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Maharishi Vedic Psychology explains that the different areas of mental functioning investigated by twentieth-century psychology are not separate and isolated, but are specific values of the cosmic psyche expressed through specific patterns of functioning of the human nervous system.

 

 

Maharishi Vedic Psychology brings fulfilment to the aspirations of twentieth-century psychology
by Charles Alexander, Frederick Travis, B. Mawiyah Clayborne, and Dori Rector, Maharishi University of Management Press, USA
24 March 2008

The following are excerpts from ‘Maharishi Vedic Psychology Brings Fulfillment to the Aspirations of Twentieth-Century Psychology’, by Charles Alexander, Frederick Travis, B. Mawiyah Clayborne, and Dori Rector, from The Journal of Modern Science and Vedic Science, Volume 7, Number 1 (1997), The Silver Jubilee Issue, Maharishi University of Management, USA.

Introduction

‘Twentieth-century psychology has studied specific active processes of knowing—such as perceptions, thoughts, or feelings—but lacked an understanding of deeper levels of the mind underlying and integrating all active mental processes. Therefore, it has spawned isolated areas of investigation rather than successful grand theories.’ On the contrary, ‘Maharishi Vedic Psychology provides complete knowledge and experience of Transcendental Consciousness, the cosmic psyche, at the basis of the individual psyche. The cosmic psyche is identified as an unrestricted field of intelligence and creativity at the foundation of not only human nature but Nature’s functioning as a whole.

‘The applied aspect of Maharishi Vedic Psychology—which includes Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Programs—provides the means by which the cosmic psyche can be fully enlivened in daily life through the progressive unfoldment of four higher states of consciousness beyond waking, sleeping, and dreaming. By providing complete knowledge and direct experience of consciousness, Maharishi Vedic Psychology resolves the fundamental questions plaguing twentieth-century psychology.

‘The full understanding of consciousness as inclusive of the cosmic psyche completely transforms our understanding of (1) who the knower is; (2) what is the full range of processes through which we can know the self and the world … and (3) how to create a peaceful and harmonious world.

Who is the knower?

‘In twentieth-century psychology, the concept of consciousness has been largely equated with “reportable experiences,” or with what one is “conscious of.” What one is conscious of is held to be constructed by automatic, unconscious processing of sensory information.

‘Maharishi Vedic Psychology explains that human awareness can include not only these restricted, more superficial aspects of thought and action, but also the vast range of progressively subtler levels of mind, and ultimately an unbounded, unrestricted level of pure transcendental consciousness, the cosmic psyche, at their source.

‘Maharishi emphasizes that only by completely transcending mental activity, can the individual psyche experience the cosmic psyche at the source of all mental processes. Maharishi Vedic Psychology includes a technology—Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation
Technique—that effortlessly identifies the individual psyche with the cosmic psyche, the field of pure consciousness at the source of thought.

What is the full range of processes through which we can know the world?

‘Maharishi Vedic Psychology explains that the different areas of mental functioning investigated by twentieth-century psychology are not separate and isolated, but are specific values of the cosmic psyche expressed through specific patterns of functioning of the human nervous system. According to Maharishi Vedic Psychology, the variety of mental functioning comprises layers from gross to subtle, from dynamic expressed activity to complete inner silence, from concrete to abstract, and from diversified to unified.

‘Empirical research supports the prediction that contact with the cosmic psyche through practice of the Transcendental Meditation Technique enhances all levels of the mind’, these levels being, from gross to subtle: experience, desire, mind, intellect, and ego.

In addition, Maharishi Vedic Psychology solves the classic mind-body problem—the question of how body and mind relate to each other. While the overriding materialistic view simply equates mental processes with brain processes, Maharishi Vedic Psychology asserts ‘that a field of pure consciousness is the basis and essential nature of the body as well as the mind. … mind and body both emerge from the self-interacting dynamics of the cosmic psyche.’

Just as modern science fails to examine the underlying wholeness of consciousness beneath body and mind, so does psychotherapy fail to provide a uniform means of counseling. ‘Over 500 psychotherapies have proliferated to treat acute and chronic mental health problems. Presumably, they continue to proliferate, in part, because none thus far has proven differentially effective.’

‘From the perspective of Maharishi Vedic Psychology, the fundamental explanation for the limitations of 20th-century psychotherapies is that they were designed by and for people in waking consciousness—the level of consciousness in which only a small proportion of the human mind can be utilized. In waking state, the three fundamental aspects of therapy—the therapist, patient, and their interaction—are as if cut-off from their foundation in the fully unified, all-nourishing value of transcendental consciousness (the cosmic psyche), and thus healing tends to be relatively weak and ineffectual.

‘Only the applied aspect of Maharishi Vedic Psychology enlivens the cosmic psyche, which produces a profoundly nourishing and integrating effect across all the more
manifest levels of individual and collective life.

Research supports this conclusion. For example, a statistical meta-analysis of all available studies has shown that the Transcendental Meditation Technique, in
comparison with clinical relaxation techniques and placebos, was significantly more effective in promoting positive mental health and improved relationships with others as operationalized by measures of self-actualization.’

How to create a peaceful and harmonious world

‘The Transcendental Meditation Technique allows the individual mind to contact the cosmic psyche. The Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Program, an advanced practice, develops the ability to think and act from the level of transcendental consciousness, thereby creating greater enlivenment of the cosmic psyche underlying all aspects of individual and collective behavior.

Thus, through practice of Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Programs, individuals can generate an effect from the deepest level of their own consciousness, the cosmic psyche, to nourish the whole environment. This is called the Maharishi Effect, after Maharishi, who predicted its measurable effects on society as early as 1960.’

Conclusion

‘Ideal individual and social life is the practical gift of Maharishi Vedic Psychology to the world. More than 30 years ago, Maharishi foresaw the limitations inherent in twentieth-century psychology. He stated (1995): “What is the use of the study of mind which fails either to unfold the latent mental faculties or to quench the thirst for happiness?” Describing a component of his applied Vedic Psychology, he added: “The system of Transcendental Meditation is a method of sharpening the mind to its ultimate point of refinement. This is a process which positively makes active the latent levels of the subconscious mind, develops latent faculties, and brings out in life the inner happiness of the soul, thereby improving the man in aspects of thought, speech, and action, and for all good in life—both individual and social.” This is the vision of possibilities that Maharishi Vedic Psychology extends to this and all future generations.’

Copyright © 1997 Journal of Modern Science and Vedic Science

Global Good News invites you to read the full version of this paper: ‘Maharishi Vedic Psychology Brings Fulfillment to the Aspirations of Twentieth-Century Psychology’, by Charles Alexander, Frederick Travis, B. Mawiyah Clayborne, and Dori Rector, from The Journal of Modern Science and Vedic Science, Volume 7, Number 1 (1997), The Silver Jubilee Issue, Maharishi University of Management, USA.


Please visit: http://www.mum.edu/pdf/msvs/v07/psychology.pdf

 

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