Operation Warrior teaches meditation to vets with PTSD

Japan. His experiences left him alone and unable to talk to anyone following the war.”The sights and the sounds and the smell and the body parts are a permanent part of my memory,” said Yellin. “To have an incredibly clear purpose of what to do everyday and then one day the war is over and everything you’ve been doing falls away, life really has no meaning.”

But in 1965, two decades after World War II, Yellin said he learned to meditate and it opened his life again.

“It gives you mental power,” said Yellin, “It’s a mind strengthening relaxation technique that allows you to get in touch with yourself.”

Randy Mackenzie, who teaches the technique in Vero Beach, said he and Yellin have submitted literature on transcendental meditation to the Indian River Veterans Council to advertise to local vets. It is only a matter of time before the Veterans Administration recognizes the value of the technique and sets money aside for it, he said.

“Basically it’s a technique that allows people to go inwards,” said Mackenzie. “In terms of benefits for veterans, it doesn’t manage stress it relieves the stress and trauma that they may have experienced in combat.”

Transcendental meditation is among the most researched of all meditation techniques and, according to Yellin, requires instructors to have six to eight months of special training.

At a gala last month at the Los Angeles Metropolitan Museum of Art involving Clint Eastwood, David Lynch, Russell Brand and other celebrities, Yellin helped to bring awareness to the plight of soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder.

TO REGISTER/DONATE:

To register call Randy Mackenzie at 772-539-7557. To donate call Jerry Yellin at 772-538-8886. Make all checks payable to the David Lynch Foundation.