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The transcendental meditation technique, often referred to simply as TM, is a recently popular form of meditation. Proponents have marketed it as a simple, natural, effortless and easily learned mental technique.
In 1959 the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the TM technique who had been teaching it in India, began to spread it internationally. In the early 1970s Maharishi launched "The World Plan" to have a TM teaching centre for each million of the world's population, which at that time would have meant 3,600 TM centres. Many such centres were established for a time, but not all are operational now.
In the movement's initial stages the Maharashi emphasised the religious aspects of the technique and operated under the auspices of an organisation named the 'Spiritual Regeneration Movement'. However, the requirements of the West made him adopt a more secular approach in the 1970s, renaming the movement and emphasising relaxation, relief from stress, and improved personal effectiveness as TM's primary benefits.
The TM organization today has centers and facilities all around the world, and over four million people have learned the technique. The Maharishi continues to act as the global coordinator of its teaching. He resides in Vlodrop in the municipality of Roerdalen in the Netherlands.
TM is to be practised fifteen to twenty minutes twice daily while sitting comfortably in a chair. In essence, the TM technique comprises the silent mental repetition of a simple sound known as a mantra, allowing the repetition to become quieter and quieter during the course of the meditation. TM has the ultimate goal, however, of transcending the mantra, and indeed transcending all thought to reach the state of self-awareness (samadhi).
According to the TM organisation the mantras comprise meaningless sounds specifically chosen to have a soothing effect upon the individual's nervous system. Examining the full list of mantras issued by sources disassociated from the TM movement over the years shows that each mantra names one of the Hindu gods. (It is also possible that the Hindu deities are named after mantras.) This may concern anyone who already committedly practises another religion. However, the TM organization maintains that TM does not constitute a religion and that its practice remains compatible with all faiths.
The TM organisation encourages practitioners to keep their mantra private and never to repeat it aloud, since it allegedly has the purpose of moving inwards into the 'refined' levels of the mind. The organisation has attempted to keep the precise method for choosing a mantra a secret, but ex-TM teachers have stated that mantra choice simply depends on the age of person at the time of initiation. They assert that if a student repeats the initiation at a later age at a different TM centre without mentioning the former initiation, the student will receive a different mantra.
The TM movement has referenced many medical and sociological studies to strengthen the scientific acceptability of its claims, although critics have questioned the independence and methodological fitness of many of the studies. More recent research has documented certain harmful effects in a minority of long-term practitioners, including troubling physical tics, emotional volatility and inability to concentrate. The more basic claims of lowering blood pressure, decreasing cholesterol and strengthening the immune system do seem to be more robustly confirmed.
According to the proponents of TM, the practice helps in attaining "higher consciousness", which every human being allegedly possesses in common, and which allegedly interacts with one's daily choices. Proponents also assume that in daily existence, humans of flesh and blood do not stand as close to this higher consciousness as they could do. TM therefore basically aims to get closer to this consciousness. Since the higher consciousness allegedly equates to the good, people approaching this higher consciousness should more readily understand, intuitively, what 'good' means and will thus more likely behave well. This leans on a belief that it is desirable to act well, and undesirable to act badly, in line with arguments proposed by Plato's Socrates in Menon and in The Republic.
In the late 1970s the claims for the TM technique and associated advanced "Siddhi Techniques" became more radical and increasingly targeted at existing adherents. Propounded benefits include a measurable decreased crime rate in cities with 1% of the population practising TM, or the square root of that number practising the TM-Sidhis program (this phenomenon being called "the Maharishi Effect""), and extraordinary effects including metaphysical levitation.
The more recent interpretations of TM's significance mostly examine its health claims, such as reduced blood pressure and better concentration. In these areas its supporters can view TM as simply the most effective form of waking relaxation. Some of the contemporary proponents of meditation claim that it can lead to reductions in stress, hostility, illusions and attachments, and can help in treating mental illness. On the other hand, evidence exists that meditation can lead to more mental problems in psychiatric patients.
Critics of TM assert that transcendental meditation consists simply of standard meditation as practised by many religions, and that absolutely no basis exists for anyone to claim that they invented it or spread it. Many cult researchers consider TM a cult, according to them one of the largest of the present day.
An organization called ex-TM exists for people who formerly practised transcendental meditation. This organization has the general agenda of denouncing transcendental meditation as a dangerous cult. The organization also describes the effects of TM as hypnotic.
During the late 1970s Maharishi founded The World Government, with its sovereignty "in the domain of consciousness." The Natural Law political parties originated with Maharishi's decree that parties around the world should run for government, in order to inflict the natural law, which is defined by the "global consciousness".
In 2002 the Maharishi Global Financing Research Foundation, as Treasury of the "Global Country of World Peace," issued the Raam NL in The Netherlands. The Raam provides a "currency," worth 10 euro, as an inspirational example for other countries to use the Raam in the financing of poverty-removal and peace-promoting projects by the Foundation.
A US version of the Raam has a value of 10 US dollars.
And a number of actors and actresses.
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