I’m starting the year with TM
After several hundred articles and word-of-mouth recommendations, I finally got round to taking a class in Transcendental Meditation between Christmas and New Year.
At this point I assume you now fall into one of three camps:
1) Already doing it.
2) Not yet, but have given it some thought.
3) Not in a million years. Tree-hugging hippie bollocks.
To the first group: I’m sorry, but I’m going to go through the early-days basics for the people in group 2. As for the people in group 3: read on; you might find there’s more to it than you thought.
So I did this in about as wanky a manner as you could imagine: for four days in a row I got up early and drove my electric car to the Beverly Hills TM centre, where a soft-spoken man called Denny Goodman took me through the basics and gave me my mantra.
Denny Goodman, somewhere that isn’t Beverly Hills.
You can read more about how it works here, but it comes down to the idea that your mind is a kind of lawn sprinkler that gets little kinks and knots in the hose because of the general stresses of daily life. 15-20 minutes of TM unkinks the hose (so to speak) and leaves you clear and deeply rested. You are also able to access interesting areas of your mind that you may not yet have visited.
It’s hard to explain what that actually feels like until you do it, but it’s a piece of piss: you shot your eyes for a minute or so, then you start saying your mantra over and over in your mind. As you do this you kind of forget your mantra because thoughts pop into your head, the kind of thoughts that you think about all day. Then they kind of disappear and you remember to repeat your mantra again (only this time you might well do it slower as you’ll be a bit more relaxed). You repeat the process until you end up reaching this strange stage where your mind pops off somewhere quite cool and unusual (again, difficult to explain, partly because I imagine it differs for different people).
15-20 minutes later you stop thinking about your mantra for a few minutes then carry on with what you were doing before you were meditating, but completely refreshed.
Does it work? Apparently it does, to a enormous extent for millions of people, including school children and soldiers.
Does anyone who is incredibly successful do it? Well, from the link above you can see that David Lynch does it, but Clint Eastwood’s been doing it for forty years, as has Jerry Seinfeld:
So I’ve enjoyed the last week immensely, but I’d love to know what you think of it. Do you do it? Have you tried it and let it slip? Do you think it’s a load of bollocks?
Let me know. In the meantime I’ll leave you with my favourite Beatles song, which, coincidentally, is all about TM:
I think I can trump you for wankiness: I learned it at the foot of a Maharishi disciple in Mysore. Should be taught in schools. Can you imagine the benefits?
Quick question Ben as I’m group 2.
Why is there such a prohibitive cost involved in TM?
If you’re not wiping your bum on greenbacks like Ben is, you’d be surprised that such stuff is upwards of £390 if you have a wage and £590 if you’re on 40 thou. upwards. In fairness, they’ve dropped their prices, when it was historically over a grand.
However a renegade bunch at tm-meditation, who disagreed with the substantial increase in course fees. will do it from £190.
Personally, I think that a run and a wank is better for you in both the long and short term.
@PN: I have no idea.
There was an article from the tree-hugging correspondent in the Guardian the other day that gave a link to the basics (http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jan/02/oliver-burkeman-new-years-resolutions-worth-making) that seems to be free. However, I don’t know if you get the same experience that way.
I had tried it before with no instruction/mantra and just had a nice nap for 20 mins.
For my place I guess the expenses like rent etc., plus the fact that it’s a non-profit that uses the cash to help veterans etc. might explain some of it…
Does seem a bit steep, though.
I’ve never tried it or wanted to try it myself Ben – but that’s because I think it’s a load of old nonsense.
It probably works because you want it to work. (And if you’ve dropped a few hundred sheets for the honour, I imagine you REALLY want it to work).
But if it floats your boat carry on mate – it’s not doing me any harm.
Happy New Year BTW.
I didn’t drop any sheets – it was a gift, but maybe there’s an element of that.
I’d just say that something really does happen, and if nothing happened then Jerry, Clint and David have wasted a HELL of a lot of their time.
I’m in group 2. Though I guess the difference with me is that I have been meditating consistently over the past half a year. Is there really much difference to the traditional form of meditation (that you can probably pick up for free through techniques taught online)?
What I’ve found so far is that the only real thing TM masters give you is a meditative mantra. That’s a steep price to pay for just a two syllable word.
Your views?
Well, I can’t speak for any experience other than the mantra one (which works).
If the other one works and is free that would appear to be much better.
If you want to try non-spiritual meditation with no hope of finding enlightenment I can recommend ACEM – cost £80 for the weekend.
http://acem.co.uk/acem_sites/acem_co_uk/on_acem_meditation
Ben, I worry your having a midlife crisis.
Howard Stern is a longtime practitioner. Must be something to it.
@BYC: it feels like a midlife Christmas.
Here’s how to do it for free: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/learn-meditation-device-dont-spend-dime/
It’s like Christianity, I suppose.
If it works for you, it works for you.
Good on meditation, and straightforwardly interesting and entertaining: http://tim-parks.com/non-fiction/teach-us-to-sit-still/
Despite reading it I’m not ready to have a go. But Pilates helps keep one sane.
good on you, ben. i started TM 4 months ago and did it consistently and noticed the benefits right away. the past month was hard and I felt like i wasn’t getting the deep practice, it was wasting my time and such and such. but i’m getting back on it, starting tonight!
to answer everyone’s questions regarding price. yes, it’s expensive, but consider: 1) it’s a non-profit, 2) you get lifetime support at any of the centers, 3) it’s an investment for your life, your life. quit drinking for 2 months and you’ll recover the costs
you can also pay in installments