Sunday, March 07, 2010

Freaking FBI Promoting Transcendental Meditation! How to Protest

Doug Mesner, an outstanding, young investigative journalist, messaged me this morning about a Transcendental Meditation advertisement, masquerading as an article, published by the FBI in May 2009.

Below is the email I immediately sent to leb@fbiacademy.edu (the editor of the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin) and AskDOJ@usdoj.gov (a general contact for the FBI).

Please feel free to adapt any part of my email for your own message to the FBI.

To protest is our free speech right. The FBI will not penalize you for exercising this right.

PLEASE SHARE!

Subject: You posted an advertisement, disguised as an article, for a religious organization in May 2009

Dear editor,

I am very disturbed to discover that your bulletin published an advertisement, disguised as an article, for Transcendental Meditation in your May 2009 issue: http://www.fbi.gov/publications/leb/2009/may2009/brain.htm .

TM is a religious organization. For some details, http://knappfamilycounseling.com/tmreligion.html , http://tmfree.blogspot.com , http://minet.org , http://suggestibility.org .

Whether publishing the article was a violation of the separation of Church and State or not, I feel your readers should at least be alerted to these facts:

Many critics allege TM is a destructive "cult": Steven Hassan, Rick Ross, the International Cultic Studies Association, and many, many more.

In my therapeutic practice, I, personally, have received hundreds of reports of serious mental, emotional, and physical damage from long-time Transcendental Meditation practitioners. I am a therapist specializing in recovery from spiritual abuse in toxic groups, abusive churches, and cults.

I was also a 23-year member of TM and a TM teacher and am willing to discuss the abuse and harm I feel I experienced in that organization.

Please consider publishing a note, letter to the editor, or whatever you feel is appropriate to, at the very least, allow critical feedback on the article and this organization.

J.

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