Physicians in any field might help their patients find further relief from stress and, possibly, pain by encouraging them to explore other states of consciousness, Dr. David F. O'Connell, a licensed psychologist with an office in Pottsville, said recently.
"The general public is not aware of the tremendous health benefits of regular meditation for serious, chronic mental health and medical disorders. The practice of meditation significantly reduces hypertension, has reduced symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder in returning Gulf War combat veterans and is up to nine times more effective for the treatment of addictions compared to conventional treatments," O'Connell, 60, of Womelsdorf, Berks County, said April 24.
O'Connell is putting the finishing touches on his seventh book, "Prescribing Health: Transcendental Meditation in Contemporary Medical Care." He's editing the manuscript with Dr. Deborah Bevvino, a licensed psychologist who has a psychotherapy practice at The Reading Hospital Center for Mental Health.
"Tentatively, it will be released fourth quarter 2014. The manuscript due date is in May," Sheila Burnett, sales director at Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, Maryland, said April 24.
O'Connell has an office at the former Charles M. Atkins Mansion at 396 S. Centre St., Pottsville.
Transcendental meditation was developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1957. He introduced The Beatles to it in 1967. He died in 2008.
O'Connell said he learned about meditation soon after The Beatles did.
"I just saw a poster on a telephone pole at college in Lock Haven. It said 'Transcendental meditation reduces stress and anxiety.' There was a picture of a picture of an Indian guru on it. And I thought, 'Well, I can really use that.' So I hitched a ride down to the local YMCA and listened to this lecture. I was skeptical at first and thought, 'I paid fifty bucks to learn this? This seems ridiculous. It's too simple,' " O'Connell said.
Then he tried it.
"I came out of this state. It wasn't sleep. It wasn't dreaming. It was kind of a combination of being awake but also very deeply rested, quiet inside. And then I realized, for the first time in my life, I relaxed. I didn't realize how uptight I was throughout my childhood. There were a lot of stressors in my family, and it took it's toll on me as it would anybody," O'Connell said.
This will be O'Connell's third book focusing on transcendental meditation.
The other two are:
- "Self-Recovery: Treating Addictions Using Transcendental Meditation and Maharishi Ayur-Veda," published by Harrington Park Press in 1995.
- "Awakening the Spirit: A Guide to Developing a Spiritual Program In Addictions Recovery," released by PublishAmerica in 2003.
"Generally, a good structure for meditation is to do it twice a day for 15 to 20 minutes. This particular type of meditation uses a sound, a mantra. And you close your eyes and think about that mantra in a very effortless way. We're thinking all the time. The mind is always thinking. It's an automatic process. Everybody's experience is different, but, basically, as you meditate stress in the nervous system is dissolved and you get to subtler and more refined states of awareness. This simple process, which is really letting go, surrendering and allowing your mind to settle down naturally, is kind of like a stone dropping down into a pond. You let go and it goes on its own," O'Connell said.
O'Connell said anyone interested in learning transcendental meditation can find an instructor via the website for the nonprofit Maharishi Foundation USA at www.tm.org.
Born in York, Aug. 21, 1953, O'Connell graduated from Holy Name High School, Berks County, in 1971. He earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania in 1975, a master's degree in counseling psychology from Loyola University, Baltimore, Maryland, in 1978, a doctorate in psychological studies at Temple University, Philadelphia, in 1986, and a postdoctoral master's degree in clinical psychopharmacology at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, New Jersey.