Transcendence: Healing and Transformation Through Transcendental Meditation Author: Norman E. Rosenthal M.D. Mehmet C. Oz M.D. | Language: English | ISBN:
B004XFYWA2 | Format: EPUB
Transcendence: Healing and Transformation Through Transcendental Meditation Description
"Dr. Norman Rosenthal's
Transcendence is the best-ever book on Transcendental Meditation: accessible and substantive, engaging and scientific, practical and profound. A very enjoyable read that can change your life, for good." - David Lynch
"I have been meditating for over 10 years, and I found
Transcendence to be a uniquely compelling introduction to the art and science of Transcendental Meditation. Dr. Norman Rosenthal's book will propel TM into the mainstream where it belongs." - Russell Simmons
In this definitive book on the scientifically proven health and stress-relieving benefits of Transcendental Meditation, a renowned psychiatrist and researcher explores why TM works, what it can do for you, and how to use it for maximum effect. Norman E. Rosenthal, M.D., a twenty-year researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health and the celebrated psychiatrist who pioneered the study and treatment of Season Affective Disorder (SAD), brings us the most important work on Transcendental Meditation since the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's
Science of Being and Art of Living-- and one of our generation's most significant books on achieving greater physical and mental health and wellness.
Transcendence demystifies the practice and benefits of Transcendental Meditation for a general audience who may have heard about the method but do not necessarily know what it is, how it is learned, or what they stand to gain, physically and emotionally, from achieving transcendence. Dr. Rosenthal clearly and practically explains the basic ideas behind Transcendental Meditation: It is a nonreligious practice that involves sitting comfortably for twenty minutes twice a day while using a silent mantra, or nonverbal sound, to attain a profound state of aware relaxation.
Alongside exclusive celebrity interviews-where figures like
Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Martin Scorsese, Russell Brand, Laura Dern, Moby, and
David Lynch openly discuss their meditation-Dr. Rosenthal draws upon experience from the lives of his patients and a wealth of clinical research amassed on TM over the past generation (340 peer-reviewed published articles). He provides the fullest and most accessible book ever on the broad range of benefits of this remarkably simple practice, from relief of anxiety, stress and depression to new hope for those experiencing addiction, attention-deficit disorder, or post-traumatic stress disorder.
- File Size: 564 KB
- Print Length: 318 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1585428736
- Publisher: Tarcher; Reprint edition (June 2, 2011)
- Sold by: Penguin Group (USA) LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B004XFYWA2
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #48,765 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #47
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- #47
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Mental Illness - #72
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Religion & Spirituality > New Age > Meditation - #76
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Self-Help > Stress Management
The author, psychiatrist Norman Rosenthal, says that no book can teach you how to do TM; you must be taught by an individual teacher in a personalized course of instruction. This costs $1500 or more when last I checked. I have taken the TM course of instruction and found it so rigidly scripted as to seem almost stock, one-size-fits-all. In my opinion, Dr. Herbert Benson's book The Relaxation Response (and his subsequent books The Breakout Principle and Your Maximum Mind) presents the basics of a meditation practice that is essentially the same as TM, and in such a way that the reader can begin meditating on his or her own by following the simple steps outlined in the books.
Dr. Rosenthal says that TM involves no religious belief or faith -- yet practitioners are asked to believe that their mantra, even though it has no meaning at least to English speakers, has some deep transforming power and must be personally selected for each individual by a highly trained teacher. Dr. Benson on the other hand advises choosing a word of personal spiritual significance to you to use as your mantra. Either way, we seem to be talking about faith.
In Dr. Rosenthal's favor, he does lay out the benefits of meditation clearly and persuasively. I have experienced these benefits through regular practice of meditation for almost thirty years; sometimes using my TM mantra, sometimes using a phrase from the Psalms that is more connected with my spiritual beliefs. In either case I have experienced relaxation, increased creativity, surprising insights, greater energy, deeper calm, more organized thinking. I leave it to neuroscientists to prove that there is a difference between the effects of TM and that of The Relaxation Response, Christian Centering Prayer, or other kinds of meditation.
In "Transcendence", Norman Rosenthal encapsulates in words both wise and clear his experience with, and understanding of, the Transcendental Meditation technique. Reading his careful review of the scientific research on TM in a variety of areas (stress, cardiovascular disease, depression, anxiety, etc.), it's striking to consider that a fundamentally simple and easy meditative practice can produce such a complex and widespread range of benefits for both mind and body.
It's also fascinating to witness Rosenthal carefully distinguishing the TM technique from other meditative practices; he makes it clear that different meditations use different methods and produce strikingly different results. He focuses on the TM technique in this book, noting that it is the most extensively studied meditation practice. He also cites study after study supporting his statements.
My favorite parts of the book are those where he relates the personal experiences of people suffering from various conditions, and the results they experienced directly in their own lives after starting TM. While Rosenthal is careful to say that such stories indicate or point to the benefits of TM (rather than to prove them), he puts them in a broader context by citing the research studies in those areas.
One of the surprising parts of the book is the section on PTSD. Rosenthal cites preliminary studies on the positive benefits of TM. From what Rosenthal says, the results are very promising. I find it odd that more research has not been done on this, especially since TM has been shown to be so effective for treating things like anxiety and stress.
We have anywhere from 250,000 to 500,000 (or more) soldiers who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from PTSD.
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