Ocean of consciousness: can knowledge based in East India reduce the stresses of modern American life? Tom McKinley Ball deepens our awareness of Transcendental Meditation - Brief Article

New Life Journal, Feb-March, 2002 by Tom McKinley Ball

At North Carolina's Outer Banks, I walk the beach at dawn. The ocean reflects sunrise. Waves roll in like liquid light, and sea foam sinks into the sand beneath my feet. According to neuroscience, the sight of each wave lapping onto shore transforms my whole physiology.

Every thought, perception and flash of emotion immediately influences every cell in our body. At least fifty kinds of neurotransmitters constantly race to and from our brain, allowing our mind to interact with the matter of our body. These neurochemicals influence hormone secretion from sites throughout our brain, such as the hypothalamus or pituitary gland, and hormones in turn carry messages to our body's organs. The ratio of each type of neurotransmitter to the others changes according to our mood or the quality of inner life we've cultivated.

Doctors have learned that our state of mind plays a primary role in our health and aging. The mind/body connection is at work every moment of our life, and we're using it to either create health or promote bodily wear and tear. Sad or negative thoughts cause our brain to produce neurotransmitters that weaken our immune system. Thoughts of hostility induce rapid heartbeat and heightened blood pressure. Anxious thoughts also raise blood pressure, and cause hand tremors, cold sweat, a knotted stomach, and pervasive weakening (as when we say "sick with dread"). On the other hand, happiness, love, and compassion produce physiological changes that lead to better health, because the neurotransmitters generated by these feelings stimulate the immune system and increase resistance to disease.

Major religions and great spiritual traditions advise against negative thoughts. Christianity admonishes not to condemn or enact hostility against others. The Upanishads instruct: "Never criticize anyone. Never entertain negativity." Being negative is hazardous to our health. We could say it violates Natural Law. If you prefer religious terms, it's "against God's will."

The wisest use of the mind/body connection would be to live free from negativity, embracing only the most cherished qualities: love, happiness, creativity, intelligence. Yet such a life seems unrealistic, if not impossible. Stress, suffering, and restrictions to creativity are accepted facts of life. The mind/body connection works both ways: physiology overburdened by the biochemistry of stress cannot support a harmonious, fulfilled life. Straining to modify behavior or maintain positive qualities that our physiology cannot uphold only creates more stress and obstructs spontaneity. To live up to the Upanishadic ideal, the mind and body must function at a higher standard than what we ordinarily call "good health."

There's a saying in Ayurveda: "If you want to know the condition of your mind in the past, look at your body now. If you want to know the condition of your body in the future, look at your mind now." Thousands of years before neurotransmitters were discovered, Ayurveda understood the relationship between mind and body.

Then why can't all illness be cured by positive thoughts? Because the level of mind that most powerfully influences the body is beyond mere positive thinking. Only at the most fundamental field of intelligence, where thought is transformed into the matter of our physiology, does cooperation between mind and matter take the inexplicable quantum leap. Doctors are learning that spontaneous remissions result when a patient somehow dips into this transformation point.

One way to reach this transformation point is the Transcendental Meditation Technique, taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. TM is one of the most extensively researched and widely practiced forms of meditation in the world. This technique uses specific technologies of consciousness to access the levels of consciousness. An essential element of Maharishi Ayurveda program, practitioners practice the TM technique twice daily to harmonize awareness and bring their physiology to a state of restful order. During practice of the TM technique, the mind becomes serene yet more dynamic; thinking subsides spontaneously and awareness expands beyond the boundaries of ordinary waking consciousness.

Every state of consciousness has a corresponding physiological state. Studies published in Scientific American, The American Journal of Physiology, American Psychologist and other journals show that the TM technique induces a fourth state of consciousness, unlike waking, dreaming or sleep states. Scientists call this "Transcendental Consciousness." A holistic shift in physiological functioning results from the meditator's settled mind, as measured by reduced oxygen consumption, slower heart rate, decreased stress hormones, and increased EEG brain wave coherence. This state of transcendence is the physiological opposite of stress, and has the opposite effect. As we know, stress is a primary factor in aging. A study in The International Journal of Neuroscience shows that regular practice of the TM technique results in "reversal of biological aging." (IJN 16: 53-58, 1982.)