'Transcendental Meditation' Affair in Romania 1976-1982

• Authors: Burakowski A.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The article describes the history of the Romanian branch of the 'Transcendental Meditation' (TM) movement, created by the India-born Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The TM movement in Romania spread rapidly through the intellectual elite in early 1980's, but it was dissolved by the communist power in 1982 and the followers were strongly repressed. The Romanian branch of the TM movement was created by Nicolae Stoian, an engineer from Bucharest who in 1969 emigrated to Great Britain. In 1977 he obtained official permission to organize in Romania experiments on meditation. He used his connections in Romanian political circles and secret services to promote the TM. In a few years he managed to create a small but influential movement composed mainly of engineers and scientists. In January 1981 he organized a huge meditation experiment with the members of Romanian intellectual elite, also the key figures, as for example the famous musician Gheorghe Zamfir. The TM movement from the very beginning was infiltrated by the communist secret police - Securitate. In August 1981 Stoian was expelled from the country and in the first half of 1982 the repression started. Almost all of participants in TM experiments were expelled from the Party and they have lost their jobs. The Minister of Education was also dismissed. The repression against the TM was seen as a part of strengthening of the communist system, which was visible in Romania in 1981-1982. The article is based mainly on Securitate documents and memoirs made by intellectuals involved in the movement.

Keywords

EN

ROMANIA

Discipline

• POLITICAL_SCIENCES: POLITICAL SCIENCES

• Publisher: Institute of Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences and Collegium Civitas
• Journal: Studia Polityczne (Political Studies)
• Year: 2005
• Issue: 17
• Pages: 119-152
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Burakowski A.

• A. Burakowski, Instytut Studiów Politycznych PAN, ul. Polna 18/20, 00-625 Warszawa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

06PLAAAA01012328