A Qualitative Exploration of Support of Nature as a Tool of Management

Abstract

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has explained that with ‘Support of Nature’ individuals find desires and wishes are fulfilled in a way that seems to be caused by fortunate coincidences—that circumstances come about without their direct action, to fulfil their desires. Maharishi has extolled Support of Nature as a consciousness-based management tool to ‘do less and accomplish more’ in fulfilling personal desires and professional goals; Support of Nature, Maharishi has said, can be cultivated through the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program. Subjects who were long-term, twice-daily practitioners of this program who were residing in Fairfield, Iowa were selected to partake in qualitative, semi-structured interviews about their personal experiences of more effortless fulfillment of desires. Six of the 18 subjects were senior executive officers (SEO) of the international Transcendental Meditation program. The remaining 12 were active participants of the Invincible America Assembly, an organization founded by Maharishi to establish world peace. All subjects reported experiences of Support of Nature and that the frequency, timeliness, and meaningfulness of fulfillment of desires had increased over time with continued practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program. When describing their inner experiences associated with Support of Nature, subjects reported being in a quiet and relaxed state of mind. When findings were analysed with reference to a model of levels of the mind, it was noted that in fulfillment of desires through Support of Nature, subjects primarily talked about the higher Self—Pure Consciousness; while the ego, intellect, and thinking mind were not much mentioned. We conclude that the Support of Nature phenomenon merits further conceptual, empirical and practical consideration in the field of management.