{{short description|Technique of Transcendental Meditation}} [[File:MUM campus and tower.jpg|220px|thumb|Campus of Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa, including the Golden Domes used for group practice of Yogic Flying]] '''Yogic flying''' is a mental-physical technique and exercise done by practitioners of Transcendental Meditation (TM) which features the participant hopping while cross-legged.<ref>{{cite book |title=Psi Development Systems |last=Mishlove |first=Jeffrey |publisher=Ballantine |year=1988 |chapter=Chapter 3 |isbn=978-0-345-35204-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Meditate, Then Levitate / Devotees of TM are flying high |first=CHIP |last=JOHNSON |work=San Francisco Chronicle |date=October 9, 1997 |page=A.19}}</ref> Yogic flying is part of the TM-Sidhi program created in the 1970's by TM's founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,<ref name="lighthouse">{{cite book |last=Mahesh Yogi |first=Maharishi |year=2001 |title=Ideal India: the lighthouse of peace on earth |publisher=Maharishi University of Management Press |page=308 |isbn=978-90-806005-1-5 |quote=Yogic Flying is a phenomena [''sic''] created by a specific thought projected from Transcendental Consciousness, the Unified Field of Natural Law, the field of all possibilities. This is the simplest state of human consciousness, self-referral consciousness, which is easily accessible to anyone through Transcendental Meditation, and is enlivened through the TM Sidhi Programme, which leads to Yogic Flying.}}</ref> who claimed that if enough people practiced yogic flying (specifically the square root of 1 per cent of the population) at the same time and in the same location, then benefits will emerge in the surrounding society; this was known as the "Extended Maharishi Effect".<ref name="worldpop1974">{{cite news |url= https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/global-population-doubles-since-74-hits-8-billion-today/articleshow/95517415.cms|title= Global population doubles since 1974, hits 8 billion today|newspaper= The Times of India|date= 15 November 2022}}</ref><ref name="Maharishi University of Management">{{cite web |url=http://www.mum.edu/m_effect/ |archive-date=August 23, 2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000823041441/http://www.mum.edu/m_effect/ |title=Maharishi Effect – Research on the Maharishi Effect |publisher=Maharishi University of Management |access-date=December 29, 2009 }}</ref> According to TM teacher-spokesperson Bob Roth, the first stage of the technique is hopping, the second stage is when the body briefly hovers, and the third stage is "mastery of the sky" where the body can fly freely in the air.<ref name="Widdicombe" />
According to a TM website, the participation of hundreds of Yogic Flyers in Germany brought "coherence and unity in the collective consciousness of Germany" and triggered the fall of the Berlin Wall.<ref>{{Cite web |date=9 November 2009 |title=Maharishi's Programme to Create World Peace led to fall of Berlin Wall: Rising coherence in national and world consciousness |url=http://www.globalgoodnews.com/world-peace-a.html?art=12578119332103873 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724122036/http://www.globalgoodnews.com/world-peace-a.html?art=12578119332103873 |archive-date=24 July 2011 |access-date=29 August 2010 |website=Global Good News}}</ref><ref name="Gardner">{{Cite book |last=Gardner |first=Martin |title=Weird water & fuzzy logic: more notes of a fringe watcher |publisher=Prometheus Books |year=1996 |isbn=1-57392-096-7 |page=142}}</ref><ref name="Sun">{{Cite news |last=Cummins |first=Ken |date=3 November 1990 |title=U.s. Meditation Believers Seek To Give Peace A Chant |work=Sun Sentinel |url=http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1990-11-03/news/9002230201_1_transcendental-meditation-mass-meditation-maharishi-mahesh-yogi |access-date=9 May 2013 |archive-date=5 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605211810/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1990-11-03/news/9002230201_1_transcendental-meditation-mass-meditation-maharishi-mahesh-yogi |url-status=dead }}</ref> John Hagelin (dubbed the "Raja of Invincible America" by TM<ref>{{cite press release|title=Raja of Invincible America invites Yogic Flyers to heroically support new president |date=December 18, 2008 |publisher=Deutsche Nachrichten Agentur |url=http://www.deutsche-nachrichten-agentur.de/de/verzeichnis/politik/thema/1630666670 |archive-date=March 30, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120330080414/http://www.deutsche-nachrichten-agentur.de/de/verzeichnis/politik/thema/1630666670 |ref={{sfnRef|Hagelin|2008}} |url-status=dead }} </ref>) claimed that a 4,000 group of Yogic Flyers in Washington, D.C. caused a reduction in the local crime rate.<ref name=Castaneda7Oct1994>Castaneda, Ruben (October 7, 1994). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1994/10/07/fighting-crime-by-meditation/be5c6863-1dfe-4870-9f5c-b158fda5a9c6/ "Fighting crime by meditation"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205095923/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1994/10/07/fighting-crime-by-meditation/be5c6863-1dfe-4870-9f5c-b158fda5a9c6/ |date=February 5, 2017 }}, ''The Washington Post''.</ref> In 1999, Hagelin suggested that NATO should establish an elite corps of 7,000 yogic flyers at a cost of $33 million in order to end the Kosovo War.<ref>{{cite book| last= Bruce| first= Alexandra |year= 2007| title= Beyond The Secret: The Definitive Unauthorized Guide to The Secret| place= New York| publisher= The Disinformation Company, Red Wheel Weiser| page= 100| isbn= 9781934708408}}</ref> In 1992, the Maharishi sent groups of Yogic Flyers around the world (India, Brazil, China, etc.) with the goal of causing world peace through their international group practice.<ref name="Telegraph7870">{{Cite news |date=7 February 2008 |title=Maharishi Mahesh Yogi |work=The Telegraph |location=London |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1577870/Maharishi-Mahesh-Yogi.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1577870/Maharishi-Mahesh-Yogi.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Filmmaker David Lynch devoted efforts towards the Maharishi's goal of world peace through his David Lynch Foundation, specifically aiming to raise billions of dollars in order to create a "peace-creating factory" of over 8,000 participants.<ref name="Stevens">{{cite news |last1=Stevens |first1=Jacqueline |last2=Barkham |first2=Patrick |date=January 27, 2009 |title=And now children, it's time for your yogic flying lesson |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jan/27/david-lynch-meditation |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160812000251/https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/jan/27/david-lynch-meditation |archive-date=August 12, 2016 |access-date=December 11, 2016 |work=The Guardian |location=London}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Kress |first=Michael |title=David Lynch's Peace Plan |url=http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Celebrities/David-Lynchs-Peace-Plan.aspx |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100724223417/http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Celebrities/David-Lynchs-Peace-Plan.aspx |archive-date=July 24, 2010 |access-date=November 29, 2010 |website=BeliefNet.com}}</ref> Bob Roth, CEO of the David Lynch Foundation, has admitted that nobody has ever observed a practitioner begin to hover or fly through the yogic flying technique.<ref name=Widdicombe>{{cite web | url =https://observer.com/2014/08/for-some-of-new-yorks-most-successful-transcendental-meditation/ | title =For Some of New York's Most Successful, Transcendental Meditation | last = Widdicombe| first = Ben| date = August 6, 2014| website = observer.com| publisher = Observer | access-date = January 6, 2025| quote = "The second stage is when the body actually hovers in the air for a short while. And the third stage is mastery of the sky, when the body can fly." Mr. Roth – who practices yogic flying himself – acknowledges that nobody has ever observed the successful attainment of stages two or three.}}</ref>
Yogic Flying and its associated Science of Creative Intelligence are taught in universities around the world, including the Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa,<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=TekgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-m0FAAAAIBAJ&pg=1430,427330&dq=maharishi+meditation+domes&hl=en Magician Mixes Marriage and Meditation; The Hour (Associated Press)] Norwalk, Connecticut, December 2, 1981</ref> and the Maharishi Institute of Management campuses all across India.<ref>Popham, Peter (18 December 1999). [https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/heat-dust-and-cyber-cafes-1120049.html "Heat, dust and cyber cafes"]. ''The Independent''.</ref><ref name=campuses>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20090615055445/http://www.maharishiinstituteofmanagement.com/campuses.jsp "Our Campuses"]}}. Maharishi Institute of Management. Retrieved May 22, 2013.</ref>
Since the early years of TM, the Maharishi has made similar claims of supernatural abilities obtainable through his meditation technique, such as invisibility and invincibility,<ref name="randi.org">{{Cite web |author=Randi, James |url=http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/Transcendental%20Meditation.html |publisher=James Randi Educational Foundation |title=An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural |access-date=September 2, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100820232605/http://www.randi.org/encyclopedia/Transcendental%20Meditation.html |archive-date=August 20, 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and these claims created a period of media controversy for the movement. The impact of yogic flying is unclear due cherry-picked data,<ref name="Schrodt">{{cite journal |doi=10.1177/0022002790034004008 |jstor=174187 |last=Schrodt |first=Phillip A. |title=A methodological critique of a test of the Maharishi technology of the unified field |journal=Journal of Conflict Resolution |volume=34 |issue=4 |year=1990 |pages=745–755|s2cid=145426830 }}</ref> and the claimed effects of yogic flying are not scientific and lack causal basis.<ref name="Fales">{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/2580722 |last1=Fales |first1=Evan |last2=Markovsky |first2=Barry |title=Evaluating Heterodox Theories |jstor=2580722 |journal=Social Forces |volume=76 |issue=2 |pages=511–525 |year=1997}}</ref> In 2014, a meta-analysis of meditation research found "insufficient evidence that mantra meditation programs [such as TM] had an effect on any of the psychological stress and well-being outcomes".<ref name=Rohrlich>{{cite web |url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/ivanka-trumps-gurus-say-their-techniques-can-end-war-and-make-you-fly |title=Ivanka Trump's Gurus Say Their Techniques Can End War and Make You Fly |last=Rohrlich |first=Justin |date=October 14, 2018 |website=thedailybeast.com |publisher=The Daily Beast Company LLC |access-date=May 21, 2024 |quote=TM has its own set of scientists, viewed with skepticism by the mainstream scientific community.}}</ref>
==See also== * Transcendental Meditation
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Transcendental Meditation}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Transcendental Meditation Technique}} Category:Transcendental Meditation