Mindfulness Beats Painfulness: Meditation Cancels Pain

In a contest that pitted mindfulness again painfulness, painfulness came in a dull second. The Washington Post reports on studies conducted at the University of Montreal, where researchers compared the pain threshholds of thirteen zen meditators with those of 13 men and women
of similar age with no meditation or yoga background. Using high-tech thermal probes, the researchers exposed the left
calf area of each participant to a series of painful and non-painful
heated "stimulations" ranging from 37º C (neutral) to 43º C (warm and
non-painful) to a maximum of 53º C (hot and moderately painful). Based on self-reported pain levels, the Post reports, the researchers found that
the last concentration exercise, designed to simulate meditation
"mindfulness," helped the meditators experience less pain, but had no
impact on non-meditators. Non-meditators were also not helped when they were told to focus on the
leg stimulation. In fact, both the intensity of their pain and pain
"unpleasantness" went up by 15 percent and 21 percent, respectively. In
contrast, meditators given the same instruction experienced no increase
on either score. Read an abstract of the study here.
Read more in the Washington Post.