{"id":89,"date":"2007-05-06T13:39:42","date_gmt":"2007-05-06T11:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.totalbrain.ch\/?page_id=89"},"modified":"2007-05-10T02:13:59","modified_gmt":"2007-05-10T00:13:59","slug":"model-of-the-practice-of-transcendental-meditation","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.totalbrain.ch\/wordpress\/scientific-research\/model-of-the-practice-of-transcendental-meditation\/","title":{"rendered":"Model of the practice of Transcendental Meditation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This model of the practice of Transcendental Meditation is based on the two-phase model in Travis and Wallace, <em>Consciousness and Cognition<\/em>, 1999. It has been refined in conversations with Dr. Alarik Arenander and in lectures to the Maharishi Vedic Medicine students.<\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<p><strong>The first phase\u2014Neural switch<\/strong><br \/>\nTranscending during the inward stroke of TM practice begins with basal forebrain activating the nucleus reticularis thalami (<strong>NRT<\/strong>: the gate of thalamic output) which                dampens down thalamic output to the cortex.<\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<p>The <strong>NRT<\/strong> covers the back (dorsal), sides (lateral), and bottom (ventral) nuclei of the thalamus\u2014where sensory and motor inputs pass through the thalamus to the cortex. However, thalamic nuclei that modulate alertness levels are <u>not<\/u> covered by the <strong>NRT: <\/strong>the <u>intralaminar nuclei<\/u> (governs how \u201cbright the light is\u201d or general wakefulness level. It is the extension of the reticular activation system in the brain stem); <u>anterior nuclei<\/u> (part of the limbic-cingulate circuit that is part of the emotion loop) <u>medial dorsal nucleus<\/u> (feedback loop with frontal cortices to maintain level of wakefulness in executive frontal processing areas); and <u>centromedian<\/u> (feedback loop                with frontal and basal ganglia).<\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<p>The EEG signature of this process is global alpha power and high EEG coherence (Travis, <em>International Journal of Psychophysiology<\/em>, 2001). The EEG signature changes within one or two seconds of beginning a 20-minute TM session. It is like flipping a \u201c<strong><em>neural switch.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> Other researches suggest that TM involves successive orienting\/habituation cycles overtime (Arenander, 1997, Tucson conference). If this were the case, (1) the changes in EEG and physiology would gradually change rather than emerge very quickly (about one second), (2) you would expect to see the EEG of orienting, which is <u>decreased<\/u> alpha EEG. Since these are not seen, if seems that the \u201cneural switch\u201d model better explains the beginning of TM.<\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<p><strong>The second phase: Effortless maintenance of the state of restful alertness resulting from the first phase of TM.<\/strong><br \/>\nThose thalamic nuclei that are not covered by the <strong>NRT<\/strong> (intralaminar nuclei, anterior nuclei, medial dorsal nucleus, and the centromedian) can continue in their function\u2014to maintain alertness levels in the absence of specific content. These are self-referral circuits\u2014the cortex signals the thalamus, and the thalamus echoes back. These feedbackloops may maintain the state of restful alertness during TM practice.<\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<p>TM practice exercises these \u201crestful alert\u201d circuits through use. Over time, these circuits may become <u>self-sustaining<\/u>, so that they can continue in their self-referral \u201cmurmuring\u201d even as content comes through the thalamus, up to the cortex, and into consciousness awareness. Then self awareness, alertness, Being, co-exist with ever-changing experience. Outer activity is experienced on the ground of inner unboundedness and silence. This                is the state of enlightenment. (See Travis et al, <em>Biological Psychology<\/em>, 2002).<\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This model of the practice of Transcendental Meditation is based on the two-phase model in Travis and Wallace, Consciousness and Cognition, 1999. It has been refined in conversations with Dr. Alarik Arenander and in lectures to the Maharishi Vedic Medicine students. The first phase\u2014Neural switch Transcending during the inward stroke of TM practice begins with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":88,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.totalbrain.ch\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/89"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.totalbrain.ch\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.totalbrain.ch\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.totalbrain.ch\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.totalbrain.ch\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.totalbrain.ch\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/89\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.totalbrain.ch\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/88"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.totalbrain.ch\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}