Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions - James Randi [52]
For starters, we are told that during meditation the body's metabolic rate drops—that, in effect, the rate of physical living is decreased. Indeed, during regular sleep the oxygen consumption of the body drops an average of 8 percent. But—now hear this—TMers claim that during meditation there is a drop of 16 percent! Yet the Royal College of Surgeons in Britain showed a drop of only 7 percent. Why the discrepancy? Simply because the RCS experimenters took care not to disturb the patient both before and after the tests, and they thus proved that the change was due to simple relaxation, nothing more. Besides, in comparison tests they conducted using TMers in "trance" and non-TM subjects listening to soft music, they found that the oxygen consumption rates were indistinguishable. If there is no discernible difference between the oxygen consumption of a subject listening to music and a subject practicing mystic oriental techniques, surely oxygen consumption fails as a factor in scientific confirmation of the claim.
But we are also told that the body's production of carbon dioxide decreases during TM. This is hardly a surprise, chemically speaking. Lowered oxygen intake dictates this. Is it significant? No. Although carbon dioxide production does drop, it starts dropping as soon as the subject stops moving about, continues to drop during the TM period, and then shoots up again when movement recommences. Not at all unexpected or significant. Especially when, as with the previous claim, exactly the same result is noted with subjects exposed to soft music! Furthermore, a group of fasting TMers was unable to produce any carbon dioxide changes at all during meditation. The relaxing effect of TM is quite real, as demonstrated. But it is neither surprising nor unique to meditation. Music can do the same thing.
Recently in California, at the Orange County Medical Center, researchers investigated hormone changes during TM. Although there are indications of decreases in some hormone production normally due to stress factors, to date no proof has been shown that such effects are unique to or due to TM techniques. One investigator, noting that blood flow goes up in general during TM, has said of this work, "It probably means that blood flow goes up in the brain"—but he fails to mention that this assumption is just what they are seeking to prove, and he has no right to jump to this conclusion without distinct evidence to prove it. Besides, as of this writing only five subjects have been tested, and this sample size is pitifully small. No experimenter worthy of the name would draw conclusions on the basis of such a small data sample. That has not stopped people from doing so, however.
Complicated tests involving numerous electrodes connected to the scalps of the subjects have been performed by TM scientists. Their purpose has been to prove their claim that during meditation brain waves "become coherent," though it is not clear at all just what is meant by that terminology. They assert that both alpha and theta waves (two forms of brain activity on the electrical level) seem to become synchronized during TM, but close examination of the tests pokes a few holes in that claim. When the crew of the television program "Nova" visited the TM labs, they wired up one of the crew, a nonmeditator, and his results were quite comparable to those of the TMers. The only conclusion the testers could come up with was that the man was a "ringer"—a secret meditator! Wrong. Dr. Ray Cooper of the Burden Neurological Laboratory, an experienced experimenter in this field, says that Dr. Paul Levine of