Transcendental meditation: Relieving the demons of war

NEW YORK (PIX11) -- The lingering wounds of war impact tens of thousands of veterans who return from combat. They suffer from the nightmare of post-traumatic stress.

Left untreated, PTS places veterans at great risk for violent and self-destructive behavior, including suicide. More than 6500 vets die by suicide each year.

A simple technique for deep relaxation is proving to be an effective therapy to relieve the demons of war.

From the ravages of war to the peaceful tranquility of meditation, military veterans are practicing a mental technique that’s enabling them to rid their minds of negative images of combat and other scenarios. Transcendental meditation is a non-religious practice that involves sitting silently with eyes closed for 20 minutes twice a day:

Josh Pittman instructs TM at the David Lynch Foundation. He maintains, “TM allows the mind to settle down to a deep level of rest to transcend the most active level of thought to acquire calmer, more peaceful levels of mental activity.”

An estimated one million veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress, and a quarter of them are veterans of the Vietnam War.

The non-profit David Lynch Foundation's Center for Resilience, in partnership with Operation Warrior Shield has instructed thousands of veterans in TM.

Pittman says he has seen veterans from the Vietnam War era that have been going to therapy and taking all kinds of medications, and still experiencing symptoms from experiences in military service. "But when they learn tm they’re able to experience relief from it,” he declares

William Alvarez received a Purple Heart for his army service in Vietnam. He says TM helped rid him of the demons in his mind. "It’s helped me to relax and keep my blood pressure down. I'm more relaxed. It doesn’t shoot up and get control of me. I can control it," he asserts.

Army veteran Kymberly Helwig says she has benefited from TM. “It’s a very peaceful feeling when practicing meditation. It’s not what you’re experiencing while you’re in it, it’s what you get out of it actually doing it consistently.”

Eugene Thomas is a combat veteran of Desert Storm in Iraq. The war took its toll on him. “My anger was out of control,” he recalls. He turned to the David Lynch Foundation for help and began the meditation sessions. "It allowed me to separate and put energy into those things I’m passionate about and remove the energy from those things giving anger to it”

Army veteran Lisa Beatha is the director of Veterans Affairs at City University. Her trauma was not war-related, but the death of her 20-year-old daughter was. “After a while of not sleeping, not eating properly, no matter what I did, tried to exercise, it never worked, but bringing TM into it helped save my life,” she relates with a sigh of relief.

Vin Decrescenzo, vice president of the David Lynch Foundation boasts, “The results are extraordinary. Within a few days, I’ll hear them saying I haven’t slept through the night for seven years, now I’m sleeping every night. When we hear that we know we’re making a difference.”

Transcendental meditation is a lifelong tool that promotes mental and physical health. It’s proven to be a method that’s more self-empowering to veterans simply through daily relaxing sessions at home.

For more information about TM and how to get trained for it, you can contact:

David Lynch Foundation
New York Office
685 Third Avenue, 17th Floor
New York, NY 10017
Tel: +1-212-644-9880