The Transcendental Meditation Program and Academic Achievement

A retrospective study was conducted comparing the grade point averages (GPA' s) of 25 subjects who had begun the practice of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique during their undergraduate studies to the GPA's of25 subjects who had received their undergraduate degrees before learning TM. The mean GPAfor the TM group rose from 2.52 for the three terms immediately before learning TM to 3.26 for the first three terms after learning TM. The change in GPAfor the TM group was significantly greater than the change in GPAfor the nonmeditating subjects over an equivalent period (p = .0003). For the next three terms GPA'sfor the meditating group continued to improve significantly (p = .027) as subjects continued the practice ofTM. Further research was called for to investigate the possibility that TM may improve the achievements of students at all levels of education.