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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.