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Transcendental Meditation featured in new scientific review paper on stress management programmes
by Global Good News staff writer

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15 June 2011

The Transcendental Meditation Programme is featured in a new scientific review paper published in Health Science Journal* that surveys programmes considered effective for stress management.

The paper, titled 'Stress Management Techniques: evidence-based procedures that reduce stress and promote health,' is co-authored by Dr Lisa Varvogli and Dr Christina Darviri, faculty in the Postgraduate Programme of Stress Management and Health Promotion at Athens Medical School, University of Athens, Greece.

In the paper, the Transcendental Meditation technique is described as promoting 'a natural shift of awareness to a wakeful but deeply restful state'—the state of 'transcendental consciousness, which is different from usual waking, dreaming, or sleep states'. The authors refer to the substantial body of scientific research findings on the technique, including reduced blood pressure and other risk factors for cardiovascular disease; improved brain function and coherence between brain hemispheres; and reduced medical care utilization and expenditures.

'Clinical effects of TM impact a broad spectrum of physical and psychological symptoms and syndromes,' the authors write, 'including reduced anxiety, pain, and depression, enhanced mood and self-esteem, decreased stress, and faster recovery from stress.'

Dr Darviri leads a course which presents the various stress-management methods surveyed in the paper to students in the postgraduate programme at Athens University Medical School.

Several eminent faculty of Maharishi University of Management (MUM) in the United States have been invited to give lectures and seminars in the postgraduate programme in Athens in the last several years.

World-renowned quantum physicist Dr John Hagelin**; Dr Robert Schneider,*** dean of Maharishi College of Perfect Health at MUM; and researcher Dr Fred Travis, director of the Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition, have given in-depth presentations on research showing reduced stress, improved health, and development of total brain functioning through technologies of consciousness developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, including Transcendental Meditation.

Two years ago Dr Hagelin and Dr Schneider participated in a three-day programme of extended lectures, which was part of the year-long programme for medical doctors and advanced medical students at Athens University. They spoke about Maharishi Ayur-Veda natural health care and the Transcendental Meditation Programme as a method of creating health through the mind-body connection, and as a complete set of methods for the mind, body, and environment for preventing disease and promoting health. Many participants in the programme went on to learn Transcendental Meditation.

The postgraduate stress management course at Athens University Medical School is offered under the auspices of Dr George Chrousos, an expert on the medical effects of stress and one of the world's most prominent clinical investigators, whose work has been cited more than 50,000 times. Dr Chrousos is chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Athens University Medical School, professor at Georgetown University Medical School, and a renowned former researcher at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US. He was recently appointed to a distinguished Chair in Technology and Society at the US Library of Congress.

* Varvogli, L., Darviri, C. Stress Management Techniques: evidence-based procedures that reduce stress and promote health. Health Science Journal, Vol. 5, Issue 2, 2011: 74-89.

** Dr Hagelin is president of the David Lynch Foundation; executive director of the International Center for Invincible Defense and the Center for Leadership Performance; and director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy.

*** Dr Schneider is also director of the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention and a leading expert in research on effects of the Transcendental Meditation Programme in reducing cardiovascular risk factors and heart disease, much of which has been supported by the National Institutes of Health.

© Copyright 2011 Global Good News^®

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