Psychic Powers in TM

"TM" is a simple technique, practiced for twenty minutes twice a day, by over a million individuals throughout the world Over a hundred research studies have made use of practitioners of this technique, although many have not been published in reputable scientific journals. Benefits are reported in a broad spectrum of categories related to metabolic changes, biochemical changes, electrophysiological changes, electroencephalographic changes, physiological efficiency and stability, autonomic and emotional stability, health, athletic performance, perception and motor coordination, intelligence, learning, academic performance, personality development, creativity, productivity and job satisfaction, and social rehabilitation (Maharishi European Research University 1976).

In the summer of 1976, rumors spread within the movement that meditators were "spontaneously levitating" during advanced training courses in Switzerland. Spontaneous cases of levitation have been occasionally reported for centuries among devout monks in Christian monasteries, and also in the ancient Hindu and Tibetan literature. Such reports may have resulted from delusion.

The World Government for the Age of Enlightenment (the parliamentary arm of the TM movement) has publicized reports that students in the advanced courses have learned how to levitate. Photographs have been published in the TM magazine, World Government News, and have also been on display at most of the over 1,500 TM centers; public lectures have been presented on this subject, and large newspaper advertisements have been placed encouraging people to attend the expensive training programs. No published data indicate that these levitations have been documented in scientifically controlled situations.

I have had possession of reproductions of six color photographs that have been widely distributed to TM centers. The photographs apparently portray in sequence a single instance of alleged levitation. Two women are shown sitting cross-legged; one is in the "full-lotus" posture with both ankles propped above the thighs. In the sequence, the woman sitting in full lotus is shown rising off of the mat, about a foot, and coming forward toward the camera about four feet. The actual distances are difficult to assess without knowing more details regarding the position of the camera, lenses, etc. The photographs are extremely convincing in terms of showing expressions of great joy and excitement on the face of the alleged levitator. It is also very difficult to believe that an individual in the full-lotus posture could hop forward in such a manner, since the legs are tightly constrained. If this were possible, one would at least expect to see some evidence of strain on the face of the alleged levitator. Of course, it is a logical possibility that the photographs are misrepresentations or actual fakes. If so, this would represent a serious breach of ethics. The likeliest possibility involves a more subtle deception; that the photographs represent an unusual form of gymnastics which is being passed off as levitation -- even among the practitioners.

Accompanying these photographs, on a large poster produced by the TM World Government, is a scientific looking diagram which purports to show that brain wave coherence, across all frequencies, occurs during the practice of the "flying" sidhi. There is no scientific explanation of the experiment from which this diagram is apparently derived. What is of interest is the sequence of techniques practiced during the 55 minute period apparently being diagramed. Ie., timing is as follows: 0 minutes, eyes closed; at 3 minutes, practice of regular TM technique; at 13 minutes, practice of the "friendliness" sidhi; at 16 minutes, practice of the "strength" sidhi; at 19 minutes, practice of the "omniscience" sidhi; at 23 minutes, practice of the "invisibility" sidhi; at 30 minutes, practice of the "flying" sidhi; at 45 minutes, practice of the regular TM technique; at 52 minutes, eyes closed; at 55 minutes the experiment ends. I presume that this sequence of techniques is used during the actual sidhis training. Interviewees were unwilling to comment on this, saying that to do so would violate their promise of secrecy regarding the training, and that the graph would have to be taken as speaking for itself. The details of the specific sidhi practices are also not publicly known. I gather from my interviews that they involve maintaining a mental intention to perform the sidhi while in deep meditation.

Orme-Johnson et al. (1977) claim to have conducted an experiment that measured EEG coherence of a student during levitation. The article purports to demonstrate that bilateral frontal coherence and heartbeat both increase dramatically during the actual experience of "flying." The report is very vague concerning the actual details of levitation. The article states that "a gradual lift in the air by the subject [was] observed on the TV monitor (during the 10th second of the 9th epoch)." Unfortunately the article does not give the reader confidence that the researchers controlled for nonpsi explanations of the apparent levitation, such as muscular contractions. This seems a possible explanation as the lift only lasted for one second. Because of the lack of control in this study, which was sponsored and published -- without independent scientific review -- by the organizations that promote transcendental meditation, the TM claim for levitation cannot be regarded as a scientifically verified fact.

I have interviewed over a dozen individuals who have completed the TM sidhis training program. All but one of them claim to have attained a level of mastery whereby they regularly levitate twice a day in their meditation practice. The other individual claimed to have attained only a level of sporadic hopping, although he claims to have witnessed others actually levitating many times. Another interviewee reported that having regularly practiced the TM sidhis technique, two months after he completed the program he also began regularly levitating. Although I was asked not to watch the event, I was present when this individual performed the TM sidhis program in my home. Although nothing was witnessed, the entire apartment was shaking for ten minutes from the continued "hopping" of the individual who was purportedly levitating. All of these individuals I interviewed insist that the phenomenon is nonmuscular and that there is nothing in the TM sidhis instructions implying the use of muscular force.

Orme-Johnson et al. (1977) in a report based on their interviews of students in the TM "sidhis program," state that the ability to levitate takes place in stages. The first stage begins with a feeling of the body's being permeated by space and in some cases a mental and physical feeling of lightness. The next stage includes shaking of the body, fast breathing and a spontaneous hop of two to three feet. Then follows hopping with increased control over direction. In the more advanced stages, students report feeling suspended in the air for a few seconds, or even a second upward impulse while they are still in the air. Orme-Johnson et al. state that these stages are the same as those described in the Shiva Samhita, a Hindu text of some antiquity.

The TM sidhis program is open to all individuals who have been practicing TM for at least six months and have taken at least one weekend residence course. The program begins with a preparatory course lasting from four to eight weeks depending on one's prior meditation experience. The preparatory course is in residence and is taken in one-week blocks. Students who have been meditating for less than three years are required to take the preparatory course for eight weeks; from three to five years, six weeks; and for students with over five years TM practice, four weeks. The actual sidhis training course is taken in four blocks of two weeks' duration each. The actual exercises and techniques taught in the TM sidhis program are not publicly known. Students in the program are sworn to secrecy with regard to the instructions for levitation.

More recently courses have been instituted for meditators who are working and cannot afford to take the lengthy residence courses. This course meets only two evenings a week for six weeks, followed by two weeks in residence. The prerequisite has been reduced, so that one can enter the program six weeks after TM initiation. The fee for this course is $3,000 + payable in advance. Even with this reduced time of training, interviewees have reported that they can learn to levitate.

Some information has been made available to me. Two concepts derived from the Yoga Sutras are of prime importance. Ritambhara Pragya (Book 1, verse 48) is said to refer to the most subtle state of consciousness next to a state of cosmic transcendence. This state, called Ritam for short, is believed to be responsible for all psi phenomena. The Sanskrit meaning of the term is "filled with truth." The actual technique for attaining Ritam is known as Samyama (Book 111, verse 4) which involves the simultaneous practice of the last three steps of the eight-limbed yoga, dharana, dhyana, and samadhi. One "Governor" of the TM movement has described this process as follows:
"What the sidhis practices involve is transcending, and instead of just sitting in the absolute, we learn how to raise waves on the silent ocean of pure consciousness. We learn how to direct the transcendent, how to direct pure consciousness and make i perform. By having an intention or just having a thought o desire when the mind is immersed in pure consciousness, then that desire comes about-whether to have the body rise up off the ground, or to have world peace, or greater harmony in the community -- as long as these desires are in harmony with the basic laws of nature. In other words, you can't act in discord to the desires of nature."

One interviewee, Dimitri Kanellakos, Ph.D., is also a TM "Governor" and former visiting professor of psychobiology and electrical sciences at the Maharishi European Research University in Weggis, Switzerland. (I visited Kanellakos in Switzerland in September, 1976, shortly before the news of TM levitators was publicly released and before Kanellakos began is own sidhis training. A second interview was conducted in ugust 1978). He described his experiences as follows:

"I was with the first group that 'flew.' The group before me were people who started hopping; about five percent from this course began to shake, move and hop. Maharishi took twelve people out of our hotel, who were having the best experiences meditating, and sent them* with the people who were already hopping. When I first saw people hop and lift off the air, it was a fantastic experience. Right now it doesn't make any dents because I see it every day. Ninety-two percent of our group started hopping right away. I was one who didn't hop. In my case, I am still learning. There are times when my body will go through a little lightness and shaking, but I have a lot of stress to go through, to clean. I do my sidhis program every day and now I am experiencing a little hopping. My meditations have become deeper. There is, however, still activity going on in my mind which does not allow the condition of samyama. The mind should be holding in samadhi.

"I witness people levitating every day. It is so powerful that it is good to do it in a group. There is a supportive effect which has nothing to do with psychology or mood making. It's good to have at least four or five people. The effect is so powerful as if I'm being pushed down and held at this deeper level. I can open my eyes and do samyama. There is no problem now. Before it was always, eyes closed, or you would lose transcendental consciousness.

Barbara Barone, an Executive Governor in the TM World Government and a teacher of the sidhis preparatory courses has told the author that the TM sidhis course is based on information provided in the Yoga Sutras. She has described the training in the following general terms: "As we practice the TM sidhis program, what happens is that the field of pure creative intelligence is pushed through various channels from the absolute into the field of activity to produce more and more extreme mind-body coordination. The degree of success that one has is determined by how much purity there is in the nervous system and therefore how much wholeness can be channeled in a very specific direction or mood. The reason we do the TM sidhi program is not for the flash of it or the circus atmosphere. Performance of the sidhis stabilizes pure consciousness, or pure creative intelligence, in the nervous system. It is a sort of reciprocal effect. You have to have an amount of pure consciousness to do the sidhis; and by doing the sidhis, pure consciousness is stabilized and increased. The sidhis comes from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Yoga means unity and sutras means thread. So, literally, we're stitching together threads of unity-to produce a grand state of enlightenment and unity consciousness, a state of extreme wholeness."

This description of the process and philosophy of the sidhis program is vague and difficult to understand in any concrete sense. In describing her own experiences in the program Barone is more understandable and is clearly intending to communicate that she actually is levitating a bit, although not hovering: "I have graduated from the sidhis program and I am now levitating twice a day. It is incredible. It is total exhilaration, bliss, aliveness. It is the most incredible thing I've ever experienced. My eyes can be open or they can be closed. I don't hover. My own subjective impressions vary from a few inches up to a few feet, to maybe three feet up in the air. I move forward from a few inches to sometimes five feet. Sometimes I come down very hard, sometimes very light. It just depends. Every time I sit down to practice the sidhis, I start hopping at least a little bit. There is no muscular force involved,"

The most likely counter-hypothesis to explain the reports of levitation is that individuals who claim to be levitating are actually using muscular force and have either hypnotized or deluded themselves into believing otherwise. Parallel situations in the use of dowsing rods, ouija boards and automatic writing have been known to investigators for over a century as "motor automatisms."

In interviewing witnesses, I have been careful to probe the question of muscular force versus what might be thought of as levitation. Another interviewee, Harold Bloomfield, M.D., a psychiatrist who was formerly deeply involved with the TM movement and is the author of a best-selling book about TM (Bloomfield et al. 1975), has left the movement as an official spokesman-as he cannot endorse the policy that TM is the best method for everyone. This change of views is reflected in his newer book, The Wholistic Way to Health and Happiness (1978). Nevertheless, Bloomfield is a graduate of the sidhis program and has stated that he is now lifting off the ground twice a day. Bloomfield has not publicly acknowledged that he knows muscular forces to be involved, although he has stated so privately to me.

Only one other alleged levitator, out of more than a dozen interviewed, a research scientist, has admitted that any muscular force is involved in the alleged levitation. He states that it is difficult for him to be certain that he uses no muscular force, however he is positive that muscular force alone could not account for the hopping which he experiences.

Professor 0. Costa de Beauregard, director of research for the National Center for Scientific Research of the Henri Poincare Institute in Paris, has long had an interest in TM and was granted a special dispensation to examine levitators in the Sidhi Program. He stated in a letter to the author, "I have twice observed at MERU (Seelisberg, Switzerland) the training in the TM Sidhi Program, and what I have seen is a physiological quite unusual style for jumping by pushing the knees down while in the Buddha style position. Nothing like physical levitation. So, what I have seen raises a physiological and/or athletic problem, but definitely not a physical one."

An accelerometer study could make the distinction between hopping and levitation. One interviewee claimed that such a study was conducted several years ago by MERU physicist Geoffrey Clements, although it has never been published. An accelerometer is capable of measuring the rate of acceleration of a moving object and could readily determine if the alleged levitation was actually occurring contrary to the Newtonian laws of gravity. This would be the case, for example, if individuals slowed as they were falling to the ground or increased their acceleration as they were rising. One interviewee proudly announced that the results of Clements' study did not conform to Newtonian equations, by at least a "few microseconds." This finding is not impressive, because the human body is flexible, unlike a billiard ball, and muscle flexions might easily account for such an extremely small departure from the expected results of the classical equations.

In fact, TM researchers at the International Center for Scientific Research at Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa, say that there have been no significant accelerometer studies and that this line of research has been abandoned because "nobody is hovering" (contrary to rumors rampant within the organization). When I interviewed Professor David W. Orme-Johnson, a major scientific spokesman for the "World Government," he indicated that the research has now clearly confirmed that muscular activity is involved in the alleged levitation. In fact, he stated that there is no evidence to suggest actual levitation was going on at all and that no one is any longer even researching this question.

When confronted with the ethical implications of promoting a levitation course that was not really training levitation, Orme-Johnson hedged quite a bit. He stated that while he can not say it is levitation, he also can not say that it is not levitation (if other people wish to believe it is). No one in the movement is officially calling it levitation, he says-in contradiction to an explicit statement of the Collected Papers, Volume 1, which he edited. Orme-Johnson stated that the TM movement is very large and many people are entitled to the different beliefs they have about whether they are levitating or not; and furthermore, the Maharishi claims that eventually these "hoppers" will actually hover-which clearly will be levitation.

Whether the alleged levitation is muscular or genuinely parapsychological is "a matter of hair-splitting" from the TM perspective. After all, the participants claim to be having the most beautiful experience of their entire lives. Additionally, some very interesting physiological data are being obtained from the Sidhi program.

When asked whether any control groups of individuals merely "jumping" in a manner similar to the TM "hoppers" had been measured to see whether they too showed interesting physiological changes, Orme-Johnson said that control groups had not been used because it was ridiculous to think that jumping could produce such a variety of positive physiological changes as have been observed in the TM Sidhi Program. However, growing research on the effects of such physical exercise as running definitely make this a factor meriting consideration.

In spite of the widely accepted legitimacy of TM, the organization may be involved in deceptive and misleading promotion of its TM Sidhi Program, which has already grossed many millions of dollars. The situation potentially offers a clear cut opportunity to investigate the mechanisms of such a large-scale delusion. How are intelligent, healthy individuals seduced into believing that they or their friends are actually levitating?

Undoubtedly suggestion plays a role, combined with intensive social reinforcement for such a belief, and the deep (and susceptible) state of consciousness induced in the meditation practice. Also undoubtedly, many are captivated by the possibilities of the Maharishi's vision for integration of cultural knowledge and personal enlightenment -which is so starkly opposed to the modern tendency toward nihilism and political/ecological notions of apocalypse.

The theoretical framework of the Maharishi's teachings is said to involve an ecological interaction between the mediator and the environment. As more people meditate, the consciousness of the planet is thought to become purified. As world consciousness is purified, individual meditation becomes deeper and sidhis are possible. As more people practice the sidhis, the world consciousness becomes even more purified. This principle is illustrated in a TM claim known now as "the Maharishi effect", which predicts that geopolitical areas in which I percent of the population practice TM will show improvement of the environment in terms of crime rate, weather, automobile accidents, fires, agricultural yield and other indicators. Five research reports are now available, through the Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa, purporting to confirm the "Maharishi effect."

Borland and Landrith (1975) compared 11 U.S. cities, in which at least one percent of the population had learned the TM technique with 11 control cities which were matched for population and location. The variable measured in this retrospective study was change in crime rate. The I I control cities showed an average increase of 8.3 percent in the rate of serious crimes, whereas the "TM" cities showed an average decrease of 8.2 percent. The difference in change in crime rate between the two cities was reported to be statistically significant (P less than .001). The validity of this study depends on the researchers' being blind as to the crime statistic information while they were choosing the TM and control cities for the study. The article does not provide sufficient information to insure that the selection of the control cities was blind, although we are informed that for the nation as a whole the average increase in city crime rate was six percent, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Report.

It may also be that unidentified variables were responsible for producing both the lowered crime rate and the increased amount of meditators -- and that these two factors were not directly related to each other.

Dilbeck, Bauer, and Seferovich (1978) conducted a study in the suburban Kansas City area over a three year period. Twenty-three cities with populations greater than 4,000 and located within a twenty mile radius of downtown Kansas City were studied. During the period of the study, nine of these cities crossed the one percent TM meditators threshold. A drop in crime rate was reported to be significantly correlated with those communities with one percent or more of the population practicing TM. The researchers tested the data to determine whether this difference also correlated with other factors such as level of police coverage, changes in police coverage, and socioeconomic differences between cities. No significant correlations were found with these variables. This research was conducted at the Western Missouri Mental Health Center in Kansas City.

Giles (1978) compared the change in the FBI Crime Index for 1975/1976 with that in 1963-1972, normalized to the national average, for all 56 cities in the United States with a population exceeding 250,000. 17 of these cities were divided into those with more than .2 percent of the population practicing TM, and those with less than .2 percent practicing TM. The 18 cities with a higher percentage of TM meditators showed an average decrease in the crime index of 5.7 percent. Those cities with fewer TM practitioners showed an average increase of 1.4 percent. The reported probability that this difference was due to chance was less than .005. The two groups of cities showed no significant difference in demographic characteristics, viz., population size, population growth, and minority populations. Not was there any significant difference in a measure of crime trend in 1963- 1972 between these cities.

Hatchard (1978) conducted a study in the suburban Cleveland area similar to that of Dillbeck et al. in Kansas City. Ile sixty suburbs within the boundaries of Cuyahoga County were all studied. Their populations varied from 360 to over 100,000. Linear correlations were run between crime rate change and percentage of the population instructed in the TM technique during the years from 1973 to 1976. These, correlations proved to be negatively significant from 1974 to 1976. Correlations between crime rate change and police/population ratio failed to reach significance. The researchers note that the correlation between family income and crime rate change was also significant, but with the TM program variable partialed out, this correlation was not significant- because the correlation between family income and TM program participation remained very high. They do not state if the correlation between TM meditators is still significant with the family income variable partialed out.

Landrith (1978) examined all those cities in the United States with a population over 10,000, in which approximately I percent or more of the population had been instructed in TM. There were 30 cities in this group. Four cities were eliminated from the sample because they were part of larger metropolitan areas with less than I percent of the population initiated int TM. Control cities with much less than I percent of their population's having learned the TM technique were matched for resident population, college population, and geographic region Crime rates for each city were obtained from the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, and fire and automobile accident rates were obtained from the local city fire and police departments. Two additional TM cities were eliminated because sufficient data were not available on one of the three variables being studied. Only the crime rate changes differed significantly between these two groups, although differences in accident and fire rates were in the predicted direction.

There has been, so far as I'm aware, no evaluation of this research from the mainstream sociological community. Undoubtedly, the research suffers from the double taint of being both agency sponsored and bordering on the paraconceptual. The major methodological weakness I could detect was the possibility that manipulations such as choice of experimental and control cities and statistical tests performed may not have been conducted in such a manner that the researchers were blind as to how they would affect the data with regard to the hypothesis. The second weakness is that the studies do not deal with the possibility that the same social conditions that result in an increase in TM meditators also result in a number of other phenomena including decreased crime rates (and probably increases in the enrollment of other human potential programs).

Further research studies, now in progress, testing the "Maharishi Effect" involve sending hundreds of "sidhas", or meditators who have completed the sidhis training, into select geopolitical regions, including the states of Rhode Island and Washington. TM investigators claim that they will monitor positive changes in these environments that correlate with the infusion of sidhas. The hazards of such a broad research program are enormous - and are particularly subject to the type of multiple outcomes for which Diaconis (1978) has severely (and inaccurately) criticized parapsychologists. Control populations are difficult to match for precise sociological parameters. Again we have the dual taint of agency sponsored paraconceptual research. The statistics to be monitored have not been specified and there is the problem of selective reporting of those statistics which tend to support the original hypothesis that the environment will improve. Finally, should the hypothesis of an improved environment be confirmed, a causal relationship between the practice of the TM sidhis and environmental changes would still not be established.

In the summer of 1976, while visiting MERU in Switzerland, I was casually informed of a major study that had failed confirm the original I percent hypothesis. A new interpretation then being developed, was that the "Maharishi Effect" seem to hold only in societies that had maintained their tradition values -- but not in more transitional cultures. This, of course was post hoc analysis. Some of the researchers I met were ver concerned that the TM World Government would withhold this new information from the public.

The arguments given in 1976 for withholding information on the failure to replicate the "Maharishi Effect" are very similar to other arguments regarding data that fail to support the levitation hypothesis. One researcher suggested that by the time the failure to replicate was reported to the public, it would no longer even be true. Another TM spokesman suggested that it did no matter if the one percent data did not look good, because an idea society would surely be created when two percent of the population practiced TM.

In 1978, I again contacted one of the TM researchers who was in Switzerland and asked about the replication issue. By then, this researcher flatly stated that all of the research studies continued to support the "Maharishi Effect."

The Maharishi claims that graduates of the Sidhi Program who are able to levitate can have an even greater impact on the environment than regular meditators. While the target figure of one percent is used in the research on the "Maharishi Effect,' there is a different target figure for levitators. The Maharishi intends to train 400,000 levitators. This figure is approximately one hundredth of one percent of the population of the planet (and a gross income for the World Government of at least $1.2 billion).

Observers have noted that TM enrollments have declined from their peak of 30,000 a month only a few years ago. In order to maintain itself financially, the organization has placed greater emphasis on advanced training for those who are already initiated. The seeming urgency of the present world situation is an argument used by the Maharishi to convince thousands of meditators to enroll immediately in the TM Sidhi Program. One special course was held in Israel, for the supposed purpose of bringing peace to that area. Prospective enrollees are explicitly encouraged to borrow money, if necessary.

Bloomfield, H.H., Cain, M.P. and Jaffe, D. TM: Discovering inner energy and overcoming stress. New York: Delacorte, 1975.

Bloomfield, H.H. The Wholistic Way to Health and Happiness. New York: Delacorte, 1978.

Borland, C., and Landrith, G. Improved quality of city life: Decreased crime rate. MERU Report 7502, Department of Sociology, Centre for the Study of Higher States of Consciousness, Maharishi European Research University, Weggis, Switzerland, 1975.

Diaconis, P. Statistical problems in ESP research. Science, July 14, 1978, 201(4351), 131-136.

Dillbeck, M.C., Bauer, T.W. and Seferovich, S.I. The transcendental meditation program as a predictor of crime rate changes in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Unpublished paper, 1978. Available from International Center for Scientific Research, Maharishi International University, Fairfield, Iowa 52556.

Giles, S. Analysis of crime trend in 56 major U.S. cities. Scientific Research on the Transcendental Meditation Program: Collected Papers, Vol. 11, MERU Press, Rheinweiler, W. Germany, 1978 (in press).

Hatchard, G. Influence of the transcendental meditation program on crime rate in suburban Cleveland. Unpublished paper, 1978. Available from the International Center for Scientific Research, Maharishi International University, Fairfield, Iowa 52556.

Landrith, G. The Maharishi effect and invincibility: The influence of the TM program on the variables of crime, automobile accidents and fires. Unpublished paper, 1978. Available from the International Center for Scientific Research, Maharishi International University, Fairfield, Iowa 52556.

Orme-Johnson, D.W., Clements, G., Haynes, C.T., and Badaoui, K. Higher states of consciousness: EEG coherence, creativity, and experiences of the siddhis. Scientific research on the transcendental meditation program: Collected papers (Vol. 1). Weggis, Switzerland: Maharishi European Research University, 1978.