Transcendental Meditation is a secretive mantra meditation movement founded by an indian yogi/guru. Most research on meditation benefits is on TM. To learn it, one has to pay for and participate in a course led by a certified TM teacher.
Does anybody here have had experience with TM, participated in a course and received a mantra chosen by their teacher?
Do you really need a teacher to learn it? Is the course worth it or just profiteering? Anything else one should know before going to a course themselves?
That topic regularly came up on /r/meditation. The consensus was usually that it’s not worth it. You will learn a meditation style, yes, but it’s not better or worse than others, and you will also buy into a cult. So at best it’s an overpriced experience.
If you want to learn meditation, there are sooo many resources online and in books. Why not use one of those?
And even if you want to it retreat style, there’s free courses by dhamma.org all over the world.