11 VOLUME 9 |ISSUE 3 |2018
For example, shaking and body movements, and also
overpowering thoughts, occur frequently enough even during
the first few meditations that an entire section of TM’s checking
procedures addresses these severe side effects. Students are told
to view potentially frightening experiences as a release of stress,
and new meditators are advised not to resist the symptoms
because they are beneficial. If the shaking becomes violent
and seemingly out of control, then students are told to open
their eyes and wait until it subsides and eventually stops. As if
uncontrollable shaking and overpowering thoughts aren’t bad
enough, in the case of “severe problems that might arise,” the
checking notes allow the ill-equipped, untrained TM teacher
to inquire if the student has seen a doctor.17 Unless things have
recently changed, students are not told about potentially very
serious side effects before instruction, and then only if the
students report such effects.
The frequency of severe problems is unknown because the TM
organization doesn’t provide information about adverse effects.
Like Roth, the organization denies problems exist, and Maharishi
led the denial chorus. As demonstrated in the following quote,
he instilled in his teachers that TM was the solution to all medical
problems:
We are not going to take help from medical Drs. as
medical professionals give poison. So don’t engage
any medical Drs. for anything—absolutely whatever
it is—even if they are in our Movement family… Hold
onto the fact that we are the supreme authorities on
health—we know how to create perfect health.18
Abysmal Evidence of Benefits
Maharishi was also primarily responsible for a stream of
misrepresentation, exaggeration, and hype designed to give TM
an aura of scientific legitimacy to sell a product. Roth and others
have assumed the mantle. For example, in his book, Roth points
to the U.S. National Institutes of Health providing tens of millions
of dollars to study TM’s effects on stress and heart health. While
the statement is true, the real story is that most funding for TM
research had stopped by 2004.
ClinicalTrials.gov, a repository of information on clinical research
studies either in progress or recently completed, is a gauge of
the scientific community’s loss of interest in TM. A review of the
number of meditation-related clinical studies listed on the site
identifies only 16 TM studies, and seven of those began in 2001
or earlier.19
In contrast, a search on ClinicalTrials.gov using the term
mindfulness identifies 196 studies specifically focused on
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), a secular version
of mindfulness meditation that has many clinical applications.20
The site further identifies 289 “Relaxation Response” studies
underway or recently completed by research centers and
universities throughout the world.21
Some highlights that account for TM’s precipitous fall from grace
in the research world include poorly designed studies that rarely
include a randomized, active control group, researchers who are
affiliated with TM institutions and/or practice TM, and a history of
exaggerated findings. A comprehensive review of TM and other
meditation practices concluded that
Many uncertainties surround the practice of
meditation. Scientific research on meditation
practices does not appear to have a common
theoretical perspective and is characterized by poor
methodological quality. Firm conclusions on the effects
of meditation practices in healthcare cannot be drawn
based on the available evidence. Future research on
meditation practices must be more rigorous in the
design and execution of studies and in the analysis and
reporting of results.22
When Hype Gets Dangerous
While not a researcher himself, Roth is no stranger to TM hype.
He writes, “I want to shift gears here to talk in some detail about
some truly breakthrough research documenting the unique
and profound benefits TM has on stress and health” [bold
added].23 Roth first describes hypertension as “the silent killer”
because there are often no warning symptoms until the damage
is done.24 He is correct. Then, citing one severely criticized study,
he writes that TM led to a 23% reduction in death rate overall and
a 30% reduction in death rate from cardiovascular causes. Citing a
second study by the same researcher, he writes that the TM study
group had a 48% reduction in the risk of dying from myocardial
infarction and stroke as well as from all causes.25
This example shows where TM hype can turn deadly. Roth
cites a few preliminary, short-term studies with relatively few
subjects and conducted by TM affiliated researchers as though
the studies were profound medical breakthroughs. If the so-
called breakthroughs were even a fraction of what TM presents,
researchers worldwide would be trying to replicate the findings.
They aren’t. At the very best, TM research in this area is nothing
more than possibly hypothesis generating, if even that. Other
medical writers have scathingly criticized the main study Roth
references as severely flawed and biased one even went so far
as to suggest the possibility of data manipulation. He wrote, “In
other words, to use the old cliché, they tortured the data until they
made it talk.”26
One TM website not only repeats these outrageous claims, but it
also makes the extraordinarily dangerous statement that TM has
been scientifically proven to normalize blood pressure.27
As evidence of TM’s efficacy in lowering blood pressure, Roth
writes, “In 2013, the American Heart Association looked at years of
research on TM and concluded in its journal Hypertension that TM
is the only meditation technique shown to lower blood pressure.”28
I don’t know if Roth had actually read the study. I did. Robert D.
Brook, MD, of the University of Michigan, chaired a panel of 12
scientists who authored the report:
Numerous alternative approaches for lowering BP
have been evaluated during the past few decades. The
strongest evidence supports the effectiveness of using
For example, shaking and body movements, and also
overpowering thoughts, occur frequently enough even during
the first few meditations that an entire section of TM’s checking
procedures addresses these severe side effects. Students are told
to view potentially frightening experiences as a release of stress,
and new meditators are advised not to resist the symptoms
because they are beneficial. If the shaking becomes violent
and seemingly out of control, then students are told to open
their eyes and wait until it subsides and eventually stops. As if
uncontrollable shaking and overpowering thoughts aren’t bad
enough, in the case of “severe problems that might arise,” the
checking notes allow the ill-equipped, untrained TM teacher
to inquire if the student has seen a doctor.17 Unless things have
recently changed, students are not told about potentially very
serious side effects before instruction, and then only if the
students report such effects.
The frequency of severe problems is unknown because the TM
organization doesn’t provide information about adverse effects.
Like Roth, the organization denies problems exist, and Maharishi
led the denial chorus. As demonstrated in the following quote,
he instilled in his teachers that TM was the solution to all medical
problems:
We are not going to take help from medical Drs. as
medical professionals give poison. So don’t engage
any medical Drs. for anything—absolutely whatever
it is—even if they are in our Movement family… Hold
onto the fact that we are the supreme authorities on
health—we know how to create perfect health.18
Abysmal Evidence of Benefits
Maharishi was also primarily responsible for a stream of
misrepresentation, exaggeration, and hype designed to give TM
an aura of scientific legitimacy to sell a product. Roth and others
have assumed the mantle. For example, in his book, Roth points
to the U.S. National Institutes of Health providing tens of millions
of dollars to study TM’s effects on stress and heart health. While
the statement is true, the real story is that most funding for TM
research had stopped by 2004.
ClinicalTrials.gov, a repository of information on clinical research
studies either in progress or recently completed, is a gauge of
the scientific community’s loss of interest in TM. A review of the
number of meditation-related clinical studies listed on the site
identifies only 16 TM studies, and seven of those began in 2001
or earlier.19
In contrast, a search on ClinicalTrials.gov using the term
mindfulness identifies 196 studies specifically focused on
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), a secular version
of mindfulness meditation that has many clinical applications.20
The site further identifies 289 “Relaxation Response” studies
underway or recently completed by research centers and
universities throughout the world.21
Some highlights that account for TM’s precipitous fall from grace
in the research world include poorly designed studies that rarely
include a randomized, active control group, researchers who are
affiliated with TM institutions and/or practice TM, and a history of
exaggerated findings. A comprehensive review of TM and other
meditation practices concluded that
Many uncertainties surround the practice of
meditation. Scientific research on meditation
practices does not appear to have a common
theoretical perspective and is characterized by poor
methodological quality. Firm conclusions on the effects
of meditation practices in healthcare cannot be drawn
based on the available evidence. Future research on
meditation practices must be more rigorous in the
design and execution of studies and in the analysis and
reporting of results.22
When Hype Gets Dangerous
While not a researcher himself, Roth is no stranger to TM hype.
He writes, “I want to shift gears here to talk in some detail about
some truly breakthrough research documenting the unique
and profound benefits TM has on stress and health” [bold
added].23 Roth first describes hypertension as “the silent killer”
because there are often no warning symptoms until the damage
is done.24 He is correct. Then, citing one severely criticized study,
he writes that TM led to a 23% reduction in death rate overall and
a 30% reduction in death rate from cardiovascular causes. Citing a
second study by the same researcher, he writes that the TM study
group had a 48% reduction in the risk of dying from myocardial
infarction and stroke as well as from all causes.25
This example shows where TM hype can turn deadly. Roth
cites a few preliminary, short-term studies with relatively few
subjects and conducted by TM affiliated researchers as though
the studies were profound medical breakthroughs. If the so-
called breakthroughs were even a fraction of what TM presents,
researchers worldwide would be trying to replicate the findings.
They aren’t. At the very best, TM research in this area is nothing
more than possibly hypothesis generating, if even that. Other
medical writers have scathingly criticized the main study Roth
references as severely flawed and biased one even went so far
as to suggest the possibility of data manipulation. He wrote, “In
other words, to use the old cliché, they tortured the data until they
made it talk.”26
One TM website not only repeats these outrageous claims, but it
also makes the extraordinarily dangerous statement that TM has
been scientifically proven to normalize blood pressure.27
As evidence of TM’s efficacy in lowering blood pressure, Roth
writes, “In 2013, the American Heart Association looked at years of
research on TM and concluded in its journal Hypertension that TM
is the only meditation technique shown to lower blood pressure.”28
I don’t know if Roth had actually read the study. I did. Robert D.
Brook, MD, of the University of Michigan, chaired a panel of 12
scientists who authored the report:
Numerous alternative approaches for lowering BP
have been evaluated during the past few decades. The
strongest evidence supports the effectiveness of using
