The Transcendental Meditation Movement

The Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement began in India in 1955 and achieved initial success by appealing to the youth culture of the 1960s. In the 1970s, the movement marketed its meditation technique as a scientifically endorsed practice, then turned dramatically inward during the 1980s. Its popular appeal waned in the new millennium. The movement's trajectory was shaped by social and cultural forces, and the most popular meditation movement in America distilled into an obscure form of Neo-Hinduism. The analysis also covers splinter groups that emerged over the past twenty-five years.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This Element provides a comprehensive overview of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) Movement and its offshoots. Several early assessments of the as a cult and/or new religious movement are helpful, but are brief and somewhat dated. This Element examines the TM movement's history, beginning in India in 1955, and ends with an analysis of the splinter groups that have come along in the past twenty-five years. Close consideration is given to the movement's appeal for the youth culture of the 1960s, which accounted for its initial success. The Element also looks at the marketing of the meditation technique as a scientifically endorsed practice in the 1970s, and the movement's dramatic turn inward during the 1980s. It concludes by discussing the waning of its popular appeal in the new millennium. This Element describes the social and cultural forces that helped shape the TM movement's trajectory over the decades leading to the present and shows how the most popular meditation movement in America distilled into an obscure form of Neo-Hinduism.