--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > On Apr 2, 2008, at 11:56 AM, shempmcgurk wrote: > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajradhatu@> wrote: > >> > >> What was the name of the alleged book? > > > > > > Can't remember...but I do remember that the author was NOT happy about > > the TMers getting those results, in particular because they weren't > > meditating for spiritual reasons but, rather, for relief of stress and > > relaxation. > > > > The issue of "wow, these neophytes got the same results as these long- > > time Buddhist practitioners" simply didn't arise in his mind. > > > He should rest assured that the research was most likely of a > questionable nature. I've seen similar things with early TM research > which tried to compare itself to other forms of meditation and were > based on the erroneous assumption that the parameters which were > beneficial for TMers should be the same for others. Another way they > did this was to deliberately and consciously inflate baseline > measurement of metabolism. The result is TM actually looks > hypometabolic (a drop in metabolic rate, an indicator of deep rest), > like you see in real yogis. However independent researchers found > they could not duplicate it and it turned out TM was actually not > hypometabolic at all. >
Actually, I've yet to see proof that they deliberately mislead people about the hypo- metabolic thing. In fact, it was MIU research by Brian Kesterson, where he studied the metabolic differences between people showing regular episodes of transcendental consciousness, including breath suspension, with meditators who were NOT showing such signs, that convinced the TM researchers that MMY was wrong: metabolic rate and samadhi are not correlated. > Nowadays we know this is simply not true. There are other forms of > meditation which are quite remarkable in comparison to relaxation > response style meditation. > Of course, TM isn't relaxation-response style meditation. For you to suggest that it IS, shows you don't practice TM and never have and even if you went on numerous courses (even if you became a TM teacher), you obviously never "got it." And... we still haven't heard of any research published in a peer-reviewed scientific circle where meditators show spontaneous breath suspension ala the kind found during transcendental consciousness during TM practice. Lawson
