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Margaret T. Singer, PhD
Berkeley, Calif

JAMA. 1992;267(10):1337.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—When I read the Letter from New Delhi by Sharma et al1I surmised that JAMA had been duped into printing a seeming endorsement of a dubious healing cult, Transcendental Meditation (TM), and its recent front, Maharishi Ayur-Veda. JAMA is to be commended for exposing the chicanery and deceptions involved in the appearance of that letter.²

For many years I have studied and written about various totalist groups, some of which are health quackery cults. I have followed the development of the TM group from its early stages as a nonprofessional psychotherapy to the various front groups it now has spawned. I have interviewed and provided psychotherapy for dozens of former TM members who have suffered major psychological disorders (severe dissociative disorders, posttraumatic stress disorders, panic disorders, etc) which appear to have evolved out of the practices they were taught to follow.^3-5

I want . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Footnotes
Edited by Drummond Rennie, MD, Deputy Editor (West), and Bruce B. Dan, MD, Senior Editor.

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