Transcendental Meditation

[RoxyNotFoxy]

Has anyone here tried Transcendental Meditation? I was never very religious, but I got interested in it on the strength of someone else's recommendation. It was popularised in the 1960s by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who taught it to the Beatles. All kinds of things were promised, like "greater sensitivity", "enhanced spiritual awareness", and more "creative energy". And for a while I thought it was doing something. It did seem to work, but only for short periods. But just the fact that it worked at all encouraged me to continue way beyond the time when I would otherwise have given up. But the "up" times where I felt it was really doing something got shorter and shorter, and the down times, or the nothing times, got longer and longer. Finally after about ten years where I'd meditated twice a day for twenty minutes, I just gave up.

I thought it was just me. But I've recently found out that the failure rate is much higher than I suspected. I found a website a couple of years ago where ex-meditators were recounting their experiences. Some of them are pretty horrendous. I never got involved with the organization itself, but some of those who did related experiences that seem disturbingly similar to those who got sucked in by the Scientology cult. I think I had a lucky escape. I do still meditate, but only because I think it's actually a good idea to spend some time during the day being totally still. But I use a Buddhist technique now that is fairly plain and honest, and about which no one has ever make extravagant claims, and which isn't linked to any giant money-making enterprise.

Anyone here ever join the Maharishi's worldwide club?