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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

MAHARISHI MAHESH YOGI (born Mahesh Prasad Varma, c.1918–2008), a physics graduate and disciple of Swami Brahmananda Saraswati. Successor: Tony Nader (Maharaja Adhiraj Rajaraam), a Lebanese neuroscientist crowned in 2000.

What it worshipped and taught

Presented publicly as a non-religious relaxation technique: twenty minutes twice daily with a personal mantra. The initiation ceremony (puja) is however a Sanskrit devotional rite before a portrait of Guru Dev involving offerings of flowers, fruit and camphor. Advanced teachings include the TM-SIDHI programme and YOGIC FLYING, marketed as levitation but consisting of hopping in the lotus position. The MAHARISHI EFFECT holds that if the square root of one per cent of a population meditates together, crime and conflict fall in the surrounding area.

Who was in it

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi; Guru Dev (Brahmananda Saraswati); THE BEATLES, who studied at Rishikesh in February–April 1968 and left abruptly amid allegations concerning Mia Farrow — the source of Lennon's song Sexy Sadie; Mia and Prudence Farrow; Donovan; the Beach Boys; David Lynch, founder of the David Lynch Foundation; Doug Henning, the magician, who attempted to build a Vedic theme park; John Hagelin, physicist and Natural Law Party presidential candidate; Tony Nader.

How it ended, or where it stands

Active; the technique is now largely mainstreamed and taught in secular settings.

The dead

—

Of note

Highly contested classification. Critics (including the ex-member Aryeh Siegel and the group TM-Free Blog) point to the concealment of the religious ceremony, the expense, and the exaggerated health claims; supporters point to genuine peer-reviewed evidence for blood pressure and stress reduction. The 1977 court ruling on its religious character is the hard fact in the file.

Its timeline

  1. 1955 Maharishi begins teaching in India; first world tour in 1958.
  2. February–April 1968 The Beatles at Rishikesh — the single most consequential publicity event in the history of Eastern movements in the West.
  3. 1970s Massive growth; a claimed one million initiates in the US; TM taught in public schools and prisons.
  4. 1975 Launch of the World Plan and the Age of Enlightenment.
  5. 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.
  6. 1979 AFFIRMED BY THE THIRD CIRCUIT, 592 F.2d 197.
  7. 1979 Maharishi International University established at Fairfield, Iowa; the Golden Domes built for group meditation.
  8. 1983 Yogic Flying demonstrated publicly; widely mocked.
  9. 1992 Natural Law Party contests elections in several countries.
  10. 2000 Global Country of World Peace declared, with its own currency (the Raam) and a monarch.
  11. 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

A physics graduate and disciple of Swami Brahmananda Saraswati who packaged a mantra meditation technique for a Western market and marketed it as non-religious — though a US federal court ruled in 1977 that the initiation ceremony is a religious rite and cannot be taught in public schools. The Beatles' visit to Rishikesh in 1968 made him globally famous and ended abruptly amid allegations concerning Mia Farrow, producing Lennon's 'Sexy Sadie'. He later launched the TM-Sidhi programme with its yogic flying, the Natural Law Party, and in 2000 the Global Country of World Peace, complete with its own currency and monarch.

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.

  1. 1955 Begins teaching; first world tour 1958.
  2. Feb–Apr 1968 The Beatles at Rishikesh; they leave abruptly.
  3. 1977 MALNAK v. YOGI — a US federal court rules TM religious in nature.
  4. 1983 Yogic flying publicly demonstrated and widely mocked.
  5. 2000 Declares the Global Country of World Peace.
  6. 5 February 2008 Dies in Vlodrop, Netherlands.

Checked

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