UNITED NATIONS (TIP): When you can go to the United Nations to hear a talk about meditation, you know something has changed in the world.

On Friday, March 10, 2017, Dr. Kunwarjit Singh Duggal, guest of the United Nations Salus Well-Being Network, spoke to a packed audience in the Secretariat Conf. Room 8 on “Cultivating Inner Peace for Outer Peace.” He began: “My main message here is to talk about peace. How do we achieve peace? . . . In order to take peace to the next level, we have to find peace within ourselves first before we can go on helping the rest of society.”

By his own admission, Dr. Duggal is quite passionate about meditation as an intervention for many of life’s challenges, whether worldly or personal – a universal paradigm.

His topic on Friday, particularly timely today,detailed the latest scientific research on theproven benefits of meditation. Noting the many different types of meditation, he talked about several significant studies, most focused on peace, stress and anxiety.

He quoted one randomized controlled study in which people were asked to meditate each morning for 21 days straight for a short duration of time. The researchers measured cortisol (the stress hormone) levels before and after 21 days and found a significant decrease in every participant. Notable studies also found that for patients undergoing orthopedic rehabilitation those who meditated benefitted twice as much as those who were treated only with therapeutic exercise.

One telling example was an experiment done in a troubled San Francisco school district in whichtwo 15-minute periods of quiet time wereinstitutedfor students. The results were improved test scores, attendance, psychological state and enhanced concentration. These students also reported increased calmness and decreased anger. By increasing the calmness in these students, their corresponding troubled geographical regions noted decreased crime rates and improved safety.

Dr. Duggal then presented the meditation technique practiced in Science of Spirituality, Jyoti meditation, after which everyone had a chance to meditate for a short period.

The afternoon concluded with a lively question and answer session.

Dr. Duggal was at the United Nations representing the Science of Spirituality,(NGO), a worldwide, spiritual organization dedicated to transforming lives through meditation. His father, Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj, head of Science of Spirituality, spoke at the UN last May on “Meditation as Medication for the Soul.”

Dr. Duggal is a Board-Certified Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Specialist and Assistant Professor at Rush University Meditation Center in Chicago. He lectures extensively on meditation as an effective intervention for physical and emotional medical disorders.

For more information about Science of Spirituality: www.sos.org.