More than 130 military and governmental leaders and medical researchers gathered on May 3rd at the Army and Navy Club in Washington, D.C. for a national summit on “Resilience, the Brain and Meditation.” The meeting investigated the extensive scientific evidence and clinical experience using the Transcendental Meditation technique to promote resilience and overcome post-traumatic stress disorder among active-duty military personnel, veterans, and cadets.

The Summit was sponsored by Operation Warrior Wellness, a division of the David Lynch Foundation, and hosted by Candy Crowley, the Emmy Award-winning host of CNN’s “State of the Union with Candy Crowley.”

Speakers included W. Scott Gould, the deputy secretary at the Veterans Administration; Dr. Richard Schneider, the 23rd president of Norwich University, the oldest private military college in the country, where Transcendental Meditation is being studied as a tool to promote resilience among cadets; Norman Rosenthal, M.D., clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical School and author of the New York Times bestseller Transcendence: Healing and Transformation through Transcendental Meditation; and Col. Brian Rees, M.D., M.P.H., Command Surgeon, 63rd Regional Support Command.

The Summit received considerable media coverage. Click on the link below to see the story that appeared in the Washington Post.

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“VA Testing Whether Meditation Can Help Treat PTSD”

• The Washington Post (May 4) FULL STORY

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The Washington Post’s article about the summit included the following highlights:

“The reality is, not all individuals we see are treatable by the techniques we use,” Gould said at a summit Thursday in Washington on the use of TM to treat post-traumatic stress suffered by veterans and active-duty service members.

By some estimates, 10 percent of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan show effects of post-traumatic stress disorder, numbers that are overwhelming the department.

“Conventional approaches fall woefully short of the mark, so we clearly need a new approach,” said Norman Rosenthal, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University’s medical school. Rosenthal told the gathering that TM, a meditative practice that advocates say helps manage stress and depression, is “possibly even a game-changer” in how to treat PTSD.

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Dr. John Hagelin, president of the David Lynch Foundation, who co-hosted the Summit with Candy Crowley and who reported on the positive effects of TM brain functioning, said the leadership in Washington is finally recognizing the benefits of Transcendental Meditation. “The problem of traumatic stress is so daunting, and the research on Transcendental Meditation is so compelling. It is gratifying to see our national leaders moving to adopt on a large scale this simple, effective technique for improving the resilience and health of the brave men and women who safeguard our country.”
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For more information on the David Lynch Foundation’s “Operation Warrior Wellness” visit:
www.davidlynchfoundation.org
and
www.operationwarriorwellness.org
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