Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

TRANSCEnDENTAL MEDITATION PROGRAM and CORRECTIONSThere were no changes in smoking habits in the first three months, andAbrams and Siegel reported that the decrease in blood pressure andpulse rate among Transcendental Meditation program participants didnot reach significance. Rahav (1980) reanalyzed the Abrams and Siegeldata and reported that when both samples were combined, increasingstatistical power, the decrease in pulse rate among TranscendentalMeditation program participants was significant in contrast to controls;blood pressure was only measured in the first study of Abrams andSiegel, and so this procedure could not also be used with that variable.Rahav (1980) also showed that the effect of the Transcendental Meditationprogram was independent of the age, race, and security housingstatus of the participants.Allen (1979) criticized the study of Abrams and Siegel (1978), suggestingthat the measured effect might be due to psychological effects ofexpectation among participants, such as social desirability influencingthe patterns of psychometric test responses. Abrams and Siegel (1979)responded with a reanalysis of the data which indicated that participationin the Transcendental Meditation program had actually reducedtendencies towards social desirability influencing responses; it alsoindicated that there were no relationships between the positive changesfound in the study and subjects’ responses to a scale which measures thetendency to project an inaccurate positive image (Lie Scale of EysenckPersonality Inventory). Abrams (in press) also performed a follow-upstudy which indicated that the psychological effects of the earlier studyamong Folsom inmates were lasting in nature; he also found that a veryhigh proportion (over 80 percent) of those instructed in the TranscendentalMeditation program continued their practice in the year afterinstruction.A subsequent study of recidivism among 259 inmates of FolsomPrison and other California correctional institutions (San QuentinPrison and Deuel Vocational Institution) who learned the TranscendentalMeditation program while incarcerated was conducted by Bleickand Abrams (1987). In comparison to statewide parolees of the CaliforniaDepartment of Corrections, Transcendental Meditation programparolees had significantly more favorable parole outcomes (on an indexof four categories—clean record, arrest, parole revocation, new prisonterm) at six months, one year, and two years. A second comparison277