Last Updated on May 17, 2026 by pg@petergamma.org
The Swiss Meditation Research Institute (MRIS) currently consists of myself and some equipment that is of very limited use for scientific or medical purposes. However, this does not mean that the equipment I would like to mention here are not helpful to meditators, on the contrary.
Diego Hangartner, an ETH pharmacologist and meditation expert from Switzerland who has participated in scientific studies on meditation for over 20 years, said, “We have no devices.” He likely means that no devices are used in the community he is part of.
Personally, I’ve used sports watches for many years, which have helped me to meditate. This can help, for example, to lower your resting heart rate through practicing meditation. World champions among the sports men have a resting heart rate of around 40 heartbeats per minute. And this figure can be helpful to see where you stand with your practice.
Or to bring your breathing rate into a physiological range, and that is from 12 – 20 breath per minutes at rest. That is the healthy and normal range at rest. Sports watches from the Fenix 6 on-wards also display your breathing rate, although it’s not calibrated correctly.
But in the lowest physiological range, that is, at 12 breaths per minute, the Fenix 6 displays the respiratory rate correctly:
This can help support the practice of breath meditation, as I often practice it. The Muse Headband can also be helpful during meditation.
Cody Rall MD with Techforpsych has tested the Muse Headband for over 10 years. He offers his critical opinion:
Personally, I believe that all these devices can be helpful for people suffering from perceptual disorders, in order to enhance their perception. And I think it doesn’t matter that much whether a sports watch or a Muse headband is used.
The Muse Headband, in conjunction with the Mind Monitor Android app, can also provide physiological data about our mental state. This setup can be used to achieve a state of inner peace, which physiologically corresponds to a mental state in which the brain exhibits high alpha brainwave levels.
The devices mentioned above are not very suitable for scientific and medical purposes. However, for an outstanding home laboratory, I would use the following devices:
The Schiller Stress Test System CS 200 is used worldwide in cardiac clinics. It allows for the objective measurement of the stress level experienced by a test subject.
Or the g.Nautilus Multi-Purpose EEG Headset should be in your home lab if money does not matter. This device is also ideally suited for research purposes.
The g.Nautilus Multi-Purpose EEG Headset can, for example, be used to quantify gamma brainwaves. A high proportion of gamma waves in the left prefrontal lobe indicates that the brain is in a mental state generally described as liberated, awakened, or enlightened.