TIf Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s most important daily, puts it on the front page with a half-page photo, it must really be news. “Stockholm bus drivers are meditating to find peace” was the headline of a recent article about a health-care program created by SL, Sweden’s biggest bus company, which employs 500 bus drivers. “Participation is strictly voluntary and counts as regular worktime. One man says: ‘Today, I am a totally different guy: nicer, happier, calmer,’ and another observes, ‘The stress and tension in my work situation is almost gone.’”
The project was launched three years ago by managing director Hans Schneider after he found himself “wondering if it made sense to invest hundreds of millions on the care of the buses – the machines – but almost nothing on the care of the bus drivers – the humans.”
Osho’s Dynamic and Kundalini meditations play an essential part in SL’s “Richer Life” program. Having experienced their healing effect in a meditation course held by Bergt Stern, Sweden’s leading management coach, at his country retreat in Mullingstorp, Schneider incorporated them into the stress-management training his company set up after discovering that 80% of the staff suffered from psychosomatic stress symptoms like neck and back pain, with high rates of sick leave and heart attacks.
In an interview with Svenska Dagbladet, another big Swedish daily, Schneider said: “Meditation is an essential part of this unique program. The accident rate among bus drivers has been halved over a two-year period. The program, half of which is paid for by the government, costs $40,000 a year, which for a company of 500 employees is a minor investment compared with the enormous financial savings involved. Several organizations have already approached us, and soon this will start happening in most companies.”
A follow-up article in Dagens Nyheter reported on a 3-day seminar at Mullingstorp Institute in late spring attended by 25 Volvo managers. The seminar focused on energy issues such as openness to others and total control vs. heightened self-awareness, and the participants did Kundalini Meditation. Hans Schneider informed them about the dramatic changes in SL’s bus drivers’ attitudes and long-term benefits of his company’s mediation programs, saying: “Many bus drivers have said that this is the first time that the company is caring about them as human beings.”
Osho’s physician, who was invited from London, also gave a talk to the Volvo managers. Dagens Nyheter writes: “He has specialized in studying how meditation affects health…the Volvo managers were looking at his research graphs, diagrams and figures with great interest.”
Bus drivers in Rio de Janero are sleeping better, feeling less aggressive and having fewer accidents, thanks to a program of Osho meditations introduced by Ma Anand Ramita, who has been a disciple of Osho for three years.
The idea for the program arose when Ramita gave a therapy session to the owner of the Estrela bus company in Rio, who shared his anxieties about the high cost of accidents, repairs, victims and lawyers.
In response, Ramita offered a five day group for his drivers, including Osho Dynamic and Kundalini Meditations, and breathing techniques that she learned during an Osho Breath Training in Pune.
A total of 235 drivers attended the program, part of which involved doing meditations in the early hours of the morning when night-time drivers ended their shifts.
“The results of the program were impressive,” said Ramita. “The drivers reported that they are sleeping better, waking up more rested and more joyful. They do not feel so many physical aches and pains during their driving hours, and they feel less aggressive.
“Relations with the passengers have improved and so have relations between the drivers and the company. There are less accidents, profits have gone up, and the owners are very satisfied with the results.”
It was only after completing the project that Ramita learned of a similar program – equally successful – being undertaken with Swedish bus drivers.
Dr. Joachim Galuska runs Fachklinik Heiligenfeld in Germany, a psychiatric sanatorium with a holistic approach. From the very beginning in 1990, Osho’s meditations have been part of his clinic’s methods. “Dynamic is one of the most powerful techniques I know,” he says, “It lays bare large areas of the unconscious mind. Therefore it needs to be done in a supportive context, particularly in the beginning. Later on, one can do it on one’s own as well.” Dr. Galuska uses Osho’s meditations very discriminately: “After all, man is not an island, but part of an organic unity. Dynamic is excellent for fairly mature, normally neuro-tic personalities; people like that should experiment with it and see what it does for them. Borderliners or psychotic personalities, however, may be overtaxed. It is precisely because it is such a powerful tool that doctors should look to whom they recommend it.” Kundalini Meditation Dr. Galuska recommends even to patients with heavy psychotic disturbances: “It’s a trademark of all of Osho’s meditations that they mobilize the body’s energy system, and Kundalini allows that to happen in a far softer and more harmonious way.”
