TM-the-Technique vs. TM-the-"Religion"

Most people would agree that quiet reflection, e.g. "meditation", can be beneficial to most people.
Most who tried TM, like Paul, find benefits from 20 minutes twice per day. Like others, I continue to take periodic mental rest breaks.

My mind continues to revert automaticly to the TM method of R & R. It will probably always do that. I've accepted that use it in moderation.
As another young woman, raised in the TMO stated in her frustration "and that mantra keeps going in my head! I cannot get rid of it. What is THAT about?!"

Small amounts of wine may have therapeutic benefit. For more on the health benefits of wine click http://www.2basnob.com/health-benefits-of-wine.html here. We all know over use on wine, or other alcoholic beverages have detrimental effects. We also know there is a wine industry that desires to profit from their products' sale.

Problems arise with overuse of TM, misleading promotion of the method, and a promotional organization with a hidden agenda for the susceptible.

As most of us know, Herbert Benson found identical benefits from TM to that from traditional forms of Christian and Jewish meditation and prayers. He thus co-founded the http://www.mbmi.org/home/ Benson-Henry Insitute for Mind-Body Medicine based upon his work for http://www.amazon.com/Relaxation-Response-Herbert-Benson/dp/0380006766 "The Relaxation Response." Benson's institute would validate Paul's experience of the benefits of daily short meditations.

I think most agree that problems arise from prolonged meditations in an exploitative setting which promotes a hidden agenda. Susan's post (below) attempts to explain her experience of being "tranced out", e.g. inebriated from the endorphins of prolonged meditation. She and others experienced lasting detrimental effects from the effects of prolonged meditations, and the missuse of that receptive state by the TM Movement.

Sudarsha can explain at length the difference between various forms of meditation, TM, Buddhism and other forms. He studied these in depth in his quest to understand his own response to prolonged meditations as well as support his personal spiritual quest. I am not qualified to discuss various meditation methods, nor to comment upon spiritual questions.

Once again,