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March
2000
The
TM Program on Campus
by
Wayne Foster
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"The life of the student
is to develop all knowledge that is possible, to gain all creativity that
is possible. There is an infinite degree of creativity in the
consciousness of everyone, and Transcendental Meditation unfolds that,
very easily, very simply, so Total Knowledge can be gained by every
student." —Maharishi
All students are interested in
better grades, less stress, and improved clarity of mind. This is why
practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique is a great way for them
to excel.
During the past 40 years, nearly one million students have
learned to meditate in North America alone. The TM technique first became
popular among students in the late 1960s. Dr. Keith Wallace conducted
pioneering research on the technique during his student days at UCLA, and
then served as the first President of Students International Meditation
Society (SIMS). Since then, student clubs have been started on over 100
campuses in the United States and Canada.
In 1988 and 1989, Guy Harvey, my
brother Garry and I helped coordinate lectures on campuses. We found that
students were very enthusiastic to learn about the TM technique. Often 50
to 100 students would attend Introductory Lectures in one week.
Many
meditating students told us they were scoring higher on tests with much
less effort. One student said that before learning to meditate, he would
forget the material at the top of the page even before he had read to the
bottom of the page. Within a few days of learning the TM technique, his
memory improved so much that he was clearly remembering text and
illustrations from previous pages.
Any college student can start a club,
which can then invite teachers of the TM program to give lectures on
campus. Lecture rooms are usually free to approved clubs. When enough
students join, you can also get a room for daily group meditations.
We
found the most effective way to promote campus lectures was a combined
approach—flyers in the dining halls, mail box flyers, posters, and
advertisements in the student newspaper.
Since students often have busy
schedules, it’s best to announce a few lectures at different times of
the day. There are plenty of competing events on campus, so don’t be
afraid to put up lots of posters!
Maharishi University of Management’s
student government is sponsoring "Youth Evolution 2000," a
national student conference on May 18-20. For information, call
515-469-3531, or visit http://www.youthevolution2000.org
Wayne Foster is a member of the
Maharishi Thousand-Headed Purusha program, and a Director of Maharishi
Global Administration through Natural Law in Canada.
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