Request Info > Apply > Visit Us >

Dustin as assistant coach of the Plymouth State University football team

Dustin Matthews grew up in Eliot, a small town in Maine, and attended Plymouth State University in New Hampshire, where he was captain of the football team. After obtaining an undergraduate degree in physical education, Dustin got a master’s in education and went on to assist in coaching the college football team. After he left the university, he worked as a personal trainer.

Football was very important for Dustin, and it added structure and discipline to his life. When he stopped playing, he had some trouble with drugs and alcohol and was looking for something to help him with the emptiness he felt. He became interested in meditation, and when his mother discovered the Transcendental Meditation technique they learned it together in December, 2014.

Playing for his college team

“When I first learned TM I was kind of an angry person,” said Dustin. “As soon as I learned TM, I would feel happy when I was meditating. And that feeling began to last. Now I am a different person.”

Dustin liked the rapid progress he was making with his personal growth and decided to enroll in the Maharishi Vedic Science master’s program at MIU. “There is such a variety of classes, like Maharishi AyurVeda and Maharishi Self-Pulse Reading; Maharishi Vedic Science in Physics; Physiology, Consciousness, and Veda; and Bhagavad Gita,” he said. “Some subjects are practical, like Maharishi AyurVeda, while others expand your understanding of the universe.”

When he wasn’t playing football, Dustin was pursuing his hobby of writing lyrics and rapping. Since he came to MIU, he has become more creative and prolific, and he began collaborating with fellow students. He has recorded a few songs, made a music video, and hopes to release his first album later this year. “What I am learning about higher states of consciousness often gets incorporated into my lyrics,” Dustin said.

With classmates and professor Rod Eason

“Dustin would sometimes integrate the Vedic wisdom he was learning in the classroom into highly entertaining yet knowledge-filled raps,” said Thomas Egenes, professor of Vedic Science. “All his power and energy, combined with his top-level intellect, will spell success for him in whatever he’d like to do.”

Dustin feels that focusing on the development of consciousness is the best way to achieve his goals. After his June graduation, he plans to join the Invincible America Assembly and continue making music.