Narcotics research, rehabilitation, and treatment. Hearings, Ninety ...

"medium683METHODSTiie tecliDique of transcendental meditation is reported to be an easily learnedmental technique vrhich originated in ancient Vedie tradition of India ilJ,!^).Practitioners are personally instructed by a teacher qualitied by MabarishiMahesh Yogi. The technique" is claimed to be a spontaneous natural process, andunlike many techniques of meditation or self-impi'ovement, does not employ mentalcontrol,' physical control, belief, suggestion, or any change in life style. It isalso claimed that anyone can learn the technique in four or five instructionalsessions. Practitioners are asked to abstain from drug abuse for a 15-day periodprior to starting meditation. Following the start of transcendental meditation,the program involves practicing the technique twice a day for periods of 15 to20 minutes. The program does not involve any type of personal counseling orgiving advice about personal problems. Individuals practice the technique ontheir own. The only additional contact between the individual and the instructorsor organization is concerned with ensuring correct practice of the techniqueand providing intellectual knowledge about it.Questionnaires w^ere given to appi'oximately 1,950 sub.iects who had beenpracticing transcendental meditation for 3 months or more and who were attendingone of two meditation training courses offered by the Students' InternationalMeditation Society ^ in the summer of 1970. Of these, 1,862 completed the queslionnaire.Age, sex, educational status, and length of time that transcendentalmeditation had been practiced were obtained. Further, frequency of drug use,drug selling activity, and attitudes toward drug abuse were asses.sed for eachof five separate time periods: {a) 6 months before starting Meditation; {h)0-3 months after starting; (c) 4-9 months after starting: id) 10-21 monthsafter starting; and (e) 22 months or more after .starting. The separate drugsand categories of drugs included in the questionnaire were {a) marijuana; ih)LSD; (c) other hallucinogens (2,5-dimethyloxy-4-methyl amphetamine (STP),N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), peyote, and mescaline) ;(d) narcotics (heroin,opium, morphine, and cocaine) ;(e) amphetamines; and (/) barbiturates.Additional information was requested concerning the frequency of use of "hardliquor" and the number of packs of cigarettes. Hard liquor was defined as '"alcoholicbeverages stronger than wine or beer."The information on the questionnaires was analyzed on an IBM 360-65 computer.The CROSSTABS " multivariant data analysis program was utilized andall processing was done by Urban Data Processing, Inc.* The subjects were classifiedinto four categories depending on the frequency of drug use ; (a) nonusers :{h) light users; (c) medium users; and ul) heavy users. For the subjects usingmarijuana, narcotics, amphetamines, barbiturates, hard liquor, and cigarettes, a"light user" indicated a frequency of three times a month or less : "medium user,"once a week to six times a week ; and "heavy user," once a day or more. For LSDand other hallucinogens, "light user" indicated a frequency of less than once amonth ; user," from one to three times a month ; and "heavy user," oncea week or more.RESULTSA total of 1,862 subjects responded to the questionnaire. There were l.OSl malesubjects and 781 female subjects (table 1). The age of the subjects ranged from14 to 78 years and approximately half of the subjects were between the ages of19 and 23. Most had attended college and many had college degrees (table 2).The average length of time they had been practicing transcendental meditationwas approximately 20 months.Following the start of the practice of transcendental meditation, there was amarked decrease in the number of drug abusers for all drug categories (tables 3-8). As the practice of meditation continued, the subjects progressively decreasedtheir drug abuse until after practicing 21 months of meditation most subjects hadcompletely stopped abusing drugs. For example, in the 6-month period beforestarting the practice of meditation, about 80 percent of the sulijects used marijuanaand of those about 28 percent were heavy users. After practicing transcendentalmeditation 6 months, 37 percent used marijuana and of those only 6.5percent were heavy users. After 21 months of the practice, only 12 percent continuedto use marijuana and of those most were light users ; only one individual^ Xatinnnl Hpadqnarters, tOl.5 Oaylpv Avemip. Los AtispIps. Cal^f2 Oamhridce Compntpr Associates, 22 Alewife Brook Parkwav. Cambridirp. ^lass.3 Urban Data Processing, 552 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge. IMass.