TM - TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION REVISITED: Another Possible Method of Drug-Free Stress Reduction.

TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION REVISITED

Dear Thinkers, Colleagues and Subscribers (Note: These are not mutually exclusive!):

We function in an environment of intense, unrelenting stress, increasing demands upon our fragile psyches, and less and less genuine recreation -- the kind of recreation that fully takes the conscious mind away from its ongoing business dialogue, usually motivated by fear. In writing Braintenance, my blog on cognitive enhancement, I stumbled upon some interesting information regarding Transcendental Meditation. I am neither a cultist, nor a fadist, but I believe that intelligent persons (if you subscribe to TNNW, you are officially an intelligent person - Congratulations!) can glean the true benefit of any system, and segregate it from the foolishness and dogma.

I have done a fair amount of training in NLP, Hypnotherapy, positive visualization, brainwave entrainment, martial arts and numerous other self-growth modalities and techniques to improve my personal and professional life. In fact, they have been so powerfully helpful at enhancing my ability to be positively creative and productive, that I joined forces with Martial Arts Master Joseph Droual some years ago to create and refine the INTERNAL ENERGY PLUS System of learning and entrainment.

The one method which I have yet to dedicate myself to is Transcendental Meditation. I remember as being a sort of fad in the 1970s, but its long-standing adherents seem to been profoundly benefitted by it in terms of stress reduction, blood pressure reduction, increased perspective and focus, mental clarity, improved resting pulse rate, and re-energization. It is my intention to explore it. And while I do not offer medical or health advice, it might be worth looking into for your own benefit. An excerpted clip from a TM seminar announcement follows for your information. I hope that you find it edifying and enjoyable.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle
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One of the most valuable benefits of the Transcendental Meditation technique is becoming more creative—becoming more innovative and adaptable in the midst of life’s pressures and challenges.

Award winning filmmaker David Lynch recently toured U.S. college campuses with world-renowned quantum physicist John Hagelin and brain researcher Fred Travis to present how the TM technique promotes extraordinary creativity and total brain functioning—higher states of consciousness.

You can view their compelling presentation at:

http://www.uwtv.org/programs/displayevent.aspx?rID=4169

Better than watching their talks, however, is improving your own brain’s orderly functioning by practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique.

Terms and labels: Articles by Douglas Castle, Braintenance, entrainment, Internal Energy Plus, Joseph Droual, stress reduction, TM, TNNW, transcendental meditation, EMDR, hypnotherapy, NLP, neurolinguistic programming, positive visualization, creativity, meditative exercises, cognitive enhancement, mental focus, clarity, laser vision, mind-control, self-growth


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Learning About Learning: Critical Mass, Momentum and Learning

Critical Mass, Momentum and Learning
Written by Douglas Castle and originally published at http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com. I am delighted (although I always grumble and whine about it) to be a Featured Columnist in THE NATIONAL NETWORKER Newsletter. You can enjoy the latest issue by clicking on http://www.TheNationalNetworker.com, and you can obtain a free subscription at http://twitlik.com/OK.

Dear Readers:

I have always been a champion of executing a plan in increments -- a step at a time in a deliberate direction, with certain refinements along the way as warranted in the circumstances. I am still a proponent of this plan and execute strategy, but there is a consideration that I would like to introduce. It has to do with the paradoxical way in which we learn, versus the way in which we act.

We learn in chunks. We advance (in our knowledge and command of skills) in quantum leaps. We grow in sudden spurts, each a seeming epiphany or satori experience. Yet in order to get to the chunk , the leap or the epiphany, we must dedicate a certain critical minimum amount of time to doing an exercise, working at a job, mindfully meditating or watching a presentation in order to "build up" to these breakthroughs. It is as if we had to build up to a particular state in order to have this magic happen.

By way of example, I cannot increase my efficiency at working with a particular computer protocol unless I spend an hour or two immersed in it. If I just dabble at for fifteen minutes every day, or at sporadic intervals, I do not achieve the critical mass or momentum to make the jump. Once I've made the jump, I can sit down at the computer and execute the protocol more efficiently. Other examples abound...

If I run on the treadmill for fifteen minutes, I will neither break a sweat, nor find my stride. Even if I do this three times daily five day per week, I will still not stress my heart sufficiently to give me a significant cardiovascular benefit. It is this way with swimming, sparring, writing and so many other things in nature and in life.

Fond of metaphors, I have often used the example of driving up a mountain and taking one's foot off of the accelerator to demonstrate what happens (at worst case when momentum is lost). I have used the example of fissionable fuel being scattered all over the globe versus having it concentrated in sufficient mass in one place to illustrate critical mass. If you practice at your sport or your musical instrument too briefly each day, you will likely fail to "catch on" and advance in your playing ability. We need both mass and momentum to sharpen any of our physical and intellectual abilities. The interesting thing that does begin to happen with each hard-won advance ir that the one to follow it comes more rapidly and more easily - at least until the point of virtuousity, or to the point of physical or physiological limitation. It is absolutely true that one breakthrough leads to the next, but it is just as true that without the first hard-won breakthrough the subsequent ones may be eternally elusive.

Steps or increments provide a means to work toward a strategic goal (provided that the skills required to properly execute each step are already acquired), but learning requires critical mass and momentum. The picture that comes to mind is that of the stereotypical "larger-than-life" hero jumping from the roof of one building to the roof of another -- he requires a solid running start if he is to accumulate sufficient speed to scale the distance between the buildings. Failure to reach the ramp-up speed in time to make the jump will result in our hero looking like a cross between (why isn't that damned Spellcheck available on this Blogger Platform???) a Jackson Pollack painting and a hastily drawn Rorschach test pattern on the sidewalk many stories below.

Ironically, the much sought-after (this is an example of hyper-hyphenation) "Aha!" moment -- is not truly spontaneous; it is earned.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle
p.s. I am also going to be writing about the very controversial topic of procrastination as soon as I can find the time.

Labels and Terms: critical mass, momentum, accelerated learning, breakthrough learning, epiphanies, the process of growth, the science of learning, learning how to learn, Articles by Douglas Castle,


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