Date of Award
Fall 2023
Document Type
Open Access Thesis
Department
History
First Advisor
Lauren Sklaroff
Abstract
Transcendental Meditation [TM], a form of silent mantra meditation pioneered by the Indian holy man Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1957, took the United States by storm as over two million Americans learned its meditative technique between 1968 and 1978. At once a spiritual movement and a lifestyle, TM was a countercultural movement that went mainstream. I argue that TM was appealing because of its ambiguity and consequent malleability, as its teachings and practice came to reflect the aspirations and anxieties of its followers. By tracing their varying interpretations of the practice across periodicals, movement literature, memoirs, and contemporary scholarship, I interrogate how Americans made sense of TM and, in turn, illustrate how they intellectually and culturally reckoned with the turbulence of their times.
Rights
© 2024, Grant William Wong
Recommended Citation
Wong, G. W.(2023). Meditations On Modern America: The Ambiguous Worldview of Transcendental Meditation, 1967-1979. (Master's thesis). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/7533