Transcendental Meditation

The Transcendental Meditation technique, or TM technique is a kind of meditation that was developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Today, the name is trademarked.

The meditation technique is practiced while sitting down with the eyes closed and is practiced twice a day.^[1]

Reviews of studies on the effects of the Transcendental Meditation technique show some results are not definite^[2][3][4][5] while some reviews of studies show patterns of positive effects.^{[6][7][8][9][10]}

1. ↑ "The Transcendental Meditation Program". (on the official webpage)
2. ↑ Ospina, MB.; Bond, K.; Karkhaneh, M.; Tjosvold, L.; Vandermeer, B.; Liang, Y.; Bialy, L.; Hooton, N.; Buscemi, N. (June 2007). "Meditation practices for health: state of the research" (PDF). Evid Rep Technol Assess (Full Rep) (155): 4. PMC 4780968. PMID 17764203. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-02-25. Retrieved 2010-01-28. Meta-analyses based on low-quality studies and small numbers of hypertensive participants showed that TM®, Qi Gong and Zen Buddhist meditation significantly reduced blood pressure [...] A few studies of overall poor methodological quality were available for each comparison in the meta-analyses, most of which reported nonsignificant results. TM had no advantage over health education to improve measures of systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure, body weight, heart rate, stress, anger, self-efficacy, cholesterol, dietary intake, and level of physical activity in hypertensive patients
3. ↑ Krisanaprakornkit, T.; Krisanaprakornkit, W.; Piyavhatkul, N.; Laopaiboon, M. (2006). Krisanaprakornkit, Thawatchai (ed.). "Meditation therapy for anxiety disorders". Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (1): CD004998. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD004998.pub2. PMID 16437509. The small number of studies included in this review do not permit any conclusions to be drawn on the effectiveness of meditation therapy for anxiety disorders. Transcendental meditation is comparable with other kinds of relaxation therapies in reducing anxiety
4. ↑ Canter PH, Ernst E (November 2004). "Insufficient evidence to conclude whether or not Transcendental Meditation decreases blood pressure: results of a systematic review of randomized clinical trials". Journal of Hypertension. 22 (11): 2049–54. doi:10.1097/00004872-200411000-00002. PMID 15480084. S2CID 22171451. There is at present insufficient good-quality evidence to conclude whether or not TM has a cumulative positive effect on blood pressure.
5. ↑ Canter PH, Ernst E (November 2003). "The cumulative effects of Transcendental Meditation on cognitive function--a systematic review of randomised controlled trials". Wien. Klin. Wochenschr. 115 (21–22): 758–66. doi:10.1007/BF03040500. PMID 14743579. S2CID 20166373. The claim that TM has a specific and cumulative effect on cognitive function is not supported by the evidence from randomized controlled trials.
6. ↑ John Vogel, Rebecca Costello, and Mitchell Krucoff, Chapter 47 in Braunwald's Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine, Peter Libbie, et al, eds, Saunders Elsevier, 2007, p. 1157. Quotation: "TM has been shown not only to improve blood pressure but also the insulin resistance components of the metabolic syndrome and cardiac autonomic nervous system tone."
7. ↑ Italo Biaggioni, ed. (Nov 2011). Primer on the Autonomic Nervous System. Geoffrey Burnstock, Phillip A. Low, Julian F.R. Paton (3rd ed.). USA: Academic Press. pp. 297–298. A meta-analysis of these studies indicates that TM significantly decreased low and high risk participants' systolic and diastolic blood pressures. . . . In addition, psychological distress and coping abilities were significantly improved compared to control TM groups in both low and high-risk groups.
8. ↑ Shapiro, Shauna (2009). "Meditation and Positive Psychology". In Lopez, Shane; Snyder, C.R. (eds.). Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 601–610. ISBN 978-0-19-518724-3. . . . the TM group demonstrated . . . significantly decreased anxiety compared to a control group. The results suggest that TM's effects extend beyond those of ordinary rest.
9. ↑ Chen, Kevin W. (June 2012). "Meditative Therapies for Reducing Anxiety: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials". Depression and Anxiety. 29 (7). Christine C. Berger, Eric Manheimer, Darlene Forde, Jessica Magidson, Laya Dachman, C. W. Lejuez: 1, 11–12. doi:10.1002/da.21964. PMC 3718554. PMID 22700446. From abstract: "This review demonstrates some efficacy of meditative therapies in reducing anxiety symptoms, which has important clinical implications for applying meditative techniques in treating anxiety." (From Table 1, p. 7-9): "Nidich et al. (2009): The TM group showed significant(ly) more improvement in anxety at 3-month follow-up (p = .003) as compared to the WL control. CLEAR score: .89; Kondwani et al. (2005): TM group had a decrease in anxiety over time (p = .02) and a significant decrease in anxiety as compared to the control (p = .03). CLEAR score: .80; Sheppard et al. (1997) The TM group showed more decrease in anxiety at 3 months (p < .05) as compared to control and this pattern continued at 3 years follow-up. CLEAR score: .64"
10. ↑ James Dalen (2011). "The Integrative Approach to Hypertension, Ch. 11". In Stephen Devries (ed.). Integrative Cardiology. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 236, 237. 978-0195383461. A 2008 meta-analysis of nine studies found a 4.7 mmHg systolic blood pressure and 3.2 mmHg diastolic blood pressure decrease in those who practiced TM compared to control groups that included health education. These decreases were judged to be clinically significant.