The purpose of this study is to investigate and compare the effects of Christian and Islamic heart-centred spiritual meditation to mindfulness meditation and waitlist control conditions, respectively, in healthy adults. The potential effects will be studied at multiple levels, with a focus on psychophysiology, cognition, mental health, and social functioning.
18 to 60 years old
able to read, speak and understand English
willing to be randomly assigned to all the conditions, with religious affiliation restricting allocation to either the Christian or Islamic type of spiritual meditation conditions
consider oneself to be a Christian or Muslim and pray at least weekly
currently suffer from any mental health conditions or use medication to manage mental health conditions
long-term serious physical medical problems, such as liver, brain, kidney, or other life-threatening chronic diseases
a history of a heart condition, high blood pressure, Raynaud syndrome, diabetes, or musculoskeletal condition
the current use of anxiolytics/mood stabilizers.
Parallel
Arm 1 - Heart-Centred Spiritual Meditation: Christian contemplation
BehavioralParticipants assigned to this condition will receive daily audio instructions of approximately 20 minutes daily over the course of 8 weeks focused on Christian contemplation delivered through a mobile app. The intervention will consist of a core contemplative practice focused on heart visualisation based on Christian tradition and prayer recitation with breathing to focus their attention on and connection to God.
Arm 1 - Heart-Centred Spiritual Meditation: Islamic contemplation
BehavioralParticipants assigned to this condition will receive daily audio instructions of approximately 20 minutes daily over the course of 8 weeks, focused on Islamic contemplation delivered through a mobile app. The intervention will consist of a core contemplative practice focused on heart visualisation based on Islamic tradition and prayer recitation with breathing to focus attention on and connection to God.
Arm 2 - Action Control: Mindfulness Meditation
BehavioralParticipants assigned to this condition will receive daily audio instructions of approximately 20 minutes daily over the course of 8 week, focused on mindfulness meditation delivered through a mobile app. The intervention will consist of the mindfulness-based stress reduction program which emphasizes focused attention on breathing and sensations as well as the practice of non-judgemental acceptance of the present experience.
Interpersonal functioning: Change in Prosociality (1)
The number of game points (0-10) that a participant is willing to allocate to another individual as measured by the Dictator Game
Interpersonal functioning: Change in Prosociality (2)
Social value orientation scores as measured by the social value orientation slider measure. The higher scores represent greater prosocial preferences while lower scores represent greater self-interest preferences
Interpersonal functioning: Change in Prosociality (3)
The percentage of compensation fees that participants are willing to donate to a charity
Interpersonal functioning: Changes in self-reported Forgiveness
A self-reported forgiveness scale assessed within a forgiveness task, ranging from 0 (Not at all) to 20 (Completely). High scores reflect a higher level of forgiveness, while lower scores indicate a lower level of forgiveness
Physiology: Change in Pain Tolerance
The duration (in seconds) that a participant endures painful stimulation assessed during an endurance task
Physiology: Change in Pain Intensity
0-10 Numerical Rating Scale
Physiology: Change in Stress Reactivity (1)
Heart rate
Physiology: Change in Stress Reactivity (2)
Heart rate variability
Spirituality: Change in Spiritual Experiences
The Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES). DSES is a 16-item self-report questionnaire. Participants are asked to rate their daily spiritual experiences. 15 items are rated on a 6-point Likert scale from 1 (Many times a day) to 6 (Never or almost never) and 1 item is rated on a 4-point Likert scale from 1 (Not close) to 4 (As close as possible). Higher scores indicate greater spirituality
Spirituality: Change in Closeness to God
Inclusion-of-God-in-the-self scale (adapted from Inclusions of Others in Self scale). The scale consists of 7 pairs of pictorial circles with one circle of each pair being labelled as Self, and the other circle being labelled as God. Participants are asked to choose 1 of the 7 pairs of circles that best describes their relationship with God. The pairs of circles have different degrees of overlap, ranging from the 1st pair (no overlap) to the 7th pair (most overlap). The greater the overlap in the circles corresponds to a closer relationship with God
Spirituality: Religiosity
Duke University Religiosity Index (DUREL). DUREL is a 5-item self-report questionnaire measuring three major dimensions of religious involvement with three subscales: organizational religious activity (ORA), non-organizational religious activity (NORA), and intrinsic religiosity (IR). Participants are asked to rate their religious involvement (ORA and NORA) on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (Never) to 6 (More than once a week/day) and rate their religious beliefs or experience (IR) on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (Definitely not true) to 5 (Definitely true of me). Higher scores indicate a higher religiosity
Credibility/Expectancy of the meditation practices
Credibility/Expectancy questionnaire. This is a 4-item self-report questionnaire that assesses participants' beliefs about the efficacy and credibility of the contemplative practices on a 9-point Likert scale from 1 (Not at all) to 9 (Very much). Higher scores indicate greater positive expectancies
Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.
Coventry University
Lead sponsor
Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging
Collaborator
Kuriakose Elias College Mannanam
Collaborator
Little Flower Institute of Social Sciences and Health (LISSAH) College
Collaborator
