Has anyone ever tried it. Any good?

It's just that it seems to me like whenever I try to find any info on it or how to do it, I find I have to pay money. So I can't help feeling like it's a big con

I think TM is kind of trademarked by Maharishi and teachers "authorized" to guide you through it. (Why you have to pay.)

Good old fashioned meditation, just sitting quietly (or doing yoga postures) and changing your awareness is free, and good for stress and blood pressure.

I've been interested in TM and felt much like giospurs. Secretive, expensive... just comes off as a scam. I ended up buying the book "Meditation for Dummies" and trying it that way. I didn't stick with it long enough to have any breakthroughs. Didn't experience any different levels of conciousness or anything. I need to start again and stick with it. It was relaxing and a good exercise if nothing else.

Following on the first point about TM, it bothers me that David talks about the wonders of TM all the time but doesn't tell anyone how to do it. Perhaps it's not as simple as I think it is, but it seems like he could do more to get people started on their own without paying thousands of dollars (pointing them to good instructional books, explaining his process of meditation, etc).

This is a sentence and you are reading it now.

Meditation is a valid and I think simple technique. I suspect when people spend money on a system, be it a Soloflex machine, a TM program etc. they feel they have something coming to them for paying the price and therefor, by Golly, they will get something out of it.

I just wonder why the TM program over decades has not been effective in DL dropping his heavy cigarette smoking pastime. Or are his cigarettes organic with no potential health problems? 

I wondered about that too. At the talk Lynch gave in Belfast, a guy asked him about the resultant health benefits from meditation then asked him to reconcile his caffeine consumption with the practice of TM. Lynch glibly brushed it off saying you don't have to give up things you enjoy when you start practising TM.

I'm pretty sceptical of the whole idea now given this apparent contradiction. Caffeine is ok with me but surely smoking is one of the most destructive things you can willingly do to yourself. If TM gives you absolute enlightenment and greater strength of character then surely a chain smoking habit would be one of the first things to go?

Hi Lets,

Were you at the DL meeting in person ? If so your impressions would be welcome. And no, I think DL smokes real tobacco cigarettes.

Rich

Sigh. In a few months time it will be 10 years since I started with the practice of meditation. In all those years I've had fabulous experiences and life has brought me nothing but joy and harmony, in many areas, and with some exceptions, of course. Speaking frankly, it seems hard to tell would it have been different had I not been so much into meditation, and what really is a consequence of the practice and what isn't. However, there are so many things which prove to me, and only to me, that meditation really helps and brings new and great things into life. So I cannot tell would it work also for somebody else; I've seen people who it did work well for, and I've seen people who it didn't work so well for. David Lynch for sure is one person who I can tell it works wonders for.

The key thing to understand here is, that human beings are spiritual beings and nothing we do or say cannot change that fact. Meditation, (and not only TM of course) is a way to tune into that spiritual side of ours, to discover it, and to nourish it. The effects of such practice differ vastly from one person to another, sometimes subtle, sometimes very obvious and sometimes very hidden. Sometimes it leads to something new, something unexpected, which changes you even more profoundly.

So, it is not easy to describe the process, the experiences or the effects (some measurable effects have been published over and over again though). If someone is even remotely interested, the single best thing to do is simply try it - much better to try than to talk or read about it (as is the case with all good things in life I suppose). A few hundred bucks is sometimes hard to part with, but you're investing in something which you can have and use forever, and few are such things which last forever.

But is it really essential to pay for instruction in TM?

I am in the UK, in the Midlands. It's pretty difficult to get instriction specifically in TM, but an average Meditation class is not hard to find.

You can get TM books to teach yourself of course, I've looked at one some time back.

Is it necessary to get tutored in TM and where would I go?

I think you can learn anything for free and without a proper instruction. But the question is how well will you learn it, and do you really want to do it that way. You can get books and teach yourself to play guitar, to dance, to skate, to write computer programs, ... but in most cases it's much, much better to get the formal instruction and training. Just think about it that way - it's a matter of quality and how much will you benefit from your effort in the end.

Now, one thing I have to say is that I'm not supportive of the prices of the courses which have grown significantly in the past decade. When I took the course, the fee was about 55 Euros, and now it's about 300 Euros in Croatia, which has a below average standards. It's not that you won't get what you pay for, it's just that I think more people would meditate today were it not for these sometimes overwhelming prices.

The bottom line would be - if you want to do it, do it right. Don't use books or internet instructions. If it's just too expensive, get another course, or save....I've met some people who had been working summer jobs to save money for advanced courses.

I think you can send an inquiry about the courses in your vicinity here:

http://www.transcendental-meditation.org.uk/contact.shtml

TM BM

They say it gives you psychic powers.

Prove it baldy!

I believe that what you are paying for in TM is to receive your mantra--the idea being that you can't just choose a simple mantra that you "like" and experience the same effect. Is this true?

Once you get your mantra, however, I don't believe that TM is that different in form from any other silent sitting/meditative practice. I practice Ashtanga yoga, which is my form of meditation. I also try to sit regularly, and have toyed with the idea of a Vipassana retreat (http://www.vipassana.com/)

my user name is spelled incorrectly.

tatemae