What was this weird 80s woo 'therapy'

[aliasname]

Must have been late 70s or early 80s. My parents were splitting up, and my mum took us to see this weird therapist. We didn't have much money, and my mum is really not woo so I'm surprised she did it tbh. I think she was very drained emotionally.

Anyway we went to a posh house, and the lady met each of us individually (mum, me and older brother ~we would have been about 8 or 9)

I can't remember what we talked about, but the important thing is the lady gave us a secret 'words which we had to repeat in times of stress! I think mine was king or maybe ring. We were told never to reveal our personal word to anyone.

Looking back it seems crazy (my brother promptly told me what his word was lol) and we never went back! Was it some kind of new age therapy? I haven't asked my mum because I think she would be embarrassed at falling for such nonsense.

Maybe she was a soul realignment practitioner, and she accessed our Akashic records to note our secret words? Lol

Was it transcendental meditation (TM)?

Was it transcendental meditation?

It was touted as a panacea in the 1980s and people would go on very secretive (and very expensive) courses to learn more about it.

TM

I’m going for transcendental meditation as well.

Autogenic training?

a friend of mine was inveigled into going to a TM presentation with sign-up for expensive course to follow.
her GP influenced her to do this; he had a sheaf of papers advertisng it in his room, nhs and all.
i tried to dissuade her, but she was an older person and very deferential to medical practitioners.
i went with her, gave her a lift, to the presentation, and everyone signed up for the course. they expected everyone to do so, were very nice seeming, offering credit terms to pay for it. i was the only one not to sign. they asked why, mentioned credit available. i said, it's not for me. and simply refused to discuss the matter further. this was obviously unusual, and the man dropped being so nice, and became quite forceful. i was adamant.
it seemed to enrage him, that i had the temerity to decline this wonderful thing, with easy payments.
unfortunately i could not stop my friend signing up.
she was unable to complete the course, being at a distance and her elderly, but still had to pay.

It does sound like TM, although I don't remember being told or encouraged to practice daily, just 'in times of stress'

I always thought that meditation just involved an ooohmm sound rather than a particular mantra; in my young mind this woman had seen into my soul and given me a unique word which could never be divulged or its power would be ruined. Disappointingly, my brother had a very similar word.

The word thing does sound like meditation, but you're right in that you're supposed to practice this every day.

Btw I attended a course on transcendental meditation run by my NHS psychiatrist, but this was in the early 2000s!

The pyramid selling techniques and secrecy probably did for TM. It still has some intriguing devotees though - both William Hague and Nick Clegg have name-checked it in one of those ‘secrets of my success’ type interviews.

Simple meditation is clinically proven to be very beneficial and it’s easy to learn (they learn at my daughter’s school from reception by lighting candles and counting breaths), but it’s a discipline and you need to do it at least daily to feel its effects. I did it fairly regularly for a while and would love to start again. You can also download guided meditations on Alexa.

I don't remember it as being a relaxation/ meditation thing, but more of a "your secret word will unlock the powers of the universe"... but that could have been my vivid imagination filling in the gaps of something I didn't understand 😅