Transcendental Meditation

By: Dr. John Ankerberg, Dr. John Weldon; ©1999

Transcendental Meditation claims to be the solution to all mankind’s problems, individually and collectively.

 

Transcendental Meditation

Info at a Glance

Name: Transcendental Meditation, The Science of Creative Intelligence.

Purpose: To usher in a New Age of world enlightenment.

Founder: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Source of authority: The Hindu Scriptures, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Revealed teachings: Yes.

Claim: To be the solution to all mankind’s problems, individually and collectively.

Examples of occult potential: Development of psychic powers (siddhas), astrology, spiritism.

Examples of key literature: The books of Maharishi M. Yogi: Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, chapters 1-6; Transcendental Meditation; Love and God; Meditations of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Maharishi’s Absolute Theory (series on Education, Health, Defense, Economy, Management, Rehabilitation, Law and Order); Modern Science and Vedic Science is a major periodical.

Attitude toward Christianity: Rejecting.

Quotes:

“I don’t think Christ ever suffered or Christ could suffer.” Meditations of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, p. 123.

“When America is ready for Hinduism, I will tell them.” —Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to Anthony D. DeNaro in a private meeting, according to DeNaro’s sworn court affidavit. (TranceNet Website, “TM Secret Teachings”)

“… there was never a time that TM insiders didn’t know TM’s secret agenda of making America safe for Hinduism.” (Ibid.)

“The Maharishi intended from day one to gradually lead us through small, persistent deceptions to the religion he always knew was best for all of us—an extremely fundamentalist Hinduism” (Ibid.)

Note: www.trancenetorg has a great deal of relevant materials online exposing the deceptions of TM. TranceNet is a consumer protection watchdog agency concentrating on psychological manipulation in cults and the larger society. It has thousands of pages of “insider secrets” from anonymous donors—court records, hospital admissions, internal management reports, tax documents and so on. John M. Knapp is the executive director and a former TMer who wrote or edited TranceNet’s TM materials.

TMEX 202-728-7580 is another helpful organization (of former meditators). They publish a quarterly journal and are on the Web through the Meditation Information Network (http://minet.org). They offer a significant number of materials exposing TM as a religion, TM’s dangers, testimonies of former members and more.

Since John Weldon published his book on TM in 1975, the interim publications of TM and new books by Maharishi, as well as critiques on the Internet, have only confirmed his initial conclusions reached 25 years ago: Few religions are more defective or deceptive.

Doctrinal Summary

God: Impersonal being, consciousness, bliss; that is, the Hindu Brahman described as satchitananda or sat (being), chit (consciousness) ananda (bliss).

Jesus: An enlightened teacher of TM.

The Christ: The divine aspect of Jesus. “Christ Consciousness” is seen as vedantic Brahman (God) Realization.

Salvation: By the states of higher consciousness achieved through the practice of Transcendental Meditation.

Man: Inwardly one essence with Brahman.

Sin: Ignorance of one’s inner divine nature and the consequences.

The Bible: A relevant Scripture when interpreted through enlightened consciousness.

Death: Reincarnation toward final dissolution into Brahman.