Bringing Calm to the Center of Life’s Storm

MEDItATION MAN

BY Ann Brenoff If there was a perfect year in which to discover transcendental meditation, it might just have been 1968. That was the year that Bob Roth was a freshman at UC Berkeley — a campus considered Ground Zero for the anti-war movement and the cultural changes sweeping through the country at the time. He remembers living surrounded by helicopters spewing tear gas over student war protesters and Army tanks parked outside his front door. Demonstrations. Riots. Chaos. ¶ And against this backdrop, Roth did what many college students do: He took a part-time job. He sold scoops of ice cream at Swenson’s ice cream parlor, never expecting that amid the rush of pending social changes engulfing him, it would be at the ice cream shop where he would meet a guy who would ultimately alter the course of his life forever. avid Lynch Foundation Lynch avid

Bob Roth speaks about the benefits of Transcendental Meditation (TM) at a health conference in

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The college crew at Swenson’s mance, which introduces the TM was the usual motley collection of program to business, industry and hippies, straights and everything government organizations — and in between, recalls Roth. But one even some United Nations groups. guy stood out: Peter Stevens. “He Today, Roth’s student roster was like a quiet reflection pool includes a lot of very recogniz- amid the chaos,” recalls Roth, able names: Oprah, Russell Sim- “and I was drawn to him.” mons, , Martin “Peter was centered, ener- Scorsese, Mehmet Oz, Hugh getic, super-smart, kind to all, Jackman and dozens of oth- easy-going, never agitated, with an ineffable calm about him,” Roth told The Huffington Post. He learned that Peter “medi- Roth’s student roster tated,” something that Roth said was a bit of a disconnect for him. includes Oprah, Russell “Meditation was not in my vo- cabulary.” But he was intrigued Simmons, Russell Brand, and curious, and went with Ste- , Mehmet vens to a class in TM, a medita- tive practice derived from the Oz and . ancient Vedic tradition in India. After just one class, Roth was hooked. ers. He’d be embarrassed to be Today, Roth is the execu- called “meditation teacher to the tive director of the stars,” but such a description Foundation, where he has helped wouldn’t be far off. For the past bring TM programs to more than 40 years, he has meditated twice 300,000 at-risk kids in 35 coun- a day no matter where he is, in tries, as well as veterans suffering places as discombobulating as an from post-traumatic stress disor- airplane when need be. der, and women and girls who are He explains TM with the fol- survivors of domestic violence. lowing analogy: The surface of He’s also the national director of the ocean is waves and white the Center for Leadership Perfor- caps. But deeper down, the ocean is still. How TM differs from oth- er meditations, he says, is that it doesn’t attempt to still the David Lynch Founphotodation or illustration credit tk pho t o rill us tration creditk creatively. decisions ethically, thinking ” “ perform to make are able You are clearly, practices TM. of Detroit Schoolhouse Talibah Nataki from the A student more more more meditation huffington man 10.27.13

waves, but rather allow access “It’s not just about learning to to the stillness. By practicing it twice a day for 20 minutes, he relax. TM wakes up the brain said, studies have shown that people sleep better, reduce their and the executive functions. stress, and lower their blood pressure. In children, the prac- It resets the brain to perform in tice can reduce ADHD symptoms and symptoms of other learning a less ‘flight or fight’ manner.” disorders. Thousands Not all Roth’s clients are rich of at-risk students are ation and famous. One of the key fo- Roth likes to tell about the DLF’s taught TM as cuses of the David Lynch Foun- Quiet Time program — where part of “The Quiet Time” dation is to target those who thousands of at-risk children are program. aren’t and improve their lives taught TM in school. It involves

d Foun d Lynch Davi through TM. There’s a story that a little girl he called Jessica (not her real name) who lives in a crime-infested neighborhood of San Francisco. Jessica showed up meditation huffington man 10.27.13

one day at school wearing a white said Roth, “that says it all.” Students meditate dress splattered with what her As part of the Quiet Time Pro- at a San teacher, at first glance, thought gram, the foundation supplies Francisco public school. was red paint. It was blood — teachers for each child to have blood from Jessica’s uncle who one-on-one meditation instruc- had been shot that morning in a tion and follow-up. “In a school random drive-by while waiting with 1,000 students,” he said, “we with her at the bus stop. bring in 20 teachers.” Instead of running home, Jessi- The results have been gratify- ca ran to school so that she could ing, said Roth, who believes that meditate, she told her teachers. results must be quantifiable to ation The DLF Quiet Time program had matter. “Change needs to show been in her school for about a year up in grades, reduced number of at the time and for her, it made suspensions and dropout rates,” school a safe place whereas her he said. And the Quiet Time pro-

d Foun d Lynch Davi home often couldn’t be. “For me,” gram has done all that. The San Francisco Unified School District reports an 86-percent reduction in suspensions over two years in Michael Buckner/Wirephoto or illustrationImage/getty icreditmages tk pho lives through foundational can bedone t meditation. something o rill It feels like transform ” “ to help in 2011. Within” benefit “Change Begins Foundation’s David Lynch attends the Bob Roth us tration creditk

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schools where the program has “It is transforming schools and (center) talks been introduced; a 65 percent neighborhoods, and it will trans- to George Stephanopou- decrease in violent conflict at form our society.” los (left) and the John O’Connell High School; All of which is music to Roth’s Bob Roth on Good Morning and the Journal of Psychiatry ears. TM is a life-changer for in- America shows reduced ADHD symptoms dividuals, he said, but also a game in 2012. and symptoms of other learning changer in the broader sense. It ges disorders among students who may start with an individual’s de- practice TM. sire to sleep better or reduce stress, Carlos Garia, retired super- but results are similar to what hap- intendent of the San Francisco pens when you pull on one leg of Unified School District, her- the table, said Roth. “The whole ta- e Astute/getty ima a M e Astute/getty alded the program as one which ble moves.” And what moves in this

ABC/Id is “transforming lives.” He said, case are blood pressure numbers, heart attack risk factors, and the overall ability to make better deci- sions with a more focused mind. meditation huffington man 10.27.13

“You are thinking more clearly, are hard wired for: to take a profound able to make decisions more ethi- rest at will. cally, perform more creatively.” It’s Roth says the tipping point has like when you water a plant because been reached in regard to the pub- some leaves are wilting, he said, but lic’s understanding of the value of the whole plant benefits from the mediation. As he wrote on Maria water. And it spills over into those Shriver’s blog, “It feels like some- around you in a chain reaction. thing foundational can be done Companies interested in in- to help transform lives through novation are drawn to TM be- cause of the positive impact it has on their work force. It’s why Oprah had Roth bring his pro- “I want to maintain a gram to her staff of 400. “It’s not just about learning to relax,” said permanent connection Roth. “TM wakes up the brain and the executive functions. It with the intelligence of the resets the brain to perform in a less ‘flight or fight’ manner.” universe. I also can’t sleep.” And yes, it reduces stress. Whether he is teaching a home- less guy — the DLF has a pro- meditation, not only among those gram that works with New York most at-risk to suffer traumas in City homeless — or a billionaire, life, but also the teen in the pri- “they both suffer from stress,” vate school who battles the very said Roth. real demons of substance abuse But as one celebrity who shall and unspoken thoughts of suicide; remain unnamed quipped when the parent who is struggling to Roth asked her why she wanted survive an ugly divorce and still to learn to meditate, “I want to keep the family intact; or just the maintain a permanent connection person — man, woman, boy, girl — with the intelligence of the uni- who is navigating life’s daily vicis- verse. I also can’t sleep.” situdes and can’t seem to catch a TM training allows people to breath, turn off the noise, access an ability they already are get a good night’s sleep.”

Ann Brenoff is a senior writer for The Huffington Post.