With TM Teacher John Cowhig and Special Guest Jennie Rothenberg Gritz.

Join us for a special webinar with Jennie Rothenberg Gritz, award-winning journalist, senior editor at Smithsonian magazine, former senior editor at The Atlantic, and author of the new book The Inward Trip: The Untold Story of Meditation in the West.

Jennie grew up in Fairfield, Iowa, and has practiced Transcendental Meditation since childhood, bringing a rare combination of personal experience and journalistic objectivity to the story of meditation in the West. In her book, the result of three years of research, she explores how meditation took root in the West—from the surprising popularity of yogic practices among 19th-century New England women, to the rise of Zen in New York and San Francisco countercultures, to the remarkable spread of TM among young people in the 1960s, and to other major meditation movements the West, including modern Buddhism and mindfulness.

She will also discuss scientific research on meditation, which she found far more complex and fascinating than is often portrayed, as well as the unique role Fairfield’s TM community has played in the evolution of meditation in the West.

Jennie’s chapter on TM offers a fresh appreciation for what made TM distinctive: its simplicity, effortlessness, and universal accessibility.

About Jennie

Jennie Rothenberg Gritz is a senior editor at Smithsonian magazine and a former senior editor at The Atlantic. She has worked at national magazines for the past 20 years and holds a master’s degree in journalism from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, where she received the Lewis Lapham Award for Outstanding Magazine Writing.

Jennie attended Maharishi School from first through twelfth grade, was valedictorian of her graduating class at Maharishi International University, and is a teacher of TM. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her two teenage children.

We hope you’ll join us for this rich and wide-ranging conversation on the untold story of meditation in the West.

The event will begin with a 20-minute group meditation at 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT

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