Researcher Dr. Fred Travis reported that during the TM-Sidhi practice, the EEG amplitude in the frontal executive area of the brain was higher than during Transcendental Meditation.

Study compares brain waves of Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programs
by Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, Iowa, USA, The Review
12 October 2011

For the first time, a study has been conducted that compares the EEG patterns during the Transcendental Meditation technique with the patterns during the TM-Sidhi program.

"The results of this study suggest that practice of the TM-Sidhi program stabilizes the experience of pure consciousness while it supports the ability to think and act within the transcendent," said faculty researcher Fred Travis.

He found higher alpha1 and beta1 EEG amplitude in frontal executive areas during TM-Sidhi practice compared to TM practice. Also, eLORETA reported sources of activation in right-hemisphere object-recognition areas involved in specific/holistic representation of words, which supports the description of the practice as putting one's attention on specific sutras or verses.

"We've long understood that the practice of the TM-Sidhi program, which is traditionally called sanyama, involves both awareness of specific sutras and of one's unbounded Self," Dr. Travis said. "Now we're able to see that this subjective experience is reflected in the activity of the brain as measured by EEG."

The specific object-recognition areas that Dr. Travis looked at included the right parahippocampus gyrus, right fusiform gyrus, lingual gyrus, and inferior and medial temporal cortices—areas involved in specific/holistic representation of words.

He said that this supports the description of the TM-Sidhi program as involving internally directed attention in contrast to the process of effortless transcending during the Transcendental Meditation technique.

Although EEG patterns during Transcendental Meditation technique have been extensively investigated, this was the first study to compare those patterns with those during the practice of the TM-Sidhi program.

Dr. Travis's random-assignment study, published in the International Journal of Psychophysiology, involved 26 subjects who had been practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique an average of 25.6 years and theTM-Sidhi program an average of 19.4 years.

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