Transcendental Meditation program removed from Australia high school

According to a 15 September report in the Sunshine Coast Daily, a Queensland, Australia, newspaper, plans to continue a program of Transcendental Meditation in Beerwah High School were interrupted following community meetings:

“In response to (community) concerns, the school held community information sessions in July to provide details of the program, its benefits and how the school was managing the implementation of the initiative,” the spokesperson said.

“As a result of the level of concern expressed by the Beerwah community, the principal, in consultation with the regional office, decided the meditation program would not continue at this stage.”

What I find most interesting about this is that the paper did not report on what the nature of the concerns of members of the community were, except to repeat the allegation that those concerns "centered around religion," attributed to the Australian promoter of "Maharishi" branded products, Wendy Rosenfeldt:

However, the woman who took the classes, Wendy Rosenfeldt, said teachers were responsible for the complaints and their concerns centred around religion.

“Some teachers went to the (education) department with misinformation from the internet,” she said.

“The department never contacted us about what it was actually about.”

In fact, there are many other reasons to object to the promotion of Transcendental Meditation in public schools beyond its obvious roots and its promoters' continued adherence to various Indian religious traditions and practices. As I've written previously, the organization's deep-rooted and clear contempt for medicine and science - while it somehow manages to put forward doctors and scientists as spokespersons - is more than enough reason to eject TM promoters from schools.

I'm also intrigued by the recurring allegation from TM promoters, that certain websites contain "misinformation" regarding the TM program and the rest of the products the organization sells. An obsession with "negative websites," and evidence of a clear desire to shut down such independent sources of information, is clear from some of the insider documents available at wikileaks.org.

Update/Note: It appears that this article was edited since it was first published on the newspaper's website, specifically attributing the "religious grounds" allegation to Rosenfeldt and changing the headline. For the earlier version, see this post at Fairfield Life.