On Jul 18, 2009, at 10:07 AM, off_world_beings wrote:
It is a news story about research published in respected peer- reviewed journals.
Well, I think your exaggerating. As per usual, the research is clearly biased as it's authored by TM TB zealots like Hagelin, Travis and Nidich--and done by TM-based organizations! Given the journal's low impact rating, calling it "respected" might be a bit of a stretch, as it means very few people cite articles in this journal. So much for respect, huh? As per usual, the abstract claims controls were used, but doesn't tell us what they are. Typically this means they use "health education" as their control: a sure way to massage some inconsequential numbers out of their data. And of course the "Brain Integration Scale" is something dreamed up by Travis. Surprise, surprise. It seems to only be used by TM investigators, it's not a widely accepted form of measurement.
Given the junk journals, self-assigned non-mainstream measurement scales and clear bias, I'd have to say this is just "business as usual" for TM "research". It looks like they spend more time trying to push it to press outlets then they do setting up a good, unbiased, well-controlled study. Another one for the garbage bin folks.
