Meditation in the United States By Jane Michael At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Meditation in the U.S. started in the late nineteen sixties and became more popular in the seventies. It was part of the hippy movement or at least that movement embraced it. One of the icons of that time in music The Beatles got into meditation and some of the eastern music from India was integrated into a few of their songs and this helped bring attention to meditation. The member George Harrison probably was its biggest proponent from the rock/pop band. John Lennon was the other Beatle that was more interested in this form of contemplation. The singer, guitarist, and songwriter Cat Stevens also got into a religion that espoused meditation as a big part of its tradition. That was Islam.

The teacher of meditation to the Beatles was the Maharishi; he moved to England in 1959. This was around the time of the infancy of The Beatles. After awhile the Marharishi returned to India for study in meditation from Guru Dev and this lasted for thirteen years. Then he traveled back to London and started teaching a type of Hindu meditation. He is the one that created Transcendental Meditation in which there isn’t a struggle between the material and spiritual. It is this from of meditation that first became so popular in the United States in the seventies.

Transcendental Meditation doesn’t utilize contemplation or concentration. It is done twice per day for twenty minutes. There is a seven-step program for learning this type of meditation. This process involves an interview, lectures that introduce the technique, four days in a row of instruction that are two hours apiece. The teaching starts with a brief ceremony, then learning the methods begins and the student starts practicing. The other instruction periods are used for tutoring in the correct way to practice the meditation.

What is the effect of TM on physiology? Research began in the seventies to see what these effects might be if any. There have been other studies since then. What was discovered is that a person’s respiration, blood lactate, minute ventilation, and tidal volume were lessened. While the basal skin resistance and coherence and the brain’s functions of integration were increased. The initial study was published in these publications: Science, American Journal of Physiology, and Scientific American.

Others studies published in reputable medical journals have shown that TM can help relieve asthma, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, stroke, pain, depression, digestive disorders, insomnia, and smoking.

Transcendental Meditation is a method for extreme relaxation of the mind and body. The official sites for TM say it doesn’t involve religion as in faith and that belief isn’t required to receive its benefits. But the Maharishi stated it was a way to God. Some of the Christian religious leaders find TM to be in battle with Christianity, but others think it is compatible. Some people consider TM and its practice a cult. There have also been a couple of lawsuits revolving around Transcendental Mediation. But one of them was concerned with a person that has psychological problems and the other was a case in which fraud was claimed and physical injury do to practicing the meditation, but it a settlement was made out of court.

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