I practice TM and the TM-Sidhi Program.
But you raise an interesting point. There actually is a possibility that NSR is "better" than TM: it is taught in a far less rigid style, which people seem to relate to better. It makes a difference in their experience, because they may be more likely to seek out answers to their questions instead of stopping meditation.
Here is an example of how I approach teaching. I found that approximately 0.5% of my clients had severe problems due to the release of stress (see thread
http://www.network54.com/Forum/254541/thread/1222114830/Update+on+initial+meditations).
Since I didn't understand it enough to come up with a solution, I wrote it off as an unfortunate result either of really bad stored stress or an undiagnosed medical condition. I even added a warning to the next version of the NSR Manual (being printed now). After all, 0.5% is statistically negligible.
But I didn't forget about this problem, and, with the cooperation of one of my clients who was ready to give up NSR because of his discomfort, I found a way to fix the problem (at least for this one client). In the future, when someone has this kind of uncontrolled stress release, I will know what to try. When it comes to clients' experiences, I am humble and use the experimental method. I know my own limitations. Some TM teachers are actually arrogant; for them, there is only one thing in the world with any value: TM (see
http://knol.google.com/k/tom-mckinley-ball/review-of-nsr-meditation/12b2afwdpow4t/6).
In TM, by contrast, the only technique applied by most TM teachers to those having severe problems is meditation checking (an interactive, memorized, step-by-step approach to making sure that the client's meditation technique is correct). In cases where that doesn't solve the problem, the teacher says something like, "we know this will work; you have to come back and continue getting checked." But I know that these 0.5% will not respond to checking, since they are actually meditating correctly already. Their problem is that the process of stress release is too rapid and too uncontrolled. TM has a tradition of not handling this situation well, since Maharishi preferred the fiction that TM works without modification for just about anyone (of course, you have to be able to think and follow instructions).
I have received many complaints from TM practitioners, and several who decided to try the NSR approach had outstanding subsequent experiences.
So, maybe NSR is actually better than TM? This would be a great addition to its other characteristics: learn in your own home at your own pace; low cost; and little, if any, mysticism.
David Spector
NSR Meditation/USA