Transcendentalna Medytacja. Zarys doktryny i praktyki oraz elementy krytyki

Abstract

The new religious movements (NRM’s) represent a phenomenon, which the polish mass media, public opinion and church have been in the last few years increasingly concerned about. The problem of NRM’s took its place in agendas of some government institutions and the parliament itself. The mass media are the most important source of information about the NRM’s. Accordingly to their specific way of functioning, they pay attention to groups involved in pernicious activities for society or for physical and psychical integrity of their members, and not on the pacific activity of the most part of the NRM’s. So a general negative stereotype of a dangerous „cult” in the mind of people is formed and extended successively on all minority religious groups. The present paper is dedicated to one of the pacific majority of NRM’s ‒ Transcendental Meditation (TM). After a brief overview of the origin and world development of the TM, an outline of doctrine and praxis of the movement is presented: the view of the universe and anthropology, technique of transcendental meditation, results of empirical research proved the positive influence of meditating on organism psychophysiological state, preached by the TM prophetic visions of advantages the spread of the meditation can yield to the humankind, and the elements of the Hindu spirituality present in the TM praxis. On the basis of this exposition some problematic issues regarding the doctrine and praxis of the TM are critically discussed, such as the claim for religious neutrality of the movement and scientific character of its doctrine, the lack of rational basis of TM „prophesies”, the oversimplification of the Hindu spirituality perpetrated in the movement, and some problems regarding recruitment of new adherents and indoctrination.