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Comparative Study
. 2025 May 31:80:100682.
doi: 10.1016/j.clinsp.2025.100682. eCollection 2025.

Role of meditation on the essence of self in the psychological profile, quality of life and lifestyle - a comparative study

Paula Ricci Arantes  1 , Tatiana Caccese Perrotti  2 , Susan Andrews  3 , Ernesto Sasaki Imakuma  3 , Rosana Aparecida de Oliveira Maurelli  4 , Emmanuel A Burdmann  5
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Role of meditation on the essence of self in the psychological profile, quality of life and lifestyle - a comparative study

Paula Ricci Arantes et al. Clinics (Sao Paulo). .

Abstract

Objectives: Meditation has been shown to influence physical and psychological health and well-being, modulating stress response, resilience, emotional regulation, mood, empathy, compassion, and improving quality of life. The authors aim to characterize the psychosocial profile of experienced practitioners of Meditation on the Essence of Self, the Gurusakásha, whose technique is based on visualization and mantra from the Indian tantric tradition.

Methods: Meditation experts (n = 23) were paired to an age-, gender- and educational level-matched control group (n = 29). Clinical data (presence of baseline diseases, use of medications, habits), stress level (PSS), resilience (CD-RISC), subjective mood states (VAMS), empathy (IRI), quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF), and general lifestyle profile (PEVI) were compared between groups.

Results: Experienced meditators had lower levels of perceived stress, and better scores on resilience, empathic concern, quality of life, and lifestyle profile suggesting that Meditation on the Essence of Self improves health and well-being.

Conclusions: These results suggest that experienced meditators on the Essence of Self have higher levels of psychological well-being and quality of life when compared to non-meditators.

Keywords: Empathy; Lifestyle; Meditation; Quality of life; Resilience; Stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1:
Fig. 1
Mean Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) Scores in Meditation Experts (ME) and Controls (CO). * p < 0.001.
Fig. 2:
Fig. 2
Mean Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) Scores in Meditation Experts (ME) and Controls (CO). * p < 0.001.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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