Meditators Live Longer and Age Better

In another of the many studies to emerge from the TM (Transcendental Meditation) movement, researchers reporting their results in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Alexander et al., 1989) found that older people who practiced meditation had improved cognitive and behavioral abilities and lived longer than those who did not. Seventy-three residents of eight homes for the elderly, with an average age of 81, were randomly assigned to four different groups. One group received no treatment; the other three received one of three treatments that were quite similar in structure and expectations:

- The Transcendental Meditation program
- Mindfulness training in active distinction making (not to be confused with mindfulness meditation)
- A relaxation (low mindfulness) program

On measures of associative learning, cognitive skills, mental health, aging, and behavioral flexibility, the TM group fared significantly better than the other three. And after three years, the Transcendental Meditation group had a survival rate of 100 percent, compared with 87.5 percent for the mindfulness training group and lower rates for the relaxation group and the non-meditating group. Not only will you live longer if you meditate, this study suggests, but your mind will stay sharper and you’ll be less prone to depression and other mental-health problems.