21 March 2007 Press Conference Highlights

In the Global Press Conference on 21 March, Dr John Hagelin, Minister of Science and Technology of the Global Country of World Peace, spoke about the unique effectiveness of Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation in developing full brain potential for the unfoldment of leadership capability.

The Role of Transcendental Meditation in Successful Business Leadership

Dr Hagelin announced that, in the coming weeks, a series of full page advertisements in the New York Times newspaper will point out to the entire economic and business world that Transcendental Meditation can have an extraordinary role to play in the success of any businessman or business. These advertisements will make it clear that Transcendental Meditation, which is the one scientifically proven programme from the most ancient tradition, with a thousands-of-years-old track record, is causing the current upsurge of interest in meditation.

'It is the pure and powerful Vedic Teaching, revived in a systematic way in this scientific age by Maharishi, that is having all these effects which have resulted in this revolution in the field of research and brain development,' said Dr Hagelin.

In these full-page advertisements, one great businessman is pointing out to his colleagues, who may not totally understand, that this upsurge of interest in meditation everywhere is specifically due to Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation, because that is the most widely used system of meditation in the world; the most extensively researched programme; the most broadly prescribed by doctors; and the National Institutes of Health of the US Government have poured tens of millions of dollars into the research on Transcendental Meditation as the most viable, complementary system of health.

Dr Hagelin said that questions are now pouring in from the business press and leaders in business about how training in Transcendental Meditation helps to promote effective leadership and effective corporate success.

The Development of One's Full Brain Potential for Effective Leadership

A question from the press asked, 'What exactly does Transcendental Meditation offer executives in the highest levels of business or government to make them better leaders?

'Dr Hagelin said that there are many possible angles to this question because the answers are very deep and profound. 'But everyone of us has within us a CEO (chief executive officer), a dynamic leader, and that is called the CEO of the brain.'

The prefrontal cortex, which sits at the front of the brain, in front of the cortex, is also traditionally called the higher brain, said Dr Hagelin. 'The higher brain sits over the entire brain and exerts executive control over the entire brain. It organizes the activity of the whole brain, and therefore is called the CEO of the brain,' Dr Hagelin explained.

This higher brain, the CEO of the brain, is responsible for all our higher functions: learning or judgement, planning, moral reasoning, the ability to consider the implications of one's actions, foresightedness and so forth—these are the higher functions that separate the human brain from the primitive brain of other species, Dr Hagelin said.

'The higher brain and its proper development is absolutely indispensable to exhibit true leadership qualities: the ability to make decisions that avoid mistakes, decisions that are far-sighted, that are comprehensive, naturally right, that will be maximally effective—the higher brain sits as a rational filter against primitive, impulsive, aggressive, violent impulses in the so-called lower brain,' said Dr Hagelin. Thus, he concluded that the higher brain is responsible for our own executive control, our own leadership, and all the higher human functions.

'Unfortunately,' said Dr Hagelin, 'under stress, this prefrontal cortex shuts down. The higher brain shuts down, and what is left is the reactive brain, as it is called, and we behave purely in a reactive mode without capability of foresight, without breadth of comprehension, without real executive control over our reaction. 'That is the so-called fight or flight response of the brain.'

He explained that since the higher brain shuts down under stress, the stressful work place is not conducive to proper far-reaching, comprehensive, executive decisions.

'Transcendental Meditation immediately reduces and eliminates the deleterious effects of stress on brain functioning,' Dr Hagelin said, 'because Transcendental Meditation, among all its other effects, provides the physiology with a level of rest far deeper than sleep. And in that profound state of rest, rejuvenation, refreshment, and revitalization—elimination of fatigue and stress—all occur very efficiently.

'With the elimination of stress, the restoration of blood flow and functioning of the entire brain—including the critical prefrontal cortex, the CEO of the brain—turn back on,' said Dr Hagelin.

Dr Hagelin elaborated that, furthermore, under the chronic stress which pervades many of our corporations, many of our classrooms, many urban environments, and whole areas of the world today, the pre-frontal cortex shuts down chronically. Thus it is under-utilized, under-functioning, and fails to develop during its crucial, formative years between adolescence and age 25.

'So, it is particularly important that during the education, the pre-frontal cortex be properly developed. That requires the elimination of stress through Transcendental Meditation, which reduces the stress that is the barrier to proper balance in brain functioning and operation of the CEO of the brain. TM engages the total brain, including the prefrontal cortex,' Dr Hagelin explained. 'It integrates the total brain so that the prefrontal cortex exerts proper executive control over the primitive brain, over the whole brain.'

Thus, far more than just eliminating the stress that prevents the functioning of the prefrontal cortex, Transcendental Meditation actually engages the prefrontal cortex and develops it together with holistic functioning of the entire brain. 'That alone is the most essential leadership training, because we cannot be leaders without the leadership portion of our brain properly functioning and properly developed.'

'We cannot be a CEO without the CEO of the brain,' Dr Hagelin emphasized. He concluded that proper, balanced brain development is fundamental to anyone, but particularly to a CEO, who is expected to perform at a higher level and to use more innate mental potential.

'Transcendental Meditation does that directly,' Dr Hagelin said. 'It develops global EEG coherence and the integrated functioning of the entire brain. That holistic or global coherence is scientifically correlated with intelligence, IQ, executive decision-making ability, moral reasoning, all of our higher functions—creativity, alertness, reaction time, ability to function and cope effectively with any adversity. Inner silence complements the outer dynamism.'

'So, what does Transcendental Meditation give executives that other leadership training programmes don't? It gives them their own CEO of the brain,' Dr Hagelin said.

Aligning Individual Intelligence with Cosmic Intelligence for Successful Organization and Leadership

Dr Hagelin explained that Transcendental Meditation attunes the mind to Total Knowledge, total Natural Law, the Unified Field, which governs and upholds the evolutionary direction of the entire universe. The Unified Field maintains order throughout the vast, ever-expanding cosmos, upholding and integrating millions of species here on earth.

'What an incredible organizational task of Nature is that,' Dr Hagelin said. 'There are seven million species on earth, all in this intricate web of mutual support and mutual enrichment. In comparison to that the organization of the human species is nothing—certainly the organization of one business is child's play,' he said.

'We can have that capability of cosmic organizing power by enlivening that cosmic intelligence, the Unified Field, the Constitution of the Universe, in our own brain,' said Dr Hagelin.

He further elaborated that enlivening Total Knowledge, the Unified Field, in one's own awareness spontaneously brings one's thought and activity in accord with Natural Law for spontaneous maximally life-supporting, effective action and success. So, it is possible to govern a company, by making decisions that are spontaneously right and balanced.

‘'This is the spontaneous result of the expansion of human comprehension, the development of the prefrontal cortex, and the natural result of aligning individual thought and behaviour with the total Natural Law governing the universe,' Dr Hagelin said.

Maharishi Central University—The Pinnacle of Education

His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has now designed a whole university specifically for the top level of leadership training in the world. This university includes Transcendental Meditation as a fundamental element, a key component. 'Without the balanced development of the brain, we will never be a CEO without the CEO [the prefrontal cortex] functioning in our brain,' Dr Hagelin emphasized.

For these reasons, Dr Hagelin concluded that Maharishi Central University is the pinnacle of education in the world, teaching the deepest principles and most practical programmes of leadership—Unified Field-based or Total Knowledge-based leadership in every field of life.