Legal Issues

Issue: Have there been any successful lawsuits against the Transcendental Meditation organization in U.S. courts?

The Evidence:

 No court has ever awarded money to any former Transcendental Meditation program practitioner.

 In 1985, seven lawsuits were filed in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia against Maharishi International University (MIU) and World Plan Executive Council-U.S. (WPEC-US). The suits all alleged the same claims—fraud, negligent infliction of emotional distress, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and a claim for punitive damages.

The first of seven cases came to trial before a District of Columbia jury in December 1986. In January 1987, the jury returned a verdict of $138,000 for the plaintiff but refused to award any punitive damages. In January, two others also filed suit. Later, three other suits were filed. Again, all plaintiffs were represented by the same attorney.

The trial verdict was appealed. In August 1988, the Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reversed and remanded the trial court’s judgment. With guidance from the appellate court, the trail court dismissed without trial the claims of negligent psychological injuries, dismissed the claim of intentional infliction of emotional stress, and dismissed the claim of punitive damages.

The sole remaining claim—that the plaintiffs had not received the benefits they expected from the Transcendental Meditation program—had already been moved for dismissal as well, when the court called a conference for the parties to try to reach a settlement. This is common procedure in the U.S., and a disposition was reached.

It should be noted that these were the first—and only —suits in 50 years of teaching the Transcendental Meditation program to over 3 million people in the U.S.

There was, however, a suit on the religion question (see Malnak vs. Yogi, 1979, the "New Jersey" court case).