Meditation

It is a well-known fact that meditation has immense psychological benefits.  Research has shown that there are varied benefits including decreased stress levels, better concentration, and even increased positive emotions. However, what is important to understand is that the benefits are not only limited to psychological ones. Philosophers and researchers alike have proposed that our mind and body are connected. So it logically follows that a mentally healthy mind should result in a physically healthy body too. A vast research team from diverse scientific disciplines headed by Dr. Joe Dispenza set out to study just this. This team used various research methods to study the biological effects of meditation. They subsequently went a step further to conduct a coronavirus study in order to understand the protective effects of meditation against this virus.

Biological Benefits of meditation

Comparing the brain before and after a week of meditation showed tremendous biological changes. Studying the brain in real-time showed that the inner profound experience was resulting in changes in the brain as well. Meditation resulted in greater than normal amounts of arousal. This arousal resulted in elevated emotions like bliss and ecstasy. This was contrary to the emotions generally produced by this arousal like fear. Regular occurrence of these instances enabled them to identify changes such as the increased efficiency of areas such as the autonomic nervous system

Aging is an inevitable part and parcel of everyone’s life. However, research has shown that there might be a way to put off growing old. Telomeres are an important component in delaying the onset of aging. They naturally grow shorter in length to help the cells to repair bodily damage. After a point, they become too short. This results in damage piling up, bringing the onset of aging. Meditation has been shown to lengthen our telomeres.

Gene expression studies showed that replacing emotions like fear for gratitude and anxiety for love significantly strengthened the immune system. Other bodily benefits include increased heart rate variability (an important indicator of good health) in contrast to its natural decrease over the lifespan. Meditation is also beneficial in protecting against diseases such as Alzheimer’s (a debilitating disorder characterized by progressive memory loss), Multiple sclerosis, Lupus, and other autoimmune conditions.  Additionally, meditation results in increased gut diversity. This is beneficial as it means fewer pathogenic species, improved digestion, and reduced inflammation.

Meditation and the Covid-19 virus

The Covid-19 pandemic has damaged the whole world economically, psychologically, and physically. Millions have lost their lives. The physical and psychological damages are long-lasting, persisting even after recovery from the virus. A coronavirus study elaborated on one such effect: long covid. The havoc wreaked by the pandemic has prompted researchers to look for factors that can protect against this virus. Given the fact that meditation has immense biological benefits, the question arises: can meditation protect against CoronaVirus? According to the esteemed research team of Dr. Joe Dispenza, the answer is yes.

The researchers conducted surveys with about 3000 respondents from various areas of the world. The areas included North America, South America, Europe, Australia, and the like. Various Covid-19 variants affected each of these areas adversely. The purpose of the survey was to understand their frequency of meditation and their Covid-19 experience. It was found that even though meditators had various morbidities and comorbidities like cancer, heart disease, vascular disease, stroke, and so on, they rated their own health as very good or excellent. So, it is not that the meditators did not have any physical problems; meditation improved their quality of life, thus improving their subjective experience of health. Meditation affects the mind such that the mind creates a bodily environment that enables people to live with resilience.

• • Interestingly, data showed that the Covid-19 diagnosis rate for experienced meditators (people who had meditated more than 6 months) was significantly lesser than the rate in people who had never meditated.
  • Additionally, the consistency of meditating made a difference. People who meditated daily were more likely to be protected against a Covid-19 diagnosis than weekly meditators.
  • Meditators who got Covid-19 even after meditating were found to have a faster recovery rate.
  • They also had significantly lesser anosmia or the loss of smell (a prominent Covid-19 symptom), brain fog, and congestion.

What is it that keeps the virus out?

With the purpose of identifying the exact bodily factors involved in meditation, the researchers focused on 3 groups. These were the controls ( who were not meditating, but were relaxed nevertheless), the novice, and the experienced meditators’. The researchers created a pseudo-Sars-Cov-2 virus to challenge the meditators’ cells. Through adoptive transfer experiments (  where basically the plasma of the three groups before and after the meditation was incubated onto artificially grown lung cells, and then challenged with the pseudovirus; so the experience and the biological changes were basically adopted to the new cells), they showed that the control group had significantly higher amounts of infections than novice or experienced meditators.  Hence, the meditators were probably secreting something in their plasma that resisted the viral entry into the cells. They repeated this same experiment with the extremely dangerous delta variant and found the same results; something in the plasma of the meditators’ resisted the entry of the pseudo delta variant. Through a method called immunoprecipitation and mass spectrometry, the protein Serpin A5 came to the forefront as offering the main protection against Covid-19. The role of Serpin A5 basically is to not let the Sars-Cov-2 virus enter the cells. So the virus does bind to the receptors outside the cell, but thanks to Serpin A5, it cannot enter the cells and cause harm. Needless to say, data showed that meditators’ had higher amounts of this protein.

It is important to keep in mind that the researchers controlled for antibodies and vaccinations as well; meaning that the covid-19 antibodies or vaccination were not what was resisting viral entry into the cells.

Thus, these researchers’ experiments offered a multifaceted view. In addition to the finding that the virus rate in meditators worldwide was significantly lesser, the assays also showed what exactly it was in the blood of these meditators which was protecting them from the original strain and the variants.

Research has also demonstrated how meditation protects against debilitating diseases like cancer. There was a decrease in breast and pancreatic cancer post-meditation. There have been lived experiences of people with metastatic cancer who were as good as physically healed due to meditation.

Basically, meditation enables people to self-regulate. As a result, they are no longer victims of their environment. The mind-body connection is integral to understanding this. The mind itself is creating an environment that is affecting the body beneficially. Negative emotions adversely affect the body leading to downregulation causing disease, while positive emotions do the opposite. They create a bodily environment that leads up to regulation; leading to wellness. Meditation empowers and heals us.

The coronavirus study conducted by the Dr Joe Dispenza-led research team gives us revolutionary insights. One thing which was constantly prominent throughout these studies is that we are so much more powerful than we realize. By taking efforts to meditate daily, we can cause immense beneficial changes in our biology.  Elevated emotions are instrumental in strengthening our immune system. Throughout the lockdown, endearing videos have emerged from different parts of the world of healthcare workers trying to cheer up the admitted Covid patients. Why else would they do it, if not for the mind-body connection?

It is evident that how we feel and think affects our biology. You might want to consider starting meditation if you want to increase the Serapin A5 protein in your body, and subsequently have a chance of protection against Coronavirus. Interested to take the first step to meditate but need some guidance?

Reach out to www.nlpperth.com.au for able guidance!