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Regular transcending, with the Transcendental Meditation technique has been shown to enhance inner happiness and outer success.
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by Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, Iowa, USA, The Review
April 2014
Creativity may depend on greater brain integration, according to a new study on production engineers by Maharishi University of Management faculty researcher Fred Travis and collaborator Yvonne Lagrosen published this month in Creativity Research Journal.
Previous studies by Dr. Travis and colleagues have found greater brain integration in world-class athletes, top managers, and professional musicians.
"It's a simple fact that some people stand out, and we're trying to tease out why," Dr. Travis says. "We hypothesized that something must be different about the way their brains work, and that's what we're finding."
Specifically, Dr. Travis uses a measure he has developed that he calls brain integration. He uses EEG recording to assess frontal brain wave coherence, a measure of connectedness among the various areas of the brain, and alpha power, a measure of inner directedness of attention. He also assesses the brain's preparation response, which measures how efficiently the brain responds to a stimulus.
In all of his studies so far, top-level performers consistently show higher levels of brain integration.
Dr. Travis's current study was conducted on 21 product-development engineers in Sweden—a group expected to have high levels of creativity. He assessed their level of creativity using standardized Torrance measures and found them to be in the 70th to 90th percentile.
He also looked at their levels of brain integration, speed of processing information, speed of executive decision-making, and Sense-of-Coherence. A canonical correlation of these data yielded strong correlation between higher flexibility and originality in verbal and figural creativity tests and higher levels of brain integration, faster brain processing, faster speed of decision making, and a sense of being in control of one's situation.
"While there's a common notion that 10,000 hours of practice is necessary for high achievement, some people put in long hours and do not excel," Dr. Travis said. "This work and other work with my collaborator Harald Harung suggest that brain integration may be the inner factor that leads to outer success."
Is it possible to increase one's level of brain integration and thereby enhance one's effectiveness?
According to Dr. Travis, regular practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique has been found in random assignment studies to increase levels of brain integration.
"People who want to excel in any field should considering learning the Transcendental Meditation technique and seeing the effect of regular transcending on inner happiness and outer success."
© Copyright 2014 Maharishi University of Management
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