01/30/2018
From Bobby Roth, regarding teaching TM to Michael J Fox
I sat across from Michael in my office, both of us in comfortable chairs. I gave him his mantra and explained how to use it properly. He closed his eyes and began to meditate. Within seconds — literally seconds — all his tremors ceased. I am not talking gradually subsided, but just stopped. Stunned by what I saw, I closed my eyes and meditated with him. A few minutes later, when we both were done meditating, I looked over at him, and he was staring at his hands, which lay motionless on his lap. He sat like that for several more minutes, just looking at his hands.
“This moment,” he said, “is the calmest I have felt in years. Decades.”
We met the following day and, sure enough, he said the same thing happened...
Whenever he did TM, the tremors ceased. He said he had begun sleeping more soundly through the night whereas before he would wake up every one or two hours...
A month later, in another visit, Michael recalled how uncharacteristically relaxed he felt immediately prior to delivering an hour-long talk on Parkinson’s before a large audience in Toronto. ...he meditated for 20 minutes in the green room, walked out on stage, and gave one of the best talks of his life...
Although Michael’s tremors do inevitably return after he finishes his 20-minute meditation, for him the big thing has been the significant reduction in anxiety levels and the dramatic overall improvement in his quality of life.
(excerpts from Strength in Stillness, Bobby's soon to be released book on his experiences teaching TM)
