Brain Changes after brief meditation

INTERVENTION: Participants will be called for through community advertising, and must be over 18 years (for consent issues). Both women and men will be eligible for treatment and both meditators and non‐meditators will be included. You cannot participate if you have a previous or current mental health diagnosis (as diagnosed previously), a prior head trauma, current recreational drug usage or current medication that affects the central nervous system. Some of the main mental health diagnosis groups are: • mood disorders (such as depression or bipolar disorder) • anxiety disorders. • personality disorders. • psychotic disorders (such as schizophrenia) • eating disorders. • trauma‐related disorders (such as post‐traumatic stress disorder) • substance abuse disorders. Suitable participants will be sent a package of questionnaires to complete online before they attend a brain scanning session (fMRI). They will be scanned for 10 minutes and then engage in a 4 week meditation trial where they will be asked to listen to either a brief 22 minute Ecomeditation track (daily) or a comparison brief meditation track. Everyone will be asked to keep a daily log of whether they completed the track for that day ‐ the Ecomeditation or comparison track will be randomly allocated (via computer generator) after they have been assigned their first scan time. Both meditations are delivered by a meditation expert (recorded voice on the track). There will be 2 groups: experienced meditators and in‐experienced meditators (defined below). EcoMeditation is a novel form of meditation designed to address this issue. Rather than relying on a spiritual, religious or cognitive framework, it uses physical cues (e.g. “Slow your breathing to 6 seconds per inbreathâ€?) to induce transcendent states. This makes its practice relatively easy for both novices and experienced meditation practitioners. Preliminary evidence indicates that EcoMeditation is able to induc CONDITION: Mental Health ‐ Other mental health disorders Neurological ‐ Studies of the normal brain and nervous system Stress; ; Stress PRIMARY OUTCOME: Composite primary outcome is Brain changes ‐ deactivation of the brain’s Default Mode Network (PCC / MPFC) and amygdala. This is measured through the fMRI scan analysis.[After 4 weeks (post)] SECONDARY OUTCOME: Change in psychological symptomology of stress as measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire [Post (after 4 weeks)] Measurement of mystical experiences (mystical experience, defined as “the experience of profound unity with all that exists, a felt sense of sacredness, a sense of the experience of truth and reality at a fundamental level (noetic quality), deeply felt positive mood, transcendence of time and space, and difficulty explaining the experience in words.â€?), as measured by the Revised Mystical Experiences Questionnaire[4 weeks (post)] INCLUSION CRITERIA: INCLUSION CRITERIA: Ability to follow instructions and fill out forms. 18 years or older. Both meditators and non‐meditators will be included. Meditator definitions: Experienced Meditators are defined as those participants who report a meditation frequency and duration of at least twice a week, thirty minutes or more, for a year or more. Non‐meditators are those who a meditation frequency of less than once a week over the previous year.