Meditation Program and Modern Youth: Dynamics of Initiation

Abstract

A group of 230 young men and women from the American continent, members of an organized meditation program group, has been studied. The aim of the study was to analyze the motivational factors that led them to join the group. The method used was the Critical Incident Technique, responses to which have been content analyzed and appropriately coded and scored. Ten broad motivational themes have been isolated-Situational Stress of Diverse Types, Social Isolation and Lack of Meaningful Relationship, Drug Abuse, Disturbance of Affect, Disturbed Life Style, Problems of Identity and Anomie, Cognitive Needs, Conative-Affective Needs, Incidental Motivation, and Friends and Relatives as Motivators. Each of these themes has been further subdivided into subcategories or codes. It was found that the major specific motivational factors were: Curiosity about Occult and Parapsychic Phenomena, 16%; Depression, 15%; Need to Understand Problems of Human Existence, 12%o; Disturbed Life Style, 9%; Drug Abuse, 8%; Anxiety and Tension, 8%; Social Isolation, 7%. Data have been provided for other minor factors. The role of friends and relatives in the decision-making process has been brought out. Further analyses have been made in terms of deficiency and growth needs, of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and of initiating and maintenance factors relating to compliance to meditation schedule. On the basis of the present study, it has been suggested that a therapeutic-cum-growth model of meditation is more appropriate than a medical-therapeutic model.