Transcendental Meditation or TM is a form of meditation developed in 1955 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a disciple of Guru Dev. There have been some studies on Transcendental Meditation but critics have raised questions about the integrity of the scientists who conducted the studies, and the possible negative effects of Transcendental Meditation.

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") 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 Holland.

The TM Movement founded a nationally accredited university in Iowa, USA, the Maharishi University of Management in 1971; a number of schools around the world; a city in south-east Iowa, Vedic City (founded 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.

Effects of TM

Some studies indicate that regular practice of TM leads to significant, cumulative benefits in the areas of mind (Travis, Arenander & DuBois 2004), body (Barnes, Treiber & Davis 2001), behavior (Barnes, Bauza & Treiber 2003) and environment (Hagelin et al. 1999). Other studies suggest that TM has possible negative side effects.

One study showed that TM had positive effects on arterial wall thickness in African-American people with high blood pressure. (PMID 10700487)

Some organisations, however, 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.

Procedures and theory

TM is practiced for fifteen to twenty minutes twice daily while sitting with the eyes closed. In essence, the TM technique comprises the silent mental repetition of a simple sound known as a mantra. 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.

Pure consciousness

According to the teachings of TM, daily practice helps enliven in the meditator's life the field of "pure consciousness" or "pure intelligence", a field of "pure knowingness" that is expressed in the different objects of knowledge. Practitioners of TM believe that all thoughts and actions and the entire universe are expressions of the field of pure knowingness. Practitioners of TM believe that the field of creative intelligence

Mantra

In the teaching of the TM organization the mantra is a meaningless sound specifically chosen and communicated to the meditator at the time of initiation, to have a soothing effect upon the individual's nervous system. The TM organization encourages practitioners to keep their mantra private and never to repeat it aloud, since it allegedly has the effect of moving the attention inward toward more 'refined' levels of the mind.

Fees & Finances

Initiation into TM is not free. In the late 1970s, the fee for basic initiation was $75 in the United States. Since then, the price has risen to $2,500 (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. 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 never been employed outside the TM organization (and related companies) since they became TM teachers in the 1960s and 1970s. Prospective meditators should also be aware that TM initiates are sometimes approached by TM teachers and "sidhas" 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.

TM and religion

Despite the fact that different practitioners of TM practice many of the world's different religions, and religious practitioners are encouraged by Maharishi to continue with their own religion, there is some controversy as to whether TM is a religion. Those who say it is a religion point to the puja, a Hindu ceremony that everyone who learns TM must go through , its reference and use of Hindu scriptures and terms (see below), use of the Hindu Astrology (jyotish) , use of Yagya Hindu fire ceremonies and that the TM organization celebrates Hindu holidays .

In the TM-Sidhi Program, selected Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 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 in which the names of Vedic-Hindu deities are recited.

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, verifiable and not based on religious beliefs.

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 (Malnak v. Yogi, D.C. Civil Action No. 76-0341.)

Criticisms and controversies

Criticisms and controversies can be divided in different categories: possible negative side effects, the high price of instruction, TM-Sidhi Program and Maharishi Effect, political activities of the TM organization, sexism and the TM organization, and importance of correct buildings.

Possible adverse effects

Critics of TM refer to a paper that reviews 75 studies on various meditation techniques . The study found that 63%

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 then 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.)

The High Price of TM

Many people feel that a course fee of $2500 USD (price as of the early 2000's) 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. Evidence of this unreasonableness is that some of Maharishi's TM teachers are breaking with him to offer a comparable technique at very low prices. They include in the UK and in Italy and the USA.

TM-Sidhi Program and Maharishi Effect

James Randi, noted skeptic and critic of paranormal claims, investigated the claims of Dr. Rabinoff, a MIU professor and TM researcher on the "Maharishi effect" which claimed 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).

Publications on Maharishi's technologies

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

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 presidential 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 is advocating a parallel system of government based on Vedic traditions and knowledge

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 women are not barred from becoming teachers of TM, they are rarely seen in positions of political leadership, especially 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 in its Global Country of World Peace (all of the 40 appointed ministers were men) or as spokespersons for Maharishi’s weekly televised press conferences.

The Maharishi 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. Also, live and televised presentations sponsored by the TM organization patronizingly refer to women as “ladies," and men simply as “men." Over the years, the TM organization has implemented a deliberate policy of segregating the sexes in its parochial schools, course facilities, assemblies, etc.

TM emphasis of Vedically correct buildings

In his televised press conference of November 16, 2005, Maharishi emphasized that it was vital for everyone in the world to live and work in buildings constructed according to proper Vastu, an Indian philosophy that resembles Feng Shui, the belief that the arrangement and layout of one's home has important effects on all areas of one's life. 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 un-Vedically correct structures. All builders in the world are being approached and encouraged to build subdivisions of Vastu homes as soon as possible so that everyone (not just those who practice TM) can benefit from the claimed positive influence of these buildings.

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

References

• from the Scientia Institute

Further reading

• Transzendentale Meditation

Méditation transcendantale מדיטציה טרנסנדנטלית Transcendente meditatie Трансцендентальная медитация