The Transcendental Meditation technique is a specific form of mantra meditation developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It is often referred to as Transcendental Meditation or simply, TM. The meditation practice involves the use of a mantra, and is practiced for 15--20 minutes twice per day, while sitting with closed eyes. It is reported to be one of the most widely practiced, and among the most widely researched, meditation techniques, with over 340 peer-reviewed studies published. Research reviews of the effects of the Transcendental Meditation technique have yielded results ranging from inconclusive to clinically significant. The technique is made available worldwide by certified TM teachers in a seven step course and fees vary from country to country. Beginning in 1965, the Transcendental Meditation technique has been incorporated into selected schools, universities, corporations and prison programs in the U.S.A., Latin America, Europe, and India. In 1977, a U.S. district court ruled that a curriculum in TM and the Science of Creative Intelligence that was being taught in some New Jersey, USA schools was religious in nature and in violation of the First Amendment. The technique has since been included in a number of educational and social programs around the world. The Transcendental Meditation technique has been described as both religious and non religious. The technique has been described in various ways including as an aspect of a new religious movement, as rooted in Hinduism, and as a non-religious practice for self development. The public presentation of the TM technique over its 50-year history has been praised for its high visibility in the mass media and effective global propagation, and criticized for using celebrity and scientific endorsements as a marketing tool. Advanced courses supplement the TM technique and include an advanced meditation called the TM-Sidhi program. In 1970, the Science of Creative Intelligence (SCI) became the theoretical basis for the Transcendental Meditation technique, although skeptics questioned its scientific nature. According to proponents, when 1 percent of a population (such as a city or country) practices the TM technique daily, their practice influences the quality of life for that population. This has been termed the Maharishi Effect. In the 1960s, "seekers" who had learned from the "psychedelic experience" began turning toward meditation. Beginning in 1959, the Maharishi began "building an infrastructure" using a "mass marketing model" for teaching the TM technique to Westerners. First, the Maharishi visited the U.S. because he felt that its people were ready to try something new, and the rest of the world would then "take notice". By the same token, author Philip Goldberg says the Maharishi's insistence that TM was easy to do was not a "marketing ploy," but rather "a statement about the nature of the mind." In the mid 1960s, the TM organization began presenting its meditation to students via a campaign led by a man named Jerry Jarvis who had taken the TM course in 1961. By 1966, the Students Meditation Society (SIMS) had begun programs in colleges such as Berkley, Harvard, Yale and others, and was a "phenomenal success". In the late 1960s, the TM technique received "major publicity" through its associations with The Beatles, and by identifying itself with various aspects of modern day counterculture. TM is said to have taken full advantage of all available publicity, and began to market to specific populations, such as spiritual people, political people and "pragmatic" self-help people. The latter approach is said to have been "given impetus" by the scientific research on the technique. In The Future of Religion, sociologists Bainbridge and Stark write that, while the movement attracted many people through endorsements from celebrities such as The Beatles, another marketing approach was "getting articles published in scientific journals, apparently proving TM's claims or at least giving them scientific status".[292] In the 1970s, according to Philip Goldberg, the Maharishi began encouraging research on the TM technique because he felt that hard scientific data would be a useful marketing tool and a way to re-brand meditation as a scientific form of deep rest, rather than a mystical "samadhi"; one of his first steps in secularizing the technique. The Maharishi's "appropriation of science was clearly part of his agenda from the beginning" says Goldberg, and so his "organization was incorporated as an educational non-profit, not a religious one". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_Meditation_technique

• published: 29 Dec 2012
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