What the Research Says About Transcendental Meditation

The main studies cited for Transcendental Meditation, what each one reported, how large it was, and what independent reviewers concluded.

The research the old site cited for Transcendental Meditation rests on a small number of trials, and the percentages quoted for them do not always match what the studies reported. We checked the main claims against the studies’ summaries in PubMed, the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s index, in October 2026. Below is what each study said, its size and its limits, then what outside reviewers concluded.

The claims come from the evidence page that stood at this address in 2014, which listed more than 20 findings. Several of its percentages are not in the studies’ own summaries.

Two of the four studies below, the 2012 and 2009 trials, were run by researchers at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, a school founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who brought TM to the West. The anxiety review’s authors are also TM researchers. That does not make the results wrong, but it is a reason to weigh independent reviews.

Heart attack, stroke and death: a 2012 trial

The largest claim on the old page came from a randomized trial published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes in 2012. It followed 201 Black men and women who already had coronary heart disease. Half were assigned to learn TM and half to a health education program. Over an average of 5.4 years, the TM group had a 48 percent lower risk of the main combined outcome: death from any cause, heart attack or stroke. The old page said 47 percent. The TM group’s systolic blood pressure was also 4.9 points lower. A second combined outcome, which included hospital stays for heart problems, showed a 24 percent reduction, but that result was not statistically significant.

The limits: one trial, 201 patients from one group, and authors who were TM researchers.

Blood pressure in students: a 2009 trial

A 2009 trial in the American Journal of Hypertension assigned 298 university students either to learn TM or to wait for three months. Across the whole group, the change in blood pressure was not statistically significant. In a subgroup of 159 students judged at risk of high blood pressure, systolic pressure fell 5.0 points in the TM group and rose 1.3 points among those waiting. Scores for psychological distress, anxiety, depression and anger improved in the TM group. The old page credited this study with a 40 percent cut in distress; that figure is not in the study’s summary.

The limits: the comparison group received nothing, the trial ran for only three months, and the authors were TM researchers.

Anxiety: a meta-analysis

A meta-analysis pools the results of earlier trials. One published online in October 2013, in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, gathered 16 studies of TM and long-standing anxiety, with 1,295 people in all. The pooled effect size, a standard measure of how big a change is, was 0.50 against other active treatments and 0.62 against usual care, both in favor of TM. The effects were larger in people who started out very anxious. No harmful effects were reported in the trials. The old page described this as a 33 percent drop; that figure is not in the summary. Both authors are TM researchers.

Cortisol: a small 1978 study

A 1978 study in Hormones and Behavior measured cortisol, a stress hormone, in small groups of young volunteers. In people who had practiced TM for three to five years, cortisol fell significantly during meditation. In newer practitioners, after three to four months, the drop was not significant. The old page gave a 25 percent fall; that number is not in the summary.

The limits: the summary gives no group sizes, the study measured cortisol only during and just after a single sitting, and it is nearly 50 years old.

What independent reviewers found

Three reviews by bodies outside the TM movement give a wider view.

The American Heart Association’s 2013 statement on nondrug ways to lower blood pressure rated TM Class IIb, Level of Evidence B, which means it may be considered, and other meditation techniques Class III. Our guide to the statement explains the ratings.

A 2014 review from Johns Hopkins in JAMA Internal Medicine looked at 47 trials with 3,515 people, mostly of mindfulness programs. It found moderate evidence that mindfulness programs eased anxiety, depression and pain, and no evidence that meditation programs beat active treatments such as drugs, exercise or other behavioral therapies.

A 2007 report for the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality judged most of 813 meditation studies poor in quality and said firm conclusions could not yet be drawn.

What we left out

The old page also said TM lowered blood pressure as much as first-line medicine, citing a 2008 paper we could not confirm. Its figures for federal research grants, and the old site’s count of more than 350 studies, were the organization’s own, and we have not repeated them.

This page is general information, not medical advice. The Manhattan Business Review is not affiliated with the David Lynch Foundation or any Transcendental Meditation organization, and it does not sell courses. Transcendental Meditation and TM are trademarks of their owners.