From: David Orme-Johnson [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 8:00 PM To: David Orme-Johnson Subject: Does TM do any Harm? Revised page on TruthAboutTM.com
Dear Colleagues, This page reviews all the research claiming that practice of the TM program may cause harm. Below is an excerpt from the page, which presents brief summaries of the studies, which are followed by more details on the TruthAboutTM.com Web site. Of particular interest is the often quoted paper by Otis, (# 1 in the list below), which was found to be seriously confounded. Al the best, David ----------------------------------- Papers Often Referenced to as Asserting that the TM Program Has or May Have Harmful Effects. Out of the over 600 studies on the Transcendental Meditation program over the past 35 years, only a dozen or so even suggest that the program has harmful effects. This amounts to only 2% "negative" papers, compared with 98% of the papers reporting beneficial effects. Close analysis shows that the "harm" papers are all uncontrolled studies, some not on the Transcendental Meditation program at all. In some, the claim of harm is based on unfounded speculation with no evidence. Others present strong evidence that the TM program is beneficial even for seriously ill psychiatric patients, although these studies rightly warn that such patients should be closely monitored when learning to meditate. One article presents interesting experiences of "witnessing" in cosmic consciousness, which are simply misinterpreted in terms of psychiatric concepts. The 14 papers reviewed below are ones that are often cited on the Internet and in reviews as evidence that the Transcendental Meditation program has or may have harmful effects. HYPERLINK "http://www.truthabouttm.org/truth/IndividualEffects/DoesTMDoAnyHarm/index.c fm#Otis_New#Otis_New"1. Leon S. Otis. Adverse Effects of Transcendental Meditation. Meditation: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives Alden Publications, 1984, p. 204. The study by Otis, which was never published in a peer-reviewed journal, makes the following errors: (1) it confounds the number of problems experienced by meditators with how long they have been meditating; (2) it compared groups that were not equivalent at pretest; (3) it reported only part of the data; (4) it changed its hypotheses to fit the data; (5) it proposed a fictitious physiological mechanism for how meditation could cause harm; (6) it has never been replicated, and (7), it is contradicted by better-designed, controlled research. Imagine that a truck salesman compares how many problems his trucks had over a three-month period with the number of problems other truck brands had over an 11-months-to-10-year period. Is this a valid comparison? Of course not. Naturally, one would expect more problems to come up over the longer time period. Yet this is the essence of Otis’s claim that Experienced meditators have more problems that Novice meditators. HYPERLINK "http://www.truthabouttm.org/truth/IndividualEffects/DoesTMDoAnyHarm/index.c fm#Lazarus#Lazarus"2. Arnold A. Lazarus. Psychiatric Problems Precipitated by Transcendental Meditation. Psychological Report, 1976, 39, pp. 601-602. Arnold A. Lazarus. Meditation: The Problems of Unimodal Technique. Meditation: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives. New York: Alden Publications, 1984, p. 691. The author’s main thesis is “how can anything be good for everyone” and he sets out to find a subgroup for whom TM practice would not be indicated. This is not a controlled study, and the author presents no systematic data of any kind to support his thesis. Instead, he supports his points with uncontrolled observations and hearsay. His opinions are contradicted by substantial, well-controlled research on a variety of patient groups and other populations (e.g., see Opinion on Glueck research above). These controlled studies have found TM practice to be beneficial. Conceptually, one can understand how TM practice could be universally beneficial from the physiological research, which indicates that it produces a state of deep, coherence rest. Like sleep, it is good for everyone. HYPERLINK "http://www.truthabouttm.org/truth/IndividualEffects/DoesTMDoAnyHarm/index.c fm#Glueck_75_Comp_Psychiatry#Glueck_75_Comp_Psychiatry"3. Bernard C. Glueck and Charles F. Stroebel. Biofeedback and Meditation and the Treatment of Psychiatric Illness. Comprehensive Psychiatry, Volume 16, Number 4, 1975. HYPERLINK "http://www.truthabouttm.org/truth/IndividualEffects/DoesTMDoAnyHarm/index.c fm#Glueck_85_Current_Psychiatric#Glueck_85_Current_Psychiatric"4. Bernard C. Glueck and Charles F. Stroebel. Biofeedback and Meditation and the Treatment of Psychiatric Illness. Current Psychiatric Therapies, Vol. 15, 1975, p. 109-115. HYPERLINK "http://www.truthabouttm.org/truth/IndividualEffects/DoesTMDoAnyHarm/index.c fm#Stoebel_78#Stoebel_78"5. Charles F. Stroebel and Bernard C. Glueck. Passive Meditation: Subjective, Clinical, and Electrographic Comparison with Biofeedback. In G. E. Schwartz and David Shapiro (editors) Consciousness and Self Regulation, Volume Two. Plenum Press, New York, 1978. HYPERLINK "http://www.truthabouttm.org/truth/IndividualEffects/DoesTMDoAnyHarm/index.c fm#Glueck_84#Glueck_84"6. Bernard C. Glueck and Charles F. Stroebel. Meditation in the Treatment of Psychiatric Illness. Meditation: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives. New York: Alden Publications, 1984, p. 150. A series of four papers described the results of using the Transcendental Meditation program with institutionalized psychiatric patients at a top mental health clinic in America, the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut. The research was conducted by Bernard C. Glueck, MD, who was Director of Research and Psychiatrist at the Institute, and Charles F. Stroebel, MD, PhD. Glueck and Stroebel do not report any adverse effects with practice of the technique in the psychiatric population, which included many psychotics, although they do naturally warn that such populations should be monitored closely when they learn the technique, as they would be when learning any new practice of potential therapeutic value. Glueck and Stroebel report that patients practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique improved on all measures, including improved mental health status at the time of hospital discharge, compared to a matched group that received only usual hospital care; reduced sleep medication and other medications; improvement on psychological tests (MMPI); improvement on nurses’ daily notes of behavior; and, in teen aged patients, increased ability to concentrate and reduced impulsive behavior. HYPERLINK "http://www.global-country.net/utility/showPage/index.cfm?objectID=truth,404 #7._Heide"7. Heide, F. J.,& Borkovec, T. D., 'Relaxation-Induced Anxiety: Paradoxical Anxiety Enhancement Due to Relaxation Training,' Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1983, Vol. 51, No. 2, 171-182. HYPERLINK "http://www.global-country.net/utility/showPage/index.cfm?objectID=truth,404 #8._Heide"8. Heide, F. J. Relaxation: The Storm Before the Calm. Psychology Today, April, 1985. The two papers by Heide et al. are an attempt to show that relaxation could cause anxiety in some highly anxious people, but the study is not on the Transcendental Meditation program at all, but on a technique made up by the author. Moreover, there is no statistically significant evidence even supporting that the technique they constucted causes anxiety. HYPERLINK "http://www.global-country.net/utility/showPage/index.cfm?objectID=truth,404 #Persinger_Cult_Mania"9. Michael A. Persinger, Norman J. Carrey and Lynn A. Suess. TM and Cult Mania. North Quincy, Massachusetts, Christopher Publishing House, 1980. HYPERLINK "http://www.global-country.net/utility/showPage/index.cfm?objectID=truth,404 #Persinger_Kindling"10. Michael A. Persinger. Transcendental Meditation and general meditation are associated with enhanced complex partial epileptic-like signs: Evidence for 'cognitive kindling”? Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1992. HYPERLINK "http://www.global-country.net/utility/showPage/index.cfm?objectID=truth,404 #Persinger_Sensed_Presence"11. Michael A. Persinger. Enhanced incidence of 'the sensed presence' in people who have learned to meditate: Support for the right hemispheric intrusion hypothesis. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1992, 75, 1308-1310. The book by Persinger, et al., is a diatribe against the Transcendental Meditation program and TM organization that arose from his public debates with TM teachers at Laurentian University. He sees the TM program "as an assault on 20th-century Western civilization”. His book is an attempt to save Western civilization, which undoubtedly needs saving, but I don't think stopping the TM movement is the way to do it. The two ensuing papers by Persinger, published 12 years later, are his attempt to find something wrong with the program. From psychological tests, he speculates that meditation may predispose people to epilepsy, for which all the direct evidence is just the opposite. HYPERLINK "http://www.global-country.net/utility/showPage/index.cfm?objectID=truth,404 #Perez"12. Perez de Albeniz, A. & Holmes, J. (2000). Meditation: concepts, effects, and uses in therapy. International Journal of Psychotherapy, 5(1), 49-58. Contrary to the impression given in a summary of this article posted on the TranceNet Web site, this review of 75 studies on meditation did not report a single study showing that the Transcendental Meditation technique has adverse effects. It does, however, mention three studies reporting negative effects from other meditation techniques. On the whole, this paper is highly favorable towards meditation. HYPERLINK "http://www.global-country.net/utility/showPage/index.cfm?objectID=truth,404 #Castillo"13. Richard J. Castillo. Depersonalization and Meditation. Psychiatry:Interpersonal and Biological Processes, Vol. 53, May, 1990pp. 158-168. This paper by Castillo on "Depersonalization and Meditation” was perhaps the most interesting, because it was based around interviews with six meditators reporting their experiences of "witnessing", an indication of Cosmic Consciousness. Castillo attempts to explain these experiences in terms of the psychiatric concept of "depersonalization", but the explanation falls short because these are all very healthy, highly functional people. In Castillo's words "All of the meditators interviewed are successful in their careers, and apparently satisfied with their lives and optimistic about the future, and are very friendly, personable people. Their lives seem to run smoothly, with an absence of any significant anxiety or stress.” "None of the informants reported a personal history of psychiatric disorder..." p. 166. A consideration of these experiences not only provides an opportunity to differentiate "witnessing" from "depersonalization", but also illustrates some of Maharishi’s key points on the development of Cosmic Consciousness, the Fifth State of seven states of consciousness. HYPERLINK "http://www.global-country.net/utility/showPage/index.cfm?objectID=truth,285 " \n14. The 'German' report The German government never conducted its own investigation of the Transcendental Meditation program and no German court ever ruled that the Transcendental Meditation program was dangerous. Close analysis of the research referred to in Exhibit 65 indicates that it did not show that practice of this program caused adverse social relationships, or that it impaired mental faculties, or resulted in loss of self-determination and motivation, or psychological disorders or had any other adverse effects. David W. Orme-Johnson, Ph.D. HYPERLINK "mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]"[EMAIL PROTECTED] HYPERLINK "http://www.truthabouttm.com/"www.TruthAboutTM.com HYPERLINK "http://www.seagroveartist.com/"www.SeagroveArtist.com 191 Dalton Dr. Seagrove Beach, FL 32459 850-231-2866 850-231-5012 Fax No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.15.0/1076 - Release Date: 10/17/2007 7:53 PM No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.15.0/1076 - Release Date: 10/17/2007 7:53 PM
