Transcendental Meditation

[Gumby]

Over the past year I've had great success with HeartMath biofeedback for stress reduction. I didn't even know I was stressed out when I tried it and couldn't believe how relaxed it made me feel all the time. However, I've heard pretty amazing feedback about Transcendental Meditation over the past few months and thought I would investigate what it was all about. And it seems to be showing up everywhere these days. GQ recently had an article about it and it seems that many successful hedge fund managers — such as Ray Dalio — use it daily:

GQ: The Totally Stressed-Out Man's Guide to Meditation

Here's how Ray Dalio, the thirty-third-richest man in America, described TM:

I think meditation has been the single biggest reason for whatever success I've had.

Source: http://www.gq.com/life/health/201309/gq ... tion-guide

And Jerry Seinfeld recently described it like this:

Here’s how I’ll describe [Transcendental Meditation]. You know how three times a year, you wake up and you go, ‘Boy, that was a really good sleep?...Imagine feeling like that every day. That’s what it is.

Source: http://www.wnyc.org/story/jerry-seinfeld/

Sounds nice. Was wondering if anyone here has ever tried it or knows anything about it.

EDIT: Unfortunately, despite the proven benefits and wonderful reviews, the technique is closely via a $1000-$1500 course to insure proper instruction. What a crock. This guy was so disgusted he posted the technique on YouTube — despite the fact that supporters say you need hands on instruction.

[Coffee]

I knew a woman when I was at Berkeley (she worked at the student Union and was probably in her mid-40's... 25 years ago) who had lived an interesting life: Partied with Willie Nelson, and studied TM with one of the Mahareeshis. Or somebody like that. 

It might have been Elvis, for all I can remember.

Anyway: She made the same claim: 20 minutes was equal to 3-4 hours of sleep.

[smurff]

If you decide to go for the class, don't internalize any dogma, and don't return to be "checked" later.  Even though they will assign you a mantra, you can use whatever word or phrase of comfort you prefer.

TM is part of a religion--your specific mantra will usually be the name of a Hindu God--and it has enough clout that periodically the adherents will convince major media to run a piece extraordinarily favorable about it.  Unlike the "S" religion, there don't appear to be parts of it that freak people out when they hear about deeper practices, like flying, and the fees for higher level classes are not quite as steep.  But like that other religion, TM is controversial, but not to the same magnitude.

IMO many forms of meditation and guided relaxation practice are as useful as or even more helpful than TM. 

BTW, you can often negotiate the price down substantially.  When I tried it, I got the price down to $100.  In addition to the money, be prepared to be asked to bring specific things for the teacher.  As I recall, I had to take a piece of fruit and a handkerchief as gifts for the teacher.  I took a banana.

For a critical review, check out this site:

http://www.suggestibility.org

and especially

http://www.suggestibility.org/faq1.php

[Benko]

IMO many forms of meditation and guided relaxation practice are as useful as or even more helpful than TM. 

+1

Which is not the same as saying that all forms of meditation are the same.  Some forms of meditation produce profound states of relaxation WHILE you are meditating.  Given that may people walk around tense all day long, these can be somewhat beneficial.  However other forms of meditation are more difficult to perform, and the experience of performing them, less "fun" during the meditation, but the remainder of one's day is improved.

NB: there is also a very common meditation which is sup difficult to perform, plus it is not always obvious that you are not doing it correctly.

[Kriegsspiel]

I knew a woman when I was at Berkeley (she worked at the student Union and was probably in her mid-40's... 25 years ago) who had lived an interesting life: Partied with Willie Nelson, and studied TM with one of the Mahareeshis. Or somebody like that. 

It might have been Elvis, for all I can remember.

Anyway: She made the same claim: 20 minutes was equal to 3-4 hours of sleep.

Was she talking about polyphasic sleeping or meditation?

[Coffee]

No, it wasn't polyphasic.  (That's a relatively new thing, isn't it?) 
It was definitely TM.

[Kriegsspiel]

I'm not sure. I've seen in a few places that Thomas Edison was a practitioner, but I don't know about the veracity of that claim. It might have been in Timothy Ferriss's book, or googling "powerman sleep" or something.

[Gumby]

Thanks smurff for that detailed overview. It's a shame that TM isn't just an open technique that is free for all mankind to share and partake in. I think I will avoid it — I'm not interested in joining a religious cult.

But, I am thankful to hear that TM is not the pinnacle of meditation and guided relaxation. Does anyone care to share which techniques they might prefer?

[Benko]

Below is from an article I wrote ages ago (think I posted the whole thing on here somewhere).

1. mini-meditation is something that only takes 30-45 seconds and if performed as instructed (see article at link) is a good start.

2. Extending the Mini-Meditation: work up to 20 minutes done once first in the morning (before you eat).  Then do the mini-meditation coupla times throughout the rest of the day.

3. The breath or gap meditation.  something completely different.

NB: none of these will produce blissed out states during.  But what matters is not what happens during the meditation, but how your life goes the rest of the day.
-----------------------------------
1. Mini-Meditation: The simplest one. And the exercise that takes the least time is the mini-meditation described beginning in the second paragraph of the following article, http://www.thewayofseeing.com/article_m ... ation.html. This is a non-commercial site and has lots of useful information on related topics that can help undercut stress.
The exercise takes less then 30 seconds to perform, and if done regularly, one will start to see benefits in a short amount of time.

2. Extending the Mini-Meditation: Better yet, extend the mini-meditation and do it for 3-5 minutes or longer. If possible, sit comfortably in a chair with your back straight while doing this. Do the exercise as stated, focusing on your breath to the best of your ability. WHEN (not if) you find yourself being distracted by thoughts (any thoughts), rather then paying attention to your breath, gently shift your focus back to your breath. Keep doing this to the best of your ability for whatever time period you have chosen. If you wish, you may use an electronic timer - one that does not make any sounds until its alarm goes off. This will help you deal with the temptation to only do the exercise for very brief period of time (“30 seconds--seems long enough to me“).

A good approach is to do this twice a day e.g. mid-morning and mid-afternoon. By breaking the usual patterns of the day and sneaking in a few more restful moments, one can better cope with the remainder of the day.

3. Breath Meditation: We breathe our entire lives but how many of you ever pay attention to your breathing? If you start to pay attention you will discover that how we breathe (e.g. shallow or deep, and through our nose or mouth), affects us. The exercise below is very similar to a breathing exercise that comes from mainstream yoga, as well as an exercise called ‘the gap meditation’, which comes from Tibetan Nyingma (Buddism).

To do this, start by paying attention to your breathing, keeping your eyes closed. If it is comfortable, keep your mouth closed and breathe through your nose throughout this exercise. Breathe normally while focusing on the physical sensations of breathing, for several breaths. Then start to breathe deeper, inhaling and exhaling slowly. After several breaths (when you’ve established what a comfortable deep breath feels like for you), focus your attention on the natural pauses which occur during breathing. Specifically, there is a natural pause after the exhale (and before you inhale again), and to a lesser extent a pause after the inhale (and before you exhale). Continue taking these relaxed slow deep breaths and when you come to one of these pauses, try to relax or sink into the pauses each time they occur. How do you do that? Focus all your attention on the pause and then, make an effort to relax, letting all the tension out of you - kinda like you’re mentally sighing, or letting all the air out of a ball or tire. When you’ve done this exercise as long as you wish to, return to normal breathing. Remain with your eyes closed for a few minutes and note how you feel. Do these for several minutes each time, perhaps working up to 10 or 15 minutes.

[Gumby]

Thanks, Benko. It's amazing because even from the 1 minute of trying those techniques you just wrote about I can immediately feel the difference it makes. It's a similar euphoric feeling I get when using HeartMath and your heart rate rises and falls with each breath (i.e. increased Heart Rate Variability). Very cool. You are right to point out about the lasting effects throughout the day.

[colorado4]

That's excellent Benko.  Thanks for reposting.  I've had very good results with Natural Stress Relief.  It is a stripped-down version of TM without the cost. I find it highly effective and it's a technique you can learn and do on your own.

For a more comprehensive approach, consider Vipassana (Insight) meditation.  S.M. Goenka is an excellent source. 



http://www.nsrusa.org/

http://www.network54.com/Forum/254541/

http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Breath-Ext ... 1582900434

[Benko]

GUmby,

1 minute may give you a clue as to the benefits, but you only really get significant benefits from doing it/them repeatedly over time. Doing one long one in the morning is very helpful as well.

NB: your mind will HATE this and do everything it can to prevent you from remembering to do this.  I do the longer meditation when I awake in the morning and set my itouch to alarm several times throughout the day to remind me to do shorter ones.

We normally live in a haze with our thoughts acting as a filter between us and reality.  These exercises work because they remove/lessen some of this haze.  You can assist these exercises by watching as little TV, spending as little time on the internet as possible.  Also minimizing stimulants e.g. caffeine is helpful.  Conversely doing things that are non-mental e.g. spending time in nature, music without words, etc reinforce this. 

For a more comprehensive approach, consider Vipassana (Insight) meditation.   

PLEASE don't.  The forms of meditation that I have passed on are relatively easy to do and equally importantly you can tell if you are doing them correctly or not.  With Vipasana most people will not be able to tell that they are doing it wrong, and despite how it is promoted, it is not something for beginners (which includes me and most on this board).  This is the opinion of the spiritual/meditation teacher who taught me the meditational exercises I passed on above.

[MediumTex]

Howard Stern talks about how TM has improved his life in many ways.  Apparently, he turned his parents on to it as well.