Comparing Christian and Islamic Spiritual Meditation with Mindfulness Meditation Effects on Mental Health, Social Functioning, and Body Responses in Healthy Adults

What this Trial Is About

This research aims to compare the effects of Christian and Islamic heart-centred spiritual meditation with mindfulness meditation and a waitlist control in healthy adults. The study focuses on how these different meditation practices impact psychophysiology, cognition, mental health, and social functioning. It also explores related factors such as perspective-taking, affect, religiosity, spiritual experiences, and feelings of closeness to God or others. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of three groups Christian or Islamic spiritual meditation based on their religious affiliation, mindfulness meditation, or a waitlist control group. The intervention includes an 8-week app-based program with daily audio-guided meditation sessions lasting about 20 minutes. Those in the waitlist group will receive access to the Christian or Islamic meditation program after the study. Participants undergo assessments before the intervention, immediately after, and at a 3-month follow-up. These assessments include measures of interpersonal functioning like prosocial behavior, forgiveness, empathy, and perspective taking. Additional evaluations cover physiology pain tolerance, stress reactivity, attention, and mental health stress, depression, anxiety, well-being, and mood. The study aims to gather comprehensive data on the effects of different meditation types over time.

From the Heart: Comparing the Effects of Spiritual and Secular Meditation on Psychophysiology, Cognition, Mental Health, and Social Functioning in Healthy Adults