Fox News & Wall Street Journal on Operation Warrior Wellness

Posted on April 4th, 2011

A Fox News video report about “Operation Warrior Wellness,” the David Lynch Foundation’s program to make the TM technique available to military personal and veterans, is now available online. See “Meditating With the Stars – Stars like Russell Brand lend a hand to veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder through the practice of Transcendental Meditation.” (Note: the video showing people meditating is “B roll footage” of people practicing another type of meditation. The TM technique is practiced with eyes closed and can be done sitting comfortably in a chair).

An article published in the online Wall Street Journal on 26 November 2010 titled “Filmmaker Introduces Veterans to Meditation” reports that David Lynch, “the filmmaker behind the movies ‘Blue Velvet’ and ‘Mulholland Drive’ is giving $100,000 to launch Operations Warrior Wellness, an initiative to help 10,000 veterans overcome Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other war-related illnesses through Transcendental Meditation, which he says creates ‘professional peacemakers.’

Click to see highlights of the David Lynch Foundation press conference launching Operation Warrior Wellness and of the Foundation’s second annual evening benefit gala event held in New York City.

Click to see more information and videos about combating PTSD with Transcendental Meditation.

Radio Health Journal Interviews Dr. David Leffler & Jerry Yellin

Posted on April 3rd, 2011

Dr. David Leffler, the Executive Director at the Center for Advanced Military Science (CAMS), and Jerry Yellin, co-director of Operation Warrior Wellness, were interviewed on the program Radio Health Journal by host Reed Pence on the topic “Treating and Preventing PTSD in the Armed Forces.” The show was syndicated to 440 of America’s radio stations. Click to listen to the radio show.

Radio Health Journal is “a weekly, half-hour program reporting on important issues in health and medicine. Award-winning reporting on current issues in health and medicine, featuring America’s leading health experts and the latest news in medical research.”

According to their website, “Radio Health Journal has been honored with the MADD National Media Award from Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the National Hearing Conservation Association National Media Award, the Profiles in Progress Award from the Board of Directors of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Communicator Awards Crystal Award of Excellence, and three Peter Lisagor Awards, the top honor from the Chicago Headline Club/Society of Professional Journalists. Radio Health Journal has provided listeners with award-winning coverage of issues in health since 1992.”

Clarification: During a segment of the program Dr. David Leffler was introduced as being “formerly of the Army War College.” Dr. Leffler was an Associate of the Proteus Management Group, a think-tank project since eliminated due to budget constraints, at the Center for Strategic Leadership, US Army War College. In this consultant capacity Dr. Leffler published on the topic of Invincible Defense Technology (e.g., “An Overlooked, Proven Solution to Terrorism” that appears in “55 Trends Now Shaping the Future of Terrorism”). Dr. Leffler was honored to serve the US Army War College in this capacity.

Dr. David Leffler Published in OpEdNews about TM & PTSD

Posted on March 23rd, 2011

This article, “Combating PTSD” published in OpEdNews on 23 March 2001, was written by Dr. David Leffler, the Executive Director at the Center for Advanced Military Science (CAMS). It explains that the TM program is a scientifically-verified, time-tested solution to help our military personnel, veterans and their families combat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Dr. Leffler discusses a new pilot study (under review), Iraq and Afghanistan veterans experienced a 50% drop in PTSD symptoms by the fourth week of TM practice, and greater improvements by two months and three months. This study is summarized in the new book The Resilient Warrior: Healing the Hidden Wounds of War by Jerry Yellin and Dr. Sarina Grosswald. Post Traumatic Stress Disorders: PTSD News & Information and Veteran’s Today also reprinted this article.

CBS Radio Interviews Jerry Yellin About PTSD & TM

Posted on March 15th, 2011
Jerry Yellin

“War is an addiction; it’s a curse. We have not learned one thing since David, 5000 years ago, slung a pebble at a guy and killed a giant. All we’ve done is invent better pebbles and better slingshots, human to human.” – Jerry Yellin

CBS Radio broadcaster Beecher Martin interviewed author and decorated WW II P-51 fighter pilot Jerry Yellin. Jerry is the author of the new book The Resilient Warrior: Healing the Hidden Wounds of War (2011). The thirty-minute radio interview was released on 20 February 2011 and broadcast on five CBS radio stations in the Florida Tampa Bay area. (Click to listen to the interview.)

Jerry Yellin serves as the co-director of Operation Warrior Wellness, which is a division of the David Lynch Foundation. In the CBS interview he described his wartime experiences and the difficult transition from combat to civilian life. Like other veterans, Jerry suffered from PTSD, which was not then understood. He discussed how his practice of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique transformed his life.

Besides his personal experiences of the tragedies of war, Jerry spoke about his goals to immediately start treating our military personnel and veterans who are suffering from PTSD. He also discussed the tremendous stresses that today’s military personnel are experiencing and the difficult time they are having transitioning back from combat. Jerry does not want to wait until the US government addresses these issues. He wants to help military personnel and the families of war veterans immediately. Jerry wants US warriors to learn TM as part of their basic training and says the US government could save $15 billion a year if the practice were adopted.

Jerry Yellin and Dr. David Leffler Published in The Sri Lanka Guardian

Posted on March 6th, 2011

The Sri Lanka Guardian published an article (6 March 2011) by Jerry Yellin and Dr. David Leffler titled: Find the Best Way for Combating PTSD in the Sri Lankan Military. They cite scientific research showing that all meditation practices are not the same and different meditation techniques use different procedures which have different effects on brain functioning. For this reason, they urge Sri Lankan leaders to conduct a study utilizing a random assignment protocol to investigate not only the present modalities of PTSD treatment currently used by the Sri Lankan military, but also a modality, which has already been extensively scientifically validated to reduce stress – the Transcendental Meditation® (TM) technique.