About the Founder

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is regarded by many to have been the world’s foremost authority on meditation and consciousness —”an Einstein in the field of consciousness.” Over fifty years ago, Maharishi brought the Transcendental Meditation® technique to the world, presenting it as one solution to all problems—a means to create enlightenment for each individual and invincible peace for every nation. Before Maharishi started teaching Transcendental Meditation, meditation was thought to be difficult and reserved for monks and people leading reclusive lifestyles. Maharishi revived the ancient meditation technique of “effortless transcending”—long lost to society even in India, the land of its origin—and reestablished the technique’s original effectiveness. 

In the very early stages of his teaching Transcendental Meditation in the west, Maharishi also encouraged scientific research on the promising benefits. To date there are over 360 peer reviewed studies on TM® that have been conducted in over 120 independent research institutes in 30 countries around the world. These scientific studies have been published in leading scientific journals.

Because it is simple, natural, effective, and universally applicable, and because of the growing body of scientific research the TM® program has spread rapidly, attracting millions of people. Maharishi has trained over 40,000 teachers, opened thousands of teaching centers, and founded hundreds of schools, colleges and universities. Maharishi’s programs are now being applied in government, the military—especially for veterans who have PTSD, private businesses, schools, homeless shelters, prisons, and homes in every country.

Maharishi, himself a physicist, theorized that the transcendental field of Being, or pure consciousness, is the source and fundamental reality of all human experience. He also drew the parallel between this transcendental state of consciousness with the unified field explained by theoretical physicists as that level of reality which underlies the multiplicity of the universe.