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Transcendental Meditation or TM is a form of meditation developed in 1955 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a disciple of Brahmananda Saraswati. A body of scientific research has found positive effects from Transcendental Meditation, but critics have raised questions about the validity of much of this research and about the nature of the TM Movement itself.

History

In 1957, at the end of a great "festival of spiritual luminaries" in remembrance of the previous Shankaracharya of the North, Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, his disciple Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (or simply "Maharishi" to followers) announced the formal beginning of TM. In the movement's initial stages, Maharishi operated under the auspices of an organization he called the "Spiritual Regeneration Movement".

In the early 1970s, Maharishi launched his "World Plan" to establish a TM teaching center for each million of the world's population, which at that time would have meant 3,600 TM centers throughout the world. Since 1990, Maharishi has co-ordinated his global activities from his headquarters in the town of Vlodrop in the municipality of Roerdalen in the Netherlands.

The TM Movement founded a nationally accredited university, the Maharishi University of Management (formerly, Maharishi International University), in Fairfield, Iowa, USA, in 1971; a number of schools around the world; Maharishi Vedic City in south-east Iowa, (incorporated 21 July, 2001); political parties in many countries around the world known as the Natural Law Party, the US branch having closed on April 30, 2004 (see ) in favour of the Global Country of World Peace, founded in 2002.

More than 6 million individuals worldwide have learned the Transcendental Meditation technique since its inauguration , including celebrities such as the Beatles, radio personality Howard Stern, film director David Lynch, and actresses Mia Farrow and Heather Graham.

Procedures and theory

The Transcendental Meditation technique comes from the ancient Vedic tradition of India and is practiced for twenty minutes twice daily while sitting with the eyes closed. The TM technique comprises of an effortless, silent mental repetition of a simple sound known as a mantra. The first research on the Transcendental Meditation technique, conducted at UCLA and Harvard Medical Schools and published from 1970 to 1972 in Science, American Journal of Physiology, and Scientific American, indicated that the Transcendental Meditation technique produces a state which they called “restful alertness” in the mind and body, otherwise referred to as "transcendental consciousness" .

The goal of this meditation, according to practitioners, is called pure consciousness (in Sanskrit: turiya or samadhi). The TM organization emphasizes in its teaching that the procedure for using the mantra is very important, and can only be learned from a trained teacher of TM.

Theory of Consciousness

According to Transcendental Meditation theory there are eight states of consciousness, of which the first three are familiar to non-TM meditators. The last four states fullfill the definition of Enlightenment - the ultimate goal of long-term TM-practice:

• waking state of consciousness
• dreaming state of consciousness (REM)
• dreamless sleeping state of consciousness
• Transcendental state of Consciousness (TC)
• Cosmic Consciousness (CC)
• God Consciousness (GC)
• Unity Consciousness (UC)
• Brahman Consciousness (BC)

Learning TM

The technique has been taught to people in a variety of formats over the years. Currently, it is taught - for a fee - in a seven step process, which include an introductory lecture, personal interview and instruction, and checking afterwords to verify the technique was learned properly.

TM-Related Research

Research suggests that there are numerous health benefits associated with the TM technique, including reduction of high blood pressure , younger biological age , decreased insomnia , reduction of high cholesterol , reduced illness and medical expenditures , decreased outpatient visits , decreased cigarette smoking , decreased alcohol use , and decreased anxiety .

Some studies indicate that regular practice of TM leads to significant, cumulative benefits in the areas of mind (Travis, Arenander & DuBois 2004) harv error: no target: CITEREFTravisArenanderDuBois2004 (help), body (Barnes, Treiber & Davis 2001) harv error: no target: CITEREFBarnesTreiberDavis2001 (help), behavior (Barnes, Bauza & Treiber 2003) harv error: no target: CITEREFBarnesBauzaTreiber2003 (help) and environment (Hagelin et al. 1999) harv error: no target: CITEREFHagelinRainforthOrme-JohnsonCavanaugh1999 (help). One study showed that TM had positive effects on arterial wall thickness in African-American people with high blood pressure. (PMID 10700487).

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has spent more than $21 million conducting research on the beneficial effects of the Transcendental Meditation program on heart disease alone . In 1999, NIH awarded a grant of nearly $8 million to Maharishi University of Management to establish the first research center specializing in natural preventive medicine for minorities in the U.S. The new research institute, called the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention, was inaugurated on October 11, 1999, at the University's Department of Physiology and Health in Fairfield .

Other components of TM

Beyond the initial technique, the Trancendental Mediation program includes numerous other programs, retreats and also healthcare, known as Maharishi Ayurveda.

The TM Siddhi program is an advanced technique which is claimed to deepen one's meditation and eventually lead to levitation.

The TM movement also offers its own version of Ayurveda, Indian Medicine, called Maharishi Ayurveda, practices Vedic Astrology which the movement calls Maharishi Jyotish, and has its own trademarked brand of food Vedic Organic Agriculture.

Sthapatya Veda

In his televised press conference of November 16, 2005, Maharishi stated that he believed that it was vital for everyone in the world to live and work in buildings constructed according to Sthapatya Veda or Vastu, architecture based on Vedic principles according to which the arrangement and layout of one's home has important effects on all areas of one's life (similar beliefs exist in Feng Shui). According to Sthapatya Veda, it is most auspicious for the main entrance of all structures to face the east, and all the rooms in a Vedically-correct building must be arranged around a central "Brahmastan" or seat of divinity.

In his November press conference, Maharishi said that it was very important that all members of the organization quickly move into dwellings constructed according to Vedically-correct principles and that he would no longer talk or deal with any member of the TM community who lived in structures not built according to Vedic principles.

The Maharishi University of Management demolished a Christian chapel on its campus because it was not constructed according to Vedic principles . The TM movement has encountered public resistance to its plans to tear down historic buildings in order to replace them with Vastu-compliant structures, including a former Christian monastery in the Netherlands .

TM-Sidhi Program and the Maharishi Effect

The TM movement defines the Maharishi effect as "the influence of coherence and positivity in the social and natural environment generated by the practice of the TM and TM-Sidhi programs" . James Randi, noted skeptic and critic of paranormal claims, investigated the claims of Dr. Rabinoff, an MUM professor and TM researcher on the "Maharishi effect," that a large gathering of TM meditators had reduced crime and accidents and increased crop production in the vicinity of Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa. After speaking with the Fairfield Police Department, the Iowa Department of Agriculture, and Iowa Department of Motor Vehicles, Randi said that there was no evidence to support these claims (Randi 1982) harv error: no target: CITEREFRandi1982 (help).

A more recent study on the Maharishi effect found a correlation between the installation of a permanent group of 4,000 participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs in the District of Columbia, and a 48% reduction in HRA crimes in that city . Some researchers have reviewed and dismissed this study, saying that it is methologically flawed in numerous ways . One study which wished to review the raw data upon which the claims to the validity of the "Maharishi Effect" were based was denied access to the raw data, despite numerous requests for copies of it. .

Political activities of the TM organization

The TM organization founded the Natural Law Party in 1992 in support of candidates for public office dedicated to promoting both TM and Maharishi's far-reaching political goals at all levels of society. The Party ran Dr. John Hagelin, former physics professor at Maharishi University of Management, for president of the United States in the 1992, 1996, and 2000 elections, without notable success. The Natural Law Party did not run a candidate for president in the 2004 election and the NLP is no longer a registered party in the UK. Following repeated NLP failures at the polls, Maharishi unilaterally inaugurated his own Global Country of World Peace and crowned Dr. Tony Nader as Raja (Vedic king) of the new government, which is devoted to achieving Maharishi's goals, including the practice of TM in the public schools and the demolition and reconstruction of all public and private structures throughout the world along Vedic principles. In many of his most recent weekly press conferences, Maharishi has repeatedly expressed his strong opinion that democracy is an ineffective and weak form of government. He advocates instead a parallel system of monarchical government based on Vedic traditions and knowledge in which the leadership is selected by him .

Criticisms and controversies

TM and religion

Practitioners of TM practice many of the world's different religions, and religious practitioners are encouraged by Maharishi to continue with their own religion. The TM organization explains in its introductory lectures that TM comes from an oral tradition of Vedic masters such as the Guru Dev and Shankara. The TM organization considers that the core of Hinduism, the wisdom of the Vedic Tradition, provides and illustrates technologies of consciousness that are in essence practical and verifiable and not based on religious beliefs, but whose practice is intended to cultivate spiritual enlightenment.

However, religious components are reflected in various portions of TM that are drawn from Hinduism: the puja, a Hindu ceremony that is used as the initiation ceremony during instruction of the technique , its reference and use of Hindu scriptures and terms (see below), use of the Hindu Astrology (jyotish) , use of Yagya Hindu fire ceremonies , that the TM organization celebrates Hindu holidays and that during the Puja, people are asked to get on their knees and bow before a picture of Guru Dev, Maharshi's teacher. The published works of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi include the long devotional poem Love and God and a translation of the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita. He has also stated in his lectures that the purpose of meditation is to help the individual reach God-consciousness and eventually Enlightenment.

In the TM-Sidhi Program, selected Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, considered one of the classics of Hinduism and Yoga are mentally recited immediately following the period of meditation, and those who practice the TM-Sidhi program are encouraged to end their practice by listening to recorded excerpts from the ninth and tenth mandalas of the Rig Veda, one of the foundational texts of Hinduism, in the original Sanskrit, in which the names of Vedic-Hindu deities are recited.

Hindus have criticised the movement for selling traditional Hindu knowledge through fee-based courses such as The TM-Sidhi program.

The U.S. District Court ruled in Malnak v. Yogi (1979) that under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, TM was too religious to be taught in public schools. This ruling though was referring not to the TM practise itself, but to the theoretical part, termed Science of Creative Intelligence, which was designed to go along with it (Malnak v. Yogi, D.C. Civil Action No. 76-0341).

Mantra

Mantra

In the teaching of the TM organization the mantra is a sound with no attributed meaning specifically chosen to have a calming and quietening effect on the individual's nervous system. It is communicated to the meditator at the time of initiation. The TM organization encourages practitioners to keep their mantra private and never to repeat it aloud, since doing the latter would have a disruptive influence of the desired effect of guiding the meditator's attention inward toward subtler levels of thinking. Ex-TM teachers have claimed that the mantras used in TM are based on the age and gender of the initiate. , .

In a biography called "The Maharishi" Paul Mason states that the TM mantras are so-called bija mantras, one or two syllabled sounds, which in Hinduism are related to different Gods or Goddess. . In his book, Mason reportedly quotes Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as saying--to an exclusively Indian audience at the time when the movement existed only in India-- "For our practice we select only the suitable mantras of personal Gods. Such mantras fetch to us the grace of personal Gods and make us happier in every walk of life." . Later on, as the Movement took off in the West, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi used the concepts of "Impulses of Creative Intelligence," or "Laws of Nature," to explain the same thing to His international audience.

In order to grasp the concept of a TM-mantra it is essential to understand that these mantras are not chosen, or practiced, for any superficial symbolic meaning that may (or may not) have been attached to them - but that they are choosen for their sound, or resonance, value.

As it were, a TM-mantra is a carefully choosen vehicle that effortlessly takes the mind and being of a TM-practitioner into resonance with key Laws of Nature guiding the Universe - ultimately taking him or her to the source of all the laws of nature - Pure Being or Transcendental Consciousness.

Over time, the daily practice of such transcending creates Cosmic Consciousness or Enlightenment: a state in which permanent awareness of Pure Being has become the basis of ordinary, or daily, life of a person - or, as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi states: living a 200% life - 100% inner life and 100% outer life.

Possible adverse effects

Some studies suggest that TM has possible negative side effects. Critics of TM refer to a paper that reviews 75 studies on various meditation techniques . The study found that 63% of meditators experienced negative side effects, including panic, depression, increase in tension and loss of motivation, among other. However, this review faced criticism regarding its methodology: "None of the studies reviewed tried to disentangle the effects of meditation per se from the influence of the presenting problem or/and premorbid personality of the subjects."

Leon Otis, a staff scientist at the Stanford Research Institute, found that after surveying hundreds of meditators, he concluded that "TM may be hazardous to the mental health of a sizable proportion of the people who take up TM." Otis also found that "the longer a person stays in TM and the more committed a person becomes to TM as a way of life, the greater the likelihood that he or she will experience adverse effects." He also noticed that it appeared that those who stuck with TM had more problems than those who started it and dropped out, and that the probability of occurrence of these adverse effects is higher among psychiatric populations. ("Meditation: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives" , ed. Deane H. Shapiro and Roger N. Walsh, New York, Aldine Publishing Co.)

Publications on TM in the Journal of American Medical Association

In May 1991, an article on the benefits of Maharishi Ayur Veda was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). When JAMA's editor, Dr. George D. Lundberg learned that the journal was misled about the authors' financial involvement with the TM movement, he assigned associate news editor Andrew A. Skolnick to investigate and write an expose on the movement's efforts to promote its trademarked line of Indian remedies . "An investigation of the movement's marketing practices reveals what appears to be a widespread pattern of misinformation, deception, and manipulation of lay and scientific news media," Skolnick wrote. "This campaign appears to be aimed at earning at least the look of scientific respectability for the TM movement, as well as at making profits from sales of the many products and services that carry the Maharishi's name." It also countered the article's claim that Maharishi Ayur-Veda was more cost effective than standard medical care. In July 1992, Dr. Deepak Chopra and two TM organizations filed a $194 million libel suit against Lundberg, Skolnick, and the American Medical Association. The suit was dismissed without prejudice in March 1993.

The article raised questions about the integrity of at least some of the reports from scientists involved in the TM movement. It also quotes former TM teacher and chair of the TM center in Washington, DC, Curtis Mailloux as saying: "I was taught to lie and to get around the pretty rules of the 'unenlightened' in order to get favorable reports into the media. We were taught how to exploit the reporters' gullibility and fascination with the exotic, especially what comes from the East. We thought we weren't doing anything wrong, because we were told it was often necessary to deceive the unenlightened to advance our guru's plan to save the world."

Nevertheless articles on the benefits of TM and Maharishi Ayurveda products have continued to be published in medical journals, including The American Journal of Cardiology, which was funded in part by a grant from the controversial National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the American Journal of Hypertension, and even the Archives of Internal Medicine, a specialty journal published by the American Medical Association.

Sexism and the TM organization

According to historian Stanley Wolpert (A New History of India, sixth edition, Oxford University Press: 2000), ancient Vedic society was undeniably patriarchal, and this characteristic is reflected in the present structure of the TM organization. Although many women have become teachers of TM, they are rarely seen in positions of political leadership at the highest and most visible level of the organization. Discrimination against women is evident in the organization's failure to include women as ministers of its Global Country of World Peace (all of the 40 appointed ministers were men) or as spokespersons for Maharishi’s weekly televised press conferences. Women are rarely included in the organization's globally publicized ceremonies. When a token woman is included, MUM President Dr. Bevan Morris has been known to address her by first name, for example, "Susie" for Dr. Susan Dilbeck, while reserving "Dr. Dilbeck" for her husband (also present).

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has explicitly outlined three acceptable "paths" for women in society: 1) marriage and motherhood, 2) monastic celibacy (in his "Mother Divine" program), and 3) engagement in a life-supporting profession or occupation that does not strain the allegedly delicate nervous system of female physiology.

Over the years, the TM organization has implemented a policy of segregating the sexes in its parochial schools, course facilities, and assemblies. In its elementary schools, the TM organization requires students to wear uniforms--dresses for girls (no pants). In official photographs, female TM teachers often choose to wear Indian-style dress called saris, while males tend to wear Western-style suits.

Fees and finances

Initiation into TM requires a one-time payment for instruction of the technique and lifetime access to advanced lectures and checking by a qualified teacher . In the late 1970s, the fee for basic initiation was $75 in the United States. Since then, the price has risen to $2,500 Course Requirements (the fee is lower for students, additional family members, and financing is available). Initiation into the advanced TM-Sidhi program costs thousands of dollars per person in the United States. More recently, the TM organization has added astrological readings (Jyotish) for additional fees, and Vedic Yagya ceremonies to relieve the individual of karmic obstructions for thousands of dollars per ceremony. The fees for learning TM are not uniform throughout the world. Far higher fees are charged in the United States and Europe to provide funds for TM projects in India and other countries.

Many people feel that a course fee of $2500 USD to learn TM is unreasonable, in view of Maharishi's longstanding claims that the technique is everyone's birthright and that he feels that everyone should practice it. As evidence of this unreasonableness, TM initiations have declined to a trickle and some of Maharishi's TM teachers have broken with him to offer a comparable technique at considerably lower prices. They include TM Independent in the UK and Natural Stress Relief in Italy and the USA.

TM initiates are sometimes approached by TM teachers and "siddhas" who need sponsorship in order to afford advanced courses and programs, such as the Purusha program for men and the Mother Divine program for women. Sponsorship may be requested in the form of a pledge to provide a given amount of money per month or year. These requests are sometimes made during rounding courses, when critics claim the course participant may be particularly susceptible to suggestion.

Although the finances of the TM organization have been kept secret, at least some of the funds are used to support the organization's many tax-exempt facilities and the TM teachers who administer the programs, many of whom have been employed within the TM organization (and related companies) since they became TM teachers in the 1960s and 1970s.

Murder at Maharishi University of Management

According to The Observer, the recent murder of a student by another student who stabbed his victim several times in the chest during dinner in the main dining room at Maharishi University of Management (MUM) undermines the credibility of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and the idea of the Maharishi Effect. Dr Craig Pearson, executive vice-president of Maharishi University, said: 'Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has made one comment regarding this event. He said that this is an aspect of the violence we see throughout society, including the violence that our country is perpetrating in other countries.' However, the University administration failed to report to the police an earlier, less serious stabbing of another victim on the same day by the same perpetrator and is being sued by the parents of the child who was killed, claiming that TM is dangerous for mentally disturbed people and that they failed to properly intervene after the first attack.

Questions on the validity of TM research

Some organisations have remained skeptical about TM, and meditation in general. In a report for the U.S. Army Research Institute, a National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council committee concluded that Transcendental Meditation is no more effective in lowering metabolism than are established relaxation techniques.NRC 1991

The TM organization claims to have conducted over 600 studies through 200 independent universities that have verified the positive effects of TM. However, a large-scale literature review published by the Middle European Journal of Medicine in 2003 reported that "of 700 studies on TM spanning 40 years, only 10 were conducted in the clinical tradition of using strict control groups, randomization and placebos." Peter Canteer, a researcher from Peninsula Medical School concluded in TM research, "there is a strong placebo effect going on which probably works through the expectations being set up." Quantum physicist Heinz Pagels, accused the TM movement of committing fraud through its scientific claims: "I would like to be generous to the Maharishi and his movement because it supports world peace and other high ideals. But none of these ideals could possibly be realized within the framework of a philosophy that so willfully distorts scientific truth."

In his capacity as executive director of the New York Academy of Science in 1986, Pagels submitted an affidavit on behalf of a former TM member who was suing the movement for fraud. "There is no known connection between meditation states and states of matter in physics," he wrote. "No qualified physicist that I know would claim to find such a connection without knowingly committing fraud. ... To see the beautiful and profound ideas of modern physics, the labor of generations of scientists, so willfully perverted provokes a feeling of compassion for those who might be taken in by these distortions."

Allegations that TM is a cult

Various authors, cult studies groups, and former members have alleged that TM is a dangerous cult. The Cultic Studies Journal has published two articles about TM and lists them as a cult, along with noting that four articles have been published about TM in the Cult Observer. . The Cult Awareness Network lists TM as a cult , as does Steve Hassan, editor of two books on cults. . An entire book on TM as a cult has been written called "TM & Cult Mania". . Former TM teachers, such as Don Krieger , Curtis Mailloux and Joe Kellett have also claimed that it is a cult.

Footnotes

1. Hypertension 26: 820–827, 1995
2. International Journal of Neuroscience 16: 53–58, 1982
3. Journal of Counseling and Development 64: 212–215, 1985
4. Journal of Human Stress 5: 24-27, 1979
5. The American Journal of Managed Care 3: 135–144, 1997
6. The American Journal of Managed Care 3: 135–144, 1997
7. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly 11: 13–87, 1994
8. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly 11: 13–87, 1994
9. Journal of Clinical Psychology 45: 957–974, 1989
10. Hagelin, J. S., Orme-Johnson, D. W., Rainforth, M., Cavanaugh, K., & Alexander, C. N. (1999). Results of the National Demonstration Project to Reduce Violent Crime and Improve Governmental Effectiveness in Washington, D.C. Social Indicators Research, 47, 153–201

References

• The Transcendental Meditation Program official website
• Discover the benefits - link to unofficial TM site, includes some scientific study summaries
• Behind the TM facade
• Extensive research on the Transcendental Meditation program
• Transcendental Meditation compared to other mantra techniques from the Scientia Institute
• Selected Studies on Transcendental Meditation
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Further reading

• Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on the Bhagavad-Gita : A New Translation and Commentary, Chapters 1-6
• Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: Science of Being and Art of Living : Transcendental Meditation
• The David Lynch Foundation For Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace
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• Semi-protected
• New Age
• Pseudoscience
• Meditation