Transcendental Meditation, popularly known simply as TM, has been called the drugless tum-on of the seventies. That’s an apt description, for several reasons. By the TM technique a large number of people have found a measure of inner serenity and fulfillment without the use of mind-blowing and life-destroying chemicals. In this technique, furthermore, members of a secular society who do not know the sweet peace of prayer and fellowship with the Lord of life have found a deep rest from the stresses of a hectic, highly competitive world. And, for reasons we hope to make clear, TM may not be very prominent after the 70’s.
TM can point to a number of facts which are no doubt seen as significant achievements in the popular estimation. Prominent names in the sports world, the business community and in the entertainment field are listed among those who practice this type of meditation. An article appearing in the local newspaper in 1975 listed prominent sports figures such as Joe Namath, Willie Stargell, Steve Carlton and Larry Sowa among those who practice TM regularly. Names of people prominent in government or military service are also listed as adherents. The theoretical framework of TM appears in what has been named the Science of Creative Intelligence (SCI), and this has been offered as a course for credit at a number of the nation’s universities, including Stanford and Yale. The movement boasts its own university, the Maharishi International University of lowa, located at Fairfield, Iowa. And note this –in 1972 a program for training public high school teachers to teach TM was launched with the help of a grant of $21,540 from the National Institute of Mental Health of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. (It must be remembered that TM steadfastly claims that it is not a religion.) A “qualified teacher” of TM informed a meeting I attended that the Pentagon has a small room in it with the letters TM on the door where people can go to meditate in the TM fashion.
It is clear from the above facts that TM is something more than it was at first presumed to be, namely, the latest method by which hippies and similar people might find a psychic high. Perhaps that reputation was due in part to the fact that the Beatles were among the first to go to India to be trained in the new technique by its founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
The Guru
The founder and spiritual guide (guru) of TM, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, has an interesting history. He· was born in India in about 1918 and received a degree in physics from Allahabad University. But he was not satisfied with enlightenment through standard scientific means and decided to see it in a way more common to India. He spent thirteen years (1940–53) with a Curu Lev, who had discovered a meditation technique that came from the ancient Hindu writings, the Vedas. It is reported that Guru Lev instructed his pupil to develop a method of meditation for the masses to practice. After leaving the tutelage of the master the pupil spent two years in a retreat in the Himalayas. Then in 1956 he came forth to launch the Transcendental Meditation movement. It was at this time that he took on the name of Maharishi, which means “great seer.”
This is surely the way this guru comes through when one listens to one of his devotees. To his followers he is the “great seer” who speaks infallibly with deep wisdom and knowledge. The “qualified teacher” of TM that I heard was obviously a person with some education. Her use of language was excellent. And her appearance was attractive, with no hint of the odd or the exotic in her dress. She frequently quoted Maharishi, and the words he spoke were unqualified truth to her. A TM leaflet declares that “the complete knowledge presented as the Science of Creative Intelligence is being brought to the world by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.”
The TM Technique
The meditation technique of TM is disarmingly simple. It calls for a quiet period of meditation in a comfortable relaxed position with eyes closed for a span of 15–20 minutes in the morning and in the evening, preferably not late evening. However, though the technique is thus simple and easy to learn, it is nonetheless very specific, according to official TM teaching. It must be done according to the specific, instruction given by a teacher who has been trained and qualified by Maharishi through TM’s extensive teacher-training program. The technique is learncd in a training course calling for intensive instruction and practice for one to two hours on four consecutive days. This four-day stint is preceded by three preliminary steps involving a free lecture on the great possibilities of TM, a free lecture on the main principles of the technique, and a personal interview with a TM teacher. The cost of the four-day training program probably varies somewhat in different areas. Tn my area it now cost $165 per adult, $110 for the college student, and lower rates for high school and junior high students.
Of central importance in this specific teaching of TM is a secrecy factor. It is called the mantra. Each meditator is assigned his own private mantra, or meaningless sound, as the vehicle for his meditation. ·Webster defines mantra as a mystical formula of invocation or incantation in Hinduism and Buddhism. It is a Sanskrit word meaning sacred counsel or formula. A TM teacher‘s responsibility is to choose this secret word so that it fits the initiate‘s personality. Once the initiate has been given his mantra, he is to discuss it with no one, not even with wife or husband. Here are a few of the mantras which have surfaced in my reading – Sherim, Inga, Shiam, Ima, Ram, Kirim, Shri Ram.
The meditator sits comfortably with his eyes dosed and listens to his mantra as it is first chanted to him by his teacher. Then he takes it up for himself, repeats it aloud at first and then silently. But always the mantra is involved in his meditation and is the necessary focus of the technique as it is practiced, at home, at the office, in one’s car, or wherever one may be.
Two words are especially emphasized in description of the practice. These words are natural and effortless. It is a most natural technique, we are told, in which we are simply being ourselves and by this means develop our native potential. And no effort is required in doing this. Indeed, trying is absolutely forbidden. TM people describe the state of mind of the person in meditation as a fourth major state of consciousness as natural to man as the other three well-known states, namely, wakefulness, dreaming and sleep. This fourth state of consciousness is called “restful alertness.” Though the meditator may seem to be dozing, actually his mind is very alive and alert. This deep level of consciousness is likened to the depths of the ocean, where all is quiet and without excitation. This is the deep resource of all our thoughts and knowledge. The process by which TM taps this deep resource of thought is called “direct experience” as opposed to intellectual analysis. Here is “pure creative intelligence,” tapped by and exercised by the TM technique, we are told. “This innocent spontaneous process,” a TM brochure states, “is increasingly pleasant as the mind is attracted deep within to the source of thought. When the mind transcends the subtlest thinking activity it is expanded to a state of pure awareness, its own unlimited reservoir of energy and creative intelligence.”
“Cure” for Stress
It seems evident that no small part of the appeal of TM is in its promise of relief to people caught up in highly stressful situations that are so common in modern living. The word stress occurs often in the TM literature, and TM likes to show you glowing testimonials of people who have through the practice of this meditation technique overcome the nagging stresses of professional sports, business, government service or the entertainment world.
TM makes a number of claims concerning the beneficial effects of meditation no one’s psychological functions. These claims are all supported by scientific research and findings ,we arc told. In meditation the body enjoys a rest deeper than sleep, with the metabolic rate lower than in sleep. The practice of TM, it is further claimed, reduces blood pressure, enhances balanced functioning of the two hemispheres of the brain, reduces anxiety, counteracts insomnia, leads to a reduced use of alcohol and cigarettes. Thus TM invites all people to “enjoy development to a fully evolved state of life.”
Invincibility
My rather low level of interest in TM was heightened when I heard a brief presentation on television in which the word invincible was used of persons who practice this technique. The year 1978 has been declared the year of invincibility. The logic of this remarkable declaration is as follows. The person who faithfully practices TM becomes increasingly a self-sufficient person. Within the depths of his own mind he finds the sure resources of all knowledge and intelligence. He is the “fully enlightened” individual. His bodily functions perform more and more perfectly. A new orderliness takes hold of his entire life, together with the joy of greater achievement and fulfillment. Such a person becomes invincible. TIle pressures and threats of life cannot disturb him. Individuals thus filled with peace and satisfaction are bound to have a wholesome and healing influence on society. Therefore Maharishi declared in 1977 that if one percent of a nation’s population practices TM, that nation will become invincible. Through the influence of this core of TM practitioners a great order is brought to such a nation, with the result that there is less crime, less social disturbance and fewer accidents. It was announced, furthermore, that the United States would be the first invincible nation.
Aren‘t TM‘s claims getting to be just a bit excessive? Read on.
“If you can fly , you can do anything”
The well-spoken “qualified teacher” and devotee of Maharishi said it at the meeting referred to earlier in this article. She was speaking of the remarkable manner in which life’s possibilities open up for the faithful follower of TM, and in that connection she said that he could even fly, and “If you can fly, you can do anything.” A TM publication (World Government News, March 1978) was passed around showing a picturc on the back cover of a person purportedly in a state of actual levitation. Time magazine in its August 8, 1977 issue made reference to this claim by TM and subjected it to gentle ridicule. Maharishi had declared that through the practice of TM, supernatural power (siddhi) becomes available to the meditator, and with this power he can become invisible, walk through walls and even fly. The Time article suggests that these astounding claims were made at a point when the public interest in TM was waning, and some dramatic new promotion was called for. In the year 1975, the magazine states, there were 40,000 trainees a month in the TM program and this had slipped to 4000 per month in 1977.
To Fade With the 70’s
In evaluating TM one needs no great measure of insight or courage to predict that the fortunes of Maharishi and his pseudo-religion are on the wane and that they will fade as the 70’s fade away into the past. Maharishi wrote the death notice of his movement whcn he claimed supernatural powers for his adherents by which they could fly and do other amazing things.
These more spectacular claims highlight the serious weakness that lies in TM’s claims generally. A young doctor is reported (Wall Street Journal, August 31, 1972) to have given up the practice of TM after a short time with the reaction that it is presented too much as a magic pill with a simplistic formula that says, “Believe this and all your problems will be solved.”
That raises the question of the scientific authenticity of the research that is supposed to support many of the claims made by TM. The Science Digest of August 1977 reports on studies made on this research. The magazine charges that TM promoters are selective in the research they cite and expresses the opinion that there is misleading propaganda involved as TM tries to cultivate the “mystique of scientific credibility.” Of no little interest is the charge that TM officially discourages comparing its technique with other meditation practices.
And what about other methods of meditation? Would not the daily practice of a “quiet time” of some sort bring physical and mental benefits like those claimed for TM? Recently the headline on the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer caught my eys (issue of May 16, 1978). The headline proclaimed in bold letters BEAT STRESS. Inside was a full–page article describing a plan of relaxation “tested and proven” by a pair of medical doctors at Harvard University. Many of the claims are much the same as those made for TM–reduced blood pressure, better sleeping habits, better health generally, reduced tension. The technique calls for two periods of relaxation per day of 15–20 minutes each, with the use, not of a super-secret mantra, but simply of the word “one.”
A Christian Reaction
Is TM a religion? It insists that it is not. TM does not come with a body of doctrine to be accepted, nor does it ask its followers to follow a certain moral code or exhibit a particular moral quality of life. In fact, TM boasts that one does not have to give up anything to be a follower of Maharishi—not even a vice. A TM practitioner is asked to be himself and to discover through specific meditation the full potential of his very self.
But, though TM does not have certain of the usual important marks of religion as we know it, religious characteristics are present. It has the infallible teacher, prophet, guru in Maharishi, who exhibits all the charisma of a religious leader. Also, unqualified acceptance of certain ideas and practices is required. TM has no promise of eternal salvation, but it surely comes with promise of salvation here and now in its assurance of self-fulfillment, deep rest and joy. This is not salvation by grace, of course, but rather salvation by and from self.
The teaching that the rich fulness of life in achievement and joy and peace is found in the depths of the self elicits a negative response on the part of the Christian. Such teaching goes directly contrary to what our Lord has taught us when he said, “the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean: For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean’” (Matt. 15:18–20).
Completely out of accord with the teachings of the Bible and with the facts of life is the claim that the fully enlightened and orderly life can be achieved by TM’s method of reaching into the deep inner reservoir of self, without an objective moral standard and without the gracious power of the Spirit of God. On this score TM sounds like a more profound version of I’m OK – You’re OK. With its neat blend of eastern mysticism and occidental pragmatism TM subjects the individual to no moral judgment, offers a quick and easy “salvation,” and requires no‘ life of self-obedience. Surely such a pseudo-religion is a tempting morsel to hold up before today’s secular, amoral and inwardly disheveled person. For many such, not knowing how to test the spirits, “it works.”
TM has been described as “Hinduism in disguise.” One does not find it hard to see why it should be so labeled. Whatever one may call TM, surely it is correct to say that there is another of those quasi-religious schemes that attracts the restless, searching hearts of people who don‘t know the true rest that is found only in the living God by His sure Word and His wondrous grace in Christ. It is He and He alone who can truthfully say, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”
Edward Heerema is retired pastor of the Christian Reformed Church at Bradenton, Florida.