Transcendental Meditation Program

Summary:
To publicize the 30th anniversary of the TM movement in the U.S., we organized groups of TM meditators around the country into professional associations, e.g., Cleveland Association of Professionals Practicing the TM Program, American Association of Physicians Practicing the TM Program, etc. We set up a book tour for Robert Roth, author of TM: Transcendental Meditation, in cities that had the most robust associations. He spoke at luncheons, conducted book signings, and did radio, TV and print interviews with the major media in every city.

Results:
The tour resulted in scores of print and electronic media placements, which translated into an upsurge of attendance at introductory lectures on TM nationally and a major spike in book sales. Media hits included front page style section articles in papers including the Columbus Post Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Arizona Republic, Detroit News, and USA Today, as well as mentions in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. After the tour, the publisher had to do a second printing. One highlight of the tour was Roth’s hour-long booking on the Larry King Radio Show (Westwood One) with call-ins from around the country.

In 1989, through our efforts, the Transcendental Meditation Program, the most popular and most researched personal development/stress reduction program in the world, was featured in a 12-page full-color spread in Life Magazine. Coverage also included ABC’s 20/20 and NPR’s All Things Considered. In tandem with a national public awareness campaign on TM, we helped introduce the Maharishi Ayurveda system of herbal medicine to the West and launched the public career of numerous medical doctors including Deepak Chopra. In the first phase of this campaign, we placed stories in Newsweek, Nation’s Business, CEO Magazine, USA Today (twice in the same year), and the doctors appeared on Donahue, Geraldo, NPR’s All Things Considered, CBS’s The Early Show, and Evening Magazine, to name a few.