Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2006, Page 84
Transcendental Meditation (TM)
Transcendental Meditation (TM) plans to open up a second Iowa City Maharishi
Enlightenment Center soon, and the organization hopes to inaugurate a third in Coraville
and a Peace Palace in Iowa City. Global Organization for World Peace is heading the effort to
establish 300 enlightenment centers and 3,000 Peace Palaces worldwide. ..Maharishi
Global Financing, an arm of TM, is offering $14 trillion worth of ―World Peace Bonds for
Poverty Removal‖ and promising a return of up to 15 percent per year, a goal it will likely
not achieve, according to financial analysts.
The International Meditation Society of Israel has established an organization called ―A
Rule of Order, Strength and Peace: The Actualization of the Universe‘s Constitution in
Israel‘s National Life.‖ The new entity calls on leaders to adopt the techniques developed by
Transcendental Meditation founder Maharishi Mahesh to banish social ills and bring
world peace. ..Deepak Chopra says that Maharishi lost his temper and broke with the
Beatles because they were taking drugs during a visit to his ashram. ..Maharishi, now 89,
continues to head the TM movement and to think and speak about world peace from his
home in Vlodro, Netherlands. His aides say that Maharishi, who doesn‘t want to speak about
the past, is disappointed that TM became identified with the counterculture. ..TM plans to
open a grade school and university in Lancaster, MA, expanding upon a health center that‘s
been there since 1985.
The Global Country for World Peace, ―the organization at the heart of Transcendental
Meditation [TM] practice worldwide,‖ has bought land in St. Paul, MN, on which to build a
two-story, 12,000-square-foot building to house yoga and meditation classes and store
literature and health products. ..Discussing TM‘s claims that its meditation can lower blood
pressure, a Wall Street Journal article says most of the research data supporting the claims
comes from scientists with ties to the movement. Cardiologists say it may work, but cite
high costs in time and money. ..Recent civil lawsuits allege that TM‘s Maharishi University
of Management, in Fairfield, IA, failed to protect a student stabbed to death by a deranged
fellow student whom the administration had taken into custody following the non-fatal
stabbing of another student only hours earlier. The school at first explained the actions of
the killer — who was found guilty by reason of insanity — as the result of improper
meditation. The suits allege that TM meditation was dangerous for the mentally ill student
and that it can ―magnify psychological problems, including the likelihood and severity of
aggressive and violent behavior.‖
Transcendental Meditation‟s Global Country of World Peace has purchased from the
Unification Church a heavily wooded property near Pittsburgh and plans to build a $3
million, marble-clad, two-story Maharishi Peace Palace there. An introductory lecture on TM
was scheduled for the local Holiday Inn. ...The TM organization has broken ground on a
planned $14 million World Capital of Peace, in Smith Center, KS, which will be devoted in
part to organic farming. The mayor of the town of 1,800, who says, ―We don‘t have much
going for us,‖ added that he‘s glad he went to the groundbreaking ―because the rumors are
it‘s a cult and they are going to make underground bunkers and build nuclear weapons.
That‘s not what they are about.‖. ..TM held a seminar in Colorado Springs, CO, in April
attended by about 100 people, some of them educators from local school districts who,
organizers hope, will suggest bringing meditation into the classroom. TM says its technique
reduces high blood pressure, increases creativity, boosts brain function, and helps with
attention deficit disorder. ...TM on April 28 was to have begun the ―Greater Cincinnati 30-
day Experiment for Peace,‖ aiming to get at least 3,000 people to pray and meditate for a
month, thereby inducing a ―peaceful field of consciousness‖ that will change ―the energic
climate in which thoughts are formed.‖ This will, they say, create the ―Maharishi effect,‖
thus reducing the crime rate.
Transcendental Meditation (TM)
Transcendental Meditation (TM) plans to open up a second Iowa City Maharishi
Enlightenment Center soon, and the organization hopes to inaugurate a third in Coraville
and a Peace Palace in Iowa City. Global Organization for World Peace is heading the effort to
establish 300 enlightenment centers and 3,000 Peace Palaces worldwide. ..Maharishi
Global Financing, an arm of TM, is offering $14 trillion worth of ―World Peace Bonds for
Poverty Removal‖ and promising a return of up to 15 percent per year, a goal it will likely
not achieve, according to financial analysts.
The International Meditation Society of Israel has established an organization called ―A
Rule of Order, Strength and Peace: The Actualization of the Universe‘s Constitution in
Israel‘s National Life.‖ The new entity calls on leaders to adopt the techniques developed by
Transcendental Meditation founder Maharishi Mahesh to banish social ills and bring
world peace. ..Deepak Chopra says that Maharishi lost his temper and broke with the
Beatles because they were taking drugs during a visit to his ashram. ..Maharishi, now 89,
continues to head the TM movement and to think and speak about world peace from his
home in Vlodro, Netherlands. His aides say that Maharishi, who doesn‘t want to speak about
the past, is disappointed that TM became identified with the counterculture. ..TM plans to
open a grade school and university in Lancaster, MA, expanding upon a health center that‘s
been there since 1985.
The Global Country for World Peace, ―the organization at the heart of Transcendental
Meditation [TM] practice worldwide,‖ has bought land in St. Paul, MN, on which to build a
two-story, 12,000-square-foot building to house yoga and meditation classes and store
literature and health products. ..Discussing TM‘s claims that its meditation can lower blood
pressure, a Wall Street Journal article says most of the research data supporting the claims
comes from scientists with ties to the movement. Cardiologists say it may work, but cite
high costs in time and money. ..Recent civil lawsuits allege that TM‘s Maharishi University
of Management, in Fairfield, IA, failed to protect a student stabbed to death by a deranged
fellow student whom the administration had taken into custody following the non-fatal
stabbing of another student only hours earlier. The school at first explained the actions of
the killer — who was found guilty by reason of insanity — as the result of improper
meditation. The suits allege that TM meditation was dangerous for the mentally ill student
and that it can ―magnify psychological problems, including the likelihood and severity of
aggressive and violent behavior.‖
Transcendental Meditation‟s Global Country of World Peace has purchased from the
Unification Church a heavily wooded property near Pittsburgh and plans to build a $3
million, marble-clad, two-story Maharishi Peace Palace there. An introductory lecture on TM
was scheduled for the local Holiday Inn. ...The TM organization has broken ground on a
planned $14 million World Capital of Peace, in Smith Center, KS, which will be devoted in
part to organic farming. The mayor of the town of 1,800, who says, ―We don‘t have much
going for us,‖ added that he‘s glad he went to the groundbreaking ―because the rumors are
it‘s a cult and they are going to make underground bunkers and build nuclear weapons.
That‘s not what they are about.‖. ..TM held a seminar in Colorado Springs, CO, in April
attended by about 100 people, some of them educators from local school districts who,
organizers hope, will suggest bringing meditation into the classroom. TM says its technique
reduces high blood pressure, increases creativity, boosts brain function, and helps with
attention deficit disorder. ...TM on April 28 was to have begun the ―Greater Cincinnati 30-
day Experiment for Peace,‖ aiming to get at least 3,000 people to pray and meditate for a
month, thereby inducing a ―peaceful field of consciousness‖ that will change ―the energic
climate in which thoughts are formed.‖ This will, they say, create the ―Maharishi effect,‖
thus reducing the crime rate.
