The Review, Vol. 27, #2, October 5, 2011
Copyright 2011, Maharishi University of Management
http://www.mum.edu/TheReview/
Study Compares Brain Waves of Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programs
For the first time, a study has been conducted
that compares the EEG patterns during the
Transcendental Meditation® technique with the
patterns during the TM-Sidhi® program.
"The results of this study suggest that practice
of the TM-Sidhi program stabilizes the experience
of pure consciousness while it supports the
ability to think and act within the
transcendent," said faculty researcher Fred
Travis.
He found higher alpha1 and beta1 EEG amplitude in
frontal executive areas during TM-Sidhi practice
compared to TM practice. Also, eLORETA reported
sources of activation in right-hemisphere
object-recognition areas involved in
specific/holistic representation of words, which
supports the description of the practice as
putting one's attention on specific sutras or
verses.
"We've long understood that the practice of the
TM-Sidhi program, which is traditionally called
sanyama, involves both awareness of specific
sutras and of one's unbounded Self," Dr. Travis
said. "Now we're able to see that this subjective
experience is reflected in the activity of the
brain as measured by EEG."
The specific object-recognition areas that Dr.
Travis looked at included the right
parahippocampus gyrus, right fusiform gyrus,
lingual gyrus, and inferior and medial temporal
cortices -- areas involved in specific/holistic
representation of words.
He said that this supports the description of the
TM-Sidhi program as involving internally directed
attention in contrast to the process of
effortless transcending during the Transcendental
Meditation technique.
Although EEG patterns during Transcendental
Meditation technique have been extensively
investigated, this was the first study to compare
those patterns with those during the practice of
the TM-Sidhi program.
Dr. Travis's random-assignment study, published
in the International Journal of Psychophysiology,
involved 26 subjects who had been practicing the
Transcendental Meditation technique an average of
25.6 years and the TM-Sidhi program an average of
19.4 years.
