Is there a reason that NSR uses 15 minutes vs 20 in TM and a 4 vs a 2 minute post meditation period?

Why was this particular mantra used for NSR?

Do different mantas have different effects on the nervous system?

Dear mhlneuro,

Thank you for your questions. They are good ones. I'll give you answers to each question:

"Is there a reason that NSR uses 15 minutes vs 20 in TM and a 4 vs a 2 minute post meditation period?"

Yes. NSR and TM have a very big difference: TM is taught in person by a qualified and experienced teacher. NSR is learned on one's own from a manual and CD. While doing it yourself is fun and can be easier than travelling to a TM center several times, we don't get the interaction of personal instruction. And we don't have the ready access to our teacher and our meditation center to get support in the form of confirmation that we are practicing correctly, advanced lectures, as well as group meditation, picnics, and other center activities.

Consequently, in NSR we need to be a little conservative with our guidelines. 15 minutes instead of 20 means that the balance with activity will be better: the effects of stress release (see other postings here in the forum) will be more manageable. Four minutes rest at the end of each meditation session means that any residual stress release activity will have a bit more time to settle down so it isn't carried into activity as discomfort or irritability with others.

"Why was this particular mantra used for NSR?"

I assume you mean instead of one or more of the TM mantras.

When NSR was invented (around 1999), it was felt that using a different mantra would help to draw an additional distinction between NSR and TM, to help provide some legal protection. However, since then it has become clear that we have a legal right to offer instruction in transcending, including providing a genuine, effective Vedic mantra (which ours is). Feedback indicates that 100% of our clients either have a great experience with NSR and choose to continue meditating, or have some problem and choose not to contact us for help in resolving it. We know from this (and from our scientific research) that our mantra is effective.

"Do different mantas have different effects on the nervous system?"

Yes. When we meditate, the mind settles down into a very delicate state of heightened functioning. in this quiet state any sound will have a greater effect. Many people find the sound of fingernails (or chalk) scraping a chalkboard to be very unpleasant. And this is with the mind in the active waking state of consciousness.

Vedic mantras are intended for particular life styles. The mantra "Om" or "Aum", for example, enhances a reclusive way of life. For an active person to use this mantra would be a mistake, since they would tend over the months and years to isolate themselves from others and withdraw from activities. Random sounds can have even worse effects. For safety, we only use sounds that have the benefit of thousands of years of use as vehicles of transcending.

David Spector
NSR Meditation/USA

As someone who has practiced TM on an intermittent basis since first learning the technique in the mid 70s I wonder if it possible to get a better response with NSR vs TM. Do you think there is an advantage to the shorter meditation and longer post meditation periods in NSR compared to TM? In that you are a former TM teacher I am curious whether you continue TM or have switched to NSR for your personal practice?

I practice TM and the TM-Sidhi Program.

But you raise an interesting point. There actually is a possibility that NSR is "better" than TM: it is taught in a far less rigid style, which people seem to relate to better. It makes a difference in their experience, because they may be more likely to seek out answers to their questions instead of stopping meditation.

Here is an example of how I approach teaching. I found that approximately 0.5% of my clients had severe problems due to the release of stress (see thread http://www.network54.com/Forum/254541/thread/1222114830/Update+on+initial+meditations).

Since I didn't understand it enough to come up with a solution, I wrote it off as an unfortunate result either of really bad stored stress or an undiagnosed medical condition. I even added a warning to the next version of the NSR Manual (being printed now). After all, 0.5% is statistically negligible.

But I didn't forget about this problem, and, with the cooperation of one of my clients who was ready to give up NSR because of his discomfort, I found a way to fix the problem (at least for this one client). In the future, when someone has this kind of uncontrolled stress release, I will know what to try. When it comes to clients' experiences, I am humble and use the experimental method. I know my own limitations. Some TM teachers are actually arrogant; for them, there is only one thing in the world with any value: TM (see http://knol.google.com/k/tom-mckinley-ball/review-of-nsr-meditation/12b2afwdpow4t/6).

In TM, by contrast, the only technique applied by most TM teachers to those having severe problems is meditation checking (an interactive, memorized, step-by-step approach to making sure that the client's meditation technique is correct). In cases where that doesn't solve the problem, the teacher says something like, "we know this will work; you have to come back and continue getting checked." But I know that these 0.5% will not respond to checking, since they are actually meditating correctly already. Their problem is that the process of stress release is too rapid and too uncontrolled. TM has a tradition of not handling this situation well, since Maharishi preferred the fiction that TM works without modification for just about anyone (of course, you have to be able to think and follow instructions).

I have received many complaints from TM practitioners, and several who decided to try the NSR approach had outstanding subsequent experiences.

So, maybe NSR is actually better than TM? This would be a great addition to its other characteristics: learn in your own home at your own pace; low cost; and little, if any, mysticism.

David Spector
NSR Meditation/USA