The Canon · No. 112
Transcendental Meditation
TM; the Maharishi movement
1955 CE – present · Dharmic / Indian · Living · US, India, Europe, worldwide
VIII. POSTWAR & CONTEMPORARY — 1945 – PRESENT
How many
The organisation claims over 10 million people have been taught; the number of regular practitioners is unknown and much lower.
Who began it
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (c.1918–2008), a disciple of Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math.
What it is for
To make a simple, effortless meditation technique universally available, framed initially as spiritual and later, deliberately, as scientific and secular.
What it worships
Officially none — TM is presented as a technique, not a religion. The initiation ceremony (puja) is however conducted in Sanskrit before an image of the Maharishi's teacher, and this became the basis of a US court ruling.
What it holds
The technique draws on Advaita Vedanta: pure consciousness underlies the mind and can be contacted directly. Beyond that, the movement teaches higher states of consciousness culminating in unity consciousness, and the Maharishi Effect — the claim that if the square root of one percent of a population practises the advanced programme together, crime, conflict and illness in that population fall measurably. The studies advancing this claim are largely produced by movement-affiliated researchers and are not accepted by independent statisticians.
What it does
Twenty minutes twice daily, silently repeating a mantra assigned by a certified teacher and kept private. Instruction is standardised worldwide and paid for. Advanced programmes: the TM-Sidhi programme including yogic flying, which in practice is a cross-legged hopping motion. Ayurvedic products, Maharishi Sthapatya Veda architecture, and a purpose-built town, Maharishi Vedic City in Iowa.
After death
Not a focus. The underlying Vedantic framework carries karma and rebirth, but the movement's public teaching is almost entirely about benefits in this life — stress, blood pressure, performance — and it does not present an eschatology.
Its texts
Maharishi's Science of Being and Art of Living (1963) and his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita.
Its branches
Maharishi Foundation and its national bodies; the David Lynch Foundation; various former teachers offering similar mantra techniques independently.
Of note
TM is the clearest case of a religious practice successfully repositioned as a secular health technology — a repositioning that a US federal court examined and rejected, and that has nonetheless largely succeeded in public perception.
Its timeline
- 1955–58 CE Maharishi begins teaching; the first world tour.
- <strong>1967–68 CE</strong> The Beatles study with him, first in Bangor and then at Rishikesh, where much of the White Album is written. They leave early and acrimoniously; Lennon writes Sexy Sadie about him. The episode makes TM globally famous.
- 1970s CE Rebranded as a scientific technique; taught in schools, prisons and the military.
- <strong>1977 CE</strong> Malnak v. Yogi — a US federal court rules that TM as taught in New Jersey public schools, with its Sanskrit puja, is religious in nature and its teaching in public schools violates the Establishment Clause.
- 1976–1980s CE TM-Sidhi and yogic flying introduced; the Natural Law Party contests elections in several countries.
- 1993 CE The Washington DC crime reduction demonstration; the movement's own analysis claims success, independent analysts dispute the methodology.
- 2008 CE Maharishi dies; the movement continues under Tony Nader.
- 2005–present The David Lynch Foundation funds TM instruction for veterans with PTSD, at-risk students and survivors of violence, and has published clinical trials; independent reviews find modest evidence for stress and blood pressure effects and note persistent problems with researcher independence and control conditions.
Sources
Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.