"冥想瑜伽"印度盛行 有效預防心臟病

背景知識：在60年代，由於披頭士中的George Harrison喬治哈里森的帶領，許多合唱團對印度的音樂、樂器發生了興趣。1964年，當Beatles的音樂橫掃全美之際，George Harrison被印度樂器西塔琴Sitar深深吸引了。於是他跟隨印度傳統樂器大師Ravi Shankar(拉維香客)學習。他學習的成果，在Beatles的唱片Rubber Soul專輯中的Norwigean Wood一曲中首次與世人見面。因此而導致的學習狂潮，使得Ravi Shandan必須開班受徒，沒多久，音樂界的人士開始熱烈地Ragas,Tablas，Sarods等各式印度樂器了。披頭合唱團的興趣，從印度音樂擴展到印度的宗教和哲學，於是專程到印度跟隨冥想大師Maharishi Mahesh Yogi學習冥想。

Transcendental Meditation, made popular by the Beatles during the flower power era of the 1960s, could cut heart attack rates by half, researchers claim. The mantra meditation, which involves repeating a sound repeatedly twice daily for up to 20 minutes, lowers death rates from heart attack and strokes. The relaxation technique was used by patients with heart disease during a nine year ?2.25million trial at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

McCartney在披頭士於印度Rishikesh的Maharishi Mahesh瑜珈聚會所學習超凡冥想（Transcendental Meditation）時讓“超凡冥想”在披頭士1960年代如日中天的時期內流行起來，而研究者稱學習披頭士延續“超凡冥想”可以讓心臟病發病率徹底減半！具體方法是：每兩日一個週期，跟隨着冥想音樂重複默唸20分鐘。而這種減輕心臟病以及中風的減壓方法已經被應用在臨牀實驗中，作用於威斯康辛醫學院的病人，耗資225萬英鎊，試驗爲期9年。

Professor of Medicine Theodore Kotchen said: 'These findings are the strongest documented effects yet produced by a mind-body intervention on cardiovascular disease. 'The effect is as large or larger than major categories of drug treatment for cardiovascular disease. 'However, subjects were already taking standard medications and this effect was on top of that.'

威斯康辛醫學院的教授說道：“研究證實冥想對於減輕心血管疾病對身體的危害具有極大作用，這種方法比起藥物治療還要見效。”有資料顯示，因爲音樂震動是能通過聽覺影響人的心意或靈魂層面的深層次能量，觸動情感能量之海的心潮澎湃。所以聆聽和唱頌是瑜伽修行中開發心靈高層次能量的最好辦法，實際也是最流行的瑜伽修行。音樂震動會通過耳朵進入我們心裏，影響脈輪系統能量流動，就會觸動身，心，靈的各個層面，當然我們聆聽的內容是致關重要的，就是聆聽的音震的能量層次有多高，還有我們有多專注，這些決定了能發覺到我們生命中哪種高級的能量。At a press conference two years ago before a concert to promote Transcendental Meditation, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney recalled their 1968 trip to India to learn meditation from the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. 'Over 40 years ago, we ended up in Rishikesh,' Starr said. 'That is where we hung out with Maharishi. We had met him a few months before in Wales. Since then, sometimes a lot, sometimes a little, I have meditated. It’s a gift he gave me.' McCartney added: 'It’s one of the few things anyone has ever given to me that means so much to me. For us, it came at a time when we were looking for something to stabilise us at the end of the crazy Sixties.'

就在兩年前，披頭士成員爲推廣“超凡冥想”舉行的音樂會前發佈會會上，成員Ringo Starr 與Paul McCartney 回顧他們1968年去印度學習冥想時，感慨地說道：“40年前，我們在瑞詩凱詩（Rishikesh）-------印度最主要瑜伽靜修聖地，最著名的朝聖中心之一，找到了自己。我們需要一種力量，一種讓我們安靜下來省視自己的力量來陪伴我們度過讓我們瘋狂的60年代。”