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Have been searching up on Transcendental Meditation (TM). I'm not sure what the general public opinion of this is, other than that it is "some sort of hippy thing" and involves meditating a lot and occasionally giggling for no good reason.
Most of you will not know this (I consider it embarrassing and generally irrelevent): I have, actually, attended a course in TM. So I can tell you what it actually involves. That being pretty much a single hindu meditation exercise, taken out of context, and secularised for the mass consumption of the west. Practitioners are given a mantra (which, it turns out, is a name of a hindu god or godess, though that's not made obvious to followers), instructed in basic meditation, and told that this breaks down stress and leads to "Universal Consciousness"; enlightenment, basically.
Enlightenment aside, the practice does have some benefits: meditation makes you feel more relaxed, yet alert, and generally suffuses you with a feeling of peace and well-being. "Deeper" meditation can feel very spiritual, and almost drug-like.
The TM movement started out just teaching the TM technique, but later picked up wierder apects such as claims that it can teach you yogic flying, a bit of a personality cult around its founder, and political aspirations (cf. the Natural Law Party). It's nutty, but not particularly harmful.
Or at least that's what I thought. Certain people disagre. The site "Falling Down the TM Rabbit Hole" reveals that TM can lead some people to suffer headaches, loss of concentration, temporary or chronic depersonalisation, involuntary muscular twitching, and finally nervous breakdowns. (Also see here and here). It points out that the teachers of TM respond to this with catch-22 reasoning: if you feel fine, then the meditation is working. If you're having mental problems, then it's a result of the meditation getting rid of stress, and so obviously it must be working. The site presents this as a very real danger; that people are experiencing bad side-effects from something, and are being told to continue with it, rather than to stop.
The site also argues that TM is a form of hypnosis (the similarities are there, I'll readily admit), and points out that TM teachers often tell people to meditate immediately prior to talking about the process and the organisation, thus putting students in a conveniently suggestible state. This, it says, is why the TM movement is so effective as a cult.
In any case. TM, for most, appears to be harmless if taken in small doses (no more than 20 minutes twice a day). And those who do start to experience side-effects should recover from them if they give up promtly. The real harm of TM is its effect on your wallet; the organisation has ramped up its prices of late. So, one might ask, is there a way to learn TM, or something very TM-like, without paying through your nose?
Actually, it's pretty darn simple. The Relaxation Response of Herbert Menson, M.D. is, by design or accident, almost identical to "transcendental" meditation. The only differences are that 1) you're saying the word "one" instead of the name of some hindu god and 2) you aren't putting yourself under any expectation of transcending all mental and physical limits of the universe. Which is a far healthier attitude.
I'd suggest giving it a try. Have fun. 8^)
Most of you will not know this (I consider it embarrassing and generally irrelevent): I have, actually, attended a course in TM. So I can tell you what it actually involves. That being pretty much a single hindu meditation exercise, taken out of context, and secularised for the mass consumption of the west. Practitioners are given a mantra (which, it turns out, is a name of a hindu god or godess, though that's not made obvious to followers), instructed in basic meditation, and told that this breaks down stress and leads to "Universal Consciousness"; enlightenment, basically.
Enlightenment aside, the practice does have some benefits: meditation makes you feel more relaxed, yet alert, and generally suffuses you with a feeling of peace and well-being. "Deeper" meditation can feel very spiritual, and almost drug-like.
The TM movement started out just teaching the TM technique, but later picked up wierder apects such as claims that it can teach you yogic flying, a bit of a personality cult around its founder, and political aspirations (cf. the Natural Law Party). It's nutty, but not particularly harmful.
Or at least that's what I thought. Certain people disagre. The site "Falling Down the TM Rabbit Hole" reveals that TM can lead some people to suffer headaches, loss of concentration, temporary or chronic depersonalisation, involuntary muscular twitching, and finally nervous breakdowns. (Also see here and here). It points out that the teachers of TM respond to this with catch-22 reasoning: if you feel fine, then the meditation is working. If you're having mental problems, then it's a result of the meditation getting rid of stress, and so obviously it must be working. The site presents this as a very real danger; that people are experiencing bad side-effects from something, and are being told to continue with it, rather than to stop.
The site also argues that TM is a form of hypnosis (the similarities are there, I'll readily admit), and points out that TM teachers often tell people to meditate immediately prior to talking about the process and the organisation, thus putting students in a conveniently suggestible state. This, it says, is why the TM movement is so effective as a cult.
In any case. TM, for most, appears to be harmless if taken in small doses (no more than 20 minutes twice a day). And those who do start to experience side-effects should recover from them if they give up promtly. The real harm of TM is its effect on your wallet; the organisation has ramped up its prices of late. So, one might ask, is there a way to learn TM, or something very TM-like, without paying through your nose?
Actually, it's pretty darn simple. The Relaxation Response of Herbert Menson, M.D. is, by design or accident, almost identical to "transcendental" meditation. The only differences are that 1) you're saying the word "one" instead of the name of some hindu god and 2) you aren't putting yourself under any expectation of transcending all mental and physical limits of the universe. Which is a far healthier attitude.
I'd suggest giving it a try. Have fun. 8^)
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Why pay when you can look at some good places and get it for free?
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,1549269,00.html
(Also: http://www.guardian.co.uk/corrections/story/0,,1549786,00.html )
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