Short answers, pulled from the story.
Transcendental Meditation is a form of silent meditation developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in which practitioners silently repeat a personal mantra for fifteen to twenty minutes twice per day while sitting with eyes closed. It is taught through a standardized seven-step course by certified TM teachers, with fees that vary by country.
Transcendental Meditation was founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who began publicly teaching the technique in India in 1955. He had learned the practice from his master, the Advaita Vedanta monk Brahmananda Saraswati, known as Guru Dev.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld a federal ruling that TM is 'essentially religious in nature' and cannot be taught in public schools. The TM organization describes it as a non-religious method, but critics and courts have found its roots in Hindu Vedic traditions and its claims analogous to religious ones.
Notable practitioners include the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Tom Hanks, Hugh Jackman, Oprah Winfrey, Jerry Seinfeld, Martin Scorsese, Jennifer Aniston, Nicole Kidman, Clint Eastwood, Howard Stern, and David Lynch, among others.
A 2013 American Heart Association statement said TM could be considered as a treatment for hypertension, though other interventions such as exercise were more effective. A 2021 review found TM can slightly reduce blood pressure for up to three months, with stronger effects in patients over sixty-five, after which the benefit wanes.
The Maharishi effect is the claim made by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1974 that if at least the square root of one per cent of a population practiced TM, measurable improvements in social conditions would follow. Critics including James Randi have called the supporting research pseudoscience, and the effect lacks accepted scientific causal explanation.