It is void of all religious significance. The meditative technique requires no specific postures or times. But, ideally it is usually done in the morning and early evening. It requires about twenty minutes. According to Maharishi such use enables the practitioner to reach a state of consciousness that is a field of Being, pure creative intelligence, or pure thought.
Thoughts rise effervescently from the depths of the mind like bubbles in a bowl of water.
Thoughts increase in size until reaching the level of conscious awareness. Maharishi likened the mind to an ocean which is active at the surface but still on the bottom. TM, it is said, allows the practitioner to reach thoughts at their origination points which promotes more creative intelligence. It is here that one encounters the True Self, because the individual is in a state of restful alertness in which no mental activity occurs. It is called a fourth state of consciousness because it differs from the common states of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep, and from the states of altered consciousness.