Australian scientists give meditation a clinical thumbs up

True believers stop reading now.

Australian scientists say they have proved what you already, in your mind's third eye, knew: that meditation eases stress and promotes better health.

According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, "meditation triggers change in electrical activity of the brain, improving the mind and body in measurable ways."

The paper cites the largest study of its kind in the world — a clinical trial involving 178 full-time workers meditating twice daily at home for 10 to 20 minutes over eight weeks — conducted by Sydney University researchers, into work stress.

Yes, work and stress exist Down Under. In fact, the paper reports:

A Lifeline poll reveals that stress levels are rising, with 93 percent of Australians under strain at a rate that could create serious illness. Workplace stress costs the economy $15 billion a year. 

"We've applied some rigorous conditions," the paper quotes study leader Ramesh Manocha as saying, as though to emphasize the "stress" component.

Manocha said the study focused on the ''mental silence'' traditional approach to meditation used in Sahaja Yoga.

"What authentic techniques should do is show you how to widen space between thoughts until the space is so large you have no thoughts whatsoever in that moment," he said.

If you're still following after that explanation, the findings are as follows:

The improvements for mood and depression were twice as high for those practicing ''mental silence'' compared to the ''relaxation'' and placebo groups.

''We've done other published studies where, when you teach people relaxation, they feel better, but there's no change in disease, but when you teach mental silence approach, they felt twice as better but also saw significant changes in indicators with disease," Dr Manocha said.

He stressed this was not the case for everyone, but many people had told him their symptoms had improved.