. Hence, the path to superior physical and psychological health comprises a much better understanding of one?s reactions to all emotions. The most important cause of human suffering stems from the way we interpret the globe surrounding us. By understanding and altering our cognitions, we can lead far more fulfilling lives and experience an enhance in well-being.

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Relaxation is really a bi-product of this sort of meditation, but it will not be an objective of the process. Vipassana Meditation is taught throughout intensive 10-day retreats, where a single is to remain silent for the duration of the retreat and meditate all day. Furthermore, to be able to turn one?s full attention inward; eye contact with other participants would be to be avoided, at the same time as reading, watching television, listening to the radio, and engaging in strenuous exercise.

TM has its foundation within the Indian Vedanta philosophy and is practiced for a minimum of 20 minutes twice every day while sitting using the eyes closed. The approach comprises the silent mental repetition of a mantra, which is often a word or phrase applied as a focus for the attention. The objective of this meditation is to attain pure consciousness: Samadhi. This approach became rather well-known in the early 1970s and scientists soon started to analysis the therapeutic effects of meditation.

In the United States, even though sentencing is severe, recidivism rates are alarmingly high and several offenders fail to be rehabilitated into society.

Beginning in 1997, Vipassana Meditation courses have been held in North American correctional facilities and researchers have demonstrated that such a strategy has beneficial effects on lowering recidivism rates and enhancing inmate behavior and coping skills. Mainly because of its extremely nature, the practice of Vipassana leads to a systematic method of self-observation that increases awareness, self-control, and inner balance, thus helping inmates make wiser decisions.

According the North American Vipassana Prison Project (http://www.prison.dhamma.org), to this day, only three research studies have been conducted on the effects of Vipassana Meditation (VM) courses on inmates in North America.

In 2002, a study performed at the North Rehabilitation Facility (NRF) in Seattle, Washington, demonstrated that inmates participating in VM courses had been 20% much less most likely to return to jail than the basic inmate population who didn?t total a course. Furthermore, Parks and Marlatt (2006) evaluated the effects of VM courses on substance use, recidivism, and psychological outcomes in an incarcerated population. Based on the authors, prior findings in India recommended that VM courses are correlated to lowered ranges of recidivism, depression, anxiety, hostility, and increased cooperation with prison authorities. The 1st Vipassana courses offered in a North American correctional facility had been carried out at the North Rehabilitation Facility (NRF), a minimum-security adult jail in Seattle, Washington, with male and female inmates. 5 men?s courses and four women?s courses were evaluated in the course of a 15-month period. Study participants completed baseline measures 1 week prior to the commence of the course, and also a post-course assessment inside 1 week of the end of the course. Follow-up assessments had been administered three and 6 months after release from NRF. The total amount of participants who volunteered for the Vipassana course was 79.2% males and 20.8% women, ranging in age from 19 to 58 years. Thus, participants reported lower ranges of psychiatric symptoms, much more internal alcohol-related locus of control, and larger ranges of optimism.

Unfortunately, extremely little investigation has been carried out on the effects of VM courses in prisons. The preliminary results are incredibly encouraging, but not quite a few facilities are open to attempting alternative treatments for rehabilitation. Also, one of the feasible reasons for the lack of analysis is in all probability a lack of funding. Vipassana courses, as taught by S.N. Goenka, are totally free. Participants are encouraged to create a donation only if they total the course and no donations are accepted by individuals who have not completed a retreat.

Unlike VM, X Meditation (TM) has generated an extensive quantity of investigation in a lot of different areas. TM has turn into renowned inside the 1960s when the Beatles introduced the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to the West. Since then, lots of paying courses have been held worldwide plus a university has been created. Thus, the majority of the study on TM has been conducted and sponsored by the Maharishi University.

The rationale behind the use of TM as a implies for rehabilitation of prison inmates will be the notion that folks at different stages of self-development are at greater or lesser danger for committing crimes. Alexander, Walton, and Goodman (2003) have simplified Loevinger?s stages of ego development into 3 significant levels: Preconventional, Conventional, and Postconventional. Each level contains various other stages of development, which differ along dimensions of impulse control, conscious concerns, and interpersonal and cognitive styles. Furthermore, men and women demonstrating a needs-gratification frame of reference have a tendency to experience strenuous interpersonal relations and have little awareness of inner states. Therefore, such men and women may be unaware or have difficulty conforming to the conventions, rules, or laws of society and might engage in criminal behaviors. The next level will be the Conventional level, in which the individual may be described as conformist, self-aware, and conscientious. This level is typically attained by late adolescence. Finally, the last level will be the Postconventional level, which will be the most mature sort of functioning in Loevinger?s framework. People at this level have a capacity for self-actualization, are autonomous, experience inner fulfillment, strong moral values and respect for others, and demonstrate flexibility in adapting to demands and coping with external or internal conflicts. Therefore, by introducing TM programs as a means for rehabilitation, self-development is usually accelerated in inmates, thus offering them having a approach that promotes a better potential to function in a manner acceptable to society.

According to their research, the practice of TM reduces a number of components which include anxiety, aggression, addictions, and other psychological at the same time as physiological elements linked to the likelihood of committing a crime. The purpose of their study was to demonstrate that the practice of TM by prison inmates would result in much more rapid self-development, increased experiences of main states of consciousness said to be greater than walking, sleeping, and dreaming, as nicely as the reduction of psychopathological conditions. The researchers hypothesized that, compared to control groups, inmates practicing the TM plan would show decreased psychopathology, as indicated by questionnaire measures of psychoticism, hostility, aggression, depression, and psychopathic deviation; they would show enhanced character development, particularly as indicated by measures of ego- or self-development, moral reasoning, and cognitive development; and finally, they would show elevated reports of larger states of consciousness, as indicated by scores on the State of Consciousness Inventory. The subjects were 160 adult male inmates from the Massachusetts Correctional Institute (MCI), Walpole: a maximum-security institution. Results indicated that inmates who had practiced the TM program for a duration of 20 months had improved scores compared to the control group. Highly important differences had been discovered in development, consciousness, and psychopathology scores. Thus, the final results confirmed the stated hypothesis that inmates practicing TM would demonstrate lowered ranges of psychopathology, elevated self-development, and increased experiences of increased states of consciousness.

In the second component of the Walpole Study, Alexander and Orme-Johnson (2003) studied longitudinal adjustments in self-development and psychopathology over a 15.7 month period in 271 maximum-security prisoners. For this study, 4 groups have been compared: prisoners participating in the TM program, counseling, drug rehabilitation, or Muslim or Christian groups. The outcomes indicated that only normal participants within the TM program changed significantly, moving from Loevinger?s Conformist level, which is characterized by an exploitative orientation, to the Self Aware level, which is characterized by a greater awareness of norms and goals. Thus, the results of the longitudinal follow-up corroborated the cross-sectional findings, showing that TM practice increases self-development.

Results indicated that only 32% of inmates who practiced the TM method returned to prison for a stay of 30 days or more, compared to 48% of inmates who participated in other prison programs.

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In a different study, Rainforth, Alexander, and Cavanaugh (2003) examined recidivism rates over a 15-year period among inmates trained within the TM approach who had been released from a maximum security prison in California. By 1982, all of them had been paroled. The researchers matched each and every TM participant to a non-meditating control topic from the Folsom Prison records, controlling for variables including parole year, race, offence, prior commitment record, age, history of drug abuse, ethnicity, marital status, educational attainment, IQ, employment history, military service, age at initial arrest and very first commitment, age at parole, months served, and rule violations prior to entry into the study. Results had been statistically important and indicated that the TM group had a 46.7% recidivism rate throughout follow-up period compared to 66.7% for the controls. Furthermore, the outcomes also indicated that the TM program demonstrated lasting rehabilitation effects.

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