Survey on Om meditation: Its effects on the human body and Om meditation as a tool for stress management

Abstract

Meditation and yoga both have positive effects on physical, as well as mental health. Om mantra chanting, a simple and easy to practice, also comes under the aspect of meditation. The “Om” mantra is also considered as the very name of the absolute. Om meditation not only affects the various parts of the brain, such as pre-frontal cortex, vagus nerve, amygdala and others but also affects the heart rate and respiratory rate. Considering the healing effects of Om meditation, through this paper, we are trying to explore all the relevant work done in the field of Om meditation. The survey includes a large number of papers covering the research previously conducted by many researchers, their results and different techniques adopted to study the effect of Om meditation on human beings. Studies on Om meditation are categorized under four different heads: Neuroimaging studies, EEG studies, evoked potentials studies and other methods studies. Even though the existing research evidenced capability of Om meditation in curing anxiety and depression, more rigorous studies with better design, with larger sample size and with different control groups are required. Especially the need to explore untouched research areas of Loud Om meditation using EEG is suggested in the paper. Furthermore, future research directions are also suggested.