#the O’ spa a cura di Stefano Santangelo But how could Transcendental Meditation, heir to Vedic Mysticism, have survived and prospered in a habitat - the western one - obsessed by science and populated by Positivism’s and Enlightenment’s children - or, simply, by the three phalanges of St. Thomas’ ones? The first mantra learned by those who approach Transcendental Meditation is that it is neither a religion nor a philosophy, but a meditation technique, and as such compatible with both extremes of the spectrum: atheism / religious faith atheism / religious faith. Then comes the more complex question of its relationship with contemporary Western science relationship with contemporary Western science, towards which the movers behind this technique build bridges and see analogies reflected within a large scientific bibliography - that, taking into account the only years from 1970 to 2009, sums up to 358 entries, including articles and reviews, and to date seems to have reached quota 60016. In order to understand the identity of Transcendental Meditation, the question what is consciousness? introduces the issue showing us the path through which science investigates the nature and reality of the physical universe. What the human eye perceives as compact and impenetrable is, in fact, only the most superficial level of the matter; underneath it - or rather, within it - there are molecules, their atoms and subatomic particles. A layered structure, thus, constitutes the body of the universe, and at its base lies what Albert Einstein Albert Einstein called the Unified Field, source of all the laws of nature, capable of preserving the order of things. As science does in order to reveal the nature of cosmos, Transcendental Meditation also shifts the focus from the outside to the inside of ourselves, towards an increasingly deeper level of human intelligence, corresponding to the most extensive and profound state of consciousness. During the so-called meditative state, mind transcends its apparent limits and experiences the Unified Field, the pure consciousness. But Transcendental Meditation, and the movement connected to it, didn’t just lean on solid scientific structures in search for validation, but came to create a system of their own: the so-called Maharishi Vedic Science Maharishi Vedic Science. This system of knowledge and learning, based on Maharishi’s interpretation of Vedic texts re-read in the light of Western knowledge, is divided into six programs - including a mathematical system, a medical system, the Maharishi Vedic Agriculture for the production and trade of biological food, and the Maharishi Gandharva Veda, a form of Indian classical music. the squaring of the circle: the unified field 133 the O’ spa 16 a more detailed bibliographical overview can be consulted online @ www.meditazionetrascendentale.it/list-of-publications
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