Mystik og ritual i transcendental meditation

The Transcendental Meditation movement's meditation rituals function as a ritual drama in which participants reenact the cosmogonic act of creation. While ritual drama typically requires deep mythological knowledge, TM practitioners may not always possess it, though some advanced participants enact cosmogonies known to inner members through collective meditation and the TM-Sidhi programme, which involves levitation and other occult phenomena. Meditators aim to establish in their consciousness the same condition as the creator Brahma during creation, believing this enables literal creation and upholds or renews creation. The mystical experience of meditation is argued to be identical with the cosmogonic act, making the meditation-ritual a ritual drama. Further elaboration of the myth/ritual framework is needed.

Study at a glance

Abstract

After a brief description of the Transcendental Meditation movement (TM), the meditation-rituals of the group are analyzed, and it is shown how the mediations can be understood as some kind of a ritual drama. Although this type of ritual ususally implies a thorough knowledge of the mythological aspect, this is not always the case in TM. It is shown, however, that some participants quite aware, enact the cosmogonies known to innner-members through their conduct of collective meditation and the socalled TM-Sidhi programme (a rather advanced, esoteric meditation-discipline implying levitation and other occult phenomena). Through the meditation the participants establish the very same condition in their consciousness, as did the creator (Brahma) during His creation of the universe. It is believed that the meditators for that reason, eventually will be able to create literally, and that their practice upholds and renews creation. As the experience from the meditation practice obviously is an expression of mysticism implying an ongoing development of the meditator's consciousness, it is argued that the mystical experience is identical with the cosmogenic act, and that the meditation-ritual as such, therefore can be regarded as a ritual drama. The author recognixes the necessity for further elaboration of the myth/ritual framework, in order to make it even more suitable for his purpose.