It started with an experience. The last half of the 1960s was a period of open exploration, with large cohorts of young students from the post-war generation entering universities, seeking to change the world with their utopian and revolutionary dreams and ideologies. The people who started building Acem had come across a method that challenged inner dogmatism and narrow-mindedness – a sound-based meditation that facilitated change.
On January 27th, 1966, a group of students came together in Oslo on the initiative of Are Holen, who was a student of psychology at the time, to found Academic Meditation Society (AMS). A few years later, the name of the organization was changed to Acem. Fifty years have passed, and an enormous amount of idealistic work has resulted in an international organization with centers and activities in many countries on several continents. Acem is unique in its focus on meditation guidance and the development of a down-to-earth and wide-reaching psychology of meditation.