Author: Bob Stone

A group of low-performing urban secondary school students who learned the Transcendental Meditation technique and practised it during their senior year had a higher graduation rate than a control group of students matched for prior academic performance who did not learn the technique.

Reference: Education 133: 495–501, 2013.

Within one school year, elementary school students who practiced the Transcendental Meditation program showed significant gains on a national standardized test of basic skills.

Reference: Education 107: 49–54, 1986.

Secondary school students who learned the Transcendental Meditation program showed increased intelligence after 14 weeks, in contrast to control students.

Reference: Dissertation Abstracts International 38(7): 3372B–3373B, 1978.

Comment from a science teacher in a Consciousness-Based school for girls:

“These girls are extremely intelligent; they want to go as deeply into the subject as I can go. There is deep quietness and freshness in them, a well-rested quality in all of them. They focus all day like that.”

Maharishi University of Management students who were practicing the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs displayed a significant increase in intelligence in contrast to control students. This is a very interesting finding, since intelligence previously had been found to stop increasing by the end of secondary school.

Reference: Personality and Individual Differences 12:1105-1116, 1991.

Individuals randomly assigned to learn the Transcendental Meditation program displayed a significant increase after three months, in comparison to controls, on measures of field independence, indicating broader comprehension with increasing ability to focus.

Reference: Perceptual and Motor Skills 39: 1031–1034, 1974.

Master degree engineering students in Great Britain were half the class assigned to learn the Transcendental Meditation program. Before starting with TM the percentage of tests being higher was only 50% with the experimental group, that means, they were equal to the control group.

Six months after learning TM, however, they improved their performance on their standard examinations showing 80% higher ranking than the randomly assigned controls.

Reference: British Journal of Educational Psychology 55: 164–166, 1985.

University students who were practicing the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs showed a significant improvement in the ablity to more quickly make correct decisions, in contrast to a control group of students. The same students also showed improvement in intelligence test scores.

Reference: Personality and Individual Differences 12: 1105–1116, 1991.

Secondary school students who learned the Transcendental Meditation program showed increased tolerance after 14 weeks, in contrast to control students from a high school. The same students also showed increased creativity, intelligence, innovation, energy level, self-esteem, decreased conformity, and decreased anxiety.

Reference: Dissertation Abstracts International 38(7): 3372B–3373B, 1978.

In these days of great diversity in culture around the world increased tolerance is something which every secondary school teacher and principal would like to see developing in their students.

A statistical meta-analysis of 146 independent study results found that the Transcendental Meditation program is more than twice as effective in reducing trait anxiety than procedures of concentration or contemplation, or other techniques. The left bar shows decreased anxiety in other mental techniques of concentration or contemplation, the middle bar shows physical techniques trying to calm the body, and the third bar is the effect of Transcendental Meditation which shows about two to three times the effect of the other procedures in reducing anxiety.

Reference: Journal of Clinical Psychology 45: 957–974, 1989.

 

Comments from two students
at a government school in Portugal
implementing the Transcendental Meditation program

“Anxiety has reduced and now if you look at my grades I have ‘A’s, I have mostly ‘A’s and one or two ‘B’s”.

“I used to get very nervous before tests and I used to get head aches and doing TM I saw a difference, I’m calmer, I feel better”

After one month of practice of the Transcendental Meditation program, individuals developed a more strongly defined sense of self-concept, in comparison to matched controls. They also reported that their “actual” self was closer to their “ideal” self.

Reference: British Journal of Psychology 73: 57–68, 1982.

This is a very comprehensive longitudinal study over 10 years, taking in account mental abilities, emotional development, social development, and moral ethnical reasoning. Maharishi University of Management students who were practicing the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs, increased significantly in self-development (ego development) when measured after graduation (when starting in their professional lives), in contrast to control students from three other universities who were not participating in this program.

Reference: Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 17: 93–121, 2005

This chart shows the results of a study of secondary school students who began to practice Transcendental Meditation and after 4 months they showed in comparison to controls, who took a health education class, reduced absentee class periods, reduced rule infractions, and reduced suspension days, that means days where they were asked to stay home because of their behavior.

Reference: Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 1: 10, 2003

 

Comment from a teacher
in a Detroit school using the
Transcendental Meditation technique:

Anybody who comes to visit the school, the administrators will tell you that behavoir of them is just amazing since we brought in the Transcendental meditation program.

Comment from a principal of a
girl’s school in Thailand

After the school applies Consciousness-Based education, everyone works together in peace. The students are happy, obedient, and harmonious.

This randomized controlled study found that residential school staff displayed a significant reduction in teacher burnout over a four-month period after learning the Transcendental Meditation technique, in contrast to wait-list control teachers. The Transcendental Meditation group also showed a significant decrease in perceived stress and depression.

Reference: The Permanente Journal 18: 19-23, 2014

Comment by the lead author of the study:

“The results of this randomized, controlled trial are very striking and demonstrate the utility of introducing a stress reduction program for teachers and other public and private employees.”

Comment by the head of a Maharishi School in England:

During periods in which large groups of participants in the Transcendental Meditation Sidhi program were established, crime totals decreased significantly in the Union Territory of Delhi, India, and in Metro Manila, Philippines.

Reference: The Journal of Mind and Behavior 8: 67–104, 1987.

An analysis of five years of medical insurance data found a significant reduction in hospitalization among participants in the Transcendental Meditation programme, in comparison to other insured persons. The decrease was even more dramatic among participants who were older.

Reference: Psychosomatic Medicine 49: 493–507, 1987.

Statistical meta-analysis of all available research (42 independent study results) indicated that practice of the Transcendental Meditation program increased self- actualization by about three times as much as procedures of contemplation or concentration, or other techniques.

Reference: Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 6: 189–248, 1991.

Comment from a student at a Consciousness-Based School in USA:

“I have realized that any task I take on in life, whether great or small, can be accomplished successfully because I am becoming established at that level of myself which is immovable. This school offers such precious knowledge, such pure knowledge. Once you are established in yourself, there is nothing that can stop you.”

Middle school students who learned the Transcendental Meditation programme and practised it twice daily as part of the school day were found to increase significantly after three months in achievement scores on mathematics and language (English) in comparison to control students matched on previous mathematics and English performance level scores.

Reference: Education 131: 556–564, 2011.

University students practising the Transcendental Meditation programme rated significantly more positively the important people in their lives (parents, spouse) than did control students.

Reference: Perceptual and Motor Skills 64: 1003–1012, 1987.

Comment by two students in a Government school in Portugal after learning Transcendental Meditation

‘My social life has improved’

‘It became easier to interact with others’