Posts Tagged ‘Father Gabriel Mejia’

Transcendental Meditation is featured in three BBC/GWI-made videos In the Pursuit of Wellness

January 31, 2024

BBC Studios and Global Wellness Institute created short informative client videos for their In Pursuit of Wellness Series (GWI Series 2). Three videos featuring Transcendental Meditation (TM) were produced for the Dr. Tony Nader Institute, one for each chapter on GWI: Nature, Self, Community.

This first video (6:05) features Dr. Tony Nader at Maharishi International University (MIU) in Fairfield, Iowa talking about the need for TM in today’s stressful world. The video opens with students meditating with Dr. Nader. Using EEG, Dr. Fred Travis demonstrates the increase in brainwave coherence of a subject as she starts meditating. Students also discuss the practical benefits from their TM practice.

The second video (7:50) takes place in Medellín, Columbia at one of Father Gabriel Mejia’s shelters for rehabilitating homeless children with addiction problems. One of them went on to become a TM teacher and returned to teach the students how to meditate. They were inspired by the positive transformation and growth in his life. 

The third video (5:02) was filmed in a Rhode Island hospital where medical staff were still dealing with the stressful repercussions from the Covid-19 pandemic. TM provided welcome relief from the traumatic loss of life and continues to be taught there. Dr. Nader mentions the David Lynch Foundation’s Heal the Healers Now campaign. They provided the funding for TM instruction, which helped thousands of healthcare professionals during the pandemic. Many continue to meditate regularly.

Embedded below are the videos with their short descriptions posted on the GWI site. Each title and chapter also take you to the BBC StoryWorks pages with the same videos plus 3 slides selected from each per chapter: Nature, Self, Community.

1. TM: Listening to your inner rhythm: Dr Tony Nader has been researching the mind and meditation since he was a medical student. Discover his methods for finding peace in a busy and ever-changing world.

2. TM: A healing journey: For Breiner, meditation had a transformational effect on his life, a lesson which he is now passing on to younger generations.

3. TM: The calm in the storm. Finding a peaceful moment to recalibrate. Ongoing strains on health clinicians from the Covid-19 pandemic are still apparent in hospitals. These medical doctors are finding strength in the moments of peace that Transcendental Meditation can provide.

See the scientific results from some of the DLF Heal the Healers Now initiatives that have been published so far in medical research journals. New study shows Transcendental Meditation significantly reduced PTSD and anxiety in frontline nurses during COVID-19 pandemic by more than half over a 3-month period | Recent study shows Transcendental Meditation reduced burnout and enhanced well-being in nurses during the Covid-19 pandemic | Transcendental Meditation reduced healthcare workers’ burnout symptoms during Covid crisis

— Written and compiled (citing sources) by Ken Chawkin for The Uncarved Blog.

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Posted in David Lynch Foundation, Health, Maharishi University, Peace, Videos | 2 Comments »

DLF.TV Documentary: Saving the Disposable Ones

April 2, 2010
Saving the Disposable Ones

THE PROJECT

“The street children in Colombia are called ‘the disposable ones’ and they live and sometimes die on the streets. These children are unloved, unwanted, and endure abuse on many levels. Colombians are a kind and generous people but crime related to cocaine trafficking has made cities such as Medellin among the most violent in the world. Surviving on the streets is a harsh business. Children as young as six fall into prostitution and many escape the torments of their existence by sniffing glue.” — Stuart Tanner, Director

IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY

As Stuart reveals in his deeply moving new film, there is a Catholic priest in Colombia, Father Gabriel Mejia, who has worked quietly to provide street children relief from their struggle for survival and support to create a better life for themselves.

Starting in Medellin in the mid-1980’s, Father Gabriel opened the first Center de Hogares Claret: a place where children could come for a good meal and a safe place to sleep. In the late 1980’s, he traveled to the United States where he learned Transcendental Meditation. He knew immediately that he had found the answer to the overwhelming stress the children suffered from living on the streets. As the power of the drug cartels waned, the number of Father Gabriel’s orphan shelters increased. Now, in 2010, there are 47 shelters under Father Gabriel’s direction, which are spread across all of Colombia. His center of operations in Medellin is the former home of Pablo Escobar, the now deceased drug lord.

“In the rough part of Medillin there is an orphan center where children as young as six years old can come to seek solace,” Stuart recalls. “At the center the children can shower and get a good meal. The children are free to come and go as they wish. There is no pressure on them to stay; it is an open house. Father Gabriel has learned through his work with the street children that the desire to move away from their life on the streets must come from within the children themselves. Many of the children are addicted to sniffing glue or gasoline so the process of becoming free of this dependency is a difficult and gradual one. As part of their rehabilitation the children learn to meditate. This is combined with gentle guidance from Father Gabriel and other members of the Foundation.”

As Stuart’s film documents, over time an extraordinary transformation in the lives of the children takes place. They are freed from the torments they endured living on the streets, recover from their drug addictions and begin to gain an education. “The Foundation established by Father Gabriel embodies the wisdom, patience and knowledge that is required to rescue the ‘disposable’ children, restore their rights, their dignity and offer them a much brighter future,” Stuart says.

“The basic therapy is love. Love is the imperial medicine for any illness or disorder. When a child feels they are welcome, when a child feels an educator is concerned about them, the child who came from violence and hostility of the streets, from being mistreated and who became aggressive, they change. The child changes.”

“When a child starts to practice Yoga every day, morning and afternoon. When a child closes the eyes and begins to meditate, when a child practices the Sidhis, they open themselves up to a field of infinite possibilities, as Maharishi says. The world opens for the child. And then the child discovers their essential nature, which is love.

“I think that we’re all committed to transforming the world we’re all living in. We have to leave a better world than the one we found. I believe in solidarity. I believe the solution is within every person. Within each one of us there is a sanctuary, and the moment we take refuge there, we can enter it. Solutions come from every person. When we put them together, there are many solutions. We must globalize love.” – Father Gabriel Mejia

The David Lynch Foundation

The David Lynch Foundation has currently provided over 120,000 scholarships around the world including tens of thousands in Latin America. The proceeds from this premiere will go towards the David Lynch Foundation programs in Latin America, including Father Mejia’s Foundation, providing meditation instruction to at-risk populations. The program is offered on a voluntary basis, at no cost to the school or organization. Visit davidlynchfoundation.org for more information on programs and initiatives.

SUPPORT AT-RISK YOUTH

The David Lynch Foundation has currently provided tens of thousands of scholarships in Latin America. The proceeds from this film will go towards DLF programs in Latin America, including Father Mejia’s Foundation.

online
WORLD PREMIERE
April 8, 2010, 7:45pm
Fairfield, IA
Watch the extended #trailer
See Saving the Disposable Ones: World Premiere Poster for David Lynch Foundation Documentary along with longer clips from the film.

See the Saving the Disposable Ones article by Linda Egenes in Issue 11 of Enlightenment: The Transcendental Meditation Magazine.

We can now watch “Saving the Disposable Ones” at this site.

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Posted in David Lynch Foundation, Education, Videos | 1 Comment »