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Research
Scientific Research on Consciousness-Based Education
(in particular the efficacy of using the Transcendental Meditation™
technique) have shown benefits in the following areas:
Education -
Development of the Mind
What makes using the Consciousness-Based Education
curriculum so effective is its ability to directly develop the container
of knowledge - the individual consciousness of the student.
Improved learning ability and academic performance - View
chart
Increased creativity and practical intelligence
- View charts
Broader Comprehension and Ability to Focus -
View chart
Health -
Development of the Physiology
It is much easier to learn in the classroom setting
when the body is able to both support and nourish intellectual and artistic
activity. Students at our school learn about good eating habits in their
study of Maharishi Ayurved. Simple tools that enable self assessment of
the physiology are also taught enabling students to easily monitor the
status of their own health.
Increased Self-Actualisation - View
chart
Decreased Anxiety - View
chart
Decreased Need for Medical Care, Less Doctor Visits
- View Chart
Behaviour
- Development of Values
Life-supporting behaviour is founded in an enlivened
mind and a healthy body. This understanding underpins our use of the Consciousness-Based
Education curriculum at Maharishi School.
Increased Strength of Self Concept - View
chart
Other studies have indicated greater confidence, along with greater
respect for others, increased self esteem and resistance to negative peer
pressure, and higher levels of moral
reasoning, maturity and inner stability.
Community - Development of Society
At our school we understand that the value of any
nation or community rests on the health and progress of the individuals
within it. No progress in society can come about without the ability for
the individual to develop their full potential in life.This is the goal
of all education.
Integrated development
of total brain functioning - View chart
Improved Quality of Life - View
chart
Reduced Conflict - View
chart
For a more research summaries
please visit
Maharishi University
of Management
Charts:
Education
Increased
Intelligence
Students at Maharishi International University in
Fairfield, Iowa, who regularly practiced Transcendental Meditation, increased
significantly in intelligence over a 2-year period, compared to control
subjects from another Iowa university. This finding corroborates the results
of two other studies showing increased IQ in Maharishi International University
students.
Reference I: Transcendental
Meditation and improved performance on intelligence-related measures:
A longitudinal study, Personality and Individual Differences 12: 1105-1116,
1991. Reference II: Longitudinal effects of the Transcendental Meditation
and TM-Sidhi program on cognitive ability and cognitive style, Perceptual
and Motor Skills 62: 731738, 1986
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Increased
Creativity
This study used the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking
to measure figural and verbal creativity in a control group and in a group
that subsequently learned the Transcendental Meditation technique. On
the posttest 5 months later, the Transcendental Meditation group scored
significantly higher on figural originality and flexibility and on verbal
fluency.
Reference I: The TM
technique and creativity: A longitudinal study of Cornell University undergraduates,
Journal of Creative Behavior 13: 169-190, 1979. Reference II: A psychological
investigation into the source of the effect of the Transcendental Meditation
technique, (Ph.D. dissertation, York University) Dissertations Abstracts
International 38, 7-B: 33723373, 1978.
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Broader
Comprehension and Ability to Focus
Field independence has been associated
with a greater ability to assimilate and structure experience, greater
organization of mind and cognitive clarity, improved memory, greater creative
expression, and a stable internal frame of reference. The results show
that practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique develops greater
field independence. This improvement in Transcendental Meditation meditators
is remarkable because it was previously thought that these basic perceptual
abilities do not improve beyond early adulthood.
Reference
I: Influence of Transcendental Meditation upon autokinetic perception,
Perceptual Motor Skills 39: 1031-1034, 1974. Reference II: Longitudinal
effects of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program on cognitive
ability and cognitive style, Perceptual and Motor Skills 62: 731738,
1986.
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Improved
Academic Performance
After one year of practice of the Transcendental Meditation program, elementary
school students showed significant gains on the lowa Tests of Basic Skills,
a nationally standardized test (ref. 1). A second study showed significant
gains in high school students (grades 9–12) on the lowa Tests of
Educational Development (ref. 2). A third study (ref. 3) found that the
length of time students had been practicing the Transcendental Meditation
program was significantly correlated with academic achievement, independent
of student IQ scores.
References:
Education 107 (1986): 49–54.
Education 109 (1989): 302–304.
Modern Science and Vedic Science 1 (1987): 433–468.
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Health
Decreased
Anxiety
A statistical meta-analysis conducted at Stanford
University of all available studies-146 independent outcomes-indicated
that the effect of the Transcendental Meditation program on reducing anxiety
as a character trait was much greater than that of all other meditation
and relaxation techniques, including muscle relaxation. This analysis
also showed that the positive Transcendental Meditation result could not
be attributed to subject expectation, experimenter bias, or quality of
research design.
Differential
effects of relaxation techniques on trait anxiety: A meta-analysis, Journal
of Clinical Psychology 45: 957974, 1989.
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Decreased Need for Medical Care
A study of health insurance statistics on over 2,000 people practicing
the Transcendental Meditation program over a 5-year period found that
the Transcendental Meditation meditators consistently had more than 50%
fewer doctor visits than did other groups with comparable age, gender,
profession, and insurance terms. The difference between the Transcendental
Meditation and non-Transcendental Meditation groups increased in older-age
brackets.
Reference I: Medical
care utilization and the Transcendental Meditation program, Psychosomatic
Medicine 49: 493507, 1987. Reference II: Reduced health care utilization
in Transcendental Meditation practitioners, presented at the conference
of the Society for Behavioral Medicine, Washington, D.C., March 22, 1987.
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Behaviour
Increased
Self Actualisation
t
Self-actualization refers to realizing more of one's
inner potential, expressed in every area of life. A statistical meta-analysis
of all available studies-of 42 independent studies-indicated that the
effect of Transcendental Meditation on increasing self-actualization is
markedly greater than that of other forms of meditation and relaxation.
This analysis statistically controlled for length of treatment and quality
of research design.
Transcendental Meditation,
self-actualization, and psychological health: A conceptual overview and
statistical meta-analysis, Journal of Social Behavior and Personality
6: 189248, 1991.
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Increased
Strength of Self Concept
One month after beginning Transcendental Meditation, subjects experienced
an improved self-concept in comparison to before learning the technique.
Transcendental Meditation participants developed a more strongly defined
self-concept and also came to perceive their "actual self" as
significantly closer to their "ideal self." No similar changes
were observed for matched controls.
Reference I: Effects
of Transcendental Meditation on self-identity indices and personality,
British Journal of Psychology 73: 5768, 1982. Reference II: Psychological
research on the effects of the Transcendental Meditation technique on
a number of personality variables, Gedrag: Tijdschrift voor Psychologie
(Behavior: Journal of Psychology) 4: 206218, 1976.
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Community
Greater
Orderliness of Brain Functioning
EEG coherence increases between and within the cerebral
hemispheres during Transcendental Meditation. EEG coherence is a quantitative
index of the degree of long-range spatial ordering of the brain waves.
The chart on the left shows that for a 2-week meditator, EEG coherence
increased during the period of meditation. The chart on the right, of
a 2-year meditator, shows high levels of coherence even before meditation
began, spreading of coherence to high and lower frequencies about half
way through the meditation period, and continuing high coherence even
into the eyes-opened period after meditation.
Reference I:
The Coherence Spectral Array (COSPAR) and its application to the study
of spatial ordering in the EEG, Proceedings of the San Diego Biomedical
Symposium 15: 1976. Reference II: Electrophysiologic characteristics of
respiratory suspension periods occurring during the practice of the Transcendental
Meditation program, Psychosomatic Medicine 46: 267-276, 1984.
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Improved
Quality of Life
A prospective study was performed to assess
the effects of the group practice of the Transcendental Meditation and
TM-Sidhi program on the quality of life in Rhode Island. The number of
TM-Sidhi program participants was sufficient to create the Maharishi Effect
for the entire state. A time-series analysis was performed on a monthly
index that assessed the quality of life in Rhode Island in comparison
to a demographically matched control state. During the experimental period,
an index comprised of the following variables significantly decreased:
crime, motor vehicle fatalities, auto accidents, deaths, alcoholic beverage
and cigarette consumption, unemployment, and pollution. In the figure
above, an increase illustrates an improvement in the index of all these
variables taken together.
Consciousness
as a field: The Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program and changes
in social indicators, The Journal of Mind and Behavior 8: 67103,
1987.
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Improved
Quality of Life
and Reduced Conflct
This study indicates that group practice of the Transcendental Meditation
and TM-Sidhi program improved the quality of life in Israel as measured
by improvement on an index comprising crime rate, traffic accidents, fires,
and the number of war deaths in Lebanon, and by increases in the national
stock market and improvements in national mood. The chart above shows
the strong correspondence between the number of Transcendental Meditation-Sidhi
program participants in the group in Jerusalem and a composite index of
all the above variables.
International peace
project in the Middle East: Effects of the Maharishi Technology of the
Unified Field, Journal of Conflict Resolution 32: 776812, 1988.
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