Does transcendental meditation conflict with any Christian beliefs?

No, not at all if it is centered in Christ.

Meditation is food for the spirit. Just like we feed our bodies food, we must feed our spirit God. That's all meditation really is.

(Matthew 6). "When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words."

So in prayer/meditation we shut out everything, we cut out the "words", mind chatter, (true meditation needs no mantra) outside influences to reach Him.

Getting involved with some group could lead to conflicts but true meditation in it's purest form will only reveal more of God's nature.

There are many forms of meditation but the fundamental and main purpose is to drop the ego and turn to your higher self, the part that is of God and Jesus ask us to do this many times, in many different ways.

For example, I went to Greece to visit the cave where Paul was imprisoned. There was an Greek Orthodox priest in the cave and he was chanting his prayers. His eyes were closed and it appeared to all of us that he was in a trance! Never seen anything like that at Church here. My point, he was doing the same thing as when you see the yogi's in India chanting.

Nevertheless, meditation can be rooted in Christ.

From World Community for Christian Meditation:

Welcome to the website of the World Community for Christian Meditation in the United States. The World Community for Christian Meditation is an international organization of meditators whose practice of this universal tradition is rooted in the teachings of the Gospels and the early Christian monastic methods of prayer and contemplation. Forgotten over the centuries, this aspect of Christian spirituality in the life of the Church was rediscovered by Fr. John Main (1926-1982), a Benedictine monk who in the 1970s reintroduced it into the lives of religious and lay people alike.

I do not believe it does at all, infact, i think that is what jesus was teaching after all. Many scriptures support meditation when in fact, all meditation means is concentration. Just because you empty your mind of thought, doesnt make you empty. In fact its very healthy. Thought alone is the main cause of mental illness. Stress, anxiety, fear, jealousy, etc are all caused by thought.. Transendental meditation is about clearing your mind of everything and finding yourself, finding god. I believe the church is more scared of what you will experience and realize, completely changing what the church has framed our minds into believing. I too have realized, being a devout christian and all, one night I hit rock bottom, I prayed with tears and passion, wanting my love for god, that passion to come back. To give me that light to strive for once again. I asked god for the truth, to show me some hope, just something to grab on to to re light my faith, and literally over night my life changed. Its been a series of events, that led me into meditation. A domino affect of still occuring events that still baffle me, even my wife supports me and is witness to the drastic change. I quit drinking over night, began my transendental meditation and a whole new world appeared to me. I still believe in god, and jesus, but my way of belief is different now from what the church has taught. In fact, there is more fact in what I have learned now that makes the bible make sense than the actual church does. Look into it for yourself, try it yourself. Do your research and be passionate, you will find exactly what your looking for and more. Its amazing. remember, prayer is talking to god, meditation is listening to him. please, dont get me wrong, im not saying the church is bad. Im just saying the answers about god that you may seek are found in meditation. God will show you who you really are, and who he is as well. You will come to find, he is not very far away at all. Hes literally a prayer away and through meditation, you will find him. just like it says in the bible, the kingdom of heaven is within each and every one of us.

TM is about bieng empty ,but only sofar as to allow GOD to enter. The human EGO (E dging G od O ut)has to be diminished to allow room, so to speak.If your always thinking you cant notice 'GOD' all you notice is thoughts about GOD.A test i use to remind myself about the obsessive thinking of us humans is to aask if most people can choose not to think for a minute,or 30 secods ,or even 10, most will say ' no,oh no i can't' , that sounds out of wack to me. To be only aware of thought =lack of clear noticing of external/oneness reality. So no it's not compatible but more like a requirement,TM or some form of thought limitation even if for 2x5mins a day,critical many think , try it :).

Transcendental Meditation makes your mind empty of stress not empty of itself. When your mind is empty of stress and your nervous system is pure enough, you can experience the Christ's saying - The Kingdom of God is within you. I myself practice Transcendental Meditation for 8 years.

I checked through the posts here, but didn't see any mention of Christian Meditation as taught by John Main, a Benedictine monk. It has a worldwide following and in my city there are more than 40 groups which meet on a weekly basis: The World Community for Christian Meditation. It's a form of mantra meditation and is very similar to Transcendental Meditation; the main difference I think, being the mantra. I've practiced both and see no inherent danger or conflict with either. Nor do I place one above the other. In my experience, both take me to the same place when I meditate. Not to the Christian God, nor to the Hindu God, but to both or none. To the inner Divinity, call it what you will. We tend to get so hung up on our way, that we tend to be blind to the universality of all ways. So in response to the original question: "does Transcendental Meditation conflict with any Christian beliefs"? If those beliefs are understood correctly, then I would say no.

You should ask yourself these questions... Is my reason for meditation for good or for ill? Do I meditate for God or for myself? Do I replace God with meditation? Does my meditation harm my body, mind, heart, or soul? Does my meditation hinder my relationship with God or does it promote it? Do I do "Christian" meditation or only transcendental meditation (consider doing both)? Does my transcendental meditation cause me to directly sin?

As Christians, the material, buzz words, we come across while thinking about meditation will be:

Transcendental Meditation

Traditional Christian Meditation

Modern Christian Meditation

Biblical Meditation

We are taught to pray, fast and meditate, but lack basic teaching on the last. It would be helpful to list out, then, a framework to guide us in our efforts. What is good and what isn't.

Transcendental meditation is removing thoughts, emptying the mind, and calling out to God, through chanting, to touch us. The problem with this is that we don't know if it is the right way, and several cases have been reported about ill effects. Surprisingly, teachers of the technique will admit the results are unpredictable. I have personal knowledge of people requiring treatment for psychological illnesses after practicing TM.

Traditional Christian Meditation, of which John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila are the names most called to mind, as practitioners, also share the same techniques as other mystics. Their aim is to be touched by God. Their method is to remove worldly thinking and fill the mind with Scripture. The problem is that they treat the actual words of Scripture as entities with power. I'm not surprised they experience the Dark Night of the Soul, spiritual dryness, in the process. It should sound an alarm if the journey from immaturity to wisdom is progressively distressful, when God's Word is described as a Lamp unto our feet, something that brings peace and joy as the destination nears. It saddened me to learn that the longest period of alienation on record is that endured by Teresa of Calcutta, who reportedly suffered depression for nearly 50 years.

Modern Christian Meditation adopts some dubious techniques, and when I use the label ”Modern Christian”, I guess I am addressing the problems that writers like Foster throw up when they teach the practices that they do in books like ”Celebration of Discipline”. A little survey of the criticism, in articles on the Internet, he provoked should enlighten one about the grey areas he drifts into in recommending his methods. These border on being parallels to the centering and actualisation techniques taught by New Age practioners.

Biblical Meditation

Some people differentiate between studying the Bible and meditating on the Bible, but I think that the distinction is uncalled for.

Biblical meditation IS study of the Bible, carried out in conjunction with praying to God for assistance, and just as water, bread, medicinal cures and light are life giving, so also is the study of the Bible nurturing, healing and enlightening.

Matthew 4:4 NET But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Luke 11:13 NET If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

The Holy Spirit helps in many ways, sending direct revelation of the meaning of the text, as well as indirectly by bringing to our notice people, books, techniques and other resources varying from knowledge about competing philosophical world views to analogies from the world of art, and even technology, to open the meaning of the Scriptural material.

John 14:27 NET “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; I do not give it to you as the world does. Do not let your hearts be distressed or lacking in courage.

Luke 1:67-79 NET Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, because he has come to help and has redeemed his people. For he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from long ago, that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us. He has done this to show mercy to our ancestors, and to remember his holy covenant – the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham. This oath grants that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, may serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him for as long as we live. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High. For you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins. Because of our God’s tender mercy the dawn will break upon us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

If we were perfect, our every thought would have it's foundation in God. What I mean is, if you "dive deep" into your thoughts, or even try to "empty" yourself, God becomes everything.

Not that I have ever been able to do that very well, but the deeper you go, the more you as a Christian will find God.

So to answer your question, go for it, but your aim should be drawing close to God. But maybe then it becomes something other than transcendental meditation.

About meditation in general, I can recommend you Ascent to Mount Carmel by saint John of the Cross, a famous 16th century mystic. It's not an easy reading, but it's a good guidebook of Christian mysticism. Along with few things that are good to do, author warns against many dangers in spiritual life, which may seem marginal in the beginning but may lead you astray finally.

According to John of the Cross, meditation and emptying yourself from anything that isn't God is good, but there are many things that seem to be God, and these are often very hard to distinguish. 99.9% of Christian mystics need some living person to give them feedback and lead them - otherwise they would fall in some of these traps. This guide needs not to be a mystic or even a "perfect" (mystical term for "very close to God") mystic, but they need wisdom of Holy Spirit and know something about mysticism. Remaining 0,1% are hermits who are so well guided by Holy Spirit that they don't need a human guide (and of course don't need anyone to teach them how to meditate).

This is why I would be suspicious about TM or any other non-Christian meditation. About meat sacrificed to idols, knowing what you believe is enough. But emptying yourself is much more delicate and if it's hard for Christian mystics not to make some grave mistake, it's even harder outside Christian tradition. The meditation techniques may be similar or maybe even the same, but without guidance of Holy Spirit your meditations can't lead to their aim - to bigger opennes to Holy Spirit. If your guide is trained to rely on his own spiritual abilities, they can't lead you on the way of Holy Spirit. And if they are trained in some non-Christian tradition, it's very likely that you will be taught some pagan elements such as mantras invoking Hinduistic gods.

I would definitely avoid such a practice without guidance of someone capable of distinguishing what is of Holy Spirit and what is against him. This means someone full of Holy Spirit with charisma of distinguishing of spirits or at least with great experience with Christian meditation. But such people are usually capable of teaching you Christian ways of meditation, so you don't need to bother with something like TM.

Just a comment to David Stratton's note on martial arts: from martial arts you usually expect to learn to fight. From meditation you expect that it helps you spiritually. It's much easier to distinguish a martial art from spirituality behind it than to distinguish meditation from spirituality behind it.