Transcendental Meditation: Scam or Not?

[Weird]

nam myoho renge kyo

 

[dddaver]

Here. I'll save you $240 X 4.

Sit comfortably, maybe Indian style, whatever is comfortable, and close your eyes. Breath in through your nose ~8 sec., then exhale out through your mouth for ~10 sec. "In with the good, out with the bad". Think of yourself alone walking in a desert or walking on the Bonneville salt flats, nothing near you. With every step, all your cares, troubles, anger, frustrations, whatever bothers you, billows away in the dust behind you.

Do that twice a day for 10 minutes each time.

I just saved you at least $960. Now, go buy a couple zips of fire with that. And maybe buy a Pizza and some ice-cream with what's left over.

 

[D. B. Doober]

Imagine a string flowing in through ur nose and exhaling it through ur mouth

Aikido secret

 

[Highsenburg831]

So I've heard from many people over the last couple of years how advantageous it is to practice Transcendental Meditation.
I never really distinguished it from meditation in general and never understood the difference at all.
That is until I decided I'd like to learn it. The first thing I noticed was a significant amount of peer reviewed literature about the benefits of TM. The American Heart Association, the American Medical Association, etc. are all on board with the practice citing that it dramatically reduces cardiovascular disease including blood pressure, cholesterol and a host of other things that suck.
In addition to that, there's a never ending supply of 'celebrities' who can't stop talking about TM and how it has transformed their lives.
Everyone from Dr. Oz to Howard Stern promotes it.
They've integrated the practice into public schools to increase focus and even the U.S. Army for PTSD.
The second thing I noticed when attempting to learn TM was that there was NO source of information about HOW TO perform it.
There are no books, no youtube videos, no torrents, no DVDs, nada.
The ONLY place you can learn this esoteric technique is from a certified TM instructor found on their organizational website.
To boot, in spite of the fact it's been taught since the late 50's as a formal discipline....there are only a handful of folks teaching it in various states. There are literally only 3 places to get it in NJ where I hail from. There are possibly a few more in NY and the surrounding areas...which is surprising considering how much folks tout TM.

Apparently to become an instructor you've gotta goto France for 5 months for training...so I guess that's a bit of a hindrance...but still in 50 years you'd think more folks would be out there teaching.

Nonetheless: To begin the practice, you've gotta sit through a 'lecture' that's very similar to those sorts of talks you get when someone is trying to sell you a time share. It's not a 'HARD' sell, but it's not really soft and fluffy either. Then they take you back for an "interview" which is basically them asking some health questions, your motivation for learning TM and then they grill you about the use of Hallucinogenic drugs and recreational drugs.

Apparently they want you to dry out for 15 days prior to learning TM and they're pretty rigid about that.

Their take is that it interferes with the brain's ability to learn or whatever.

TM is a 5000+ year old technique, but it was really kicked into the public consciousness with the advent of the Beatles. When they were all tripping balls and such, they met this Maharishi:

View Image

He taught them the technique and the rest as they say is history.
Not sure how he got them to curtail their proclivity to take drugs but they clearly never stopped on a permanent basis.

Anyway I've got issues with folks telling me to dry out, but I'm very interested in TM for a variety of reasons relating to the health benefits.

The only thing I can glean from talking with some of these instructors and the spotty info. available online is that you're given a "mantra" or sound that you can focus on...like OHM.

My basic understanding is that focusing on something like the mantra allows the brain and body to achieve deep relaxation.

Now if that's the ENTIRE basis of TM I'm gonna be pissed off because I can sit in a room and chant OHM for awhile without shelling out $ or drying the F.U.C.K. out or having to allocate 4 consecutive days in a row to work with an instructor 1 on 1 (which is the other catch).

I'm curious if anyone out there practices TM and has a take on it that would help me understand better the secrecy of the practice, the almost multi-level marketing B.S. with a splash of Scientology mixed in for good measure.

I can't ignore the myriad of different legitimate medical resources that speak of the benefit and the host of different high profile celebutantes that can't say enough good things. But at the same time there seems to be a lot of nonsense and hoops to jump through to learn it.

I'm frankly shocked nobody has put together a rogue video or book to expose the secrets of the technique to date.

Discuss.

I have a good friend who's an old hippie who learned TM and became a teacher in the 70s
He and a buddy who runs the local TM center taught me like 10 years ago
I think it's a great technique and you get out of it what you put into it
It's an easy way to truly relax and unstress

 

[xxPeacePipexx]

Kundalini Yoga anyone ?

I found it to be much more interesting then TM. I never spent a dollar either studying this mystical yoga and meditation. Yogi Bhajan brought it to the west in 1968 and many have learned this practice while sharing its benefits.

In the end I really enjoy mindfulness enhanced by Cannabis more than any esoteric meditation. I can smoke the herb and find this same state of transcendentalism.

Cannabis can open a persons third eye according to some. A Pineal Gland Activator

 

[harry74]

I think the benefits of meditation are related to our brain.

http://www.news.wisc.edu/10420

Mind&body are one. If you are mentally estressed you feel it in the body too.

The brain may be is the organ of the human body that less we know.

 

[shithawk420]

The brain IS the most puzzling part of the body.in my opinion the human brain may be the most powerful thing in the known universe IF we can learn to tap into it which is the whole problem.we don't really know how yet.

 

[LEF]

well ive said this before

apparently, we have 2 ways of using our brain

either problem solving (doing doing doing, priviledged in our culture)

and the being there now way of using our brain (from what I understand) which can be worked using meditation

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Interesting thread here.

I'm super interested in achieving more lucid dreams (I've had a handful) which lead me to research about the pineal gland, third eye, and such.

At this point I'm not so sure what I believe as science dismisses most of it as hippie talk, but recent studies have proven DMT to be created in the pineal gland of rats. If you've ever looked into DMT experiences they seems to have strong similarities with near death experiences and other experiences of transcendence or whatever.

I believe there is something to it, but as a another poster has mentioned we come in contact with so many halide toxins in your day to day lives that it's hard to achieve such a state.

I did some experimenting with MSM (METHYLSULFONYLMETHANE) and lugols iodine (to help decalcify and detoxify.. if that's even real) and I can certainly say I did experience some sort of detox or effects for a few days with extreme headaches and shitty feeling. It passed after a few days of use and I started getting some of the best sleep of my life..and more vivid and memorable dreams. I feel rested in the morning (provided I actually get to bed and stay off of ICMAG). I havn't stuck with it enough however.

I've had a few more lucid dreams, but I smoke too much cannabis and don't sleep enough so it kills my recall and progress. I've never really tried meditation, but need to. My head is full of noise and schemes. I lay around thinking about growing for hours at a time until it's time to wake up. I've literally built millions of grow rooms in my head. Sometimes I feel like I haven't slept at all. If I focus on the back of my eyelids and try not to think about stuff sometimes I can fall asleep so I'm certain meditation would help me.


I don't think I'd pay money for anything like that.. but I do believe there is something to it. Consciousness and the various states of reality is something we still know very little about. Fun stuff...

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]chant OHM[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Supposedly this is to vibrate and resonate the pineal gland with the goals of decalifying it and potentially opening it to achieve a transcended state.[/FONT]

On a side note.. have any of you guys heard of a mass transcendence which is supposed to occur as our planet evolves and moves through the cosmos. We'll become being of higher vibrations which will result in a mass awakening / opening of pineal glands of everyone. 4th dimensional transcendence. Trippy stuff. Love to get baked out of my mind and read this stuff. lol

 

[xxPeacePipexx]

Chaga Tea made with clean water can really open up ones perspective and pineal gland. It is a very strong healing fungal medicine and is considered to be a enteogen

I do know that is has more melanin than anything else and that is is am amazing beneficial for the mind if you take it regularly or in high doses.. Everyone who takes the Chaga I harvest has some type of spiritual journey once they partake in enough of it to be beneficial. Many people have spoken about being more focused and clear headed due to the tea and supplements made with this medicine and I notice this too .

I highly recommend this for anyone looking for answers within.. But please if you harvest your own, learn the art of harvesting while leaving it to grow again if the tree is still alive at the time. It and the tree form a symbiosis and each needs another to survive.

 

[amannamedtruth]

Chaga Tea made with clean water can really open up ones perspective and pineal gland. It is a very strong healing fungal medicine and is considered to be a enteogen

I do know that is has more melanin than anything else and that is is am amazing beneficial for the mind if you take it regularly or in high doses.. Everyone who takes the Chaga I harvest has some type of spiritual journey once they partake in enough of it to be beneficial. Many people have spoken about being more focused and clear headed due to the tea and supplements made with this medicine and I notice this too .

I highly recommend this for anyone looking for answers within.. But please if you harvest your own, learn the art of harvesting while leaving it to grow again if the tree is still alive at the time. It and the tree form a symbiosis and each needs another to survive.

Whats your dosage with the chaga? I like it, but usually use it in lower doses, along with reishi. Unfortunately, I have to order it from mountain rose. I'm sure yours is great!

 

[xxPeacePipexx]

I prefer to use a tablespoon or two with 16oz water just under a boiling temp. I have not eaten it though or taken it as a supplement but I intend too. I have only used it in tea form, How much do you dose with regularly ?

Sometimes I make super tea by using a hand sized chunk and this is when it really seems to awaken everyone from my experiences sharing it with friends during get togethers.

Whats your dosage with the chaga? I like it, but usually use it in lower doses, along with reishi. Unfortunately, I have to order it from mountain rose. I'm sure yours is great!

 

[genedigger]

i grind chaga up in a coffee grinder,make some boiling water and pour it in a cup with the grounds no filtering it.ive consumed a half oz of it in a wack an damn do i get an energy rush from it. its like 5 cups of coffee without the crappy jittery feeling.i live in an area where birch and vast expanses of woods still exist so i have access to it when i need some.

 

[Weird]

The War on Consciousness - Graham Hancock

A scientists take on "transcendence" in the larger sense (and via psychedelics)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b6-0yW7Iaw

plants man evolution and you

 

[accessndx]

BTW:

Been playing with that NSR technique posted earlier (an alternative to TM). Everyone I turned onto it seems to have benefit: increased energy, less anxiety, etc.

I certainly don't need all the pomp and circumstance of TM, just wanted the benefit without all the mystical nonsense piled on.....NSR delivers that.

So if anyone is truly interested in the experience that TM provides, look up that post....download those files and go for it. Defnintely doesn't hurt and the wort thing that could happen is you waste 30 minutes.

As far as not smoking: I do agree that if you're high as a kite it's a bit more difficult to achieve that 'transcendant' state....but by a small degree. I personally think weed creates one particular EEG pattern whilst the meditation creates another. They're not necessarily incompatible but one can influence the other.

I see what the Maharishi was talking about, but think I'm a grown-up and can make my own decisions about the best way to proceed.

 

[Weird]

mumbo jumbo is basically deist derived opposed to the paradigm of modern education

the experience validates the results not the vehicle

its a particularly common <insert your own narrative> of those with a fairly focused education.

The only validity exists through the lens you have taught yourself to see through

to me the true exercise of intellect is the ability to evaluate everything through a wide not a narrow focus. Many people can learn fact from another and repeat so they dismiss the natural ability for us to discern it on our own through observation of causation.

That is the quintessential sum of enlightenment, that the capacity to understand these concepts already existed inside of us (and thus others) as part of our design (not limited to gnostic creationism)

I can appreciate you want an efficiency of effort in your efforts but why throw everyone else under the bus because of the vehicle they use.

I find most people to logically sterile to think past their own lens, I would be more critical but it won't lend the real result I would like to solicit.

Humanity is what you make of it, some people limit life to thriving in a material world, and feel this is the peak of understanding and well being.

But this is old news and required reading, waldens pond etc so forth

 

[accessndx]

mumbo jumbo is basically deist derived opposed to the paradigm of modern education

I can appreciate you want an efficiency of effort in your efforts but why throw everyone else under the bus because of the vehicle they use.

Weird: You know I dig ya. I can only speak about my own personal experience. I was HIGHLY interested in the benefits of TM.
Upon researching it, I found it was steeped in mysticism and a cult-like foundation controls it.

All I was looking for was the nucleus of the technique. I wasn't looking for rituals or a boatload of things to buy.

I also was concerned about the requirement to stop smoking specifically marijuana. They made no issue over alcohol, prescription drugs (how could they? They'd be acting in the capacity of a medical doctor which is against the law if they made such suggestions), cocaine or anything else.

What I found upon my own exploration of the subject is that there are in fact many disenfranchised TM instructors that felt the same way I had. Some struck out on their own and present the same system sans all the extra stuff that I felt was largely unncessary.

Upon performing the same technique I derived the same purported benefit, as well as others I shared it with.

I didn't have to bring flowers or fruit or participate in any Hindi rituals.

I don't particularly care if folks WANT to do that sort of thing because that's obviously their prerogative. But I found what I was looking for without having to become embroiled in something I definitely didn't want to be involved with.

It's appreciated that the TM organization has to keep a roof over it's head so I don't fault them or their instructors. I guess it's what they have to do to maintain their identity and keep their philosophy intact. Nonetheless, I'm glad I explored other alternatives because I really had a hard time digesting all the ancillary things they required.

 

[accessndx]

Prune comes through

Prune comes through

And that's pretty much "The Fourth Way" on/by Ouspensky, the Greek philosopher. Hardest read ever...

As per prune's suggesting I grabbed a .pdf of "The Fourth Way". Purty interesting so far. Huge thumbs up to Prune.

 

[Guest]

sub

 

[bombadil.360]

The 4th way is an ok book, but don't forget it comes from a somewhat cultish group... Gurdjieff being the guru of that trend... There is another book from the same group of people called Mount Analogue, also ok... But imo nothing wow...

Another book by yet another Gurdjieff student and a mathematician is called The Return of the Wizards... from the crazy shit the nazis' believed in up to lemurians and consciousness...

Entertaining books, but don't forget them grains of salt...

Peace