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Different practices have radically different affects on the brain,Transcendental Meditation, and ACEM, a practice derived from TM, are the only meditation practices that do NOT reduce teh mind-wandering activity of the brain’s main resting network.However, the only published study on EEG coherence in ACEM shows that it does NOT have the effect of increasing alpha1 EEG coherence. The founder of ACEM thought that TM’s discussion of “pure consciousenss” was a “woo” thing, and so didn’t care about any description of “deeper” levels of consciousness so he didn’t care that ACEM shows no sign of ever allowing the deepest levels found in TM to emerge..So, I’ll discuss TM and you can understand that this applies ONLY to TM.TM allows the brain’s activity to move “deeper” in the direction of the deepest level.The Yoga Sutras describe this as “samadhi” or “absorption” — the trend for reducing mental activity in the brain in the direction of zero [experienceable] mental activity.The Yoga Sutras break this down into two parts:Samadhi with an object of attention takes the form of gross mental activity, then subtle mental activity, bliss and the state of amness.-Yoga Sutras I.17Should the process complete itself, than all mental activity [apparently] ceases:The other state, samadhi without object of attention, follows the repeated experience of cessation, though latent impressions [samskaras] remain.-Yoga Sutras I.18TM researchers have published several studies on this deepest (well, second deepest as “latent” or “residual” mental activity can continue even after you cease being aware of such) meditation state:Breath Suspension During the Transcendental Meditation TechniqueElectrophysiologic characteristics of respiratory suspension periods occurring during the practice of the Transcendental Meditation Program.Metabolic rate, respiratory exchange ratio, and apneas during meditation. [full text not available online]Autonomic patterns during respiratory suspensions: possible markers of Transcendental Consciousness.Autonomic and EEG patterns distinguish transcending from other experiences during Transcendental Meditation practice.This state appears to emerge when the the part of the thalamus that allows the brain to be aware of anything at all, both external sensory perception, and internal mental processes, temporarily shuts down.This situation allows resting networks to trend towards full activiation even as doing networks trend towarsd complete inactivation due to lack of conscious interference/reinforcement, and so the brain is able to repair and rebalance its own activity int he most efficient way. All of a TM session can be understood in terms of the activity of hte thalamus cycling somewhere between normal relaxation and the complete cessation of awareness during this [almost] deepest state. The deepest state is theoretical: where all such repair/rebalancing is done, leaving complete cessation of all doing activity even as the brain fully rests:"In the settling of that state also, all is calmed, and what remains is unbounded wakefulness."-Yoga Sutras I.51The EEG signature of this state is apha1 EEG coherence, especially in teh frontal lobes, and the generator of that coherence appears to be the primary resting network of the brain — the “mind-wandering” default mode network (DMN) — where sense-of-self comes from.By alternating TM and normal activity, this lower-noise form, more-efficient form of rest starts to become the new normal outside of meditation, as shown by increasing alpha1 EEG coherence, first during eyes-closed rest, and then more and more, even during demanding activity:Long-term TMers start to appreciate the above change in physical activity in the brain as a quieter sense-of-self. If/when that lower-noise rest becomes sufficiently low-noise, self is appreciated simply as I am rather than I am doing.Once this resting activity becomes stable enough, that stable, silent I am is appreciated during any activity, regardless of how stressful a task, continuously, whether one is awake, dreaming or in deepest sleep:A list of many of the studies that have been done on the topics of TM, samadhi/pure consciousness and enlightenment can be found here..As part of the studies on enlightenment via TM, researchers found 17 subjects (average meditation, etc experience 16,000 hours) who were reporting at least having a pure sense-of-self continuously for at least a year, and asked them to "describe yourself" (see table 3 of psychological correlates study), and these were some of the responses:We ordinarily think my self as this age; this color of hair; these hobbies . . . my experience is that my Self is a lot larger than that. It's immeasurably vast. . . on a physical level. It is not just restricted to this physical environmentIt's the ‘‘I am-ness.’’ It's my Being. There's just a channel underneath that's just underlying everything. It's my essence there and it just doesn't stop where I stop. . . by ‘‘I,’’ I mean this 5 ft. 2 person that moves around here and thereI look out and see this beautiful divine Intelligence. . . you could say in the sky, in the tree, but really being expressed through these things. . . and these are my SelfI experience myself as being without edges or content. . . beyond the universe. . . all-pervading, and being absolutely thrilled, absolutely delighted with every motion that my body makes. With everything that my eyes see, my ears hear, my nose smells. There's a delight in the sense that I am able to penetrate that. My consciousness, my intelligence pervades everything I see, feel and thinkWhen I say ’’I’’ that's the Self. There's a quality that is so pervasive about the Self that I'm quite sure that the ‘‘I’’ is the same ‘‘I’’ as everyone else's ‘‘I.’’ Not in terms of what follows right after. I am tall, I am short, I am fat, I am this, I am that. But the ‘‘I’’ part. The ‘‘I am’’ part is the same ‘‘I am’’ for you and meThis EEG coherence pattern is associated with success in life. The highst levels were the above “enlightened” subjects.The second highest levels ever measured were not the long-term (but not enlightened) subjects in that study, but world-champion athletes from a different study:The list of people who have learned Transcendental Meditation on Wikipedia who learned TM as children or young adults and continue to practice it 10–50 years later, reads like the Who’s Who of hte most successful and creative people in teh world.At the K-12 school associated with the TM university in Iowa, all the kids do TM and all the older kids do practices meant to hasten the emergence of this coherent alpha1 EEG, that is, meant to speed up growth towards enlightenment. Despite being open admissions, between 15 and 10% of the high school have been state, and/or national, and/or world champions in *something* nearly every year for the past 30 years.The TM organization insists that any school, school system, state or country that adopts the practices wholesale will see the same kind of thing in their children.In fact, the David Lynch Foundation has taught 200,000 children TM in Latin America and about half learned the more advanced practices that speed up growth towards enlightenment, such as TM’s levitation technique (shown in this video of “levitating” boy. scouts):The children are in the care of a Roman Catholic priest who teaches TM and the above as therapy for PTSD. He’s been given awards by the Roman Catholic Church and nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and the World’s Children’s prize for his work:Gabriel Mej­ía, CMF, "Archbishop Romero Prize- 2008"Gabriel Mejía, the Colombian priest who rescues addicts with meditationGabriel Mejía Montoya - World's Children's Prizeand was Colombia’s representative to the recent Vatican conference on addiction. An old friend said “hi” to conference participants, and stuck around to hear the priest’s lecture about how TM and TM’s levitaiton practice were the secret sauce that made his rehabilitation program the most successful in the world. Yes, that’s the Pope:Hogares Claret Founder at the “DRUGS AND ADDICTIONS: AN OBSTACLE TO INTEGRAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT”It isn’t lost on the governments of Latin America that the CHurch doesn’t object to a priest teaching these crazy things to children, and after the governments did their own research on how TM and levitation affect kids, various contracts have been signed to teach TM and levitation to all public school children on a state or even national level.Ecuador and Peru signed a contract to years ago to have one thousand public school teachers in each country trained to teach the practices and they completed their training in January 2019, and are now teaching 2 million children TM in Ecuador and 1.5 million children TM in Peru. The goal is to have all learn TM by 2023 or so, and then train the school teachers to teach levitation and related practices as well, and so train all the kids in those as soon as possible.These out-of-date videos give a feel for some of the projects in some countries:Transforming Lives and Changing NationsThe project first started in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico in 2011, and so there is the most press coverage of the project in that Mexican state.Here's an article about the contract with COBAO — the college preparatory high schools of Oaxaca: COBAO and the David Lynch Foundation sign collaboration agreementHere's an article about teaching levitation in one specific COBAO highs school: Students from the 46th COBAO campus participate in the meditation program.Here's an article about teachers and administrators in the COBAO schools being trained by the DLF to run the program: The David Lynch Foundation teaches education diploma based on consciousness (note that the long-term goal is to train school teachers to be TM teachers and eventually train them to teach more advanced practices).Here’s a video snapshot of the project in 2016 (note the chairs for meditaiton by some kids, and foam rubber for levitation practice in schools where the children now qualify to learn that practice as well):The projects are still ongoing as of 2018 at least: STRENGTHEN IEBO EDUCATION OF STUDENTS THROUGH MEDITATIONSo, I don’t know what research has been published on Silva techniques, active visualization, etc., but I’m aware of no lectures that the Pope has attended on any of those, or of government contracts to teach them to millions of kids.Likewise, I’m not aware of any President or Prime Minister issuing calendars or postage stamps to celebrate their founder’s life’s work in bringing any of those programs to the world as happened this year for the founder of TM:Wall callender Ayush English Wall CalendarAnd Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, presided over the introduction of the postage stamps:Master Healers of AYUSHAYUSH Systems of healthcare form the foundation of India’s Medical Heritage. These systems are not merely sciences of Disease and Drug, but have their own conceptual frameworks touching at every aspect of health. Path-finding visionaries have appeared in each of different streams of AYUSH at different times in history and made notable contributions to the growth and the development of respective streams.The Ministry of AYUSH is privileged to bring out Commemorative Stamps as its humble homage of the nation to 12 such Master Healers of AYUSH systems from the modern era.Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: Known for original contributions to Yoga and Meditation, he is remembered most for developing the Transcendental Meditation technique. The Shankaracharya of JyotirMath,Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, was his guru. From 1955 Maharishi travelled around India and the world to spread his message of peace and spirituality, and inspired thousands of followers. His legacy lives on through the numerous books that he authored, and the many institutions that he set up, including the Maharishi International University (later renamed Maharishi University of Management).[Prime Minsiter Modi of India is the guy in orange]So, if you know of any such awards made to honor the other practices and the person who brought them to the world, you should pay more attention to them, I think.Until then, there’s TM.

Psychological stress, yes.In fact, after these two studies on the effects of Transcendental Meditation on PTSD in war refugees were published, the United Nations started a research program to decide whether or not to have UN disaster relief workers trained as TM teachers:Reduction in posttraumatic stress symptoms in Congolese refugees practicing transcendental meditation.Another study found that most of the reduction in PTSD symptoms took place during the first 10 days of TM practice:Significant reductions in posttraumatic stress symptoms in Congolese refugees within 10 days of Transcendental Meditation practice.The most famous Roman Catholic priest in Latin America is a TM teacher.He’s been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and the World’s Children’s Prize for his work with children, which includes teaching them TM as therapy for PTSD:Gabriel Mejía, the Colombian priest who rescues addicts with meditationGabriel Mejía Montoya - World's Children's PrizeThe priest has enough on his plate running 52 shelters with 800 staff that serve 4,000 children every year, so the David Lynch Foundation sends TM teachers to help him teach (all children and all 800 staff learn and practice TM twice-daily). The DLF did a documentary about his work that is well worth watching: Saving the Disposable Ones (a “disposable one” is Colombian slang for “homeless, drug-addicted child prostitute).The David Lynch Foundation has taught TM to about 200,000 children in Latin America and about half have learned TM’s levitation technique.This “after” video is of Father Mejia’s children. Every child was a gang-member, required to murder someone as an initiation rite; or a child rebel, forced at gunpoint to slaughter villagers; or a homeless, drug-addicted child prostitute… only 6–18 months earlier (note group meditation at 1:45 and group “levitation” at 2:02):Recently, he gave a presentation at the Vatican on how TM and TM’s “levitation” practice are the secret sauce that makes his rehabilitation program the most successful in the world (yes, that’s the Pope, and yes, Pope Francis heard a lecture about meditation and levitation at the Vatican and how they affect stress in children):Hogares Claret Founder at the “DRUGS AND ADDICTIONS: AN OBSTACLE TO INTEGRAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT”It isn’t lost on the governments of Latin America that the Pope won’t condemn a priest for teaching such things to children (in fact, the Church has given their own award to him for his work: Gabriel Mej­ía, CMF, “Archbishop Romero Prize- 2008”).Over teh past 8 years, the David Lynch Foundation has taught 200,000 children TM in Latin America with about half learning levitation and the rest of the TM-SIdhis practices. They prefer to teach entire schools or school systems to meditate (and levitate) and invite the relevant state and national governments to monitor the result.Such results, combined with the priest’s awards, and the Church’s stance towards TM — Medical students learn meditation to counter stress, promote physician wellness — various state and national governments have contracted to have all the chidlren in a given state or country learn TM. The largest projects are in Peru and Ecuador, where teh governments contracted to have one thousand public school teachers trained as TM teachers. These school teachers are now back in their home schools and their government job is to teach all children in the largest province in each country to meditate. Two million children Ecuador and another 1.5 million in Peru are due to learn TM by 2023 or so. As the children meet the age and meditation-requirements, the school teachers will receive further training and teach them all levitation as well.Other countries and states have similar contracts.The projects in Oaxaca, Mexico are the most mature, so there are the most independent news articles available to verify my claims:Here's an article about the contract with COBAO — the college preparatory high schools of Oaxaca: COBAO and the David Lynch Foundation sign collaboration agreementHere's an article about teaching levitation in one specific COBAO highs school: Students from the 46th COBAO campus participate in the meditation program.Here's an article about teachers and administrators in the COBAO schools being trained by the DLF to run the program: The David Lynch Foundation teaches education diploma based on consciousness (note that the long-term goal is to train school teachers to be TM teachers and eventually train them to teach more advanced practices).This video is a snapshot of the program as of 2016. Note that some kids meditate in chairs while others sit on cushion for the “hopping like a frog” stage of levitation practice:The projects are still ongoing as of 2018 at least: Strengthen IEBO Education of Students Through Meditation.All told, the TM organization has government contracts to teach 7.5 million children to meditate.Based on the results from the priest’s rehab program, the national governments of Colombia and Mexico now mandate TM and levitaiton in all national prisons, and the inmates are being taught as fast as new TM teachers can be trained to meet the demand.In fact, should all current government-sponsored research on TM and related practices go as expected, the TM organization projects that by 2030, about 100,000 thousand government workers — school teachers, prison and military chaplains, doctors, nurses, UN disaster relief workers, etc — will be trained as TM teachers and their day job will be to teach 100 million people TM.Meanwhile, in the USA, various Phase-2 level studies have been so successful that the TM organization is raising money and seeking partnerships with research universities and hospitals to do Phase 3 trials in three areas:PTSD and TM;hypertension & heart health and TM;student behavior & academic outcome and TM.The most dramatic research thus far are the preliminary findings from this Phase 2 level randomized control study on several thousand students being done by the University of Chicago:So far, students trained in transcendental meditation have violent crime arrest rates about 65% to 70% lower than their peers and have reduced blood pressure,[Jonathan Guryan, faculty co-director of the University of Chicago’s education lab,] saidEqually dramatic phase 2 results for hypertension and PTSD have been published as well, and so if the phase 3 trials (done on thousands of subjects in multiple schools/hospitals/veterans facilities) find similar results, the TM organization hopes to see the federal government fund TM instruction for all public schools that accept Title 1 funding, as well as support from the Veterans Administration for teaching all veterans with PTSD, as well having insurance companies in the USA pay for TM instruction for anyone with hypertension or cardiac issues.These studies will take 4–7 years to complete.So yes, over the next decade, TM at least should become the most used treatment for stress in the Western Hemisphere. Similar projects are under way in Africa, as well as in Europe and Southeast Asia, and the TM organization is currently talking with the Chinese government about such programs as well.Meanwhile, in India, the government recently issued a commemorative calendar and postage stamp to honor the life’s work of the founder of TM:Wall callender Ayush English Wall CalendarMASTER HEALERS OF AYUSHAYUSH Systems of healthcare form the foundation of India’s Medical Heritage. These systems are not merely sciences of Disease and Drug, but have their own conceptual frameworks touching at every aspect of health. Path-finding visionaries have appeared in each of different streams of AYUSH at different times in history and made notable contributions to the growth and the development of respective streams.The Ministry of AYUSH is privileged to bring out Commemorative Stamps as its humble homage of the nation to 12 such Master Healers of AYUSH systems from the modern era.Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: Known for original contributions to Yoga and Meditation, he is remembered most for developing the Transcendental Meditation technique. The Shankaracharya of JyotirMath,Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, was his guru. From 1955 Maharishi travelled around India and the world to spread his message of peace and spirituality, and inspired thousands of followers. His legacy lives on through the numerous books that he authored, and the many institutions that he set up, including the Maharishi International University.Prime Minister Modi (in orange) introduced the stamps in August. These are excerpts from the point in his talk where he honored MMY specifically:So even in India, recognition for the value of TM is taking off.