The Beatles “White Album” contains Sexy Sadie.
The title just happens to have the same cadence as " Maharishi", which, the story goes, was the original subject (lawyers got in the way).
It seems the saintly Maharishi was humping the young women who sought his guidance.
Meditation is not difficult, and putting the word “Transcendental” on it simply makes it eligible for trademark.
And the “never tell anyone your mantra” BS was outed decades ago.
$1000? Well, somebody’s gotta pay the bills, and they aren’t getting recruits by the thousands any more…
It is 100% a scam; they’re selling something that doesn’t exist.
“Meditation” is sitting and breathing, two tasks most humans are pretty well capable of doing without paid instruction. If you find it relaxing, more power to you, but the people selling it as accomplishing anything other than helping you chill out are literally no different from faith healers. You wouldn’t pay money to someone claiming that they can cure your <insert problem here> with the Power of Jesus; don’t pay money to someone who claims they can cure your <insert problem here> with the Power of Meditation.
I paid $30 for the TM “course” back in 1972. It was absolute nonsense then, and I imagine it still is. If you want to meditate, simply sit quietly and breathe slowly. Make up your own “mantra.”
I think a teacher can be useful for meditation. Meditation is not difficult, but it is hard. Things come up, and it is useful to have an experienced mentor to talk about them with. I’ve donated way more than $1000 to my teacher over the years. But $1000 just for a technique and a mantra, that’s a con.
You can always use John Lennon’s personal mantra, bestowed on him by the Maharishi. As a casual “Fuck you, Maharishi,” he used it in the lyrics of “Across the Universe.”
Natural Stress Relief was created as an alternative to TM. It costs $47 for an instruction manual, 5 minute long instructional CD and some email consultations. It’s $25 for downloadable materials and no email consultations. I bought it and was happy with it, but fell out of the habit of practicing it. It was created by a TM teacher who was unhappy with the direction the TM movement was going. If you look at their forum you’ll see there’s a lot of overlap between NSR and TM.