TM-Free Blog

Transcendental Meditation: What got you in? And what got you out? Part 1

2012-01-14T16:55:00.003-05:00

I've been thinking back over my long strange journey through TM. How did I get so deeply embroiled? How did I get out? Maybe you've been musing over your own life too, or that of those you love who are still embroiled in TM. Here's my chronology. I hope reading it will help some TM-Free readers sort out their own experience.

- I was looking for a better life.
- I read "Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahansa Yogananda. At the tender age of 16, I did not realize that autobiographies were not automatically truthful. The book excited me with the hope that Hinduism's yoga had something special to offer. I tried out Yogananda's teachings, but they did not satisfy me.
- I attended lectures of Swami Satchitananda, who fulfilled my expectations of what a yogi saint should be like. But I did not start his yoga because it seemed like a commitment to a lifestyle change and a difficult practice.
- I had friends who started TM and told me in awed tones what wonderful results it brought, and that it was very easy.
- I attended TM introductory lectures and was impressed by the scientific research, logic of the theory, and serenity of the initiators.
- I was impressed by my initiator's holy glow during the initiation ceremony. When I said my mantra, I felt it reverberate in my mouth and around the room in a mystical way. When I thought the mantra silently for the first time, I was transported to a magical place of inner peace and bliss. I felt euphoric, stoned, for the first three days that I did TM, and I noticed positive changes in myself in those first three days, too. All these things led me to believe that TM was a profound, life-changing spiritual technique.
- The initiators promised that by doing TM twice daily, the positive changes would continue to accumulate. Indeed, for the first few months that I did TM, I did notice small improvements in myself.
- I ran into some TMers who were gung-ho on TM as a method not only for self-improvement, but as the solution for all of life's problems. They encouraged me to attend a long TM course.
- I attended the course and rounded for one month. Maharishi was there in person and lectured several times a day. Also, a few prominent Western guest speakers - scientists, psychologists, astronauts, philosophers, educators, etc. - hailed the virtues of TM. Maharishi promised that TM would solve all problems of society. My brain was in a vulnerable, receptive state from all that sensory deprivation during rounding and from hearing only TM-positive opinions for one month. There was no questioning or challenging. As computer geeks say, "Garbage in, garbage out." It was so easy to be lulled into a dreamy, hopeful state of belief. I experienced Maharishi as giving off saintly emanations. He was charismatic, knowledgeable , charming, flattering, and convincing - and begged us to become TM initiators. It was so easy to fall, as the path of least resistance, into his belief system.
- I left the course a true believer, determined to become an initiator. It never occurred to me to research the opinions of TM skeptics.
- Originally, I believed what Maharishi taught because science and logic supported his system (or so I had been led to believe.) But gradually, unconsciously, I made the transition from "Maharishi says it because it's true" to "If Maharishi says it, then it's true." All my TM activities that followed hereafter just strengthened the belief system that I had now internalized. Residence courses, checker training, advanced lectures, TM teacher training, initiating, working at TM residential centers, learning the TM-Sidhi program, attending long rounding courses for world peace - no matter what Maharishi's latest invention or discovery or program was, Maharishi had to be right, and to question would be disloyal and foolishness.

How about you? Does any of this resonate for you? What got you in?

Coming next: Part 2: And what got you out?

Crunching the Facebook Numbers: How Many Meditators Are There?

2012-01-08T13:19:00.122-05:00

One of the most persistent claims made by the TM movement is that there are currently about one million people practicing Transcendental Meditation in the United States. There is very little evidence to support this claim, other than the fact that, according to the movement's own records, about 919,000 people learned TM in the US between 1968 and 1977. This figure was once published in a chapter on the TM movement in the 1986 book, The future of religion: secularization, revival, and cult formation.

This figure, while interesting, may not be relevant today. As many former TM teachers and even meditators have noted, the dropout rate among new meditators is very high, with many giving up the practice in as little as six months or less. Informally, anecdotally, it's relatively easy to run into people who used to do TM in the distant past, but people who are currently active meditators are much more difficult to find.

Through use of an advertising targeting tool on Facebook, it's possible to measure the popularity of a number of topics related to Transcendental Meditation across age groups, and thus extrapolate from that sampling of Facebook users to the general population. This method suggests that only about 60,000 people in the United States have any current interest in these topics, which is a tiny fraction of the "one million meditators" that the TM movement claims currently live in the United States.

One possible means of estimating the number of meditators out there - or for that matter, estimating the number of people interested in any relatively esoteric subject - is provided by Facebook. As part of the tools provided to those arranging for advertising, an "estimated reach" can be calculated based on demographics, region, interests, or any combination. Using this tool, it's possible to obtain an approximation of how many people of each age group, who use Facebook, have expressed an interest in Transcendental Meditation or related topics. At the same time, the total number of Facebook users in each demographic can also be obtained, using the same tool without specifying interests. That ratio can then be extrapolated to the entire US population through the use of census data on the overall size of the same demographic brackets, thus providing some rough estimate of the size of the entire population of likely US meditators, and their distribution by age and sex.

Here's the end result of these calculations:

The number that jumps out at me is the 55+ number - fully one-third of people who've expressed an interest in TM are 55 years of age and older. This is the legacy of the boom in TM initiations during the early 1970's, among people who were in their 20's or older at the time. A current age of 55 would correspond to a 1975 TM initiation at the age of eighteen.

Here is another view of these numbers, showing each demographic by its percentage of all US meditators.

While the marketing campaigns run by the David Lynch Foundation may attempt to make the case that TM is a popular practice in the United States, through their ongoing parade of celebrities and public figures, that sort of assertion is not in any way supported by these estimates. The penetration of Transcendental Meditation is so low, that I must refer to the proportion in units of one thousandth of one percent.

The largest single demographic group of likely meditators by penetration of the US market, those 55-64, is only three-hundredths of one percent of that age group in the United States - of that group, only one person in about 3,000. Overall, 0.025% of the US population meditates, or expresses an interest in Transcendental Meditation. That means that roughly 1 in 4,000 people, selected at random, across both genders and across all age groups, is a meditator, or is likely to express any interest in any topic related to Transcendental Meditation.

These numbers are based on a few very simple calculations based on the raw data from the census and the Facebook tool. One big factor that might affect how these numbers should be interpreted is the erosion of the Transcendental Meditation brand, as many people today use those two words generically for meditation unrelated to the trademarked, specific practice sold by Maharishi and his successors. Others may think "Maharishi" is a clothing brand. Conversely, the odds of any one meditator revealing the fact of their practice of TM in their Facebook profile are also unknown. These factors, and possibly more, complicate making a direct connection between Facebook "likes" of these topics and actual practice of Transcendental Meditation. But in any case, it is likely that the population of meditators in the United States is about one twentieth the size, or smaller, than that which is claimed by the TM movement.

The spreadsheets containing the raw Facebook and census numbers, and the calculated results, may be found here:

US Details

US Summary

These are the "precise interests" that were used to select the targets in the selected demographic of Facebook users when collecting the raw data. These terms are suggested by Facebook when entering words with obvious connections to Transcendental Meditation, including "maharishi" and "transcendental."

#Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, #Transcendental Meditation, #Transcendental Meditation movement, #Maharishi University of Management, #Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health, #Transcendental Meditation technique, #TM-Sidhi program, #RAAM, maharishi mahesh yogi, maharishi, maharishi university management, maharishi videos, maharishi ayurved produkter, meditacion trascendental, transcendental meditation, transcendental meditation manchester city region, meditazione trascendentale

Readers' Open Thread on Transcendental Meditation

2011-12-24T14:53:00.004-05:00

Season's Greetings from TM-Free.Blog!

It's time for an open thread. You, the reader, get to choose the topic, whether serious or light-hearted. What's on your mind about TM?

I've got a few thoughts on my mind too, so I'll start the ball rolling.

1. Who designed those awful crowns? They look like Old King Cole crowns, nothing like the crowns real monarchs wear. Are they solid gold? Are the rajas embarrassed to wear them? Are they embarrassed to wear those funny gowns? Do they realize the outfits look absurd on everyone, and especially on overweight men? And what's with the white cloth in the interior of the crowns?

2. I finally understand that TM isn't a dessert topping, but - is it a religion, or is it actually a money-making scheme? (I mean, where does all that money for $2,500 initiations go, or the $4,000 for the yagyas? Where did the money from the "Million Dollar Course" go?) Or is it actually a political world order scheme? Or is it Mahesh's attempt to be very important? Or was it his attempt to make the whole world happy? or spiritual? Or what the heck???

3. Mahesh experimented on TMers in order to develop the TM-Sidhis program. He instituted the "Six Month Course" and the "Age of Enlightenment Course" where he tried out various meditation techniques until he came up with what he called the TM-Sidhis. My question is, as human guinea pigs, was anyone injured on those courses? And what became of them?

Those are my musings. What's on your mind?

Mantras and other secrets of Transcendental Meditation

2011-12-10T11:18:00.005-05:00

Recently, a non-TM friend asked me, "In the TM movement, what was secret, aside from the mantras?" That question really got me thinking. I have come to the conclusion that there were at least six types of secrets in the TM movement: (1) things that were secret to the lower levels, but were revealed to upper levels, (2) things that were not secret in the earlier days of the TM movement, but later were made officially secret, (3) things we were explicitly told to keep secret, and to tell the public that these things were secret, (4) things we weren't explicitly told to keep secret, but we picked up the cues that we should keep them secret, and (5) things that we were explicitly told to lie about to the public in order to keep them secret, (6) things that Mahesh kept secret from all of us (or you may term that "lied to us about") that we only found out through the internet, etc.

Type (1) might be the religious/Hindu/Vedic side of the movement. Or the fact that Maharishi instituted celibacy for some factions of the movement.

Type (2) might be the fact that the mantras were sounds to attract the favor of Hindu gods. Another example is that "God Consciousness" was later re-termed "Glorified Cosmic Consciousness." Also, originally it was strictly forbidden for non-"flyers" to see "yogic flying." Later the public was invited to watch.

Type (3) might be the mantras, how they were were chosen, and how to do TM, the TM-Sidhis, and other TM programs.

Type (4) might be to not translate the puja if someone asked us. Or to not tell anyone that learning how to choose the mantras took 5 minutes.

Type (5). I remember Maharishi telling us to "tell the audience at the introductory lecture that the puja is a 3-minute ceremony." Someone asked Maharishi in dismay, "It takes me 10 minutes! Am I doing something wrong?" Maharishi replied, "It will feel like 3 minutes to the student." Or Maharishi's explicit instruction to "tell the students that the puja is a non-religious ceremony, just for the purpose of giving gratitude to the tradition of masters." However, on my TM Teacher Training Course, Maharishi told us that the real purpose of the puja was to temporarily lift the TM teacher into a higher state of consciousness, and sped his/her growth towards enlightenment.

Type (6) might be the fact that Maharishi's "timeless wisdom, the purity of the teaching" consisted of him teaching different mantras and different criterion for choosing mantras on different TM Teacher Training courses. Or that Maharishi was not Guru Dev's favored disciple, but rather his clerk. Or that TM research is biased, that some people have harmful results from doing TM, and that other techniques have proven as good as TM.

Please, add your memories of TM secrets to this list!

Who Are These People? The Backgrounds of David Lynch's "Operation Warrior Wellness" participants

2011-12-02T08:30:00.017-05:00

(This is a rewrite/update of last years' "Who Are These People" feature, on the "researchers" and other figures associated with the David Lynch Foundation's campaign to promote Transcendental Meditation to vulnerable populations including schoolchildren and military veterans.)

This weekend's events sponsored by the David Lynch Foundation begin at 11 am Pacific time today, with a "press conference" that's been announced on the Foundation's web site, but strangely, as far as what shows up online this morning, no press releases have been sent to the media through the usual websites to encourage attendance by members of the press.

(Update, 9:30 am ET: Obviously the Associated Press has rewritten a press release into a news story for an event that hasn't even happened yet. It's 6:30 am in Los Angeles and Lynch and company are probably still asleep.)

At the DLF web site, there's a copy of an invitation that was sent to people who practice the Transcendental Meditation technique describing the event. As usual, this sort of "press conference" that isn't - a non-event that's staged periodically by the organization that teaches TM for the last few decades - will be a sales pitch offering the Transcendental Meditation program as yet another form of panacea, this time, as a treatment for veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress.

As is standard practice for promoters of Maharishi-branded products, full disclosure of the backgrounds, and prior associations with the TM program, of the people who'll be present and/or presenting at this event seldom occurs. While it may appear that the medical doctors and other individuals on the panel may be independently employed, many have long been closely associated with the TM organization.

As I've written before, the promoters of TM today generally tend to come from a rather narrow demographic, recruited while relatively young, and during a particular period, the late '60's and early-mid 70's, when recruitment into TM was supported by the influence of American popular culture. Likewise, there's a striking sameness among the ten individuals involved with this conference. Only two of them are clearly younger than 50 years old, and they're students at the TM movement's university. Among those whose date of initiation into the TM program can be identified, other than those students, only one learned TM after the mid-1970's.

My added details about the conference panel participants appear in italic below. Names and initial descriptions are from various David Lynch Foundation sources including press releases and bios on the Foundation and Operation Warrior Welness websites.

David Lynch, chair, David Lynch Foundation

American filmmaker, aged 64. Initiated into the Transcendental Meditation program on July 1, 1973. Lynch has no demonstrated qualifications to evaluate a treatment for PTSD.

John Hagelin, Ph.D., president of the David Lynch Foundation. Harvard-trained quantum physicist who has led an international scientific investigation over the past 25 years into the applications of Transcendental Meditation for health and education.

While Hagelin is indeed a physicist, his qualifications to evaluate any treatment or therapy for PTSD have not been demonstrated. Hagelin has been involved with the TM organization for decades, and has run for the United States Presidency multiple times as the Natural Law Party candidate. Inside the all-male hierarchy of the organization, he's known as the “Raja of America,” coronated on November 20, 2007.

Jerry Yellin, World War II veteran and national co-chair of Operation Warrior Wellness. A P-51 pilot in WWII who flew 19 missions over Japan, and was victimized by PTSD for 25 years before learning to meditate in 1975, Mr. Yellin is a member of the Military Writers Society of America; author of three award-winning books, and honorary board member of the Iwo Jima Association of America.

Yellin’s personal story and endorsement of the TM program appears at the Transcendental Meditation Blog, and of course, in his latest book. Those are, however, no substitute for independent scientific research on the effectiveness of the technique, particularly with respect to PTSD. His story should not encourage the disregard of the inherent religious agenda of global transformation, based on gaining the support of Vedic devata (gods), put forward by the sole organization which offers TM. This unavoidable agenda is inherent to the whole process of learning Transcendental Meditation including introductory presentations on TM. The vague, unsupportable claim made by the DLF and others, that the mantras used in TM have unique, mysterious "life-supporting effects," is one such example.

Ed Schloeman, Vietnam veteran and national co-chair of Operation Warrior Wellness. He is a retired Chief Master Sergeant (E-9) from the New York Air National Guard and a Vietnam Marine Disabled Veteran (Sgt) serving from 1960 to 1966.

Schloeman learned Transcendental Meditation in late 2010.

Norman E. Rosenthal, M.D., PTSD researcher, bestselling author, member of the Operation Warrior Wellness medical board. Senior researcher in psychiatry and psychobiology for 20 years at the National Institute of Mental Health; clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical School, who conducted research on TM and Iraq veterans with PTSD.

Rosenthal recently authored "Transcendence: Healing and Transformation Through Transcendental Meditation," a book which, like most of the genre, promotes TM through the use of anecdotes and celebrities. He learned TM in South Africa in the mid-1970's.

Other evidence of the depth of Rosenthal’s direct participation in the TM program, if any, remains undisclosed. He has been involved with at least one previous David Lynch Foundation sponsored conference, promoting TM as an aid for students with ADHD. He’s better known for coining the term, “seasonal affective disorder.”

His research on Iraq veterans with PTSD was published in Military Medicine in July, 2011. This is an "uncontrolled pilot study" with only five subjects who were followed for only twelve weeks, and the abstract suggests that "larger, placebo-controlled studies should be undertaken."

Despite Rosenthal's public endorsement of TM in the context of marketing that implies that it's a well-studied, scientifically-proven treatment for everything including mental illness, in a November 21, 2011 online interview, he offered this advice to those who wanted to use TM as a treatment for mental illness:

I would first say, proceed with caution. The very first edict in the Hippocratic Oath is, "First do no harm." So if someone has a mental illness, that's something to be taken really seriously. And I would emphasize the value of getting somebody who's qualified to consult, to offer opinions, to suggest and make recommendations. And it's only in that context, once the standard treatments have been tried and implemented, that one should go into what is, after all, even though it's very exciting, still exploratory and experimental. So I would say definitely consider it, definitely bring it up to any treating therapist or doctor. ... I would not recommend Transcendental Meditation for any kind of emotional or mental illness ahead of what's called the "standard of care," those things that have been very thoroughly researched and have been put forward as standard treatments.

Rosenthal's website is produced and hosted by Safire Internet Solutions, the same provider that creates websites for Maharishi University of Management, the David Lynch Foundation, and the TM movement.

Colonel Brian M. Rees, M.D., M.P.H., co-chair of Operation Warrior Wellness, has 34 years of commissioned military service, and completed four deployments in Afghanistan. He is a graduate of the Army Command and General Staff College and the US Army War College, and is the former commander of the 349th Combat Support Hospital in Bell (Los Angeles), California.

Rees is a teacher of TM and has been closely associated with the Transcendental Meditation organization for over twenty years. He wrote a letter to the Journal of the American Medical Association supporting Maharishi Ayur-Veda products in 1989, and was later identified as the director of the Maharishi Ayur-Veda Medical Center in Pacific Palisades, California. He was a candidate for U.S. Senator from California in 1998 and 2000 under the banner of the TM organization’s “Natural Law Party.”

Rees is the author of a rather peculiar, 2007 US Army War College masters degree research paper, “The Application of Strategic Stress Management in Winning the Peace.” While the title suggests the subject is “stress management,” much of the paper assumes the validity of the so-called “Maharishi Effect” - the unsubstantiated, and religion-based, assertion that groups of people practicing certain parts of the Transcendental Meditation program that generally involve bouncing on foam rubber will bring peace and “invincibility” to countries that establish and pay for such groups by gaining the support of Vedic devata (gods). In 1997, Evan Fales and Barry Markovsky at the University of Iowa concluded that this “theory does not pass minimal criteria of meaningfulness and logical integrity.”

Rees is named as one of the directors of the “Center for Advanced Military Science (CAMS)” at “The Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy at Maharishi University of Management,” one part of the organization that teaches TM. The main function of CAMS appears to be the promotion of the “Maharishi Effect” non-theory, renamed “Invincible Defense Technology,” as valid military doctrine of some sort.

Sarina Grosswald, Ed.D., Operation Warrior Wellness director of women's programs, George Washington University-trained cognitive learning specialist and published researcher on the effects of TM on PTSD and ADHD.

Grosswald is a research faculty member at the TM movement’s Maharishi University of Management. She was a candidate for U.S. Congress from Virginia in 1996 and 1998, and was treasurer of the Natural Law Party of Virginia at its closing in 2004. Grosswald also participated in the 2003 inauguration of “The US Peace Government.” Grosswald, like John Hagelin, has received a “Doctorate in World Peace Studies” from Maharishi European Research University, which reportedly, as much as it ever physically existed, once consisted of a desk in a TM movement owned hotel in Switzerland. According to a self-described long-term meditator, the MERU “DWP” degree was “an award from Maharishi to those who studied with him for over forty years.”

Dan Burks, Vietnam veteran, member of the Operation Warrior Wellness advisory board

Burks, aged 63, was Instructor of Exercise and Sport Science at the TM movement’s Maharishi University of Management, in 2009-2010, and resides in Fairfield, Iowa.

David George, Iraq veteran, member of the Operation Warrior Wellness advisory board

George is currently a student at the TM organization’s Maharishi University of Management.

Supriya Vidic, Iraq veteran, member of the Operation Warrior Wellness advisory board

Vidic is also a Maharishi University of Management student.

The actual participation by the organizations listed as "partners" on the conference invitation could not be confirmed by way of each organizations' websites or other substantiating reports. Paul Rieckhoff, the Executive Director of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, has been announced as a recipient of an award at the David Lynch Foundation's fundraising gala tomorrow night (Saturday, December 3, 2011).

Is it a religion, or a dessert topping?

2011-11-24T00:51:00.006-05:00

One of the more stupefying features of TM is its vague claim of not being a religion: "The Transcendental Meditation technique is not a religion or philosophy." But an overview of everything connected with TM practice - the organization and the people who teach TM - suggests something completely different. Religious aspects are woven throughout this entire enterprise that claims to be "scientific" in nature. In fact, the core doctrine of the organization which teaches TM is that of a religion. This religious organization holds that Transcendental Meditation and other practices in the program have an effect on the individual and society through means that can only be described as religious. The TM organization's stated goals of global transformation have many similarities to those of other religious faiths.

The TM movement's denial of its own obvious religiosity is absurd. As my title suggests, it brings to mind this great Saturday Night Live sketch. "New Shimmer's a floor wax and a dessert topping!"

(Outside the U.S. use this link - the sketch starts at 1:30. Here's a transcript.)

"Tastes terrific... and just look at that shine!" But, as with Chevy Chase's rendition of the somewhat sleazy pitchman selling a surrealistic, self-contradictory product, something doesn't add up when it comes to the TM teacher's standard pitch concerning the relationship between TM and religious belief.

Critics over the years have pointed out that the religious nature of TM was proven by the decision in a Federal court case, Malnak v. Yogi, decades ago (1977). Yet promoters continue to insist that Transcendental Meditation is not a religious activity and may be implemented in public schools.

The following essay analyzes how the words and behaviors of the people and organizations promoting Transcendental Meditation mark it as a religious program. This is clearly demonstrated by current websites and online videos produced by the TM movement.

Illustration by Barry Geller in The TM Book, 1975

First, let's look carefully at what they claim, today, from the organization's premiere website: "The Transcendental Meditation technique is not a religion or philosophy." I've italicized those first words, because they make a distinction that the technique itself is not religious, avoiding any characterization of the rest of the program or the movement.

This is an important distinction. The claim implies that the process of closing one's eyes and doing only the meditation is not religious. This sentence avoids mention of the rest of the TM program and the organization that offers it. As the illustration to the right shows, they once claimed that the entire "TM program does NOT involve religious beliefs," and the marketing has changed over time.

The Transcendental Meditation program is a specific program only available through this specific organization. The entire multi-session process of learning Transcendental Meditation includes many minutes if not hours of instruction about teachings and beliefs which have no bearing upon the actual mechanics of meditating. Even before learning TM, this kind of information, such as the claimed intention to bring about "world peace," is presented in the introductory lectures, as this leaked document outlines in detail. David Lynch's TM-promoting foundation likewise includes mention of bringing about "world peace" by some vague unspecified means.

This claim of irreligiousness relates to recent controversies about the teaching and practice of yoga. There's nothing inherently religious about sitting on a mat in a particular posture with a group of people for physical benefit and enjoyment. Things become interesting when other aspects come along with some simple practice; a lifestyle, an ideology, a particular set of intentions on the part of the people doing the teaching that might be woven together with that practice. At that point, advocates of the TM program propose a clear set of justifications for the practice that are both blatantly unscientific and clearly religious.

The incremental manner in which portions of the TM programs are revealed, including the use of obscure and unusual language and terminology, complicates explanation of what's actually held to be true inside the program. These elements are revealed sequentially, such that a new TM practitioner might progressively receive revelations over time, each step depending on completion of the previous step. The first step is the process of learning Transcendental Meditation.

The TM movement never defines their often-used term, "natural law." What is "natural law?" Google the term against www.tm.org, and no understandable definition exists there. The term is attributed to Maharishi, founder of the TM program, in this transcript. Phrases such as "Transcendental Consciousness is the Unified Field of Natural Law" (in the context of explaining that "Transcendental Consciousness," whatever that might be, is experienced during TM) or that in some state of enlightenment, "one is living in full accord with Natural Law" still give few hints as to what that "Natural Law" might be.

Similarly, from the same transcript, Maharishi claims, "Quantum Field Theory has established that there is one unified field at the basis of all the creativity of natural law." This kind of connection of "natural law" to quantum theory is not supported by physics, and the TM movement never clarifies why living in accord with some obscure element of quantum physics might be a good thing.

Further specific claims are made for "Natural Law" in a page titled "Alliance with Natural Law" on the globalcountry.org website:

Scientific Research has shown that human brain physiology is capable of engaging total Natural Law in the field of thought, speech and behavior of the individual. Consciousness-Based programs educate and train the individuals to use their full brain potential, full creative intelligence, so that their thought, action and behavior spontaneously engage the evolutionary power of total Natural Law.

The claims made in this paragraph are not supported by scientific research in the usual sense. Certainly former physicist and movement spokesperson John Hagelin believes them to be true, but physicists outside the TM hierarchy do not recognize such claims. Such statements have been justifiably criticized for their vagueness, lack of clear definitions, and for the reliance on metaphors.

Also key here is the use of the phrase, "Consciousness-Based programs." "Consciousness-Based Education" is the focus and slogan of the allied David Lynch Foundation, which fundraises in support of teaching TM to school children and other potentially vulnerable populations.

In a promotional book on Transcendental Meditation written by active TM movement spokesman Bob Roth, one chapter is titled, "Life Supported by Natural Law." Roth inches closer to a concrete definition of "natural law," through an analogy to water's boiling point, or gravity. According to Roth, "natural law propels life in an evolutionary direction. It is the invincible force in nature... that continually creates, maintains, and evolves life."

It's reasonable to assume here that Roth is discussing something that's traditionally called "God" in most cultures. "God" is generally an "invincible" being or force with power over all life, but Roth is being coy about terminology, never quite coming out and saying so. He described "living in accord with natural law" as being beneficial, "the key to perfect health" and "the key to skill in action in life." But whatever this "spontaneous alliance with natural law" may be, Roth claims it's not a matter of intellectual understanding or intent, but the product of practicing TM. "Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation places life in the center stream of the evolutionary power of natural law."

Of course, none of this "natural law" talk is supported by any known scientific evidence, nor any scientific theory accepted outside of the TM movement. It's also doubtful that this particular series Roth presents - that a particular meditation practice, sold to people for a fee, will curry favor with God somehow, regardless of whether a TM practitioner accepts or even knows about the underlying theology - is even commonly found among Eastern religions. But, as I will show, the TM movement developed its own reinterpretation of Vedic traditional beliefs, which is still religious in nature, though unconventional.

This entire system, which is that of a Vedic religious sect, isn't explicitly revealed to newcomers who've just crossed the threshold to learn Transcendental Meditation. It's revealed over time - through residence or online courses, lectures and other parts of the program that may follow after learning TM - and course attendees are required to sign agreements in which they must keep such things confidential. This is the kind of restriction with which course attendees must agree before attending such courses:

You further agree to keep any written or other course materials that you may receive during the Course, confidential and only for your personal and private use. You agree not to copy nor reproduce in any way all or part of the Course materials, and not to allow any other person to do so or to use the Course materials. Furthermore, you agree not to publicly disclose the content of the Course, be it from the Course materials, from your own notes, or from your memory for any reason or at any occasion.

Despite the TM movement's attempts to keep the more obviously religious material under wraps through restrictions like the above, eventually bits and pieces leak out. A book that's priced at $750, "Human Physiology: Expression of Veda and the Vedic Literature," by Tony Nader - currently the "Maharaja" in charge of the TM movement - appears to be the primary published source of this sort of theological material. I say "appears" since I myself haven't sprung for a copy of this book, which is now on the used market for $385 or more, thus limiting the accessibility of this material to the general public, despite the tagline, "A textbook of life for everyone." Quotes from the crown-and-royal-robe-wearing maharaja's book sometimes appear on various websites, including that of Maharishi University of Management, Department of Maharishi Vedic Science, where these excerpts were found. Here, Nader finally provides a clear definition of what "Natural Law" is, in the context of the TM program:

Maharishi brings to light that the Vedic Devata are the various aspects of Natural Law that organize the entire universe and maintain it in perfect order. They are Laws of Nature, or collections of Laws of Nature, with specific administrative functions that provide for the creation, maintenance, and dissolution of the entire universe. They are the creative powers of cosmic dimension, permeating the whole creation. All the Devata, all the impulses of Creative Intelligence of Natural Law, are present in every point of creation.

Devata (plural of Deva) are divine beings, or deities, in the Vedic/Hindu pantheon. While there may be some controversy as to how this concept directly relates to any Western notion of "God," we are still clearly in the realm of religion. The subject of discussion is a divine being who is an object of worship in Sanatana Dharma, the "eternal religion" rooted in the Veda which forms the basis of Hinduism, and, according to the TM movement's founder, is the source of all other religions.

More from King Tony:

The Devata are integral aspects of our own human physiology. They are embodied in every human being with the same forms and functions described in the Vedic Literature. The Devata are present in the physiology of everyone, no matter what one's race, belief system, or religion, no matter which political party one associates with, or in which geographical area one is born.

Here we see the the underlying ideology of the TM movement, long manifested in the insistence that TM practice does not conflict with any religion, and does not involve belief. It appears that in this belief system, everyone is already infested with deities that they believe to be already present; they just don't know it yet. Likewise, the "eternal religion" stipulating the presence of these deities is considered by them to be the root of all religions, thus it conflicts with none of them.

It appears that this doctrine is, in fact, religious. This religion incorporates practices such as the singing of hymns in praise and worship. Elsewhere on that same page we find the definition of exactly that kind of hymn:

Stotras are hymns of praise, describing and glorifying the Vedic Devatas, the impulses of creative intelligence responsible for administering the entire creation.

The TM movement's religious language and imagery are pervasive on the Maharishi Channel, the movement's online video service. Several times a week, the feature "Today in the Vedic Calendar" draws connections between particular days in the lunar calendar and the devata. This image and narration introduce each episode:

From one sunrise to the next is one day in the Vedic calendar, and the dawn of each new day awakens a particular law of nature which becomes more lively and accessible than usual.

In the Vedic tradition, these laws of nature are called the Vedic devata, and each expresses a different quality of nature's intelligence. Maharishi explains that the Vedic devata are the laws of nature that administer the ever-expanding universe, and maintain it in perfect order.

Again, the claim is made that these deities are directly connected with every human's physiology. Supporting scientific data is a bit thin, except for this attempt, a colorful graphic of the human brain and its resident population of devata.

Scientific research has demonstrated that the Vedic devata have a structure and function that is clearly identifiable within our own brain and whole physiology. This historic scientific discovery was made by the greatest scientist of our age, His Majesty Raja Raam, who is the first ruler of the Global Country of World Peace. His research proves scientifically the reality that our own physiology is truly an expression of cosmic intelligence.

Individual episodes of "Today in the Vedic Calendar" make other claims. Here, they specifically claim that the practice of Transcendental Meditation is a means by "which we access Ganesh's intelligence." Ganesh, of course, is one of those deities of the Vedic tradition.

... this is the gift of all of Maharishi's Vedic technologies, such as Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation, TM-Sidhi program, and Maharishi Yagya, through which we access Ganesh's intelligence, enliven it, to rise above all problems, and establish our life and the life of society in harmony with natural law.

In another episode, on the day of "Putrada Ekadashi," the association is made that through the practice of TM by schoolchildren, they likewise gain the support of Vishnu, yet another one of those deities.

When children practice Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation every day at school, they dive into the transcendental field of pure consciousness, and awaken all possibilities within the simplest form of their own awareness. Their thoughts and actions spontaneously become more and more in accord with all the laws of nature, so that they don't make mistakes, or create the ground for suffering. All action becomes completely evolutionary, doing all good to themselves and everyone around them.

Through Maharishi's Vedic education, every child can become the ruler of his universe, where the custodian of all dynamism, Vishnu, supports all thought and action in an evolutionary direction.

Each segment of "Today in the Vedic Calendar" concludes with Vedic recitation by pundits. Here, they explain why people should listen to such Vedic recitation:

Now we will listen to Vedic recitation to enliven the infinite dynamism of Vishnu that sustains the universe, that can bless every child on Earth, to enliven this quality in our consciousness, our physiology, and our environment.

In conclusion, here are my personal observations and commentary on the available facts, based on the above disclosures.

The TM movement's inner doctrine stipulates that humans, through specific procedures, may gain the support of Vedic devata (gods), which are present in the physiology of every human. Such support allegedly creates perfect health (on the individual level), invincibility (on the national level), and world peace (on the global level), among other claimed benefits.
According to this doctrine, a "life supported by" Vedic devata is gained through the individual practice of the Transcendental Meditation program, and other related programs. These similar practices involve outer recitation or inner repetition of sounds of Vedic origin and significance. These sounds may be mantras (in TM itself) or Vedic scriptures. Such sounds are believed to "enliven" the qualities of the devata in one's consciousness and physiology.
These religious concepts and ideas are not explicitly disclosed to the outside world, and are excluded from marketing materials for the Transcendental Meditation program. Instead, terminology substitutions are made, the most obvious one being the use of the vaguely defined, or undefined term "natural law" in place of "Vedic devata."

One prominent example of this sort of substitution, in practice: the vague phrase frequently used in the TM movement, "alliance with natural law" actually means, "alliance with the Vedic devata." One cannot be an "ally" of an inanimate object.

Another such substitution is the term "consciousness-based" for the introduction of practices that "enliven" the qualities of the Vedic devata into various fields of life. The David Lynch Foundation's promotion of "consciousness-based education," through the introduction of Transcendental Meditation practice into schools, is one such means by which they plan to bring TM's "enlivened" Vedic devata to the world.

Non-disclosure of these concepts and ideas to outsiders, or to anyone for that matter, is enforced through custom and social conditioning, as well as through signed legal agreements.
Leaders of the Transcendental Meditation movement have failed to integrate their goal of recruiting as many individuals as possible to this mass "alliance with the Vedic devata" for planetary transformation and "world peace," with the mandate of maintaining the façade of an irreligious, reasonable, secular and scientific institution. For decades this presented an ethical conundrum. The movement's answer has always been non-disclosure and denial.

Prospective meditators are instructed that no belief is required for the practice of Transcendental Meditation. That may be technically true. However, the organization offering TM puts forth a doctrine in which this practice, when adopted by large numbers of people, is believed to serve a religious purpose. Individual benefit is simply a by-product of, or reward for, participation in the mass program.

This violates any conventional Western notion of informed consent. The true purpose of an individual's participation in such a daily practice, which may contradict their own beliefs, or be dismissed as so ridiculous as to inhibit participation, must be disclosed to them in full, beforehand.
The idiosyncratic doctrine of the TM movement attempts to cast each Vedic deva as some esoteric aspect of "natural law." The TM movement reframes the entire Vedic/Hindu cosmology as something scientific, or even, an expression of quantum physics. It fails in this attempt because the process of assigning personal aspects, or the personalities of deities, to aspects of nature (anthropomorphism) is a feature of many religions. Further, these deities are described as the subjects of glorification through hymns of praise. There is no scientific evidence to support this reinterpretation of Vedic cosmology.
The David Lynch Foundation markets Transcendental Meditation to certain vulnerable groups, including schoolchildren and battle-scarred veterans. Like the organization that teaches TM, the Foundation presents the same vague euphemisms, language substitutions, and points of reworded, unscientific inner doctrine. David Lynch's Foundation references a mysterious mechanism "forgotten by most people," a mantra with mysterious "life-supporting effects," and a state of "pure consciousness" which creates an inner peace that "spreads naturally to the environment" by some unspecified means. All of these details are unverified by science. These teachings are inherent to TM's inner doctrine. Such doctrine attributes all such good things to an "alliance" with the Vedic devata, which are present in the human physiology independent of belief. The Vedic devata, that have power over all creation, are believed to react positively to certain sounds from the Vedic tradition:

"...the technique makes use of a natural mechanism within the mind and body—long forgotten by most people—to settle down and take profoundly deep rest. No amount of belief or disbelief will change that inherent ability."
"The mantra has no meaning but is known to produce beneficial, life-supporting effects."
"The experience of the most settled state of awareness, pure consciousness, through TM practice produces a profound state of inner peace in individual life. But this individual peace spreads naturally to the environment as well."

Some people who are considering taking up Transcendental Meditation might find the religious motivations of its proponents irrelevant or meaningless. But the inner doctrine believed in, propagated, and/or demonstrated by those proponents, and the unwillingness to disclose that doctrine to the public over the course of decades, irreparably mark the TM program as something promoted by people with marginal ethics. They have been unable to ever come clean about the true nature of the program and why they participate in it, if they are even allowed to do so. While these issues may not matter to certain participants - particularly, those who are narrowly focused on the immediate benefits they've been told that they and others will receive - they may matter a great deal to others.

Transcendental meditation in public schools? The David Lynch Foundation and others are seeking access to public schools to help fulfill what's fundamentally a religious agenda, from the viewpoint of the doctrine professed by leaders of the movement they've allied their foundation with. Advocacy of a religious agenda is not permitted in public schools.

Influential people who are being recruited to help promote Transcendental Meditation should first consider that advocacy of TM will make them complicit in a system that makes a mockery of any ethical notion of informed consent, whether or not they themselves care about the religious innards of the TM program. Others will care, whether it's about the inner religious doctrine that conflicts with their own, the questionable ethics, or the lunacy of selling a grandiose, if not delusional, religious pipe dream as if it were supportable by modern science and medicine.

Book Review. "Cartwheels in a Sari: A Memoir of Growing Up Cult" by Jayanti Tamm (2009).

2011-11-19T14:30:00.004-05:00

Several exit counselors have explained to me that it can aid a person in recovery from a destructive cult to learn about a different cult. That's because it's hard to judge one's own experience objectively, but when one sees manipulation and inconsistencies in another group, it's easier to make the leap to understanding better one's own former group.

Therefore I thought it might be useful to some readers if I reviewed the book "Cartwheels in a Sari." This is the true story of growing up in the Sri Chinmoy movement. The author has a straightforward style. She doesn't beat the reader over the head with Chinmoy's reprehensible behavior. Instead, she tells the story through the innocent, non-critical eyes of the child she was - and damns Chinmoy in the telling.

Jayanti Tamm was born into Chinmoy's group. As a child, she naturally believed everything she was told about about "Guru": that he was godlike, that he gave everything to his devotees; and that in return they should totally believe, be totally devoted, and be totally obedient.

An early memory of Tamm's: the devotees are sitting on the ground before "Guru," who is sitting on an awning-covered platform. All are prepared for a long meditation session. Then, far off, lightning flashes and thunder roars. "Guru" announces that he will perform a special meditation to stop the rain. He closes his eyes, and sure enough, the rain holds off for 10 minutes. Jayanti is thrilled. Her guru can even control the weather! But then the rain starts. "Guru" then reveals that some disciples had doubted his ability, therefore he held off the rain only for a limited time! Now he would teach them a "true lesson." And so the devotees sat contritely in the mud and rain for hours, meditating.

Cult recovery scholars call this technique "mystical manipulation," that is, making an everyday event seem miraculous, and ascribing it to the cult. In TM, an example of mystical manipulation was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's contention that when a TMer experienced involuntary jerking movements, stress was being released and the TMer was purifying his/her nervous system. Another was ascribing improvements in the stock market to people "flying" together. Another was, during the construction of the Fairfield domes, we were told that the winter weather miraculously turned warm on the days we had to pour cement. Actually, the crew supervisors listened for the weather reports, and when the weather was warm, then they poured. Can you think of other examples?

Like the founder of TM, Sri Chinmoy (born "Chinmoy Kumar Ghose," 1931-2007) bent the truth for the sake of publicity. For instance, Chinmoy instructed several of his devotees to seek employment at the United Nations. Once hired (in clerical positions), they started a lunchtime social club, and invited "Guru" to speak. Chinmoy's goal was realized: his publicity could now state that he was a speaker at the U.N.

Similar TM organization technique: give honorary Maharishi University Ph.D.s to supporters of TM, and then have these "doctors" extol TM. Can you think of other examples?

When the author was in Chinmoy's physical proximity, here is what she experienced: "The second I stood...before Guru, I felt overwhelmed by his humbling and beautiful presence. The waves of energy that surrounded him enveloped me completely, erasing all thoughts....Being in his presence created a tangible change in me; it made me holy, better....I longed to sit on the ground before Guru's throne and never leave....[A]ll my outer strife and worries seemed to utterly wash away....I wanted to spend my life inside his trance, drinking in his light, his consciousness. The way he made me feel when I stood near him, fixated on his presence, was a sense of completion - I was aligned, whole, and safe."

What do you make of that? Did you experience that around Mahesh? I did.

Many of Chinmoy's devotes worked at disciple-owned small businesses whose profits supported him. He called these businesses "divine enterprises."

I believe that in cult recovery circles, this is called "loading the language." Words take on insider, glorified meanings. In TM, instead of "Mahesh's meanderings about the nature of things," he had "The Science of Creative Intelligence." Instead of "many people paying to gather in one place and practice Mahesh's meditation programs together" we had "World Peace Assemblies." Instead of "a building where TM is publicized and taught," we had "Capitals of the Age of Enlightenment." Can you think of others? What did these words evoke in you?

At the"divine enterprises," devotees of Chinmoy "were paid only a few dollars a week, yet they were grateful. Without healthcare or retirement fund they happily worked...feeling fortunate to be sheltered in Guru's atmosphere rather than the outside world."

Does this sound familiar? How much were you paid when you worked in Mahesh's movement? In 1975, I was given room, board, credits towards courses and $25 a month. In 1980, I was given room, board, a course and $75 a month -- except that after 3 months, they claimed they couldn't afford the $75, so we stopped getting the stipend. We got no healthcare or retirement, either. We, too, felt fortunate to be living in a "life-supporting" "evolutionary" atmosphere.

And many disciples who worked at "outside" jobs felt honored to sign their entire paycheck directly over to Chnmoy.

Chinmoy had a few pet projects, whose goal seemed to me to be to glorify his name. One was the "Sri Chinmoy Peace Blossom" project, an attempt to re-name major international landmarks in Chinmoy's honor. Another was to acquire the title "Lord" from Queen Elizabeth of England. And a third was to win the Nobel Peace Prize! He also gave awards to famous people in order to obtain laudatory quotes and publicity photos of himself with them. In their ignorance, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, among others, accepted his awards.

In contrast, it seems to me that at first Mahesh didn't try to glorify his own name. All glory went to his Guru Dev. But later, all things TM were labeled with Mahesh's name and likeness: Maharishi International University, Maharishi Ayur-Ved, Maharishi Shtyapata, Maharishi Amrit Kalash, etc. One of his goals seemed to be to spread TM, or his brand of Hinduism, throughout the world. One way he tried to achieve this was by encouraging scientists to bias their research to make TM look good. Another was to honor rich and famous people through wining, dining and flattering them. From this, I believe he hoped to gain publicity and money. What other goals do you believe Mahesh had? And what other misleading means do you remember him using in his attempt to reach those goals?

Chinmoy claimed to possess supernatural powers. Tamm reports, "As long as someone remained a disciple, they were safe from sudden death....It was evident to all disciples that all those who did become gravely ill or died obviously had not been good disciples."

Mahesh never claimed to possess supernatural powers. (Or did he?) However, he did claim that his products and services produced marvelous powers. For instance, he claimed that his TM-Sidhis (SM) program produced perfect health, immortality, levitation, supernormal abilities and world peace. What other marvelous claims do you remember Mahesh making?

Slowly, Tamm saw through Chinmoy's duplicity, and she rebelled. Chinmoy then threw her out. She, like some TMers who left TM, lost "family, church, friends, beliefs, ideals, identity." She was left homeless and penniless. She also had no skills that were translatable into earning a living. What did she know? She answers, "I knew Guru's Bengali songs, poems and aphorisms; I had memorized classical Indian tales about masters and disciples," and she could sit for hours.

What were your experiences when you left TM?

Anatomy of a Comment Thread, part 1

2011-11-15T00:30:00.004-05:00

(First of a few parts.)

Since I think we're approaching another round of mentions of Transcendental Meditation online - and, a likely presence of TM supporters in comment threads following those mentions - I thought I'd resurrect, for preparation, examination and commentary, a comment thread from a while back, in which I engaged in some verbal repartee with those supporters.

This thread, from examiner.com about two years ago, followed an interview with a Tucson TM teacher regarding the introduction of the Transcendental Meditation program into schools there. As it turns out, the interview subject was no random TM teacher, but the co-author of The TM Book, from about thirty-five years ago, which was handed out free to new TM meditators around that time.

It's important to keep in mind that there's an organized group of TM bloggers who actively work to add their comments on such threads, to counter and displace critics and others who disagree with the TM movement's "party line" as presented by themselves and the David Lynch Foundation.

There are a few obvious things in this thread, which ran over several days. One, the TM supporters who show up in these online exchanges are almost always self-admitted members of a certain demographic, of a group that started TM back in the early 1970's when TM was briefly popular, up through the very early 1980's, and are very often current, active teachers of TM. Two, many of the claims made by TM supporters are interchangeable and are frequently, repetitively seen in such comment threads. Three, attacks made on TM critics, often personal in nature, are likewise interchangeable and are also frequently, repetitively seen in such comment threads. Four, there appeared to be a few instances of sockpuppetry, where individuals who claimed to not be meditators, or connected with the program, but who were almost over-the-top in their backing of TM supporters and their claims, were present; I believe these personalities were actually creations by these or other TM supporters. (You are welcome to prove me wrong about this last point.)

As for my responses, I also went into some detail about my past personal history with TM and with TM criticism, and discussed some of my motivations for presenting my views about the practice, and the organization, online.

I've edited the flow of the comments so that my replies are matched up with those of the individuals to whom I replied. Links to each original comment, and to the sources to which I'm referring, have been added; comments that were not part of an exchange with me were omitted.

The original article, and the start of the comment thread, begin here. My comments to add clarity and minor corrections are [in brackets].

Mike Doughney:

Hi Wayne [the author of the article],

I was kind of hoping you'd be able to track down someone other than a TM organization rep to talk about whatever was going down in Tuscon. I've heard very little about these school programs other than the publicity generated by the TMO; next to nothing from the school districts, administrators or teachers themselves.

As usual, if this is such a big deal - to listen to the TMO, you'd think TM was as safe, effective, studied and accepted as aspirin - I'd expect to hear an enormous chorus of support for these programs from the school end, not just a few hand-picked talking heads. We're forty or fifty years into watching this dog-and-pony show, and I still haven't found a real dog and pony in there somewhere.

It's also worth pointing out that Denise, the Maharishi University faculty member who you talked with, is also known as Denise Denniston, the co-author of "The TM Book" which dates back to [1975]. Are there any young people promoting TM today?

I also find it interesting that in an informal conversation with a longtime TM teacher the list of benefits from TM magically inflates. Here, "sleep apnea" somehow got added to the list of things fixed by TM. There is, of course, no scientific research to support this, and as far as I know even the organization doesn't claim this. Besides, a (proven safe and effective) CPAP machine is quite a bit cheaper than TM initiation.

Likewise, I can't find a source for this alleged study involving the University of Connecticut on meditating students. Sounds like a poster presented at a convention, which is about as preliminary and non-authoritative as anything gets in science. Again, after over forty years, including a period where TM was popular among students who could have been studied (and in some cases in fact were), why is this all you can come up with when talking to a reporter and presumably putting your best stuff forward?

Golden Choir Boy:

It's hysterical, archaic, witch-hunt mentality to bash TM as "goddess worship" or "pseudoscience," not to mention absurd & hilarious. The "Pall" post was obviously written by one of those fanatical anti-TM activists who, few in number, are very vocal & spread misinformation simply because they believe that TM threatens their belief system. But they misunderstand TM...

Mike Doughney:

Er, "Choir Boy," I can't speak for Tom [Pall, a previous commenter] but I don't think TM is all that much of a threat. But there is the principle of separation of church and state and how that applies to public schools, certainly here in this country, and I think that should be defended.

One of my favorite recent TM videos can be found at maharishichannel.in, in the archive, dated 9 April of this year. This is video produced by the TMO on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti, celebrated in India to commemorate the birth of Hanuman, the monkey god. Now TM devotees like Denise above will quibble over whether what they're doing is "Hindu" or "Vedic" in nature, but pretty much everything in that video is clearly religious in nature, and the TM organization's attempt to cast these things as somehow "scientific" is simply laughable.

I encourage people curious about TM to download and view this video. I think there's a clear truth in labeling sort of issue here.

Don Klapp:

@Mike Dough-nut:

If TM is as ineffectual as you would have us believe, then why are you so obsessed with opposing it? Don't you have anything better to do? If TM was really no good, then it would go away of its own accord, but after 50 years it is still going strong. I suspect you have some personal grudge against TM, or you are one of those people who always has to find something external to blame for your problems. I suggest you find a life for yourself beyond your obsessive opposition to meditation.

Mike Doughney:

Don: I think the ineffectualness of TM is already well known. Almost a million people were instructed in TM in the U.S. during the 1970's, and as many former TM teachers will admit, most gave it up after a short time. I was initiated on the last day of 1977 - and within a few years many local centers closed and TM pretty much went into hiding, where it's stayed except for an odd bit of news now and then.

Perhaps I'll address the perennial points you and others raise against critics at length at the TM-Free Blog. But I hold no personal grudge about this. As I've done with numerous other subjects, not just TM, this is a matter of getting independent information about TM out there, as I have for over 15 years, in the face of the TMO's inability to accurately describe what it's offering (many other products, mostly quackery with zero scientific backing) and what its goals are, which generally involve growing and sustaining what's at its core is a particular Hindu/Vedic sect.

Paul Stokstad:

Anyone who really understands Indian culture would know that there IS NO RELIGION in India. India just doesn't fit nicely into the nice Western categories of religious versus non religious. Religion is for people who are seeking God. That's not what India is about. It's about enlightenment, full realization of the individual. And if you are fully enlightened and God happens to show up, so much the better. Even what we call Hindu "gods" are really just representations of principles in nature. It's comforting to have a physical representation or embodiment of the principle, but these representations are as if analogies to explain the whole thing to the unsophisticated, or to children.

Mike Doughney:

Hi Paul (who's yet another operator of a TM center) [and Director of Marketing for Maharishi University of Management],

You say, "what we call Hindu "gods" are really just representations of principles in nature." Sorry, but I think the odds of avoiding outright laughter at that one are pretty small. Despite the obvious differences between Hindu/Vedic practice and thought and what we're used to calling "religion" here in the West, there is nothing to support this semantic substitution that the TM organization has been attempting for the last few decades. It quacks like a duck, it's still a duck. Or should I say, if it's flying like that monkey god I pointed everyone to [up]thread, it's still a monkey god.

Personification of aspects of nature is one of the things religion does - not science - and you agree that's what the TM organization is doing. Then, why maintain that what the TMO is doing is not a religion? What purpose does that serve, except perhaps permanent cognitive dissonance?

SteadyEddie:

I think this is a beautiful program. All the costs covered by scholarships from the TM group and that movie star foundation. Most schools would jump at the chance to have a program already researched that shows it helps kids to learn, increases IQ and calms them down. Its voluntary, the principal, the parents and students all give consent. In a country full of violence, drug use and young adults that can't name George Bush's vice president or the capital of Brazil, this program is a breathe of fresh air. Forget your petty philosophical objections to a 10 minute ceremony of incense and flowers. I've seen stranger ceremonies at frat houses, military schools and football parties. It works and the school wants it. So back off and let em be.

Mike Doughney:

Anybody here from Tuscon? Anybody? Anybody?

Or even Arizona, for that matter.

I see Cedar Rapids is in the house!

How 'bout Fairfield?

As I already reported elsewhere, a team of TM teachers has been tasked with getting on threads like these and spouting all the usual TM marketing soundbites that I've heard for decades:

tmfree.blogspot.com/2009/07/welcome-to-world-of-tm-blogging.html

Looks like they're hard at work, capitalizing on the fear and loathing of the "blackboard jungle" to push TM into schools.

As for Eddie, yes, I think separation of church and state is not a "petty philosophical objection" to religious supremacy and control of the state, whether that proposed interference be Christian or Vedic in nature. You wanna market TM, perhaps you should pick on some rubes more your own size, and not school kids.

Ondine Constable:

Hi, I don't live in Tucson but your conversation came up in my Google alert. I practice Transcendental Meditation (TM) and am interested in getting accurate info out in the public because it has benefited me so much.

Firstly, the reference to improving sleep apnea was in answer to the interviewer's question about anecdotal experiences reported by the school teachers who learned TM. She wasn't claiming scientific data.

Secondly, the church and state issue is a political philosophy aimed at preventing the government from imposing a state religion and protecting personal freedom to practice a religion. TM doesn't require any religious observance or beliefs. The students, parents and teachers have the option to learn TM. There is no tax payer money used to support the program.

Mike Doughney:

My misspelling of Tucson was unintentionally ironic; I'm on the opposite coast.

A little Googling places previous commenter Ondine Constable in Asheville, NC, quoted on the website of the TM center there, the same one run by Tom Ball who has a starring role in my piece about TM teachers attempting to flood comment threads like this one.

Two Asheville TM websites appear on her Blogger profile.

Even her non-TM blog [since deleted?] features Nancy Lonsdorf and Maharishi Ayurveda, another set of products sold by the same syndicate that sells TM.

It's obvious to me that most if not all commenters praising TM on these threads have a close relationship with the organization that sells it. For an outfit that's supposedly healthy, growing and has initiated what must be more than a million North Americans into its flagship program over the past few decades - what happened to all those people?

It looks like most of them quit, and now they're down to recruiting schoolchildren to stay alive.

Kim Sinton:

I am delighted to see Transcendental Meditation going into schools. I was diagnosed as being hyperactive as a child and was given Transcendental Meditation instead of drugs like Ritalin. It worked, it worked, I was able to focus, and by age 22 I was president and part owner of a software company.

There should not be any worry that TM is a religion. It's not and was never intended to be. To say so would be like saying Karate is a religion!?

TM is a relaxation technique that reduces stress and improves your daily functioning. TM is not part of Hinduism, most Hindu's don't even know what Transcendental Meditation is! TM requires no belief system, and many Christians actually have reported that it helped them stay rested and make better decisions.

I am spending the time to write this because I don't want to see something that could help the worlds youth get over looked. Transcendental Meditation helped me to stay off ADHD drugs, and so I want to spread the word.

Gerard Owmby:

So what's wrong with a benevolent religion, anyway? Is it dangerous just because it might be different from yours? Are you afraid it will be apposed to the Christianity that fuels wars in our present day religious wars? TM hasn't done any harm to anyone, no matter what it is called. If your religion doesn't give you the experience of God, or for that matter doesn't give you the ability to think, abandon your religion. Taking a vitamin for a few days doesn't help anyone, and neither does practicing TM for a few days or weeks. After fifty years of growth, many of those who practice the TM technique are having experiences of God in their meditation. It's their direct experience and no one can argue with it.

Mike Doughney:

I step away from this thing for an evening, and even more of the TM astroturfing tag-team shows up. A little Googling, and:

"Kim Sinton 1995 graduating class of Maharishi High School" and also completed courses at Maharishi University. [His] resume appears on the site of a web consulting firm in... you guessed it... Fairfield, Iowa, US headquarters of the TM organization. [He] might not be a teacher of TM, but [he] can sure drop soundbites like one.

Gerard Owmby: Another recertified teacher of TM, holds another one of those MERU PhD degrees in "World Peace" from the desk in the TM movement's hotel in Switzerland, you already know the drill... and learned TM in March, 1969. Now lives in Tennessee.

Anybody willing to post here who learned TM after 1980, who isn't obviously second generation like Kim? Anybody?

Anybody in Tucson? Arizona? Anybody?

*crickets*

Gerard Owmby:

I did not say TM was a religion; I implied that there would be no harm if it were a religion since it helps so many people. Religions require belief; TM does not. LIke any other technique, it works even if you believe it won't. Religious leaders have no reason to decry it, since people of all religions practice it without changing their religion. I know many who have not. So far as "forcing beliefs on public school children" goes, as the article clearly states, their quiet time involves other options, some reading, some praying. The children cannot learn the technique without choosing to do so, and the parents must approve. It cannot be otherwise. If schools can teach a technique for speed reading to improve grades, there is no reason not to teach a technique for creating brain wave coherence to improve grades. If eating spinach improves health enough to provide a spiritual experience, there is no reason why mental techniques should not be used for the same purpose.

Mike Doughney:

Gerard says, "Religions require belief; TM does not." I disagree; again, this is a (re)definition of the word "religion" that serves the goals of those who promote TM. In fact, other traditions, like that which TM comes from, require *practice* and not necessarily belief.

The whole point of the Vedic sect that sells TM and over fifty other products is to get people to practice certain things that they believe are described in the Vedas, and thus bring about "Satya Yuga," the "Heaven on Earth" utopia sort of outcome which a number of diverse religions hold is the result of mass adherence to their traditions. In this case, no belief is required - but (among many other things) they want everyone to live in cities and buildings built like Vedic temples to bring this about.

TM is just the first of many practices that are obviously Vedic in nature that the TM organization sells today. The problem is their unwillingness to properly label these products for what they are.

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

To further document what I wrote in my last comment - that the whole point of the TM organization is the creation of "Heaven on Earth" by getting the masses to buy their Vedic-based products - I encourage you to visit the TM category at Wikileaks, at wikileaks.org/wiki/Category:Transcendental_Meditation and download the "Governors Resolution 18 April 2005" where this paragraph describes what the whole point of being a "Recertified Governor" (teacher of TM, in the toy-government language of the TMO) is:

"Having undergone this recertification program I will take all these steps so that... my city will welcome the descent of Heaven on Earth — the descent of Satya Yuga saying bye-bye to Kali Yuga."

That doesn't sound very scientific to me. If anything, it sounds like the kind of thing the members of a run-of-the-mill Millenarian cult would be saying.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millenarianism

Allen Crandell:

To Mike Doughney: I have practiced the TM technique for many years. Having learned it and benefited from it, I might be more qualified to say what it is than you. Over 600 scientific studies, most published in peer-review journals, verify the good results of the practice of TM. Those are independent studies. The MERU Ph.D. is an award from Maharishi to those who studied with him for over forty years. No one with a Ph.D. in physics and no one who has won the Nobel Peace Prize has that kind of knowledge. It's a changing world we live in now, and some people resist new things they don't understand. The troubled children who are now practicing TM in the schools are being transformed into ideal students -- that's inarguable. You are fighting it with prejudice and ignorance.

Mike Doughney:

Allen: I was initiated into TM on December 31, 1977 and practiced it fairly regularly for about ten years. I stopped when I realized it was providing me no particular benefit at all - like most people who learned TM at some point and then stopped.

So if the MERU PhD is just an award from the TM movement for one thing or another, I've got two of those "Maharishi Awards" with my name on them, one of them even has a big gold seal and a blue ribbon on it. Just a piece of paper with a lot of words on it, not recognized by anybody outside the movement as having any meaning or conferring any particular status - just like that MERU PhD.

Your claim to special knowledge about the universe just because you've been around some guy claiming authority from an ancient holy book sure sounds like the kind of thing a religion would claim. It's laughable to try to put that kind of thing in scientific terms, or that that experience is more important than a PhD in physics.

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

Allen says: "Over 600 scientific studies..."

Tom Ball in his "30 Blogging Tips" for TM bloggers says: "...it may be better not to proclaim “there are over 600 scientific research studies,” because not all of the 600-and-some studies were published in peer-reviewed journals — it’s indefensible to say that all 600 reflect the highest caliber of research."

So the backpedaling has begun!

Meanwhile, there is no significant research supporting any benefit of putting TM into schools. A survey of ten middle-school students who learned TM in a highly charged environment with admins, teachers, a number of researchers and the financier of the study all being meditators doesn't count for anything.

Even internally, TM teachers know the studies are deficient but that's OK to them, since they still attract the media. From Wikileaks: "Sarina’s (recent ADHD) research study only had 10 subjects, yet garnered lots of press."

In the field of science, 600 studies on one subject is nothing.

Beli Rubb:

I don't do TM, but since reading about it, I'm going to learn it and have my children learn it, especially after reading this article. What a shame the closed-minded, right-wing Christian fanatics like Mike Doughney are so bent on destruction. Like his psychotic friends on Fox news, they'll never get it.

Mike Doughney:

It's always fascinating to watch the supporters of TM go into fits of rage against critics like me, after awhile they start spewing the same outrageous falsehoods I've heard for decades.

Like this one: "the closed-minded, right-wing Christian fanatics like Mike Doughney"

I am not a Christian, and a brief Googling of my name would reveal that I've actively worked against (in physical space, not just online) those same people you might call "right-wing Christian fanatics."

I work with the documented facts, you call me ignorant.

I show you I'm not a Christian fanatic, and inevitably someone shows up and again insists... that I'm a Christian fanatic.

I generally don't agree with Christian critiques of TM either.

"Beli Rubb" claims not to practice TM, but I'm sure in a few years, if he follows through on his alleged intention, he'll fit in quite well with the rest of you.

(to be continued)

No girls allowed in the treehouse! Oprah, Ellen, and Transcendental Meditation

2011-11-11T14:50:00.013-05:00

It's getting to be TM silly season again. The first reports have just begun to arrive, of famous talk-show hosts having visited the Fairfield, Iowa, epicenter of almost all things TM in the US, and the formal announcement of David Lynch's yearly fundraising gala. Soon we'll be treated to a small stream of mentions of Transcendental Meditation in various media, usually involving some marginally-famous or once-famous movie star, music legend or other public figure.

As always, though, they'll only be repeating one tiny little piece of the story: about how this particular form of meditation is allegedly the cure for almost anything that ails you, and how some supposedly "at-risk" population group - usually a group that's also vulnerable to manipulation by various hucksters and quacks - stands to benefit by learning TM through the fundraising efforts of the David Lynch Foundation.

Oprah Winfrey, "His Majesty Maharaja Adhiraj Rajaraam," head of the global TM movement, and Ellen DeGeneres.

Those of us who've been involved in some way with TM for some time, or watched the movement's gyrations for some years, have seen it all before. The marketing of the program has for decades focused on recruiting prominent individuals to the cause, who may then support TM publicly, recruiting others personally through their connections, or through the media, promoting it on television or in print. Today, though, it's inexplicable why intelligent and resourceful people, who you might think would know better, and who have a reputation to protect, would bother getting anywhere near TM or the organization that sells it.

A few minutes with Google should reveal to most anyone that the TM sales pitch actually says very little about the organization and the people doing the selling; there's an anti-scientific, anti-medical and extraordinarily odd, if not just plain bizarre, social structure that lies behind the façade used to sell the TM program to the world, where its devotees profess habits and beliefs that many would find repugnant if not positively medieval.

Today, we hear that Oprah Winfrey has been seen meditating at the movement's university campus, and is preparing to air a segment of her show promoting TM in January. Oprah, as most people know, is a billionaire and has been called the world's most influential woman. The David Lynch Foundation is also promoting a December fundraising gala featuring Ellen DeGeneres, who is also no slouch in the wealth and influence department.

Why are these two women endorsing a program that can only be purchased from a blatantly sexist organization, that allows no women in leadership positions, and that enforces a strict separation of the sexes when administering its programs?

His Majesty and rajas in India at Maharishi's funeral, February 2008.

The hierarchy of the "Global Country of World Peace," which offers Transcendental Meditation as its flagship product worldwide, excludes women entirely. Women serve in support roles and as wives of the leadership, but no women serve as a "raja," as they call their regional administrators, or "minister" of the "Global Country." An instant spent viewing the list of royal crown and robe wearing "rajas" and "ministers" at Wikipedia, sourced to a TM movement newsletter, makes it clear that women are nonexistent and may not participate in the management ranks of the organization that teaches Transcendental Meditation worldwide.

But there's more. The TM movement regularly excludes women who are pregnant or menstruating from its events, and, it's rumored, from advanced TM or teacher training courses. While this instruction might reference "the "Vedic tradition" to justify these restrictions, this comes right back to the unscientific, and many would say, religious underpinnings of Transcendental Meditation and the movement that teaches it, that are habitually denied in public by its spokesmen.

Seriously. I can't imagine these women agreeing to any monthly restriction on what they may or may not do in any other context. Can you? Why are they endorsing a product that is only available from an organization with such practices, giving it almost priceless free publicity, and in Oprah's case, paying substantial sums to it for her employees to participate?

No discussion of the TM movement's sexism and attitudes about all things sexual is complete without mention of its enforcement of sex segregation throughout the program, and the fact that two, geographically-separated, groups of celibate individuals that resemble religious orders - "Purusha," for males, and "Mother Divine," for females - are part of the organization. The most prominent member of the "Purusha," to outsiders, is TM movement spokesman Bob Roth. It's ironic that the movement's founder, despite public appearances, was quite sexually active in private, while these exclusive groups within the TM movement insist upon complete celibacy of all participants.

While old-timers may have been taught TM by a member of the opposite sex, that is no longer permitted. Internal TM movement "policy and procedure" documents dated 2005 stipulate, "Ladies always teach ladies and men always teach men." "Refresher" courses are to be taught with men and women on opposite sides of the room. It's hard to imagine these restrictions as part of a modern, science-based, rational, secular organization; they are easily understood as the customs of an unscientific religious tradition.

The apparent indifference of the latest crop of Transcendental Meditation's spokesmodels to the underlying facts about the practice and the organization presents a bit of a puzzle, but I'll throw out one possible explanation. The whole sales pitch for TM is designed to appeal to the individual's immediate self-interest: the tendency to want the "free lunch" of a cheap and effortless means to improve one's life, to want it delivered right now, disregarding any other concerns about all the other problematic aspects that might eventually come along with associating oneself with the program. Here, two incredibly powerful women have become involved with, and are actively promoting and endorsing, an entire system in which keeping women powerless has been demonstrated to be at the core of its tenets and beliefs. This spectacle should serve as a warning to anyone considering the program.

Every dollar spent on fees to learn TM goes to promote and support the entire program - including this "no girls allowed" club of guys running around in royal crowns and robes; they are inseparable from the teaching and practice of Transcendental Meditation today. In fact, this organization is the only one on earth that is composed exclusively of people who practice the TM program, most for decades now. Any claim that this meditation is also somehow distinct from the doctrine of the organization that teaches it is also shown to be dubious when every aspect of learning TM - including the introductory lecture - is packed full of over-the-top claims for the perfection of its products, and by implication, its underlying doctrine.

Prospective meditators should be asking: will involvement with TM eventually change my basic attitudes towards the world, my neighbors, and my family? Are key aspects of the program, including the values and beliefs clearly held and demonstrated by its leaders, completely at odds with my own values and interests? Does the fact that people like Oprah and Ellen are promoting an organization that's so clearly at odds with even their own everyday existence suggest that there's something unusual about the way TM is taught ("a deliberate strategy of progressive revelation") that somehow makes people unwilling to rationally consider these problematic aspects of the program? These and other questions are best asked long before one begins the process of learning Transcendental Meditation.

Photo credits: From Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. Alan Light; Public domain; © Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com

Transcendental Celebrity Shtick

2011-11-05T16:54:00.016-04:00

Since Maharishi’s late 1960’s with the Beatles, Beach Boys, Mia Farrow and Donovan, Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation Movement cultivated celebrity appeal for enhanced recruitment and donations.

Glitz of the rich and famous appeals to many. When I was with the TM Movement, many TMers bragged about their association with various celebrities coming through town or on advanced TM courses. While I met my share the rich and famous, and was friendly with a few, the starstruck twinkle unto itself did not draw me. Many others were magnetically attracted to associate with the stars, much like associating with the popular crowd in high school. Name dropping is a common phenomenon within TM circles.

Many talented individuals gain celebrity status through talent and hard work. But celebrities are fallible human beings, like the rest of us, who can be misled and recruited in vulnerable moments - just like anyone else! Celebrity endorsement unto itself does not mean something is valuable. All that sparkles is not gold, folks!

Oprah Winfrey is TM’s latest celebrity promoter. She paid for her entire staff to be initiated into Transcendental Meditation, sponsoring daily group meditations at work now.

Oprah was recently in Fairfield Iowa with her film crew, creating a TV special on Transcendental Meditation and Fairfield, Iowa. As a celebrity with great publicity potential, Oprah was even allowed to meditate inside the woman’s dome without the special identification badge required of all other dome attendees.

Read about Oprah on Yahoo’s October 19, 2011 associated content : Oprah Winfrey Meditated in Fairfield Iowa Tonight with Other Transcendental Meditation Meditators; Oprah Jets into Fairfield and Meditates

Here is October 22, 2011 Huffington Post’s snipet from the Associated Press about Oprah meditating in Fairfield, Iowa and speaking at Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment (MSAE): Oprah Meditates with 400 Women in Iowa

Transcendental Meditation Movement naturally capitalizes upon the founder of the Huffington Post, Ariana Huffington’s endorsement for TM, January 29, 2011 : “Women of London - meditation is for you!”

You can view a short January 2010 video clip on Oprah’s website, interview with Rosie O’Donnell speaking about TM : "Rose O’Donnell’s Spiritual Practice”.

Ironically, TM markets itself not as a spiritual practice, however Rosie and Oprah speak publicly about what TM insiders know, that TMers do have a spiritual agenda through recruiting others to their practices.

Film producer David Lynch is an ardent supporter of Transcendental Meditation. Having tried to bring TM as a solution to elementary students, veterans suffering from PTSD and abused sex workers through his David Lynch Foundation.

David Lynch Foundation is coordinating the third fundraising “Change Begins Within” concert in Los Angeles, with celebrities Ellen DeGeneres, Russell Brand, Russell Simmons.

Similar to Scientology’s high profile members such as John Travolta and Tom Cruise, high profile supporters of the Transcendental Meditation Movement do not experience manipulative pressures and guilt applied to rank and file TM members who left families, or education to work on TM Movement staff with little or no compensation. Innumerable TM teachers or TM Movement staff live(d) with hopes of attending the next costly advanced meditation course for enlightenment, only eventually to be cast aside with neither retirement funds nor medical insurance.

Celebrities endorsing TM and Scientology similarly are busy with their non-cult careers. They dip in for brief tastes of the marzipan icing offered by their respective organizations. These stars endorse based upon their own perceived benefits, without realizing that common participants in those organizations do not receive special attention and accolades provided to the celebrities. While in fact, the celebrities are being exploited for their star appeal and donations, just as the common cult participants are exploited for their donations and low cost wages.

Don’t be fooled by star appeal folks.Transcendental Mediation is more than a mere relaxation method. Transcendental Meditations’ finely honed recruitment machine is poised to lure vulnerable recruits for increasing involvement with their organization and dictated lifestyle.

For a practical meditation method, I suggest investigating something like Herbert Benson’s "Relaxation Response"or a simple non-glitzy mindfulness meditation which does not herald upon charismatic associations.

"David Wants to Fly" documentary to air on Link TV in the US, also online

2011-11-03T23:27:00.000-04:00

"David Wants to Fly," the documentary examining the TM movement that's been well received at film festivals around the world, is finally about to debut on US satellite television, and online.

The film will air on the Link TV network on Sunday November 6 at 11 pm ET, and on Saturday November 12 at 8 pm ET. Link TV can be found on DIRECTV channel 375, and on Dish Network channel 9410.

It can also be seen in its entirety online, for a limited time beginning November 6, at this location: http://www.linktv.org/programs/david-wants-to-fly

UPDATE November 7: One more showing has been added, Sunday, November 13th at 12:00 pm ET.

Psychotherapy with Former Cult Members

2011-09-02T14:54:00.005-04:00

At the request of other TMFree moderators, this is a duplicate post from Gina's personal blog

Dr. Patrick O'Reilly provides an introductory Continuing Education essay for the psychology profession - linked with this respected online Continuing Education (CE) provider : Psychotherapy with Former Cult Members.

Former cult members are often ineffectively treated by well-intentioned therapists. Unless a therapist has specifically sought training for cult recovery, she or he may have minimal background about former cult members' myriad of concerns - such as shame, social isolation, social and professional handicaps, financial losses, separation from family, depression, vulnerability, self-distrust and possible Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, to name a few.

Further complicating therapy - many former cultists do not even realize they were in a cult. A therapist must identify if a client's self-described depression or vulnerabilities result from a cult history. After identifying cult history, the therapist can better help a client or refer to an appropriate specialist.

Please send Dr. O'Reilly's CE essay to therapists and psychologists. The concerns are more common than many realize. In-depth resources are available elsewhere, including some links in this blog's margin.

Psychotherapy with Former Cult Members by Patrick O'Reilly

Dome Daze

2011-08-18T00:54:00.036-04:00

The Maharishi Patanjali Golden Dome of the Age of Enlightenment was built for men to practice Maharishi's TM Sidhi program together.

Followed shortly by the shoddily constructed Bagambhrini Golden Dome of Pure Knowledge for women to practice "Program" (aptly named).

Someone just sent this new Wikipedia link to TMFree moderators - a well referenced thesis on Maharishi devotees' beloved Golden Domes of Pure Knowledge, or the "flying halls" :

Wikipedia Golden Domes

"The Golden Domes of Pure Knowledge", or just "The Domes" - curve-roofed structures from a custom designed kit contracted from a geodesic dome company, are America’s mecca for practicing the TM-Sidhi Program. Hundreds or (ideally) thousands of meditating butt-bouncing TM Sidhas and Governors believe they cultivate enlightenment and world peace by daily hours inside these structures.

In honor of Wikipedia's new entry on the Golden Domes, let's share some Dome Stories. I'll begin :

++++

I remember the excitement of our 1980 and 1981 community fundraising, followed by construction of these buildings as "physical manifestation of our group coherence," or so we wanted to believe. We had the enthusiasm of a prolonged Amish barn-raising. My (then) husband poured cement for the Dome’s foundation. It was great to have employment in the early daze of TM's community life, when work and money was scarce for the majority of those trying to fulfill Maharishi's directives for his Ideal Society.

Others must remember the nightly vigil of cars surrounding the Domes’ cement basement circular foundation to provide light for around-the-clock construction crews. Cars extended like wheel spokes from the growing half circle of cement foundation, their paired headlights beaming towards the exposed central foundation. The foundation’s other half was already built into the hillside. Construction crews worked into the wee hours to complete building before winter's first snowfall. Many gladly sacrificed their car batteries for this cause.

How about Maharishi's visit to bless the structure? The first snow flakes almost suspended in the air as Maharishi’s petite frame stood beneath the Dome's triangulated open beams. In his nearly transparent white silk dhoti, Maharishi stood upon a makeshift stage holding a bouquet of flowers, nearly as long as he was tall, diagonally across his body. An audience of standing throngs huddled together to stay warm with mittened palms reverently pressed together, fingers directed upwards just below their chins. Someone whispered to me “Maharishi’s vibratory rate is so high from his level of consciousness; he produces his own heat and never feels cold. That is common with enlightened people. Hindu Saints wear sandalwood paste upon their foreheads to prevent their brains from overheating. That's why photos of Guru Dev (Maharishi's teacher) show him with sandalwood paste smeared on his forehead.”

Muted winter sunlight through Maharishi’s dhoti outlined tiny bare legs amongst the snowflakes, a thin brown pashmina shawl casually resting upon his shoulders. 'Maybe Maharishi does generate his own heat to to calmly withstand this cold' I thought to myself, remembering photos of him barely dressed in Lake Tahoe and in Himalayan snow.

My husband sat honorably with the Dome construction crew in reserved front row seats beneath outdoor space heaters, close to Maharishi (Gina's aside - Where were space heaters and lights during Dome construction?) I stood further back on the hill crowded with others. I was pregnant in a long down coat, fur-rimmed hood pulled over my ears and blue moon-boots while balancing my three year old daughter in her red snow suit upon my shoulders, affording my child a clear view of Maharishi over others' heads.

After Maharishi's inauguration and recognition of each member of the construction crew who had autographed the final framing beam of the not-yet completed holy structure, Maharishi's white limo slowly moved through the polite crowds as the snow began to fall. Masses tried to separate as the white limo nosed its way through crowds toward the road. Trying to depart with the masses, I was surprised when headlights of Maharishi's limo pressed behind my thighs. There was nowhere for me to move away, the car pressed harder. I struggled to maintain my pregnant balance on the hillside with a child upon my shoulders, trying to press myself sideways into a sea of winter garments as the assertive vehicle forced my fall backward to sit upon its hood. Holding onto my daughter's snowboots in front of my shoulders, I twisted around and was embarrassed to see that my buttocks was directly in front of Maharishi in the limo's passenger seat. His dark silent eyes briefly connected with mine through the spray of gladiolas and lillies still in his arms. At the time I wondered if Maharishi’s omniscience recognized me from the previous year in India when I had presented him with a rose from the daughter currently balancing upon my shoulders, or if he was reprimanding me and hundreds of others for being in the car's path. As the car continued to press forward. I wondered why he didn't ask the driver to stop for a moment to allow a woman and child to right themselves. Perhaps they were concerned the devotional crowd would swarm the vehicle.

Reluctant to put my daughter down lest she get lost or crushed, I somehow edged to the right while balancing my child. The limo continued to press through the crowd, literally rubbing against standing pedestrians. Through the reflection of my daughter and myself in Maharishi's window I saw his straight-faced forward gaze as the limo's metal then glass windows rubbed against many down and wool coats, uniform mittened and gloved palms pressed together in obeisance to their Guru. I wondered why Maharishi did not use a version of the 'royal wave' common to politicians and royalty when passing adoring fans.

++++

Please share your own memories from The Domes' mystical magical fantastical white padded large circular spaces, in TMFree's comments below.

Alternatively, Wikipedia welcomes documentable editorial suggestions and discussion related to the article. Feel free to make suggestions directly to Wikipedia's new article on the Golden Domes. Wikipedia's editorial policies are publicly posted.
I've not contributed to Wikipedia edits - IMHO, the article already appears well-researched.

"Transcendental Meditation" in 63 languages

2011-08-08T02:10:00.002-04:00

As part of another project, I've translated the words "transcendental meditation" into the 63 languages available through the Google translation service. Phonetic spellings of languages that don't use the Roman character set are included if available. Non-Roman character sets may not render properly in some web browsers. I thought I'd offer them here in case they are of any value to others interested in the subject.

"Transcendental Meditation" is a registered trademark of the Maharishi Foundation in the United States and some, but not all, other countries.


	Afrikaans	transendentale Meditasie
	Albanian	meditim i jashtëzakonshëm
	Arabic	التأمل التجاوزي
	Armenian	տրանսցենդենտալ խոհ
	Armenian, phonetic	transts’yendental khoh
	Azerbaijani	Transendental Meditasiyanın
	Basque	transcendental meditazio
	Belarusian	трансцэндэнтальнай медытацыі
	Belarusian, phonetic	transcendentaĺnaj miedytacyi
	Bengali	তুরীয় ধ্যান
	Bengali	Turīẏa dhyāna
	Bulgarian	трансцеденталната медитация
	Bulgarian, phonetic	transtsedentalnata meditatsiya
	Catalan	la meditació transcendental
	Chinese (Simplified)	冥思静坐
	Chinese (Simplified), phonetic	Míng sī jìngzuò
	Chinese (Traditional)	先驗冥想
	Chinese (Traditional), phonetic	Xiān yàn míngxiǎng
	Croatian	transcendentalna meditacija
	Czech	transcendentální meditace
	Danish	transcendental meditation
	Dutch	transcendente meditatie
	Estonian	transtsendentaalne meditatsioon
	Filipino	transendental bulay
	Finnish	transsendenttinen mietiskely
	French	la méditation transcendantale
	Galician	meditación transcendental
	Georgian	ტრანსცენდენტული მედიტაციის
	Georgian, phonetic	transts’endentuli meditats’iis
	German	transzendentale Meditation
	Greek	υπερβατικό διαλογισμό
	Greek, phonetic	ypervatikó dialogismó
	Gujarati	ઇન્દ્રિયાતીત ધ્યાન
	Gujarati, phonetic	Indriyātīta dhyāna
	Haitian Creole	meditasyon transandantal
	Hebrew	המדיטציה הטרנסנדנטלית
	Hindi	ट्रान्सेंडैंटल ध्यान
	Hindi, phonetic	Ṭrānsēṇḍaiṇṭala dhyāna
	Hungarian	transzcendentális meditáció
	Icelandic	Transcendental hugleiðslu
	Indonesian	meditasi transendental
	Irish	Transcendental meditation
	Italian	meditazione trascendentale
	Japanese	超越瞑想
	Japanese, phonetic	Chōetsu meisō
	Kannada	ಅತೀಂದ್ರಿಯ ಧ್ಯಾನ
	Kannada, phonetic	Atīndriya dhyāna
	Korean	초월 명상
	Korean, phonetic	chowol myeongsang
	Latin	meditatio transcendentalis
	Latvian	transcendentālas meditācija
	Lithuanian	transcendentinė meditacija
	Macedonian	трансцендентална медитација
	Macedonian, phonetic	transcendentalna meditaciJa
	Malay	transendental meditasi
	Maltese	transcendental meditazzjoni
	Norwegian	transcendental meditasjon
	Persian	متعالی مدیتیشن
	Polish	medytacji transcendentalnej
	Portuguese	meditação transcendental
	Romanian	transcendental meditaţie
	Russian	трансцендентальной медитации
	Russian, phonetic	transtsendentalʹnoĭ meditatsii
	Serbian	трансценденталне медитације
	Serbian, phonetic	transcendentalne meditacije
	Slovak	transcendentálnej meditácie
	Slovenian	transcendentalna meditacija
	Spanish	la meditación trascendental
	Swahili	transcendental kutafakari
	Swedish	transcendental Meditation
	Tamil	ஆழ்நிலை தியானம்
	Tamil, phonetic	Āḻnilai tiyāṉam
	Telugu	పారమార్థిక ధ్యానం
	Telugu, phonetic	Pāramārthika dhyānaṁ
	Thai	การทำสมาธิยอดเยี่ยม
	Thai, phonetic	Kār thả s̄māṭhi yxd yeī̀ym
	Turkish	transandantal meditasyon
	Ukrainian	трансцендентальної медитації
	Ukrainian, phonetic	transtsendentalʹnoï medytatsiï
	Urdu	transcendental توجہ
	Vietnamese	siêu thiền định
	Welsh	drosgynnol myfyrdod
	Yiddish	טראַנסאַנדענטאַל קלערן

A few words about comments

2011-07-24T17:10:00.006-04:00

For years, the comment threads here at the TM-Free Blog have been almost completely wide-open, and there have been very few incidents where individuals have had their commenting privilege revoked or comments removed.

I've had to take some time away from active participation on the blog, and I haven't been pleased with what's happened in my absence. It appears, given the repetitive nature of many recent comments, some are apparently uninformed as to the nature and purpose of the TM-Free Blog, and the views of the contributors, as has been expressed through the almost one thousand posts made here over the past few years. After consultation with the other contributors, I thought that this would be a good time to point out the obvious.

1) Like it says at the top of the page, this blog specializes in "skeptical views of Transcendental Meditation and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi." Many if not most posts here present that sort of view with respect to TM, the movement, and the writings or activities of those involved or formerly involved with those things. At least one of us (that would be me) has been doing this online in some form for almost two decades, and I don't think I'll be stopping anytime soon. We tend to think that the contemporary and historical TM movement is a worthwhile subject for critical analysis and study from a number of perspectives, including those of popular culture, anthropology, group dynamics and comparative religion. We also offer an alternative to the often unquestioning repetition of the organization's claims in the media and through its attempted promotional efforts in various fields including science and medicine. At times, we will talk about our own past experiences, often in the light of what we know today.

By necessity, this process involves a certain amount of rational skepticism and questioning, where the claims made by group leaders, the alleged mental experiences of participants, and the corporate actions taken by the movement are examined, reported on in detail, and analyzed with respect to the available facts.

Also by necessity, we understand that the scientific method is a valid means to learn about the world around us. We take exception to the notion that science is merely another form of religion, or that the claims of religion (including those incorporated, explicitly or implicitly, into the TM movement as we see it today) must be automatically accepted as true. We also object to the subversion of the language of science to back what are fundamentally religious claims, including many of the claims made for the products and services sold by the TM movement today, which are ultimately based on the false, faith-based assumption that the application of "Vedic" "knowledge" as repackaged by this particular Vedic sect will solve all problems.

2) This is not a public venue where anyone and everyone may participate. We are not a governmental agency. Anyone is free to write almost whatever they want to, but we are not obligated to provide space to any and all writings here. Therefore, the coordinator of this blog (that would be me) reserves the right to restrict or forbid any individual from commenting here, to set all comments to moderation, to allow trusted individuals to post freely, to remove posts or entire threads, or even to eliminate the commenting feature altogether.

3) If the things I've outlined in #1 offend you, or you otherwise take issue with them, and your reaction to them is to repetitively attack the contributors and others expressing the values I've outlined for "spewing venom," "not playing fair," "holding a grudge," "name-calling," "grasping at straws," creating a "cult unto itself," or for being "prejudiced," "miserable," "unhappy," "vengeful," "true believers" or "fanatic" (all terms/phrases culled from one recent comment thread), then you should probably find somewhere else to play. Ultimately, with or without warning, you may find your posting privilege revoked.

Going back over that same thread, I found this phrase, the claim that we "viciously find fault in everything that Maharishi did and that the movement is trying to do." Given the nature of Mahesh and his movement, "finding fault" is a trivial task, and you'll see that we do in fact find fault with them in much of we write here. It comes with the territory, and it's not an unexpected result when a bit of skepticism and rationality are applied to both the history and present activities of the TM sales organization, Mahesh, and his successors. Again, if you're expecting us to rein in criticism of "Maharishi's movement" because it offends you or you think it's not fair because you believe some great untold story of the movement's actual or intended goodness is not being offered here, you probably shouldn't bother trying to comment here.

4) This is not a comment "policy" nor is it a set of "rules." It is, however, my way of letting readers know that I have no intention of babysitting or analyzing every comment for appropriateness, while making it clear that the nature and language of an overwhelming number of recent comments has run counter to the stated purpose and values of this blog and its contributors, and I will take action to bring things back into line as necessary.

5) If you want to go play in a free-for-all, go sign up for Fairfield Life.

Let us entertain you - TM and cult educative video links

2011-07-22T18:41:00.018-04:00

The following youtube videos were brought to my attention today- I don't know who posted these onto youtube.

These are simultaneously funny and distressing - too good to be true. They will stir memories for many TMFree readers.

The first animated video exemplifies a meeting with a Course Participant's (CP's) rejection from Dome participation (prolonged group meditation and "flying" practice). You see, attendance at Transcendental Mediation advanced programs requires "security" clearance with updated identification cards. The TM Movement tracks dates of individuals' attendance at TM-Sidhi training, Teacher Training Courses, payment status, and reports of deemed-spiritual infidelities or being "off the Program".

Decades ago I experienced questionings of my "devotion" to "Program". Bevan Morris interrogated me on two or three separate occasions in the late 1970s and early 1980s, questioning my commitment to Program because of frequent absenteeism to care for my children. I held fast (at the time) that Maharishi would not want me to neglect my children. Surprisingly, the TM authorities did not revoke my "badge". My mother submitted to such interrogation by Maharishi in 1975 in Switzerland when she requested to visit her Italian mother over Christmas. Again, in her case Maharishi relented and granted my mother a brief holiday visit to her family with return to Switzerland in good standing with the TM Movement.

Today, if I were to apply for an advanced TM program, they would likely reject me because of my public voice about the TM Movement's policies. Just as the CP in the following video is rejected.

Rejection from a controlling relationship (group or person) to which one is devoted can be an incredibly painful experience. Such rejection, however, is ultimately a compliment - manipulators will always reject independent thinkers. Critical analysis threatens totalitarian control. After all, critical thinking could become contagious. Enjoy a rendition of circuitous TM speak by what we once called a "TM-Nazi" :

The next animated video celebrates a recent National Tour to promote Transcendental Meditation by Dr. Raja John Hagelin :

This next one is an older, basic educational film about "Mind Control Cults". Several methods highlighted in this video will be familiar to those who know Maharishi's Transcendental Mediation Movement. This is simultaneously funny and sadly true. It brings back memories.

re: Laurie's Reflections on Recent TM Publicity

2011-07-20T17:02:00.014-04:00

Morris said, in response to Laurie's recent post:

on TM-Free Blog: Reflections on Recent Transcendental Meditation Publicity 19 hours ago
I'm not as familiar with the internal dynamics of the TMO as some others, and I have no doubt that much of what is said is true. But most of the things being discussed happened many years ago, and Maharishi is no longer here. I don't see what the harm is in seeing if learning TM actually can help kids with ADHD learn better without drugs, or help veterans who have suffered traumatic experiences in a war get over their fears and lead productive lives again. I agree that the quote mentioned is pretty much over the top, but so what? Reading some (not all) of these posts, it seems that some of the people making them want TM to be of no use at all, even in these cases, because if it is, it would invalidate their opinion of the TMO and MMY (which it wouldn't, in my opinion).
Morris

I think you have raised an interesting point of pertinence to which I wanted to respond. I have no doubt that there are highly divided ideas, opinions, feelings and emotional responses when it comes to TM, the TMO and the on-going battle between those who would continue to propagate the faith (so to speak) and those who would happily see its backside burn in the fires of gehenna. There are always extremes. Avoiding both, I think, is about the best we can hope for.

Personally, my problem is not with TM per se, but with what Mahesh did with TM (and what the TMO continues to do with it), how he both used it to establish a favourable mind-set amongst his followers as well as establish a financial base to keep the whole thing (which I suspect was primarily his own fame) going. Having watched Mahesh up close and personal for two solid years, my feelings toward him are quite mixed and tend toward the negative. Now, of course, he may be dead, but his influence and mind-set is very much alive and functioning amongst the leaders of the TMO.

That said, attention deficit disorder, sometimes called ADHA (attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder) is both difficult to handle and difficult to treat. Actually, there is an opinion that there is no such thing as "hyperactivity", but rather an increase in activity or the inability to not be constantly active, results from the attention deficit disorder.

The first difficulty in using any meditation method or medical treatment to lessen the severity of this problem is, somewhat obviously, the problem itself! I have only a limited range of experience with attention deficit disorder (ADD). That experience is centred upon children with other afflictions as well and with elevated levels of attention deficit. Even getting them to sit still for the few seconds it takes to get them to take their medication is difficult. How, then, would one get such a child to do either the child's TM technique or the sitting technique.

I don't think there is any question that a meditation technique would be preferable to drugs, whether one is for or against medication in this situation. What I would very much like to see is a broad-based study of many methods of meditative treatment prescribed for a range of ADD situations and studied by many disciplines.

Having read so many of the self-bestowed "scientific studies" produced by the TMO, I can already predict that they would find glowingly positive results meriting a huge influx of further funding to do more studies. Cynically, of course, I see the emphasis falling on the huge influx of further funding.

This, as well, applies to TM in schools. What can this possibly amount to but an increase in the TMO's client-base, customer-base, and an influx of further funding.

How could any religion or corporation NOT want its product introduced into all public schools, all schools, period?

While I have great confidence that the fundamental of TM ("as easily as") has merit, I question, given the evidence of those two years spent in Mahesh's close company, whether that merit in Mahesh's hands is any more worthy of consideration than investing one's life-savings with Bernie Madoff. That's extreme, of course, and something I already said ought to be avoided, yet, my experience is my experience.

Now, the matter of PTSD. My father suffered from PTSD following his WWII military service. Those returning from subsequent military service have shown far worse and far more incapacitating life-changes.

Again, I'm highly in favour of testing various meditation methods, certainly including TM, to see what the result is on a wide range of afflicted individuals. But I doubt the ability of the TMO to be objective.

Were TM the panacea Mahesh made it out to be, then the numbers of individuals signing up (so to speak) would be incredible. That is not the case, however.

The method of teaching TM has been widely available on the Internet for at least a decade if not more. The availability of Dr. Benson's "relaxation response" has been available even longer. So, rather than the TMO's apparent presumption that TM is the only thing available and nothing else works (again, I know that I am being a little more than a little over the top), it might be useful to do some research to see what meditation methods have already been tried with ADD and PTSD.

Almost anyone with a little initiative can learn to teach TM by learning the steps of initiation (available on the Internet for at least a decade). Similarly, the maintenance method (checking procedure) can be learnt by anyone and one need not be fanatical about it. {it might not be well known, but many teachers of TM were taught to be teachers of TM _by_Mahesh_ on a two-week residence course}

Do the mantras matter? apparently not or Mahesh wouldn't have changed them and the method of selecting them from course to course; nor would he have told me, when I was "doing his letters" that I should just tell people who had mantra problems that "it didn't matter" and "just to continue", nor, when he made me an M-Group teacher (religious monks, nuns, priests and brothers) would he have given me just two mantras, one for men, the other for women, both of which turned out to be teenage mantras from the Fiuggi course. (Nor, when he gave my the mantras to give when I became a TM teacher, and I said that I had the wrong mantra, pointing out on the paper he handed me, that I had this mantra and should, obviously, have had that mantra, would he have said: it doesn't matter)

So, any reasonable combination of the TM methodology and the Benson methodology ought to produce some valuable results. BUT, those results are going to be symptom-specific, aren't they. Medical science (whether conducted by pharmaceutical agencies or medical schools) has long known that one treatment for one affliction is hardly ever a competent solution.

ASA (aspirin, acetylsalicylic acid) was discovered late in the late 1800's and has probably been studied more than any other medication and it still might not be completely understood in either its benefits or detriments.

I think that all forms of meditation (absolutely including TM) need to be as thoroughly studied, examined, researched, prodded, probed and otherwise understood.

I am reminded of something in the Buddhist tradition: mind goes before everything.

Obviously, nothing can or does take place without the mind. (Let's confine ourselves to sentient beings, even though plant-life can probably be said to have some sort of mind). So anything, beneficial or afflictive, in some or another way, may be or actually is mind-related. Recent research (sorry, I'd very much like to cite the specific studies, but I'm too disorganized to have that right to hand at the moment, I'm sure it's available with a modicum of Internet googling) appears to indicate that there is discernible change in the structure of the brain itself (brain plasticity, or something like that) as a result of meditation).

And, surely, we cannot discount the placebo effect, cited in all legitimate research that I know of: there is always a percentage of positive response from those who only thought they were taking medication! While this may be small, sometimes, something is obviously going on, isn't it.

So, is meditation good for everyone; will meditation fix everything? That would be an absurdity. However, with enough independent, objective research by a wide range of academic professionals, it may well be determined which form of meditation is appropriate for which affliction and which individual having what degree of that affliction: much as your physician determines which medication and how much dependent upon individual circumstances and a well established experiential basis.

Cynically, and with some sadness once again, I tend to see the TMO's research and the TMO itself being much more like Narcissus gazing at his reflection in the pool of clear water.

Thank you, Morris, for your very interesting and provocative observation.

Reflections on Recent Transcendental Meditation Publicity

2011-07-13T11:07:00.001-04:00

The Maharishi University of Management Development Office sent out an email on June 12, 2011, inviting TMers to come to Fairfield and Maharishi Vedic City (SM) for this summer's TM course. Amongst the enticements noted, such as international restaurants, the Raj Ayurvedic Health Spa, hiking paths, etc., was a quotation from a participant of a previous course. The complete quote is as follows:

"Each morning I emerge from the Dome I feel as if I am emerging with an entirely new physiology. I feel as if every cell in my body is clean, or more accurately, brand new. I experience a deep purity in my whole being, a crystal clarity, and the world and everything in it appears totally refurbished.

But it is not just my physiology that feels as if it has undergone a deep, deep cleaning; my psychology also feels that way. I am filled with a kind of sparkling happiness that I feel must be pouring from me and infecting everything and everyone around me.

It's as if my whole being gets saturated with this new, refined, glorified, indescribable level of my own awareness - as if this level is becoming increasingly structured in the very fabric of my whole body, my whole psychology, my entire Being day after day.

- An Invincible America Assembly participant"

This quote captured my attention. When I read it the first time, my TM-trained brain kicked in, and I thought, "What a wonderful experience! Clearly indicative of spiritual growth!" But when I thought it over, I realized what a telling quote it was, how it encapsulated some of the
tragedy and weaknesses of the TM movement.

So, switching from the part of my brain that experiences warm fuzzy emotions to the rational part of my brain, I started to critique the quote logically.

First, let's look at the language used. It's evocative, but when you read it with a critical mind, does it actually give information? What does "a deep purity in my whole being" mean? Is there usually a "dirtiness" in this TMer's whole being? What is "deep purity" as opposed to "purity"? What is "whole being"?

What is "crystal clarity"? Is it a physical state, a mental state, or what? How does it differ from "a clarity"? What is crystalline about it?

The TMer is filled with "sparkling happiness." What does this mean? How does it differ from "happiness?" How can happiness, which is an emotion, "infect...everything," meaning physical things?

Then, I decided to analyze three of the experiences the TMer reports:
(1) Every cell in the TMer's body feels brand new.
(2) It feels like the TMer's happiness is infecting everyone and everything around.
(3) It feels as if this glorified experience is becoming increasingly structured into the TMer's entire being.

Regarding the first experience, I think even the TM organization would concede that every single cell in the TMer's body isn't actually brand new each time s/he emerges from the Dome. It just feels that way. In other words, the TMer is feeling something that isn't true. In other words, the TMer is experiencing a delusion. The TMer is delusional.

Regarding the second experience, the TMer feels as if his/her happiness is infecting everyone around. But is this subjective experience objectively true? For instance, has the TMer asked everyone around (or even anyone around), "Do you feel infected with my happiness?" The TMer doesn't say. So we have no evidence that this perception is real. Therefore this is possibly a delusional experience. The TM publicists thought it was a worthwhile quote to print.

Regarding the third experience, wherein the TMer states that it feels as if her/his whole being is becoming increasingly structured at this level. This is, in effect, a comment made during the course in which the TMer predicts what will be the results after the course. There is no followup to determine that the prediction was accurate.

In summary, most of this quotation is pitifully unimpressive. And yet it was chosen by TM publicists to encourage TMers to attend the course. Why? Is the thinking of the PR people so impaired that they think this is a meaningful quote? Or are they taking advantage of what they perceive to be TMers' irrationality?

Since the MUM Development Office has presented one cherry-picked anonymous quote as convincing evidence of the value of the TM techniques, I thought it would be fair if I too offered some anonymous quotes of my own, as to some outcomes of TM programs:

1) "There was a higher percentage of suicides in Fairfield than in comparably-sized towns." - Former Sidha

2) "As people got off the plane in the U.S. after their TM Teacher Training course, I signed some of them into mental hospital." - Physician

3) "As a result of extensive meditating, my relative developed adult-onset Tourette's Syndrome." - Former TM teacher

4) "When I got back home, I walked around in a state of terror, because I had been taught that anywhere outside of Fairfield was polluted and cursed." - Former TM Governor

Open Thread for Readers

2011-06-27T20:49:00.002-04:00

Is there something on your mind related to TM, the TM organization or Maharishi Mahesh Yogi that you'd like to discuss? Feel free to bring up topics here!

Will Hagelin have the chutzpa to tell HH the Dalai Lama what Buddhism lacks?

2011-06-07T17:59:00.002-04:00

A friend of mine sent me this delightful news excerpt from a recent correspondence with a friend in Fairfield. I’ve preserved the spellings (at least it wasn’t Deli llama). The Peace Conference is real enough (http://newarkpeace.org/); but I seriously doubt the claim that the Dalai Lama’s secretary said anything so ridiculous. I certainly look forward to John Hagelin trying to tell HH the Dalai Lama that Buddhists don’t know anything about the development of consciousness. This should amuse HH very much. Hopefully it will lead to Hagelin getting some perspective on the real world, but on that point, I will not any time soon be restraining my respirations.

But the most inspiring news [from the Peace Conference] was from Raja Hagelin. The secretary of the Dhali Llama attended his workshop at the Newark Peace Education Summit last week and told John that the reason the Buddist are interested in science is because they have the knowledge and religion but not the techniques for development of consciousness. Raja John now has an appointment to visit the Dhali Llama.

The one-l lama,

He’s a priest.

The two-l llama,

He’s a beast.

And I will bet

A silk pajama

There isn’t any

Three-l lllama.

– Ogden Nash

But it is so beautiful!

2011-05-16T14:48:00.001-04:00

Derren Brown (http://tinyurl.com/3dmjkf) is a "mentalist" (http://tinyurl.com/zm4yt). Here he demonstrates how easy it is to induce a false spiritual experience in someone: http://tinyurl.com/278gx7z.

And all false spiritual experiences feel beautiful and real to the people who are deluded by them. That's because "it's beautiful" is confused to also mean "it's real".

Unhooking From Maharishi's Teachings: Laurie Interviews Sudarsha about the Puja (Ceremony)

2011-05-14T18:17:00.002-04:00

I (Laurie) left TM 30 years ago, after 10 years in the TM movement, and I have been "deprogramming" myself ever since. I now believe that everything I was taught on the TM Teacher Training Course while I was "rounding" (meditating many times a day) bypassed my critical thinking, and went straight into my belief system. Therefore, even today I am still finding unexamined beliefs inside myself that hook me into Mahesh Prasad Varma's system. (According to Wikipedia, "Mahesh Prasad Varma" may be Maharishi's given name.)

One of those beliefs was that the puja had magical powers. Mr. Varma told us that the word "puja" translates as "traditional ceremony of gratitude," but most other translators say it means "worship". On my TM Teacher Training Course in La Antilla, Spain, in 1974, Mr. Varma taught us that the puja must be performed before the person is instructed in TM. Without it, he said, TM cannot be successfully learned or practiced. He gave quasi-scientific and quasi-mystical reasons why this was so; and I was left with fear and trembling for the sacred, God-given puja.

Therefore, it was helpful to my recovery to learn that after his disillusionment with Mr. Varma's movement, Sudarsha, (one of the co-editors of TM-Free), successfully instructed many people in TM without first chanting the puja. I thought it might be helpful to other readers recovery too, to read about this, so I decided to interview Sudarsha. Here goes:

Laurie: How did you first hear of TM?

Sudarsha: I remember it like it was yesterday! It was in May of 1968. I had just finished another miserable day teaching high school English, and I decided to go for a walk rather than immediately take the bus home. I wandered into a drugstore, and there on a book rack was this childishly cuddly guy draped in white on the cover of a book. For some reason, I was fascinated and I bought it.

That night, I started to read it. He had written, "To be is to live." Those words struck me like lightening. I sat up straight and confirmed to myself, "This is it! This is what I've been searching for!" Sadly, the book didn't actually teach me anything. It just theorized and theorized. The title? "The Science of Being and Art of Living" by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I felt hooked. Now I believe that I was more hooked by to have that final secret of how to do it than anything else. I wanted to learn to do this. Cleverly, Mahesh could rope us in by coming so close to telling us the secret, but just stopping short.

A week or so later, I found and bought an LP (a vinyl record - remember those?) of Mahesh giving a talk. His voice sounded so captivating. There was an address and phone number on the record sleeve. I phoned and made an appointment to learn TM.

L: What results did you get from TM?

S: Same results as everyone else: in the beginning TM felt good. I felt a sense of relief. As I think back on it now, I realize that "relief" is quite different from the "pure consciousness" or "source of thought" that Mahesh was promising, but I mistook the relief for what he was promising. Ultimately, I think it all comes back to "me": my understanding, my misunderstanding, my expectations, my desires, my greeds. But being a schoolteacher was stressful, and I was stressed. TM was a contrast to that, so it felt good.

L: What made you decide to become an initiator?

S: TM was easy to do and it felt good. It was only many years later that I began to believe that it operated on the basis of contrast and little more. Back then, though, I thought that this was good, worthwhile, valuable, a lot more satisfying than what I was currently doing. And, into the bargain, a lot more valuable to others. So I went to Estes Park, Colorado, USA, in 1970 and took the TM Teacher Training Course.

L: What was your understanding at that time of the reason for doing the puja?

S: That's complicated. It was what we were supposed to do; it was what Mahesh taught us; it somehow empowered us to "give" the mantra - he said it allowed us to pick up the mantra at the finest level. It was special, maybe even sacred.

But when I was finally given that piece of paper with the mantras written on it, and saw that they were selected not by some deep psycho-spiritual-physiological reasoning, but just by age and gender - well! There was a conflict! Something wasn't making sense, and it was very difficult to think about that, when I really wanted to teach TM because I thought it was really a good thing.

L: From today's vantage point, what do you think the puja is really about, or what is its purpose?

S: The puja was a nice touch. I suppose it was Mahesh's way of trying to flaunt his so-called tremendous devotion to Guru Dev. We know from what Paul Mason has written on his website about Guru Dev that some pundit wrote the puja for Guru Dev, and Guru Dev didn't like it. He said to tie it to a stone and throw it into the Ganges. Which the pundit did. Mahesh said, and I don't remember where, that he dove in and rescued it.

Some of the earliest initiators to be trained in India by Mahesh learned an ending which Mahesh later changed, probably in the early 1960's. Also, when I learned the puja, in 1968, there were only three parts to it: the Sanskrit words, the English translation and the movements we made with our hands, etc.

L: By 1974, when I learned it on my TM Teacher Training Course, there was also a fourth part, called "puja feeling." Mr. Varma said all four parts were essential for the puja to "work." So this whole business of "the purity of the teaching" and "doing the puja to preserve the purity of the teaching" is suspect.

S: I think now that what the puja actually does is simply what all ceremonies do: it draws attention away from everything else. Look how the Roman Catholic Church used the Mass to manipulate people all through the Middle Ages. In teaching TM, the puja is very useful because it is so strange - at least to Westerners - at least it was strange when TM hit the West in the 1960's. People being instructed get completely disoriented. They can't figure out what is going on. This is useful, because when the teacher says a mantra and asks the person to start repeating it, the person does so in a completely non-judgmental state. I believe this is one of the reasons why the first TM experience is so spectacular. It's a real contrast to how you were feeling an hour ago when you were walking to the TM Center.

L: How many people did you initiate using the puja?

S: Something near 800.

L: What experience did those students have with TM?

S: They had the prescribed experience, much like my own initial experience: it felt good, they experienced deep rest. I wonder now if what they experienced wasn't deep rest, but a contrast from their normal way of feeling, which they mistook for "deep rest," because that's what the TM teachers told them they would experience.

L: What led you to consider teaching TM without the puja?

S: That's a really tough question, Laurie, because I don't really remember all the details. I do remember being dissatisfied with what Mahesh had done with TM: adding the Science of Creative Intelligence, Six-Month Courses, Age of Enlightenment techniques, sidhi nonsense. It was obvious to me that the steps of initiation were the only thing that was useful, to lead an individual into a very quiet state so that thinking the mantra would be easy.

After I quit teaching at the TM Center, some friends showed an interest in TM. So I said, "OK, let's just sit quietly and I'll teach you how to do it," and very off-handedly did the steps of initiation starting with the "open the eyes; close the eyes" business from the checking notes. The results were the same. People were happy with the results. Another one of Mahesh's dogmatic superstitions bit the dust.

L: How many people did you instruct without the puja?

S: Maybe 25 or 30. I don't really remember. Those were very traumatic days. I was feeling very sad that I had wasted three months learning to teach TM when anyone could learn how to teach it in a weekend. All the hubbub of rounding for three months had just been brainwashing - or whatever the correct word for that is these days.

L: Were you nervous or guilty or scared about teaching TM without the puja? I know I would have been.

S: No. I hadn't bought into the superstitions of Maheshism. If nothing else, those two years when I was on TM's international staff intimately working side by side with Mahesh demonstrated to me, beyond any doubt, that Mahesh was making it up as he went along. There was no evidence at all that he was any kind of superhuman. Granted, he was very intelligent and quick-witted, and had a remarkably retentive memory. But so do lots of "normal" human beings. What Mahesh had that other people didn't have was the aura of specialness. That is to say, our attribution of mystical specialness to him . He let us believe that he had all sorts of knowledge and "blessings" from Guru Dev. Mahesh was also extraordinarily clever, and used his cleverness to manipulate others. He had a very amoral approach to what he did: if it benefitted his agenda, it was OK.

So, since I came to the conclusion that Mahesh was very human indeed - from direct contact with him - no, I had no nervousness, guilt or fear at all about dropping the puja. And as it turned out, dropping the puja had no effect on the learning or the practice of TM.

L: How did you choose the mantra for the non-puja initiates?

S: Same as I was taught. For some reason, back then it never occurred to me to experiment with mantras. How curious, because Mahesh himself had said that "any word would do," but back then, I only knew the mantras he taught me at Estes Park. I was still unable to think outside the box in this regard.

L: What results did the non-puja students have?

S: Same as all the people I taught the "orthodox" way.

L: Did they keep up with meditating? Did you "check" their meditations?

S: They all got checked, non-puja students and puja students alike. Both groups had the same outcomes: some continued , some said they thought it was silly, some said they didn't have time, some said it quit working....

L: Did you tell them what the mantras really meant?

S: Back then I didn't know what they meant. I found that out later.

L: Thanks so much, Sudarsha, for letting me interview you.

S: It was my pleasure, sort of. This is stuff people have a right to know. Mahesh was using his cleverness, his powers of persuasion, his amoral manipulation of others, without regard to their safety, well-being, or any other aspect of their lives. He simply used people for his own ends, something which is never taught or done by legitimate teachers.

I wonder if my answers are typical. I would find it really interesting - perhaps we could do a survey - to see how many other initiators discovered that the whole puja thing was just part of the phobia-induction that Mahesh used to make our minds like his.

Open Thread

2011-04-29T10:30:00.002-04:00

What's on your mind? What would you like to discuss relating to TM, Maharishi and Maharishi's movement?

Comments are closed for the last Open Thread - so start a new conversation here!

Bevan Goes On Tour, and open thread

2011-03-30T05:32:00.004-04:00

Here's the latest "news," and I use that term here very loosely, from the Global Good News people. They were trying to create a group of some magic number of Yogic Flyers... how many decades ago? They're still at it, right now, and even with the subsidy of millions of dollars from Howard Settle, they're still saying they can't reach that alleged goal.

This was sent on various TM movement e-mailing lists, you can also see the whole thing on the Global Good News website.

US: National Invincibility tour begins 10 April in Texas
by Global Good News staff writer

Global Good News
28 March 2011

National Invincibility Tour April / May 2011
Dr. Bevan Morris, Prime Minister of the Global Country of World Peace
President of Maharishi University of Management
Working with Maharishi for 42 years
Dr Bevan Morris will be touring the United States in April and May, to inspire the permanent creation of the national invincibility group of 2,000 Yogic Flyers in Maharishi Vedic City and in the Golden Domes of Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa.

As always, these sorts of grandiose plans of the TM movement are tinged with a hint of megalomania. They're now talking about the task of changing "the trend of time itself and the destiny of the human race." It's downright ludicrous that the members of a shrinking core of true believers think that they have that kind of influence, just by simply thinking some very special thoughts, bouncing on foam rubber, and calling it "flying." From the "Event Highlights:"

∙ How to achieve the goal of Dr. Howard and Dr. Alice Settle,* supported by Dr John Hagelin—to achieve the number of 2,000 practicing Yogic Flying morning and evening on a permanent basis—which Maharishi said would fundamentally change American society, and change the trend of time itself and the destiny of the human race.

The TM-Free News Brief is on hiatus... until there's some real news, unlike this drivel from the folks at "Global Good News." Don't forget to like us on Facebook if you haven't already.

MUM Q&A session on "David Wants to Fly" on YouTube

2011-03-25T00:21:00.002-04:00

Earlier this month, a question-and-answer session with TM movement and David Lynch Foundation spokesperson Bob Roth was held on the campus of Maharishi University of Management. Video of that session has now been posted to YouTube.

The main subject of the session was David Sieveking's film, "David Wants to Fly," which has been making the rounds of various film festivals here in the U.S. and has been released to theaters in Europe. Some in the audience had seen the film, but it's unclear to what degree the film is available for viewing in Fairfield.

In any case, this question-and-answer session provides an interesting window into how critics of the Transcendental Meditation program are viewed from the view of one person whose full-time job is the promotion of Transcendental Meditation, primarily to the press and prominent individuals.

I might write up a more lengthy commentary on Bob Roth's statements at some later time, but in the meantime here are a few observations.

Roth said, "His [David Lynch's} comment on the film was that David [Sieveking] has made the film that he and his producers, which was the German government's national television, wanted to make." A person in the audience then laughs. This is not true, as an experienced filmmaker like Lynch should already know. As is obvious from the credits which can be seen at IMDB, it was produced by a German independent film production company. Co-producers listed on the credits include a number of other independent production companies in Austria, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland, a Franco-German TV channel, and the public broadcasting stations of Bavaria and Austria. Financial assistance to the arts, including film, from European government agencies is standard practice for European film productions and does not suggest that those governments had any say in the content of the film. This would be similar to claiming that because a program appeared on a PBS station here that it must be government propaganda, which is the impression that Roth appears to be trying to make here. The TM movement has long held a special grudge against the German government, for among other things, a 1986 court ruling stating that the TM organization should be considered a "cult."

Roth said, "He [Lynch] never intended, he wanted everyone to know, he never intended ever to sue this person [Sieveking], to prevent the showing of this film, ever. He [Lynch] believes in artistic freedom and creative freedom... An overture or a letter was sent on his [Lynch's] behalf to try and stop this film from being shown without consulting David [Lynch]." Given Lynch's paean to "artistic freedom," if this were true, the sending of a letter like this on his behalf should have been grounds for severing all ties between the DLF and the TM movement. Critics have noted that MUM law professor William Goldstein has served as in-house legal counsel to both MUM and the David Lynch Foundation along with other TM movement corporate entities such as the Maharishi Foundation all the way back to 1992; given that relationship I think it's inconceivable that such a letter would have been sent without Lynch's knowledge.

There's a bizarrely fascinating sequence where Roth talks about how "big" TM-EX was in the mid-1980's, how the TM-Free Blog is one of a few TM-EX "splinter organizations," and how there's "3 or 4 people who write these." Roth then goes on to list a number of the standard "accusations" about the TM movement that have circulated, at many websites and not necessarily here at this blog, for years:

"that the movement has anywhere between 3 billion and 9 billion dollars"
"all of the research on Transcendental Meditation, because it's done by meditating scientists, is bogus"
"research shows that Transcendental Meditation has an adverse affect, that for some people it's good but for a lot of people it causes a lot of problems, and this isn't just anecdotal, this is research"

Roth then goes on to liken criticism of Transcendental Meditation to the assertion that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya - something that's repeated often, widely believed, but is not true.

Understandably it is difficult to briefly summarize what prominent critics of Transcendental Meditation are writing, or have written over the past few decades. However, if you search on "billion dollars" against this blog on Google, you'll see that that specific accusation about the movement's current net worth does not appear here except in a comment that wasn't made by a blog contributor.

As for the research that's touted to promote TM and who does it, there is no question that many (and clearly not all) of the studies cited today by the promoters of TM are done by people associated with the TM movement, and much of it is of embarrasingly low quality. One such recent and prominent example widely offered by Roth and other TM promoters to the press is featured in the article, "How to Design a Positive Study: Meditation for Childhood ADHD." The magnitude of the claims made for TM, that it is something revolutionary, uniformly effective for all people over the long-term, and that it should be adopted immediately by governments and institutions, is simply not supported by the very few studies of any quality that are offered by the movement after having had four decades to both create their own preliminary studies, and to have had other researchers who aren't meditators replicate those studies on their own, eventually publishing high-quality research on the technique and many other claims the movement makes for its multitude of products, independent of movement organizations.

It's interesting how Roth reframes the question of adverse affects from Transcendental Meditation from the movement's view of "we have the research and you don't" as if that is the only thing that matters. TM critics do not have the support of a global organization that could organize and fund studies seeking more than validation of the a priori conclusions of a Vedic sect. But the movement has always relied on word-of-mouth to promote itself, and there is another side to that word-of-mouth, which finds its way online both at this blog and elsewhere. I've long said that the most obvious "adverse effect" is a lighter wallet and a practice that's discarded after a few months, and it's certainly not hard to find people who used to meditate, who were initiated during the early-mid 1970's. There are many reasons why the "Merv wave" of TM initiations ended after a few short years, and negative impressions of TM stemming from a rapid loss of efficacy and interest for most people after a few months may have been the simplest explanation for the decline in TM's popularity.

Later in the question and answer session, Roth is confronted about what "appears to be a theme of censorship from the movement in the film." The questioner points out the part in the film where Roth looks at the camera and asks that it be turned off. In response to the question, Roth asks, "Me?" and then answers as if he's talking about something else involving "special guests" that has nothing to do with what happens in the film, or as if the fact that David had interviewed him for over a hundred hours is somehow relevant to his behavior.

I've put up a brief excerpt of "David Wants to Fly" on YouTube where Bob Roth appeared, to make it clear to all exactly what the questioner was trying to address - and how Roth is either completely unfamiliar with his own brief role in the film, or is feigning ignorance to avoid answering a vital question.

This player will automatically show the introduction and 14 parts of the Q&A session.

(explanatory disclaimer: my name appears in the YouTube player but that's just because I created a playlist to present all the segments in sequence here, the videos themselves are served up through the MUM Student Activities account at YouTube.)

Update, April 1: There was an article about this session with Bob Roth in the Conscious Times, the student newspaper at MUM.

Disaster in Japan? Send us money for exotic religious rituals!

2011-03-20T20:40:00.003-04:00

Just when you think the global organization that teaches Transcendental Meditation can't sink any deeper, "Global Country" leaders are now organizing monetary support for Vedic rituals performed by "specially trained Maharishi Vedic Pandits of India" as their unique way of providing "urgent relief for Japan." They claim that these rituals "will be vastly more powerful and effective than what the general public can achieve by contributing to rescue efforts and similar, classical approaches."

The following is an excerpt from the TM movement's "Global Good News" website:

Large Maharishi Yagyas being organized to provide urgent relief for Japan

Global Good News Translate This Article
19 March 2011

In response to the critical situation in Japan, the Global Country of World Peace is organizing a special global emergency initiative to create a very large, sustained Maharishi Yagya performance—to bring immediate and lasting relief to the people, neutralize negative influences, and prevent further calamities in the nation.

Yagyas are ancient precise performances by specially trained Maharishi Vedic Pandits of India, which create specific life-supporting influences for individuals, families, and nations from the field of pure consciousness, the Unified Field of total Natural Law.

Leaders of the Global Country around the world, including Dr Bevan Morris, Prime Minister, and its Administrators in the United States, Japan, and India, are promoting this urgent initiative among participants in Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's programmes and well-wishers of humanity in every nation.

Addressing Transcendental Meditation Teachers and practitioners in the United States, Dr John Hagelin, Administrator of the programme in that country, explained, 'While we are contributing a great deal through our daily meditations—especially those on the Invincible America Assembly**—there is one more very powerful thing we can and must do.

'We must harness the Vedic technology of prevention throughYagya. Whereas group meditation and Yogic Flying produce a powerful, generalized, non-directed surge of positivity for the general well-being of society—Maharishi Yagyas create a very focused, concentrated influence of positivity designed to neutralize a specific threat.'

A very large, sustained Yagya for Japan 'is exactly what is needed now to avert further calamity in Japan,' said Dr Hagelin and the other leaders.

While it may be true that certain rituals may be performed as a result of this campaign, I can't help but notice that this is an appeal for people to send large sums of money to an organization that's directly connected with the particular Vedic/Hindu sect in India that originally spawned Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, known as the Brahmanand Saraswati Foundation, headed by the Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math. The lineage of this Shankaracharya, which only dates to its revival in 1941, has long been in dispute, but this organization apparently serves to substantiate the TM movement's claim to be derived from a particular Indian spiritual tradition, and it is the beneficiary of various Western fundraising efforts like this one.

Meanwhile, the TM movement's "Governors" - teachers of Transcendental Meditation - have been instructed to send a special e-mail message announcing this campaign:

Dear Governors,
As we are all aware, the situation in Japan has become extremely critical.
To help alleviate the growing crisis and avert the potential for a nuclear catastrophe, Raja Hagelin with Raja Ram, Dr. Bevan Morris and the International leadership of Maharishi's Movement are urging the immediate creation of a large and powerful Yagya for Japan.

They have created a special announcement to be sent to ALL Governors and Sidhas in your area as well as the more experienced Meditators who would understand the power of the preventative technology of Maharishi Yagya.

In that special announcement addressed to "Sidhas and Governors of the United States" is the core of the movement's appeal for boatloads of money. Unlike the movement's practices of the distant past, they make no secret of the fact that the donations won't even be used for the things the TM movement used to claim justified charging fees for meditation instruction; funds collected in this campaign will only pay for people doing rituals that allegedly have some magical influence on the planet. Unlike the movement's promotions of Transcendental Meditation, for which they claim to have achieved some level of scientific validation, this program is fully in the realm of unsubstantiated religious claims and practices.

To this end, we invite you to join us in the establishment of a special emergency fund to create a very large, sustained Yagya for Japan.

This is exactly what is needed now to avert further calamity in Japan.

We need everyone—hundreds of people—to contribute whatever they can. This will be vastly more powerful and effective than what the general public can achieve by contributing to rescue efforts and similar, classical approaches. Only we have the knowledge of how to engage the managing intelligence of Nature so directly and so powerfully. And with that knowledge comes the responsibility to act.

The Brahmananda Saraswati Foundation, with the Shankaracharya as its Patron and Maharaj Adhiraj Rajaraam as its President, was established by Maharishi to support the Vedic Pandits in India and to perpetuate the Vedic Tradition, including the Vedic technologies of Jyotish and Yagya. For the special purposes of this global effort to bring immediate and lasting relief to the people of Japan, this 501c3 charitable fund will be used.

PLEASE, EVERYONE: LET’S GIVE GENEROUSLY!

With a contribution of $1,250 or more, your name will be acknowledged in the Maharishi Yagya Performance, and we will provide you with special guidelines to follow during the days of the performance.

Please send your donations today. Include your name and address, and you will receive a letter acknowledging your tax-deductible gift.

So what they're basically saying is, send us lots of money so we can arrange for fabulously expensive religious rituals in Fairfield or India that will be much more effective than actually working toward feeding, clothing or housing people affected by the earthquake and tsunami. Trust us. After all, we wear crowns and we've appointed our very own King and after all that you still take us seriously, so we know you'll take this seriously too.

Update, 21 Mar 2011 16:02 EDT: Here's the latest e-mail from "Raja" John Hagelin.

A Heartfelt "THANK YOU" from the People of Japan
Dear Sidhas and Governors of the United States,
I want to thank you, profoundly, for your immediate and overwhelming response to this urgent appeal from the people of Japan.
In less than two days, we have raised over $125,000 from approximately 350 generous souls. This is truly heartening, extraordinary, and absolutely beautiful.
The Yagyas have begun! And they are being expanded continuously as your support flows in. Already, even from the mere sankalpa (commitment of intention) from so many, the dangerous compounding of nuclear mishaps and related danger to the population may be easing. It is too early to declare victory, and we must not become complacent. There is still much hardship, with the death toll now at a projected 18,000.
Our immediate goal is to raise $200,000 to engage the largest possible, sustained Maharishi Yagyas for Japan. Amazingly, we are already mostly there-a historic and highly commendable response.
For those who have not, please take a moment now to give generously. (The details are below.) Thanks to the uniquely powerful and profound Vedic wisdom and technologies Maharishi has blessed us with, we have the ability to accomplish what no-one else can.
I am extremely proud of you. Our dear brothers and sisters in Japan, and indeed the whole global Movement, are thrilled and grateful for what you have done, and are doing.
With heartfelt congratulations and deep thanks to all of you,
Jai Guru Dev
Raja John Hagelin

Open thread, and a micro news brief

2011-03-09T00:20:00.001-05:00

Briefly: David Lynch teleconference with University of Montana Media Arts students is blogged by the campus newspaper; the paper characterized the event as a "lesson" in Transcendental Meditation... More news on David Sieveking’s film “David Wants to Fly” that's slowly making its way across the U.S. The film may have been the subject of an on-campus Q&A at MUM with Bobby Roth earlier this week... Onetime MIU student Jeff Peckman is running for mayor of Denver... TM promoters are again attempting to propagandize for the use of TM to treat PTSD among soldiers, this time in the Sri Lanka Guardian. They must be out of media outlets that will cover what they say, because this Guardian freely admits that it's a website that will run almost anything - see their disclaimer... Ramani Ayer, retired insurance executive and board member of both the David Lynch Foundation and MUM, joins the board of directors of XL Group, a global insurance firm... How many racehorses are named Maharishi?

The TM-Free Blog is on Facebook, where you'll see both pointers to new postings here at the Blog and news articles and other items as we receive them.

There's also a TM-Free Twitter stream.

TM-Free News Brief, 9 March 2011. Published irregularly here on Wednesdays by Mike Doughney, who's solely responsible for its content unless otherwise noted.

“Best Documentary Award” to “David Wants to Fly” for Transcendental Meditation expose’ at Message to Man festival

2011-03-05T14:53:00.009-05:00

A belated congratulations to Sieveking and his production crew for winning “Best Documentary Award” July 2010 at St. Petersburg’s “Message to Man International Documentary Film Festival.”

David Sieveking’s compassionate, funny and revelatory film “David Wants to Fly” has been making the film festival circuit since it’s grand opening premiere screening at the prestigious Berlinale International Film Festival in February 2010.

“David Wants to Fly” has been well received in various European and Eastern European film festivals. Perhaps countries with recent history of cult-like regimens are better able to appreciate Sieveking’s story of Transcendental Meditation’s warm, seductive and ultimately deceptive structure.

The film is slowly making the tour of film festivals in the USA, with ongoing negotiations for a USA film distributor.

Meanwhile, keep your eyes open for your local film festivals. We will keep you updated here.

The film will next be shown in Cambridge Massachusetts on March 15, 2011 Brattle Theater's DocYard film festival. The film Q & will be moderated by Judith Bourque, author of Robes of Silk Feet of Clay, her memoir of a love affair with Maharishi.

In April "David Wants to Fly" will be featured at Tiburon International Film Festival in Tiburon, California. We don’t have the screening date and time yet.

Meanwhile the DVD can be ordered from German Amazon online.

You could also list it in your netflix queue, to be available when a USA distribution contract is arranged.

Your Brain on East-Facing Buildings, and open thread

2011-03-02T02:23:00.003-05:00

Here are a few images found on the web. These are from an online presentation, "Intro To Maharishi Sthapatya Veda," which is the TM movement's architecture and construction product, promoted by the very same people who attempt to sell Transcendental Meditation as some kind of "scientifically validated" practice.

Despite the reference to "neuro-scientific research" in the second slide, there is zero scientific evidence that indicates that physical orientation has any direct effect on the human brain. Of course, that doesn't stop the promoters of TM from making these sorts of outrageous claims, that aren't even clearly supported by the religious traditions of India. In other words, it appears "Maharishi" and his entourage may have made this stuff up. It's a uniquely megalomaniacal stance, this claim that almost all buildings across the planet should be bulldozed and rebuilt according to their rigid strictures.

The first slide is very similar to a poster I once found taped to the doors of a since-demolished building at the Maharishi University of Management, announcing that certain doors were not to be used. Here's my previous article with a picture of that poster, and more about the 70 million dollar office building that was built near Washington, DC, to comfort those few people who've developed this kind of peculiar phobia about the orientation and design of buildings. Or as a peculiar gimmick to sell the building to renters - funny, that trick doesn't seem to have worked, at last glance the building still sits mostly empty.

The TM-Free News Brief is on hiatus this week.

~~If you don't see an "add your comment" link below, click on the article title to see the comments. Disqus seems to have broken something this morning.~~ It's fixed.

Getting Unstuck from TM: The Mystique of Maharishi's "Vibrations"

2011-02-25T12:40:00.004-05:00

Several TM-Free Blog contributors and readers have noted that even after 10, 20 or 30 years out of TM, even after years of active recovery work, they continue to unearth areas where they are still "hooked" into the TM belief system.

Sometimes I too go into the mindset where I believe in and excuse the teachings of Mahesh Prasad Varma (the given name of "Maharishi Mahesh Yogi"), even though I know about his lies, double-crossings, opportunism, contradictions, deceptions, back-pedaling, deceit, two-facedness, and all the rest. I am very puzzled by my cognitive swings, and have tried to understand why I still get hooked. I hope my thoughts on this topic will be helpful for other people recovering from the world of Mr. Varma.

I've come to realize that one reason I get re-hooked is that deep inside I believe he is special. Maybe a saint. Maybe God Incarnate, like Jesus or Krishna. Or maybe God's prophet, like Moses or Mohammed. Maybe enlightened, like the Buddha.

If I believe that, then I believe he has a direct pipeline to Ultimate Truth. And if he has a direct pipeline to Ultimate Truth, then it is not my place to critique him, but to follow him. As we say in the West, "God works in mysterious ways," so no matter how obscene or absurd Mr. Varma's teachings seem to me, I still need to support them.

Why would I think that Mr. Varma has a direct pipeline to Ultimate Truth? Here are some of my reasons. Did you fall for any of these, or for others? What convinced you to follow Mr. Varma?

Well, I believed he was God's messenger partly because he was so wise, intelligent, quick-witted, well-rounded, self-assured, patient, loving, all-knowing, joyful, blissful. Because he spoke with such authority and confidence about spiritual things. Because he claimed lineage from Swami Brahmananda Saraswati. Because he claimed to be enlightened (or did he only imply it? Does anyone remember his comments on this?)

But most of all because of his amazing aura. Personally, I found his aura overwhelming. His skin was radiant, almost translucent, and it acted like a mirror. It seemed to reflect light. It was actually hard to look directly at him - looking at him was a little like staring into the sun. He virtually shimmered when you looked at him.

And his physical energy field! Oh my! When I was in his presence, I felt transported, high, entranced. Engaged. Intoxicated. I couldn't think straight when I was near him. "I" disappeared - my personal thoughts and personality disappeared, swallowed in the immensity of Love, Power and Energy. Being around him felt like being around an electric generator. It was virtually physical. Like a tidal wave, it would almost knock me over. (It did in fact physically knock over a friend of mine - she fell backwards and I had to catch her.)

Before he'd start a lecture, he'd look slowly around the room at his audience. As his gaze approached me, I felt like a laser beam was approaching. When he looked directly at me, I felt naked. I'd lose all power. I felt he could see right through me, to all my sins. A friend of mine once handed Mr. Varma a flower, and as my friend walked back to his seat, he radiated so much energy (that he had absorbed from his physical proximity to Mr. Varma?) that people in the audience swayed as he passed them. When I sat at Mr. Varma's feet as he begged us to become TM teachers, I could feel only bliss, joy, silence, power, magnetism.

I could go on with more memories - but I'll stop there.

Of all Mr. Varma's attributes, I think it was his amazing energy field more than anything else that swayed me to believe he had Ultimate Truth. So I think it's important for me to demystify his energy field if I'm going to unhook a little more from my belief in his teachings. And if you were influenced by his energy field, I hope this discussion will be helpful to you too.

So, to get a little objectivity and insight into Mr. Varma's powers, I'm going to run a little survey below, engage in some informal, non-scientific data-gathering. If you'd like, please share your stories, comments, answers, insights with us in the "comments" section.

Here is my survey:

(1) Were you ever in the presence of Mr. Varma?

(2) If so, did you experience anything like what I described? Or did you experience something different? Something positive? Something negative? Nothing at all? What did you experience? Do you have any particular memories you would like to share?

(3) Do you know of other people who experienced something similar to me? Or something different? (What?) Or nothing at all?

(4) Were his "vibrations" the same each time you were near him? Or did they change? Did they come and go? When? In what way?

(5) What did you make of his energy at the time?

Did you think it was proof that he was enlightened? Divine? A saint or prophet?

Or did you think he was evil, possessed, working with a dark power, etc?

Or that he simply had an impressive skill, but it didn't prove anything about his spiritual status?
Or did you think he was simply charismatic, a con artist, using hypnotism to produce these results?

Or that we were suggestible, responding to expectation, unconscious material, or peer pressure?

(6) How do you interpret today your past experience of Mr. Varma's vibration?

(7) What does various literature, (Hindu, yogic, religious, scientific, psychological or otherwise), say about this sort of vibration?

(8) Was Mr. Varma's energy "our little secret," our "elephant in the living room," in the TM movement? Did you have an impulse to not discuss it with other TMers or with outsiders? Did you not tell outsiders about his aura because it would sound too religious or brainwashed? Was his energy the thing that convinced you to follow him, but you lied to yourself or to outsiders about that, and said you followed TM due to its scientific research or results?

(9) Have you ever experienced a similar energy around anyone else; or do you know anyone who has? What do you - or they - make of it?

(10) What made you give your heart and/or mind to Mr. Varma?

Now it's your turn.

TM-Free News Brief, 23 February 2011

2011-02-23T07:00:00.016-05:00

"Pulse Diagnosis" quackery, coming to a hospital near you? Almost twenty years ago, Andrew Skolnick's expose' of Maharishi Ayur-Veda appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. An article co-authored by Deepak Chopra, praising the alleged benefits of these products, had previously appeared in the journal, and the authors had failed to disclose their financial association with the movement's commercial enterprises. This led to Skolnick's investigation of the movement, which included this key section:

An investigation of the movement's marketing practices reveals what appears to be a widespread pattern of misinformation, deception, and manipulation of lay and scientific news media. This campaign appears to be aimed at earning at least the look of scientific respectability for the TM movement, as well as at making profits from sales of the many products and services that carry the Maharishi's name.

It appears that after twenty years of the TM movement's hammering of the medical establishment, the coming-of-middle-age of longtime TM devotees, and the apparent acceptance of outright quackery across-the-board by the healthcare industry, the promoters of Maharishi Ayur-Veda may now be gaining unimpeded and unquestioning entry to the nation's top medical institutions.

The "Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine" - another example of the growing and inexplicable trend of medical schools and healthcare providers throwing science-based medicine overboard in favor of, presumably more profitable, quackery and pseudoscience - will be sponsoring a "training program for health professionals" in "Clinical Ayurveda™," which appears to be yet another of the TM movement's trademarked names for its products. The program is hosted by three medical doctors who are also employees of the TM movement, in its "Maharishi Ayur-Veda Association of America" (MAAA). One of the three doctors, Kulreet Chaudhary, who's prominently featured on the website of this TM front group, is also on the staff of Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, California. For some reason, John Hagelin is also affilated with these so-called "medical education programs," a man whose main talents these days seem to be wearing a gold crown and spouting gibberish.

Featured in this so-called "training program for health professionals" is "pulse diagnosis," which has been described by various critics as "a variation of palm reading" or "no more plausible than analysis of toenail clippings." It involves taking the pulse of a patient and rendering, just from that, a diagnosis of disease. Unlike much pseudoscience, this program appears to be interfering with the decision-making ability of doctors, seemingly suggesting that they may ignore scientifically-valid methods of diagnosis in favor of what they think they learn by taking the pulse.

Ironically, considering the AMA's original role in helping debunk Maharishi Ayur-Veda and its proponents twenty years ago, this "training program" now offers "AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™" for participation.

Update, 24 February: A further search of the web indicates that this program of offering AMA-approved CME credit for courses in Maharishi Ayur-Veda under the auspices of Scripps is not new; this website, operated by MAAA, announced a previous course, which began in November, 2009 and ran through May, 2010.

Clinical Ayurveda™ - A Practical Training Program for Health Professionals - Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine
Maharishi Ayur-Veda: guru's marketing scheme promises the world eternal 'perfect health', Andrew A. Skolnick, JAMA, Medical News & Perspectives, Oct. 2, 1991
Course Faculty and Curriculum Development Committee, Maharishi Ayur-Veda Association of America
Quackademic medicine in the U.S.: The view from the U.K., Orac, Respectful Insolence, Scienceblogs, February 18, 2008
"Heaven on Earth." Any second now. Mike Doughney, TM-Free Blog, January 25, 2011

Another report on Transcendental Meditation in San Francisco public schools surfaces: San Francisco public radio station KALW recently produced a story on the David Lynch Foundation (DLF) program to introduce TM in three San Francisco public schools. In this report, the only hint of any evidence that the TM program in these schools is effective is a reference to the usual unscientific marketing surveys and anecdotes TM promoters regularly spew, made midway through the report: "Most of the evidence of the program is anecdotal. Students and teachers participate willingly and say it’s helpful for them, and surveys that school has done return positive feedback."

In the past, we've noted various reports about two of the San Francisco schools mentioned, Visitacion Valley Middle School and Everett Middle School, from various sources including the DLF. In 2009 TM-Free received this unconfirmed report of "a crew of 20 bullying, clueless T.M. fanatics working for the David Lynch Foundation" at Everett. This is the first mention I've been able to find of this program having been introduced at a third school, John O’Connell High.

A web page from the Everett Middle School website reads much like the same promotional materials TM salespeople have used for decades, emphasizing "a simple, scientifically proven, nonreligious technique," all points which are regularly disputed by former meditators and critics. As with many of the David Lynch programs in public schools, TM is renamed "quiet time;" the artifice of a "quiet time" of as short as 60 seconds has been known to be used by some as a vehicle to introduce, or legitimize, prayer in public schools. The Everett website also prominently features a TM/DLF front group, the "US Committee for Stress-Free Schools," which from its description is the actual corporate entity attempting to introduce the TM program into public schools.

James Dierke, mentioned in the report as the principal at Visitacion Valley, has been named as an adviser to one of the many TM organization front groups pushing to establish the TM program in public schools; the people identifed on such websites are often if not almost always longtime meditators, having started TM during its height of popularity in the mid-1970's.

From time-out to quiet time: meditation comes to SF schools, Natalie Jones, KALW News, February 10, 2011
Report on TM in San Francisco Schools, TM-Free Blog, April 7, 2009
Quiet Time - About the Program, Everett Middle School
Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education - Management
TM in public schools - TM-Free Blog label
Know Your Rights: Religion in Public Schools A Guide for Administrators and Teachers - ACLU of Tennessee - see "Moment of Silence" section
Map: Lynchian Education

David still wants to fly, really, really badly: The Sunday Times magazine (London) published a lengthy feature article on David Lynch, his foundation, and TM at the end of December, and it just found its way to my desk. Alex Hannaford wrote up a wonderful lede, quietly indicating from the start that maybe the rest of the world should assume David Lynch isn't the least bit sane, particularly when he starts talking about interfering with the education of children by teaching them TM:

David Lynch is sitting at a huge desk in his studio --a mess of boxes, bits of wood and electric cable -- telling me how he believes he will one day be able to fly. As in levitate. Take off. Vooom. For him, a champion of Transcendental Meditation, Yogic Flying would be the ultimate life-enhancing experience. The technique involves bouncing along the floor in the yoga lotus position, and practitioners are convinced that eventually the "collective cosmic consciousness" generated will be so powerful that they will be able to raise themselves into the air and soar. "Yeah, right now it's hopping, not flying," Lynch says, looking very serious. "It's intense bliss. They don't get tired. On the contrary, just more and more energy and bliss propels them up in the air." He is no doubt that, as world negativity dissolves, meditators will have lift-off. And he would like British schoolchildren to learn how to do it, too.

This silly notion that people are about to fly any second now if only "negativity dissolves" is the same kind of crap I heard over thirty years ago. Some people simply refuse to grow up, don't they? All the more reason to keep Lynch and his minions away from schools of any kind. Let's be clear, that one of Maharishi's last directives, echoed by Lynch here, was to make sure that middle and secondary school students were taught, not just how to meditate, but also "Yogic Flying" and the rest of the anti-scientific quackery - some would say "religion" - that the "Global Country" sells.

Mantra with a mission, Alex Hannaford, Sunday Times Magazine, December 26, 2010

Briefly: More news from David Sieveking; his documentary/expose film on today's TM movement, "David Wants To Fly," has received three award pre-nominations, and continues to be shown in the U.S. at various film festivals... David Lynch's "online charity music label" kicks off; despite all the press and hype, only a handful of paying downloads in the first few days of the campaign... The transfer of a UK Maharishi School to state control (story in the 9 February News Brief) has come under more criticism.

The TM-Free Blog is now on Facebook, where you'll see both pointers to new postings here at the Blog and news articles and other items as we receive them.

There's also a TM-Free Twitter stream.

TM-Free News Brief, 23 February 2011. Published irregularly here on Wednesdays by Mike Doughney, who's solely responsible for its content unless otherwise noted.

"Robes of Silk Feet of Clay" press release

2011-02-21T19:46:00.011-05:00

Judith Bourque, author of "Robes of Silk Feet of Clay" has given TM-Free Blog permission to reprint in full her latest press release. Good news for U.S. readers of TM-Free: Judith will be in the United States from February 17 - March 21, 2011.

---------------------------------------------------------------
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW BOOK REVEALS LOVE AFFAIR WITH BEATLES/DAVID LYNCH GURU

ROBES OF SILK, FEET OF CLAY by JUDITH BOURQUE

This new book is the true story of a love affair with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Indian Guru followed by the Beatles, David Lynch, Donovan, Mike Love, Mia Farrow, Deepak Chopra, as well as 6 million other meditators around the world. Maharishi was very successful in spreading his technique of Transcendental Meditation. But rumours that he was not the celibate monk he claimed to be have been circulating for decades. In this book Judith Bourque describes the love affair she experiences with Maharishi when she travels to India as a young woman to become a teacher of Transcendental Meditation. She then follows him around the world for an intense period of two years until she discovers he is also intimate with other young women. Frightened and disillusioned, she leaves the TM movement forever. She also shares the methods and means of her healing journey back to forgiveness and gratitude.

Judith Bourque is an American residing in Sweden. She will be coming to the Los Angeles/Santa Barbara area February 17- March 2 and be available for interviews. From March 2 - March 21 she will be in the Boston area and Camden, Maine. On March 15th she will be present for the DOCYARD screening of "David Wants to Fly" * at the Brattle Theatre at Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. After the film she (in person) and director David Sieveking (via Skype) will have a question and answer period for the public.

* "David Wants to Fly" is a whistleblowing, award winning documentary by German Filmmaker David Sieveking about his journey through the world of Transcendental Meditation. He starts with meeting David Lynch, his idol, and ends up unexpectedly discovering the shadow side of the TM movement: Judith is interviewed with respect to her role as Maharishi's former lover.

cell: +46733012147
email: judithbourque@email.com
Skype address: bourque.judith
facebook: 1) Judith Bourque
2) Robes of Silk Feet of Clay
book can be purchased at: www.robesofsilkfeetofclay.com

Media:

"Well written and exciting by Maharishi's mistress"
Swedish Net Magazine, Månssonskultur.se at
www.manssonskultur.se

"An out of the ordinary love story"
Swedish Daily Newspaper, Nya WermlandsTidningen
www.nwt.se/mera/helg/article758545.ece

Robes of Silk Feet of Clay is a very sensitive story, full of love. And yet it contains a truth that has to come out. This book lifts the blinders from our eyes so we can put Maharishi in the proper perspective, ie a human being like all others with the same needs for intimacy and warmth. And yet we are able to keep our respect for what he gave us: knowledge of meditation and transcendental consciousness. Thank you Judith for your concrete and trustworthy report from the inner circle of the TM organisation. Conny Larsson, former TM teacher, actor, and author of Beatles, Maharishi och Jag (The Beatles, Maharishi and I), Norstedts, www.norstedts.se/bocker/utgiven/2010/Var/larsson_conny-beatles__maharishi_och_jag-inbunden/

Latest on documentary TM-whistleblowing film "David Wants To Fly"

2011-02-18T10:08:00.012-05:00

David Sieveking, the German film director of the TM documentary/expose "David Wants To Fly," has the following news. He has given us permission to post it on TM-Free Blog. (Edited slightly for clarity.)

"February 16, 2011: Since the premiere of "David Wants To Fly" at the Berlinale film festival a year ago, it has played in a lot of festivals around the world, and is still going strong. Further invitations include a screening in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, in a program called The DocYard at the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square on March 15, 2011; and the Minneapolis/St. Paul (Minnesota, USA) International Film Festival (April 14-May 5, 2011). We've won best picture in a festival in St. Petersburg, and a German best documentary award.

"The film had small theatrical releases in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Poland so far; and we still hope to find US distribution. The DVD has been released in Germany and Switzerland, with Austria, Poland and UK to follow. It will be screened on TV in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Poland, Estonia and probably on the US Link TV this year. Swedish, Finnish and Russian TV are interested.

"Latest news from Germany: The film has been pre-nominated for the German Academy Awards. Nominations will be announced March 11. The pre-nomination includes another Berlinale festival screening at the European film market on February 17. Also, we are nominated for best spiritual picture by the Cosmic Cine Film Festival that'll tour Germany from April 25 to May 25.

"If you're interested, you might look at some new reviews that were written after the California festival screenings in Palm Springs and San Francisco this past January:
http://moviemorlocks.com/2011/01/24/the-film-david-lynch-doesnt-want-you-to-see/#more-31758
http://www.examiner.com/culture-events-in-national/david-lynch-transcendental-meditation-documentary-unavailable-u-s-for-now-review
http://www.examiner.com/movies-in-san-francisco/movie-review-david-wants-to-fly-2009-with-tm-but-can-he-review

Watch our English trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq0rsiw6IFo
Read last year's Variety article:
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117942181.html?categoryid=31&cs=1
Check out our facebook fan-page for updates:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/David-wants-to-fly/112515938759332?ref=ts

(End of David's announcement.)

On a personal note, I just watched "David Wants To Fly" on DVD, and it was terrific!

Essential Documents, and Open Thread

2011-02-16T08:00:00.015-05:00

I've made a few changes here on the TM-Free blog, and one of them is the links in the right-hand column. You'll have to scroll down to see them - or click the index link under where it says "Scroll down for these links" - in a new section titled "Essential Documents." Many of these are rather old files - some go back almost two decades - but they constitute some of the most interesting and revealing disclosures about the innards of the organizations that teach TM that have ever been made. Most links are to John Knapp's trancenet.net website, which also dates back to the mid-1990's. All these files, though dated, are still relevant as they document the inner teachings of the TM movement which were taught to devotees and TM teachers. These individuals, who today are still working to promote the TM program worldwide, very likely still hold these teachings to be true today.

The Transcendental Meditation™ and TM-Sidhi™ Techniques: This is the original list of mantras and other innards of the techniques, originally placed on the 'net back in 1994. Please note the disclaimer; these details are disclosed there to show just how trivial the techniques are, not for the purpose of meditation instruction.

TM Mantra Meanings: Subtitled, "When Is a Meaningless Sound Not Meaningless? When It's a Tantric Name of a Hindu God." Meanings of the mantras used in TM, with an associated commentary on bija mantras by a Tantric scholar, who appears to have identified the source of confusion over whether or not such mantras convey meaning:
Bijas have no meaning according to the ordinary use of language and for this reason they have formed the subject of ridicule to those ignorant of the Mantra-sastra. The initiated however know that their meaning is the own form (Svarupa) of the particular Devatas whose mantra they are, and that they are a form of the Subtle Power as creative Dhvani which makes all letters sound and which exists in all that we say or hear.

TM Initiation and Checking: Documentation of the unique methods and rituals that any TM meditator will encounter when they engage a TM teacher to learn Transcendental Meditation. Initiation is the process of instruction in the meditation practice, and "checking" is a mechanical ritual by which the practice of TM is reinforced through trance induction and the repetition of various suggestions.

TM Children's Initiation: The process of learning Transcendental Meditation when it is taught to children, of particular relevance with the continuing efforts of the David Lynch Foundation to introduce TM into schools. Note the requirement - apparently since discarded - that at least one parent first begin the practice before a child may learn TM.

TM "Holy Tradition" - Initiation Ceremony: From the original description of this file:
... the entire text of The Holy Tradition, a secret book given only to new TM teachers. The Holy Tradition was once the primary textbook on TM Teacher Training Phase III, containing the Sanskrit text and a sanitized English translation of the puja or "initiation ceremony," discussion of the performance and meaning of the puja, and a brief, probably mythical history of Indian religious figures said by the Maharishi to be "the Holy Tradition" who kept the knowledge of TM alive for thousands of years. Beginning in 1977, The Holy Tradition was banned on TM Teacher Training courses, reportedly out of fear of more Federal court cases like Malnak v. Yogi, which found TM to be religious and barred the teaching of TM and SCI in New Jersey public schools. Despite judgments by Federal courts and the ensuing disbelief of the media and public, TM organizations have insisted for nearly 25 years that they are not a religion or religious.

TM Initiation Ceremony - True Meaning: Titled "Whose Puja Is It, Anyway?" this essay lays out how "it appears the Maharishi cobbled together scraps of Sanskrit poetry to create a "Hindoo ceremony" to wow the Western crowd."

TM-Sidhi "yogic flying" program: From the description:
Here...is a full discussion of the TM-Sidhi program: the full 18 sutra "citizen's" program... the even more secret Governor's sutras for invisibility and more, the original marketing and research materials that promised enlightenment and levitation, an indepth analysis of the TM-Sidhis and hyperventilation, and finally a warning from the mainstream Indian tradition to avoid their practice as dangerous and a waste of time.
Also included are a number of newspaper advertisements from 1977 featuring "supernormal" powers of "levitation" and "invisibility."

Wikileaks "Transcendental Meditation" category: These are a number of files from the 2004-2008 time period which primarily relate to activities of the TM movement's "Governors" in the United States. Most interesting is the "Governor Recertification Course Overview of Policies and Procedures," a 2005 document apparently written by "Raja" Kingsley Brooks and his wife Leslie. This document contains this choice quote, completely negating any claim the movement makes that its programs are scientifically or medically respectable:
We are not going to take help from medical Drs. as medical professionals give poison. So don't engage any medical Drs. for anything - absolutely whatever it is - even if they are in our Movement family... Hold onto the fact that we are the supreme authorities on health - we know how to create perfect health - we are challenging all governments in world.

Roark Letter: Dennis Roark wrote about his experiences as Chairman of the Physics Department of the then- Maharishi International University (now MUM). From the Spring 1992 TM-EX Newsletter.

DeNaro Affidavit: In the mid-1980's, Robert Kropinski sued the TM movement (then formally called the "World Plan Executive Council") and MIU, alleging financial, physical, and psychological harm. From that case - later settled for a six-figure undisclosed sum - a number of interesting court documents have been obtained. This is the affidavit of Anthony DeNaro, who was a professor of law and economics at Maharishi International University (MIU, now MUM) for about a year, starting in 1975. DeNaro alleged "a very serious and deliberate pattern of fraud, designed ... to misrepresent the TM movement as a science (not as a cult), and fraudulently claim and obtain tax exempt status with the IRS." He also wrote about the on-campus environment:
A disturbing denial or avoidance syndrome, and even outright lies and deception, are used to cover-up or sanitize the dangerous reality on campus of very serious nervous breakdowns, episodes of dangerous and bizarre behavior, suicidal and homicidal ideation, threats and attempts, psychotic episodes, crime, depression and manic behavior that often accompanied roundings (intensive group meditations with brainwashing techniques).

Kropinski's Answer to Interrogatory No. 40: This is a list of casualties of TM practice that were known to Robert Kropinski at the time of his lawsuit against WPEC and MIU.

Kropinski trial testimony "Soma and the Gods": From the trial transcript, a glimpse at the bizarre theology at the heart of the TM movement, which somehow involves Vedic gods eating a substance (Soma) from the stomachs of people who practice TM. This almost ranks right up there with the inner doctrine of the Church of Scientology, which has something to do with clams.

Kropinski appelate decision 1998, before out-of-court settlement

Malnak v. Yogi decision 1997: This is the Federal court case which enjoined the Federal government and the State of New Jersey from promoting the teaching or practicing of TM, and prohibited the teaching of TM in New Jersey public schools.

The TM-Free News Brief is on hiatus this week.

TM-Free News Brief, 9 February 2011

2011-02-09T07:00:00.003-05:00

Where Maharishi Failed, David Lynch... Succeeded? Back in the days of the Beatles, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi clearly knew that associating himself and his meditation technique with the pop stars of the day would pay off. There was nothing he could do, though, when the Beatles walked out and returned home, disassociating themselves from their alleged guru. But what if Mahesh had set up a record label and enticed the Beatles onto it? Then they'd be tied together with a contract... and marketing... and who knows what else?

That rather farfetched scenario seems to now be coming to pass, courtesy of the fact that the music recording industry is on its deathbed, and recording artists today are down to every last gimmick available to stay afloat. The David Lynch Foundation is in the process of announcing something called DLF Music. From its website:

ABOUT DLF MUSIC

DLF Music is the David Lynch Foundation’s newest venture—a digital music company that brings together exclusive artistic talent and support for the good works of the David Lynch Foundation’s educational programs.

All Profits Will Support the David Lynch Foundation’s Mission To Teach One Million At-risk Youth to Meditate, dramatically reducing the traumatic stress in their lives and transforming violent, stress-filled schools into places of peace, coherence, and creativity.

Meanwhile, an e-mail reposted to the Fairfield Life Yahoo group offers a partial list of the bands and people who will be associated with the label:

Alice in Chains,
Andy Summers featuring Geeta Novotny,
Arrested Development,
Au Revoir Simone,
Ben Folds,
Ben Lee,
Ben Harper,
Blind Boys of Alabama,
Dave Stewart,
Eddie Vedder,
Heather Nova,
Iggy Pop,
John Mellencamp,
Julio Inglesias[sic] Jr.,
Lou Reed,
Leonard Cohen,
Meatloaf,
MGMT,
Michael Franti,
Mary Hopkin,
Maroon 5,
Moby,
Nancy Sinatra,
Neon Trees,
Ozomatli,
Pato Banton,
Peter Gabriel,
Salman Ahmad featuring Valerie Geffner,
Sinéad O'Connor,
Slightly Stoopid,
Sheryl Crow,
Smokey Robinson, Tommy Lee, Tom Waits

No word yet on whether any of these people are familiar with "His Majesty Maharaja Adhiraj Raja Raam" (pictured above), their "deity in human form" monarch-in-charge, or any of the other internal strangenesses of the "Global Country of World Peace" (GCWP), the organization that teaches Transcendental Meditation; the David Lynch Foundation today is primarily a marketing arm of the GCWP. Part of the proceeds from the sales of these artists' music will be used to promote the Transcendental Meditation program, and to encourage the adoption of TM as part of a questionable strategy focused on vulnerable populations that's lately included the homeless and child prostitutes.

But the other half of what's going on here really wouldn't be possible without the ongoing decline and fall of the record industry. For the sake of having another outlet for their music, these artists evidently will be paying a portion of whatever sales are made through DLF to promote TM, and David Lynch gets to drop their names in association with TM. The artists get... I dunno, association with David Lynch, for whatever that's worth, and another online storefront with its own marketing, that's run with volunteer labor? This thing isn't even creating real jobs with living wages, it's just cheap marketing for largely past-their-prime artists (without the expense of paid labor) that's raising money to support TM's marketing arm, and in so doing, supporting a bunch of guys in robes and gold crowns who think they're bringing about "Heaven on Earth."

DLF Music (David Lynch Foundation Television)
DLF Music on Facebook
Fairfield Life Yahoo group posting, 1 February 2011

UK Maharishi School to transfer to state control: The Maharishi School in Ormskirk, Lancashire, will be the first British state-funded school to incorporate TM as part of its program. It is one of the first batch of private schools to be transferred to state control under the "free schools" program, similar to U.S. charter schools. The 80 pupil school, for four to sixteen year olds, has three 10-minute meditation sessions every day.

Meditation school to transfer to state sector, Richard Garner, Independent, 29 January 2011
Meditation to be taught every day at the state school run by followers of The Beatles' yogi, Daily Mail, 31 January 2011
DfE contemplates meditation independent's free school bid, Richard Vaughan, The TES, 28 January, 2011
Meditations begin on academy status, David Marley, The TES, 13 February, 2009

Russell Simmons continues his series of lifestyle-guru books with "Super Rich: A Guide to Having It All," and this time, Simmons himself appears on the cover with a guru's halo. Bloomberg BusinessWeek editor Ian McGugan panned some of the "noble truths" scattered between all the product mentions in Simmons' work, like "Work for free, seek enlightenment, bling it up:"

Simmons insists the first priority in life is to move toward enlightenment. Why? "Because the road to enlightenment is paved with gold!" According to Super Rich, if you attain a holy state, oodles of money will soon follow. Somewhat mystifyingly, Simmons also argues that people should work without expecting payback. He extols yoga, preaches veganism, and gushes over Transcendental Meditation even though he earned his money the old-fashioned way: by working 16-hour days and by promoting groups like South Central Cartel, fonts of deeply spiritual insights such as, "When I let these bullets fly, from this heat, you goin' die."

Book Review: Super Rich: A Guide to Having It All and The Soul of Leadership, Ian McGugan, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, February 3, 2011

Briefly: Howard Stern spent two minutes on the David Letterman show plugging Transcendental Meditation, which he's done for almost forty years, like almost everyone who does TM... Another decaying downtown hotel, vacant for 15 years, has finally been sold by the Maharishi Global Development Fund... MUM graduate and former participant in the Invincible America program (that is, he got paid to meditate and bounce on foam rubber 8 hours a day) is now an artist in Sacramento... More fresh red meat for the "TM will send you to hell" set, this time, it's Rick Warren teaming up with Muslim, meditating, Swedenborgian Dr. Oz.

The TM-Free Blog is now on Facebook, where you'll see both pointers to new postings here at the Blog and news articles and other items as we receive them.

There's also a TM-Free Twitter stream.

TM-Free News Brief, 9 February 2011. Published irregularly here on Wednesdays by Mike Doughney, who's solely responsible for its content unless otherwise noted.

Bevan Morris: calling for revival of a mythical past

2011-02-07T15:42:00.005-05:00

Here's one last video excerpt from last month's birthday celebration for "His Majesty Maharaja Adhiraj Raja Raam," the leader of the organization that teaches Transcendental Meditation. It's a bit of jargon from way inside the "Global Country" that I'll attempt to make sense of below.

And this lighting comes with a great wish, that under Maharaja Ji's leadership, silence will reign in activity everywhere on Earth, and Sat Yuga will be enjoyed by every nation, invincibility to every nation, and "Raam Brahm paramarath rupa," that the reign of Brahm which is Brahm for the whole human race, and "Raam Raj dukh kahu na vyapa," that the whole world will as in Raja Raam the Great's time totally devoid of any suffering to anyone. So thank you very much to our purusha rajas. Jai Guru Dev.

The two phrases in italicized quotes are from the Ramayana, one of the many Hindu religious scriptures. What Bevan Morris is referring to here appears to be one of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's final fantasies: that "Heaven on Earth" (Sat Yuga) will return if only the correct kind of government, in this case, led by King Tony Nader, is established, and if that government takes on programs to promulgate things that they think are Vedic ways of doing things in every area of life. That this unique interpretation of the Ramayana is driving the activities of the organization that teaches Transcendental Meditation is strongly indicated by, among other things, this 2007 "Global Good News" article in which Mahesh attributed those goals to passages in the Ramayana.

They're basically saying that by establishing God's rule on earth - a theocracy, of sorts - "Heaven on Earth" will result. Sounds plausible and scientific, doesn't it? It also sounds just like all those other cults and utopian communities that have said the same things for millennia. Just keep saying, "it's not a religion... it's not a religion..."

Here's a segment of an earlier article I wrote here explaining how the core of the organization teaching TM is yet another millenarian movement seeking to radically remake the world into its own image. The TM program is merely the innocuous-looking intake path that's designed to draw in an unwary public.

The Transcendental Meditation organization is a millenarian movement. That is, the main core belief of the organization centers on its particular concept of a future transformation of society and the planet.

While many people automatically assume that such movements center around Christian concepts of the "end-times" or similar ideas, movements based on other theologies, and other scriptural works, also exist. I would suggest that the underlying notion of massive social change put forward by the TM movement to various degrees in past decades finds a resonance, and a willing audience, in American culture because the idea of some future mass transformation is so common in religious culture here, and because of that, the idea is not automatically seen as strange or out-of-bounds.

The Transcendental Meditation organization is a Vedic revivalist religious movement. Similar to many other millenarian movements, it seeks to remake the world in its own image, based upon its contemporary interpretation of ancient scriptures. There is, of course, no previous thing to be "revived" since that is merely a myth of a glorious past; as with other such movements, the notion that all the movement is actually doing is putting things back to how they once were can be a motivator for some to work toward the movement's goals.

The organization works toward transforming all aspects of society so that society reflects its values, language, symbols and rituals. The TM movement thus has always had various subgroups seeking to gain entry into various fields; the "Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention" I pointed out above is one such subgroup focusing on medicine. It has, through other small front groups, focused on other areas such as law, athletics, education, psychology and neuroscience, and of course it once sought direct involvement in government through its establishment of Natural Law Parties in a number of Western countries.

Perhaps the most audacious, or ridiculous, example of how the TM movement today is clearly a millenarian Vedic revivalist movement is its proposal that all existing cities be torn down and reconstructed to its proprietary designs based upon its version of Vedic architectural standards. Yes, it's true, they want to tranform the world so much that, given the opportunity, they'd probably bulldoze your house.

The Transcendental Meditation program is the point of first contact between this millenarian religious movement and the outside world, serving to recruit individuals to perpetuate the movement. Of course, if you were to walk up to someone and invite them to join a movement based on scriptures from some other part of the world, in a dead language that is certainly not their own, and that you wanted them to help take over and reconstruct everything, there would be very few takers. Instead, Transcendental Meditation is the means by which recruits are eventually introduced to all those things, and also, how the organization attempts to gain legitimacy in the surrounding culture. It is a product with a certain amount of value and utility in Western culture - that is, if the claims made for its benefits could be shown to be based upon something a bit more substantial than "the relaxation response" and the placebo effect.

The process by which an initiate learns TM includes some references to those religious and millenarian sorts of things, but they're couched in different terms. The Vedas are mentioned in passing as some vague source of where the knowledge of meditation came from, and the tradition in which TM's founder learned about meditation. The idea of a greater movement is introduced through references to "world peace" that, according to the movement, would result if only enough people meditated. Who could be against a movement that's working toward world peace? But that's merely a vehicle to eventually introduce the more esoteric parts of the TM belief system that certainly aren't going to be mentioned to a reporter writing about the alleged personal benefits of the movement's flagship product.

Because of this clear separation between inner and outer doctrine, any one person who starts the TM program may never come face-to-face with the weirdness and religiosity of the organization's belief system. Depending on how and where any one individual is initiated, and the degree to which they become involved in any of the other programs offered - advanced lectures, residence courses, and the like - such details may simply slip by in the torrent of information included in the process of learning TM. While many who learn TM may never have any further involvement with the organization, a few people will devote a significant portion of their lives to it, and it is those people on whom the movement will rely to perpetuate itself.

Big TMO buildings facing south, and open thread

2011-02-02T07:00:00.023-05:00

The TM-Free News Brief is on hiatus until next week, here's a few photos instead.

These are from my personal collection, taken by me one Saturday afternoon in the early eighties. I've long thought it rather amusing that, with the movement's superstitious obsession with avoiding south-facing doors and entrances in recent years, one of its most prominent real estate holdings had an entrance that faced exactly south.

This is the former Annapolis Hotel, 1111 H Street, Washington, DC, in the early 1980's, and like many such movement facilities it had to have a big pretentious name, so this was the "MIU College of Natural Law." (The movement has always had its own strange interpretation of what the words "research," "college" and "university" actually meant, often involving rooms full of foam rubber.) When these photos were taken, if I recall correctly, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi himself was in this building announcing various new Ayurvedic products and programs.

A few years later this building would be stripped of anything of value, sold, and flattened for a new office building. The Washington Convention Center, next door to it in the second photo, was then a brand-new building, and it's also since been demolished.

The TM-Free Blog is now on Facebook, where you'll see both pointers to new postings here at the Blog and news articles and other items as we receive them.

There's also a TM-Free Twitter stream.

TM organization leader reads from the Laws of Manu

2011-01-31T07:00:00.002-05:00

Some years ago, back when the TM movement's Natural Law Party was fielding candidates for election to various offices here in the U.S. and elsewhere, this essay, at John Knapp's trancenet.net website, pointed out that "Natural Law," to movement insiders, actually referred to the "Laws of Manu," or "Manusmriti," a Hindu text that dates to at least 400CE.

Evidence that the Laws of Manu are specifically central to the belief system of the people who run the "Global Country of World Peace" (GCWP) that sells TM throughout the world has been a bit hard to come by. It may be referred to explicitly, in one of their publications somewhere, but very seldom online, and then only to refer to something rather benign or trivial, like "Speak the truth that is sweet" or “The world is my family.”

During the birthday celebrations for "His Majesty Maharaja Adhiraj Raja Raam," the leader of the GCWP, one of the other officials of this alleged government/country read at length from the Laws of Manu, in the course of pointing out that "His Majesty" "is a great deity in human form." References to Vedic gods populate the Laws, and such gods are described as the precursors of this earthly king.

You can follow along with Eike Hartmann, the "Minister of Architecture" of the GCWP, at this page from a website hosting various Hindu texts. The transcript follows the video, below. The meaning of these verses is discussed in two books available online: A History of India by Burton Stein and David Arnold, and Ancient India by R.C. Majumdar.

At this stage we may not be able to fully grasp Maharaja's supreme status in the world, one who holds the rule of Raam according to the Constitution of the Universe. Such a Maharaja is not an ordinary human being. (giggles from the audience) In this regard Manusmriti [the Laws of Manu] says,

(2) A ruler who has received according to the injunction the Rajabishek mahayagya as prescribed by the Vedas must duly protect this whole world.

(3) When these people being without a King were dispersed in all directions, the Lord created a king for the protection of the whole creation.

(4) Taking for that purpose eternal particles of Indra, of Vayu [wind/air], of Yam, of the sun, of Agni [fire], of varuna, and of Soma, the moon,

(5) because a King has been formed of particles of these lords of Gods, he therefore surpasses all created beings in luster.

(6) And like the sun he burns eyes and hearts. Nor can anybody on Earth even gaze at him.

(7) Through his supernatural power he is Agni [fire] and Vayu [wind/air], he is Sun and Moon, he is the Lord of Justice, Dharmaraj, he Varuna, he, the great Indra.

(8) Even an infant king must not be despised from a preconceived idea that he is a mere mortal, for he is a great deity in human form.

A snack for the guru, and open thread

2011-01-26T07:00:00.010-05:00

The TM-Free News Brief is on hiatus this week and next, so instead of that, here's a photo and an open thread.

This is an old Polaroid in my personal collection, from a TM center, um, "Capital of the Age of Enlightenment" celebration in the early 1980's.

The TM-Free Blog is now on Facebook, where you'll see both pointers to new postings here at the Blog and news articles and other items as we receive them.

There's also a TM-Free Twitter stream.

"Heaven on Earth." Any second now.

2011-01-25T07:00:00.007-05:00

To follow up on last week's News Brief article on the birthday celebrations for King Tony, er, (deep breath) "His Majesty Maharaja Adhiraj Raja Raam," the leader of the organization that teaches Transcendental Meditation, here is the first of two video excerpts that serve to illustrate the kinds of things that are said during these events, which are generally not all that accessible to the general public.

These comments were culled from a few hours' worth of video on the Maharishi Channel, and come after a lengthy period of Vedic performances and recitations, and a fair amount of rather incomprehensible speech-making by the leaders of the "Global Country of World Peace," as the leaders of the organization call it.

Here we have John Hagelin, in the full "raja" crown and costume, taking his turn of bestowing accolades on King Tony, as I call him. Perhaps some are used to seeing Hagelin in a suit selling TM in a Western setting, as he was during last month's New York "press conference" and gala with the David Lynch Foundation. This is not that. It's more a throwback to some bizarre royal court.

I've previously written about how the TM movement, internally, takes the form of a millenarian cult, that is, its existence is centered on some future drastic transformation of the world brought about by the group's anticipated actions or even its very existence. Here, Hagelin makes that kind of expectation among his peers very explicit. He also alludes to the leader's alleged immortality, a claim that's occasionally been made as a benefit of some of the TM movement's programs throughout the latter part of its history.

Transcript of Hagelin's remarks. Note that these are three short excerpts edited together in this video.

All of us and the whole global family are filled with feelings of loving wishes for Maharaja's absolute fulfillment on every level, and long life in immortality, and absolutely glorious achievements leading to the transformation of life on Earth.

...the first sovereign ruler of the Global Country of World Peace that administers the world, ultimately responsible for the purity and perpetuation of Maharishi's knowledge, and through that knowledge, the transformation and destiny of the whole human race.

...Maharishi chose Maharaja Adhiraj Raja Raam as the natural representative and natural leader of this precious movement which will in short order transform the world and realize the fulfillment of Maharishi's legacy.

Book Review: "Robes of Silk Feet of Clay" by Judith Bourque

2011-01-23T12:53:00.003-05:00

"Robes of Silk Feet of Clay" by Judith Bourque, published 2010, is the true story of Ms. Bourque's 1971-1972 love affair with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. I'd like to share some of my thoughts about the book.

First of all, I believe Ms. Bourque did not make up this story. One, because her account, along with the photos, make internal sense, and fit with other things I have learned over the years about Maharishi and his international staff. Two, because the book is profoundly non-sensational. If Bourque's goal was to write a (fictional) best-selling, the book would not have been so temperate, so lacking in spicy, sexy, torrid, tell-all details.

The gist of this book is that Maharishi did indeed break his vow of celibacy, and then kept it a secret from the world. That's the explicit message. However, what I also found educational were the insights I could tease out from between the lines - details that help me continue to piece together the mystery that was Maharishi. So I will share my musings here, hoping they will be helpful to others.

First, I notice that Maharishi never courted Bourque in the way that many other supposedly celibate gurus courted their students. That is, he didn't promise her that having sex with him would benefit her spiritually, that it was a special privilege to have sex with him, that he would give her spiritual energy, or anything like that. This is surprising to me, since I have read so much about Maharishi being an opportunist and a liar. I wonder why he did not court her in this way. What do you think?

I also note that Bourque did not feel an awe-inspiring super-human overwhelming energy coming from Maharishi, as some people, including myself, have experienced. Why didn't she? (Or why did I? Did you?)

I was very surprised by Maharishi's reaction after the first time he had intercourse with Bourque. It was so different from what I would have expected from a celibate Western religious who had broken his vow. A Westerner, I am guessing, would have felt shame, or guilt, or would have tried to hide it, or would have rationalized it, or would have gone to his superior for confession and counsel. Maharishi, instead, called together his Indian celibate buddies, and they spent the afternoon with him. It seemed as if breaking a vow of chastity was a common event, calling for neighborly consolation and tried-and-true advice. Maharishi seemed to view his slip-up not as a moral or spiritual issue (as perhaps a Catholic monk might), but rather as a practical health/spiritual energy issue. "The energy is used to going up!" he told Bourque, as if the core of the dilemma were physical, not ethical. (Come to think of it, isn't that how he looked at the path to enlightenment? A mechanical physical approach, repeated by rote, rather than a path of prayer or self-examination, as a Westerner might.) In line with this view of his problem, one of his solutions to his slip-up was, logically, also physical: someone gave him a foot massage.

This whole event just confirms for me how little we in the West really understand of Maharishi's worldview.

As I read this particular section of the book, I was reminded of Maharishi's comment at (I think) Humboldt State College in Arcata, California, USA, in the summer of 1972. At one point, he said, "What this movement needs is a few good celibates." At the time, I heard something unusual in his voice, but I couldn't put my finger on exactly what it was. Now I wonder if what I heard was a wistfulness in his voice. Could he have been alluding to the fact that he wished that he had been a good celibate. Or am I being too generous? Maybe it was nostalgia for his ashram days? Or maybe it was just his embarrassment (noted many times in the book) around sex.

I also sadly note that after he had intercourse with Bourque for the first time, Maharishi was concerned about his own well-being, but he never expressed any concern for hers.

I found the photo on page 205 very interesting. This is a snapshot of Maharishi's scribbled notes. He had met with initiators from around the world to hear how some mantras had meanings in various tongues. For instance "rama" means "branch of a tree" in Spanish. (I looked it up in my Spanish-English dictionary.) And "aem" (also spelled "aim" or "ayim"), he notes, speaks to egotistical aspirations in English with its pronunciation as "I am." Maharishi scribbled on his notes"change it." He did, in fact, drop "rama," but not "aem." What about the eternal unchangeable tradition of how to choose the mantras? Or about his insistence that the sound is meaningless. Or that the sound becomes so faint that the exact pronunciation doesn't matter? Or about the mystical, never-to-be-spoken aloud, fragile-as-glass way we were taught to view mantras; and here he was, robustly marking the mantras down, fiddling with foreign languages, notating practical changes for a satisfied customer base.

Finally, I've heard Maharishi lecture many times that an enlightened person "averts the danger that has not yet come;" that an enlightened person "is not able to make mistakes." Therefore, the fact that Maharishi had sex - which he felt was unhealthy for him - would indicate either that he was lying to us about what an enlightened person is really like, or that Maharishi was not the enlightened person he implied he was. Or maybe both. What do you think? Did Maharishi believe those things, or was he just trying to entice us? Did he learn those things from Guru Dev?

Did you read the book? Would you like to share your thoughts about it here? Or your comments about my musings?

TM-Free News Brief, 19 January 2011

2011-01-19T05:38:00.003-05:00

Photos of Transcendental Meditation's King and Queen: The promoters of Transcendental Meditation, like David Lynch and his friends, don't feature this basic fact on their web pages when they're promoting TM. But the head of the global organization that teaches TM, a former medical doctor from Lebanon with an MIT Ph.D. named Tony Nader, is today called "His Majesty Maharaja Adhiraj Raja Raam" by those who remain with the organization, which calls itself the "Global Country of World Peace." They earnestly believe that their "global administration through Natural Law," which generally means selling Vedic products and practices produced by their particular sect, will bring about world peace, and their "administration" takes the form of a monarchy.

While the spectacle of a bunch of grown men playing at government but not actually having one in reality might evoke the image of a fading royal family and court in exile, for King Tony, as I call him, it's a 24/7 lifestyle at the TM organization's world headquarters compound in Vlodrop, Netherlands, or a rumored 2-story Paris condo. These photos of Tony, his wife and their kids, are now circulating among some of the TM faithful; they were taken during the organization's celebrations of Tony's and Maharishi's birthdays last week.

Birthday of a King of a "Global Country" that will "Transform the World:" January in the TM movement has long been marked by the birthday of its founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on January 12, and now the movement also celebrates the birthday of its King, er, Maharaja on January 10. Through one of the worlds' most boring, glacially-paced and incomprehensible (to the casual Western observer, anyway) TV channels - Maharishi Channel 3, delivered over the Internet - we can, at a distance, get an idea of what passes for "celebration" among the kingdom's subjects.

Much of the celebration, outside of the Vedic recitation, Maharishi video-watching, bagpipe-playing and cake-cutting, consists of a bunch of robed guys with crowns telling Tony that he'd make a good deity, and that he's about to lead the world to Sat Yuga which will begin Real Soon Now. In those professions of devotion there were a number of passages in which, for example, a king is called "deity in human form," and the inevitability of world transformation brought about by the existence of his Global Country is simply assumed. For instance, Bevan Morris invoked the mythical ancient kingdom of Ayodya, ruled by Raja Raam the Great, the seventh incarnation of Vishnu, while implying that the Global Country was the return of that kind of kingdom, in which "suffering belonged to no one."

I'll have a later post here with more of those kinds of details, for now, here are some stills taken from the Maharishi Channel.

King Tony on the throne at MERU, Holland.

Bevan Morris at the Brahmastan of India.

Girish Varma, Maharishi's nephew, and head of TM movement operations in India.

The setting in India, with various "ministers," "Rajas" and other functionaries surrounding Girish Varma.

These are the "Mothers of the World from the Sovereign Domain of Consciousness."

A sampling of "Maharishi's Vedic Pundits" who performed Rajabhishek, the traditional Vedic ceremony of coronation.

"Royal Bagpipers" who concluded their appearance by playing "Amazing Grace."

Cutting the cake, which was in the form of a "Maharishi Tower of Invincibility."

The audience at the India gathering; only young boys could be seen on the video feed.

"Raja" John Hagelin, in the standard "raja" costume he wasn't wearing at the Met last month.

Eike Hartmann, the movement's "Minister of Architecture," which means he'd probably like to rebuild the planet by bulldozing your house. His tribute to King Tony consisted, in part, of reading from verses 2 through 8 of chapter VII of the Laws of Manu.

Like that image of Guru Dev, only different: The celebration of the January 12 birthday of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi seems to serve as a reaffirmation of the connection between the current TM movement and some stream of the "tradition" that spawned Mahesh and "Guru Dev," whose picture was seen by all meditators when they learned TM. In this vein, the several hours of speech-making, puja, Vedic recitation and Maharishi video-watching also included the presence of His Holiness Swami Vasudevanand Saraswati Maharaj, Bhagwan Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, to use the full title that Bevan used when introducing him. The Shankaracharya is patron of the Brahmananda Saraswati Foundation, which is in charge of the pundit project.

Here's a video still of the Shankaracharya and his entourage. This might be familiar to those who remember the Guru Dev image from their initiation into TM, but wait - who's that guy on the right?

That is, in fact, an armed security or police officer. Times have changed, haven't they?

"David Wants to Fly" Plays in San Francisco: David Sieveking’s masterful account of his journey through and around today's TM movement played at the Castro Theatre this past Sunday as part of the German Gems Film Festival. Check out Gina's review of the film, and her personal reflections of the day, both here at TM-Free, and on her personal blog, Coming to Life. The next scheduled showing in the U.S. is in Cambridge, Massachusetts on March 15, but stay tuned here for updates as we hear about them.

Briefly: Another story about the Gore-Tex family fortune feud I covered last week showed up in the Wilmington, Delaware News-Journal... Looks like at least one TM center, or whatever they call them now, is down to advertising in newspapers for volunteers to handle clerical tasks... Despite the continued prevalence of articles like this one, it bears repeating that the main thing the TM program will "empty" is your wallet, though your mind might follow.

TM-Free News Brief, 19 January 2011. Published irregularly here on Wednesdays by Mike Doughney, who's solely responsible for its content unless otherwise noted.

"David Wants to Fly" in San Francisco

2011-01-17T15:48:00.009-05:00

Nearly 30 friends gathered with overwhelming support for a personal coming-out gathering, at yesterday’s 4 pm screening of “David Wants to Fly” for the German Gems Film Festival in San Francisco’s beautiful Castro theater.

We paid our restaurant tab and took a sunny walk to the Castro movie theater. Even more friends turned out at the movie! After keeping my family history quiet for decades, the acceptance and support of intelligent accomplished peers was overwhelming. What an odd way to unite my life's first and second halves - on a sidewalk ticket line. The irony of my coming-out-of-the-closet in San Francisco’s famed tolerant Castro district did not go unnoticed.

Inside the beautiful theater, Eve spoke from the row behind me. “When waiting outside, I asked the person in line next to me ‘Why did you come to see this film?’ He responded, “Transcendental Meditation is being taught at my kid’s high school. I want to see the other side of the story.’ I told him about your family upbringing, how you helped prevent TM from coming to you kids’ high school; that's why we are attending this film! It's exciting. We’re proud of you, Gina!”

I smiled and laughed, not knowing how to respond. “Thank you for coming today. I really appreciate it.”

A master of ceremonies briefly introduced the filmmaker David Sieveking on stage. Then lights dimmed as the red velvet curtains pulled open, and the film began.

The audience watched Sieveking’s skillful and compassionate editing of his enthusiastic youthful journey to meet his idol, filmmaker David Lynch. At Lynch’s encouragement, Sieveking paid 2,800 euros cash for TM instruction. The film then follows Sieveking’s journey through images into some of TM’s global empire, New York, Berlin, Vlodrop, Iowa, India. After filming Maharishi’s memorial service on the Ganges, Sieveking was granted access to inner aspects of the Movement in Vlodrop, Netherlands. He filmed the lavish golden-crowned assembly of rajas in long white robes and gold chains during an early power struggle between Maharishi’s deemed successor, Maharaja Nader Raam, and the Indian factions of the Movement. In several instances, TM leaders directed Sieveking to turn off his camera. Several film clips include former devotees revealing bits of the Movement’s underbelly.

The post-film Q & A primarily revolved around film making. David Sieveking spoke frankly of the irony that he sought David Lynch and Transcendental Meditation to spur his filmmaking career. In the end, David Lynch and the Transcendental Meditation Movement demanded to censure the film. When Sieveking refused to allow the Movement censorship rights, David Lynch and the Movement refused further interviews with David Sieveking. They threatened Sieveking with law suits.

The audience laughed when Sieveking explained that meeting with an entertainment law attorney proved more beneficial for his stress level, than had the Transcendental Meditation technique.

Ironically, Sieveking’s pursuit of David Lynch and Transcendental Meditation did, in fact, provide the basis for a successful film. It’s just not the film that Sieveking had initially expected to make.

My friend Joe stood up, “Thank you, David, for making this film. I spent 15 years devotedly working for this organization. You’ve depicted that world eloquently and compassionately. The only thing missing was stories of the severe psychological and financial damage that occurred to many. The movie did not highlight those aspects, but you probably could not cover that. Transcendental Meditation is both manipulative and dangerous. Over all, your film was an excellent portrayal of the inside of that organization. Thank you.”

After the film, A young man struggling with family relation to TM cornered David Sieveking in the lobby, discussing aspects of the TM Movement. David Sieveking politely spoke with Mark, while trying to work contacts for his filmmaking career. Sieveking is not a professional exit counselor, nor a cult expert. He is a talented young filmmaker who recognized when he had stumbled upon a story, and pursued that story with passion.

Over dinner later, I asked another girlfriend, “So, as an outsider, what did you think of the film?”

“Oh, Sieveking did a great job! I was not fully objective, because I know Gina and I’d heard her stories. In the beginning of the film, I was surprised because I’d expected a hard core expose’. In fact he presented TM’s sales pitch. He showed how wonderful it is to relax with meditation. It was all just lovely, in fact, really lovely. He had a break up, a psychological crisis, and retreated to the comfort of meditation with new friends. Then he slowly revealed the group’s cracks, and the cracks just got bigger across the globe. The viewer walks that road with him through cracks that seem ready to crumble. He also clearly alluded to the fact that there is more to those cracks, but he could not tell those stories because of legal threats. The film clearly shows there is deep ugly dysfunction in Transcendental Meditation. He is a brilliant filmmaker with a bright career ahead of him! The fact that he’s funny and handsome doesn’t hurt!”

For those interested, you can read a more detailed review which includes an ex TMer lunch conversation preceding the screening by clicking to Gina's personal blog for essay "David Wants to Fly" with San Francisco friends.

TM-Free News Brief, 12 January 2011

2011-01-12T06:00:00.025-05:00

Billionaire for TM: A recent "tweet" from a certain TM "raja" points to a rather sarcastic piece in the Business Insider's "Clusterstock" section reporting that the hedge fund run by meditator Ray Dalio was up 34% in 2010, which theoretically might mean that Dalio made two billion dollars last year. Of the $12 million or so he's given away recently, Dalio's foundation reportedly handed the David Lynch Foundation $1.23 million to promote TM in schools and everywhere else. Dalio's Bridgewater Associates pays half of the TM instruction fee for employees to meditate - but only if they stick with TM for only six months. How many quit doing TM after those six months? Who's checking to see who's meditating, and how? But I digress...

The only person I've noticed thus far who attempts to seriously draw the direct conclusion that "Transcendental Meditation boosts Hedge Fund profits" is "Raja" Felix Kägi, who's obviously been following this story and used exactly that title on his "silentadministration.org" blog. The rest of us might attribute Dalio's 2010 success to a lot of skill on his part and of those in his firm, meditating or no, and perhaps quite a bit of random luck and fortunate timing; let's not fail to point out that this same fund only earned two percent the previous year. But it's always the habit of various salesmen, be they selling traditional snake-oil woo or the products of Maharishi's movement, to take credit for the upside and ignore the inevitable downside. I think I'll wait and see how Dalio's hedge funds do for the next few years. Let's also not fail to mention the link at the bottom of that lead "Clusterstock" story: "Bridgewater Employees Rave About Getting Blackout Drunk And Mud-Wrestling With Ray Dalio."

Tweet by rajafelix on January 6, 2011
Haters Are Choking On Their Insults Now That Ray Dalio Just Made ~$2 Billion In 2010, Katya Wachtel, Clusterstock, Business Insider, January 6, 2011
Bridgewater Employees Rave About Getting Blackout Drunk And Mud-Wrestling With Ray Dalio, Katya Wachtel and Courtney Comstock, Clusterstock, Business Insider, November 2, 2010
Transcendental Meditation boosts Hedge Fund profits, "Raja" Felix Kägi's "Good News" blog at silentadministration.org, October 27, 2010
Ray Dalio Explains How The Beatles Inspired Him To Meditate, Courtney Comstock, Clusterstock, Business Insider, October 26, 2010
Ray Dalio Is Too Modest To Admit He Returned 38% YTD Using Transcendental Meditation, Courtney Comstock, Clusterstock, Business Insider, October 25, 2010
Finally We Find Out How Ray Dalio's Bridgewater Is Making Billions More Than Every Other Hedge Fund This Year, Courtney Comstock, Clusterstock, Business Insider, October 22, 2010
Ray Dalio's Bridgewater Is Mysteriously Up 31% Through August, Courtney Comstock, Clusterstock, Business Insider, October 18, 2010

Meanwhile, around the corner from Wall Street: The TM movement has finally sold the American Bank Note building at 70 Broad Street, in New York's financial district. They bought it for $5.5 million in 2004, attempted to sell it for $45 million about two years ago, and finally unloaded it for $18 million to a Chinese construction firm. Along the way, the movement borrowed some millions of dollars with the help of New York City's Industrial Development Agency to renovate the space. Clearly, the Global Country of World Peace created a palace fit for a king, er, raja. Rumor was that this was to be the precisely east- and north-facing residence of John Hagelin.

I'll let Fairfield Life contributor Bob Brigante take it from here. Bob wrote this back when the building first went up for sale: "The reason why they are selling is because it's an embarrassment for Hagelin to keep touting the group in Fairfield as being responsible for the market run-up which is no more. Hagelin had a vision of being able to sit in a grand bldg in the middle of the financial district and take credit for everything good happening in the markets correlated to the rising numbers of meditators in the domes -- now that he can't do that without being laughed at, the bldg has got to go..."

Landmark Sold to Chinese Buyer, Josh Barbanel, Wall Street Journal, December 21, 2010
Would-Be Wall Street Mansion Sold to Chinese Firm for 60 Percent Off, Matt Chaban, The New York Observer, December 22, 2010
On the Market: Make the Craziest FiDi Mansion Ever, Curbed, September 17, 2009
Yahoo group Fairfield Life, Bob Brigante, September 19, 2009

Not quite a Billionaire for TM: In an ongoing battle over the Gore-Tex family fortune, the adoption of an ex-husband by an heir who once devoted several years to Transcendental Meditation is at issue. Family members allege that Susan W. Gore, one of five children of Gore-Tex founder Wilbert Gore, adopted her ex-husband to correct "flawed" and "unfair" terms of the payout of a trust fund, after Susan lost large amounts of money through bad investments and after having "almost destroyed her life by moving to Iowa and devoting several years to transcendental meditation," to quote the wording of the Delaware newspaper's article.

According to The News Journal, Susan Gore also donated money and time to one of the TM movement's projects to introduce its meditation into a Vermont prison. At one point Gore was paying $12,000 a month to a Wyoming woman who served as a spiritual and financial advisor.

The Gore war: W.L. Gore's descendants take sides in a fight over millions, Cris Barrish, The News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware), January 2, 2011
Generations of Gores clash in courtroom: Trust heirs dispute bizarre adoption, Cris Barrish, The News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware), January 11, 2011

Briefly: The brother of TM movement figure Neil Paterson has been arrested in Canada and charged with fraud. It's not clear, from this rather confusing and blatantly sensationalistic National Post article, what the connection is between Neil and the business that was headed by his brother John, but we hear, and Wikipedia cites a Globe and Mail report, that Neil actually owned most of the gold mining operation that was the vehicle for his brother's alleged criminal activity. Neil Paterson was leader of the Natural Law Party of Canada, and ran unsuccessfully multiple times in federal elections there. I received the extra syllable of the so-called "advanced technique" from him in Washington DC in the early 1980's... The Natural Law Party is still alive in Michigan... Maharishi Ayurvedic Products is franchising in India, here's the press release... Also in India, The Assam Tribune reports on allegations that buses run by the TM-affiliated Maharishi Vidya Mandir to transport school children, among others, "are old, polluting vehicles in poor running condition, with the result that these frequently suffer breakdowns and are highly susceptible to mishaps. The general practice is to use those buses for schools which are unfit for other running purposes."

Go see "David Wants to Fly." It's playing in the United States at a few festivals and events: in Palm Springs tonight, Denver and San Francisco this weekend, and in Boston in March. Here's Gina's rundown with all the details, on the blog.

Also, recently, on the blog: Laurie on "Transcendental Meditation's Testimonials," a great antidote for when somebody tries to tell you they've made lots of money because of TM, and "Making Sense of a Nonsensical Movement," where I tackle the "Vedic" roots of the TM movement and the "it's not a religion" TM technique. Again.

TM-Free News Brief, 12 January 2011. Published irregularly here on Wednesdays by Mike Doughney, who's solely responsible for its content unless otherwise noted.

Making Sense of a Nonsensical Movement

2011-01-11T02:12:00.003-05:00

The following is something I wrote earlier tonight as part of some private correspondence. It might be helpful in trying to make sense of the TM movement's nonsense, particularly when it comes to the constant insistence that TM is "not a religion." The truth of the matter is not easily explained, in large part because of inconsistent concepts as to what a religion is.

The most accurate, broad self-characterization of "Maharishi Mahesh Yogi" and the organization he established ("Global Country of World Peace") is as a means of Vedic revivalism. "The complete theoretical and practical knowledge of the Veda and its profound significance for life has been revived and understood in a scientific framework by Maharishi’s Vedic Science and Technology..." which can be found in exactly this language here and here, and similarly elsewhere.
While TM devotees attempt to separate "Vedic" from "Hindu," there is very little to support this separation, and what's effectively a simple word substitution. TM devotees often claim that their particular interpretation of ancient texts that they call "Veda" is the pure form of knowledge from which later traditions they consider corrupted, such as Hinduism, were derived. These assertions are evidently unique to those associated with the TM organization, and allied religious groups in India. All that is being sold as "Vedic" under the TM organization's auspices, that was not reinterpreted, misinterpreted or completely manufactured by Maharishi and other group leaders over time, traces to the spiritual and cultural traditions of India that are usually referred to as "Hindu." However, much of it has certain unusual twists or doctrines unique to the organization. Among these is a group of males wearing crowns and white outfits who've paid 1 million USD to become "rajas" as part of a so-called "Global Government," and who may run the organization.
Likewise, there is no support for describing any part of the Vedas as "scientific." The attempt to draw connections and parallels between aspects of the Vedas, Vedic or Hindu practices, and Western scientific concepts has been common among Hindus for decades if not centuries, and continues as part of the TM organization doctrine. There is no scientific support for such claims made by TM devotees. As an example, the organization has long claimed direct association between Vedic concepts and those of quantum mechanics, put forward by longtime TM devotee and American leader ("raja") John Hagelin. While Hagelin is a physicist, his pronouncements of this nature have gained zero support from others.
Supremacy of the Vedas, and Vedic practices, is foundational to the TM organization's purpose, as it says at the bottom of this page under the title "Everything Should Be Vedic." This would include the folding of other cultures and other religious practices into a system in which Vedic practice is supreme. The gaining of alleged positive benefits at every level (personal/social/national/planetary), including the "world peace" often referred to by proponents including David Lynch (and internally as "Heaven on Earth" or Sat Yuga), is the motivator for the organization's attempt to popularize "Vedic Knowledge." The products and services sold by the organization, of which Transcendental Meditation is usually one's initial contact, are the actual mechanism by which "Vedic Knowledge" is disseminated. Unlike TM, on which the organization has focused its efforts to obtain scientific research on which to base its claims of efficacy, there is very little, if any, research on any of the other product categories, listed at the bottom of this page.
Note that in this description, things that are part of implementing this "Vedic knowledge" are practices, not beliefs. There is no profession of faith or anything of that sort which many Westerners associate with "religion." It is in this way that TM and all the Vedic products are similar to consumer products, in that they are sold as being effective, but the buyer need not know, or care, or even believe in, the specifics of why or how they are effective. (Do you know or care why your stick of deodorant works?) The key activity becomes marketing, and everything to support the claims of efficacy in the marketing, which is why the organization seems obsessed with getting any possible support, no matter how shaky, preliminary, or unreplicated it may be from the scientific community it can possibly dig up. Incessant name-dropping of celebrities who sign on to the program is also part of this process.
From the TM organization's view, the whole point is to recruit individuals into a system of practices, that are believed to be a correct, pure implementation of "Vedic knowledge," to bring about "Heaven on Earth." While prospective meditators are told in introductory lectures that the ultimate purpose is to bring about world peace, they are never clear about the details of how that's supposed to happen. World peace in this system is brought about, not through individual, personal development, but through adherence to Vedic "knowledge" in every detail across all aspects of life through the purchase and use of the organization's products and services by many people in aggregate. It is at this point where involvement with TM takes the form of participation in a religious enterprise without knowledge or consent; while the individual meditator may not need to believe anything, and may even deny belief, may even think everything about the organization is completely bogus, and in the practice of meditation (the introductory product) may not be doing anything even recognizable as a religious practice, the motivations of the teachers and marketers of TM are obviously in a different realm and of a different nature, are based in a belief system that holds to unusual notions of causation that are not clearly disclosed, and that would be considered by many to be religious, although unorthodox if not completely bizarre by Western standards.

There is no rational or scientific basis for the claim that the more people adopt these products, the more likely "Heaven on Earth" will come about, in the same way that, to cover some of the more outrageous claims made for its other products, an east-facing home of proper Vedic proportions will give its owner health and wealth, spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars to have someone in India perform a ritual would likewise give the buyer health and wealth, or that bouncing on foam rubber while thinking certain thoughts... the list goes on like this for a while. These more advanced products carry obvious spiritual or religious connotations, while the organization continues to insist that their basis is entirely "scientific."

Meanwhile, the simple practice of meditation does provide some benefit for some people. For some, the initial benefit serves as validation for other claims made by the organization for its other products, and becomes part of the sales pitch for deeper involvement with its programs, and continues the intended intake path.

A longer post covering similar issues.

"David Wants to Fly" in USA

2011-01-03T17:58:00.007-05:00

For those who’ve been awaiting North American showings of Sieveking’ compassionate expose’ as he journeys through Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Transcendental Meditation Movement, his film is featured in upcoming film festivals in Palm Springs, San Francisco, Denver and Boston :

Palm Springs : Palm Springs International Film Festival, January 7th, 11 am, January 10th 7 pm and January 12th 10 am, ticket purchase here.

Denver : Festivus Film Festival : January 15th 8 pm, Oriental Theater, ticket purchase here.

San Francisco: German Gems Film Festival, January 16th, 4 pm Castro Theater
ticket purchase here.

Boston: The DocYard, March 15th 7 pm, Brattle Theatre in Cambridge.
Tickets will soon be available here.

“David Wants to Fly” received awards from film festivals throughout Europe.

In this film, the aspiring filmmaker documents his initial enthrall with his idol, filmmaker David Lynch. Taking Lynch’s advice to learn Transcendental Meditation to free his inner creativity, Sieveking was briefly brought under Lynch’s wing to film the international glory of the TM Movement. Instead, Sieveking found a mystical hierarchy, unstructured science, and questionable finances.

As Sieveking told me, “I was kicked out the Movement before I had fully joined! Once I started asking questions, they wouldn’t allow me on further courses and refused to answer my phone calls.”

In this film, Sieveking humorously and compassionately calls out the elephant in the room - the behemoth TM Movement.

Transcendental Meditation's Testimonials

2010-12-31T09:46:00.005-05:00

"I lost 150 pounds in 4 weeks!" (RESULTS NOT TYPICAL.)

When I look at pro-Transcendental Meditation websites, I often find testimonials of people pleased with the results of TM. Some of these testimonials are deeply moving, even heart-wrenching.

Scientists call testimonials "anecdotal evidence," and it is poor science. That's because while a testimony is suggestive of what may be worth studying, it is far from proof. Testimonials do not take into account that for every one person with a positive experience, there may be many with a neutral or even negative experience. They do not take into account the long-term effects of the product. They do not take into account the subjectivity of the testifier. (Note, for example, the paper about TM commonly called the "German Study," which observes that some TMers extolled the efficacy of TM while ignoring their increased anxiety and depression.) There are many reasons why anecdotal evidence is a poor scientific tool.

But for those of us who were deeply involved in the TM movement, positive opinions about TM may have been the only opinions we heard. After living on a TM course for 1.5 years and hearing only positive testimonials, I came to believe that everyone who learned TM had positive results. And for non-TMers who are looking for ways to improve their lives, these testimonials may seem quite convincing.

"I was always afraid. Now I am peaceful inside - and
I am getting A's." - Student

"For years I was tortured by my memories. Now I have a way out of the darkness." - Former soldier

"I am winning my battle with demons of drugs. Thank
you for this, David Lynch." - Homeless person

(from the davidlynchfoundation.org website.)

I am sorry for these people's suffering, and I am glad they found some relief through TM. But are these results universal? Are they typical? Are they even frequent? Can other modalities accomplish the same or better results more effectively or less expensively?

So to help recovering TMers who may have been mind-controlled into believing that TM is the answer for everybody, and to help non-TMers who are trying to decide if they want to learn TM, here is my own compilation of TM testimonials. And I didn't even solicit or pick over testimonies to find critical ones. They are just quotes or paraphrases from random acquaintances whom I have met over the years:

"When I learned TM, it didn't seem like anything special. There were other types of meditations I had learned that, from the first time I did them, I knew they were a practice I wanted to continue for a long time. I didn't feel that way about TM." - Social worker, 2008.

"When I first learned TM, I thought it was great and wanted to become a TM teacher. Except I felt the organization was too cult-like. Years later I learned to relax using biofeedback, and I couldn't believe the experience. I had never had such deep profound relaxation in my life." - Psychotherapist, 2010

"I was one of those people TM didn't work for." - Lawyer, 2008

"The first three days of TM was fabulous. It got me higher than the recreational drugs I used. But after a few days the high wore off, so I stopped meditating." - College student, 1972

"What results have I gotten from TM? Well, I used to take a nap when I got home from work every day. Now after work I do TM instead of taking a nap. No, no other benefits." - Elementary school teacher, 1974

"When I first started TM, I stopped taking drugs and drinking. But after a few years, I went back to the drugs and alcohol. Years later, I learned a different type of meditation. That got me off substances permanently. Also, TM left me feeling spacey, but the new meditation left me feeling grounded." - Retired secretary, 2008

"I started TM because I was a compulsive gambler and was desperate to stop. I saw the research charts on TMers stopping alcohol, drugs and cigarettes, so I thought maybe it could help me. Four months in, and I'm sorry to report it has done me no good." - Engineer, 1974

Now it's your turn. Would you like to share your TM results, or the results of people you know? Or your experiences with being mislead by TM publicity? Or anything else?