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Doctor Donn Brennan, from County Kildare, was one of the first western medical doctors to train in India in Maharishi’s Vedic Approach to Health. He qualified in medicine in 1979 at University College Dublin and spent the following decade working in different specialities in hospitals throughout Ireland before becoming a General Practitioner (GP) in the UK.

However, over the years Dr Brennan became disillusioned with the conventional medical model. ‘I have always had the utmost of admiration for the compassion and industry with which my medical colleagues work to relieve suffering,’ he says. ‘And of course I recognise the benefits for the many who need these treatments, but I was always searching for something more. I was disappointed that the emphasis was on ‘disease’ rather than on ‘prevention’ and health.’

So when he came across the Ayurvedic approach to health he knew that this was the method of healing which he had been seeking. Ayurveda (from the Sanskrit root ‘Ayu’ meaning life and ‘veda’ meaning pure knowledge) is the traditional health care system of India, which has been around for millennia although it was repressed during the era of colonialism. In recent decades it has been revived through the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who founded Transcendental Meditation (TM) in the late 1950’s. Maharishi’s premise is that Veda and the ancient Vedic literature are actually the fundamentals of Natural Law, which quantum scientists also believe to be the basis of human physiology and the whole of the physical universe.

It was while working in casualty at Blanchardstown Hospital in 1981 that Dr Brennan decided to train as a teacher of Transcendental Meditation which he later taught during whatever spare bits of time he could glean whilst working in the busy casualty department at Derry Hospital.

Transcendental Meditation (TM) has been scientifically validated in over 600 research studies in 200 Universities in 30 Countries, and when he started to teach TM he was amazed at how many people reported a marked improvement in their health as their meditation practice continued.

However, it was a meeting with Dr John Duffy, an eminent Irish cardiologist who had just returned from Maharishi’s first ever European course in Ayurvedic health specifically for medical doctors, that became the turning point in his career when Dr Duffy made the point that the Ayurvedic healthcare system, which incorporates TM, connects consciousness with the physiology. So Donn spent the ensuing 18 months studying Maharishi’s Vedic Approach to Health in America and in the renowned Ayurveda University in Jamnagar in Gujurat state, India.

Since 1990 Donn has worked full time promoting, lecturing and consulting in Maharishi’s Vedic Approach to Health. He has featured in many newspaper articles and on radio and television, and in 2003 was a regular guest on RTE’s (Ireland’s Public Service Broadcaster) Open House. He has lectured and consulted in almost all the major cities in Ireland and Britain as well as in Iceland and the Channel Islands.

He has also given many seminars, advanced talks and courses, including introductory courses for medical doctors and pulse diagnosis courses. In addition, many thousands consult with him for ongoing health advice.

“I have spoken with many GP’s throughout Europe who because of its scientific validation recommend Transcendental Meditation to patients suffering from all kinds of illnesses with huge success. The contemporary medical approach that we are merely physical bodies…bits and bobs of liver, spleen, lungs etc to be looked after by individual specialists…does not bring us to optimum health. We humans are not merely material entities who happen to have an occasional thought,” says Dr Donn Brennan pointing out, in his matter of fact way, what we’ve all been trying to tell our doctors for years. “We are consciousness. We are that fine field of awareness which reverberates as mind and materialises as physical structure, and from that perspective we can heal from within ourselves.”

He is fond of the saying ‘The doctor treats but the patient heals

Dr Donn Brennan is the founding President of the Ayurvedic Practitioners Association in the United Kingdom, which is the representative body of Ayurvedic practitioners and is currently assisting in government proposals for regulating the standards and practise of Ayurveda in the UK. He is also a director of the European Herbal Practitioners Association.

He lives in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, England with his wife Ann and consults mainly in Dublin, London, Glasgow and Skelmersdale.

 

Live Better: Ayurveda

Remedies and inspirations for well-being

by Dr Donn Brennan

The Perfect Present to introduce friends and family to Ayurveda Dr Donn Brennan, one of the UK's best known practitioners of Maharishi Ayurveda, gives an elegant and highly readable account of Ayurveda for today, the three doshas, the way to health and the Ayurvedic cycles.

Live Better: Ayurveda

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