Contradictory Information about Safety of Mantra Meditation Techniques

ESSENCE:

My question is about an extreme contradiction in connection with the Relaxation Response technique (RR) and Transcendental Meditation (TM). The problem is: While TM seems to be quite hazardous, and RR seems to be absolutely safe, the two techniques are very similar! What is the solution?

DETAILS:

I learned TM ten months ago from the official TM organization. However, three months ago I got acquainted with websites that report possible harmful side effects of TM. These sites are:
www.trancenet.org
www.unstress4less.org
www.suggestibility.org

I'd like to highlight a concrete article that firmly contraindicates even a moderate practice of TM just 2 times 20 minutes a day:

http://www.unstress4less.org/transcendental_meditation-relaxation.htm

I can believe all this. There is nothing not to understand so far. (I stopped practicing TM regularly.) In addition, this article seems to harmonize with the one referred to in this very forum by Mr. Lindsay Smith, in a message entitled "Adverse effects of Meditation".

And now comes the contradiction.

I began to look for a safe stress reduction method. I got acquainted with the Relaxation Response technique. I got to know that RR had been derived from TM by Dr. Herbert Benson a few decades ago. The basic idea, the mantra repetition, was borrowed from TM, and thus the effect of the two techniques are quite similar.

Just to be sure, I tried to find criticisms and threatening warnings about RR as well. I did not find anything, not even a single bad word!

After all this, the question comes naturally:

If TM may be harmful to some people, but RR never, -- at least let's suppose this, -- then what is the key difference between the two techniques that makes this definite border between them? What is that key element that determines this vast difference in their safety?

By myself, I can only guess:

1) In TM, the mantra is repeated at an arbitrary frequency, whereas in RR, the repetition is tied to breathing. Thus, in RR the mantra can not be repeated much more often than every 6th second. TM does not have such a limit -- if one feels like it, he/she can repeat it even every 2nd second.

2) In TM, the practitioner is suggested to think the mantra more and more "lightly", so that it becomes blurred, vague, sounding "from far away". In addition, the practitioner should end up passively listening to the mantra's such manifestation, rather than actively "saying" it. In RR, there is no such instruction. You just simply say your "focus word".

These could be important differences, but are these big enough to make such an incredible difference in the outcome?

And anyway, ARE there indeed such differences?

From the ethical point of view, I pretty much hope that there ARE:

-- TM is propagated by Maharishi, a guru who made it a multibillion-Dollar business,
-- RR is propagated by Dr. Benson, a medical doctor working for our state institutions.

This comparison is even tighter if we consider that same amount of people are affected by these techniques, and thus they have similar power of generating public echoes:

-- Approx. 4 million initiates of TM,
-- Approx. 4 million sold copies of Dr. Benson's bestseller book.

The techniques are very similar, the size of their publicity is very similar -- the echoes are fundamentally different.

Could you write your opinion about this?

Replies:

Re:Contradictory Information about Safety of Mantra Meditation Techniques, by Lindsay Smith, 09/11/03 Re:Contradictory Information about Safety of Mantra Meditation Techniques, by , 09/13/03 Excuse me -- the previous message was written by me., by Laszlo Holics, 09/13/03 Re:Contradictory Information about Safety of Mantra Meditation Techniques, by Lindsay Smith, 09/13/03 Re:Contradictory Information about Safety of Mantra Meditation Techniques, by Jim Spira, 10/10/03

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