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“The whole physical universe is the expression of Vedic sounds. Total Natural Law reverberates in these sounds. . . .Vedic Pandits reciting these Vedic sounds enliven the evolutionary power of total Natural Law in every grain of creation to soothe our stress-ridden world and bring order to the disorderly state of world consciousness."
—Maharishi
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by Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, Iowa, USA, The Review
May 2014
Listening to live chanting of Maharishi Vedic Pandits enhances frontal brain coherence says Maharishi University of Management researcher Fred Travis, who returned earlier this month from four weeks of research at the Brahmasthan of India.
Dr. Travis took EEG measurements of individuals from the U.S. and Europe who were at the Brahmasthan for extended practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs and for the daily experience of listening to Vedic recitation.
Five days a week, he recorded EEG of guests on the course during eyes-closed rest, eyes-open and eyes-closed tasks, and Transcendental Meditation practice. He continued to record their EEG when five Maharishi Vedic Pandits arrived from the pandit campus and chanted for an hour for everyone on the course.
Following the chanting, Dr. Travis again recorded EEG when the guest performed the eyes-open and eyes-closed tasks. Dr. Travis recorded brainwaves of a total of 15 people over four weeks.
Preliminary findings suggest that listening to Vedic recitation enhances theta and alpha1 frontal coherence. In addition, performance on the Stroop color-word task, a standard measure of executive functioning, improved after listening to the chanting.
The other two days a week, the guests on the course traveled to the pandit campus to be present for two special Vedic recitations, each lasting one hour: eleven pandits chanting the Mahadurga Saptasanti Puja and 1,331 pandits chanting the Athi Rudra Abhishek.
Dr. Travis measured EEG from the same person during both of these three-hour recitations. In the three people who were tested, Athi Rudra Abhishek initially resulted in higher coherence in all frequency bands—theta to gamma—compared to Mahadurga puja. However, as the recitations continued, coherence in the frequency of transcending—alpha1—grew during the Mahadurga recitation.
The next phase of research will be to test 15 subjects listening to music to see how their EEG differs from those who were listening to chanting, and see if there are similar Stroop effects. In addition, Dr. Travis will compare EEG when listening to live pandits and when listening to the same section of the Vedic Literature on a DVD.
"This research is just the beginning," Dr. Travis said. "I hope to go back to India next year to do more."
© Copyright 2014 Maharishi University of Management
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