An observational study in Intensive Meditation in Novice and Experienced Meditators, sponsored by Tobias Moeller-Bertram. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 21 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2024-10-10.
Sponsored by Tobias Moeller-Bertram · Observational
This study will be focused on assessing the molecular, physiological, neuroimaging, and emotional correlates of a week-long intensive meditation retreat experience in a 20-person cohort comprised of healthy participants.
Mind-body interventions including meditation, reconceptualization, and placebo have been shown to improve a broad range of physical and mental health outcomes in both healthy and patient populations. How and what humans think about their health has a significant and quantifiable impact.
Placebo effects, another mind-body technique that creates health improvements, have been shown to impact every major organ system. More recently, open-label placebos, placebos administered without concealment such that the subject is aware of the placebo, have been shown to be effective for a host of health conditions. Open-label placebo effects demonstrate that placebo responses are surprisingly not dependent on deception, positive expectation, or conditioning.
Meditation, yet another mind-body intervention, has been shown to reduce pain, inflammation, stress, anxiety, depression, and to improve immune function, and emotional regulation. Different meditation techniques can produce mystical-type experiences-non-ordinary perceptual, cognitive, and affective states in which the distinction between the perceiver and the perceived is transcended. The specific pathways through which meditation promotes physical and mental health are not yet well understood, but meditation-induced changes in neural activity and on the immune and autonomic nervous systems, as well as meditation-induced molecular changes in gene expression and on the proteome and metabolome suggest that these are both broad and profound.
While each of these mind-body interventions has been studied individually, the combination of meditation, reconceptualization, and open label placebo and their combined effect on health, neural activity, and molecular physiology have never been jointly studied. This exploratory observational study will employ psychometric health questionnaires; functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG); and blood plasma-based real time cell metabolic analysis, quantitative assessment of neurite outgrowth, and high-throughput transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics to investigate the joint neural and biological effects of these three mind-body interventions in a 7-day retreat setting.
Tobias Moeller-Bertram is the lead sponsor of 2 studies on the registry; 1 is open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
All study participants are registered for the advanced meditation retreat.
Exclusion Criteria:
Dr Joe Dispenza Week Long Advanced Retreat Attendees
Behavioral: Advanced multi-component meditation practice
The study intervention is a multi-component advanced guided meditation practice that incorporates elements of focused attention, non-dual, and loving kindness and compassion meditation techniques as well as breathwork components. The practice includes sitting, lying down, standing, and walking components and is carried out at 7-day advanced meditation retreats lead by Joe Dispenza, D.C. These retreats include lecture-based instruction and up to 35 hours of meditation practice.
Functional brain changes as monitored by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) following an intensive week-long meditation retreat
fMRI scans will be taken on subjects during two conditions (rest and a 15-minute meditation) before and after the week-long retreat to assess changes in brain functional connectivity associated with meditation (meditation vs rest) and resulting from the retreat (pre vs post). It is expected that whole-brain functional connectivity will become more integrated during meditation as well as after the week-long retreat. Resting state network connectivity will be assessed, and it is expected that default mode network (DMN) intra-network connectivity will decrease during meditation and more so post-retreat.
Time frame: 1 week
Mystical Experience Questionnaire (MEQ)-30 scores before and after an intensive week-long meditation retreat
Subjects will be given the MEQ-30 survey following a 15-minute scanner meditation before and after the retreat. An increase in MEQ-30 score is indicative of a higher shift in consciousness and presumably to a more favorable psychological state. Scores will be correlated to functional brain changes.
Time frame: 1 week
Brain activity changes as assessed by quantitative EEQ (qEEG) before and after an intensive week-long meditation retreat.
Brain scans will be collected by qEEG on all subjects during a 15-minute meditation before and after the retreat to assess brain complexity. It is expected that brain complexity will increase after the week-long retreat.
Time frame: 1 week
Blood plasma proteomic and metabolomic analysis before and after an intensive week-long meditation retreat.
An integrative analysis of proteomic and metabolomic expression in blood plasma will be carried out in samples collected before and after the retreat. The expectation is that shifts in biological processes toward an improved state of health will occur after the week-long retreat.
Time frame: 1 week
Heart rate variability changes during a week-long meditation retreat
Heart rate data will be collected using a Garmin wristwatch at the beginning of the meditation retreat and continuously throughout the week-long retreat. Beat-to-beat interval data will be used to calculate heart rate variability. Time domain measures will include the mean of R-R intervals (mRR), standard deviation of all R-R intervals (SDRR), root mean square of successive R-R differences (RMSSD), and the percentage of R-R intervals that vary by at least 50 ms (pRR50). Frequency domain measures will include very low frequency (VLF), low frequency (LF), and high frequency (HF) measures.
Time frame: 1 week
Effect of meditation-conditioned blood on neurite outgrowth
Human plasma collected before and after the retreat will be used to treat differentiated Phaeochromocytoma 12 (PC12) cells. Live cell imaging will be carried out to quantify neurite outgrowth. The expectation is that meditation-conditioned (post-retreat) plasma will lead to greater neurite outgrowth than unconditioned (pre-retreat) plasma.
Time frame: 1 week
Changes in endogenous opioids after an intensive week-long meditation retreat
The levels of endogenous opioids oxytocin, beta-endorphin, dynorphin, and endogenous cannabinoid anandamide will be measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in pre- and post-retreat blood plasma samples. The expectation is that one or more of these molecules will be elevated after the week-long meditation retreat.
Time frame: 1 week
Plan to share: No — There is not a plan to make IPD available.
This study is completed, as verified in Oct 2024. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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Tobias Moeller-Bertram