The History of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and the Transcendental Meditation movement originated with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the organization, and continues beyond his death (2008). In 1955, the Maharishi began publicly teaching a traditional meditation technique learned from his master Brahmananda Saraswati, which he called Transcendental Deep Meditation,Williamson, Lola (2010) NY Press Williamson, Lola, Transcendent in America: Hindu-Inspired Meditation Movements as New Religion , pp. 97-99 and later renamed Transcendental Meditation.
The Maharishi initiated thousands of people, then developed a TM teacher training program as a way to accelerate the rate of bringing the technique to more people.Russell, p 26 He also inaugurated a series of world tours which promoted Transcendental Meditation. These factors, coupled with endorsements by celebrities who practiced TM, along with scientific research that validated the technique, helped to popularize TM in the 1960s and 1970s. By the late 2000s, TM had been taught to millions of individuals and the Maharishi was overseeing a large multinational movement.The Times London, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Feb 7 2008, pg 62 Despite organizational changes and the addition of advanced meditative techniques in the 1970s the Transcendental Meditation technique has remained relatively unchanged.
Among the first organizations to promote TM were the Spiritual Regeneration Movement and the International Meditation Society. In present times, the movement has grown to encompass schools and universities that teach the practice, and includes many associated programs offering health and well-being based on the Maharishi's interpretation of the Vedic traditions. In the U.S., major organizations included Students International Meditation Society, AFSCI, World Plan Executive Council, Maharishi Vedic Education Development Corporation, and Global Country of World Peace. The successor to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and head of the Global Country of World Peace, is Tony Nader.
1950s
In 1955, Brahmachari Mahesh left Uttarkashi and began publicly teaching what he stated was a traditional meditation technique learned from his master Brahmananda Saraswati, which he called Transcendental Deep Meditation. Later the technique was renamed Transcendental Meditation.
In 1958, Brahmachari Mahesh, now called Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, began a number of worldwide tours promoting and disseminating Transcendental Meditation. The first tour began in Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar). The Maharishi remained in the Far East for about six months teaching his meditation.
In 1959, the Maharishi taught the Transcendental Meditation technique in Hawaii, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London and Germany.Olson, Carl (2007) Rutgers University Press, The Many Colors of Hinduism page 338-346 He founded the Spiritual Regeneration Movement in Los Angeles, in 1959 and established an office there, which was the only place where TM was taught in the USA between 1959 and 1965.
1960s In 1960, the Maharishi founded the International Meditation Society (IMS) and trained his first TM teacher, Henry Nyburg of England. During the tour Maharishi made Henry Nyburg his personal representative in Europe and gave him the training and authority to teach Transcendental Meditation, thus making him the first European teacher.
On 13 March 1961, a meeting called "1961 World Congress" was organised for the Maharishi in the Royal Albert Hall by Leon MacLaren of The School of Economic Science and Dr Frances Roles of the Study Society. Two smaller meetings were held at Caxton Hall prior to the main event.The Royal Albert Hall meeting was attended by 5,000 people. The School of Economic Science was instrumental in promoting TM in the UK from the 1960s.
In collaboration with The Study Society and the School of Economic Science, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi established The School of Meditation in London in 1961,Ebon, Martin (1968). MAHARISHI, THE GURU: An International Symposium (First ed.). Signet Books. p. 129. ASIN B00005WBYQ.Chryssides, George D. (1999). Exploring New Religions. Continuum International Publishing. p. 374. under the direction of Bill Whiting its purpose was, and remains, to study and teach the principles and practical application of meditation. Many of the subsequent leaders of The School of Meditation were students of the Maharishi. The School of Meditation is now an independent, self-governing organisation. By 2011, SoM had initiated 15,332 people into the practice of meditation, it has branches in several parts of the UK as well as in Greece and Holland.
The Maharishi lectured at Caxton Hall in London and the talk was attended by Leon MacLaren. In the 1950s, he first TM teacher in the U.S. was a who was joined by a male instructor in 1966.Humes, Cynthia (2005) State University of New York Press, Gurus In America, page 64
The first international Teacher Training Course (TTC) was held near Rishikesh, India, in 1961, to train teachers of Transcendental Meditation. Over 60 meditators from India, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Britain, Malaya, Norway, the United States, Australia, Greece, Italy and the West Indies attended the course. "Over 60 meditators participated in this first Teacher Training Course, and they came from India, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Malaya, Norway, the US, Australia, Greece, Italy and the West Indies" page 344 Teachers continued to be trained as time progressed and by 1978, there were 7,000 TM teachers in the U.S alone. The Maharishi appeared on BBC television and gave a lecture to 5,000 people at the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1974.Unknown author,DVD of Maharishi At Royal Albert Hall, MUM Press, retrieved August 31, 2012 "Maharishi at The Royal Albert Hall – DVD, By Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Color, 110 minutes, Recorded in 1974
According to a history written by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 21 members of the Indian Parliament issued a public statement endorsing TM in 1963.Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1986) pp. 504–507 "21 members of Parliament, representing each of the Indian states, issued a statement entitled a 'Timely Call to the Leaders of Today and Tomorrow' for the speedy introduction of the system [of TM] in the daily routine of national life." page 504 According to the Maharishi, news articles on the technique appeared in Canadian newspapers such as the Daily Colonist, Calgary Herald, and The Albertan.Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1986) pp. 530–536 "a front page news article in the local Daily Colonist newspaper, which had reported on the Parksville course and quote Maharishi..." page 533
The Students International Meditation Society (SIMS) began in Germany in 1964, was incorporated in the USA in 1965 and continues to function in some countries.SIMS New Zealand Another organization, the American Foundation for the Science of Creative Intelligence (AFSC) taught TM to business people at Connecticut General Life Insurance Co., General Foods, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and AT&T. In 1967, the TM movement "really took off" when the Maharishi became the "spiritual advisor to The Beatles". In 1968, the Maharishi announced that he would stop his "public activities" and instead begin the training of TM teachers at his new global headquarters in Seelisberg, Switzerland.
1970s In 1970, the Maharishi held a TM teacher training course at a Victorian hotel located in Poland Springs, Maine with 1,200 participants. Later that year, he held a similar four-week course at Humboldt State College in Arcata, California. About 1,500 people attended and the course was described as a "sort of a crash program to train transcendental teachers". Following tax troubles in India, the Maharishi moved his headquarters to Italy and then to Austria.
In 1970, the first scientific study on the Transcendental Meditation technique was published in the journal Science. In the early 1970s, courses on the Science of Creative Intelligence, Maharishi's unified theory of life, were offered at universities such as Stanford University, Yale, the University of Colorado, the University of Wisconsin, and Oregon State University.
In 1972 in Mallorca, Spain, the Maharishi announced his World Plan to establish one Transcendental Meditation teaching center for each million of the world's population.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the TM movement began to shed its identity as part of the hippie counterculture, making incursions into the US American cultural mainstream. From the mid-1970s, the Maharishi began to target business professionals, adapting his message to promise "increased creativity and flexibility, increased productivity, improved job satisfaction, improved relations with supervisors and co-workers". His TM movement came to be increasingly structured along the lines of a multinational corporation.Martin Hodgson, The Guardian (5 February 2008) "He [Maharishi] transformed his interpretations of ancient scripture into a multimillion-dollar global empire with more than 5m followers worldwide" The Maharishi International University was founded in 1974 in Goleta California.
In 1975, Maharishi European University was found in Lake Lucerne Switzerland. That year TM practitioner Merv Griffin invited the Maharishi to appear on his talk show, thereby aiding Transcendental Meditation in becoming a "full blown craze" during that era (according to Time Magazine) and in eventually becoming a global phenomenon with centers in some 130 countries. In 1975 Transcendental Meditation received favorable testimony in the Congressional Record and was advocated by Major-General Franklin M. Davis Jr. of the US Army. Maharishi appeared on the Merv Griffin Show again in 1977."The Merv Griffin Show: December 14, 1977" TV.com web site. Retrieved OCt 15, 2012
In 1975, the Maharishi began teaching advanced mental techniques, called the TM-Sidhi Program, which included a technique for the development of what he termed Yogic Flying. The program was said to create the Maharishi Effect, based on studies which reported that in US cities where 1 percent of the population meditated, the crime rate dropped. As early as 1968, the Maharishi stated that 30 minutes of TM morning and evening by 1 percent of the population would "dispel the clouds of war for thousands of years."
In 1976 the headquarters of the US movement moved to the former Santa Ynez Inn, a block from the ocean in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles The property was sold in 2003 when its inauspicious orientation was realized. and published a seven-hundred-page compilation of Transcendental Meditation research, generated by 51 institutions from 13 countries.
A Gallup Poll conducted in August 1976 said that four percent (4 percent) of those Americans questioned had engaged in TM. This was despite the fact that, according to movement records, only .5 percent of Americans had been initiated.Bainbridge & Stark (1980) "Client and Audience: Cults in America". Sociological Analysis v. 41, n. 3, pp 199–214 The average number of people learning TM fell from a peak of approximately 40,000 a month in 1975 to 4,000 in 1977. William Sims Bainbridge wrote that, as of 1977, "Most of the million who had been initiated either ceased meditating or did so informally and irregularly without continuing connections to the TM Movement."