Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

consciousness-based education and govermentpractice of the technique, balance is systematically created on all levelsof physiological functioning, and the nervous system is habituated to amore settled, coherent, and alert style of functioning. In time, a state ofcompletely integrated functioning is gained, in which pure consciousnessis spontaneously and permanently maintained. Once this state isestablished, the silent, self-referral field of awareness is always presentas a stable, non-changing ground underlying all changing statesof awareness. This integrated state of consciousness, Maharishi holds,is the basis of all excellence in life and provides the foundation for thefurther development of higher states of consciousness through thepractice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs,including Yogic Flying.Maharishi’s Programs for the Developmentof Higher States of ConsciousnessThe ultimate purpose of all aspects of the Transcendental Meditationand TM-Sidhi programs, including Yogic Flying, and Vedic Science isthe development of consciousness, the unfoldment of the full humanpotential to live life in enlightenment. Enlightenment is that fullydeveloped state of life in which one enjoys complete knowledge andlives in total fulfillment. In this state, one lives in harmony with all thelaws of nature, enjoying the full support of natural law to achieve anydesire without making mistakes.Maharishi has identified a specific sequence of higher states of consciousness,each distinct from waking, dreaming, and sleeping, which,he asserts, arise in the normal full course of human development. Eachstate of consciousness unfolds on the basis of a concrete shift in themode of the individual’s neurophysiological functioning. These statescan be distinguished from waking, dreaming, and sleeping on the basisof their distinct physiological correlates. The higher states of consciousnessthat arise in this developmental sequence are, Maharishi asserts, asource of greater joy, knowledge, and fulfillment than ordinary wakingstate life.The attainment of these higher states of consciousness is the basis forfully understanding and applying the theoretical assertions of MaharishiVedic Science. Maharishi Vedic Science is just the exposition of the fullrange of direct experience that unfolds during the course of the natural584