t h e c o mp l ete b o o k o f Y OGIC F L Y ING
the experience “O nly of Transcendental
Consciousness makes use of the total brain physio logy. Only the experience of Transcendental Consciousness, the unbounded, infinite, unmanifest field of life, the field of consciousness — that only is competent to make full use of the human brain.” 2 — Maharishi unbounded “T heexperience of Tran-
scendental Consciousness awakens all the areas of the brain. And the practice morning and evening gives the brain physiology habituation to think from this unbounded level, which is total Natural Law.” 3 — Maharishi
Through the TM and TM-Sidhi programs
Developing the Total Brain
W
hen one transcends,
one’s brain shifts to a markedly more coherent style of functioning. New research studies are now helping us understand what happens with regular, daily transcending through the Transcendental Meditation technique. From a number of directions, we see a steady and significant development of the brain’s potential.
Developing coherent brain functioning through the day To look at long-term changes in coherence, researchers took groups of people with an average age of about 19. Half had been meditating a year or less. The other half had been meditating about nine years (all in this group had learned around age 10). Using EEG, the researchers measured subjects’ brain functioning both before and then during meditation. During meditation, the EEG patterns for both groups were the same — both groups showed similarly high levels of coherence. But there was a big differ-
Brain Coherence Outside of Meditation Increases THROUGH THE TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION TECHNIQUE
the full value of the “I fbrain is utilized, then
the cosmic potential of the individual is utilized. This is the turning point of the human race — the destiny of the human race now.” 4 — Maharishi
In this experiment, subjects’ brainwave (EEG) coherence was measured first while sitting with eyes open (EO), indicated by the blue bars, and then while they practiced the Transcendental Meditation technique, indicated by the red bars. Each pair of bars measures coherence from a different part of the brain.
LEFT — 1-year meditators This chart shows the results for subjects who had been meditating for less than one year on average. Notice how their coherence increases significantly when they go from “eyes-open” to Transcendental Meditation practice.
RIGHT — 9-year meditators This chart shows the brain-wave coherence for the subjects meditating about nine years on average. Notice they start with a higher level of coherence, so that coherence during eyes-open is similar to coherence during Transcendental Meditation practice.1
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