Talk:Transcendental Meditation/History draft

1950s
'''Maharishi Mahesh Yogi served as a "close disciple" and secretary to Swami Brahmananda Saraswati from 1941 until Brahmananda Saraswati's death in 1953. Guru Dev had revived a lost meditation technique that originated in the Vedas. '''

'''In 1955, the Maharishi, an Indian ascetic, began teaching a meditation technique that he said was derived from the Vedic tradition and which later came to be called Transcendental Meditation. '''

'''In 1958, he began the first of a number of worldwide tours promoting and disseminating the TM technique. This tour began in Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar). The Maharishi remained in the Far East for about six months teaching Transcendental Meditation. '''

'''In 1959, the Maharishi taught the Transcendental Meditation technique in Hawaii. Later that year, Maharishi went to California and became a guest at the home of Roland and Helena Olson and their daughter Theresa, who later wrote about their experiences in books. He continued to visit and teach Transcendental Meditation from the Olsons' home over the next few years. '''

During this period, the Transcendental Meditation technique was taught under the auspices of several organizations. The Spiritual Regeneration Movement Foundation (SRMF) was incorporated in California in July, 1959. Its articles of incorporation stated that the SRMF's primary purpose for formation was spiritual, and in Article 11 that "this corporation is a religious one. The educational purpose shall be to give instruction in a simple system of meditation." The SRMF corporation was later dissolved.

1960s and 1970s
In 1960, the Maharishi founded the International Meditation Society (IMS) and trained his first Transcendental Meditation teacher, Henry Nyburg of England.

In 1961, the first international Teacher Training Course was held near Rishikesh, India to train teachers of Transcendental Meditation. Over 60 meditators from India, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Britain, Malaya, Norway, the United States, Australia, Greece, Italy and the West Indies attended. Teachers continued to be trained as time progressed. The Maharishi appeared on BBC television and gave a lecture to 5,000 people at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

'''In 1963, twenty one members of the Indian Parliament issued a public statement endorsing the Transcendental Meditation technique, and news articles appeared in Canadian newspapers such as the Daily Colonist, Calgary Herald and The Albertan. '''

In 1965, the Students International Meditation Society (SIMS) was incorporated and continues to function in some countries including the U.S.A.

'''In the 1970's TM courses were offered to at AT&T, General Foods, Connecticut General Life Insurance Co., Blue Cross/Blue Shield in Chicago, and the Crocker National Bank of San Francisco were sponsored by AFSCI. '''

'''Beginning in 1968, a number of celebrities such as Donovan, The Beatles, members of the The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Doug Henning, Clint Eastwood, Deepak Chopra, Andy Kaufman, Jane Fonda, Mia Farrow, Shirley MacLaine, Joe Namath, Stevie Wonder, and Howard Stern, as well as author Kurt Vonnegut and Major-General Franklin M. Davis, Jr reported using the technique. '''

In 1975, TM meditator Merv Griffin invited the Maharishi to appear on his talk show, thereby aiding Transcendental Meditation in becoming a “full blown craze” during that era (according to Time Magazine) and eventually becoming a global phenomenon with centers in some 130 countries.

'In 1970, the first scientific study on the Transcendental Meditation technique was published in Science'' magazine and the first course on the Science of Creative Intelligence was held at Stanford University in California. '''

In 1972 in Mallorca, Spain, the Maharishi announced his World Plan to establish one Transcendental Meditation teaching center for each million of the world's population.

'''In 1975, the Maharishi began teaching advanced mental techniques, called the TM-Sidhi Program, that included a technique for the development of what he termed Yogic Flying. In that same year, Transcendental Meditation received favorable testimony in the Congressional Record and was advocated by Major-General Franklin M. Davis Jr of the US Army. '''

'''A Gallup Poll conducted in August 1976 said that four percent (4%) of those Americans questioned had engaged in TM. The average number of people learning TM fell from a peak of approx. 40,000 a month in 1975 to approx. 3,000 in November 1977. Bainbridge wrote that in 1977, "Most of the million who had been initiated either ceased meditating or did so informally and irregularly without continuing connections to the TM Movement." The official TM web site reports that more than 6 million people worldwide have learned the Transcendental Meditation technique since its introduction in 1958. '''

'''Transcendental Meditation is often mistaken for other nostrums of the '60s and '70s, but it has little or no relationship to them. '''

In 1990, a delegation of Transcendental Meditation teachers from Maharishi International University traveled to the former Soviet Union to provide instruction in Transcendental Meditation. The trip, initially scheduled to last ten days, was extended to six months and resulted in the training of 35,000 people in the technique.

In that same year, the Maharishi began the  coordination of the teaching of the Transcendental Meditation technique from the town of Vlodrop, Netherlands through an organization he called the Global Country of World Peace (GCWP).

In 1993, the Maharishi Vedic Education Development Corporation (MVED), a non-profit corporation, was formed to teach the Transcendental Meditation technique and related courses. The terms "Transcendental Meditation" and "TM" are servicemarks owned by Maharishi Foundation Ltd., a UK non-profit organization and licensed to the MVED.

In 2004, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi directed Transcendental Meditation practitioners at the Maharishi village at Skelmersdale, Lancashire to beam peace loving thoughts to the British electorate with the aim of overturning the Labour government. The Maharishi said: "The good effects of transcendental meditation — increased creativity and long life — should not be given to a dangerous country that is constantly busy destroying the world". After Tony Blair's Labour Party won reelection in May 2005, the Maharishi withdrew all instruction in Transcendental Meditation in the UK. The ban was lifted about the same time Tony Blair left office as Prime Minister.

In 2006, the Transcendental Meditation technique was reported to be one of sixty services and courses offered by MVED and the Transcendental Meditation movement.