Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health

Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health (MVAH) (also known as Maharishi Ayurveda or Maharishi Vedic Medicine) is a form of alternative medicine founded in the mid-1980s by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who developed the Transcendental Meditation technique (TM). Distinct from traditional ayurveda, it emphasizes the role of consciousness, and gives importance to positive emotions. Maharishi Ayur-Veda has been variously characterized as emerging from, and consistently reflecting, the Advaita Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy, representing the entirety of the ayurvedic tradition. A 1991 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that promoters of MVAH failed to disclose financial incentives when they submitted a letter for publication and that their marketing practices were misleading. A 2008 study published in JAMA reported that two of the 19 Maharishi Ayurveda products tested contained heavy metals. A 1991 British case found two physicians guilty of "serious professional misconduct" for using MVAH in the unsuccessful treatment of HIV.

Theoretical basis Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health uses a model for understanding health and disease that is fundamentally different from that of modern medicine. According to MVAH researcher Hari Sharma, MVAH views the body as an abstract pattern of intelligence whereas he feels modern medicine views the body as a machine. He says that the world view of MVAH is closer to the reality described by 20th century physics, which challenged the reductionist materialist world view by finding that quantum mechanical phenomena contradict the idea of solid matter, that causality is less definite, that material existence is connected in unexpected and nonlocal ways, and that a reductionist view is untenable at the quantum level. Sharma says that "Vedic thought discusses a unified field of pure, non-material intelligence and consciousness whose modes of vibration manifest as the material universe." Disease results from losing connection with this underlying field of intelligence.

Components The approach does not use modern medicine or biology. According to Hari Sharma, MVAH views the body as an abstract pattern of intelligence. Proponents claim that through MVAH, the Maharishi revived the ancient Vedic system of health care. MVAH identifies 40 approaches, each said to be based on one of the 40 branches of Vedic literature. In Alternative Medicine and Ethics, Stephen Barrett describes 20 components to Maharishi Ayurveda:

The full range of the Maharishi Ayur-Veda program 'for creating healthy individuals and a disease free society' has 20 components: development of higher states of consciousness through advanced meditation techniques, use of primordial sounds, correction of the "mistake of the intellect', strengthening of the emotions, vedic structuring of language, music therapy, enlivening of the senses, pulse diagnosis, psychophysiological integration, neuromuscular integration, neurorespiratory integration, purification (to remove 'impurities due to faulty diet or behavioral patterns'), dietary measures, herbal food supplements, other herbal preparations, daily behavioral routines, prediction of future imbalances, religious ceremonies, nourishing the environment and promoting world health and peace. Most of these cost several hundred dollars but some cost thousands and require the service of an ayurvedic practitioner. A traditional vaidya treats patients individually, diagnosing them and then individually preparing or instructing the patient how to prepare treatments for the entire complexity of their individual symptoms, whereas Maharishi Ayur-Veda takes a mass-market approach.

Technique

The TM technique is the main modality which proponents say improves mental health and promotes "collective health" in MVAH. A 2007 review of meditative practices that included Transcendental Meditation concluded that the definitive health effects of meditation cannot be determined as the scientific evidence was of poor quality, though the review has been criticized for using an inappropriate method for assessing quality. The review found that TM "had no advantage over health education to improve measures of systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure, body weight, heart rate, stress, anger, self-efficacy, cholesterol, dietary intake, and level of physical activity in hypertensive patients". Another review did find a reduction in diastolic and systolic blood pressure in those who practiced TM compared to controls. The review and its primary author were partially funded by Howard Settle, a proponent of TM.

Pulse diagnosis Practitioners utilize pulse diagnosis (known in Sanskrit as "nadi vigyan"), which they say is like "plugging into the inner intelligence of the body". Based on "imbalances", recommendations related to herbal preparations, diet, daily and seasonal routines, exercise, and physiological purification are offered. Proponents say that the pulse can be used to detect "imbalances at early stages when there may be no other clinical signs and when mild forms of intervention may suffice". According to Deepak Chopra and Sharma, pulse diagnosis can detect a variety of diseases, including those unrelated to the cardiovascular system, including asthma, cancer, and diabetes. William Jarvis, president of The National Council Against Health Fraud, described pulse diagnosis as a variety of palm reading and that Chopra refused to have pulse diagnosis tested by JAMA in a blinded protocol "on the grounds that a blinded experiment would 'eliminate the most crucial component of the experiment, which is consciousness.'"

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