THE TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION TECHNIQUE AND ...

PAPER 99

THE TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION TECHNIQUE AND QUANTUM PHYSICS: IS PURE CONSCIOUSNESS A MACROSCOPIC QUANTUM STATE IN THE BRAIN?

LAWRENCE H. DOMASH, PH.D.

Department of Physics, Maharishi European Research University, Weggis, Switzerland

Research completed October 1975.

In this contribution, the data of many of the preceding papers are organized into a theory of the Transcendental Meditation technique. Intended mainly for an audience of physicists, this paper should be of interest to psychologists, physiologists, and philosophers as well. The author interprets the pure consciousness state induced by the Transcendental Meditation technique in terms of quantum physics as a zero-entropy vacuum state, and puts forward the hypothesis that a form of superconductivity in the brain may underlie its physiology. Other connections with biophysics and physical theory generally are explored. -EDITORS

The Transcendental Meditation technique, as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, is viewed as a method for the conscious exploration of very low "mental temperatures." By analogy to physical systems at the lowest levels of excitation and entropy, the genesis of the pure consciousness state (ground state of the mind) is seen as a phase transition in the nervous system to a state of long range order and correlation among neurons. The mantra used as a medium in the technique has a resonant specificity with the structure of the brain giving rise to its tendency to "spread out" mentally (expansion of the extent of conscious awareness) and physiologically in the cortex (as reflected in EEG studies showing sudden onset of brain wave spatial coherence). The non-equilibrium nature of the phase transition involved is discussed with respect to the physics of dissipative structures (Prigogine) as in lasers and living systems. Arguments are given for considering the regime of least excitation of thought and consciousness to be dominated by quantum effects associated with extended structures in the brain. A number of proposals for macroscopic quantum mechanisms analogous to superconductivity in nerve cells, membranes or biological macromolecules are considered for their possible role in the brain during the TM technique, and some experimental tests are suggested. The fifth state of consciousness (stabilized pure consciousness, "cosmic consciousness") is discussed in terms of the two-fluid model characteristic of superfluids. Implications of the pure consciousness state for the foundations of the quantum theory of measurement are analyzed briefly. General theoretical consequences for physics are illustrated by bringing out the parallel between the vacuum state of a relativistic quantum field and the pure consciousness state as viewed in ancient Vedic philosophy. The highly refined purposeful ability of the Vedic Rishis to cognize laws of nature internally is compared to the power of scientific intuition as it has appeared in the greatest of modern scientists, and the possibility is foreseen that objective and subjective science will be joined into a new unity. Physiological studies on brain wave coherence and associated suspension of breath, and a mathematical model of persistent states in the brain as applied to the technology of the mantra, are reviewed in two appendices.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction: Physics and Consciousness

2. The Transcendental Meditation Technique

3. Physiological Research on the Transcendental Medi-tation Technique

4. The Physics of Ordered Biological States

5. Is the Brain Quantum Mechanical?

6. Macroscopic Quantum Mechanisms in Biology and the Brain

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7. Experimental Tests of Quantum Effects during the Transcendental Meditation Technique

8. The Fifth State of Consciousness and the Two-fluid Model

9. Implications of the Pure Consciousness State for Physics

10. Pure Consciousness and the Quantum Field Vacuum State

11. Evolution of Consciousness and the Education of the Scientist

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12. Acknowledgments

Appendix 1: Spatial Coherence of Brain Waves during the TM Technique

Appendix II: A Mathematical Model of Persistent States in the Brain and the TM Technique

1. INTRODUCTION: PHYSICS AND CONSCIOUSNESS

It is now a half century since physicists were first led to recognize that quantum theory involves, in an essential and necessary way, the nature of human consciousness in its analysis of the process of measurement. The scientific and philosophical issues raised thereby are surely among the most profound in the history of thought, and they have received a great deal of attention. It is safe to say, however, that our understanding of the relationship between quantum theory and consciousness is very little advanced today over its status fifty years ago. The reason for this lack of progress is clear; no area of science can hope to make progress without a source of experimental data, and while techniques to explore the atom are well-developed, until recently it has not been even suggested that the consciousness side of the relationship was subject to laboratory exploration. Thus the entire area has come to be regarded as a "philosophical" one of interpretation rather than a scientific one of progressive understanding. E. P. Wigner, whose analysis of the connection between consciousness and the quantum theory of measurement is perhaps the most incisive ( 1, 2), pointed out the need for experiments to clarify the nature of consciousness itself. As Wigner himself remarked, this is not an unreasonable request to expect science to fulfill; historically, many areas previously reserved for philosophy have been taken into the realm of science when technological tools became available which opened new realms to laboratory experimentation. Such a movement is now under way with regard to the phenomenon of human consciousness; in this paper we shall explore a recently opened avenue into such experimentation which seems ideally suited to provide information on this and other fundamental scientific issues.

Clearly, the actual interface between the quantum structure of matter and consciousness lies in that physical structure which gives rise to thought and subjectivity: the human nervous system. Here lies the meeting ground and borderline of matter and mind, the objective and subjective. It is in the study of the biophysics of this system at its most fundamental level that we may hope to advance our understanding of the relationship between consciousness and the quantum theory of matter.

Obviously, the human brain is among the most complex of all macroscopic systems; at the same time we expect

that consciousness is a global, collective property of it rather than a microscopic one (3). A physical scientist approaching such a problem would, after his habit, ask whether it is possible to find for the sake of study a simplified state of consciousness which preserves the essential elements in their most accessible form. That is, the physicist might like to ask: what constitutes the "hydrogen atom" of the conscious human nervous system? Ideally he would wish to have available a state of consciousness less active than the ordinary waking state yet (unlike dreaming or deep sleep) preserving the element of conscious inner awareness, if possible, by itself-with minimum thought and physiological activity. Such a state, if it existed, might properly be called a condition of "pure consciousness," and the study of its biophysical correlates might be expected to lead to fundamental insights.

It happens that just such a state of "pure consciousness" in fact does exist; indeed, the discovery of it is not recent but rather appears to have been one of the earliest recorded items of human knowledge. Under the name "samadhi," the state of pure consciousness is clearly described in the Vedas and Upanishads of ancient India ( 4), and procedures and techniques of mental and physical manipulation are alluded to there whose sole aim is to induce it. Moreover, know ledge and experience of this state was considered the foundation of Vedic philosophy and cosmology. In recent times, however, both in India and in the West, understanding of the pure consciousness state and the techniques which give rise to it appears to have been subject to a series of distortions so severe that the underlying knowledge was evidently lost. Consequently the entire subject became buried under a shroud of mysticism and uncertainty, a reputation which it has borne throughout the period in which modern science has developed.

Since 1958 however, an ancient practice to induce the pure consciousness state rather easily has been revived and widely disseminated as the Transcendental Meditation technique by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, an Indian scholar and teacher, thus reintroducing the reality and importance of the pure consciousness state into the mainstream of contemporary thought. Furthermore, since 1969 this technique, available in a form easily subjected to laboratory scrutiny, has attracted a great deal of scientific attention among physiologists and psychologists ( 5). Upon examining the results of these studies combined with subjective reports of the experiences of individuals practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique, the physicist finds a pattern of behavior so strikingly simple and familiar that the phenomenon seems in some ways more akin to the usual subjects of the physical than the biological sciences. Moreover, certain features of the Transcendental Meditation technique seem directly

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SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ON THE TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION PROGRAM: COLLECTED PAPERS, VOL. I

suggestive of a macroscopic coherent quantum phenomenon in the human nervous system, giving a possible direct connection between a fundamental condition of the nervous system which gives rise to consciousness in a highly simplified form, and quantum mechanics. This connection, if borne out, has the most profound implications for the development and meaning of fundamental physical theory, in addition to its obvious importance for physiology and psychology.

2. THE TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION TECHNIQUE

The Transcendental Meditation technique as developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is taught by an organization of uniformly trained teachers (6) purely as a new internal technology of education without religious or metaphysical overtones. Although the Transcendental Meditation technique and its effects have been described many times in the literature of psychology and physiology, it may be helpful to the present reader to repeat some general information here.

The Transcendental Meditation technique is taught in a course of four one-hour lessons on four consecutive days; the same course is offered throughout the world in a uniform and systematic manner by nearly 10,000 trained teachers and since 1958 about one million individuals have learned the practice.

The Transcendental Meditation technique itself is remarkably simple. The subject is instructed to sit quietly with eyes closed and is then taught to repeat a certain type of sound or "mantra" according to a particular definite set of instructions. The procedure utilizes the ordinary mechanics of the thinking process, although in a somewhat novel direction, and it is quite easy to learn. The method taught is such that the sound comes to be experienced as a thought in successively "finer stages", which means, according to Maharishi (7), that it is being traced backwards through prior stages of development in the thinking process "until the finest stage of thought is transcended and the mind is left in pure consciousness". (The difficulty of describing the process adequately in a brief passage is explained by noting that the state induced by the Transcendental Meditation technique is, both subjectively and physiologically, a fourth state of consciousness, different from dreaming, sleep, or the various varieties of the waking state. Therefore its verbal description must be expected to be novel and unfamiliar. The technique itself, however, is simple to learn when taught by personal instruction; it is never taught by the written or lecture method.) The technique is a mechanical one involving the actual dynamics of the thought process and is not concerned in any way with meaning or logic; when an appropriate mantra is used, the process is nearly involuntary and

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"goes almost by itself" (7). By contrast with other practices which are sometimes associated with the name "meditation", the Transcendental Meditation technique does not involve contemplation, concentration or any attempt to control the mind; indeed, "effortlessness and spontaneity is the key to correct practice" (7). The mantras are a set of short speech sounds, meaningless in themselves, preserved by an ancient Vedic tradition and assigned to individuals by the instructor on the basis of a set of objective rules which he is trained to apply. According to Maharishi's description they are chosen so as to "resonate" with the structure of an individual nervous system. In this regard the method of using the mantra and its effect is reminiscent of stimulated emission in the quantum theory of radiation (i.e., the introduction of a resonant vibration resulting in the relaxation of the system to a less excited state, accompanied by a reinforcement of the original vibration); as we shall see, the effect in the brain may be compared with the onset of coherent light in a laser, the result of the stimulated emission mechanism. (It should be noted that the description given here does not constitute sufficient instructions to perform the Transcendental Meditation technique properly; it is a simple but rather delicate process which must be learned by personal instruction from a trained teacher (6).)

The Transcendental Meditation technique is normally practiced for periods of twenty minutes twice a day. The subjective experience induced by the technique is a consistent and remarkable one. At the beginning of the meditation session, the meditator is aware of the mantra, then of "subtler, vaguer" stages of the mantra as a thought, then of intervals of silence without thought or mantra. These latter intervals may at first last for only a fraction of a second; after such an interval there often occurs a period of random thoughts, followed by a return to the mantra. This cycle tends to be repeated several times during a twenty-minute meditation. As the meditation continues, the general level of thinking activity decreases, the breath becomes very shallow and subjective sensation of the body tends to be lost.

An important feature of the subjective experience of the TM technique is the "expansion" of consciousness. As the mantra is experienced in successively finer stages, subjects report that the spatial extent of conscious selfawareness, which ordinarily seems to be localized in the area of the head and upper body, undergoes a progressive expansion. Evidently the resonant specificity of the mantra gives rise, through an inherent brain mechanism, to its spontaneous tendency to "spread out," both mentally and, as we shall see, physiologically.

The momentary intervals of silence with fully alert conscious awareness but without thought activity tend to grow into longer intervals with continued experience of


the Transcendental Meditation technique; it is to these intervals within the twenty-minute Transcendental Meditation session that the name "pure consciousness" or "transcendental consciousness" is given.

As studied by Farrow (8) and Hebert (61), the occurrence of these intervals varies in duration and frequency with the individual and his length of time practicing the technique. Not all those practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique report clear experience of the pure consciousness state immediately. The pure consciousness state in advanced subjects is accompanied by dramatic involuntary suspensions of breathing, lasting up to 45 seconds in one study (8) (see figs. 7 and 8 in Appendix I). During intervals of pure consciousness, subjects report that the spatial extent of conscious self-awareness expands to its maximum value. This is accompanied by a feeling of great stabilization temporally. The total subjective experience reported by the subjects is described qualitatively as "a separate, distinct state," "unmistakeable," "infinite, unbounded, timeless," and "perfectly silent, beyond thought" (7). The experience is also reported to be a deeply restful and highly enjoyable one, after which greater clarity of mind and spontaneous creativity is noted. Daily practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique has been shown to generally improve the stability and adaptability of the nervous system (9).

Our purpose in describing the pure consciousness state here is to emphasize several aspects. The first is that the experience of the pure consciousness state is a real one, well-defined and repeatable, both physiologically and subjectively; there is not or should not be any mysticism or vagueness concerning it. The lack of clarity which previously surrounded references to the concept seems to have issued mainly from a misapprehension that the state was extremely difficult to achieve; this misunderstanding in tum undoubtedly reflects the absence of the original effective internal technology which produces the state most efficiently. Maharishi's essential contribution has been to rediscover the original technology (named the Transcendental Meditation technique) and make it widely available, not to an esoteric minority, but to the public, as a tool of self-education. The pure consciousness state is evidently a normal capability of the healthy human nervous system, and it is a quite definite physiological condition rather than a matter of philosophical attitude or mood. Moreover, from the existence of the pure consciousness state, the scientist interested in studying consciousness learns two important facts. First, it becomes evident that conscious awareness does not depend on thought content; it can exist by itself ( 10). Second, it is seen that consciousness is a variable rather than an on-off property, capable of being actually increased ("expanded") in at least one distinct stage over the waking

state value (and also, of course, being decreased, as in sleep). This encourages the physicist to view the nervous system as being capable of a sequence of phase transitions (of the non-equilibrium type), in which "consciousness" is a long-range correlation effect in the brain associated with a physical order parameter. Finally, it is evident that the TM technique uses the full machinery of thinking but in an extraordinarily simple and fundamental way by comparison to any other mental phenomenon. It is obvious that this "hydrogen atom of the mind" has great potential for model-making, and may provide an entrance to a better understanding of the brain generally.

It is also highly relevant to recognize that the pure consciousness state has for thousands of years been imbued with the greatest importance by Vedic philosophy, itself acknowledged by modem scholars to be the most ancient continuous philosophical tradition of man ( 11). In that tradition, the pure consciousness state (samadhi) is spoken of, not as a curiosity, but as the very keystone both to the structure of the mind and of nature generally, as the "origin of creation," the "source of both thought and matter," the "home of all the laws of nature," and the "ultimate constituent of all that exists" (7). On general grounds, therefore, there is clearly a strong motivation to find the relationship of this ancient value, newly reinvigorated, to the modem scientific picture of nature developed in contemporary physics. This is especially so since the pure consciousness state is now seen not to be a "mystical" value but rather a well-defined and easily available object of systematic study, permitting a truly experimental science of consciousness to emerge.

Even from the description given so far, it is suggested that the simple picture of the mind gained from examination of the Transcendental Meditation technique is parallel to that of a physical field theory; thoughts are viewed as excitations of an underlying field, and the pure consciousness state corresponds to the ground or vacuum state. This analogy will be expanded upon in Section 10.

3. PHYSIOLOGICAL RESEARCH ON THE TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION TECHNIQUE

Over one hundred papers have been published since 1969 on the long- and short-term physiological, psychological and sociological effects of the Transcendental Meditation technique. Of these studies we are interested here only in those physiological changes taking place during the actual twenty-minute period of the technique itself and their biophysical implications. R. K. Wallace (12), Wallace, Benson and Wilson (13), and Wallace and Benson (14) found that a 16% decrease in oxygen consumption occurred in the first ten minutes of the session, compared to an average 12% decrease over

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CONSCIOUS AWARENESS

Yes No

High Waking Dreaming

State State

Low TM Technique: Deep Pure Consciousness Sleep

FIG. I. AWARENESS VERSUS ACTIVITY IN FOUR MAJOR STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS (AFTER KANELLAKOS)

six hours of sleep, showing that the state is one of extraordinarily reduced metabolic activity, yet with inner wakeful awareness fully maintained-seemingly a unique condition which Wallace called "a wakeful hypometabolic state," a fourth major state of consciousness. The relation of the TM state to the waking, dreaming, and sleep states in terms of physiological activity and alertness is expressed in the diagram of fig. 1 (after D. Kanellakos, 62).

The TM technique has been shown to produce a general quieting of the nervous system, reflected electrophysiologically as a reduced noise level (fewer spontaneous galvanic skin responses) and a more stable galvanic skin response to a stressful sensory stimulation (9). Other studies show reduced anxiety in terms of biochemical changes in blood chemistry, including lactate concentration (13) and hormonal levels (15).

The most interesting physiological studies are those measuring changes in electroencephalographic (EEG)

brain wave coherence, both temporal and spatial. The brain produces electrical activity measurable at the scalp as oscillations of appfoximately 100 microvolt amplitude at frequencies from DC to 25 Hz. Prominent activity is seen in the alpha band (8-12Hz), the beta band (13-25 Hz), the theta band (5-7 Hz), and the delta band (1-4 Hz). The functional significance of these different spectral regions is understood only in a general way. However, various spectral distributions of activity are known as reliable signatures of the different states of consciousness (see Dement (3)). Here we are interested in EEG as an indicator of the degree of collective, coherent activity of brain cells. Wallace found that during the TM technique, brain waves were distinguishable from those of waking, dreaming, and sleep ( 12). J-P. Banquet ( 16) and Banquet and Sail han ( 17) found that during the TM technique brain waves from the left and right cerebral hemispheres became more nearly correlated in phase and, independently of phase relations, more similar in the spectral distribution of brain wave energies. The most complete study of brain wave coherence in the Transcendental Meditation technique is that of Levine, Hebert, Haynes, and Strobel ( 18), who developed new computer techniques to measure the phase coherence of pairs of EEG signals from spatially separated points on the scalp. Because the findings of this

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study are important to our argument here, we have briefly reviewed them in Appendix I.

The conclusion of Levine et al., and also of Farrow (8), is that phase coherence of the EEG between left and right hemispheres of the brain (and to a lesser degree between the front and back) increases definitely in going from sleep or drowsiness to relaxed wakefulness, increases again from wakefulness to the state induced by 20 to 30 minutes of the TM technique, and increases further during intervals of pure consciousness (as indicated by suspension of breathing) within the period of the technique. This expansion of neuronal coherence represents the physiological aspect of the "spreading out" of the mantra. Earlier it was noted that, just as the subjective degree of conscious awareness increases from sleep to wakefulness, the subjective degree of conscious awareness increases (expands, clarifies, stabilizes, purifies) further in going from wakefulness to the TM technique state. As the degree of conscious awareness increases from sleep to wakefulness to pure consciousness, the two-point spatial coherence representing long-range ordering in the EEG also increases monotonically. Therefore, it is tempting to associate the degree of consciousness directly with the degree of spatial brain wave coherence, i.e., long-range spatial and temporal ordering of the neurophysiological substrate.

The relevance of this association for understanding the physiological origin of consciousness obviously depends on whether the genesis of EEG in the brain is due to a central subcortical generator or to the collective action of millions of cortical neurons (or their synapses). The experimental microelectrode studies of R. Elul (20), in which individual cell membrane potentials were measured with respect to the total EEG signal, have given strong evidence in favor of the latter alternative: EEG spatial coherence therefor~ does imply increased long-range order among widely separated brain cells. This quantification of the "degree of consciousness" is the motivation for the physicist to analyse it in familiar terms.

If we restrict our attention to the regime of psychophysiological states where conscious selfawareness is clearly present (that is, excluding sleep and dreaming), the pattern induced by the TM technique may be expressed as a physiological analogy of the Third Law

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of Thermodynamics; lower excitation is associated with lower entropy and least excitation (corresponding to temperature absolute zero) is associated with zero entropy, perfect order. The TM technique itself (effortless use of the mantra) seems to be a means for systematic de-excitation of the nervous system-we might call it lowering of the "mental temperature" -while preserving conscious awareness. When the mental temperature reaches a low enough point (presumably a point rarely if ever reached in ordinary activity without the practice of the TM technique), a phase transition occurs to a distinct and more highly ordered state, stabilized temporally and more highly correlated spatially, giving rise to the subjective experience of "expanded pure consciousness." The metabolic correlate of this interval is the suspension of respiration. Just as the physical Third Law guarantees zero entropy at absolute zero temperature and yet phase transitions to states with a true zero entropy component (such as superfluids) occur even at finite temperatures, so here in this physiological analogy we see the onset of an extremely highly ordered state, which may be described as the ground state of the mind, occurring even while some minimum degree of metabolic activity continues.

Thus this laboratory technique for the conscious exploration of extremely low "mental temperatures" leads to results that, both in terms of subjective experience and objective physiological correlates, are parallel to the physical characteristics of very low temperature states in solids and liquids, namely, phase transitions to more ordered, expanded states, and prominence of collective excitations. In the physical states these properties reflect the emergence of manifestly quantum mechanical behavior.

4. THE PHYSICS OF ORDERED BIOLOGICAL STATES

At this point it is appropriate to recognize that in a more realistic biophysical model, it would be inaccurate to expect the human nervous system to show phase transitions of the strict Third-Law type; rather, the phase transitions of a living system are those of an open structure maintained in a stable state far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Prigogine and his co-workers have analysed the non-linear dynamics of disorder-order transitions in non-equilibrium open systems, and have suggested that the evolutionary stages of living systems, depending as they do on the continued flow of energy to maintain stable states far from equilibrium with the environment, represent transitions to lower entropy structures of this type (dissipative structures) (21, 22), as opposed to the static type of ordering characteristic of crystals or superfluids. It is this type of non-equilibrium phase transition to a dissipative structure of increased order which is most likely to be relevant in the change from waking state to pure

consciousness; such a picture fits not only the biological and thermodynamic views of evolution (the latter specifying ever greater distance from equilibrium with the environment), but also the ancient view of the role of the pure consciousness experience for the life of the individual, which Maharishi describes as "evolution to a higher state of consciousness" (7).

However, it should be recognized that there are also overriding qualitative similarities and close mathematical analogies between the type of phase transition which actually results from non-equilibrium dynamics, such as that which occurs in laser light, and the type which results from low temperature (Third Law) effects, such as the transition from paramagnetism to ferromagnetism; this fact has been pointed out by Haken (23), and used by him to justify the generalization of concepts such as the order-parameter from physics to biology and sociology. In the present context, the laser is an especially interesting instance of a non-equilibrium highly ordered state because of the sharp phase transition it displays (Graham and Haken (24)) and also because it gives rise to macroscopic quantum wave coherence at high temperatures (as opposed to the superfluids). Prigogine has noted the general thermodynamic comparison between a laser and a living system (22).

For these reasons we feel justified in ignoring the distinction between non-equilibrium and equilibrium phase transitions in the speculations toward a model of the nervous system in the pure consciousness state presented below. The implication is clear that the correct interpretation of "mental temperature" may be in terms of a statistical parameter other than the physical temperature. A candidate for the "mental temperature" is discussed in Appendix II, which reviews a simple mathematical model of phase transitions in the nervous system recently developed by W. Little and its possible connection with the mechanics of the Transcendental Meditation technique, apart from our main theme of quantum behavior.

Also we may note here that the concept of the TM technique and the pure consciousness state as evolutionary are consistent with the general physical basis of life as viewed from an earlier perspective, that of E. Schrodinger (54). Schrodinger' s analysis of the process of being alive comes to the conclusion that living organisms maintain their integrity in the midst of a high entropy environment primarily by finding sources of orderliness, "eating negative entropy," "drinking orderliness from the environment." While all organisms do this by taking in lowentropy food, by reference to their DNA as a source of low-entropy information, and by maintaining cycles of rest and activity, it seems that the human organism, as the most highly evolved, has in addition the capacity to put itself directly into a condition, the pure consciousness

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state, which is experienced as a zero-entropy state psychologically and is clearly a lower entropy state as measured physiologically. Indeed we will suggest later that the pure consciousness state is not only perceived subjectively as a condition of perfect order, but may actually be connected with a true zero-entropy quantum fluid in the brain.

This leads us to the concept of the pure consciousness state as a state of pure life, life without activity, representing a unique mental source of orderliness accessible only to the most highly evolved of living creatures, and provides a unified biophysical point of view from which to understand all the aspects of increased liveliness (e.g., faster reaction time, resistance to disease, clearer thinking) which have been found to be the results of the TM technique (5).

5. IS THE BRAIN QUANTUM MECHANICAL?

We have seen that increased consciousness is associated with increased electrophysiological long-range spatial coherence. Moreover, this transition towards expanded consciousness and increased brain cell coherence takes place in the regime of extremely low "mental temperatures," just as the phase transition to such highly correlated states as those represented by superconductivity and superfluidity take place at very low physical temperatures. Taking this analogy to its extreme limits, we are led to make the following proposal: Consciousness is itself a quantum wave function phenomenon, and the pure consciousness state induced by the TM technique represents a phase transition to a macroscopic quantum wave function (25, 26). Of course, such a hypothesis raises many questions.

It might be objected that, while consciousness in general is evidently related to coherence, and the pure consciousness state may well represent a phase transition to a more highly ordered collective state of neurons, there is no reason to require on this evidence that quantum level coherence is involved; the effects might be entirely explainable in terms of classical electrical processes in the cell, incoherent at the level of atomic wave functions. There are, however, several independent arguments, ranging from phenomenological to philosophical ones, which seem to us to motivate a search for quantum effects at the basis of the nervous system's ability to give rise to consciousness generally.

One argument has to do with the known sensitivity of the human eye to light. The tissue of the retina is structurally quite characteristic of the cortex generally; with this in mind, it is a remarkable fact that the completely darkadapted human eye can respond to two (and possibly one) quanta of green light with a macroscopic reaction (27). Also, the human olfactory sense is known to be sensitive

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to a single molecule of stimulant chemical (28). If sensory awareness regularly functions at the ultimate limit of single quantum sensitivity, then it seems difficult to escape the conclusion that consciousness in itself (which persists even beyond the lower limit of sensory detection) depends essentially on single quantum processes and therefore is essentially and manifestly wave mechanical in its nature.

Indeed, the idea that the functioning of the brain which gives rise to the everyday experience of thinking is in itself inherently quantum mechanical is not a new one among physicists. Niels Bohr (29) suggested that thought involved such small energies in the brain as to be necessarily governed by quantum effects; David Bohm speculated further that thinking and shifts of attention seem to behave subjectively according to an uncertainty principle-perhaps the very same uncertainty principle as that characteristic of quantum physics (30).

A related view is due to Sudarshan, who has developed the idea that the self-referent quality of consciousness, and with it the multiple co-existing levels of poetic, nonlogical, non-linear, mutually contradictory thoughts and feelings characteristic of the human mind, are much better modeled by the non-commutative (self-referent) operator dynamics of quantum theory than they are by classical dynamics (31).

In addition, it may be argued that the quantum theory of measurement, which, in the view of Wigner, points indisputably to an intimate and unavoidable relationship between the quantum mechanical wave function and human consciousness, is in itself a reason to seek for quantum mechanisms in the mind. In Wigner's words, "The very study of the physical world (has) led to the conclusion that the content of the consciousness is an ultimate reality" and "all the possible knowledge concerning any object can be given as its wave function" (2). Such a view is also implicit in Heisenberg's statement that' 'the laws of nature which we formulate mathematically deal no longer with the particles themselves but with our knowledge of the elementary particles" (32), that is, that quantum dynamics is a dynamics of states of knowledge, excitations of consciousness, as much as it is a dynamics of physical objects. This point of view, taken together with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's aphorism that "knowledge is structured in consciousness" (which he means in the same sense that waves on a string are excitations of an underlying medium) leads us to expect that the underlying dynamics of consciousness may one day be expressed in a mathematical form closely parallel or identical to the most fundamental descripton of physical nature. The explanation for such a closely parallel structure may either be that consciousness and physical matter are different aspects of reality with a reflexive symmetry between them, or else that they are actually united in a common basis. Wigner


has compared the situation of consciousness and matter to that of light and matter as it developed in the history of physics: first light and matter were thought to be entirely disparate, next matter was found to be the source and modifier of light, then light was discovered to have a subtle direct influence on matter, and now they are understood together from a common description of quantum field theory (1).

Finally, as noted in Section 1, according to an ancient tradition of the highest philosopical respectability, pure consciousness is regarded as the ultimate primary value of creation, including physical creation. This remarkable idea is a wholly unfamiliar one to modern scientific philosophy. However, with the recent demonstration that the central value of this philosphy, the pure consciousness state, is a verifiable laboratory reality in the individual, this world view gains modern credibility and its description of nature must begin to be taken seriously by contemporary science. Therefore, on grounds of elegance, simplicity and unity, it is natural to think of the ancient ultimate value of unbounded consciousness as one whose meaning can also be approached from the deepest standpoint of modern physical science. Toward this goal we propose here a concrete, testable hypothesis: That the pure consciousness state is intimately connected with a macroscopic quantum phenomenon in the brain, making the essence of quantum behavior a matter of direct conscious experience.

6. MACROSCOPIC QUANTUM MECHANISMS IN BIOLOGY AND THE BRAIN

If we consider, following Bohr, the physical energy associated with thought, then the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics tells us that the very lowest levels of thought excitation (as experienced during the Transcendental Meditation technique) must necessarily be associated with extended structures in the brain. An essentially crystalline type of molecular order underlies the single photon sensitivity of vision; however, we believe that in the case of consciousness and thought there are good reasons to seek for quantum order of the fluid type.

Fritz London was probably the first physicist to propose more specifically that macroscopic quantum mechanisms might be important in living organisms. He pointed out that "in some biological processes the concept of a fluid state of entropy zero could play a decisive role, for it combines the characteristic stability of quantum states with the possibility of (non-dissipative) motion" which is the dual characteristic of life, and he suggested that superfluid states be sought in the macromolecular systems of biophysics (33). In recent years a good part of the interest in seeking room temperature superconductors in

large molecules has been to see whether living organisms might not already be taking advantage of such a mechanism (34). While no indisputable evidence for room temperature superconductivity has yet been uncovered, the search remains a lively one (56).

If coherent quantum effects are present in biological systems generally, we might also expect them to be relevant to the human nervous system. It is possible in turn to imagine several mechanisms in the brain by which macroscopic quantum effects might arise through the influence of the TM technique.

The most straightforward proposal is that of room temperature electron superconductivity in biological macromolecules (35, 36), which presumably must arise by a new mechanism different from the lattice phonon attractive interaction between electrons which is responsible for ordinary low temperature superconductivity. If such superconductivity existed, it might be especially relevant to the nervous system, whose cells (neurons) are spatially extended over comparatively long distances (axons) and meet other neurons not directly but across narrow ( 100 A) synaptic gaps (37). The synaptic gaps carry electrical potential differences on the order of 70 millivolts; across such a small gap, superconductivity within one neuron could become phase coherent with that in an adjoining cell by virtue of quantum tunnelling, and this could in turn be stimulated by the macroscopic analog of stimulated emission (alluded to before in connection with the mantra), that is, an AC Josephson effect. The AC Josephson effect for 70 millivolt synaptic gap potentials would require the presence of electromagnetic oscillations in the microwave range.

Suggestions of a superconductive AC Josephson effect in living cells have already been put forward on two grounds. F. Cope has argued that the known magnetic field sensitivity of certain birds and other animals which navigate using the earth's magnetic field (55) are difficult to explain by any physical mechanism other than a biological Josephson effect magnetometer. Cope claims this as one of several points of indirect evidence for biological room temperature superconductivity in animal nervous tissue (38, 39).

A second item of evidence comes from a series of recent Russian experiments which have found a variety of highly resonant biological effects due to low power six to eight millimeter wavelength electromagnetic waves on a number of living organisms, especially bacteria ( 40). One explanation for such resonant microwave effects could be in terms of Josephson junctions in or between cells. Recently Ahmed, Calderwood, Frohlich and Smith proposed indirect evidence for biological room temperature superconductivity within cellular components on the basis of measuring a large diamagnetic effect in a water solution of

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the enzyme lysozyme on applying a small DC magnetic field (41).

If localized regions of superconductivity are a common mechanism in cells, including neurons, then we suggest that the essential effect of the TM technique is to bring about phase correlation of these localized regions resulting in expansion of the wave function from molecular to truly macroscopic ( ~ 1 em) dimensions, accounting perhaps for the subjective experience of the sudden "unbounded infinite expansion" of the self awareness during the Transcendental Meditation technique (7). It is also possible that ordinary degrees of wakeful consciousness are due to partial coherence of superconductive currents over macroscopic dimensions; electromagnetic transitions among systems of super-currents of dimension R would be expected to produce frequencies on the order of hm _, R -z ~ 10 Hz if m is the electron mass and R is about 1 em (h-Planck' s constant). These frequencies fall in the EEG range and also in the range of the fundamental Fourier components of human speech sounds, such as those which compose the mantras. In this view the role of the mantra is not to directly induce superconductivity (although we have earlier compared its effect to stimulated emission and by association to a Josephson effect on the macroscopic level), but rather to electrically correlate and quiet millions of neurons on the level of cellular action potentials in such a way that a latent biophysical phase correlation at a quantum macromolecular level is permitted to manifest itself among them. Referring to the discussion of the Little model of neuronal firing patterns given in Appendix II, repetition of a mantra and its associated "spreading out" may be considered to establish an ordered pattern of neural firing whose long-term effect is to actually change the arrangement, chemistry, and structure of many synapses in a way which is related to the mechanism oflong-term memory in general, especially so if the neuronal firing pattern induced by a particular mantra is in some sense resonant with the topological and chemical structure of an individual nervous system.

We note in passing that E.H. Walker proposed that the physiology of consciousness is based upon quantum tunnelling at synaptic gaps; however he explicitly excluded the possibility of a macroscopic superconductive-type wave function ( 42).

A different proposal for quantum coherent states in biology has been developed by H. Frohlich, who considered the possibility of longitudinal (non-radiative) electromagnetic mode oscillations occurring in the dipolar layers of cell membranes, falling in the microwave frequencies (43, 44, 45). Predicted in 1967, Frohlich's mechanism has recently received experimental support ( 46) in a series of studies ( 40) which show profound and highly resonant effects on the growth and functioning of

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cells when they are irradiated with 6-8 millimeter-band electromagnetic waves at low intensities in the range of 0.01 milliwatt per square centimeter. (Such strongly excited electromagnetic modes; stabilized far from thermodynamic equilibrium in living systems, recall the analogy between the living cell and the laser discussed in Section 4.)

Such millimeter-band cellular oscillations could resonate (i.e., be evolutionarily selected to resonate) with a variety of molecular transitions, giving rise to a rich source of interaction between cell membranes and macromolecules. Furthermore, such oscillations could easily give rise to phase correlations between distant cells and enhance the establishment of intrinsically biological quantum phase coherent states of truly macroscopic dimensions.

Frohlich has pointed out ( 47) that EEG in the brain is known to arise from the co-operative electrical oscillation among millions of neuronal membranes or synapses (20). But since the low frequency oscillations measured as EEG

( ~ 10 Hz) are heavily screened in a conducting ionic solution, they cannot themselves be the means of communication between distant brain cells. Frohlich therefore suggests that it is the microwave electromagnetic oscillations in brain cells which become partially or wholly phase correlated between distant cells, and the observed EEG of much lower frequencies then arises in the form of non-linear limit cycle oscillations.

Such a model of the origin of EEG in the brain suggests that the increased low-frequency spatial coherence seen during the pure consciousness state induced by the TM technique reflects a more basic level of quantum phase correlation among cells over macroscopic distances. The function of the mantra would then be to produce a pattern of neural firing events, which at the microscopic level (i.e., molecular interactions at the synaptic membrane) lead to increased resonant stimulated emission among cell membranes with the result of a strong coherent excitation of a single mode resulting in a phase transition of the Bose condensation type ( 46). In this picture, once again, daily repetition of the mantra leads to a type of long-term memory which gradually restructures the biochemistry of the synapses (see Appendix II). We have pointed out that the subjective effect of the mantra is analogous to a resonant stimulated emission process; in the present model, such a neural pattern generation would be one step removed from the microscopic physics of quantum transitions.

Finally, the two main proposals for biological macroscopic states (superconductivity and electromagnetic vibrations) may not be unrelated. Ahmed et al. have reported evidence for anomalously large diamagnetism in water solution oflysozyme enzyme, which is quenched by


a critical magnetic field on the order of 900 Gauss. Such behavior is explained by these authors as evidence for room temperature biological superconductivity (with a Meissner effect) and it is suggested that superconductive regions in biomolecules or cells could interact resonantly with high frequency electric vibrations in biomolecules of the type proposed by Frohlich, and also with one another by means of an AC Josephson effect (41).

7. EXPERIMENTAL TESTS OF QUANTUM EFFECTS DURING THE TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION TECHNIQUE

These models suggest two areas of experiment to test the relevance of these proposed mechanisms for the TM technique. During extended periods of pure consciousness within the TM technique (which, we emphasize, is experienced most clearly only in certain advanced subjects under appropriate optimum conditions), a DC magnetic field of critical value, perhaps a few hundred Gauss, should modify the observed EEG coherence rather sharply if room temperature superconductivity is an underlying mechanism. Such a study has begun in the MERU psychophysiology laboratory. Another area of experiment will be to search for highly resonant effects of small microwave fields on the coherence of the brain waves during the TM technique. In either case we expect a significant and sharply defined effect to occur during the pure consciousness phase, but not during the waking state or shallower phases of the meditation period, reflecting a qualitatively different organization below the phase transition point. Another interesting experiment might be to study the magnetic field (magnetoencephalogram) produced by the brain (48), which may change in a simpler way than the EEG if transcendental consciousness brings a global reorganization of the electrical activity of the brain.

8. THE FIFTH STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE TWO-FLUID MODEL

In Maharishi's description of the states of consciousness accessible to the human nervous system (a description which derives from personal experience and is verified by classic Vedic sources), the fourth state of consciousness (after waking, dreaming and deep sleep) is the pure consciousness or transcendental state. In addition, however, there is claimed to be a systematic process of stabilization of the fourth state by habituation due to repeated experience through continued practice of the TM technique. The result of this habituation is the progressive rise of an ability in the nervous system to maintain the pure consciousness state along with (superposed on) the usual thinking and perceptual activity of waking, dreaming, or sleep (7). This development, when permanent, is considered to give rise to a distinct fifth style of functioning of

the nervous system, whose associated state of consciousness has variously been called "cosmic consciousness," "enlightenment," or "nirvikalpa samadhi." In particular, a signpost of the onset of this development is the quite specific prediction that inner wakefulness is maintained uninterruptedly even during deep sleep in those individuals established in the fifth state. This particular experience is now being reported in various degrees of clarity by long-term practitioners of the TM technique (and is in the process of being studied by EEG in this laboratory (8) ). Furthermore, this description has been a well-known element of the traditional lore of yogic experience for many centuries, to be found in many ancient and modem sources ( 49).

In the light of our own macroscopic quantum phase coherent model of the pure consciousness state in the nervous system, the fifth state of consciousness (stabilized pure awareness along with thought) becomes exceedingly reminiscent of the two-fluid model used to describe a superfluid or superconductor (33). In the fifth state, one experiences a well defined duality of consciousness: a silent, distinctly separate, spatially unbounded, temporally stabilized self-awareness along with the usual localized excitations of consciousness (i.e., thoughts and perceptions), much as the long-range orderly aspect of the superfluid coexists with an active component at finite temperatures. Indeed, one might read F. London's description of the two-fluid model:

... two interpenetrating fluids, of which one is in a macroscopic quantum state while the other is the carrier of the whole entropy of the liquid ... an equilibrium be- , tween two fluids which mutually interpenetrate in ordinary space but are in general separated in momentum space .... The superfluid shows long-range order of the momentum vector and does not contribute appreciably to the entropy. The other, normal fluid is very much like the ordinary fluid. (33)

and find in this description a rather exact parallel to the subjective cognition which is claimed to be the long range result of the TM technique.

Maharishi speaks of the pure consciousness component of the fifth state as "eternal, unbounded self, a silent witness to thought and activity," a description which perhaps sounds exclusively metaphysical or at best psychological until we compare it with London's graphic words that superfluids are "quantum mechanisms of macroscopic scale . . . withdrawn from the disorder of thermal agitation." We propose that the subjective experience of the fifth state of consciousness may in fact actually reflect the establishment of a permanent macroscopic quantum coherent wave function over long distances in the brain, accounting for the uniqueness and universality of this striking mental phenomenon. This may be thought of without regard to any specific model for the quantum basis of the neurophysiology of the TM

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technique (i.e., whether it is electron superconductivity, laser-type cellular electromagnetic oscillation, or some third class of coherent behavior which is involved). As Charles Enz has recently pointed out (50), the two-fluid model may easily be generalized to describe any of the highly ordered states seen in nature, including superfluids, superconductors, dielectric crystals, and ferromagnets. In each case a distinct meaning can be given to generalizations of the concepts of a condensed phase component of long-range order, a "normal" component carrying thermal or other excitations, an order parameter, and such features as first and second sound. Therefore it is most attractive to hypothesize that the human nervous system, being complex to the degree of a macroscopic system and yet giving rise to simple collective experiences, might also have a mode of functioning which can be described and experienced in the same universal terms as other highly ordered systems in nature. As the sophistication of physiological research on the TM technique continues to develop, it will be most interesting to attempt to identify such features as second sound. Evidently the "order parameter" of the nervous system, which gains a non-zero value due to the symmetry breaking phase transition to the ordered state, is connected with the rise ofthe pure consciousness experience and perhaps should be called "consciousness" (23).

That this two-fluid description discovered independently by modem physics coincides so closely with the classic picture of the psychology of "enlightenment" (fifth state of consciousness), held for thousands of years to be the most ordered state of the mind and the highest achievement of human life, is an especially elegant and satisfying point. If the connection bears scientific fruit, full credit is due to the TM technique and its principal exponent, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, for having made this class of experiences accessible to scientific investigation for the first time.

9. IMPLICATIONS OF THE PURE CONSCIOUSNESS STATE FOR PHYSICS

This paper proposes a specific connection between the pure consciousness state and macroscopic quantum mechanisms in the brain. If experimental evidence bears out this conjecture, the implications are clearly profound and far reaching for the quantum theory of measurement. While a complete analysis of this situation is beyond the scope of the present paper, we speculate that measurement theory may someday be seen to bifurcate into two descriptions of the world: One from the standpoint of the waking-state observer, whose consciousness is "noisy" (phase incoherent) and therefore couples in an incoherent way to the wave function of the world, and the other from the standpoint of the enlightened observer, whose con-

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sciousness is based upon a macroscopic phase coherent element in the sense of the two-fluid model, and therefore couples in a phase-coherent way to the object of measurement. The latter observer might find that the "quantum" aspects of reality, such as the superposition principle, acquire considerably more immediacy for him, since he is capable of accepting the result of a perception in which two or more pure states are simultaneously present. Such an observer may find that he perceives "physical reality" directly in terms of co-existing potentialities rather than fixed situations. Needless to say, such a remark is highly speculative. Nevertheless, it may be that the well-known peculiarities of quantum measurement theory reflect no need for change in that theory, but rather a need for the human nervous system to rise to the ability of a clearer perception of reality.

Independently of any model however, the recent rediscovery of the importance of the pure consciousness state can hardly fail to have a deep relationship to theoretical science generally and perhaps to physics in particular. The Rig Veda, a document of extreme antiquity, whose interpretation makes sense only in terms of pure consciousness as its fundamental value, is claimed to contain the description of the mechanics of the creation of the universe (51). If such a concept is valid, then surely there must exist a connection between this description of nature and modem physical cosmology.

10. PURE CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE QUANTUM FIELD VACUUM STATE

A hint of the possible connection between the Vedic science of consciousness as newly interpreted by Maharishi (51) and the modem physicist's conception of nature can be glimpsed in a most intriguing theoretical parallel between the description of the dynamics of consciousness and quantum field theory. Both theories may be said to be completely knowable in terms of the properties of an underlying ground state of a field (state of least excitation).

In relativistic quantum field theory, which is the most successful conception in the history of science, the vacuum state of the field, containing no real matter, light or excitation, occupies a unique position (52). The vacuum state alone among states of the field is unique, unbounded in space and time, Lorentz invariant (same for all observers), and of truly zero entropy.

Parallel to this, the pure consciousness state, as experienced subjectively and as described in ancient sources, is "eternal," "unbounded," "universal," and the "source of perfect order" (7).

At a more interesting level, the quantum vacuum state may be said to be empty (of excitation) and yet full in the


sense of pure potentiality; it contains "virtual" (unphysical) representatives of all possible modes of matter and excitation in the form of vacuum fluctuations or "virtual particles" (zero-point excitations of each field mode, assigned one-half quanta of energy, due directly to the non-commutative properties of the field operators). Thus the silent empty vacuum is, none the less, lively with fluctuations of the field, which in tum are the necessary impetus for any "spontaneous"change in nature, such as the emission of light by an atom.

Likewise, the pure consciousness state is described as "perfectly silent" and "beyond change," yet is said to contain "impulses of intelligence which are the unmanifest aspects of all that can exist," and which act as the "source of all change," the "source of creativity," containing "all possibilities" (51).

The most striking property of the vacuum state of a quantum field theory (assuming that a complete quantum field theory exists and can be discovered!) is that, in a precisely defined sense, it is all there is to know about nature; the unmanifest values of dynamical quantities (vacuum expectation values) completely specify the possible measurable values of real physical fields and particles and their interactions, and from complete mathematical knowledge of the vacuum state alone can be deduced all of the possible excited states and their properties (Reconstruction Theorem (53)).

The Reconstruction Theorem, stating that an entire theory of nature can be recovered from complete knowledge of the vacuum state only, is closely paralleled by the Vedic description of the pure consciousness state as "the ultimate constituent" of both thought and matter, "the home of all knowledge," "the home of all the laws of nature," direct experience of which is "supreme knowledge," of "the field of all possibilities," and which allows the knower to be "master of creation" (51).

It is our suggestion that ancient Vedic philosophy with its practical laboratory aspect, the TM technique, represents a systematic subjective means of gaining knowledge about the cosmos as precise, rigorous and fundamental as is quantum field theory, although from an utterly opposite approach. Instead of mathematical equations, its formulation of laws of nature is expressed in terms of sequences of sounds (mantras of the Rig Veda) which act on a properly sensitized nervous system at a subtle level to generate definite items of knowledge (see Maharishi's lecture "Name and Form" in reference 51).

Indeed, we speculate that the two pictures may not be merely analogous but equivalent; if the human nervous system is a macroscopic device sensitive to its microscopic internal state (as evidenced for example by the single photon sensitivity of vision) and if the pure consciousness state is intrinsically quantum mechanical on

the basis of macroscopic phase coherence, then it is possible to imagine that Vedic cognitions of the elementary structure of nature are derived from direct inner ex perience (as opposed to mathematical analysis) of the physical vacuum state, accounting for the unique subjective means by which they are expressed. Of course the proof of this idea must lie in demonstrating a detailed correspondence between the knowledge contained in the Rig Veda and physical theory; we might even hope that the former can prove a guide to the future development of the latter.

In the next section we will argue that the extremely sensitive inner perception referred to here is just the ultimate form of development of scientific imagination as we already know it.

11. EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE EDUCATION OF THE SCIENTIST

As a direct consequence of the discussion in the preceding section, there arises an application of the Transcendental Meditation technique and the pure consciousness experience which should interest physicists and other scientists with respect to their own success in creating useful new concepts of nature. Because the topic of this paper is a subjective experience viewed from the standpoint of physics, it does not seem inappropriate to discuss a more personal aspect.

Physics education contains training in the use of mathematical techniques for theory and in the use of laboratory techniques for experimentation. Yet the greatest physicists, such as Einstein or Newton, have often made it clear that their intuition, or personal inner feeling for the workings of nature, was in reality their most essential creative tool. In the past this value has not been thought of as one subject to systematic development through education. However, if we properly understand Maharishi's description of the methods used by the ancient Vedic Rishis (seers) to cognize the fundamental laws of nature, we see that the development of purity of consciousness (by means of clarifying and ordering the physical nervous system and its functioning) leads precisely to a systematic, purposeful and precise development of that same power of intuition in its most highly cultivated and focused form. The type of intuition developed in these ancient Rishis (essentially through the Transcendental Meditation technique plus certain ancillary practices) as a conscious, as opposed to involuntary ability appears to be no different in quality from that reported by the greatest minds of science. Should not these same methods then be utilized by scientists, the seers of our own age? Refinement of consciousness is inevitably the scientist's most important characteristic; a truly effective system of education surely must aim at perfecting it.

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The time may not be far distant when the methods of inner development contained in the ancient and newly revived science of consciousness are combined with the most successful methods of modern objective physical science to produce a new wholeness of understanding, a unified science of existence and intelligence, unprecedented in its completeness and power, and successful in apprehending nature to a degree which probably is beyond our present ability to imagine.

12. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The encouragement and support of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi throughout the development of these ideas (1971-1975) is gratefully acknowledged.

APPENDIX I: SPATIAL COHERENCE OF BRAIN WAVES DURING THE TM TECHNIQUE

Levine, Hebert, Haynes and Strobel ( 18) detected the EEG signals at six standard spatially separated points on the scalp and measured the coherence between any pair by a digital computation technique which first performs a Fourier analysis of each channel and then extracts for each frequency component the time averaged correlation of phase between two channels ( 19) called X and Y.

If Ax f and Bx f are the cosine and sine Fourier coefficients; respectively, for channel X at frequency f (determined in these studies from analysis of 5.12 second epochs of EEG data sampled at 256 points), the in-phase and quadrature cross-spectral coefficients are:

C =A A +B B xy,f x,fL "y,f x,f y,f

Q =BA -BA xy,f x,f y,f y,f x,f

Levine et al. define the coherence function at frequency f as:

Y2

= [<Cxy,r>2 + <Qxy,r>

2 ][<Cxx,r><Cyy,r> r 1

where the angular bracket denotes a digital averaging procedure applied to subsets of data for each 5.12 second sample. The coherence function may also be expressed as:

y2 =<cos 8> 2 + <sin 8> 2

where 8 is the phase angle between the frequency f components of two channels X and Y. Using this measure, coherence between two chosen points on the scalp is plotted graphically as a function of frequency (0-25 Hz) once for each 5 .12 seconds of data, and the successive curves stacked so as to produce a graphical representation of the two-point coherence history during a one-hour experimental run, as seen in Figure 2. This type of plot is called a coherence spectral array (COSPAR (19)). The data has been further filtered by the computer before final

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display by two means; first, only coherence in excess of an arbitrary threshold value of0.95 is displayed,and second, only those coherence peaks which appear in at least two successive epochs at the same frequency are passed to the display, discriminating in favor of persistent patterns and against sporadic events.

Thus the peaks represent instances of nearly perfect phase coherence at a particular frequency, over spatial separations on the scalp of about 10 em, and persisting stably for at least 10.24 seconds.

Using this technique, Levine et al. found a rich variety of phenomena, typical of which are the experimental runs illustrated in Figures 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Figure 2 shows the COSPAR of an experimental run measuring coherence at two points 6 em apart between the left and right sides of the front part of the scalp (bilateral frontal, leads F3/F4 in EEG terminology). The subject was female, 44 years old, and had four months ofTM practice.

BILATERAL FRONTAL (F3/F4)

0 5 10 15 20

FREQUENCY (Hz)

25 .5 1.0

TOTAL COHERENCE

FIG. 2. VARIETIES OF COHERENCE INCREASES SPECIFIC TO THE

TM TECHNIQUE. This bilateral frontal caspar shows three different types of increases in coherence specific to the TM technique: (a) total coherence increases during the Transcendental Meditation technique; (b) alpha band coherence peaks appear with the start of the period of the technique; and (c) theta band coherence peaks (near 7 Hz) appear during the latter half of the period of the technique and vanish with the cessation of the technique. Subject: Female, 44 years, four months' practice of TM technique (After Levine et al., 18)


BILATERAL CENTRAL (C3/C4)

0 5 10 15 20

FREQUENCY (Hz)

25 .5 1.0

TOTAL COHERENCE

FIG. 3. COHERENCE CHANGES SPECIFIC TO THE TM TECHNIQUE.

The coherence peaks near 10 Hz closely coincide with the start and end of the period of the Transcendental Meditation technique. Note the "rebound" of this activity in the latter half of the eyes-closed postcontrol period.

Subject: Female, 29 years, 49 months' practice of TM technique (After Levine et al., 18)

The sequence of instructions given to the subject was as labeled (EO =simple rest with eyes open, EC =simple rest with eyes closed, TM =period of the Transcendental Meditation technique, followed by post-periods ofEC and EO). The onset of alpha band coherence is seen to nearly coincide with the start of the TM technique; halfway through the meditation the coherence spreads to the lower frequency (theta) band. The theta coherence ends abruptly with the end of the TM period.

Figure 3 shows a second subject (female, 29 years, 49 months of TM practice, electrodes bilateral central C3/ C4), where coherence near 10Hz is seen to begin and end at times closely coinciding with the TM period.

Figure 4 illustrates coherence specific to the TM technique arising between two points 10 em apart on the front and center of the right side of the head, in contrast to the bilateral coherence seen in Figures 2 and 3.

Figure 5 shows a subject (male, 27 years, 42 months TM practice) during a period not involving the TM technique in the middle of which he became drowsy and fell asleep (towards the end he was awakened). Coherence disappears during the onset of sleep.

Figure 6 records a typical meditation period of the most experienced subject in the Levine study, a female aged 26

0

HOMOLATERAL RIGHT (C4/F4)

5 10 15

FREQUENCY (Hz)

20 25 .5 1.0

TOTAL COHERENCE

FIG. 4. COHERENCE CHANGES SPECIFIC TO THE TM TECHNIQUE.

Here coherence is shown homolaterally, indicating long-range ordering of the EEG between the central and frontal brain.

Subject: Male, 24 years, 68 months' practice of TM technique (After Levine et al., 18)

who had been practicing the TM technique continually for 15 years. Strong coherence is seen in the alpha, beta and theta regions both before, during and after TM; the changes during TM are seen as a sharp increase in coherence in the theta region at 6 Hz with the onset of the TM period. The amount and extent of the coherence in this subject, especially in the beta range, was unique in the study and suggests cumulative changes in neurophysiology due to long-term practice of the TM technique.

In a more detailed study of this subject by Farrow (8), respiratory measurements recorded simultaneously withEEG showed alternation in breathing pattern about every 30 seconds between that of normal eyes closed relaxation and markedly reduced breathing barely detectable on the monitoring instruments. These latter intervals corresponded to intervals of "pure consciousness" as judged by the subject, and were accompanied by further increases in interhemispheric beta EEG coherence.

An illustration of a typical breathing record for this subject showing intervals of breath suspension is reproduced here (following Farrow (8)) as Figure 7.

In further studies of other advanced subjects reporting clear experiences of "pure consciousness," Hebert (61)

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HOMOLATERAL RIGHT (C4/F4)

0 5 10 15 20 25 .5 1.0

TOTAL FREQUENCY (Hz) COHERENCE

FIG. 5. COSPARS DURING SLEEP ONSET. This experiment, not involving a period of the Transcendental Meditation technique, monitored a subject as he fell asleep in bed in the sitting position. Onset of sleep (as judged by EEG criteria and postural changes) is first signaled by the break in the continuity of the alpha coherence peaks and the subsequent progressive diminution of the total coherence. Reappearance of coherence peaks towards the end of the experiment coincides with arousal of the subject by the experimenter. Subject: Male, 27 years, 42 months' practice of TM technique (After Levine et al., 18)

found breath suspension intervals of up to 45 seconds. A display of part of his data is reproduced as Figure 8.

While these extracts of data are necessarily somewhat oversimplified from the complexity inherent in biological variability, the pattern found is quite consistent; two-point spatial coherence of EEG measured over a distance on the order of 10 em on the scalp increases and spreads in frequency due to the TM technique by a comparison to relaxed wakefulness with eyes closed; by contrast it decreases during sleep or drowsiness. Within the TM technique period, coherence increases further during subintervals of pure consciousness.

Studies in this area, which may be called EEG spectroscopy of higher states of consciousness, are continuing in this laboratory.

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1 ~ c I ~·a E=V)

0

HOMOLATERAL LEFT (C3/F3)

5 10 15

FREQUENCY (Hz)

20 25 .5 1.0

TOTAL COHERENCE

FIG. 6. COSPAR OF A LONG-TERM MEDITATOR. In the most experienced subject studied, the highest levels of coherence were found. Note how during the period of the Transcendental Meditation technique the coherence peaks extend over a major portion of the 0-25 Hz band. The strong beta coherencepossibly harmonically related to the alpha ;theta activityis particularly unusual. Strong theta coherence near 6 Hz begins abruptly with the start of the period of the technique. Subject: Female, 26 years, 15 years' practice of TM technique (After Levine et al., 18)

APPENDIX II: A MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF PERSISTENT STATES IN THE BRAIN AND THE TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION TECHNIQUE

William Little (57) has pointed out that a mathematical model of a network of neurons does indeed exhibit phase transitions to ordered states in the form of persistent firing patterns. Interconnecting neurons using only their wellknown properties of stimulation and inhibition with respect to firing of pulses (including their essential statistical properties), Little and his co-workers (58, 59) showed that the formal mathematical structure obtained is directly analogous to the Ising model of an ensemble of spins, and

DO MASH

THEORETICAL PAPERS: TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION TECHNIQUE AND QUANTUM PHYSICS -PAPER 99

PRECONTROL (eyes open) PRECONTROL (eyes closed)

' BUTTON SIGNAL f

TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION TECHNIQUE

' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' '

TM TECHNIQUE

STARTS I

' TM

TECHNIQUE ENDS

' POSTCONTROL (eyes closed) POSTCONTROL (eyes open)

BREATH FLOW (ml/sec) 200

0+----TIME (min)

200

FIG. 7. RECORDING OF BREATH FLOW AGAINST TIME FOR AN ADVANCED SUBJECT DURING THE TM TECHNIQUE. The button signals were made by the subject to signify the end of an interval of pure consciousness. Note that each coincides with an interval of suspension of breathing. (After Farrow, 8)

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

PATTERNS OF RESPIRATORY SUSPENSION DURING THE TM TECHNIQUE

0 15 30

TIME (Seconds)

FIG. 8. REPRESENTATIVE SECTIONS OF RESPIRATION TRACINGS IN THIS STUDY (NOS. 1-10) SHOWING PERIODS OF RESPIRATORY

SUSPENSION. A sample of the respiration pattern of the subject in the experiment of Farrow is shown for comparison (no. 11). (After Hebert, 61)

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exhibits phase transitions to ordered neuronal firing patterns analogous to the transition from a paramagnetic state to a ferromagnetic state. The neuronal Ising model, however, gives rise to temporal order (persistent firing patterns) rather than spatial order (crystalline rows). The pattern of neural events at one time is related to the pattern at a later time by a transfer matrix whose elements depend on the parameters of the synapses and the topology of their interconnections reflecting the individuality of the network. When the maximum eigenvalue of this matrix is degenerate, it corresponds to an eigenvector representing a persistent firing pattern (phase transition to long-range order) which may last for a time on the order of seconds. Little et al. have used this structure to make an interesting model of short- and long-term thought and memory. Here we suggest that the model may be relevant to the functioning of the Transcendental Meditation technique and the use of the mantra.

The mantra as used in the TM technique must correspond to a persistent pattern which is established with maximum ease in the nervous system. If we take the neural net to represent the cortex, and if the mantra is first introduced as a sound communicated from the speechhearing center of the brain, it will persist with no effort if the pattern is resonant with one characteristic of the individual brain in the sense described, i.e., an eigenvector of the transfer matrix of the unmodified brain.

Besides the "effortless" and "resonant" properties of a mantra, a useful model should also demonstrate its tendency to be experienced "automatically" in successively "more subtle" versions, de-exciting the nervous system by steps towards the pure consciousness state. In the model at hand, we interpret this process of spreading out to mean that the first persistent pattern gives rise to a second which involves the correlation of a greater proportion of the neurons in the network, continuing until a large fraction of the neurons are involved in an especially simple vacuum state pattern. This is analogous to an Ising crystal which has been removed from contact with a heat bath (closing off contact with senses) and then settles towards its least excited, most highly correlated state at temperature absolute zero assisted by the presence of an applied oscillating field which acts to resonantly stimulate collective transitions downward, i.e., a process of resonant induced refrigeration. This model would then give a well-defined meaning to the "mental temperature" concept developed in Section 3.

The association between the mantra-thought and its "subtler" versions may arise mechanically through the statistical properties of the neural net in this model (58, 60) which allows the flexibility for one pattern to be associated with another, similar to it but involving a somewhat different (perhaps larger) set of neurons.

It would be most interesting to follow these suggestions

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and refine the mathematical model or develop a computer model which explicitly exhibits these properties, for the Transcendental Meditation technique is in many ways the simplest process characteristic of the human nervous system.

Also probably relevant to the effect of long-term repetition of the mantra in the Transcendental Meditation technique is neural facilitation as it appears in this model, whereby the imposition of a specific firing pattern gradually changes the synaptic parameters (and even the connectivity) of the network in such a way as to make this pattern a new eigenvector of the system (long-term memory), easily recalled. The reorganization of the nervous system characteristic of the fifth state of consciousness (see Section 8), wherein the correlated pure consciousness state becomes permanent, certainly must involve facilitation.

The statistical property of a neuron (uncertainty width of the threshold for firing, reflecting the transmission of a fluctuating number of chemical particles across the synaptic gap) plays an important role in the behavior of the nervous system. As shown by Little and Shaw, there is an optimum value of this parameter for maximum storage capacity (number of latent persistent patterns) of a nervous system. This parameter measures the noise of the system and may contribute to the correct definition of the "mental temperature" mentioned earlier. Lowering ofthe storage capacity through lowering of this parameter amounts to an erasure of stored impressions and may correspond, in the TM technique, to "stress release" (7), the removal of traces of past experiences which inhibit present functioning of the nervous system.

One feature of the Little model not commented upon by its authors is its possible application to understanding the genesis of the EEG, whose 5-20Hz waves may represent the cycle time of alternation between two persistent patterns of nearly equal eigenvalues. Spatial coherence, as in the TM technique, would then be a reflection of the extent of the region of neurons involved in the pattern, and the mantra a pattern which is particularly prone to "spreading out" in the cortex.

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