A Study of the Transcendental Meditation Program in the Service of Counseling

The combined effects of counseling and the Transcendental Meditation program were compared with the effect of the Transcendental Meditation program alone and counseling alone on three groups of young adults over an eight-week period. Changes in locus of control, present-orientation, and self-support were measured using the Adult NowickiStrickland Internal/External Locus of Control Scale and the Time Competence and Inner-Directedness Scales of the Personal Orientation Inventory, respectively. Mean improvements in nine meditating counselees, eight noncounseled meditators, and nine nonmeditating counselees who combined counseling with 20-minute rest periods twice daily fell into the expected relation (meditating counselees > noncounseled meditators> resting counselees) on Time Competence and Inner-Directedness scales but not on the Locus of Control scale. Changes in means and variances within each group were also examined. The general conclusion was that the Transcendental Meditation program seemed to foster self-directedness.