Old Yogi Pension Fund Ends!

Those who lost the most from their devotion to Transcendental Meditation, having never obtained a functional career and are unable to focus in the material world, have three months to generate an income. They will be on their own and must learn to support themselves.

Emails have been flying with the latest TM Movement news that the Settle Fund will cease in 90 days. See recent blog post "Dozing for Dollars" which described a sort  of “Old Yogi Pension Fund” of a subsistence wage, calculated by some to average $3.80 per hour, for those who meditated full time.  

Transcendental Meditation’s spiritually elite Citizen Sidhas and Governors of the Age of Enlightenment who’ve supported themselves in recent years by full participation in the padded domes’ meditation programs are already seeking personal sponsorships from TM’s wealthy to continue their lifestyle.

According to circulating emails, Bevan Morris made this announcement last week in an “Experience Meeting” of the Invincible America (I.A.) Assembly.

Once again, the TM cult organization blames the victims for their loss of livelihood, rather than owning up to the learned helplessness which Maharishi encouraged through his teaching of “Do less accomplish more until you do nothing and accomplish everything”.

One person seeking sponsorships shared Bevan’s claim “... how sad the Settles were after investing 100 million dollars over the last 7 years and not reaching the goal of 2000 yogic flyers in the golden domes.  Howard (Settle) expressed his disappointment in not being able to get the 400 pundits we needed from India; he feels this was a major factor in his lack of success in the last few months.”

 

(what hooey!)

Per one post on the Fairfield Life yahoo group,  “Yep, Dr. Bevan Morris, Prime Minister of the Global Country of World Peace and President of Maharishi University of Management yesterday morning announced to the Invincible America Assembly the end of the Invincible America grant program.”   

Of note, there never was a stable endowment for these sponsorships. Personal grants were supported by depleting an account established by Howard and Alice Settle. As Mike Doughney commented on the “Dozing for Dollars” post :

“ Basically, the foundation that's been offering the grants to dome snoozers was set up by the donation of an exploration company owned by Howard to the foundation, the foundation in turn sold it off / "liquidated" it and invested the proceeds.

That investment isn't enough to pay out the grants they've been handing out indefinitely, so the investment was consumed over just a few years. I.e. if they wanted it to last indefinitely they'd have it pay out a few percent of its value, no more, every year. They didn't do that, instead they paid it out at a very high rate, so it was gone after a few years, presumably. The IRS filings confirm this up through two years ago, eventually the filings for the current year will come out and the exact reasons will be public.

I would also note that this deal with the Settles and their foundation, as far as I can tell, is a bit different from the predecessors like the Kaplans in that the foundation money, though looped through the "Global Country," is, as far as I can tell, fully accounted for as to what its final destination is (this small group of Fairfield residents in the domes under certain rather tight conditions, and perhaps, a small administrative cut of it kept by the "Country"). The Kaplan money seems to have vanished off to India where, I would presume, it went into their school and other enterprises there. Once offshore, and particularly, in India, keeping track of where the money went would, I think, become difficult.”

According to an anonymous email “Bevan explained that the leaders of the movement have been meeting for days to come up with some solutions.”

Yogic Flying and Post Hypnotic Suggestion

Following Maharishi’s tradition of brainwashing ridiculousness, and the power of post-hypnotic suggestion, you are invited to attend tomorrow’s “Yogic Flying Competition”. True Believers who paid thousands of dollars to learn the phrase “relationship of body and akasha - lightness of cotton fiber” will squeeze their gluteus maximus muscles with enough force to bounce upon high density rebound foam in the name of spiritual awakening and manipulating natural law to defy gravity.

Cookies will be served as gastronomic reinforcement of juvenile psychology.  Per the flyer below, you may also see an EEG brainwave demonstration - we assume to show, once again, how Transcendental Meditation creates coherent brainwaves.  TM teachers fail to mention that no one knows the significance of synchronous brainwaves.  It is known that comatose states and death also create synchronous brainwaves.

        If readers of TM-Free Blog attend tomorrow’s demonstration, we will be happy to share your photos and reviews of the session. 

Dozing for Dollars - Advanced Transcendental Meditation provides for the Eternally Dissociated

(This tongue-in-cheek advertisement describes a real fund for TM-Sidhas and TM-Governors to practice advanced TM Programs as their full time job, 8-hours daily, in the Golden Domes of the Age of Enlightenment on Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa).

At last - you can earn a living while contributing to the supernatural hypothetical Maharishi Effect for World Peace!

You too can receive up to $815 monthly to participate 8 hours daily in Fairfield's Invincible America Program, otherwise known as the "I.A. Course". To make it even easier, I.A. Course commitment was reduced to only one month at a time!

Howard and Alice Settle oil and gas moguls amongst Maharishi's wealthiest devotees, created Howard and Alice Settle Foundation  with an annual twelve-million-dollar grant for an Invincible America fund to support Maharishi's vision, and get TM's embarrassing dissociated space-cadettes off the streets of cozy Fairfield Iowa. Maharishi University awarded honorary Doctorates in World Peace to the Settles for their donations to this effort.

The qualifications are simple :

Are you unable to support yourself after years of dissociative "transcendental consciousness" as experienced during Maharishi's TM-Sidhi Program and living on Maharishi's promises of "Do Less Accomplish More", until you are unable to do anything?

Did you invest yourself in advanced TM training to become a Sidha - an enlightened being with mystical powers including levitation for promised rewards of health, wealth and enlightenment?

Are you unable to support yourself with your useless advanced degree in Vedic Science from Maharishi University of Management  for which your federally guaranteed student loans are now in default?

Did you spend your working years training and teaching TM or working on staff at Maharishi's facilities for a marginal livelihood without retirement funds?

Are you able to converse only with those who share a history in the TM Movement?

Do you feel emotionally safe only with other TM-Sidhas or TM-Governors?

Do your pre-TM family and contacts refuse to financially support you? 

Do you miss counting the myriad of triangles in the umbrella-curved geodesic dome ceiling?

Then the Settle Sponsorship for Invincible America is for you! 

Rather than publicly embarrassing the TM Movement by wandering in poverty, you'll have a warm place to go every day with others who are also qualified only to close their eyes in one of two large wooden domes, embraced in Maharishi's safety net inside the prairie's two man-made breasts on Maharishi campus.  

Listen to Howard Settle speak of the devotional cult value this advanced program. As you watch the video, note Howard Settle's enlightened clothing, the required tan or silk suit and gold tie, and his office with expensively approved Sthapatya Veda style architecture.

Thanks to Howard & Alice Settle's generosity, you too can receive between $700 - $815 monthly to attend the dome program with 3 - 4 rounds daily - each round consists of a cycle of asanas, pranayama, meditation and sidhis. Two rounds in the morning and one or two in the afternoon. This takes about 8 hours daily of your time, seven days a week. You will further your experiences of deep transcendence, err dissociation, and help assure the needed numbers for Maharishi's promised Super-Radiance Effect.

At last, “Program” will be your 56-hour-weekly job! 

You can claim to be one of the global elite with your full time commitment to enlightenment and world peace! 

You will have no excuse not to meditate yourself to greater enlightenment experiences, otherwise known as further dissociation! 

Your rising Kundalini towards your crown chakra will be assured by Settle Program monitors who remind you to remain sitting up during program, rather than snoring in drool on those rumpled white sheets over the high density rebound-foam. Unlike those who pay for their own Program participation, you will not be allowed to sleep horizontally throughout “Program time” (of course, you must lie down during regulated rest times). 

Video about TM & Kundalini : 

Settle monitors were instituted after homeless grant recipients used to access a warm group snooze to fulfill their daily commitment to the I.A. course, because they were bored with expensively learned mental recitations.  Then they partied all night after sleeping in the domes. 

If you are a long term meditator, the sitting requirement should not dissuade you from needed sleep, since most long-term meditators can readily sleep in a sitting position.

Today, some recipients of the Settle grant rotate nights on the sofas of other Fairfield friends as they live in support Maharishi's vision. Other grant recipients rent a cheap room nearby. A few recipients supplement a small Social Security check with their Settle grant for a reasonable Fairfield-based lifestyle.

If you are in good standing with the TM Movement, you can apply for the Settle monthly stipend with this Financial Support Request.

Two important caveats :  

1) Program attendance is mandatory to receive your stipend! You must attend at least 80% of the scheduled Programs to receive your stipend. If you miss more than 20% of Dome Program in a given month, your stipend will be forfeited.  

2) You must remain in good standing with the TM Movement by living an exemplary TM-Sidha lifestyle and never question nor speak negatively about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the Transcendental Meditation Movement.  

Fine print : There is no guarantee how long this fund will continue. When the Settle funds ends, you will be back on the streets begging for sponsorships in the old TM tradition.

TM-Free Does The Scientific Research that TM Avoids

I am undertaking a research project about Transcendental Meditation here on TM-Free Blog.  The purpose of this project is to fill in the missing gaps in the "more than 350 scientific studies verifying the wide-ranging benefits of the Transcendental Meditation technique [that] have been conducted at 250 independent universities and medical schools in 33 countries during the past 40 years."(1)  

The tone of this article may be snarky, but my goal is dead serious.  Various TM-connected organizations are currently pushing to get TM into schools, health centers, etc., throughout the world.  The 350+ studies they quote have unfortunately been designed to skew results in favor of TM.  They avoid assessment of possible risks.  If TM is going to be spread to large populations, isn't it responsible to make sure that negative as well as positive results are uncovered?  To the best of my knowledge, the questions I ask here have never been asked in the "[s]even volumes of Collected Papers of Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation"(2).  

I am not a scientist; I am not a trained researcher.  The quality of my research is undeniably open to question.  But at least I am honest in admitting my design weaknesses and my biases.  I think I compare favorably with the TM-approved research in that regard.

Here are some of the flaws in my research:

1.  Subjects should be randomly chosen.  Since my subjects are readers of TM-Free Blog, they can hardly be considered random.  At minimum, they are people who are interested in reading about "independent, skeptical and critical views of TM claims and research."(3)  Some of them may be downright critical of some aspect of TM.  

Oh well.  My non-random sample probably doesn't matter, because lots of TM research didn't use random samples either.  For example, TMers have sometimes been "pre-screened" to make sure only TMers with specific brain waves patterns were allowed to be research subjects.(4)  

2.  My research design is composed of subjects who self-report subjective experiences on a questionnaire.  You could barely have a poorer scientific design.  I mean, self-reporting of subjective experiences is a gateway to reporting expectation, placebo, belief, desire to slant the results, desire to please researcher, etc., etc.

I hope this minor flaw in my design is balanced by the fact that some TM research also uses self-reporting.  My favorite example of this is the brilliant and witty critique, "How to Design a Positive Study: Meditation for Childhood ADHD...."(5).  

3.  This researcher is not neutral.  I'm a writer for TM-Free; how objective could I possibly be in my research design, my interpretation of the results, etc.?  A basis for objective research is that the researcher or funder should not have an ax to grind.

But please don't be too discouraged by this flaw.  After all, many TM research studies have been funded or conducted by TM college students, TM professors, pro-TM foundations.  (The foundations often have names that obfuscate their origin - "Quiet Time, " "Consciousness-Based Education," etc.  Some of these objective-sounding research facilities are located on Maharishi University campus!)  Open the TM "Collected Papers" at random and see for yourself how many non-neutral researchers and organizations sponsor TM research (1, 5, 6).

Many of the research papers done by TMers claim to have been produced by "independent researchers."  I looked up the definition of "independent researcher," and it turns out that an independent researcher can mean a grad student who is independent of his/her teacher, or a researcher who works without co-workers, etc.  It is a title chosen, I believe, to mislead the reader as to the objectivity of the research. 

4.  Where's my control group?  My placebo group?  My "correlation does not prove cause and effect" group?  Nowhere, that's where.  Oops.

But not to worry.  So much of the research in the "Collected Papers" has this flaw that I'm sure it will all even out.(2)  At random, I bring to your attention the scientific chart, "Increased EEG Coherence," which is given a place of honor on the home page of the TM organization's main website.(1)  Notice how in this chart there is no non-TM control group, and how correlation has been equated with cause and effect.  See also my TM-Free article, "TM Leader Hagelin Perverts Science to Sell Expensive TM Products."(7)     

5.  And finally, my questionnaire asks for ONLY deleterious results from TM!  So if you have anything good to say about TM, please don't even bother to fill out the questionnaire, because we will not post or tally your comments!  

Before you are too incensed by my insultingly obvious bias, please read the Roark Letter (8).  "...Confirmed to me by investigators at MIU was the suppression of negative evidence that these investigators had collected.  Strong bias was present in selecting only data favorable to a conclusion that was made prior to the data collection...."    

So without further ado, here is my: 
-------------------------------------------------------------------

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE

Question 1:  Have you had any negative results from practicing the TM technique for 20 minutes twice a day?  If "yes," please describe.

Question 2:  Have you had any negative results from any other aspect of the TM organization's offerings?  (Advanced techniques, TM-Sidhis program, rounding, Maharishi Ayurveda, Maharishi yagyas, etc.)  If "yes," please describe.

Question 3:  Have you stopped doing TM for 20 minutes twice a day?  If "yes," please describe, and explain why.

Question 4:  Over time, did you find that "TM just stopped working"?  If "yes," please describe.

Question 5:  Do you know of someone who might answer the above questions negatively?  If so, please ask them to fill in this questionnaire.  If they are dead, hospitalized, etc., please fill it in for them to the best of your ability.

END OF RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear readers, please help us do the research the TM organization has avoided for over 40 years in over 600 studies.  These questions, consistently omitted from the official body of TM research, may begin to offer an important window into the dangers as well as the benefits of TM.

Please provide your answers in the "comments" section.  If you need anonymity, please feel free to use a pseudonym.  Thank you very much for your help, and for the help you may provide to people around the world who may be harmed by TM.


(1) www.tm.org/research-on-meditation
(2)  www.t-m.org.uk/SCI_Glance.shtml   
(3)  TM-Free Blog homepage, introduction
(4)  TM-Free Blog, reported in various comments.  Unfortunately I haven't had the time to dig up the quotes.  If anyone wants to take that on, I commend you.  Or, alternately, maybe someone will be kind enough to write up their experiences a second time in the comments section.  
(5) spacecityskeptics.wordpress.com/2009/01/07/how-to-design-a-positive-study-meditation-for-childhood-adhd/ 

(6) TM-Free Blog, "Who Are These People?  The Background of David Lynch's 'Researchers' " by Mike Doughney   tmfree.blogspot.com/2010/12/who-are-these-people-backgrounds-of.html
(7) http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2012/11/tm-leader-hagelin-perverts-science-to.html
(8) TM-Ex Newsletter, Spring 1992

It's easy to be a false guru

The movie "Kumare" (http://goo.gl/IZrC4) is a must-see.  The filmmaker was skeptical of gurus in general and so experimented with becoming a guru himself.  He made up some unique teachings and practices on his own, dressed for the part, adopted a guru-like accent and hit the road.  He was highly successful at gathering followers.

It's demonstration of how trivially easy it is to become a fake spiritual leader.  Here's another example of how easy it is: http://goo.gl/DZc0Z.  Derren Brown is a "mentalist".  Mentalism is a branch of stage magic wherein the performer emulates having supernatural abilities.  Brown is using trance and suggestion to induce "spiritual experiences" (See "How did he do it?" at http://goo.gl/u9fNj).

What Brown and the Kumare filmmaker are both demonstrating is how trivially easy it is to start a cult.  Either of them could have continued on to cement their hold over their followers.  

Yes, We Are No Religion, part 2013

The TM organization (TMO) continues to insist that the TM technique is not a religion.  This may or may not be true of the technique itself.  However, if a TM meditator learns the advanced TMO technique known as the "TM-Sidhis program," the TMO calls him/her a "Sidha," and may send them emails like the one below.  From the following email, I conclude that the TMO is trying to propagate a Hindu-like religion.  What do you think?

The TMO sent this email to a TM-Free reader, who was kind enough to forward it to TMF.  Thank you!  Readers are invited to send us anything which may be of interest to other TMF readers.  I have edited the email for brevity:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From:  [one of the TM organizations - ed.]
To: xxxxxxx
Sent:  Nov 10, 2012
Subject: Nov 11-13 Broadcast Times for Global Celebrations

The Transcendental Meditation Program
NATIONAL COMMUNICATION OFFICE

Global Celebration Broadcast Times for

Dhanvantari Jayanti, Hanuman Jayanti, and Mahalakshmi

Dear Governors and Sidhas,

It is a pleasure to invite you to enjoy the global broadcasts on Maharishi Channel 3 on each of these beautiful Vedic Festival days taking place November 11th, 12th, and 13th.... 

You can connect each day on the Internet on Maharishi Channel 3:http://maharishichannel.in/....                   

Sunday, November 11, 5:55 pm (EST)—Dhanvantari(1) Jayanti:                                                                    
Celebrating the Birthday of Lord Dhanvantari, the eternal custodian of Ayur-Veda, the Science of Life, for living and enjoying the lively field of Immortality—the field of perfect health—in the midst of change. On this day of Dhanvantari, the tradition of the complete knowledge of Ayur-Veda is enlivened in human awareness and we can take advantage of this opportunity to imbibe in our consciousness the elements of perfect balance, perfect health, and immortality to help create a disease-free society.

Monday, November 12, 5:50 pm (EST)—Hanuman(2) Jayanti:
Enlivening Nature’s infinite organizing power for enjoying every wave of life in the fullness of bliss, in perfection, health, and happiness. The day of Hanuman enlivens those impulses of creative intelligence that help maintain the flow of evolution in an uninterrupted way and help remove obstacles on the way to enlightenment, thereby promoting Natural Law-based administration, Raam Raj, where society is free from problems and suffering.

Tuesday, November 13, 7:25 pm (EST)—Mahalakshmi(3) Celebration; Deepavali, the Festival of Lights:
Enlivening the qualities of prosperity, affluence, fullness, and fulfillment, and the glorification of all aspects of life—inner and outer—in every corner of the globe. The day of Mahalakshmi is one of the most important days in the Vedic calendar, enlivening all good everywhere and Heavenly Life on Earth. The Sanskrit word Mahalakshmi means “great wealth.” On this auspicious day we enliven the specific values of creative intelligence in nature that bestow prosperity, growth, wealth, and affluence; and eliminate poverty and remove obstacles and weaknesses in individual and collective consciousness.

Jai Guru Dev                                                                          

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------            
 According to Wikipedia:
(1)  Dhavantari is an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu
(2) Hanuman is a Hindu monkey-god
(3) Mahalakshmi is a Hindu goddess

Do you think the TMO is misleading the public?  If yes, do you think it is doing so intentionally or unintentionally?  Why do you think it is doing that?  How do you feel about that?

All Publicity is Good Publicity - Maharishi and Transcendental Meditation

TM Free Blog sends a big “Thank You!!” to Claire Hoffman and John Horgan for critiquing TM in high profile publications!  Merci! Gracias! Grazie! 

Thanks to Hoffman and Horgan, the New York Times Magazine and Scientific American commented on the Transcendental Meditation Movement. Comments for the online articles expose True Believers’ mentality, further emphasizing the writers’ points. 

Despite Maharishi’s teaching that “All Publicity is Good Publicity” to assuage followers’ concerns when media questioned the giggling guru or his World Plan, some True Believers rabidly defend their organization and guru at every hint of criticism. I can't help but wonder what Maharishi would say about this recent TM publicity.

In the February 22, 2013 New York Times Magazine, Claire Hoffman’s “David Lynch is Back... as a Guru of Transcendental Meditation” describes today’s celebrity studded world of Transcendental Meditation (TM) recruitment.

Avoiding potential charges of defamation, Hoffman never writes “Beware, TM is a manipulative destructive cult justified by dubious pseudo-science.” Nor does she claim “TM hopes to garnish increasing numbers through celebrity star appeal, just as the Beatles and others seduced new recruits in the 1960s.”

Hoffman, who was raised with TM, instead artfully dodges directly stating the obvious by painting scenes familiar to anyone who has lived within the TM Movement. One of my current (non TM history) friends asked me after reading the article, “So, what’s the article’s point?”

I responded, “The reader must read between the lines and draw conclusions from her stories. Hoffman cannot print that the organization is high profit cult that seduces people by promising a Golden Egg of happiness. The organization is worth billions of dollars and could sue.”

Hoffman’s article opens with the scene of an advanced TM meeting at Lynch’s compound. Lynn Kaplan, a TM Initiator for decades, leads the gathered group. As an aside, Lynn Kaplan and her ex-husband, Earl were best friends with my ex-husband and me in the early 1980s. Lynn’s ex-husband, Earl Kaplan, later left TM after having donated over $150 million to Maharishi’s schemes. Earl speaks candidly about his disillusionment with the giggling guru when interviewed in the carefully constructed documentary, "David Wants to Fly".

Ms. Hoffman quotes various celebrities describing perceived TM  benefits, as if the only way to obtain peace of mind is through a meditation taught through several days of trance-induction. Hoffman details Lynch’s hyper-commitment to spreading TM after he attended the so-called “Millionaire’s Course.” For the sum of one million dollars per attendee, Maharishi promised enlightenment to each participant and garnered their lifelong commitment to promote TM. Most graduates of the Millionaire’s course became TM Rajas with golden colored cardboard crowns, similar to those given away at Burger King hamburger restaurants. Rather than becoming a Raja, Lynch instead received an honorary PhD from Maharishi University.

After his millionaire’s course, Lynch established the David Lynch Foundation to fundraise and spread TM to students, inner-city youth, and veterans with PTSD. The Lynch foundation targets celebrities for fundraising appeal, such as the 2009 "Change Begins Within" Concert which featured Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Michael Love and others telling stories of their time with Maharishi in Rishikesh India 1968. 

Hoffman’s essay includes a grid of today’s TM celebrity front runners, such as Russell Brand, Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Oz, Howard Stern, Jerry Seinfeld and others. Longtime TM Initiator-Governor Bobby Roth, currently employed by David Lynch’s foundation, carefully cultivates celebrity TMers.  Like high profile celebrities in other cult-like groups, TM celebrities are sheltered from the dysfunctions, demands, psychosis and poverty experienced by many rank and file TM devotees.

On March 4, 2013 John Horgan pubished for his Scientific American “Cross-Check” blog “Do All Cults, Like All Psychotherapies, Exploit the Placebo Effect?” referring to Hoffman’s article, above.

Horgan offers a short discussion of the placebo effect, followed by an explanation of destructive cults.  He closes his essay “The more you believe in the uniquely transformative power of your cult, the more you get out of it. The only price you have to pay is your rationality.”

A few days later, on March 8, Horgan offered another essay critiquing TM’s research, in response to the True Believer comments on his first TM expose’ post, “Research on TM and Other Forms of Meditation Stinks”.

Horgan avoids insulting his readers with a definition of the scientific method and randomized trials which define good research (none of which have been used in TM studies). Horgan does, however, pointedly reference that all forms of meditation have been shown to be beneficial at times. He points out that meditation has been linked to “adverse side effects, too, including suggestibility, neuroticism, depression, suicidal impulses, insomnia, nightmares, anxiety, psychosis and dysphoria. In an implicit reference to the cultish context within which meditation is often taught, Andresen added that meditators may become vulnerable to “manipulation and control by others,” including “unscrupulous or delusional teachers.”

Horgan concludes, “A similar picture emerges from the 2007 peer-reviewed report “Meditation practices for health: state of the research,” by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The report analyzed 813 studies of meditation and concluded that most were of “poor quality.” The report stated: “Many uncertainties surround the practice of meditation. Scientific research on meditation practices does not appear to have a common theoretical perspective and is characterized by poor methodological quality. Firm conclusions on the effects of meditation practices in healthcare cannot be drawn based on the available evidence.... If your particular form of meditation makes you feel good, do it! But don’t kid yourself that its medical benefits have been scientifically proven.”

TM-Free moderators bow our hats to Hoffman and Horgan for their excellent essays!

Indoctrination is Subtle and Sneaky

At TM-Free we recently received a question from a concerned former TMer. What I found interesting about the email was that its writer is quite savvy about the hypocrisy of the TM organization, and has put a lot of serious research into cult issues. It brought home to me how there's always more to be learned about mind control, how it's all around us, how vulnerable we are to its sneaky tactics, and how we have to keep practicing our critical thinking. It also reminded me that we at TM-Free can serve a role in helping people learn how to deal with people they love who may be involved in a destructive cult.  

IMPORTANT NOTE: We at TM-Free are not professionals counselors in this field. If you are concerned about someone, read and consult professionals such as those listed on the right at our home page. (Note: We do NOT recommend the Cult Awareness Network, since that organization was bought by Scientologists a decade or so ago). 

Here is the question from the reader: I wonder if any of you know anything about the "XYZ" group. A dear relative of mine has gotten into it and swears her "cult radar" is not going off. But I keep seeing things in it that remind me of other groups that use undue influence. She is highly aware of the influence of group think, (emphasis added), having been along for the ride during the T.M. circus years in Switzerland during the 70's....  

Response from various TM-Free editors:  Keep an eye on things.  It doesn't necessarily matter how much she knew about cults ahead of time.  Once the right kind of person is in a trance state, the executive control function of the brain is shut down.  And without the executive control function, any foreknowledge about cults is not being processed or applied to the current situation.  Cult dogma can then be steadily ladled in without the person realizing it's happening.

And afterwards the person still doesn't know it happened, even after being away from the indoctrination experience for awhile.  People can't detect reality shifts; they don't remember what reality was like before the indoctrination.

Of course everything depends on how much "the right sort of person" she is.  Maybe she's not.

If you research nothing else, please watch this amazing YouTube for a demonstration of surreptitious induction of dissociation, and of exploiting it to change people's beliefs in under 5 minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzn9rX7rauA 

This is an extraordinary demonstration of how easy it is to get people under your thumb, of how to be a cult leader.

Do look up the group in some of the websites listed on the right.  Also, here are some questions that might help you determine if she's unknowingly come under their influence:  Does she seem evangelical about the group?  Defensive about criticism of it?  Questioning of it?  How much does she say her life was "transformed"?  Is she keen to go back for more?  Is she keen to get you to go?

I can understand you wanting to keep at arm's length from the group, but it I were you I'd start asking her to share what she had learned from the experience, and what growth she felt she had achieved from it.  For one thing, you might get a better idea of where her head is at regarding it.  And if there are current or potential problems, you're better off establishing that she can share things with you, thus keeping the line of communication open.  

If she starts sliding down the slope into full-scale cult involvement, you want her to share the ride with you as much as possible.  You would then be an open connection to reality.  The reason that you want to back off if she gets defensive is to avoid triggering a cognitive dissonance response.  If she gets defensive, then don't be critical about the group, or she might disconnect as far as sharing about it goes:

http://goo.gl/MWaj 

which would shut down communication.

Or of course everything might be just fine with her.  It still wouldn't do any harm to open a dialogue about it with her.  Just be interested, curious and respectful when asking, not critical, to see how things lie.

The "cult leader" in the video mentioned above is Derren Brown.  Brown is a master of a classic branch of stage magic called "Mentalism."  You can find many excerpts from his performances on YouTube.  A "mentalist" is a performer who simulates having supernatural powers, but who is honest that it is all a fake.  A mentalist uses mental acuity, cold reading, warm reading, hot reading, principles of stage magic, hypnosis and/or suggestion to present the illusion of mind reading, psychokinesis, extra-sensory perception, precognition, clairvoyance or mind control.

In other words, a mentalist uses the exact same techniques that a cult leader uses.  The only difference is that the mentalist is honest about it all being an act.

(Thanks to Wikipedia and www.suggestibility.org for selected quotes).

"Maharishi Says...."

Spokespeople for TM organizations extoll Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as a great spiritual leader, scientist, humanitarian, world leader; as a man of nearly divine brilliance, wisdom, holiness, insight, vision, and so on.

So I thought it might be useful for TM-Free to compile a list of outrageous quotations from Mahesh, as a way of deflating the TMO's claims.

Also, maybe this list will be helpful for people who are working on their recovery from TM mind control.

Here's my favorite quote from Mahesh:

"Having achieved world peace, we are now on the way to creating Heaven on Earth...."  (From www.maharishi.org/adv_techniques/index.html.  This web page was last updated April 2007.)

Please contribute your most outrageous quote(s) in the "Comments" section.  List the source or context if you know it.  Paraphrases from memory are fine too; please note "from memory" and context if possible.

Recovering TM Cult Children --

Given that most posts here generate stimulating conversation about the TMO, Maharishi and cult (and recovery) dynamics, I couldn't help but note the lack of comments (both here and on TM-Free's FB page) to a recent insightful post Maharishi Mahesh Demeans Children. which quoted Helena Olson's "Maharishi at 433" about the guru's attitude toward children. This post was shared anonymously by one our readers who was raised in the TM Movement and included a number of revelatory remarks about adult TM-children's view of the Movement.

The lack of commentators' response to the words of a TM-kid who is finding their voice to publicly speak the unspeakable (criticism of the guru) reminds me when I was the only born-and-raised person in a cult recovery therapy group. Someone else in that group (a former cult member) looked at me askew and said, "That's really interesting. I never thought about the children in our cult."

I laughed and shook my head, "That's the point." I responded, "Children were left largely to their own devices. The leaders did not think about children.  Parents followed leaders' dictates, leadership bent upon narcissistic and financial goals. Cult members with follower-mentality lacked guidance on how to parent. There was some variation, and mostly a lot of neglect."

Sadly, little attention is placed, even in cult recovery, upon the larger issues of those born-and-raised in TM and other cults. The programming from birth can be hard to overcome. Some have lifelong effects that interfere with professional, social and family development. Into adulthood, many remain dependent primarily upon their cult-based childhood friendships because they are unable to create bonds with outsiders.

When leaving the group, "kids" lack any history of a non-cult life from which to navigate the outside world.

Just noticing... still little-to-no recognition for those whose parents and community had 'more-noble' priorities.

Fortunately, an informal network of TM-kids helps one another, in cities around the world. They (we) have our own stories. Most TM-kids share their stories quietly between trusted friends. They do not speak out publicly to avoid rejection from family and lifelong friends, many of whom remain in degrees of TM mentality.

For TM'ers who may respond saying "Maharishi said that your children are your program."
I guarantee that Maharishi NEVER said that. In 1979,  I was a 21 year old single mother, with a 2 year old child from a relationship that had begun as statutory rape when I was 15 years old.

My parents had left me at MIU Santa Barbara to attend the local high school, without a legal custodian when I was 15 years old. They thought it was a pure, safe environment (variation of a common experience for subsequent decades of TM kids). MIU Prep was a joke at that time - a babysitting service based around a few dirty donated fisher-price toys and volunteer babysitters (including me).

I told Bevan Morris, "Our children are our Program" at the first World Peace Assembly in Amherst Massachusetts, summer 1979.

Bevan Morris had called me to a private audience to threaten banning me if I didn't participate in full Program. He said I would be responsible for World War III and global economic collapse because I continued my self-modified version of Program to allow me to also care for my daughter.

In 1979-mid 1980s I then told other parents, as I had told Bevan, "Our children are our Program. Maharishi doesn't know about children because he doesn't have any." I also said the same when I taught childbirth and early parenting classes to TMers in Fairfield, Iowa through the mid 1980s. It seems that some community remembered the message, although attributing it to their guru.

The stance of Maharishi and his Movement (led primarily by single men) toward children and parenting was "Do your program to support spontaneous right action and glean the support of nature". Meanwhile parents were told to meditate for hours daily and donate ample $ums to Maharishi's vision.

MIU Prep and MSAE (Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment) were established by motivated parents, not because of Maharishi's interest in children. When TM leadership learned they could glean publicity through MSAE, there was a smidgen of interest to exploit enlightened children to attract followers. That's the same motivation behind David Lynch Foundation's efforts toward school children.

For the most part, TM children hindered the quest for enlightenment, to be seen and largely ignored. Other than teaching children to meditate and parrot the guru's teachings, the Movement did not support nurturing, protecting nor inspiring children's individuality. Fortunately, a few parents had strong parental / maternal instincts; those homes often became a haven for other kids.

Seems that's still the case. To the TM-kids out there - remember, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!