Are you happy? 

Before the Gospel according to John and after the gospel, according to Mark, is the gospel according to Luke. And the 48th verse of the 12th chapter of that gospel says, to whom much is given, much is expected.

Your presence here today, under this magnificent Golden Dome, suggests that all of you have received much in life, including the opportunity and the gift to reflect and to meditate. The first part of that passage in Luke, “To whom much is given, much is expected,” is often quoted, but what’s often left out is the end of that paragraph. It says, the more one has been entrusted, the more one will be expected to repay.

President Hagelin, distinguished leaders, faculty, staff, family, and friends, and especially the 2024 graduating class of MIU, get ready to repay.

Unfortunately, life does not accept Visa, MasterCard, or American Express. In this age of entitlements, bailouts, and struggle, there is great opportunity for all of us in the community of meditators to make a difference, effect change, and exceed expectations. This is especially true in the arenas of scholarship, leadership, and service. All educators will attest to the fact that students will rise or fall to the level that is expected of them.

I was born in a small village town in New York called Brooklyn. Some of you in Iowa may have heard of it. I was the son of West African immigrant parents. My mom was from Freetown, Sierra Leone, and my dad was from Makar, Ghana. My dad would say that I was made in the USA. My dad passed away shortly after I graduated from medical school, and my mom passed away just last year, five days after I retired from the military after 25 years of service in the Navy.

My parents, like most immigrant parents, wanted me to be successful. They had sacrificed much and expected me to be successful, become a doctor or a lawyer. To this day, I still try and make them proud. And so I personally learned lessons about expectations and scholarship, leadership, and service, and I developed a greater and deeper understanding of these through the lives of others. 

My scholarship and expectation lesson occurred pretty early. When I graduated from high school, I was prepared to go to college and expected to go to Morehouse, where I was accepted. However, I didn’t have enough money to go, and instead, I went to the State University of New York, SUNY Plattsburgh, a small arts and science college far up north by the Canadian border. I was far away from Brooklyn. It was a blessing. Being so far away from civilization, I didn’t have anything to do, so I studied. You guys can relate.

“Is that the best you can do? Doesn’t the scale go up to 4.0?”

After midterms of my freshman year, I made the Dean’s List and proudly went to flaunt my accomplishment to Tim, the admissions counselor. They accepted me to college at 18 years old, full of hubris. I had a 3.5. I slammed my transcript down on his desk. I expected rose petals to be sprinkled before my feet, but instead he looked at me calmly, shrugged his shoulders, and said, “Is that the best you can do? Doesn’t the scale go up to 4.0?” Infuriated, I left his office and worked even harder. I ended the semester with a 3.8 in my freshman year.

My leadership and expectation lessons occurred some years later. On April 29th, 1992, the acquittal of four Los Angeles police officers that were videotaped beating Rodney King, a black man, sparked the LA riots. Fifty-three people died, thousands were injured during six days of chaos, fires, and vandalism that cost the city of LA one billion dollars.

I was 3,000 miles away on the other coast of the country, and tension was very palpable in my community. Emotions were fermenting. In the small college town of Plattsburgh, New York, we reflected on our own individual experiences of injustice growing up in Inner City, New York, and each of us, despite being educated college students, would recall the episodic police harassment we endured in rural Plattsburgh.

“I wasn’t expecting to lead anyone anywhere on that day.”

On the sixth day of the LA riots, over a thousand emotional people gathered for something outside of our small college center. I was called that morning to Miss Janice Saunders’ office, the director of affirmative action. I walked past the gathered movement, and in her office was greeted by campus and community officials who told me I would have to lead the group that gathered outside. I wasn’t expecting to lead anyone anywhere on that day.

My service and expectation lesson occurred even later. After medical school, I joined the Navy, and after general surgery residency, I expected to complete a thoracic surgery fellowship, but the Navy had other plans.

After 9/11, very few surgeons were allowed to go into advanced training and fellowship. Instead, most were deployed, like me. I was assigned to a ship as a ship surgeon. I remember thinking I didn’t join the Navy to go on a ship. I spent 22 months on this ship, and 19 months of those were out to sea. It was the loneliest, most difficult, most stressful time of my life.

Up until that point, it was also the greatest time in my life. I served with 6,000 other volunteers, who all raised their hands, and they were dedicated to a cause and felt the same fears I did.

Years later, I would join thousands of others in a different kind of campaign in the desert of Afghanistan, supporting the Second Marine Expeditionary Forces, Second, MEF. I never expected that on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, after witnessing in real-time the collapse of the World Trade Center, that I would be halfway around the world in Afghanistan, caring for wounded Marines in a tent.

I’ve made lifelong friends in military service and always felt like I was doing my part to preserve the ideals and the freedom of our country that gives its citizens and so many people around the world opportunity.

“Meditation saved my life”

But I want to share how my lessons became a deeper understanding. Meditation saved my life. Meditation saved my life. Let me explain.

When I returned from my deployment in Afghanistan, after taking care of blown-up Marines in a tent, I was in a dark place. While I was in Afghanistan, I would retreat to the tent after our cases. I would journal, I would read. Among my favorite books was the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. I identified with his retreating to the tent after a long day of battle, to reflect, to have gratitude, to write down the wisdom that he was gaining from seeing these atrocities.

When I returned home, I found a TM center in Bethesda, Maryland. I walked in, and I was greeted by a gentle soul called Mario Orsatti, who taught me TM. TM was the beginning of a whole new life. TM has helped me grow, increase my creativity, be a better father, be a better husband, be a better physician, be a better surgeon, and gave me peace.

One of my favorite authors once said, when you pray, you talk to the universe; when you meditate, you listen to the universe.

Last night at the graduation awards ceremony here at MIU, I was so inspired by the talented and gifted students that I’m sure are just representative of the entire class that’s here now and all your alumni in the community of MIU. Meditate and create. It’s a beautiful thing.

“Through meditation, I discovered sort of a practical education.”

My lessons were only the beginning of a deeper understanding. Through meditation, I discovered sort of a practical education. Education is like a garden snake that swallows a chicken egg. It’s in you but takes some time to digest. You know what I mean.

The experiences I had and my expectations were placed into perspective in the areas of scholarship, leadership, and service. I developed a deeper scholarship and expectation understanding.

While studying for my general surgery boards, I came across a quote of a young man from 1880. He was studying at Chicago Medical School. He said, “I’m making fair progress. I think it’s hard work and much study, but I’m up in the front rank and keep neck and neck with the leaders.”

The words of Dr. Daniel Hale Williams resonated with me. He was the first African American to be a fellow and charter member of the American College of Surgery, and among the first surgeons credited with performing successful surgery on the heart decades before cardiopulmonary bypass was even a possibility. His expectations were best summed up in his words: “If you don’t aim at something, you may go seeking, but you’ll come back without a thing.”

“Make sure you aim for something in life.”

Class of 2024, make sure you aim for something in life. Dr. Williams was directly responsible for training an entire generation of surgeons, and influenced hundreds, perhaps thousands, including me, to be clinically excellent. I thought about what Dr. Williams would have said to me if I smugly brought him my 3.5 GPA.

I developed a deeper leadership and expectation understanding by recounting a story. On December 1, 1955, Miss Rosa Parks refused to move and go to the back of the bus. She was subsequently arrested and convicted and became a historic icon.

Shortly after Rosa Parks’ trial and conviction, a young man who had just arrived in Montgomery had left a crowded, angry courtroom and headed to a meeting across town with some community officials. The Montgomery bus boycott was just an embryonic movement, and people were gathered to name a leader for the MIA, the Montgomery Improvement Association.

As soon as nominations were open, Mr. Rufus Lewis said, “Mr. Chairman, I’d like to nominate Reverend M.L. King for President.” Dr. King later wrote about the event in his autobiography: “The action caught me unawares. It happened so quickly. I didn’t even have time to think it through. It is possible and probable that if I had, I would have declined the nomination.”

“I stared out the window to the sea of faces gathered, waiting for something.”

In my moment in 1992 in Miss Saunders’ office, I too passed an angry crowd. I felt tremendous fear and uncertainty. I stared out the window to the sea of faces gathered, waiting for something.

Class of 2024, as Marcus Aurelius said, you have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will always find strength and courage.

I was nominated to lead, and the action caught me unawares. When I answered “Yes” on that day, I did not realize a movement had been started. When Dr. King accepted the nomination in December of 1955, a movement was started that would gain national recognition and change history forever.

I finally developed a deeper service and expectation understanding. In the 1940s, a Jewish psychiatrist was imprisoned in an Auschwitz concentration camp. He was prisoner 119104, and he expected to die. However, over time the doctor began to find meaning in his fellow prisoners’ circumstances. He provided service to his fellow inmates. He encouraged them to have hope, to have hope for the future because they were still alive. He even quoted Nietzsche: “That which does not kill me makes me stronger.” The service he provided to his fellow prisoners undoubtedly helped, but his greatest service was the contribution he made to mankind. Dr. Viktor Frankl, number 119104, gave us logotherapy and the book Man’s Search for Meaning.

“You will find purpose and meaning when you serve others.”

Class of 2024, you will find purpose and meaning when you serve others. You will find purpose and meaning when you serve others. Dr. Frankl helped me to understand that it did not really matter what I expected from life, but rather what did matter is what life expected from me.

Facing Tim’s challenges, leading a Rodney King rally, or serving on the ship or in the desert of Afghanistan was not necessarily what I expected, but it was in those moments in life what life expected of me.

The greatest among us all rise and exceed all expectations because they leave a legacy, they embrace life, they become engaged, and they take on obstacles as opportunities.

“It does not matter what you expect from life, but what does matter is what life expects from you.”

Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, Dr. King, and Dr. Frankl all faced circumstances that did not consider what they expected from life, but instead, they all rose to the occasion of what life expected of them. Class of 2024, it does not matter what you expect from life, but what does matter is what life expects from you.

You all have been given the great gift of a consciousness-based education and so much more. Indeed, much is expected of you. You are all expected to exceed expectations. So, as I close, you might say, “Well, how do I exceed expectations?” I’ll give you three steps.

Number one, you will exceed expectations when you dedicate your life to answering life’s most urgent question. Dedicate your life to answering life’s most urgent question. What is that question? The question is, what are you doing for others? What are you doing for others?

Number two, you will exceed expectations when you expect to have challenges and view them all as opportunities and understand that which does not kill you makes you stronger.

And number three, you will exceed expectations when you are all grateful to the people who helped you along the way.

So, class of 2024, let’s start exceeding expectations right now. Please stand and join me in giving your families, friends, faculty, and staff a standing ovation of gratitude.

I guarantee you your parents were not expecting that.

Professor Jacques Barzun, considered among the greatest literary scholars from Columbia University, died at the age of 104. He once said, “In teaching, you cannot see the fruit of a day’s work. It’s invisible and remains so for many years.”

“You are, every one of you, someone’s favorite unfolding story.”

Graduates, I’m going to give you some great advice here. Write to your teachers and mentors and let them know how you’re doing when you leave this hallowed place. Show and tell them of the fruit of their labor. You are, every one of you, someone’s favorite unfolding story. You are. Each one of you is someone’s favorite unfolding story. Tell them how the story’s going.

In this critical time, the world needs consciousness-based individuals to positively change the world. We need you. I especially expect you all to exceed expectations. Congratulations!

MIU’s iconic Golden Dome brimmed with caps, gowns, applause, and cheers on the sunny Saturday afternoon of June 23 as the university celebrated the graduation of 853 students, an all-time record.

This number eclipsed the 732 students who graduated in 2023.

Noted heart surgeon and best-selling author Dr. Hassan Tetteh delivered the commencement address. “You all have been given the great gift of a Consciousness-Based education and so much more,” he told the graduating students. “Indeed, much is expected of you. You are all expected to exceed expectations.”

Of the total number of graduates, 102 students received bachelor’s degrees, 639 received master’s degrees, and eight received doctoral degrees, while 507 students completed their degrees on campus and 239 did so online. Another 94 students graduated with MIU degrees from MIU’s sister institution Maharishi Invincibility Institute in South Africa.

International graduating class

Graduating students represented 66 countries — fully one third of all the countries in the world had students graduating from MIU.

The United States led the pack with 275 graduates. Ethiopia had 122 graduates, South Africa 99, Nepal 75, Mongolia 27, Eritrea 25, Jordan 17, Bangladesh 16, Uganda 15, Egypt 14, Vietnam 14, Morocco 13, and Pakistan 11. Cheers erupted from each national contingent in the audience as these numbers were presented.

And this year, MIU had graduates from six new countries: Angola, Barbados, Cape Verde, Kosovo, Turkmenistan, and the United Arab Emirates.

Family affairs

The brother-and-sister team of Joylyn Ruth-Tobio Stover and Peter Stewart Tobio Stover received Doctorates of Education in Transformational Leadership and Coaching, their spouses and parents joining them in the Golden Dome. This graduation marked the first time that MIU awarded Doctor of Education (EdD) degrees, the outcome of its partnership with Wright Graduate University.

Brother-and-sister duo Bennet and Malena Strauch, from Germany, received bachelor’s degrees, Bennet in mathematics, Malena in art, with both minoring in the Enlightened Leadership program. Malena was the valedictorian and Bennet the outstanding student in mathematics. Their parents, who traveled from Germany to be present, received Enlightened Parents Awards at the Student Awards Ceremony the previous night.

Also graduating together was a  husband-and-wife couple from Mongolia, Sukh Erdene Erdenebileg and Todgerel Baalaikhuu, both receiving master’s degrees in computer science.

In other family affairs, the 2024 salutatorian, Jennifer Neuger, is the mother of 2022 salutatorian Katherine Eid-Wild.

And David Orme-Johnson, who graduated with a BA in art, is grandson of founding MIU faculty member Dr. David Orme-Johnson, one of the world’s pioneering and preeminent meditation researchers. During his long tenure with MIU, Dr. Orme-Johnson chaired the psychology department and directed the PhD program in psychology. With more than a hundred published studies already, he is continuing his research on the Transcendental Meditation technique. Dr. Orme-Johnson was present in the audience along with his wife, founding MIU faculty member Dr. Rhoda Orme-Johnson.

This graduating class also showed that age is no barrier to higher education, at either end of the scale.

At age 18 — when many young people are graduating from high school and perhaps thinking about college — Sabrina Cooklin graduated with an MIU bachelor’s of Applied Arts and Sciences, which she took online. And three people in their mid-70s received degrees: Ralph Hearn (73) with a master’s in physics, Svetlana Murokh (74) with a bachelor’s in AyurVeda Wellness and Integrative Health, and Kristen Payne (75) with an MS in Aromatherapy and Ayurveda.

Exceeding expectations – Dr. Tetteh’s commencement address

Dr. Tetteh opened his address by quoting the Biblical verse Luke 12:48, “To whom much is given, much is expected.”

“Your presence here today, under this magnificent Golden Dome, suggests that all of you have received much in life, including the opportunity and the gift to reflect and to meditate,” Dr. Tetteh said.

“Get ready to repay,” he continued. “There is great opportunity for all of us in the community of meditators to make a difference, affect change, and exceed expectations. This is especially true in the arenas of scholarship, leadership, and service.”

Dr. Tetteh recounted his life experiences, including 25 years as a surgeon in the Navy, including deploying to Afghanistan and caring for wounded Marines in a tent.

“Meditation saved my life,” he said. “When I returned from my deployment in Afghanistan, after taking care of blown-up Marines in a tent, I was in a dark place.”

“TM was the beginning of a whole new life,” he said. “TM has helped me grow, increase my creativity, be a better father, be a better husband, be a better physician, be a better surgeon, and it gave me peace.”

“You all have been given the great gift of a Consciousness-Based education and so much more. Indeed, much is expected of you. You are all expected to exceed expectations. So, as I close, you might say, ‘Well, how do I exceed expectations?’ I’ll give you three steps.

“Number one, you will exceed expectations when you dedicate your life to answering life’s most urgent question. . . . What is that question? The question is, what are you doing for others?”

“Number two,” he said, “you will exceed expectations when you expect to have challenges and view them all as opportunities, and understand that that which does not kill you makes you stronger.”

“And number three, you will exceed expectations when you are all grateful to the people who helped you along the way.”

As he closed his address, the audience rose for an extended standing ovation.

For the full text of Dr. Tetteh’s address, click here.

“This is truly a special place on earth” — Malena Strauch delivers valedictorian address

“As we gather to celebrate our achievements and reflect on our journey at Maharishi International University,” said valedictorian Malena Strauch, “I am filled with a profound sense of gratitude and joy. We stand here not only as graduates but as transformed individuals, enriched by the profound education we have received.”

“Our time at MIU has been marked by more than just academic learning. We have immersed ourselves in an environment that values the integration of consciousness and knowledge — studying effectively by deepening our connection to the source of all wisdom and joy.”

“Many of you have heard the quote by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, ‘Life finds its purpose and fulfillment in the expansion of happiness.’ Our journey at MIU has been an exploration of this very principle. We have experienced that the inner expansion of bliss is the foundation of all our outer experiences. This place has helped us to accelerate our personal growth and support our longing to make this world a better place.

“Whenever I would tell my friends back in Germany where this wonderful university is located, they would ask me, ‘Why in the world would you go to Iowa?’ And I would simply respond that this is truly a special place on earth, and I would choose to come here again and again in a heartbeat.”

Jennifer Neuger gives salutatorian address and presents class gift

“I’ve done most of my work online here at MIU, and recently had the privilege of completing my last class on campus,” said salutatorian Jenny Neuger. “It is a true pleasure today for me to see familiar faces from Zoom classes as well as friendly faces from campus, most recently.”

“I love the boxes that we get to build around the accomplishments of our lives. These rites of passage give us an opportunity for a before and an after to really look at what we’ve done. Many of us graduating today began this journey of obtaining a college degree four years ago. Some of us with gray hair have held this dream for much longer. . . .

“We leave this chapter with more wisdom and with a true sense of what we have achieved. . . . With grateful hearts, let us proceed with determination as we move into the future with confidence that we have what it takes to overcome any challenge that comes our way.”

Ms. Neuger announced that the class of 2024 will be gifting MIU with a contribution to a new student gathering, study, and meditation space on campus.

President Hagelin delivers the charge

MIU President John Hagelin delivered the closing charge to the graduates.

“I have the great joy and honor of charging you to go forward with your lives and your efforts to change the world,” said MIU President John Hagelin. “Of all of the wisdom, skills, knowledge, professional and artistic, the most precious gift you have been given through Maharishi’s unique approach to education is that one thing behind your eyes, just behind your mind, which contains the goal of everything you could ever desire in life.”

President Hagelin encouraged the graduating students to make regular transcending a priority in their lives.

“And in the process of life, it will be the measure of your happiness and your success. . . . And I have no doubt . . . that you are serious about changing the world. . . . You’re all about changing the world and frankly rescuing the world from a variety of dangers that I don’t think we’ve ever had before. I know you’re committed to that. Also be committed to that daily dose of retiring into the you inside of you. Get that refreshment, that stability, that foundation, to come out and achieve more, and ultimately achieve everything.”

This year’s annual student satisfaction survey showed high levels of satisfaction with both academics and extracurricular features of the university.

“It was very nice to see that the features that make MIU unique in higher education — the block system, Transcendental Meditation, and Consciousness-based education — were what the students found most satisfying,” said Rod Eason, Vice-President of Enrollment and Student Affairs.

More than 700 students — both on campus and online — participated in the annual survey, the largest response by far in the years the survey has been administered.

“I was particularly pleased that so many students took the time to give honest feedback on their MIU experience,” Eason said. “While the survey data showed a high level of satisfaction overall, students also offered many thoughtful suggestions for improvement. This kind of constructive feedback is exactly what we were looking for and is a big help in our efforts at continuous improvement.”

MIU’s most attractive features

Along with detailed questions about the degree to which MIU met students expectations in different areas (shown in the five charts at the right), the survey asked several narrative-answer questions.

One of those was was, “What is the most attractive feature of MIU for you personally?”

One student responded, “Consciousness-based education and the value MIU places on ensuring students are improving their personal wellness and health alongside their higher education.”

Another wrote: “The sustainable living and regenerative organic agriculture programs were originally the big draw for me. I did not anticipate how much the practice of TM would change my life.”

“I absolutely love the block system,” commented another. “I can be a full-time student, receive federal loans, and still have time for a part-time job and my family.”

Another student replied, “I love the Ayurveda courses. My classmates are great, and teachers really care about me.”

On-campus students noted two areas for possible improvement: more variety in the menu offerings in the dining commons and a wider range of student activities.

The table below shows on-campus and online students’ responses to another set of global questions.

Area	Percentage responding “strongly agree or agree”
Tuition paid is a worthwhile investment	85%
Requirements in my major are clear and reasonable	85%
Maharishi’s knowledge is incorporated into the curriculum in a meaningful and relevant way that enhances the discipline	81%
The faculty care about me as an individual	83%
The quality of instruction in most of my classes is excellent	86%
My instructors challenge me to do my best work	86%
The content of the courses within my major is valuable	89%
I feel welcome to be myself within the culture at MIU	87%
I’ve seen an improvement in my personal well-being at MIU	88%
Overall, I’m satisfied with my experience at MIU	87%
I’m planning on returning to MIU next semester	88%
I would recommend MIU to others	84%

Online students’ feedback

With MIU’s online student enrollment burgeoning, the survey results from that group were of special interest.

Online students were asked, “How satisfied are you with the following components of MIU’s online education?” This chart shows their responses:

Area	Percentage responding “strongly agree or agree”
Opportunity for interaction with instructors & peers online	77%
Communication and instructor feedback on assignments	81%
Flexibility of the online learning format	88%
Accessibility to the learning materials (readings, videos)	88%
Support services (tech support, personal counseling)	73%
Free virtual TM retreats for online students	74%

A narrative question directed to online students was, “What do you like most about your online education program?”

“That I’m surprisingly able to form close bonds with fellow students,” one student said.

“The flexibility to be a mom and a business owner and be in school full-time,” another wrote.

“How much my professors cared for me!” wrote another. “I had many personal challenges going on in the meantime, and my professors and TAs did everything they could to help me succeed.”

Wrote another: “The sense of community I felt. I almost felt as though I was there in person and fully integrated into this group of warm and welcoming people who were truly and sincerely devoted to each other’s success and wellbeing.”

Thank you to Rod Eason for his help with this story.

The “forever wars” need not go on forever. The path to peace lies in health. And the path to health runs through practical meditation techniques that not only foster individual health but create peace on a broad social scale, through the mechanism known as the Maharishi Effect.

This is the thesis put forward by Dr. Robert Schneider and his coauthors in a perspective article about the Maharishi Effect entitled “Peace Through Health: Traditional Medicine Meditation in the Prevention of Collective Stress, Violence, and War,” recently published by Frontiers, the prominent research publisher and open science platform.

“This is the first time, to my knowledge, that a paper about the Maharishi Effect has been published in a fairly highly respected, mainstream public health and medicine venue,” Dr. Schneider says. Dr. Schneider, MD, FACCD, is Dean of the College of Integrative Medicine, Director of the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention, and Professor of Physiology and Health at MIU.

The paradigm barrier

The first study on the Maharishi Effect was conducted just over fifty years ago, showing reduced crime rate in four US cities where the percentage of the population practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique had reached the one percent threshold, which Maharishi Mahesh Yogi predicted would improve overall quality of life.

Since then studies on the Maharishi Effect have proliferated, expanding the scope of the original study to larger and larger populations, testing the effect in locations around the world, and identifying reductions in many other symptoms of social stress, including infectious diseases, accidents, and drug and alcohol and tobacco use. Perhaps most encouraging have been the studies showing reductions in international terrorism and warfare.

To date nearly sixty studies have been conducted, published in nearly thirty peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly journals.

“And yet, after fifty years and all this research, we still have not seen a large-scale implementation,” Dr. Schneider said. “We think this must be because it’s difficult for many people to understand how the Maharishi Effect works. How can people sitting with their eyes closed in a hotel in Jerusalem, for example, reduce the fighting in the Lebanon Civil War across the border to the north, as happened in that dramatic experiment in 1983? To many people this just doesn’t seem plausible.”

This is because the Maharishi Effect inhabits an entirely different paradigm, a different way of understanding how the world works, Schneider says. “Your paradigm or worldview shapes what you believe is possible and not possible, and in the prevailing materialist or physicalist worldview, this phenomenon is impossible.”

Enter doctors and health professionals — Peace Through Health

Dr. Schneider and company resolved to find a way to penetrate the paradigm barrier, to explain the Maharishi Effect in a way that professionals and policy makers could understand.

Fortunately, new developments in medicine and science have made that task easier. “Science is catching up to the Maharishi Effect,” Dr. Schneider says.

Schneider and his coauthors — Dr. Michael Dillbeck, Dr. Gunvant Yeola, and Dr. Tony Nader — began by framing the Maharishi Effect as part of the “peace through health” movement.

“This movement is gathering strength and attention,” Dr. Schneider says. “Since no one else has solved the war problem, including the prospect of nuclear war, doctors and health professionals have stepped into the game, saying we should do it. Just this past year top medical journals have been advocating for this approach — the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Lancet, and the British Medical Journal.”

It’s well known that wars are catastrophic for health. As Dr. Schneider and company observe in the article:

“War and armed conflicts cause severe damage to public health through widespread injuries, diseases, disabilities, premature deaths, displaced populations, environmental contamination, and often violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. Moreover, it redirects crucial resources from health and social services to conflict-related activities, potentially perpetuating further violence.”

“But the converse is also true,” Dr. Schneider notes. “Poor health, particularly mental health, causes wars. That’s the message of the new medicine.”

Currently four major wars are underway, along with a long list of minor armed conflicts. Leading scientific minds consider these conflicts to be “intractable.” The current Israel-Palestinian hostilities, for example, are merely the latest installment in a 75-year conflict.

Looking to traditional medicine

The World Health Organization is also talking about peace through health — with a twist.

“The WHO is saying that not only is war bad for your health, but bad health creates conditions that give rise to war, and therefore the health professions should do something about it,” Dr. Schneider says. “And now they’re saying that since modern medicine hasn’t been successful in addressing this — or in addressing chronic, intractable individual health issues, for that matter — we should look to traditional medicine. Traditional medicine may hold secrets to modern maladies, they’re saying, and it’s cheap and used by billions of people already. So we should investigate it.”

That’s exactly what Dr. Schneider and his colleagues have done.

“We looked into the traditional medicine of India, Ayurveda, where there’s a long tradition of public health for prevention of epidemics and wars,” Schneider says. “Ayurveda describes how to reduce collective violence and prevent wars by managing the minds or consciousness of the people in the affected society. This challenge — known today as public or population mental health — is the theme of the Frontiers issue featuring our paper.”

Population mental health

We traditionally think of mental health as an individual malady. But some physicians have expanded this thinking to include whole societies — an example of how modern medicine is catching up to the theory behind the Maharishi Effect, making it easier to understand.

For example, scientists have developed a classic model called the Epidemiologic Triangle for studying health problems. The model involves three elements: the agent (the microbe that causes the disease), the host (the organism harboring the disease), and the environment (the external factors that enable disease transmission).

Barry Levy, a physician, epidemiologist, and author at Tufts University, has adapted this model to help understand collective violence. In Levy’s model, the host is the people, the environment is the conditions in which people live, and the agent is the machinery of warfare — military, weapons, the military-industrial complex.

“Levy proposes that to prevent war, we need to change the people,” Dr. Schneider says. “This contrasts with conventional approaches — for example, changing the agent by making weapons more or less available or militaries larger or smaller, or changing the environment by providing aid, modifying laws, enhancing security, and so on. The idea of changing the people is a huge step of progress.”

Dr. Schneider and his colleagues take Levy’s proposal another step forward.

“We extend the idea of Peace Through Health by proposing to change people from deep within — to expand their consciousness, literally to change the way their brains function,” Dr. Schneider says. “More integrated and coherent brain functioning will lead to changes in the environment and then to changes in military action — the agent — effectively going around the triangle in the opposite direction.”

Population neuroscience — a breakthrough in public health

The new field of population neuroscience also makes the Maharishi Effect easier to grasp.

“Population neuroscience or collective neuroscience says that our cognitions — our thoughts and feelings — are connected, and we can measure that,” Dr. Schneider says. “In other words, there is such a thing as collective consciousness. We’ve been using this concept all along in describing the Maharishi Effect, but now there’s a growing empirical basis beyond the research on the Maharishi Effect itself.”

“Several Maharishi Effect studies show that group TM practice synchronizes brain activities across individuals,” Dr. Schneider says. “These findings help explain the increased social coherence and reduced stress-related behaviors we see in other Maharishi Effect studies — and they fit right into the new field of population neuroscience, shedding light on how collective meditation can neutralizes social stress, the basis of conflict and war.” 

The perspectives of quantum physics and consciousness

The Frontiers paper also points to quantum physics — particularly the phenomena of interconnectedness and nonlocality — that can help explain the Maharishi Effect. “The Maharishi Effect shows that we humans are fundamentally connected at a deep level and that we can influence each other from thousands of miles away,” Dr. Schneider says. “While this idea may seem implausible in classical physics, interconnectedness and nonlocality define the quantum world.”

Finally, the authors describe the emerging understanding that consciousness is not limited to the brain but is an underlying, universal field that underlies the quantum dimension and connects everything and everyone. Dr. Nader’s new book, Consciousness Is All There Is: How Understanding and Experiencing Consciousness Will Transform Your Life, provides perhaps the most thorough and detailed explanation of this to date.

A new model of holistic health, a new paradigm for peace

“Having laid all this groundwork, then we put it all together in a new model of holistic health — the Connectome,” Dr. Schneider says. “Environment-body-mind-spirit/consciousness are all connected. This total health mental model has rarely been presented in our own science.”

In the prevailing paradigm of social science and conflict resolution, the remedies for war typically involve ceasefires, peace treaties, mutual consent, third-party mediation — external actions.

“The practice of group meditation for peace represents a paradigm shift from an external locus of change to an internal one, where cultivating inner peace within individuals can lead to positive outcomes on a societal scale.”

“The practice of group meditation for peace,” the Frontiers article says, “represents a paradigm shift from an external locus of change to an internal one, where cultivating inner peace within individuals can lead to positive outcomes on a societal scale.”

The paper has generated considerable media coverage, especially in India.

“With research on the Maharishi Effect continuing to be published, and with science and medicine gradually catching up to the Maharishi Effect by helping explain the findings, we’re not completely alone in the world anymore,” Dr. Schneider says.

Dr. Schneider and colleagues hope to call attention to the Maharishi Effect among a wider audience — in science, medicine, and public policy.

“If we can provide a comprehensive understanding of the Maharishi Effect, in terms that scientists can increasingly relate to, we can call for courage in overcoming cognitive bias, for making a paradigm shift, and for expanding public health policy to support this promising approach to peace. Maybe it’s time to end the wars.”

* * * * * * *

About the authors

• Robert Schneider, MD, FACC, is Dean of the College of Integrative Medicine, Director of the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention, and Professor of Physiology and Health at Maharishi International University.
• The late Michael Dillbeck had been a professor of psychology and member of the board of trustees at MIU.
• Gunvant Yeola is the principal at DY Patil College of Ayurveda and Research Center, Pune, Maharashtra, India.
• Tony Nader, MD, PhD, MARR, is the director of the Dr. Tony Nader Institute for Research on Consciousness and Its Applied Technologies at MIU, as well as the leader of the worldwide Transcendental Meditation organizations and author of the forthcoming book Consciousness Is All There Is.

Images

• Epidemiologic Triad, “Disease Control and Prevention,” Indiana Department of Correction.
• Population neuroscience, E.B. Falk et al, “What is a representative brain? Neuroscience meets population science,” PNAS, September 11, 2013.

In a move to enhance student learning, streamline the pathway to graduation for its many transfer students, and make MIU even more distinctive among American colleges and universities, MIU has adopted an open curriculum for undergraduate education, effective this fall semester.

MIU joins a small but elite group of schools with open curricula. These include Amherst College, Antioch College, Brown University, Grinnell College, Hamilton College, Hampshire College, and Smith College.

“At MIU we are all about continuous improvement of teaching and learning,” said Chris Jones, past dean of undergraduate studies, professor of education, and part of the ad hoc faculty committee on undergraduate enrollment that advocated for this change. “This represents a significant step forward for our university, one that offers students far more control over their undergraduate education.”

What is an open curriculum?

Schools with an open curriculum do not have a core curriculum, distribution requirements, or general education requirements — that is, substantial course requirements outside the major. Most open curriculum schools preserve the major requirement, but beyond that they give students freedom to choose their coursework, guided by ongoing academic advising.

Why is this a better approach for MIU?

“Above all, receptivity is crucial for learning,” Jones said. “Research and common sense indicate that students are more receptive to knowledge in courses they have chosen for themselves than in courses they’re required to take.”

Another factor is the large percentage of students who transfer to MIU from other schools. “About three quarters of our undergraduate students are transfers,” Jones said. “They may arrive with a year or more of transfer credit, meaning they will not be at MIU for a full four years. We want to ensure they have the simplest possible pathway to graduating, without having to stay longer and incur more debt than necessary.”

Yet another element in the decision is that MIU students are generally older than entering students at other schools. “The average age of our entering freshmen students is thirty-one,” Jones said. “They’ve been out in the working world, and when they come to MIU to finish their degrees, they’re pretty clear about what they want to achieve in their education. We want to make sure they have every opportunity to get what they come for.”

What changed in this transition?

“MIU had a set of general education courses required of all students,” Jones said. “These included courses on physics and consciousness, physiology and consciousness, higher states of consciousness, creative and critical thinking, and math. These courses are all valuable, and our academic advisors will recommend them to students, but students themselves will decide whether they wish to take them.”

An open curriculum eliminates a challenge that typically accompanies core curricula, distribution requirements, and general education requirements.

“Required courses will inevitably have students who don’t want to be there,” Jones said. “This can be a challenge for the instructor and the other students. In an open curriculum, every student in the class is there because they’ve chosen to be there.”

How does this make MIU more attractive to students?

“We have a unique undergraduate student demographic,” said Ron Barnett, MIU’s director of marketing. “They’re older, they’re free spirited, they’re disillusioned with conventional education, and they’re looking for something different, including personal development. That’s why they like our block system and Consciousness-Based education. The open curriculum will appeal to these students.”

Are any courses still required?

“Our academic majors remain in place, with their requirements,” Jones said. “Most open curriculum schools still have majors. Like other schools, we also allow students to design their own major and name it as they wish.”

The introductory course for entering students, “Exploring Consciousness,” remains required. “This course is the gateway into the MIU experience,” Jones said. “This is where students learn the Transcendental Meditation technique and explore the new paradigm of consciousness that MIU is based on. It’s the orientation to MIU’s unique Consciousness-Based approach to education.”

Students are also required to take at least one writing course, or two, depending on their entering skill level.

“It’s typical for open curriculum schools to require a couple of courses like this,” Jones said. “Writing is such a critical skill, even in a digital age, and it’s an important mode of learning in itself.”

And then there’s the venerable Forest Academy program, which takes place during the first two weeks of each semester for on-campus students and twice a year for online students. Students choose from a set of interdisciplinary courses on a range of interesting topics with a focus on the consciousness dimension, and they can participate in a TM Retreat. “Students begin each semester with an inward dive,” Jones said. “Then they return to their studies with greater freshness, clarity, and energy.”

How do you ensure students get the breadth of education and important knowledge that general education requirements, core curricula, and general education requirements aim to provide?

“The key is academic advising,” Jones said. “Open curriculum schools place great emphasis on advising, on guiding students in making the curricular choices that will serve them best. We will do that as well. Students are already highly motivated to get the most from their investment in education, and they are amenable to advising.”

Open curriculum schools also monitor patterns of student enrollment. “One concern is that students might take a lot of ‘easy’ courses or only courses in their comfort zone,” Jones said. “Other schools have found no evidence of this, but we will monitor this closely, as they do.”

What’s the history of the open curriculum in the US?

Most schools using this approach conceived and implemented it in the 1960s and early 1970s. But the principle of “freedom to learn” has a much longer history. Even before the Civil War many top American universities were trying out alternatives to traditional forms of higher education, rejecting existing models in favor of allowing students more choice.

Charles Eliot (1834–1926), the president of Harvard who transformed the school from a regional college into America’s most esteemed research university, “urged that all requirements be abolished, leaving students free to study whatever appealed to them,” according to later Harvard president Derek Bok, in his book Our Underachieving Colleges: A Candid Look at How Much Students Learn and Why They Should Be Learning More.

Brown’s President Francis Wayland recommended in 1850 that “the various courses should be so arranged that, in so far as practicable, every student might study what he chose, all that he chose, and nothing but what he chose.”

At Cornell University, President Andrew White at Cornell was also championing student choice. “The attempt to give mental discipline by studies which the mind does not desire is as unwise as the attempt to give physical nourishment by food which the body does not desire,” he wrote. “Vigorous, energetic study, prompted by enthusiasm or a high sense of the value of the subject, is the only kind of study not positively hurtful to mental power.”

What has been the experience of schools using the open curriculum approach currently?

It’s been very positive.

Brown University organized a project that brought together representatives from eight institutions where such a curriculum had thrived for more than forty years — Amherst College, Antioch College, Hampshire College, New College, Sarah Lawrence College, Smith College, and Wesleyan University, plus Brown.

They met throughout an academic year to identify the values and learning outcomes associated with this educational model and to begin to assess its strengths and weaknesses. In their report they wrote:

“According to alumni interviews and faculty focus groups undertaken as part of this study, students who are granted such freedom display unusual motivation and engagement with their studies and develop independence, self-confidence, and decision-making skills that serve them well in later life. . . . An emphasis on developing the capacity for problem-solving and on promoting creativity, curiosity, and independent thinking is, according to these reports, characteristic of the culture of learning that an open curriculum makes possible.”

The report shows that the open curriculum cultivates the very qualities increasingly needed in the 21st century. It prepares students “to become life-long learners who are energized by novelty and unafraid of the unfamiliar.” It supports students in becoming “versatile, flexible, responsive to change, and comfortable with ambiguity.”

“Rapid development of new technologies calls for nimbleness, adaptability, and even playfulness — an ability to learn quickly new ways of doing things and an imagination for exploring and exploiting their possible applications, finding them not a threat but an occasion for creativity and an opportunity to expand our capacities for expression and discovery. . . . The qualities of mind and character that an education for such a world should cultivate include versatility, flexibility, resilience, and agility. A curriculum designed to develop fearless, independent thinkers and to nurture adventurous spirits would seem especially attuned to its challenges and opportunities.”