TM-EX NEWSLETTER TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION EX-MEMBERS SUPPORT GROUP Volume VI, No. 1, Winter 1994 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A PARTIAL RESEARCH REVIEW LIMITATIONS, PERILS, HARMS, LOSSES FROM THE PRACTICE OF TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION Abstracted Independent TM Research With Related Subject Documentation MIU and the TM movement place great emphasis on their ''independent" scientific research on Transcendental Meditation. A guest column special to the Des Moines Register on December 28, 1990, A View of TM from the MIU Perspective by public relations director Robert Oates, made grandiose claims for TM, holding that 430 research studies to date clearly validate all the many behavioral and physiological benefits. Oates emphasized that ``far more scientific research on TM has appeared than for any other program of self-improvement.'' He neglected to say, however, that the 430 studies which ''have appeared'' were performed by TM movement people or by people they sponsor without using double-blind1 or expectancy controls. It is in the TM movement's self-interest to create and then quote from such research for TM claims [levitation, invisibility, etc.] put forth about the practice--to enhance belief among followers; to attract and hold more proselytes and students; to promote Maharishi's worldwide enterprise of enlightenment services and products worth $3.5 billion plus, and his plans for a quantum leap in new sales. However refined the statistical methods may be in the TM movement studies, without effective double-blind controls the outcome of any TM research is unreliable. Such outcome is proven to be influenced directly or indirectly by the tendency a priori to confirm the researcher's indoctrinated belief in TM. Conversely, the motivation of test subjects who began TM on their own (pre-selection), plus the subsequent influencing of those people to expect benefits from TM (placebo) have been proven to separately produce the measured benefits. Suppressed by MIU and the TM movement are many independent research studies with tighter controls which have uncovered the following actual effects from the practice of TM: 1. No specific or broad scale special benefits. 2. Partially impaired mental faculties. 3. Depersonalization. 4. A high percentage of psychological disorders. 5. Aggravation of pre-existing mental illness. 6. The onset of mental illness. The following is a partial list of such independent research with abstracts and related subject documentation: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Herbert Benson. Your Innate Asset for Combatting Stress. Harvard Business Review, July-August, 1974 pp. 49-60. A co-researcher with TM's Robert Keith Wallace in 1972, this controlled study by Dr. Benson (a non-meditator) using 80 subjects, showed no difference in the physiological correlates of stress reduction between the practice of TM and five other relaxation response techniques, such as autogenic training, progressive relaxation, Zen meditation, hypnosis and yoga. The study also has a useful historical appendix outlining ten different relaxation response methods which have proven effective over time. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Susan Blackmore. Is meditation good for you? New Scientist, July 6, 1991. A review of the research on meditation. The author finds that if you are depressed, meditation could make it worse. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Kurt Butler. A Consumer's Guide to "Alternative Medicine." Prometheus Books, 1993. After enduring decades of best-selling books that promote killer diets, worthless supplements, dangerous self-care regimens, and assorted health misinformation, Butler disposes of the myths and madness perpetrated by fringe practitioners. Laying bare the absurdities and dangers of some popular diets and the unethical behavior of health gurus, he also shows how some unscientific "healing cults" are getting their dogma written into state law, defrauding the public and siphoning off billions of healthcare dollars. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Richard J. Castillo. Depersonalization and Meditation. Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes, Vol. 53, May, 1990 pp. 158-168. A study of six long-term TM practitioners which reveals their acceptance of depersonalized states of existence because they have been led to believe this indicates spiritual growth from the TM practice. From a review of the literature on meditation and depersonalization and interviews conducted with six meditators, this study concludes that: 1) meditation can cause depersonalization and derealization; 2) the meanings in the mind of the meditator regarding the experience of depersonalization will determine to a great extent whether anxiety is present as part of the experience; 3) there need not be any significant anxiety or impairment in social or occupational functioning as a result of depersonalization; 4) a depersonalized state can become an apparently permanent mode of functioning; 5) patients with Depersonalization Disorder may be treated through a process of symbolic healing--that is, changing the meanings associated with depersonalization in the mind of the patient, thereby reducing anxiety and functional impairment; 6) panic/anxiety may be caused by depersonalization if catastrophic interpretations of depersonalization are present. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anthony D. Denaro. Counsellor at Law. Affidavit-Equivalent (12 pages). Sea Cliff, New York: July 16, 1986. Former MIU legal counsel and professor of law and economics; former MIU Director of Grants Administration. He describes his experiences at MIU where he encountered widespread deception and fraud. A few quotations follow: Essentially the attitude and philosophy [at MIU] was, and to my knowledge, is now: `anything goes..was clearly present in the frauds, but was justified in the name of a higher ideology, which presumably means they can lie...and commit perjury. (p. 3) The deceptions are systematic and planned. My personal and professional experience over the last 12 years convince me that the leadership and upper echelon, for a variety of reasons, ideological and economic, has systematically and wilfully deceived the federal, state and local governments, private and public funding sources and agencies, the students and inter alia, the general public about the nature, purpose and consequence of the TM-Sidhi and SCI programs. (p. 4) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- T. Desiraju. The Yoga and Consciousness Project. National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience. Bangalore, India: Omni magazine, November 1990, pp. 84-88. Funded by the Indian government, a ten year investigation by the Yoga and Consciousness team (headed by the internationally recognized neurophysiologist T. Desiraju) has been unable to identify any physiological standard for so-called enlightenment; even meditation per se has been hard to define at the Bangalore lab, claimed by Indian scientists to be the world's most sophisticated center for investigating the physiological correlates of mystical experiences. The Bangalore lab's controlled studies displayed measurements which stand in strong contrast to TM movement sponsored research. For example, they showed heart rates are as likely to increase as decrease; breath rates and skin resistance were just as eccentric; TM subjects were drowsier than subjects using other forms of meditation; their EEG's showed weaker alpha and theta waves than with other meditation techniques; physiological correlates were consistently unpredictable with TM, showing great variability from session to session. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Alfred P. French et al. Transcendental Meditation, Altered Reality Testing and Behavioral Change: A Case Report. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 1975, Vol. 161, No.1, p. 55. This paper presents the case of a 39 year old woman who experienced altered reality testing and behavior several weeks after initiation into TM; it presents important evidence for a causal relationship between the practice of TM and her abnormal behavior. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Bernard C. Glueck and Charles F. Stroebel. Meditation in the Treatment of Psychiatric Illness. Meditation: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives. New York: Alden Publications, 1984, p. 150. This study of 110 subjects discloses that the release of repressed subconscious impressions [stress] from the TM practice can be handled by some but has also been seriously destabilizing for others. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Steven Hassan. Combatting Cult Mind Control. Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press, 1988. General and specific treatment of the modus operandi of cults which includes the TM movement, the appeal tactics used by cults, common terminology, general cult psychology, case histories of former cult members including TM movement examples, intervention and exit strategies. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick J. Heide and T.D. Borkovec. Relaxation-Induced Anxiety: Paradoxical Anxiety Enhancement due to Relaxation Training. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1983, pp. 171-182. Frederick J. Heide and T.D. Borkovec. Relaxation-Induced Anxiety: Mechanisms and Theoretical Implications. Behavioral Research Therapy, 1984, pp. 1-12. These two papers by Heide disclose that 54 percent of anxiety-prone subjects tested experienced increased anxiety during TM-like mantra meditation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- David S. Holmes, Sheldon Solomon, Bruce M. Cappo, Jeffery L. Greenberg. Effects of Transcendental Meditation Versus Resting on Physiological and Subjective Arousal. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1983, pp. 1245-1252. Dr. Holmes, at the University of Kansas, was unable to replicate the effect of TM on physiological variables such as heart rate, breath rate, skin resistance, blood pressure and blood lactate levels claimed for TM by movement researchers. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- David S. Holmes. Meditation and Somatic Arousal Reduction. American Psychologist, January 1984, pp. 1-10. Ensuing discussion follows in four more issues: June 1985, pp. 717-731; June 1986, pp. 712-713; September 1986, pp. 1007-1009; September 1987, pp. 879-881. An exhaustive TM research review and further controlled testing demonstrated that TM produces no more physical relaxation than just sitting with the eyes closed. His findings here stand in sharp contrast to widely held beliefs about the effects of TM which are based on TM-movement-controlled experimental tests. Between meditating (TM) and just-resting subjects, no reliable differences were found by Holmes in plasma renin or aldosterone, plasma adrenaline, growth hormone, testosterone, norepinephrine or epinephrine, plasma lactate, threonine, serine, asparagine, valine, isoleucine, leucine, or tyrosine. Meditating subjects were found to have higher levels of phenylalanine than resting subjects, a finding which reflects high arousal in meditators. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Mordecai Kaffman. The Use of Transcendental Meditation to Promote Social Progress in Israel. Cultic Studies Journal, Volume 3, No. 1, 1986, pp. 135-141. A criticism of TM's ``International Peace Project in the Middle East'' which later appeared in the Journal of Conflict Resolution in December 1988. The methods of TM Peace Project researchers are dismissed as unscientific, and their claims of positive results in the Israeli context are deemed unconvincing, anecdotal, and based on a conceptual error. The TM theory of the ``unified field'' is stated to be no more credible than was Blondot's 1913 claim--supported by many papers from his collaborators--that metals gave off N-rays. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- John Kesterson and Noah F. Clinch. Metabolic Rate, Respiratory Exchange Ratio and Apneas During [TM] Meditation. The American Journal of Physiology, March 1989, R637. A careful, in-depth investigation into the effects of TM practice on respiration and metabolism, revealing that TM produces no deeper state of rest than from just sitting with eyes closed, even in advanced practitioners, and that the TM practice does not produce a hypometabolic state as claimed by MIU's Robert Keith Wallace. They also discovered a decrease in respiratory exchange ratio in meditators during TM not observed in controls (i.e., an increase of carbon dioxide). Although this research was conducted at MIU, Kesterson and Clinch maintained their objectivity. Unlike most work by TM movement research, this particular study was published in a major journal. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Arnold A. Lazarus. Meditation: The Problems of Unimodal Technique. Meditation: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives New York: Alden Publications, 1984, p. 691. Arnold A. Lazarus. Psychiatric Problems Precipitated by Transcendental Meditation. Psychological Report, 1976, 39, pp. 601-602. Based on clinical experience from these two studies, Lazarus shows that serious psychiatric problems can ensue from the practice of TM. He points out that TM is no panacea; he concludes that the TM practice can be used in some cases, but that it is clearly contraindicated in other cases. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert J. Lifton. Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism. Chapel Hill, South Carolina: The University of South Carolina Press, 1989 (510 pages). Last published in 1964, this is a newly reissued edition of a classic textbook and case study of the victims of thought reform and elements of the thought reform process. Chapter 22 outlines eight themes present in the sociological environment of thought reform which in time become internalized by victims, who in turn reinforce the themes socially. In the TM movement and at MIU, however, all eight themes are found to be richly developed. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- R.R. Michaels, M.J. Huber, D.S. McCann. Science 192, 1976, pp. 1242-1243 Study of concentration of plasma epinephrine, norephinephrine, as well as lactate. In comparing twelve TM meditators and twelve subjects as controls who merely rested, they detected no statistically different results. The question is raised whether the benefits are due to TM or sleep. The study suggests that meditation does not induce a unique metabolic state but is seen biochemically as a resting state. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon S. Otis. Adverse Effects of Transcendental Meditation. Meditation: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives Alden Publications, 1984, p. 204. This Stanford Research Institute study involving 574 subjects revealed that the longer a person practiced TM the more adverse mental effects were recorded; that 70 percent of subjects recorded mental disorders of one degree or another. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- R.R. Pagano, R. MiRose, R.M. Stivers, and S. Warrenburg. Science 191, January 23, 1976, p. 308. Study of EEG's of five TM practitioners noted that meditation involved some sleep and that it gives rise to quite different states from day to day from practitioner to practitioner. They compared EEG records made during meditation with those made during naps taken at the same time of day. The range of states observed during meditation does not support the view that meditation produces a single unique state of consciousness. He questions whether the benefits are due to TM or sleep. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Heinz R. Pagels, Ph.D. New York Academy of Sciences. Affidavit dated July 1, 1986. (2 pages) Dr. Pagels was Executive Director of the New York Academy of Sciences when he wrote this opinion: The views expressed in the [TM] literature that purport to find a connection between the recent ideas of theoretical physics and states of consciousness are false and profoundly misleading. No qualified physicist that I know would claim to find such a connection without knowingly committing fraud. Although the word ``science'' is much abused, it continues to imply an adherent to logic, the clear presentation of assumptions and deductions, and the experimental method. This [the Science of Creative Intelligence] is not science. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael A. Persinger, Norman J. Carrey and Lynn A. Suess. TM and Cult Mania (198 pages). North Quincy, Massachusetts, Christopher Publishing House, 1980. The authors, researchers in neuroscience review TM movement research up to 1980; alerts reader to question validity of recent movement-sponsored research; discloses that the state of ``cosmic consciousness'' described by Maharishi shares characteristics of some personality disorders. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael A. Persinger. Enhanced Incidence of "The Sensed Presence" in People Who Have Learned to Meditate: Support For The Right Hemispheric Intrusion Hypothesis. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1992, 75, 1308-1310. If the "sensed presence" is the transient intrusion of the right hemispheric equivalent of the left hemispheric (and highly linguistic) sense of self, then any process that facilitates interhemispheric electrical coherence should enhance these experiences. As predicted, the "ego-alien intrusion" (sensed presence) factor was specifically and significantly elevated in 221 people who had learned to meditate (65 to 70% were involved in Transcendental Meditation) compared to 860 nonmeditators. Variants of sensed presence were more frequent in female than in male meditators and were particularly evident in left-handers who had learned to meditate. The effect size suggests that learning a meditation technique is counterindicated for subpopulations, such as borderline, schizotypal, or dissociative personalities, who display very fragile self-concepts. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael A. Persinger. Transcendental Meditation and General Meditation are Associated With Enhanced Complex Partial Epileptic-Like Signs: Evidence For "Cognitive" Kindling? Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1992. The Personal Philosophy Inventories of 221 university students who had learned to meditate (about 65% to 70% practiced Transcendental Meditation) were compared to 860 nonmeditators. Meditators displayed a significantly wider range of complex partial epileptic-like signs. Experience of vibrations, hearing one's name called, paranormal phenomena, profound meaning from reading poetry/prose and religious phenomenology were particularly frequent among meditators. Numbers of years of TM practice were significantly correlated with the incidence of complex partial signs and sensed presences but not with control, olfactory, or perseverative experiences. The results support the hypothesis that procedures which promote cognitive kindling enhance complex partial epileptic-like signs. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A. A. Pollack, D.B. Case, M.A. Weber, J.H. Laragh. Limitations of transcendental meditation in the treatment of essential hypertension. Lancet 1(8002):71-3, January 8, 1977. 20 hypertensive patients participating in a professionally supervised programme of transcendental meditation showed no significant change in blood-pressure after a 6-month study. Although there were small reductions in systolic blood-pressure and in pulse-rate early in the trial, these changes had disappeared by 6 months. At no time did the mean diastolic pressure fall significantly. Plasma-renin activity did not change during the study. It is concluded that while the general well being experienced by most patients may provide a useful adjunct to conventional treatments, it is unlikely that transcendental meditation contributes directly towards the lowering of blood-pressure. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jack Raso, "Alternative" Healthcare - A Comprehensive Guide. Prometheus Books, 1993. This book addresses the vast array of treatments and philosophies that postulate supernatural phenomena as the key to health and disease. An examination of the philosophical underpinnings of "alternative" medicine. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Dennis E. Roark. Letter Confirming a Telephone Conversation (2 pages), dated July 11, 1987. Warner Pacific College, Oregon. Dr. Roark was former head of the MIU Physics Department and former MIU Dean of Faculty. A letter excerpt follows: Confirmed to me by investigators at MIU was the suppression of negative evidence that these investigators had collected. Strong bias was present in selecting only data favorable to a conclusion that was made prior to the data collection. Because of the strong authoritarian (essentially cultic) aspects of the movement, only results supporting ideas generated by the movement leadership could receive any hearing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Patricia Ann Royer-Bounouar, Ph.D. Ph.D. thesis: D, MIU, 1989, T735,.494, in the MIU Library): The Transcendental Meditation Technique: A New Direction for Smoking Cessation Programs. In this study, 60 percent of smokers who began TM and were still practicing TM twice daily after 20 months, quit smoking. TM may help someone to quit smoking if the individual stays with the practice for 20 months. Data also revealed that 20 months after 505 individuals began TM, 29.7 percent were no longer meditating, 38.2 percent were occasional practitioners, 13.3 percent practiced TM once a day, and only 18.8 percent still practiced TM twice daily as instructed. Some people have long suspected that it is inaccurate for the TM movement to base assertions regarding the number of people who practice TM on the numbers of people who have been instructed. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Andrew A. Skolnick. Maharishi Ayur-Veda: Guru's Marketing Scheme Promises the World Eternal 'Perfect Health' Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), October 2, 1991, Vol 266, No. 13 From time to time, even the most prestigious science journals publish erroneous or fraudulent data and unjustified conclusions. Discovering that they had been deceived by publishing the article "Maharishi Ayur-Veda: Modern Insights Into Ancient Medicine" the editors published a correction in the August 14, 1991 issue, which was followed by this one. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Andrew A. Skolnick. The Maharishi Caper: JAMA Hoodwinked (But Just for a While). Skeptical Inquirer, Spring 1992, Vol. 16, No. 3 The author speaks out about the JAMA articles on Maharishi Ayur-Veda. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Margaret T. Singer and Richard Ofshe. Thought Reform Programs and the Production of Psychiatric Casualties. Psychiatric Annals, April 1990, p. 188-193. Important research about effects of cult involvement. Case example is ``Kirk,'' a person who practiced TM. However, this fact is not mentioned in the article. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Jonathan C. Smith. Psychotherapeutic Effects of Transcendental Meditation with Controls for Expectation of Relief and Daily Sitting. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1976, pp. 630-637. A well-controlled landmark study. Using equivalent expectancy controls, Smith clearly demonstrates that a person's predisposition toward anxiety (trait anxiety) is not reduced by the practice of TM per se, but that it can be reduced by sitting with closed eyes in conjunction with an expectation of relief. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A.K. Teb-ecis. A controlled study of the EEG during Transcendental Meditation: comparison with hypnosis. Folia Psychiatr Neruol, Japan 29(4):305-13, 1975. A controlled, quantitative investigation of the electroencephalogram (EEG) and transcendental meditation (TM) revealed that EEG changes during TM were rarely as pronounced or consistent as previous reports suggest. There was considerable variation between subjects, some displaying no EEG changes at all during TM compared with an equal period of non-meditation. Any changes that did occur in a particular individual were not necessarily repeated in a subsequent session. A comparison of mean EEG parameters of the experimental group revealed no consistent significant differences between meditation and non-meditation. The EEG characteristics of the group of meditators were similar to those of a group of subjects experienced in self-hypnosis. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Franklin D. Trumpy. An Investigation of the Reported Effect of Transcendental Meditation on the Weather. Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. 8, No. 2. Winter 1983-84, pp. 143-148. Wherein TM movement research on the effect of mass meditation on weather was found to be grossly misrepresented. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- R.L. Woolfolk. Psychophysiological correlates of meditation. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 32(10):1326-33, Oct 1975. The scientific research that has investigated the physiological changes associated with meditation as it is practiced by adherents of Indian Yoga, Transcendental Meditation and Zen Buddhism have not yielded a thoroughly consistent, easily replicable pattern of responses. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- J. Younger, W. Adriance, R.J. Berger Sleep during Transcendental Meditation. Perceptual Motor Skills,40 (3):953-4, June 1975 Electroencephalograms (EEGs) were recorded during Transcendental Meditation periods for 8 experienced meditators. The records, scored blind showed that all but 2 meditators spent considerable portions of their meditation periods in unambiguous physiological sleep. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- GOVERMENTAL INQUIRIES ----------------------------------------------------------------------- German Government Study (commissioned by the Government Ministry of Youth, Family and Health). The Various Implications Arising from the Practice of Transcendental Meditation: An Empirical Analysis of Pathogenic Structures as an Aid in Counselling. Bensheim, Germany: (Institut fur Jugend und Gesellschaft, Ernst-Ludwig-Strasse 45, 6140) The Institute for Youth and Society, 1980. (129 pages) The government's right to use this report was upheld in a ruling by the Bundesverwaltungsgericht, the highest German court on May 24, 1989. This study reported the most adverse effects experienced by TM practitioners. Some excerpts follow: 4.6.6 TM can cause mental illness or at least prepare the way for the onset of mental illness; that psychological illness already present before TM was considerably worsened after starting TM; that mind-set conditions can develop, leading to depersonalization. 4.3.3 TM has a detrimental effect on the decision process. There is a loss of self-determination and a turning toward TM authorities for guidance. Studied facial expression, bodily posture, voice and handwriting all point to the fact that the total personality is gravely altered under TM. 5.6.4 In cases studied, TM caused a far reaching alteration of the view of reality which adversely affects social relationships, motivation and the drive to achieve--to the point that practical work becomes intolerable to the meditator. FOOTNOTE:1-Double-blind denotes a comparative research experiment in which the identities of the control group are known neither to the subjects nor to the researchers. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The TM-EX Newsletter is published by the Transcendental Meditation Ex-Members Support Group (TM-EX), a not-for-profit educational corporation. Subscription information: Receive the TM-EX Newsletter, plus special Bulletins and Research Review for a donation of $50 or more; OR with a minimum donation of $25, receive the TM-EX Newsletter. Please be advised that TM-EX has received tax exempt status as a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. For inquiries: P.O. Box 7565, Arlington, VA 22207, (202) 728-7580, FAX (703) 841-2385. Our volunteers respond more quickly to mail requests; all telephone calls will be returned collect. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT IS TM-EX? Transcendental Meditation Ex-Members Support Group (TM-EX) was founded by former Maharishi International University (MIU) faculty, students, TM teachers, sidhas, meditators, and caring relatives of members of the TM movement. TM-EX is a support network to help former and current members of the TM movement in making the transition to life outside the TM movement. As former members, we have experienced the transition and are available to assist you. WHAT DO WE DO? We are a referral network and source of information to movement members, former members, exit counselors, family members and experienced therapists and professionals. THE TM-EX newsletter is a forum for a varitety of opinions that often cannot be expressed within the movement without fear of reprisal. Contributors do not represent any particular philosophy, opinion or lifestyle. Although numerous religious based groups have challenged TM in the past, TM-EX is not affiliated with any of these. Its members come from a wide variety of religious and philosophical backgrounds. What we do have in common, is our desire to assist those leaving the movement; to make the public aware of the fraud within the movement; and the physical and psychological harm, that has resulted for many, from the practices of the TM Program. We welcome your input: comments, articles, letters, help with printing and postage. Call or write TM-EX: P.O. Box 7565, Arlington, VA 22207 Messages: (202) 728-7580 Fax: (703) 841-2385