Since the start of the Iraq war, record numbers of American soldiers are being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, which they carry from the battlefield into civilian life. One therapy being proposed to help them to overcome the illness is Transcendental Meditation, and some returning soldiers say it has saved their lives.
Supreme Master Television sent their film crew here last year to produce several respectful profiles on Consciousness-Based Education at Maharishi School and Maharishi University of Management, and also featured our organic vegetarian food services. They produced a feature on the Maharishi Effect for World Peace, and one on Dr. Fred Travis, director for MUM’s Center for Brain, Consciousness and Cognition, for their “Science & Spirituality” series. They recently returned to conduct an interview with Dr. John Hagelin for the same program.
Supreme Master Television’s profile on Dr. Hagelin: “Dr. John Hagelin: Look Within to Understand the Universe” aired in two parts on their “Science & Spirituality” program: Part 1 (Aug. 30, Mon) and Part 2 (Sept. 27, Mon) at 4am, 10am, 4pm, 10pm in Central Time. This excellent interview has now been archived and can be viewed in two parts:
The main philosophy of Supreme Master Television is vegetarianism to save the planet. They enjoyed coming here, meeting everyone, and especially loved eating our organic vegetarian and vegan food. Their motto is: Be Veg, Go Green 2 Save the Planet www.suprememastertv.com
You are Invited to a Sneak Preview Richard Beymer’s Stunning New Film from India
“David Lynch Follows His Master’s Footsteps”
Saturday, October 9 • 7:30 pm Dalby Hall, Argiro Center • Maharishi University of Management
$10 General Admission • $5 Students
Tickets can be purchased at MUM Bookstore & Flying Leap Art Space
All proceeds go to the Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment
Be in your seat promptly at 7:30 p.m!
There will be no seating once the film begins!
In December 2009, David Lynch retraced Maharishi’s travels across India in the years before Maharishi inaugurated his Spiritual Regeneration Movement in 1957. Richard Beymer’s stunning new documentary follows David up into the Himalayas, to Jyotir Math, where Maharishi spent much of 13 years with his teacher, Guru Dev; and to Uttar Kashi, where Maharishi spent two years in silence following the passing of Guru Dev in 1953. We go with David to Jabalpur, near the birthplace of Maharishi; and to Ramashram, Kanyakumari, and Trivendrum–all rare and special sites integral to the founding of Maharishi’s movement. Richard’s filmmaking is artful, magnificent, and captures the behind-the-scenes look and feel as David and his traveling buddy, Bob Roth, make their way with awe, humor, and dogged persistence to each new destination. See David Lynch at his best: wise, funny, insightful, and inspired.
How pleasing and inspiring it is to be able to watch two of my inspirational heroes, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Buckminster Fuller, engaging on stage in 1971, joined together in the spirit of optimism and mission in an orbital docking of East and West, ancient wisdom and modern science, Yankee know-how and Vedic holistics. The universality of their message is even more vital today, when so much of America wants to curl up in an angry fetal ball, resisting the future, denying global dynamics and evolving consciousness, reducing everything to Ayn Randian black-white oppositions, insisting on acting like the strutting top dog of the planet and civilization while throwing squalling tantrums over not getting its way. A quarter of this country thinks they deserve their own privileged cabin on Spaceship Earth, everyone else be damned or bombed into submission, and they’re going to end up in the cargo section if they don’t open their grizzled minds.
Such a contrast these two make: Bucky, in his professorial glasses and “second-rate bank clerk” wardrobe (his look a deliberate gambit to de-accentuate himself, as he explains here), parked behind a desk, and Maharishi, in his white robes, abundant, untamed hair, beads, sitting cross-legged on a bouquet-flanked platform. Bucky is usually thought of as “all brain,” a cosmic engineer of endless expounding, but his testimony here–about how the contemplation of suicide in 1927 pivotally turned his thought inward and then expansively outward–is quite moving and plainspoken. Those wishing to know more about Bucky and the work being conducted in his name and purpose can visit the Buckminster Fuller Institute. It’ll help spiral you above and beyond election cycles and the Wagnerian white noise of media chatter.
As we go through life, our brain is always changing and adapting, say neuroscientists. During the first 18-20 years of life the brain is developing circuits that will form the basis of decision-making for a lifetime. Brain researchers have found that unhealthy lifestyles can inhibit normal brain development in adolescents and lead to impaired judgment and destructive behavior that carries over into adulthood. Traumatic experiences, alcohol and drug abuse, growing up neglected in a broken home, living in fear of violence and crime, or even a bad diet can interfere with development of the frontal lobes, the brain’s executive system. This can cause behavioral problems. Brain researcher Dr. Fred Travis explains: “When a person’s frontal lobes don’t develop properly, he lives a primitive life. He doesn’t — and can’t — plan ahead. His world is simplistic, and he can only deal with what’s happening to him right now. Thinking becomes rigid: ‘You’re either with me or against me,’ or ‘Me and my gang are good, and everyone else is bad.'”
The good news: meditation improves brain function
Brain researchers have also found that the brain can be changed in a positive direction through healthy lifestyle choices. This ability of the brain to reorganize its network of neurons is called “neuroplasticity.” Studies recently published in Cognitive Processing show that brain development can be enhanced — not only during adolescence but at any age — through the practice of meditation, and that different meditation techniques have different effects on the brain. For example, during the Transcendental Meditation (“TM”) technique there is increased alpha coherence in the brain’s frontal areas. “Within a few months of practice of the TM technique,” says Travis, “we see high levels of integration of frontal brain connectivity. And interestingly, that integration does not disappear after meditation. Increasingly and over time, this orderly brain functioning is found in daily activity.”
When the different parts of the brain are better integrated they work together more harmoniously — our brain is healthier. Higher levels of brain integration are associated with higher moral reasoning, emotional stability and decreased anxiety, according to a 1981 study in the International Journal of Neuroscience. Research shows that world-class athletes have higher brain integration than controls. Brain integration is important because one’s environment and circumstances are constantly shifting, and you need a flexible, integrated brain to successfully evaluate where you are, where you want to be and the necessary steps to get there.
Keeping your prefrontal cortex “online”
The prefrontal cortex — said to be the brain’s executive center or “CEO” — plays a crucial role in higher judgment, discrimination and decision-making. When we are overly tired or under intense mental, emotional or physical stress, our brain tends to bypass its higher, more evolved rational executive circuits, defaulting to more primitive stimulus/response pathways. We respond to challenges without thinking, making impulsive, shortsighted decisions. When the brain’s CEO goes “offline,” strong emotions such as fear and anger can adversely color or distort our perception of the world. Interestingly, the brain’s crucial frontal area is where the highest levels of EEG coherence are typically recorded during TM practice, indicating improved communication between the prefrontal cortex and other parts of the brain.
When a person transcends during meditation (goes beyond the active levels of the mind), the experience is commonly reported as a state of deep silence and inner wakefulness, without particular qualities or attributes — just pure consciousness. According to research studies, such as the previously mentioned study in Cognitive Processing, it is this ‘transcendental’ experience that creates the more efficient, integrated brain functioning seen during TM practice. While focused attention and other mental processes activate local brain areas, the experience of transcending activates the whole brain, enabling different parts of the brain to function together better as a whole.
Helping kids grow healthier brains
Fortunately, transcending is easy — we’re hardwired for it. With proper instruction and right practice, anyone can do it, including students with ADHD. Experiencing the quiet, transcendental field of orderliness deep within the mind doesn’t mean conjuring up a new outlook on life or accepting new beliefs, nor does it require an attitude change. It’s a natural, universal experience that produces a healthy response in the brain.
With help from the David Lynch Foundation and other private benefactors, thousands of at-risk students are now learning meditation during structured, in-school programs around the world. Researchers monitoring the results are finding that meditation improves learning ability, memory, creativity and IQ. Findings such as these may be opening a new frontier of research — establishing an expanded, more enlightened view about what is possible for the human brain.
VIDEO of Dr. Fred Travis, Director, Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition in Fairfield, Iowa: Brain Plasticity and Transcendental Meditation with Dr Fred Travis.
Science – Dr John Hagelin – ‘The Core Of Nature’ – Interview by Iain McNay (watch this programme) Author of “Manual for a Perfect Government“, John Hagelin, Ph.D. is a quantum physicist and leading proponent of peace. Stood for President of the US in 1990 and received over 2 million votes. Conducted pioneering research at CERN (the European Centre for Particle Physics) and SLAC (the Stanford Linear Accelerator Centre). His scientific contributions in the fields of electroweak unification, grand unification, super-symmetry and cosmology include some of the most cited references in the physical sciences. He is also responsible for the development of a highly successful Grand Unified Field Theory based on the Superstring. Dr Hagelin is therefore at the pinnacle of achievement among the elite cadre of physicists who have fulfilled Einstein’s dream of a “theory of everything” through their mathematical formulation of the Unified Field, the most advanced scientific knowledge of our time. Dr Hagelin is currently Director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy, a leading science and technology think tank, and International Director of the Global Union of Scientists for Peace, an organization of leading scientists throughout the world dedicated to ending nuclear proliferation and establishing lasting world peace. John talks about his life, his work and the benefits of meditation. Visit Dr John Hagelin’s website: http://www.hagelin.org. Watch John Hagelin on Conscious TV.
At long last, I have put some final touches on the Fairfield Mural Video. Watch it here for the first time! Fairfield, Iowa is one of my very favorite places in the world—well worth a visit! Next time you are driving across the United States, make sure to plan a day in Fairfield.
Thanks to Stacey Hurlin for this, in more ways than just this link to the mural artist she helped bring to Fairfield on behalf of the ArtLife Society. Just another reason to come and visit Fairfield, Iowa!
With a flip of the switch, solar power is taking over one construction site in the Heartland.
FAIRFIELD, IOWA — Fairfield Mayor Ed Malloy and State Representative Curt Hanson (D-Fairfield), officially started the solar electricity of the Utility Cottage at Maharishi University on Thursday afternoon.
The renewable energy will be used to power all the equipment needed to complete construction on the university’s new Sustainable Living Center (SLC).
The SLC will set a new standard for green building in America by being completely off the grid with respect to electricity, heating and cooling, water, and waste…and it is the first of its kind on any campus in the world.
“As much as we are very excited about what we mark today, we know that in the very near future this will be commonplace. But let this building be a great demonstration model in the meantime to show others how this is done,” Mayor Malloy said.
“Use this as a learning tool and learn from the experiments that are taking place in this building, and perhaps get more of us off the power grid, more of us off foreign oil, more of us energy efficient,” Representative Hanson said.
The SLC will serve students in the university’s Sustainable Living major. Among its features, the building will have classrooms and workshops.
“I know that our future leaders that will really influence education, politics, and society at large are going to be studying and training in this building, at this university. And for that we are very fortunate, and I am very proud,” Mayor Malloy said.
“Hopefully it’s going to be studied by a lot of engineers all over the United States and maybe we can export some of these ideas to the whole nation. So I’m very happy to be here and learn more about this cutting-edge technology,” Representative Hanson added.
Also recognized on Thursday afternoon were students and other community leaders who played a major role in this green initiative.
Video is courtesy of KTVO Television and heartlandconnection.com
On July 14, 2010, Maharishi’s Global Family Chat included a special broadcast on News from Israel involving the Transcendental Meditation program. Dr. Reuven Zelinkowsky reported on the success of implementing the TM porgram in the Daburiya High School, an Arab school in Israel that was about to close due to poor academic performance by the students and problems in the school. After the TM program was implemented, there were dramatic improvements in all areas including the school achieving 2nd place in the National Education Award in 2008 and placing 3rd in the National Education Award in 2009. This is the first time that any school in Israel received the award in two consecutive years.
The principal of the Daburia High School, Abed Elsalam Masalcha, explained why his school received the 2008 National Education Award. He said it was because of the way they tackled the discipline problem—with meditation. “Meditation is at the core of everything we did.” He went on to elaborate how using the Transcendental Meditation program addressed and solved the core problem of disciplining a student’s behavior.
We have seen that in order to change the student’s behavior, or to overcome the discipline problem, we need to change something within the students. What I mean to say that it is not enough to make rules and try to make everyone follow them. In fact you don’t change their behavior at all. That is why we adopted meditation. So practicing meditation, the students will start to really change. Not just for a year, or two or three. We are giving the student the possibility, that throughout his life, he will not only succeed at school for a short time, but through the meditation, also succeed throughout his life.
When the school received the 2009 National Education Award, the committee justified its decision with these words:
The award was given to the school for its program in preventing violence and improving the school’s environment based on the Consciousness-Based Education program. This Consciousness-Based Education program is based upon the development of both students and teachers abilities and uncovers the unlimited creative potential of the human being. The program prevents the problems by tackling them at the root and provides the base for actualization of both the scholastic aspirations of the students, teachers and parents.
The most important element of the Consciousness-Based Education program is the Transcendental Meditation program. It is a simple, natural, mental technique that improves behavior and the ability to learn. It elicits success and enjoyment in learning, creates a focused atmosphere in the classroom, improves academic achievement, increases self-esteem, reduces violence and chaos and increases teacher satisfaction in their work.
The teachers, school board and parents are involved at all levels of the program and closely follow the process in the school.
This video reports on the use of the TM Program by the 2009–2010 Women’s Squash team at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.
The whole team including the coaches learned the TM technique. They finished the season as the #3 Women’s Squash team in the country.
Trinity College Psychology major Emily Lindon did her thesis on the Effects of Transcendental Meditation on Perceived Self-Efficacy of College Students. One of the groups she researched was the Women’s Squash Team. Emily found significant increases in self-efficacy among the pre- and post-tests.
The Trinity Women’s Squash Team was trained in the Transcendental Meditation technique through a grant from the David Lynch Foundation. TM is a technique for focus and stress reduction. It is not connected to any religion or belief system but rather it is a simple, effortless, natural meditative technique with scientifically proven effectiveness. The team placed third nationally for the 2009/2010 college squash season. For more information, contact Dr. Randy Lee at randolph.lee@trincoll.edu
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