Blurb:

This chapter summarizes the history of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and its history in the West (and especially in North America), 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. The chapter also examines schisms from TM, including the Robin Carlsen case and, notably, that of the Art of Living Foundation (AoL). AoL became a global movement in a relative short period of time. In addition to exploring the likelihood of schisms from AoL, the chapter also assesses controversial (and non-controversial) interactions between AoL, TM and the mass media.