What does 47 years of research tell us about the Transcendental Meditation technique?

Dr. David Orme-Johnson speaking to the medical students in the TM program at the Loyola-Stritch School of Medicine, Chicago.

Medical students in the TM program.

Carla Linton Brown, David, Duncan Brown, and Dr. Rhoda Orme-Johnson. Carla and Duncan established the TM program at the Stritch School of Medicine.

TM is about transcending from active mind to silent mind. Unlike other meditation techniques, it is effortless and requires no cognitive control.

Dr. Keith Wallace was the first to describe the physiology of transcendental consciousness as a unique 4th major state of consciousness in his doctoral dissertation at UCLA.

Table 17 of Dr. Wallace PhD dissertation shows that Transcendental Consciousness is associated with a unique pattern across 15 different physiological variables.

TM differs from ordinary waking sitting with eyes closed in that it increases alpha1 EEG, indicating inner wakefulness along with markedly decreased physiological arousal and metabolism, indicating deep rest. Basal skin resistance increases more during TM than waking rest and heart rate, respiratory rate, plasma lactate and muscle tension decrease more in TM. TM is a unique state of restful alertness.

During dreaming the mind is active with illusory awareness, whereas during TM the mind is quiet with silent awareness. Dreaming is associated with rapid eye movements (REM) but not TM. There are erratic changes in heart rate, breathing, metabolic rate, blood pressure and muscle activity associated with dreams whereas all these parameters become more quiescent during TM.

TM is a state of deep rest with inner awareness whereas sleep is a state of deep rest with loss of awareness. Sleep has a completely different EEG frequency than TM. Heart rate, respiration rate, and metabolism drop faster in TM than in sleep. During sleep, blood carbon dioxide levels rise but not in TM. The body cannot stay erect during sleep whereas TM is practiced sitting erect.

The grand conclusion is that the physiological pattern produced by TM is distinctly different from waking, dreaming, and sleeping.

There was considerable challenge in the scientific community to the idea that TM produced a 4th major state of consciousness. This thought experiment by Dr. Paul Levine made it plausible that there is a state of awareness with no thoughts : transcendental consciousness .

One of the key findings about the physiology of TM is that it creates synchronous EEG, a discovery by Jean Paul Banquet.

However, whenever you mentioned synchrony to the medical community in the early 1970s , they inevitably thought of epilepsy. TM is completely different from epilepsy in EEG frequency, morphology, and source of origin.

When JP Banquet and I visited Dr. Peter Fenwick, a neuropsychiatrist, in his EEG lab at the Maudsley Hospital in London in 1973, Fenwick said that the EEG of TM looks like the hypnagogic state, the transitional state from wakefulness to sleep.

Maharishi would agree with that. Maharishi’s description of the junction point is more general than the hypnagogic state. He defines it as the transition between waking, dreaming, or sleep.

Fred Travis found that in fact the power spectra of TM in the period before the onset of stage one sleep are similar.

Travis also found that the coherence spectra of TM and the junction point were the same. So is there any difference between TM and falling asleep?

Yes. The difference is that the amount of time spent in the junction point is about 20 times longer with TM , almost the entire meditation of 35 minutes compared with about 2 ½ minutes during sleep onset.

Hovering in the junction point provides a way to understand the TM experience. During TM one is transcending from waking to the junction point and staying there; transitioning a little (or a lot) into sleep, perhaps dipping into dreaming or, more commonly, waking thoughts. In each transition one goes through the junction point, and in transcendental consciousness, one may remain there, in unbounded awareness, bliss consciousness.

From the perspective of the junction point , we are transcending every time we transition between waking dreaming and sleeping. But what is the value of hovering around the junction point?

The value the junction point is that it is the state in which the information that is gained during experience gets consolidated into insights and creative ideas.

Thomas Edison knew that his creative ideas came in the junction point. He had chairs placed around his laboratory where he could sit and nap, and he devised ways to keep him in the junction point. For example, he would nap in his chair with a handful of marbles. The moment the marbles’ clatter woke him up, he would write down whatever was in his mind. Or he would sit in a chair constructed to tap him on the shoulder when he dozed off, titrating in the junction point.

The history of science and the arts is full of stories no great creative insights and breakthroughs-Aha experiences or Eureka moments (I found it, Archimedes) come when the mind is relaxed and silent.

As James Thurber’s quip implies, creativity takes place while the mind is at rest.

More generally, rest phases are periods in which information gained during focused thought become consolidated into memory and integrated into higher level knowledge structures, comprehension, insights, and creative ideas.

The physiology of creativity is now being identified as the default mode network. It is a system between the frontal and parietal areas of the brain which become active when the mind is not engaged in focused activity . It has been called the “Genius Lounge” in which all the major brain systems are connected and work to synthesize information during rest through largely unconscious processes.

All other meditation techniques decrease the DMN activity, indicating that they require focused attention. TM alone increases activity in the default mode network and it also increases coherence in the system, which predicts it would increase creativity, comprehension, etc.

The default mode network not only processes information, it also processes the emotions and relationships. Whatever problems that one is facing, the default mode network will work on it automatically whenever in a state of rest, trying to find a solution and happy ending.

Well controlled studies have shown that TM improves creativity etc. (read chart).

TM increases basic skill in school children…

TM shows largest gains in students below basic…

…it even improves cognitive flexibility and memory in 80-year olds.

Improved Cognitive Flexibility in the Elderly. A study of 80-year olds conducted at Harvard and published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique increases cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility was measured by the ability to learn new material that was different form previously learned material, that is, the ability to overcome old habits with new knowledge.*

Other brain parameters besides the default mode also show that different meditation techniques have different effects on the brain. This study defined three categories of meditation based on the frequency of EEG that they produce.

TM globally increases coherence in alpha1 EEG, distinguishing it from ordinary eyes closed resting. Other meditation techniques do not have this effect. Alpha coherence has been found to functionally bind different areas of the brain for creativity, memory, perception, and motor behavior, which explains its cognitive effects.

Increased alpha1 EEG coherence during TM also distinguishes it from mindfulness practices.

This chart shows that the patterns of EEG coherence produced by Mindfulness and TM are different. During Mindfulness, frontal theta (4-8 Hz) and occipital Alpha2 (10-12 Hz) increase, reflecting that purposeful attention is being concentrated on monitoring of thoughts during Mindfulness.(1) During TM alpha1 (8-10 Hz) EEG coherence increases globally throughout the brain, indicating a state of profound brain integration and restful alertness.(2)

The EEG alpha1 coherence created during TM is correlated with a wide range of cognitive and affective benefits. This chart displays the many benefits of increasing EEG coherence through TM practice.

Different meditation techniques also differ in the blood flow patterns as indicated by fMRI studies. The study on Zen, as an example of Focused Attention, found decreased blood flow in the posterior component of the Default Mode Network (DMN), indicating controlled visual attention required by this Zen technique.

The study on mindfulness, as an example of Open Monitoring, found increased blood flow to the anterior cingulate gyrus, which indicates attention directing. It reflects that with mindfulness one is constantly changing the beam of attention from one thought or object of experience to another.

Automatic Self-Transcending. The pattern of blood flow during TM indicates a state of Restful Alertness. During TM, we are seeing increased frontal blood flow (orange), indicating increased inner awareness, together with decreased blood flow in the pons, brain stem and cerebellum (blue), indicating deep rest to the body.

We adopted the strategy of looking for specific moments of transcendental consciousness in people who are having the clearest experiences of it . This resulted in us finding that respiratory suspension was a marker of TC.

During respiratory suspension we found global increases in EEG coherence across frequency bands.

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In Part 2 of our overview of the research, we will consider the effects of TM on the autonomic nervous system, stress and health.

The physiological effects of TM are just the opposite of those produced by stress.

The fight-or-flight response (also called hyperarousal, or the acute stress response) is a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival.[1] It was first described by Walter Bradford Cannon.

Previously we learned that TM increases alpha1 EEG coherence compared to ordinary rest.

TM also reduces these stress markers significantly more than ordinary rest, as indicated by this meta-analysis of 32 studies.

I was the first researcher to show that meditation of any kind can change how one reacts to stress. This was a cross-sectional study, but a recent randomized controlled trial confirmed that TM produces faster habituation to stressors. The study also found that it increases brain integration and decreases sleepiness in college students.

Travis FT, Haaga D, Hagelin JS, Tanner M, Nidich SI, King CG, et al. Effects of Transcendental Meditation practice on brain functioning and stress reactivity in college students. International Journal of Psychophysiology. 2009;71(2):170-6.

My study also found meditators have fewer spontaneous skin resistance responses than controls. This was later confirmed by a meta-analysis of 32 studies.

SSRR TM vs Rest, p < .01

SSRR EO rest, p < .01

TM improves stress reactivity in many different systems, skin resistance, heart rate, cortisol and CV system.

This randomized controlled trial of African American adolescents carried out at the Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, found that 2 months of TM practice increased performance on the stressor (driving speed on a simulator) with reduced elevation SBP and DPB compared to Health Education Controls. More dynamic activity with less stress.

An fMRI study showed that 5 months of TM practice reduced the reactivity of the pain matrix of the brain to pain.

This chart shows the reduction in the brain’s response to the pain stimulus in typical subjects.

Pain protocol. 1.5 min of immersion of the left index and middle fingers in warm water (43.1C) to maintain them at a standard, uniform baseline temperature, then 30 s of the pain condition of the same fingers immersed in hot water (approximately 51.1C), followed by immersion of the fingers in the warm (43.1C) water again for 1 min. The fingers were immersed from the distal phalanx to the proximal interphalangeal joint and were not moved.

At pretest, the long-term meditators showed 40-50% fewer voxels than the controls, significantly different for all measures. After 5 months of TM practice, controls decreased by 40-50% voxels, and were not significantly different from long-term meditators.

This reduction in stress translates into few hospital admissions.

A 5-year study of medical care utilization statistics from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Iowa found that a group of 2000 people who had been practicing TM for about 5 years had on average approximately 50% lower levels of medical care utilization than the statewide normative data. Reductions were found across all medical categories.

For example, 55% less for cancers, 87% lower for heart disease and diseases of the nervous system, and 65% lower for metabolic disease, which includes diabetes. Similar results were found comparing the TM Group with a Control group matched for age and profession.

What about age? The TM Group had lower inpatient and outpatient utilization across all age categories. Interestingly, the greatest reductions in the TM Group compared to the norm were for people in the oldest age category, over 40. This was true for both hospitalization and outpatient visits.

A 4-year second study on a different population found similar results. The TM Group were 693 faculty and staff at Maharishi University of Management , compared with a control group of faculty and staff and other small colleges in Iowa , and compared with statewide normative data , as before.

In general, the control group was very similar to the norm. TM was lower than both controls and the norm in all categories. For example the TM Group had 92% less hospitalization for heart disease than both controls and the norm.

As in the previous study, the TM Group had lower inpatient and outpatient utilization, with the biggest reductions in the older age category.

A longitudinal study conducted in Quebec found normal levels of medical utilization in people before they learn TM, and a 14% annual decrease after they learned. Medical expenditures for people over 65 decreased 14% per year after learning TM, reaching a 70% reduction relative to non-TM controls after five years. This indicates that people who learn TM are not healthier to begin which, but become healthier after learning TM.

I want to mention here a randomized controlled trial has shown that TM reduces heart attacks strokes and death by about 48% over a five year period, which is approximately the magnitude of change found in my earlier cross-sectional medical care utilization studies. This answers the self-selection question.

Transcending is also a highly effective way to reduce psychological stress, anxiety, depression, and anger.

A major review (meta-analysis) of 146 studies on trait anxiety from Stanford University published in a major journal, Journal of Clinical Psychology, found that TM is the most effective technique known for reducing anxiety. It is more effective than all other meditation and relaxation techniques, [including Progressive Relaxation, Concentration Meditation, the Relaxation Response, Benson’s technique, EMG Biofeedback, and Placebo techniques]. Note: Trait anxiety is how anxious you usually are, as opposed to State anxiety, which is how anxious you are at a particular moment.

TM is also more effective than Mindfulness in reducing anxiety.

A major meta-analysis of 30 studies conducted at the Chemnitz University of Technology in Germany published in Psychological Bulletin, one of the top journals of the American Psychological Association, found that TM was more effective in reducing trait anxiety than mindfulness or other meditation techniques.

A meta-analysis of TM and anxiety that I did with Vernon Barnes located 16 randomized controlled trials. Their effect sizes varied greatly, from zero to 1.5, which is very large. I notice that studies with large effects were on highly anxious populations , war veterans with PTSD, psychiatric anxiety patients, drug abusers in rehab , and incarcerated felons.

Meta-regression showed that initial anxiety level accounted for all of the true between-studies variance.

You can see in this table that people with high anxiety show a large reductions due to TM practice , whereas low anxiety people show very little change.

Meta-analysis can be used to address the question of researcher bias. For example, in the data from my meta-analysis on RCTs anxiety, studies conducted by TM meditators or researchers who were affiliated with any TM University did not have larger effect sizes than independent researchers.

In fact, the effect sizes for TM researchers tended to be smaller, but that was because they tended to study relatively low anxiety populations, such as high school and college students , and normal adults.

TM has been found to be effective for treating stress-related disorders in many populations, such as PTSD.

Five studies on PTSD on US war veterans has consistently shown that the Transcendental Meditation technique has a strong effect on reducing symptoms of PTSD. TM is about twice as effective as Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, the most common form of mindfulness meditation.