Transcendental Meditation and Health-related Topics: A Meta-analysis of Newspaper Articles from 1959-2022

Pages: 274-293
Lee Fergusson (Education and the Environment, Maharishi Vedic Research Institute, Gold Coast, Australia and School of Education, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia)

Tens of thousands of newspaper articles associated with practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique have been published throughout the world. However, it was not until the 1970s, when the first credible published research on the topic of health and Transcendental Meditation appeared in print, that the popular news media focused greater attention on it. The purpose of the present meta-analysis was to investigate this phenomenon. From two archives of a total of over 64,000 newspaper articles, 294 were identified as pertaining to Transcendental Meditation, health and well-being. These articles, never before the subject of analysis, originated in 13 countries from 1959 to 2022 and contained 31 topics related to health and well-being. In seven conceptual categories of health, using quantitative and qualitative techniques this study presents detailed evidence of topics and categories from these newspaper articles, leading to the conclusion that Transcendental Meditation results in improved general health and well-being.