Transcendental Meditation. A technique and religious movement introduced in the West by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the 1950s and widely popularized by the "Beatles" toward the end of the 1960s. It claims to improve the mental state of the practitioners, each of whom at initiation is provided with a secret mantra. (See Mantra.) It is popularly known as TM.

Geddes MacGregor, Dictionary of Religion and Philosophy, New York: Paragon House, 1989