By: John Theobald, M.S.
Former N.Y.P.D. Officer and Former Professor of
Criminal Justice at the New York Institute of
Technology
With: David Leffler, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Center for Advanced
Military Science (CAMS)
Introduction
Between 1987 and 1988 a number of Brazilian
state governments introduced the
Transcendental Meditation®
program to their military police. More than
26,000 police officers of all ranks were
instructed. Military Police work is often
dangerous and extremely stressful.
Extensive scientific research shows that,
through the Transcendental Meditation
program, practitioners experience greater
calm, clearer perception, broader
comprehension, greater alertness, and
faster reactions. The Transcendental
Meditation program complements police
officer training. |
In 1965 I was a member of the New York City
Police Department, assigned to a specialized
anti-crime unit. In this capacity, I saw
firsthand the types of stressors police
officers were subject to, and the maladaptive
ways in which many dealt with them. I
subsequently left the department and returned
to college and then graduate school. I
eventually started a criminal justice program
through the continuing education department of
the New York Institute of Technology. The
program grew, and in the 1970s reached an
enrollment of 12,000 police officers from
various police agencies across the New York
metropolitan area.
At that time it was becoming increasingly clear
that the stress factor in police work was
manifesting in high rates of divorce, alcohol
abuse, suicides, and other acting-out
behaviors. Having experienced it firsthand, I
was determined to seek some method that could
help ameliorate this situation.
I began to research the various
stress-reduction methods available. The
Transcendental Meditation®
program appeared to be the best approach
because it was widely available, could be
practiced anywhere at any time, and had
unparalleled success at addressing these
personal problems faced by police. Research
indicated that Transcendental Meditation (TM®)
practice could help alleviate the negative
effects of stress. It was clear that the TM
technique would also increase awareness of
potentially dangerous situations, preparing
anyone for any possible outcome. Online writing service is the best place to
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Shortly after learning the TM
technique, I noticed the marked reduction in my
own stress levels, and decided to make this
opportunity available to the students in the
college program. It was only later, when many
police officers were practicing the TM
technique, that I fully realized how beneficial
it truly was.
I arranged through centers in
the ten metropolitan counties to teach any
police officers who wanted to learn. At this
time, college courses were offered in various
police precincts and other locations throughout
the New York Metropolitan area. Introductory TM
lectures were offered at some of these
locations, with interested officers going to
their individual TM centers to learn the
practice. Word spread to their associates and
about 6,000 police officers learned to
meditate.
Feedback from students was received for many
years, both in the college program and, in some
cases, years later, by individual police
officers who said they were "still TM-ing."
Comments from students consistently indicated
overwhelmingly positive results. One of the
most common reports was an increase in their
shooting scores. Others reported feeling more
aware, especially in life-threatening
situations. This is important because in an
effort to protect and save lives, law
enforcement officers may sometimes resort to
using deadly force.
For example, there was a story
of an officer and his partner who were called
to a situation in a very dangerous part of New
York City. While walking in an alley, they were
ambushed. A shot rang out, and his partner fell
wounded to the ground. This officer drew his
revolver and quickly shot five assassins,
killing four and disabling the fifth. He later
reported if it were not for his regular TM
practice, he would have been killed. Despite
the overwhelming odds against him, the
policeman said he was able to maintain his
composure under fire. He skillfully and
accurately shot his weapon during this
dangerous and highly stressful situation. (The
revolvers used by New York area police at that
time could only fire six rounds, so the
situation was much more critical than it would
be in modern times where weapons can fire
fifteen or more rounds.)
Police officers must be able to
function in the present moment on a daily
basis. Effective police work depends on what's
thought of as "street sense" or intuition.
Police have to be more aware to read these
subtle street signs. At the same time, they
should not be overwhelmed by memories of
previously stressful experiences; they must not
overreact to situations. The TM technique
removes deeply rooted fatigue and stress. The
nervous system is strengthened and calmed. The
mind no longer overreacts to old memories,
which no longer have the same stressful
influence. TM practice helps police officers
survive these situations. They remain calm yet
vigilant on the job.
One clear example of the
ability to recognize subtle cues in the
environment is the
phenomena of
microexpressions. Microexpressions
are brief, involuntary facial expressions
people exhibit according to the emotions they
are experiencing at the moment. These
expressions usually occur in high-stakes
situations, where people have something to lose
or gain. Israeli police and security, as well
as TSA officers in the US, are being trained to
recognize these subtle expressions. Unlike
regular facial expressions, microexpressions
are difficult to fake. They are the same across
various cultures. Researcher
Paul Ekman
expanded a list of basic emotions, including a
range of positive and negative emotions, not
all of which are encoded in facial muscles.
These emotions are amusement, contempt,
embarrassment, excitement, guilt, pride,
relief, satisfaction, pleasure, and shame. They
are very brief in duration, lasting only 1/25
to 1/15 of a second. Obviously, if a police
officer or a soldier in Iraq approaches a
person, his ability to read the situation
quickly and accurately is a matter of life and
death. Does the person have a gun or a bomb? Is
the person setting up a crime or a terrorist
act? All this information needs to be processed
in a moment's time. The ability of the TM
technique to reduce stress and increase
calmness and alertness gives officers the
ability to accurately and more intuitively read
these microexpressions.
Gaining a Competitive and Strategic Edge on
the Beat
|
This chart
illustrates the significant improvements in
health and discipline which were
experienced by the officers and cadets
practicing the Transcendental Meditation®
program in the State of Bahia,
Brazil. These improvements resulted in
improved community relations as measured by
a dramatic increase (1,206%) in the number
of positive reports received by the Police
Department from the citizens of Salvador. |
Such anecdotal reports of
increased performance as well as decreased
indicators of stress appear to be backed by
extensive scientific research. For instance,
studies documenting the benefits of the TM
program show that police officers could gain a
competitive and strategic edge on the beat. A
study showed that speed, agility, reactions,
coordination, endurance, and perception
improved after learning the TM program. In
other studies, three months of practicing the
TM technique resulted in subjects showing
significantly increased field independence,
i.e., increased ability to focus, increased
stability of spatial orientation, broader
comprehension, and increased resistance to
distraction, as compared to controls. In other
words, police officers can maintain a sense of
the whole situation, while focusing in on a
critical aspect of it, without being
distracted.
Other research has measured a
greater ability to assimilate and structure
experience, improved memory and learning
ability, increased creativity, and greater
autonomic stability. Among the improvements are
enhanced neurological efficiency, faster choice
reaction time, improved self-confidence,
increased self-reliance, and greater inner
control. Holistic growth has been indicated by
psychophysiological means, such as measures of
increased global EEG coherence, and through
psychological tests of intelligence, moral
reasoning, and personality. (References to the
above mentioned research are
available in an online
paper originally published by
India Defence Consultants.)
Dr. Frederick Travis, Director,
Center for Brain,
Consciousness, and Cognition at
Maharishi University of Management, published
an article about the potential benefits of the
Transcendental Meditation program for those in
law enforcement in the FBI Law Enforcement
Bulletin (pp. 26–32, May 2009). In the article,
entitled
Brain Functioning as the
Ground for Spiritual Experiences and Ethical
Behavior about the potential
benefits of the Transcendental Meditation
program for those in law enforcement, Travis
concluded that his "research has indicated that
practice of the TM technique leads to increased
frontal brain integration, faster habituation
to stressful stimuli, and higher moral
reasoning." He asserts that inner experiences
during TM practice enliven frontal coherence,
which builds global circuits to place
individual experiences in a larger framework.
In this vein, spiritual experiences could
provide the inner armor to protect police
officers from the noxious effects of stress and
negative experiences.
The TM technique is a simple, nonreligious,
psychophysiological practice, now demonstrated
in over 600 research studies to reduce a wide
variety of stress-related problems. It is
practiced twice a day for twenty minutes and is
so easy to learn that anyone who can think a
thought can practice it. The TM technique
carries one's awareness to a profound level of
rest, clears out deep-seated stress, and
revitalizes overactive nervous systems.
Meta-analyses published
in peer-reviewed journals provide
more evidence for the superior effectiveness of
the TM technique over other practices in the
areas of anxiety reduction, reduced high blood
pressure, self-development, physiological
relaxation, improved psychological outcomes,
and decreased use of drugs, alcohol, and
cigarettes.
In the Police Academy of Piaui, Brazil,
meditating cadets likewise experienced
significant improvements in health,
behavior, attitude, and academic
performance.
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Scientific research also suggests that
meditation can lessen overall stress.
Practitioners of the TM technique are more
acutely aware of their immediate
surroundings, and are able to respond
appropriately without hesitation. This is an
obvious benefit for the police and military,
especially under today's situations where
there are high degrees of danger and
uncertainty.
Currently, the work of military forces has
become increasingly similar to police work in
high-crime urban areas. Indeed, many American
police officers who also serve in the
military reserves frequently deploy to help
train indigenous police and troops, making
such deployments more similar to city police
work than to past traditional uses of the
military.
In addition to the aforementioned studies of
heightened performance under stress, the
practitioners of the TM technique also showed a
more rapid physiological recovery from a
stressful stimulus, as gauged by habituation of
the skin resistance response. A number of other
studies have found beneficial effects of the TM
program on stress-induced neuroendocrine
dysfunctions that contribute to cardiovascular
and other chronic diseases. Also, over
twenty-five studies have shown that the TM
program fosters significant reductions in
substance abuse, such as tobacco, alcohol, and
all types of illegal and prescribed drugs. (To
find out more about the scientific research
conducted on the TM program, visit
http://www.tm.org/research-on-meditation).
Would Police Officers Be Willing to
Practice TM?
The increasing demands of contemporary
military police work are reflected in the
many stress-related problems experienced by
such personnel, including psychosomatic
disease, high suicide rates, high divorce
rates, reduced life span, increased
disciplinary problems, and poor community
relations. The holistic Transcendental
Meditation program eliminates these
stress-related problems and unfolds the
police officer's full potential. |
Even with impressive results like this,
critics might argue that police and military
personnel would not be willing to practice the
TM technique. But 6,000 thousand active New
York City Police, many working in high-crime
areas, had no problem practicing the TM
technique. Some resistance to the practice
might initially be the case, but the results of
the meditating officers speak for themselves.
Those concerned that a perceived "machismo
pushback" regarding meditation may prevent
police from learning to meditate should think
back through history to great examples of
alert, ready, and finely tuned warriors.
According to combat veteran Jerry Yellin,
author of
The Resilient Warrior:
Healing the Hidden Wounds of War,
an ideal might be martial arts experts like the
samurai. They represented the total
integration, the total union, of mind, body,
and spirit – quick, clear thinking, combined
with a precise strong body, working as one. The
improved shooting scores of NYC area police
support this integrated, intimate connection
between mind, body, and spirit, which is now
beginning to be rediscovered.
Could TM practice be part of the training
regimen for police and military today? Yes!
The TM program has
already been implemented in Latin American
countries like Ecuador. For
instance, an Ecuadorian Military Police general
was very receptive to the concept of meditating
officers and decided to have his warriors
instructed in the TM technique on 8 March 2010.
As a test case, the general selected two units
from training centers where young cadets
received their six months’ basic military
police training before they were sent to
operational units. Each training unit had 300
cadets who were taught the TM technique, and
200 of these received advanced training in the
practice. The general set the time and place
for the cadets to practice their meditation
program in a group in accordance with their
duty routine.
Were the cadets willing participants in such
an unusual endeavor? Again, yes! A study was
conducted by Ecuadorian army psychologists to
assess the value of the TM program after
officers had been practicing it for one month.
The results? Over 96% of the military police
officer cadets thought the TM technique was a
very practical activity. Why were they
convinced? As the study showed, 92% felt their
performance in activity had improved and they
were better able to deal with stress; 96%
declared their relationships with others had
improved; and 95% said their practice of the TM
technique was completely satisfying.
Could Such Impressive Results Be Obtained
with Other Types of Meditation?
According to Dr. Travis,
research shows
that all meditation practices are not the same.
Travis reports that "recent studies show
meditation practices have been classified into
three categories:
Focused Attention, Open
Monitoring, and Automatic Self-Transcending.
Techniques in the Automatic Self-Transcending
category transcend their own procedure – take
the attention out of thinking, analyzing,
controlling, or watching to a state of pure
consciousness (also known as Transcendental
Consciousness, a state beyond
psychophysiological conditioning, to be
discussed in more detail later). The
Transcendental Meditation
technique is in this category. During TM
practice, research has indicated that there is
integrated functioning of the brain.
The TM technique is also different because
it turns one's attention inward to experience
deeper levels of thought, until one goes beyond
active thought and the mind comes to a state of
complete inner rest. The mind is alert with no
content. There is inner wakefulness, and a
feeling of calm and peace that gradually
infuses into the rest of activity. This is the
state of restful alertness. Global alpha EEG is
seen during TM, indicating that the brain is
functioning in an integrated orderly manner.
The brain functions with significantly greater
coherence, the mind is freed from disturbing
thoughts and feelings, and the body gains deep
rest.
Different meditation
techniques use different procedures, have
different effects on brain functioning, and so
lead to different results.
Meta-analyses report that TM practice
results in higher levels
of self-actualization and greater decreases in
anxiety than other meditations. In
the bigger picture, research on TM practice
reports significant effects on psychological
measures – improved moral reasoning,
creativity, cognitive flexibility, coping and
problem solving; improved health – reductions
in blood pressure and in hospitalization; and
significant improvement in social interactions.
Police or military units are only as good as
their numbers of healthy personnel.
It is well known that stress-related
problems can ultimately lead to poor health.
Today's police and military personnel need –
and deserve – every opportunity to regain
and/or sustain their health. Research also
shows that practitioners of the TM technique
rise to a higher level of overall physical and
psychological wellness. For instance, a
pioneering 1987 study in
Psychosomatic
Medicine, a mainstream medical
journal, monitored for five years the medical
care utilization of 2,000 people who regularly
practiced the TM technique. The findings: 50
percent fewer doctor visits and hospital
admissions than among nonmeditators of
comparable age, gender, profession, and
insurance terms. The cost savings in health
care alone would justify implementation of the
TM program by police and military, in this era
of reduced financial budgets.
A
new study on
the health care cost effectiveness of the TM
program was recently published in the
American Journal of
Health Promotion, 2011
Sept.–Oct.; 26(1):56–60. The study, conducted
by Dr. Robert Herron, director of the Center
for Health Systems Analysis, found that people
with consistently high health care costs
experienced a 28 percent cumulative decrease in
physician fees after an average of five years
practicing the stress-reducing Transcendental
Meditation technique compared with their
baseline.
Police and Military Are Now Using
Transcendental Meditation to Prevent Crime,
Terrorism, and War
Ecuadorian Military Police conduct group
meditation to prevent crime and protect their
nation
Militaries in Latin
American are now also beginning to use the
group practice of the TM and advanced TM-Sidhi®
programs as a scientifically verified way to
prevent crime, war, and terrorism. When used in
a military context, these meditation practices
are known as Invincible Defense Technology (IDT).
|
Old defense
approach: the military fails to address
social stress.
|
|
New Invincible
Defense Technology approach addresses
social stress, thereby ending crime, war,
terrorism and violence. |
For example, because of
its initial success in teaching the TM
technique to its military police, Ecuador is
now establishing a "Prevention Wing of the
Military," a group of their military police
personnel that practices the advanced TM-Sidhi
program (an advanced program that integrates
inner silence into activity more directly)
together twice daily. Groups that reach a
critical size threshold have been
scientifically shown to reduce collective
societal stress.
Stressed individuals
collectively contribute to social stress.
Crime, war, and terrorism are hypothesized to
be caused by collective societal stress. The
absence of collective stress translates into
the absence of tension in cities, between
countries, and between religious groups. By
applying this benign nonlethal and
nondestructive technology, police and military
can reduce societal stress, prevent crime, and
ultimately prevent enemies from arising.
Over fifty scientific
studies have found that when sufficiently large
groups practice the TM-Sidhi program together
twice daily, measurable positive changes take
place throughout society as a whole. The
studies show decreased violence, crime, car
accidents, and suicides, and improved quality
of life in society.
One of those studies was
conducted in the summer of 1993 in Washington,
D.C., and was later published in
Social Indicators
Research.
Dr. John Hagelin,
Harvard-trained physicist, served as the
Project Director for this successful
crime-reducing experiment. In an article,
The Power of The
Collective, published in
Shift magazine, he explained the details
of the study:
We collaborated with the local police
department, the FBI, and 24 leading,
independent criminologists and social
scientists from major institutions, including
the University of Maryland, the University of
Texas, and Temple University, who used highly
sophisticated research tools to control for
variables such as weather. Everyone ended up
agreeing on the language, the analysis, and
the results, and those results were quite
astonishing.... [The predicted reduction was
15 to 20 percent, and crime rate actually
dropped by 23.3 percent.] Just before the
study, the Washington, D.C., chief of police
went on television and said something like,
"It's gonna take a foot of snow in June to
reduce crime by 20 percent." But he allowed
his department to participate in the
experiment by collecting and analyzing the
data. In the end, the police department
signed on as one of the authors of a
published paper.
A study published in the
Journal of Social
Behavior and Personality found
that the likelihood that these societal
improvements were due to chance is less than
one in a quintillion. A global-scale study
published in the
Journal of Offender
Rehabilitation documented a
significant drop in international terrorism
when IDT groups were large enough to affect the
global population. Terrorism returned to
previous levels after the experiment was over
and meditators returned to their homes.
IDT's causal mechanism is
not completely understood. An explanation of
the causality of IDT in biological terms was
proposed in a study in the
Journal of Social Behavior and Personality
(Walton et al., 2005, 17: 339–373). Serotonin,
a powerful neurotransmitter, has been shown to
produce feelings of happiness, contentment, and
even euphoria. Research indicates that low
levels of serotonin correlate with aggression,
poor emotional moods, and violence. The study
indicated that when the size of a group of IDT
experts changed, serotonin production of people
in the nearby community changed
correspondingly. Since results were
statistically significant, this study offers a
plausible neurophysiologic mechanism that may
explain reduced aggression and hostility in a
whole society.
An increase in serotonin
activity and a decrease in cortisol appear to
be associated with the experience of
transcendental consciousness in the advanced
individual TM practitioner. TM practice gives
rise to increased coherence in the brain, and
scientists speculate that this enlivens
coherence within the collective consciousness
of society. Apparently, the effect is amplified
through group practice. This increased
coherence is seen in terms of increased
positive effects throughout society.
Another study, published
in the
Journal of Scientific
Exploration by prominent
meditation researcher Dr. David Orme-Johnson,
answers questions raised about the previous
research on IDT. In addition, an article
entitled "Peace
in the Middle East: Scientific solution to a
political problem?" and published in
Beirut-Online News asserts that peace
in this troubled region is easily within reach.
This article also features quotes and Internet
links to other articles by military-related
leaders worldwide who support implementation of
IDT.
Prevention Wings of the
Police and Military
IDT introduces a new role
for the police and military: "Prevention Wings"
whose purpose is to prevent enemies from
arising. As noted above, this new approach is
supported by over fifty scientific studies.
|
Military Police meditating
in a highly acclaimed Transcendental
Meditation program for Military Police in
Brazil, 1987–88. |
IDT can create victory
before war, and can assist in peacemaking,
peacekeeping, and peacebuilding. The size of
the Prevention Wing would usually be only a
small percentage of a nation's police and/or
military personnel.
In the 1990s, the
militaries of
Mozambique and
Ecuador
successfully field-tested land-based Prevention
Wings. Sea-based Prevention Wings are
theoretically possible: for example, carrier
battle groups supporting IDT experts could be
deployed to the Persian Gulf to reduce tensions
in the Middle East, without directly
penetrating borders.
Since the primary
function of the police and military is to
prevent crime and terrorism and to protect the
civilian population, we urge the police and the
armed forces of all countries to consider this
approach. Today's police and military personnel
train their minds and bodies, but mostly
separately. They fill their minds with
information about how to respond to every
imaginable situation, and train their bodies
for strength and endurance. Strong protective
armor is provided to protect their bodies from
physical harm, but nothing for their minds to
protect them from stress. Research on the TM
technique indicates that the practice produces
beneficial effects for the mind and body,
opposite to those of chronic stress.
In addition, the TM technique is a portable
strategy. After learning the technique, all one
needs is a comfortable place to sit and close
the eyes. No additional resources are needed.
The self-reliance of this approach appeals to
the police "protector" and military "warrior
mindset." TM offers an approach that can not
only help save precious minds and lives but
also save money in the process during these
difficult and uncertain financial times.
© 2011 John Theobald and David Leffler
Editor's Note: Readers may
find the Invincible Defense Technology (IDT)
article entitled "Utilizing Powerful
Peace-Creating Technologies to Combat Cyber
Warfare" by Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Kulwant Singh and
Dr. David Leffler to be of further interest. It
was originally submitted as part of the report
"Future of Information Warfare and Information
Operations" presented by
Dr. Marvin J. Cetron,
President, Forecasting International
at the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle, PA, on
March 18, 2009. This conference was sponsored
by JIOPO [Joint Information Operations Program
Office], CIA [Central Intelligence Agency], DIA
[Defense Intelligence Agency] and NSA [National
Security Agency]. The original IDT article was
expanded by Singh and Leffler and later
published in the September 2009 American
Heroes Press Newsletter. It is now
available online at
Military Writers.
About the Authors
John Theobald received his B.S. in Behavioral
Science/Criminal Justice (cum laude)
at the
New York Institute of
Technology, and an M.S. in
Counseling and Psychological Testing with a
minor in research design from
Nova University.
His program provided an extensive background in
counseling psychology and testing, with an
emphasis on psychological testing, and on the
physiological and quantitative aspects of
rehabilitation. John was an honor graduate of
the
New York City Police
Academy. (At that time college
credits were granted for graduating from the
academy.) He served in the
New York City Police
Department (NYPD) where he received
special Anti-Terrorist Training and worked a
variety of assignments, including uniform
patrol, undercover and plain clothes, drug and
anti-crime task force, and administrative
duties. While serving as an administrative
assistant to the commanding officer of the
Queens Task Force, NYPD, John received
additional training in forensic science and
investigative techniques, and later became, and
still is, a Licensed Private Investigator. He
also served as a Probation Officer in Hawaii.
John developed the College Accelerated Program
for Police, a college degree program designed
for full-time police officers in the New York
area. He served as coordinator for this program
and assumed the directorship of the Student
Service Department, when the enrollment reached
12,000 students. His paper, "Three Alternative
Systems of Criminal Defense: A Comparative
Analysis," was published in Perspectives in
Criminology.
Dr.
David Leffler received his Ph.D. in
Consciousness-Based Military Defense from
The Union Institute &
University. His pioneering 1997
doctoral dissertation
study investigated the
stress-reducing field effects of the collective
practice of the Transcendental Meditation and
advanced TM-Sidhi programs by Invincible
Defense Technology (IDT) experts on employees
of a nearby police department who were not
practicing the technologies and were blind to
the purpose of the study. Dr. Leffler presented
research at a conference for military and law
enforcement in Washington, D.C., titled "The
Fifth Annual Countering IEDs: Assessing the IED
Threat and its Evolution on the Battlefield and
in the Homeland," about how IDT
might be used to prevent terrorism. Dr. Leffler
is currently the Executive Director at the
Center for Advanced
Military Science (CAMS). He served
as an Associate of the
Proteus Management Group
at the Center for Strategic Leadership, US Army
War College. In this consultant capacity, Dr.
Leffler published on the topic of IDT ("An
Overlooked, Proven Solution to Terrorism")
that appears in "55
Trends Now Shaping the Future of Terrorism".
Dr. Leffler has published in over
400 publications
worldwide about the military
applications of the Transcendental Meditation
and TM-Sidhi programs. His IDT paper titled "A
New Role for the Military: Preventing Enemies
from Arising - Reviving an Ancient Approach to
Peace" was published in the
Journal of Management & Social Science. |