(continued from last post)
It is observed in every society that some of its members do not grow up, so to speak, but remain in a child-like state of irresponsibility. So, the aforementioned “awareness of consequences”, though valuable and necessary, does not seem to be a quality that is evenly distributed amongst the population. And it doesn’t appear that it can be “grown into”, in the ordinary course of events, by every immature person. This particular power of attention is available to some people as an inborn trait. Can it also be cultivated in those who do not appear to have it? My personal experience leads me to conclude that it is indeed possible to develop this kind of attention in a systematic, measurable and predictable way.
This is how I observed attention being applied by TM -practicing convicts, in contrast to non-meditating ones: After meditating for some time, as little as one month in some cases or for more than a year in other cases, certain individuals spontaneously improved their behavior; in dramatic contrast to their behavior before learning to meditate. Many of the other meditating subjects displayed more subtle changes in behavior, but again spontaneously and enduringly. In interviews with these subjects, I found a consistent thread of reasoning behind all of the changed behaviors: they knew, while contemplating a course of action, that loss was available as an option, rather than only gain. An instinctive sense of avoidance of loss was beginning to be incorporated into their awarenesses.
Before learning meditation and during the first weeks or months afterwards, their reasoning for action seemed to include only the prospects for gain. It was as if the reality of consequences was an illusion, despite being aware of them on an intellectual level. It was like how we regard hell; it probably exists but we aren’t going to end up in there because we are not that bad. Another kind of awareness appeared to be diminished within the subjects before they learned to meditate: the value of time; of reward gained over time rather than instantly. Immediate gain after an action seemed like the most efficient means of fulfilling desires. And in the absence of “instinctive” awareness of possible loss, this was the only acceptable way to progress.
The attention span of these subjects seemed to become expanded. The usual way that we look at this is by measuring how long one can remain focused on something without being distracted. This utilitarian kind of change may have been due to the calming effect of TM that has been universally found in meditators. In addition to that, I noticed a different kind of expanded attention being displayed: an awareness of future prospects accruing from a behavior that, on its face, appeared to offer no immediate reward. An example would be the simple act of following a house rule that the subject used to break obsessively before he meditated. A growing appreciation for delayed gratification of desires was demonstrated by, for example: giving up some immediate pleasure, such as controlling the TV, in exchange for an indirectly implied and unspecified future privilege.
Desires must be fulfilled for one to feel satisfied in life; that’s a universal law of nature. To comfortably forgo actual fulfillment of a particular desire, an enduring sense of general fulfillment must be present within ones awareness in order to counterbalance the sense of loss (absence of immediate fulfillment). If that “general sense of fulfillment” is not caused by the actual fulfillment of that desire, then it must come from some precursor to “experience”: a non-active level of mind -pure consciousness, by definition. My conclusion is that a kind of “knowingness” of “potential fulfillment” has filled the psychic void caused by delaying actual fulfillment. Maharishi has described pure consciousness as a “field of total potential”. Nothing exists there, no objects, no actions, no thoughts; but “all possibilities” exist there in an unmanifest state.
If these meditating convicts were contacting that field with their attention, then they were in touch with the fulfillment of previously manifested desires; but that fulfillment was in an undeveloped or abstracted state. Their experience was “as if” the desire was fulfilled before that fulfillment actually became manifest. The void of loss was simultaneously filled by a sense of gain. Analogously, this kind of experience might be routine for those people who invest conservatively in the future. I think that the difference between us and “them” (the convicts) could be regarded simply as a difference in degree of “investment savvy”.
A subtle, abstract sense of fulfillment is not as useless as it might appear; it is the basis for hope. Hope is the driving force behind mighty efforts to overcome obstacles to achievement of ones goals. Hope can influence one to strive, to be patient and to minimize risk. Crimes are committed by those who lack patience and risk-aversion; they strive alright, not in hope, but in desperation. This displays a kind of attention that is limited to the immediate and proximate results of an action. It is the attention of a gambler; and some people are not in a position to gamble with their lives in every decision that they make. The odds are against winning and there is little room for hope. The result is more anxiety for immediate gain and less appreciation of risk and loss.
To sum this up: the convicts who continued to practice TM regularly began to behave more like normal people. A unique and special feature of the various measured and unmeasured improvements was that the subjects developed from within, rather than from without. This is important because they had a sense of authorship of their new insight, so it was “real”. They owned their world-view, rather than merely borrowing it from therapists’ concepts, or from theologians’ beliefs; borrowed just long enough to b. s. the system.
This “creator mentality”, I believe, correlated with another feature of the effects: the durability of the changes over time, despite the absence of reinforcement after the subject was released from jail. This indicates a growth of psychological self-sufficiency; which may have contributed to that same quality in the behavioral arena: facilitating financial independence and avoidance of risk (of criminal behavior). The long-term results for these TM subjects included a dramatic reduction in the rate of recidivism compared to the control group of non-meditating convicts.
A couple of quotations may give this subject some perspective:
“Dreaminess is the great barrier. But most of human consciousness even in this world is in a sort of waking-dreaming or somnambulistic state…The more I have studied the problem, the more I have become convinced that it has been a great mistake to concentrate so much attention upon evil. The real difficulty is the almost universal somnambulism in which men pass the bulk of their lives, some spending many lives without leaving that state at all. It is, in effect, a hypnotic sleep, and the real problem of religion is not the saving of human souls from evil but a dehypnotizing of the mind.”
–-Franklin Merrell-Wolff, 1936
“The newspapers report that I teach a method to help the people to get to sleep; what I am doing is teaching them how to wake up.” —Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, San Francisco, 1959
“Transcendental Meditation is the prisoner’s only friend.” –-Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Hawaii, 1958