Teaching Transcendental Meditation in Public Schools

[coda]

This article states that a benefit concert reuniting Paul McCartney and
Ringo Starr and others i.e. Eddie Vedder, Sheryl Crowe, Moby, Donovan,,, to raise money for movie producer "David Lynch Foundation's program, which has already taught 60,000 children around the world how to meditate,' foundation spokesman Steve Yellin said. [] Schools across the United States have asked the group to bring the classes to their students, he said." http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/04/mccartney.meditation.concert/

Briefly, "Transcendental Meditation" founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is primarily a practice whereby a mantra (word, syllable, phrase, etc. ) is given to the student to focus on or chant repeatedly. The secret mantras are given during a ceremony and consist of a devotion to a Hindu deity.
http://www.tm.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_Meditation

here's what some ex-members say about TM
http://trancenet.net/personal/index.shtml

[Plagueround]

Ringo and Paul should have followed John's lead and rejected such stupid mysticism.

[The New Consciousness]

Meditation is great. It's healthy and can do wonders for your state of mind. But so can running.

You will not solve serious problems this way. I once wrote in a post that one must be facing the sun, otherwise you'll never know its warmth. You may bring yourself closer with drugs and meditation, but unless you are facing it, it's a waste of time. It's just another futile escape.

Nevertheless I do feel this is a good thing. But I can't stand TM. They clearly aren't enlightened, these pinstripe peddlers of mysticism.

[Kernewek]

Ringo and Paul should have followed John's lead and rejected such stupid mysticism.
what an ignorent post

meditation has been proven to help reduce stress and anxiety and to improve the health of those who practic it, try learning about something before you dismiss it

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

what an ignorent post

meditation has been proven to help reduce stress and anxiety and to improve the health of those who practic it, try learning about something before you dismiss it

[citation needed]

[Hit The North]

I have to agree that meditation does not need to involve belief in any higher mystical power.

Also it seems obvious that any activity which attempts to create a state of calm and relaxation will produce lower levels of stress and anxiety for the individual who practices it.

[Pogue]

As we would say in any social situation where meditation came up over here

WHAT A LOAD OF BOLLOCKS

WHAT A LOAD OF BOLLOCKS

[Kernewek]

[citation needed]
OP posted some links, but here you go

might have to pay to read the full articals but the abstracts sum up the results

helps reduce anxiety
http://www.ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/149/7/936

helps boost your imune system
http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/cgi/content/abstract/65/4/564

helps deal with pain, anxiety and depression
http://brainimaging.waisman.wisc.edu/~perlman/kabatzinn-mbsr-1982.pdf (http://brainimaging.waisman.wisc.edu/%7Eperlman/kabatzinn-mbsr-1982.pdf)

helps treat coronary artery disease
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8623742

helps reduce stress and depression
http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/cgi/content/abstract/62/5/613

helps with stress and anxiety disorders
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T70-3Y6PCRW-1B&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=def79d361d29bb66086e2735bde02712

[Plagueround]

what an ignorent post

meditation has been proven to help reduce stress and anxiety and to improve the health of those who practic it, try learning about something before you dismiss it

So has prayer. It doesn't mean we should go around teaching it in schools. If YOU knew anything about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, perhaps you might be someone who has the authority to call anyone ignorant.

[Kernewek]

So has prayer. It doesn't mean we should go around teaching it in schools. If YOU knew anything about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, perhaps you might be someone who has the authority to call anyone ignorant.

sorry, but dismissing something which has been proven to produce real benifits as "stupid mysticism" is ignorent

what's wrong with teaching it?

[Plagueround]

sorry, but dismissing something which has been proven to produce real benifits as "stupid mysticism" is ignorent

Again...kneeling on one's knees and praying to Jesus has been proven to produce real benefits. It does not automatically imply that it is correct, or that we should teach it in schools. Should we accept the existence of Christ, or is it only eastern religion that middle and upper class liberals are infatuated with that get a pass?

These techniques and the rather religious/spiritual explanation for them, despite producing any sort of beneficial physical or mental results, should not be taught in schools. As someone who does not want my child being subjecting to other people's religion and spirituality as part of curriculum in publicly funded schools, I do not want to see this kind of nonsense invade his education. If this was Christianity we were discussing, no one here would be set on defending it. Did you actually even bother to read what transcendental meditation entails?


The first instruction, begins with a short puja (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puja) ceremony performed by the teacher, after which the student learns the technique and begins to practice at home twice per day. Subsequent sessions provide further clarification of correct practice, as well as more information about the technique.
what's wrong with teaching it?Because it is absolutely and terribly against the notion of separating church and state. The only way I would be willing to let this slide is if it were a after hours club or group that was not paid for with public funding...if that's what a bunch of millionaire rock stars want to waster their money on, fine. Even then I'm a bit wary of it even being on school grounds.

On a personal note, it also sounds like they've surrounded simple meditation techniques with a bunch of unneeded, mystic nonsense that I reject wholeheartedly.

[Hit The North]

Again...kneeling on one's knees and praying to Jesus has been proven to produce real benefits. It does not automatically imply that it is correct, or that we should teach it in schools.

But prayer necessarily involves belief in a supernatural deity as it is a "conversation" with the deity. As such it is inseparable from theological belief. Meditation is a mental discipline which seeks to "centre the self" and has no necessary connection with theological belief (despite its origins within Vedic belief) but only requires a belief in the self. It can therefore be taught without locating it within a religious tradition.

[Plagueround]

But prayer necessarily involves belief in a supernatural deity as it is a "conversation" with the deity. As such it is inseparable from theological belief. Meditation is a mental discipline which seeks to "centre the self" and has no necessary connection with theological belief (despite its origins within Vedic belief) but only requires a belief in the self. It can therefore be taught without locating it within a religious tradition.

Except they don't want to teach meditation, they want to teach transcendental meditation, which is why I wrote:




On a personal note, it also sounds like they've surrounded simple meditation techniques with a bunch of unneeded, mystic nonsense that I reject wholeheartedly.

Transcendental meditation, no matter how much they try to hide it, has it's roots in religion and spirituality. We should not allow teaching spirituality in schools on the basis that they are only being implicit about it.
Fortunately, this is one instance where it appears a number of sociologists (and the New Jersey Supreme court) agree with me.

[Kernewek]

transcendental meditation is just a form of meditation, it has it's roots in spirituality but that doesn't change the fact you can teach meditation without the spiritual bollocks it came from

astronomy also has it's roots in spirituality, would you object to your children learning about the solar system?

[Plagueround]

transcendental meditation is just a form of meditation, it has it's roots in spirituality but that doesn't change the fact you can teach meditation without the spiritual bollocks it came from

If you do that, you're no longer teaching transcendental meditation, which is what I'm objecting to. I thought that would have been clear after the numerous times I said it.


astronomy also has it's roots in spirituality, would you object to your children learning about the solar system?Do they teach the prayer ceremonies that went along with early astronomy in modern courses? Clearly, not the same thing.

[Louise Michel]

Yes, teach meditation, the capacity to sit quietly and focus inward and relieve stress but melt down the bearded-guru DVDs which actually increase stress by giving people unattainable goals such as perfect peace or the need to grow a beard as luxurious as the guru's.:cool:

[Plagueround]

Yes, teach meditation, the capacity to sit quietly and focus inward and relieve stress but melt down the bearded-guru DVDs which actually increase stress by giving people unattainable goals such as perfect peace or the need to grow a beard as luxurious as the guru's.:cool:

I say screw meditation and bring back nap time. The biggest mistake was getting rid of nap time in schools just when people started to appreciate the value of someone allowing you time to sleep during the day. :lol:

[casper]

they had a thing in PE once where they had us just lay and focus on our breathing. meditation doesn't have to be connected to religion
it can be connected to health and psychology.
you can enter into alternative mental states through meditation if i remember correctly.
if they don't try to connect religion to it(except explaining the history of the practice of course) and just show it as a technique to relax and the like i don't see much of a problem.

[commyrebel]

meditation is a away of making you concert on one thing which reduce stress because you don't worry about other things. Because in a mind that can reason it randomly keep thoughts going(like RAM for your computer) to keep your mind meditation just focuses on a small part off you though which allows you to use more brain capacity for that thing so its not wasted on random crap.

[coda]

I posted this in objection to teaching a religious tradition in public schools. Yes, obviously there are different forms of unwinding,de-stressing, such as breathing techniques that do not apply worshipping of a religious deity or promoting the agenda of attaining "enlightenment" or "transcending" human experience. That clearly falls into mysticism. hey, It would be much more appropriate and inclusive not to mention way less offensive if they just lit up a joint and passed it around-- does the same thing, but without effort.