Paul Roochnik

Study Arabic? It first occurred to me in 1979. I was completing my B.A. and also teaching in New Jersey (teaching what? Keep reading!), and my colleague, Dave returned from Egypt, having taught in Cairo for a year. Dave had enjoyed great success in Cairo, despite his inability to speak Arabic. The wheels in my brain began to turn: “If Dave did so well speaking only English, imagine how well I could do if I were first to learn Arabic!”

Flashback to October 1972. I had recently entered my first year at Clark University in Worcester, MA. High school had not prepared me for the overwhelming academic intensity. Stress and anxiety ruled my life. One day a brochure appeared in my mailbox: “Learn the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique, a scientifically validated program to eliminate stress, raise IQ, and improve mental clarity.” Later that week, I attended a TM lecture to learn more about it. Heading home, I stopped by my friend’s room to ask him what he knew about this TM thing. To my astonishment, Jim had received TM instruction the previous year and extolled the benefits: less stress, more energy, inner silence, higher grades. A week later I took the plunge and received personal instruction.

Fast-forward 1 year to October 1973. I was a young American Jew with a rigidly Zionist attitude, living on a kibbutz in Israel’s Galilee region, having arrived only a month before the Yom Kippur War broke out. Every kibbutz family lost a loved one: either a father, a son, a brother, a grandson, an uncle, or a nephew. Despite the need to race down to the bomb shelters every time the warning siren sounded, I never gave up my twice daily, 20-minute TM practice. It gave me peace in the midst of war, but I started wondering: why must Jews and Arabs kill one another? Can we not find a better approach to resolving our conflicts? My Israeli kibbutz friends reacted with bitterness and hostility to the prospect of ever reconciling with the Arabs. “They are the enemy. You do not befriend your enemy. You kill him.”

I encountered an entirely different type of Israeli, however, in June 1974 when I attended an advanced TM course near the Israeli town of Hadera (about half-way between Tel Aviv and Haifa). Like the kibbutzniks, these “meditators” had lost loved ones during the war. All the men, both active duty and reservists, had seen military action either in the Golan or in the Sinai. These Israelis, however, had let go of their personal antagonism to the Arabs. They had concluded, as had I, that bombs and bullets might win battles, but could never achieve peace. Peace between nations must begin with peace within individuals, and the Transcendental Meditation technique could contribute to that endeavor.

Then and there I decided to undertake the 1-year TM instructor training course: what better way could I contribute to peace? Fast-forward again to Thanksgiving 1975. I had just received TM instructor certification from the founder of the Transcendental Meditation program, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I now embarked on my TM teaching career. In the next three years, I would instruct some 200-300 individuals in the TM technique.

And then Dave returned from Egypt in 1979. Yes, as you can guess by now, it was the TM technique that Dave was teaching in Cairo. It struck me: let me learn Arabic and I will take Dave’s place in Egypt! Problem: I had just completed my B.A. and had no more money to go elsewhere to study Arabic. I crossed the Hudson River to Columbia University and took a job as secretary in the history department for $100 per week. Low wages even by 1979 standards, but Columbia allowed all its employees to take courses for free, including Arabic! There’s an old Egyptian saying, “Abu balash, kathar minhu!” – “If it’s free, take a lot!” And man, did I ever take a lot!

5 semesters of Arabic later, I traveled to Egypt, to teach English at the American Cultural Center in Alexandria; I would teach TM in my spare time, or so I planned. The reality turned out different. In my spare time I did not teach TM, but instead, concentrated on learning more Arabic! The Egyptian people received me with such warmth and kindness, that I spent all my free hours socializing with Egyptians and practicing Arabic. That year, my first real encounter with Arabs on a daily basis, was one of the happiest years of my life.

Yet again, let us fast-forward to June 1993: I completed my Ph.D. in Arabic and Linguistics at Georgetown University. Between then and now, I have been teaching and translating Arabic. My passion for the Arabic language and culture grows deeper with the passing years, but whatever happened to my idea of contributing to peace between Arabs and Jews through Transcendental Meditation?

Consider: during the peak of the Lebanon Civil War, several hundred advanced TM meditators traveled to Israel, to practice “yogic flying” in large groups. TM founder Maharishi accurately predicted that this would cool down the stress of the entire region and reduce the violence. Studies published in peer review journals showed that on those days when the number of people practicing “yogic flying” together reached the square root of 1% of the regional population, the number of war casualties for those days diminished significantly.

How can the coherence created by a small number of people practicing Transcendental Meditation and “yogic flying” together in one place affect a large population? Two words: field effect. Consciousness is a field, just like electro-magnetism. When you bring perfect coherence to the brain function of a small group, that coherence spreads through the field of consciousness and positively impacts the brain function of others in the immediate vicinity. Estimate the combined population of Israel and Lebanon at 12 million. 1% of 12 million = 120,000. The square root of 120,000 = 346. It would take only 346 advanced TM meditators practicing “yogic flying” together to cool down the violence. What about Iraq? The population is around 26 million. The square root of 1% of 26 million would be 510: It would take only 510 advanced TM meditators practicing “yogic flying” together somewhere in Iraq to cool down the violence.

Does this “yogic flying” phenomenon seems absurd? Admit it: of course it does, but it is real and scientifically verified, and this is its great strength. Researchers have monitored this field effect of consciousness in studies carried out in the Middle East, Central America, North America, and Africa and published the results in such prestigious peer-reviewed journals as Journal of Crime and Justice, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Social Indicators Research, and Journal of Mind and Behavior. If we really want to save lives in Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East, all it takes is to set up small permanent groups of yogic flyers in these hot spots and watch the violence diminish.

One last word from the personal side: if TM can change a rigid Zionist into a devotee of Arab culture, then it must surely possess transformative power.