Total Brain Functioning

Consciousness-Based Education for Total Development of the Brain in contrast to Existing Education Which Partially Develops the Brain

The highest educational goal of every nation is to create ideal citizens, individuals capable of fulfilling their own goals while upholding the interests of others and the progress of the whole society. For this goal to become a living reality, education must actualize the full potential of the most precious resource of the country, the human brain of every citizen.

Scientific research shows that specific types of experience are necessary for the brain to develop fully. Educators do select learning experiences that are considered appropriate to the developmental level of their students. What they are actually doing is selecting experiences most suitable for the child’s current state of brain development.

Increased Use of Hidden Brain Reserves Through Transcendental Meditation

During the Transcendental Meditation Programme, early (sensory) components of the brain's response to somatosensory stimuli are more widely distributed across the cortex, indicating greater participation of the whole brain in responding to a stimulus. Reference: (4).

After age 10, the experience most crucial for unfolding the individual's brain potential from middle school through higher education is that which develops higher integration of brain function.

Regular practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique produces benefits so profound in the areas of mental potential, health, and social behavior that the experience during meditation is recognized as a fourth state of consciousness, distinct from waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. Most significant for education is the finding that only the experience of Transcendental Consciousness enlivens the total brain physiology.

Research clearly shows that the nature of the nurture we receive is very important. Education at Consciousness-Based schools nurture the level of mind-body integration of the students by building regular experience of Transcendental Consciousness into the school day. Systematically experiencing this unique state cultivates the growth of higher states of consciousness in which the brain physiology functions with total coherence even during activity and sleep.

The Transcendental Meditation technique is the fundamental technology used in Consciousness-Based Education. This approach adds study and research in consciousness to the traditional study of the academic disciplines, and includes the twice-daily practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programmes, including Yogic Flying, to directly develop full use of the brain's potential in higher states of consciousness.

Considering institutions as a whole, students at universities and schools using Consciousness-Based Education are found to be distinctly more committed academically, more alert, more healthy and balanced, more self-actualized, more satisfied with their education, more harmonious in their relationships, and more mature in moral judgment, compared to students at other educational institutions.

Amidst worldwide dissatisfaction with education today, Consciousness-Based Education has been shown by research and educational outcomes to be singularly effective in producing students who are steadily growing in the most cherished qualities of human life and the full expression of their creativity, intelligent, and organizing power.

Note: The numbers in parenthesis provide research references to studies in the Findings and References page of this web site.