US Government National Health Center Highlights TM Study on Stressed College Students

May 14, 2010

Transcendental Meditation Helps Young Adults Cope With Stress

A recent study found that Transcendental Meditation (TM) helped college students decrease psychological distress and increase coping ability. For a group of students at high risk for developing hypertension, these changes also were associated with decreases in blood pressure. This could be good news for the many students experiencing academic, financial, and social pressures that can lead to psychological distress—especially in light of evidence that college-age people with even slightly elevated blood pressure are three times more likely to develop hypertension within 30 years.

Funded in part by NCCAM, researchers from Maharishi University of Management and American University studied 298 students from American University and other schools in the Washington, D.C., area. The researchers randomly assigned students to a TM group or a control (wait-list) group. They also created a high-risk subgroup, based on blood pressure readings, family history, and weight. The TM group received a seven-step course in TM techniques, with invitations to attend refresher meetings, and kept track of how often they practiced TM. At the beginning of the study and after 3 months, researchers tested all participants for blood pressure and psychological measures. The researchers noted that 30 percent of the participants dropped out before the end of the study.

Blood pressure decreased in the TM group and increased in the control group, but the differences were not significant overall (TM-control blood pressure differences were significant within the high-risk subgroup). However, compared with controls, the TM group had significant improvement in total psychological distress, anxiety, depression, anger/hostility, and coping ability. Changes in psychological distress and coping paralleled changes in blood pressure.

According to the researchers, these findings suggest that young adults at risk of developing hypertension may be able to reduce that risk by practicing TM. The researchers recommend that future studies of TM in college students evaluate long-term effects on blood pressure and psychological distress.

Reference

URL: http://nccam.nih.gov/research/results/spotlight/051410.htm

This page last modified May 13, 2010.

Twitter NCCAM

Transcendental Meditation Helps Young Adults Cope With Stress: http://go.usa.gov/ihN

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Articles, Education, Health | 2 Comments »

Maharishi describes the nature of inner life: bondage and liberation, and gaining bliss consciousness through Transcendental Meditation

May 9, 2010

Maharishi at Lake Louise

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation produced this beautiful documentary on Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the Transcendental Meditation technique, during his visit to Canada’s premier hotel Chateau Lake Louise,  June 10-14, 1968, the course location for Canadian meditators. I was very lucky to have been on that course and met Maharishi for the first time. All of the course participants lined up to present Maharishi with flowers for the CBC to film. It was used to open and close that documentary profile, which was made for the CBC program series called Telescope.

This CBC documentary remains one of the best films ever made on Maharishi. Filmed inside the hotel’s main lecture hall and outside with the backdrop of the majestic Canadian Rocky Mountains, it respectfully portrays Maharishi as a great spiritual teacher. They filmed him walking in front of the glacier lake, the image of which he used to describe the nature of inner life, bondage and liberation, and contacting and integrating bliss consciousness into daily life through the regular practice of Transcendental Meditation.

Posted here is an edited version of that documentary, minus the opening introduction, segues, and commercials, which was aired on Canadian national television during the Fall of 1968. Here is a partial transcription of that segment of the video. To view the whole video click on the title, Maharishi at Lake Louise. It can also be viewed on the Maharishi Channel on You Tube: Transcendental Meditation – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at Lake Louise, Canada, 1968. Also, the Transcendental Meditation blog has a well-written comprehensive, historical, contextual description about this video by Bob Roth: Maharishi: A rare glimpse into the message of meditation from 40 years ago. It’s also embed here for you to enjoy.

The depth of the lake, and the ripples, and the beautiful reflection of the glacier, reminds me of the story of inner life. The mind is deep like a lake. The ripples on the surface represent the conscious mind, the activity of the mind on the surface. And the whole depth of the lake is silent. And that is the subconscious mind, which is not used by the wave. But if, the wave could deepen, and incorporate more silent levels of the water, the waves could become the waves of the ocean, the mighty waves.

This is what happens in Transcendental Meditation. The surface activity of the conscious mind deepens and incorporates within its fold the depth of the subconscious. And with practice, nothing remains subconscious. The whole subconscious becomes conscious, and a man starts using full potential of the mind.

And the reflection of the glacier on the water is like the impression of the objects that the mind perceives. And as long as the mind is not capable of maintaining its essential nature, which is bliss consciousness, so long the mind gets imprinted by the perceptions of the objects. And this is called the bondage of the mind. The mind loses bliss consciousness and gains the joy of the reflections of the world, the joy of the relative order, losing the bliss of the absolute eternal Being.

When the mind is not capable of maintaining its essential nature, bliss consciousness, and is overshadowed by the reflections of the object of perception, then only the object remains, and the subject, as if, becomes annihilated. This annihilation of the subjective nature within is a great loss. It’s a loss of eternal bliss at the cost of temporary joys. Such a life where the value of the matter dominates is called material life, and the spirit gets annihilated.

But, when through the practice of Transcendental Meditation, the mind goes deep within to the source of thought, transcends the thought, and gains bliss consciousness, and is capable of maintaining that even when it comes out into the worldly experience of objective nature, then it is called spiritual life—that the spirit is not capable of being overshadowed anymore by the objective experience. And this is spiritual life. This is life in eternal liberation. And without this, life is in bondage. A great loss. As if loss of a billion pounds, and gain of a million. Loss of eternal bliss consciousness and gain of a worldly fleeting joy.

The vision, the vision of the lake, brings about a great teaching of spiritual life. …

New Post: Watch the 1968 film of Maharishi at Lake Louise.

On September 30, 2014 I had posted how I learned #TMmeditation 47 years ago today. In there I share more information about the making of the CBC Telescope film, The Guru, of Maharishi at Lake Louise. Richard Day shared a story he had heard many years later about the director of the film who told Maharishi that he wanted to film him saying something that would encapsulate all his teachings. Maharishi said, “I’ll walk by the lake, you walk with me, and I’ll tell you everything about spiritual development.” He did it in one take!

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Education, Health, Peace, Videos | 7 Comments »

EEG Demonstration of the Enlightened Brain

May 8, 2010

Michael Beresford, Sara Hea and Rich Van Shaik present the TM Program

Transcendental Meditation Brainwave Coherence Demo

Michael Beresford, brain researcher, businessman, and teacher of the Transcendental Meditation Program, demonstrates how TM increases EEG brainwave coherence and improves mental performance.

Posted in Education, Health, Videos | Leave a Comment »

The Men Who Stare in Peace: An Interview with Dr. David Leffler | plausible futures newsletter

May 6, 2010

plausible futures newsletter

news and analysis for future studies since 1999

The Men Who Stare in Peace: An Interview with Dr. David Leffler

In the movie The Men Who Stare at Goats, military interest in psychic research is portrayed as an utter failure. The movie is not meant to be science journalism but pure entertainment. However, buried beneath the satirical and banal surface of this movie lie many interesting scientific theories. A proposed theory of a collective consciousness is one of them.

The origins of our understanding of collective consciousness can be traced to the Vedic texts of ancient India. This multidimensional science of the mind had its revival with such luminaries as Gustav Fechner, William James, Emile Durkheim, and C.G. Jung. Recent advances in quantum physics, especially Unified Field Theory, are now providing some fascinating parallels with these schools of thought.

The late Vedic scholar Maharishi Mahesh Yogi majored in physics at the University of Allahabad and later revived the concept of collective consciousness from the ancient Vedic tradition of India. He proposed that through the practice of his Transcendental Meditation (TM) program and its advanced techniques the unified field could be directly contacted and experienced. Through this process he predicted that both stress in the individual and stress in the collective consciousness of society could be reduced for the betterment of mankind. Scientific research later bore out his prediction, and scientists named the social dimension of this phenomenon “The Maharishi Effect” in his honor.

Harvard-trained physicist Dr. John Hagelin, whose research in quantum field theory includes some of the most cited references in the physical sciences, was one of those pioneering scientists who tested Maharishi’s theory and wondered how such an action-at-distance effect might work. In his article “The Power of the Collective” published by Shift: At the Frontiers of Consciousness, Hagelin says:

But how we do have such an influence on one another at a distance? There are no clear answers yet, but I believe that the clue lies in the notion that beneath the physical levels of human existence – our bodies and the quantum realm of molecules, atoms, quarks, and leptons – is a unified field of pure, abstract, universal consciousness. It’s at this level of reality, this level of nonlocal mind, where you discover that the qualities of space are, at least in theory, capable of accommodating extraordinary experiences…. If we assume that at our core level of being we are all intimately connected in a unified field where we are all one, it becomes very easy to understand how we influence one another. And when we contact this unified field of being, we enliven that unity, that harmony, and that coherence in the collective consciousness of society.

The Maharishi Effect is this positive transformation of social trends created by the enlivenment of the unified field through the TM and TM-Sidhi program. If more than one percent of a population is meditating regularly or if large groups practice the advanced TM-Sidhi program twice a day, extensive peer-reviewed research indicates that stress decreases in the entire population. This effect is now being harnessed for crime reduction, peace-keeping and conflict prevention. Even in war zones, meditation is becoming accepted as an effective stress management tool for citizens, soldiers, and society at large. An online video (1:13:00) specifically explaining the defense applications of the Unified Field by Dr. John Hagelin is available at the International Center for Invincible Defense website. A transcription and full-sized images are available here.

Skeptics point out that if the Maharishi Effect really works, then why didn’t it prevent the social stress responsible for the 1950-1951 annexation of Tibet? At the time more than 5,000 monks were said to be meditating in various monasteries throughout the country. Proponents of the TM program point out that scientific research shows that meditation techniques differ in procedure, EEG patterns, neural imaging patterns and benefits. They also attest that the TM program and its advanced practices are the only meditation methods verified by peer-reviewed research to reduce social problems like crime, terrorism and war.

Do these outcomes sound unbelievable or too good to be true? Many find these ideas rather exotic, and others wave them off as another New Age scam. Documentary films like What the Bleep Do We Know and The Secret and books like The Holographic Universe may be great entertainment to some, but do they have any basis in good science?

I had the opportunity to interview Dr. David R. Leffler, a US Air Force Veteran with a Ph.D. in Consciousness-Based Military Defense, about this new approach to peace:

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Articles, Peace | Leave a Comment »

Radish: MLG seeks healing through light and gems

May 6, 2010

Apr 28, 2010 10:18AM

MLG seeks healing through light and gems

By Linda Egenes

When Jim Fairchild, a 68-year-old college professor, signed up for a session of Maharishi Light Therapy with Gems (MLG), little did he know that this holistic new therapy would provide relief from a serious injury.

“Ever since a car ran over me when I was 3 years old, I’ve lived with constant pain and pressure in the back of my neck,” he says. “As a result, I’ve been on a lifelong quest for relief — consulting legions of chiropractors, massage therapists, and others. But nothing worked.”

At first, Fairchild found that light and gem therapy treatments simply made him feel more relaxed.

Then, to his surprise, he felt a profound shift in his level of pain. “I came out of a session feeling almost no discomfort in the back of my neck,” he says. “I quietly waited for the inevitable. But the pain didn’t return. My neck isn’t perfect, but the difference is profound. The amazing thing is that during the session I didn’t feel anything extraordinary in my physiology. Yet somehow relief came to me, without my even asking.”

The oldest and most refined members of the mineral kingdom, gems have long been known for their healing qualities. For thousands of years, the Ayurvedic tradition of India has employed gems for prolonging life span and promoting health, wealth, happiness, charisma and the fulfillment of desires. In fact, Ayurvedic texts describe mantras, gems and herbs as the three fundamental means to support the development of higher states of consciousness and perfect health.

Today the healing power of gems is available in an affordable new treatment called Maharishi Light Therapy with Gems (MLG), offered at The Raj Maharishi Ayurveda Health Spa in Fairfield, Iowa. In this treatment, the profound orderliness of 13 gemstones, each with their own unique crystalline structures, is made available to the mind and body. This occurs by using special “light beamers” which project soft light through the gems.

Dr. Keith Wegman, an MLG practioner at The Raj, explains, “The light frequencies act as a carrier for the orderly structure of the gems. They resonate with subtle frequencies of our physiology and trigger profound self-healing and self-repair.”

During the past year, over 2,000 treatments given at The Raj have provided strong evidence of the long-term benefits of this approach.

“Individuals have reported relief from chronic disorders, such as decreased anxiety and decreased joint, muscle, and bone problems, as well as improved emotional stability, better sleep and expanded self-development,” says Dr. Wegman. “Now a six-month research study is being conducted to quantify the long-term effects of the treatment.”

The results of MLG are different for each person. A woman from Montreal found relief from asthma, while Adile Esen from Turkey noticed her emotions were more stable.

“The feeling of nourishment and balance coupled with calmness and clarity have continued,” she says. “In addition to becoming more aware, open, and clear, I realize that even in very difficult situations that could have made me doubt and tremble, I have remained calm like the pearl at the bottom of the ocean.”

The equipment used in MLG treatments was developed over a period of 30 years by Dr. Yoachim Roller, a German gemologist, under the direct guidance of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who founded the Transcendental Meditation technique and Maharishi Ayurveda. Trained practitioners offer MLG exclusively at The Raj in Fairfield and in facilities around the world.

The Raj is the only place in North America to offer treatments using larger, more powerful instruments, affectionately called “Big Beamers.” The 13 Big Beamers contain 12 gems each, with a total of 145 gems to magnify the effect.

“The Big Beamers have a unique ability to transform any rigidity or obstruction to the flow of energy in the physiology,” Dr. Wegman says. “The transformation is more significant than with the regular beamers because the body is being submerged in profound coherence. The more powerful orderliness of the large beamers takes over any disorder, restoring balance in previously weak or compromised areas of functioning.”

Adds Dr. Wegman, “Gems are crystalline structures that are as old as our planet. Their inherent orderliness resonate with the inherent orderliness in the physiology, and that produces the profound results for mind and body that thousands of people have already experienced.”

For more information or to schedule Maharishi Light Therapy with Gems, contact The Raj Maharishi Ayurvedic Health Spa in Fairfield, Iowa, (800) 864-8714, extension 5300, or visit theraj.com/mlg/index.php.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Articles, Health | 1 Comment »

MHN Interview with Jeffrey S. Abramson: Vedic Architecture Changes Way People Feel, Work

May 6, 2010

MHN Interview with Jeffrey S. Abramson: Vedic Architecture Changes Way People Feel, Work

Headline News, National, News, Today’s Headlines May 5, 2010

By Anuradha Kher, Online News Editor

The Harvard Business School/Harvard University Graduate School of Design recently presented a case study: “Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oaks Boulevard,” on the 200,000 square foot LEED Platinum and Fortune Creating Architectural/Vedic-designed office building co-developed by The Tower Companies and Lerner Enterprises of Rockville, Md.

The presenters challenged students to consider the fact that human capital costs were higher than energy costs, and, perhaps it made more business sense to focus on improving the efficiency and productivity of the employees by employing ideas like Vedic Architecture.

Jeffrey S. Abramson, Partner, The Tower Companies’ talks to MHN about why he believes Vedic Architecture is the wave of the future and how it can also change people’s lives by being implemented in multifamily buildings.

MHN: What is Vedic Architecture?

Abramson: Vedic architecture is architecture in accord with natural law. Natural laws are those governing intelligence found in nature, which uphold life in perfect order. It is electrons and magnetic fields and all those impulses of nature that uphold everything in nature. Everything that happens in nature happens by the functioning of natural law. This architecture connects individual life with cosmic life using the same intelligence that governs nature. These expressions like you see in Vedic architecture are expressions you find in almost all cultures, in all systems of architecture, since the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians.

MHN: What are the principles of Vedic architecture?

Abramson: There are about 100 principles that make up Vedic architecture. Orientation—states that the front entrance should face east; how the building is sited on the land—which is called Vastu; determining the center point or nucleus of building; water placement etc. Taken in isolation these principles don’t have much of an impact, but taken together, they create the ideal building.

We incorporated all the 100 principles in the office building. We didn’t try to fool Mother Nature.

MHN: Why is this form of architecture important?

Abramson: Buildings affect people. And if buildings can affect people, they can affect their behavior, their outcomes and their success. Buildings can elevate life and if you can figure out those architectural principles that can uphold the life of the occupant, make them more successful, brighter and smarter, it can be very useful. The built environment can enhance productivity of the company and collectively this is going to have huge ramifications on the health and economic development of the U.S. Reduce pollution; create new jobs and new technologies. It’s not an intellectual concept, its not like there’s a sign that says you are about to experience something. But people come in and say they feel peaceful and energized. It has nothing to do with style, it can be any style the architect chooses.

MHN: Where does Vedic architecture come from?

Abramson: It is about 5000 years old and is associated with India but in its absolute essence, where we are not talking about interpretation etc, these are really just principles found in nature. It could be like saying physics is Austrian or German because we associate Einstein with it. So in that sense, it transcends culture. It was however, enlivened, and somewhat maintained in India.

MHN: How many building that incorporate Vedic architecture exist today?

Abramson: There is 500 million dollars worth of Vedic construction around the world. There are some very small multifamily buildings that incorporate it as well but it so happens that the office one is the largest right now. The next goal for us is to incorporate it in multi-housing. In fact, we now have the opportunity to build about 2,500 apartments at Metro station. This is the direction in which real estate is moving.

MHN: Are there any additional costs involved?

Abramson: There is a small cost—about 2-3 percent more, which is about 10 cents or so per sq ft. It is a minimal cost to make a massive contribution.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Architecture, Articles, Health, Sustainable Living | 1 Comment »

Maharishi School Students Win State Science Fairs Researching Jefferson County Farming Effects on Area Waterways

April 30, 2010

Maharishi School Students Research Jefferson County Farming Effects on Area Waterways, Win State Science Fairs

Maharishi School Students, Minna Mohammadi (l) and Pearl Sawhney (r), win at State Science Fair. Their research investigated Jefferson County Farming Effects on Area Waterways. – Photo clickphotographyonline.com

Pearl Sawhney and Minna Mohammadi, Maharishi School sophomores, swept the top prizes at the Eastern Iowa State Science Fair (EISEF) on March 21, as well as the State Science and Technology Fair of Iowa (SSTFI) on March 26th and 27th with their project entitled, “Farm Feeding Practices: Exploring Solutions for Environmental Sustainability.” They also won the most coveted prize – a free trip to participate at the INTEL International Science Fair in San Jose with their teacher and mentor, Dr. Mousumi Dey, on May 8th – May 14th.

They won the following categories: first place and $100 at the EISEF, special prize: Iowa Environment and Water Pollution Board, first place and $100 in the Seminar Team Project category, the Power Point Hope Award, first place and $75 in the Environmental Science Senior High category, first place and $1000 for Senior High team, grand prize overall and $1000 in the Senior High category, Iowa Angus Auxiliary Award.

Mohammadi and Sawhney were sponsored in part by Jefferson County Farmers and Neighbors Association. They received mentorship and testing materials from the USDA. Dr. Dennis Dey and Dr. Rajeev Sawhney provided additional mentorship.  The research team examined the relationship between animal feed and pollution in streams. The project impressed and intrigued judges, as it is an area not previously researched. They tested three different types of farms: confined animal feeding operations, conventional farms, and organic farms.

“Animal feed was tested for unbound phosphorous, important for bone growth, and phosphorous bound to phytates, which is indigestible and excreted by the animals,” explained Sawhney. “Manure is applied to fields as fertilizer. Pollution occurs when bound phosphorous enters local streams with run-off. We tested nearby streams, upstream and down, for bound phosphorous levels and biological oxygen demand. Biological oxygen demand is the level of oxygen needed to decompose dead organic matter. High levels of bound phosphorous increases the algae and phytoplankton populations. When the phytoplankton and algae die naturally, they use more oxygen to decompose than they did when living. This significantly lowers oxygen levels, creating an uninhabitable environment. The effects of the bound phosphorous are compounded when the streams enter the Mississippi River. This type of pollution has created a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico that is the size of New Jersey.”

“We found that water running downstream organic farms had the lowest phosphorus content, and biological oxygen demand, and that water running downstream CAFOs had the highest phosphorus and biological oxygen demand. This indicates that organic farms, of the farms we tested, have the least negative effect on nearby water bodies,” explains Mohammadi. “We plan to continue our research and extend it to other counties.”

“The students performed multiple tests,” said Dr. Dey. “All the results were highly statistically significant. The girls collected water under extremely difficult conditions to minimize errors. Also, they took great care and every precaution to get the most accurate results. Such dedication and focus at such a young age is rare. They are continuing to collect more samples. If the area farmers could allow these two young researchers to collect water and soil samples from their land on a regular basis and organizations could help them with some more monetary support, we can have even more thorough results.”

When asked how the students chose their topic, Sawnhey said, “We wanted to find a local solution to a global problem.”

“We didn’t realize what we were getting into,” added Mohammadi. “It was difficult, cold, muddy work collecting samples!”

“We are extremely proud of the high level of scientific research that Minna and Pearl produced,” said Maharishi School Head, Dr. Richard Beall. “As much as their accomplishments, we’re also proud of the social significance of their topic. This research bears real consequence on public health.”

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Articles, Education, Health, Sustainable Living | 1 Comment »

David Lynch interviews Paul McCartney about meeting Maharishi and his first meditation

April 30, 2010

Here are links to two articles on the TM.org Blog with videos of David Lynch interviewing Paul McCartney about his experiences with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Transcendental Meditation. This was recorded by David Lynch Foundation Television during the rehearsal for the Change Begins Within Benefit Concert to teach 1 million at-risk students to meditate. Many celebrities performed on that April 4, 2009 concert. It will be broadcast on PBS starting April 29, 2012, 3 years later, on New York’s channel THIRTEEN.

Here is Heather Harnett’s opening, written a year after the concert, which will now be broadcast on PBS three years later, two years after Heather’s writing about it, all in the month of April.

What a night! A little more than a year ago, on April 4, 2009, former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney headlined a historic, one-night-only benefit concert promoting the Transcendental Meditation technique for the David Lynch Foundation at Radio City Music Hall in New York, entitled “Change Begins Within.” Paul McCartney was joined onstage by his former band-mate Ringo Starr and several other amazing musicians, including Donovan, Eddie Vedder, Sheryl Crow, Ben Harper, and Moby. Six-thousand energized music fans, foundation well-wishers, and meditation supporters packed the hall for what several press reports called “the musical event of a lifetime.”

Before the concert, before the hubbub and the crazy excitement and the buzz, before it all, David Lynch sat down, individually, with Paul and with Ringo for a quiet talk on camera. They candidly discussed their 40-plus year Transcendental Meditation practice, their meetings with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and how Maharishi and meditation have influenced their lives. It was the first time in decades that Paul and Ringo had spoken of those days that historians have said helped to transform the music, the culture, and the future of the world.

Click here to read the rest of the article: David Lynch Interviews Paul McCartney About Transcendental Meditation (Part 1) and watch Part 1 of the interview followed by Part 2, where Paul McCartney remembers his first meditation with Maharishi.

David Lynch interviews Paul McCartney about Meditation and Maharishi

David Lynch interviews Paul McCartney (Part 2)

See Ringo Starr Interview from the Change Begins Within Benefit Concert and The former Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr reunion for David Lynch’s benefit concert airs on New York’s THIRTEEN, Sunday, April 29.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in David Lynch Foundation, Videos | 2 Comments »

Maharishi University hopes to set the standard for “green” buildings

April 28, 2010

Maharishi University hopes to set the standard for “green” buildings

by Matt Kelley on April 26, 2010

in Education, Health & Medicine

A new classroom and research building is under construction on a college campus in southeast Iowa that aims to set a new global standard for green buildings.

David Fisher, director of the Sustainable Living program at Maharishi University in Fairfield, says the building promises to be unlike any other structure on the planet.

“It will be off the grid completely with respect to electricity, heating, cooling, water and waste disposal,” Fisher says. “In addition, the building will be day lit throughout the building.”

Banks of solar panels will provide the electricity for the Sustainable Living Center, Fisher says, and solar energy is being used by workers during the construction phase, as well. During the warm months, he says the building will be kept cool using a geothermal system.

“The heating will be done with solar water heaters on the roof,” Fisher says. “We will have insulation provided in part by very local materials, that is compacted earth blocks which came from some earth right across the street that was being cleared out for a parking lot.” That dirt was compacted into 26,000 bricks that will make up the building’s insulation. The building’s skeleton will use whole tree post and beam techniques.

“Water will be all rainwater,” Fisher says. “It will be collected on the roof and stored in a cistern and, of course, for drinking purposes, it’ll all be filtered with (an ultraviolet) filter.” Fisher says the system for handling waste is also accounted for as a green effort. Fisher says, “We have a constructed wetland and we’re planning to use a system that’s similar to what they use in submarines and on space capsules, purifying the water with a system that puts very, very finely-divided bubbles through the water to keep it aerobic and to completely degrade all of the organic matter so as to purify the water.”

Fisher says the building is designed to meet the Living Building Challenge, the highest standard for sustainable design and green building in the world. It will also be the first to combine that standard with the standards of LEED Platinum certification, Building Biology and Maharishi Vedic Architecture.

The building will serve as the base for the university’s Sustainable Living major. It will have classrooms, a workshop, a meeting room, a greenhouse, a kitchen, a research lab, a recycling center and offices. Fisher says it’ll be a building that teaches. The one-point-seven million dollar project is expected to be complete late this year.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Architecture, Education, Sustainable Living | 1 Comment »

Sustainable Living Center is unique in USA

April 26, 2010

Sustainable Living Center is unique in United States

Front page, Friday, April 23, 2010; published online: 4/26/2010

As ancient walls continue to crumble the world over, a few new ones went up yesterday in Iowa’s hippest farmtown.

The Sustainable Living Center at the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield was the scene of a modern-day barnraising. Walls were tilted and roof trusses placed during the Earth Day event.

The structure uses “whole tree” post and beam techniques.

“It 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,” MUM director of media relations Ken Chawkin said.

Innovative Design of North Carolina conceived the building to meet the Living Building Challenge, a standard for sustainable design introduced at the 2006 Greenbuild Conference in Denver, Colo. The SLC is the first to combine that standard with those of LEED platinum certification, Building Biology standards, and Maharishi Vedic architecture guidelines.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design system was created by the U.S. Green Building Council and is an internationally recognized third-party certification. Vedic architecture is based on Hindu traditions emphasizing the use of natural materials such as wood, bricks, adobe, stucco and marble.

“There’s no other building like this going up in the nation, or in the world for that matter, that we know of,” said Mike Nicklas, SLC co-designer and president of Innovative Design.

The company has created over 4000 structures that use renewable energy solutions. Nicklas participated in the first Earth Day in 1970.

The SLC building is slated for university occupation this fall.

“It’s a building that teaches,” Chawkin said. The SLC will provide students with classrooms, workshop, meeting room, greenhouse, kitchen, research lab, recycling center and offices.

In addition to embodying sustainability, the SLC will allow students to interactively monitor performance and energy efficiency.

MUM Sustainable Living Department head David Fisher, who helped plan the building, said the SLC will be a living, evolving project.

“The building itself is an educational tool, not just a passive one like most classroom buildings,” Fisher said. “It will provide participatory education where students will be continually adding to or altering the building and grounds, as well as systematically checking its effectiveness.”

The SLC is designed to be completely off-grid. Construction uses all non-toxic materials from local sources, as defined by the Living Building Challenge requirements.

All energy will be provided from solar panels on the building and from an outside wind turbine. Rainwater catchment will be the complete source of the building’s water, with purification of drinking water via ultraviolet technology.

Wastewater will be treated on-site using a constructed wetland. Natural daylighting will illuminate the entire interior. Geothermal technology will assist with heating and cooling.

None of the planned systems in the building are new or experimental, according to construction manager Dal Loiselle, who said the SLC uses “state-of-the-shelf” technologies.

“This building proves that we can meet our environmental goals for our built environment with the materials, technologies, and green building protocols we already possess,” Loiselle said.

Sustainability is a major focus at MUM, which has long promoted techniques for living in harmony with nature. The school was founded in 1974 by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as an international center for teaching Transcendental Meditation.

MUM filed a climate action plan to be 100 percent carbon-neutral by 2020 as part of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment.

Fairfield Mayor Ed Malloy, named in 2009 by MSN.com as one of the nation’s 15 greenest mayors — alongside those of New York, Seattle and San Francisco — said the SLC holds promise for a sustainable future.

“Our city will benefit enormously by having this building on the campus of MUM as a demonstration of a new standard of design,” Malloy said.

The Sustainable Living Center includes material donations from nationally recognized leaders in green building materials, including Gerdau AmeriSteel, Pittsburgh Corning and United States Gypsum Corporation, as well as Green Building Supply of Fairfield.

Yesterday’s event was part of MUM’s tenth annual EcoFair, which runs from April 30 to May 2 at the Argiro Student Center, 1000 N. Fourth St., Fairfield.

2 comment(s) found

Prgressive!: 4/27/2010

Fairfield,Iowa/Maharishi University of Management is a creative outpost ~ of a life worth living; healthy, in tune with nature, cutting edge and friendly. Thank you to all involved.

Small Town USA: 4/26/2010

Its great to see even the small towns and universities going full swing into this Green thing. Whoo Hoo!

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Architecture, Articles, Education, Sustainable Living | 2 Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »