Transcendental Meditation is a form of silent, mantra meditation using sounds and vibrations to engage and enlighten. This was advocated by the Transcendental Meditation movement. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi created the technique in India in the mid-1950s. Advocates of TM claim that the technique promotes a state of relaxed awareness, stress relief, and access to higher states of consciousness, as well as physiological benefits such as reducing the risk of heart disease and high blood pressure.
Technique
The meditation practice involves the use of a silently-used mantra for 15–20 minutes twice per day while sitting with the eyes closed. It is reported to be one of the most widely practiced and among the most widely researched, meditation techniques, with hundreds of published research studies.
Movement
The Transcendental Meditation movement consists of the programs and organizations connected with the Transcendental Meditation technique and was founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Transcendental Meditation was first taught in the 1950s in India and has continued since Maharishi’s death in 2008. The organization was estimated to have 900,000 participants worldwide in 1977, a million by the 1980s, and 5 million in more recent years.
Information courtesy of Wikipedia.