Aquarius Atlanta, Georgia September 1997

Superconscious States

by Anne Melfi

As a teacher of Transcendental Meditation (TM), I was elated by new scientific evidence published this spring in Sleep, the premier journal of the American Sleep Disorders Association and Sleep Research Society. This study reveals how meditation can develop higher states of consciousness that continue into the sleeping as well as waking hours.

The article, based on a seven-year study by psychologist Lynne I. Mason, Ph.D., describes how she discovered a unique style of brain functioning during sleep in subjects who reported experiences that matched classic definitions of higher states of consciousness. The article was co-authored by scientists from the University of Alberta, Duke University, University of Iowa, and Maharishi University of Management.

The experimental subjects, who chose to remain anonymous to all but the researcher, were selected based on their response to a survey, describing their experience of transcendental consciousness continuously, whether awake, asleep or dreaming. Transcendental consciousness (TC) is defined in the literature as "unbounded awareness or "inner wakefulness," generally accompanied by experiences of bliss. The physiological correlates of TC were first scientifically established in the early 70s.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi classified this state of 24-hour TC as cosmic consciousness (CC), the fifth of seven distinct states of human consciousness, which he said would spontaneously unfold through TM practice, waking, dreaming, sleeping, TC, CC, God consciousness, and unity consciousness, each marking a step into a fundamentally higher style of functioning.

Says Dr. Mason, "I decided the acid test of signs of cosmic consciousness is to measure brain functioning of the experimental subjects during deep sleep and dreaming, when the average person is virtually unconscious or absorbed in dreams. The brain waves of deep sleep are so well documented that any changes due to the experience of transcendental consciousness state would be easily apparent.

She found that electrophysiological brain activity of the experimental subjects, measured by EEG, registered a unique signature -- theta/alpha brain waves, typical of transcendental consciousness, simultaneous with the delta brain waves, typical of deep sleep, plus unusually low muscle tone. REM periods (Rapid Eye Movement typically found during dreaming) were also measured and found to have higher density; they were more within a given time than found in lucid dreaming, all indicating heightened intelligence and creativity.

"This is an unambiguous marker of higher states of consciousness," says Harvard-trained developmental psychologist, Charles N. Alexander, Ph.D. "Dr. Mason's study establishes as a practical reality new possibilities in human development. We now see great potential for personal growth operating from an optimum level of intelligence, creativity, and happiness 24 hours a day.

More than 500 peer reviewed and published studies by scientists from Stanford to Harvard and around the world found such effects as improved production of Serotonin (the bliss chemical made in your brain), melatonin (similarly home grown, helps you sleep and keeps you young), reduced cortisol and lactate (correlated with reduced hypertension), increased IQ, fluid intelligence, creativity, coping abilities, and self-actualization. Dr. Kenneth Eppeley, a Stanford physicist, did an analysis of many forms of meditation and relaxation techniques and found TM to be the best stress buster.

Gary Kaplan, M.D., Ph.D., Director of Clinical Neurophysiology, North Shore University Hospital, Manhasset, New York said, "This landmark study has enormous implication for our under standing of states of consciousness and the functioning of the human mind."

Here are some subjective reports of the subjects' experiences that turned up on the sleep questionnaires and are printed in Lynne's study.

"I have had the experience of maintaining awareness while each of the senses in succession gave over their functioning to silence and I was left in pure awareness for the whole night. I have also experienced awareness of the bliss and light dominating, and just becoming more full with sleep onset. Later in the morning there was no inertia, just a sense of "time to get up" and opening my eyes and getting up. I had clearly been sleeping, oblivious to everything outside, yet some sameness, unchanging value continued as I slept.

"Timelessness dominates, awareness is maintained, but the night passes in a flash while not passing at all, sometimes lack of inertia, sometimes inner silence or light are accompanied by an experience of fatigue."

"Upon first closing the eyes, bliss expanded from the heart through the body, consciousness vibrating in bliss. All night restful alertness, not flat, but settled, dynamic. Time did not fly nor did it drag. As sleep deepened, this light and love stopped being centered in the heart area and became more generalized, unbounded."

Progress toward higher states of consciousness varies from individual to individual. Depending on the condition of the body, the experience will be different, as clarity depends on the system becoming stress-free.

Call 404-351-9897 to reach the Maharishi Vedic School, which offers free introductory sessions, or visit the TM website at www.tm.org.

Anne Melfi is a freelance writer and TM teacher.

Reprinted with permission of Aquarius, Atlanta, GA. (tel. 770-641-9055)

[Back to top]