Michael Pierce MA (Cantab)

Transcendental Meditation (TM) is easy to learn and to practice. The first step is to come to a free introductory talk where you can meet an approved teacher of TM who will tell you about the benefits, explain how you do TM, explain how it differs from other sorts of techniques, and say where it comes and answer any questions you may have. You will also have a little time to ask any private questions you may have away from anyone else who may be there if you have come to a public talk.   Once you have decided you would like to learn, you agree a time and date for your course which is mutually convenient. The course is structured so that you have more time with your teacher in the beginning and then the sessions are less frequent as you get more confident and comfortable with the technique. You will learn the technique in a 1:1 session with your teacher and then the rest of the course may be run in a small group so you have the benefit of hearing each other’s questions and experiences.  The sessions of the course usually last for about an hour and a half on four consecutive days – e.g.: Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday evenings, (private courses can be arranged at different times) – and then you meet after a week, after two weeks, after a month and again after a month. In addition to these sessions, if you need any more time with your teacher, you can have as much as you need within this three month period, and you can also come free to the monthly meditators groups we run for six months after learning. So there is a lot of support and encouragement available to help you to get the most out of your meditation.   When you come to do TM you just sit in a comfortable chair and, using the sound you are given by your teacher which has a soothing vibrational effect, you soon dive deep within. It’s like turning the volume on a radio down, the radio is still on but it’s making no sound. In the same way, in TM we effortlessly reduce all the noise and chatter in our mind, until we reach a state where we are awake, but just experiencing inner silence. It’s beautifully refreshing and enjoyable. And after meditation, you feel alert, refreshed and ready to take on all the busy tasks of the day.   TM involves no change in lifestyle, you have to wear no funny clothes or change your diet, you just add 20 minutes of profound relaxation – a level of rest shown by scientific research  to be even deeper than deep sleep and hence more revitalising – to your daily routine twice daily and you soon notice that life is becoming a bit more satisfying, more harmonious, less stressful, even happier. One senior manager I taught from an international company said that “ I don’t feel that I have changed – it’s just that our corporate lawyers have got less irritating!” Another student of TM slept so well after years of disrupted sleep following childbirth that her husband thought she had been drugged.  A third said that he found himself happily chatting to people in the works canteen he had never spoken to before in many years of working there – he was feeling more free inside and able to open up and enjoy relationships more.  It’s just like watering the roots of a plant; if you provide nourishment at the most profound level, every aspect of the plant flourishes. In the same way, by giving yourself this profound level of relaxation, you begin to notice benefits in all areas of life. We’ve all had nights when we’ve slept really well and the following day everything seems to go well; the traffic lights are green, you can find a parking space, even your boss is in a good mood (!); in other words, the world seems to reflect our inner experience. Well this is the effect TM has. Because you are deeply rested and feeling brighter and more creative, life becomes less of a struggle and more enjoyable.   You may think at this point, “it works for other people, but will it work for me? Fortunately, you don’t just have to rely on my experience or even the experience of the friend who may have told you about meditation. There is a huge body of independent scientific research which consistently shows the benefits of Transcendental Meditation.  E.g.: “Transcendental Meditation is more than twice as effective for relieving the mental effects of stress as all other meditation and relaxation techniques.” Journal of Clinical Psychology 45: 957-974 (1989) & 33: 1076-1078 (1977). And in 2005, the American Journal of Cardiology reported that among 202 patients with raised blood pressure who were followed for 18 years, those who practised TM had a 23 per cent lower death rate. While The National Institutes of Health in the US has found that people practising meditation have lower breathing and heart rate yet "higher EEG coherence" indicating greater concentration and alertness.). These are just a few of the findings – for more information see:http://www.tmcityandeastlondon.com/indiv/index.shtml.

 If you would like to learn TM, come to one of my regular free introductory talks. You contact me via my website www.tmcityandeastlondon.com or by email michael@tm-city.com or by phone 07960 683160. I look forward to hearing from you. With best wishes Michael Jon PierceApproved TM Teacher

For more information about learning Transcendental Meditation, see www.tmcityandeastlondon.com, or email michael@tm-city.com, or ring 07960 683160