FWIW, this was a long time ago; the Amherst course (the first World Peace Assembly) took place in 1979. For whatever reason, the TMO decided not to pursue this particular line of research. I don't know whether the study was ever published; do you, Salyavin? Do you remember where you read it? I can't find it in the lists of research papers. Maybe the title isn't sufficiently descriptive.
Remember this was a WPA, so rounding would have been involved, and "general knowledge about programme times" might not have been adequate to clue the subject in (especially if he or she wasn't a Sidha--do you remember, Salyavin?). Also, just generally, sometimes explaining away a purported result involves positing circumstances and effects that are almost as unlikely--e.g., in this case, suggestion or subconsciously transmitted information being sufficient to allow the subject to significantly alter his or her EEG in specific ways at specific times. CAVEAT: I'm not claiming that the study showed anything startling, just critiquing Salyavin's critique. BTW, I wouldn't trust James Randi to make an honest, objective attempt to conduct any study involving TM. He's as biased as the TM researchers are, just in the opposite direction. Surely the study could be done with tighter controls, but Randi ain't the one to do it. Talk about inadequate controls! A TMer being tested by TMers. I can think of so many ways that any results could be influenced by suggestion or subconsciously transmitted information or even just general knowledge within the TMO about programme times. They are going to have to try a lot harder than that one. I read it BTW. If they think there's anything in this at all they should go the the James Randi Foundation and get an experiment done properly. And with the $1 million prize they could buy some yagya's or a new crown. But they don't take it seriously enough. ---In [email protected], <LEnglish5@...> wrote : Ah, OK. I vaguely remember that. The index of research in collected papers volumes 1-xx is available online. You could see if it is there. I think both David Orme-Johnson's website and MUM have it. L ---In [email protected], <authfriend@...> wrote : The study I had in mind (don't know if it was ever published, don't remember where I read about it, maybe in MSVS?) took the EEG of a meditator or Sidha at MIU while the big course at Amherst was going on. As I recall, the subject wasn't told when the Amherst folks were doing program, but his/her EEG showed distinct changes that appeared to be correlated.with when they began meditating and presumably additional changes when they began sutra practice. Or possibly it was just when they began the flying sutra. As I say, I can't remember the specifics. But it doesn't sound like what you're talking about. Thanks anyway. ---In [email protected], <LEnglish5@...> wrote : I believe that Fred Travis' PhD thesis involved field effect studies on the TM Sidhis. That might be the research you're thinking of. The problem is that up until now, all TM EEG research is on many-second averages of EEG coherence, and Yogic Flying and any field effects that might be associated with it, has been on 40-second averages. Microstate analysis looks at 1/10 to 1/50 of a second EEG, and sythesizes a kind of electrical field graph for the entire brain for each time-slice they analyze. Cool stuff, and has potential in all sorts of studies, like the EEG of the brain as a PC episode starts and ends, or even doing statistical analysis to see if short PC episodes increase in frequency in a nearby meditator when the hopping phase of Yogic Flying begins... http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/EEG_microstates#Event-related_microstates http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/EEG_microstates#Event-related_microstates ---In [email protected], <authfriend@...> wrote : (I think you meant "obviously not.") I mentioned it because I thought Bhairitu might find it of interest; he'd been talking about shakti being generated, for him, in connection with the TM-Sidhis.. It was just an experience; you're welcome to make of it what you will. I wasn't making any claims for it except that for me, the "tingle in the air" the flying sutra seems to generate might not be a placebo effect, because at that point (at my friend's house) I had never heard any suggestions along those lines, and I had no idea what my friend's program involved in terms of timing, i.e., at what point she would be using the flying sutra. The "tingle" was completely unexpected, I didn't know what might have been responsible, and it occurred to me what it likely was only in retrospect. (BTW, it wasn't "45 minutes." That was how long I waited after she'd gone into the room and closed the door before I started to meditate. The "tingles" toward the end of my meditation lasted only a few minutes.) I'm all for testing for "spooky stuff." You couldn't test this example using me as a subject, though, because I'm no longer "innocent." But sure, it would be interesting to test for shakti-like effects. Not sure why you'd need a Faraday cage; seems to me it would be interesting either way. Maybe shakti is electromagnetic in nature (if it exists, of course). (BTW, I believe there was at least one study of the EEG of a person meditating (or not?) at MIU while a large group was doing the TM-Sidhi program at Amherst. It reported specific EEG changes in the test subject that were coordinated with what the folks were doing in Amherst. The test subject wasn't aware of the timing. Maybe Lawson remembers more details of the study. Don't think a Faraday cage was used.) I really can't understand why you'd question my reporting a personal experience possibly involving some kind of woo-woo, or what you thought I had "given away" by doing so. You've reported a few of your own such experiences, as I recall. Have you ever questioned Barry about his reports of Fred Lenz levitating? Or Bhairitu about his reports of shakti during TM-Sidhis practice, for that matter?
