George Stephanopoulos on why the interview:

“We’re all here because we all have something in common—we all practice Transcendental Meditation. … I think that people don’t really understand exactly what it is and what a difference it has made in people’s lives.”

Jerry Seinfeld on talking about TM:

“It’s very hard to explain. … I was describing it to somebody. I was saying it’s like having you know how your phone has a charger—it’s like having a charger for your whole body and mind. That’s what TM is.”

Stephanopoulos on hearing about TM from Bob Roth:

“You said something important to me when we first started, and it answered a question I had. You said this is not a religion. It’s a technique. It’s compatible with all kinds of religions. What it really does is try to get the stress out of your life, and scientists are finding real health benefits.”

Bob Roth on TM and levels of the mind:

“The whole idea is that we have very active, noisy levels of the mind—‘I gotta go here, gotta do this, gotta do that.’ But every human being has deep within a settled, calm, silent level of their mind. Transcendental Meditation is just an effortless way to have the active, excited mind settle down and experience that inner calm. At the same time the body gains a very deep state of rest. That rest eliminates stress. It wakes up the brain and you have more energy.”

Roth on recent TM heart research:

“The American Heart Association just came out with a study a month ago that showed that Transcendental Meditation is highly effective for reducing high blood pressure, for reducing risk of stroke, and for actually reducing mortality rates by almost 50% in people who had been meditating for five years.”

Stephanopoulos on the David Lynch Foundation:

“You’re also doing some exciting work. You guys are going into schools now and helping at-risk kids, helping soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan who are suffering from post-traumatic stress—also women who have been the victims of violence.

Roth on government funding:

“The Department of Defense just provided a $2M grant to study the effects of Transcendental Meditation on post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Roth on the modern stress epidemic:

“The fact is, as Forbes magazine said, stress is the black plague of the 21st century. It’s an ugly thing. It can’t be prevented, it can’t be cured by conventional means, and now this particular meditation technique has been shown to be highly effective in eliminating post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s being used in schools where young children in urban centers have the same symptoms of PTSD as soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan.”

“It’s interesting that something so ancient and traditional—and not a religion and not a philosophy and not a change in life-style, something anyone can do—something that simple can have such a profound impact on very modern ailments.”

Stephanopoulos on government support for TM:

“And we’re seeing, as you say, the government get involved and really try to promote it and multiply the good and the difference that can come from it all.”

Roth on resiliency and the military:

“There’s a military college in Vermont called Norwich University where we’re offering TM to cadets, and the president, Admiral Schneider feels that this should be a part of basic training because it adds resiliency so that the immune system to stress is strengthened.”