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If transcendental meditation is indeed an effective substitute for drugs and alcohol, it could easily be taught to addicts. Unlike true yoga, it requires neither an ascetic life-style nor time-consuming preparations. Four one-hour lessons are enough to teach subjects the basic techniques—and lessons are becoming readily available. Yale University, for example, offers a complete TM course, as do U.C.L.A., the University of Colorado and others. Converts are also spreading the word. TM groups are being organized in cities across the country by an organization called the Students' International Meditation Society.
Benson remains cautious, however, about TM's value to addicts. "I cannot under any circumstances say that TM is an alternative to alcoholism or drug abuse," he insists. He points out that his study is "very biased" because it reported only on people who had learned meditation and continued to practice it; there was no control group of others who tried to end their addiction without the aid of TM. Also, Benson is careful to note, the reports of the 1,862 drug users were subjective—they merely answered Benson and Wallace's questionnaires.
Benson feels that better-controlled studies are needed. "What we're looking at is a behavioral type of approach to various disease patterns," he says, "to see whether changing one's behavior by meditation will help. As kooky as this sounds to many people, it has just got to be investigated." Otherwise, Benson says, no one can tell if TM is indeed useful.