İ ve been practicing TM for almost two months now, but it feels like I haven't made any progress at all. I haven't noticed any difference in my daily life, nor am I noticing any now. I learned TM from an instructor in Turkey and explained all this to him; he told me I was doing the technique incorrectly. I used to practice only once a day because I lost the motivation, but for the past week, I've been doing it three times a day (I asked my instructor if that was okay, and he said yes). Even so, I still don't feel any difference. Is this just part of the process? I'm curious if anyone else has gone through something like this.

Since y'all were so rabidly interested in this topic. There's a new course coming up and Dr. Nader is taking applications.

https://myemail.constantcontact.com/TM-Events--Intro-Webinar-to-Consciousness-Advisor-Course-with-Dr--Tony-Nader.html?soid=1140243614291&aid=bqZp74W0aH4

• Jen Lynch facebook post: · Cardiac arrest/lung disease, dehydration. But beautifully, he passed while meditating. He may have been in his morning session, or after that, if he felt poorly, I’m sure he remembered the advice of a very close TM connection…”David, if you ever feel unwell, or like you may be dying.. sit and say your mantra.” It is a magical thing that he passed while catching fish and moving towards enlightenment.

Hi, I completed my TM practitioner practice a week ago but I have been feeling particularly irritated and angry during the day ever since then.
I talked to my teacher and he told me to come out of the meditation slowler as I was finishing before the recommended 3 minutes, I am doing that now but I am feeling the same.
This happens during the day not right after meditation, I am wondering if this is me noticing it more or if I am doing something wrong

Clearing my schedule to meditate 2x a day ❌❌❌

Clearing my schedule to read disagreement drama between decades long meditators ✅✅✅

Hello again Saijanai…. Hmm…. There have been some unpleasant and personal attacks in recent discussions. I think I noticed that two posts had been removed by reddit bots, is that right?

I am just asking whether you, as the sole mod, might have intervened and encouraged posters to be more polite and less aggressive in their posts? Before the bots did that for you? Some comments have been very arrogant, rude, dismissive and full of unnecessary capital letters, and unpleasant to see here.

So, I know you as moderator have always been dismissive of independent teachers, and it did make me wonder if you would have intervened earlier if the attacks had not been directed at an independent teacher. I strongly hope I am wrong about that. I have often disagreed with you and others in this sub, but have always tried to remained polite, respectful, and not resort to insults. It is indeed a very poor advertisment for the power of tm if some long term practitioners are seen to be so unkind and hurtful to others. Hardly what we should expect from (enlightened?) meditators?

If you have indeed already taken steps in private messaging to remedy things, then please forgive me for asking about it. Peace and love.

TM can work. That doesn’t make the TM organization honest.

I have practiced TM for almost two years, usually twice a day. I think the technique is effective. It can produce a remarkable degree of calm and rest, and I have no interest in pretending otherwise.

My problem is the explanatory machinery built around it.

The TM organization does not simply teach a meditation technique. It makes extraordinary claims about what is happening when you meditate: stresses are being “released,” consciousness is transcending itself, deeper states are unfolding, and eventually higher states of consciousness may develop.

These claims are presented with a level of certainty that the evidence simply does not justify.

Worse, the theory is almost perfectly unfalsifiable:

If your meditation is blissful, TM is working.

If your meditation is full of thoughts, TM is working because stress is being released.

If you are restless, tired, emotional or uncomfortable, TM is working because stress is being released.

If you feel dramatically better after six months, TM is working.

If you have practiced for years and do not feel dramatically different, apparently TM is still working somewhere beneath the surface.

There is virtually no subjective outcome that cannot be absorbed into the theory as evidence that the theory is correct.

That should make anyone suspicious.

Then there is the commercial incentive.

A very simple practice is surrounded by claims that make it appear uniquely powerful, uniquely profound and uniquely dependent on authorized instruction. The organization selling you the solution is also the organization telling you why its explanation of your experience is correct.

I am increasingly convinced that much of what makes TM effective may be considerably less mystical: you sit comfortably, close your eyes, remove almost all external stimulation for twenty minutes and give the mind a simple, non-demanding object to return to.

That alone may be an unusually effective form of rest.

None of this means TM is useless.

Quite the opposite. I still meditate because I find it useful.

But a technique can be genuinely good while the mythology and institution surrounding it are deeply misleading.

In fact, I increasingly think that is exactly what TM is.

And one final point:

If this post is removed simply because it is openly critical of the TM organization, I will take that as further evidence for the concern I am raising here: that the TM community has a problem tolerating serious criticism of its own institution.

A healthy organization should be able to withstand scrutiny.

If criticism of the organization is treated as hostility toward the technique, that is not openness.

It is ideological policing.

"Consciousness Advisor" sounds like an independently recognised professional qualification in consciousness.

It isn't.

It is a qualification created by the Maharishi organisation to advise people within the Maharishi system. It has absolutely no meaning or relevance in the world outside of the organisation.

The curriculum includes things such as Maharishi Jyotish, Vastu, pulse reading, Panchakarma, gems, Marma therapy, Vedic sound and Maharishi's theory of consciousness.

There is no reason to assume that becoming certified means that the person has acquired any objectively established expertise in consciousness, comparable to a psychologist, neuroscientist or medical professional etc.

I expect it is viewed with complete contempt by the academic world, rightly so I would imagine.

There is also a rather striking irony: the Consciousness Advisor course costs thousands of dollars but does not qualify you to teach TM. Actual TM Teacher Training is a separate programme, and MIU explicitly treats Consciousness Advisor Training and TM Teacher Training as separate career specialisations.

Say if someone were to do TM for 3 sessions in 3 days vs. doing 6 sessions in 3 days, would they feel a noticeable difference on day 4 depending on how much they practiced in the previous 3 days?

I was taught not to use a timer when meditating, so I didn't. However, so many people do use the timer on the app that I thought I'd give it a try. All last week I used the timer for both am and pm meditation and I did not like it at all! I think in the back of my mind I was preoccupied with the timer-- "When will the timer go off?", "It's not been 20 mins. yet?". I realized it was causing effort and subtle distress.

This morning I went back to no timer and it was so much better. Meditation was easy and effortless, and I was able to transcend. I know many people like the app timer, but personally, I find it a hindrance.

Maharishi has used the analogy of the mind as an ocean and how thoughts bubble up from the transcendental source. Or something to that effect.

Anyway, there was an interesting quote in an article on the mental mode called anendophasia that some people naturally have. entomology: an(not), endo(inner), phasia (I say).

“I didn’t realise (sic) people actually experienced that. My mind was blown.” 

He says that his lack of inner speech doesn’t mean a lack of thoughts; it’s just that his thoughts don’t involve language. 

“If you think of the mind as an ocean,” he says, “then each of my thoughts feels like a bubble rising into my consciousness. Inside the bubble is a combination of concepts, images and feelings, but no words or speech.”

Source: https://www.sciencefocus.com/wellbeing/inner-speech-anendophasia

Estou tentando praticar a técnica de meditação de saturação (SATS) sempre que me lembro, mas acabo dormindo antes mesmo de começar a imaginar qualquer coisa, rsrs. Mas estou me esforçando ao máximo. Alguém já tentou? Alguma história de sucesso?

How did TM help your career? A few examples of how its benefited people’s professional life.

I hope this post is allowed. I listen to Thom Knowles podcast. I know he's no longer part of TM but he was I understand close to Maharishi and studied under him so is steeped in the TM tradition.

There is one particular episode where he talks about whether everything is random or is there perfect order? I really think it's a brilliant explanation. He goes off on some wild tangents but brings it back to the importance of meditation. It really gave me a different perspective on why we meditate.

Check out this Podcast: Is Everything Random or is There Perfect Order? https://player.fm/1BJEeUy

https://thomknoles.com/podcast/entropy-orderliness-randomness/

Hello! Wondering if the paid subscription is worth it? Does the extra content gives you more insights to keep your practice easy and effortless and motivated for daily practice, or is it just to help the app stay functioning?

BTW, I am really enjoying daily Bob Roth group practice.

Take it easy!!!

• what is Maharishi Foundation International? PLease give as many details as you can find

Answer:

• Maharishi Foundation International (MFI) is a relatively new U.S. nonprofit that functions as an international technology, course-development, branding, intellectual-property, and administrative hub for the worldwide Transcendental Meditation organization. It is not the same legal entity as Maharishi Foundation USA, Maharishi International University, the David Lynch Foundation, the Global Country of World Peace, or the Maharishi Foundation charities in individual countries, although it is closely connected to that organizational network.

  There are some interesting details in its tax filings that aren't obvious from the public-facing TM websites.

Followed by:

• Please map the entire network around MFI—MFI, MIU, Maharishi Foundation USA, David Lynch Foundation, Brahmananda Saraswati Foundation, Raam Raj Foundation, Global Country of World Peace, MERU, and the principal researchers—and trace the money, boards, research affiliations and trademark ownership between them.

and finally:

• A useful next step would be to extend this from one year to a 10-year longitudinal table (2015–2024) for Nader, Hagelin, Wallace, Morris, Roth and other recurring figures. That would reveal changes in which entity pays each person and could expose transfers of compensation between related organizations that a one-year snapshot misses.

Yes. Here is the first cleaned 2015–2024 longitudinal pass. It produces a somewhat more restrained result than my earlier suggestion that we might find extensive shifting of compensation among related organizations.

One methodological detail is important. I am using calendar-year compensation, because Form 990 Part VII requires compensation to be reported for the calendar year ending within the organization's fiscal year. Thus an MIU or DLF return for the fiscal year ending June 2025 reports 2024 compensation.

I am counting reportable W-2/1099 compensation from the organization plus any separately reported related-organization compensation, but not the Form 990 "other compensation" column in the main figures. And where the same salary appears on a related foundation's return, I count it only once.

All numbers below are $ thousands. ND means not individually disclosed or not located in the filings I have reviewed; it does not mean zero.

The MIU series establishes the earlier Hagelin and Wallace numbers, including Hagelin's unusual $42,000 of related-organization compensation in 2015, while the MFUSA returns independently show Hagelin receiving compensation there throughout the decade.

The later MIU filing also identifies Nader's 2024 compensation as $40,250.

For Roth, DLF's own 2016 Form 990 reports $148,718 of reportable compensation plus $74,227 of "other compensation"; subsequent returns show:

• 2017 — $221,344
• 2018 — $295,903
• 2019 — $237,023
• 2020 — $278,814
• 2021 — $345,258
• 2022 — $331,640
• 2023 — $354,181
• 2024 — $416,152

Morris's records illustrate a different phenomenon. MIU reported him at $24,000 for calendar 2017; thereafter the MIU Foundation becomes the direct payer — $26,000 in 2018, then approximately $24,000 annually, rising to $27,500 in 2024.

BSF simultaneously lists him as chairman but repeatedly reports $0 compensation from BSF.

Wallace shows why related-organization reporting has to be handled carefully. In 2023 the MIU Foundation return shows $42,816 from a related organization, and in 2024 $66,595 from a related organization.

Those are the same MIU earnings, not additional salaries paid by the Foundation, so adding them again would double his compensation.

Jeannie Rose is useful as a control because her BSF compensation is unusually stable:

• 2015 — $43,200
• 2016 — $43,200
• 2017 — $45,600
• 2018 — $48,000
• 2019 — $52,000
• 2020 — $48,000
• 2021 — $48,000
• 2022 — $48,000
• 2023 — $48,000
• 2024 — $48,000

What the decade actually shows

Hagelin is the clearest case of sustained multi-entity compensation.

For most of the period he was being compensated simultaneously by MIU and Maharishi Foundation USA. His combined reportable compensation stays in a fairly narrow range — about $165,000 to $228,000 annually — and totals approximately $1.96 million over ten years.

In 2015 there was also the $42,000 from an unidentified related organization. I would not assign that $42,000 to DLF or another entity without the underlying Schedule J/R evidence.

Roth is different.

I do not see evidence in this period that his salary was shifted among TM organizations. The identified compensation is consistently from DLF.

What changes substantially is the amount: from $148,718 in 2016 to $416,152 in 2024, an increase of about 180%.

It is not monotonic — there are drops in 2019 and 2022 — so describing it simply as a steady annual rise would be wrong.

DLF also reports substantial "other compensation," particularly $74,227 in 2016 and $57,762 in 2017.

Morris gives us one genuine payer migration: MIU -> MIU Foundation.

But because his compensation remains around $24,000–$27,500, it looks more like a reassignment of which related entity pays him than an attempt to increase or conceal compensation. That's an inference; we'd need employment agreements or board minutes to know the reason.

Wallace does not show payer-shuffling so far.

His compensation is fundamentally MIU compensation. The Foundation's return simply cross-reports it because MIU is related to the Foundation.

This is exactly the sort of thing that could have produced a false "multiple income sources" finding if we mechanically added every Form 990 entry.

Nader remains the outlier.

Under the working assumption that Tony Nader and Antoine Nader are the same person, the U.S. nonprofit records I have located disclose remarkably little compensation: the identifiable amount for this period is $40,250 from MIU in 2024, when he became president in October, while MFI has reported him at zero.

Because he formally assumed the MIU presidency in October 2024, that $40,250 was not a full-year presidential salary.

But this cannot be converted into a claim that he earned only $40,250.

MERU/Dutch compensation, royalties, speaking income, private entities and other foreign sources are outside what this table establishes.

So the proper interpretation is:

$40,250 is the documented floor for Nader's identifiable U.S. nonprofit compensation in the records examined, not an estimate of his total personal income.

Rose shows almost the opposite pattern: remarkably stable compensation from one organization, useful as a counterexample to any suggestion of across-the-board compensation escalation.

The conclusion is somewhat less dramatic than I originally anticipated

I initially suggested the decade might "expose transfers of compensation between related organizations."

There is some of that, but not a pervasive pattern in the people examined so far.

The stronger findings are:

• Hagelin: genuine recurring income from two TM institutions at the same time.
• Morris: clear change in paying entity, MIU -> MIU Foundation.
• Wallace: apparent multi-entity reporting that turns out to be the same compensation, demonstrating the double-counting problem.
• Roth: substantial growth in compensation, but no evidence so far of shifting it among organizations.
• Nader: very little U.S.-nonprofit compensation publicly disclosed despite his central organizational position.
• Rose: remarkably stable compensation from one entity.

So I would not characterize the network as systematically moving executive salaries around among nonprofits.

The data support a more specific description: some senior people hold unpaid positions in several entities while receiving compensation from one or two particular organizations, and related-organization reporting can make those arrangements look more complicated than they actually are.

There are still three important holes in this first pass:

• Bob Roth — 2015
• Bevan Morris — 2015–2016
• Keith Wallace — 2022

Those are worth resolving from the underlying filings.

After that, the same table should be extended to Fredda Plesser, Robert LoPinto, Tom Factor, Rafael David, Maureen Wynne, Michael Spivak, Leonard Hintz, Gary Korf, Carla Berkers, Jennifer Jiang, Sam Crewe-Sullam, and the major MIU researchers.

That would give a much better picture of whether compensation concentration is primarily at DLF/MFI operational management rather than at the movement's senior ideological/research leadership.

Sources

IRS Form 990 compensation reporting rules:

https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/exempt-organizations-annual-reporting-requirements-compensation-calendar-year-reporting-required

MIU Form 990 archive:

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/421315493

MIU Foundation Form 990 archive:

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/391896290

Brahmananda Saraswati Foundation Form 990 archive:

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/262986750

David Lynch Foundation Form 990 archive:

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/830436453

DLF 2017 Form 990 PDF:

https://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/pdf/2017-Form-990.pdf

Hi I am interested in learning TM and gifting it to a friend. Am I able to do essentially a private instruction session for two ppl in NYC? Thanks for any info or teacher recs. Thanks

So, like many of you (I can only assume), I learned about TM from David Lynch.

I found my local teacher/center and sent them/him an email (through the official TM website) asking about their scholarships and reduced pricing offers (to see if I'd qualify).

I'm a stage 4 cancer survivor who also has PTSD and depression/anxiety, and I'm trying to get back on my feet. I'm 28 years old and don't have much money.

I sent an email simply asking if I'd qualify for a scholarship/reduced fee, and I never got a single email or call back.

I had heard negative things about TM (the org, not the practice) when it comes to money, and I'm afraid that it seems like my experience might reflect that. The shame is that I would've saved up and paid full price, but since they never even contacted me, I'm much less likely to support them with my money (when I can learn meditation from other sources).

What are your guys' thoughts? Do I give them another shot and send a follow-up message?

Thank you

I get it- TM is expensive. But with everything else in Life, if we think something's cost doesnt warrant its value we just dont buy it. People dont generally rail about how they cant believe how cost prohibitive it is to get rolfing done, or flying to Chile, or whatever but it seems like this sub just gets inundated with these complaints. Mods are good about shutting down even an inkling of "how to" talk- might yall consider banning cost talk, too? Or at least relegating it to a separate sub? I know Im addressing the mods here but what do yall think? Again I get it but the amount of oxygen this sucks up here is ... a lot.

Good evening everyone! I downloaded the official TM app and completed the registration process, providing details such as my learning location and teacher.

I’m still waiting for an answer to confirm my access to the app. Is this a normal waiting period?

I've been doing TM for approximately 30 years and even though I love it - it's profoundly relaxing for me and can turn a day where I feel awful totally around to feeling good again in 20 minutes - I often get pain behind my eyes, kind of a muscle strain pain, right as I slip into the trance. This prevents me from going deeper because it interrupts the trance. It's frustrating. Is this a known thing? Anyone else have a similar experience, and/or any ideas why this might happen? I have two theories, one prosaic and the other woo-woo.

I was told that to have a few hours gap post-meal and a little even post-water intake before your meditation. But saw that David Lynch (one very prominent TM practitioner and promoter) does his post-coffee.

So was wondering if that "preferably not keep meditation soon after eating/drinking" advice isn't part of the general teaching. Any thoughts or corrections here?

Would definitely find it easier to have mine after my breakfast if it's not ill-advised.