Customer Reviews

Everything You Want to Know About TM -- Including How to Do It

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Like many people that look into learning TM, I was immediately put off by the organization's prohibitive fees. When I first inquired several years ago they were charging $2500(now $1500) and I pretty much gave up on learning to meditate. Recently my interest was renewed when I picked up Dr. Herbert Benson's Relaxation Revolution and Meditation for Dummies by Stephan Bodian.

What struck me about hose two books was the fact that they both mention TM several times but are scant on details(naturally). After practicing Benson's method, as well as Mindfulness and various other relaxation meditations I started to feel like I was still missing something. My sessions were relaxing but nothing happened that matched the enthusiasm I've seen in practitioners of TM.

I began searching online relentlessly for alternative methods to learn TM and after many hours of searching, I finally came across a viable option, but more on that later. I read this book, "Everything You Want to Know About TM" after already having learned to successfully transcend. I purchased the book because I was intrigued by taking a skeptical look at the TM movement and on that level it delivers.

One of the main problems I had with the book is that the author never experienced states of bliss while meditating. This is something that came naturally to me in my first session and every one since. I can't help but wonder what the book would have been like had the writer been profoundly moved the way I was.

Another problem that I had was that the book was written more than 30 years ago. A lot has happened in the TM movement since then, including the passing of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. This book could have greatly benefited from revisions over the years. Some of the ideas posited in the chapter, "The Future of TM" were quite simplistic.

Despite the book's flaws, it does indeed teach you the basic TM technique, it's right on page 48. Throughout the book, Mr. White characterizes new TM practitioners as being in spiritual kindergarten, which makes a lot of sense. The problem is that this book will not get you any closer to the answers that you will surely seek as you begin your journey. The TM organization might charge an arm and a leg but there is value in guidance and talking with people that have been traveling for some time on the road you just reached.

If you have the financial means, the TM org is the way to go in my opinion. If you don't have the means, I recommend learning from a former TM teacher by the name of David Spector(NSRUSA.org). The method he teaches is called Natural Stress Relief and he charges $25 for instruction with free support in the form of a public web forum. In addition, he offers expert private support at affordable rates. NSR is basically TM without the veiled quasi-religion.

I applaud John White for writing this book and I enjoyed reading it very much. His critical writings about spirituality and the science of TM were very insightful and thought-provoking. I also enjoyed the three appendix articles(written by others) as well. One thing that should be made clear, however, is that this is not a manual on TM. For greater guidance in that respect I whole-heartedly recommend NSRUSA.org and David Spector. I'd also recommend purchasing Maharishi's "Science of Being" for greater context.

Jai Guru Dev.

This little book (190 pages) is the best book on Transcendental Meditation (TM) I have ever read. Wildly popular in the 70's and 80's, TM continues to be the most accessible form of Eastern spiritual practice in the West. It is billed as "a simple, natural, and effortless mental technique practiced 20 minutes a day". One of the greatest strengths of this book is chapter 5 ie "How to Do TM?" because every student of TM has a legal contract with the TM movement not to teach it to anybody else, let alone to reveal its precious mantra (It now costs circa $3000 to study TM). I also congratulate John White, the author of the book, to include crucial articles on TM by prominent authors in Appendixes 1-3. Finally, John White appraises TM. Does it live up to its hype? Does Maharishi Mahest Yogi enlightened? What is the purpose of mantra? What does science say about TM? And whether TM ignores the core traditional concern of Indian mysticism ie "Kundalini". Read this book and you will have a balance view of TM.

This book is unique in that unlike most books telling readers how great TM is, White gives the pros and cons of TM from every view point. The implication I get is that TM works for some people some of the time but not for everybody all the time. No doubt further research and probings are required. To me, everyone who wants to learn TM should read this book carefully.

You can't learn TM from a book and to give people the idea that you can just shows ignorance of it. It requires careful step by step instruction from a teacher over a period of days. The teachers take courses lasting months, hundreds of hours of video and training sessions so that they will know everything that could possibly be need to be said to the students to guide them into the proper practice. The book is really a disservice more than a service.

He writes well enough, and he tries to be objective, but he clearly doesn't have a deep understanding of what he is writing about. If he did, he wouldn't give instructions for meditating. Meditation is not something you learn from a book. That's not the tradition, and for very good reasons.

I, for one, am very grateful to John White for his very honest and objective book. I wanted to take a TM course this month, and their corporation told me it was now $2500, since they were offering $500 off this month. I can't imagine anyone charging that much for something you can learn in, using their words, 20 minutes. You CAN learn how to meditate from a book, and I strongly oppose the reviewer you said you can't. I learned how to from John White's book, and believe me, it works. I feel the people from TM have lost their way. Was TM supposed to become an elitist method, excluding millions of people who are unable to come up with nearly $3,000?

The title of this book plays upon the desire of folks who may want to learn TM but don't want to pay the tuition to learn it properly and completely from a certified instructor. You won't learn TM from this book, so really don't bother with it, if that's what your thinking. The title is just a hook to get you to buy it. Cheap trick. Not sure if that was the author's idea or the publisher's. But it's marketing at its worst.

TM is worth learning properly from a certified teacher. It's authentic, time tested and backed by hundreds of peer reviewed published studies. Why would the National Institutes of Health give 25 million dollars towards TM research if it wasn't unique, with compelling results?

The TM tuition can't possibly even cover the cost of the course, which is why the non-profit organization which teaches TM needs to raise donations to offset the costs of offering such a complete program. TM has a life-time follow-up program included to make sure you get maximum out of what you learned. Tell me any practitioner, physician, counselor, yoga teacher, author who'll be there for you forever for one time reasonable course fee (for current fees, see the [...] website).
You'll spend more in year for your daily latte. If you are a student who smokes a pack a day you'll spend more in three months on cigarettes than for tuition for a lifetime program that will clear your mind, improve your health and vitality, and enhance your relationships.

Real meditation is not fluff. It needs to be taught expertly and followed up with properly as experiences deepen and the physiology purifies. You cannot learn TM from a book. The instructions need to be given sequentially according to the students experience. The movement of consciousness is subtle and powerful.

Regarding the cost to learn TM properly, there is no more generous organization I know of than the TM organization. Programs at no charge have been funded for at risk youth, inner city schools, prisons into the hundreds of thousands of people. TM teachers can't nearly live on what they may be compensated for teaching the course. They do it to help others. The tuition only attempts to support what it takes to make the program available.

Research shows TM is much more effective that other techniques in reducing stress and increasing self-actualization. Take the time to learn it properly if you really want the benefits.

Like other critics have mentioned this book is simplistic and a dull read. Besides these faults, it lack depth and character. The author cites research from the 70's. When this book was reprinted in 2004 it should have been updated and expanded. I would have been interested to read about how TM is used today. Waste of time and money.

Whatever this book teaches you to do, it's not meditation and definitely not transcendental. Calling this TM is like calling an "air guitar" player a musician. Save your money and go for the real thing, it's well worth it.

If you want a good book about Transcendental Meditation read the one by film maker David Lynch:
Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity

John White by authoring this book is trying to cash in on the fact that TM is famous but is actually doing an incredible disservice to the reader by leading them to believe they are doing TM. He wants to make money talking and writing about TM but he is not a teacher of TM. Unfortunately his book and its title is just confusing and misleading.

I applaud the author for focusing on something so incredibly important and almost unknown in the world but....
The simple fact is you cannot learn to transcend thought by reading a book because by its nature reading is thinking. This has been tried myriad times in the past and it just doesn't work.

Anyone can teach meditation. Meditation just means thinking. Concentration, contemplation, and meditation are all just different flavors of thinking.

Transcending thought is the real deal. Save your time and money and find a real certified teacher of TM and learn to transcend meditation.