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Celebs who meditate featured in The Daily Beast

April 24, 2013

This article on Transcendental Meditation was one of the rotating stories on The Daily Beast today, April 23, 2013. It was the 9th top story of rotating images in the big box on the upper left corner of the home page. The article appeared as a result of Rupert Murdoch learning to meditate last weekend. It was supposed to be private, but he tweeted about it and drew media attention. Click on the links below to see photos and descriptions of the 14 featured meditating celebs.

Celebs who meditate -The Daily Beast

Celebs Who Meditate – The Daily Beast – Invision/AP; WireImage

Oprah & More Stars Who Do Transcendental Meditation

The Daily BeastTranscendental Meditation has made its rounds with celebrities as far back as when the Beatles were a unit, but is once again creeping up as the latest trend among celebrities. Rupert Murdoch recently tweeted on his indoctrination into the mantra meditation movement, Oprah Winfrey devoted an entire show to it, and David Lynch even launched a nonprofit foundation for the practice.

The technique was established in India by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the 1950s and has spread worldwide since, used as a means to relieve stress and build personal development. The practice involves twice-a-day, 15- to 20-minute meditations, and courses are taught by certified instructors for a fee. See which other stars are endorsing the practice and taking time for some inner peace!

Read celebrity descriptions and view all (15) photos in fullscreen. Most of these celebrities, in order of appearance, practice and/or are connected with TM in some way: Rupert Murdoch, David Lynch, Russell Brand, Shirley MacLaine, Sheryl Crow, Paul McCartney, Oprah Winfrey, Moby, Katy Perry, Howard Stern, Hugh Jackman, George Lucas, Clint Eastwood, and Candy Crowley.

Read a related article: 14 Executives Who Swear By Meditation–10 do TM.

Also see Why CEOs, actors, and pop stars love Transcendental Meditation | Well+Good NYC and What do Stephen Collins, Ellen DeGeneres, Russell Brand, Russell Simmons, David Lynch and Oprah have in common? and The New York Times: Look Who’s Meditating Now.

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Posted in Articles, David Lynch Foundation, Health, Peace | 3 Comments »

New study shows Transcendental Meditation significantly reduces PTS in African refugees

April 11, 2013

African war refugees practicing Transcendental Meditation®, a simple and effective stress-reducing meditation technique, experienced immediate and dramatic reductions in severe posttraumatic stress symptoms to a non-symptomatic level in just 30 days, according to a new study published this week in the April 2013 issue of the Journal of Traumatic Stress (Volume 26, Issue 2, pp. 295-298.)

A significant percentage of veterans are returning home from wars exhibiting symptoms of posttraumatic stress (PTS). It is now recognized as a serious health problem that can trigger suicidal tendencies. But what about the victims of such violence? Homeless refugees live with the constant reminder of what war has done to their lives and those of their families.

While studies have shown the Transcendental Meditation (TM®) technique to effectively lower posttraumatic stress in veterans of Vietnam and Iraq/Afghanistan wars, this is the first (randomized/matched) study to look at PTS in African war refugees. It measured the severity of posttraumatic stress symptoms before and after learning the TM technique, and the reductions were immediate and dramatic.

PTS Scores Graph

The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist scores in the TM group went from high PTS symptoms at baseline to a non-symptomatic level after 30-days TM practice, and remained low at 135-days, while scores in the control group trended upward from baseline to the two posttests.

For more study details and comments by the surprised researchers, click the EurekAlert! press release, graph and video with descriptions, and a PDF of the published JTS TM-PTS Study.

The study was funded by the David Lynch Foundation.

In the past 20 years, 18 African nations have been ravaged by war. Tens of millions of Africans have been victims of violence or witnessed horrific acts of terror—and now suffer from post-traumatic stress. The DLF Africa PTSD Relief Project was set up to raise funds to teach the TM program to many more African refugees. Here is a short documentary with actor, director Bill Duke, Ambassador for African PTSD Relief. Please visit http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/africa to learn more.

The news was reported on MedicalXpress.com: Transcendental Meditation significantly reduces posttraumatic stress in African refugees, and linked to it from many other websites. Also by News-Medical.net: Study: Transcendental meditation reduces posttraumatic stress in African refugees. And Medical News Today: Posttraumatic Stress Significantly Reduced By Transcendental Meditation. Psychiatric Annals/Helio: Meditation reduced posttraumatic stress symptoms in African refugees.

Here is an excellent comprehensive report with quotes from Russell Simmons, and David Lynch about the study posted on People of Shambala: Transcendental Meditation significantly reduces post-traumatic stress for Congolese refugees: study. Google posted this excellent article by AFP: Filmmaker David Lynch touts meditation for PTSD.

More on Global Good News: Transcendental Meditation significantly reduces posttraumatic stress in African refugees, and  Johannesburg Transcendental Meditation Center: Post Traumatic Stress help for African Refugees.

See the Second study to show Transcendental Meditation reduces PTSD in African Refugees—in just 10 days.

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Posted in Articles, David Lynch Foundation, Health, Maharishi University, Peace, Videos | 1 Comment »

Retired Principal James Dierke writes about “a Quiet Revolution” that took place in his school

March 25, 2013

Leadership Cover Sept:Oct 2012Established in 1971, the Association of California School Administrators is the largest umbrella organization for school leaders in the nation, serving more than 16,000 members. In the ACSA Leadership magazine, President David A. Gomez reviews highlights of the September/October 2012 issue in a letter to readers: 21st century school: Learning and teaching in the classroom and beyond.

Here is what he says about Jim Dierke’s article: Classroom learning can’t happen if students aren’t in school, or if behavior problems and stress levels inhibit success. A San Francisco program called Quiet Time, which engages students in classroom meditation, has tackled these problems successfully. “No matter how much effort we put into teaching, if we don’t effectively address the pervasive underlying tension and trauma experienced by our youth, we can’t make real progress,” writes Jim Dierke, who initiated the program in his middle school (page 14).

A Quiet Transformation by Jim Dierke (pages 14-17) tells the story of what took place in Visitacion Valley Middle School when he was principal. Stress not only contributes to violence and behavior issues, it impacts focus and memory, fundamentally impairing a child’s ability to learn and make good decisions. Dierke’s decision to implement the Quiet Time program transformed the lives of hundreds of students, teachers, staff, and the school as a whole. As a result of the dramatic turnaround, James S. Dierke was selected as the NASSP National Middle School Principal of the Year in 2008. The program was so successful, the Superintendent implemented the Quiet Time Program in a few other schools in their district. See this video and others mentioned at the end of the post: The David Lynch Foundation Quiet Time Program in San Francisco Schools.

When you open the PDF of the article use the Open With Different Viewer option in the upper right. Save the pdf and open it with Adobe and it should have the missing part of the last sentence I added. The last sentence should read: I retire with the lowest blood pressure I have had in 10 years and a great optimism about our ability to realize this vision for education. If you download the digital version of the issue, you’ll be able to read it as it appears in the magazine.

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Posted in Articles, Education | 3 Comments »

“Sanctifying Morning” is a poem by Ken Chawkin on one way to be “spiritual but not religious”

February 17, 2013

Sanctifying Morning is a poem I wrote four years and one month ago today. It may remind you of the phrase, “spiritual but not religious,” how millions of Americans now identify themselves, a trend I was not aware of until I learned about it from Philip Goldberg, author of American Veda. TM* is my way of being spiritual but not religious.

Sanctifying Morning

Charcoal in a church,
Incense-filled smoke,
Knees on the ground,
Wafer on a tongue —
Prayers ascend the sky.

It’s Sunday morning,
And I have my own rituals.
The smell of burnt toast sanctifies the morning air.
Orange rinds round out the debris of breakfast.
Fumes float upwards from a hot coffee cup.

Having pacified the body’s urges,
With no work to be done today,
Though the senses focus outward,
It’s time to bring them within,
And prepare for this peaceful morning.

I retire to my meditation room,
Sit comfortably, and close the eyes.
Thinking my mantra, effortlessly,
I descend to the depths of my mind,
And transcend.

My body follows —
Breath slows, and suspends,
Heart beats quieter,
Brain cells speak softly, in unison —
I’m at peace with myself.

This is the true communion of the spirit
Within the church of the Self.
No pews are required here
As one prepares to meet the maker
Of one’s life.

© Ken Chawkin
January 17, 2009
Fairfield, Iowa, USA

*TM stands for Transcendental Meditation. It’s not a religion. To me, it’s a spiritual practice that is compatible with any or no religion. Today millions of Americans admit to practicing some form of meditation. Members of different faiths practice Transcendental Meditation, including monks, nuns, priests and rabbis. Even atheists and agnostics meditate. You may too, some day, if you haven’t, already.

Publication and Update

Carrying the Branch-Poets in Search of Peace

Thanks to Iowa poet and editor Rustin Larson for selecting “Sanctifying Morning,” which was later included in Carrying the Branch: Poets in Search of Peace. The book was published by Glass Lyre Press October 1, 2017 and edited by Ami Kaye. My poem is found on page 132. These other poets also submitted their poems and participated as editors soliciting poems and curating their sections for this anthology: Diane Frank, Lois P. Jones, Gloria Mindock, and Melissa Studdard. All profits after printing go to the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders.

It is also an honor to be included among so many distinguished authors and poet laureates, like Robert Pinsky, W. E. Butts, Joy Harjo, Rita Dove, and Jane Hirshfield, to name a few collected here.

Blogger Chris Rice Cooper was the first to review our anthology, (January 17, 2018): Receiving & Giving Peace in the anthology CARRYING THE BRANCH POETS IN SEARCH OF PEACE . . . She put a lot of work into it with photos, excerpts, and links to an alphabetical listing of the poets and their websites. Next to my photo she provided the link to an article: PR to poetry – how things sometimes happen to Ken Chawkin.

After describing the different problem areas the poems deal with, Cooper says, “In this specific piece I’d like to focus on the poems that offer suggestions of acts and thoughts that we as individual human beings can do or think to bring peace into our own lives, the lives of our communities, and the lives of the entire world.”

Surprisingly, she includes my poem in her review: “In Ken Chawkin’s poem “Sanctifying Morning” the speaker of the poem experiences his own peace by having “church” in his own body, in his own home where he retreats to his meditation room and meditates mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.”

She concludes by saying, “There are numerous lessons to be learned from this anthology but the top two are:  we must love the enemy within and without ourselves; and we must transcribe our experiences down, rather on paper or canvas – only then will the next generation receive their rightful inheritance – their own branch of peace.”

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Posted in My poems, Poetry | 2 Comments »

War veterans say Transcendental Meditation could help with PTSD

February 11, 2013

War veterans say meditation could help with PTSD

By Agence France-Presse
Tuesday, February 5, 2013 6:27 EST

Meditation might sound an unlikely activity for men trained in killing people and blowing things up in Afghanistan and Iraq. But US war veterans say meditation could help heal the post-war mental disturbances that afflict a growing number of American soldiers, including possibly the ex-Marine who gunned down the country’s most famous sniper over the weekend.

Luke Jensen, a former undercover police officer who fell apart mentally on arrival in Afghanistan, said that after trying to commit suicide in front of his family, he agreed to try Transcendental Meditation — and was saved.

“There’s a lot of coping methods out there that are offered to our veterans. This needs to be one of them,” the heftily built man said in a shaking voice at a meeting of the David Lynch Foundation, which promotes meditation for treating post-traumatic stress disorder.

Jensen said he has since taken a job in the government’s Department of Veterans Affairs, helping other stressed out vets. Just two weeks ago, one of those he worked with committed suicide.

Transcendental Meditation “needs to be implemented. It needs to be an option,” Jensen told the panel in New York.

After years of being a little-talked about subject, PTSD is increasingly acknowledged as a mental health epidemic in the United States and one of the less easily quantifiable costs of America’s wars on the other side of the world.

The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that PTSD occurs in between 11 and 20 percent of veterans from the Afghan and Iraq wars, and in 31 percent of Vietnam war veterans.

Although combat is commonly assumed to be the main cause of PTSD, simply witnessing the effects of bombings, for example, or the stress of being in a hostile country, are also blamed.

Another major source of PTSD, though less often discussed, is what the government calls military sexual trauma. Veterans Affairs figures show that 23 percent of women report sexual assault in the ranks, while more than half have experienced sexual harassment.

The most frightening result associated with PTSD is the rising number of suicides, which now run at 22 a day among military veterans, according to a government study released last week.

And the problem is no less alarming among active duty soldiers, with a record 349 killing themselves in 2012 — more than were killed by the Taliban or other enemy in the field.

In the latest incident to highlight the violence engulfing former soldiers, an ex-Marine in Texas was accused Saturday of shooting dead another veteran who had devoted himself to helping comrades adjust to peaceful life.

Adding to the shock value, the victim, Chris Kyle, was an author of a best-selling book about his former exploits as a sniper with 150 confirmed kills.

In the effort to address the problem of PTSD, meditation is an outlier.

However, early studies show remarkable success, and demand is growing, advocates at filmmaker Lynch’s foundation said.

Transcendental Meditation involves entering “a state of rest in many cases deeper than sleep,” said Bob Roth, executive director of the David Lynch Foundation. “This allows deeply rooted stresses to be dissolved.”

Retired rear admiral Richard Schneider, president of the private military institute Norwich University, said tests showed that cadets using the techniques increased focus in class and were better “emotionally prepared.”

The meditation instructor, a chisel-faced air force veteran called David Zobeck, said a stigma long attached to meditation was evaporating among students, who are preparing for careers as officers.

“They’re not getting the weird stares anymore,” he said.

Jerry Yellin, a fighter pilot in World War II who spoke of losing comrades and making dangerous missions in the bloody Pacific theater, said he began suffering nightmares, then behavioral problems on return home at a time when PTSD was rarely discussed.

“The hard stuff began in my life, because I didn’t sleep,” he said. “I had an addiction that ruled my life.”

Meditating, he said, “got my life back 100 percent.”

The Raw Story published this report from Agence France-Presse.

See more articles on PTSD and TM posted on The Uncarved Blog.

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Posted in Articles, David Lynch Foundation, Health, Peace | 1 Comment »

That Reminds Me: A Conversational Memoir by Hollywood biographer Norman Zierold is now out!

January 10, 2013

ThatRemindsMe Lynch quote

That Reminds Me is a conversational memoir by Hollywood biographer and award-winning author Norman Zierold. Rather than a chronology of his life, the author engages the reader in a conversational manner, relating various episodes from his life that come to mind, one triggering another. There’s never a dull moment!

Norman Zierold’s charmed life started humbly in the Amana Colonies of Iowa. All that changed after Norman joined the Navy. The war came to an end and Norman used the GI Bill of Rights to attend Harvard, where he graduated cum laude. He then earned a graduate degree in English Literature at the University of Iowa.

While looking for work he was given the opportunity to teach English in France. One of his jobs was enjoying English conversations with the son of the President of France. They even invited him to watch the coronation of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II on television at their personal residence. Other meetings with cultural luminaries ensued.

Upon Norman’s return to the States he headed for New York, where he worked his way up to becoming the editorial director of Theatre Arts Magazine. Eventually he went to Hollywood to fulfill his lifelong calling to become a writer and published several noted Hollywood biographies: The Child Stars, The Moguls: Hollywood’s Merchants of Myth, Garbo, Sex Goddesses of the Silent Screen; and two true-crime accounts, Little Charley Ross: The story of America’s first kidnapping for ransom, and Three Sisters in Black, which garnered a Special Edgar Allen Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He also wrote a science-fiction novel titled The Skyscraper Doom.

In the late 1960s, when Barbara Walters was an anchor on NBC’s Today Show, she interviewed Norman on his recently published book, Little Charley Ross. He describes a humorous account of what happened as they were preparing to go on air. Before the segment was about to begin Barbara was pressing her leg against Norman’s under the table in what seemed to him a suggestive fashion. He wondered if she might be coming on to him and didn’t know what to do. She asked him if he felt that, and he sheepishly said he did. She then explained that this was the signal for him to quickly finish his sentence during the interview so they could break for a commercial. Norman felt relieved. After the interview they had a private chat off camera about Judy Garland since Norman had written about her in The Child Stars, and Barbara’s then husband, Lee Guber, had produced one of Judy’s world tours. They had met and Judy’s issues about her mother came up. Barbara had her own opinion about Judy’s relationship with her mother, but you’ll have to read the book to find out what she said and Norman’s take on it.

In addition to Barbara Walters, Norman met many cultural icons of the day, like Andy Warhol, Shelley Winters, Anthony Quinn, Mae West, Groucho Marx, Roddy McDowall, Jackie Coogan, Rex Harrison, Anaïs Nin, Tennessee Williams, E.E. Cummings, Dylan Thomas, a president of France, the gifted composer Francis Poulenc, and TM founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, to mention a few. Anaïs mentioned Norman in her diary. Norman spent months with Anthony Quinn helping him edit down his thousand-page biography into something publishable. It did very well.

In the early 70’s Norman took up the practice of Transcendental Meditation. He found it so satisfying he became a teacher and taught the TM technique to several hundred people. Since 2002 he has been living in Fairfield, Iowa, and works in his retirement years as a part-time publicist in the communications office at Maharishi University of Management.

WHERE TO ORDER THAT REMINDS ME

Sit down with Norman Zierold and enjoy a fascinating conversation. Order copies of That Reminds Me from Amazon or Barnes & Noble in the US. Release date is January 12, 2013. Also available in Canada, the UK, Europe, Germany, Russia, and Brazil in paperback, and Amazon’s Kindle worldwide.

Cover design by George Foster, front cover photo by Mary Drew, and interior design by Allen Cobb for Anapurna Press.

ARTICLES

Diane Vance interviewed Norman Zierold at Revelations Café for The Fairfield Ledger, which came out March 12, 2013: Fairfield author talks about recent work. In case you can’t access the full article online you can see what it looks like here: Fairfield author talks about recent work – By DIANE VANCE – Fairfield, IA – Fairfield Ledger. I also posted it here: Diane Vance and Norman Zierold discuss his new memoir, That Reminds Me, at Revelations Café.

Tony Ellis wrote a feature article in the March 2013 issue of The Iowa Source, Iowa’s Enlightening Magazine: Norman Zierold: A Charmed Life: Celebrated Hollywood Author Reminisces on Six Decades of Extraordinary Encounters. You can also download a PDF of the article on Norman Zierold as it appears in The Iowa Source.

An edited version of Tony’s article later appeared in Britain’s National Transcendental Meditation Magazine—Transcendental Meditation News • June 2013 • Vol. 19 • No. 7 • Pages 12 and 13, titled, The Hollywood Biographer Who Found Bliss (Page 7 of PDF).

British writer & editor, Julie Eagleton also reviewed That Reminds Me by Norman Zierold.

Here’s a great article about Norman Zierold in The Chronicle of Higher Education: Notes From Academe: The Spokesman Who Kept Calling.

Here’s a comprehensive article Norman Zierold wrote for Healthy Referral on THE REMARKABLE DAVID LYNCH FOUNDATION.

INTERVIEWS

Norman Zierold was interviewed by KMCD host Steve Smith for the MUM Spotlight show on January 10, 2013. Click here to listen. (17:23)

Norman Zierold will be interviewed on 100.1 FM KRUU in Fairfield. The show, Writers’ Voices, airs Friday, January 11, 2013, 1:00–2:00 p.m. CT, and replays Monday, January 14, 2013, 8:00–9:00 a.m. CT. Tune in: Listen Live.

This great description posted by host Monica Hadley says it all: From Iowa, Around the World, and Back Again with Norman Zierold. “That Reminds Me: A Conversational Memoir” by Norman Zierold, takes the reader on an exuberant journey, both outward and inward, from pre-Depression-era Iowa (the Amana Colonies), to Europe, NYC, Hollywood, and back again to Iowa (Fairfield, that is.) Join Writers’ Voices hosts Monica Hadley and Caroline Kilbourn to learn from Norman the inside stories that only the author of such Hollywood biographies as “Garbo”, “The Child Stars”, and “The Moguls” would know. How did a boy from the Amanas come to rub elbows with the rich and famous of the mid-20th century? And what brought him back to Iowa?

Update: If you missed it, the Writers’ Voices Archives now has Norman’s interview (59:51) posted there as well as on monicahadley’s Audio page. And KRUU station manager James Moore created a permanent link to the interview here: http://www.kruufm.com/node/14926. KRUU’s website was rebuilt. The interview is now posted on the Writers Voices website.

A third interview took place at a book signing in the Maharishi University of Management Library on Saturday afternoon, March 2, 2013. Rustin Larson talked with Norman Zierold about his conversational memoir, That Reminds Me. Download and enjoy this very entertaining interview. (87 MB) It’s now available on YouTube.

A fourth interview took place on KHOE, the MUM campus radio station. Author and M.U.M.: Publicist Norman Zierold, interviewed by Dean Cathy Gorini and station manager Stan Stansberry on his newly published book “That Reminds Me.” Listen online here: http://link.mum.edu/NormanZierold.

Stan says: [This is] “a real-life adventure conversational memoir by our esteemed Norman Zierold. [Norman takes us from] “his hometown Amana Colonies, to the U.S. Navy, to New York City, to Hollywood, to finding Transcendental Meditation, teaching TM, and to the campus of Maharishi University of Management. Along the way he interviewed and hob-nobbed with famous New York and Hollywood actors, writers and people like Barbara Walters.” mp3 63 min, 18MB.

Here is the latest interview on KRUU FM with Producer, Writer & Host, Cheryl Fusco Johnson of The Studio: Small Town Boy to Hollywood Biographer: Norman Zierold’s Memoir, THAT REMINDS ME, July 14+16, 2014. You can listen here at this archived link: The Studio – 20140715-Norman Zierold.

How did small-town Iowa boy Norman Zierold become a Hollywood biographer, recording the stories of movie moguls, child stars, and famous actors? Even more exciting than his tales about the many celebrities he’s encountered is Norman’s own story. Lucky us! Norman’s recorded his journey from shelling peas beside cooks in his family’s Amana colonies restaurant to rubbing knees with Barbara Walters on TV. This week on The Studio with Cheryl, Norman discusses the mentors and experiences that inspired his life choices. Learn about his life and about THAT REMINDS ME, his stream-of-consciousness memoir (and what a consciousness it is!), by tuning in to The Studio with Cheryl and Norman this week.

Enlightenment, The Transcendental Meditation Magazine, has posted an article on Norman in Issue 16 under My Story: From Utopia to Hollywood and Back. In this column meditators share their stories of how they started the Transcendental Meditation technique and what kinds of positive changes have occurred in their lives.

The book has been updated with chapter headings, a table of contents, and a list of praise for the book, including a cover quote from filmmaker David Lynch, which reads: “What a creative and entertaining way to tell a story of a life and a time! Congratulations, Norman — a thoroughly enjoyable and informative read.”

March 9, 2018: Remembering Norman Zierold: Hollywood biographer, novelist, TM Teacher, member of Maharishi’s Purusha program, raconteur, publicist, beloved by all.

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Posted in Audios, Writing | 11 Comments »

8,000 Mayan and indigenous tribal students meditate for peace to mark the end of an era

December 22, 2012

8,000 Mayan, Zapotec, and Mixtec Students Meditate for World Peace and Restructure the Apocalypse to Create the End of the [War-torn] World

By David Leffler | December 23, 2012  | The Liberian Dialogue
Mexico students meditate for peace

Nine countries in Latin America are implementing Transcendental Meditation and Yogic Flying in military and/or educational settings.

With much media fanfare worldwide, the Mayan calendar came to an end on 21 December 2012, with far-flung predictions of global apocalypse. But most of us are still here, so perhaps the “end of the world” was in fact a new beginning – the end of the world as we know it, and the dawn of a new and more enlightened age.

On that apocalyptic day, 8,000 young children – descendants of the Mayans, Mixtec, Zapotec, and other indigenous tribes – gathered at Monte Alban, a sacred mountain of the Zapotec people in southern Mexico, to meditate together for world peace. Around the world, people of all ages, cultures, and religions participated with them in simultaneous group practice of the non-religious Transcendental Meditation® (TM) program and its advanced TM-Sidhi program, both founded by the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

In Latin American military circles, this collective TM practice by large groups of peace-creating experts is known as the Invincible Defense Technology (IDT) due to its scientifically confirmed ability to neutralize the destabilizing influence of collective stress, held to be the root cause of terrorism, war, and violent crime.

These young Mexican children, along with many students in other Latin America countries, had been trained in these peace-creating technologies for approximately eight months. Their gathering at Monte Alban was a demonstration to the world of the effectiveness of these technologies in defusing social violence and “averting the danger that has not yet come” – a principle of collective coherence drawn from the ancient Yoga Sutras.

Is this gathering something out of a “New Age” science fiction thriller? No. This unusual defense strategy really works. It is advocated by the Global Union of Scientists for Peace (GUSP, http://www.gusp.org), a coalition of Nobel laureates and leading scientists who see it as the best way to avert the growing threats of nuclear proliferation, terrorism, and weapons of mass destruction; to create national security in every country; and to establish lasting world peace.

John Hagelin, Ph.D., a renowned Harvard-trained quantum physicist who heads this group, says, “In recent years, [this] powerful, innovative approach to peace has been extensively field-tested – in the Middle East and throughout the world. The consistent result has been dramatic reductions in terrorism, war, and social violence. These findings have been replicated, published in leading academic journals, and endorsed by hundreds of independent scientists and scholars. The efficacy of this approach is beyond question.” [An Op-Ed piece: “Reducing Tension in the Middle East” was recently published worldwide advocating this approach.]

According to Luis Intof Alvarez, the organizer of the Monte Alban gathering, the advanced TM-Sidhi practice has been taught to 8,000 students in 54 schools in southern Mexico and Guatemala during just the past weeks. With over 250 Latin American schools now participating in this program, at least 20,000 students will be collectively practicing these peace-creating technologies by this time next year. Alvarez says that our world leaders now have a choice. Which direction do we want to take: continued violence or creating peace?

His point is made more vivid by the tragic recent events at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newton, Connecticut, USA. Throughout the U.S., students in schools and colleges continue to be the victims of senseless violence. By contrast, the Mayan and other tribal students throughout Latin America are creating peace, not only within themselves but also on a much grander scale – for their schools, cities, and nation as a whole.

Latin American students in both civilian and military  schools are learning and applying this strategy. Currently, at least nine Latin American countries are soon due to have fully operational peace-creating groups in military and/or educational settings. Military leaders worldwide will soon be surprised to learn that students can actually do a much better, safer, and more effective job of protecting their nations with an advanced TM meditation practice than with expensive hi-tech military weaponry. Informed Latin American leaders, especially those now in charge of military schools, have already deployed this approach. Lieutenant General José Martí Villamil, a pioneering former Vice-Minister of Defense for Ecuador, first conducted a military field-test during their war with Peru in the early 1990s, with promising results.

In the past, in non-Latin American countries, field tests of these coherence-creating groups achieved measurable positive results that were also apparent from news reports. In trouble spots, violence and war deaths subsided, peace negotiations improved, and/or treaties were signed. The first head of state to ever implement such a program was President Joachim Chissano of Mozambique. Read the amazing story of what happened when members of his government and military learned to meditate. (See: Psychology Today, “Can Meditation Change the World?“)

Over fifty studies have scientifically documented the profound and measurable benefits of this approach to peace. In one such study, conducted during the first Lebanon war, the predicted effects and publicly available measures to be used were specified in advance for scientific review boards in North America and Israel. The outcomes of this and other such experiments have been published in respected peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Conflict Resolution, 1988, 32: 776–812; Social Indicators Research, 1999, 47: 153-201; Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 2003, 36 (1-4): 283-302; Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 2005, 17(1): 339-373; Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 2005, 17(1): 285-338; and Journal of Scientific Exploration, 2009, 23(2): 139-166.

It could be argued that the positive social effects of these deployments are already beginning to be documented. In a 2011 poll, Gallup measured positive emotions in 148 countries and found that Latin Americans are the most positive people in the world. Their region is home to eight of the top 10 countries for positive emotions worldwide.

Certainly Evo Morales Ayma, the President of Bolivia, believes that “the end of the world” is only the end of the world as we know it. At the 67th General Assembly of the United Nations, he said:

“And I would like to say that according to the Mayan calendar on the 21 of December is the end of the non-time and the beginning of time. It is the end of the Macha and the beginning of the Pacha, the end of selfishness and the beginning of brotherhood, it is the end of individualism and the beginning of collectivism – 21 of December this year. The scientists know very well that this marks the end of an anthropocentric life and the beginning of a bio-centric life.

It is the end of hatred and the beginning of love, the end of lies and beginning of truth. It is the end of sadness and the beginning of happiness, it is the end of division and the beginning of unity, and this is a theme to be developed. That is why we invite all of you, those of you who bet on mankind, we invite those who want to share their experiences for the benefit of mankind.”

Dr. David Leffler received his Ph.D. in Consciousness-Based Military Defense (Invincible Defense Technology – IDT) from The Union Institute & University in Cincinnati. He served as an Associate of the Proteus Management Group at the Center for Strategic Leadership, US Army War College. He has published articles in over 400 locations worldwide about IDT and now serves as the Executive Director at the Center for Advanced Military Science (CAMS). Dr. Leffler teaches IDT and is available at http://www.StrongMilitary.org. 

More photos of the meditating students are available at the end of David Leffler’s article posted here. These are the countries where the article has been featured so far: INDIA – Mangalorean; LIBERIA – The Liberian Dialogue; NIGERIA – Nigeria Sun; AUSTRALIA – The International News Magazine U.S. Edition; UK – The News Tribe, a bilingual news website covering Pakistan, South Asia, Middle East and UK; Global Edition – One News Page. Global Good News reported the news as well as an earlier backgrounder of how the parents and students prepared for this special event: Mexico: Thousands of indigenous students to meditate together at traditional celebration.

For a scientific explanation behind the power of large groups collectively practicing the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program including Yogic Flying, read The Power of The Collective, by John Hagelin. Also see Op-Ed peace piece spreading around the world: Reducing Tension in the Middle East and Ken Wilber said meditation can change the world. Jaochim Chissano showed it could – Steve Taylor.

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Investment director and author Alexander Green tells you how to take a vacation inside your head

December 14, 2012

Here’s an interesting article I received from a friend. One of her friends subscribes to a financial service newsletter called Spiritual Wealth and he sent it to her. Alexander Green, investment director and author, posted this personal account December 14th, 2012. While on a club tour in Europe, he struck up a conversation with a fellow traveler. What came out of it led to him learning how to take a daily vacation in his own mind. You can read more about Alex at the end of his article. Bon voyage!

How to Take a Vacation Inside Your Head

On a recent Oxford Club tour of Italy, I got to know Dr. Satinder Swaroop, a cardiologist based in Fountain Valley, CA. Among the many topics we discussed during our ten days together was Transcendental Meditation (TM).

Dr. Swaroop is a lifelong meditator. And he has found that his patients who practice it enjoy better heart health. They are less anxious and sleep better. Their chest pains are less frequent. They are more able to stay on a diet and lower their cholesterol levels. They are calmer, too.

He suggested I give it a try.

I don’t have any heart issues. I’m not an anxious person. If anything, I lean toward the overly mellow. Dr. Swaroop just smiled. “You should try it and see what happens.”

I told him I’d look into it.

A few weeks after I returned home, Dr. Swaroop sent me an email. Had I visited TM.org as he suggested?

Uh, no.

“You should,” he said again. “Just check out a couple of the videos.”

And so I did. That’s when I stumbled across a five-minute short by filmmaker David Lynch and became intrigued. I began reading up on TM and listening to people who practiced it. A week later, I signed up with an instructor.

I would have scoffed at this idea a few years ago. To the extent that I thought about meditation at all, I considered it a somewhat hippie, vaguely self-indulgent practice tied to Eastern religions or mystical “woo-woo” of one kind or another. Meditation seemed too… well… flaky.

But that view changed as I became more familiar with the scientific literature. There is an astonishing amount of research on meditation’s physical and psychological benefits, including hundreds of peer-reviewed articles. Researchers have found that TM spreads a wave of calmness across the brain, organizing the prefrontal region in a way that improves focus and decision-making. Studies also suggest it enhances physical health and increases longevity. How? By helping people deal effectively with stress.

In today’s hectic and competitive world, stress wears us down and burns us out. It fuels countless disorders, including anxiety, insomnia and depression. It also promotes cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes and digestive disorders. Exercising and eating better can help counteract this. But meditation helps practitioners develop mental resilience, as well. The benefits are well documented.

In Transcendence, psychologist and educator Dr. Norman Rosenthal writes: “A great deal of clinical research has been done on TM. For example, we now know that when people practice TM, their blood pressure drops. They show higher blood levels of a soothing hormone called prolactin, as well as more coherent brain wave patterns, which are associated with good mental functioning. New evidence suggests that TM may improve longevity and lower medical costs by reducing hospital stays and doctors’ visits. Even people who are not in physical or psychological distress can be helped. TM has been shown to help ‘normal’ people reach their full potential and live in greater harmony with one another.”

Transcendental Meditation is not a religion. No one who practices it is asked to accept any belief system. The technique goes back thousands of years and was brought to the United States by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, an Indian teacher who extracted the meditative technique from its Vedic origins and distilled it to its essence. Today it is practiced by people of all religions and no religion.

How does it work?

TM is not learned from a book or video. It is taught by a certified instructor and experienced meditator.  The process has seven steps: two lectures, a personal interview with the teacher, then four teaching sessions on four consecutive days.

Essentially, the student is taught to sit with hands folded in an upright chair in a quiet place. After a brief ceremony of gratitude, the instructor gives him his own mantra (a two-syllable wordless sound) to think about as he sits in quiet relaxation for 20 minutes twice a day.  Ideally, this would be first thing in the morning and again in the late afternoon or early evening. (The mantra is simply a mental “vehicle” to let the mind settle down.)

In the beginning, I wondered how I would possibly find time to fit two 20-minute sessions into days already crammed with research, writing, traveling, speaking, exercising, socializing and raising a family. But since no new skill can be learned without practice, I made time.

I haven’t been at it long enough to report anything world-changing. But I will pass along a few observations. First off, there’s something inherently pleasurable about taking a break from your daily routine to sit in quiet contemplation. Meditation helps you sort through all the mental flotsam and jetsam your mind throws up. The typical meditative session results in greater relaxation, inner peacefulness and, occasionally, an enjoyable shift in consciousness.

Insights like these are hardly new, of course. Meditation has been practiced in both the East and West for thousands of years. In the second century AD, the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote in his Meditations:

“Men seek retreats for themselves in country places, on beaches and mountains, and you yourself are wont to long for such retreats, but that is altogether unenlightened when it is possible at any hour you please to find a retreat within yourself. For nowhere can a man withdraw to a more untroubled quietude than in his own soul.”

Psychologists report that in a typical day we process up to 70,000 thoughts and this continues even as we sleep. (Basically the brain never shuts up.) Meditation is a pleasant and peaceful retreat, a tool for stilling the mind.

Thoughts or worries will arise during TM too, of course. But meditators are counseled not to argue with or analyze them, but rather just to acknowledge them and let them go. Experienced meditators often report a blissful state of acceptance, serenity and a feeling of being at one with the world.

TM is easy to learn and practice. It is less expensive than analysis, safer than prescriptions, and available for a lifetime without special equipment or facilities. Researchers have discovered that sitting with your eyes closed and repeating a mantra twice a day can cut your risk of serious disease by half. And it has no adverse side effects. If TM were a drug, it would be a multi-billion-dollar blockbuster.

As Rosenthal writes, “I have found most long-time meditators to be physically relaxed in their posture, alert in their expressions, and open-minded in their attitudes. It is not surprising that this demeanor and approach to life, played out day after day over years, would make a huge difference to health, longevity, and just plain enjoyment of life.”

The good news is you don’t have to follow a guru, visit an ashram, recite Sanskrit or get into the lotus position on a hardwood floor. All you need is a comfortable chair, a quiet space and 20 minutes.

And I invite you to be skeptical. I’ve learned it works for skeptics too.

Carpe Diem,

Alex

P.S. The David Lynch Foundation sponsors the teaching of Transcendental Meditation to inner-city schoolchildren, prisoners and even refugees in war-torn parts of the world. To see his five-minute introductory video, click here.

Alex Green—Spiritual WealthAlexander Green is the Investment Director of The Oxford Club. The Oxford Club Communique, whose portfolio he directs, is ranked among the top investment letters in the nation for 10-year performance by the independent Hulbert Financial Digest. Alex is the author of The New York Times bestseller “The Gone Fishin’ Portfolio: Get Wise, Get Wealthy… and Get On With Your Life,” “The Secret of Shelter Island: Money and What Matters,” and most recently, “Beyond Wealth: The Road Map to a Rich Life.” He has been featured on Oprah & Friends, CNBC, National Public Radio (NPR), Fox News and “The O’Reilly Factor,” and has been profiled by The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Forbes, and Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, among others. He currently lives in Charlottesville, Virginia and Winter Springs, Florida with his wife Karen and their children Hannah and David.

Copyright © 2008-2012

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George Stephanopoulos interviews Jerry Seinfeld & Bob Roth on the importance of Transcendental Meditation for PTSD

December 13, 2012

Jerry Seinfeld on GMAThis morning on Good Morning America, George Stephanopoulos interviewed comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Bob Roth, executive director of the David Lynch Foundation, on the importance of Transcendental Meditation for PTSD. Jerry said he’s been practicing TM for 40 years now. Both Seinfeld and Roth gave clear explanations of what TM can do for you. Jerry added his trademark humor describing how stressed George’s work was having spent the morning with him on the set. George said he’s been practicing TM for two years and it’s made a big difference. While on the set Jerry helped chef Emeril bake Christmas cookies.

Bob Roth discussed the successful application of TM for veterans and inner-city school students with PTSD. He mentioned a recent TM study published by the American Heart Association showing an almost 50% reduction in heart attacks, stroke and death in patients who regularly practiced Transcendental Meditation over a 5-year period.

Roth also mentioned Admiral Schneider, President of Norwich University, the oldest military college in the country, using Transcendental Meditation to develop resiliency in their cadets, inoculating tomorrow’s warriors against stress. See President Schneider discuss the impact of the technique at a recent Iowa Veterans Summit on PTSD and Transcendental Meditation.

Uploaded on Dec 13, 2012 by meditationchannel. Click to read a Transcript for Jerry Seinfeld on Importance of Meditation for PTSD.

Tonight at the Lincoln Center an historic jazz concert was held as a Benefit Gala to fund such projects sponsored by the David Lynch Foundation. Visit www.changebeginswithin.org to see the line up of top jazz musicians. Mail Online gave a report from the Red Carpet with photos of celebrity guests and musicians: All jazzed up: Liv Tyler steals looks on the red carpet at star-studded music gala for the David Lynch Foundation. Recapo also gave a good synopsis GMA: Jerry Seinfeld, George Stephanopoulos Transcendental Meditation. You can see photos on the m&c website: 4th Annual David Lynch Foundation Gala Pictures. Read this excellent report in BULLETT by Stella Girkins: Celebrating Transcendental Meditation at the 2012 David Lynch Foundation Benefit Gala, which also includes a video from the David Lynch Foundation: Changing Lives With Meditation. See the DLF Gala Benefit Report.

Related news: Soledad O’Brien interviews Russell Simmons and Bob Roth of the David Lynch Foundation on TM for Vets with PTS on CNN’s Starting Point and Study suggests meditation may help prevent PTSD—Boston Globe article by Bryan Bender. Elevated Existence: Jerry Seinfeld Talks About His 40 Years of Transcendental Meditation.

See the video Highlights from Jazz at Lincoln Center Benefit for David Lynch Foundation.

See the latest news on TM at Norwich University, May 10, 2016.

Watch this Feb 6, 2018 show: @GMA’s @RobinRoberts & @GStephanopoulos interview @meditationbob on his new book #StrengthInStillness: The Power of #TranscendentalMeditation.

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Free Your Mind Projects host Wendy Almasy interviews meditating stars on the red carpet at David Lynch Foundation event

December 7, 2012

FYMP

Listen to the first half of this FREE YOUR MIND PROJECT show with hosts Brian Canning and Wendy Almasy. They attended last year’s Third Annual David Lynch Foundation Benefit Gala. Wendy is joined on the red carpet at the DLF event by David Lynch, Hip Hop mogul Russell Simmons, actress Dee Wallace who shares her own personal story, and actors Cheech Marin and Robert Davie – all talking about the impact that Meditation…specifically Transcendental Meditation can make on living a healthful life. It’s proven, it works and it is something worthy to explore!

Also, a special note of thanks to the David Lynch Foundation who have taken their TM practices and teaching “to the streets” with research projects and has made incredible impact both with returning vets and young people in school through their pilot projects. Find out more at  www.davidlynchfoundation.org.

Click this short link to hear the show: http://bit.ly/TKl37Q.

Previous Free Your Mind shows on DLF and TM: Free Your Mind Project Show Discusses the David Lynch Foundation’s Commitment to 10,000 Vets and Bob Roth, Executive Director, David Lynch Foundation, Discusses Transcendental Meditation On Free Your Mind Projects Radio Show.

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