Long-term meditation practice in Puno, Perú: A five-level exploratory model of theory and research

Abstract

Practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique has been well-documented in the published literature since the 1970s. However, the significance of the practice in Latin America generally and Perú specifically has been unrecorded, despite its widespread use in schools, government agencies, and businesses in the last 20 years. This paper examines the theoretical foundations of the practice and compares these propositions to international research findings, all of which have been conducted outside Perú. Using a five-level qualitative approach to explore the practice in Perú, the paper also reports the experiences of six long-term practitioners of Transcendental Meditation in Puno who have practiced the technique for an average of 15 years. These reports have been coded and analysed thematically and organised into the following five levels: consciousness, mental, physical, behavioral, and sociocultural, with Puno data analysed for confirmatory or dissimilar evidence vis-à-vis the international findings. Participants are from the Aymara population, an under-represented group in published literature from South America, making the study distinct. Findings suggest that experiences of long-term meditators in Puno are largely consistent with prior international research outcomes.