Transcendental Meditation in education

Transcendental Meditation in education (also known as Consciousness-Based Education) is the application of the Transcendental Meditation technique in an educational setting or institution. These educational programs and institutions have been founded in the US, United Kingdom, Australia, India, Africa and Japan. The Transcendental Meditation technique became popular with students in the 1960s and by the early 1970s centers for the Students International Meditation Society were established at a thousand campuses^[1] in the US with similar growth occurring in Germany, Canada and Britain.^[2] The Maharishi International University was established in 1973 in the US and began offering accredited, degree programs. In 1977 courses in Transcendental Meditation and the Science of Creative Intelligence (SCI) were legally prohibited from New Jersey (USA) public high schools on religious grounds by virtue of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.^[3][4] This "dismantled" the TM program's use of government funding in U.S. public schools^[5] "but did not constitute a negative evaluation of the program itself".^[6] Since 1979, schools that incorporate the Transcendental Meditation technique using private, non-governmental funding have been reported in the US, South America, Southeast Asia, Northern Ireland, South Africa and Israel.^[7][8][9]

A number of educational institutions have been founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Transcendental Meditation movement and its supporters. These institutions include several schools offering public and private secondary education in the Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment (USA),^[10] Maharishi School (England)^[11][12] the Maharishi International School (Switzerland),^[13] Maharishi School, (Australia),^[14][15][16] South Africa (Maharishi Invincibility School of Management),^[17] and a network of Maharishi Vidya Mandir Schools (India). Likewise, Maharishi colleges and universities have been established including Maharishi European Research University (Netherlands), Maharishi Institute of Management (India), Maharishi University of Management and Technology (India), Maharishi Institute (South Africa)^[18][19] and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Vedic University (India). In the US, critics have called Transcendental Meditation a revised form of Eastern, religious philosophy and opposed its use in public schools^[20][21] while a member of the Pacific Justice Institute says practicing Transcendental Meditation in public schools with private funding is constitutional.^[22]