This previously posted article has been updated with appended material following a letter received from the General Counsel for Maharishi University of Management and the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness Based Education and World Peace, William Goldstein, under the subject heading "Retraction of Defamatory Article". Upon reviewing Goldstein's criticisms, the author has decided that there are no grounds for labeling this article "defamatory". An open reply to Goldstein's letter follows the article below:
“Hundreds of scientific studies have been conducted on the benefits of the Transcendental Meditation program at more than 200 independent universities and research institutions worldwide in the past 35 years,” explains the TM-promoting David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace website. Among the positive side-effects of the TM program, we find: increased focus, decreased hostility, reduced anxiety, even a reduction in cardiovascular disease among practitioners.
Surely, with this in mind, no reasonable person would argue against teaching the TM method in public schools.
And this is exactly what the David Lynch Foundation - founded by the cult film director of Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, and
This past April, the foundation held a large benefit concert in
But, despite the attributed benefits and celebrity endorsements, some worry that the teaching of a TM-based program in public schools constitutes another breach across the ever-eroding church-state dividing line. Americans United for the Separation of Church and State reports, “Slowly but steadily, TM seems to be gaining a foothold in public schools across the country. The trend has alarmed some advocates of church-state separation, who point out that the practice is based in Hinduism and that the federal courts removed it from
In regards to funding being offered by the David Lynch Foundation in support of the TM program, “Americans United is urging school officials to turn down the money, reminding educators that TM in the schools can spark litigation. In 1976, Americans United and other groups joined with Roman Catholic and Protestant parents to bring a lawsuit against the use of TM in five
Indeed, though the David Lynch Foundation seems keen to express that TM is just a technique, with real estate holdings, schools, and clinics—even a town, Vedic City, in Iowa—“worth more than $3 billion in the late 1990s,” TM is clearly something more. Some go so far as describe TM as “a cult that ultimately seeks to strip individuals of their ability to think and choose freely.”
Therapist John Knapp, specializing in providing help to ex-cult members and people entangled in “cultic relationships” left TM after 23 years of involvement. “I married somebody who was not involved with the group, and part of my group experience was that I was asked to lie about a number of items. And living every day with someone and having to lie to them was extremely difficult… It caused what you could call a cognitive dissonance. It really caused a bifurcation in my mind. It was really difficult to live with. And I’d also gotten very far away from my family, which is not uncommon for people who are in these kinds of [cultic] relationships. As my mother was getting older I wanted to re-establish my ties with her and the family. These kinds of things led me to begin questioning my relationship [with TM].”
Upon deciding that he would leave TM, Knapp reports that he suffered a good deal of harassing behavior from the group. “It was difficult for me, because I had believed so strongly in this group [TM]. My spiritual and emotional life was really bound up completely with this group, so when they turned on me it was very confusing and very difficult for me…”
Worse, Knapp reports negative effects derived from the meditation technique itself, from addictive behavior to increased feelings of dissociation. He claims that many clients of his that come from TM have experienced the same.
TM was founded by a man known as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1956 in India, and the revered guru himself had once been accused of using “fear and intimidation” in order to work to prevent a disciple from leaving the Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa. The disillusioned student, Robert Kropinski, and six other people sued Maharishi’s University for $9 million on the grounds of “fraud, neglect, and intentionally inflicting emotional damage”. Kropinski stated that none of the promised TM benefits ever surfaced during his time as a student, and he was awarded $138,000 by a
Admittedly, all of this sounds most unpleasant, but what of the scientific data supporting the individual benefits of TM?
There are problems with TM’s data. While the David Lynch Foundation endlessly promotes the “unique” benefits of TM, there is a conspicuous shortage of comparative analytical studies that measure TM against other relaxation techniques. Surprisingly, studies measuring the effects of a simple mid-day nap report many of the same “unique” benefits touted by TM.
In fact, a study published in the journal Science in 1976 found in studying “five experienced practitioners of Transcendental Meditation”, that they “spent appreciable parts of meditation sessions” merely napping.
And, according to a June 2007 report, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that evaluated the quality of the meditation research along an array of standard scientific criteria such as the proper use of randomization and control group techniques, “Overall, the methodological quality of both intervention and observational analytic studies on meditation practices is poor.”
According to Dr. Barry Markovsky, professor of Sociology at the
Worst of all, TM makes a series of staggering claims that can be charitably described as “unlikely”. Old advertisements for TM claim that practitioners of TM will develop “supernormal powers” including “supernormal sight and hearing”, invisibility, and levitation! The organization even circulated photos with pictures of lotus-seated students apparently hovering above the ground, but first-hand observations of the “levitations” left many unconvinced. The levitators never managed to levitate for very long; they never really “hovered”. In fact, they sprung up rather abruptly and dropped immediately to the ground again. Really, it was quite apparent that these transcendent hopefuls were merely hopping about from a seated position.
Nor has TM provided any legitimized demonstrations of any of its supernormal powers.
When asked about “advanced techniques” such as “yogic flight” during a press conference promoting his benefit concert, David Lynch replied with some rambling vagaries about a “field of unity”, “bliss”, and the “collective consciousness”.
The David Lynch Foundation has a stated of goal of teaching TM to one million children, which is reminiscent of another supernatural claim of TM: the Maharishi Effect, which states that a certain critical mass of TM meditators can affect change upon the material world.
While John Hagelin of the David Lynch Foundation claims that the Maharishi Effect is a scientifically proven phenomenon, there is no reliable evidence to support this. (Hagelin, it should be noted, is partially to blame for the simple-minded buffoonery of the best-selling book The Secret, which promotes a simpler version of the Maharishi Effect: The idea that one can obtain what one wants through mere wishful thinking.) Hagelin claims that in 1993 crime was reduced in
As Skeptico reports: “There were many problems with this experiment. One was that the murder rate rose during the period in question. Another was that Hagelin’s report stated violent crime had been reduced by 18% (in the film [What The Bleep Do We Know] he says 25%), but reduced compared with what? How did he know what the crime rate would have been without the TM? It was discovered later that all the members of the “independent scientific review board” that scrutinized the project were followers of the Maharishi. The study was pseudoscience: no double blinding, the reviewers were not independent, and the experiment has never been independently replicated. Hagelin deservedly won an Ig Nobel Prize in 1994 for this outstanding piece of work.”
James Randi, famed stage magician, author, founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation, and debunker of supernatural claims, explains that TM has “always maintained this… [the idea] that if a certain critical number of people take up TM, they will protect everybody, and the world will be perfectly safe from then on.”
Randi came to be aware of TM through his friend and fellow magician, Doug Henning. “I knew [Henning] very well as a kid, and later as a mature magician. We were always in touch…” Randi describes a deeply cultic relationship between Henning and Transcendental Meditation that would destroy Henning’s career and eventually take his life. Henning’s career as a television magician was compromised as he strove to hire only TM initiates to work on the set. According to Randi, this was not only problematic for the fact that it was difficult to find people within TM who were talented in television production, but “every so often they went in to meditation and work just stopped…” Eventually, TV executives grew weary of Henning’s professional antics.
Henning became even more deeply involved with TM following his diagnosis of liver cancer, eventually removing himself from contact with non-TM practitioners. “He gave up all medical care… the Maharishi had told him that he could recover from his liver cancer simply from meditating… he meditated himself to death.” Henning died in February of 2000.
“I’m so angry at the TM movement,” says Randi, “for having taken an innocent person.”
John Knapp feels that the drive to bring TM into more schools is destined to failure as any critical scrutiny of the organization will prove its undoing. According to him, “It’s just too damn strange…”
Relaxation – whether by crude napping, or practiced meditation – holds certain benefits that are not the monopoly of the TM brand. It is this author’s hope that schools will continue to seek techniques to aid the reduction of stress and conflict - while increasing health and focus - without reducing their curriculum to supernatural philosophies that cross the church-state line.
*******************
On October 13 editors at Examiner received an email from William Goldstein, General Counsel for Maharishi University of Management and the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness Based Education and World Peace. The email's subject heading was "Retraction of Defamatory Article", and it ended with strong words claiming that the "falsehoods, defamations and omissions [in the article above] compel me [Goldstein] to ask you to remove this article from your newspaper to put an end to the continuing damage its publication causes to my client."
And what were these "falsehoods, defamations and omissions"? Goldstein opens: "I will not comment on the inappropriate statements on the scientific research conducted on the TM program contained in Mr. Mesner’s article. Dr. Orme Johnson’s comments you have received reply more expertly than I could on that subject and I incorporate them."
I had read Dr. Orme Johnson's criticisms and found them less than compelling, some of them nonsensical. For instance, this comment - "To Knapp’s statement that TM is “too strange” for America, one has to ask, strange for whom, the narrow minded and ethnocentric? I think our nation has gotten past a lot of that." - left me to merely wonder what in the world ethnocentricism might have to do with any of this if TM is not to be viewed as an Eastern practice rooted in Eastern beliefs and traditions?
Dr. Orme Johnson made comments suggesting that James Randi was incorrect regarding Henning's situation: "Maharishi’s advice was always to seek medical attention when one gets sick, not “just meditate” as Randi alleges. Studies of medical care utilization that I conducted on Blue Cross statistics found that 2,000 TM subjects over a five-year period had on average 50% less hospitalization and doctors visits than the norm or matched controls, with reductions in all categories of disease."
This comment would be laughable if the ramifications were less grave. When the criticism is that TM discouraged a sick man from seeking medical attention, the statistic of 50% less hospitalization amongst TM practitioners hardly makes that claim seem less credible. But, just the same, if Randi's comments are "falsehoods, defamations, or omissions", that is problem that must be taken up with James Randi. He is accurately quoted in the article above.
Likewise, the claim that TM is a "cult" is attributed, and Goldstein must take any disagreement with that label up with those who use it to describe his... "client". In my favorite part of his email, Goldstein writes: Mr. Mesner then goes on to paste the horrific label of a “cult” on the TM program. Al Gore, Jerry Seinfeld and Paul McCartney would find it remarkable to be told they are members of a cult, but that does not mitigate the serious damages that such thoughtless labeling can have on the organizations which teach these programs to the public. And while Jerry may laugh at such a characterization, Al Gore may not have as well developed a sense of humor.
This shameless name-dropping is pointless, as it can be worked both ways. "Jerry may laugh", and Al Gore may be a humorless bore. Or Jerry may in fact cringe in disgust if presented with the idea that TM practitioners may learn to levitate, or that the Maharishi Effect is a proven phenomena. Al Gore may laugh at such nonsense. We really don't know, do we? Were Jerry Seinfeld, Al Gore, or Paul McCartney asked to give an opinion of my article? Is it just too remarkable to imagine that such celebrities might be involved in a "cult" or cult-based practices? Do Tom Cruise and John Travolta find it remarkable that many accuse Scientology of being a cult? For that matter, isn't Scientology's Dianetics "auditing" practice nothing more than a therapeutic technique? As such, perhaps it too should be welcomed into school rooms.
Goldstein goes on to question the credibility of John Knapp: "Mr. Knapp has developed a niche in the field of counseling for victims of cults which he actively promotes on his websites. He has created a straw man, and now he is selling expensive medicine to him. "
While I'm not exactly sure what is meant by this, it seems to imply that counseling ex-TM practitioners has proven lucrative for Knapp which would also imply a consistent client base of TM disaffected. But, again, if Goldstein takes issue with what is said by Knapp, he must take it up with him. Knapp is accurately quoted in the article above.
The one helpful item mentioned in Goldstein's email was the fact that the Kropinski finding was over-turned on appeal - though this would better have been mentioned in the comments, not in a full letter claiming "defamation".
Most other comments regarding this article, by Dr. Orme Johnson and others, take exception to the criticisms regarding the Maharishi Effect. I have no intention of being ambiguous about this: the Maharishi Effect is not a proven phenomena. I seriously doubt it can even be considered a valid hypothesis. It's failed hippy mysticism, and it has no place whatever in public schools.
I said it.
Go ahead and sue me.
Speaking only for myself,
Douglas Mesner
Comments
Suggest you try a science index to get a scope on the research rather than anti-TM sites. Regarding the 1976 study by Pagano, he said in a 1983 review of the EEG research on TM that his 1976 results were atypical. The court did not find in Malnak v Yogi that the mantras were names of Hindu deities. Instead, an undisputed fact in the case was that the mantras are meaningless sounds. Markovsky is entitled to his opinions, but the randomized controlled trials that have been done in recent years are the most rigorous research design. The 2007 review found that three of them received good or better on the Jadad scale. And eventually the authors of that review acknowledged that it's not possible to double blind meditation studies. They raised the scores on the studies in their subsequent publication of this study, but won't release a list of scores so it's not possible to tell how many received good Jadad scores. An appellate court overturned Kropinski's award. Lots of factual errors here.
The recent article on the Transcendental Meditation technique in the schools written by Douglas Mesner is a compilation of misinformation. TM does not involve any of the defining attributes of a cult. It is a completely natural practice that the person does on their own, which does not involve trance, indoctrination, or change in belief system. Religious leaders of many faiths have written letters stating that TM in no way conflicts with their religious beliefs. Even though TM is taught in a traditional way with a brief ceremony for the teacher’s sake, the fact is that there is no belief or change of belief required for its practice. A key element that distinguishes TM from other mantra meditation is that it is important that mantras do not have a meaning, and that no concentration or effort is used. The myth of a wealthy TM empire is a complete distortion. I knew Maharishi personally for 38 years, and his central concern and motivating force was the welfare of all people everywhere.
Maharishi always encouraged open inquiry and discussion about the research and its theoretical underpinnings. The fact is that the research on TM has been conducted in over 200 universities and research institutions, and published in over 100 peer-reviewed journals. That defines open inquiry, not cult behavior.
One study did find a predominance of napping during TM, but that was an anomaly because the researchers used ether to place the electrodes, which knocked out the subjects. EEG studies have found that TM enhances wakefulness. It produces broad-band coherence and synchrony, a state that is now widely recognized in the field as providing the connectedness between global and local neural networks. This substratum of coherence and awareness makes possible coherent perception, cognition, and affect. Randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses have found that TM provides deeper rest, and increases brain integration, intelligence, decision-making ability, and creativity.
The 2007 report that meditation research was of “poor quality” used the wrong standard for judging quality. It demanded that the studies be “double blind”, meaning that neither the provider or the subjects know the identity of the treatment. It is easy to disguise the identity of a pill, but for the behavioral techniques studied, such as acupuncture, yoga, TM, and mindfulness, it is not possible for the teachers and the students not to know what they are doing. The appropriate control would be to compare the different technique with other viable treatments that have the same amount of attention from the instructors and expectation fostering features. This has been done with TM, which is a leader in well-controlled research in this field. Barry Markovsky is in no way an expert on TM research, and his criticisms of it have been thoroughly refuted by the evidence, which was provided to him.
The criticism of physicist John Hagelin’s research on crime is Washington D.C. have also been refuted. His research on the Maharishi Effect, the phenomenon of improved quality of life in the larger society created by TM practitioners, has been replicated in 50 experiments using a wide range of variables, populations, and state of the art experimental designs. Dr. Hagelin is one of the most influential theoretical physicists in the world, and the criticism of him by his less insightful contemporaries is just another example in the history of science of one of those instances that will be amuse future generations.
Magician Randi is right that Doug Henning was great soul, but he has it wrong about how Doug died of cancer. I knew Doug well, and he had every kind of medical treatment--allopathic, complementary, and alternative--in addition to his meditation practice. Maharishi’s advice was always to seek medical attention when one gets sick, not “just meditate” as Randi alleges. Studies of medical care utilization that I conducted on Blue Cross statistics found that 2,000 TM subjects over a five-year period had on average 50% less hospitalization and doctors visits than the norm or matched controls, with reductions in all categories of disease. TM substantially reduces the risk of disease and helps people recover faster. And it slows the aging process and produces a higher quality of life in the elderly. But there is no claim that it eliminates disease entirely or can put off the inevitability of death.
I have taught TM to over 2,000 people, and I have never encountered the problems that John Knapp alleges. He maintains an anti-TM Web site that prominently drives traffic to his anti-cult therapy business. I have made sure that he is aware of the existence of a vast literature contradicting his statements, which he irresponsibly continues to ignore. Could there a conflict of interest here? To Knapp’s statement that TM is “too strange” for America, one has to ask, strange for whom, the narrow minded and ethnocentric? I think our nation has gotten past a lot of that.
It may benefit some special interest groups to keep TM out our schools, but it is a disservice to the American public at large. Let us look at all the evidence an move forward rationally with a clear mind and an open heart.
Thanks, Douglas Mesner, for this heads up. I hadn't known about this cult. A quick look at a neutral source, The Washington Post, yielded this laughable quote: Haviland said yesterday that "hopping" is the first stage of yogic flying. He added that "hovering" and "actual flight" -- the second and third stages -- have not yet been achieved. "Given the results we've experienced so far, we feel that it won't be long before we'll be getting onto the second and third stage," Haviland said. He said the important thing is the "coherence" that the "flying" creates individually and collectively, "which leads to world peace."
Uh, yeah. Nice try, adherents to the cult who've come here to comment, but if your "science" includes "flying" in order to achieve "world peace" your best best is to nominate yourselves for a Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel committee seems to be buying horse hockey these days.
David Orme-Johnson: some of your "refutations" are hilarious. Randi says that Henning died from lack of medical treatment because his cult leader - the maharishi - told him to meditate instead. In defense you say that TM practitioners are 50% less frequent visitors to the hospital?? That's THE PROBLEM! Then you throw things out like "criticisms of Hagelin have been refuted". Really? Where? And you cover none of the criticisms involving "supernormal powers". Where do you stand on THOSE claims? Are they proven? Knapp had a bad TM experience, but he's not to be trusted, why? Because he has a site that references his experiences?? Try to be coherent in your criticisms, will you? Then you claim comparative analysis has been done, but cite nothing. You carry on with the benefits claimed by both nap-time and TM. "The myth of a wealthy TM empire is a complete distortion." Really? You dispute those numbers and the claimed real estate holdings?
Anti-cult's criticisms ignore the facts. First, Doug Henning did not die of liver cancer because he ignored medical help. Fact: the prognosis for those diagnosed with liver cancer is very poor. Most die within several months. Less than 10% survive for three years. And I have heard time and again from long-term meditators that Maharishi always encouraged sick people to seek medical help. But Doug was very likely beyond help anyway. Second, 'AC' disparages the statement that "critics of John Hagelin (and his research on the crime-reducing "Maharishi Effect") have been refuted." Fact: Maharishi Effect studies, including one on the 1993 Washington, D.C. "National Demonstration Project" have been published in a dozen peer-reviewed scientific journals. The Washington study appeared in Social Indicators Research 47, 153-201. Third, comparative analyses of the effects of TM vs. other techniques HAVE, in fact, been done, e.g., Journal of Clinical Psychology, 45(6) (1989).
Cameron's comments are perplexing, to say the least. "Fact: Maharishi Effect studies, including one on the 1993 Washington, D.C. "National Demonstration Project" have been published in a dozen peer-reviewed scientific journals." Only to be mocked by rational observers ever since. From the book 'Voodoo Science: the road from foolishness to fraud' (of which TM is both): "At the end of the demonstration period, Hagelin [...] acknowledged that murders were indeed up [...] but 'brutal crime' was down. One could only imagine that the murders were being committed more humanely..." (pg. 30) The experiment (such as it was) was an utter failure. Nor, I suppose, can TM bring us a levitating practitioner to study? Do we really want to lobotomize school-children with this BS? I also find it very tasteless to suggest that Henning would have died anyway, so no harm done in discouraging his medical treatment. I endorse nap-time: unbranded relaxation without supernaturalism.
Douglas Mesner asks a valid question: If homicides were up at the end of this "demonstration" project, how could the organizers claim success? Answer: because the OVERALL crime rate went down, very significantly. During the course of the assembly, as the numbers of meditators went up, the COMBINED totals of several types of violent crime went down. During the seventh week, when there were 3600 meditators, the overall reduction was 23%. The liklihood of this trend being due to chance was less than 1 in 2 billion. I am just reporting the results as they appeared in Social Indicators Research 47, 153-201. I would point out that this is a respected, peer-reviewed journal, in which each study published is scrutinized for the validity of its data, experimental design, and analysis of results, by independent experts in that specific type of study.
And regarding Doug Henning's passing due to liver cancer, and the claim by Randi that Doug died because he neglected to treat it: The problem with liver cancer is that generally by the time it is detected, it has metastasized--has started growing in other parts of the body. This makes the chances of survival very low. A close relative of mine contracted liver cancer. His doctor advised him that chemotherapy would certainly make him miserable and would almost certainly not work. He chose to spend his remaining weeks in some semblance of dignity. I sympathize with Randi in the loss of his long-time friend, but this is very likely the same analysis and conclusion that Doug Henning came to.
It's interesting to note that Mr. Mesner prefers to align himself with the emotionalism of books like Voodoo Science rather than facts in peer reviewed, established, scientific journals. Critics like to criticize and will always find some tiny part of a full glass that is empty. that is why they are called critics. I don't see any reconciliation between these points of view and Mr. Mesner is entitled to his opinion.
Sorry Cameron, I don't think much of "peer review" that doesn't call for reproducible results and allows any type of statistical manipulation after-the-fact to (as Markovsky says) "draw the bulls-eye around the arrow." Also, if we are going to credit the meditation for this "overall" crime drop, who's not to say it's also responsible for the murder rate having risen in that time? Or for Kosovo in that time? Really, we can pick-and-chose what we attribute to the meditation, and this not science by any stretch of the imagination. Certainly there are more direct experiments that can and have been conducted trying to determine the mind's effect on the external world, and there has never been real evidence to support these mystical claims. For my forthcoming article for Skeptical Inquirer I have spoken to peers of Hagelin who regret his descent into nonsense. I certainly appreciate the goal of crime reduction and world peace, but pursuing them down false avenues is counter-productive
Cameron says:
Mr. Mesner, “Statistical manipulation after the fact" is a most basic type of error in scientific research. Are you seriously accusing the board of expert reviewers at Social Indicators Research of publishing a study--and an obviously controversial one that would be certainly be subject to the most intense scrutiny--containing this glaring type of error?
I'm intrigued by Doug Mesner's comment about "more direct experiments that can and have been conducted trying to determine the mind's effect on the external world." Where could we read more about that?
Cameron - clearly you could carry on indefinitely with questions, but you're not bringing much to the argument.
"more direct experiments that can and have been conducted trying to determine the mind's effect on the external world." Read any of the material on The Intention Experiments, or try learning proper experimental protocols. Compare research done exploring psychic or telekinetic phenomena. Doesn't take much imagination.
And then you suggest that THEE Social Indicators could never possibly publish a flawed study knowing that the contents were "Controversial" and would be "subject to the most intense scrutiny". Yes, it was scrutinized and so widely mocked that it won an Ig Nobel (read the article). For a technique that is meant to bring "peace for the atmosphere" murder went up during its directed practice, and you'd say the experiment was a success? It must have been, Social Indicators published it! Broadening the category to "overall crime" can't fix that one.
Sight nit, Hagelin won the Ig Nobel Prize before the study was published. The references from the prize committee were to a press conference, not the actual paper, or such is my recollection
On Oct. 11, David Orme-Johnson wrote "Barry Markovsky is in no way an expert on TM research, and his criticisms of it have been thoroughly refuted by the evidence, which was provided to him." (1) I am no TM expert, but one need not be an expert in TM per se to point out serious problems with the research methods and theoretical arguments of published TM research on the Maharishi Effect. Peer review does not ensure error-free publications. (2) I would certainly disagree that evidence refuting my claims has ever been provided to me. In fact, the more I learned about TM research on the Maharishi Effect, the less credible I regarded it to be. When it became clear that TM researchers were unwilling to acknowledge even the potential for problems known to be associated with the methods they rely on, they lost whatever legitimacy I might have once given their research.
Every statement in this hatchet-job article is unsupported by science, reason and sanity. The commentor's "laughable" retort to the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Psychosomatic Medicine, which found that TM practice reduces the need for hospitalization, is based on the confused concept that the reduced hospitalization is because people who practice TM refuse to go to doctors when sick; the commentor bases this sweeping generalization on the absurd remark by a magician ("Randi.")
Mesner provides zero evidence that doctor-avoidance is part of TM practice (which of course, it is not). The reductions are in treatments for heart attack, stroke, tumors, and other life-threatening ailments that FORCE people to be hospitalized, regardless of their beliefs. All of Mesner's criticisms are equally irrational. Mesner's opinion piece doesn't represent qualified expertise on any of the topics he discusses, especially sociological research or the Maharishi Effect.
The anti-TM witchhunt hysterics are hilarious! You guys actually believe this cult stuff? What a laugh. You get the facts all wrong because you see it through a negative belief system. Lighten up. I've been doing TM for years. It's given me more happiness & energy for success in my work, gotten rid of stress that I see dragging others down & making them sick. Friends whom I've gotten to do TM, I've watched meditation change their life. It's ridiculous to try to reason or explain the facts to people enmeshed in an unhealthy, negative mindset. This article's not even about the research. It's not about TM. It's about a world view threatened by the possibility that TM really has the effects claimed for it. It's about a rigid belief system that needs to convince itself & others that the all-positive, life-changing effects of TM are not possible, because that would mean your beliefs & your defense mechanism would collapse. TM is a totally cool, edifying experience - a fact you cannot change.
"Glory Dog" - "TM practice reduces the need for hospitalization". Assuming this is true, what does this have to do with Henning? He really did get cancer. He died of it. And as to my "qualified expertise" on the Maharishi Effect: it's up to TM to prove this extraordinary claim. They haven't. They can't. I'm calling Goldstein's bluff. He can take me to court for it. "Golden Choir Boy" - I find it hilarious the uniformity of language coincidentally used by you entirely independent-minded TM apologists. Since I first wrote anything on the topic I've seen "negative belief system" countless times. And there is nothing of the witch-hunter in ensuring that public schools are free of absurd supernatural programs. I know you're just a hip cat that finds TM "totally cool" for your purposes, but it has no place in the school room.
Wikileaks has a copy of that letter. The main factual claim was concerning a $138,000 lawsuit settlement, which the magazine editors asked you to edit out. The rest of the letter is too vague to require a response anyway. Congrats on making mountains out of molehills of silly rhetoric.
Sadly Henning died of cancer but not because he refused medical treatment as your article claims. Using someone's death to further your anti-TM rant ain't funny. The rest of these tirades are low comedy. OK, Mesner, you believe, from your level of understanding, that TM doesn't belong in schools & that meditation can't influence the surroundings. Great, anyone reading here gets that. Fortunately for school kids, many leading educators, scientists & others far more qualified than you or Markovsky feel otherwise. Any clear-thinking person can easily get the facts about the TM research by exploring the NIH PubMed site. Or by attending an Intro talk on TM and speaking w/ a teacher. People learn TM because they see an inner happiness and life radiating from their friends who meditate. That'll always win out over nonsense because TM works. But go ahead & try to deprive students of reduced stress and better health, if that's the side you want to be on.
"Sadly Henning died of cancer but not because he refused medical treatment as your article claims." Correction: As James Randi, a close friend to Henning, claims. I suppose you know better? Yes, Markovsky and I are not TM "experts", as I've come to see that that really just means we are unwilling to dismiss all criticism of TM as merely the product of a "negative world view". "Far more qualified" people may feel that the Maharishi Effect is a fact, but so confident am I that it is nothing of the sort that I encourage TM to take me to court for the alleged defamation. As for depriving kids of the benefits of TM: I view it as saving them from irrational, counter-productive supernaturalism that serves to remove them from reality. Relaxation is good for the individual, but to imagine that one may subdue the problems around them by staring at their navels is outright dangerous.
Glorydog, with all due respect, what is it about the authors closing paragraph that you didnt understand? I'll copy it for you here : "Relaxation – whether by crude napping, or practiced meditation – holds certain benefits that are not the monopoly of the TM brand. It is this author’s hope that schools will continue to seek techniques to aid the reduction of stress and conflict - while increasing health and focus - without reducing their curriculum to supernatural philosophies that cross the church-state line" It seems a more than fair summation of Mr Mesners stance. Rather than dismissing out of hand this rational expose of the more outlandish claims of TM it would be better to recognise that Doug Mesner is merely seeking to foster a forum for honest discussion, something which the legal team of David Lynch are at pains to censor. It is that censorship which should concern you and alert your skeptical mind to the fact that if there was nothing to hide, why try to hide it?
Randi was not "close friends" with Doug Henning. No good friend of Doug's would slander his name that way & condemn his meditation like Randi did. If Randi had been friends with Doug he'd have known better than assert that Doug cut off non-meditators & refused medical treatment--a bald-faced lie. I was personally very close with Doug for many years, as was Orme-Johnson (whose last comment you removed presumably because it showed the bias & lack of critical analysis behind Markovsky's attacks).
There have been independent, peer-reviewed studies comparing levels of rest, EEG patterns, stress reduction and other effects from ordinary relaxation, other meditation practices, and TM. Before claiming there are many ways to relax that give the same effects as TM, I suggest you peruse the studies on PubMed. The effects aren't the same. You have little knowledge of TM, Mesner, & a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
Ah, yes, "Glory Dog". I believe Henning mentioned his good friend Glory Dog in his memoirs. Tell me, where on PubMed might I find the study that confirms the levitation of advanced TM practitioners? Do we have a better study of the Maharishi Effect outside the bitterly failed '93 farce? Or are we back to the "just a technique" propaganda ploy? Citing research by merely saying "it's there" is unhelpful. Dr Orme Johnson is keen to express disagreement with Markovsky, but I say this ceased to be any forum for Orme Johnson following the doctor's apparent collusion in an attempt to censor this article. I assume the good doctor will be an expert witness in my defamation trial? We'll hear all such qualified opinions then, I'm sure.
The TMO and David Lynch Foundation seem to be threatening suit more and more often. Scary. If they were so sure of their "technique" let it speak for itself, don't quiet the critics by threatening suit. And Goldstein seems to feel free to defame John Knapp and his business. I am sick of it. I regret every dime I gave to this disreputable organization which believes everything it does is right and "supported by nature."
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