Transcendental Meditation and the Meaning of Religion Under the Establishment Clause Minn

University of Minnesota Law School Scholarship Repository Minnesota Law Review 1978 Transcendental Meditation and the Meaning of Religion under the Establishment Clause Minn. L. Rev. Editorial Board Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/mlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Editorial Board, Minn. L. Rev., "Transcendental Meditation and the Meaning of Religion under the Establishment Clause" (1978). Minnesota Law Review. 3105. https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/mlr/3105 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Minnesota Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Minnesota Law Review collection by an authorized administrator of the Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Note: Transcendental Meditation and the Meaning of Religion Under the Establishment Clause* Transcendental Meditation (TM) is an effective relaxation tech- nique that involves "thinking" a special sound, or "mantra."' Intro- duced into the United States less than twenty years ago, TM has achieved a remarkable degree of popularity and scientific approval. As a consequence, both TM and its underlying theory, the Science of Creative Intelligence (SCI),2 have gained substantial support from private institutions and governmental agencies. Despite this wide- spread acceptance, governmental sponsorship of TM programs has drawn severe criticism from those who have labeled TM religious on the basis of its resemblance to various Hindu practices.' At least two lawsuits have claimed that government support of SCI/TM violates the constitutional prohibition of religious establishment.' * Thanks are extended to Professor J. Morris Clark of the University of Minnesota Law School, who suggested the topic, and to attorneys Michael J. Woodruff and Julius B. Poppinga, who provided helpful unpublished material. 1. TM is practiced twice daily, fifteen to twenty minutes at a time, and is said to enable the nervous system to achieve a deep state of wakeful rest. The mantra is a Sanskrit word selected for the meditator by his teacher on the basis of a perceived relationship between its sound and the meditator's personality. For further discussion of mantras and TM generally, see notes 83-106 & 121-22 infra and accompanying text. "Transcendental Meditation" and its acronym "TM" do not refer to mantric meditation generally but rather to a specific practice introduced to the West by Ma- harishi Mahesh Yogi, an Indian guru. See note 95 infra and accompanying text. Both terms are service marks of the World Plan Executive Council, the chief TM organiza- tion. See also note 146 infra. 2. The term "Science of Creative Intelligence" reportedly originated in 1969 with Jack Forem, who was teaching a college course on the principles of TM and wanted an academic-sounding title for it. See J. FOaEM, TRANcENDENTAL MEDrrATION 216 (1973). Both "Science of Creative Intelligence" and its acronym "SCI' are service marks of the World Plan Executive Council. 3. See J. BJORNSTAD, THE TRANSCENDENTAL MIRAGE (1976); K. BOA, CULTS, WoRLD RELIGIONS, AND YOU 156-66 (1977); J. HEFLEY,THE YoUTNAPPERS 59-76 (1977); G. LEWIS, WHAT EVERYBODY SHouLD KNOW AEouT TRANScENDENTAL MEDITATION (1974); L. McBETH, STRANGE NEW RELIGIONS 110-24 (1977); C. MILLER, TRANSCENDENTAL HESITATION (1977); J. PATTON, THE CASE AGAiNSTTM INTHE SCHOOLS (1976); J. WELDON & Z. LEvrrr, THE TRANSCENDENTAL EXPLOSION (1976); Fulton, PublicFunding for TM?, 92 CHRISTIAN CENTURY 1124 (1975). Although much of the opposition to state promotion of TM has come from fundamentalist Christian or Jewish groups, opposition has come from nonsectarian sources as well. See, e.g., Transcendental MeditationBarred from Public Schools, 30 CHURCH & ST. 243 (1977). 4. The Constitution forbids any "law respecting an establishment of religion." U.S. CONST. amend. I. In 1976, a coalition of taxpayers, parents, and clergymen brought suit to enjoin five New Jersey high schools from offering elective courses in SCI and TM. See text accompanying notes 5-13 infra. A similar suit challenging the teaching of TM was reportedly brought in California in 1975. See Fulton, supra note MINNESOTA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 62:887 In the first case to rule on this question, Malnak v. Mahesh,5 a federal district court considered the validity of a New Jersey public high school program that offered an elective course entitled "The Science of Creative Intelligence."' The classroom instructors were neither certified nor paid by the schools, but were official TM teachers brought in especially to teach the course. 7 Much of the course involved discussion of a textbook teaching that Transcendental Med- itation brings the meditator into direct contact with the "field of pure creative intelligence."'8 This contact, according to the textbook, "clarifies and strengthens the meditator's thoughts," " 'refines' [his] nervous system," and "infuses [his] mind both with creativity • . and with 'all the qualities of creative intelligence,' " including "truth," "happiness," and "fulfillment." 9 Once concepts such as these had been introduced, classroom discussion was combined with the daily practice of TM. In order to learnTM, each student had to attend an initiation ceremony, or "puja," which was held on a week- end and off the school premises. At the puja, the student's instructor sang a Sanskrit chant and gave the student his mantra and his initial instruction in TM.10 The chant invoked the names of Hindu gods and of historical figures thought to be past masters of meditation." Al- though the instructors were given an English translation of the chant, there was no indication that a translation was given to the students.'" On these facts, the court granted plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and held that the course violated the establishment clause 3 of the first amendment.' The facts in Malnak required a shift away from the traditional focus of establishment clause analysis. In prior cases, the religious 3, at 1124. Also, the Attorney General of Iowa was formally requested to proceed against TM organizations on the ground that they were violating consumer fraud laws by peddling religion under a secular label. See id. 5. 440 F. Supp. 1284 (D.N.J. 1977), appeal docketed, Nos. 78-1568, 78-1569 (3d Cir. May 11, 1978). 6. Id. at 1289. 7. Id. Although the teachers were paid by the TM organizations and not the schools, the programs did receive approximately $40,000 in federal aid. See Transcen- dental Meditation Barredfrom Public Schools, supra note 3, at 243. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, which authorized the aid, was named as a defen- dant. 8. 440 F. Supp. at 1289. 9. Id. at 1289-90 (quoting the textbook). 10. Id. at 1305. 11. See id. at 1306-07. 12. See id. at 1306. 13. See id. at 1327. The court appeared to rest its holding on the finding that the SCI/TM courses had a religious purpose, although it also indicated that the courses were unconstitutional because of impermissible religious effect and excessive religious entanglement. 1978] TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION nature of the challenged activities was clear," and the question of legality therefore turned on the meaning of "establishment" rather than the meaning of "religion." In Malnak, however, the issue was whether a doctrine and practice that were not obviously religious and that were asserted by proponents to be wholly secular should never- theless be characterized as religious for the purposes of the establishment clause. The court, although recognizing the "novel aspects" of the case, declined "to improvise an unprecedented definition of religion under the first amendment."' 5 Rather, it looked to the "substantive characteristics"'" of theories or practices deemed to be religious under prior interpretations of the establishment clause and then drew analogies between those characteristics and certain attributes of SC/TM. Spe- cifically, the court likened TM's puja to a form of prayer and SCI's concept of Creative Intelligence to the traditional concept of God.'" Since it apparently was not disputed that the public schools were promoting SCI/TM, these analogies compelled the conclusion that teaching SCI/TM in the public schools was an establishment of reli- 8 gion.' In reaching its conclusion, the court offered several guidelines for establishment clause analysis. First, it suggested that any workable test for religion under the first amendment must focus on the substantive content of the belief or activity in question.'9 The court re- jected defendants' argument that the controlling factor should be the actual perceptions of those who adhere to the belief or participate in the activity. The court reasoned that injecting such subjective char- acterizations into the evaluation of beliefs and activities would "preclude a fair and uniform standard."20 Second, the court noted 14. See note 34 infra. 15. 440 F. Supp. at 1320. In declaring such a definition "unprecedented," the court was probably alluding to its earlier comment that "courts have avoided the establishment of explicit criteria ... identif[ying] an activity as religious for purposes of the first amendment." Id. at 1312. Whatever the court may have meant by such a statement, attempts to explicate the legal meaning of religion have been numer- ous. For some judicial efforts, see cases cited in L. TamE, AmEPmLCAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW 826-28 (1978); cases cited notes 46-48 infra. For some of the more noteworthy scholarly efforts, see Dodge, The Free Exercise of Religion: A SociologicalApproach, 67 MicH. L. REv. 679 (1969); Fernandez, The Free Exercise of Religion, 36 S. CAL. L. REV. 546, 561 (1963); Note, Toward a ConstitutionalDefinition of Religion, 91 HARv. L. REv. 1056 (1978). 16. 440 F. Supp. at 1315. 17. See id. at 1320-23. 18. See id. at 1323. 19. See id. at 1315-17, 1321. 20. Id. at 1318. On the motion for summary judgment, defendants emphasized that, whereas programs previously disapproved were clearly religious in nature, a program in SCIMTM is not.

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