Transcendental Meditation Marketer$ are ballyhooing the latest "research" on the neurological effects of TM: "A self-referential default brain state: patterns of coherence, power, and eLORETA sources during eyes-closed rest and Transcendental Meditation practice."
Try this Google search, and you will find hundreds of sites uncritically reporting a press release put out by the Maharishi University of Management on the "study."
It appears the research was funded by MUM itself.
But check out the authors: Fred Travis, David A. F. Haaga, John Hagelin, Melissa Tanner, Alaric Arenander, Sanford Nidich, Carolyn Gaylord-King, Sarina Grosswald, Maxwell Rainforth, and Robert H. Schneider.
- Lead author Travis (pictured above) is a MUM professor and head of Vedic Science.
- Haaga (American University) may be legit, although he's been prominently displayed in other TM studies recently.
- Schneider is a MUM professor of physiology and health.
- Melissa Tanner is Haaga's graduate student.
- Alaric Arenander goes way back in the movement to Charlie Lutes days and sure looks like a quack.
- Sanford Nidich is a MUM professor of physiology and health and education.
- Carolyn Gaylord-King is on the board of trustees of MUM and a professor of health and education to boot.
- Sarina Grosswald is Executive Director Office of ADHD and Learning Differences at David Lynch Foundation and Director at Arlington - DC Transcendental Meditation Center, the closest TM center to Haaga.
- Maxwell Rainforth is an assistant professor of physiology and health and statistics at MUM.
- Of course, Hagelin needs no introduction—although what this erstwhile quantum physicist knows about biomedical research is beyond me.
The full study itself is for sale, but costs $34. I'm not sure it's worth the cost to actually purchase.
