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Transcendental Meditation

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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 [2]) 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 [3], 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 involves effortless, mental use 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.[4].

The deepest state of rest in this form of meditation, according to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 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. TM is considered a form of "dhyana", using the terminology of Patanjali. However, while most translations suggest that dhyana means "concentration," this is misleading from a TM perspective. TM is "concentration" in the same way as one's attention can become attracted to a beautiful sunset, rather than as something that 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 fullfill the definition of Enlightenment - the ultimate goal of long-term TM-practice. Another term, Brahman Consciousness, is used to describe the ongoing maturation of the 7th state:

These terms are direct translations of the terms found in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

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. [5]

Research suggests that there are numerous health benefits 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).

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 [6]. 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 [7].

Other components of TM

Beyond the initial technique, the organization that teaches TM also offers 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. [8]

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 [9]. 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 [10].

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" [11]. 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 concluded that Dr. Rabinoff's data were simply made up [10]

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 [11].

At a press conference to announce the analysis of their 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." [12]

The study has become a target for many other critics and wags: Most notably, in 1994 John Hagelin received an Ig Nobel Prize [12]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.

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 [13] and crowned Dr. Tony Nader as Raja (Vedic king) [14] of the new government, which is devoted to achieving Maharishi's goals, including the practice of TM in the public schools and reconstruction of public and also private structures in 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.

Criticisms and controversies

Compared to many other Eastern inspired movements with a footing in the West, the Transcendental Meditation movement has experienced few controversies, certainly no high-profile ones. Nevertheless, there appear to exist a small body of critics of TM and its founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi drawing mainly from Christian and Jewish fundamentalists and former teachers of the Transcendental Meditation program.

The TM Movement's policy to deal with this and other types of negative phenomenon has been consistent throughout the movement's history, a rather Gandhi-like or Christian: turn the other cheek, summed up in the phrase: don't engage in negativity.

Aside personal attacks and other organized attempts to discredit the TM Movement and its representatives, the criticism include these points:

  • The TM movement is a cult or religion
The TM Movement does not claim to be a religion. In fact, it encourages it's practitioners to continue practicing whatever religion they might already pursue. Still, the connection between TM and Hinduism, from where the movement's founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi comes, appears to become increasingly evident as time passes. In the 1960s and 1970s critics focused on the claim that the mantras, or sounds used in TM might be short names for Hindu gods[15]. Later on, in the mid-70s, as the Movement started to teach Yogic Flying, critics believed they've found more ammunition, since this advanced meditation program is reported to make use of Patanjali Yoga Sutras[16].
Today, given the Movement's impressive array of practices apparently echoing features found in Hinduism, such as Jyotish (Astrology), Ayurveda (Health care), Sthapathya Veda (Architecture), etc, the issue appears more confused - or perhaps simply moot.
The TM Movement itself does not appear to view this as a problem, perhaps so since practice of TM or any other of the services offered by the TM Movement (such as Maharishi Ayurveda, etc) does not require adherence to any particular way of life or belief system.
  • TM has an adverse effect on its practitioners
The two scientific papers usually invoked by critics of TM include (1) a review made in International Journal of Psychotherapy [17], 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[18].
There appears to be an issue hinted at (though not explicitly formulated) by the criticism found in these papers - that safe practice of TM presupposes a minimum level of mental sanity.
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 in a tragic way by a fatal stabbing at the [| Maharishi University of Management] in Fairfield, Iowa [19]. The only known official TM statement about the incidence 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. [20]
MUM has reportedly been sued by the parents of the killed student on the basis that TM might be dangerous for mentally disturbed people and for not taking actions to protect the student after he had been violently attacked earlier in the day by the mentally ill student[21].
  • Scientific research in support of TM is biased
A review of the critique forwarded against TM as an effective relaxation technique indicate that none of these claims are founded on clinical studies but limit themselves to reviews of published TM performed ny others. In 2003, for example, the Middle European Journal of Medicine in 2003 reportedly claimed 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." [citation needed]
Overall, the balance of scientific research in support of TM as an effective relaxation technique vastly out-numbers papers claiming otherwise and continues to be published in medical journals; recently so in The American Journal of Cardiology[22], reportedly funded in part by a grant from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, the American Journal of Hypertension[23], and the Archives of Internal Medicine[24], a specialty journal published by the American Medical Association.
  • The TM Movement is sexist
Allegations brought forward in support of the TM Movement being sexist include the reported segregation between and women during practice of i.a. Yogic Flying and Panca-Karma treatments (Maharishi Ayurveda), and a belief apparently held by senior TM staff that females want to consider abstaining from too strenuous and/or gross activities since their nervous systems are believed to be far more subtle and delicate than that of men.
  • TM is expensive
In the late 1970s, the fee for basic initiation in the United States was $75. Today (2006), it is $2,500 [25]
The raise in fees 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.
Altruistic as this scheme appears to be in a global context (rich countries helping needy countries), what critics are highlighting here without explicitly saying so is the presence of what might be described as a strategic shift of focus the TM Movement has experienced during the last twenty five years: from an "open door" or "counter culture" pricing policy in the 1960s and 70s, to a financially more sustainable business-like approach that appears to have finally taken root.
  • The Maharishi Effect isn't there?
Certain critics have claimed that the TM Movement's reports of theexistence of a so-called Maharishi Effect, alleging that a study stating this was methologically flawed[26]. Claims made by critics that their requests to get their hands on the raw data themselves were turned down[27] have been dismissed out of hand by involved researchers[28], i.a. by pointing out that the data was already in the published material in the hands of the critics.
The perhaps most high-profile of this type of controversy is the 1993 National Demonstration Project where the TM Movement in a study claimed a life quailty improvement of 18% as the result of some 4,000 TM-Sidhi practitioners doing their meditation program in Washington D.C. , June-July 1993. The findings were ridiculed in an article in Skeptical Inquirer, a piece of journalism that has been rebutted by the TM Movement in two ways: (1) questioning the author Robert Park's tendency to indulge in "superficial, highly polemical, and seriously flawed" journalism, rather than science when writing[29]; followed by (2) explaining to Mr Parker where he got his understanding of the science involved wrong[30].
  • The TM Movement is led incompetently
This vein of criticism is internal to the TM Movement and appears to be a reaction against perceived incompetences of mostly mid-level TM leadership.

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. ^ "Carroll RT" "Carroll, RT, Skeptics Dictionary"
  11. ^ 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
  12. ^ [1]

References

Further reading

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