Research on Maharishi Sthapatya Veda
(also known as Maharishi Vastu) –
the Foundation of FeelGood® Homes
Examination of the Effects of Living and Working in Maharishi Vastu Buildings.
Compiled by Jon Lipman, AIA, Maharishi Sthapatya Veda Institute, Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, Iowa ,USA.
Human Orientation
Maharishi Vastu theory states that our health is affected by the direction in which our body lies, i.e., our orientation, while sleeping. It predicts that it is healthiest for us to sleep with our heads pointed to the East and most unhealthy to sleep with our heads to the North. This hypothesis has been examined by Veronica Butler, M.D., a rural Iowa physician, who discovered in a survey of her patients that those who sleep in North-facing beds score worse on a mental health survey than do those who sleep in beds with different orientations. She reported that planned statistical comparisons with directions of sleep as the grouping variable revealed that those individuals sleeping with their heads pointing North had significantly lower scores on a mental health inventory compared to patients who slept in other directions (p=0.003, which is highly statistically significant).
Travis, F., Butler, V., Rainforth, M., Alexander, C.N., Khare, R., Lipman, J. “Can a Building’s Orientation Affect the Quality of Life of the People Within? Testing Principles of Maharishi Sthāpatya Veda,’’ Journal of Social Behavior and Personality. October, 2004. Butler’s study’s subjects did not live in Maharishi Sthapatya Veda-designed houses and were generally unacquainted with Maharishi Sthapatya Veda design. Approximately 100 subjects were included in the study.
This human work is consistent with some unpublished pilot animal data from Ohio State University looking at sleep orientation and behavior (Sharma, et. al., Dept of Pathology, unpublished results). Laboratory rats were placed in narrow cages, so that the direction in which they slept could be controlled. Half of the animals were made to sleep with their heads to the East, and half of them with heads to the North. In the morning it was found that the animals that had been made to sleep with their heads to the North had elevated levels of stress hormones (including cortisone) in their bloodstream. Animals made to sleep with head to the East had reduced levels of stress hormones in their bloodstream. In addition, the animals that were made to sleep with their head to the North then displayed aggressive and anti-social behavior as noted by their increased tendency to fight with each other. Such behavior is as might be expected if their stress hormones were elevated. Conversely, the animals that were made to sleep with their head to the East displayed more peaceful behavior.
This preliminary research was conducted by Dr. Hari Sharma, M.D., Director Emeritus, Pathology Department, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, and described to the author in 1999. The experiment at that time had been conducted on a small sample of laboratory rats. Study on a larger population will be required before the research can be submitted for publication.
Thus, there is preliminary but concrete evidence in support of the Maharishi Vastu recommendation of sleep orientation’s effect on health. To understand why this finding occurs it would be useful to learn whether brain functioning differs in consistent ways when a subject’s head is oriented in different specific directions. Extremely encouraging research is now underway in human subjects examining how prefrontal cortex activity may track with head orientation. Complete, published research has also demonstrated that neurons of the brain’s pre-subiculum are orientation sensitive in some higher primates.
Head Direction Cells in the Primate Pre-Subiculum. Robert G. Robertson, P Georges-Francois, Edmund T Rolls, Stefano Panzeri. Hippocampus, published January, 1999 9(3):206-19.
