Transcendental meditation in depth
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I must begin this review by pointing out that if you are interested in the 'How-to' of meditation this is book is not the one for you. Bloomfield and co. tell little of the techniques used in TM (Transcendental Meditation) other than that a mantra (repeated word) of some kind is used and a comfortable sitting position in a chair is preferred (rather than the cross legged, straight back position of Buddhism). If you want to know more about technique I suggest Herbert Benson's The Relaxation Response in which Chapter 7 describes how to meditate. Benson's book covers some of the material described in Bloomfield's volume, particularly the affects of meditation on blood pressure and heart rate.
Having mentioned the above failure I must point out that this book gives an excellent summary of the medical and psychological research done on Transcendental Meditation, as well as giving good coverage of the applications of the practice in education, psychotherapy, criminal reform and business. The book was first published way back in 1975 when TM was still a new and 'happening' thing, so many of the findings are only tentative. I am able to tell you, however, that many of the findings were later confirmed by further research. Stress is a great stumbling block in so much of what we do and anything we can do to alleviate it results in a surprising improvement in performance.
The subjects covered include:
(1) The physiology of meditation, particularly, reduced oxygen consumption, reduced breath rate, reduced blood lactate concentration, reduced galvanic skin resistance, reduced heart rate and decreased blood pressure. Many of these effects occurred both during and after meditation, and some extended into normal life. Some attention is given to the use of meditation in the treatment of psychosomatic illnesses. A fair amount of space is given to the research demonstrating that meditation is a fourth state of consciousness, different from waking, deep sleep and REM sleep.
(2) The psychology of meditation, including, increased inner/outer directedness, increased self acceptance, increased spontaneity, increased non-aggression, increased intimate contact, decreased anxiety, decreased depression and decreased neuroticism.
(3) Improvements in performance, such as, increased perceptual ability, faster reaction time and increased recall ability.
(4) Changes in behavior patterns, like the reduction of use of illegal drugs, the reduction of alcohol and cigarette use, increase in job satisfaction, increase in job performance, improved relations with supervisors and co-workers.
The philosophic framework of TM is also given in considerable detail and pointers to further research in discovering a possible fifth, sixth and seventh states of consciousness are given. Virtually all of this material remains esoteric and unresearched today.
Finally a summary of the future 'world plan' for the expansion of the 'TM program' is given. It is interesting to see that, while today TM is not totally unheard of, interest has declined considerably, and perhaps lamentably.
