Published over a year ago, this report on Transcendental Meditation, by the ABC’s Catalyst in Sydney, Australia, takes an objective look at the uniqueness of the practice, and its personal and health benefits. One skeptical physician says most people would sooner pop a pill to lower their blood pressure than waste time meditating. But, based on the scientific research, the American Heart Association now recommends that physicians may safely prescribe only TM for those patients who want to lower their blood pressure naturally, instead of taking long-term costly medications with potentially harmful side effects.
Dr. Robert Schneider’s tour in Australia and New Zealand educating physicians on the value of TM for heart health
Dr. Robert Schneider, MD, FACC, a leading medical researcher on the application of Transcendental Meditation for heart health, toured Australia and New Zealand in the fall of 2013. He presented the breakthrough scientific research findings of TM’s ability to reduce heart attack, stroke and early death by about 50%.
Dr. Schneider also mentioned the AHA statement, based on meta-analyses of data on different relaxation and meditation techniques, that physicians could only recommend TM to their patients wanting to naturally lower their HBP. You can see a video clip from a presentation made at Macquarie University Hospital in Sydney, Australia.
While making presentations in New Zealand, Dr. Schneider appeared on NZTV’s Breakfast ONE News program explaining how TM improves heart health, and the response from the medical community. You see that lively interaction here.
Here is an article in the Israeli paper Haaretz about a film on David Lynch’s 16-country tour made several years ago. One of the countries he had visited was Israel. The film was shown at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque Monday night, January 20, 2014, David’s 68th birthday. David also connected with the audience after the film via Skype to answer questions.
Real peace isn’t just the absence of war the legendary director tells Israeli filmgoers via Skype, and sets the record straight on the ‘Twin Peaks’ rumors.
Article and photo by Avshalom Halutz | Jan. 22, 2014 |12:54 PM
David Lynch speaks to Israeli moviegoers via Skype, on Monday
Moviegoers might associate director David Lynch with wailing babies, dead women in plastic bags and severed ears, but the audience at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque Monday night got nothing but peace and positivity from the man responsible for the perversity in films like “Blue Velvet,” “Eraserhead” and “Mullholland Drive.”
It was the Israeli premiere of the documentary “Meditation, Creativity, Peace,” which follows Lynch’s tour through 16 countries in Europe and the Middle East. The main topic: Transcendental Meditation.
Most of the documentary was shot by film students. The movie, which was edited by Noriko Miyakawa, was completed in 2012 and is in theaters across the United States now. It offers a fascinating glimpse into the creative process of one of history’s great filmmakers.
After the screening, Tel Avivians were treated to a Skype conversation with Lynch himself, who was celebrating his 68th birthday. He answered questions at length on meditation, cinema and creativity – and the Mideast conflict.
The documentary begins with Lynch’s visit to Israel in 2007, when he met with President Shimon Peres and thousands of enthusiastic film students. It opens with Lynch speaking to the camera while holding a jelly doughnut.
“This is a doughnut,” Lynch says. “It is very sweet, and very good. But if you’ve never tasted a doughnut, you wouldn’t really know how sweet and how good a doughnut is …. Transcendental Meditation is like that. Transcendental Meditation gives an experience much sweeter than the sweetness of this doughnut. It gives the experience of the sweetest nectar of life: pure bliss consciousness.”
The film then spends 70 minutes following Lynch on his tour. He explains how Transcendental Meditation, which he has been practicing morning and evening for 40 years, has changed the way he thinks and creates.
Lynch doesn’t lecture, he goes straight to the Q&A. So the film is mostly questions by film students and his take on topics like his love for Franz Kafka’s “Metamorphosis,” how to write a script, and living a more positive life.
During a session in Edinburgh, one questioner asks how he dares talk about meditation and world peace after visiting Israel, and how meditation can help Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. Lynch answers that people are similar all over the world, and that he was happy to meet Israeli film students, Peres and the mayor of Haifa. He wasn’t at all ashamed to visit Israel.
But the trip to Israel had a special objective: to achieve regional peace by establishing “peace groups” that would practice meditation and effect change.
Take it from the Maharishi
When Lynch appeared on the cinematheque’s big screen live via his home computer, the audience sang “Happy Birthday” and followed with an ovation. It’s not every day Israelis interact with giants like Lynch, though the birthday boy remained humble throughout.
One questioner wanted to know if Lynch considered his visit to Israel a failure given that there was still no peace. Lynch mentioned the father of Transcendental Meditation, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
“I think the journey was to plant some seeds. And those seeds are still there, and they do need some watering, for sure. They say that Maharishi is the man who revived the science of consciousness and the technologies of consciousness,” Lynch said.
“One of the technologies of consciousness is Transcendental Meditation, a mental technique that any human being can take, and which allows any human being to transcend, to dive within and experience that unbounded eternal level of life. This unbounded eternal level of life is also a field of infinite unbounded peace.”
This peace has always been there, it just needs enlivening, Lynch said.
“Maharishi brought out the technologies of the peace-creating group – a group of human beings practicing the Transcendental Meditation that enliven the field of unity, this field of peace within, so powerfully that it can bring peace up in the field of diversity and raise collective consciousness,” he said. It can make people feel happier and more harmonious.
“And they say when real peace comes it is because this field within has been enlivened in the field of diversity. You can say it’s unity in the midst of diversity. I was telling all the people in Israel that I met: Start a peace-creating group for Israel, enliven that field of unity, get real peace.”
According to Lynch, “A peace treaty is a piece of paper on the surface of life. It does not address the hate, the anger, the torment inside the human beings. We want peace and here is a technology to truly bring real peace, and real peace is not just the absence of war – real peace is the absence of all negativity.”
Lynch was also asked about the situation in Israel compared to other conflicts around the world.
“The situation in Israel exists in lots of places: People just don’t get along. Surface cures will never work. Never work. If you want to get rid of that negativity that causes disputes you need to enliven that field of unity and peace that has always and forever been there,” he said.
“This is the big, big, big secret: Get to work, help form a peace-creating group for Israel and watch what happens, it will be so beautiful. It’s the real thing. Get to work and make this thing happen.”
When asked if he liked any new Israeli movies, Lynch said he didn’t have time to watch films lately. He said he didn’t understand how Martin Scorsese had the time to watch every movie that exists and still have the time to make more films than him.
Many questioners tried to pry information from Lynch about his next projects; they were eager to see more of his work. One brought up the rumor about a new version of “Twin Peaks,” the cult TV series from the early 1990s.
“Rumors are just rumors. There have always been rumors about things. So there is no real truth to it,” said Lynch.
“I don’t know where these rumors come from, but I think they were based on some misunderstanding of what’s going on. It’s true that there will be a new Blu-ray [disc] of ‘Twin Peaks,’ including the pilot, first season and second season. And there will be some special things that haven’t been seen before. That’s about all I can say.”
Below is a Teaser: “Meditation, Creativity, Peace” – David Lynch 16 Country Tour Documentary posted on the DavidLynchFoundation YouTube channel.
Maharishi University of Management accounting professor Andrew Bargerstock teaches a class in which students are certified in an accounting program called Extensible Business Reporting Language. M.U.M. is the first college in the world to offer certification in the program as part of its academic curriculum. / Photo by: ANDY HALLMAN
Accounting students at Maharishi University of Management are getting a leg up on the competition.
Those students have the opportunity to become certified in a worldwide accounting standard. According to M.U.M. accounting professor Andrew Bargerstock, the university is the first in the world to offer this certification as part of its curriculum.
The standard is called Extensible Business Reporting Language, often referred to simply as XBRL. It is a way of creating an accounting document that allows the information to be easily transferred to government agencies such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The program requires a high level of computer coding knowledge. Bargerstock said learning how to use the program is no easy task because the students are bombarded with tons of technical computer jargon unfamiliar to most accountants.
“Accountants typically don’t have a lot of training in IT [information technology],” Bargerstock said. “They’ll know how to run ‘Quickbooks’ and ‘Excel,’ but they don’t know anything about the underlying coding. It’s a bit of a challenge. It takes a little bit longer for the water to seep into the sponge – a very dry sponge.”
Bargerstock and 11 of his students have been certified in XBRL, so he knows just how difficult the program is to learn.
“I failed the test the first time I took it, and had to go over it and over it again,” he said.
The certification training is done online and includes instructional audio files. The first time Bargerstock tuned in to one of the audio courses, he reacted by saying to himself, “This is way beyond what I was expecting. There was so much jargon it sounded like a foreign language.”
Learning XBRL is no picnic but once the students complete the necessary training they will stand out from their peers. Recruiting firms have told Bargerstock XBRL certification will put M.U.M.’s students at the top of the pile of résumés when it comes time to look for a job.
“In job interviews, people will say whatever they need to to get the job, and they’ll be a chameleon who changes from day to day,” he said. “This certification shows the students have taken the initiative to learn something.”
The federal government has required businesses and organizations to submit their accounting records in XBRL format since 2011. Bargerstock said the advantage of XBRL is the numbers only have to be entered in the original accounting document and not in every report created from that document. When it comes time to create the reports for the various government agencies, each agency extracts from the document whatever it needs to create its own report.
In the past, accountants would have to tediously fill out reports for each government agency. Now, those reports are created automatically by the computer thanks to the way the information is coded.
Bargerstock introduced his students to XBRL certification last fall. Although he helped the students with their certification, they trained for the certification on their own outside of class and did not receive academic credit. Another group of six students began taking a class with Bargerstock in November in which they were receiving academic credit while obtaining XBRL certification. Those students will finish their class in February.
Reprinted with permission from The Fairfield Ledger. The article was on the front page of Thursday’s Ledger, five columns across the middle of the page, with a photo.
Added point of clarification from Andy Bargerstock: “The certification training does not teach the technical side (tagging) of XBRL. XBRL certification training is the first step towards competency. If any of our certified students get hired, they will need 2-3 months of intensive training in the technical aspects of XBRL.”
Meditation, a simple yet deep-rooted technique that helps you think better, control your emotions with finesse and even makes you a better person. First practiced in India, meditation is a method carried down through the ages. It was first mentioned in the Vedas and is well-known in India as a doorway to nirvana. But now the Americans have woken up to its benefits.
According to study carried out by Fred Travis, director of the centre for brain, consciousness, and cognition at Maharishi University of Management in the US, physiological measures and first-person descriptions of transcendental experiences and higher states have only been investigated during practice of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique.
After analysing descriptions of transcendental consciousness from 52 people practicing TM, Travis found that they experienced ‘a state where thinking, feeling, and individual intention were missing, but self-awareness remained’. A systematic analysis of their experiences revealed three themes – absence of time, space and body sense.
‘This research focuses on the larger purpose of meditation practices – to develop higher states of consciousness,’ explained Travis. With regular meditation, experiences of transcendental consciousness begin to co-exist with sleeping, dreaming and even while one is awake.
This state is called cosmic consciousness in the Vedic tradition, said the paper published in the journal Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Whereas people practicing TM describe themselves in relation to concrete cognitive and behavioural processes, those experiencing cosmic consciousness describe themselves in terms of a continuum of inner self-awareness that underlies their thoughts, feelings and actions, added the paper.
‘The practical benefit of higher states is that you become more anchored to your inner self, and, therefore, less likely to be overwhelmed by the vicissitudes of daily life,’ said Travis. TM is an effortless technique for automatic self-transcending, different from the other categories of meditation – focused attention or open monitoring.
It allows the mind to settle inward beyond thought to experience the source of thought – pure awareness or transcendental consciousness. This is the most silent and peaceful level of consciousness – one’s innermost self, said the study.
Wondering what it is? Here is all you need to know about the TM technique
Transcendental Meditation?
Also called the TM technique, Transcendental Meditation is a simple practice one does for 20 minutes twice in a day. All you need to do is sit comfortably and close your eyes. This meditation technique is not a religion, philosophy or lifestyle, it is simply a way to reach self-development.
This technique allows your mind to settle and gives you a chance to experience pure awareness, also known as transcendental consciousness. It allows you to experience the most silent and peaceful level of consciousness – your innermost self. It also allows your brain to attain deep rest helping you be more efficient and betters your cognitive functions.
Where did this technique originate?
About 50 years ago, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi introduced Transcendental Meditation to the world. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is considered the representative of Vedic tradition in our day and age. This form of meditation helped in restoring knowledge and helps people experience a higher state of consciousness. The most important aspect of this technique is that it is still practiced with the same technique and principles as it was when the Vedas were first written, giving it maximum effectiveness.
How do I learn?
The TM technique has local teachers who will guide you through the process. It consists of seven steps after which one can practice the TM technique on their own.
Benefits of the TM technique
The TM technique is known to calm your mind, directly affecting the stress that your brain experiences on a daily basis. According to the experts, practicing the TM technique regularly helps in developing total brain control, thereby making you more equipped to deal with every day stress. It indirectly reduces the production on hormones that are commonly produced when one is stressed and thereby stops the damage that is normally produced.
Apart from all this, a calm mind and body is the best way to protect your body from cardiovascular stress. The TM technique also has great benefits for students, it helps improve their memory, IQ and helps them fight stress.
Fairfield man guest speaker in South Africa Craig Pearson’s visit coincided with Nelson Mandela’s funeral
By ANDY HALLMAN | Jan 13, 2014 | The Fairfield Ledger
Photos: Courtesy of CRAIG PEARSON
People deliver flowers, candles and cards to the home of former president Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa, after his death Dec. 5. Maharishi University of Management’s executive vice president Craig Pearson was in the country at the time of Mandela’s death and witnessed how the public responded with kind gestures to the man they admired so much.
Pearson was in South Africa on official business to give the commencement address at Maharishi Institute in Johannesburg. The institute is a sister organization of M.U.M. and the students who graduated from it received M.U.M. degrees.
The students pictured are the first graduating class of Maharishi Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa. Maharishi University of Management’s executive vice president Craig Pearson, far right in second row, delivered the commencement address at the institute’s graduation ceremony in December.
Maharishi University of Management’s executive vice president Craig Pearson received quite the honor in December when he was asked to give a college commencement address in South Africa.
Pearson just so happened to be in Johannesburg when all eyes were on the country after the death of former president Nelson Mandela on Dec. 5. Pearson was able to witness first-hand the outpouring of support and admiration the locals had for the man who symbolized the nation’s struggle against racial separation.
Upon his arrival in the country Dec. 2, the M.U.M. vice president learned he was staying a mere five blocks from Mandela’s home. Pearson planned to walk by the home to take photos, which would not be too difficult since it was normally a quiet street. Within a few days, the street outside Mandela’s home was packed full of people dropping off flowers and singing songs in honor of their fallen leader.
On the morning of Mandela’s death, Pearson opened his laptop to check the news. He saw a headline that read, “The World Mourns,” and he knew right away what it was about.
“When I went down to take photos outside his home, instead of empty streets there were hundreds and hundreds of people,” he said. “People of every age and skin color were standing there. Singing spontaneously came from this epicenter of the crowd and it rang out until everyone joined in.”
Pearson saw a “mountain range of flowers and hand-written notes” placed on the gate outside Mandela’s home.
“Some of the notes were from children who expressed how they felt about their leader with quotes from ‘Madiba,’ as they called him, which is his tribal name,” Pearson said. “He was also referred to as ‘tata,’ which means ‘father.’”
The Associated Press dubbed Mandela a “master of forgiveness” for his insistence on a peaceful cessation to the state-enforced racial separation known as “apartheid.” Mandela brought apartheid to an end after he became president of the country in 1994. Mandela became the country’s first black president after spending 27 years in prison for championing equality against the white-minority government.
“The significance of what he accomplished goes far beyond the borders of the country,” Pearson said.
After the memorial service for Mandela at a large soccer stadium, South Africans approached Pearson to tell him they were touched by the words of President Barack Obama, who spoke during the service.
Maharishi Institute in Johannesburg held an assembly the day after Mandela died. Pearson was asked to speak at the assembly, and he said it was clear from the other speakers how much Mandela meant to everyone.
“It’s extraordinary to see a leader be so beloved by the people these days,” he said. “Mandela was not without opposition for a long time, but once he became president and people saw he was a harmonizing force, then there was full support for him. I told the students they have a leadership role to play by building on his legacy.”
Pearson said when he visited Mandela’s home he was only able to see the roof because the rest was obscured by a wall. He said that was not unusual and that nearly every house in the city has a wall around it topped with barbed wire.
“They’re beautiful walls and the city has beautiful tree-lined streets,” he said. “Johannesburg claims to have the largest man-made forest, and it really is a forest of a city. When you go on a hill you can see all the trees covering the streets.”
Pearson said Mandela lived in a well-off neighborhood but his house did not seem any more extravagant than his neighbors.
Maharishi Institute, where Pearson gave his commencement address, began in 2006 and is affiliated with M.U.M. in Fairfield. In fact, the students at the institute are actually earning degrees from M.U.M.. In some cases their instruction is provided online and in other cases a professor from M.U.M. travels to South Africa to teach a class in person. The 27 students who received their diplomas in December are the first to graduate from the institute. Pearson said the institute hopes to expand in the near future by adding 1,000 students in February.
Despite the end of state-sanctioned racial discrimination in 1994, blacks still lag far behind whites in educational attainment. Pearson said the institute was founded in Johannesburg to correct for the lack of higher education for blacks.
Students at the institute receive 1.5 years of free education and then begin a work-study program. One form work-study takes is to work at a call center in the same building as the school. Students who don’t work in the call center work as janitors or some other occupation that maintains the school.
“People living in the shanties may get an education through high school but their opportunities for college education are pretty miniscule,” he said. “Maharishi Institute takes the students who are ready for college and gives them a college education at no cost. One student told me he might be in a gang if not for the institute.”
Reprinted with permission from The Fairfield Ledger. The Monday Ledger ran this front page story five columns across with all three photos, two from South Africa, plus one of Craig Pearson. Dr. Pearson also spoke at the graduation of several managers at Neotel, one of the top communications companies in South Africa, who received MBA degrees from MUM.
Also see MUM Executive Vice President Comments on Nelson Mandela and more photos at link.mum.edu/Mandela.
Overview of research on individuals experiencing higher states of consciousness published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Today, millions of Americans say they practice some form of yoga and/or meditation. It’s become a health fad. Yet the goal of these practices seems unknown or elusive to many practitioners — transcendence.
Fred Travis, PhD, is the Director of the Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition at Maharishi University of Management
The paper is based on a presentation Dr. Travis was invited to give at “Advances in Meditation Research” (AMR), a meeting of the nation’s top meditation researchers, which took place a year ago at the New York Academy of Sciences New York City.
In his paper Dr. Travis explains that different meditations have different effects, and that meditation can lead to nondual or transcendental experiences, a sense of self-awareness without content.
However, after a search of the scientific literature he reported that physiological measures and first-person descriptions of transcendental experiences and higher states have only been investigated during practice of the Transcendental Meditation® (TM) technique.
TM is an effortless technique for automatic self-transcending, different from the other categories of meditation — focused attention or open monitoring. It allows the mind to settle inward beyond thought to experience the source of thought — pure awareness or Transcendental Consciousness. This is the most silent and peaceful level of consciousness — one’s innermost Self.
This figure, a 2 X 2 table, compares subjective and objective experiences during waking, sleeping, dreaming, and pure consciousness. As seen in this table, waking state contains a sense of self and mental content — thoughts and perceptions. In contrast, during pure consciousness (Transcendental Consciousness), there is only Self-awareness, without any sense of time, space, and body awareness.
Dr. Travis discusses a study of descriptions of Transcendental Consciousness from 52 subjects practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique and found that they experienced “a state where thinking, feeling, and individual intention were missing, but Self-awareness remained.” A systematic analysis of their experiences revealed three themes: absence of time, space, and body sense.
Specific physiological changes are associated with this subjective experience of Transcendental Consciousness. These include changes in breath rate, skin conductance, and EEG patterns.
Dr. Travis further explains that with regular meditation, experiences of Transcendental Consciousness begin to co-exist with sleeping, dreaming, and even while one is awake. This state is called Cosmic Consciousness, in the Vedic tradition. The paper presents first-person accounts followed by an overview of the physiological patterns associated with Cosmic Consciousness.
Whereas control subjects describe themselves in relation to concrete cognitive and behavioral processes, those experiencing Cosmic Consciousness describe themselves in terms of a continuum of inner self-awareness that underlies their thoughts, feelings, and actions.
In addition, the Cosmic Consciousness subjects showed the EEG patterns seen during Transcendental Consciousness along with the EEG patterns when they were asleep, and during waking tasks. This leads to higher scores on the Brain Integration Scale developed by Dr. Travis.
Dr. Travis suggests that such higher states of consciousness can be seen as normal developments beyond the classic stages described by Piaget. One simply needs a technique to experience transcendence and thereby facilitate the development of these states. The practical benefit of higher states, he says, is that you become more anchored to your inner Self, and therefore less likely to be overwhelmed by the vicissitudes of daily life.
“This research focuses on the larger purpose of meditation practices — to develop higher states of consciousness,” explained Dr. Travis. “This paper is the outgrowth of meetings at Esalen and the Institute for Noetic Sciences to chart the future of meditation research.”
The Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences is the oldest continuously published scientific serial in the United States and among the most cited of multidisciplinary scientific serials worldwide. Established in 1823, the Annals is the premier publication of the Academy, offering volumes of review articles in special topical areas and proceedings of conferences sponsored by the Academy as well as other scientific organizations. You can find out more about them here: http://www.nyas.org/whatwedo/publications/annals.aspx.
Here is an excellent article about Transcendental Meditation published in the latest issue of The Hollywood Reporter, part of a Health series on how stress effects celebrities and what they do to relieve it. This one is on David Lynch. Click on the title to see the original article with photos.
One of film’s darkest directors, with help from Jerry Seinfeld and Hugh Jackman, is shining a light by bringing meditation to everyone from PTSD sufferers to inner-city kids.
January 10, 2014 | by Seth Abramovitch
Call it the ultimate comeback. Transcendental meditation — which involves speaking a silent mantra to oneself for 20 minutes, twice daily — is an ancient practice that is now attracting some of Hollywood’s biggest names, who insist that its stress-relief benefits are nothing short of miraculous: Among its most powerful practitioners are Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman and Russell Brand — who all have become supporters of David Lynch and his plans to bring meditation to people in dire need of stress relief. A directing genius whose dark dreamscapes are littered with severed ears and plastic-wrapped homecoming queens, Lynch, 67, has morphed into one of the world’s most enthusiastic if unlikely TM cheerleaders.
Lynch first encountered TM in 1974, as he searched for ways to combat mounting anger and depression relating to his epic struggle to get his first feature, the mind-bending Eraserhead, to the big screen. “I had a weakness inside,” says Lynch from his Hollywood Hills studio, a splash of sunlight illuminating his famous white pompadour. “That kind of thing, in this business, you’re a sitting duck. You could get slaughtered.” It was then that he decided to try his hand at TM, an ancient practice revived by the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, an expat from India who rocketed to stardom during the 1960s as The Beatles‘ spiritual adviser. Lynch feared TM might dull his artistic edge, but he says the opposite happened — it helped him to access untapped fonts of creativity. He even goes so far as to credit the practice with potentially having saved his life: “I was even thinking at the time, ‘If I didn’t have this meditation, I might have seen that a way out was suicide.’ ”
The Twin Peaks mastermind hasn’t missed a single day of meditation in the 40 years since. In 2005, that devotion led him to found The David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace, a nonprofit that brings TM to inner-city students, veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and victims of domestic violence. The foundation has taught the fundamentals to more than 500,000 at-risk candidates, and Lynch says the effects have been astonishing: “Before too long, they’re saying, ‘Thank you very much. I got my life back again.’ ” In celebration of Lynch’s birthday on Jan. 20, DLF Live, the foundation’s live-performance arm, is mounting a benefit at the El Rey Theatre, where Ringo Starr is set to receive the Lifetime of Peace & Love Award. Ben Harper and Ben Folds are slated to perform. And on Feb. 27, Dixie Chicks will headline a night at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel honoring record producer (and longtime TM practitioner) Rick Rubin. For the admittedly shy director, Hollywood’s ongoing love affair with TM offers a highly effective method of spreading the gospel. “Life gets better and better and better,” says Lynch of his 40-year journey. “That’s the long and the short of it.”
Dr. Francois Abboud, left, talks with Dr. Robert H. Schneider, who spoke with medical staff at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Tuesday about how the practice of Transcendental Meditation can reduce the risk of heart disease and lower blood pressure. / Sara Agnew / Iowa City Press-Citizen
If you want to reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease and lower your blood pressure without taking medication, Dr. Robert H. Schneider has a suggestion: Transcendental Meditation.
Schneider says he has been involved in studies that show this type of meditation can reduce the rate of death from cardiovascular disease by 30 percent and from cancer by 40 percent.
The key is you need to know the “techniques” of Transcendental Meditation to experience the benefits — sitting with your eyes closed for 10 minutes won’t cut it.
That’s the message Schneider shared with about 40 hospital personnel Tuesday during an hourlong presentation called MIND-BODY-HEART: Evidence for Meditation in Hypertension and Cardiovascular Disease at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. It was his first visit with staff and doctors at UIHC.
“It was breakthrough,” he said of his visit.
Schneider is director of the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention and dean of medical programs at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield. As a physician and scientist, Schneider has spent the past 30 years researching evidence-based natural approaches for treating heart disease, high blood pressure, stress and other cardiovascular factors. Over the past 20 years, he has received more than $20 million in research grants from the National Institutes of Health for his natural approaches to treating heart disease.
Schneider said TM is an effortless technique for “automatic self-transcending.” It allows your mind to settle inward beyond thought to experience the source of thought — pure awareness. This is the most silent and peaceful level of consciousness and what many who practice TM call your innermost self.
“It takes a technique that you learn in an eight-hour course,” Schneider said. “Once you have the technique, it happens quite easily.”
Schneider said humans have an “inborn ability” to practice this type of meditation.
“But we have lost this simple and natural technique,” he said.
Schneider said much of his research about the correlation between mind and body were affirmed last June when the American Heart Association announced that Transcendental Meditation is the only meditation practice that has shown to lower blood pressure. In addition, AHA reported lower blood pressure through TM is associated with substantially reduced rates of death, heart attack and stroke.
Ultimately, Schneider said the AHA recommended that TM be recommended for consideration as an alternative treatment for individuals with blood pressure greater than 120/80 mm Hg.
Schneider said he learned about TM 40 years ago as a college student.
“I was always interested in how we can tap into the body’s own cell repair and healing abilities,” he said. “I thought I’d try it and see if it works.”
He read the research and gave TM a try.
“I found I could study better and learn better and had more energy,” Schneider said.
Later, when he was a fellow in hypertension at the University of Michigan Medical School, Schneider took an interest in the connection between the brain and heart.
“I thought maybe we could use the brain to lower blood pressure,” he said.
Schneider believes his years of research on managing the mind-body connection is paying off as organizations such as the AHA begin recognizing the benefits of TM.
During his presentation at UIHC, Schneider highlighted a 2012 study that showed blacks with heart disease who practiced TM regularly were 48 percent less likely to have a heart attack, stroke or die from all causes compared with blacks who attended a health education class over more than five years.
Those practicing TM also “lowered their blood pressure and reported less stress and anger,” Schneider said.
Schneider is interested in researching how TM can be used to help military veterans recover from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Dr. Francois Abboud, the namesake of UI’s Cardiovascular Research Center, asked, “How will I know if I am meditating correctly?”
Linda Rainforth, a certified TM teacher from Iowa City, said people who are practicing TM reach a “deep, deep level of silence and stillness” in which they experience an “expansion of the mind.”
One listener wondered whether men or women followed through most consistently in practicing TM during research studies.
“Men and women both get results,” Schneider said. “But in some of our studies, there was slightly more compliance with the women.”
If you go
Learn more about Transcendental Meditation by attending one of the following presentations by certified teachers in TM. All presentations will be at the Iowa City Public Library, meeting room E.
• 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday.
• 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday.
• 6:30 p.m. Jan. 16.
TM sessions also can be by appointment by calling Iowa City Transcendental Meditation Program at 936-1986, 641-472-0827 or 641-919-7282. For more information, go to www.tm.org.
Dr. Robert Schneider was also interviewed by Steve Smith on KMCD’s MUM Spotlight Show about the American Heart Association’s recommendation of Transcendental Meditation to lower high blood pressure. He also reported on his visit to UI’s Medical Center. Steve asked some great questions. It was a lively discussion. Listen here: http://fairfieldiowaradio.com/audio/spotlight%201-9.mp3. (20:45)
Posted: 01.06.2014 at 6:39 PM by multi-media journalist Laura Simon reporting for ABC KTVO News on the Heartland Connection.
FAIRFIELD, IOWA — Accounting students at Maharishi University are gaining certification in a new worldwide standard for exchanging financial and accounting information.
Extensible Business Reporting Language, or XBRL is required by the agencies of the U.S. government as well as a growing list of international organizations. Balance sheets and income statements are considered examples of this type of documentation. The professor of the course and director of MUM’s MBA program says an XBRL certification makes students more marketable for the workforce.
“More and more there’s going to be this demand for people to know the technical standard that is required to prepare reports and communicate data to these federal agencies and as a result, we have been beginning to train our students to train for careers possibly in XBRL,” Andy Bargerstock, PhD, said.
The course is one credit hour and is offered two to three times a year based on the demand of students wishing to learn XBRL.
The full PRWeb press release sent out with our own video is now posted on the MUM website: MUM Accounting Students First in World to Learn New Reporting System Required by US Government Agencies. Click on this link to view it http://link.mum.edu/xbrl.
Here’s a review of my year in blogging. The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for The Uncarved Blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 40,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 15 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
The Uncarved Blog 