EMPTE Meditation Scale

"Emory Meditation Practice Tradition & Experience Scale (EMPTE)"

Data from contemplative science research suggests that meditation-based interventions can have demonstrable effects in stress, depression and inflammation--risk factors for a host of chronic disorders that plague the 21st century. Despite these promising results, methodological issues, including a lack of assessment tools that accurately asses meditation experience, greatly limit the reliability and generalizability of these findings. In order to address this shortcoming, our team has set out to develop and assess the validity of the EMPTE Scale, a self-report measure which will assess research participants' meditation experience in a particular contemplative tradition. This scale, which relies primarily on common Buddhist-based contemplative practices that are commonly, will help researchers more clearly define subjects' style of practice, control for variations between style and experience, and ultimately lead to new findings associated with particular styles of practice.

The successful development of this scale promises to enhance the methodological rigor of this field by aiding researchers in determining what subjects are actually doing during a particular meditation session, and also by enabling clinicians and researchers to develop appropriate meditation-based interventions for specific populations.

Main researchers: John D. Dunne & Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi, Dept. of Religion; Charles L. Raison, Dept. of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; Nancy Thompson, Rollins School of Public Health