Thursday, December 5, 1996
Practitioners of Transcendental Meditation report mental and
health benefits on just 40 minutes a dayBy Rachel Kelley
Daily Bruin Contributor
A break from concentration is not something college students
have a chance to experience very often these days, especially with
final exams right around the corner.
However some students, such as David Smith, a second-year
business economics student, are finding that constant studying
doesn’t always yield desired grades, but practicing Transcendental
Meditation (TM) just might.
"I’m normally a very skeptical person. I would never even
consider (meditating), but I’ll do anything for my grades," said
Smith, who recently began practicing TM.
Meditation is a process in which one experiences a unique state
of restful alertness. Done for 20 minutes twice a day, the mind is
silent but active, and therefore allows people to use more of their
intelligence and creativity, according to Ted Weissman, co-director
of the Maharishi Vedic School and Transcendental Meditation
Program
It is practiced by over 4 million people worldwide, according to
Weissman.
Students who want to start the program to better their grades
often find that the first step toward achieving that goal includes
an improvement in organizing their thoughts. This is something they
accomplish through meditation, Weissman added.
"It used to be that when I had a lot of things to do, I’d end up
doing one out of 10 things that needed to get done. Now it’s like,
boom  do this, boom  do that and it’s done," Smith
said.
Smith also sees the ability to apply what he has learned in the
classroom as an attractive feature of TM.
"Instead of just memorizing something and writing it down on
paper, (the information) will be ingrained in my head. This is what
I want to be able to do," Smith said.
In addition to academic enhancement, Robert Keith Wallace,
chairman of the department of biology and physiology at the
Maharishi University of Management in Iowa, claims TM can help
students determine who they are.
By combining the educational process with an increased level of
consciousness, students can use the knowledge that they’ve gained
to establish their identities, Wallace said.
According to Weissman, some of the students he has encountered
through the TM program are "disappointed when they come to school
and find out what higher learning really is. A university education
gives you knowledge of the object but it doesn’t teach you how to
be happy or how to have successful relationships," he said.
TM improves social behavior by transcending the mind to a level
of consciousness that eliminates darkness and prevents people from
making mistakes, said Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of TM.
But to Smith, who attended the introductory lecture on the
benefits of TM, this effect seems almost too good to be true.
"One question I meant to ask (the lecturer) was how come this
hasn’t turned up in school districts if it’s so wonderful," Smith
said. "It’s not a religion, it’s a technique," he added.
However, what many people do not know is that entire
universities have been founded on the philosophy of TM, Weissman
said.
The Maharishi University of Management located in Iowa was the
first educational institution in the United States to adopt the TM
program. Their studies have shown that crime rates dramatically
decreased in the college town, where more than 1 percent of the
population practices TM, Weissman said.
Despite documentation of the profound effects of TM,
practitioners themselves are not totally convinced that world peace
is a realistic goal.
"On a small scale, people do indeed feel better about
themselves. But on a larger scale the problem is finding enough
people who have an open mind," said second-year art student Leila
Fakouri, who recently began practicing TM. "People always try and
fix problems from the outside in, but they should be fixed from the
inside out."
For many people skeptical of the social and cultural
implications of TM practice, stress relief is reason enough for
them to devote 20 minutes each morning and night to meditation.
According to Wallace, who began research on the physiological
effects of TM in his graduate studies at UCLA , there are numerous
health benefits to practicing TM.
"When a person meditates, the body goes into a deep state of
rest where metabolic activity decreases, breath rate decreases and
skin resistance increases which is a sign of relaxation," Wallace
said. Recent studies have also shown an 87 percent decrease in
heart disease among people who practice TM, Wallace added.
Many students have compared TM to exercise.
"Even if you do it once a week, it still does something positive
for your body. But the more often you do it, the better you’ll
feel," Fakouri said. "People get wrapped up in their daily lives
and they don’t take the time to do anything All you have to be able
to do (to practice TM) is think and have a place to sit," she
added.
The simplicity of TM is what distinguishes this form of
meditation from others, Maharishi said. "Other (techniques) are
hard working procedures. This is so easy. It is effortless …
Everyone knows how to sleep. Resting is a very natural process. One
rests  one feels better, relaxed."
Contrary to popular belief, Maharishi feels that success is
brought about by the support of nature, by aligning one’s
consciousness with the sun, the moon, and the stars and not by hard
work.
"Working hard is the wrong principle," Maharishi said, who
follows the philosophy of natural law.
Natural law has been established in the United States by the
creation the the Natural Law political party. Standing for
prevention-oriented government, the party’s platform includes an
implementation of the TM program in prisons, its home page
states.
Although the 1996 Natural Law presidential candidate, John
Hagelin, a Harvard-trained quantum physicist, only received 110,000
votes, Maharishi still believes that by meditating 20 minutes
morning and evening we will be "brilliant leaders in society and
create peace in the world and happiness everywhere."
If you would like to know more information about TM, call (310)
459-3522. Introductory lectures will be offered at UCLA next
quarter.