‘OM’ BOOSTS BRAIN POWER: US University research!

[london swaminathan]

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The best way to boost brain power and improve exam grades? Chant 'Om' like the Beatles did

· The technique, known as Transcendental Meditation, involves a particular sound being repeated over and over again with the eyes closed

· Students who performed two 20-minute sessions twice a day were up to 25 per cent more likely to graduate from high school
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By ANNA HODGEKISS

PUBLISHED: 08:41, 12 June 2013 | UPDATED: 08:46, 12 June 2013 Daily Mail, London


A meditation technique made famous by the Beatles could boost brain power and even improve exam grades, scientists have claimed.

A study of high school students found graduation rates were up to 25 per cent better for those who Chanting ‘om’ or a similar meditation mantra for 20 minutes twice a day.

The relaxation technique, known as Transcendental Meditation, involves a particular sound being repeated over and over again with the eyes closed.

New research suggests that Transcendental Meditation, taught to The Beatles by Indian Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1967 (pictured), can boost brain function and improve exam grades by up to 25 per cent

It has also been shown to reduce the risk of death from heart attack and strokes and soothe stress and anxiety.


It became fashionable among ‘flower power’ hippies of the Sixties after John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr visited India and were taught it by the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Professor Robert Colbert, from the University of Connecticut, said improved graduation rates benefit society as a whole, as well as improving prospects for the individual.

He added that dropping out can result in loss of income, along with more risk of turning to crime and ending up in jail, or becoming dependent on state benefit.


In the study, analysis of the records of 235 students at an urban school on the east coast of the U.S. showed a 15 per cent higher graduation rate for those put on a transcendental mediation program compared to a control group.


When only the lowest academically performing participants in both groups were considered, passes rose by 25 per cent in the meditators.

The meditating students were also less likely to drop out from school, or enter prison, and were more likely to be accepted to further education.
As well as exam grades improving by at least 15 per cent, students who meditated were also less likely to drop out from school, or enter prison, and were more likely to be accepted to further education

Prof Colbert said: 'While there are bright spots in public education today, urban schools on the whole tend to suffer from a range of factors which contribute to poor student academic performance and low graduation rates.


'Students need to be provided with value added educational programs that can provide opportunities for school success.
'Our study investigated one such program, Transcendental Meditation, which appears to hold tremendous promise for enriching the lives of our nation’s students.'


In a 2009 interview, Ringo Starr said of Transcendental Meditation: 'Over 40 years ago, we ended up in Rishikesh.


That is where we hung out with Maharishi. We had met him a few months before in Wales. Since then, sometimes a lot, sometimes a little, I have meditated. It is a gift he gave me.’

Paul McCartney added: 'It is one of the few things anyone has ever given to me that means so much to me. For us, it came at a time when we were looking for something to stabilise us at the end of the crazy Sixties.'

The research is published in the journal Education.(Daily Mail, London June 12,2013)

Pictures are taken from The Daily Mail, London and Face book

 

[renuka]

Daily Meditator Newsletter
June 2013

AUM — The Melody of Love
June 10, 2013

Dear Meditator,
I am very happy to announce that my book, AUM: The Melody of Love, is now in print. The purpose of the book is to help readers deepen their experience and love for AUM. God is ever-new bliss, and vibrating AUM is the Divine Generator pouring out God’s love to all creation.

A saint said we should meditate on AUM with meaning and devotion. As I dived more deeply into the spiritual science of the Cosmic Vibration, I began to see how central a role AUM plays for our liberation.

AUM is the Omnipotent Force propelling each soul toward God. The Mundaka Upanishad proclaims AUM to be the bow, the arrow to be the soul, and the target, Brahma, or Cosmic Spirit. AUM’s expanding power spreads the disciple’s consciousness to Infinity, and the disciple begins at last, to experience the guru’s consciousness.

In AUM: The Melody of Love you will discover many exercises, stories, and entry points that will help you gain a fuller appreciation and realization of AUM’s universal reality.

The following book excerpt is from chapter eight, Your Friend and Liberator:
Sleeping babies smile blissfully, the saints say, because they’re listening to AUM. A human mother sings a lullaby to comfort her baby; the Divine Mother sings Her lullaby of love to comfort all creation.

Through AUM, God’s grace flows into the world. After first hearing it and discovering its continuous sound, an Ananda student said, “AUM is ever present. All I need to do is remember to listen!”

The Cosmic Vibration is loving, conscious, and responsive. Paramhansa Yogananda spoke of how the sound of AUM would change into the English or Bengali language to give him precise instructions. He said, “You have absolutely no idea of the wonderful realizations and intuitions
[listening to AUM] will give you. If you practice it regularly, faithfully, and reverently, you will get them all by and by.”

When disciples would ask Paramhansa Yogananda to give them a mantra, Yogananda would suggest, “AUM Guru,” explaining that this mantra is a prayer to the guru asking him to introduce the disciple to AUM. “Then,” Yogananda would add with a smile, “AUM becomes your teacher.”

AUM is the Cosmic Redeemer because it annihilates the mind. The sages of India say that the restless mind is finally trapped by its attraction to AUM and samadhi is achieved. “Just as light is the property of a lighted lamp,” Lahiri Mahasaya said, “so the sound of AUM is the intrinsic property of the stage of samadhi.”

Just as a child who has been separated from his mother quickly achieves oneness with her when he is again in her presence, so does the devotee become totally absorbed while in AUM. Even wild animals are attracted to the Cosmic Sound. Snakes, deer, and other wild beasts in the forests of the Himalayas have often come to sit peacefully beside a hermit who’s chanting AUM. AUM’s effect on animals shouldn’t be surprising, because everything in creation is, in a very real sense, music or vibration; and Holy AUM, the purest of all melodies, naturally captivates every being.


Exercise: Follow the Trail of AUM

When one closes his ears, the external sounds of the world disappear. His consciousness is drawn inward to the sounds of the physical body, then deeper within, to the astral sounds of the chakras. If one continues following the trail of AUM, Ramakrishna says, he will find God.
Read the following visualization and travel the blessed trail that leads to Holy AUM and beyond:

Imagine you are standing in a heavily wooded forest, far from the ocean. Listen to the sounds of the forest all around you.

Very faintly . . . you can also hear a distant roar. You cannot see the ocean and have no idea how far away it is. But you know that where there is a roaring sound, there must be the ocean. With great expectation, follow the sound of the ocean, and listen intently along the way, making sure that the ocean’s roar is becoming stronger and stronger in your ears.

You walk for some time, then see dazzling blue sky appearing between the trees on the ridge above you. You must be getting close.
You crest the ridge and hear the mighty rumble of the ocean. Lo, before you, luminous waves are crashing along the shore. The roar of the waves thrills every cell in your being.

Your soul leaps blissfully out of your body and expands to unite with the surf, rocks, and sand. You joyfully delight in, and fly with, the soaring seagulls. You are in everything you see. You are blooming in the flowers, scuttling across the sand, and surging in the waves. Your soul delights in the blissful hum that emanates from every atom in creation.

Sensing that there is still more to experience, you raise your eyes above the crashing waves, and their thunderous roar. Silent stillness draws you into the vast, blue ocean of Spirit: calm and serene. Like a raindrop splashing on a lake, you melt in the Infinite Sea.



AUM ? The Melody of Love - Daily Meditator Newsletter

 

[london swaminathan]

Very Interesting.
You should have posted it as a separate post.
More people might have read it.

 

[PANCHANATHAM CHANDRASEKAR]

Thanks for renukaji and london swaminathanji for posting this vibrating mantra. Oum namah shivya .... Oum namo narayanaya........oum..............oum..............