Much Dispute About Nothing

In 2006, on learning the Lynch Foundation was offering a $175,000 grant for the Terra Linda High School in San Rafael, Calif., half a dozen parents protested vehemently, some arguing it was a cult—and the funding was withdrawn. The parents argued it could lead to lifelong personal and financial servitude to a corporation run by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the recently deceased founder of the TM movement. "TM is not really Hinduism. It's an amalgam of beliefs that puts Maharishi—or whoever his successor will be—as the ultimate arbiter of all things spiritual," says Ford Greene, a lawyer who represented parents at the raucous meeting.

Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute, which threatened to sue the Lynch Foundation over Terra Linda, says doing TM during a school's "quiet time"—a short period many schools adopt for children to use as they wish for prayer or relaxation—is constitutional. "But it's like a literature class that teaches the Bible. That's not unconstitutional, but the school district has to be careful the class doesn't become evangelical." When a school is approved for a David Lynch Scholarship, say foundation representatives, teachers and parents are trained first and the program is voluntary, most often practiced by students during a pre-existing quiet time period. "Childhood is a time of incredible growth of the nervous system and physiology," says Gary Kaplan, an associate professor of neurology at New York University's School of Medicine and chairman of the New York chapter of the Committee for Stress Free Schools, created in 2004. "I prescribe plenty of medications, but if there is a way to unleash the full potential of a child's mind without medication or side effects, then why not do it?"

Despite the criticism, many parents say they've seen profound results from meditation and that that they hardly view TM as exclusively, or even overtly, religious. Lynch himself is a Presbyterian. "When I started doing transcendental meditation, I found that my relationship with God deepened," says Dick DeAngeles, a meditator who has had five of his children—all devout Roman Catholics who regularly attend Sunday school—learn TM at the Maharishi University of Management in Iowa.

Other parents are open to anything that might scientifically be proven to reduce stress. The National Institutes of Health has awarded some $20 million to study TM. A 2004 Medical College of Georgia study of 156 inner-city African-American teens found that TM helped lower blood pressure, while a 2003 University of Michigan study found that African-American sixth-graders who practiced TM daily had better self-esteem and handled stress better than other area students. The largest study on TM and young people is currently being undertaken by researchers from American University in Washington, D.C., and Maharishi University in Iowa. They have been monitoring 250 college students from American, Georgetown, Howard and other D.C.-area universities who practiced meditation for nine months. Early results appear to show greater brain functioning and less irritability and sleepiness.

"There are serious problems in our schools and a small number of voices trying to Swift Boat TM should not discourage people from looking at the medical benefits of this technique," says the Lynch Foundation's Roth. "TM training is offered to schools that already set aside part of the day for 'quiet time.' A kid can do TM, or take a nap, pray or do Zen meditation, it's up to them."

At the Kingsbury School in D.C., a private K-12 for students with learning disorders like attention deficiency and dyslexia, children have been practicing in-school voluntary meditation since 2005. One student interviewed by NEWSWEEK this past winter, 14-year-old Scott Bertaut, who has Asperger syndrome, says that TM helps him control his sometimes violent temper. "When I stopped doing TM during summer break [my temper] got bad again." Only about 10 percent of parents, teachers and students have opted out of the program, says school director Jessica Lux. Some want the kids to focus on academics, "some for religious reasons or because they find it cultish," she says. "I think it's fear of the unknown."

With Peg Tyre

© 2008