On 8/12/2014 10:35 AM, Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com
[FairfieldLife] wrote:
like Steve and Willy you love to make stuff up - I have never make
such a statement nor even alluded to such a thing.
>
Maybe we should look up what Michael has posted to the group:
http://www.mail/fairfieldlife/archive/Michael+Jackson+TM/yahoogroups/
<http://www.mail-archive.com/search?q=Michael+Jackson%2C+TM&l=fairfieldlife%40yahoogroups.com>
>
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*From:* "Share Long sharelon...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]"
<FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>
*To:* "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>
*Sent:* Tuesday, August 12, 2014 11:29 AM
*Subject:* Re: [FairfieldLife] Meditation and Science
Michael you've stated that it's fine for salyavin to practice TM. And
you've also shared that you're happy when you talk someone out of
doing TM. So it sounds like you're saying that TM is good for some
people and that only you and salyavin are capable of saying who it's
good for.
On Tuesday, August 12, 2014 10:24 AM, "Michael Jackson
mjackso...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com>
wrote:
Sometimes real science does come in handy:
Otis (1984) described a study done at Stanford Research Institute in
1971 to determine the negative effects of Transcendental Meditation.
SRI mailed a survey to every twentieth person on the Students
International Meditation Society (TM's parent organization) mailing
list of 40,000 individuals. Approximately 47% of the 1,900 people
surveyed responded. The survey included a self-concept word list (the
Descriptive Personality List) and a checklist of physical and
behavioral symptoms (the Physical and Behavioral Inventory). It was
found that dropouts reported fewer complaints than experienced
meditators, to a statistically significant degree. Furthermore,
adverse effects were positively correlated with the length of time in
meditation. Long-term meditators reported the following percentages of
adverse effects: antisocial behavior, 13.5%; anxiety, 9.0%; confusion,
7.2%; depression, 8.1%; emotional stability, 4.5%; frustration, 9.0%;
physical and mental tension, 8.1%; procrastination, 7.2%;
restlessness, 9.0%; suspiciousness, 6.3%; tolerance of others, 4.5%;
and withdrawal, 7.2%. The author concluded that the longer a person
stays in TM and the more committed a person becomes to TM as a way of
life, the greater is the likelihood that he or she will experience
adverse effects. This contrasts sharply with the promotional
statements of the various TM organizations.
Ellis (1984) stated that meditation's greatest danger was its common
connection with spirituality and antiscience. He said that it might
encourage some individuals to become even more obsessive-compulsive
than they had been and to dwell in a ruminative manner on trivia or
nonessentials. He also noted that some of his clients had gone into
"dissociative semi-trance states and upset themselves considerably by
meditating." Ellis views meditation and other therapy procedures as
often diverting people from doing that which overcomes their
disturbance to focusing on the highly palliative technique itself.
Therefore, although individuals might feel better, their chances of
acquiring a basically healthy, nonmasturbatory outlook are sabotaged.
Walsh (1979) reported a number of disturbing experiences during
meditation, such as anxiety, tension, and anger. Walsh and Rauche
(1979) stated that meditation may precipitate a psychotic episode in
individuals with a history of schizophrenia. Kornfield (1979 and 1983)
reported that body pain is a frequent occurrence during meditation,
and that meditators develop new ways to relate to their pain as a
result of meditation. Hassett (1978) reported that meditation can be
harmful. Carrington (1977) observed that extensive meditation may
induce symptoms that range in severity from insomnia to psychotic
manifestations with hallucinatory behavior. Lazarus (1976) reported
that psychiatric problems such as severe depression and schizophrenic
breakdown may be precipitated by TM. French et al. (1975) reported
that anxiety, tension, anger, and other disturbing experiences
sometimes occur during TM. Carrington and Ephron (1975c) reported a
number of complaints from TM meditators who felt themselves
overwhelmed by negative and unpleasant thoughts during meditation.
Glueck and Stroebel (1975) reported that two experimental subjects
made independent suicide attempts in the first two days after
beginning the TM program. Kannellakos and Lukas (1974) reported
complaints from TM meditators. Otis (1974) reported that five patients
suffered a reoccurrence of serious psychosomatic symptoms after
commencing meditation. Maupin (1969) stated that the deepest objection
to meditation has been its tendency to produce withdrawn, serene
people who are not accessible to what is actually going on in their
lives. He said that with meditation it is easy to overvalue the
internal at the expense of the external.
These and other negative meditation outcomes are described in
traditional sources. The path is "sharp like a razor's edge" says the
Katha Upanishad. [54] St. John of the Cross wrote an entire book about
the dark night of the soul. [55] Several hundred pages of Sri
Aurobindo's collected works deal with the problems and dangers of his
integral yoga. [56] A large part of Aldous Huxley's /The Perennial
Philosophy/ consists of admonitions from various spiritual masters
about the difficulties encountered in contemplative practice, [57] and
William James explores the negative side of religious life in /The
Varieties of Religious Experience/. [58] These and other sources
provide a wide array of warnings and directions for those entering a
path of meditation. Though the rewards of contemplative practice can
be great, they do not come easily.
This research was done on TM by an Independent TM Research:
76% of long-term meditators experience psychological disorders --
including 26% nervous breakdowns
63% experience serious physical complaints
70% recorded a worsening ability to concentrate
Researchers found a startling drop in honesty among long-term meditators
TranceNet: German Transcendental Meditation Research, 4 of 7
<http://onwww.net/trancenet.org/research/chap4.shtml#4.6.4Plus> a
detailed examination of the history, culture, and secret teachings of
the TM movement.
The unconscious sense impressions and visions which are brought to the
conscious mind during meditation cannot be controlled by the meditator
himself. The mainly positive experiences in the earlier stages
(pictures, feelings of happiness) are replaced in time - according to
reports of the ex-meditators - by terrifying images and feelings of
fear or anguish. This is known to the T.M. movement. The theory states
that "unstressing" is taking place during these conditions. It is
advised that one should meditate more intensively. Only when all of
that stress was released, would pleasant experiences again be had.
Because of their initial pleasant experiences with the meditation,
coupled with a blind trust in the directions of the T.M. leadership,
those concerned meditated more intensively and ended up in many cases
in what was for them a dangerous condition, which they could not get
out of without outside help.
Over 70% of those in our study had difficulties, statements made on
tape list these difficulties mainly as being: problems with sleeping,
anguish, increasing pain in the head, stomach, and back, (compare with
section 6 of this chapter), problems with concentration,
hallucinations, feelings of isolation, depression, over- sensitivity,
and
instability.<http://www.blogger.com/goog_1026132409>http://onwww.net/trancenet.org/research/
In 1978, _Psychology Today _magazine reported that a "'substantial
number' of meditators developed anxiety, depression, physical and
mental tension and other adverse effects" (San Francisco Examiner,
September 10, 1989, p. E3). "In 1980, the West German government's
Institute for Youth and Society produced a report calling TM a
'psychogroup' and saying that the majority of people who went through
TM experienced psychological or physical disorders" (Edward Epstein,
"_Politics and Transcendental Meditation,_" San Francisco Chronicle,
December 29, 1995, p. A1).
Another concern, explored by researchers Michael Murphy and Steven
Donovan, is that advanced practioners rank high in suggestibility,
meaning that their physical or mental state is easily influence by the
process of suggestion. Whether they become more suggestible because of
participation in meditation practices or are highly suggestible to
being with, a state which might reinforce their continuation of the
practice, has not been determined. Either way, the suggestibility puts
them at risk of losing personal autonomy.
