University of Virginia Library

Curing The Dull Life

By RICHARD JONES

CD/Jay Adams

Typical of idealistically
minded youth concentrated in
an academic environment,
increasing numbers of young
people are flocking towards a
new movement to cure the
dulling effects of mechanized
existence.

This movement is
Transcendental Meditation
(TM) a yoga-derived technique
of "tapping the unlimited
reservoir of energy and creative
intelligence of the mind."

According to Larry
Wardwell, local coordinator
for Students' International
Meditation Society (SIMS), TM
is an automatic process that
occurs spontaneously "from
the first time a person
meditates and it does not
require any self-control of
discipline."

TM is practiced for 15-20
minutes twice a day during
which time "dramatic
physiological effects take
place."

Now research scientists have
confirmed that actual
physiological changes take
place during meditation.
Harvard's Dr. Herbert Benson
and R. Keith Wallace reported
in the American Journal of
Physiology that the metabolic
rate of persons decreased
significantly during
transcendental meditation.

They also reported that the
heart pumped less frequently,
the participant's body
produced less carbon dioxide,
and the electrical resistance of
the skin, an indicator of
emotional tension increased
significantly demonstrating that
the mediator was relaxed.

"The effect of these changes
during meditation," Mr.
Wardwell says, "is that a fourth
major state of consciousness is
produced (distinct from
waking, dreaming, or deep
sleep) which is called by
scientists a state of restful
alertness.

SIMS, a non-profit
educational organization,
describes TM in this way: "It is
a natural technique which
allows the conscious mind to
experience increasingly subtle
states of thought until the
source of thought is reached."

These physiological changes,
suggest Dr. Wallace and
Benson, may explain why
addicts could substitute TM for
drugs. In a study, they had
found that 95 per cent of
1,862 drug users who had tried
TM for at least three months
had given up drugs because
they felt that "their subjective
meditation was superior to
what they had achieved
through drugs."

However, Dr. Benson added
that "the reports were very
biased since it reported only on
people who had continually
practiced meditation for three
months or more."

A prerequisite for the four
one-hour lessons in which the
basic techniques are taught is
abstention from dope. According
to Mr. Wardwell, marijuana or
other drugs interfere with the
technique of TM.

Yet, an interesting point to
make is that TM imitators,
teachers, do not prohibit the
use of cigarettes or alcohol for
a brief period of time before
learning the process.

Evidently they consider the
effects of drugs harmful, as
does the law, while
de-emphasizing the effects of
alcohol and cigarettes, as does
the law.

To be qualified to teach this
technique, initiators must have
been meditating for at least
two years and be trained by
the Maharishi in a three month
course.

SIMS is the organization
behind the teaching effort. It
asks a fee of $35 from college
students and $75 from working
adults. The fees do not pay the
teachers but coordinate
teaching advertise and set up
lectures and fund advanced
lectures for people already
practicing the technique.