Meditation is a practice of sitting still and quiet for minutes or even hours. It has been practiced for thousands of years and is even a part of religious practices for some people. Carefully controlled, repeated measurements of brain activity have shown that meditation does increase certain chemicals in the brain and even grows the part of the brain that helps people connect with their current surroundings and activities. Are claims about the effects of meditation most likely scientific or pseudoscientific?

scientific, because people have been claiming for thousands of years that meditation helps them

scientific, because observations of brain growth and chemicals are made carefully and repeatedly

pseudoscientific, because practices that are related to religion are based on beliefs and are subjective

pseudoscientific, because people have made claims about it but scientific observations have not been made