"Maharishi Ayur-Veda: guru's marketing scheme promises the world eternal 'perfect health'"

Andrew A. Skolnick,  JAMA, Medical News & Perspectives, Oct. 2, 1991

IF THE CLAIMS of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi prove true, those who follow him soon will be blessed with eternal youth, "perfect health," and the "strength of an elephant." They will be able to "walk through walls," make themselves "invisible," and "fly through the air" without the benefit of machines.

In addition, there will be no more war or crime. Automobile accidents will be a thing of the past, and even the weather will have to obey their collective consciousness.

Such are the widely promoted claims of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement and Maharishi Ayur-Veda, some of which were presented by authors Deepak Chopra, MD, Hari M. Sharma, MD, FRCPC, and Brihaspati Dev Triguna, in their "Letter From New Delhi" ("Maharishi Ayur-Veda: Modern Insights Into Ancient Medicine," JAMA.1991;265:2633-2637).

According to a number of experts on religious cults, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Hindu swami from India, began his rise to fame and great fortune in the 1960s when the Beatles rock group briefly joined his following of worshipers. Today, he leads many thousands of devoted followers who are dedicated to bringing about his widely publicized "Master Plan to Create Heaven on Earth. "Many of these disciples are prominent in science, medicine, education, sports, entertainment, and the news media. According to Indian newspaper reports, his master plan has created an empire for the guru conservatively estimated to be worth more than $2 billion. But according to representatives of the TM movement, the Maharishi's plan to turn earth into heaven is not just wishful thinking; they say they have more than 500 scientific studies to prove they can do it.

Among them now is the "Letter From New Delhi," which is being pointed to throughout the TM movement as a sign that the Maharishi's plan is gaining scientific respectability. However, among many authorities on quackery and long-time watchers of this movement, the article in JAMA has brought anger and dismay. (Please see Letters, pages 1769 through 1774.) They say that Maharishi Ayur-Veda is not traditional Indian medicine, but the latest of the Maharishi's schemes to boost the declining numbers of people taking TM courses, through which the movement recruits new members. This June, members of the TM community in Fairfield, Iowa, were called to a special assembly at one of the Maharishi International University's "Golden Domes of Pure Knowledge" to celebrate the news of JAMA's publication of "Letter From New Delhi." The same month, The Fairfield (Iowa) Source, a monthly newspaper that is run by members of the movement, reported that the "Letter From New Delhi" was "the lead article in JAMA."(The newspaper has since published a correction identifying it as the first article in the issue rather than the lead scientific article--a subtle but important difference.)

Failure to Disclose Connections

What the newspaper didn't report was what editors of THE JOURNAL learned shortly after the article was published: The authors are involved in organizations that promote and sell the products and services about which they wrote. Despite this, they submitted a signed financial disclosure form with their manuscript indicating that they had no such affiliations. The statement, which all authors of articles accepted by JAMA must sign before publication, says: "I certify that any affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with a direct financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript (eg, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, honoraria, expert testimony) are listed below. Otherwise, my signature indicates that I have no such financial interest. "The authors of the "Letter from New Delhi" listed no involvements or affiliations. Upon learning otherwise, THE JOURNAL immediately requested a full accounting from the authors, which was published as a financial disclosure correction (JAMA.1991;266:798). Although the confusing list apparently holds the record in terms of length for corrections published in THE JOURNAL, it still is incomplete. In addition to being the medical director of TM's premiere health facility, the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Center for Stress Management and Behavioral Medicine, in Lancaster, Mass, and a former consultant and board member for Maharishi Ayur-Veda Products International (MAPI) Inc, also in Lancaster (the sole distributor of Maharishi Ayur-Veda TM products, an extensive line of herbs, teas, oils, food supplements, incense, and devices said to prevent or treat disease and reverse aging), Chopra performs many of the unproven and expensive Maharishi Ayur-Veda services throughout the country. Indeed, he claims to have treated more than 10 000 patients with these remedies between 1985 and 1990 (Perfect Health: The Complete Mind/Body Guide.New York, NY: Harmony Books; 1990:6).

 

Ran Marketing Company
 

Chopra has yet to inform JAMA that he was the president, treasurer, and clerk of MAPI until sometimes in 1988. Nor did he tell THE JOURNAL that he had been the sole stockholder of the marketing company until May 1987, when he transferred the stock to a trust he set up, called the Maharishi Ayurveda Foundation. Until sometime in 1988, he served as chairman of the foundation's board of directors (the two other board members were Parkash Shrivastava, of New Delhi, India, a nephew of the Maharishi, and Neil Paterson, TM's Governor General of the Age of Enlightenment for North America).

When the authors submitted their article, Chopra and Sharma were both consultants to MAPI. During a taped telephone interview on June 17, Chopra acknowledged being a consultant to MAPI; however, in a letter faxed on June 20, he claimed he no longer had any connection to MAPI or other organizations related to the marketing company.

Yet, MAPI has the same telephone number and address as the Maharishi Ayurveda Foundation and the American Association of Ayurvedic Medicine (AAAM), of which Chopra is president. MAPI and AAAM letterheads have identical logos--a vessel of Maharishi Amrit Kalash, the herbs touted by the authors in their JAMA article. Chopra was president of another entity that uses the same telephone number and address, the Maharishi Ayur-Veda sometimes Ayurveda Association of American (MAAA). Dean Draznin, director of public relations for the Ayur-Veda News Service, would not say whether Chopra is still president of MAAA, nor would he explain the difference between AAAM and MAAA.

Despite claims to the contrary, Chopra is still connected to MAPI and the Maharishi Ayurveda Foundation. Chopra lectures widely and teaches the Maharishi's techniques for the foundation, which owns the marketing company.

The fee to attend one of Chopra's 1-day seminars on "Quantum Healing" is usually $100.Attendees usually are instructed to make checks payable to the Maharishi Ayurveda Foundation. Chopra recently boasted in an interview in The Fairfield Source: "It's mind-boggling. In San Francisco, I did a seminar that 3000 people attended. I had to get one of the civic centers. The average audience now is anywhere from 500 to 1000.... I'm booked right through 1992 for lectures."

Chopra also gives instructions in two special "health" techniques, which patients must pay $700 apiece to learn. In the Maharishi Ayur-Veda Psychophysiological Technique, Chopra instructs patients to concentrate on the heart while meditating. For the Maharishi Ayur-Veda Primordial Sound Technique, he provides patients with a health mantra to repeat during meditation. For each technique, he provides patients with a private consultation of less than 20 minutes following a general lecture. At one TM gathering in Washington, DC, in June 1989, Chopra raised more than $25,000 just teaching the Primordial Sound Technique.

In an undated letter sent to "Friends of Maharishi Ayurveda," Chopra, who identified himself as president of the marketing company, called the concoction of more than 20 herbs, which costs about $95 for a 1-month supply, "pure knowledge pressed into material form. "He wrote, "Maharishi Amrit Kalash forges the link between mind and body at the critical junction points everywhere in the physiology. "While admitting that research on its health benefits is just beginning, Chopra emphasized the need for everyone to take the cure-all/prevent-all. "It should be placed in every home as quickly as possible," he urged.

Chopra explains that he did not think he needed to inform JAMA of his connections to the marketing organizations or of the hundreds of thousands of dollars he raises through these activities because he doesn't keep any of it; the funds go to help promote Maharishi Ayur-Veda, he says. But Chopra's dedication to the Maharishi's world plan has not gone unrewarded. In 1989, the guru invested Chopra with the title "Dhanvantari Lord of Immortality of Heaven on Earth."

 

Selling Herbs and Pulse Readings
 

In addition to being a consultant to Maharishi Ayur-Veda in Prathisthan, India, coauthor Triguna was and/or is director of the World Center for Maharishi AyurVeda in Maharishi Nagar, India, and vice chancellor of Maharishi Vedic University in Vlodrop, The Netherlands -- all of which are involved in the promotion of the Maharishi's "master plan" for the world. Triguna has appeared at TM gatherings here and abroad, where he performed thousands of "pulse diagnoses." Patients in the United States are usually charged $200 for the approximately 3-minute health consultation, which requires translation since he speaks very little English.

The authors claimed in their JAMA article that this procedure (which critics such as William Jarvis, PhD, president of the National Council Against Health Fraud, Loma Linda, Calif, describe as a variation of palm reading) can diagnose diseases not limited to the cardiovascular system, including asthma, cancer, and diabetes. (When asked if he would agree to a test of these claims made in JAMA using a blinded protocol, Chopra declined on the grounds that a blinded experiment would "eliminate the most crucial component of the experiment, which is consciousness.") Many of these "diagnoses" are followed by a prescription for herbal remedies available through Triguna's pharmacy in India.

Triguna is described in Maharishi Ayur-Veda promotional materials as a "doctor." However, when asked whether Triguna has any medical or graduate degree from an accredited institution, Chopra said that the question represents "ethnocentrism, prejudice, bigotry, and racism carried to the extreme. "He suggested that "the degree you put after his name is 'Ayur-Veda Martand,' the Indian acknowledgment of illustrious fame and achievement in his profession. "MAPI has honored Triguna by placing the likeness of his head, surrounded by a glowing halo or aura, on the label of Maharishi Amrit Kalash.

In the financial disclosure to many Sharma reports his connections to many of the Maharishi's promotional organizations, including two of the Maharishi's many "universities" that are not accredited by any recognized authorities. (Only the Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa, is so accredited.)

The disclosure lists the Lancaster Foundation Inc (in North Bethesda, Md, not Washington, DC, as Sharma stated) and the Abramson Family Foundation, North Bethesda, among the sources of Sharma's research funding. However, it does not make clear that the Lancaster Foundation is run by members of the TM community and that the foundation supports and promotes research only on Maharishi Ayur-Veda products and services. The Abramson Family Foundation has the same address and telephone number as the Lancaster Foundation.

 

Serious About Financial Disclosure
 

The authors misrepresented Maharishi Ayur-Veda to JAMA as Ayurvedic medicine, the ancient, traditional health care system of India, rather than a trademark for a brand of products and services marketed since 1985 by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's complex network of research, educational, and commercial organizations.

JAMA is serious about its policy regarding authors' disclosures of potential conflicts of interest, says George D. Lundberg, MD, editor of THE JOURNAL, who adds: "Even if the financial association between the author and organizations that may profit by his or her article is remote, we need to know about it. The associations between Chopra, Sharma, and Triguna and the promoters of the products and services they wrote about may well have affected our decision to publish their article had we known about them. At the very least, the reader should have been informed of the author's involvement with those who profit from Maharishi Ayur-Veda."

Lundberg says that "JAMA has long had an interest in publishing responsible articles on traditional health care practices from other parts of the world. We published 'Letter From New Delhi' in THE JOURNAL's international health theme issue believing that the authors were acting in good faith and that they were disinterested scientists who had expertise in the long-practiced system of folk remedies of India known as Ayurvedic medicine. At that time, we did not know that 'Maharishi AyurVeda,' 'Transcendental Meditation,' and the 'TM-Sidhi' programs promoted in the article are brands of health care products and services being marketed by the TM movement."

 

Pattern of Deception
 

An investigation of the movement's marketing practices reveals what appears to be a widespread pattern of misinformation, deception, and manipulation of lay and scientific news media. This campaign appears to be aimed at earning at least the look of scientific respectability for the TM movement, as well as at making profits from sales of the many products and services that carry the Maharishi's name.

The TM movement frequently boasts of the "sophistication and effectiveness" of its publicity programs in helping to bring about the Maharishi's "Master Plan to Create Heaven on Earth." Recently, it has had good reasons to brag.

In June, the movement not only saw THE JOURNAL publish an article in which the Maharishi's remedies were described as if they were scientifically-acceptable, it also held a "Medical Conference on Maharishi Ayur-Veda: Non-Pharmacological Approaches to Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Diseases," in San Diego, Calif, that was approved by the American College of Preventive Medicine for 13 hours of the American Medical Association's Physician's Recognition Award category I Continuing Medical Education (CME) credit.

The course description gives the impression that Maharishi Ayur-Veda is thousands of years old, rather than a trademark name for a line of products and services introduced in 1985. Nothing in the course description indicates that the majority of conference speakers are affiliated with organizations that promote these products and services.

According to Hazel Keimowitz, MA, executive director of the American College of Preventive Medicine, the college was not aware of connections between the conference organizers and efforts to market TM products and services.

This was the second time the American College of Preventive Medicine accredited a Maharishi Ayur-Veda conference for CME credit. Shortly after the first time in December 1989, Chopra announced that the AMA had accredited Maharishi Ayur-Veda courses for CME credit.

Speaking during the global satellite broadcast of a gathering in India to celebrate the Maharishi's birthday on January 12, 1990, Chopra said, "This is the beginning of a great alliance that Maharishi Ayur-Veda Association is going to form with the established associations, such as the American Medical Association and all the associations of medicine throughout the world."

Expressing joy over Chopra's "beautiful news," the Maharishi said, "I hold the Medical Association of America to be the custodians of perfect health for all mankind . . . from today I'll cease to think that the American Medical Association has been, and is continuing to be, a puppet of the multinational [pharmaceutical companies.]"

According to Dennis Wentz, MD, director of the AMA's Division of Continuing Medical Education, that news was untrue; the AMA has not accredited any of the Maharishi's programs for CME credit.

 

The Wrong Stationery?
 

In March, the American Association of Ayurvedic Medicine (AAAM) sent two letters to the American College of Preventive Medicine in application for accreditation. The letters were printed on AAAM letterhead, which lists among its research council members Tony Nader, MD, PhD, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), both in Boston.

According to spokespersons for these institutions, Nader was a graduate student at MIT and a research fellow at MGH and Harvard until he earned his PhD degree in neuroscience 2 years ago. His former advisers say they haven't seen him since he graduated.

The use of "old stationery" was an innocent mistake, says David Orme Johnson, PhD, chair of the Psychology Department at the Maharishi International University, and a spokesperson for the TM movement. "We are very careful not to do anything like that -- not to misrepresent things," he says. "I can't tell you how much time I spend checking facts so that such things don't happen. I assure you that this is not intended fraud on our part."

However, earlier letters from AAAM list Nader as having only an MD degree. Presumably after his graduation from MIT in September 1989, the association reprinted its stationery identifying Nader as having an MD and a PhD degree and as being at MIT, Harvard, and MGH, even though he no longer was affiliated with these institutions. What's more, the TM movement continued to make these claims elsewhere.

Nader is one of the researchers most cited by the movement as an authority on Maharishi herbs. In June 1986, after discovering a Los Angeles Times report about Nader's herbal research, his advisers warned him in writing not to embarrass them any further by claiming to be doing MIT- and Harvard-sanctioned research on Maharishi's herbs. Despite their warning, the claims continued.

In a TM news release announcing a June 18, 1991, press conference in London, England, Nader is identified as a "professor" and "eminent researcher and medical doctor who will present the findings of his recent research at Harvard and MIT and discuss the scientific basis through which Maharishi's Technology of Consciousness can bring about world health and world peace."

According to the release, Nader also would "discuss how the new brain imaging techniques can be used to assess the orderliness of brain functioning in students, corporate executives, politicians, and other leaders, and thereby 'ensure that only the best brains are running society."

Also, on the back cover of the 1991 paperback edition of Chopra's Creating Health: How to Wake Up the Body's Intelligence (Boston, Mass: Houghton Mifflin Co), an endorsement by Nader identifies him as "neuroscientist, Harvard Medical School and MIT."

A newsletter published in 1988 by the Maharishi Ayurveda Association of America appears even more fallacious. The headline and lead paragraph state that Nader was honored by Harvard with "the Whitaker Health Sciences and Technology Award" for his "landmark studies" carried out over 2 years on the effects of Maharishi's herbal remedies on immune functioning and aging.

It also claimed that Nader, who was identified as a clinical researcher and not a graduate student, was also conducting "several more ambitious and complex project at major research centers" including "overseeing studies at Harvard's Dana Farber Cancer Institute, the Departments of Immunology at Harvard Medical School and the University of Massachusetts -- all testing the effects of Maharishi Amrit Kalash on the immune system." Orme-Johnson says these errors were the fault of the reporter who wrote the article.

 

'Prejudice and Bigotry'
 

Nader's MIT thesis adviser, Richard J. Wurtman, MD, professor and director of the Clinical Research Center, and Nader's former Harvard/MGH adviser, John H. Growdon, MD, professor of neurology, say they know of no such research at their institutions.

However, according to Chopra, Nader's "superiors were threatened by his paying more attention to Ayur-Veda research than to projects that they were interested in Dr Nader was censured and asked to discontinue his Ayur-Veda work This in no way reflects on the quality of the research. If anything, it reflects the prejudice and bigotry of so-called objective scientists, even in prestigious institutions."

In a recent statement, MIT Provost Mark S. Wrighton, PhD, said that Nader ended his connection with MIT upon graduating. "During his time as a student, from October 1985 until Sept 20, 1989, he held a visiting physician appointment at MIT's Clinical Research Center. He was not authorized to undertake any research on his own," says Wrighton. "MIT has called to the attention of its law firm recent comments and documents which indicate an effort to suggest a continuing research relationship between Dr Nader and MIT."

However, Chopra protests that Nader did conduct research at MIT with Paul M. Newberne, DVM, PhD (who is now professor of pathology at Boston University School of Medicine). The Lancaster Foundation also cites Nader's research with Newberne and says that it was presented at the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology (FASEB), Washington, DC (abstract in Fed Proc. 1987;46:959).

According to Newberne, in 1985 he had allowed himself to "be charmed" into providing Nader support for a short-term study that the student wanted to do but couldn't get anyone to help. He said that Nader "was like a shadow. He moved in, used my facilities and resources, and was gone. I never wanted anything about this work to be published because there was nothing to warrant publication. His data were few and equivocal."

Newberne says this is the first he has heard of the research being published. He says that while the signature on the application to FASEB appears to be his, he has no recollection of signing it. He says there is no way he would have knowingly submitted such a "pseudoscientific" paper for publication. "The abstract describes tests on a mixture of unidentified herbs and minerals. This isn't science. I never would knowingly put my name on such a study," he adds.

However, says Ayur-Veda public affairs director Draznin, it's got his (Newberne's) signature on it and that should speak for itself. Newberne says that if necessary, he will seek legal counsel to prevent this use of his name.

Nader could not be reached for comment.

 

'Dog and Pony Show'?
 

In its listing of "recent research on Maharishi Ayur-Veda," the Lancaster Foundation cites research by Nader, Orme-Johnson, and others that was presented at the 28th Annual Meeting of the Society for Economic Botany, held at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in June 1987.

However, according to Norman R. Farnsworth, PhD, research professor of pharmacognosy at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy, and director of the World Health Organization's Collaborating Centre for Traditional Medicine, what was presented could hardly be called scientific papers.

According to Farnsworth, the Maharishi's people showed up with a television news crew from the local CBS station in Chicago and put on a "dog and pony show. "He says: "They had no interest in the conference other than to grab a scientific forum--they showed up just before their time slot and split as soon as the publicity stunt was over."

What they presented hardly resembled the two abstracts they submitted, he says. Instead, they gave a marketing presentation extolling the Maharishi's meditation and herbal products.

Charlotte Gyllenhaal, PhD, a research associate at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy, who served as cochair of the botany meeting's organizing committee, agrees that the behavior of the Maharishi's representatives was "entirely inappropriate." She says, "While the submitted abstracts seemed reasonable, what they presented had little to do with their abstracts. In one presentation, they couldn't even provide the scientific names of the medicinal plants they claimed to have tested. The other presentation was a pitch for the Maharishi's meditation techniques--hardly appropriate for a botany meeting. It was a bait and switch ploy and a publicity stunt."

Gyllenhaal says there is "so much potential for finding useful drugs from the thousands of years of interesting observations made by India's traditional healers. It's really a shame that this group's deceptive activities may become associated with all of ayurveda."

 

Publications Misled
 

Submission of the "Letter From New Delhi" was not the first time JAMA was uninformed about an author's connection to the Maharishi's organizations. THE JOURNAL had previously published a letter praising the beneficial effects of TM (JAMA. 1989;262:2681-2682) written by Brian M. Rees, MD, MPH, who gave the Rees Family Medical Clinic, Pacific Palisades, Calif, as his affiliation. Rees turns out to be the medical director of the Maharishi Ayur-Veda Medical Center in Pacific Palisades. However, in correspondence with THE JOURNAL, he used "Rees Family Medical Clinic" stationery, which lists an address and telephone number that are identical to those used by the Maharishi Ayur-Veda Medical Center located within the TM center complex.

JAMA is not the only prestigious journal to have published an article highly favorable to Maharishi AyurVeda without its editors or readers knowing of the author's involvement with the TM movement. Prominent on the back cover of Chopra's book Quantum Healing (New Yok, NY: Bantum Books Inc; 1990) is an endorsement attributed to the New England Journal of Medicine. This was not the view of the journal, but the opinion of John W. Zamarra, MD, Brea, Calif, in an unsolicited book review (N Engl J Med. 1989; 321: 1688). According to a New England of Journal of Medicine editor, Zamarra signed a conflict-of-interest disclaimer as the journal routinely requires. Despite its policy that requires the disclosure of all connections between reviewers and the authors of the books they review, the journal was not informed of Zamarra's long-time connection with the TM movement. Indeed, he is an author of a 1975 study on TM, which is cited in movement literature. Recently, a receptionist at the Maharishi Ayur-Veda Medical Center in Pacific Palisades identified Zamarra as being on the center's staff. However, Zamarra claims he is associated with the center only as a patient, although he says that he has treated patients there on a voluntary basis after his book review appeared.

Harvard Magazine's readers may have been similarly disserved when the magazine published in its 1989 September/October issue a cover story on Chopra, which gave a glowing account of Maharishi Ayur-Veda. According to associate managing editor Jean Martin, the TM movement ordered a large number of reprints for promotional distribution. The magazine's readers were not informed that the author, associate editor Craig A. Lambert, PhD, practices TM-Sidhi or "yogic flying," the Maharishi's technique to develop levitation and other supernatural powers.

 

Highly Exaggerated Claims
 

According to an interview with Chopra in the June issue of The Fairfield Source, Chopra is president and chair of the board of trustees of the new Maharishi Vedic University in Cambridge, Mass. Chopra is quoted as saying that the university will soon offer three degree programs, including a "Master's in Maharishi Ayur-Veda," which will "be very popular because anyone with a bachelor's degree can enroll, and when they graduate they will be able to hang out their shingle and become practitioners of Maharishi's Ayur-Veda. They can prescribe, they can treat, they can do anything they want, just like any other health profession. This is a major breakthrough. . . .We've been talking to the State of Massachusetts Board of Education and they have given us more or less complete assurance that that accreditation of the Maharishi Vedic University's graduate degree programs will happen. . . .In fact, they seem even more keen on it than we are."

Not so, says Tossie Taylor, PhD, associate vice chancellor for independent institutions at the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education. "We have accepted some paperwork from them, but we haven't conducted a review nor have we done all the things we generally do in the process of granting accreditation. We have given them no such assurance," Taylor says.

 

Breaking Into Prisons
 

Such premature--and often wrong--public announcements appear to be a promotional tactic used by