This case study employed a mixed-methods design for recording empirical and experiential data, from individual and collective, objective and subjective, researcher and participant perspectives (Fetters, Curry & Creswell 2013; Lindhard 2019; Wilber 2000). With their measuring, monitoring and biofeedback functions, the HeartMath Global Coherence and Inner Balance instruments facilitated global and personal, objective and subjective, quantitative and qualitative, collective and individual records of meditation sessions. They also provided methodological triangulation and data audit trail for further studies. Although autobiographical writings are inevitably biased by virtue of their personal experiential nature, the HeartMath instruments served to provide some guarantee of validity and reliability of quantitative data. In the case of qualitative data, the instruments also served to provide some assurance of such qualitative research criteria as dependability, credibility, transferability and trustworthiness. In their uniqueness, case study findings are not readily generalisable, but do facilitate depth and detail in the exploration and explication of events and experiences. Moreover, case studies have great value in generating hypothesis for further large-scale studies and general scientific advancement.

HeartMath practices since 09 November 2019 were reviewed. This date was chosen as it roughly coincided with the above-mentioned initial reporting of the first known case of COVID 19 (WHO 2020). The South African Lockdown experience was scheduled for 27 March until Friday 17 April. Meditation was in prone, yogic savasana position.

Reflecting on the word ‘Lockdown’ reveals its prison connotations, for example of Nelson Mandela’s tiny cell on Robben Island. It is wonderful to relate how this great man transformed humanity as did Buddha, Christ and Mohammed. The author worked at a rural, historically black university for most of his academic life (Edwards 2014). There were numerous incidents of violence and much suffering. In fact, the rallying slogan: ‘an injury to one is an injury to all’ also aptly describes the present, international, health context. In South African Apartheid days, many students self-referred for counselling, expressing the conflict that they were caught between ancestral consciousness and Christianity. The mediation solution was that Jesus is an ancestor – the greatest ancestor from the Christian perspective – along with all the other ancestral saints who continue to heal and guide humanity. Similar inclusive resolutions may be found for whatever conflict, for example, many parasuicide situations, reflecting Moslem and Hindu cultural conflicts. From an integral psychological perspective, considerable theory (Wilber 2000), as well as practical experience, also teaches that solutions to physical, psychological, religious and political conflicts emerge spontaneously, or readily, if people are able and assisted to transcend and include earlier developmental stages, at whatever the level of impasse, intrapersonal, interpersonal, transpersonal and ecological.

It should be mentioned that Africa, south of the Sahara, is predominantly Christian as well as ancestral reverence orientated. It should also be noted that in apartheid days, ‘National Christian Education’ was (mis)used to buttress the pillars of that nefarious system of forced racial oppression. On the other hand, the largest Southern African religious movement, the African Indigenous Churches (AICs), which synthetically practise Christianity, with particular emphasis on ancestral consciousness, were instrumental in preventing violence and civil war, before, during and after apartheid struggles (Edwards 2011). Although formerly retired, the author remains in close electronic contact with doctoral students, local community church and friends. In formal retirement years, he and his wife downsized to a lock-up-and-go apartment, in a block with 21 units, with considerable communal space between apartments. Most of the author’s working life involved research, teaching and health promotion amongst previously disadvantaged communities. The conditions of South African squatter camps, and the potential ease with which COVID-19 could spread, necessitated the extension of the original 3-week lockdown to prevent further local incidence and prevalence of the pandemic.

The global coherence healing meditations were predominantly Prayer of the Heart orientated (Louchakova 2007), including various wisdom traditions, African ancestral consciousness, Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist and Taoist and typically monitored by HeartMath technology to provide coherence biofeedback. The investigation took part over the Easter period. The author was involved in pastoral counselling for the local Christian church, where he gave a lecture on the ‘Intersection of Science, Philosophy and Religion – The Role of the Heart in Life, Love and Light’. on 14 March, less than 2 weeks before the COVID-19 lockdown.

The HeartMath Global Coherence and Inner Balance instruments were used for measurement and monitoring of meditation. The Global Coherence app was used in longer meditation sessions, which focused on radiating global coherence, planetary healing and love. Shorter Inner Balance app meditations were practised after physical exercise. The Global Coherence app records individual, group and global levels of coherence. Sessional data are continually updated, which implies that mean data are more suitable than achievement data for calculation purposes. On the other hand, inner balance mean and achievement data were readily available per session (Edwards 2019; McCraty et al. 2018).

Ethical considerations followed the Helsinki Declaration, with institutional approval obtained from the University of Zululand, Research Committee, project number S894/97. The author is a registered psychologist and licensed HeartMath coach and mentor. Although working independently of the HeartMath Institute, through regular communication, he remained fully informed as to HeartMath initiatives to manage the coronavirus through recognition and transmutation of negative emotions and actions, such as fear and over-care, and promotion of renewing and positive emotions, consciousness, spirituality and related health behaviour. As a registered psychologist, he was informed as to psychological knowledge and interventions related to COVID-19. There was no conflict of interest as the study’s aim was to promote health, as well as provide knowledge and instruction in the case of unique experiences related to a unique event, the South African COVID-19 lockdown.

Table 1 refers to baseline and lockdown means for Global Coherence (GC), Inner Balance (IB), Inner Balance Achievement scores per session (ACH).

Table 1 indicates baseline and lockdown means, Mann–Whitney non-parametric comparisons and significance levels. There were highly significant increases in global coherence (U = 3.20, p = 0.001), Inner Balance (U = 5.37, p = 0.000) and achievement scores (U = 2.78, p = 0.005), indicating improved meditation quality and quantity. Qualitative findings provide further depth and detail.

Table 2 refers to Spearman’s correlation coefficients, with 5% and 10% significance levels indicated by single asterisk (*) and double asterisks (**) as per usual statistical convention. Abbreviations used (GC, IB, ACH) are the same as in Table 1. Lock refers to the 3-week COVID-19 lockdown period. GC1, GC2, GC3, GC4, GC5 and GC6 refer to Global Coherence Magnetometer readings from California, Saudi Arabia, Lithuania, Canada, New Zealand and Hluhluwe, respectively. Total magnetometer readings (GCTOT) refers to total magnetometer readings. All magnetometer readings were taken at noon (12–1 PM) on the same day as the meditation data, respectively.

Table 2 indicates significant correlational cluster patterns between the meditation data on the one hand and the global coherence magnetometer readings on the other hand. The significantly correlated global coherence data provide evidence for planetary interconnectedness as researched in many HeartMath studies (McCraty et al. 2018). Endorsing the significance patterns observed in Table 1, Lockdown (Lock) appears significantly correlated with Global Coherence (GC = 0.27), Inner Balance (IB = 0.44) and Achievement (ACH = 0.23). It is significantly positively correlated with Lithuania and Canada magnetometer data and significantly negatively correlated with Hluhluwe data. Similar correlational patterns were observed in an earlier study (Edwards 2019). Beyond the malfunction of the Hluhluwe magnetometer for the last week of Lockdown, as from 11 April, no firm hypotheses have yet emerged for this one relatively anomalous finding. Further randomised controlled studies with larger samples are needed to investigate such a finding and advance reasonable hypotheses.

Some social and contextual observations seem necessary. Although no exact records exist, most members of the apartment block seemed to strictly observe the lock-in. Although social distancing was certainly operating in the local community, social relationships continued, for example, to raise funds for suffering persons through the Bambalela Marathon Challenge. Electronic communication increased, particularly with family and friends. There was increased local communication and closer relationships amongst members in the apartment block.

Qualitative experiential data that arose from sequential global coherence (GC) meditations follow, each with their identifying date. The meditations diary typically has no experiential descriptions and some a very few words. The following healing meditations were most relevant from the global coherence perspective.