subject: The Fbi Looks Into Transcendental Meditation [print this page] There was a straw man in the Wizard of Oz who felt his life would be richer and more complete if he only had a brain. He wandered down an unknown road with a farm girl and her dog in search of a solution. Could it be that the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique was what Mr. Scarecrow was looking for? Dr. Fred Travis, director of the Center for Brain, Consciousness and Cognition at Maharishi University of Management may have the answer. At least according to his recent article entitled Brain Functioning as the Ground for Spiritual Experiences and Ethical Behavior published in the new edition of the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin .
In his article, Dr. Travis explains that every daily experience affects our brain and has a direct impact on its development and capabilities. Youve heard the phrase use it or lose it. Well this principle applies not only to our muscles but to our brain as well. It seems the synaptic connections between brain cells grow and decay based on what kinds of activities and experiences our brain does or doesnt undertake. One style of functioning that a healthy brain needs is regular experiences of calm and inner happiness. Its obvious that those who work in law enforcement have very stressful outer experiences in the course of their daily work and are in dire need of a calming inner experiences to balance their outer duties.
Dr. Travis writes that the Transcendental Meditation technique gives the experience of pure, silent awareness which completes the full range of motion for the brain which is necessary to give it greater strength and integration. As a result inner calm is more pronounced even in stressful situations, thereby creating a kind of inner shield or bullet proof vest from stress that reduces the effects of a harsh environment.
In Dr. Travis academic language: research has indicated that practice of the TM technique leads to increased frontal brain integration, faster habituation to stressful stimuli, and higher moral reasoning. Spiritual experiences enliven frontal coherence, which builds global circuits to place individual experiences in a larger framework. In this vein, spiritual experiences could provide the inner armor to protect law enforcement officers from the noxious effects of negative experiences and stress.
The content of the FBI article has been incorporated into the FBIs Wellness and Vitality in Police Officers program. The FBI is developing ways to heal the effects of the day-to-day experience of Law Enforcement, said Dr. Travis, and we are part of that conversation.
So it seems the Transcendental Meditation technique may help folks in law enforcement keep their stress levels low and their intelligence levels high.
Now if only the Missing Persons Bureau could locate a certain straw man who was last seen walking down a yellow brick road. Hmmm.
This TM blog was written byy Dr. Keith DeBoer http://AdventuresinTranscendentalMeditation.blogspot.com
Transcendental Meditation, TM and Maharishi are registered or common law trademarks licensed to Maharishi Vedic Education Development Corporation and are used under sublicense.
