Unrecognized by most as one of the major forces provoking change in the latter half of the 20th century, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi came out of India with 8000 years of spiritual culture behind him. And walked smack into the wall of Western materialism. He needed to make the technique he had brought with him meaningful to this alien society.

It was, however, only months before the face of the TM Movement started to change radically. Although as a visionary, innovator, energy-source and sage Maharishi, maintained the spiritual integrity of the TM Movement until his death, he was now but titular head of an international organisation largely run by accountants.

In an effort to keep up with demand for the technique he ran gigantic courses in large hotels in Europe where up to 3000 teachers at a time were trained. And all the while he sought to move the movement away from its hippie associations and towards respectability and socially-acceptable credibility.

As the principal public-face of TM, the Introductory Talk was the first thing to change. Gone were karma, yoga and reincarnation to be replaced by a list of benefits backed up, even from the very beginning (the first research project into TM was started in 1968) by something we could all believe in -- science. Among the benefits claimed for the technique were reduced stress, increased inner calm, increased energy, increased creativity and intelligence, improved memory and learning ability, reduced effects of aging and improvements in health and in relationships. And increasingly these claims were supported by scientific research and theory. Even without such validation, the Introductory Talk was very strong on logic presenting a very plausible description of the action of the mind before discussing how the technique utilised that action to produce the many benefits claimed. Although essentially the Introductory Talk has changed little from the 1970s to date, new research and new science have constantly been added to the presentation. Perhaps reflecting the Maharishi’s own training as a phsyicist, today the Introductory Talk offers a very interesting and informative introduction to quantum physics.

With a large organisation at his disposal, Maharishi did not rest on his laurels. In the early 1970s he began to target the business community. In 1974 he established Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa, later to change its name to Maharishi University of Management.

While the TM Movement introduced meditation programs into schools, prisons and medical establishments, made significant inroads into establishing TM as a valuable resource for business people and propositioned Government departments in many countries in an effort to gain a recognised place for the technique in the social fabric, Maharishi remained what he had always been.

Able to compromise but never one to cop-out, the Maharishi remained the spiritual visionary (a much nicer term than ‘space cadet’) and promoter of Vedic knowledge he had always been. To many meditators he was ‘VedaMan,‘ a superhero protecting the Truth. But that is possibly a rather personal view.

In 1975 he announced the Dawn of the Age of Enlightenment. It is a dawn that has not yet ended. But maybe his vision is about to come true and we are about to see the rise of a bright new sun to shine on a bright new world. As you will see, Maharishi is not the only dreamer (a much nicer term than ‘space cadet’) in the field. With forays into politics, world government and some mind-boggling projects, the Maharishi never lost his courage and innovative approach to his mission.

In 1976 he introduced the TM-Sidhi program, a program of advanced techniques designed to exercise the mind in the transcendental state that are said to produce effects like invisibility and levitation. Representing ‘fast-track’ evolution the TM-Sidhi program was a major innovation in the TM lexicon.

The meditation technique this site offers is no less than the TM technique. This is free for the asking (but you do need to ask) and comes as two pdfs.