Activities to Practice Holistic Thinking

These are but a few of the many ways you can help students develop their holistic thinking.

1. The review activity is spelled out in the syllabus template used at the University. It includes the following steps written from the student’s point of view:
   1. At the end of the lesson, please write down in your own words what you think is the lesson’s most important point. (one sentence)
   2. Relate this main idea to the growth of your own creative potential or the knowledge of full development of consciousness you’ve gained. (one sentence)
   3. Draw a diagram or illustration that integrates the two points.
   4. One participant: Draw your picture on the board and present your review to the class. Others: Share your review with a neighbor.
2. Have students connect their own personal experience in TM to one of the 16 principles. This activity gives students practice in bridging an the theory and practice of the Science and Technology of Consciousness. They have to find the 16 principles of the Science of Creative Intelligence (The Nature of Life is to Grow, Order is Present Everywhere, etc.) in their daily life and in their meditation.
   1. Give students a list of the principles or a subset of the principles and ask them to choose one and connect it to their daily life (usually easy) and to their experience of meditation (challenging).
   2. Let the students share their connections with the class as a whole.
   3. Lead a discussion regarding the usefulness of the principles in connecting the theory of consciousness with its dynamics as experienced in the Transcendental Meditation technique.
3. Have students connect something they watch or read to the Science and Technology of Consciousness. This exercise involves creating an “STC Point” for something the students have already studied in some depth. It is the kind of thing that faculty do all the time, but in this case something that we are asking the students to practice.
4. Look at two diverse phenomena and relate the two (e.g., ecology and sociology) using some deeper principle. Students can try this with and without using a principle from SCI or from STC.