Has TM been "scientifically validated"?
My website is buried very deep in the Google rankings under the weight of hundreds of official TM websites. So if you found it you must have been doing some diligent research, and you will have read many many times that "TM has been scientifically validated."
So has it? Well... yes and no.
Well... yes it has
There has been some good solid research indicating that TM practice can have some health benefits. TM trumpets this to the world. It is their main PR thrust.
But what does this research indicate? It just means that regular relaxation can have significant health benefits, and that TM does an extremely good job of producing it in some people (i.e., in those who are susceptible to trance and suggestion).
Well... no it definitely hasn't!
But TM propaganda goes way beyond stating "relaxation is healthy and TM can produce deep relaxation in some people." TM propaganda pushes lots and lots of perfectly crazy stuff, dizzyingly wrapped in a combination of a little science and a lot of pseudo-science. And to read the TM propaganda you'd think that everything that TM pushes has been scientifically validated!
In fact most of it by far is incredibly outrageous pseudo-science.
In order to understand TM "pseudo-science" you have to understand its fundamental "discovery", The Maharishi Effect (ME). I strongly suggest reading the page at that link if you really want to understand, but basically, the "Maharishi Effect" is the egregiously nonsensical notion that TMers produce such incredibly powerful "good vibrations" (TM calls it "coherence") from their meditation and yogic flying that literally all world problems can be solved by just getting a small percentage of the population to start meditating and flying! And TM claims that the ME has been scientifically validated!
For example, in 1993 four thousand TMers moved to Washington DC and did their meditating and flying there for two months. TM propaganda asks us to swallow the idea that it has been "scientifically validated" that this created a "field effect of consciousness" that directly caused a 23% reduction in crime! And they quote research (see prior link) to "prove" it! What gets totally buried is that there is a difference between "correlation" and "cause and effect." In other words, just because two things happen in succession it doesn't mean that one caused the other. But TMers really believe that the ME has been "scientifically proven", and that it can give us "Heaven on Earth."
By far the greatest contributor to TM pseudo-science is Dr. John Hagelin. Dr. Hagelin is a world-famous quantum physicist who has turned his truly incredible (sincerely) genius to churning out huge amounts of the most extraordinary fantasies. Hagelin has single-handedly taken TM completely out of the realm of pseudo-science and has ushered it into the lofty realms of pseudo-quantum-physics! He has accomplished this with his "research" into the "The Unified Field of Consciousness." He has "proven" that the UFC is the scientific explanation of how the Maharishi Effect works. Go to his website at the link above, find "Dr. Hagelin presents the Invincible Defense Technology", and click on the "Watch on Flash" link just below. It's mind-bogglingly boring and nonsensical, but at least keep with it until you see his equations. If they don't convince you of the truth of the UFC then nothing will.
(There's some excellent debunking of the ME at "Behind the TM Facade.")
I am not a doctor, but I play one on TV
And TM will trot out tame experts. You can identify these by the TM dogma mixed in the science jargon.
Take a look at "Ask the Doctors."
This site seems pretty impressive at first. It has quotes from real doctors with real credentials. However, the doctors (I have to be careful here to express myself accurately) appear to be TM practitioners (I could be wrong) who might not necessarily be demonstrating pure scientific objectivity in all of their statements.
See for example this partial quote (click on "My husband says reading good books is what develops his untapped potential") from one of the doctors:
"The TM technique...allows the mind to consciously rest within itself, turning attention inward to the source of creativity and intelligence at the innermost foundation of the mind..."
That statement is pure parroting of TM religious dogma. Or perhaps not. Perhaps the doctors do in fact have some sort of double-blind university study proving that there is indeed an "innermost foundation of the mind" (perhaps accompanied by colored charts mapping the various levels of the foundation of the mind, starting from the outermost level to the innermost level and that showing all of the levels in between) and that this innermost level is indeed a source of creativity and intelligence.
Here's another one (click on "I'm constantly under pressure"). Here's the good part:
"...the mind effortlessly settling down to quieter and quieter levels of the thinking process. Finally, the mind comes to the source of the thinking process, awareness itself. This experience is called restful alertness. In this state, the body is deeply rested and the mind is fully alert. Stress is dissolved by this experience by the quiet and soothing experience of inner being."
Again, this was mindlessly parroted literally word-for-word from TM dogmatic teachings. Or, again, perhaps not. Perhaps there is yet another double-blind university study that has discovered "the source of the thinking process." And that has objectively demonstrated the existence of "inner being." And that has proven scientifically that "stress is dissolved" by the experience of this inner being.
TM propaganda is chock full of real science intertwined with TM dogmatic pseudo-science like this. Again, people can get so impressed by the science that they don't separate out the pseudo-science.
And one must always keep in mind that even very high intelligence is no protection against coming under cult influence. Dr. Hagelin is the poster child for this, they don't make them much more intelligent than he is. And the former "Dr. Tony Nader" is another extremely tragic train wreck who, like Hagelin, used to be a brilliant scientist until he came under Mahesh's personal "guidance."
So don't believe everyone who flashes an MD or a PhD. They are only human.
Distortion through omission
But the main problem with TM research is the research that hasn't been done. And what hasn't been done are any longitudinal studies that track a statistically significant number, and over significant time, of a population of people who learn TM. If that were done then the percentage of people who end up in the cult would show up. And the problems of these people would show up too.
Another research study that tragically hasn't been done is a comprehensive psychological study of a statistically significant number of people who are leading a "full-time TM lifestyle." I'm talking about "Purusha" monks. I'm talking about "Mother Divine" nuns. I'm talking about studying the entire MUM student body. There are many more bodies of full-time TMers that could be studied. But TM would never allow such studies because they know what would show up here also.
TM research is highly distorted because of what has been
omitted! The problem with the TM technique is not so much
with the technique itself, the problem is that the TM technique is
taught by a cult!
