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Scientific research on Consciousness-Based Education
1. Scientific research findings:
Development of all aspects of life
More than 600 scientific research studies have documented the benefits
of the educational technology of Consciousness-Based Education—the Transcendental Meditation and the TM-Sidhi programme—for mental potential, health, social behaviour, and society. Conducted at more than 250 universities and research institutes in 33 countries, these studies have been reprinted from the scientific journals into seven volumes: Scientific Research on Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programme: Collected Papers.
The following research findings on Transcendental Meditation are significant for improving the effectiveness of education. The numbers in parentheses after the finding refer to the references of the original research papers.
Increased Intelligence, Learning Ability, and Intellectual Performance
• Increased Intelligence (1–7, 101–102)
 • Increased Learning Ability (8–9)
• Improved Memory (9–10)
• Accelerated Cognitive Development in Children (11–13)
• Improved Cognitive Flexibility (9–10)
• Increased Efficiency of Concept Learning (8)
• Faster Processing of Cognitively Complex Information (14)
• Broader Comprehension and Improved Ability To Focus Attention—Increased
Field Independence (4, 13, 15)
• Cognitive Orientation towards Positive Values (16)
• Improved Problem-Solving Ability (2)
Improved Academic Performance and Academic Orientation
• Improved Academic Performance at the Elementary, Secondary, College, and
Post-Graduate Levels (17–20)
Increased Creativity
• Enhanced Creativity (2, 5, 21)
• Increased Innovation (2)
• Increased Cognitive Flexibility (9)
Greater Use of Total Brain Functioning
• Mobilization of the Hidden Reserves of the Brain: Wider Distribution of the Brain’s Response to Sensory Input (22)
• Increased Neurological Efficiency:
– Increased Efficiency of Information Transfer in the Brain (14, 23–28)
– Improved Spinal Reflex Activity (29, 30)
– Improvements in Reaction-Time Measures Correlated with Intelligence (7)
• Greater Adaptability of Brain Functioning (31)
• Faster Processing of Cognitively Complex Information in the Elderly (9)
• Increased Efficiency and Decreased Age-Related Deterioration of Cognitive Information Processing as Measured by Event-Related Brain Potentials (14)
• Increased Blood Flow to the Brain (103)
• Increased Coherence of Brain Functioning (104–105)
 • Correlations Found in Subjects Practising the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Program:
– Between High EEG Coherence, Higher States of Consciousness, and High Levels of Creativity (32)
– Between High EEG Coherence, Neurological Efficiency, and Flexibility of Concept Learning (8)
– Between High EEG Coherence, High Levels of Principled Moral Reasoning, and a Unified Cosmic Perspective on Life (33)
• Maximum EEG Coherence during Yogic Flying of the TM-Sidhi Program (106–107)
Improved Attention, Reduced Distraction—Physiological Basis for
Alleviation of Attention Deficit in School Children
• Decreased Distraction Effects in EEG (111)
• More Effective Executive Functioning of the Brain Indicated by Diminished EEG Distraction Effects (112)
• More Efficient Attention Deployment During Choice Reaction Time Task— One of several measures comprising a Brain Integration Scale displaying improvements for those practising the Transcendental Meditation Technique and still greater improvement for those reporting stabilized Transcendental Consciousness (113)
Improved Mind-Body Coordination
• Faster Reactions (34–36)
• Increased Psychomotor Speed (37)
Increased Organizational Ability and Efficiency
• Increased Time Competence: Increased Ability To Think and Act Efficiently
in the Present (38–40)
• Increased Efficiency and Productivity (41, 42)
• Increased Employee Effectiveness (42)
• Decreased Tendency To Procrastinate (43)
• Greater Physiological Calmness during Task Performance (42)
Increased Energy and Dynamism
• Increased Energy and Enthusiasm (2, 42, 44)
• Increased Physical and Mental Well-Being (9, 45–47)
• Decreased Fatigue (42)
 Improved Health
• Lower Health Insurance Utilization Rates: Significantly Fewer Hospital Inpa-
tient Days, and Outpatient Visits in All Age Categories; Fewer Inpatient Ad-
missions for All Major Categories of Disease (47)
• Longitudinal Reduction in Health Care Costs (48)
• Improved Self-Health Rating (9, 42, 45, 46, 49)
Increased Integration of Personality
• Increased Self-Actualization: Increased Integration, Unity, and Wholeness of Personality (38–40)
• Uniquely Effective Means of Increasing Self-Actualization (40)
• Uniquely High Scores on Self-Development in Advanced Participants in the
Transcendental Meditation Program (50)
• Orientation towards Positive Values: Better Recall for Positive than Negative Words; More Positive Appraisal of Others (16)
• Increased Inner-Directedness: Greater Independence and Self-Supportiveness (38–40)
• Increased Autonomy and Independence (2, 40, 50)
• Less Sensitivity to Criticism (51)
• Enhanced Self-Concept (52)
• Enhanced Self-Regard and Self-Esteem (2, 51, 53, 54)
• Higher Levels of Self Development (100)
• Enhanced Inner Well-Being (9)
• Increased Emotional Stability (43, 55, 56)
• Increased Emotional Maturity (44)
• Decreased Behavioural Rigidity (9)
• Improved Mental Health (9, 38–40, 42–46, 51, 52, 54, 55, 57–64)
Reduction in Negative Personality Characteristics and Behaviour
• Decreased Anxiety (2, 42, 44, 54, 55, 57, 58, 60, 62, 65)
 • Decreased Tension (42, 43, 58)
• Decreased Irritability (60)
• Decreased Neuroticism (43, 45, 51, 59, 62)
• Decreased Depression (43, 51, 55)
• Decreased Hostility and Aggression (60, 71)
• Decreased Impulsiveness (44, 45)
• Decreased Use of Cigarettes (42, 66–70)
• Decreased Use of Alcohol (42, 55, 61, 66–69, 72)
• Decreased Drug Abuse (43, 66–69, 73)
Growth of Ideal Social Behaviour
• Increased Social Maturity (3)
• Increased Sociability (44)
• Increased Capacity for Warm Interpersonal Relationships (39, 43, 44)
• Increased Friendliness (43)
• Improved Work and Personal Relationships (42)
• Increased Ability To Be Objective, Fair- Minded, and Reasonable (44)
• Increased Good Humour (43)
• Increased Trust (51)
• Increased Tolerance (2, 44)
• Growth of a More Sympathetic, Helpful, and Caring Nature (44)
• Increased Sensitivity to the Feelings of Others (44)
• Improved Interpersonal Behaviour of Juvenile Offenders (54)
• Reduced Behaviour Problems in School—Decreased Absenteeism, Rule Infractions, and Suspensions Days (109)
Benefits in Special Education and Remedial Education
• Improvements in Personality Relevant to Learning Disorders in Economically
Deprived Adolescents with Learning Problems (53)
– Increased Independence and Self-Supportiveness
– Improved Self-Regard
• Decreased Dropout Rate from School in Economically Deprived Adolescents with Learning Problems (53)
 • Improvements among Children from Low-Income Families (74)
– Increased Intelligence
– Improved Self-Concept
• Improvements in Autism: Decreased Echolalic Behaviour (75)
• Benefits for Mentally Retarded Subjects:
– Improved Social Behaviour (76)
– Improved Cognitive Functioning (76, 77)
– Increased Intelligence (76, 77)
– Improved Physical Health (76)
• Decreased Stuttering (78, 79)
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