The Uncarved Blog

 National Office • 654 Madison Avenue • Suite 806 • New York, NY 10065 Tel: 212-644-9880 • OperationWarriorWellness.org

MEDICATION OR MEDITATION
FOR VETERANS WITH PTSD?

Filmmaker David Lynch Announces $500,000 Matching Grant
to Teach Transcendental Meditation to 10,000 Veterans

Iconic filmmaker David Lynch will announce this September 11 a $500,000 matching grant to be used to teach the Transcendental Meditation technique to 10,000 veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and their families.

Lynch is inviting philanthropists and foundations to match the offer by Veterans Day, November 11, 2011.

Hollywood directors Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese, and George Lucas, as well as Dr. Mehmet Oz, Paul McCartney, Jerry Seinfeld, and Russell Brand have joined Lynch in support of the outreach.

Lynch’s veteran’s initiative comes from Operation Warrior Wellness (OWW), a division of the David Lynch Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit established in 2005 to bring Transcendental Meditation to at-risk populations.

Jerry Yellin, a distinguished World War II fighter pilot and national co-chair of Operation Warrior Wellness, said the need is urgent for Lynch’s initiative. “We are in a crisis of epidemic proportions. More soldiers died from suicide last year than died in combat. This is unconscionable. We must give our active duty personnel and our veterans something more than a handful of pills to help them overcome the nightmare of PTSD. Research shows Transcendental Meditation is the best way to go.”

Ed Schloeman, a Marine Vietnam service disabled veteran and national co-chair of Operation Warrior Wellness, says Americans need to help their military, now:  “I call on civilian America to support the men and women who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan—alive but wounded. Let’s come together for our military, as they have come together for us.”

Evidence-Based Meditation

According to Norman Rosenthal, M.D., psychiatrist, clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical School, and author of the New York Times bestseller, Transcendence, research on the Transcendental Meditation technique on OEF-OIF veterans as well as Vietnam veterans demonstrates its effectiveness for reducing symptoms of PTSD—and treating a number of the disorders associated with the illness. Findings include:

• Reduced PTSD: 40 to 50 percent reduction in PTSD symptoms, including depression, anxiety, flashbacks, and insomnia (see PTSD)

• Greater resiliency: Reduced stress levels and quicker recovery from stress (see Resiliency to stress)

• Reduced cardiovascular disease: Decreased blood pressure, harmful cholesterol, and atherosclerosis; and a 47 percent reduction in cardiovascular-related mortality (see Cardiovascular disease)

• Decreased substance abuse: Decreased smoking, alcohol, and drug abuse (see Substance abuse)

• Decreased medical expenditures: 14 percent reduction in annual medical expenditures, as compared to the norm (see Decreased healthcare utilization)

“Operation Warrior Wellness is giving our dedicated service men and women a meditation technique that is a traumatic stress buster—it’s not hocus-pocus,” said David Lynch. “When they get this simple, effortless technique they will get their lives back.”

Operation Warrior Wellness is working with veterans’ service organizations, army bases, and military colleges to bring Transcendental Meditation to active duty personnel and veterans and their families.

• For more information on how to contribute to the matching grant campaign of Operation Warrior Wellness, please contact Heather Hartnett at 212-644-9880, or email Heather@OperationWarriorWellness.org.

• Veterans of four wars, from WWII to the present, launched the OWW initiative in December 2010. Researchers and celebrities joined founding veterans Jerry Yellin, Ed Schloeman, and Col. Brian Rees, MD, at a press conference and inaugural gala event at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

• In June this year, CNN anchor, Candy Crowley, hosted an event honoring the initiative at American University in Washington, DC. Crowley concluded: “The initial research offers so much hope: reduced anxiety, depression, hypervigilance, and insomnia, as well as reductions in substance abuse, violent behavior, and suicidal tendencies—better than many things being tried and at far less a cost.”

• For recent press coverage of Operation Warrior Wellness visit the OWW News and Archives.

• More news coverage, including  interviews, and the NYC OWW launch at Urban Zen, is also available on this blog’s archive.

• To arrange press interviews with leaders of Operation Warrior Wellness, please contact Steve Yellin at 641-455-9999, or email Steven@OperationWarriorWellness.org.

News Reports: Steve Marinucci, Paul McCartney Examiner: Paul McCartney lends support to 9/11 TM veterans outreach | The PR Newswire press release, Medication or Meditation for Veterans With PTS?, was also posted by: The Sacramento Bee | MarketWatch | DigitalJournal.com | Hola Arkansas | SunHerald.com | SYS-CON Media | RedOrbit | MedIndia | Virtual Press Office: Filmmaker David Lynch Announces $500,000 Matching Grant to Teach Transcendental Meditation to 10,000 Veterans | SourceMedia Group: Kathleen Serino for Eastern Iowa News Now: Fairfield Resident Helps Veterans Recover (more articles listed there) | Odewire: Diving deep with David Lynch | Wall Street Journal: A Transcendental Cure for Post-Traumatic Stress by David Lynch and Norman E. Rosenthal | Huffington Post: What Meditation Did for Me: A War Vet’s Story.