---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, wrote :
I hope a few out-of-the-box thinkers here w.r.t. TM and meditation in general
have been having fun with the Oxytocin articles and studies I've been posting
today. I know I sure have.
It made me laugh
Here's another one:
http://www.sociopathworld.com/2013/10/oxytocin-debunked.html
http://www.sociopathworld.com/2013/10/oxytocin-debunked.html
I find all the research I've discovered this morning fascinating, because for
me it helps to explain the phenomenon I've witnessed in the TMO and in
long-term TM meditators for years. That is, the "disconnect" they seem to have
between their desire to believe what they were told by Maharishi -- "TM is 100%
life-supporting and has no negative side effects" -- and the *obvious*
contradictions to that they see in front of their own eyes, but somehow find a
way to ignore or deny.
TMers cling to the "100% positive" meme even if they have witnessed with their
own eyes people freaking out and entering psychotic states while on long TM
courses, or even committing suicide on them. They cling to this meme *even if
it's happened to them* (not the suicide part, of course), and they've spent
days, weeks, or months in the "heavy unstressing" groups themselves.
What if it all comes down to TM creating elevated Oxytocin levels?
High Oxytocin levels would certainly explain the "blissninny" phenomenon, and
why people feel so blissy and good after meditating, especially on long
courses, where they're doing a lot of it. It would explain the enhanced
affinity they feel for "the group" (meaning fellow TMers) and the *lack* of
affinity (downright disdain and scorn in some cases...see Buck's rants about
"non-meditators" or Nabby's rants about "Buddhists") who are NOT in the group.
It would explain the extent to which people will perform unethical acts and say
untruthful things to "protect the group." Who, after all, would smuggle huge
sums of cash across international borders just because they were told to do so
by the group, or lie to people in intro lectures about TM having no religious
connotations *just after attending a 'celebration' in which they had personally
invoked the names of Hindu gods and bowed to them* if they *weren't* "dosed"
with some powerful psychotropic chemical? High Oxytocin levels explain the cult
apologetics we see as an integral part of how the TMO "does business," and why
otherwise seemingly sane people go out of their way to participate in
untruthful spin out of misplaced loyalty to "the group."
High Oxytocin levels even explain why some who were latently suffering from
Borderline Personality Disorder or Narcissistic Personality Disorder find those
types of behaviors enhanced after long-term practice of TM and begin to act
them out. High Oxytocin levels explain the obvious envy present when TMers put
down practitioners of other forms of meditation who "get more scientific press"
than TM does, or who find it easier to find new students than they do.
I think there is "meat" here for a real study of the effects of meditation, and
how it can seem to produce positive results, but *at the same time* seem to
produce other, far less positive results.
Could be another job for Susan Blackmore.
Of course, no one in the TM movement will ever be willing to undertake such a
study, because if it turned out to prove my hypothesis, they'd have disproved
one of Maharishi's primary pieces of dogma: "TM is 100% life-supporting and has
no negative side effects."
How about TM and anger problems. Seems like a lot of people get stroppy and
intense when they are rounding or living in academies. I certainly did,
especially after prog. "Unstressing" of course, but damn persistent. A rich
seam of research is waiting someone.
And y'know...Oxytocin even explains WHY they believe such dogma. Oxytocin
increases *trust*, and the willingness to believe what you've been told to
believe.
