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"Meditation helps with creativity ... it's almost like TM helps creatively on a level that I can't describe ... but it's tapping into something so deep that when I reap the rewards, I don't even know I'm reaping them".
Eva Mendes
Effortlessly connect with your
deepest inner creativity
A major research study at American University found that TM creates alpha brain waves. The Mayo Clinic describes alpha brain waves as being associated with a "relaxed, happy, focused" state of mind.
That's why people who learn TM often say they're more focused, creative and productive in activity than ever before. Many of them previously tried other forms of meditation. The chart below illustrates a key difference between TM and other techniques.
Science has discovered TM's amazing effects on the brain
Many published research studies have documented TM's brain benefits, including:
- Clearer thinking
- Improved memory
- Improved learning ability
- Greater creativity
- Increased productivity
Alexander CN, Kurth SC, Travis F, Alexander VK. Effect of practice of the children's Transcendental Meditation technique on cognitive stage development: acquisition and consolidation of conservation. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 2005 17(1):21-46
Arenander A, Travis FT. Brain patterns of Self-awareness. In B Beitman, J Nair (eds), Self-Awareness Deficits. New York: WW Norton, 2004
Dixon C, Dillbeck MC, Travis F, Msemaje H, Clayborne BM, Dillbeck SL, Alexander CN. Accelerating cognitive and self development: longitudinal studies with preschool and elementary school children. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 2005 17(1):65-91
Harung H, Travis F, Blank W, Heaton D. Higher development, brain integration, and excellence in leadership. Management Decision 2009 47(6):872-894
Heaton D, Harung HS. Awakening creative intelligence and peak performance: reviving an Asian tradition. Chapter in J Kidd et al. (eds), Human Intelligence Deployment in Asian Business. London: Macmillan, and New York: St. Martin's Press, 2001
Hebert JR, Lehmann D, Tan G, Travis FT, Arenander A. Enhanced EEG alpha time- domain phase synchrony during Transcendental Meditation: implications for cortical integration theory. Signal Processing 2005 85(11):2213-2232
Nidich SI, Schneider RH, Nidich RJ, Foster G, Sharma H, Salerno J, Goodman R, Alexander CN. Effect of the Transcendental Meditation program on intellectual development in community-dwelling older adults. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 2005 17(1):217-226
So KT, Orme-Johnson DW. Three randomized experiments on the holistic longitudinal effects of the Transcendental Meditation technique on cognition. Intelligence 2001 29(5):419-440
Sridevi K, Krishna Rao PV. Temporal effects of meditation on cognitive style. Journal of Indian Psychology 2003 21:38-51
Travis F. Brain functioning as the ground for spiritual experiences and ethical behavior. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin 2009 78(5):26-32
Travis FT. Autonomic and EEG patterns distinguish transcending from other experiences during Transcendental Meditation practice. International Journal of Psychophysiology2001 42(1):1-9
Travis FT, Arenander A. Cross-sectional and longitudinal study of effects of Transcendental Meditation practice on interhemispheric frontal asymmetry and frontal coherence.International Journal of Neuroscience 2006 116(12):1519-38
Travis FT, Arenander A, DuBois D. Psychological and physiological characteristics of a proposed object-referral/self- referral continuum of self- awareness. Consciousness and Cognition 2004 13(2):401-420
Travis FT, Brown S. My brain made me do it: brain maturation and levels of self- development. In AH Pfaffenberger, PW Marko, T Greening (eds), The Postconventional Personality: Perspectives on Higher Development (pp. 23-38). New York: SUNY Press, 2011
Travis F, Grosswald S, Stixrud W. ADHD, brain functioning, and Transcendental Meditation practice. Mind & Brain, The Journal of Psychiatry 2011 2(1):73-81
Travis FT, Haaga DH, Hagelin JS, Tanner M, Arenander A, Nidich S, Gaylord-King C, Grosswald S, Rainforth M, Schneider RH. A self-referential default brain state: patterns of coherence, power, and eLORETA sources during eyes-closed rest and the Transcendental Meditation practice. Cognitive Processing 2010 11(1):21-30
Travis F, Haaga DA, Hagelin J, Tanner M, Nidich S, Gaylord-King C, Grosswald S, Rainforth M, Schneider RH. Effects of Transcendental Meditation practice on brain functioning and stress reactivity in college students. International Journal of Psychophysiology 2009 71(2):170-176
Travis FT, Tecce J, Arenander A, Wallace RK. Patterns of EEG coherence, power and contingent negative variation characterize the integration of transcendental and waking states. Biological Psychology 2002 61(3):293-319
Travis FT, Tecce JJ, Guttman J. Cortical plasticity, contingent negative variation, and transcendent experiences during practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique.Biological Psychology 2000 55(1):41-55
Warner TQ. Awareness and cognition: the role of awareness training in child development.Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 2005 17(1):47-64
Yamamoto S, Kitamura Y, Yamada N, Nakashima Y, Kuroda S. Medial prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex in the generation of alpha activity induced by Transcendental Meditation: a magnetoencephalographic study. Acta Medica Okayama 2006 60(1):51-58-183
Published before 2000
Agarwal BL, Kharbanda A. Effect of transcendental meditation on mild and moderate hypertension. Journal of the Association of Physicians of India 1981 29:591-596
Alexander CN, Schneider RH, Staggers F, Sheppard W, Clayborne BM, Rainforth MV, Salerno J, Kondwani K, Smith S, Walton K, Egan B. Trial of stress reduction for hypertension in older African Americans: II. Sex and risk subgroup analysis. Hypertension 1996 28(2):228-237
Barnes VA, Schneider RH, Alexander CN, Staggers F. Stress, stress reduction, and hypertension in African Americans. Journal of the National Medical Association 1997 89(7):464-476
Cooper M, Aygen M. Effect of meditation on serum cholesterol and blood pressure. Harefuah, Journal of the Israel Medical Association 1978 95(1):1-2 Herron R, Schneider RH, Mandarino JV, Alexander CN, Walton KG. Cost-effective hypertension management: comparison of drug therapies with an alternative program.American Journal of Managed Care 1996 2(4):427-437
Schneider RH, Alexander CN, Wallace RK. In search of an optimal behavioral treatment for hypertension: a review and focus on Transcendental Meditation. In EH Johnson et al. (eds), Personality, Elevated Blood Pressure, and Essential Hypertension (pp.291-312). Washington DC: Hemisphere Publishing, 1992
Schneider RH, Staggers F, Alexander CN, Sheppard W, Rainforth M, Kondwani K, Smith S, King CG. A randomized controlled trial of stress reduction for hypertension in older African Americans. Hypertension 1995 26(5):820-827
Wallace RK, Silver J, Mills PJ, Dillbeck MC, Wagoner DE. Systolic blood pressure and long-term practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM Sidhi program: effects of TM on systolic blood pressure. Psychosomatic Medicine 1983 45(1):41- 46
Walton KG, Pugh BS, Gelderloos P, Macrae P. Stress reduction and preventing hypertension: preliminary support for a psychoneuroendocrine mechanism. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 1995 1(3):263-283
Wenneberg SR, Schneider RH, McLean C, Levitsky DK, Walton KG, Mandarino JV, Salerno JW, Wallace RK, Waziri R. A controlled study of the effects of Transcendental Meditation on cardiovascular reactivity and ambulatory blood pressure. International Journal of Neuroscience 1997 89(1/2):15-28
Zamarra JW, Schneider RH, Besseghini I, Robinson DK, Salerno JW. Usefulness of the Transcendental Meditation program in the treatment of patients with coronary artery disease. American Journal of Cardiology 1996 77 (10):867-870