The hypothesis that meditation facilitates cognitive processing of the right hemisphere (RH) and impairs processing of the left hemisphere (LH) was tested in three groups of matched subjects: long-term practitioners of Transcendental Meditation (TM), non-meditators, and novice TM practitioners who were followed for 3–5 months to identify drop-outs. A test battery of verbal, musical, and spatial tests yielded performance data for LH- and RH-mediated cognitive abilities. Interpreting the data gathered in terms of current cognitive models of memory processing, we conclude that, prior to learning TM, the successfully adherent meditator is predisposed to readily alter his/her attentional focus from a LH dominant to a RH dominant cognitive mode. A clinical implication in the assessment of this trait of absorbed attention may be valuable to therapists in choosing whether to use meditation as an adjunct to psychotherapy.
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