LUCY MILLER WENT TO DISCOVER WHAT MAKES THE PLACE WORK

Early morning sun glints off the great golden dome at the top of the meeting hall as people take off their shoes and file through the door. Inside, every inch of floor is covered with white mattresses. Men and women, young and old, find a space, sit cross-legged and close their eyes. Then silence falls over the group.

It is quarter past seven in the morning but this is not a retreat or an ashram in India. It is a community on the outskirts of Skelmersdale, Lancashire, where life revolves around alternative therapies. This is the Sidhaland project, where more than 400 people have come to start a new way of life. There is holistic-based schooling, Ayurvedic health care, a healthy homes scheme where houses are designed according to vastu vidya (the Indian equivalent of feng shui) and, above all, meditation.

The project was set up 11 years ago by the Maharishi Foundation, which teaches transcendental meditation (TM) in Britain. Here the community can begin and end each day meditating together at the Golden Dome, as the meeting hall is known. Anyone with an interest in TM may join and it has attracted a cross-section of people. Teachers, engineers, bankers, and young families have all moved from other parts of the country to join the project.

Graham Orr, 48, a management consultant, was one of the earliest members, having previously taught TM in Edinburgh.

I liked the idea of living in a place where a large group of people were meditating together, says Graham, who lives in one of the quiet cul-de-sacs radiating from the dome with his wife Pamela, 51, an Ayurvedic technician, their daughter Eleanor, 11, and his two step-children, Bell, 28, and William, 25.

Life here is structured around meditating twice a day but there is no one saying you must do this, you must do that. You can meditate as often as you like. Some people go to the dome twice a day. Some go twice a week. Others go twice a month.

Transcendental Meditation became famous after the Beatles learned it in India in the Sixties and is now one of the most popular forms of meditation taught in the UK. More than 200,000 people have learned TM since 1960. It is a technique, not a religion, and must be taught by a qualified instructor. It involves using a mantra or special word, which is not said aloud but used as an aid to relaxing the mind.

Jonathan Hinde is director of the TM organisation in Britain and has been meditating twice a day for the past 27 years.

TM is a natural, simple technique, he says. It gives the mind the opportunity to settle down. As that happens, the body also relaxes because the mind affects the body. This deep physical rest allows you to recharge your batteries.

There is growing evidence that meditation, particularly TM, can help with a whole range of mental and physical health problems including anxiety, depression, muscle tension and high blood pressure. One study found that regular meditation could reduce the furring up of the arteries.

TM is very effective in helping stress-related health problems, says Jonathan. One study published in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension shows that if you practise TM for three months, your blood pressure will drop to the same level as if you took medication but without the side effects.

Graham and Pamela Orr go to the dome frequently, and their daughter Eleanor has started going too.

Everybody is suffering from stress to one degree or another, says Pamela, who moved to the project from Devon. We all need some sort of technique for dissolving it on a regular basis. And that can only help your health.

Pamela also works as a technician at the project's Ayurvedic health centre. Two of the most popular treatments are Panchakarma therapy, a purification treatment that rids the body of toxins, and Abhyanga massage, where two technicians massage at once for up to two hours.

At the Sidhaland project meditation does not begin and end at the dome. The community also has its own school, where every child and teacher also starts and finishes their day with meditation.

The Maharishi School is the only one of its kind in the country. It was set up by parents wanting TM to be part of their children's education. After starting out in 1986 with just one teacher and 14 children, it now has 100 pupils, aged four to 16.

Significantly, it also had the best GCSE results in Lancashire for the past five years, even though the school is not academically selective and the focus is overall personal development rather than academic achievement.

The school gets fantastic resutls even though the emphasis is not on this, says the school's bursar, Phil Mitchell. Its reputation is really growing, so much so that parents nearby, who have no previous connection with meditation, are wanting to send their children here.

Fees at the school start at £2,736 a year for the youngest children, rising to £4,000 for older pupils. TM definitely helps the children improve their concentration and to think creatively, says Phil.

One study, published in the medical journal Intelligence last month, found people who regularly practise TM improve their learning ability and become more perceptive. It also found that the IQ of students practising the technique increased, on average by five points in two years, and nine points in four years.

The school is a harmonious and happy place, says Phil. There isn't the bullying, truancy or negative behaviour you can find at other schools.

Diana Harding, 50, a former nurse, and her husband Stephen, 50, a research director, have been practising TM for 30 years. They moved to the Sidhaland project four months ago with their son Kit, 10, after living in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, for 11 years.

It was Kit who really made us decide to move. We had the choice of all kinds of secondary schools but, when it came down to it, there wasn't a school I wanted him to go to, says Diana.

I couldn't see him going anywhere except the Maharishi School. Other schools do not have the same harmonious, supportive atmosphere and even if they do get good results the children often leave very stressed.

Kit is just about to finish his first term at the Maharishi School and has settled in well.

I'm very pleased we moved, says Diana. We've been made to feel so welcome, and we love going to the dome. It produces such a harmonious feeling. Any stress just melts away.

*For more information on TM or the Sidhaland project, call the TM organisation on 08705 143 733 or log on to www.t-m.org.uk

Copyright: The Express Newspapers, 3 November 2001