35. Bainbridge, William S. and Daniel H. Jackson. "The Rise and Decline of Transcendental Meditation." In The Social Impact of New Religious Movements edited by Bryan R. Wilson. New York: Rose of Sharon Press, 1981: 135-58.

The movement began as an allegedly scientifically valid means for the improvement of individual life. It changed its emphasis over time from offering "specific compensators and conventional rewards" (p. 135) to generalized compensation and religious deviance. The authors rely on the [much-criticized] Stark-Bainbridge theory of compensators (1979, 1980b; see items 648 ff.) wherein lacking immediate rewards people will settle instead for remote "compensators." TM offers a composite of both. For one thing, it offered people a "moral" justification for taking breaks to meditate, being billed as self-improvement. In the Stark-Bainbridge view, magic differs from religion in offering more modest compensators; TM thus began as magic, since what it offered was primarily personal, with a remote and de-emphasized focus on eventual transformation of society. The movement's supposed scientific basis was a propaganda gift from the gods, removing the sting of deviancy.

The Stark-Bainbridge theory predicts an increase in the generality (references to the supernatural, e.g.) of compensators as a movement's impetus declines, and that is reflected here. As the initiations declined, the leadership removed an important "reward" for its teachers. It then became necessary to promise greater "compensators" and this was quickly done: "Siddhis" were announced, these being new techniques to give their practitioners superhuman powers, including the "ability" to create a new world order. Thus the movement transformed itself from a client cult to a cult movement and became a religion. These claims backfired to a certain extent, for the media heaped ridicule on them. A final blow came when the courts held that TM was a religion, thus ineligible to participate in public education.

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