Transcend … and spontaneously drink less

Conclusion of 12 studies with 4000 subjects: TM works, even if nothing else works.

Alcohol addicts are mostly ordinary people who want to feel good, and who have become dependent on alcohol to create this feeling. This dependency is usually very deeply rooted in the psyche and experience has shown that superficial treatment methods are largely ineffective.

Transcending is a state where the mind comes back home, a state of spontaneous inner happiness that he was searching for. At the same time transcending will activate the body’s own healing power so that the addiction will also be removed on the physical level. As a result, alcoholics discover that their urge to drink becomes less and less, completely spontaneously, without even trying to drink less.

Scientific research on 4000 subjects confirms: TM works!

During the last 40 years 14 different scientific studies, involving a total of 4000 subjects, have confirmed the effect of Transcendental Meditation on alcohol addiction,.

With this many studies, a far more reliable conclusion of the effectiveness of TM can be made by calculating the average effect of all 14 studies and comparing this result with all other methods to fight alcoholism that were ever studied (83 scientific studies into other methods).

TM is 2 to 10 times more effective than other methods, particularly with heavy drinkers

The comparative analysis revealed that other methods can actually do very little for alcoholics. The effect of Transcendental Meditation on alcohol consumption was 2 to 4 times larger than all other methods that were ever studied (p=.009). It becomes even more impressive when one looks at the effect of Transcendental Meditation on “serious users”, the heavy drinkers, as was done in some studies. Here, the effect of TM is almost 10 times larger than with other methods. This confirms the general experience that the more dramatic the problem is, the greater the effect of transcending usually is. (Click on the graph to enlarge it)Ref.Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly 11: 13–87, 1994

The longer one practices TM, the less the need to drink becomes.

The longer TM, the less people drink

Just like for tobacco- and drugs addictions, several studies into alcohol addiction have confirmed the general experience of many TM practitioners, that the longer one practices the TM technique, the less one feels the need to drink (heavy).

This is clearly illustrated by a large-scale study with 1,862 TM practitioners, conducted by scientists at the Harvard Medical School. (Click on the graph to enlarge it). The total number of “hard liquor” users is halved after 10 months. But if we look in more detail, we see that the number “light” users” is decreasing by 30% but that that the number of “heavy users” drops by almost 80% (from 19% before starting TM to 4% after 10 months). The effect is the strongest for those who need it most.Ref.Drug abuse: Proceedings of the International Conference, Philadelphia: 1972, pp. 369-376

Note: This was not a study where subjects were learning TM with the intention to reduce their consumption of alcohol. The researchers were just looking at the spontaneous behaviour after a period of TM practice with 1800 TM practitioners. If one really has the intention to stop drinking alcohol the effect is usually much stronger.

The increasing effect which comes with longer TM practice, is in sharp contrast with most other methods. The earlier addiction comparison shows that, of all those who have successfully completed their treatment with other methods than TM, after one month 35% are drinking again (from 100% abstainers to 65% after one month), and after 3 months, almost 60% have relapsed (42% abstainers). This shows how difficult it is to treat alcoholism on a superficial level.

For more studies that are confirming these results, see Research Alcohol Addictions. It is very interesting to know that in several of these studies, reduction of alcohol use was not the primary target of research, but was just found as a side-effect while other changes were investigated, like reduced depression or anxiety.

For more information on how and why the Transcendental Meditation technique is so effective for alcohol addictions, see: Doctors answering questions: TM and alcohol addictions