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‘My thirst for life came back’: Iraq veteran describes Transcendental Meditation Not long ago, David George was an infantryman in the US Army in Iraq. ‘I had become accustomed to suffering, it’s just what you do,’ he said in a recent video interview. He remembers well the harrowing experiences of being in combat, and the anaesthetizing of emotions he found necessary to carry out his duties. ‘I recall a time I was actually scared for my life, and I had to overcome it—I remember the moment where all emotion left my body and I was just an empty vessel, and I pushed myself forward to do my job. I just turned off understanding myself, what I thought I was—in order to put myself in peril. That’s just what you have to do.’ When he returned home after his tour of duty, David found the same pattern persisting in his daily life. ‘You come home, and you’re struggling with life and emotions, and you kind of react the same way—“OK, so I’ll just turn off me, and I’ll continue doing what I have to do.” That leads to a bleak lifestyle, it’s pretty much pointless, you’re just going day to day.’ The emotional numbing and inability to enjoy life that David describes are among classic symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) identified by researchers and clinical psychiatrists. PTSD has reached unprecedented levels—an estimated 30%-35% of combat veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from the disorder—with extreme consequences for their mental and physical health and survival, and for their families. PTSD is known to be very difficult to treat. ‘PTSD occurs when a traumatic event is so severe that it causes lasting changes in the brain,’ said Sarina Grosswald, EdD, at a recent conference. Dr Grosswald is a George Washington University-trained cognitive learning specialist and published researcher on PTSD and ADHD. ‘Often the victim doesn't even realize that the experience was so severe as to cause that kind of change—for months, or even years,’ she said. But new hope for veterans has come in promising results Dr Grosswald and colleagues have found in research with veterans who learned the Transcendental Meditation Technique.* At this point in his video interview, David’s face begins to lighten up—not a usual expression for someone suffering from PTSD. He had heard a radio ad seeking subjects for Dr Grosswald’s research, and thinking ‘I’ve got nothing to lose,’ he signed up to participate. After learning Transcendental Meditation, David said, ‘instantly, the first time, I felt a sense of who I was before I learned how to just shut off myself from the world.’ He saw more good effects in himself even during the first week. ‘Day after day from meditating, I noticed that the desire to do something came back. A week later, I was looking forward to the next day, for meditating. And then a month later, I was making plans for the next week.’ That may not sound significant for those who experience an ordinary range of emotions. But for David, it was a breakthrough. He hadn’t done this in years, ‘because I was like a robot—just doing the daily thing, not really thinking about myself or what I wanted to do.’ After several months practising Transcendental Meditation, ‘it brought me back to, “Oh, education—that’s what I used to want to do,” ’ David said. ‘I used to want to do something with my life.’ Transcendental Meditation ‘just kind of gave me the breathing space I needed, to make the decisions that I really wanted to. I wasn’t so much just surviving each day—I was beginning to live it, live each day. ‘My drive came back, my thirst for life came back.’ The spontaneous resurgence of life that David began to feel almost immediately from practising Transcendental Meditation is typical among veterans who have begun the technique. It also illustrates the dramatic reductions in PTSD symptoms Dr Grosswald and others found in Iraq and Afghanistan veterans—even within a few weeks of learning the practice—including decreased anxiety, emotional numbness, depression, sleep disorders, and substance abuse. Researchers and other professionals who work with veterans have been ‘very surprised’ by equally dramatic improvements in their quality of life. 'These men and women were actually able to return to active life, remember who they really are,’ Dr Grosswald commented. After about four months of meditating, David said, ‘I had the urge to go back to school and finish my education, and just continue living my life.’ He heard about Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, USA. ‘I figured, “Well if TM works so well just for me in my daily life, it should do the same for my education.” ‘That’s how I decided to come here—I came to Visitors Weekend December 4, I left December 7, and I was enrolled and accepted by January 20. Just the feeling was enough to know,’ he recalls. ‘Because I’ve traveled so much, I know—when you get a good feeling about a place, it’s not there by accident.’ The video shows him in class, focused and intent on the lecture, engaged in his studies in the popular Media and Communications BA programme. David brings up another aspect of MUM campus life that is especially important for him: ‘A lot of self-motivated people come here, to try to develop themselves—more than just getting a degree.’ That was a limitation David found with the previous school he attended. ‘I felt, “What’s the point? I’m just going to get this degree, and then what—go get another job? Why don’t I just work at whatever I’m doing now?” ‘But here it’s so much more than that,’ he says. ‘The development of the individual seems to be more important than just getting a degree. And when you’re around those types of motivated individuals, it motivates you to do as well as you can also. ‘So what am I going to do when I graduate?’ he asks with a radiant smile. ‘Something big.’ * See another video of David George talking about his experiences with Transcendental Meditation, on the David Lynch Foundation website. The Foundation recently launched ‘Operation Warrior Wellness’—a nationwide initiative to provide the Transcendental Meditation Programme to help veterans overcome PTSD. © Copyright 2011 Global Good News®
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