PROBLEMS OF TYPOLOGY OF TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION MOVEMENT (TM)
One of the most important tasks of present-day religious studies is developing a united and detailed systematisation of new religious movements. With the aim of ﬁ nding out what place the Transcendental Meditation movement could occupy in it, this article considers various characteristics of the theory, practice and social peculiarities of this movement, oﬀered by researchers of new religious movements and representatives of the organisation itself. This paper also reveals problems of typology, the main of which is that diﬀerent opinions about the relationship of ideas of Hinduism with the elements of modern science in the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi are designated in scientiﬁ c and educational literature by diﬀerent terms, which, moreover, are ambiguous. In the conclusion of the article, variants of the stratiﬁed typology are oﬀ ered, revealing a complete picture of the origin and transformation of the theories and practices of the Transcendental Meditation movement. The ﬁrst variant is aimed at inclusion in the uniﬁ ed classiﬁcation of religions, which is supposed to be extended according to the principle applied by other scientiﬁc systems that take into account several levels of generalisation. The second variant can be employed in cataloguing new religious movements.