Adverse Effects of Transcendental Meditation
July 12, 2017 DOI: 10.4324/9780203785843-26 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experiment |
|---|---|
| Population | People who adopted transcendental meditation, including naive meditators who became TM teachers and naive meditators in a random sample |
| Intervention | Transcendental meditation |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Transcendental meditation Transcendental number Psychotherapist Epistemology Theology |
| Citations | 31 |
| Key findings | More naive meditators who decided to become TM teachers reported negative effects such as depression, frustration, impulsivity, and increased tension and suspiciousness than naive meditators in the random sample. |
Abstract
This chapter describes a study done at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) to determine what, if any, are the negative effects of transcendental meditation (TM). It summarizes an experiment conducted at SRI to determine whether people who adopted the practice of TM were a self-selected population or whether a relatively disinterested random sample of volunteers could realize the benefits claimed to accrue to practitioners. The TM group received the standard training at a local chapter of the Students International Meditation Society (SIMS), the parent organization of TM. The problems the TM subjects experienced were interpreted by the SIMS organization as being caused by "unstressing"—a phenomenon claimed to be a natural consequence of the initial stages of TM. More of the naive meditators who had decided to become teachers of TM reported becoming depressed, frustrated, impulsive, and/or as experiencing greater physical and mental tension and suspiciousness since starting TM than did the naive meditators in the SIMS random sample.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Cancer patients (clinical intervention study) | 2003 | Mixed methods: scale development, correlational, quasi-experimental, laboratory, experience-sampling, and clinical intervention study | |
| Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. | 2008 | Controlled laboratory experiment | |
| Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. | 2012 | Two studies: correlational study and experimental study | |
| Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence | 2009 | Experimental study | |
| Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population | 2006 | Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition |
Citations in the library
Cited by 7
- Unwanted effects: Is there a negative side of meditation? A multicentre survey PLoS One September 5, 2017
- Future directions in meditation research: Recommendations for expanding the field of contemplative science PLoS One November 7, 2018
- Mindfulness and Nondual Well-Being – What is the Evidence that We Can Stay Happy? Review of General Psychology June 1, 2023
- The safety of meditation Advances in Psychological Science September 7, 2022
- The mind’s abyss: Exploring the adverse effects of distinct forms of meditation Academia Mental Health and Well-Being April 14, 2025
and 2 more in the library