Study the Effects of Vipassana Meditation on Increasing the Level of Psychological well-Being of People

Mina Qazinezam¹, Saeed Momtazi²* and Nasrin Yaghubi³

¹Birjand Branch, Islamic Azad University, Birjand, Iran. ²Beheshti Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran ³Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran.

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/bbra/1565

ABSTRACT:

Vipassana Meditation is considered to be the quintessence of the teachings from 2600 years back. It is non-sectarian and scientific technique of self-observation and truth-realization which leads to progressive better insight and positive mental health attributes, as also, inculcation of universal human values like love and goodwill, tolerance and compassion, peace and harmony, and spirituality. It's practical applications are discussed in this article. The main goal of this research was to study the effects of Vipassana on psychological well-being of people. In present research, two 200-person groups (experimental and control) were recruited. The experimental group included the participants of the 10-Day Vipassana courses. Before training, both groups were pre-tested then the experimental group was influenced by independent variable (Vipassana course). After the course finished both groups were tested again. Also, 3 months after training and applying this technique in daily life and interpersonal communication in experimental group, in order to pursue any expected changes, both groups have been tested for the third time. For statistical analysis of the results, the method of Mancova was used. The results showed that the experimental group after getting trained and practicing the technique regularly through their lives had obvious significant changes in 6 dimensions of autonomy, purposefulness in life, personal growth, environmental mastery, positive relationships with others and self-acceptance. So training and the regular applying of Vipassana technique had significant effect on increasing the level of psychological well-Being of our sample.

KEYWORDS: Vipassana; meditation; psychological well-Being; self-observation.

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