# Transcendental Meditation movement · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

Source: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/atlas/library/cults/054-transcendental-meditation-movement/ · The Congregation of Tomorrow · the Atlas · language: en
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The Cult Dossier · No. 054 · Eastern-Derived
Transcendental Meditation movement
TM; Maharishi Foundation; Global Country of World Peace
1955/1957 – present · India; Fairfield, Iowa; Vlodrop, Netherlands; worldwide
VI. THE 1970s — THE GREAT PROLIFERATION
Presents as secular technique; US federal court ruled otherwise
### Who led it
### What it worshipped and taught
### Who was in it
### How it ended, or where it stands
### The dead
### Of note
### Its timeline
- 1955 Maharishi begins teaching in India; first world tour in 1958.
- February–April 1968 The Beatles at Rishikesh — the single most consequential publicity event in the history of Eastern movements in the West.
- 1970s Massive growth; a claimed one million initiates in the US; TM taught in public schools and prisons.
- 1975 Launch of the World Plan and the Age of Enlightenment.
- 1977 MALNAK v. YOGI, 440 F. Supp. 1284 (D.N.J.) — CONFIRMED. The SCI/TM course was taught as an ELECTIVE in New Jersey public high schools by instructors trained by the World Plan Executive Council. The court granted summary judgment for the plaintiffs, holding the Science of Creative Intelligence and TM RELIGIOUS in nature — the PUJA being a ceremony in which students received a personal mantra amid chanting and offerings to the deified GURU DEV — so that teaching it in public schools breached the Establishment Clause.
- 1979 AFFIRMED BY THE THIRD CIRCUIT, 592 F.2d 197.
- 1979 Maharishi International University established at Fairfield, Iowa; the Golden Domes built for group meditation.
- 1983 Yogic Flying demonstrated publicly; widely mocked.
- 1992 Natural Law Party contests elections in several countries.
- 2000 Global Country of World Peace declared, with its own currency (the Raam) and a monarch.
- 5 February 2008 Maharishi dies in Vlodrop, Netherlands.
### Its people
### Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Mahesh Prasad Varma
Founder, Transcendental Meditation · c.1918 – 5 February 2008 · active 1955–2008
Before the law. None personally. The 1977 ruling was against the organisation, not him.
Where things stand. Deceased 2008. The technique is now largely mainstreamed and taught in secular settings.
- 1955 Begins teaching; first world tour 1958.
- Feb–Apr 1968 The Beatles at Rishikesh; they leave abruptly.
- 1977 MALNAK v. YOGI — a US federal court rules TM religious in nature.
- 1983 Yogic flying publicly demonstrated and widely mocked.
- 2000 Declares the Global Country of World Peace.
- 5 February 2008 Dies in Vlodrop, Netherlands.
Checked
The Atlas The Door