Ep. 33: Bob Roth - Why Transcendental Meditation Is Making a Comeback - David Lynch Foundation
Bob Roth
Bob Roth is an educator, author and meditation teacher for nearly 40 years. His mission is to make transcendental meditation simple, clear and accessible. He serves as VP of the David Lynch Foundation, over seeing the foundation’s free transcendental meditation programs in schools, colleges, American Indian reservations, prisons, rehab, homeless and veterans centers and universities. He is also the author of Strength in Stillness and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation. In this podcast you will learn why transcendental meditation is a powerful medical intervention. It is something that can heal mind and body.
Bob Roth was inspired to go into politics and teaching to change the world. While working full time and studying full time, he became completely stressed out. When he stumbled upon transcendental meditation he realized that if he taught TM he could change the world by healing the nation. The David Lynch Foundation has brought meditation to a million inner city school kids, veterans and women survivors of domestic violence for free. The foundation is now doing large scale studies that are proving that meditation is a highly effective medical intervention for insomnia, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, behavioral disorders and even for opioid addiction in teens.
In this podcast, Bob explains what meditation is. The gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta mind GOTTA DO THIS AND I GOTTA DO THAT mind is like the waves on an ocean, and below is the deeper calm, clarity, power, and creativity of your mind.
He breaks down the three types of meditation:
Focused attention: A concentration form of meditation. It attempts to clear the mind of thoughts. It creates gamma brain waves which are 20 to 50 cycles per second.
Open Monitoring: Focuses on the types of thoughts you are having and staying in the present. It creates theta brain waves which are 4 to 8 cycles per second.
Self Transcending: It is a state where your mind is both settled and wide awake. It gives your body rest that is deeper than sleep in some ways. It creates alpha 1 brain waves which are 8 to 10 cycles per second.
Bob Roth tells us how transcendental meditation is taught in less than 5 sessions to CEO’s and ten year olds. He tells us that the best times to do it is upon waking and just before dinner.
The interview includes information on powerful studies which are being done by the David Lynch Foundation that have the ability to change the way we heal ourselves and our health care system.
Curious to learn more, find a teacher near you at www.TM.org.
More From Bob Roth
Official Website: www.meditationbob.com
Instagram: @meditationbob
Facebook: @meditationbob
Twitter: @meditationbob
David Lynch Foundation
Website: www.davidlynchfoundation.org
Facebook: @davidlynchfoundation
Twitter: @lynchfoundation
Transcendental Meditation
Website: http://tm.org/
Bob Roth Books
Strength in Stillness: The Power of Transcendental Meditation
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation
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Show Notes
[03:48] Transcendental meditation is a medical intervention. It is something that can heal mind and body.
[04:17] David Lynch Foundation, which is a nonprofit, has brought this meditation to a million inner city school kids, veterans and women who are survivors of domestic violence for free. And now we're working with teens with opioid addiction.
[07:30] Meditation is associated with calm, clarity, power and creativity.
[07:40] They used to think that all meditations where the same. The three types that have been identified first is called focused attention. Focused attention is a concentration form of meditation. It attempts to clear the mind of thoughts. … It creates something called gamma brain waves which are 20 to 50 cycles per second.
[11:50] Neurons of the brain cells that fire together connect together in meditation, are wired together out of meditation … That's what allows your body to maintain an equanimity and the cortisol levels to stay down. There's 400 scientific research studies on TM.
[12:25] One meditation practice can enhance another.
[12:52] So a child starts the school day with 10 minutes of transcending. It feels great. Now at 1:00 in the afternoon if she or he has a big exam and he or she is quite nervous. So there's a wonderful breathing you can for one minute sitting at the desk without anybody knowing you can do two minutes a little breathing and then you're ready for the exam.
[15:00] At the David Lynch Foundation we're working on major studies with the V.A. to make transcendental meditation seen as a medical intervention.
[15:21] Marc Benioff said philanthropy is to test and prove and government to scale and grow.
[15:45] So what we're doing is the foundation is raising the funds to do the large studies with 1,000 veterans or 5,000 kids in schools seeing that they address problems of trauma or stress and then being able to go to the V.A. or the Department of Education and say this is actually more effective than Ritalin and with that data they can reimburse.
[16:32] If a person is really traumatized then they don't meditate 20 minutes then they start off with three minutes and then they start five minutes and then they build up.
[17:23] The disease care system is out of control and it is bankrupting the country.
[18:43] The mind by it’s nature is seeking something more satisfying.
[00:19:28] So in transcendental meditation we set up the conditions so the attention is drawn inward and deeper levels are more satisfying.
[20:48] Transcendental meditation has its origins over 5,000 years old. It predates Catholicism Buddhism Judaism. It's not an ism.
[24:28] I love giving people the tools to change their lives.
[24:39] There's three main states of consciousness.
[25:25] We work with a lot of veterans who can't sleep. You know horror the nightmares and they come and that you know haven't slept for an hour and night and four months and they're poor family. And I could cry. I could just cry. Children are afraid of their mom or dad. It's somewhat a horror. And they come and they learn to meditate. And within two or three days or they're sleeping like 12 14 hours a night. And then after a week or so they're sleeping eight hours because this is easier. It's hard for people to fall asleep. The transcendent experience is for everyone. I think it's a beautiful thing.
[28:06] We teach those CEOs is exactly the same program we teach a 10 year old kid in the Bronx. So we don't dumb it down for the kids. We think every human being is a universe in herself or herself. Everybody deserves equal access to that experience.
[29:21] If my child has ADD and I can get insurance to cover Ritalin, well then there should also be insurance to cover if mindfulness... The end game is that it should be incorporated into employee assistance programs and insurance companies.
[29:50] There's no strength in rigidity. There's no strength in brittle. There's no strength in anger. There's no strength in rage. There's no strength in jealousy … Real power is accessing that field of silence that lies deep within every one of us and that builds resilience because a strong person is a resilient person, because the outside world is changing all the time.
[31:04] Many people who have addictive personalities they called substance use disorder. Many of them use it to mask anxiety whether it's lack of self-confidence or it's just life or some sort of pain. That's why this whole problem with opiate addiction sometimes people have pain and then they get addicted to these drugs because they're powerful. And if you have genetically a tendency towards addictive behavior then you're very susceptible to the alcohol because they are more satisfying at least initially than the pain or the anxiety you're feeling. They are masking something. The problem with programs to get over addiction if they just say abstinence is that now I'm anxious and now I just have to stop. Well then now my drug addiction becomes an alcohol addiction becomes a food addiction becomes a sex addiction becomes a gambling addiction. Because I have to do something.
[32:33] We're working now with studies which are going to start at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York to look at the effects of TM on opioid addiction with adolescents because more people will die in America from substance abuse this year than died in ten years in Vietnam Americans in one year and 17 teenagers die every day from opioid addiction alone.
[34:13] There are five steps to learn transcendental meditation. The first step is introductory talk which explains the whole thing. And then if you decide you want to learn then there's four steps of actual learning. The first day let's say Monday is about an hour to an hour and a half and that's one-to-one where you meet with your team teacher trainer and the teacher instructs you to meditate gives you a mantra and teaches you how to use it. Now let's say eight people or six people learned individually on Monday then all six people come back on Tuesday Wednesday Thursday in a small class and you meet for about an hour. So day one you'll learn it day two, three and four you come together in a small class and you talk about your experiences such that by the end of that fourth day you've really got it.
[35:12] In ancient times meditation was done at dawn and dusk because now your brain is sort of dull from sleep and we reach for our cups of coffee or something but now you sit and meditate. Get up before the kids. It wakes up the brain and energizes you for the day and makes you more resilient for the day. And then as you go along, if there's mindfulness things you want to do, great. You do them better then at the end of the day, ideally before dinner sometime before dinner you again sit for 20 minutes and meditate. And it's like a bath. It's like washes the stress off of the day. So now when you're with your family at dinner you're more present with your family and then you sleep much better at night. So those are the ideal times. We don't do it right before bed because it's relaxing but it's incredibly energizing as well.
[36:30] The world is your family.
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“Transcendental meditation is a medical intervention. It is something that can heal mind and body.” - Bob Roth, David Lynch Foundation
“Meditation is associated with calm, clarity, power and creativity.” - Bob Roth, David Lynch Foundation
“One meditation practice can enhance another.” - Bob Roth, David Lynch Foundation
“Transcendental meditation has its origins over 5,000 years old. It predates Catholicism Buddhism Judaism. It's not an ism.” - Bob Roth, David Lynch Foundation
“I love giving people the tools to change their lives.” - Bob Roth, David Lynch Foundation
“Real power is accessing that field of silence that lies deep within every one of us and that builds resilience because a strong person is a resilient person, because the outside world is changing all the time.” - Bob Roth, David Lynch Foundation
Keywords
#neuroplasticity #domestic violence, #veterans #opioid addiction #Ayurveda #transcendental meditation #Sharon Salzberg #Mt. Sinai Hospital #ADD #ADHD #trauma #mindbody #David Lynch Foundation #meditationbob