Showing posts with label Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Show all posts

Maharishi and the Beatles

by Tom Ball

The New York Times article, "The Man Who Saved the Beatles," written in response to the passing of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (February 5, 2008), is a good starting point in retelling one of the epic stories of our time. 

 


The Beatles first met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1967, while the famed meditation teacher was on a lecture tour in England. They learned his Transcendental Meditation technique and over the following months spent several weeks studying with him in Rishikesh, India.  

Maharishi died on February 5, 2008, almost 40 years after the Beatles left Rishikesh.

Much has been made in the news media and blogosphere of the Beatles' association with Maharishi and of TM's rise in popularity over the next decades. On Maharishi’s passing, the New York Times published a reassessment of the Beatles' involvement with Maharishi ("The Man Who Saved the Beatles"). The Times article underscored Maharishi's significant influence on the Beatles and their music.

How meditation resuscitated the Beatles—for a while

The India experience and the Beatles' meditation practice opened a floodgate of creativity for the band—“and got them out of what threatened to be a creative rut,” says the Times.

Describing the Beatles' time with Maharishi as the most productive period in the band's career, the article notes:

"That may seem an odd assertion, given that the group had only recently released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. But part of the point of that album was to overcome the inertia imposed by the stress of being the Beatles by posing as someone else: the Sgt. Pepper band. And although it includes some of the Beatles’ most extraordinary music ('A Day in the Life,' for starters), it had been a struggle to fill it. Lennon, after all, had based one song on the text of a circus poster ('Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite') and another on a corn flakes commercial ('Good Morning, Good Morning'), simply, he later said, as a way of fulfilling his quota. But after Rishikesh, the group found itself with more new songs than it knew what to do with."

Beatles connoisseurs, audiophiles and music writers typically hold the White Album as the Beatles' masterpiece. But fewer fans have connected the musical achievement of the White Album with the Beatles' India experience or recognized the influence of "turning within" on renewing the band's creative and lyrical power.

The process of meditation, as taught by Maharishi, is an effortless way of accessing "the infinite field of energy, creativity and intelligence that resides within everyone," as Maharishi explains. Now, four decades after the Beatles discovered the creativity-enhancing effect of transcending, hundreds of scientists in leading medical schools and research institutes around the world have empirically verified that the TM technique stimulates creativity and benefits virtually every aspect of life.

Why did they leave?
 
The Beatles each told varying accounts about why they left Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation Academy. A recent Times of India article quotes George Harrison as saying that Maharishi asked the Beatles to leave because of their drug use during the meditation course. True or not, Maharishi refrained from ever publicly shaming the Beatles.

There's no question that John's experience turned sour—not only with Maharishi, but toward the Beatles and his wife Cynthia as well. In the original lyrics of the White Album song "Sexy Sadie," Lennon overtly criticized Maharishi. By all accounts, John's accusations, ballyhooed by the press, turned out to be baseless.

After Lennon’s death (in 1980), Harrison and McCartney publicly commented on Lennon's gripe against Maharishi. McCartney notes that negative rumors about Maharishi were spread by Alexis Mardas, who, says the Times, was "a supposed inventor and charlatan who had become a Beatles insider." 

“Magic Alex,” as he was known, apparently had agendas of his own (which included wanting to be known as "the Beatles' guru"). According to many who were there, Mardas fabricated a denigrating story about Maharishi, and Lennon believed the rumors, at least for a while. Cynthia Lennon says in her biography that Mardas invented the tale to undermine Maharishi's influence on the Beatles.

George Harrison commented: "Now, historically, there's the story that something went on that shouldn't have. But nothing did... There were some flaky people around back then and we were four of them."

McCartney, in his biography, reaffirms that he did not believe the rumors and attributes them to Mardas. In a statement released at the time of Maharishi's passing, McCartney said: "I was asked for my thoughts on the passing of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and I can only say that whilst I am deeply saddened by his passing, my memories of him will only be joyful ones. He was a great man who worked tirelessly for the people of the world and the cause of unity. I will never forget the dedication that he wrote inside a book he once gave me, which read, 'Radiate bliss consciousness,' and that to me says it all. I will miss him but will always think of him with a smile."

Ringo wrote about his experience with Maharishi in his book Postcards from the Boys, stating that he still meditates with the mantra Maharishi gave him and that his time in Rishikesh was "one of the best experiences of his life." In February 2008, Ringo said of Maharishi, "One of the wisest men I met in my life was the Maharishi. I always was impressed by his joy and I truly believe he knows where he is going."

THE HISTORY CHANNEL: Setting the Record Straight on
Maharishi and the Beatles




TM keeps growing

Even now, occasional press reports still refer to Maharishi as "guru to the Beatles" and suggest that Maharishi's fame and success as a meditation teacher was related to the Beatles' involvement. 

It's true that the Beatles brought much attention to Maharishi and to meditation in general, and many people did learn the TM technique when they first heard about the practice through publicity surrounding the Beatles. 

However, after 50-plus years of the Transcendental Meditation program being taught to millions of people around the world, with more than 800 scientific studies verifying its benefits and over $26 million in research funding from the National Institutes of Health, it's obvious that the rise of the TM program in our culture has been due to the effectiveness of the technique itself.

Still meditating after all these years

The Beatles are still bringing people to meditation: Paul and Ringo played a historic benefit concert to promote the TM program in schools—at Radio City Music Hall, April 4, 2009—along with TM friends Sheryl Crow, Donovan, Ben Harper, Moby, Jim James, Paul Horn, Mike Love of the Beach Boys, Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Jerry Seinfeld, Howard Stern and others.

Yoko Ono was also there, in the audience. She told Rolling Stone: "John would have been the first one now, if he had been here, to recognize and acknowledge what Maharishi has done for the world and appreciate it."

"Maharishi did good for us"

"I still practice TM," said George Harrison in his later years. "Maharishi only ever did good for us, and though I have not been with him physically, I never left him."  In 1992, Harrison organized and performed a benefit concert to support TM practice and other of Maharishi's "consciousness-based" programs in the United Kingdom. 

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr also maintained their connection with meditation and re-established association with Maharishi’s non-profit organization. Paul's musician son James McCarthy is also a dedicated TM practitioner, and often lends his support to the David Lynch Foundation's efforts to bring the TM technique to people in need.

John Lennon would never again see Maharishi in person, but a decade later Lennon telephoned Maharishi, according to people who were present, and apologized for the lack of respect that he—as a 27-year-old Beatle—had shown toward his meditation teacher.

 
What was "Sexy Sadie" really about?

Singer/songwriter Donovan was in Rishikesh with Maharishi when the Beatles came and went. He remarks in his autobiographical documentary, "The Journey of Donovan," that John's song "Sexy Sadie" was really about the Beatles and who they were at the time, and not about Maharishi. 


PHOTO CREDIT: PAUL SALTZMAN
Paul, George and Ringo—with their varying degrees of appreciation for Maharishi—insisted at the outset that John change the chorus and title of the song. George suggested "Sexy Sadie." Perhaps in his heart John knew the truth and that's why he acquiesced. Of course, there were dozens of other (positive) Beatle songs inspired by Maharishi and the India experience—such as "Dear Prudence" and "Across the Universe," whose lyrics John considered to be the best he ever wrote. 


"Angels on earth"

It appears that Maharishi never harbored ill will towards the Beatles. Harrison's trip to visit Maharishi in the Netherlands in 1991, described in the Times of India article, adds another facet to the story. 

According to Beatles lore, when the band made their first American TV appearance, on the Ed Sullivan show, there was said to be virtually no crime in the U.S. for that entire hour. "When I heard this," Maharishi told Harrison during this visit, "I thought of the Beatles as angels on earth. They created such music for the world. It doesn't matter what John said or did. I could never be angry with them. I could never be upset with angels." On hearing this response from Maharishi, Harrison wept, says the article.

Maharishi expounded for over 50 years on the true nature of life from the perspective of Vedic knowledge. Often referred to as “the Einstein of consciousness,” Maharishi revived a lost meditation technique and established the life-transforming benefits of effective meditation on the empirical ground of science, opening the doors to higher states of consciousness for the scientific age and generations to come. Never in recorded history has one meditation technique been learned by so many millions of people during the teacher's lifetime, and with such demonstrable results. 
 
Maharishi opened the Beatles' minds and hearts to a reality much greater than Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. And it changed their lives forever.

Who was Maharishi—what is his role in TM?
Paul McCartney on Transcendental Meditation: Interview with David Lynch


Maharishi on the experience of transcendence and meeting the Beatles




Maharishi Video: How Transcendental Meditation Works

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the Transcendental Meditation program, explains the mechanics of the technique and the process of 'transcending.'

Who runs the Transcendental Meditation organization—and what's a raja?

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi founded and structured the non-profit Transcendental Meditation organization so that it would perpetuate itself and continue providing proper instruction in the TM technique, for this and future generations. At the head of the TM educational organization in each country is a chief administrator called a 'raja' (the Sanskrit word 'raja' means 'administrator' or 'one who rules'). The raja for the United States is quantum physicist John Hagelin. The chief administrator for the global TM organization is a Lebanese scientist and physician named Tony Nader, M.D., Ph.D., referred to as 'Rajaram,' meaning 'administrator of rajas.'

The TM rajas (women rajas are called 'raja rajeswaris') were successful, outstanding leaders in their fields—business, law, education, software development, scientific research, philanthropy, etc.—who shifted careers to volunteer their time to furthering meditation and helping create world peace. The rajas have also spent thousands of hours exploring the deeper, more subtle aspects of human consciousness through the Transcendental Meditation technique and its advanced programs, thereby gaining greater self-knowledge and clarity of mind to administer their areas with more efficiency and command.

Why are they called 'rajas?' 
 
Maharishi revived the ancient science of consciousness, Vedic Science, which includes various technologies for self development, prevention of disease and promotion of health and longevity. The Transcendental Meditation program is one such approach, but Maharishi also restored and systematized Vedic approaches to health care, architecture, agriculture, and even music.

From this same ancient Vedic tradition comes the profession of the raja, traditionally an administrator of a community or society, whose role is to maintain peace and order—not through weapons or show of force but through expertise in the peace-promoting approaches of Vedic Science, such as yoga and group meditation. Over the long lapse of time, the tradition of the rajas eventually dissolved and other, less peaceful means were then used to establish order. Police organizations, the criminal justice system, and the military now exist to enforce rule of law, but there has been no one responsible in modern times for creating and maintaining true peace within a nation's collective consciousness. Recognizing the current and urgent need for a non-violent means to create peace, the raja concept was reborn.

Why the special attire?

Rajas usually wear the same kind of clothes as anyone else—a jacket and tie, or more casual wear—but they also have their ceremonial attire symbolizing and identifying their profession, just as a judge, a military person or diplomat has their ceremonial attire. The raja's attire helps distinguish the role of peacekeeper and reflects the dignity of this profession. 

The original effectiveness of the Vedic approaches to develop consciousness and create peace were long lost to society, East and West, before Maharishi's revival of Vedic Science. The raja's regal attire sends a quiet message: for the good health and progress of society, it serves us well to acknowledge and honor the importance of peacekeepers and not let this cherished role in society be lost or forgotten.


For most people in Western society, the formal ceremonial attire of a raja is new—and may take some getting used to. But the raja's influence on society takes no time to get used to—everyone wants peace, everyone wants harmony and prosperity and good health. That is the function of the raja.
 
 What is the Global Country of World Peace?

Flag of the Global Country of World Peace

This is the name of the global level of the non-profit TM organization, but it also stands for the collective endeavor of all peace-loving people everywhere working to create lasting world peace—all of whom are regarded as citizens of this "country without borders." It is called a country because, like a sovereign country, it has its domain of responsibility—to help create and maintain peace within the collective consciousness of the whole world. It is not merely an organization of well-wishers or committees that meet to talk about peace. The Global Country of World Peace is dedicated to implementing scientifically proven technologies and creating the desired effects.

The charter of the Global Country of World Peace states that its purpose is to uphold and nourish every country’s constitution by softening the divisive influence of nationalism and national borders, which can sometimes arbitrarily separate humanity from humanity. The Global Country of World Peace utilizes peace-creating technologies based on the unified field of natural law.

What is natural law—and what is the unified field?

The natural sciences, such as physics, chemistry and biology, have discovered innumerable physical laws that describe nature's orderly functioning with mathematical precision. Progress in theoretical physics during the past quarter century has led to a progressively more unified understanding of the laws of nature, culminating in the recent discovery of completely unified field theories based on the superstring. These theories locate a single, universal, unified field of order at the basis of all forms and phenomena in the universe. Millions of times more fundamental and more powerful than the nuclear force, the unified field is the ultimate source of the order (or, as some may prefer, intelligence) displayed throughout the universe.

The Global Country of World Peace creates an influence of peace from this deepest, most powerful level of natural law, the level of life where everyone and everything is interconnected. By utilizing the field of organizing power that upholds all order and harmony throughout nature, the peace-creating approaches of the Global Country of World Peace defuse social stress and enliven coherence in individual and collective consciousness.

To learn more about the practical, scientific foundation of these approaches to peace, please visit: http://www.globalpeaceinitiative.net/

Video: Physicist John Hagelin explains the discovery of the unified field and how it relates to human consciousness

But TM is so simple — can it take you to higher states of consciousness?

The Transcendental Meditation program is designed for full awakening of human potential. The TM technique comes from the most long-standing tradition of meditation on earth, the Vedic tradition of India. After being long lost to society, the practice was revived by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and introduced to the modern world in 1955. The TM technique is considered by many to be the quintessential meditation practice from the world's most venerated tradition of self-development.

More researched than any other form of self-development, the TM technique is the only meditation practice found by independent scientific studies to have such a broad, holistic range of benefits for mind, body and behavior.

Spiritual growth is easy: Before Maharishi introduced the Transcendental Meditation technique, the common thinking was that it is difficult to directly experience the Transcendent, the most deeply settled and expansive state of human consciousness — unbounded awareness — and even more difficult to attain the highest states of consciousness. There was, and still is, much misunderstanding about meditation and the process of transcending. 

To transcend means to settle inward in meditation beyond all mental activity, to experience the silent field of pure awareness at the source of thought. Perhaps unknowingly, many people of good intention still promote meditation practices that obstruct the mind's natural tendency to settle inward or completely transcend. While non-transcending-type practices have their range of benefits, in the Vedic tradition effortless transcending is known to be the key to unfolding the highest stages of human development.

Simplicity: It's been said that anyone can get complicated, but it takes a true genius to be simple. The TM technique's simplicity is what renders it so effective. Maharishi once remarked, "It is my joy to make the difficult simple."

Full awakening of human consciousness, the state of Enlightenment, is everyone's birthright. The world just needed a fully effective practice that makes the process simple and easy—and a systematic, scientific knowledge of consciousness to render higher states comprehensible. The world needed a scientific age for humanity to have a clear vision of possibilities for life on earth through unfolding higher stages of development. This is what the TM program is ultimately all about.


Video: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi — Life in Enlightenment

David Lynch interviews Paul McCartney about Transcendental Meditation




How can anyone put a price on Transcendental Meditation?

Meditators often say that you can't put a price on the Transcendental Meditation technique—because it's priceless.

Is is true that nothing spiritual should have a price tag on it, or that anything this good that will make the world better should be taught for free?

If the TM technique is everyone's birthright, as TM's founder, Maharishi, always said, then why not give it out to everyone free of charge? 

That would be great, if it were possible, but unfortunately that's not how the world works.

Take water, for example. Certainly it should be everyone's birthright to have pure water. And how could anyone put a price on water, natural and essential to every living being?


Yet, every month, most of us get an envelop in the mail from the water department. We open it and pay the bill to keep the water flowing. Have we put a price on something natural and essential that's everyone's birthright? Not really, it seems.


Water is of infinite value because we couldn't live without it, but we still pay our finite water bill. When we do, we're not placing a monetary value on water itself. We're paying the cost of getting the water to us, of being able to conveniently turn on the spigot to let the water flow. We're paying the cost of keeping the water pure and consistently available. We're paying for the delivery system.

When a person pays their course fee to learn the TM technique, they're not paying an amount that people in a boardroom somewhere determined was the value of the technique. If the TM course fee were set at even a fraction of the technique's true worth (in health care savings alone), few of us could afford it. 

So what does the course fee pay for? It pays for the cost of getting the technique to you in its pure form — meaning, in its original effectiveness. You could say you're paying for the convenient system that allows you to turn on the spigot and enjoy the consistent, satisfying results of tapping into your deepest inner reserves.

The TM technique is a tool for accessing the reservoir of limitless creativity and intelligence that resides within everyone. It's every person's birthright to be able to dive within and experience that inner treasury. But without proper instruction in the use of an effective technique for transcending, that experience remains pretty much out of reach for most people — left up to chance or to the realm of imagining or conceptualizing. Without an effortless, natural way to experience the mind's full, untapped potential, and without the knowledge that the transcendent exists within easy reach, a person may live an entire life not knowing this experience and never making use of the infinite possibilities of human consciousness. This lack of knowledge is said to be the cause of all suffering and problems in society.

Maintaining the delivery system: Teaching the TM technique is time-intensive for the teacher. When you pay the initial TM course fee, you're paying for the expert services rendered and you're helping sustain the non-profit organization that will always be there to offer you lifelong guidance and support that comes with learning the TM technique. Once you've learned, without any further cost you'll always have access to the trained and experienced TM teachers who can give you continuing knowledge and will make sure you're practicing meditation correctly. ("Correctly" means: in the natural, effortless way that leads to maximum benefits.) 

You're paying the cost of getting the water to you and maintaining the delivery system, so that others after you will not go thirsty.

If the TM technique were no different, in practice and results, from any other form of meditation, or if you could learn it from a book or on your own, there would be no reason for TM teachers to be trained, no reason for the seven-step TM course or the follow-up and support, no reason for the non-profit organization and no reason for the course fee.  The program's founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, would have had no reason for leaving the Himalayas to offer this technique to the world.

But the Transcendental Meditation technique is very different from other meditation practices, and you cannot learn the technique properly on your own or from a book.

If it's possible for human life to be lived in a state of harmony, happiness, progress and well-being, if peace is possible — for each of us individually and the society as a whole — then, considering mankind's history of suffering, clearly something very basic has been missing from human life. 

Maharishi taught that it is the direct experience of transcending that has been missing, the natural process of going beyond the surface, active levels of the mind to experience pure, silent, unbounded awareness, the inner source of all our energy, creativity and intelligence. 

The TM technique had been lost to society for many centuries before Maharishi introduced it in 1955. To help ensure that it doesn't get lost again, the technique is taught in this systematic, standardized way. Learning may require one-on-one instruction, a few classes and a course fee, but that's a small price to pay for what you're getting. By making your contribution to the program, you're helping preserve the technique for this and future generations. 

Filmmaker David Lynch answers this question
   

"The Flow of Consciousness" — by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi


New: The Flow of Consciousness: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on Language and Literature 
 
By Rhoda F. Orme-Johnson, Ph.D. and Susan K. Anderson, Ph.D.

Over the years, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi recorded many brilliant, inspiring lectures on the literary process, as well as on critical theory and technique, emphasizing the relevance of the state of consciousness of both writer and reader. This volume is a collection of several of those lectures recorded between 1971 and 1976.

Immersing oneself in the transcripts of Maharishi's lectures allows readers to feel his presence, to hear his voice, his rhythms of speech, his humor, and to appreciate his skill as a teacher. It is a journey through a great mind and an exploration of a topic familiar and beloved by all. Price: $22.95 Click here to purchase from MUM press
Is it possible to create lasting world peace?


If 50 demonstration projects and 23 published scientific studies can be believed, the answer is Yes.

If this large body of evidence — accepted and published by mainstream scientific journals — is accurate, groups of peace-creating experts practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique and its advanced programs can dramatically reduce violent crime, terrorism, and war.

If the scientific evidence is meaningful, ancient sages were correct about the peace-creating power of meditation. Modern science and timeless wisdom have come together in a practical, powerful technology of peace.

This discovery is offered to all who love peace — and to all who wish to protect their nations against terrorism and war.
Knowledge is power.

The goal of the Transcendental Meditation program is to empower people everywhere with knowledge that can be used to create peace for oneself and others — timeless knowledge about the power of consciousness as brought to light by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and validated thoroughly in scientific research.

This newly verified technology makes use of large groups of peace-creating experts. The inner peace generated by such a peace-creating group radiates into society as an influence of harmony and coherence. The effect can be easily measured as reduced crime, terrorism and war.

To learn more more about this unique approach to create lasting world peace, please visit www.permanentpeace.org or www.tm.org/benefits-society-and-peace

I don't have to get into a guru or follow a teaching?

Absolutely not. Learning and practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique is way simpler than that. TM is a technique, not a belief system. It's sort of like learning to dive, when you just stand above the water, take the correct angle, and let go — nature (gravity) does the rest. When you learn the TM technique, you learn how to dive effortlessly into your deepest, inner Being, to experience the reservoir of unbounded happiness, creativity and intelligence that resides within everyone. This is the state of restful alertness identified by so many scientific research studies on the TM technique — the brain becomes more coherent and the body gains deep rest.

The founder of the TM program, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, is regarded by many as a great teacher. But Maharishi did not play the role of "guru with followers." Rather, he offered a powerful knowledge and practice that helps anyone reduce stress and unfold their inner potential. The TM technique is a tool you can use and enjoy on your own — for the rest of your life.

The knowledge of how to use this tool — how the TM technique works and what it does — is not some teaching to be followed or believed in, but a set of simple, scientific principles that explain the process of transcending, principles verified through your own direct experience.

"I have no followers," Maharishi once remarked to a reporter who asked how many followers Maharishi had. "Everyone follows their own progress."

Who was Maharishi—what is his role in TM?

What if I'm not a "joiner?"


Myth #7: Yikes! It's a cult!

Dr. Sandeep Chaudhary, Medical Director of Endocrinology, Scripps Memorial Hospital:   
"If anyone is concerned that the TM program might be some kind of religious sect or cult, then just ask yourself: How many so-called cults have had their program researched by teams of scientists who've received nearly $30 million in U.S. government research grants from the NIH (National Institutes of Health), or offer programs validated by peer-reviewed research studies published in hundreds of refereed medical and scientific journals, including the American Medical Association’s Archives of Internal Medicine or the American Heart Association's journal Cardiology?

"How many religious sects have offered AMA-approved continuing education courses for physicians, or teach systematic instruction in a technique that’s regularly featured in brain research presentations at the American Psychological Association’s annual conferences, and highlighted in the American College of Cardiology press releases for benefits to cardiovascular health?

"The distinguished recognition and scientific validation goes on and on." ________________________________________________________

The Transcendental Meditation technique involves no beliefs or dogma and no change in lifestyle. Research shows that the practice creates coherence in the brain's prefrontal cortex and thereby improves discrimination, comprehension and focus—the basis of critical thinking. Scientific studies show that the technique creates self-sufficiency and heightens self-actualization.

All of these effects suggest the exact opposite of "cult." TM is not something you join, it's a technique you practice for your own personal benefit—like yoga or jogging, but with its own holistic range of effects.

"Cult" is often a derogatory label some people use to denounce any group they think they don't like. Granted, there are harmful, dangerous groups in the world, but by any rational standards the TM organization is not one of them.

As a meditator recently told me: "When I do TM, I'm minding my own business. Nothing that I do on my own, in my room, by myself, for my own personal benefit, is a cult. Even doing the group meditations, I am just minding my own business. When you're transcending, you're totally free from anyone telling you what to do or think."

Numerous peer-reviewed studies show that TM practice develops independent, responsible, creative thinking. The founder of the TM program, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, rather than positioning himself as a "spiritual leader" with followers, was known for encouraging personal independence, integration with society and good citizenship.

Improved Brain Functioning:
TM practice creates brainwave coherence (in the frequency of high amplitude alpha) throughout the frontal regions of the brain, and in the left and right hemispheres and posterior regions, clearly distinguishing the technique from hypnosis and other forms of meditation. Researchers have long known that most experiences (including hypnotic trance) activate only small, specific areas of the brain. Studies indicate that the Transcendental Meditation technique enlivens and coordinates synchronous brain activity over a wide area — stimulating what neuroscientists call “more efficient, integrated brain functioning.”

Dozens of peer-reviewed studies on brain patterns of people practicing the TM technique show heightened brainwave coherence during meditation, and, more importantly, the studies show that this coherence grows in daily life outside of meditation, over time, as one continues practicing.

Brainwave coherence is healthy and desirable for many reasons: it's associated with increased intelligence and creativity, improved moral reasoning and self-actualization. Neuroscientists tell us that everything good about our brains depends on its healthy, coherent and orderly functioning.

Enhanced Critical Thinking:

According to research studies, the area of the brain most immediately affected by TM practice is the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for higher-level discrimination and decision making. The TM technique is found to bring the prefrontal cortex more fully "online," directly enhancing the neurological basis of "critical thinking"—application of one's higher discriminatory powers.

Also, research shows that reaction time is faster after TM practice and that creativity, IQ, comprehension, and problem-solving abilities improve. Those who practice the technique actually become less susceptible to suggestion and control by other people, as shown by measures of increased discrimination, self-sufficiency and self-concept. People practicing the technique also display greater field independence (sharper focus along with broader comprehension), which psychologists associate with leadership qualities, self-reliance and independent thinking. (Consciousness and Cognition, 8, 302-318, 1999; International Journal of Neuroscience 14: 147–151, 1981: Cognitive Processing, 11, 1, 2010)

Students of the Maharishi School (K-12) in Fairfield, Iowa, where the Transcendental Meditation technique is an integral part of the curriculum, are famous among educators and students for their consistent wins, year after year, at national and world championship competitions involving critical, creative and innovative thinking. 

In reality, the TM technique is a beneficial mental practice that people do for their own well-being, and the organization teaching it (Maharishi Foundation) is a collection of people enjoying their daily meditations and striving to help create more peace in the world.

Phillip Goldberg, author of "American Veda" and writer for the Huffington Post:

"I've found that some people will call any unconventional spiritual movement a cult. If you stretch the definition far enough the term fits an awful lot of organizations, making it a useless term... The TM Movement is incredibly benign. Most people recognize that. But there are always the loud, angry, disappointed folks... Other movements that started in the 70s have far more anger directed at them, from far more people, in far harsher terms—they're flaming all over the internet and in support groups. Compared to them, TM's detractors are like people dropping notes in a suggestion box." 

• Who runs the TM organization—and what is a raja?




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