Abstract

This article addresses controversies in Transcendental Meditation and its history in the West, chronicling periods of less or more mainstreaming on TM’s part – moving from world peace and psychedelics in the Beatles era to science as a way of attracting the ‘Average Joanna’ practitioner in later years. Furthermore, as schisms in New Religious Movements tend to be controversial, I examine the Robin Carlsen case and, notably, that of the Art of Living Foundation schism. AoL has become a global NRM in a few years. In addition to exploring the likelihood of schisms from AoL, I also assess controversial interactions between AoL, TM and the mass media.