Transcendental Meditation?

Answer 1

Transcendental Meditation or TM is a trademarked form of meditation developed in 1955 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a disciple of Brahmananda Saraswati. It is also the name of a movement led by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The movement claims to have a body of scientific research that shows its meditation techniques produce a variety of positive effects, for the community as well as individual practitioners. However, critics of the movement question the validity of that research, as well as the nature of the movement itself. Many critics consider the TM movement a religious cult.
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 the TM Movement. In the movement's initial stages, Maharishi operated under the auspices of an organization he called the "Spiritual Regeneration Movement." His publications during this period include a translation of the first six chapters of the Hindu scripture known as the Bhagavad-Gita, a practical manual titled The Science of Being and the Art of Living, and the long devotional poem Love and God.
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, 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 [2]) in favour of the "Global Country of World Peace," founded in 2002.
The movement claims more than 6 million people worldwide have learned the Transcendental Meditation technique since its inauguration [3], including celebrities such as the Beatles, radio personality Howard Stern, film director David Lynch, and actresses Mia Farrow and Heather Graham. For nearly eight years until leaving the movement in 1993, Deepak Chopra was one of Maharishi's most prominent spokespersons and promoters of Maharishi Ayurveda. In 1989, Maharishi invested Chopra with the title "Dhanvantari, Lord of Immortality of Heaven on Earth."[4]
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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 involves effortless, mental repetition of a simple sound known as a mantra given to the meditator at the time of initiation. The new meditator is informed that the mantra should remain private. Nevertheless, former TM teachers have published the mantras used in TM [5].
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 the the TM movement calls “restful alertness” in the mind and body.[6]. The deepest state of rest in this form of meditation, according to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, is called "Pure Consciousness". 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 authorized by the TM movement. TM is considered a form of "dhyana", using the terminology of Patanjali. However, while most translations suggest that dhyana means "concentration," the TM movement claims this is misleading from a TM perspective, because TM is "concentration" in the same way as one's attention can become attracted to a beautiful sunset, rather than as something the mind is forced to pay attention to.
Theory of Consciousness
According to Transcendental Meditation theory there are seven major states of consciousness, of which the first three are familiar to non-TM meditators. The last three states fulfill 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 Consciousness (TC) In Sanskrit, Tur¥ya Chetanå
•Cosmic Consciousness (CC) In Sanskrit, Tur¥yåt¥t Chetanå
•God Consciousness (GC) In Sanskrit, Bhagavad Chetanå
•Unity Consciousness (UC) In Sanskrit, Bråhm¥ Chetanå

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[7] process over a five- to seven-day period. The process includes an introductory lecture, group instruction, personal interview and instruction, and a free lifetime-followup program called "checking," to assure that the technique is being performed properly [8]. Personal instruction begins with a Hindu religious ceremony conducted in Sanskrit called a puja, and proceeds according to this TM teachers' directive:[9] "Teacher has prepared an altar to Guru Dev, lit a candle and incense, and spread camphor, sandalwood paste, rice, and other ritual offerings in the appropriate ritual containers prior to student's entrance." The inititate enters and presents the teacher with fresh fruit, flowers, and a clean handkerchief, who then places them on a table set up as an altar with a picture of "Guru Dev" – Maharishi's guru, Brahmananda Saraswati. At the ceremony's end, the teacher kneels and invites the initiate to kneel before the "picture of Guru Dev, His Divinity Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, Maharishi's Master, from whom we have this meditation."[10] As the teacher rises, he or she presents the initiate with a mantra [11] by repeating it and gesturing to the student to join in the chant. It was this ceremony, combined with the teaching of the theory and philosophy of the Science of Creative Intelligence (SCI) as though it were established fact, that led a federal judge in New Jersey to rule that Transcendental Meditation is too religious to be taught in public schools[12], under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution's Establishment Clause.
TM-Related Research
Research conducted or supported by the TM movement suggests that numerous health benefits are associated with the TM technique, including reduction of high blood pressure [1], younger biological age [2], decreased insomnia [3], reduction of high cholesterol [4], reduced illness and medical expenditures [5], decreased outpatient visits [6], decreased cigarette smoking [7], decreased alcohol use [8], and decreased anxiety [9].
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). One study showed that TM had positive effects on arterial wall thickness in African-American people with high blood pressure. (PMID 10700487).
A more recent study published in the American Medical Association's Archives of Internal Medicine found that coronary heart disease patients who practiced TM for 16 weeks showed improvements in blood pressure, insulin resistance, and autonomic nervous system tone, compared with a control group of patients who received health education. The researchers concluded that TM may be a novel therapeutic approach for the treatment of coronary heart disease. [13]
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has spent more than $21 million funding research on the beneficial effects of the Transcendental Meditation program on heart disease alone [14]. 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 [15].
However, many critics, such as James ***** and Robert Todd Carroll, author of the Skeptic's Dictionary[16], charge that most of this research is either trivial, poorly designed and conducted, or even cooked up to help promote the TM movement's business and recruitment campaigns.
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 [17] to investigate and write an expose on the movement's efforts to promote its trademarked line of traditional Indian remedies [18]. "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 and no part of the JAMA article was retracted.
The article raised questions about the integrity of at least some of the reports from scientists involved in the TM movement[19]. It also quotes a former TM teacher and chair of the TM center in Washington, DC, 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." [20]
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 [21], which was funded in part by a grant from NIH's controversial National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and in the American Journal of Hypertension [22].
However, reviews of the scientific literature, such as the one published in the medical journal, Wiener klinische Wochenschrift in 2003, suggest that at least some of the published benefits of TM appears to be the results of biased and poorly conducted studies.[10]
In an earlier review 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 results of a study conducted by Orme-Johnson, et al., published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (Vol.17 No.12; 21 August 2006:1359-1363), indicate that long-time practitioners (30 years or more) of TM experience "40-50% lower brain response to pain compared to" healthy control subjects. The study also claimed that the 12 control subjects then went on to learn and practice TM for a period of 5 months and afterward demonstrated a similar decrease in brain response to pain.
Other components of TM
Beyond the initial meditation technique, the TM organization offers numerous other programs and products, such as its TM-Siddhi program, which involves the silent mental recitation of selected yoga sutras of Patanjali [23], followed by portions the ninth and tenth mandalas of the Rig Veda chanted by Vedic pandits. The TM movement claims the advanced meditation technique taught in this program brings many additional benefits to practitioners -- who are called "Yogic Flyers," because Maharishi Mahesh Yogi says its practice will eventually lead to levitation. So far, only hopping not hovering has been demonstrated to non-practitioners, despite wide circulation of photographs showing TM-Siddhi practitioners hovering in the air.
The TM movement also offers Maharishi Ayurveda, its own trademarked version of Ayurveda, the traditional medicine of India; Vedic Astrology, which the movement calls Maharishi Jyotish; Vedic ceremonies called "yagyas" to purify the individual of karmic obstructions; and even its own trademarked brand of food, Vedic Organic Agriculture. [24]
Sthapatya Veda
In his televised press conference of November 16, 2005, Maharishi said he believes it is vital for everyone in the world to live and work in buildings constructed according to Sthapatya Veda or Vastuarchitecture. Sthapatya Veda is 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.
At the press conference, Maharishi said it is imperative 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 that are not consistent with Vedic principles.
According to the chief architect at Maharishi Global Construction in Fairfield, Iowa, building a home according to Maharishi's Vedically-correct principles "connects the individual intelligence of the occupant of the house to the cosmic intelligence of the universe." Homes with entrances facing west invite "poverty, lack of creativity and vitality," claims a TM pamphlet[11].
In keeping with Maharishi's directive, Maharishi University of Management demolished a Christian chapel on its campus because it was not constructed according to Vedic principles [25]. However, the TM movement is encountering public resistance to its plans to tear down historic buildings and replace them with Vastu-compliant structures, including a former Christian monastery in the Netherlands [26].
TM-Sidhi Program and the Maharishi Effect
In the mid-1970s, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi introduced his TM-Sidhi Program, which involves advanced meditation techniques by which meditators are said to achieve many great benefits. Early promotional posters for the advanced technique offered meditators powers of levitation, invisibility, the ability to walk through walls, and the "strength of an elephant."[27] The TM movement eventually stopped talking publicly about these powers, except for the ability to hover and fly; the movement claims that TM-Sidhi meditators (called Sidhas) have already achieved the first of the three stages of "Yogic Flying" – hopping. Further practice of the technique is supposed to lead to the second stage, which is hovering. When the meditators achieve the third stage, they will be flying though the sky without the help of airplanes.
The TM movement also claims that regular practice of TM and TM-Sidhi programs produces a "Maharishi Effect," which benefits society in general, not just individual practitioners, by increasing "the influence of coherence and positivity in the social and natural environment."[28]." According to Maharishi, if just the square root of one percent of the population regularly practices the TM Sidhi program together, the entire population will be blessed with the fruits of greater coherence - including reduction in violence, crime, disease, deadly storms, and other destructive natural forces. They will enjoy more abundant crops and a decrease in poverty. To help convince people of these claims, the movement has presented a number of public demonstrations of Yogic Flying, such as the one in 1999 described by Bob Park, professor of physics at the University of Maryland and author of the weekly science Internet column, What's New. The Yogic Flying demonstration was presented at a press conference at the Washington, DC Press Club by physicist and Natural Law Party Presidential candidate John Hagelin. Hagelin had called the press conference to offer help in ending the war in Kosovo by sending 7000 Yogic Flyers to create positive coherence in the violence-torn country. This is how Park described the demonstration[29]:
"Mattresses were spread right there on the floor, and 12 fit-looking young guys seated themselves in the lotus position. The audience was cautioned to make no sound as they meditated. After a few minutes, one of them suddenly levitated. Well, he didn't exactly float, mind you, just sort of popped up a couple of inches and thumped back down. Then another levitated, and another, till the scene looked like corn popping. There was nothing to suggest they didn't follow parabolic trajectories. My guess is they were suddenly contracting their gluteus maximus. It must be hard work. They were soon panting heavily."
James *****, noted skeptic and critic of paranormal claims, investigated the claims of Dr. Robert Rabinoff, an MUM physics professor and 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, ***** concluded that Rabinoff's data were simply made up [12]
A later study on the Maharishi effect purportedly found a correlation between the installation of a group of 4,000 participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs in the District of Columbia, and a reduction in violent crime in that city [13].
At another press conference to announce the analysis of that study, John Hagelin claimed that, during the period of the experiment, Washington, D.C. experienced a significant reduction in psychiatric emergency calls, fewer complaints against the police, and an increase in public approval of President Clinton -- all of which was consistent with the hypothesis that a coherence-creating group of TM experts can relieve social stress and reverse negative social trends. Overall, there was an 18 percent reduction in violent crime, he told the press. When a reporter asked, an 18 percent reduction compared to what, Hagelin answered, compared to the level of violent crime had the TM meditators not meditated. In his book Voodoo Science, physicist Robert Park called the TM study a "clinic in data manipulation." [14] The study has become a target for many other critics and wags: Most notably, in 1994 John Hagelin received an Ig Nobel Prize [30] to commemorate the study. This generally uncoveted spoof of the Nobel Prize is given annually to recognize "achievements" that "cannot, or should not, be reproduced." What astounded the critics most was the TM researchers' excuse for why Washington D.C.'s murder rate during the study periord had climbed to the highest rate in history. It would have been much higher had the TM meditators not meditated, the researchers explained.
In July 2006, Hagelin claimed that the United States government would "enjoy greater success" if the country had just 1730 (the square root of one percent of the U.S. population) Sidhas flying regularly. With at least that many practicing Yogic Flyers in the United States, "Peace and prosperity will reign, and violence and conflict will subside as America rises to become a lighthouse of coherence and invincibility for the world,” he said[31]. However, he didn't explain why the United States has increasingly become embroiled in violence and conflict throughout the world[32], even though there are nearly 2000 Sidhas in Fairfield, Iowa alone[33].
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Political activities of the TM organization
Natural Law Party
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 NLP 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, when he received fewer than 84,000 votes-or less than one tenth of one percent of the total number of votes[34]. In 1998, Hagelin choose psychiatrist and self-help book author Harold Bloomfield to be the NLP candidate for Governor of California. In 2001, Bloomfield was charged with having used Ecstasy and methamphetamine to drug and then sexually molest seven women patients. In an agreement with the prosecutor, he pleaded guilty to all but one of ten counts[35]. Bloomfield was sentenced to probation and ordered not to practice medicine for five years[36].
According to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the NLP spent nearly $2.3 million on its presidential campaign in the 1999-2000 election cycle [37]. The Natural Law Party did not run a candidate for president in the 2004 U.S. election and it is no longer a registered party in the United Kingdom.
Global Country of World Peace
Following repeated NLP failures at the polls, Maharishi unilaterally established his own government [38] and on October 12, 2000 crowned neuroscientist Tony Nader [39] Raja Raam (Vedic king) [40] - the "First Sovereign Ruler of the Global Country of World Peace." Its government is devoted to achieving Maharishi's goals, including the teaching and practice of TM in public schools and global reconstruction of all public and private structures in accordance with Vedic principles. In many of his recent weekly press conferences, Maharishi has repeatedly expressed his opinion that democracy is an ineffective and weak form of government. The Global Country of World Peace is administered by 40 ministers [41] appointed by Maharishi, all of whom are males.
In the late 1980s, when Nader was a Ph.D. candidate in neuroscience at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, he came under criticism from his MIT advisor and his superiors at Harvard, where he was a research fellow, for using his positions at the institutions to misleadingly promote Maharishi herbal products. They censured him in writing and warned him not to claim to be doing MIT- and Harvard-sanctioned research on Maharishi's herbs. Despite their warning, the claims continued. Deepak Chopra, the most prominent promoter of Maharishi Ayur-Veda, at the time, defended Nader against what he said was "prejudice and bigotry." Nader's superiors "were threatened by his paying more attention to Ayur-Veda research than to projects that they were interested in," Chopra explained. "Dr. Nader was censured and asked to discontinue his Ayur-Veda work. This in no way reflects on the quality of the research. If anything, it reflects the prejudice and bigotry of so-called objective scientists, even in prestigious institutions." Nader also drew the ire of the organizers of the Annual Meeting of the Society for Economic Botany, which was held at the University of Illinois at Chicago in June 1987. According to the organizers, Nader submitted a research abstract for a presentation that turned out to be nothing but "a bait and switch ploy and a publicity stunt" to promote Maharishi's herbal remedies[42]. However, a decade later, Nader was honored by the TM movement for what Maharishi called one of the greatest scientific discoveries of all time. For Nader's "supreme scientific discovery that the human physiology is cosmic - the sun, moon, planets, and stars are the cosmic counterpart of the human physiology," Maharishi awarded Nader his weight in gold in a ceremony broadcast live over the Internet on February 6, 1998[43]. "Professor Nader's discovery has made it possible for human beings to realise their cosmic potential, and has opened a new highway to perfection for human life," a TM press release announced. "Therefore his discovery is the supreme achievement in the history of science – more beneficial than any Nobel Prize winning research."[44] Two years later, for this discovery of "the Constitution of the Universe," Nader received more gold in the form of a large gold diadem, when Maharishi crowned him, "His Majesty Vishwa Prashasak Raja Nader Ram, First Sovereign Ruler of the Global Country of World Peace."[45] [46]
Issuing its own currency
Although recognized by no other nation in the world, Maharishi's Global Country of World Peace has issued its own currency called the "Raam."[47] According to its web site, Raams are now in circulation side by side with Euros and U.S. dollars in numerous countries, including parts of Europe and the United States.[48][49] One hundred thousand Euros worth of Raams have been offered for sale in the Netherlands [50]. To support its currency, Maharishi Global Financing has been set up to raise a "supremely divine figure of 10 trillion dollars," through the sale of "World Peace Bonds," costing 50,000 Euros (about US$63,000 on July 24, 2006) per share.
According to the Maharishi Global Financing web site, the 10 trillion U.S. dollars are "needed immediately" to develop organic agriculture on 2 billon hectares of unused land in 100 countries, in order to "eliminate poverty in the world." The investment offer claims that the three-year bonds will yield 10 to 15 percent annual interest - far higher than bonds of any nation in the world - and that "insurance companies will be involved to maximize the safety of the project."[51] In a letter to potential investors, President of Maharishi Global Financing Benjamin Feldman tells them to consider their bond purchase, "a risk-free investment."[52]
However, a spokesperson for the securities regulation agency in the Netherlands, where Maharishi Global Financing is based, urges caution before anyone invests. "A ten to 15 percent interest rate is almost impossible to guarantee," said Werner van Bastelaar, spokesperson for the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM). "The amount of $10 trillion looks impossible. All in all, any investor wanting to put their money in this should really question whether or not it is too good to be true." Although the AFM will monitor this bond sale, "there's not much that we can do." Securities with a minimum investment of 50,000 Euros are exempt from many of the provisions of Dutch law that were designed to protect widows and orphans, he said[53].
Trying to buy sovereignty
In 2002, the TM Organization had hoped to set up world headquarters for Maharishi's Global Country of World Peace on the tiny Pacific island of Rota. The 33-square-mile island, 47 miles north of Guam, is part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a protectorate of the United States. The people of Rota were offered the construction of great gardens, a peace university, and as much as a billion dollars worth of investments, if they agreed to provide land for the world headquarters of Maharishi's Global Country of World Peace. While many citizens of Rota found the offer attractive, they objected to the hitch: The deal required Rota to grant Maharishi's Vedic king, Raja Nader Raam sovereignty over a 100-acre portion of the island, which would have required Rota to secede from the Commonwealth. Preferring to stay in the U.S.-affiliated Commonwealth, the islanders turned the offer down[54]. A similar offer to buy sovereignty over a parcel of land was also turned down by the small Latin American country of Suriname. Other small, impovished nations have also been approached, but so far, the TM organization has not been able to purchase sovereignty for its country[55].
One such attempt in Costa Rica resulted in expulsion of the "prime minister" and other officials of Maharishi's Global Country of World Peace, after they pressured and paid members of a native Indian reservation for the right to appoint a king. On June 23, 2002, a ceremony was held on the Talamanca reservation, 140 miles (230 kms) south of the capital, San Jose, to appoint a TM-chosen Indian as the reservation's first king. The community balked and asked the Costa Rican government to step in. It did by ordering the TM representatives to leave the country. "It was obvious that they were promoting an independent state within Costa Rica, and we can't tolerate that," said the Central American nation's security minister Rogelio Ramos [56].
Maharishi’s Supreme Military Science
The TM organization is offering world leaders a method to make their armed forces "invincible" through the technology of "Maharishi's Supreme Military Science." One published TM study claims: "Over 50 studies indicate that groups practicing this Invincible Defence technology alleviate problems in society that may derive from collective stress, which is viewed by Maharishi as the root cause of adversarial relationships leading to war.…It has been field-tested by the Mozambique military to prevent hostilities and avert the rise of enemies. This approach could greatly improve the military's peacemaking and peacekeeping abilities, while reducing risks to personnel and civilians
Criticisms and controversies
Compared to many other Eastern-inspired religious movements with a footing in the West, the Transcendental Meditation movement has experienced no high-profile controversies. Nevertheless, the movement has outspoken critics, including scientists, former TM teachers and practitioners, and what some movement defenders call "Christian and Jewish fundamentalists."[58]
Among the major complaints of the TM movement's critics:
•Religious nature
The TM movement denies that it is a religion. In fact, it encourages its practitioners to continue practicing whatever religion they might already pursue. But critics believe that with time there is added evidence of the link between TM and Hinduism, from where the movement's founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi comes. In the 1960s and 1970s, critics focused on the fact that some of the mantras or sounds used in TM for Hindus have the meaning of gods[59]. The teaching of the TM-Siddhi Program in the mid-70s, as an advanced meditation program is based on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, as stated by the movement itself.
Today, the TM Movement offers a wide array of practices, which also echo many aspects of Hinduism, such as Jyotish (Astrology), Ayurveda (Health care), Sthapathya Veda (Architecture). However, the TM Movement says any similarities with Hinduism should present no problem, because the use of its techniques, products, and services does not require adherence to any particular way of life or belief system and that no part of the offerings is a requisit for any other part, save that the practice of TM-Sidhis program incorporates TM.
Nevertheless, in 1979 the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Malnak v. Yogi (592 F.2d 197) that under the Establishment Clause[60] of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, TM combined with its theoretical underpinnings formulated by Maharishi from traditional Hindu-Vedic sources--the Science of Creative Intelligence (SCI)--are too religious to be taught in the New Jersey public schools. The Court based its decision in part on close scrutiny of the puja ceremony required of TM initiates.
•"Cult-like"
Although members of the TM movement deny the accusation, many people, groups, and former movement members classify the movement as a destructive cult [61]. The Cultic Studies Journal has published two articles on the TM movement, lists it as a cult, and notes that four articles have been published about TM in the Cult Observer. [62]. The Cult Awareness Network lists TM as a cult [63], as does Steve Hassan, editor of two books on cults. [64]. In 1995, a report, "Cults in France," was commissioned for the French National Assembly, [65] which lists Transcendental Meditation as a cult and provides estimates of its size in France and the rest of the world, along with other information on the group. A number of books have been written on the cult-like behavior of the TM movement, including Michael A. Persinger's "TM and Cult Mania". [66]. And many former TM teachers, such as Joe Kellet [67] and Curtis Mailloux [68] have also claimed it is a deceptive and harmful cult.
•Adverse effects
The two scientific papers usually invoked by critics of TM include (1) a review made in International Journal of Psychotherapy [69], which reportedly claims an array of negative side effects from TM practice; and (2) an anthology of selected papers dealing with the "sixties counterculture," including contemporary music celebrities and drugs[70].
There appears to be an issue hinted at (though not explicitly formulated) by the criticism found in these papers - that safe practice of TM requires a minimum level of mental health.
Even though the TM Movement does not appear to have made any public statement about this, the movement claims to consistently screen potential meditators for psychiatric problems as well any use of controlled substances, which both might disqualify a person from being initiated into Transcendental Meditation or any other of the movements mentally-based techniques such as Yogic Flying.
The possibility that a minimum level of mental health is required for safe TM practice might recently have been confirmed by a stabbing at the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa [71]. The murder witnessed by many of the students in the campus dining hall, took place on March 1, 2004.
The family of the murdered student and a student who was non-fatally stabbed earlier in the day are suing MUM and the Maharishi Vedic Education Development Corporation. Their separate suits claim that the twice-daily practice of Transcendental Meditation, which the university requires of all students, can be dangerous for people with psychiatric problems. They also charge the university with failing to call the police or take action to protect students from a violent, mentally ill student (Butler v. Maharishi University of Management, US District Court, Southern District of Iowa, Central Div., Case No. 06-cv-00072; and Kilian v. Maharishi University of Management, US District Court, Southern District of Iowa).
The first of the violent incidences occurred when Shuvenda Sem, an emotionally disturbed student at MUM, stabbed a classmate in the face and neck with a pen in a sudden, unprovoked attack. According to the complaints, Sem was taken to the Dean of Men's house and the wounded student was discouraged from seeking medical attention or reporting the incident to authorities. A few hours later, the dean went to meditate and left Sem unattended. The psychotic student took a knife from the dean's kitchen, went to the campus dining hall, and stabbed a second student, five hours after the first stabbing. The student died from multiple stab wounds to his chest. Sem was found not guilty by reason of insanity and has been committed to the Iowa Medical and Classification Center at Oakdale.
The lawsuits, filed on Feb. 24, 2006, claim that the university's required twice-daily regimen of meditation can be dangerous for a mentally ill student: "In particular, Transcendental Meditation can magnify psychological problems, including the likelihood and severity of aggressive and violent behavior."[72].
The only known official TM statement about the incidents was: ..this is an aspect of the violence we see throughout society, including the violence that our country (the United States of America) is perpetrating in other countries. [73]. The MUM campus newspaper, The Review, never reported anything about the murder, although it was witnessed by many students in the dining hall[74]. A search of MUM's web site for the victim's name or his assailant's also finds nothing[75].
•Scientific research
Despite the TM Movement's claim that more than 600 scientific studies now show the benefits of practicing TM[76], a systematic review of the scientific literature in 2003 found only a tiny number of studies, which looked at the cumulative cognitive effects of TM, were properly conducted, controlled, and randomized. The reviewers found only 10 studies, and of these just four reported finding positive effects on the cognitive function of the meditators. The other six reported only, or mostly, negative results. Furthermore, the reviewers found that the four studies reporting benefits had recruited subjects who were favourably predisposed towards TM. The six, which found no benefits, had recruited subjects with no bias towards TM. The reviewers concluded: "The association observed between positive outcome, subject selection procedure, and control procedure suggests that the large positive effects reported in four trials result from an expectation effect. The claim that TM has a specific and cumulative effect on cognitive function is not supported by the evidence from randomised controlled trials."[10]
Nevertheless, the TM movement claims that scientific studies in support of TM as an effective relaxation technique vastly out-number studies that found otherwise, and that such positive studies continue to be published in respected journals; most recently The American Journal of Cardiology[77], reportedly funded in part by a grant from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the American Journal of Hypertension[78], and the Archives of Internal Medicine[79], a specialty journal published by the American Medical Association.
Critics who claim that the TM movement has been very successful in getting research funding and publications largely through deception often cite the testimony of attorney Anthony D. DeNaro, who served as Director of Grants Administration and legal counsel for Maharishi University of Management for appproximately 18 months in the mid-1970s, approximately 5 years before it attained accreditation. In an affidavit he signed and presented to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, 10 years later, in 1986, DeNaro stated: [80]
"It was obvious to me that [the] organization was so deeply immersed in a systematic, wilful pattern of fraud including tax fraud, lobbying problems and other deceptions, that it was ethically impossible for me to become involved further as legal counsel.
"I discussed this with Steve Druker [the University’s Executive Vice President], but agreed to remain as Director of Grants provided certain conditions and restrictions were met. In practice, however, because I recognized a very serious and deliberate pattern of fraud, designed, in part, to misrepresent the TM movement as a science (not as a cult), and fraudulently claim and obtain tax-exempt status with the IRS, I was a lame duck Director of Grants Administration."
Another outspoken critic was quantum physicist Heinz Pagels, who said the TM movement's scientific claims are deliberately deceptive: "I would like to be generous to the Maharishi and his movement because it supports world peace and other high ideals," he wrote. "But none of these ideals could possibly be realized within the framework of a philosophy that so willfully distorts scientific truth." [81]
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." [82]
•Sexism
Many critics also charge the Movement with being sexist and cite segregation of women during practice of i.a. Yogic Flying (the MUM campus has a separate "Golden Dome" for female "flyers") and Panchakarma treatments (which includes herbal enemas claimed to rid the body of "ama," said to be foul, sticky poisons), and a belief apparently held by senior TM staff that females should consider abstaining from too strenuous and/or gross activities because their nervous systems are more subtle and delicate than those of men.
•Fees
In the late 1970s, the fee for basic initiation in the United States was $75. Now in 2006, the initiation fee is $2,500 [83]; although the initiation fee is not the same in all countries and it appears that the high fees in i.a. United States and Europe are in fact used to fund large-scale TM projects in i.a. India, Indonesia, Kampuchea, and other countries.
•Maharishi Effect
Many critics ridicule the TM Movement's claim of a Maharishi Effect, which the movement says is produced whenever a sufficient number of TMers practice the TM-Sidhi program together. This effect, they claim, reduces crime, prevents and ends wars, detours hurricanes, and improves life in many other ways for everyone within the area, not just the TM-Sidhi practitioners. One of the most controversal studies published to support the TM movement's claim of a Maharishi Effect is the 1993 National Demonstration Project. In this study, the TM researchers led by John Hagelin, claimed to have produced an 18 percent reduction in violent crimes in Washington, D.C., by having about 4,000 TM-Sidhi practitioners practice the program daily during June and July 1993. The findings were ridiculed by critics as an example of pseudoscientific data cooking [84] by Skeptical Inquirer, and won the study's lead researcher an Ig Nobel Prize, albeit several years before the study was actually published in a peer-reviewed journal: It took the authors nearly six years to find a journal that would publish the study. The authors have responded to all criticisms of the study and stand by their findings [85], [86].
•TM Movement leadership
This vein of criticism is primarily internal to the TM Movement and appears to be a reaction against perceived incompetences of mostly mid-level TM leadership.
•The Maharishi University of Management's academic standing
For many years, the TM Movement has cited its ranking in US News and World Report's annual education guide, "America's Best Colleges," as evidence of the superior education provided by Maharishi University of Management[87]. One recent example cites its number-two ranking among Midwestern universities for "Highest Proportion of Classes Under 20[88]." However, the claim doesn't disclose that the well-known education guide has consistently given MUM the lowest "peer assessment" score among Midwest universities. This year's guide shows MUM received a rating of 1.5 out of a possible 5, putting it at the very bottom of all Midwestern colleges and universities, in the opinion of educators who were surveyed[89].
It should be noted that the University prefers to cite the results of the ACT survey of students and the National Survey of Student Engagement, which show that students and alumni rank MUM far higher than the national average. Unlike the educators surveyed by US News and World Report, many if not most MUM students and alumni are followers of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - which likely explains the large difference between the student and alumni ratings and the much lower rating from educators.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Although lots of studies have been done about TM to show that it is useful, it is simple mantra medtitation that you don't have to pay for or go to an expensive seminar to receive an empowerment or whatever. Mantra medtiation: you choose a name, sound, or very short prayer that you repeat silently with the rhythm of your breath. Sanskrit god names and "bij" syllables are said to have specially vibrational power, but power is in belief not a thing. Choose a mantra, sit in the same place for about 20 to 40 minutes every day in the morning and early evening, say your mantra and hold a vision in your mind of what is represents. Voila! Your meditating using mantrayana.

Answer 4

transcendental meditation techniq tips

http://webeditorial.blogspot.com/2014/07/transcendental-meditation-technique.html

Answer 5

TM might be a cult. Double check this view for yourself, just to be sure. Your mind is important. Be very carful when looking for a guide in this area.

This documentary is worth a watch and consideration.

I had no involvement in its production by the way.

Answer 6

Ever heard the preaching of OSHO?

Answer 7

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Answer 8

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