In June, the renowned American neuroscientist Dr Fred Travis held a series of lectures and seminars in Australia. Dr Fred Travis met with leaders in the fields of education, mental health, business, and the arts.
Dr Travis on meditation and creative potential
As part of his tour, he gave several interviews to the local media. Here is an 8-minute conversation with Angus Randall from Radio Adelaide, focusing on how Transcendental Meditation helps to reach the state beyond thoughts and unlock creativity. “Transcendental Meditation,“ explains Dr Fred Travis, “is a technique to take the attention from all the thoughts and feelings and things that you are doing – to where the mind is just quiet, awake, alert.” That state of deep calmness enables us to integrate our experience into a larger framework, to project our individual perceptions onto a larger ‘screen of mind’. And that, in turn, maximizes our potential for creative problem solving.
Listen to the entire interview:
Relief for veterans of war
Another aspect of Transcendental Meditation which greatly intrigued and interested the Australian audience was the relief it provides to people suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. In anticipation of the lectures by Dr Travis, the Australian Daily Telegraph published an article with a telling title “Transcendental Meditation used by hippies now for diggers and veterans”.
The article stated that “a total of 89 Australian Defence Forces personnel have killed themselves since 2000, including 61 since 2003. The University of Queensland’s Centre for Military and Veterans’ Health is now seeking corporate funds to run a study on the impact of Transcendental Meditation on Australian troops and veterans.”
Dr Fred Travis has a $2.4 million grant from the US Department of Defence for research on the use of meditation to help veterans from the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts cope with stress. Transcendental Meditation has been used in the US for many years now among veterans of war, to cut suicide rates and minimize psychiatric drug use.
