Psychotherapeutic effects of transcendental meditation with controls for expectation of relief and daily sitting.
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology January 1, 1976 J. Cole Smith 70 citations
Introduced in 1959 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, transcendental meditation (TM) involves sitting quietly twice daily for 15 to 20 minutes while passively attending to a special thought called a mantra. The technique has been taught to at least 600,000 persons, partly because Maharishi claimed it is a natural and effective cure for mental illness. In a study comparing TM to a control treatment called periodic somatic inactivity (PSI)—which involved simply sitting with eyes closed—the PSI technique was contrived to match every aspect of TM except the meditative focus. The text does not report findings or outcomes.