Yes. However, one important distinction between other techniques and TM is that TM eliminates the negative effects of stress and makes us more resilient, while various other techniques only manage stress. For example, TM improves stress-related diseases such as hypertension and reduces heart attacks, strokes, and death in heart patients by 48 percent. It also helps us cope with stressful situations by increasing creativity, intelligence, integration of brain functioning, and wakefulness; and it accelerates recovery from stressors.

There is an old adage that “The world is as we are.” If we meditate regularly we can change how we react to the world and how the world reacts to us. And for an extra boost in stress reduction, consider going on a TM^® Weekend Retreat, which provides a great opportunity for some really profound R and R.

Vonnegut’s stylistic choice of an achronological order in Slaughterhouse Five demonstrates the effects of war. Billy uses his time traveling power as a way to cope with his PTSD from the war and as a self defense mechanism whenever he is reminded of his experiences from the war; however, whenever Billy travels, whether it be back in the past or forward into the future, he is always doomed to travel again because every timeline of his life is full of stress. There are many examples of this occurrence throughout the course of the text: when Billy sees the barbershop quartet, when Billy hears a siren and thinks it’s the start of World War III;  Billy’s past experiences are so stressful that he has severe PTSD in his post-war life; this means that when Billy is in the war, he is always in a constant state of horror and shock, while in his post-war life, he is always reminded of his experiences in the war, sending him to travel back in the war. This eventually becomes a cycle of Billy time traveling, and he cannot stop it in any way because Billy himself cannot become contemptuous with the traumatizing things he saw in the war, despite Billy’s attempts to adopt the mindset to move on from the experiences of the war. For example, Billy adopts the Tralfmadorians’ ideology about pre-determinism, and how that serious concepts, such as death, are irrelevant since the deceased just travel to another period of their lives; hence, why Billy states “So it goes” after every death. Yet, Billy cannot adopt the Tralfmadorian concept of “ignoring the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones”(121), as he cannot imagine that the results of the war were worth the deaths of millions of people and the immolation of 25,000 women and children. While the Tralfmadorians conclude that ignoring the negative aspects of the world is a more painless method to living life, Billy still cannot derive his attention from the pain and suffering experienced in his time in Dresden. Moreover, Vonnegut utilizes the novel’s achronological order to demonstrate Billy’s disillusionment with society. After the events of the Dresden firebombing, Billy is seen docile, unassertive, and without a purpose throughout his post-war life: rather than take action to further his goals or career, Billy instead lets the flow of life guide him towards his destination, and doesn’t not show any effort to intervene with his family or his work. The whole incident of the event shattered his mental being; in his interaction with the Tralfmadorians, Billy asks if world peace is achievable even in a world where he has “seen the bodies of schoolgirls who were boiled alive in a water tower by my own countrymen, who were proud of fighting pure evil at the time” (121). The effects of the dresden firebombing, and particularly the imagery of thousands of burned bodies in the ground, can be attributed to Billy’s lack of motivation and overall disillusionment in his post war life, as almost all of his flashbacks relate back to Dresden and Billy constantly references the horrors that he witnessed. Vonnegut’s use of events in Billy’s life through an achronological order highlights the transition of Billy’s unsustainable post-war life and disillusionment with society through the firebombing of Dresden; despite Billy’s attempts to move on from World War II (such as his attempt to adopt the philosophy of the Tralfmadorians), he ultimately is always drawn back to his experiences in Dresden and lives an apathetic post-war life. 

Vonnegut implements image-rich symbols, through a non-linear development of the text, to demonstrate how the calamity of war reveals the fallacy of free will. Billy’s experience in the Dresden firebombing lead to the creation of a fictional tralfamadorian society/planet where Billy’s transition from human ideals to his pre-determinism mindset is documented. The Tralfmadorians truly represent the mundane, disillusioned side of Billy and Vonnegut himself, derived from Billy/Vonnegut witnessing immolation 25,000 civilians and arson of the city and is defense mechanism that Billy ultimately made up; while the Billy on Tralfamadore represents the human side that’s left of Billy. The tralfamadorians see in the fourth dimension, just as Billy sees his whole life achronologically and as a spectator jumping from event to event, and come to the conclusion that free will is fallacy: this concept is derived from Billy’s/Vonnegut’s witness of war and the image rich symbols of suffering that come with wide scale conflict. Conversely, ‘human’ Billy on Tralfamadore still conveys humanoid concepts and stoic beliefs, derived from the intrinsic human core that is determined and contains human will. When the two aspects of Billy’s mental state exchange ideals, ‘human’ Billy asks the Tralfmadorians how to keep the planet alive at peace to “take it back to Earth and save us all ”(120); in response, the Tralfmadorians cringe at the request and state that no matter how much they interfere with the timeline of Earth, nothing in Earth’s events would ultimately change and that events of the future are already set in stone. However, in actuality, Billy is trying to convince himself that everything is pre determined in order to rid himself of survivors guilt and the thought that he could have done something to prevent the bombing of Dresden. Furthermore, Billy’s interaction with the Tralfmadorians highlights the will one sacrifice his notion of free will in order to stay sane: something that all humans, at every cognitive level, must do in order to survive and thrive. Billy is rather a dramatized version of Vonnegut throughout the later stages of the novel, which is especially highlighted in Billy’s exchange with the Tralfmadorian narrator: Vonnegut himself coincides with Billy in the novel during these interactions, for Vonnegut knows himself that the only way that he move on from his experiences in Dresden and become a functioning member of society is to believe the philosophy of fatalism, in which Vonnegut utilizes literary devices themselves as psychological devices that would help himself out of his PTSD from Dresden. In other words, just as Billy chooses to move on from the war by adopting the principles of fatalism, Vonnegut utilizes literary techniques (like imagery, symbolism, and achronology) as paths to allow his mental phenomena to accept the events of Dresden.

Kurt Vonnegut’s slaughterhouse five reveals the falsehood of free will through the calamity of war utilizing image-rich symbols and achronology. The novel’s protagonist, Billy, struggles with his PTSD from the Dresden firebombing: virtually unable to function properly in a post-war lifestyle, and is unable to comprehend the immolation of 25,000 women and children. Billy eventually finds a resolution to his woes through pre-determinism, demonstrated through his encounters with the Tralfmadorians just as Vonnegut himself finds peace in utilizing literary devices as supernatural phenomena to his own experiences in World War II. Vonnegut’s/Billy’s transition to resolutions with their inner conflicts truly embodies mankind’s will to sacrifice one’s ideals and notions in order to achieve mental salvation and inner peace.

An existential question that has occupied much literature is the balance between fate and free will. How much free will do we actually have when constrained by the realities that surround us? Often, times of crisis deepen the dichotomy between what we wish and have. War, as a context, undermines our confidence in free will. In Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut employs symbolism, imagery, and achronological order to communicate how the destructiveness of war reveals the falsehood of free will. 

Vonnegut displays the violent atrocities of war through image-rich symbols in Slaughterhouse Five. For example, the author uses the juxtaposed phrase “roses and mustard gas” throughout the novel when the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, consumes great amounts of alcohol and when Pilgrim is in the presence of burning dead bodies, and is a  symbol demonstrating war and its effect on Billy. A drunk Billy is home alone with “a breath like roses and mustard gas”(5); in the aftermath of the bombing, “there were hundreds of corpse mines operating day by day. They didn’t smell bad at first, but then the bodies rotted and liquefied, and the stink was like roses and mustard gas… so a new technique was decided. Bodies weren’t brought up any more. They were cremated by soldiers with flamethrowers right where they were. The soldiers stood outside the shelters, simply sent the fire in” (273-274). Vonnegut exposes the reader to the juxtaposition of roses and mustard gas through two sources, Billy’s drunk breath, and the rotting bodies of Dresden: Vonnegut includes the phrase in these two scenes to demonstrate that war/a massacre is unintelligent and cruel, as one is when they are drunk and consume lots of alcohol. Despite being separated in time, one in Billy’s post war life and one straight after the firebombing, the smell of roses and mustard gas is always present in a time of hopelessness; in other words, the smell of roses and mustard gas is always seen when Billy is alone, drunk, and without a purpose in his post war life and when he is surrounded by death during his time as a soldier. The traumatizing events of the firebombing left Billy disillusioned of war, society, and his own life, and roses and mustard gas was a symbol that conveyed this transition. Another example of Vonnegut’s use of image rich symbols is Dresden during its firebombing: Vonnegut describes Dresden as “one big flame. The one flame ate everything organic, everything that would burn… the sun was an angry little pinhead. Dresden was like the moon now, nothing but minerals. The stones were hot. Everybody else in the neighborhood was dead. So it goes”(227). Vonnegut’s description of Dresden during its firebombing showcases an utterly destroyed Dresden, and its sudden change from a peaceful, thriving city to a burning wasteland that is deserted and lifeless as the moon. Vonnegut utilizes the horrors seen in the firebombing of Dresden as a symbol to demonstrate the sudden changes and unethical decisions that are drawn out in war: the Allies, who are historically seen as the protagonists in the conflict of World War II, dropped 4,000 tons of incendiary devices and bombs on the city, intending to disillusion the german civilian population. The bombing ultimately killed 25,000 civilians, which were mostly women and children; in essence, Vonnegut showcases that there is no clear protagonist and antagonist in war, but rather war is state of chaos where civilians truly suffer, and demonstrates this through the death and misery of the firebombing. Ultimately, Vonnegut utilizes imagery and symbolism in order to convey the overwhelming sense of hopelessness and apocalyptic chaos present in war.

Throughout the course of humanity, qualities of ideal citizenship have been well documented in multiplier texts. Charles Gaines and George Butler’s Pumping Iron properly displays the discourse of an ideal citizen. For example, Pumping Iron displays the diligence, teamwork, and the ability to work under pressure that an ideal member of society should possess through its main protagonists, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Franco Columbo: ultimately displaying the main motive of behaving like an ideal citizen, which is banding together and getting rid of common enduring issues. For example, Arnold is shown working day and night for years with his training partner, Franco Columbo, and both band together to work on their physical and physiological weaknesses to achieve their common goal: win the titles as Mr. Olympia for their respective competitions. The unending grind and hard work Arnold and Franco put into their time at the gym, which seeps into their private lives, showcases the devotion a citizen should possess when trying to solve a problem or improving on themselves: the ideal citizen would spend day and night trying to better an aspect of society or themselves, and every aspect of their life would be revolved around the solution. Arnold and Franco both are symbols of the grind and diligence one has to endure in order to improve: a quality of the model citizen. The mindsets of ‘grinding’ that Arnold and Fanco adopt reflect on a model citizen’s ability to tirelessly work to achieve a goal. Another example of Pumping Iron showcasing the ideal qualities of a citizen is the partnership between Arnold and Franco: both are able to work well with each other to improve themselves, yet also frequently take time alone to individually work and prepare for their meeting together, ultimately demonstrating a model citizen’s ability to work well individually and with others. Arnold and Franco both culminate a relationship that thrives under the combination of individual work and group efforts, representing the duality of an ideal citizen, and how the ideal citizen would be able to work both alone and as part of a team: through Arnold and Franco’s teamwork and individualism, both protagonists are able to improve on what they personally think their respective bodies need, but also take the other’s advice and opinion into consideration, something that every citizen should strive to do. Furthermore, both Arnold and Franco embody the ability to work well under pressure, a trait that a citizen should possess: in the novel, both protagonists have to both endure and employ several mental obstacles, from other competitors trying intimidation tactics to experiencing body dysmorphia, both Arnold and Franco have to perform in their shows under pressure and not in their best mental states. Arnold’s and Franco’s struggles under pressure symbolizes how citizens should perform under pressure: essentially not performing in the most perfect way, but instead acknowledging they are on edge and just trying to make the best out of their situation. However, it can be said that both Arnold and Franco are not model citizens: despite showcasing several qualities that are seen in the model citizen, both protagonists do not follow the most essential quality of this model citizen, which is ultimately banding together and solving problems that are present in their community. Arnold and Franco both sabotage their competitors as much as their competitors sabotage them, and don’t have any clear motives for improving the state of their community, rather only improving/working for themselves and their loved ones. Furthermore, while Arnold and Franco train together and maintain a healthy relationship, both end up competing against each other for the title of the ultimate Mr. Olympia (where the under-200 pounds winner, in this case Franco, and over-200 pounds winner, Arnold, face off). Arnold and Franco really cannot be classified as model citizens because they don’t work with others in their actual competition and don’t directly benefit their community in any way. In essence, Charles Gaines and George Butler’s Pumping Iron showcases certain qualities of an ideal citizen, such as diligence, teamwork, and the ability to work under pressure through the protagonists of the novel, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Franco Columbo, yet these protagonists cannot be classified as model citizens themselves.

Yet, the presence of the “ideal citizen mentality” is applied and seen through myself in my own life at school: where I find qualities of the ideal citizen in my own actions, such as benefiting the community, working/communicating well with others, and abiding by the law. For example, I frequently do a variety of community service for my grade/community: I lead my grade in the homecoming parade, I raised funds for several non-profit charitable organizations, as well as leading/being a member of a variety of other charitable organizations. I feel that my actions in terms of providing assistance to the greater good of the community aligns with that of an ideal citizen’s ability to benefit the community. Another example is that I feel that my ability to work and communicate with my peers and my teachers is much like that of an ideal citizen’s ability to work well and communicate effectively with others: from making jokes to making well put together assignments, I feel that I can work and communicate well with my peers, as well as my teachers. A similar quality is found in the ideal citizen’s range of talents; the ability to efficiently work and communicate with others, and I feel that my work in school reflects this quality. Moreover, I would say that I follow the model citizen’s quality of abiding by the law, but willing to stand up against unjust laws. Fortunately, there have not been any laws imposed by the school or town that I have felt were unjust or unfair, and I have not ever broken a major law in the community or any federal laws. However, I would say that if I felt there was an unjust law, I would rise against that law and campaign for its removal. Overall, I do feel that I am an ideal citizen, as I feel that I do contain most qualities present in a model citizen, and I have done a lot of positive things/no negative things for my community.

Linda Egenes: It seems like the effortlessness of TM is another way that it differs from other techniques.

Dr. Orme-Johnson: That’s correct. Focused Attention and Open Monitoring require focus and mental effort, which engages the mind at the surface level of thinking. Correct practice of TM is effortless, and the brain is able to experience its own transcendental nature, which is correlated with global coherence or orderliness of the brain.

In a way, TM and mindfulness approaches are opposites. For example, the mindfulness approach to treating PTSD is to train the mind to detach from traumatic memories. It attempts to use volitional control of the mind to change how one reacts to stresses. Mindfulness programs do not provide the deep rest that dissolves stress. Rather, they teach people to change their attitudes and reactions toward stress.

The mechanism of TM, on the other hand, is to put the body and mind into a healing state of deep, coherent rest. When the physiology has a chance to rest so deeply, it releases stress and heals itself. Consequently, the stressful emotions associated with the disturbing memory are softened.

Mindfulness tries to teach you to use your mind to cope with stress, but it doesn’t get rid of it. TM dissolves the stress; it does get rid of it. The deep, coherent rest of TM makes your physiology more coherent and less stressed, and on that basis improves everything in your life.

Maharishi explains that Cosmic Consciousness arises spontaneously and naturally when the nervous system becomes sufficiently stress-free and is functioning normally. This upends the prevalent view of enlightenment, that if it exists at all, it is extremely rare and special. It may be rare, but only because humanity has been operating in a highly stressed, less than normal state.“

A meta-analysis of all available physiological research on the TM technique found that the practice of TM produces a state of deep rest compared to control conditions. (Source: Dillbeck, M.C., Orme-Johnson, D.W. “Physiological Differences between Transcendental Meditation and Rest.” American Psychologist 42(9): 879-881, 1987.)

The process of stress release and normalization of the nervous system is thus the most important factor in the rise to Cosmic Consciousness. The TM technique produces a unique style of restful alertness, a state in which the body and mind can self-repair.During sleep and dreaming, the body repairs damage and recovers from the fatigue and stresses of the day, refreshing us for the activity of the new day. The mechanisms of physiological restoration involve innumerable feedback loops that detect imbalances and initiate the repair process.

What TM practice adds to the normal cycle of rest and activity is a unique style of coherent rest: restful alertness.

During the TM technique, the brain becomes highly coherent: All the different areas of the brain are in heightened communication with each other. This appears to facilitate the self-repair process beyond what happens during sleep and dreaming.

Linda Egenes: What is the significance of these EEG patterns?

Dr. Orme-Johnson: It is known that EEG, and particularly alpha coherence (orderliness) organizes the functioning of the brain for memory, creativity, perception, motor behavior—just about everything.

Coherent alpha waves function something like a conductor in an orchestra. When the conductor waves his baton, it provides the timing that organizes all the different components of the orchestra to work together to create a symphony—analogous to the harmonious brain functioning that is created by the coherent frontal alpha waves spreading throughout the brain during TM.

This ability to create more coherent, orderly brain functioning is unique among meditation practices. That’s the real value of the Transcendental Meditation technique: an experience that transforms the way we function, even after meditation.

Linda Egenes: How do brainwaves change when you experience deep transcendence during TM?

Dr. Orme-Johnson: It’s known that when a person is having the experience of pure consciousness, beyond thought, the breath stops for a while, from 10 to 40 seconds. How do we know this? Since the 1970s we’ve asked subjects in experiments to push a button immediately after they have had this experience of pure, silent, unbounded awareness and are thinking thoughts again.

We found that during the periods of respiratory suspension during the TM technique, which correlates with the person’s experience of transcending, the whole brain becomes coherent. The EEG frequencies in all the different areas of the brain synchronize with each other.

Even more significantly, the coherence occurs across all frequencies—alpha, beta, gamma, theta—so it’s broadband coherence. In other words, transcending creates a state of total brain coherence. And this sets a baseline for the brain to be able to integrate.

Having an integrated brain, where the different parts of the brain—and therefore different parts of the body—are in harmonious communication with each other, is perhaps the reason why the TM technique has such powerful healing effects.

Once Maharishi had pointed this out, it was completely obvious to all of us that respiratory suspension marked isolated periods of clear transcending. We knew this from our own twice-daily meditation practice. But how could we convey this to the world? A skeptic might ask, “How do you know that a subject was transcending when his or her breath became suspended?” Good question.

Dr. John T. Farrow, a biochemist trained at Brandeis University, and Russell Hebert came up with a clever series of experiments to show just this. They had subjects press a button after they had a subjective experience of transcending. Sure enough, periods of respiratory suspension preceded each button signal (see Chart 3). This established that a clear experience of Transcendental Consciousness had occurred at that time.

In four different experiments, with 565 criterion-meeting episodes of breath suspension observed in 40 subjects practicing TM, John and Russell established that the moments of TC are associated with breath suspension. Respiratory suspension was now a clear “bio-marker” for Transcendental Consciousness. The suspensions of breath during the TM technique occur spontaneously and naturally as part of a very comfortable experience of deep rest, and there is no shortage of oxygen during this time or of compensatory breathing afterwards.

Linda Egenes: What is the significance of these EEG patterns?

Dr. Orme-Johnson: It is known that EEG, and particularly alpha coherence (orderliness) organizes the functioning of the brain for memory, creativity, perception, motor behavior—just about everything.

Coherent alpha waves function something like a conductor in an orchestra. When the conductor waves his baton, it provides the timing that organizes all the different components of the orchestra to work together to create a symphony—analogous to the harmonious brain functioning that is created by the coherent frontal alpha waves spreading throughout the brain during TM.

This ability to create more coherent, orderly brain functioning is unique among meditation practices. That’s the real value of the Transcendental Meditation technique: an experience that transforms the way we function, even after meditation.

Linda Egenes: How do brainwaves change when you experience deep transcendence during TM?

Dr. Orme-Johnson: It’s known that when a person is having the experience of pure consciousness, beyond thought, the breath stops for a while, from 10 to 40 seconds. How do we know this? Since the 1970s we’ve asked subjects in experiments to push a button immediately after they have had this experience of pure, silent, unbounded awareness and are thinking thoughts again.

We found that during the periods of respiratory suspension during the TM technique, which correlates with the person’s experience of transcending, the whole brain becomes coherent. The EEG frequencies in all the different areas of the brain synchronize with each other.

Even more significantly, the coherence occurs across all frequencies—alpha, beta, gamma, theta—so it’s broadband coherence. In other words, transcending creates a state of total brain coherence. And this sets a baseline for the brain to be able to integrate.

Having an integrated brain, where the different parts of the brain—and therefore different parts of the body—are in harmonious communication with each other, is perhaps the reason why the TM technique has such powerful healing effects.

Linda Egenes: What are some of those healing effects of TM?

Dr. Orme-Johnson: Systematic reviews and meta-analyses have shown that the reductions of blood pressure in TM practitioners not only can result in reduced use of anti-hypertension drugs; regular TM practice also results in reduced heart attacks and strokes. This has been demonstrated in a comprehensive 10-year study that found 48 percent fewer heart attacks, strokes, and deaths in heart patients who practiced the Transcendental Meditation technique.

In fact, an American Heart Association (AHA) committee headed by Robert Brook, M.D., evaluated alternative practices for lowering blood pressure and published their findings in the AHA journal Hypertension in 2013.

In their scientific statement, they concluded that “the Transcendental Meditation technique is the only meditation practice that has been shown to lower blood pressure… all other meditation techniques (including MBSR) received a ‘Class III, no benefit, Level of Evidence C’ recommendation and are not recommended in clinical practice to lower blood pressure at this time.”

Linda Egenes: It seems like the effortlessness of TM is another way that it differs from other techniques.

Dr. Orme-Johnson: That’s correct. Focused Attention and Open Monitoring require focus and mental effort, which engages the mind at the surface level of thinking. Correct practice of TM is effortless, and the brain is able to experience its own transcendental nature, which is correlated with global coherence or orderliness of the brain.

In a way, TM and mindfulness approaches are opposites. For example, the mindfulness approach to treating PTSD is to train the mind to detach from traumatic memories. It attempts to use volitional control of the mind to change how one reacts to stresses. Mindfulness programs do not provide the deep rest that dissolves stress. Rather, they teach people to change their attitudes and reactions toward stress.

The mechanism of TM, on the other hand, is to put the body and mind into a healing state of deep, coherent rest. When the physiology has a chance to rest so deeply, it releases stress and heals itself. Consequently, the stressful emotions associated with the disturbing memory are softened.

Mindfulness tries to teach you to use your mind to cope with stress, but it doesn’t get rid of it. TM dissolves the stress; it does get rid of it. The deep, coherent rest of TM makes your physiology more coherent and less stressed, and on that basis improves everything in your life.

Linda Egenes: And the third category, Automatic Self-Transcending, would include the Transcendental Meditation technique.

Dr. Orme-Johnson: Yes, TM is the primary example of Automatic Self-Transcending. The TM technique allows your mind to easily and effortlessly settle inward, through quieter levels of thought, until you experience the most silent and peaceful level of your own awareness—pure consciousness.

The purpose of Automatic Self-Transcending is to enliven a state of consciousness that has beneficial effects for the mind and body. Research shows that when you transcend, when you go to quieter and quieter levels of your mind, the level of biochemical and physiological stress decreases.

Essentially, TM creates the opposite effect of the stress response, the classic fight-or-flight response. In the fight-or-flight reflex, your heart rate goes up, your respiration rate goes up, major stress hormones, such as cortisol, increase. Research shows that TM has the opposite effect: heart rate decreases, respiratory rate decreases, levels of cortisol decrease, and so forth.

Linda Egenes: What about brainwave activity in these three categories of techniques. Has that been studied?

Dr. Orme-Johnson: One of the ways to measure the differences between meditation techniques is to look at the electrical activity in someone’s brain at the time they are meditating. The electrical activity of millions of neurons in the brain create brainwaves, called the electroencephalogram or “EEG” for short. These waves rise and fall at different frequencies, depending on our state of consciousness and what we are doing.

For example, during deep sleep, the EEG has a slow frequency, rising and falling only once every second. In Travis and Shear’s review of current research we can see that the three different meditation procedures produced three distinctly different EEG frequencies.

In Focused Attention meditation the EEG is fast, rising and falling 20 to 30 times a second, which is called beta EEG, or even faster at 30 to 50 times per second, which is called gamma EEG. High frequency (think of a high-pitched tone) is not a restful or calm state, but an active state, and is commonly seen in someone concentrating in a highly focused manner.

Open Monitoring is characterized by a slower EEG, oscillating 5 to 8 times a second, called theta. Theta EEG occurs when someone is inwardly preoccupied, such as while reading a novel or solving a mathematical problem, and is no longer aware of the noises or people around them. The thalamus is the central switching area for incoming sensory information, and theta is associated with the thalamus reducing awareness of incoming information.

Linda Egenes: What about research on brainwave activity during TM?

Dr. Orme-Johnson: During Automatic Self-Transcending, as in the Transcendental Meditation technique, you see a middle frequency EEG, 7 to 9 cycles per second, called alpha1, which is characteristic of reduced mental activity and relaxation.

Frontal alpha-wave activity was first discovered by Keith Wallace, Ph.D., and published in Science magazine in 1970. Many subsequent studies have found that frontal alpha-wave activity becomes very coherent or orderly during the TM technique.

For instance, a meta-analysis published in the American Psychological Association’s Psychological Bulletin in 2006 reviewed the EEG research on different types of meditation and cited seven studies showing that alpha EEG coherence increases between the left and right sides of the front of the brain during TM practice, and continues spreading until the whole brain becomes synchronized and coherent.