10
Friday, May 3, 1974
University Daily Kansan
Student Taught Meditation, Says It Helped Prisoners
By ALAN MANSAGER
Kansas Staff Reporter
mud over matter" could be the panacea for the lilies that confront our nation's penal system.
"Transcendental Meditation may be a technique which, for some inmates, is a way to turn them around." David Ballou, Lexington, Mass., graduate student and teacher of Transcendental Meditation (TM), said yesterday.
Ballion is working on his doctoral thesis in social anthropology and spent a year in Minnesota's Stillwater State Prison for nearly a year to study the effects on their rehabilitation efforts.
"Prison correction is a tremendous problem," be said. "Nothing seems to be valuable in stopping former inmates from crimes after they've been released."
He said a lot of rehabilitation techniques had been tried but none had been really successful.
*EARLY PAROLE, vocational and cultural education, job training, nothing seems to work*. *Ballou said.* "Severely per piece present in prison have been there before."
He said in a study done in a California prison, inmates involved in group therapy actually caused an increase in disciplinary problems.
But, according to Ballon, after the use of TM in Sililwater Prison, the results were
*Two-thirds of those inmates who mediated had a marked decrease in disciplinary write-ups and they started committing less infractions of disciplinary
Ballou was first introduced to TM, as taught by Maharishi Masyogi Wey, in 1968. He learned the technique and taught it for a few months before going to Stillwater.
THE STUDY ON TM was presented to 75 inmates, he said, of which 50 wanted to participate. All inmates came from the D block, an area of the prison for inmates with special problems, such as drug use, alcoholism and emotional difficulties. It was administered to a racially representative group whose ages ranged from 20 to 60.
Balloon he started the program with a two-week initiation period, followed by TM itself. He ended with a follow-up program to insure that all participants were progressing satisfactorily. He was the sole administrator of the program.
The Stillwater program to investigate the effects of TM on prisoners was one of the first in the United States. The research was sponsored by the International Meditation Society and funded by Harvard Medical School. Harvard was one of the first institutions to study aspects of TM on inmates. Bailou said,
He said that physiological changes in the prisoners were noted.
"There is a connection between mental and physiological processes," he said. "If you fall asleep, your metabolism slows down. If you become angry, it speeds up."
THE PRACTICE OF the technique produces significant physiological changes.
drops 18 to 20 per cent, and in normal sleep it drowses only from six to 10 per cent."
Balloon and other changes show there is a 50 per cent drop in blood lactates, signifying the need for more frequent testing.
Relaxation is achieved strictly by using the mind in TM, according to Ballou.
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"TM is a technique for refining all mental activity without having to lose consciousness," he said. He defined consciousness as the act of being aware of
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"Although we have a concept of consciousness," he said, "we don't really know."
There are three states of consciousness, he said, waking, sleeping and dreaming to which TM introduces a fourth state of consciousness in terms of body metabolism and brainwaves.
"IN MEDITATION, the brainwave pattern shows the mind isn't asleep," Ballou said. "It still gives off alpha and theta waves."
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He said that thought processes actually become less active under TM, and become more passive.
"TM involves no effort, concentration, contemplation, control of the mind or physical exercise." Ballou said. "Nor does it involve unrestored posture or change in diet or lifestyle."
But he said that doesn't mean the brain is sleeping.
He added that TM isn't a philosophy or way of life nor is it hyposis, parapsychology analyses or encounter group therapy.
He said that instruction must be personal, but that a person doesn't necessarily have to believe in the technique to make it work.
"We've taught a lot of skepedics," he said.
He said that after TM therapy, drug use dropped off dramatically because, 'feelings from meditation are much more like those which result from drugs.'
BALLOU SAID it was difficult to contact paroles from the program, but that concerning 10 of them who were reached, the program seemed to be of value to them.
one prisoner who participated in the program said, "All my life I have been hot-
tempered, but lately my temper has been cool and calm."
Another said TM increased his thinking and gave him a better understanding of
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Balloon said there are 350,000 people in the United States who practice TM and 200 people on the Lawrence campus who have been trained to teach Students International Meditation Society.
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David Hinchman, chairman of International Meditation Society in Kansas City, Mo., said that prisoners in Lansing and Indianapolis were taken to the jail but that processors wouldn't start there.
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He said there might be a program set up to help the police department there could find the funds to keep the police academy in existence. He said he wanted to set up a TM program for it.
'THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT has beard of the effects of TM and wants to try
quickly, he said.
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to do something using it as an effective way to eliminate stress," Hincman said. Policemen are subject to great stress and pressure, and the physicality to react and to think more
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Ballou said TM could also help students. "You improve academically and students get better grades as their LQ, increases after practicing meditation," he said.
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