Ancient origins
Vedic meditation comes from the Vedic civilisation of northern India, between 5,000 and 10,000 years ago, the same advanced culture that gave the world mathematics, yoga, the Sanskrit language and Ayurveda.
Much of this knowledge was nearly lost around 3,000 years ago as other civilisations swept through India. To protect it, the ancient sages, the Rishis, set up monastic communities high in the Himalayas and deep in the jungle, so the techniques could be passed on in their purity, teacher to student, without interference.
The lineage to today
In 1941, a revered master known as Guru Dev became the Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, one of the most respected spiritual positions in India. After he passed in 1953, one of his students, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, carried the knowledge out into the world, teaching it widely and later establishing it as Transcendental Meditation.
Maharishi became a teacher of teachers so the knowledge could spread. He taught The Beatles and The Beach Boys, and encouraged the scientific study of meditation. Sam's teacher was Charlie Knoles, taught by his father Thom Knoles, who learned directly from Maharishi. Sam now carries that same lineage to his own students.
A practice the science caught up with
What the Rishis understood through direct experience, modern research has steadily confirmed. Hundreds of peer-reviewed studies over recent decades have examined the effects of this mantra-based technique on stress, the heart, the brain and mental health.
