Transcendental Meditation

Transcendental Meditation service mark for a meditation technique and program founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and based on Vedic philosophy. Stressing natural meditation and the mental and physical benefits and personal development that could be achieved, Transcendental Meditation is said to help individuals achieve a higher level of consciousness. Brought by Maharishi from India to the West in 1959, Transcendental Meditation was a distinct subculture within the 1960s youth movement, attracting actress Mia Farrow, cultural philosopher Marshall McLuhan, and the Beatles, and continues to have many practitioners. See also meditation .

Bibliography: See A. Campbell, Seven States of Consciousness (1973); R. Roth, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Mediation (1987); D. Chopra, Return of the Rishi (1991).

Transcendental meditation. Taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and comprising ‘a specific and systematic mental technique which can be easily learnt and enjoyed by anyone, whatever his opinions or beliefs’. The Indian-based philosophy holds that this (mantra) technique leads practitioners to ‘the field of pure consciousness’. This alone ‘is the self-sufficient reality of life’. Transcendental meditation is widely used, especially in America where it enters into the worlds of education, business, and welfare. This is in accord with Maharishi's aim of transforming society, especially through the World Government of the Age of Enlightenment.

TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION [transcendental meditation] religious movement based on Vedanta philosophy, founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Stressing natural meditation and the liberating pleasures such practices could invoke, the method is believed to help individuals achieve a higher level of consciousness. Brought by Maharishi from India to the West in 1959, transcendental meditation was a distinct subculture within the 1960s youth movement, attracting actress Mia Farrow, cultural philosopher Marshall McLuhan, and the Beatles, who eventually rejected the Yogi's teachings.

Bibliography: See A. Campbell, Seven States of Consciousness (1973); R. Roth, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Mediation (1987); D. Chopra, Return of the Rishi (1991).



Author not available, TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION., The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2005