Transcendental Meditation and fine perceptual-motor skill.

30 college male meditators had a 20-min. meditation followed by a 6-min. waking phase prior to 5-min. continuous practice on the pursuit rotor task. This was followed by a 4-min. rest then a further 2-min. of pursuit rotor practice. A similar group of college males who were non-meditators (N = 30) followed the same procedures except that instead of meditating they sat quietly for the initial 20-min. period. The expectations that Transcendental Meditation would (a) facilitate learning and performance; (b) cause less within-subject variability; and (C) cause less reactive inhibition, (c) cause less reactive inhinition, were not upheld by the results. With the exception of performance, which was significantly lower for the meditators, the two groups were no different. Thus, it appears that certain reported physiological and psychological benefits that are attributed to the practice of Transcendental Meditation (such as less anxiety, greater consistency, more awareness, altertness, and attention) are not manifested in the present behavioral test of perceptural-motor function. In fact, in terms of performance, the meditators seemed to be at a disadvantage.