(2 of 3)
Improved Sex. Most of TM's adherents in the U.S. and abroad see no need to await the verdict of research. They have heard International Meditation Society "initiators" (teachers) extol TM in free lectures, and they believe. There are no complicated philosophical or religious ideas to understand, as in classic Zen or yoga, and no ascetic life-style is demanded. The only requirement is to meditate for 20 minutes twice a day. "You close your eyes," explains one TM-er, "and after a few minutes the mantra just floats into your consciousness. Noises or worldly daydreams may distract you, but then you find your mind wandering back to the mantra. You feel a deep sense of rest and alertness."
When that happens, according to the maharishi (meaning great sage), the mind "flows and flows," like a river on its way to the sea, "to the level of life which is more than the most infinite unbounded." The white-bearded I.M.S. founder explains further that "the mind arrives at the source of thought," which is "a reservoir of energy, intelligence and happiness" that can. be found deep within every human being.
Most transcendental meditators put it more simply. San Francisco Actor Paul Shenar calls TM "a natural high," and a Silver Spring, Md., psychologist describes it as "the most beautiful thing that's ever happened in my life." Investment Counselor Ben Faneuil of Boston testifies that "my memory gets sharper, I feel more alert all day, and everything I've ever done well I now do better." In Manhattan, Architect Donald Levitin asserts, after ten years of psychotherapy, that "TM does what psychiatry, in a much longer time and at much greater expense, tries to do—and usually doesn't." A New Jersey dentist is positively ebullient: "My wife told me I was a lousy lover. In desperation I tried TM. Now my problem is keeping my wife from telling everybody about the dramatic improvement in our sex lives."
Some TM critics are put off by this kind of extravagant claim, and others* fault the maharishi for his flair for commercialism, his undoubted talent for getting publicity, and his global ambition. Having trained 3,000 initiators so far ($600 for a ten-week course), he is now in the process of establishing the Maharishi International University, which he hopes will graduate another 3,600,000 teachers, one for every thousand people in the world.
The movement may be more important than its leader. There is undisputed evidence that meditation can lower oxygen consumption and produce other physiological changes that may, in turn, have psychological side effects. Attempts to measure these effects have already been made. At Harvard, Researchers Herbert Benson and R. Keith Wallace questioned 1,862 meditators, of whom 80% had used pot and 48% LSD. After 21 months of TM, Benson and Wallace found, only 12% still smoked pot and only 3% took LSD. At Stanford, Neurobiologist Leon Otis has tried to evaluate TM by comparing the effects of 1) just sitting quietly with eyes closed, 2) repeating a simple phrase such as "I am a witness only," and 3) practicing TM. Those who followed the formal TM system gained the most in self-confidence, emotional stability and insight into themselves.