MIU doctoral graduate Patricia Saunders
The cover of An Antidote to Violence
Patricia speaking at the 2020 Graduation Awards Ceremony
Patricia Saunders received her PhD degree during the 2020 MIU graduation ceremonies and an Outstanding Student Award in the Maharishi Vedic Science department.
Patricia studied classical music in London and began her career as a concert pianist and composer. But when she learned the Transcendental Meditation® technique, she decided to devote her life to teaching it. She taught the TM® technique in her hometown in England and also worked on projects for the UK Transcendental Meditation organization.
When Maharishi announced the Invincible America Assembly in 2006, Patricia came to Fairfield to join. When she arrived, she was impressed with the quality of teaching and knowledge in the Maharishi Vedic Science department, so in 2007 she began her master’s degree in Maharishi Vedic ScienceSM.
“I gained such very deep insights into Veda and Vedic literature from the professors that I really never looked back,” said Patricia. Her PhD dissertation researched and documented her experiences of higher states of consciousness while reading the forty branches of the Vedic literature in sequence, as designed by Maharishi, in conjunction with her practice of the TM and TM-Sidhi® programs during the Invincible America Assembly.
While working on her thesis, Patricia also coauthored the book An Antidote to Violence with Barry Spivack. The book examines 20 peer-reviewed studies of the Maharishi Effect and how it reduces societal tensions.
Patricia explained that “The book has three aims: to inspire scientists to inspire scientists to investigate collective consciousness, to inspire them to examine the research that shows how the TM technique and its advanced programs influence the collective consciousness, and to encourage governments to create the Maharishi Effect in their own countries.”
Although Patricia has given up her musical career, in her free time she has composed several orchestral and choral pieces which were performed in Iowa. She also had two of her plays performed in Fairfield, while another received an honorable mention in a Writers Digest competition for stage plays. In addition, her poetry has been published in several online journals.