Carrying the "TM torch" at the University of Victoria in British Columbia was a natural step for me, since I’m a third generation Meditator. My grandmother, Eileen Learoyd, was the first teacher of the Transcendental Meditation technique in Canada back in the early 1960s. My mother learned to meditate when she was ten.

Our club for Meditators at UVic, affectionately referred to as "Club Med," has been in existence for more than 30 years. I’m the latest president, and we now have over 20 enthusiastic members with numbers increasing each term.

Most members are in their early-to-mid-20’s and represent every field of study from geography and French to psychology and education. Three of us practice the TM-Sidhi program, but almost everyone else started meditating within the past year or two, having heard about it from us long-term enthusiasts.

I was recently interviewed on CFUN, a Vancouver radio station, about the effects of the TM technique on a grueling academic and extra-curricular regimen. Like most students, my schedule is full with a complete course load, part-time job, singing in the university choir, surfing on weekends, and an exercise program. There is no way I could function the way I do if I didn’t meditate.

And the word is spreading. More and more students come up to me because they’re curious about the benefits of the TM technique. They are impressed, and occasionally astonished, by the harmonizing effects it brings and the increased levels of productivity and efficiency, prized by all students. I tell them that it can raise consciousness, lower stress, improve their grades and their social life. Even two people at the restaurant where I work learned to meditate after they heard how much I enjoy it.

Chris Bratseth, a Meditator for just over a year, insists it has been a big catalyst for growth in his life. "TM has been life-changing," Chris says. "After meditating I feel like there’s beautiful music filling my head, calming me and harmonizing all my activities." Chris also marvels at the wonderful results it has had on his levels of happiness and contentment: "Now I don’t undergo a complete personality change around exam time or during stressful work schedules. I’m a more consistently happy and fulfilled person."

Club member Mischa Greenwood is doing research on the Transcendental Meditation program for his psychology thesis at UVic. He has also organized some of the greatest Meditator Residence Courses the West Coast has ever seen! Mischa found a first-class facility in Victoria boasting the best food ever.

When the term started, we decided to meditate in the campus chapel. But we were forced to seek out new territory when we discovered the chapel complex was quite raucous, booming with opera singers and wedding rehearsals. Ironically, we found purer silence in one of the academic buildings, where students rarely venture!

Our members are keen and include the friendliest, most intelligent and formidably fun people I have met in my five years on campus. We meet once or twice a week for group meditation. When we transcend together, the feeling is so good it’s like being handed an A+ paper every time.

Val Litwin is 22 years old, majoring in English and Business at the University of Victoria.

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