Maybe this will answer some of your questions, if you are sincerely seeking the facts…

First, TM is not a “for-profit” organization. That’s simply not true and I wonder how you came to that conclusion. Just because there’s a course tuition doesn’t mean people are making money on it. I think the rest of your inquires are addressed below. I suggest attending an Introductory Lecture with a certified teacher, if you want to know the truth…

There’s is no hidden agenda with TM, everything is up front. The question about the mantra’s secrecy takes a bit more in-depth explanation, but it’s basically to preserve the effectiveness. In the Vedic Tradition, the mantras were always given out only in proper context, and they were not used loosely or spoken aloud. For that you need to talk to a teacher because I don’t have time to explain it. But if you don’t trust the TM teachers you meet (if you’ve ever met any) or the TM organization, then, just don’t learn TM. NO one is going to force you. You shouldn’t learn if you are uncomfortable with the system Maharishi set up, because not being comfortable means you not receptive to learning and not ready. If you’re sincere, you’ll get all your questions answered.

Best of luck,
LHK

Below is copied from a TM teacher’s email:

Questions and answers

1. What is Transcendental Meditation?

The TM technique is a simple, natural, enjoyable procedure to settle the mind, expand awareness and access the limitless reservoir of creativity and intelligence that resides within everyone — for more powerful thinking, heightened well-being and greater efficiency in life.

The Transcendental Meditation technique is practiced twice daily for 15-20 minutes while sitting quietly and comfortably with eyes closed. It requires no effort or concentration and no special skills or change of lifestyle. You don’t even have to believe in the technique for it to work! Meditate regularly twice a day and you’ll get results.

2. Is TM safe and effective?

Yes. The facts speak for themselves:

• GOVERNMENT FUNDING: The National Institutes of Health has provided $26 million over the past 20 years to document TM’s benefits for heart health and brain functioning. Why? Because of a 40-year precedence of solid, promising research studies on TM showing benefits—with no trend of negative side effects recorded.

• MEDICAL DOCTORS: The American Medical Association, which represents 140,000 medical doctors, has published and promoted research showing that the TM technique improves high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity. The AMA has also offered professional credit (CME) for doctors to take classes in TM.

• PSYCHOLOGISTS: The American Psychological Association, which represents 150,000 psychologists, regularly showcases research on the benefits of the TM technique for improving overall mental health.

• SCIENTIFIC REVIEW: THE INTERNAL REVIEW BOARD at American University in Washington, D.C., comprised of a team of independent university physicians and scientists, conducted an exhaustive review of all existing scientific research on the TM technique and thoroughly considered the information found on various alternative Internet sites—pro and con. The board unanimously agreed that the technique was safe, had no negative side effects, and should be learned by 300 college students from American University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, and University of District of Columbia as part of a carefully controlled, two-year study examining the effects of the technique on student life. The study was completed and the results published in peer-reviewed scientific journals—showing that the technique reduces stress, improves health and strengthens brain functioning.

3. Is TM a religion?

The TM technique is not a religion. There is no dogma, no change in lifestyle, and no new beliefs involved in learning or practicing the TM technique. It is a simple, secular practice that has been learned by millions of people of all religions—Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus—as well as people who follow no religion. (You can read endorsements from meditating clergy at http://www.TM.org.) TM practice has its ancient roots in Yoga, which is practiced by hundreds of millions of people of all religions.

4. Can you get the same results from other forms of meditation?

Comparative research has shown that the various forms of meditation do not produce the same effects. Because each kind of meditation practice engages the mind in it’s own way, there’s no reason to expect the same results from the various methods or that scientific research on the Transcendental Meditation program will apply to other practices.

There have been studies comparing the effects of the TM technique, Zen, Mindfulness, Tibetan Buddhist and Vipassana meditations, Progressive Muscle Relaxation, Benson’s Relaxation Response—examining such factors as brainwave patterns, levels of rest, and benefits for mind and body. While some other forms of meditation have been found to produce good effects in specific areas, these various practices have their own aims and are not necessarily intended to produce the broad range of benefits that result from the Transcendental Meditation technique.

Neural imaging and EEG studies indicate that TM practice creates a unique brain pattern: it is the only meditation technique known to create widespread brainwave coherence. The TM technique also produces deeper rest than other practices, and studies show the technique to be more effective at reducing anxiety and depression and increasing self-actualization.

5. Why does it cost money to learn?

The Transcendental Meditation technique comes from the oldest continuous tradition of meditation in the world. It is not “meditation lite.” It is not a breathing exercise or mindfulness practice that one might learn from a magazine, book, audiotape, or yoga class. It’s deeper and more substantial than that. The TM technique provides the profound experience of the “Transcendent”—the most creative, blissful, peaceful level of the mind. The technique is distinguished by its simplicity, effortlessness, and effectiveness, and is learned through a comprehensive systematic course of instruction that includes a lifetime of follow-up and support as needed.
The TM technique is taught one-to-one by a highly trained, certified instructor, and teaching the technique is a full-time profession for most teachers. To sustain the teaching organization, TM teachers are paid a fair, living wage. The course fee covers the initial seven steps of instruction as well as the continuing follow-up and support. The money goes toward the teacher’s salary, administration of the local teaching facility, and scholarships help people to learn who can’t afford the tuition. Over the last 2 years, TM Teachers have offered the TM course at no cost to more than 150,000 students in underprivileged areas. If you or someone you know has difficulty paying the course fee, scholarships, grants, and loans are available to help ensure that anyone who wants to learn to meditate effectively can do so.

For more than 50 years, the Transcendental Meditation program has been offered through a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) educational organization (MVED), and all financial records are available on the IRS website.

6. What about conflicting information on the Internet?

By now everyone knows that just because something is posted on the Internet does not mean it’s accurate. Anyone can create a Website. Search engines collect information based on keywords and “relevant” content, not on accuracy. It’s not surprising that search engines might yield a handful of Websites that give conflicting definitions and bizarre explanations of Transcendental Meditation—or even disingenuous sites posing as “objective” or “skeptical” but which present erroneous information. (There are several prominent sites that claim astronaut Neil Armstrong never landed on the moon.) Even Wikipedia is an amalgam of shifting content assembled by a rotating group of “volunteer editors,” who are not required to have expertise on the subject at hand.

We encourage you to research the program and recommend that you start with http://www.TM.org and the quality sites featured on the resources page. The views of doctors, researchers and medical school professors can be found at http://www.DoctorsOnTM.org. If you are scientifically inclined, we suggest you search the NIH resource PubMed, where you can find independent scientific research studies on the TM technique and also other forms of meditation. Best of luck in your research. If you have any questions please feel free to call us or attend an Introductory Lecture.

“The question about the mantra’s secrecy takes a bit more in-depth explanation, but it’s basically to preserve the effectiveness.”

Now, maybe this is true. But you have to admit that it also sets up a situation where the mantras become commodities. If you want the best mantras, you have to go to the right courses and pay the most money. This is the exact opposite of what any other meditation practice would tell you.

It’s the corporate setup of the organization that makes me uncomfortable. I know they’re officially a “not-for-profit” organization, but they are very much a business. They don’t just want to teach a meditation practice either. They want to have their brand of meditation in schools, developing countries and throughout the world. The head of TM in America has even run for President!

But I don’t have a problem with meditation being taught, no matter what kind of it is. I DO have a problem with something that is free, which meditation is, being turned into a commodity. That’s basically the most spiritually negative thing a person can do. When TM also states that their way is the BEST way, meaning that you should avoid other practices, I get really concerned.

@PsychicDream

I get your point about monetary element, as well as secrecy, an I don’t intend to engage in that issue,but I do wander: why are you bothering with this? Do you hold some kind of grudge against TM?
Yes, there are plenty of ways to learn meditation for free, so, by all means, go and do it. Is anything stopping you? The information is everywhere, it’s easy to obtain it for all of the mankind…
However, …I did exactly that. Tried many different styles, gurus, guides, modes, you name it. It didn’t work for me.
Then I decided to try TM, BECAUSE I had to pay, BECAUSE they have the brand, the research, the academia, the benefits, the witnesses…
I PAID for my course, I’ve been practicing TM for over a decade, and can undoubtedly declare that, in regard to my (and my family’s) physical and mental health and wellbeing, THIS WAS THE BEST INVESTMENT I’VE EVER MADE!
So, honestly, I don’t really care about the brand, or name, or money, or secrecy, or whatnot – THIS SIMPLY WORKS.

Go figure!

Thanks for a nice article. Questions are always good. Based on what I’ve read, Transcendental Meditation is the most highly researched form of meditation but Mindfulness Meditation also has a growing body of research. I think that one of the reasons that TM is so widely researched is because it’s been around the longest (40 years) and the first study was in 1970. Also its taught in a structured way through an organization. Thirdly the National Institutes of Health have given millions in grants to fund research because TM has been found to be really good at normalizing blood pressure. I hope that helps. Good luck with your website!

When you learn TM, you learn more than just a mantra (or meaningless sound), which has been specifically chosen to suit you. You learn the technique to use it properly. It is simple and easy to learn (even young children can do it), but it can only really be learned on a step-by-step basis. The teacher teaches the basic technique and the student goes off and practices it. The next day the student comes back, describes their experiences, and the teacher gives out more knowledge based on those experiences. Like that the student learns how to practice the technique step-by-step and the teacher ensures they are practising it 100% correctly.

The basic TM program starts with an in initial course involving 4 lessons (each lasting about 1 – 1.5 hours) on consecutive days followed by a further 1 – 2 checking sessions at the convenience of the student over the following 4 months. After that its a Do-It-Yourself program; the student practises it for around 15-20 minutes morning and evening and the benefits naturally start to unfold as the scientific research attests.

The initial couse fee also covers all of this AND a lifetime follow up program in TM centers in most countries around the world. Therefore, wherever you are in the world, you can usually meet other TM meditators, enjoy group or personal checking and advance meetings (to understand more about the technique its effects) for free.

Although, due to economics, centers in some countries may need to charge a modest fee for checking, in most countries this is all funded by the initial course fee.

If this level of service could be provided for free, I have no doubt it would be. Owing to the need to cover the living expenses of teachers, the costs of premises, the cost of supporting many charitable programs, and the cost of administration and promotion that just isn’t possible. Yes, you can learn other techniques for free, but you won’t obtain the same benefits. So, ultimately its your choice!!

As for the promotion of TM, I find it hard to understand why you should criticize this. If you have something that can significantly improve the lives of everyone, don’t you have a duty to let them know this?

To find out more about why TM is being practised in schools, I encourage you to go to http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org and see for yourself what an incredible effect it is having!

Hola!

I think this is great that you are raising these questions. All in all learning a technique of this magnitude is written in the stars. Our intellects can run over it with a mac truck, but when it comes down to it, you will take this on if and when the time is right.

I feel skepticism is healthy, and I wish you everything that you need to unfold whatever is necessary for you to take the next step, whatever that is for you.

I do know that when there are questions to be asked, there are answers waiting…

Always here,

Eric Carter

I also had a really hard time with the cost of TM. I refused to learn for a long time because of the principle of it, even though, I could see that it was very different than all the other meditation techniques. The people were different. A friend finally paid my fee and all of my doubt, questions etc. got left behind permanently. That was 12 years ago. If I had to do it again I would pay today.

“The mantras become commodities” and “TM is a business.” I do admit, that’s one way of looking at it. However, with due respect, being someone who knows firsthand the benefits of TM, who knows many of the longtime TM teachers personally, who has been observing the organization for years, to me, such a perspective sounds maybe a tad cynical and very unfair. It’s also a perspective that’s not based on the facts of how the organization functions.

Where are all the TM teachers driving around in expensive cars? Where are all the lavish homes and opulent TM Centers? Maharishi’s home in Holland, which is still the world headquarters for TM, is not palatial—it’s nice but not extravagant by any means. Maharishi was a monk and owned nothing (except, perhaps, the universe—in the Upanishadic sense). Even a cursory examination of the TM organization reveals that money is not what it’s about; a close examination shows that it is exactly what the teachers say it is: a non-profit organization devoted to making available the benefits of this meditation (in its pure, most effective form) to people everywhere. From my perspective, this is *the* greatest act of compassion.

The question is, when you pay the TM course tuition, what is it you are paying for? Are you just paying for “mantras?” Has the TM organization really turned mantras in to a commodity? Has TM turned something that’s freely available into a money-making enterprise?

It seems there are many assumptions at the basis of your concerns, which I encourage you to reexamine. One assumption you seem to make is that when a person is instructed in the TM technique, they are learning something that can be learned for free elsewhere—and that it *should* be free because it’s “spiritual.”

Perhaps within this belief lies a deeper assumption that all meditation practices are basically the same—and TM is not different from any of them.

But is that true?

Before Maharishi introduced the Transcendental Meditation technique in 1955, in India, this particular meditation technique was virtually unknown to Indian society and “Hindu” culture; for all practical purposes, the technique was lost. There were many types of meditation, and many other mantra practices, but there was nothing in Indian society that resembled this particular meditation technique. In fact, Maharishi turned the conventional approach to meditation on its head by declaring that the most effective meditation is actually the most effortless and that meditation can produce quick results for anyone (even busy business people) if practiced naturally and correctly. (Yes, from Maharishi’s perspective, there *is* a correct and most practical way to meditate, if you want maximum benefit.)

Maharishi revived the ancient technique of “effortless transcending” and restored its original effectiveness. Calling it “the Transcendental Meditation technique,” he systematized the practice into a seven-step course to preserve it, so that teachers could be trained to teach it in every language and so that the technique would give consistent, all-positive results for people everywhere—for this and future generations.

What are you paying for when you learn the TM technique? What do you get? Yes, you get a mantra, a precise sound from the Vedic tradition that is conducive to ‘transcending,’ that is effective for diving within and going beyond thought to experience pure consciousness. But equally important, you learn how to use your mantra in a very specific way—in an effortless, natural way that allows the mind to transcend—and this exact use of the mantra was also lost. There are many forms of mantra meditation—East and West—using an endless variety of mantras and using them in many different ways. TM is unlike all of them.

Is TM better than other forms? It’s for any given person to decide on their own which meditation is for them.

If one respects science, the extensive body of research on TM, mindfulness, and other practices clearly shows that not all meditation techniques produce the same effects. This is the emerging paradigm in science—that each meditation practice engages the mind differently and has different effects on brain functioning, anxiety reduction, blood pressure, overall health and behavior. But every Zen master and expert meditation teacher has always known this—that there are many schools of meditation, a diversity of practices with their own aims and methods.

I have never heard a TM teacher say “you should avoid other practices.” This is not the spirit of the TM program, which is respectful of all the great traditions.

When you pay the TM tuition, you are not paying for just a mantra; in fact, I’d say you are not even paying for the TM technique—which is priceless and beyond monetary value. You are paying a tuition fee that will help sustain the organization and teachers so that they can continue providing the course of instruction to others. After you learn TM, there is a lifetime of follow-up and support available to you at no charge, at any TM Center in the world. The tuition is really a no-brainer and all about practicality—how to pay the rent, light bills, ect. But definitely not about financial profit.

You say, “This is the exact opposite of what any other meditation practice would tell you.” Maybe you haven’t noticed, but meditation, spirituality, yoga, etc. has become a HUGE for-profit industry. Still, in the midst of all this, the TM program remains non-profit and offers grants, scholarships, and work study to help people learn who can’t afford the tuition. No one who really wants to learn TM is turned away because they don’t have the money.

Sometimes people do offer types of meditation instruction for free. You can learn it from your neighbor, from books, from your yoga class, at the YMCA. However, none of these practices are the same as TM; learning them doesn’t require rigorously trained teachers, the practices don’t come with professional guidance and follow-up, but most importantly, these sort of practices (guided imagery, mindfulness, concentration, contemplation, etc.) are very different from the mechanism of TM and generally work on a different level of the mind.

“Effortless transcending” is a delicate process. The technique was lost to the world for over 2000 years due to misunderstanding and inadequate teaching methods. The experience of the TM organization—teaching meditation for over 50 years—is that personalized instruction, the seven-step training, and the ongoing follow-up is absolutely necessary for meditators to enjoy maximum benefit. From what I can tell, people who learn TM deeply appreciate the thoroughness of the training and are generally very happy to have paid the tuition.

The Bhagavad Gita says that students learn from their master through repeated inquiry. Fraser, you are a seeker and I salute you!