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171This meta-analysis compared the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique with published meta-analyses on other standard treatments for smoking cessation.The primary component of these treatments was one of four intervention types: pharmacological treatment (nicotine replacement therapies, such as nicotine gum); individualized face to face counseling by a physician or counselor; selfhelp kits consisting of printed material; or unconventional treatments such as acupuncture, relaxation, or hypnosis. The study found that the overall effectiveness of TM on reducing cigarette smoking was 2 to 10 times larger than the other treatment modalities.The average pre- / post-intervention for TM studies was 12.7 months. Interestingly, the time course of the change due to TM was different from that of standard treatments. For standard treatments, as with other drugs, everyone typically stops smoking at the beginning of the program. But after one year 90% have fallen off and only 10% are not smoking. The TM program does not require a person to stop smoking to learn the technique, but after a year, 90% of the people who have meditated regularly twice a day no longer smoke. This illustrates that the mechanism of TM is gradually normalizing stresses in the physiology that motivate smoking.As stresses gradually fade away due to self-repair mechanisms of the body normalizing stresses in the unique coherent rest that TM produces, so too does the desire to smoke naturally fade away. This same mechanism has also been found for TM%u2019s effects of reducing alcohol and drug usage.TMEfiect Size (Standard Deviations)0UnconventionalTreatmentPharmacologicalTreatment0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0IndividualCounselingSelf-help KitsEfiectiveness in Decreasing Cigarette UseMeta-analysis of 131 studiesp < .004tm-049EASIER TO KICK THE HABITReference: Alexander, C. N., Robinson, P., & Rainforth, M. (1994). Treating and preventing alcohol, nicotine, and drug abuse through Transcendental Meditation: A review and statistical meta-analysis. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 11(1%u20132), 13%u201388.