There are hundreds of meditation techniques stemming from a wide variety of sources. Usually considered as part of the spiritual tradition of the Indian sub-continent and the far-east, practices of prayer and contemplation exist in Judaism, Christianity and Islam - particularly within the gnostic traditions of each faith - which are akin to the Eastern meditations. They all belong to:

"A family of practices that train attention in order to heighten awareness and bring mental processes under greater voluntary control. The ultimate aims of these practices are the development of deep insight into mental processes, consciousness, identity and reality, and the development of optimal states of psychological well-being and consciousness. However, they can be used for a variety of intermediate aims, such as psychotherapeutic and psychophysiological benefits" (Walsh1983,p.18)

Another useful and simpler definition using attentional mechanisms (Pribram,1971) as it's basis:

"Meditation is a family of techniques which have in common a conscious attempt to focus attention in a nonanalytical way and an attempt not to dwell on discursive ruminating thought." (Shapiro,1982;p268)

Getting to the crux of why an empirical definition is so elusive, the renowned physicist Bohm(1980) notes:

"Techniques of meditation can be looked upon as measures (actions ordered by knowledge and reason) which are taken by man to try to reach the immeasurable (ie. a state of mind in which he ceases to sense a separation between himself and the whole of reality). But clearly, there is a contradiction in such a notion, for the immeasurable is, if anything, just that which cannot be brought within limits determined by man's logic and reason" (p24)

To begin to make sense of this plethora of practices, and to help understand the positioning of the co-researchers, we can divide meditation into two major classes (Goleman,1988) The first, Concentration Meditation is when awareness is focussed fixedly on a single object - usually to the exclusion of all else.

The second grouping of meditation is Awareness meditation - here attention is allowed to dwell simply on what arises in the mind, flowing with it, following it and allowing it. Rowan (1992) elaborates this division into a four quadrant model - incorporating a triangular model of Naranjo & Ornstein(1976) with a developmental model of Ken Wilber (1983). In this model, the quadrant to which he ascribes the awareness practices of Vipassana, Satipattana, mahavipassana he calls "The Facilitative Way" This best describes the kind of meditation practice which was being used in the inquiry: awareness practices of the facilitative way.

Updated 16 June 99
by Martin Wilks