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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 ofproposals 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 Meditation 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
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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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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
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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
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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
State
Dreaming
State
Low
TM Technique:
Pure Consciousness
Deep
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
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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
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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.
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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.
6. MACROSCOPIC QUANTUM MECHANISMS
IN BIOLOGY AND THE BRAIN
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.
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.
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).
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
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
660
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
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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.
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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)
8. THE FIFTH STATE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
AND THE TWO-FLUID MODEL
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.
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
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-
662
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
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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.
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 experience (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.
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).
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.
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)).
11. EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE
EDUCATION OF THE SCIENTIST
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
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
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.
Levine, Hebert, Haynes and Strobel ( 18) detected the
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.
BILATERAL FRONTAL (F3/F4)
EEG
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:
Cxy,f =Ax,fLA"y,f +Bx,f By,f
Qxy,f =BA
x,f y,f -BA
y,f x,f
Levine et al. define the coherence function at frequency f
as:
Y
2
= [<Cxy,r>
2
+
2
<Qxy,r> ][<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:
y
2
=<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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0
5
10
15
FREQUENCY (Hz)
20
25 .5
1.0
TOTAL
COHERENCE
FIG. 2. VARIETIES OF COHERENCE INCREASES SPECIFIC TO THE
TM TECHNIQUE. This bilateral frontal caspar shows three dif-
ferent 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)
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BILATERAL CENTRAL (C3/C4)
0
5
10
15
FREQUENCY (Hz)
20
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HOMOLATERAL RIGHT (C4/F4)
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.
0
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.
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.
An illustration of a typical breathing record for this
subject showing intervals of breath suspension is reproduced here (following Farrow (8)) as Figure 7.
Figure 6 records a typical meditation period of the most
experienced subject in the Levine study, a female aged 26
In further studies of other advanced subjects reporting
clear experiences of "pure consciousness," Hebert (61)
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SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ON THE TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION PROGRAM: COLLECTED PAPERS, VOL. I
HOMOLATERAL RIGHT (C4/F4)
0
5
10
15
FREQUENCY (Hz)
20
HOMOLATERAL LEFT (C3/F3)
25 .5
1.0
TOTAL
COHERENCE
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)
FIG. 5. COSPARS DURING SLEEP ONSET.
1
c
~·a
~
E=V)
I
0
5
10
15
20
25 .5
FREQUENCY (Hz)
1.0
TOTAL
COHERENCE
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)
FIG. 6. COSPAR OF A LONG-TERM MEDITATOR.
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.
666
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
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THEORETICAL PAPERS: TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION TECHNIQUE AND QUANTUM PHYSICS
PRECONTROL (eyes open)
PRECONTROL (eyes closed)
-PAPER
TM
TECHNIQUE
STARTS I
'
' BUTTON SIGNAL f
TM
TECHNIQUE
ENDS
TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION TECHNIQUE
' '
' ' ' '
99
' ' ' ' '
POSTCONTROL (eyes open)
POSTCONTROL (eyes closed)
BREATH FLOW (ml/sec)
200
0+---TIME (min)
200
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)
FIG. 7. RECORDING OF BREATH FLOW AGAINST TIME FOR AN ADVANCED SUBJECT DURING THE TM TECHNIQUE.
PATTERNS OF RESPIRATORY SUSPENSION DURING THE TM TECHNIQUE
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
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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SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH ON THE TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION PROGRAM: COLLECTED PAPERS, VOL. I
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
668
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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