tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-287903202024-03-21T22:18:40.072-04:00TM-Free BlogTranscendental Meditation and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: a critical viewGinahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13776915173295124430noreply@blogger.comBlogger946125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-84437987325526996822023-12-05T17:44:00.002-05:002023-12-06T06:10:07.050-05:00Challenging the positive, popular perception of Transcendental Meditation: a conference presentation<p>I put together this conference presentation last year. It was intended for a professional audience, but I think it serves as a good overview of what Transcendental Meditation and the TM organization are today, its history, how it came to be popular in the late 1960's and 1970's, the many questionable and misleading aspects of its marketing and underlying doctrine, and the different forms of criticism of TM.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/k1bqnwxcf9wut6m/doughney%20presentation%20complete%20handout%20revised%20reduced.pdf?dl=0" target="_blank">There's also a detailed handout that went along with this presentation, containing many more details, citations and references.</a></p><p>The original conference presentation description, and my bio, follow.</p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6jJKNoxUbwo?si=yXw23_BfQkZLfmXX" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><span><a name='more'></a></span><h4 style="text-align: left;"><br /></h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">ICSA Annual Conference: Challenging the popular perceptions of Transcendental Meditation</h4><p>Mike Doughney</p><p>Friday, June 24th, 2022</p><p>For over half a century, the Transcendental Meditation Program has enjoyed undeserved, positive pop-cultural visibility in the West, receiving endorsements from the famous and influential, recently including notables such as Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Katy Perry, Tom Hanks and Michael J. Fox. How can this popular perception be successfully challenged?</p><p>Far from being a meditation method that’s misleadingly sold as “not a religion,” almost every element of the program, from its marketing, its initiation or instruction methods, and its advanced programs, are of a “religious nature,” fundamentally suspect, and are offered by an organization that isn’t trustworthy. Its internally toxic, cultish, sexist nature is well known among those formerly involved, who’ve experienced firsthand the practices and habits common among the movement’s lifelong devotees.</p><p>While claiming scientific authority and evidence to support itself, the TM organization exists in opposition to science and free inquiry. TM movement leadership enjoys a close relationship with fundamentalist, right-wing, Hindutva (Hindu supremacist) cultural and political movements and leaders in India, with which it shares aspects of doctrine and practice. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi created a movement that was designed to sustain, in India, a right-wing theocratic religious fundamentalist sect, while in the West soliciting the financial and cultural support of relatively irreligious, generally liberal people who may have avoided TM if these realities were fully disclosed to them upfront.</p><p>I’ll be discussing:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>What is, and isn’t, Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation today<br /><br /></li><li>A brief history of the cycles of TM’s popularity<br /><br /></li><li>The TM movement’s efforts to manufacture a scientific facade for its practice, including creation of its own university<br /><br /></li><li>The historical sources of criticism of TM, which have had some influence on its popular perception<br /><br /></li><li>The elements of TM instruction that betray its clear religious origins and purpose<br /><br /></li><li>Methods for countering TM marketing efforts, online and in social media</li></ul><h4 style="text-align: left;">About the presenter</h4><div>Mike Doughney compiled an online resource critical of Transcendental Meditation, <a href="http://minet.org">minet.org</a>, almost thirty years ago. His personal involvement with TM started at the end of 1977, during which he assisted the Washington DC TM center with publicity and similar projects. Like many other meditators, he was not deeply involved with the organization, and he stopped meditating after a few years. After co-founding an Internet public access startup in the early 1990’s, he discovered an online community of former TM teachers, MIU students, and others who considered TM potentially harmful, and who believed the TM organization to be damaging and deceptive. </div><div><br /></div><div>Today, Mike writes for and co-coordinates the TM-Free Blog, a multi-contributor blog which focuses on critical and skeptical views of TM, its global organization, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and in recent years, the TM-supporting David Lynch Foundation. He’s gathered a substantial archive of materials produced by the TM movement, and others, in support of an ongoing effort to provide a reality-based counter-narrative to the marketing efforts promoting TM. A major focus of his writing is countering the movement’s leveraging of its devotees’ publications in scientific journals to insinuate TM into public schools and government in defiance of its unscientific nature.</div><p></p>Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-22835041659265291662023-10-24T20:33:00.002-04:002023-12-11T09:59:58.357-05:00Judgment entered against David Lynch's foundation and Chicago school board in US Federal Court<p>One of the three civil cases brought against the David Lynch Foundation and the Board of Education of the City of Chicago has reached its conclusion, with judgments against both the DLF and the Board.</p><p>Quoting the court:</p><p></p><blockquote>(1) Judgment is entered in favor of plaintiff Mariyah Green and against defendant Board of Education of the City of Chicago in the amount of $75,000. This is inclusive of any and all relief available to the plaintiff in this case against the Board including all types of damages; attorney’s fees; costs; interest; and litigation expenses. (2) Judgment is entered in favor of plaintiff Mariyah Green and against defendant David Lynch Foundation in the amount of $75,000. This is inclusive of any and all relief available to the plaintiff in this case against the Foundation including all types of damages; attorney’s fees; costs; interest; and litigation expenses.</blockquote><p></p><p>While it appears that the attorney for Lynch's foundation and various TM organizations believed that such a lawsuit would likely immediately be dismissed by any court before which it was brought, the initial case against the DLF, the Board and initially, the University of Chicago, which spawned two others including this one, has dragged on since October 2020 and may be settled in the next few weeks. The other spawned case is still in progress.</p><p>This outcome should give responsible individuals in any government agency in the United States, or private entities funded by governments, second thoughts before teaming up with Lynch or any other TM promoting organization. The consequences may be rather expensive.</p><p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/transcendental/comments/16nc5qt/chicago_lawsuit_against_david_lynchs_foundation/" target="_blank">(For a summary of the claims at issue in these cases, see my earlier post at Reddit.)</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-lgZGjpVgceYjacQjMpJl4w1unFoM6gT-zhTw62SSooXZBHKsTCLglxjGCvWFqHgiuuLKdpCpCxI36k75akPHAUWBRjqxSNZHdedicOQ-id400Wgm2HWfJC7xCXBOM7EC4iqQlRTbWpElvTAOxIyyL9BIQVChI8kPMp4o2obsmKmamzG_57kq/s2200/071%20judgment%20entered_Page_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2200" data-original-width="1700" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-lgZGjpVgceYjacQjMpJl4w1unFoM6gT-zhTw62SSooXZBHKsTCLglxjGCvWFqHgiuuLKdpCpCxI36k75akPHAUWBRjqxSNZHdedicOQ-id400Wgm2HWfJC7xCXBOM7EC4iqQlRTbWpElvTAOxIyyL9BIQVChI8kPMp4o2obsmKmamzG_57kq/w494-h640/071%20judgment%20entered_Page_1.png" width="494" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfb-lKWGooUM_HR9BCTKqHmnfWX5EPIjJ26iunO04kfzME9QsVmHVusg5BHk7OP8L0zP16WX8ckI4JDBMPMacYMEvlwb4EJnd81YQgljGMIxRtu7LztWEF-u3JfrsXTDocSPxpvpoQozka86x9TW3Pq9NnGYn4Sgryawxa0rsElFmSdaswBrAG/s2200/071%20judgment%20entered_Page_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2200" data-original-width="1700" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfb-lKWGooUM_HR9BCTKqHmnfWX5EPIjJ26iunO04kfzME9QsVmHVusg5BHk7OP8L0zP16WX8ckI4JDBMPMacYMEvlwb4EJnd81YQgljGMIxRtu7LztWEF-u3JfrsXTDocSPxpvpoQozka86x9TW3Pq9NnGYn4Sgryawxa0rsElFmSdaswBrAG/w494-h640/071%20judgment%20entered_Page_2.png" width="494" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p>Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-3635313033726943442022-10-18T21:01:00.005-04:002022-10-18T21:01:55.148-04:00Maharishi's meeting with Hindu supremacist, right-wing political leaders<p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />The close relationship between Maharishi and his successors, and some of India’s Hindu supremacist political leaders, has been hinted at from time to time. Even as far back as 1968, </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&id=MzwIAQAAMAAJ&dq=miles+many+years+from+now&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22right-wing+politicians+in+India+and+that+his+students%22" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Paul McCartney and John Lennon were warned that Maharishi was connected with right-wing politicians there</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQp2lA2lRqCFs7SKNnwKwSGz6OpNZCGEtqHSZl0WOLBMlJ0rpWYTKEQyp-Jv0jcaD-_-1vj2z8xps6XdoErL41MDpScr2_xLfztP-HMb-Z_KAXFvJLwXWnGhDT9G5UzSukzLA7P5pwRQKXU85uEVb0mm8MHXxMh0409SSJg9AKea6h7B4egw/s508/20161015%2015%20October%202016%20Ambassador%20Reception%20Afternoon%20Meeting%202022-07-13%2022_26_Moment.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="286" data-original-width="508" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQp2lA2lRqCFs7SKNnwKwSGz6OpNZCGEtqHSZl0WOLBMlJ0rpWYTKEQyp-Jv0jcaD-_-1vj2z8xps6XdoErL41MDpScr2_xLfztP-HMb-Z_KAXFvJLwXWnGhDT9G5UzSukzLA7P5pwRQKXU85uEVb0mm8MHXxMh0409SSJg9AKea6h7B4egw/w320-h180/20161015%2015%20October%202016%20Ambassador%20Reception%20Afternoon%20Meeting%202022-07-13%2022_26_Moment.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Destruction of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992.<br />Image from video of an October 2016 meeting at the <br />TM organization's Vlodrop headquarters.<br /><a href="https://hindutvawatch.org/jai-shri-ram-is-a-war-cry-prove-otherwise/" target="_blank">Meaning of "Jai Sri Ram"</a></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">An essay written in 2006 by an Amsterdam teacher who did liaison work for the </span><a href="https://www.indianembassynetherlands.gov.in/" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Embassy of India in the Netherlands</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> reveals that two of India’s most controversial right-wing politicians met with Maharishi in the early 1990s. This meeting occurred around the time that both of those political leaders directed </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demolition_of_the_Babri_Masjid" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the violent and deadly destruction of a prominent Muslim mosque in Ayodhya</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span><p></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-3eaf5650-7fff-d44c-ef4d-8db8d572b436"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://issuu.com/indiapost/docs/indiapost_06-13-2014/10" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A brief story in the India Post of June 13, 2014</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, partially attributed to a TM teacher, suggests that there’s long been a relationship between the current </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narendra_Modi" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and Maharishi’s organization.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 1992 Modi is said to have been among a political delegation from India that Maharishi invited to MERU, Holland to meet with him. Modi was allegedly already practicing Transcendental Meditation at that time. After the visit, Maharishi is said to have commented that Modi would some day bring about some very good changes.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Without corroborating evidence from some other direction, it’s difficult to take such a statement seriously. But in fact, there exists an eyewitness report of such a meeting with a political delegation, at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s residence in Vlodrop, Holland, around that time.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span></span></p><a name='more'></a></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This essay describes a meeting in which two Hindu political figures met with Maharishi in the early 1990s, possibly the same 1992 meeting. If Modi was present, he likely wouldn’t have yet been a significant enough figure to have been noted by this writer. It was written by </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/shreeniwas-aiyer-79a46a14/?originalSubdomain=nl" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shreeniwas Aiyer</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, a business teacher in Amsterdam who passed away in 2014. Aiyer wrote, in 2006, that he did liaison work for the Indian diplomatic mission and was sent to Maharishi’s “MERU” headquarters by the ambassador, as the then opposition leader in the Indian parliament was arriving for a visit there.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve excerpted the relevant portions of Aiyer’s essay and omitted his personal commentary, which you can read in the full text which follows at the end of this article.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One day the ambassador asked me if I would visit the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Centre as the then opposition leader of the Indian parliament Mr. L.K. Advani was arriving for a brief visit. … Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s headquarters are located in a tiny little beautiful and picturesque Dutch village on the border of Germany and Holland. Traffic being heavy the chauffeur took a diversion and drove through Germany because there are no speed restrictions in Deutschland. I reached a bit late and Mr. L.K. Advani was already in.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._K._Advani" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">L.K. Advani</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leader_of_the_Opposition_in_Lok_Sabha" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the opposition leader in the lower house of the Indian Parliament</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> from 1990 to 1993. He joined the Hindu nationalist, right-wing, paramilitary organization, the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rashtriya_Swayamsevak_Sangh" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, at the age of fourteen. Advani had held various positions with the currently ruling Hindu nationalist, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharatiya_Janata_Party" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and its predecessors since the late 1950s; </span><a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-22837442" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">he is credited with orchestrating his party’s rise to power</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> between 1984 and 1998. During that time, he organized the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Rath_Yatra" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ram Rath Yatra</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, a political, religious procession to organize </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayodhya_dispute" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">support for the building of a temple to the Hindu deity Rama</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> on the site of the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babri_Masjid" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Babri Masjid</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, a Muslim mosque, at Ayodhya. (Narendra Modi, then a BJP organization secretary, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narendra_Modi#Early_political_career" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">was reported to have facilitated this yatra</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The yatra triggered religious violence in its wake, with riots in cities across North India. Two years later, around the time of this visit with Maharishi, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demolition_of_the_Babri_Masjid" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the Babri Masjid was demolished by Hindu nationalist mobs</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, to be eventually replaced with </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Janmabhoomi" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that Rama temple</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. In the ensuing violence, </span><a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/babri-masjid-bloody-aftermath-across-india-147823-2011-12-04" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">over two thousand people would die</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I went in I was surprised to find Mr Ashok Singhal had accompanied Mr Advani, the man alleged to have masterminded and behind the demolishment of the Babri Masjid. It was interesting to meet the so-called ”Indian Khomeini.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The comparison of </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashok_Singhal" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ashok Singhal</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> with </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruhollah_Khomeini" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Khomeini</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is quite appropriate, both of them being politically powerful theocrats. Singhal was the president of the Hindu nationalist, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishva_Hindu_Parishad" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP)</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for over twenty years, and is </span><a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/ashok-singhal-an-engineer-who-was-babri-demolition-architect-obituary-115111701244_1.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">widely believed to have been the architect of the destruction of the Babri Masjid</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span><a href="https://theprint.in/in-pictures/unseen-photos-of-how-babri-masjid-demolition-was-planned-and-executed-in-1992/474297/" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Both he and Advani were present on the day of the mosque demolition.</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=sSQQonu4xg8C&lpg=PA61&vq=ashok&pg=PA61#v=onepage&q=ashok&f=false" target="_blank">Singhal was later present at Maharishi's funeral</a>, in 2008.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This event was part of the religious, political movement to create </span><a href="https://thewire.in/politics/hindu-rashtra-project-end-goal" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a “Hindu Rashtra,” the elimination of the Indian secular republic and its replacement with some vaguely defined Hindu state</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. As is often true in that sort of regime hostile to secularism, the institutions of the dominant religion would always have certain rights and privileges that would be denied those of other religions, or the irreligious.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Singhal has been widely quoted, referring approvingly to what he heard from another of India’s religious figures: “</span><a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/by-2020-india-will-be-hindu-nation-world-by-2030-ashok-singhal/" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sai Baba told me that by 2020 the entire country will be Hindu and by 2030 the entire world will be Hindu.</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” The consequences of such a transition for religious minorities would clearly be disastrous, given that the </span><a href="https://thewire.in/communalism/lk-advani-rath-yatra-communal-violence-agra-babri-masjid-demolition" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">acquisition of a religious minority’s property through terror and violence was demonstrated by the destruction of the Babri Masjid</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Later, a court decision, decades later under a BJP majority government, </span><a href="https://www.india.com/news/india/who-is-ram-lalla-virajman-the-winner-of-ayodhya-case-3837336/" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">handing that property over to the deity, Shri Ram Lalla Virajman</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="https://thewire.in/ayodhyatimeline" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">legitimized the taking of property that was once a mosque</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mr. L.K. Advani went in and returned after a few minutes, after this it was Mr. Ashok Singhal’s turn to have the darshan. When he returned, he was beaming with enthusiasm, like he had just seen God, the Paramatma himself. Now it was my turn, I was summoned by the million dollar Guru.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He, ‘the great sage or Maharishi’ was sitting on a massive throne-like settee bedecked with velvety cloth, decorated on all sides, surrounded by a beautiful variety of flowers. He smiled from under his shaggy beard and in his squeaky voice asked me a few personal questions in Hindi. It is mind boggling how people of north India just assume that you speak Hindi and start rattling off in Hindi. I kept replying in English.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Aiyer has described the kind of power relationships that such religious leaders, who seek to eliminate secularism and democracy and replace them with a religious dictatorship, demonstrate in these kinds of meetings. The politicians are in awe of, and subservient to religious authority, as he says here, coming away as if they “had just seen God.” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Maharishi] told me how he wanted to promote the Vedic culture and that he wanted the Indian [diplomatic] mission to promote his plan. He asked me about the ambassador; I told him that the ambassador could not be present... [he] began to talk in detail about how he would eliminate all weapons from the face of this earth. He requested the missions’ help in promoting his Vedic agenda. I was tempted to tell him that Indian missions would not promote any particular religion as it would be against the secular nature of the Indian constitution, but I did not want to interrupt him so I let him have his say.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What Maharishi and his movement call “Vedic” is identical to what others call “Hindu,” </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2011/01/making-sense-of-nonsensical-movement.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">one instance of the ubiquitous word substitution that he used to attempt to cast his repackaging of Hindu philosophy and theology as something purified and scientifi</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">c. He seeks to offer some ancient version that he uniquely discovered and recovered from before it was all corrupted into something identified as religious and “Hindu,” or so he would like us to believe. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span>But there is actually very little difference, at their cores, between the Hindutva, Hindu nationalism expressed by the likes of Advani and Singhal, with their objective to establish a “Hindu Rashtra,” and Maharishi’s “Vedic Science” which </span><a href="https://globalgoodnews.com/vedic-administration.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">seeks to establish a “Vedic Government” in India and every nation</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The Maharishi rendition is a bit more explicit, as in </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=BqIoAAAAYAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22every+christian%22" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">this excerpt from his 2001 book, “Ideal India,”</span></a></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSfizWH-zwVCRp40GcA9kpCSNDN-awN264i5THVanIs8oV16I0-wJr3JeN5UXHinQNOG9l_s7c5lfWRqnvYkwwPyScy4ssy8NeWBZb4vI3whRuGm_Q1ZIL4CAWeucj-qCmKrf_Ac_GXvnCcVilvMtDIsCQA4Al_zAWLuUmIl7x5TuCjcNBMg/s1272/ideal%20india%20footnote%20page%20380.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="1272" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSfizWH-zwVCRp40GcA9kpCSNDN-awN264i5THVanIs8oV16I0-wJr3JeN5UXHinQNOG9l_s7c5lfWRqnvYkwwPyScy4ssy8NeWBZb4vI3whRuGm_Q1ZIL4CAWeucj-qCmKrf_Ac_GXvnCcVilvMtDIsCQA4Al_zAWLuUmIl7x5TuCjcNBMg/w320-h132/ideal%20india%20footnote%20page%20380.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ideal India, footnote, page 380</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">where he explained his vision for what he saw as India’s future. His proposed “perfect government” is anti-secular, anti-democratic, hostile to religious pluralism, and entirely based on a specific theology. By stating that “every Hindu, every Muslim, and every Christian is always being created and governed by Veda” he is demanding that everyone acquiesce to the inherent dominance and supremacy that comes with the assumption that a concept only relevant to one religion, the Veda, governs everyone.</span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This faux universalism has been leveraged to </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2011/11/no-girls-allowed-in-treehouse.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">obtain the support of secular liberals</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and </span><a href="https://www.tm.org/blog/meditation/catholic-priest-transcendental-meditation-orphans-latin-america/" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">even clergy of other faiths</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, all over the world. That support has been used to grow and sustain a Hindu fundamentalist sect that is one part of a political movement in India that has the objective of creating what would effectively be a theocratic, single-party dictatorship there. The significance of Maharishi’s efforts over the past few years is that </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">he succeeded in gathering a few individuals who were once trained in the scientific method to provide a flimsy veneer of support for his assertions</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. This tiny group, relative to any implied broader scientific consensus that does not exist, manufactured a facade of dubious scientific research, with which to attempt to sell his sanitized version of Vedic religious culture around the world and then, back into India. Personal benefits, and claims that TM practice would result in “world peace,” were devices to encourage participation in a movement with distinctly different, actual goals and purposes.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The insistence by TM teachers, and their organization, </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/you-cant-spell-tm-without-sci.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that Transcendental Meditation is in no way religious</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> hinges on the fact that an affirmative belief in anything is not required in TM instruction. That doesn’t negate the fact that Maharishi created a worldwide movement, primarily for religious and political purposes that have only become obvious recently. In this movement, Western practitioners of Transcendental Meditation are often useful pawns through their unwitting support of Maharishi, his organization, and David Lynch’s foundation, all of which shares these objectives.</span></p><br /><iframe allow="autoplay" height="480" src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YiLATl4QuYrWPpGDOvT91KzK-qaqJXKW/preview" width="540"></iframe>Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-19482518001026272412022-01-07T19:55:00.006-05:002022-01-25T23:09:35.274-05:00The full text of an early version of Maharishi's "Introduction to the Holy Tradition"<p>I've been following along with the latest developments in <a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/search/label/TM%20in%20Chicago%20schools" target="_blank">the lawsuit against the David Lynch Foundation, and others, in the aftermath of the DLF's latest failed attempt to insinuate the TM program into public high schools.</a> The legality of any entanglement of any government entity in the United States with Transcendental Meditation was successfully challenged by <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=969246082363008637&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr" target="_blank">the opinions in </a><i><a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=969246082363008637&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr" target="_blank">Malnak v. Yogi</a> </i> - which may be forty years old, but that still serves as <a href="https://libguides.law.ucla.edu/c.php?g=686105&p=5160745" target="_blank">persuasive authority in US courts</a> - which resulted in <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5388567843432021194&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr#p1325" target="_blank">an injunction against the TM program in public high schools in New Jersey</a>, which still stands today.</p><p>One critical element of the current case - which in some ways mirrors <i>Malnak</i> over forty years later - is the translation of the <i>puja,</i> the ritual performed before instruction in the TM technique, which is spoken and sung in the Sanskrit language. In <i>Malnak</i> the religiosity of the <i>puja</i> in translation was one of two primary factors in the court's opinion finding that TM was of a "religious nature," and that element is also, I think, one of the facts which will determine the outcome of the case in Chicago.</p><p>Counsel for the David Lynch Foundation has been working tooth and nail to exclude the <i>puja</i> translation from the case, in the past few days acknowledging that <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5388567843432021194&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr#p1306" target="_blank">the translation which appears in the district court opinion in <i>Malnak</i></a> is the same as that performed in Chicago schools, on school property. <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/25kpcio9mqd1bs3/126-0%20plaintiffs%20reply%20in%20support%20of%20motion%20to%20compel.pdf?dl=0" target="_blank">But the attorneys for the DLF are attempting to insert a "poison pill" that the translation which has been part of the published <i>Malnak</i> decision for over 40 years cannot be used as evidence in the current case.</a></p><p>So, to drive home what each and every Transcendental Meditation teacher knows by heart - and what they were taught during their training - this is the full text of the "Introduction to the Holy Tradition," which has existed in several versions. These are scans of a physical copy in my possession, which I obtained from a book and document seller in France. Its text is nearly identical (with an omission which I attribute to an editing error) to two other versions, one of which appears as an appendix in a book written by a former TM teacher (<a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Transcendental_Misconceptions.html?id=9VcQAQAAIAAJ" target="_blank">R. D. Scott in "Transcendental Misconceptions," published in 1978</a>), and the other in <a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/demystifying-puja-part-2-religious.html" target="_blank">the Amlan Dey thesis, submitted in 2017, which I refer to in part 2 of my previous series on the purpose and significance of the <i>puja.</i></a></p><p>I can't accurately date this document, since there is nothing identifying where, when and by whom it was published, but given the style in which it was printed, and the quality of the paper, I think it likely that it dates to the late 1960's and was printed in the print shop at Maharishi's "Academy of Meditation" Rishikesh ashram. I believe it's possible that this booklet was distributed to participants in the same TM teacher training course that was visited by the Beatles, Mia and Prudence Farrow, and other prominent people in early 1968. Any information that might help identify this booklet's origin would be appreciated.<br /><br />The portion of this booklet which matches the Sanskrit-to-English translation in the <i>Malnak</i> opinion starts in the eleventh image below, the "Invocation of the Holy Tradition."<br /><br /><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/rclh0f00r289rzs/introduction%20to%20the%20holy%20tradition%201969.pdf?dl=0" target="_blank">This document is also available as a PDF file.</a></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhwYCN1XLTomGUBN6tDXVOK41hZJ2aaOTikjZSuMndwpZhxMahu7MHCGg8J7gbzI376bwCI5L-bFwHNJMuLYperLyRyDZhDAYpI4FMVhMN6Pk0ypdE4Dc0AcMNzkw7118xX5t9b-gaSzSNbvaT-kFbcgFxn_jkmoS2OFgsZKf0TEhvfn0wfoQ=s852" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="852" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhwYCN1XLTomGUBN6tDXVOK41hZJ2aaOTikjZSuMndwpZhxMahu7MHCGg8J7gbzI376bwCI5L-bFwHNJMuLYperLyRyDZhDAYpI4FMVhMN6Pk0ypdE4Dc0AcMNzkw7118xX5t9b-gaSzSNbvaT-kFbcgFxn_jkmoS2OFgsZKf0TEhvfn0wfoQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhkMCOtxZoXrK_rT2QzbC-PD5KCv4_flRXC7f4EJgb1vhqzkR2Ra0yXVIyizeK4DVHT0f-GvxXAC_Y85xpN7oPVU1jFrTgECo4PK6g9WFpp01xlF6LejExkokagsRTbrP3M6GJZNBSkQcXdZ_PqSfD-iRYZW82QpKcvh4dykT1ZnQmFyOC2QQ=s814" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="559" data-original-width="814" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhkMCOtxZoXrK_rT2QzbC-PD5KCv4_flRXC7f4EJgb1vhqzkR2Ra0yXVIyizeK4DVHT0f-GvxXAC_Y85xpN7oPVU1jFrTgECo4PK6g9WFpp01xlF6LejExkokagsRTbrP3M6GJZNBSkQcXdZ_PqSfD-iRYZW82QpKcvh4dykT1ZnQmFyOC2QQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjbhwiQsA9rcFqGNjfeeIL296dXLvHZBl7z7NUILpzl1muJBven2oRM2E5PZSvmGw8Cw87ZRoJ9Sc0REJl45pQ43xRqIEwPS_lnaUfsgShOPMyNBTMmY2MhvOGGhgn2y92FzF1DqWzCO2l2ut_t_W1ad8hEKkE1Yszt9aOE5KBOSx_Scgu54w=s795" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="795" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjbhwiQsA9rcFqGNjfeeIL296dXLvHZBl7z7NUILpzl1muJBven2oRM2E5PZSvmGw8Cw87ZRoJ9Sc0REJl45pQ43xRqIEwPS_lnaUfsgShOPMyNBTMmY2MhvOGGhgn2y92FzF1DqWzCO2l2ut_t_W1ad8hEKkE1Yszt9aOE5KBOSx_Scgu54w=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEic51_DskFD85cThqBogJH5hiuC-KS5AgIq-AMrDyEe0wdpUpnj6i4EAkdGnqfBpW3QqVUvR5CUAWrminj4ObQTALHqdVneYxStwrLm3TlhhYTg6956zTpsQNBZKZ8P9E-HmwfEOHcIxt2T4S3WfTR2DUHtD56C2SpbkND5H_HhftoDax9qzA=s824" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="824" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEic51_DskFD85cThqBogJH5hiuC-KS5AgIq-AMrDyEe0wdpUpnj6i4EAkdGnqfBpW3QqVUvR5CUAWrminj4ObQTALHqdVneYxStwrLm3TlhhYTg6956zTpsQNBZKZ8P9E-HmwfEOHcIxt2T4S3WfTR2DUHtD56C2SpbkND5H_HhftoDax9qzA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiQvguSrjZo-ww1BZBKnwdZky348sO2hgWHtOeRBr8HuCxNVZSeee0hHp1qZWWZwHbOBN9U__hKrweA0rKriJi_IidZDjET19z9We7VrkeeRxDKui3IMcbcGTgYMVovH2nRUlwkxpPeUE8vDulOxZlPQRy_eo58nK66rqYX-o1lbFJfDZSb3g=s797" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="797" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiQvguSrjZo-ww1BZBKnwdZky348sO2hgWHtOeRBr8HuCxNVZSeee0hHp1qZWWZwHbOBN9U__hKrweA0rKriJi_IidZDjET19z9We7VrkeeRxDKui3IMcbcGTgYMVovH2nRUlwkxpPeUE8vDulOxZlPQRy_eo58nK66rqYX-o1lbFJfDZSb3g=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg94eNc2gjyyQXpY065aa-uebHhxBMZ34CXMwKfLxfNAr-16SIq72ZXLnnvrimK5Mz-WCvUcNHeXGhedVR9Wgt99Bt-whNcGTIvhvAMDT8B37G1tzoWgQzoMohNToS_1YPV1Il9KlLfozLoVzmO5R5D9pBykpTlzOHKiaDWjFL1oS-LgPci9g=s827" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="827" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg94eNc2gjyyQXpY065aa-uebHhxBMZ34CXMwKfLxfNAr-16SIq72ZXLnnvrimK5Mz-WCvUcNHeXGhedVR9Wgt99Bt-whNcGTIvhvAMDT8B37G1tzoWgQzoMohNToS_1YPV1Il9KlLfozLoVzmO5R5D9pBykpTlzOHKiaDWjFL1oS-LgPci9g=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjPP510oG8s2MW1yuRlXeBoFirXkY-4_MqAB2sZrRRhdfXz5c8kUGBISdAh9qO1HiOQfiR0ZlZ6f918EnQobLwbClBm-DvJyyugvIRcKoqyUGcGpGS5DRKKZEC8xyyfWYmCPyh_PEvAKuqeEUc2ugGOzwwK6284KwsiKCwAKQJJAW5OGKQqNQ=s793" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="793" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjPP510oG8s2MW1yuRlXeBoFirXkY-4_MqAB2sZrRRhdfXz5c8kUGBISdAh9qO1HiOQfiR0ZlZ6f918EnQobLwbClBm-DvJyyugvIRcKoqyUGcGpGS5DRKKZEC8xyyfWYmCPyh_PEvAKuqeEUc2ugGOzwwK6284KwsiKCwAKQJJAW5OGKQqNQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiMxh873JM5j1Sx19llfE7WkXnoVY4Hlx99iHKvxNim_GB5YhJWHHb8rbh7KUT7_KW6UsR3V77hH9sr3j3BJXa3cwNOXX08NDWeNluTh1FEgbMKi3CK-3nAy7bBo9GQ2sdNMPHhoQNbf8uJfoRTJMgd_SXQF1qPQkwYVNfq0ciwwfDMUpAV9w=s814" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="814" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiMxh873JM5j1Sx19llfE7WkXnoVY4Hlx99iHKvxNim_GB5YhJWHHb8rbh7KUT7_KW6UsR3V77hH9sr3j3BJXa3cwNOXX08NDWeNluTh1FEgbMKi3CK-3nAy7bBo9GQ2sdNMPHhoQNbf8uJfoRTJMgd_SXQF1qPQkwYVNfq0ciwwfDMUpAV9w=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhUrnGFncEMAwmKrIb5MEdawExL57iut_5uMuO7vbw-kYTZc_SoL09KbfQ6ASjaVhbySP44SUO55v-zgJBDQWVesfArmGliZbow4pJu1wbf_u7pp3K1pkQqNxYNyb1QeN5_9CSwFdFyNLXlGd_KmMA4IG4ftxW7D5IikMRT3Z6OpYmQlA1udA=s802" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="564" data-original-width="802" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhUrnGFncEMAwmKrIb5MEdawExL57iut_5uMuO7vbw-kYTZc_SoL09KbfQ6ASjaVhbySP44SUO55v-zgJBDQWVesfArmGliZbow4pJu1wbf_u7pp3K1pkQqNxYNyb1QeN5_9CSwFdFyNLXlGd_KmMA4IG4ftxW7D5IikMRT3Z6OpYmQlA1udA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhk564jX--rWxdhDMwW_Xl7eYcU6QT2ZzNPzskNiHO5MGF6S7hpaCC50C5hHJL_MiuC0x0LylyeINkgFpbY9OlEYmLJ5HqSoYER2AZ490EHjKrRJiwO3mqIClTIuE4KMCH0ebYdOrns_-JV9VvZBRg4n7TKOfvswgcyK_-OHxK3cdfAx9PEgA=s814" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="814" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhk564jX--rWxdhDMwW_Xl7eYcU6QT2ZzNPzskNiHO5MGF6S7hpaCC50C5hHJL_MiuC0x0LylyeINkgFpbY9OlEYmLJ5HqSoYER2AZ490EHjKrRJiwO3mqIClTIuE4KMCH0ebYdOrns_-JV9VvZBRg4n7TKOfvswgcyK_-OHxK3cdfAx9PEgA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjRBRfD5ZTQU4QY-0LMzR7-4_elFMuDAgHSVqs1DoLCISkVZ_vhBBrFcDAOziZb7hX_U64yBHGYo29ujIxHard4mx0RVhl_kGVAIVyCNioJaeCtmsfiFSKYfki3-oZkmfcNsF1ZokgObCOWEMNAnTZAmUAWKCmeet6yN_Q8-qO4MN945U9Hsw=s792" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="792" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjRBRfD5ZTQU4QY-0LMzR7-4_elFMuDAgHSVqs1DoLCISkVZ_vhBBrFcDAOziZb7hX_U64yBHGYo29ujIxHard4mx0RVhl_kGVAIVyCNioJaeCtmsfiFSKYfki3-oZkmfcNsF1ZokgObCOWEMNAnTZAmUAWKCmeet6yN_Q8-qO4MN945U9Hsw=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgM8yVW2JBN2azgDOuBocznkgC7U9Kv-yMI1xbUjOrrvKJGS6wRWpUEurEAPcha1x3JsNoMYtFiGw5lHJT5Ser68N9ae2CZfko4pv-P63bqnSwaglnFU5m1IMNC4K1qTGEcwun3ZQ-REuxi8tD_ZLxu8nL0EdVfIc2CqIEInY4-aOUHKD7HBQ=s813" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="813" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgM8yVW2JBN2azgDOuBocznkgC7U9Kv-yMI1xbUjOrrvKJGS6wRWpUEurEAPcha1x3JsNoMYtFiGw5lHJT5Ser68N9ae2CZfko4pv-P63bqnSwaglnFU5m1IMNC4K1qTGEcwun3ZQ-REuxi8tD_ZLxu8nL0EdVfIc2CqIEInY4-aOUHKD7HBQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg595hWkRYjQRB7Hop_7MNRhU7vWlu-rbNREaTWHcYP-NpEAchUYz6q4Ki4c88gAWbjy_IR76y4bBP1Y82hSz-_ZdJBFbqZ1tgL_wqKGQ9Z0veIxGjk688qxyi9PySno0szkLTutl2dwIVLBw7S2kDiEX7JHrVmKl-E7sLEUvEU4TyV1fGpxA=s784" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="784" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg595hWkRYjQRB7Hop_7MNRhU7vWlu-rbNREaTWHcYP-NpEAchUYz6q4Ki4c88gAWbjy_IR76y4bBP1Y82hSz-_ZdJBFbqZ1tgL_wqKGQ9Z0veIxGjk688qxyi9PySno0szkLTutl2dwIVLBw7S2kDiEX7JHrVmKl-E7sLEUvEU4TyV1fGpxA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgE5dytpm4_xJPT9-Z2u_iThsorDG5uny7mRAbf2J_RdwKQkCYrdAVmtl_KP_1RT6Yl97CvBfW_l2Fe3Qn-YJvUs1MoDG3TNzRPPzhsAwp7woopsxlfWp_ShVe-872jURcHQl3kt5R5KYGV5YBnyJRKYs9GFB3jlF23HflnpwlPvnRHgZQQBw=s820" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="820" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgE5dytpm4_xJPT9-Z2u_iThsorDG5uny7mRAbf2J_RdwKQkCYrdAVmtl_KP_1RT6Yl97CvBfW_l2Fe3Qn-YJvUs1MoDG3TNzRPPzhsAwp7woopsxlfWp_ShVe-872jURcHQl3kt5R5KYGV5YBnyJRKYs9GFB3jlF23HflnpwlPvnRHgZQQBw=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiRiMGgMHKTQm257-wwmaomZqsb0dlBK4oF0LDNNM5jK5s4v0EYR5vDeX0kc-CMYEEe7iw1wmNX85sMtZTUqcULZfZPV4fHrhq9TMe_kkan6h09dGtkWn0bVD4qiPN5Tt8QP7hRLKQFum5pf1oyo6wJq6Jjv18TMKh4cqKS4ilgzteRs62cPQ=s779" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="779" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiRiMGgMHKTQm257-wwmaomZqsb0dlBK4oF0LDNNM5jK5s4v0EYR5vDeX0kc-CMYEEe7iw1wmNX85sMtZTUqcULZfZPV4fHrhq9TMe_kkan6h09dGtkWn0bVD4qiPN5Tt8QP7hRLKQFum5pf1oyo6wJq6Jjv18TMKh4cqKS4ilgzteRs62cPQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhUzl52jLgp7BapcMAlM8JjZA84xZunR5YvJ7EjYwouuzYv3WxgYlsMB9rAFXce-1I9UGrn19qEAYHywZvtkmVWPVdBM_XWfIlvaNDR6znImYjdkR4hfP71dKdNaOe3ZTlFfGlILOXKPxvR4TqtPYlA1dBmNrNZVPLMAtn_x2A3-e9K6UZQMQ=s803" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="803" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhUzl52jLgp7BapcMAlM8JjZA84xZunR5YvJ7EjYwouuzYv3WxgYlsMB9rAFXce-1I9UGrn19qEAYHywZvtkmVWPVdBM_XWfIlvaNDR6znImYjdkR4hfP71dKdNaOe3ZTlFfGlILOXKPxvR4TqtPYlA1dBmNrNZVPLMAtn_x2A3-e9K6UZQMQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiXKm0XuHw_6m4vdOuW3_8TzRqXKC_7GgkTcLN9cd4Qndnc-xePwOVVEfQO4R6Hw6o7ZnZXb18eYXV0pcCHJICzO2mBYDDFIninNMmhO1Hn5g48D_beQPXQm0PoUp1fSrZtad30667-rmONtSyngWvNuU3THH57CSZWV7_sCrkuuUHmCOQaIA=s743" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="743" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiXKm0XuHw_6m4vdOuW3_8TzRqXKC_7GgkTcLN9cd4Qndnc-xePwOVVEfQO4R6Hw6o7ZnZXb18eYXV0pcCHJICzO2mBYDDFIninNMmhO1Hn5g48D_beQPXQm0PoUp1fSrZtad30667-rmONtSyngWvNuU3THH57CSZWV7_sCrkuuUHmCOQaIA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgcafAct28YsFAbHZ6TgYrUN18Na9J8SXU2yQHheik6KbM4DTaplh4visV83DZ9mmqr2PmOKdo3J1bfao_mhqO4P14uGgx3C5tdL1tlFaJyx8kL2zlvqII2ugvTOOwPGINqSko_UYYpXroS-Cavx1-BbP9-XG4h5QYV7yz6HoWeaHx-SmPI3A=s816" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="556" data-original-width="816" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgcafAct28YsFAbHZ6TgYrUN18Na9J8SXU2yQHheik6KbM4DTaplh4visV83DZ9mmqr2PmOKdo3J1bfao_mhqO4P14uGgx3C5tdL1tlFaJyx8kL2zlvqII2ugvTOOwPGINqSko_UYYpXroS-Cavx1-BbP9-XG4h5QYV7yz6HoWeaHx-SmPI3A=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhT33AxtfkPt7ocMO7FSCZ-yQmcyrku2t_9cRZcqqrNE2WCdsLwT_NUoBwBBBAIlQFL8UJcPNCf6vugalMpI7R0KG6Hb9f6CjYKCT-AEFVsDubsCz2M272RUX_YqRvtKUsj2_8-EzUpzDUb5A7cMFiehdgtuvF3IP7FkVaydrihXEuqGSlsEQ=s752" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="752" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhT33AxtfkPt7ocMO7FSCZ-yQmcyrku2t_9cRZcqqrNE2WCdsLwT_NUoBwBBBAIlQFL8UJcPNCf6vugalMpI7R0KG6Hb9f6CjYKCT-AEFVsDubsCz2M272RUX_YqRvtKUsj2_8-EzUpzDUb5A7cMFiehdgtuvF3IP7FkVaydrihXEuqGSlsEQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj5q0uJ2NIWc6XjJvDcK91f4iG--4MnoIfAGG4BpFGKEn0Na0VIEn7RwvEUsYzbnfn0i6Opqk2mH2jAzJdmfadpAB2zBAy5pJPVy2M7Hm02hUmHZopJ8BE96FTojTExnsxONJ86ieKcCZncK69AJqoXcgdGqEHQQZyCR140KhfFiJoJo-aoiA=s814" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="551" data-original-width="814" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj5q0uJ2NIWc6XjJvDcK91f4iG--4MnoIfAGG4BpFGKEn0Na0VIEn7RwvEUsYzbnfn0i6Opqk2mH2jAzJdmfadpAB2zBAy5pJPVy2M7Hm02hUmHZopJ8BE96FTojTExnsxONJ86ieKcCZncK69AJqoXcgdGqEHQQZyCR140KhfFiJoJo-aoiA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEglnJ3bZSxyTv4e-CVuwPHfX6A9e-gRpIVPWMM_WhBqvHeUEdd1lEbEyg3ao8XPNacdOkee64Z0x9qQRs49mE2A_MkbdcFwWUjQWI_FQrnsPErstafmJXAZSglwnxkZaS-EIQymPkz1EY6m_zMfyMGGnr7ZBDCr5zN1Z9e3-jiY84GdeshTGQ=s749" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="749" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEglnJ3bZSxyTv4e-CVuwPHfX6A9e-gRpIVPWMM_WhBqvHeUEdd1lEbEyg3ao8XPNacdOkee64Z0x9qQRs49mE2A_MkbdcFwWUjQWI_FQrnsPErstafmJXAZSglwnxkZaS-EIQymPkz1EY6m_zMfyMGGnr7ZBDCr5zN1Z9e3-jiY84GdeshTGQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgno6DDA49_MuE6BoLkLWI1TQmtBQFDHT6RWiPJZTimaoXA9JmeDAGCr-MliGhnst3idzIxSZoksLaXTyr-KAU36llJ6GJZpCNiolIiMIPqvaWIXOEhC1Txay5jQMi5J7lyIIreeH4TePqHvE7Li2KvALJCMhl6rfk4-GMKCpZ1CLE8H3zVqw=s824" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="824" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgno6DDA49_MuE6BoLkLWI1TQmtBQFDHT6RWiPJZTimaoXA9JmeDAGCr-MliGhnst3idzIxSZoksLaXTyr-KAU36llJ6GJZpCNiolIiMIPqvaWIXOEhC1Txay5jQMi5J7lyIIreeH4TePqHvE7Li2KvALJCMhl6rfk4-GMKCpZ1CLE8H3zVqw=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgpBeDyczihre_s3ow2SqejGzYwKYir4FOCJX0eQeAqGghiXPOnXcfZItuiOHJU-Bzle5PSKaQ1gwdp1boLqTkPEmiPGdCPu0XyTJ2zN14AOzJulljx5TWcCEsPnyZXTyB_fLmG_ocZTjydr1e9WK9E2P5OBcPssCt-PBuGtp16FBcA6aQpCw=s757" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="757" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgpBeDyczihre_s3ow2SqejGzYwKYir4FOCJX0eQeAqGghiXPOnXcfZItuiOHJU-Bzle5PSKaQ1gwdp1boLqTkPEmiPGdCPu0XyTJ2zN14AOzJulljx5TWcCEsPnyZXTyB_fLmG_ocZTjydr1e9WK9E2P5OBcPssCt-PBuGtp16FBcA6aQpCw=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiGk0LsYwwoKTICB8XWQWu804kxlID0Z3QM06sfy1jj5ZVv4Igt7uCnPWzzW6ROHbILkPX25eOK9LHhkussSlKxRhwxKLlsEQdo8NCnDun-1Q81W6ivfTl5LcIlF6bhlsqYqZl9SGO9LiSVM-T7dGwlnHujKeb10nrnBpCZsdrsr_9-9EdTzw=s806" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="806" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiGk0LsYwwoKTICB8XWQWu804kxlID0Z3QM06sfy1jj5ZVv4Igt7uCnPWzzW6ROHbILkPX25eOK9LHhkussSlKxRhwxKLlsEQdo8NCnDun-1Q81W6ivfTl5LcIlF6bhlsqYqZl9SGO9LiSVM-T7dGwlnHujKeb10nrnBpCZsdrsr_9-9EdTzw=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgDlGe1fGEdrv_DX1_P0ZTP44KHgpVSqhHdSfhqqkcs6M1EgtnwCz5XSxYaptgpldCjr6G0NYgIr8wX0lmTE9U3ZhufJjs_F65QQYljVoIk_c9_tGgy-6FmLbAO97pSTg6ck6i1E-D12iq_JA1lJUMdmPWARX0qEDnK2i1yI2RmBU6wJOefGQ=s749" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="566" data-original-width="749" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgDlGe1fGEdrv_DX1_P0ZTP44KHgpVSqhHdSfhqqkcs6M1EgtnwCz5XSxYaptgpldCjr6G0NYgIr8wX0lmTE9U3ZhufJjs_F65QQYljVoIk_c9_tGgy-6FmLbAO97pSTg6ck6i1E-D12iq_JA1lJUMdmPWARX0qEDnK2i1yI2RmBU6wJOefGQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhrqYR2KfusLpFMAJxaMkU5Lkm85hl2Y6V-wDv7NQ7FLVG1kzuT_p440TX9uifSh5OLoksY_26sZyn7FtQEwfPTyPXVDemibE8yJwQWG6-14H_lG1ijfod16VS3Hej9h3ystZ3XHobdAD8Ig9P7oQQq8h6ywRixg_VcUmsHZx_gg6HdpAb5Iw=s804" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="804" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhrqYR2KfusLpFMAJxaMkU5Lkm85hl2Y6V-wDv7NQ7FLVG1kzuT_p440TX9uifSh5OLoksY_26sZyn7FtQEwfPTyPXVDemibE8yJwQWG6-14H_lG1ijfod16VS3Hej9h3ystZ3XHobdAD8Ig9P7oQQq8h6ywRixg_VcUmsHZx_gg6HdpAb5Iw=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjddlQoi4eZ4bxmWiXsuumsRB-wTLwI06RJQxGTmOOywyIPHPL5dW36aiVl-44tj-54_5y8U7uvx7diNo2-FAXtwAQHw8VahjO_vYs7BVk54BzaRgXFZUfb9AweN7-ytZ3PC5lPVZ-GxYIIjttjxz9YIopzWMApL9VWww5k_RvlQoEreW6JKA=s731" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="731" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjddlQoi4eZ4bxmWiXsuumsRB-wTLwI06RJQxGTmOOywyIPHPL5dW36aiVl-44tj-54_5y8U7uvx7diNo2-FAXtwAQHw8VahjO_vYs7BVk54BzaRgXFZUfb9AweN7-ytZ3PC5lPVZ-GxYIIjttjxz9YIopzWMApL9VWww5k_RvlQoEreW6JKA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiII89jUBa8ctodh89vhOoiY927CvYsxk3Lu5cKHoQz8uzU2a-GtmT0x7DiNmJsbHET1BOtyo-cO_Unr7ykOH681UGEzJiFMmOu9gDv3-LyddBWLdSXIv36c2vtbTHbLS5TI9f18ReSK2E4zfNHtVubp5GvgMzuunvRYA6tjnXxbVs5ecgWBg=s810" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="546" data-original-width="810" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiII89jUBa8ctodh89vhOoiY927CvYsxk3Lu5cKHoQz8uzU2a-GtmT0x7DiNmJsbHET1BOtyo-cO_Unr7ykOH681UGEzJiFMmOu9gDv3-LyddBWLdSXIv36c2vtbTHbLS5TI9f18ReSK2E4zfNHtVubp5GvgMzuunvRYA6tjnXxbVs5ecgWBg=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgqBBIYbYNP8Y5ERJ2P-idAHLqwED_o1eemAThJBkKwK6IUY7IPcXhlvxyGSlunVrAwMPzdST8v4qBTEOB1MCABY0rqtAIyKXDARqKfGtLHrs1v_9tN9rL9ZVICwgxMZ7sKqw40YsEDCEAC5dTbK75vBGNmNmAcunV2fbOGIQg7JJy7TcyjWw=s747" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="577" data-original-width="747" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgqBBIYbYNP8Y5ERJ2P-idAHLqwED_o1eemAThJBkKwK6IUY7IPcXhlvxyGSlunVrAwMPzdST8v4qBTEOB1MCABY0rqtAIyKXDARqKfGtLHrs1v_9tN9rL9ZVICwgxMZ7sKqw40YsEDCEAC5dTbK75vBGNmNmAcunV2fbOGIQg7JJy7TcyjWw=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgAC5T62ENxc-CGr3nZjOt_OfQ5YDEeOU6VTBhyLua4omX_RXfSLFMAPO3yB2taUrQUh-KJ9KJA42XY3AP8uLctfmhMlshuGpQHwPUiEUUVqjilrf35ecSspeFXYEahJS7QWDJ-OyN4fKaEX4WrHHbKWHZO6n28omaTNkXivlO2okmEn4PqBg=s806" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="806" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgAC5T62ENxc-CGr3nZjOt_OfQ5YDEeOU6VTBhyLua4omX_RXfSLFMAPO3yB2taUrQUh-KJ9KJA42XY3AP8uLctfmhMlshuGpQHwPUiEUUVqjilrf35ecSspeFXYEahJS7QWDJ-OyN4fKaEX4WrHHbKWHZO6n28omaTNkXivlO2okmEn4PqBg=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg1Qgps50m7a36EuUWURGsbIyp4LvGW-68yZ9o0RkO4IYSqDTIGHkqbUHeR0btGay1TNcxeugVbyxIfjlGm78IrZ1DoXnMQi92A-icTaR_83UCKpVdSJdHioiBjJdb0Mvbnbd_qCFWE1FXrU6P5t7zwAThNHCYhwld9gHsZJSSHA-kVsCMzSw=s713" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="713" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg1Qgps50m7a36EuUWURGsbIyp4LvGW-68yZ9o0RkO4IYSqDTIGHkqbUHeR0btGay1TNcxeugVbyxIfjlGm78IrZ1DoXnMQi92A-icTaR_83UCKpVdSJdHioiBjJdb0Mvbnbd_qCFWE1FXrU6P5t7zwAThNHCYhwld9gHsZJSSHA-kVsCMzSw=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj5fna8lVYNsKbhbTXFBDOpPQL6nP3HyG-yFk8qqIE0zUsyacY1BxDeFq-4YqAJVcaWxB04GSzfLvL_z4gBVae-KWXhlHFuJnyJ8wDte92-CivbuRLQPrmUXtUzuUu6sbLXiHfEiCGHlO2hFUWH4IHv2wdngZplhLTfOwoxSf4-IfoAiO9hsg=s805" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="805" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj5fna8lVYNsKbhbTXFBDOpPQL6nP3HyG-yFk8qqIE0zUsyacY1BxDeFq-4YqAJVcaWxB04GSzfLvL_z4gBVae-KWXhlHFuJnyJ8wDte92-CivbuRLQPrmUXtUzuUu6sbLXiHfEiCGHlO2hFUWH4IHv2wdngZplhLTfOwoxSf4-IfoAiO9hsg=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiAeURDGD9l1XZ1_sPilQWvqymk0RzqZl6FaOGsz3zO568beJ4DKHVLnSw9pmBDIx1zPeX__Smybj5CkWZdzBucBboXob66bOAVtmB8cO1TBYpSfetbhL9_MAjYaXjoCinTgrHn3i0qpJQ_nJyeZdI0f_G5bS6S9S3WGBy9mtYt71FDGaouGA=s718" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="718" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiAeURDGD9l1XZ1_sPilQWvqymk0RzqZl6FaOGsz3zO568beJ4DKHVLnSw9pmBDIx1zPeX__Smybj5CkWZdzBucBboXob66bOAVtmB8cO1TBYpSfetbhL9_MAjYaXjoCinTgrHn3i0qpJQ_nJyeZdI0f_G5bS6S9S3WGBy9mtYt71FDGaouGA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi_K47Jb5I5Al41hzvg9H8E9Pc56q50sU3Mr3YQqGrGLXAOxb6neFx5NlHFy7qmXgLdcAuXnG7a0mx83zn60dd5XDrRrdxAFZlZzxH78gDLlUh5cDtrMcyqpmwXIGPRi4ZvXu56aH3jv61slRQZsdFn9LJrC2wWh0EUF2ur69AQB93ZsFxEIQ=s808" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="551" data-original-width="808" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi_K47Jb5I5Al41hzvg9H8E9Pc56q50sU3Mr3YQqGrGLXAOxb6neFx5NlHFy7qmXgLdcAuXnG7a0mx83zn60dd5XDrRrdxAFZlZzxH78gDLlUh5cDtrMcyqpmwXIGPRi4ZvXu56aH3jv61slRQZsdFn9LJrC2wWh0EUF2ur69AQB93ZsFxEIQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhMVP9jWp2IjOkvj6_E-90KYo5Su9yo5n0xsyzLhUKmUX8lCe-wk2FFgmXHEvZ72ChkKCJ6FR3poJmtinr8yns0PTMC6VCwTif3mbcg_nU3j7sek9JGHUuSc-WD-fWwKv8xTFM9GXjgD8g9FhHuqxYDvcVjhCMqAA8LVSxjGgyvUPVsynqMgQ=s735" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="735" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhMVP9jWp2IjOkvj6_E-90KYo5Su9yo5n0xsyzLhUKmUX8lCe-wk2FFgmXHEvZ72ChkKCJ6FR3poJmtinr8yns0PTMC6VCwTif3mbcg_nU3j7sek9JGHUuSc-WD-fWwKv8xTFM9GXjgD8g9FhHuqxYDvcVjhCMqAA8LVSxjGgyvUPVsynqMgQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEin3lrdx1N2_-k2r91hQtXl0MaKqMjwTHgFPlSzu5pQui0GkKoRcmak7TUQ4475AwnoypFGFj5UDXt2Ds8IAE5PT1QTsYLRMUtNQc96Ps7t5Lavt1lntzf-7DovHEBhXVkuXDmoehJ4SDOAr4WSTKfLhdLSsMxlQ9i3VbSp0P8J-A-sJtWNSQ=s816" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="816" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEin3lrdx1N2_-k2r91hQtXl0MaKqMjwTHgFPlSzu5pQui0GkKoRcmak7TUQ4475AwnoypFGFj5UDXt2Ds8IAE5PT1QTsYLRMUtNQc96Ps7t5Lavt1lntzf-7DovHEBhXVkuXDmoehJ4SDOAr4WSTKfLhdLSsMxlQ9i3VbSp0P8J-A-sJtWNSQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjmtH0cCyz43cAiJTpdDQQgjP5HfABZ3Mj8bXMkHWPfRwfCwWdJ4xhP5db_WvXyAedMek7VrM-8sGKKDwH2p6Y6lcKEQPvSLaw53n3SIrGzgy1uOd3uLrW9WjWCnZWoUxGuQs2d8YMHb8HLAL37bnbqQ-_KEIxPKJsL-r8TiPNWTV-tWa_iNg=s715" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="557" data-original-width="715" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjmtH0cCyz43cAiJTpdDQQgjP5HfABZ3Mj8bXMkHWPfRwfCwWdJ4xhP5db_WvXyAedMek7VrM-8sGKKDwH2p6Y6lcKEQPvSLaw53n3SIrGzgy1uOd3uLrW9WjWCnZWoUxGuQs2d8YMHb8HLAL37bnbqQ-_KEIxPKJsL-r8TiPNWTV-tWa_iNg=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhvghWnXssVS5_QIRP52vlDLqdMIqJWY0S5GaE8Zd_ziaJjCoiqUqPPK64SQTZiNsEh4owLCbyMeEN8mVMKHdlLFV1pBB7Bz5TVdsaj-ctHB72NwbO8ThtTIpNNBKA4oskhkhxnyaAuY7xWirMn-ChB7r-_Ug1eSeGJwi1R_zLRMUeTYbzJdw=s820" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="544" data-original-width="820" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhvghWnXssVS5_QIRP52vlDLqdMIqJWY0S5GaE8Zd_ziaJjCoiqUqPPK64SQTZiNsEh4owLCbyMeEN8mVMKHdlLFV1pBB7Bz5TVdsaj-ctHB72NwbO8ThtTIpNNBKA4oskhkhxnyaAuY7xWirMn-ChB7r-_Ug1eSeGJwi1R_zLRMUeTYbzJdw=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg42Lo1E4wfiZ_IZU72NzVGjjv0R-EbrJ09tEl1bdY_Pi-1cLp3gzBBMbtRkyJdWBnAhLsUA0yQUyodr70I8jjtMh5osnUIppU8y_a02Eby5dv8isskpi2vs-uLPFuGtz6xG6I7EqRJnpY0LzTqRhXszsPdynCqHkyKN1TXom0y45P25go7XA=s731" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="570" data-original-width="731" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg42Lo1E4wfiZ_IZU72NzVGjjv0R-EbrJ09tEl1bdY_Pi-1cLp3gzBBMbtRkyJdWBnAhLsUA0yQUyodr70I8jjtMh5osnUIppU8y_a02Eby5dv8isskpi2vs-uLPFuGtz6xG6I7EqRJnpY0LzTqRhXszsPdynCqHkyKN1TXom0y45P25go7XA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi1n0gJyrKtmOPe1pUJdgo0Bkjt1W66ZsjKGf7jx1zCVMFbHsOC6PJVJ51m-8afV8N7tsZw8Uw3heh1Z3_0nkbSRJAzNRqLwV90FLN026z0ybKf5a1gjroARRcuBr3eaHWWIJeauxJW3R3n-fzo1lbkiPEb6Y34dMJRC3xoBssVHptwQ9ppfA=s733" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="733" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi1n0gJyrKtmOPe1pUJdgo0Bkjt1W66ZsjKGf7jx1zCVMFbHsOC6PJVJ51m-8afV8N7tsZw8Uw3heh1Z3_0nkbSRJAzNRqLwV90FLN026z0ybKf5a1gjroARRcuBr3eaHWWIJeauxJW3R3n-fzo1lbkiPEb6Y34dMJRC3xoBssVHptwQ9ppfA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhLffl8lWtpno47cXzu2kDRVdCvxvSXIVYljx72aSLW8zCPwP5kQ63NJjy0tiW2wXi7IfEbJlnXDmtJP0ic47VDBWI3HDalc2nKTBBX26iWZ_OufGEPmDhS9Jc4RNY6hMRjV48PLLnw_545KKkaSmuLsWKMLBVbfk7zKE1Up32UvRLg5lDW7w=s773" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="570" data-original-width="773" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhLffl8lWtpno47cXzu2kDRVdCvxvSXIVYljx72aSLW8zCPwP5kQ63NJjy0tiW2wXi7IfEbJlnXDmtJP0ic47VDBWI3HDalc2nKTBBX26iWZ_OufGEPmDhS9Jc4RNY6hMRjV48PLLnw_545KKkaSmuLsWKMLBVbfk7zKE1Up32UvRLg5lDW7w=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg4GFRuzpKAEyntpIdmNnOQu3tOZDpMYEoCjt2HdqyMhXO2OWcKdve4MEBcX8hDKz8EOnHYoOHpVLtPd94yJAJOQzmJQTS2AZFgbErjTsj4tUuD9nskkhNhGhVfZyFcXh_U9dXG_5dVvJGhFATHae6O7dD1RrMDRLMMQxZNvF2P2LiMqVagPA=s780" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="577" data-original-width="780" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg4GFRuzpKAEyntpIdmNnOQu3tOZDpMYEoCjt2HdqyMhXO2OWcKdve4MEBcX8hDKz8EOnHYoOHpVLtPd94yJAJOQzmJQTS2AZFgbErjTsj4tUuD9nskkhNhGhVfZyFcXh_U9dXG_5dVvJGhFATHae6O7dD1RrMDRLMMQxZNvF2P2LiMqVagPA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhmGsA8RmmhtByD9VQ9OWIqdBnrGS_sUTejQDqBmpv_41iRQcHk9n8Oztu6sKvHFlJteVKHwCIrK1kNO_u7WQd18F1A5Cawk-hS84nXJWSfrz2McQvg0G0fFLJzgbXU9F2v-KoYg9au5mT5RaJhOV4Ojhk5TnfrBLX9nZZSUOWb4kYfBQuVPQ=s748" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="748" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhmGsA8RmmhtByD9VQ9OWIqdBnrGS_sUTejQDqBmpv_41iRQcHk9n8Oztu6sKvHFlJteVKHwCIrK1kNO_u7WQd18F1A5Cawk-hS84nXJWSfrz2McQvg0G0fFLJzgbXU9F2v-KoYg9au5mT5RaJhOV4Ojhk5TnfrBLX9nZZSUOWb4kYfBQuVPQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhTu278STbHUWh-4H5-KO8M4ussJ3jmHvQyBhr4AXvIYQ17YZbykzpR3yI15iUAweacF2nalLSRKNNUfhY1KxSfhs0odrmf_PDgeHBY-J2Opn1ZUF3dHQigZPR8wFDh53uLxLqsAmjbHr4n9Yc2vJXcjx-Aorw5GOk7GcRoVGhtSUEx9H2yeQ=s789" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="789" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhTu278STbHUWh-4H5-KO8M4ussJ3jmHvQyBhr4AXvIYQ17YZbykzpR3yI15iUAweacF2nalLSRKNNUfhY1KxSfhs0odrmf_PDgeHBY-J2Opn1ZUF3dHQigZPR8wFDh53uLxLqsAmjbHr4n9Yc2vJXcjx-Aorw5GOk7GcRoVGhtSUEx9H2yeQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhEAUeid-u3_RKRaLRQ98iU0mVeEZldWs6ze8FXZtAGffh69PhNPGeSNXQpTKqUZm5DN8MH7fnoKHygA3MCyZnfd2wIhZPLHUbekHSGq-S8XgJsPH54cJUW_vRsj8hCeP7ZQ-Xf30KiEgG3dxicLLvbzJzN3yhbgTHq98W2CQ--oa7YyGmX0w=s817" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="553" data-original-width="817" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhEAUeid-u3_RKRaLRQ98iU0mVeEZldWs6ze8FXZtAGffh69PhNPGeSNXQpTKqUZm5DN8MH7fnoKHygA3MCyZnfd2wIhZPLHUbekHSGq-S8XgJsPH54cJUW_vRsj8hCeP7ZQ-Xf30KiEgG3dxicLLvbzJzN3yhbgTHq98W2CQ--oa7YyGmX0w=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjRYdp-I5nXbZv1EcUgXR6ptBXGBnnL9qUy00kOyhBGnOJbvJ0VeiCgtiS-qxizwSoJJp_K8Ks_SlHoFZwcJz93Kb6MmwmT1QvTYKHv35q5-9wbQb-OwkBsr9RnRMof3um2pMVR0n_fwMyINLj_Z5N9MpbTKBr9B_bDm0W8DOeHdhCAvScHjg=s759" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="759" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjRYdp-I5nXbZv1EcUgXR6ptBXGBnnL9qUy00kOyhBGnOJbvJ0VeiCgtiS-qxizwSoJJp_K8Ks_SlHoFZwcJz93Kb6MmwmT1QvTYKHv35q5-9wbQb-OwkBsr9RnRMof3um2pMVR0n_fwMyINLj_Z5N9MpbTKBr9B_bDm0W8DOeHdhCAvScHjg=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgeWi55bR_LeJ5g_k1BOYFYhUSoBOeN2AW02OgUfhkumUTLf-WWqv5M8zELf_p4KQYp8uV6QmeXI9mFkUkBUsxlQNf1veDYw-5_ndW1pHIsBnBMYAQIkczNFVTYDVcodn2XK0kWndF7fy9WSzh_azHMn599teflYxOkIhD7gb1Ai2YUQS5a0g=s747" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="556" data-original-width="747" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgeWi55bR_LeJ5g_k1BOYFYhUSoBOeN2AW02OgUfhkumUTLf-WWqv5M8zELf_p4KQYp8uV6QmeXI9mFkUkBUsxlQNf1veDYw-5_ndW1pHIsBnBMYAQIkczNFVTYDVcodn2XK0kWndF7fy9WSzh_azHMn599teflYxOkIhD7gb1Ai2YUQS5a0g=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjq80KfiR-h08KnxiG4jURKBk7WfEig1drJgwmaMPFF-eD1vHTTw7bgNXPx7LBTv8N4fi9AJAazJ52rJ9pT6HgiTF514DrzAN2dmIKgLrk5AyXOWdzROlKgRYHkwRY61av26vitZeo-XTGvAUQ6Otuy3ChDRYQCj-UIQv-7CH3-z3aNq--FXA=s766" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="566" data-original-width="766" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjq80KfiR-h08KnxiG4jURKBk7WfEig1drJgwmaMPFF-eD1vHTTw7bgNXPx7LBTv8N4fi9AJAazJ52rJ9pT6HgiTF514DrzAN2dmIKgLrk5AyXOWdzROlKgRYHkwRY61av26vitZeo-XTGvAUQ6Otuy3ChDRYQCj-UIQv-7CH3-z3aNq--FXA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj6cxnikHXI7jTqMxrnswbw3VUZ7otDGIO8BYOSUSrpAI8_32cD35RGevODHYfmDd2TpZp2TrmBPSwSvJqnPXSKWVpP0Inqs78rwT2A-FuLgtPqCJWDq3Yi1QxTi01czZdmfSnwYHyvIYdQsAvPc3pX8POnWb1p4gdKBZ6y2beGghR0Z2q9XQ=s777" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="777" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj6cxnikHXI7jTqMxrnswbw3VUZ7otDGIO8BYOSUSrpAI8_32cD35RGevODHYfmDd2TpZp2TrmBPSwSvJqnPXSKWVpP0Inqs78rwT2A-FuLgtPqCJWDq3Yi1QxTi01czZdmfSnwYHyvIYdQsAvPc3pX8POnWb1p4gdKBZ6y2beGghR0Z2q9XQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7rt-AGNSEEPXdfqxV91HmacvDcF5qxRzOUMzg-t-SSy1u1wyuLaYkAP9sEdDVCrfwa61CiytntX9ZA7PSdCORQN8mjxWCzL-7E7FOFENn_hXq8YazDlEroJ5MZnWkm7Prv2tnd4eK8fL7OgAArUxwpzzg_0fUskSaZ0HmtYyhn8pgSOUumw=s774" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="774" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi7rt-AGNSEEPXdfqxV91HmacvDcF5qxRzOUMzg-t-SSy1u1wyuLaYkAP9sEdDVCrfwa61CiytntX9ZA7PSdCORQN8mjxWCzL-7E7FOFENn_hXq8YazDlEroJ5MZnWkm7Prv2tnd4eK8fL7OgAArUxwpzzg_0fUskSaZ0HmtYyhn8pgSOUumw=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgvhwt1Jx07OXis-RUSk3amvVPEdM5YhOE_jJxXPdqp5jqkjSt-NxdUvJEhnCm1zJaDxdiG9yE1bjrJ--VKqs5rzbrQmIBNt7C3G5xTYABRTC0IagWo5ABlnUmwk-CkMp7Xab3wmlUcDvdcMPdYkP8tvHvESD7szy_Oa9NW3iip-yLICFUNzQ=s797" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="797" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgvhwt1Jx07OXis-RUSk3amvVPEdM5YhOE_jJxXPdqp5jqkjSt-NxdUvJEhnCm1zJaDxdiG9yE1bjrJ--VKqs5rzbrQmIBNt7C3G5xTYABRTC0IagWo5ABlnUmwk-CkMp7Xab3wmlUcDvdcMPdYkP8tvHvESD7szy_Oa9NW3iip-yLICFUNzQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiU_BH4CZqOk96Bv3GBl3H3V-pd5vU5MntJrlPWl7dt5beBmNFv5sS1TgiSAV5VpwGo3hK4nLllRLqjFMvrnxNAiyGFBEvUn6wcZYjhX5-WAWr3CperVIumfbQznBwORB8GqfBs3juqgpoQZNpMghq2xWlAYalsdDlJdKI3FV1l8IF59aHW8g=s771" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="771" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiU_BH4CZqOk96Bv3GBl3H3V-pd5vU5MntJrlPWl7dt5beBmNFv5sS1TgiSAV5VpwGo3hK4nLllRLqjFMvrnxNAiyGFBEvUn6wcZYjhX5-WAWr3CperVIumfbQznBwORB8GqfBs3juqgpoQZNpMghq2xWlAYalsdDlJdKI3FV1l8IF59aHW8g=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjRUbjWftPddg3kMYllVoC3nN4PjsxdPP_QPZPErZ6JPj7gcAIp6ArNqERN2OjvESUr0H5_3IDpai6T3MAJGE20_5cvWdO3bfOe0ceBx6Ch4N5bwrjOzBIF-gh18RNypBPF34UEzHOpP7vc1alvshAIxekMUDgweDyG1gSfWGSlCxzVFiBWTw=s791" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="791" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjRUbjWftPddg3kMYllVoC3nN4PjsxdPP_QPZPErZ6JPj7gcAIp6ArNqERN2OjvESUr0H5_3IDpai6T3MAJGE20_5cvWdO3bfOe0ceBx6Ch4N5bwrjOzBIF-gh18RNypBPF34UEzHOpP7vc1alvshAIxekMUDgweDyG1gSfWGSlCxzVFiBWTw=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiXw5CvWpWx4NETcUOfuttW9WoE-C6EqSkVt5U8do8kFv6KEw1DViRq-QuTs_il5DYxYczXxVclL7ZUpw7wW5tDuNWBMY0yv5AIqvT1fW9O_X7Bi0kDOP6Y0IWq1csbAiYipQyDpucUbYaX9XDcG9fC9_5Qf7Ap07JjYf3jbFG0tixpewCPEA=s774" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="564" data-original-width="774" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiXw5CvWpWx4NETcUOfuttW9WoE-C6EqSkVt5U8do8kFv6KEw1DViRq-QuTs_il5DYxYczXxVclL7ZUpw7wW5tDuNWBMY0yv5AIqvT1fW9O_X7Bi0kDOP6Y0IWq1csbAiYipQyDpucUbYaX9XDcG9fC9_5Qf7Ap07JjYf3jbFG0tixpewCPEA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh52aGKiLnCv608XhXAJEtU47nXVhZTKUaCBib19NuJpcuyuoR02dTuQLFH-KwX9MEQFYfx-6aIlCLcVwo2RrNi60_mgzQupkmDzkyzq2GY_6DE0j6mjiTFigCJXhYuEYGVjHr1Zv4hFYbCvcERm4Ks11_l7wv7u0OEG8wr6Q2kHljkuBZMnw=s811" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="811" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh52aGKiLnCv608XhXAJEtU47nXVhZTKUaCBib19NuJpcuyuoR02dTuQLFH-KwX9MEQFYfx-6aIlCLcVwo2RrNi60_mgzQupkmDzkyzq2GY_6DE0j6mjiTFigCJXhYuEYGVjHr1Zv4hFYbCvcERm4Ks11_l7wv7u0OEG8wr6Q2kHljkuBZMnw=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh1SJWFRXJSzYbZEcIGHdEu9U3XrISRFWY543Aup31oTixbKYeVJ667BOaEarL1bG0A2fjzN7GnZhBkLgDpzPKRashD0oCoJl0eNdvYg2tTYIzjncT36rQ5fQPKZjijv9WKTPZgdOxm8ziDJAyFuRbPBSbMAeueyfagRZQFv1LiYmKmCYE5Yw=s760" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="760" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh1SJWFRXJSzYbZEcIGHdEu9U3XrISRFWY543Aup31oTixbKYeVJ667BOaEarL1bG0A2fjzN7GnZhBkLgDpzPKRashD0oCoJl0eNdvYg2tTYIzjncT36rQ5fQPKZjijv9WKTPZgdOxm8ziDJAyFuRbPBSbMAeueyfagRZQFv1LiYmKmCYE5Yw=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjpRlD4PgpAiC29JE9T19jVoJToMbhrI0R6-G3yWxETLe4vfLyTidiZkKc3MCd8nypALBNxvSKHWUTB-G6prtI-hH8tsW_Xo261bvsQdaA0oNxZPUK4SbVwCDyZCjjq1fdMCBNR7VFMw6RLIRa8MWJyLIWxb4NUb9p7yZ7yqh0Kf0c1E60nnQ=s814" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="560" data-original-width="814" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjpRlD4PgpAiC29JE9T19jVoJToMbhrI0R6-G3yWxETLe4vfLyTidiZkKc3MCd8nypALBNxvSKHWUTB-G6prtI-hH8tsW_Xo261bvsQdaA0oNxZPUK4SbVwCDyZCjjq1fdMCBNR7VFMw6RLIRa8MWJyLIWxb4NUb9p7yZ7yqh0Kf0c1E60nnQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEinKEM3XUhbUgCVzwUGRry_heLU3yYtR06vQILPPAM0D6LNa5gMlqP973lT1S7-QasfSmYYkjQZx01yeZC9M8FV8sjd7HAAPCEMRhOQIr7uJKQT-Syk827LA8Prn-z4OkjdVgtSl4AgZO4mXxSiEnH1j2v4AOBpxaMqsvCujV3OQwi8pM1KxQ=s760" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="760" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEinKEM3XUhbUgCVzwUGRry_heLU3yYtR06vQILPPAM0D6LNa5gMlqP973lT1S7-QasfSmYYkjQZx01yeZC9M8FV8sjd7HAAPCEMRhOQIr7uJKQT-Syk827LA8Prn-z4OkjdVgtSl4AgZO4mXxSiEnH1j2v4AOBpxaMqsvCujV3OQwi8pM1KxQ=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjZE7Zgz1gFgyLwZD4N_II2ToLoUaT9YJRsK5pkz0YoIlTEZ9p2inqniHXGvvHOff0LyXnleD4CvjKjnTjsNNO0rIzmZpLpyYWuKSMiHEUL2O6_c5i3D4oozTx9QN0nE5QWdhLSeTXE8XNtva0TkhLMfiUGWZOvsHo3wdxbGCTLoARDH6CF5w=s816" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="816" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjZE7Zgz1gFgyLwZD4N_II2ToLoUaT9YJRsK5pkz0YoIlTEZ9p2inqniHXGvvHOff0LyXnleD4CvjKjnTjsNNO0rIzmZpLpyYWuKSMiHEUL2O6_c5i3D4oozTx9QN0nE5QWdhLSeTXE8XNtva0TkhLMfiUGWZOvsHo3wdxbGCTLoARDH6CF5w=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjo85NO6KBlVTKgn9XvfWIhSK7DUQg5Y1rIBFJ2kBjWAJFsLYvPf1jWGtwSp-bIZtNUmOPMEZNYts4yR666oiuoS6u7GB-lHUYerh1pECpsJfMd0bl4quJMD1pHzWIVvxTTVXXLVwH_wD5WwGifhNqpLCSun2FRo-rBtotDE2De8jmfZrqcKA=s797" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="553" data-original-width="797" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjo85NO6KBlVTKgn9XvfWIhSK7DUQg5Y1rIBFJ2kBjWAJFsLYvPf1jWGtwSp-bIZtNUmOPMEZNYts4yR666oiuoS6u7GB-lHUYerh1pECpsJfMd0bl4quJMD1pHzWIVvxTTVXXLVwH_wD5WwGifhNqpLCSun2FRo-rBtotDE2De8jmfZrqcKA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiXhAsgXdh-KRDpTM4KkuouNLnzf1Np_-OfbJaParRX1GEtV8_ckfkKBWlbRkn0DveMn5dV84ewcft7hMuOaTcFS9ROWpflQB93jB_d8pVdsv7wslABe3G4zwC8P9aQJQO9Aioefw4TGAZSah2kxwic58pziy1a1_SoX3Nt9l7AYjlsLGWhnw=s804" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="804" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiXhAsgXdh-KRDpTM4KkuouNLnzf1Np_-OfbJaParRX1GEtV8_ckfkKBWlbRkn0DveMn5dV84ewcft7hMuOaTcFS9ROWpflQB93jB_d8pVdsv7wslABe3G4zwC8P9aQJQO9Aioefw4TGAZSah2kxwic58pziy1a1_SoX3Nt9l7AYjlsLGWhnw=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjgPQ8rnrPB9a5bPTW7b4ArR8UajsDyLF448jK_e43vV18ocK5RcU-Kays5NgGXkkZ5DdJIgA9C8d6G3S2IfuBCRIFfKcWAUY5gcu6pMzU84ypYn7QvsnqZVCOmsi2yURou1AG8sC75bd8PCdPtHGwex_Hrijlmoe7Pz1X_bnngpQZRZwxvag=s789" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="789" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjgPQ8rnrPB9a5bPTW7b4ArR8UajsDyLF448jK_e43vV18ocK5RcU-Kays5NgGXkkZ5DdJIgA9C8d6G3S2IfuBCRIFfKcWAUY5gcu6pMzU84ypYn7QvsnqZVCOmsi2yURou1AG8sC75bd8PCdPtHGwex_Hrijlmoe7Pz1X_bnngpQZRZwxvag=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg_mUxvg1mxncuxBaFfL_dF-KUZjhuBxtJWe_9KKSM_xoeknYbKl8b5T8Y93fV17Tk5MCvZpTQdY3eEvVVoslewlm7FPZFrowukz8ys9Fgyet0wzjfimH1FqtyDnA6J-xYwUkIeg9LA6rp0PqRsxk3yzYYAcYkogYwed96pVc9M_Sj9ddj_8A=s837" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="837" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg_mUxvg1mxncuxBaFfL_dF-KUZjhuBxtJWe_9KKSM_xoeknYbKl8b5T8Y93fV17Tk5MCvZpTQdY3eEvVVoslewlm7FPZFrowukz8ys9Fgyet0wzjfimH1FqtyDnA6J-xYwUkIeg9LA6rp0PqRsxk3yzYYAcYkogYwed96pVc9M_Sj9ddj_8A=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><span><!--more--></span>Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-88291890310684998722021-12-02T21:28:00.003-05:002021-12-10T17:59:28.474-05:00Breaking: US Department of Justice allegedly funded Transcendental Meditation "Quiet Time" program in Chicago<p>A filing today in the ongoing Federal court case against the Chicago Board of Education, the David Lynch Foundation, and the University of Chicago disclosed that, during the course of discovery, the Board of Education informed the plaintiffs that the Department of Justice, and not any of the other named defendants, financed the so-called "Quiet Time" program as part of a supposed research project involving Chicago public schools.</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIYKjsq5hGntGEm3pKBx2qxKm_G7LLehISWfXG-MKgGtUKK4OZQWA7OYGxD1zvCeypQpYHl5uGNVRdg5SsGgpb1RlcFJLHUWpz_42Yez8TVw4imrWZgY7K_8y7y9htw3E3Gnu1/s1024/service-pnp-pplot-13800-13822-01738v.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIYKjsq5hGntGEm3pKBx2qxKm_G7LLehISWfXG-MKgGtUKK4OZQWA7OYGxD1zvCeypQpYHl5uGNVRdg5SsGgpb1RlcFJLHUWpz_42Yez8TVw4imrWZgY7K_8y7y9htw3E3Gnu1/s320/service-pnp-pplot-13800-13822-01738v.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Northern District of Illinois courtroom.<br />(Library of Congress photo)</td></tr></tbody></table><p>This means that, according to this filing by the plaintiffs, the teaching of TM was directly financed by the US government, a clear violation of the separation of church and state.</p><p>The "religious nature" of TM was established in the late 1970's in Malnak v. Yogi, which was upheld on appeal in the Third Circuit. Technically this decision is binding only in New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania, but such opinions are often cited as being persuasive in other Federal courts; Malnak has been cited over sixty times in other cases involving church/state matters.</p><p>Apparently this disclosure will likely result in the US Department of Justice being added to the list of defendants in this case.</p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p>Quoting from today's filing:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 10px; text-align: left;"><p>Plaintiffs Amontae Williams and Darryl Williams (“Plaintiffs”), by their attorneys, Mauck & Baker, LLC, move this Court to extend the deadline three weeks to amend pleadings and add parties, and in support states as follows:</p><p>1. On September 2, 2021, this Court set December 3, 2021, as the deadline for amended pleadings and adding parties;</p><p>2. In discovery from the Board, the Plaintiffs recently learned that the Department of Justice, rather than any of the defendants, funded the Quiet Time program;</p><p>3. Upon learning of the Department’s involvement, Plaintiffs filed Freedom of Information Act requests on November 18, 2021, and are imminently submitting subpoenas to the Department of Justice regarding grant applications and other matters relating to their funding of the Quiet Time program. The Department has not yet responded;</p><p>4. The University of Chicago and David Lynch Foundation have yet to provide to the Plaintiffs their discovery responses. The Plaintiffs agreed not to oppose their motion to extend their December 2 response deadline to December 9, 2021.</p><p>5. To be accurate in their pleadings and name necessary parties, the Plaintiffs need at a minimum to see the University’s and the Foundation’s discovery responses and the Department’s responses to the subpoena and FOIA requests.</p><p>WHEREFORE, the Plaintiffs move this Honorable Court for a three week extension to amend their pleadings and add parties, which would be December 24, 2021.</p></blockquote><p><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/eipb98r0c0fpac8/110-0%20plaintiffs%20motion%20to%20extend%20deadline%20to%20add%20parties.pdf?dl=0" target="_blank">Link to copy of the plaintiff's motion</a><br /><br /><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/you-cant-spell-tm-without-sci.html" target="_blank">Previous coverage of the Chicago case</a></p>Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-19371837386642048482021-11-04T23:28:00.034-04:002023-12-11T10:27:29.254-05:00Two former Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment students charged with first degree murder<p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>(Updated December 11, 2023 - both defendants have been sentenced to life in prison with minimums of 25 and 35 years.)</i></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">A school yearbook from 2013 contains photos of the two 16 year olds charged as adults with first degree murder, whose families are known to be part of the meditator community in Fairfield, Iowa. </span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-f8e05c11-7fff-a38f-b0b3-3cca39bf0dd0"><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4-VfuQeRJZ6ErxpXsULl3-FCsDdpZoBzUUe-bG0Hu8wpRgGGAo5EDDygjDFK8nFzPjKih_HOpuEPpkFoUX6ZZhp2rs0pEF129OqyLfApgRLFV49Ml5rGzJcAm9NRrAXT7p2q5/s639/Pages+from+2013-MSAE-Yearbook-Web+blur+crop.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="395" data-original-width="639" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4-VfuQeRJZ6ErxpXsULl3-FCsDdpZoBzUUe-bG0Hu8wpRgGGAo5EDDygjDFK8nFzPjKih_HOpuEPpkFoUX6ZZhp2rs0pEF129OqyLfApgRLFV49Ml5rGzJcAm9NRrAXT7p2q5/w400-h248/Pages+from+2013-MSAE-Yearbook-Web+blur+crop.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span><br /></span></div><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2021/11/04/nohema-graber-fairfield-iowa-murder-high-school-students-accused-killing-spanish-teacher/6287745001/" target="_blank">The Des Moines Register reports</a>:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p></span><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 10px; text-align: left;"><div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">A southeast Iowa town is reeling after two high school students were charged with first-degree murder in the death of their Spanish teacher.</span></div></div><div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div></div><div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Police confirmed Thursday that human remains discovered Wednesday in Fairfield's Chautauqua Park were those of Nohema Graber, who had been reported missing earlier in the day, according to a news release from the city of Fairfield posted on Facebook.</span></div></div><div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div></div><div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Graber, 66, had taught Spanish at Fairfield High School since 2012. Police allege two students at the high school — Willard Noble Chaiden Miller, 16, and Jeremy Everett Goodale, 16 — are responsible for her death.</span></div></div><div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div></div><div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Both have been charged with first-degree homicide and first-degree conspiracy to commit homicide and will be charged as adults "based on the circumstances and their ages," according to the news release.</span></div></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div></div><span><div><span><a name='more'></a></span><span><br /></span></div><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://maharishischool.org/wp-content/uploads/2013-MSAE-Yearbook-Web.pdf" target="_blank">A Maharishi School yearbook from 2013</a> contains first or second grade photos of Miller and Goodale. According to those familiar with the meditating subculture there, the families of the alleged perpetrators are known to be part of that Fairfield community. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The TM organization, and in recent years the David Lynch Foundation, have maintained that Transcendental Meditation, particularly when practiced in groups including in the classroom, results in an improved quality of life, decreased crime, lowered social strife, and increased prosperity. They have pointed to research studies, largely conducted by lifelong meditators and TM teachers loyal to Maharishi and his legacy, to support this dubious claim. Such assertions form the core marketing points of the so-called “Consciousness-Based Education” program offered by Maharishi International University (MIU), and the David Lynch Foundation’s attempts to market it; this program is nothing more than the practice of TM and its advanced versions by high school and college students.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unfortunately, in real life, such promises do not often hold true. <a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2009/05/national-childrens-mental-health.html" target="_blank">As I wrote over twelve years ago, in stark contrast to any not-yet-demonstrated effects that would support such TM marketing claims, murder, suicide, and crime are not unknown in Fairfield, particularly among meditators and MIU students</a>. Fairfield’s crime rate, or its other social indicators, have never been markedly different than that of any other small midwestern town, other than those effects that could be attributed to an influx of relatively affluent, skilled people from other places.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s also reasonable to raise the question, whether the time demands placed on parents by the expectation of participating in the “group program” aspects of Transcendental Meditation, particularly group practice of the “TM-Sidhi” program in the MIU domes, is a contributing factor of the mental health difficulties some children of lifelong meditators experience. The ability to indulge in such habits, in which meditators bounce on foam rubber and practice mental techniques for hours each day, which are known to create debilitating levels of dissociation in some individuals, is one of the main reasons that many committed meditators migrated to Fairfield and MIU, often decades ago. This group “program” is believed by them to both intensify their personal experiences as well as being beneficial to the surrounding community and the planet, and they’re frequently told it’s the most important thing they can be doing with their time.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Each tragic incident of this nature casts more well deserved doubt on such flimsy claims. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ll update this page with additional links to news coverage as this story develops.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cedar Rapids Gazette, November 4, 2021: <a href="https://www.thegazette.com/crime-courts/fairfield-police-2-students-murdered-spanish-teacher-from-their-high-school/" target="_blank">Fairfield police: 2 students murdered Spanish teacher from their high school; Teens plotted the murder of Nohema Graber over social media, records say</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 10px;"><span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Family members had reported Graber missing on Wednesday morning. Investigators searched places she went often in the Jefferson County town of less than 10,000 people, including Chautauqua City Park, just blocks east of the high school, where she often walked. Records show she was seen there Tuesday afternoon.
Authorities discovered her body there Wednesday — concealed under a tarp, wheelbarrow and railroad ties, according to court documents. She had been hit on the head but the documents do not say what caused the trauma.
A murder investigation quickly led to Goodale and Miller.
Fairfield police interviewed “an associate” of the teens who “provided investigators with social media exchanges indicative of Goodale having specific details of the disappearance and subsequent death of Graber,” a criminal complaint shows. “The details included, but were not limited to, the motive for killing Graber, the planning and execution of the means to kill Graber, as well as deliberate attempts to conceal the crime.” The complaint states that the associate also shared social media postings indicating Miller was present for the murder.
Police did not disclose details of the social media exchanges, including what they said about a motive.
Acting on search warrants, authorities say they also collected several clothing items from Goodale and Miller that appeared to contain blood. Investigators said they also talked with a witness who saw the two teens at the park on Tuesday afternoon.
Police confronted Miller in an interview. “Miller admitted to being in Chautauqua City Park as the murder was taking place,” a criminal complaint states, “providing materials utilized in committing the murder, and aiding in actions taken to conceal the murder.”</span></div></span></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p></p><hr /><p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">November 5, 2021</span></h3><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Court documents:<br /><br /></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 10px; text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21098737/jeremy-goodale-criminal-complaint.pdf" target="_blank">Jeremy Goodale criminal complaint (PDF)</a></span></p><p><a href="https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21098744/willard-miller-criminal-complaint-1.pdf" style="font-family: arial;" target="_blank">Willard Noble Chaiden Miller criminal complaint (PDF)</a></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Des Moines Register: </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.thehawkeye.com/story/news/2021/11/05/nohema-graber-who-was-fairfield-teacher-police-say-killed-by-students-iowa/6296830001/" target="_blank">Nohema Graber, slain high school teacher and former pilot, was an 'an absolute angel', her family says</a></span></p><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 10px;"><p><span style="font-family: arial;">After graduating from high school, Graber became a flight attendant with the now-defunct Mexicana de Aviación, then her home country's oldest airline.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">But she wasn't satisfied, so she did something wholly unexpected, Paul Graber said: She began to study to be a commercial airline pilot, paying her way through flight school to become one of the first women in Mexico to be licensed to fly passenger jets.</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Law and Crime: <a href="https://lawandcrime.com/crime/two-16-year-old-boys-charged-with-murdering-spanish-teacher-in-iowa/" target="_blank">Two 16-Year-Old Boys Charged with Murdering Spanish Teacher in Iowa</a> - Includes mugshots of the arestees for those wanting visual confirmation.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">A request for expanded news media coverage of both proceedings has been granted. <a href="https://www.iowacourts.gov/newsroom/expanded-news-media-coverage/" target="_blank">Iowa Judicial Branch explanation of what that means</a> - basically, video, audio and still photography by the news media will be allowed in the courtroom.<br /><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">KCCI: <a href="https://www.kcci.com/article/fairfield-spanish-teacher-nohema-graber-students-jeremy-goodale-willard-miller-grades/38177016" target="_blank">Fairfield students say murdered teacher, student argued over grades</a></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 10px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">A couple of students told KCCI they heard an argument Tuesday afternoon about trying to get a grade up in Graber's class. Not long after that, police said that same student went to Chautauqua Park where Graber was known to go for walks.</span></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><hr /><p></p><h3><span style="font-family: arial;">November 12, 2021</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Associated Press: <a href="https://www.wdrb.com/news/national/2-iowa-teens-formally-charged-in-death-of-iowa-teacher/article_db36e487-de8e-5b74-a4c7-44f4ed50f16d.html" target="_blank">2 Iowa teens formally charged in death of Iowa teacher</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 10px;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><div>Two southeast Iowa teenagers were formally charged Friday with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of a high school Spanish teacher, and a judge said there was enough evidence for the case to go to trial.</div><div><br /></div><div>Prosecutors in Fairfield filed documents containing the charges against Willard Noble Chaiden Miller and Jeremy Everett Goodale, both 16. They are accused of killing Nohema Graber, a 66-year-old teacher at Fairfield High School, which both teens attended. Authorities have not said whether she taught either of the suspects nor have they revealed a possible motive.</div></span></div></blockquote><p> </p><p><br /></p><hr /><h3><span style="font-family: arial;">November 29, 2021</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Ottumwa Courier: <a href="https://www.ottumwacourier.com/news/state_news/iowa-teens-plead-not-guilty-in-high-school-teachers-death/article_f5e7b3b0-87ce-5fa2-bebf-5f50133600bd.html" target="_blank">Iowa teens plead not guilty in high school teacher's death</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 10px; text-align: left;"><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div>Miller and Goodale, who are being held in juvenile detention centers, entered their pleas in arraignment documents filed with the court Monday. They waived their right to a speedy trial, meaning prosecutors wouldn't have to try them within 90 days of them being charged, and Judge Joel Yates scheduled the trial to begin April 19. He told lawyers to plan on a pretrial conference on March 21 to discuss issues involving evidence, trial length and jury selection method.</div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><br /></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div>Last week, the teens' lawyers asked Yates to lower their bond so they could be released to their parents' supervision, saying they had no way to flee prosecution. Miller’s attorney, Christine Branstad, said research shows that detaining juveniles away from family for prolonged periods before trial can have a detrimental effect on them and stunt their development.</div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><br /></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div>Prosecutors, though, called for the bonds to be kept at $1 million or even raised to $2 million. Assistant Iowa Attorney General Scott Brown said the “extremely brutal murder of an innocent person” justified keeping them the defendants in custody.</div></span></div></blockquote><p><br /></p><hr /><h3><span style="font-family: arial;">December 3, 2021</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Ottumwa Courier: <a href="https://www.ottumwacourier.com/news/judge-declines-lower-bond-for-fairfield-teens/article_b5df169a-545e-11ec-97cb-433e92755ff6.html?utm_campaign=blox&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social" target="_blank">Judge declines lower bond for Fairfield teens</a></span></div><div><br /></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 10px; text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Bond will stay at $1 million cash only for two Fairfield juveniles accused by police of killing a high school Spanish teacher.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><br /></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div>Judge Joel Yates, in a ruling filed Thursday afternoon but made public Friday, was not persuaded by arguments for lower bond amounts from defense attorneys for Jeremy Everett Goodale and Willard Noble Chaiden Miller. They are currently being held on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Both teens have pled not guilty.</div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><br /></div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div>During arguments last Tuesday, attorneys for the teens said the 16-year-olds would agree to monitoring and restrictions akin to being under house arrest if the bond was lowered. Citing financial restrictions and family ties to the area, attorneys assured the judge they weren't at risk of fleeing future hearings if released. Attorneys suggested bond be lowered so that the teens could bail out for $10,000.</div></span></div></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><hr /><h3><span style="font-family: arial;">December 9, 2021</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Associated Press: </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://apnews.com/article/homicide-iowa-conspiracy-des-moines-1a21337b1f470836ed9749f647b3e020" target="_blank">Teen charged with teacher’s murder seek trial as juvenile</a><br /></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 10px; text-align: left;"><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The attorney for an Iowa teenager charged as an adult with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the killing of his high school Spanish teacher has asked a judge to try the 16-year-old as a juvenile.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">If convicted as a juvenile, Willard Miller could be released in less than 24 months, something prosecutors said would not serve the interests of the community or the suspect.</span></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><hr /><h3><span style="font-family: arial;">April 7, 2022</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Ottumwa Courier: <a href="https://www.ottumwacourier.com/news/supreme-court-declines-to-hear-fairfield-teens-appeals/article_c66cb264-b6bb-11ec-b273-7fd5444fd90d.html?utm_campaign=blox&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social">Supreme Court declines to hear Fairfield teens' appeals</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div></div><blockquote><div>The Iowa Supreme Court on Thursday declined to hear appeals from two Fairfield teens charged with a teacher's killing. The teens had sought the court's review of two adverse decisions.</div><div><br /></div><div>In documents filed Thursday, the Iowa Supreme Court denied applications made by attorneys for Willard Noble Chaiden-Miller and Jeremy Everett Goodale for discretionary review and interlocutory appeal.</div></blockquote><p><br /></p><hr /><h3 style="text-align: left;">November 1, 2022</h3><div><br /></div><div>Associated Press: <a href="https://apnews.com/article/crime-homicide-iowa-des-moines-fairfield-42eba22bc42bf9e52a165478916072c4" target="_blank">Prosecutor: Iowa teens killed Spanish teacher over bad grade</a></div><div><br /></div><div><div></div><blockquote><div>Two Iowa teenagers killed their high school Spanish teacher last year because of frustration over a bad grade, prosecutors said Tuesday in court documents that for the first time reveal a possible motive.</div><div><br /></div><div>The documents were filed ahead of a hearing Wednesday where a judge will hear arguments on whether to suppress any of the evidence against Willard Miller and Jeremy Goodale, who are charged with murdering high school Spanish teacher Nohema Graber in the small town of Fairfield.</div><div><br /></div><div>...</div><div><br /></div><div>In a police interview, Miller described the frustrations he had with the way Graber taught Spanish and over how the grade in her class was lowering his GPA.</div><div><br /></div><div>“The poor grade is believed to be the motive behind the murder of Graber which directly connects Miller,” court documents filed by Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding and Assistant Iowa Attorney General Scott Brown said.</div></blockquote><p><br /></p><hr /><h3>April 18, 2023</h3><div><br /></div><div>Associated Press: <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2023/04/18/fairfield-teen-willard-miller-pleads-guilty-in-teacher-nohema-grabers-killing-jefferson-county/70112800007/" target="_blank">Fairfield teens plead guilty in slaying of Spanish teacher who'd given one a bad grade</a></div><blockquote><div><br /></div><div><div>Nearly 18 months after a pair of Fairfield teens bludgeoned a Spanish teacher to death after a dispute over a bad grade ― a brutal tragedy that shook the southeast Iowa city and people across the state ― they pleaded guilty to first-degree murder Tuesday in Jefferson County Court.</div><div><br /></div><div>Willard Miller had been set to go to trial later this week, Prosecutors will recommend he receive life in prison with eligibility for parole after 30 years.</div><div><br /></div><div>They will recommend co-defendant Jeremy Goodale, who had agreed to testify against Miller, be eligible for parole after 25 years.</div></div><div></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div><hr /><h3>July 6, 2023</h3></div><div><br /></div><div>Des Moines Register: <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2023/07/06/fairfield-teacher-murder-teen-gets-life-in-prison-at-sentencing/70387288007/" target="_blank">Fairfield teen sentenced to life with mandatory 35-year minimum in teacher's murder</a></div><div><br /></div><div><div></div></div><blockquote><div><div>Iowa law does not permit juveniles to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. That's very fortunate for Willard Miller, who pleaded guilty to the murder of his Spanish teacher, the judge who sentenced him told him Thursday.</div><div><br /></div><div>Judge Shawn Showers ordered Miller, now 17, to serve life in prison with a minimum term before parole of 35 years for the 2021 death of Nohema Graber, 66. The Fairfield High School teacher was beaten to death, her body left hidden under a tarp and railroad tie in a city park.</div><div><br /></div><div>The order came after a daylong hearing reviewing key evidence from the case, including playing for the first time in court video excerpts of interviews by state investigators of Miller and co-defendant Jeremy Goodale, who were both 16 at the time of the killing.</div><div><br /></div><div>The mandatory minimum was five years longer than the 30 years prosecutors had proposed. Miller's attorneys had asked he be sentenced to life with no mandatory minimum to serve.</div></div><div></div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div><hr /><h3>November 15, 2023</h3></div><div><br /></div><div>Associated Press: <a href="https://apnews.com/article/iowa-teacher-killed-beaten-students-bat-4610cddd64d285aaa50fcf27f07d93b4" target="_blank">Iowa teen convicted of killing Spanish teacher gets life with possibility of parole after 25 years</a></div><div><br /></div><div><div></div><blockquote><div>An Iowa teen convicted in the 2021 beating death of a high school Spanish teacher was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with a possibility of parole in 25 years.</div><div><br /></div><div>A judge sentenced Jeremy Goodale for his role in killing Nohema Graber, a 66-year-old teacher at Fairfield High School. Goodale, 18, and a friend pleaded guilty earlier this year to first-degree murder in the beating death of Graber.</div><div><br /></div><div>The two high school students used a bat to kill Graber after stalking her as she took her daily walk in a large park in Fairfield, a small Iowa city about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Des Moines.</div></blockquote><div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div></div></div><div></div></div><div></div></span></div><p></p>Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-49105475615443451242021-03-27T16:20:00.009-04:002021-12-30T11:59:06.271-05:00New PTSD studies: TM as a "black box" - what's inside?<span id="docs-internal-guid-36cd374c-7fff-2d7c-4a1e-9f8180cc078c"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2MAqeq5vtKFYSmPqVH9bw7LFOqAuI5-wnYP6g3F2J27j_z94LqlEndPXz9HXRbMKnfnlNISc4XVWzGULuEaNtM4VDYkdEjdJclR79xf9GtWtMHV99rdxOBMAdrR3kJf6xQp3c/s684/tm+black+box+crop.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="513" data-original-width="684" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2MAqeq5vtKFYSmPqVH9bw7LFOqAuI5-wnYP6g3F2J27j_z94LqlEndPXz9HXRbMKnfnlNISc4XVWzGULuEaNtM4VDYkdEjdJclR79xf9GtWtMHV99rdxOBMAdrR3kJf6xQp3c/s320/tm+black+box+crop.png" width="320" /></a></div></span><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Recent studies claiming that Transcendental Meditation is effective in treating PTSD, and that it provides other benefits, treat TM as a “black box.” As with many similar past studies, researchers fail to consider that this method of meditation instruction contains several hours of other information, which creates a context of expectation of life improvement, a structure or habit which will improve life, and an authority who provides the assurance that TM will unfailingly produce those changes. These inadequacies in the design of these studies would be obvious, if all aspects of instruction in the TM program that have never been opened for examination by the TM teaching organization were properly studied and controlled for by independent researchers.</b></span></p><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another research study, this time on using TM as a method of treating PTSD, has just been published in the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Journal of Traumatic Stress.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The study, “</span><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jts.22665" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of Transcendental Meditation as Treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Veterans</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,” purports to show that “Veterans with PTSD who practiced the Transcendental Meditation technique showed significant reductions in PTSD symptom severity.” A widely circulated press release issued by Maharishi International University announced this study, headlined with the “</span><a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-03/miu-tme031821.php" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Transcendental Meditation effective in reducing PTSD, sleep problems, depression symptoms</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” claim. It includes the same sort of ubiquitous bar chart that’s been seen in TM promotional efforts since at least the mid-1970’s.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It should be noted that while the data analysis performed in this study showed significant positive changes with respect to PTSD, insomnia, depression and anxiety, there were no significant changes on the measures of anger and quality of life, the last being one of TM’s traditional selling points. More notable is the way in which this study, as with many others performed with the participation of the Maharishi International University (MIU) research faculty, relies on a vague if not inappropriately inaccurate description of Transcendental Meditation, as if it were solely a method practiced inside the mind and contained no other significant aspects, doctrine or belief that might in some way affect behavior which would then produce these results, among some people, for some limited period of time. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This study was funded by the David Lynch Foundation, and was performed at the Unified Behavior Health Center for Military Veterans and their Families (UBHC) in Bay Shore, New York. It shares with many other attempts to study TM, a number of shortcomings, including a small number of subjects - 20 meditators, 1 of whom dropped out before the study’s conclusion - and 20 controls. The test program was only 12 weeks long. The practice of TM was compared to the “treatment as usual” experienced by the control group.</span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As with another recent TM study involving military veterans with PTSD, there are effectively two definitions of Transcendental Meditation placed back-to-back in the description of the intervention that is being studied, that is, descriptions of TM and the “TM program.” Here is the entirety of what appears in the paper:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Intervention</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Transcendental Meditation involves the use of a mantra, or sound, in an effortless manner, without concentration (</span><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/41486162_Focused_attention_open_monitoring_and_automatic_self-transcending_Categories_to_organize_meditations_from_Vedic_Buddhist_and_Chinese_traditions" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Travis & Shear, 2010</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). The practice of TM allows one to experience progressively lesser-excited, quieter levels of the mind, producing a unique state of restful alertness (</span><a href="https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanpsy/PIIS2215-0366(18)30384-5.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nidich et.al., 2018</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). For the present study, TM was taught in the same format as is standardly offered in the community (</span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=z_UxDwAAQBAJ" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Roth, 2018</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">), and no modifications were made to address PTSD symptomatology.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Participants in the TM group engaged in 16 sessions over the course of 12 weeks, which included an introductory and preparatory lecture followed by a brief personal interview (Session 1); four core instruction sessions (i.e., individual instruction in TM followed by three group sessions for verification of correctness of practice and further instruction over 4 consecutive days; Sessions 2-5); and 11 weekly group follow-up sessions of approximately 60 min each (Sessions 6-16). Participants in the TM group were encouraged to practice TM at home for 20 min twice a day. Participants in the TM groups also continued with their usual care.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first part of this description describes mantra meditation, but gives few details. Press releases describing this study make mention of a previous clinical trial, which is the second paper cited (</span><a href="https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanpsy/PIIS2215-0366(18)30384-5.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nidich et.al., 2018</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). That previous study shares some similarities to this one, also involving veterans with PTSD, and in that paper describing that investigation there are likewise two definitions of TM, with a bit of elaboration of the first:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TM is a simple, effortless technique, practiced for 20 min twice a day, sitting with eyes closed. TM allows ordinary thinking processes to become more quiescent, resulting in a unique state of restful alertness.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is of course the popular impression or understanding of what meditation is, that there is not much more to it than closing the eyes and thinking some set of thoughts or directing one’s attention in various directions. But the “TM program,” the alleged benefits of which are being studied here, is much more than just that. Left unmentioned and unexamined is the content of the 16 sessions central to the currently published study, only one of which involves actual instruction in meditation.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some disclosure of the instruction process is included in the 2018 paper, but little detail is mentioned about the actual content of these sessions.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The core instruction for learning the TM technique was taught over 5 days in a group format with individual personal instruction (session 2). Session 1 consisted of, first, an introductory lecture, involving an overview of previous scientific research on the TM programme and a preview of possible benefits; second, a preparatory lecture, consisting of discussion of the mechanics and origin of TM; and third, a brief personal interview with the instructor. Session 2 was one-to-one instruction in the practice of TM. Sessions 3, 4, and 5 involved continuing TM instruction and verifying the correctness of practice. Sessions 2–5 were delivered on consecutive days, as is standard practice.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perhaps a bit more illuminating is the following paragraph, describing the followup sessions (this particular study was longer at 3 months) and making reference to “content and delivery” and “quality control.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After the core instruction, there were seven maintenance sessions (in a group format) over the rest of the 3-month period. These sessions included verification of correct practice of the TM technique and a discussion of experiences. These follow-up sessions were similar to those of other clinical trials with TM. [citations] Participants were encouraged to continue to practice two 20-min TM sessions at home each day. CG-K (PhD educator) [Carolyn Gaylord-King, a TM teacher, MIU board and research faculty member and co-author of this paper] supervised the delivery of the TM programme, monitoring the content and delivery of the sessions for quality control. CG-K spoke with TM instructors weekly during the first several months and approximately twice a month over the duration of the trial, predominantly by phone.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The disclosure that there is a great deal of other content in the “programme” that requires monitoring for “quality control” by a TM teacher raises a basic question. What is the specific objective of this study? In scientific research terms, what is the treatment, or the </span><a href="https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/independent-and-dependent-variables/" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">independent variable</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> whose effects are to be measured?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The unmentionable assumption in all research on TM, never explicitly stated to my knowledge, is always that it is solely the act of meditating that is the treatment and fundamental cause of the effects that are observed and measured. The content of everything else that is part of the “TM programme” is never mentioned. Those other components are also never disclosed in the resulting published research, other than the vague mentions as in the above examples, and evidently, those parts are never disclosed (and likely portions are not permitted to be disclosed) by meditating researchers or the TM teachers to the non-meditating researchers. They are apparently taken as a given that those elements cannot and will not be available for inspection, analysis, and for that matter, independent measurement of their effects, and none of those details appear in any of the published literature or scientific studies of TM. This is why I refer here to TM as a “black box.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is my view that all the rest of the content vaguely referred to in the second part of this description of TM in both of these studies (and likely in many others) constitutes a small pile of </span><a href="https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/confounding-variables/" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">confounding variables</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - influences of cause and effect that are never identified and accounted for - that in any other research of this nature </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of_22.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">would be recognized as an obvious indicator of very poor research design</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. These extensive interactions between TM teachers and research subjects over the course of many sessions, and their contents, are never documented in any detail. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The obvious alternative explanation for many phenomena, including changes in behavior, perceived well-being, and even EEG changes, connected with TM practice is that some element of the interaction between TM teachers and other authorities, and the subjects, is the cause of the purported changes or benefits. The instruction process for what’s supposed to be only a simple method of closed-eye meditation may serve as a delivery method for other forms of influence or doctrine which has a significant effect on many, but not all, people, to the point of being called “life-changing” by some who have experienced it.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1zB2VirX4-5gLeCBPuuaEgFQUkyRtkKGNFo7XvlKgTykvlvwRK9fPbC5YWxMJPcyT9HcpYLfjISrB1EbDqp8VpSyPf3ZznV0THv9zqLueISHCSzKztdjFKniaPnrsXDvr3Pk1/s2048/bob+roth+book+cover.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1355" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1zB2VirX4-5gLeCBPuuaEgFQUkyRtkKGNFo7XvlKgTykvlvwRK9fPbC5YWxMJPcyT9HcpYLfjISrB1EbDqp8VpSyPf3ZznV0THv9zqLueISHCSzKztdjFKniaPnrsXDvr3Pk1/s320/bob+roth+book+cover.jpg" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The content of the TM program, other than the mantra and specifics on how to use it, can be divided into three categories: expectation setting, structure, and authority. Since Bob Roth’s book, </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=z_UxDwAAQBAJ" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Strength in Stillness</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is cited in this paper as a description of the TM program, I’ll primarily refer to quotes from that book to illustrate the actual content that is reinforced in the course of TM instruction and follow up. Also included here are links to documentation of the never formally disclosed to outsiders, inner workings of TM instruction, including </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/introduction-demystifying-puja-3-part.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the “</span><a href="http://minet.org/checktoc.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">checking notes</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,” and </span><a href="http://minet.org/www.trancenet.net/secrets/checking/index.shtml" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the teachers’ notes for the three final instruction sessions</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, all of which are not made public by the organization but have been made available online by former TM teachers for more than twenty years.</span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Expectation setting:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> this is the function of most promotional advertising activities of the TM organization, to develop the expectation that instruction in and practice of TM will in every case be beneficial if not life-changing. Creating expectations of what TM would do for the reader is the main purpose of Roth’s book, starting with its subtitle: “The Power of Transcendental Meditation.” You don’t even have to fully open the book, just read the inside flaps:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While there is no one single cure, the Transcendental Meditation technique is a simple practice that dramatically changes how we respond to stress and life’s challenges. With scientifically proven benefits — reduced stress and anxiety, and improved focus, sleep, resilience, creativity, and memory, to name a few — this five-thousand-year-old technique has a clear and direct impact on our very modern problems.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Interesting that Roth here, or whoever wrote this cover blurb, hedges the claim, since the assumption that TM is the cure for everything has been repeated by the organization for decades, including in one of the first pages of </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The TM Book</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (1975 and 1991) which certainly frames TM as a cure for everything and anything:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Transcendental Meditation program changes the quality of life from poverty, emptiness, and suffering to abundance, fulfillment, and happiness.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While this particular snippet of text from the preface to some editions of Maharishi’s primary text, </span><a href="https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.236144" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Science of Being and Art of Living</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> may never be seen by most meditators, it exemplifies the sort of evangelistic attitude that the TMO and its teachers have always taken to their promotion of TM, rooted in setting a starry-eyed, over-the-top expectation of a vast transformation of both individuals and humanity. It was written by Charlie Lutes, who was then, in the mid-1960’s, the president of the TM teaching organization. Perhaps because of its sensationalistic lack of realism, editors deleted it from paperback editions of this book (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Transcendental-Meditation-Serenity-Maharishi-1968-03-01/dp/B019NDIX1C/">sometimes retitled “Transcendental Meditation"</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">) that were commonly available in the 1970’s.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is a book of revival for the age. If the golden era is ever to dawn on human society, if peace and harmony are to reign on earth, The Science of Being and Art of Living will provide a free way for it to come. A new humanity will be bom, fuller in conception and richer in experience and accomplishments in all fields. Joy of life will belong to every man, love will dominate human society, truth and virtue will reign in the world, peace on earth will be permanent and all will live in fulfilment, in fullness of life in God-consciousness.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Expectation setting comprises most of the content of the books written by TM teachers and other supporters to sell TM. There is nothing in them on how to start doing it by yourself, to the disappointment of many readers - the whole point is to generate interest and direct interested people to the organization and its teachers. There is precious little in them on what is actually contained in the private parts of instruction and so-called “checking” of meditation, but there is considerable use of terminology, including frequent use of the word “unbounded,” that suggests that some mysterious mechanism is uniquely the source of TM’s benefits and the only way to take advantage of that mechanism is to go through with instruction in TM.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many other examples of language that creates expectations on the part of prospective meditators can be found by browsing Roth’s book. While forms signed by prospective meditators during the TM teaching process have been known to contain the disclaimer, “</span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-transcendental-meditation-teaching.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">no specific benefits of the practice of the TM program are promised to me</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,” this absolute assurance that “your high blood pressure [will] decrease” is contained in Roth’s book, at page 94. (There is no medical disclaimer between the covers of this book.) As is common throughout, references to “research” are largely confined to </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">those studies in which the investigators are predominantly lifelong meditators and MIU research faculty</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. (Emphasis added.)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I want to emphasize that TM is not like blood pressure medication, where your level goes down after you take a pill and then climbs back up over time until you take another one. That’s obviously helpful, and very necessary, for people with hypertension, but it doesn’t address the underlying issue of how people’s bodies react to stress. It’s masking or merely managing the problem. In contrast, the research shows that the benefits of TM are cumulative. <b>Not only will your high blood pressure decrease, but a lot of other good, healthy effects will follow.</b> You will be more resilient, more efficient, and feel healthier and more energized over time. It’s not positive thinking; it’s not too good to be true. It’s simply what happens when you are not tied up in huge knots of stress.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCs-VFOyowl68g1uZzhonk9Hu99uPE5Z1zsQMyCo-oORkD_vfSXn1TdNFWT6LYyNTIAhz-UgnTC0I1PWQttHMkjdgCfhRAKZ2_crcXm06Zb7EqTZe36t-Yvha4vv3KPBaxZdgK/s480/maharishi+bubble+diagram+bbc+1964+crop.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCs-VFOyowl68g1uZzhonk9Hu99uPE5Z1zsQMyCo-oORkD_vfSXn1TdNFWT6LYyNTIAhz-UgnTC0I1PWQttHMkjdgCfhRAKZ2_crcXm06Zb7EqTZe36t-Yvha4vv3KPBaxZdgK/s320/maharishi+bubble+diagram+bbc+1964+crop.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maharishi with bubble diagram.<br />BBC, 1964</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Expectation setting during the first two sessions of introductory and preparatory lectures also includes a metaphorical suggestion of what the practice of TM subjectively feels like for some people, which may prime the prospective meditator to have a particular kind of experience once they are given a mantra. This is part of the function of the bubble diagram, in which thoughts are described as bubbles rising from the “source of thought” at the bottom of an ocean. Likewise, the subjective experience of TM is described as the reverse, of diving into that ocean to contact that “source of thought,” “transcendental consciousness,” “unbounded creativity” or </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2020/09/maharishis-many-euphemisms-for-god.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">any of the synonyms which are used as descriptions of a divine source of all intelligence.</span></a><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The generation of more expectations for the purported results of TM practice occurs in the introductory and preparatory lectures, and also through the rest of the instruction sessions. The alleged benefits of TM, both in those lectures and in other published materials, are supported throughout through references to a body of scientific research, </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">much of which was produced by long-time TM meditators who first learned TM in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> This research, after fifty years, is generally associated with MIU’s research faculty to various degrees, and doesn’t reflect a more general scientific consensus that would support the organization’s claims for TM’s benefits.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Structure:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the obvious element of structure is the need to develop a habit of twice daily meditation practice. From </span><a href="http://minet.org/www.trancenet.net/secrets/checking/3day1.shtml" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the teacher’s notes for the first night’s followup</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “Establish two regular periods of meditation -- maximum benefit from TM comes from regularity of two periods per day.” While TM promoters insist that no change in lifestyle is necessary to practice TM, a significant piece of an individual’s day - 40 minutes to an hour - must be dedicated to the practice of TM, and that instruction comes in the context that the expectation of benefits won’t be fulfilled without that level of practice. This is a not-insignificant commitment of time for most people. From Roth’s book, page 106:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Life intrudes, and, realistically, you’re probably going to miss a session. But for your own sake, make that the exception, not the rule. Make it a priority. Of course, I think you should try to do it twice a day, because that is how you will get the most benefit.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another element of structure is the TM program itself. Meditators aren’t necessarily on their own with respect to their meditation practice; one of the selling points of TM is that anyone who’s started TM </span><a href="http://minet.org/www.trancenet.net/secrets/checking/3day1.shtml" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">may have their meditation “checked” by any TM teacher</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and by a few others who were trained solely as meditation “checkers.” Other opportunities exist for meditators to go deeper into the program - advanced lectures, techniques, residence courses. This is in contrast to other interventions or meditation methods that don’t necessarily provide for this level of structured follow up. Again, from the Roth book, page 107:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There will be events in your life that you might need a little support to get through. As TM teachers, we are here for you. And even if you are on a sustained roll, it's nice to have check-in sessions to refresh your practice, to make sure you are on the right track. I just meditated with someone I’d taught in 1972!</span></p><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Authority:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> From the introductory mentions of “ancient meditation texts” and “the oldest continuous meditation tradition in the world,” there is an underlying absolutist authoritarianism to the TM program that is never acknowledged when researchers attempt to study Transcendental Meditation. Numerous times throughout Roth’s book, the TM program is described as having originated from some very special traditional chain of authority, with descriptions such as these which begin on page 1:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The technique comes from the oldest continuous meditation tradition in the world...For well over five thousand years, the TM technique was passed down from teacher to student, one to one: never in groups, never from a book. It has roots in the ancient noble warrior classes, where acting out of fear or anger brought disaster and defeat... Over those thousands of years, the TM technique has been honed to twenty minutes, twice a day… (Pages 1 and 2)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It has never been demonstrated that TM as presently taught is identical to traditional practices in India, <a href="http://minet.org/mantras.html" target="_blank">particularly with respect to mantra selection</a>; in particular, that part of the practice (only disclosed to TM teachers) appears to have been solely sourced to Maharishi himself, possibly as a means of easily keeping track of which mantra a meditator received, in the event of </span><a href="https://youtu.be/mu523rLnRAY" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a Jeff Goldblum-esque “I forgot my mantra” situation</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Likewise, the relationship between present-day TM as promoted and taught, and the content of the “ancient meditation texts'' - the Vedas, religious texts of India and that region of the world - is not as clear as Roth states. The content of these Vedic and Hindu traditional texts are connected with TM and its underlying doctrine, </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/you-cant-spell-tm-without-sci.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the Science of Creative Intelligence, or SCI</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, by way of unorthodox interpretations associated with Maharishi and his sect, that are not necessarily commonly known in India. These interpretations include the assertion of a direct one-for-one relationship between the Vedic model of consciousness and quantum physics, which began to be articulated by TM movement physicists in the late 1970’s.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s therefore reasonable to assume that some exaggeration of these claims occurs, to set up Maharishi and the TM teaching organization as an unquestionable, unique and absolute authority in the field of meditation despite the lack of firm evidence to support such assertions. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl5Nt9CjKnH5QeL97dhG6hNfD6SjAyyeqRzQbGVmSJghuAjTEo69yqPBkqPZNo7oQ5nS66MhyphenhyphenAXXY6-6oFZXN2sWhTik97e32YF1sYvUYWEY8dRUDiGeOWx3udl9E2gjfo9Xcp/s797/tm+website+graphic+header+on+research+section.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="255" data-original-width="797" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl5Nt9CjKnH5QeL97dhG6hNfD6SjAyyeqRzQbGVmSJghuAjTEo69yqPBkqPZNo7oQ5nS66MhyphenhyphenAXXY6-6oFZXN2sWhTik97e32YF1sYvUYWEY8dRUDiGeOWx3udl9E2gjfo9Xcp/s320/tm+website+graphic+header+on+research+section.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Graphic from the "research" section of the<br />current tm.org website</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Other associations are also regularly made during the course of promoting TM which serve to bolster assumptions of its legitimacy, by reference to other authorities with a sometimes tenuous connection to TM’s claims. A frequent example is the naming of various institutions where meditating TM advocates or scientific investigators were educated, that were sources of funding for TM, or were locations where TM research was carried out. Eight research universities are named just in Roth’s book: MIT, UCLA, Harvard, Georgetown, Cornell, George Washington, George Mason, and New York universities, and the University of Chicago. The National Institutes of Health and the Defense Department of the United States are also mentioned in Roth’s book as having some relationship with TM. In all of these cases, which in TM promotional literature may include graphic logos or insignia, the impression is left that these institutions, widely considered to be authoritative in science and medicine, have in some way endorsed TM, when that has not actually occurred. </span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The problem with this claim of scientific authority is that when it is carefully examined, </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">most of the studies cited were produced with the participation of individuals like Bob Roth, who have been meditating most of their lives, and who are oftentimes themselves TM teachers and who have been associated with MIU for years if not decades</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. There is no general scientific consensus supporting the specific claims made for TM practice as a unique method. These claims, put forward by a tiny number of individuals, may be likened to those made by climate change denialists, where a scientific consensus is denied, or inversely, the impression of the existence of a scientific consensus is constructed when there is none, by a small cadre of otherwise credentialed people.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Which brings us to the third reason for the explosion of interest in meditation: science, science, and more science. There is so much evidence validating the benefits of meditation that even the most skeptical among us has to (perhaps begrudgingly) acknowledge that something significant, something important, is going on when we meditate. (Page 10)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another clear assertion of authority occurs during the actual instruction in TM, </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/introduction-demystifying-puja-3-part.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">which is always preceded by a ritual, or </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The usual explanation of this brief ceremony given by TM teachers, which Roth repeats in his book, both emphasizes an alleged “tradition of great meditation teachers,” and deemphasizes if not misrepresents the religious nature of the ritual. The </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was held to be inherently religious and no different from a prayer in </span><a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5388567843432021194&q=malnak&hl=en&as_sdt=20000006" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a 1977 US Federal court opinion</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=969246082363008637&q=malnak&hl=en&as_sdt=20000006" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">upheld on appeal</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and thus its required performance disqualified the teaching of TM as part of a public school program. </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2020/08/lawsuit-in-progress-david-lynch.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A lawsuit is currently in progress in Federal court in Chicago over similar issues surrounding a more recent program of this nature</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Again, the authoritarian attitude is that these practices, evidently religious to most while their religiosity is denied, are nothing other than what they say they are, never mind your doubts, what other knowledgeable people may say, or what they may look like to you. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Also during this initial meeting, your teacher will talk about the tradition of great meditation teachers who have safeguarded the knowledge of transcendence for millennia, and about the traditional way a TM teacher acknowledges this lineage of teachers today. Prior to the instruction, your teacher will perform a simple thank-you ceremony—an ancient way of expressing gratitude to the teacher. It’s a lovely cultural tradition, and not religious in any way. It also reminds your teacher to maintain the integrity and accuracy of the steps of instruction to ensure maximum benefit for those who learn in the future. You won't, of course, be asked to participate in it. (Page 52)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Roth uses the “simple” word to dismiss the importance of this integral part of TM instruction, when the fact is that </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/demystifying-puja-part-1-establishing.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in Indian culture is a devotional ritual performed to a deity</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. When teaching TM, it’s a way of recognizing, through performance, action and setting, the authority of a whole series of teachers who were considered by many to be the living personification of divinity, or God. </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/demystifying-puja-part-1-establishing.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is an expression of power, legitimacy and dominance of an inherently supremacist religious tradition over the new meditator, and also serves as a reminder of that dominance and authority to the TM teacher.</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> It places the new meditator in the role of a potential devotee of a world-changing movement, and not simply a consumer of a commercial product.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This affirmation of the organization’s and the teacher’s authority sets the stage for </span><a href="http://minet.org/www.trancenet.net/secrets/checking/index.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">what occurs in the sessions that follow individual instruction</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Meditators are encouraged to meditate regularly, as instructed, and </span><a href="http://minet.org/checking1.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">their meditation is “checked” through a question and answer, flowchart-like procedure</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> which in a group setting involves each meditator filling out a form for evaluation by the teacher, followed by discussion of experiences which may occur during meditation. </span><a href="http://minet.org/checkinggp.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As can be seen in the description of the individual procedure</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, distressing or unpleasant sensations, feelings, anxiety or thoughts are always characterized as being temporary and as positive effects of meditation, that it is working correctly and that “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Something-Good-Happening-Maharishi-Mahesh/dp/B00118YZSI" target="_blank">something good is happening</a>.” There is no exit point in which the teacher may ever recommend that the meditator discontinue the practice entirely due to unexpected distressing or unhealthy effects. </span><a href="http://minet.org/www.trancenet.net/secrets/checking/3day1.shtml" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This first followup session primarily creates a vague framework of “correct” and “incorrect” practice of meditation</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> setting up a scenario in which meditators may be put in the position of accepting blame for “incorrect” practice resulting in a lack of benefit or even detrimental experiences for the meditator.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://minet.org/www.trancenet.net/secrets/checking/3day2.shtml" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the second session after individual instruction</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, a completely pseudo-scientific model of “stress” is presented, as if it were some substance which accumulated in the body and that it will be “dissolved” through some not necessarily unique state of “restful alertness” obtained through TM practice. There is, of course, no scientific consensus to suggest that this state of “restful alertness” is unique to TM, or that “stress” and its dissolving can be observed and measured directly. The summary of this session from Roth’s book explains this session’s purpose for the meditator by mentioning both of these aspects: “Understand the mechanics of how the unique state of restful alertness gained during TM practice allows the body to dissolve deeply rooted stress” (page 106).</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://minet.org/www.trancenet.net/secrets/checking/3day3.shtml" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The final TM instruction follow up session</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is where the content completely veers off into pseudo-science and assertions that are of a supernatural if not religious nature. This is where the activities that lead up to this point - expectation setting, structure, and authority - come together in the delivery of parts of what serves as the core doctrine of TM, which they call the “</span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/you-cant-spell-tm-without-sci.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Science of Creative Intelligence</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” This “science” is in fact not scientific at all, but a system of belief that may be likened to, and is a restatement of a particular interpretation of, religious dogma, in which it is believed that regular contact with the “source of thought” through TM, </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2020/09/maharishis-many-euphemisms-for-god.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that “source” being the cosmic, supreme divinity described in Vedic scriptures</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, is the true origin of eventual individual and global transformation as well as all of existence. In this context in which the groundwork sets the stage for a progressive revelation of the framework of belief underlying Transcendental Meditation, these tenets are all described as being related to the experiences of meditation that the new meditators have just experienced. These specific beliefs acquire a new level of credibility for those who have meditated for the first few times, through that connection to perceived meditation experience.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here I quote again from Bob Roth’s book, where he lays out for the reader part of the contents of this session, starting at page 103:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As this growth continues naturally over time, you will develop the expanded mental faculties that Maharishi and the ancient meditation texts call “cosmic consciousness” and that Dr. Norman Rosenthal calls the “super mind” in his best-selling book by that title. As Dr. Rosenthal puts it: “The super mind is a mental state that consists of the development of expanded states of consciousness that occur in tandem with reduced stress, better physical health, and the emergence of life-enhancing personal qualities.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The reference to “ancient meditation texts” refers to the Vedas and other religious scriptures native to India and that region of the world. The assertion that there is an actual sustained and verifiable state of “cosmic consciousness” is not supported by scientific evidence from independent sources; support for its existence comes from testimonies of the subjective experience of some meditators, the research performed by lifelong meditators and/or MIU researchers, and from Maharishi’s particular interpretation of Vedic scriptures. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rosenthal himself is also a meditator. The title of his book, <i>Super Mind</i>, is intended as a synonym for the elusive, unsupported by scientific consensus outside of MIU's campus, state of "cosmic consciousness" central to the TM belief system. The brief account of his work provided here by Roth, relies entirely on the self-reports of TM meditators, which may not be all that reliable a method of determining TM’s effectiveness. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Rosenthal] surveyed more than six hundred TM practitioners, a large majority of whom reported that, since starting to meditate, “they felt as though they had become more mindful, recovered more quickly from unpleasant events, were more fully present and engaged, and were generally happier,” Dr. Rosenthal told me. “They also reported that they felt more in the zone, which was associated with greater ease at getting things done, and improved creativity and productivity. Unsurprisingly, these traits were associated with improved performance at work.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No objective evaluation of these “more than six hundred TM practitioners” has been provided to support their self-assessment. The “Consciousness Integration Questionnaire” Rosenthal used (provided as an appendix to </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Super Mind</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and co-authored with two members of the MIU faculty) is clearly designed, item by item, to match up, in language and objective, with exactly what is taught during the TM induction process. Anyone who has been through TM instruction knows what the “correct” answers are, independent of their own experience; and those answers were provided to them in a context of expectation of life improvement, a structure or habit which will improve life, and an authority who provides the assurance that TM will unfailingly provide those changes. The correspondences of TM instruction methods to these questions are, of course, not evident to the casual reader who has no idea what TM marketing looks like, or what its teachers say to new meditators. Here are some obvious examples:</span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since starting to meditate, is it easier to get things done?</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since starting to meditate, have you noticed changes in your productivity or creativity?</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since starting to meditate, have you made healthier choices in your daily life, e.g., discontinued bad habits or initiated good habits?</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since starting to meditate, have you felt a greater connection with your community, the world, or even the universe?</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since starting to meditate, </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=cJuDCgAAQBAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&lpg=PP1&dq=super%20mind&pg=PP1#v=snippet&q=luckier&f=false" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">do you feel you have been luckier</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> or that things have gone your way more than before without you having to put any extra effort into them?</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This last point is of particular importance to those who may sense something about TM is designed to appeal to superstitious irrationality, and it’s important enough for Bob Roth to draw particular attention to it:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Those who responded to Dr. Rosenthal’s questionnaire also reported feeling “luckier,” as though they were receiving more support from those around them.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The impetus for this question is not just a matter of whether the meditator is being “luckier,” it’s whether the meditator is experiencing the “support of nature” that is a given in the core religious doctrine inherent to the TM program. Rosenthal devotes a whole chapter to “support of nature” in his book, throwing out for the reader, without much explanation, that he was “particularly interested by the number of people who commented on how much easier it was to find good parking spots since starting to meditate.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://www.normanrosenthal.com/blog/book/super-mind-2/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></a></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3j_2YyMwn7Wk8kxN3eryjK8NGgRToQHiFqPwDr-GdDngPmXdlhAMlx1RhyE8Nm0UYNw4sk9UbYBRO00I7NzCR1FQsD0IH0OGBnvrQQlbpl-uT9oi0KMeQWzE4DD7Xj-7IGttH/s1500/rosenthal+support+of+nature.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="1500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3j_2YyMwn7Wk8kxN3eryjK8NGgRToQHiFqPwDr-GdDngPmXdlhAMlx1RhyE8Nm0UYNw4sk9UbYBRO00I7NzCR1FQsD0IH0OGBnvrQQlbpl-uT9oi0KMeQWzE4DD7Xj-7IGttH/s320/rosenthal+support+of+nature.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Graphics from <a href="https://www.normanrosenthal.com/blog/book/super-mind-2/" target="_blank">Norman Rosenthal's website</a></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a graphic on <a href="https://www.normanrosenthal.com/blog/book/super-mind-2/" target="_blank">Rosenthal’s website</a> supporting his book<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, a reference is made to “forces passing through you” that come from outside oneself. This is a core assumption in the TM belief system, that just through regularly meditating and experiencing “transcendental consciousness,” </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2020/09/maharishis-many-euphemisms-for-god.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">contacting the cosmic, divine source of everything</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the support of “natural law” bends all of existence to favor the meditator.</span></span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You have more "good luck." The universe actually seems to cooperate! It has been suggested that this effect comes about as the Super Mind grows because you are more effectively able to harness the forces passing through you, both from within and outside yourself.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The degree to which this alleged luck-enhancing feature of TM is disclosed during TM instruction as currently offered is unclear from the TM teacher’s notes available online, which date to an early 1970’s teacher training course which predate the TM teacher “recertification” which occurred around 2005. Roth places this anecdote in the context of the final session of instruction, so this concept may be included in it. But references to “support of nature” or “support of Natural Law,” Natural Law being a synonym for “the will of God,” that brings about fulfillment of goals and desires, are frequent among meditators and TM teachers; it’s a commonly used phrase in TM culture. For example, this sentence currently </span><a href="https://maharishischool.org/about-us-why-maharishi-school/our-mission-and-values/" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">appears on the website of the Maharishi School in Fairfield</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our daily practice of Transcendental Meditation builds depth in our thinking and provides the support of Natural Law to fulfill our goals, desires, and Core Values.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjur4c5vKCFmNg01-bAkAGFB8a7e6wdlgdKzVaNvAGUmFmGeR4OaxoM5wap2L1VnfNqA0s2es3wolVMnxISHNuIqgp3qcDXR4othGMJHYGpjt863VBMVyZqgVuPEE-ZD-FhYfDN/s2063/19771102-Great+Falls+Tribune+%2528Great+Falls%252C+Montana%2529+%25C2%25B7+Wed%252C+Nov+2%252C+1977+%25C2%25B7+Page+3.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2063" data-original-width="611" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjur4c5vKCFmNg01-bAkAGFB8a7e6wdlgdKzVaNvAGUmFmGeR4OaxoM5wap2L1VnfNqA0s2es3wolVMnxISHNuIqgp3qcDXR4othGMJHYGpjt863VBMVyZqgVuPEE-ZD-FhYfDN/w119-h400/19771102-Great+Falls+Tribune+%2528Great+Falls%252C+Montana%2529+%25C2%25B7+Wed%252C+Nov+2%252C+1977+%25C2%25B7+Page+3.png" width="119" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Advertisement in the<br /><i>Great Falls Tribune,</i><br />November 4, 1977</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />During the TM movement’s advertising and promotional efforts starting in May 1977, which included eventually shown to be false claims that sustained levitation, invisibility and other so-called “supernormal” abilities were available to mere mortals through advanced TM courses and that they would be demonstrated in the immediate future, one other alleged result was also on that dubious list: “fulfillment of all desires and aspirations.” One would generally believe that any legitimate scientific researcher, who might be considering involvement with TM and its proponents as subjects of research, would actively avoid an organization that might as well be selling rabbit’s feet and horseshoes, and whose devotees </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200928205244/http://mvsthesaurus.miu.edu/thesaurus/tr257.htm" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">are still repeating thinly-veiled assertions that were once part of a massive hoax</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> perpetrated across North America over 40 years ago. Sadly, that doesn’t appear to be the case, given the current willingness of some credentialed apparent non-meditators to join forces with MIU research faculty who were around for, if not participating in, those events and whose obvious belief in such pseudo-scientific notions, if not toxic fantasies, is a matter of public record.</span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In summary, the instruction phase of the TM program sets up an institutional and lifestyle structure by way of a contrived authority to meet expectations set through advertising, promotion and subsequent post-initiation reinforcement. These aspects of instruction are never examined nor controlled for in most if not all published research on the alleged benefits attributed to TM, which is assumed to be solely a mantra meditation practice. Key elements of this induction process are pseudo-scientific in nature, and they set up supportive and symbiotic relationships between descriptions of internal meditation experiences of uncertain validity, and the organization’s belief system about the mind, thoughts, and TM’s method of action, a doctrine which is sourced to religious scriptures for which no generally accepted scientific evidence exists. The constantly repeated insistence that there is “no lifestyle change” and “no belief, no philosophy, not a religion” involved with participation in the TM program, masks all of the messaging to the contrary which occurs during TM instruction.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This conclusion raises an important question: does the TM organization actively limit inquiry by independent investigators into these aspects of the TM program that remain unexamined? One indication that that may likely be true comes from an </span><a href="http://minet.org/Audio/79-3.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">interview that I recorded with Stephen Druker</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, who was then a TM organization attorney heading one of its named front group “institutes” in 1979. This was in the context of research into the claims the organization was making, of levitation and other unusual feats by meditators on advanced courses which were being publicized around that time. I have highlighted the relevant portion of Druker’s statement.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we have actually perfected the flying sidhi, and the invisibility sidhi, they'll be demonstrated. But even now for serious scientists who wish to study these phenomena and their growth, because they are now in their growing stages, our university, our scientists, work with them, they submit proposals. We want to make sure that they're going to protect the integrity of our subjects, because one's in a very delicate state when one is practicing these. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And also that they've designed the experiment so that they won't disturb the meditative state and test something other than what they're supposed to test. But once the experiment is designed properly, we're all for as we've been for every other phase of the TM program, extensive scientific research.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> So right now there are a few universities in which scientists are studying flying, to see what kinds of energy changes are going on, and are there changes in the gravitational relationship between the body and the earth during the practice. And we expect some very significant results will be found right now.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, no such research ever materialized in the forty years since Druker said this in my presence, and demonstrations a few years later of these “sidhis” were </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1986/07/10/at-the-hop-the-flying-yogis-olympiad/b58805f5-c8d0-436a-b2f6-8ea835acb0f9/" style="text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ridiculous sideshows of men (always, men, at Maharishi’s insistence) bouncing in the lotus position on foam rubber, insisting that something profound was happening</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But most problematic is his statement that outside scientists would not be allowed to “test something other than what they're supposed to test.” This betrays a seldom articulated agenda of the TM organization, that runs in clear opposition to the usual role of science as a method of open-ended discovery and investigation. For Druker, a high-level official in the TM organization at the time, clearly some things connected with his organization may be opened to examination, and others may not, based on some undisclosed fear of “disturb[ing] the meditative state.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The conclusion that I draw from Druker’s unusual and unexplained insistence that some aspects of TM are off-limits for testing and are things that others are not “supposed to test,” is that the same is true well beyond their claims of levitation and invisibility. They extend to the organization’s flagship product, Transcendental Meditation. The method by which meditators are taught to meditate is likewise off-limits and contains an entire system of instructional content that others are not “supposed to test” or even draw out in a meaningful way for public inspection. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is for this reason, among others, that I believe the great majority of research performed on the TM program, involving individuals who are lifelong meditators and MIU faculty, is by definition suspect. Nothing may be investigated, with the cooperation of TM teachers and their organization, that would sow doubt about what I would describe as the four points of the TM organization’s statement of faith. The definition of TM often starts with these four assertions, actually denials, all four of which are contrary to facts that can be established through examination of the TM teaching process and the actual content of what TM teachers are trained to say and do. Research that fully analyzed the methods by which TM is promoted and taught would include a complete examination of that process, parts of which have never been formally disclosed by the TM organization.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These four points of TM’s statement of faith, each of of which are relying on very narrow conceptualizations or definitions of the aspect being denied, appear in Roth’s book, at page 27:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here is what TM is not: </span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s not a religion. Nearly eight million people of all religions, as well as people who have no religion, have learned TM over the past sixty years.</span></p></li></ul><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s not a philosophy. TM is a technique you learn and then practice on your own; nothing else.</span></p></li></ul><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s not a change in lifestyle. Once you learn to meditate, you don’t have to change your diet and suddenly start eating tofu (unless you like it!).</span></p></li></ul><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And finally, there is nothing to believe in. You can be 100 percent skeptical, and it doesn’t matter. The technique works equally well whether you believe in it or not.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><br /></span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s possible that some of these undisclosed features of TM instruction could be studied with implications for understanding how the human mind can be influenced in various unusual ways. Any discovery along those lines is impossible if those portions of the TM program’s introductory phase are kept under wraps and are never opened to inspection or research. In the meantime, Transcendental Meditation should always be considered a “black box” when evaluating the research offered by its proponents as evidence of its effectiveness. It is likely that all of the characteristics of TM that are constantly denied by its proponents, other than the thinking of a </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">mantra</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, may be the cause of some, if not most, of the effects experienced by TM research subjects that are described in the resulting published studies.</span></p><br /><span></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-47765503690072063802021-03-03T20:10:00.008-05:002021-09-04T18:21:36.415-04:00Demystifying the Puja, part 3: Misleading everyone for decades about this ritual’s true nature and purpose<div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Transcendental Meditation instruction ritual, the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, should be viewed in the context of a half-century long attempt to deliberately mislead the public, institutional and governmental authorities, and prospective meditators about the nature and purpose of the TM program. This misrepresentation is evident in the organization’s own descriptions of the nature of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and the obvious conflict between its insistence that this ritual is somehow “secular” when its function in Indian spiritual culture, which is TM’s origin, is unambiguously a religious one.</span></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-0f220ce2-7fff-2957-c639-c6c622a4d8af"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ARAs-jacEYh24Zjepv0HZttxb7Srpf7y1cRfMBEAB0c39T7j8P_KBEIpl1iRj29iZQzNjjkOgYYF4NYnwADXcNYyhmlGoo__Fwv_c7AOoQk90LaxjY-kggfynY-EY0HFazrD/s2048/IMG_20191115_153932.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ARAs-jacEYh24Zjepv0HZttxb7Srpf7y1cRfMBEAB0c39T7j8P_KBEIpl1iRj29iZQzNjjkOgYYF4NYnwADXcNYyhmlGoo__Fwv_c7AOoQk90LaxjY-kggfynY-EY0HFazrD/s320/IMG_20191115_153932.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Transcendental Meditation <i>puja</i> table. The <br />framed image is a registered trademark/service <br />mark held by Maharishi Foundation Liechtenstein <br />in the United States. Photo by the author.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/introduction-demystifying-puja-3-part.html">Read this series from the beginning - Introduction.</a></i></span></b></span></p><p><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Previously:</span></b></span></i></p><p><i><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/demystifying-puja-part-1-establishing.html"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Part 1 of this series: </span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Establishing authority and dominance over the meditator</b></span></span></a></i></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><p><b style="color: #0000ee; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/demystifying-puja-part-2-religious.html">Part 2 of this series: A religious transaction with the divine</a></i></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Throughout more than 50 years of the teaching of TM in the United States, the TM organization has never provided a coherent and reasonable explanation for the presence of this ritual in each and every instance of TM instruction. The organization, and the allied David Lynch Foundation (DLF), have refused to set aside the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> when teaching TM in public schools. If the ritual were, as they claim, simply some method of honoring some past tradition, teachers could perform it at home, without the presence of the meditator they’re instructing, and without the meditator providing tangible offerings of fruit, flowers and handkerchief. But that option has never been accepted by the DLF or the organization, for reasons that have not yet been divulged.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The history of that request of an offering of those three items can be traced back to Maharishi’s arrival in the United States, in 1959. Two accounts of how initiation, as they called it then, involved those offerings exist, this from the memoir of Charlie Lutes, who along with his wife are said to be the first individuals to start the TM program in the United States.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We were told to bring an offering of fruit, flowers and a handkerchief for the ceremony of </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">initiation. I didn’t question any of this. If that was what he wanted, it was okay with me.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We arrived at the Olson’s house, each of us carrying a great big bouquet of flowers, a basket of fruit, and a nice new Irish linen handkerchief.</span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://self.gutenberg.org/eBooks/WPLBN0100003011-Messenger-of-Bliss-How-Maharishi-Mahesh-Yogi-Set-Off-to-Heal-the-World-by-Zucker-Martin.aspx?" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Messenger of Bliss, How Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Set Off to Heal the World</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, by Charles F. Lutes as told to Martin Zucker, page 4</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The other comes from the story of Maharishi’s stay in Helena and Roland Olson’s Pasadena, California home, then titled “</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hermit in the House</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">:”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stepping lightly were those who lined the tree-shaded walk as early as seven-thirty in the morning, the aspirants who desired initiation. Busy traffic came down the street headed for Wilshire Boulevard, but it was not noticed by the men and women who carried fragrant bouquets of freshly-picked flowers and baskets of luscious fruits. Business men with cancelled appointments, doctors, laborers risking being late to work, housewives and white-collar men and women were among those who swarmed to '433' almost as though they had been called. All were asked not to eat breakfast, to bring offerings of fruit and flowers, a white handkerchief, and a monetary gift.</span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hermit in the House</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, by Helena Olson (1967) page 129
</span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There doesn’t appear to have been any mention of an initiation ceremony in the publications of the time, nothing calling it a </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">or any other name. In “</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hermit</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” there is this description of a </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> which was organized as a going-away gift for Maharishi:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQIqtboB5pjNbBi927et3aJhplVoeXUi_I0hz07vKdglNE6BF0bTIoLILH7wh0jFDqgBHHqozsIVntGbvfRKzJhz_NDSxPCi7JMXND75YCjY7WnsmVeA4bIOxdxujzKM31in9K/s1098/olson+hermit+in+the+house+cover.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1098" data-original-width="726" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQIqtboB5pjNbBi927et3aJhplVoeXUi_I0hz07vKdglNE6BF0bTIoLILH7wh0jFDqgBHHqozsIVntGbvfRKzJhz_NDSxPCi7JMXND75YCjY7WnsmVeA4bIOxdxujzKM31in9K/w133-h200/olson+hermit+in+the+house+cover.png" width="133" /></a></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Maharishi would like a Puja."</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">'Puja' didn't mean anything to me and so we went to Lois. Lois knew about Pujas and took over the arrangements. We learned a Puja was a ceremony held in thanksgiving for some happy occasion. It was both a religious ceremony and a festival.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a Puja, fruit and flowers are offered, and Holy Names of God are recited. Small candles made from sweet butter and cotton are lit by each person to symbolize his own light and each individual offers prayers.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Meditation is silent prayer," said Maharishi. "Audible prayers are also needed. Let us have prayers in all languages."</span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hermit in the House</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, by Helena Olson (1967) page 190</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hermit in the House</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” was later revised and reissued with a new title to avoid any association with hermits, in 1979. The revisions removed any reference to terms no longer used by the organization, most obviously the words “initiation” and “initiate,” and also deleted anything that might run counter to current doctrine, particularly references to religion. This passage was modified to mean that, in India, but presumably, not in the course of TM initiation elsewhere, a puja “is both a religious ceremony and a festival.”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPYMJ1mdPkQp0TgBU7nYkN8Z1v51dg9MLGrxdM6gN2EFiP_T5wSSY5z_kKRA0L-DV4fDQO_WHPHmbdkTEk1Z0Oe7gjYexG9l25tRMyeP-tdsD-0V49KuApXdYC4f5vWMV0An9G/s1095/olson+maharishi+at+433+cover.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1095" data-original-width="757" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPYMJ1mdPkQp0TgBU7nYkN8Z1v51dg9MLGrxdM6gN2EFiP_T5wSSY5z_kKRA0L-DV4fDQO_WHPHmbdkTEk1Z0Oe7gjYexG9l25tRMyeP-tdsD-0V49KuApXdYC4f5vWMV0An9G/w138-h200/olson+maharishi+at+433+cover.png" width="138" /></a></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In India it is both a religious ceremony and a festival. In this Puja a traditional homage is made to Guru Dev and the bestowers of pure knowledge throughout the ages. Fruit and flowers are offered, small candles made from sweet butter and cotton are lit, and each individual offers prayers to God.</span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maharishi at 433,</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Helena Olson (1979) page 161</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is consistent with the obfuscation and word-substitution that Maharishi and the TM organization have indulged in since at least the late 1960’s, in a futile effort to cast Indian traditional religious practices as somehow secular and scientific. These qualifiers on the meaning of a </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, as if such a thing could instantly gain a different, irreligious meaning once transported outside of India, run counter to the essence of those traditions, of what those practices have meant for centuries, and what they still mean for millions today.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3le00GaG-nUyFGSfqshz4VzPnSlOiTQbh_u6_DcrbFsErUM0NPg94jULVE3HYvVbuOLVkxmwVYv-StPKMLvABGvflazgAtebajDbvixblmP57JY16xBPqbacHAb0AjQGWhZtw/s1600/fort+lauderdale+2.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Fort Lauderdale News, February 15, 1968" border="0" data-original-height="677" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3le00GaG-nUyFGSfqshz4VzPnSlOiTQbh_u6_DcrbFsErUM0NPg94jULVE3HYvVbuOLVkxmwVYv-StPKMLvABGvflazgAtebajDbvixblmP57JY16xBPqbacHAb0AjQGWhZtw/w503-h212/fort+lauderdale+2.png" width="503" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yes, those are dollar signs for eyes. February 15, 1968.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p></span></span><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuZkfGaYH_k39Y8iCCsNGNcK0xePPW0A3kB49yuLH9ADJr6yh0TbsuPooysm44MWI_N2TmBaRg0vqZjmjYXDw8HidewGuiHw2XtJKLZUYPoKUItWVy-MV8TP2AV76MKjWzxa-s/s2048/mike+love+article+The_Baltimore_Sun_Thu__May_2__1968_19.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Baltimore Sun, May 2, 1968" border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1522" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuZkfGaYH_k39Y8iCCsNGNcK0xePPW0A3kB49yuLH9ADJr6yh0TbsuPooysm44MWI_N2TmBaRg0vqZjmjYXDw8HidewGuiHw2XtJKLZUYPoKUItWVy-MV8TP2AV76MKjWzxa-s/w181-h243/mike+love+article+The_Baltimore_Sun_Thu__May_2__1968_19.png" width="181" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Baltimore Sun<br />May 2, 1968</td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With the growing prominence of TM in the late 1960’s, the details of the initiation ritual, and the requirement that initiates bring offerings other than money, began to show up in the newspapers. By then Helena Olson, who had hosted Maharishi in her home some years before, was one of the first TM teachers trained by Maharishi to serve in his place, to ensure that more people would be instructed than Maharishi could teach by himself. “There’s a certain amount of ritual involved,” Olson’s assistant is quoted in a Fort Lauderdale newspaper, when informing potential meditators of the need to bring offerings. </span></span></p><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mike Love published a promotional column in May 1968 in connection with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beach_Boys%27_1968_US_tour_with_Maharishi_Mahesh_Yogi" target="_blank">the Beach Boys' disastrous tour with Maharishi - which was cancelled after only three days </a>- describing the difficulty of finding a handkerchief in Paris on a Sunday, before bringing that along with fruit and flowers to his initiation by Maharishi the previous summer.</span></span><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvJR1wwvV1p9E8JTdnFRiP9LHAhgpWzWGZyxNn_xw3__H043f4CAQSwsbH1XEnoZXJvmozTfJ6hLVzOXTzpXGdnfVdcFah2xbpJlWzmNEs-Uelh6UjPJEWVQoh6iT0NVdUV-OX/s2048/spiritual+counterfeits+project+puja+pamphlet+cover+crop.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1738" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvJR1wwvV1p9E8JTdnFRiP9LHAhgpWzWGZyxNn_xw3__H043f4CAQSwsbH1XEnoZXJvmozTfJ6hLVzOXTzpXGdnfVdcFah2xbpJlWzmNEs-Uelh6UjPJEWVQoh6iT0NVdUV-OX/w167-h196/spiritual+counterfeits+project+puja+pamphlet+cover+crop.png" width="167" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spiritual Counterfeits Project<br />pamphlet, early-mid 1970's<br /><a href="http://media.doughney.net/2021/spiritual%20counterfeits%20project%20puja%20pamphlet.pdf" target="_blank">Full PDF</a></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By the mid-1970’s, increasing numbers of evangelical Christians were pointing out the essential Hindu-ness of the TM puja and mantras in newspaper articles, letters to the editor, pamphlets, and a number of books from Christian publishing houses. This apparent backlash may be attributed to efforts to obtain government funding for TM programs, and to introduce TM into environments in which Constitutional protections against government entanglement with religion would apply, such as the military, public schools and prisons. These efforts were concurrent with what might be called TM’s second wave of popularity, enabled by thousands of TM teachers trained in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.</span></span></p><span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It may be said that the TM organization’s response to these challenges was to double-down and retrench itself, holding tightly to the insistence that TM instruction contained no religious elements whatsoever. Brief mentions of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (but not with that label), the offerings, and some of the details of instruction began to be disclosed in some, but not all, of the books written or co-authored by TM teachers. These excerpts are typical of the minimal, if not misleading, disclosure of the meaning and purpose of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, where it’s cynically downplayed if not dismissed as some “ceremony of gratitude.” The first such example that I’ve been able to find, is in the 1975 book co-authored by TM teacher and psychiatrist Harold Bloomfield, with some relevant elements in </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">bold</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">:<br /></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCHQzt-jvIlPpilUJkGxgIZvUfFF9VuHMDC5j80UaNw4lgM1wzY9W-rbXxj7uerakK7Jl3G1TA78vsj6GU4FVrwGyZZIZ0tCM_veIkbxof0yGGLHRbxQ1JSSpvLhU8WbtV-B6E/s1638/tm+bloomfield+cover+crop.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1638" data-original-width="1084" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCHQzt-jvIlPpilUJkGxgIZvUfFF9VuHMDC5j80UaNw4lgM1wzY9W-rbXxj7uerakK7Jl3G1TA78vsj6GU4FVrwGyZZIZ0tCM_veIkbxof0yGGLHRbxQ1JSSpvLhU8WbtV-B6E/w133-h200/tm+bloomfield+cover+crop.png" width="133" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Personal instruction takes place in private with a trained teacher. Through individual instruction, the teacher insures that the student learns the practice correctly. Each person is asked to bring some fresh flowers, fresh fruits and a new white handkerchief to this session. These are used by the teacher in a traditional ceremony which provides a preparation for teaching the technique. The ceremony </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">is not a religious observance</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">, but is simply a guarantee that what the student is about to learn is exactly what has been handed down from teacher to teacher for centuries. This brief ceremony also allows the teacher to express his gratitude to the tradition from which the TM program comes. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;">The student is not asked to participate but only to witness</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p></span><p></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TM: Discovering Inner Energy and Overcoming Stress</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, by Harold H. Bloomfield, et.al. (1975) page 54</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here’s another example, by TM teacher, and later, author of </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">American Veda, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Philip Goldberg:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What's with the fruit and flowers?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You forgot a new white handkerchief. Two or three pieces of fruit (and by “pieces” we don’t mean orange sections or apple slices), at least six freshly cut flowers (no wax flowers, please), and the handkerchief, are used in the ceremony of gratitude. In keeping with tradition we ask the student to supply some of the ingredients. You get most of it back.</span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The TM Program, the Way to Fulfilment</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, by Philip Goldberg (1976) page 70</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another book from around the same time says very little, save for these two sentences:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is no mystery connected with the instruction procedure. It is perfectly straightforward and scientific.</span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TM: An Alphabetical Guide to the Transcendental Meditation Program, by Nat Goldhaber (1976), page 116</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But as has long been obvious, details of the actual method and the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ceremony are supposed to be kept private, and new meditators are still told to keep those details private. The organization seeks to preserve some element of “mystery” by not even using the word “</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja”</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to describe, to prospective meditators, what occurs before instruction. Unless one goes looking through other sources beforehand, the description of what occurs in the initiation room is insufficient to satisfy any modern concept of informed consent.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These practices by TM teachers continue today, unchanged, even while all current TM teachers have been “recertified.” The content of TM instruction has not significantly changed. Descriptions of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> have become longer and a bit more detailed, but the basic points not supportable by the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja’s</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> documented meaning in India continue: that it’s <i>only</i> a “ceremony of gratitude,” that it’s “not religious,” that the TM prospective meditator “does not participate,” that the offerings “symbolize growth and new beginnings,” nothing more.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7jC6OqWFLMiLHWF33zKY_hkD5_-7cu1ktA-_es0CH0Ko1A05LP8BLzAp9nuT9p75n178XCI9wcjxYz8uZQ9uv_1KX9a16FWD2ZYUAIilTXgv8ZUcGvk_VZ-k7GNNSZz8No_4J/s1920/transcendence+rosenthal+cover+smaller.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="1280" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7jC6OqWFLMiLHWF33zKY_hkD5_-7cu1ktA-_es0CH0Ko1A05LP8BLzAp9nuT9p75n178XCI9wcjxYz8uZQ9uv_1KX9a16FWD2ZYUAIilTXgv8ZUcGvk_VZ-k7GNNSZz8No_4J/w133-h200/transcendence+rosenthal+cover+smaller.png" width="133" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For an authoritative example of what is currently, official TM organization doctrine regarding the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, I’ll quote prominent TM teacher and executive director of the David Lynch Foundation, Bob Roth. One recent description, similar to another that’s in his recent book, appears in an appendix to psychiatrist Norman Rosenthal’s 2011 book, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Transcendence.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> It’s notable in that the word “</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” is actually used in a question ostensibly posed to Roth, but in his answer he only calls it a 'ceremony' after his acknowledgement of the question (nor does the word 'puja' appear in any of Roth’s books on TM). </span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here I’ll contrast what Roth writes with what is evident from the explanation helpfully provided by Amlan Dey and his Maharishi school in India.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Question:} What is the “puja” that is done at the beginning of TM instruction?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Roth:] The puja—which is done just once—is a simple, few-minute ceremony of gratitude that the Transcendental Meditation teacher performs just before beginning instruction to thank his or her own teacher and other teachers who came before. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Portions of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> are about gratitude to those who came before. That isn’t its only purpose or meaning, which include, supposedly, placing the teacher in a particular state of consciousness, and making specific offerings to other people or entities who are not present.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Roth:] This ceremony is not religious. It is cultural, a traditional way that meditation teachers prepare to teach. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is an attempt to create an artificial distinction between “religion” and “culture.” It is all of these things: a religious ceremony from a particular cultural tradition. Its content makes it inherently religious.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Roth:] It has a valuable function in that it reminds the teacher that the TM technique is not new or original—and therefore that he or she should not add or subtract anything, but simply transmit the original, effective teaching.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This purpose of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in TM doctrine, with respect to the TM teacher, is not just that of a “reminder.” It is to “tune” the teacher’s “consciousness to the Absolute Being,” that is, to God, before giving the mantra to the meditator. This is confirmation of what, some have said, TM teachers were told during their training: that the process of teaching, through performance of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, puts them into an altered state of consciousness. From the description given in the explanation of the ritual taught in India:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The purpose of the invocation is to tune our active mind, through the memory of the great Masters to the goal of their wisdom, the Absolute and from there pick up the mantra and gives it to the new initiate and through that lead his consciousness to the Absolute.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This means that the Initiator takes his awareness or consciousness to the Absolute Being, brings his awareness to the relative, leads the awareness of the initiate from the relative to the Absolute and trains him to incorporate more and more of the Absolute in his relative life.</span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10603/224749" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Amlan Kumar Dey thesis</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (2017) page 81</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Roth:] The TM student does not participate in the ceremony; he or she only watches, and only this one time. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The truth of this sentence would depend on a rather unorthodox, rigid interpretation of what “participate” actually means. The “student” must bring certain items that are used as offerings to some not obviously present entity in what is undeniably a religious ritual; that is, strictly speaking, by providing items used in the ceremony, some level of “participation” in the ceremony. Holding a flower when asked by the teacher? That also is a small unexpected request, in a system where small requests may advance to larger demands. Being motioned to kneel at the end of the ceremony, before receiving one’s mantra? Sounds like participation to me!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Roth:] Furthermore, traditions of honoring are nothing new to us in the West. In graduating from medical school, each medical student recites the Hippocratic oath, acknowledging the long tradition of healing and the great healers who came before. Likewise, a martial artist bows to his opponent before the engagement begins. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is just distracting, misleading chaff. Last I checked, no medical school ritual involves making offerings to prominent, long-deceased medical figures of the past. Bowing to one’s opponent involves a detail not evident in the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: the bow is directed at an individual </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">who is actually present!</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Roth:] Once I explain this perspective to new meditators, they understand and appreciate what the ceremony signifies: that TM is authentic and that it comes in a pure form from the ancient tradition of Vedic meditation.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This sentence hints at <a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/demystifying-puja-part-1-establishing.html" target="_blank">the phenomenon I discussed in part 1</a>: that one of the actual functions of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is to serve as an expression of power, legitimacy and dominance. “Authentic,” “pure” and “ancient tradition” are all adjectives that are debatable with respect to Transcendental Meditation. TM is an amalgam of bits and pieces of Indian spiritual culture. Even the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was </span><a href="https://www.paulmason.info/gurudev/TMpuja.htm" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">cobbled together from bits of common Sanskrit verse</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and was likely devised by Maharishi himself, since he reportedly once said a few months before he died, “</span><a href="https://www.paulmason.info/gurudev/TMpuja.htm" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I formulated the puja to Guru Dev</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One other obvious bit of evidence, that despite claims of some ancient purity there have been changes over time, is the method of mantra selection. </span><a href="http://minet.org/mantras.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Commonly available lists of mantras used in TM</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> show an evolution from two mantras to as many as fifteen, between 1961 and the mid-1970’s. The selection has always been based on age and sometimes gender; while TM promotional literature has attempted to create mystery around some possibly more complicated method of mantra selection, no such system has ever been identified, disclosed by former TM teachers, or can be derived from any known tradition in India. It, like many other aspects of TM, was likely devised by Maharishi himself, and none of it is evidence of any “ancient tradition.” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Roth:] Utilized in the ceremony are fresh fruit, fresh-cut flowers, and a white cloth, all of which symbolize growth and new beginnings.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The symbiology of these items is quite a bit different in the Indian explanation of them, and is very specific in associating each of them with a “silent demand” for a particular benefit of TM practice.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Roth:] The ceremony is in Sanskrit and involves saying the names of the great meditation teachers of the past. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It also involves a great deal more, including the recitation of names associated with Hindu or Vedic divine figures, including Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Roth:] This is the way Transcendental Meditation was taught thousands of years ago, and that it is how it has been taught to the six million people who have learned the technique during the past fifty years.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is no specific evidence that this method of teaching and practicing meditation, in its entirety as a system or program, is anything other than a creation of the founder of Transcendental Meditation, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It borrows many elements from Indian spiritual culture of potentially ancient origin, but this particular amalgam, its particular set of mantras and the selection of them, and even the arrangement of the verses of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> itself are a unique creation. The TM organization may persist in creating the illusion that every aspect of what it offers is that of an “ancient tradition,” but there is no concrete evidence, from other sources outside of the organization, that that is so.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When considering the insistence by Bob Roth, and other TM teachers, that the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is nothing more than a “ceremony of gratitude” having no connection to religion or having any other purpose, I think it’s worthwhile to consider the hothouse environment in which TM teachers are grown, how they’ve acquired what they know about TM or the culture that it came from, and how they often avoid sources of information that conflict with what they were taught; they’re conditioned to regard information from those outside sources unassociated with Maharishi to be, by definition, false, corrupted or untrustworthy.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s a rather revealing passage in the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Malnak v. Yogi</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> district court opinion, in which Jerry Jarvis, who was then the president of the TM organization in the United States, denied all knowledge that the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was anything other than a “ceremony of gratitude” and denied knowing anything about the meaning of the word or what a </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> might be outside of TM initiation.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Defendant Jarvis states in an affidavit that it is his personal understanding that the puja is merely a ceremony of gratitude to the tradition of past teachers and that similar ceremonies are performed in a number of secular contexts in India. While the court of course accepts these statements as accurate reflections of defendant Jarvis' personal understanding, the court also must note that defendant Jarvis made no claim of knowledge in the matter of Indian customs. ... Defendant Jarvis, when asked if he knew what the Sanskrit word "puja" meant, replied, "[n]o, I don't know what the word `puja' means except to interpret it as a ceremony of gratitude." ... Directly on the heels of this reply, defendant Jarvis was asked if he were familiar with any puja "other than the one that is performed by the teacher at the time that a mantra is assigned." … Defendant Jarvis answered: "No." ... In his affidavit, defendant Jarvis also states that he believes that only "3 or 4 ex-teachers" of the more than 7,000 TM teachers in the United States believe that the puja has religious significance. </span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5388567843432021194&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr#p1310" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Malnak v. Yogi, 440 F. Supp. 1284 - Dist. Court, D. New Jersey 1977</span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> at 1310</span></a></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Keeping in mind that Jarvis was under oath for this deposition, we can take these statements in one of two ways: that he really had no prior knowledge of Indian spiritual culture before encountering TM and hasn’t sought out any knowledge of that culture outside of the Maharishi-approved sources since, or, having been initiated as a TM teacher, his reality simply does not allow him to entertain any other sources of that kind of information. In other words, sources outside the TM organization are filtered, and information of the type that contradicts things believed to be absolutely true inside the TM organization is filtered to the point of nonexistence.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This behavior reflects what I’ve been informally told of what TM teachers experienced during the six months or more of their training, often isolated in locations foreign to them far from their homes. In those environments, they were given very few details about the puja and its significance beyond the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">mantra</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of a “ceremony of gratitude,” and certainly no information about what a </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">might mean outside of the TM cultural bubble. TM teachers were given basic answers for likely questions that they might receive about the initiation process from outsiders or prospective meditators, sticking closely to the “party line:” that the ceremony was entirely secular in nature, and that no aspect of TM, anywhere, including from the organization’s perspective, constituted religious belief.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is also apparent, as I laid out in part 2, that TM teachers were given different explanations of the meaning of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> itself from those that are known in India, and likely, have been known among members of Maharishi’s inner circle for decades. But the average TM teacher need not know those versions that exist in TM’s homeland, and from what can be reconstructed from former teachers’ memory and what documents exist, they were deliberately not told about those more explicit meanings. It was only necessary, from Maharishi’s and the organization’s view, that they know just enough to unhesitatingly recite the Sanskrit verses and go through the motions exactly as they were instructed; they might as well be robots running through programmed words and movements. From the perspective of the underlying epistemology of Maharishi’s sect, that is sufficient, both to impart TM to individuals and to supposedly bring about global change through large numbers of individuals practicing TM. They evidently believe that effectiveness, of both the technique itself and of the method of initiation, is not dependent upon belief, but upon a practice which ultimately carries religious meaning whether any teacher or meditator believes it or not, speaking, performing or thinking each detail exactly as they were instructed.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As is apparent from these descriptions of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> provided by Bob Roth and others, two of the points of doctrine drilled into TM teachers, and many meditators, are right there in his description and are actually reinforced in the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: “that he or she should not add or subtract anything, but simply transmit the original,” and “that TM is authentic and that it comes in a pure form from the ancient tradition of Vedic meditation.” This is usually known by the phrase “purity of the teaching.” TM teachers, and to some degree meditators, are discouraged from practicing other techniques, and consider all other such methods inferior if not illegitimate. The overwhelming attitude, despite minimal evidence to support such claims, is that Transcendental Meditation and everything with the “Maharishi” brand are a pure and authentic form of Vedic wisdom newly discovered or cleansed by Maharishi, and that everything else from any other source must be disregarded if not completely ignored. This attitude underlies many aspects of the behavior and attitude of TM teachers and promoters, including their unwillingness to begin to understand the nature of what they teach and, among other things, its inherent religiosity.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thus, the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and the way it has been described by TM teachers for the past 50 years or more is another example of the degree to which the TM organization, from its founding by Maharishi through to today, is based on a series of fundamental misrepresentations of its purpose and methods, as the New Jersey court decided. People who grossly misrepresent themselves in the course of selling their product should never be trusted, and the organization’s unwillingness to adapt, up to and including attempting to defend its obvious misrepresentations in court, should disqualify TM and the TM organization from affiliation with any legitimate institution in which informed consent is valued.</span></p><br /><p><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/introduction-demystifying-puja-3-part.html" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Return to the Introduction</b></a></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/demystifying-puja-part-1-establishing.html"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Part 1: </span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Establishing authority and dominance over the meditator</b></span></span></a></span></span></p><b style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/demystifying-puja-part-2-religious.html">Part 2: A religious transaction with the divine</a></b><br /></span></div></div></div>Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-81420464482124747202021-02-28T19:48:00.016-05:002021-03-08T20:44:43.857-05:00Demystifying the Puja, part 2: A religious transaction with the divine<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Transcendental Meditation organization has consistently misrepresented the meaning and nature of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, TM's instruction ritual, for half a century. Recently, a new document has surfaced explaining, in detail, the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">'s meaning in the context of the spiritual traditions of India. This ceremony is a religious transaction in which the prospective meditator is a co-participant, making offerings to the divine. These offerings are represented by the items set out on the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> table, for each of which, it’s alleged, the meditator will receive a blessing in the form of the advertised benefits of TM. These offerings include the fruit, flowers and handkerchief brought by the meditator.</span><p></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-5d591374-7fff-dc48-b230-da823ab73f88"><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/introduction-demystifying-puja-3-part.html">Read this series from the beginning - Introduction.</a></i></span></b></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP1YWJdyriid66PzoBSYrOjAB8hd-_jkgLkH0XExUYgX0SpBKj4qBoecVyN3QEnFFB1GVlRo9FsVZGP1_slnTojxamwyBWR5gSY_AOgRtDRm3Wni2px_2sb4z-rIPaC7-3hVG8/s2048/IMG_20191115_153157.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP1YWJdyriid66PzoBSYrOjAB8hd-_jkgLkH0XExUYgX0SpBKj4qBoecVyN3QEnFFB1GVlRo9FsVZGP1_slnTojxamwyBWR5gSY_AOgRtDRm3Wni2px_2sb4z-rIPaC7-3hVG8/s320/IMG_20191115_153157.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the TM <i>puja</i> offerings.<br />Photo by the author</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><p><i><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/demystifying-puja-part-1-establishing.html"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Previously, part 1 of this series: </span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Establishing authority and dominance over the meditator</b></span></span></a></i></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The inclusion of this ritual, and the organization’s unwillingness to ever remove the ritual in certain settings where it has been problematic such as public schools, completely invalidate their claims that TM practice, including its teaching, is entirely secular and scientific in nature. The TM organization and its teachers have evidently always falsely insisted, to the point of absurdity, that the ritual is not religious because there is no explicit object or deity of worship. But that is not the only measure by which a practice may be considered religious. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ritual, according to the interpretation taught in TM movement schools in India, involves an exchange of value with a divine entity as a required means of gaining benefit from the method the meditator is about to learn. There is nothing secular nor scientific about this performance, and that is true even if the participant has no knowledge or understanding of what is taking place. The specious claim that the prospective meditator need only witness the performance of the ritual, or that it is only to “honor” an alleged tradition and its history of teachers, is negated by both the requirement that the meditator bring certain items to be used in the ritual, and the meaning of the ritual to the organization and its insiders, as is clear in this new document: that it is performed for the new meditator’s eventual benefit.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><br /></span></p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Controversies about the religious aspects of Transcendental Meditation, and the litigation that has resulted from attempts to introduce TM into public schools in the United States, have always involved this </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, that has always been performed by TM teachers as part of meditation instruction. But after all these years, has it ever been made clear, why this ritual is performed? Why have prospective meditators always been instructed to bring fruit, flowers and a handkerchief with them when they’re to be taught TM? What is the complete story of the intended meaning or function of this ritual? Why do TM teachers insist that the meditator need only witness what the teacher is doing, when that is, evidently, a misrepresentation of how a </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is understood in Indian culture?</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The TM organization regards the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as an essential part of TM instruction and practice. Most recently, in <a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2020/08/lawsuit-in-progress-david-lynch.html" target="_blank">the current lawsuit brought against the David Lynch Foundation (DLF), University of Chicago and Chicago Public Schools (CPS)</a> in response to the so-called “Quiet Time” program to introduce TM into schools there, an October 2019 memo revealed that the DLF would not budge when they were asked to remove the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">from their TM teaching program. <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/86m7te6tnun6u3j/019-2%20board%20of%20education%20response%20exhibit%202%20tm%20removed%20memo.pdf?dl=0" target="_blank">This memo, written by a CPS executive and distributed to Chicago public schools upon the discontinuance of the “Quiet Time” Transcendental Meditation program there</a>, stated:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">DLF confirmed that the TM programming does include a ceremonial/ritual element at the beginning and DLF was not amenable to removing the ceremony component from their programming.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="http://www.minet.org/Documents/Puja-translation" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A translation of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, similar to that given to TM teachers during their training, was part of the record in the first, 1<a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5388567843432021194&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr" target="_blank">977 Federal case involving the teaching of TM in public schools, Malnak v. Yogi</a>, which resulted in an injunction against the teaching of TM in public schools in one region of the United States, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=969246082363008637&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr" target="_blank">later upheld on appeal</a>. What doesn’t appear in that translation is the explanation of the meaning of every aspect of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Of particular importance is the explanation of the significance of the items which are part of the offering sequence, three of which, the fruit, flowers and handkerchief, are brought by the prospective meditator. (I’ll refer to the prospective meditator as the “initiate” here, since the process used to be called in the early days of the TM movement, “initiation.”) Other offerings are part of the set provided by the TM teacher.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">essentially has three parts. The first, which likely is the source of the claim that the ritual is only performed to honor a tradition and past teachers, is the invocation of the “Holy Tradition,” in which devotion is expressed to a series of gurus who have, according to Maharishi and others of his sect, passed down the knowledge of how to meditate over the course of centuries. The third, final portion is the “Pushpanjalim,” or offering of flowers (brought by the initiate), which can be interpreted as an offering both to one’s own, or Maharishi’s, guru, and to “Brahma the creator,” “Lord Vishnu, the maintainer of creation,” “Lord Shiva-the destroyer of ignorance,” and the “ultimate eternal source of all.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But of particular significance is the second, middle part, in which a series of offerings are made. Three of those offerings are the fruit, flowers and handkerchief brought by the initiate. The fact that these offerings are provided by the initiate is the first clue that the insistence by representatives of the TM movement that the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is merely witnessed by the initiate is a misrepresentation of what occurs, or that they are being less than forthcoming about the intent of the ritual.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the difficulties in discussing the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, beyond the translation that is a part of the court record, is that an authoritative version of “The Holy Tradition,” their title for the full written explanation of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and the name by which they refer to the tradition they believe is the source of TM, has until now been difficult to find. If anything, in the West every aspect of TM instruction, including the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, has been closely held if not considered a secret, as the students in Chicago have said. TM initiates are told not to divulge to others what occurs during TM instruction, and in recent years a nondisclosure agreement has been part of the process. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some TM teachers were given “The Holy Tradition” document in the form of a booklet or typewritten sheets. For many years <a href="http://minet.org/www.trancenet.net/secrets/puja/tradt.shtml" target="_blank">a partial scan and transcription of a 1970’s version of that booklet has been available online</a>, and I have in my personal collection an early, typewritten and duplicated, version. In recent years, on a website that appears to have been provided by anonymous TM devotees in India, a more complete version has surfaced of uncertain origin. In India, of course, there is no secrecy or obfuscation of </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pujas</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and other such rituals, they’re simply part of the spiritual/religious landscape there, as is true of other religious rituals such as Christian altar calls or Catholic masses are commonly known and publicly discussed elsewhere in the world.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmyr4S9Yk6DyXYLh95zZSCi_UwX6-HWFwXxY18uKWoxxRiNLd9_0pM76kqq5mNwrFoJpXWq7uj4B1O-WTJ783KCpbpmxOly_MnNLw8x-OyTp-V8Soa1N0MJJscxiYIyTl1_7kt/s686/amlan+dey+with+diploma+february+2020+crop.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="686" data-original-width="540" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmyr4S9Yk6DyXYLh95zZSCi_UwX6-HWFwXxY18uKWoxxRiNLd9_0pM76kqq5mNwrFoJpXWq7uj4B1O-WTJ783KCpbpmxOly_MnNLw8x-OyTp-V8Soa1N0MJJscxiYIyTl1_7kt/s320/amlan+dey+with+diploma+february+2020+crop.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Amlan Dey in February 2020<br />(Facebook)</td></tr></tbody></table></span><p style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We now have access to an authoritative copy of “The Holy Tradition,” thanks to a teacher at one of the Maharishi organization’s schools in India. Amlan Dey, who since 2008 has been a teacher at the TM movement’s Hindu or Vedic parochial schools, Maharishi Vidya Mandir in Aligarh and <a href="https://mvmguwahati-1.org/facultyList.mvm" target="_blank">Guwahati</a>, </span><a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10603/224749" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">wrote and submitted a thesis in support of a PhD in Education in 2017</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> which included a complete copy, as it has been distributed there, of “The Holy Tradition.” This thesis is available online and can be freely downloaded, and there’s no question that this text has been written by an employee of the TM organization in India who is in a position to provide an authoritative version, which <a href="https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/224749/4/12.%20chapter-4.pdf#page=43" target="_blank">he refers to, in the context of the school in which he works, as the “School Prayer.”</a> Indeed, <a href="https://youtu.be/phFqMQjVkic?t=282" target="_blank">there are videos online in which students in these schools recite or perform this </a></span><a href="https://youtu.be/phFqMQjVkic?t=282" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">together at school events.</span></a></span></p><span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since this version is native to India, where such rituals are part of the cultural landscape, it obviously hasn’t been edited to avoid offending Western secular or Christian sensibilities, or to remove any suggestion that it’s intended to be something more than some vaguely honorific symbolic “Vedic performance of gratitude,” or in the words of one TM marketer, a “secular-type </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” How a traditional religious ceremony can be made to be “secular” is never quite addressed by TM teachers, nor is an explanation given as to why that might be necessary. This raises an interesting question: what were TM teachers in the West told about these aspects of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">during their training? Having been essentially sworn to secrecy, and having to rely on decades-old and possibly unreliable memories for most, who had slightly different experiences in different teacher training courses, it’s difficult for outsiders to get a clear, detailed picture of exactly what TM teachers are, or have been, taught.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a means of comparison, I’ve obtained a copy of the handouts that TM teachers, in the world outside of India, were given on a training course in the early 1970’s. One page of those handouts describes in very vague terms the meaning of each of the offerings used during the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, while the document from India elaborates in some detail what the significance of each item is believed by them to be. That significance of each item is particularly relevant, as each item represents a “silent demand,” a nonverbal petition, for the blessings of specific benefits of meditation, using the terminology that is commonly used inside the TM movement to describe each particular beneficial aspect.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The most notable difference between the Indian and Western interpretations, other than the obvious “silent demands,” is the passiveness of the language in the version that was given to TM teachers. The Western explanations primarily define what the offering symbolically represents, but not why that symbol is present, or what function it serves in the ritual. In contrast, this aspect of the explanation from India is very specific: the offering that is a symbol of some quality, being made by or on behalf of the initiate, is used to make a request to divine or godly figures, for a specific benefit of value, or blessing.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Given the insistence that the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> cannot be divorced from TM instruction, I believe we may conclude that this series of offerings, at the point of initiation of the new meditator, is integral to TM, and, since it is part of how an individual is instructed, it should never be considered something separate from an individual’s meditation practice. I also think that, though this detail may never have been explicitly explained to most TM teachers, the offerings in this ritual may be likened to making a purchase of TM’s effectiveness from the “source of total knowledge” that is the impersonal, God-like cosmic intelligence at the center of most TM doctrine. For those who are in a position to know, this series of exchanges made on behalf of every new meditator, along with<a href="http://minet.org/www.trancenet.net/secrets/mantras.shtml" target="_blank"> the traditional associations with godly figures attributed to the TM mantras</a>, is likely to be one of the reasons why they believe TM to be more effective than any other meditation technique or method of “self-realization.” It follows that they would believe that any other technique offered without the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> would be inferior, because, whether they were knowingly made or not, these “silent demands” for benefits were never made by, or on behalf of, the prospective meditator.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the following, for each element of the offering, I’ve first listed the Sanskrit text and its previously disclosed English translation in </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">italic text</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and numbering the seventeen offerings (some are repeated). That’s followed by the interpretation of the offering that was given to Western TM teachers during their training in the early 1970’s in plaintext, and the current interpretation as taught in the TM movement’s schools in India in </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">bold text.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Also highlighted in </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">red text</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> are some of the many euphemisms used in the TM culture, as secular-sounding terms that all mean the same thing: supreme divinity, the source of everything, including thought. (More details on those many synonyms may be found in my earlier article, </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2020/09/maharishis-many-euphemisms-for-god.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maharishi’s many euphemisms for God.</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) Finally, a video of Maharishi’s nephew, Girish Varma, is linked from the description of each offering, at the point in the video where that offering occurs.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Update, March 3, 2021: Four additional "silent demands" are named in yet another slightly different version of this "Holy Tradition," those portions are in <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">blue text</span>.</b> See the update at the end of this post.</span></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><hr /><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNiTzV2YID93WrwAG-VOXOG2bA_ePf_bOAU4UfK00v1Ix6w7EBEsl-d_reBeFLPI5m-6uYJeLTDsYVPiEhfFvEsT2sxUCt89dwcPMeLON1zD9NBWi8_OrlvANSYjAe1NeEj_C8/s1059/offering+1+crop.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="794" data-original-width="1059" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNiTzV2YID93WrwAG-VOXOG2bA_ePf_bOAU4UfK00v1Ix6w7EBEsl-d_reBeFLPI5m-6uYJeLTDsYVPiEhfFvEsT2sxUCt89dwcPMeLON1zD9NBWi8_OrlvANSYjAe1NeEj_C8/s320/offering+1+crop.png" width="320" /></a></div></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-eb9af27f-7fff-5ab4-a00a-4d53d4b75209"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Avahanam- samarpayami Shri Gutru charana kamalebhyo namah</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[1: Offering the invocation to the lotus feet of Shri Guru Dev, I bow down]</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">This offering of the invocation to the great Masters of the Holy Tradition brings a lively awareness of eternal wisdom.</span></p></span><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It means that offering an invocation to the lotus feet of </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shri Guru Dev</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, one bows down</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://youtu.be/7cWJupBBZtI?t=1296" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Video of this portion of the offerings</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Each offering ends with the Sanskrit word “namah” - to bow down. “Lotus feet” is a metaphor, meant to honor the ‘guru’ as a source of spiritual knowledge. “Guru Dev,” the name for the recipient of these offerings, is popularly understood to be the nickname of Brahmananda Saraswati, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s guru. But it is not only that, as is indicated at other points in the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and elsewhere. Since such gurus are also understood, by devotees, to be incarnations of God, “Guru Dev” is also a simultaneous reference to the Hindu/Vedic concept of supreme divinity: the </span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/trimurti-Hinduism" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trimūrti</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the triad of deities of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the maintainer, and Shiva the destroyer. This interpretation has been described by Maharishi himself, </span><a href="https://press-conference.globalgoodnews.com/archive/september/07.09.04.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">in an address delivered in 2007</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">; here I have emphasized in </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">bold</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the relevant parts:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are fortunate to perform Puja to Guru Dev because in Guru Dev we have the reality of Krishna—reality of Total Knowledge is embodiment of Total Knowledge. "Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnur, Guru Devo Maheshvarah, Guruh Sakshat Param Brahma, Tasmai Sri Gurave Namah." </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Guru Brahma—Guru is the creator. Guru Vishnu—Guru is the maintainer. Guru Devo Maheshvarah—Guru is eternal Shiva, absolute silence.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> And Guru Sakshat Param Brahma, and Guru is the summation of the three, diversity, and unity. Tasmai Sri Guruve Namah. That is why we bow down to Guru Dev. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bowing down to Guru Dev is in essence, in reality, subjecting ourself to that eternal unified state which is the be-all and end-all of existence.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As an aside, this is also a good example of the novel word-substitution common in the TM organization, which attempts to use secular or scientific language to reframe, or sanitize for Western audiences, Hindu or Vedic concepts. What is traditionally referred to as the </span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/trimurti-Hinduism" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trimūrti</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is here renamed “that eternal unified state” which is reminiscent of the attempts by Maharishi and others to add credibility and a scientific-sounding veneer to TM and its underlying doctrines by connecting it with some thus far speculative amalgam of unified field theory, quantum physics, and Vedic descriptions of human consciousness.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The portion of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> which follows this series of offerings, the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Pushpanjalim</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> or offering of flowers, begins with the line which Maharshi quotes: “Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnur, Guru Devo Maheshvarah.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maheshvarah </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is another of the many names for Shiva.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><hr /><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiBN1Parog8DZyzppYD-nLLvyQjHGiYtEyjN_smuHzSj_4nXSTu59eB0MDHR2P9uQFGtUKHOW1c7LjyigEEXRDvMqPqrzqoFkK5o3N2fxQ4vBE_jJWexnDead3Ezc3MVu4U-D2/s1061/offering+2+crop.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="796" data-original-width="1061" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiBN1Parog8DZyzppYD-nLLvyQjHGiYtEyjN_smuHzSj_4nXSTu59eB0MDHR2P9uQFGtUKHOW1c7LjyigEEXRDvMqPqrzqoFkK5o3N2fxQ4vBE_jJWexnDead3Ezc3MVu4U-D2/s320/offering+2+crop.png" width="320" /></a></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-9d72f954-7fff-1c27-0c09-be4ca24c7a08"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Asanam- samarpayami Shri Gutru charana kamalebhyo namah</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[2: Offering a seat to the lotus feet of Shri Guru Dev, I bow down]</span></p></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This offering symbolises the immoveable seat of life in Being. In offering this seat we feel </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">stabilised in the immovability of Being. Offerings on this firm basis are actions to fulfil cosmic purpose.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Offering a seat to Guru. A proper delicate etiquette and in humbleness a seat is offered to the Guru. The expression of the devotion starts with the offering of the seat, because it provides a basis to the action of devotion. The silent demand of this offering of the seat is for permanent establishment of life on that immortal and immovable basis of </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">eternal Being</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://youtu.be/7cWJupBBZtI?t=1306" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Video of this portion of the offerings</span></a></p><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here the Western and Indian interpretations begin to diverge, with the version from India containing an explicit petition for the experience that they propose to be at the root of Transcendental Meditation. The “immortal and immovable basis of eternal Being” is another term for </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2020/09/maharishis-many-euphemisms-for-god.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">what I previously described as the Hindu/Vedic concept of supreme divinity</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The prospect of having a direct experience of that supreme divinity by way of meditation is first on the list of “silent demands” as, according to TM doctrine, all other benefits of TM derive from that alleged direct experience, essentially, of God.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These quotes from Maharishi’s 1963 book, “Science of Being and Art of Living,” offer his definition of “eternal being” and </span><a href="https://www.tm.org/blog/meditation/the-nature-of-being/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">they may be viewed on the current tm.org website</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Being is the ultimate reality of all that exists; It is absolute in nature. Everything in the universe is of a relative order, but eternal Being, the ultimate life principle of unmanifest nature, expresses itself in different forms and maintains the status quo of all that exists. The absolute and relative existence are the two aspects of eternal Being; It is both absolute and relative.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“…The Science of Being not only postulates a theory of one absolute element at the basis of the entire creation but also provides a systematic way whereby any man may have direct experience of the essential nature of transcendental, absolute Being.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“…The process of bringing the attention to the level of transcendental Being is known as the system of Transcendental Meditation.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This “demand” implied through this offering transcends the individual, as the “establishment of life” may also refer to the TM movement’s goal of planetary transformation through the universal practice of Transcendental Meditation, that is, that all “life” would exist “on that… basis of eternal Being.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><hr /><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG80bJXvU6QzsZmZbDra_OuBg2nPM4g5m5GLqzDlCCM5hLWhOeoOgsroMmS81CRgFC78ZMBuBtf4zx5usXTx6992TCwTdZAHtiwM2zCfvIb1MlDdHasBqut3-KNZPLecTJBoZ1/s1070/offering+3+crop.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="799" data-original-width="1070" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG80bJXvU6QzsZmZbDra_OuBg2nPM4g5m5GLqzDlCCM5hLWhOeoOgsroMmS81CRgFC78ZMBuBtf4zx5usXTx6992TCwTdZAHtiwM2zCfvIb1MlDdHasBqut3-KNZPLecTJBoZ1/s320/offering+3+crop.png" width="320" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-da8fcdcb-7fff-9c9e-3e2c-0a46debb9fed"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Snanam- samarpayami Shri Gutru charana kamalebhyo namah</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[3: Offering an ablution to the lotus feet of Shri Guru Dev, I bow down]</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">This offering·of an ablution symbolises the refreshing omnipresence of pure consciousness.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We offer water for bathing or washing the feet of the Guru. The silent demand of this offering is for a cosmic bath in </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">eternal Being</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://youtu.be/7cWJupBBZtI?t=1316" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Video of this portion of the offerings</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since the prospect of experiencing “eternal Being” is at the core of TM doctrine, it’s unsurprising that it’s mentioned directly three times in the course of these offerings, and indirectly referred to several more times. Here it is in the form of a “cosmic bath.” This could be understood as a metaphor that implies a desire to attain their proposed state of “Cosmic Consciousness,” in which “</span><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43853469?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the field of pure consciousness, the "Self," becomes a permanent and unshakeable experience</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” This also implies that this experience is one of purification, explicitly mentioned later among these offerings.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><hr /><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieDXdxVgiG9typBAJbw2V7bLKTN1_Zy_U-h1dTYN_qJxrg0D1-aiwtM98qP3xGTa4AtU2BIKvSdHsk8-UNSnx_8eYOhv3AMUO6_c4YR09CCvZeZ9ZiFHEH63SVRLjPD6Fgvf1W/s1068/offering+4+crop.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1068" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieDXdxVgiG9typBAJbw2V7bLKTN1_Zy_U-h1dTYN_qJxrg0D1-aiwtM98qP3xGTa4AtU2BIKvSdHsk8-UNSnx_8eYOhv3AMUO6_c4YR09CCvZeZ9ZiFHEH63SVRLjPD6Fgvf1W/s320/offering+4+crop.png" width="320" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-ef3ca2f1-7fff-5a9e-9cf1-cd4e8917bc43"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Vastram- samarpayami Shri Gutru charana kamalebhyo namah</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[4: Offering cloth to the lotus feet of Shri Guru Dev, I bow down]</span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This offering of cloth symbolises the garment of all-pervading Being.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After washing the feet we offer a cloth for drying. The silent demand of this offering is for the garment of </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">immortal Being</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which will serve as a permanent armour for protection of life.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://youtu.be/7cWJupBBZtI?t=1327" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Video of this portion of the offerings</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The offering of a “cloth” is that of the handkerchief brought by the initiate. The third direct reference to “Being” metaphorically associates it with a garment, or armour of protection. As with earlier offerings, there is an ambiguity here between the personal and the global meaning of “life.” The goal of Maharishi’s movement has always been planetary transformation, beyond any personal or individual benefit. The implied desire is for an “</span><a href="https://maharishi-programmes.globalgoodnews.com/vedic-defence/programmes.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">invincible armour of defence</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,” both for the individual, and, through the so-called “Maharishi Effect” allegedly produced by way of substantial numbers of people practicing TM, “</span><a href="https://www.globalcountry.org/wp/national-invincibility/maharishis-philosophy-of-world-peace/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">invincibility for every nation</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” Thus the handkerchief brought by the initiate is symbolic of the intent to wear, as a garment, the “armor of God,” which is, ironically, also referred to in a popular Bible verse (</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armor_of_God" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ephesians 6:11</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">).</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><hr /><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXUEGEuLK7e7VSA3mZ4_Crbwpao_PcIjTmTAycwpUumUFX2onhhMoZj8BYidTVSxqhJsOtX3lF1AKvhYa20BGaZS2Fh3TjmQtYXg8CRourIGXqee7ncY1XMAcpHWMxymxJWE4y/s1068/offering+5+crop.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="801" data-original-width="1068" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXUEGEuLK7e7VSA3mZ4_Crbwpao_PcIjTmTAycwpUumUFX2onhhMoZj8BYidTVSxqhJsOtX3lF1AKvhYa20BGaZS2Fh3TjmQtYXg8CRourIGXqee7ncY1XMAcpHWMxymxJWE4y/s320/offering+5+crop.png" width="320" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-6894fbf9-7fff-d8d8-8e6e-502007254e50"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Chandanam- samarpayami Shri Gutru charana kamalebhyo namah</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[5: Offering sandalpaste to the lotus feet of Shri Guru Dev, I bow down]</span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This offering of sandal paste spreads some pleasant cooling influence in the atmosphere.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Having provided a bath and having cooled the atmosphere, an offering of sandal paste to maintain the coolness. The silent demand of this offering is for the permanent infusion of that ever freshening influence of tranquility from </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the Transcendent</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://youtu.be/7cWJupBBZtI?t=1337" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Video of this portion of the offerings</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is a petition for both the subjective experience of meditation and one of its purported benefits. Tranquility, by various synonyms, is both the sensation that many report during meditation and a benefit said to be the result of Transcendental Meditation practice. It is often referred to as “</span><a href="https://tm-women.org/strength-in-stillness/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">stillness</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” or a “</span><a href="https://tm-women.org/the-power-of-silence-unplugging-for-the-holidays-2/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">field of silence</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” One research paper, co-authored by Maharishi International University faculty, described it this way:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0278262617300635?dgcid=api_sd_search-api-endpoint" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When one learns Transcendental Meditation a trained teacher systematically leads you to the experience of inner silence, tranquility, peace, and transcendence.</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As is true of many of these terms used in TM culture, there’s a free association between the subjective experience of “quietness” and “silence” and the assumption that that experience is that of the “field of pure consciousness” or “eternal being.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><hr /><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDR1pLkId63JmJkAaPVIDwe5ADtTpHvPXq941mcTgyXmFwVRcd-t9RqlkI_PCv55uEsAphsA4pIyxgpVsgnobxD4z8d2Ah8sZdlTyiQm9spbXff1UXIogwJpk09kypSWDVxpdN/s1061/offering+6+crop.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="796" data-original-width="1061" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDR1pLkId63JmJkAaPVIDwe5ADtTpHvPXq941mcTgyXmFwVRcd-t9RqlkI_PCv55uEsAphsA4pIyxgpVsgnobxD4z8d2Ah8sZdlTyiQm9spbXff1UXIogwJpk09kypSWDVxpdN/s320/offering+6+crop.png" width="320" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-7bc6bf9a-7fff-41d6-3733-455f8e60dbbe"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Akshatam- samarpayami Shri Gutru charana kamalebhyo namah</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[6: Offering full rice to the lotus feet of Shri Guru Dev, I bow down]</span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This offering of fuil rice symbolises the fulness of' eternal life.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It means offering a full unbroken rice to the lotus feet of the Guru. When such an offering of unbroken of full rice is made to the Guru, it is an offering of fullness of life, heart and mind both at the same time. The silent demand is for the unbroken state in the </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">fullness of life</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://youtu.be/7cWJupBBZtI?t=1348" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Video of this portion of the offerings</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Fullness of life” is a particularly common piece of jargon in TM culture, and as with other terms it has a dual meaning, both as yet another term for “creative intelligence” and as a benefit or experience most obviously equated with success in life. Thus this is another petition for a specific result from meditation practice. From the TM movement’s retrospective volume, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thirty Years Around the World,</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> page 193:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Contrary to common understanding, no withdrawal from the responsibility of life is needed to gain enlightenment, to integrate the inner fullness with the outer fullness. Every person is born to enjoy 200 per cent of life: material and divine. Direct contact with </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Being, the inner fullness, is the basis of all success and glory of outer life.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><hr /><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkeqbniyscVd7Jq7EOmAkBWCeYzohNjMRvNw6B5EaKP_uehYYzlzIr_7WS6eKMUwguF90EjX3NwjuAsDigAyr-fYRRlGGTwvNWBErqG_QVjpBxwIlgoPefDDWzEVRad__YftTj/s1063/offering+7+crop.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="796" data-original-width="1063" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkeqbniyscVd7Jq7EOmAkBWCeYzohNjMRvNw6B5EaKP_uehYYzlzIr_7WS6eKMUwguF90EjX3NwjuAsDigAyr-fYRRlGGTwvNWBErqG_QVjpBxwIlgoPefDDWzEVRad__YftTj/s320/offering+7+crop.png" width="320" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-224cd1bf-7fff-ae33-486b-109d33e0d31f"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Pushpam- samarpayami Shri Gutru charana kamalebhyo namah</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[7: Offering a flower to the lotus feet of Shri Guru Dev, I bow down]</span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This offering of a flower symbolises the full bloom of life.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Next flowers are offered at the feet of the Guru. Flowers are the expression of the fullness in nature. There are two aspects to a flower- the outer(beauty) and the inner(essence or nectar). Offering the flower has the significance of the solicitation for outer pleasures of life and also the nectar within, i.e., the </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Transcendental Bliss</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The silent demand is for gaining 200% of life.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://youtu.be/7cWJupBBZtI?t=1358" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Video of this portion of the offerings</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The flowers are the second of the three offerings provided by the initiate. “200% of life” is another common bit of TM jargon. Maharishi, as far back as 1964, equated that term with “cosmic consciousness,” one of the “seven states of consciousness” central to TM doctrine which follows from a regular experience of “transcendental consciousness” during meditation. Again, this expresses a wish to attain a specific “state of consciousness” from which all other positive results attributed to Transcendental Meditation are said to spring. From </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thirty Years,</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> page 582, Maharishi speaking in 1964:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Two hundred per cent of life is cosmic consciousness. Realization of God means realizing that which presides over 200% of life. He who presides over 200% of life means He who presides over absolute, eternal Being and He who presides over all the infinitely expanded cosmos, from its subtlest strata to its grossest strata. And the supreme state of God-realization is that state where one can realize the expression of the inexpressible Absolute on the level of the senses. The supreme state of God consciousness is that in which the inexpressible Absolute is experienced on the level of the unmanifest sensory expression.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><hr /><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPX7Jrb1XRu6-E2I3LGNoG5vRBstm0lVIWC3pH0OS-iWI-oEU3iiN9nmnvSJCPExsHwGobJj7QtQe6sXeOpShNjfvcLCc6fghh_d8Q74-uV9e7QceTrZwmgE0PkkkQf844EPIy/s1063/offering+8+crop.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1063" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPX7Jrb1XRu6-E2I3LGNoG5vRBstm0lVIWC3pH0OS-iWI-oEU3iiN9nmnvSJCPExsHwGobJj7QtQe6sXeOpShNjfvcLCc6fghh_d8Q74-uV9e7QceTrZwmgE0PkkkQf844EPIy/s320/offering+8+crop.png" width="320" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-bbcdff96-7fff-1835-2a21-b133ae03f3a9"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Dhupam- samarpayami Shri Gutru charana kamalebhyo namah</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[8: Offering incense to the lotus feet of Shri Guru Dev, I bow down]</span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This offering of incense symbolises the sweet fragrance of purity.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here we offer incense to the feet of the Guru. The fragrance of the incense purifies the atmosphere and creates some pleasantness within. The offering of incense spreads in the air a silent demand for inner and outer </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">purity of life</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://youtu.be/7cWJupBBZtI?t=1369" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Video of this portion of the offerings</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Purity of life” also has a dual meaning, here suggested by “inner and outer.” “Purity” and “purification” are frequent themes in TM doctrine. “Creative intelligence,” their term for supreme divinity, is always viewed as a sanitary, purifying influence:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Creative intelligence is clean and purifying.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Purity of life results from these qualities of creative intelligence.</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Science of Creative Intelligence for Secondary Education, Three Year Curriculum,</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> page 83</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Purity of life” may also be directly synonymous with “creative intelligence,” as Maharishi has stated.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is a state of consciousness. That means if our consciousness is pure and is in tune </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">with that purity of life which is pure intelligence, then we are able to enjoy more, we are able to create more, we are able to understand more.</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Meditations of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> page 34</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Pure” in the TM cultural context is understood as having a nervous system free of stress, and thus the individual experiences the benefits of regular meditation, approaching the direct experience of supreme divinity, or “Cosmic Consciousness.” “Purification” refers to the elimination of stress through the ongoing practice of TM. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Self-purification is also an integral part of Transcendental Meditation, as it is expressed by the principle of </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">purification of the path</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. As the mind proceeds towards the experience of pure creative intelligence, stress is spontaneously eliminated, the nervous system is purified, and thus, the evolution of consciousness is facilitated.</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://issuu.com/pstokstad/docs/miu_catalogue_1974-75" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">MIU catalogue 1974-75</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, page 175</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All of these aspects are assumed benefits of Transcendental Meditation. As with all the rest of the offerings, the use of incense is a silent gesture, a petition to divine intelligence for another of the benefits or blessings associated with regular practice of TM.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><hr /><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3bCqJRb-A1YO37x1UE3eIhr-Gof72xUCs-4kx9uZp9BNxuwpEBejWAvy6v5suP0X4vgOzNKnyLJICtsS-BX_cBHVDt4nr4maRHyH-Ess8B90J72hI3HVlpX5-_vuKPuzYKRuG/s1067/offering+9+crop.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1067" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3bCqJRb-A1YO37x1UE3eIhr-Gof72xUCs-4kx9uZp9BNxuwpEBejWAvy6v5suP0X4vgOzNKnyLJICtsS-BX_cBHVDt4nr4maRHyH-Ess8B90J72hI3HVlpX5-_vuKPuzYKRuG/s320/offering+9+crop.png" width="320" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-9656df46-7fff-b2e8-19b3-bf6174a2dc6a"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Deepam- samarpayami Shri Gutru charana kamalebhyo namah</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[9: Offering light to the lotus feet of Shri Guru Dev, I bow down]</span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This offering of light brings the light of wisdom to dispel all ignorance.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Next is offering of light at the feet of the Guru. Ghee flame is the mildest type of flame. The offering of light is a petition for the light of wisdom to dispel the darkness of ignorance, the light of </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Absolute Consciousness</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. It is a silent demand for </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pure consciousness</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to enable us to have that </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">light of eternity</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> kindled in our life.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://youtu.be/7cWJupBBZtI?t=1380" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Video of this portion of the offerings</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s important to note here that “knowledge” and “wisdom” have skewed meanings in TM culture and are quite a bit different from their common meanings. They aren’t associated with learning or the gathering of information over time; they’re instead implying that regular contact with the divine “source of thought” through meditation, silently with one’s eyes closed, imparts infinite knowledge and wisdom to the meditator. The state of “ignorance” is a life lived without meditating, without some direct contact with that divine “source of thought,” or without having experienced that alleged “state of consciousness” that, they say, is the product of Transcendental Meditation.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><hr /><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Achmaniyam-samarpayami Shri Guru charan kamalebhyo namah</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[10: Offering water to the lotus feet of Shri Guru Dev, I bow down]</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This offering of water softens the atmosphere.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>During the offering of the light we may have made the atmosphere warm, so we must cool it again as an apology in case we have unconsciously offended. This is before the offering of food, so that the air will be pleasant and cool. The silent demand is for an eternal basis to the means of maintaining life.</b></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj0qgzM_uMNHuboaPkS5cbsC4mzC5I5JAjAdPTTV9LY3FzxRIapMHYI6a7n0hDKnYhYGhuzytd3IrTY6oqRjK6pclQIKilQsY90qOKOyBoO-GEN4-hM7YGrhHGyNMpfEZ1VDuf/s1069/offering+11+crop.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="802" data-original-width="1069" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj0qgzM_uMNHuboaPkS5cbsC4mzC5I5JAjAdPTTV9LY3FzxRIapMHYI6a7n0hDKnYhYGhuzytd3IrTY6oqRjK6pclQIKilQsY90qOKOyBoO-GEN4-hM7YGrhHGyNMpfEZ1VDuf/s320/offering+11+crop.png" width="320" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-45e4ca07-7fff-1d42-49f7-e1da64e70dcb"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Naivedyam-samarpayami Shri Guru charan kamalebhyo namah</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[11: Offering fruit to the lotus feet of Shri Guru Dev, I bow down]</span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This offering of fruit symbolizes the state of fulfilment. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>This symbolizes the offering of food, presenting a silent demand for a plentiful life.</b></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Achmaniyam-samarpayami Shri Guru charan kamalebhyo namah</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[12: Offering water to the lotus feet of Shri Guru Dev, I bow down]</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This offering of water brings the flow of life in fulfilment. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Here we offer water for a drink after the food. The silent demand is for a continuous stream of fulfillment.</b></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjial8_uenNEghl_1kL4zvrXhzpFSKC2dJHWuYORAQMwHxIAIp78bTg5zIMgTOu2QNzgLvL5OjuyaN2eDomtl9kPixQ-jUcayodvG_TyGfRs449f4Pwr0cTNx6SbI7LerAMpk61/s1057/offering+14+crop.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="793" data-original-width="1057" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjial8_uenNEghl_1kL4zvrXhzpFSKC2dJHWuYORAQMwHxIAIp78bTg5zIMgTOu2QNzgLvL5OjuyaN2eDomtl9kPixQ-jUcayodvG_TyGfRs449f4Pwr0cTNx6SbI7LerAMpk61/s320/offering+14+crop.png" width="320" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-8d7e8da1-7fff-8a65-2de4-5562ea38467d"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Tambulam-samarpayami Shri Guru charan kamalebhyo namah</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[13: Offering a betel leaf to the lotus feet of Shri Guru Dev, I bow down]</span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This offering of a betel leaf brings freshness, purifying the abode of speech.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Here we offer betel leaf as a means of purification. The silent demand is for achieving and maintaining a state of absolute purity of life in pure awareness.
(footnote: In India people chew betel leaf after meals in order to purify the mouth.)</b></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shriphala- samarpayami Shri Guru charan kamalebhyo namah</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[14: Offering a coconut to the lotus feet of Shri Guru Dev, I bow down]</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This offering of the complete fruit presents the fulness of life, unmanifest and manifest. The entire field of manifest life, gross, subtle and subtlest is represented by the husk or outer covering, the kernel or meat of the fruit, and the milk or inner essence. The Transcendental value of life is symbolised by the self-contained, unmanifest space within. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>The coconut represents the complete fruit presenting the fullness of life, the unmanifest abstract Absolute and the manifest field of the three gunas.</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>The husk (outer covering), the kernel (central portion) and the milk (inner juice or essence), present the entire field of the three gunas. This offering is a silent demand for the completeness of life.</b></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is about offering water and fruits at the feet of the Guru. The offering is a petition for fulfillment of nutrition of positive thoughts towards achievement of </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Absolute Consciousness</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. It is a silent demand for </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pure consciousness</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to enable us to have a conscience which is virtuous towards the realities of life.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://youtu.be/7cWJupBBZtI?t=1392" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Video of this portion of the offerings</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The fruit presented here in this sequence of offerings is the last of the three items provided by the initiate. This description is an allusion, through the metaphor of nutrition, to one of the alleged benefits of TM known to those familiar with more esoteric aspects of TM culture: the claim that TM practice will result in virtuous behavior through what they call “spontaneous right action.” </span><a href="https://excellenceinaction.globalgoodnews.com/07-june/june-4.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here is how that is explained on a TM organization website:</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One gains the spontaneous ability to think, speak, and act correctly, in a way that brings the best response from one’s surroundings. Maharishi refers to this ability as ‘spontaneous right action’. Maharishi is fond of quoting a verse from the ancient Vedic Literature, Rk Veda, which describes spontaneous support of Nature in one’s undertakings: ‘For those established in self-referral consciousness, the infinite organizing power of the Creator becomes the charioteer of all action.’ </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have just seen that the most effective means for gaining success is through knowing one’s Self through practising Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation Technique. Then all thought, speech, and action spontaneously attracts positivity and support from one’s surroundings.</span></p><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><hr /><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8uACTVynHNLBc74ssC4H4S8t303I9roVEa5NmaU6ciAVd7N2tC-6j7qrcIA_veS-PKX9oRTZzPCMmLWOtPG1R7rqZ5ccotl55I9WEspY3HzHWVDYvvFYapVTgUaBPBGzenRo3/s1069/offering+15+crop.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="802" data-original-width="1069" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8uACTVynHNLBc74ssC4H4S8t303I9roVEa5NmaU6ciAVd7N2tC-6j7qrcIA_veS-PKX9oRTZzPCMmLWOtPG1R7rqZ5ccotl55I9WEspY3HzHWVDYvvFYapVTgUaBPBGzenRo3/s320/offering+15+crop.png" width="320" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-de2e0a55-7fff-f782-7fc5-786142749ac7"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Ararkityam-</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[15: Offering camphor light]</span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This offering spreads the light of life. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The offering of light presents a silent demand for </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Supreme Knowledge</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> which only results from destruction of ignorance. While offering the light the presiding deity of knowledge, the destroyer of ignorance, Lord Shiva, is upheld in mind and heart.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the camphor flame, camphor burns without smoke and without leaving any residue. It burns free from any stain of darkness. This signifies the celestial light of pure Satwa, which forms the basis and the material for the world of angels. It is the finest field of creation, yet in the relative sphere. The silent demand is to give us the celestial field of life to live in God Consciousness. When our consciousness is infused by celestial experience, then life is lived in the light of God. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;">... The silent demand is, "Give us the celestial field of life to live." Where? In God-consciousness. When our consciousness is infused by celestial experience, then life is lived in the light of God. The silent demand is for God-consciousness. With this as a situation we say:</span> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[sung next verse follows below]</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://youtu.be/7cWJupBBZtI?t=1449" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Video of this portion of the offerings</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The lighting of the camphor, a bright burning light, has been known to be rather memorable and startling to TM initiates. There’s a fascinating dichotomy, between the brevity of the seven word description of this moment taught to Western TM teachers, and the more extensive explanation from the Indian document. It represents not just a “light of life,” but Satwa (or Sattwa), which in TM movement context means “inherent purity,” “coherence” or is yet another synonym for supreme divinity, “Being.” All of which would justify interpreting “camphor light” as symbolic of the “light of God.” </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From Maharishi’s initial text, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Science of Being and Art of Living,</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> comes this knot of TM jargon tying all these terms together which appear in this explanation of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, tying all of life to a divine supreme being or impersonal force metaphorically connected with “light:”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Life is the Light of God, the expression of Divinity. It is divine. It is the stream of eternal Being, a flow of existence, intelligence, creativity, purity and bliss.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Life is unity on the basis of the absolute and eternal unity of life. On the surface of eternity we are mortal beings in an ever-changing phenomenal existence.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Life is unity in God-consciousness. It is multiplicity in the Light of God. Life is absolute in bliss-consciousness and relative in the variety of phenomenal joy.</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Science of Being and Art of Living (1976 edition), </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">page 69</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“God Consciousness” referred to here is one of the so-called “seven states of consciousness,” four of which they say, are related to practice of TM - transcendental, cosmic, God, and unity consciousness. Again, in TM culture, this is an expected benefit, and source of benefits, of regular practice of TM practice. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><hr /><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH3fpf1mvV4uKsFp8EBMUwBOO9E9eh00iou4p9e0gjXM0dnE7SOlbI8IesY1H6sVMesGOmbcmrpCthqrFIs73EVq2LSiorbmnFz_V_DyF33eflAGaTFFDqsem15rTmCFiM7Nqd/s1069/offering+15-2+crop.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="801" data-original-width="1069" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH3fpf1mvV4uKsFp8EBMUwBOO9E9eh00iou4p9e0gjXM0dnE7SOlbI8IesY1H6sVMesGOmbcmrpCthqrFIs73EVq2LSiorbmnFz_V_DyF33eflAGaTFFDqsem15rTmCFiM7Nqd/s320/offering+15-2+crop.png" width="320" /></a></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-25349b59-7fff-f0a8-0571-b1aed906f859"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Karpura-gauram karuna-vataram samsara-saram bhuja-gendra haram</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[Sung: White as camphor, the incarnation of kindness, the essence of creation garlanded by the Serpent-King.]</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Sada vasantam hridayara-vinde bhawam bhawani sahitam namami</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[Sung: Ever dwelling in the lotus of my heart, Lord Shiva with Mother Divine to Him I bow down]</span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">BHAJAGA is the serpent, the devourer which puts an end to the expression of individual life, and INDRA is a ruler among the gods. When combined into BHUJAGENDRA HARAM, the phrase refers to.BRAHMAN, the Absolute, depicted as wearing the garland of destruction. The BRAHMA SUTRAS refer to this in the words: ATTA - devourer, CHARACHAR - the animate and inanimate, and GRAHNAT - on account of the power of accepting, possessing or taking in. The devourer of the whole animate and inanimate creation through the power of accepting, possessing and assimilating - BRAHMAN.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I circulate the camphor I feel the light of life spreading. The light of life is: white as camphor, kindness incarnate, the essence of creation. In the words “I bow down” I feel myself diving into the depths of the cosmic creative intelligence which enlivens cosmic life.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">White as camphor, the incarnation of kindness, the essence of creation, garlanded by the Serpent King ever dwelling in the lotus of one’s heart, the Lord Shiva with Mother Divine-to him, one bows down.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This verse adores Gurudev in the glory of Lord Shiva. The role of Guru Dev for the individuals is the same as the role of Lord Shiva for the entire creation.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lord Shiva has the forces of destruction at his command in order to destroy evil so that the creation may be maintained in all its purity and the forces of evolution may work without resistance and the desire of the great Lord may be fulfilled.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Guru Dev has the light of wisdom to destroy the darkness of ignorance and lay open the field of life to purity for highest evolution in the </span><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Supreme Knowledge</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of Unity.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Serpent-King (Bhuja-gendra), who stands as personification of death for everyone, is found as a garland around Lord Shiva’s neck-death not only adores Him, but also serves as a means of adornment to Him. As Master of all the forces of destruction, even all devouring death symbolized by the serpent king adorns His person. He is the destroyer of all that is damaging to life.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hence one bows down to Lord Shiva with Mother Divine, always dwelling in the lotus of one’s heart because the essence of manifested life is duality. Duality can only signify the field of relative life, so when one petition’s for gaining the unity of life, one does so the Almighty Lord and his inseparable power which is responsible for duality.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://youtu.be/7cWJupBBZtI?t=1453" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Video of this portion of the offerings</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These are two slightly different interpretations of this verse. In the somewhat obfuscated version taught to Western TM teachers, the fact that what is being described is an act of adoration or worship is not directly explained, substituting “Brahman” for “Shiva” which are considered identical in certain Hindu traditions. The Indian version is much clearer about the ultimate meaning of the ritual, solely referring to Shiva, and clarifying the references to “Guru Dev” as a personification of divinity and a focus of adoration: </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This verse adores Gurudev in the glory of Lord Shiva. The role of Guru Dev for the individuals is the same as the role of Lord Shiva for the entire creation.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The camphor light is symbolic of the “essence of creation,” Lord Shiva. This final petition is to gain the “unity of life,” and that petition is being made to the “Almighty Lord,” Shiva, through the symbolic use of a flame and the motions made with that flame in the hand of the teacher.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Acknowledgement of Shiva’s power as “the destroyer of all that is damaging to life” is emphasized by mentioning that even the personification of death, the “Serpent-King,” Bhuja-gendra, also referred to as Vasuki, worships him while serving as a garland around his neck.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><hr /><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Arartikyam samarpayami Shri Guru charan kamalebhyo namah</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[16: Offering light to the lotus feet of Shri Guru Dev, I bow down]</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Achmaniyam samarpayami Shri Guru charan kamalebhyo namah</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[17: Offering water to the lotus feet of Shri Guru Dev, I bow down]</span></p><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In this flow of feeling we offer light and then water</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After this light is offered and then water to cool the atmosphere again, at the feet of Guru Dev.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://youtu.be/7cWJupBBZtI?t=1480" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Video of this portion of the offerings</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Offerings of candle light and water form a transition to the next segment of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the offering of flowers.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><hr /><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To summarize what transpires during this portion of the puja, here is the sequence of the offerings and quotes of the “silent demands” or petitions for the benefits of Transcendental Meditation associated with each of them.</span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A seat: </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The silent demand of this offering of the seat is for permanent establishment of life on that immortal and immovable basis of eternal Being.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Water: </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The silent demand of this offering is for a cosmic bath in eternal Being.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cloth: </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The silent demand of this offering is for the garment of immortal Being, which will serve as a permanent armour for protection of life.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sandal paste: </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The silent demand of this offering is for the permanent infusion of that ever freshening influence of tranquility from the Transcendent.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rice: </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The silent demand is for the unbroken state in the fullness of life.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Flower: </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The silent demand is for gaining 200% of life.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Incense: </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">… a silent demand for inner and outer purity of life.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Light: </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">… a silent demand for pure consciousness to enable us to have that light of eternity kindled in our life.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Water: </span><b style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The silent demand is for an eternal basis to the means of maintaining life.</b></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Fruit: </span><b style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">... a silent demand for a plentiful life.</b></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Betel leaf: </span><b style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">... for achieving and maintaining a state of absolute purity of life in pure awareness.</b></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Coconut: </span><b style="color: #2b00fe; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">... a silent demand for the completeness of life.</b></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Water, fruit, betel leaf, coconut:</span></p></li><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="2" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: circle; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">… a petition for fulfillment of nutrition of positive thoughts towards achievement of Absolute Consciousness. </span></p></li><li aria-level="2" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; list-style-type: circle; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">… a silent demand for pure consciousness to enable us to have a conscience which is virtuous towards the realities of life.</span></p></li></ul><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Camphor light: </span></p></li><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="2" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; list-style-type: circle; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">… a silent demand for Supreme Knowledge which only results from destruction of ignorance.</span></p></li><li aria-level="2" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; list-style-type: circle; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The silent demand is to give us the celestial field of life to live in God Consciousness.</span></p></li><li aria-level="2" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; list-style-type: circle; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">… when one petition’s for gaining the unity of life, one does so [to] the Almighty Lord and his inseparable power </span></p></li></ul></ul><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, here is a concise description of the kind of </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that is common in India, and the purpose that it serves in Hindu/Vedic spiritual culture there. This excerpt is from a religious studies textbook. Clearly many aspects mentioned here are present in the TM </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, beginning with the presentation of gifts before an image of a deity, or in this case, a deceased individual widely believed to have been a personification of a deity. In India, these gifts are offered to supreme divinity with the conscious, informed expectation that those who do so will gain some benefit from this devotional ritual. But in the TM instruction context, any ethical imperative to obtain informed consent from individuals who are about to participate in a ritual with a clearly religious purpose is disregarded by the TM organization with the assumption that the meditator need not be concerned with that detail at all.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><br /><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMef03QtTDryoZUGB86BHZp7-Hq_HcUofNUpHDLEHt0Ry0l2bmjyNmbft-3Cd4SIue86jFr6Wz_VOYeAVPnH7C6Fv-04HdAnQQB2r4lIU62IxWTFQDNo6Cp-0I1C_14SlWapM5/s1829/contemporary+hinduism+cover.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1829" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMef03QtTDryoZUGB86BHZp7-Hq_HcUofNUpHDLEHt0Ry0l2bmjyNmbft-3Cd4SIue86jFr6Wz_VOYeAVPnH7C6Fv-04HdAnQQB2r4lIU62IxWTFQDNo6Cp-0I1C_14SlWapM5/s320/contemporary+hinduism+cover.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=hMPYnfS_R90C&pg=PA114#v=onepage" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: pre;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Contemporary Hinduism:
Ritual, Culture, and Practice</span></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">As noted earlier, in puja a worshiper presents gifts before the image of a deity. These gifts can include flowers, fruit, money, or the body of an animal sacrificed for the deity. Such worship can occur at a home shrine on a regular basis, usually in the mornings, or at a temple attended by priests. In larger temples, that portion of the gift remaining with the deity and his priestly attendant becomes a part of the temple’s holdings, and it is used to prepare food or offerings distributed to pilgrims. In the home the entirety of the offering is usually consumed by the family with some sense of reverence for the gift the deity has returned. Performing puja in public temples on a regular basis is one of the most common forms of active devotion many Hindus will enact.
</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">These simple, straightforward, small-scale acts of puja exchange are for many Hindus a constant reminder and sign of the rhythm and comfort that can become the source of a life of reassuring devotion. Part of the power in these acts is that they place the worshiper squarely in a position to “make deals” with particular deities: to address deities directly, to offer them gifts they are understood to “need,” and to derive benefits from this interaction. These are not inconsiderable benefits for the person seeking some sense of relationship with a purer and more powerful source of beneficence.</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">William Harman, “Hindu Devotion,” in </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=hMPYnfS_R90C&pg=PA114#v=onepage" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Contemporary Hinduism: Ritual, Culture, and Practice</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, page 114</span></p></li></ul><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the final part of this series, I’ll present some examples of how the TM movement has, for half a century, deliberately misled the public about both the nature of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ritual and the reason that they insist that it’s an essential part of instruction in Transcendental Meditation practice.
</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Update, March 3, 2021: A version of the "Holy Tradition" that is substantially identical to that in Anand Dey's thesis was published as an appendix in "Transcendental Misconceptions" by R.D. Scott, a book published in 1978. Scott was a former TM teacher and his version, which he called the "Initiator's Manual," is attributed to Maharishi's "Academy of Meditation" at what was then his Rishikesh, India ashram. This copy includes additional "silent demands" which were omitted in Dey's thesis version (inserted above in <b><span style="color: #2b00fe;">blue text</span></b>), and other than a few minor edits, and three pages at the end which relate the 'Tradition' to the then-Spiritual Regeneration Movement, the entire text is otherwise identical. Scott writes that he received his copy in late 1970 from Maharishi himself during a teacher training course in Estes Park, Colorado.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><p><b style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/03/demystifying-puja-part-3-misleading.html">Continue to Part 3: Misleading everyone for decades about this ritual’s true nature and purpose</a></b></p><div><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/introduction-demystifying-puja-3-part.html" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Return to the Introduction</b></a></div><p><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/demystifying-puja-part-1-establishing.html"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Part 1: </span></b></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Establishing authority and dominance over the meditator</b></span></span></a></span></span></p><p><br /></p>Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-45764087992897732912021-02-24T23:05:00.003-05:002021-03-08T20:35:30.598-05:00Demystifying the Puja, part 1: Establishing authority and dominance over the meditator<div style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Transcendental Meditation instruction ritual, the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, is much more than just some “simple thank-you ceremony.” Its most important purpose is that it provides a certain unusual experience to the new meditator, of reverence and devotion, that they will remember. It’s intended to create an expectation for, and to reinforce the supposedly life-changing benefits of, the meditation itself. It is an expression of power, legitimacy and dominance of an inherently supremacist religious tradition over the new meditator, and also serves as a reminder of that dominance and authority to the TM teacher. </span></b></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-c6927f89-7fff-ec63-9d6f-e0de79dd7d9b"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKVZIQ5vaRSlmsnWwX5kanqmBZUYM22O00uMpNkl4ZLLVrsYoxnT8HkGqUCYFGRtRHfXpdIN6ibdUOQyZOkkghPNjTTaYnK5MRy3a3ezvEo-u8woSdbi8vLmF0_-AFx4jKL-Ly/s2048/IMG_20191115_180642.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKVZIQ5vaRSlmsnWwX5kanqmBZUYM22O00uMpNkl4ZLLVrsYoxnT8HkGqUCYFGRtRHfXpdIN6ibdUOQyZOkkghPNjTTaYnK5MRy3a3ezvEo-u8woSdbi8vLmF0_-AFx4jKL-Ly/s320/IMG_20191115_180642.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The brass tray used in the Transcendental<br />Meditation <i>puja.</i> <br />Photo by the author.</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/introduction-demystifying-puja-3-part.html">Read this series from the beginning - Introduction.</a></i></span></b></div><div><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>The </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, in my opinion, serves two purposes that are not clearly disclosed to new meditators beforehand. The first purpose, in my view, is that it’s intended to establish a certain kind of imbalanced power dynamic between the TM hierarchy and the new meditator, who I will call the “initiate” as that, and calling the instruction process “initiation,” were the historical terms used by TM teachers during the height of TM’s popularity in the 1970’s. I believe that “initiation” is actually a more accurate term for the process of TM instruction, as aspects of the closed-door, supposedly private process in which a “secret” </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">mantra</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is imparted to the meditator, are analogous to the kind of induction ritual common among fraternities or secret societies.</span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is performed after the prospective meditator arrives to be instructed in this form of meditation, but just before they are given an allegedly personally selected </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">mantra</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, that’s simplistically chosen by the teacher on simple criteria of gender and age. It’s at this point in the 6 day long TM instruction process that a subtle bait-and-switch becomes evident. TM is sold as if it were any other skill that involved an instructor: the initiate simply pays to learn something they would otherwise not know. But there are other elements inherent to TM instruction, geared toward making the “initiate” - not simply a student - into a devotee of an allegedly centuries-old “tradition” that was exemplified by a deceased, divine “Guru Dev,” whose image is a central element of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> setting. The ritual and the rhetoric surrounding it places the initiate as something other than a customer or trainee. The initiate’s position is that of submitting to some higher authority, which is cast as being the present representative of some ancient tradition.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span></span></p><a name='more'></a></span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The <i>puja </i>is one expression of the deliberately ambiguous nature of the interpersonal relationship between the TM teacher and initiate. </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_models_theory" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Relational models theory</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which proposes four innate, culturally universal models of human relationships, provides a tool through which the TM instruction process may be viewed. The two models of interest here are dominance (formally titled “Authority ranking”) and reciprocity (titled “Equality matching”). The entire business of TM promotion and teaching hinges on an ambiguous melding of these models. The reciprocity of a consumer relationship between the TM organization and the meditator is the public face: spend some time with us, pay our fee and learn TM much as one would learn any other skill. The expression of dominance is hinted at in some of the introductory material, but it is expressed directly and personally through the performance of what is clearly a devotional ritual, to reinforce the absolute supremacy of the organization, its teachers and the doctrine inherent to what it offers.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since very little is revealed about the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to the initiate beforehand, there is usually an element of surprise when the initiate enters the room and encounters the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> table, where the fruit, flowers and handkerchief that they brought with them has been placed on a brass tray, surrounded by a number of unfamiliar items, a lit candle, burning incense, and the image of Guru Dev above it all. This is by design; by one account, Maharishi himself has allegedly said, the element of surprise is important for ensuring a smooth and deep initiation experience. This tableau, with clear religious connotations for many people, is sprung without warning on the prospective meditator, at that moment of expectation when they are about to finally learn the technique, have paid their fee and are emotionally invested in going through with it, and are least likely to decline instruction based on the unfamiliarity of, or their discomfort with, what they’re now seeing. That element of surprise, of being placed off balance, can be viewed as similar to other initiation rituals in many diverse subcultures, where the mystery of not quite knowing what comes next often creates not just anxiety, but a sense of awe, wonder and reverence.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in Indian spiritual culture is commonly understood there to be a devotional ritual and in that culture’s context, there is no secrecy surrounding such things; in fact, videos can be found online in which the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is performed in public at the TM movement’s Hindu parochial schools that are now scattered throughout India. In contrast, in the West, meditators are told to keep the details of TM initiation, and their </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">mantra</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, private, and what is to occur, beyond the conveyance of a </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">mantra, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is explained beforehand in vague terms if at all. The meaning and function of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is very likely to be unclear to the initiate who has had no prior exposure to Indian spiritual culture, and it’s performed in a language almost certainly not understandable by the initiate. But everything else expressed in it - every precise, practiced motion of the teacher, the requirement to bring fruit, flowers and handkerchief as part of the offerings, a sung hymn of praise, the invitation to bow at the end - all wordlessly convey reverence toward some higher, perhaps divinely sanctioned, authority. It also makes clear that TM instruction is intended to represent something larger than one’s own meditation practice. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As is more explicitly revealed after TM initiation, </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/19970217165655/http://www.trancenet.org/secrets/checking/3day3.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">including in the third night’s followup session</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the implied intent of TM instruction, beyond that of meditation, is to initiate devotees who will incorporate the world-transforming mission of TM into their own lives, through both meditating and contributing wealth and labor to the organization, toward the cause euphemistically referred to in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lynch_Foundation" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the DLF’s full name: creating “world peace.”</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (Celebrity endorsements and recommending TM to friends and family should be considered part of that ‘labor.’)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The fact that TM initiates are likely subtly influenced by the performance of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, along with exposure to all of the other content of the followup sessions over the subsequent three days after initiation, is to my knowledge never controlled for in the research methods that have been used to study TM’s alleged benefits. The personal changes and even physiological changes are always attributed to the meditation practice itself, and not to everything else that is part of the initiation process and follow up, much of which clearly constitutes coaching to produce an expectation that there will be positive effects from TM practice. The simple act of joining an organization which apparently speaks from the authority of an alleged ancient tradition, and that has a global mission to change the world in supposedly positive ways, may also have, in and of itself, positive effects on many people in the same way religious conversion is felt by many to have positive effects on the individual - often self-reported claims that also may not quite hold up to serious scientific scrutiny. Even the brief experience of awe and reverence during the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ceremony may have profound effects for some people, </span><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/shouldstorm/202101/awe-the-instantaneous-way-feel-good-and-relieve-stress" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as has been hinted at in recent exploratory research</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every aspect of TM initiation should be considered as having been placed there deliberately by the founder of TM, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi; nothing about it should be considered irrelevant details. All aspects of it have meaning and purpose from the perspective of the organization, and for that reason TM teachers were taught in very precise ways what should be said and done throughout the entire process, from the introductory lecture through the so-called meditation “checking” routine. It is reminiscent of what may have been originally practiced in Hindu sects in India for centuries if not millennia - primarily, I think, to condition young men to lifelong, full-time commitment to a spiritual tradition, likely as resident of an ashram. Through trial and error, those “</span><a href="http://minet.org/steps.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Steps to Initiation</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” were found to be adaptable and effective in a Western context, in which a significant number of people who were originally seeking some relief from everyday “stress” could be made to practice TM, to unquestionably accept the organization’s doctrine, and to support the organization and its goals, often for many years if not for the rest of their lives.</span></p><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja’s </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">role as an initiation ritual to provide a particular experience to the new TM meditator is only half of the story. From the perspective of the organization and its founder, the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> has an essential function from the perspective of its Hindu, or more specifically, the Vaishnavite (Shiva-focused) tradition. This belief holds that offerings made by or on behalf of devotees, to supreme, divine beings of that tradition, result in benefits to that devotee. In this context, the offerings made during the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> during TM initiation are believed to result in the eventual benefits of TM practice. Without those offerings those benefits are not assured, and this belief is consistent with the organization’s insistence that TM is a uniquely effective meditation practice. This aspect of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is explored in detail, in the next part of this series.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/demystifying-puja-part-2-religious.html">Continue to Part 2: A religious transaction with the divine</a></b></span></span></p><p><b style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/03/demystifying-puja-part-3-misleading.html">Part 3: Misleading everyone for decades about this ritual’s true nature and purpose</a></b></p><p><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/introduction-demystifying-puja-3-part.html" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Return to the Introduction</b></a></p>Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-48666948700573348852021-02-22T23:00:00.008-05:002021-03-08T15:08:36.071-05:00Introduction: Demystifying the Puja, a 3 part series<p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Transcendental Meditation instruction ritual, the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, establishes for new meditators the dominance and authority of TM’s founding tradition and organization, and satisfies a traditional religious belief that the benefits of TM will only come by way of a tangible offering made to the primary, supreme divine beings of Hinduism. In an effort to maintain an illusory image of TM in which it’s a scientific, evidence-based practice having no religious foundation, TM teachers always misrepresent the purpose and nature of this aspect of TM. They deny this ritual’s religious origin and nature, it is in fact central to the teaching and practice of TM, and it is much more than what they call it, “a simple thank-you ceremony.”</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-c1113555-7fff-17ff-5918-5080563b6070"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioUPD-EQ9kJFjGZcnCV_jk2E-4g0XqYE6SdLHlDd52UqKCy67IwH0fhdNIB74q5VwIteL02sPUD0p7tt1-0Kk870NSZrJhY1FZwQFhIsB9KCIFceGPylAESOMe5LYVCFZu91Ye/s829/camphor+flame.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="829" data-original-width="673" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioUPD-EQ9kJFjGZcnCV_jk2E-4g0XqYE6SdLHlDd52UqKCy67IwH0fhdNIB74q5VwIteL02sPUD0p7tt1-0Kk870NSZrJhY1FZwQFhIsB9KCIFceGPylAESOMe5LYVCFZu91Ye/s320/camphor+flame.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Camphor flame, part of the <i>puja.</i><br />Photo by the author.<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Instruction in the practice of Transcendental Meditation always involves the performance of a ritual, an expression of devotion that’s clearly of a religious nature. This </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is rooted in Hindu or Vedic spiritual practice, of the religious culture of India which is the source of everything associated with TM and its founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The presence of this </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> as well as other religious aspects of TM, a religiosity that’s consistently denied by TM teachers and the organization, once resulted in an injunction prohibiting TM instruction in public schools in one region of the United States. A case currently active in Chicago seeks a similar outcome in the aftermath of a program that attempted to offer TM in public schools there.</span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Given the controversial nature of this ritual, TM teachers and promoters of Transcendental Meditation have always avoided describing it in any detail when discussing the process of teaching TM. They insist that TM is “not a religion” while the culture that surrounds TM and its teaching are saturated with a sanitized, irreligious at first glance, Hindu, or Vedic, doctrine. In a futile attempt to squelch free and public discussion of these aspects of TM instruction, TM teachers tell meditators not to discuss any aspects of personal instruction, including this ritual, with friends and family, while many of these details have been available online for almost three decades. <a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-transcendental-meditation-teaching.html">A nondisclosure agreement has also been a part of TM instruction for many years.</a></span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Meanwhile, recent disclosures in the course of a lawsuit brought against the David Lynch Foundation (DLF) and other parties involved in an attempt to introduce the TM program in Chicago public schools indicate that that <a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2020/08/lawsuit-in-progress-david-lynch.html">the DLF and the TM organization refused to teach TM without the inclusion of the </a></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2020/08/lawsuit-in-progress-david-lynch.html">puja</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2020/08/lawsuit-in-progress-david-lynch.html"> when instructing public school students</a>. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><br /></span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This insistence on inclusion of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ritual raises the question: if it’s just “</span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=z_UxDwAAQBAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&lpg=PP1&dq=strength%20in%20stillness&pg=PA52#v=onepage&q=ceremony&f=false" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a simple thank-you ceremony</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,” which is what prominent TM teacher Bob Roth calls it in his most recent TM promotional book, why is it so important to the DLF and the TM organization, that it always must be performed as part of each and every instance of TM instruction, in the presence of the prospective meditator? Supporters of TM have been known to ask exactly this question, assuming that were the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to be omitted, TM’s popularity would be enhanced and a valid objection would be dealt with. There has never been, to my knowledge, a clear explanation addressing this matter provided by the organization.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In my opinion, there are two primary reasons for the presence of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja. </span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first apparent reason for a required </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is that it provides a certain experience to the new meditator that they will remember, intended to reinforce the supposedly life-changing benefits of the meditation itself. It also serves as a memorable point of transition, its intent being that an individual joins a worldwide movement, with a self-image more akin to that of a devotee receiving some allegedly precious esoteric knowledge than that of a customer who simply received meditation instruction. It is an expression of power, legitimacy and dominance of a religious tradition over the new meditator, and also serves as a reminder of that dominance and authority to the TM teacher. </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><br /></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The second apparent reason for a required </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">addresses the religious beliefs and Hindu eschatology of the founder of TM and of others in the Hindu/Vedic tradition that was his point of origin. Some of those specific beliefs, as they relate to the function of the </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> itself, are likely not known to many outside India or even among Western TM teachers. In short, as each offering made during the </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is connected to a specific, anticipated individual benefit of TM, they have evidently believed that the new meditator would not obtain the benefits of TM practice without a religious ritual in which offerings are made to the central supreme beings of that Vedic tradition. The </span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is performed on behalf of the meditator with fruit, flowers and white cloth that he or she brings with them to instruction; the meditator is required to actively contribute to the offerings used in the ritual and is thus not merely a bystander unconnected with, or simply witnessing, its performance.</span></p></li></ul><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/demystifying-puja-part-1-establishing.html"><br /></a></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/demystifying-puja-part-1-establishing.html">Continue to Part 1: Establishing authority and dominance over the meditator</a></b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/02/demystifying-puja-part-2-religious.html"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Part 2: </b></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>A religious transaction with the divine</b></span></span></a></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2021/03/demystifying-puja-part-3-misleading.html">Part 3: Misleading everyone for decades about this ritual’s true nature and purpose</a></b></span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div></span>Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-23021479522822253822021-02-15T21:29:00.017-05:002021-12-10T17:59:48.108-05:00You can't spell TM without SCI<p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A formal reckoning with attempts by the David Lynch Foundation (DLF) to place Transcendental Meditation programs in public schools, defying the fact that a Federal court injunction prohibited TM instruction within them on Constitutional grounds, is long overdue. The flaws in the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Malnak v. Yogi</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> opinions, leaving unaddressed the possibility that TM could be completely separated from a formal course in the so-called “Science of Creative Intelligence,” have been deliberately misunderstood and exploited by the DLF and the TM organization for years. The suggestion that TM promotion and instruction in public schools would be permissible if the words “Science of Creative Intelligence” were never mentioned is simply ridiculous; TM is the practical element of SCI and doctrinal tenets of SCI of a religious nature are present throughout TM promotion, preparation and instruction. </span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-4b099e6e-7fff-4fce-c651-d1beb51dcf78"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxUYZH40JEMeLogTJP496KPjhA7hA6BMnhTgCwiT1sr80zWLHo78T1bI_BKlQrxUszqTjddQZCeTPjrMIjDjhRyNPqwgsZJtFktsfmeCYDOHPdOYPflt521n0HHVe4v1MXWpVv/s1024/service-pnp-pplot-13800-13822-01740v.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxUYZH40JEMeLogTJP496KPjhA7hA6BMnhTgCwiT1sr80zWLHo78T1bI_BKlQrxUszqTjddQZCeTPjrMIjDjhRyNPqwgsZJtFktsfmeCYDOHPdOYPflt521n0HHVe4v1MXWpVv/s320/service-pnp-pplot-13800-13822-01740v.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Northern District of Illinois courtroom.<br />(Library of Congress photo)</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the ceremony which is always performed before individual TM instruction, occurred on Chicago school premises (as the DLF has insisted that it must), in some fundamental way the DLF was organizing its own prayer services on school property; whether they were understood to be religious by students is irrelevant. The organization mandated a </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">performance to satisfy its own priorities, based in its own SCI doctrine, with respect to TM instruction. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The religiosity of what the David Lynch Foundation and its allies have attempted to do, rooted in the doctrine of SCI, is obvious, and the District Court’s phrasing in its </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Malnak</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> opinion over forty years ago is still very appropriate here: “the proposition needs no further demonstration.”</span></span><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span><span><a name='more'></a></span><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In August 2020, </span><a href="https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/35651091/Separation_of_Hinduism_from_our_Schools_et_al_v_Chicago_Public_Schools_et_al" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a lawsuit was filed in U.S. Federal court</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> against the David Lynch Foundation (DLF), the University of Chicago, and the Board of Education of the City of Chicago as a consequence of the DLF’s and the TM organization’s efforts to teach Transcendental Meditation in the Chicago public school system. Currently, the case has been slowly proceeding through the Federal district court, with delays that have been caused by, among other reasons, the COVID-19 pandemic. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/ofj3bjy8bq9zdl6/064%20dlf%20reply%20supporting%20its%20motion%20to%20dismiss.pdf?dl=0" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A recent filing by the David Lynch Foundation</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, defending its previous motion to dismiss the suit, makes mention of the injunction in 1979 against the teaching of TM in public schools, which was upheld on appeal. This is an excerpt, the second sentence of that defense and a corresponding footnote.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Citing </span><a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=969246082363008637&q=malnak&hl=en&as_sdt=20000006" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Malnak v. Yogi</span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, 592 F.2d 197 (3rd Cir. 1979)</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> -- a case that is over 40 years old and, unlike the “Quiet Time” program at issue here, involved practice of TM </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">coupled </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">with a course in the Science of Creative Intelligence (”SCI”) -- Plaintiffs act as if this is an open and shut case.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Indeed, the Malnak opinion itself contrasts the practice of TM alone, such as the “Quiet Time” program here, with the practice of TM as part of a broader-based curriculum that included mandatory attendance of the SCI course which the court found to be religious based. As Judge Adams noted in his concurrence in Malnak, “[a]lthough Transcendental Meditation by itself might be defended as appellants sought to do in this appeal as primarily a relaxation or concentration technique with no ultimate significance, the New Jersey course at issue here was not a course in TM alone, but a course in the Science of Creative Intelligence.” Malnak, 592 F.2d at 213.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/ofj3bjy8bq9zdl6/064%20dlf%20reply%20supporting%20its%20motion%20to%20dismiss.pdf?dl=0" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Defendant The David Lynch Foundation's reply in support of its motion to dismiss plaintiff's amended complaint," N.D. Ill. 1:20-cv-04540 #64 02/05/2021</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For some of us who have watched for years as the TM organization, and its marketing partner, the David Lynch Foundation, have thumbed their noses at the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Malnak</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> decision and gone forward with programs to teach supposedly, almost miraculously beneficial TM centered programs in public schools in a number of cities, this line of attempted defense is not much of a surprise. Similar opinions have been expressed by long-term meditators online for many years, perhaps reflecting the thinking of TM organization or DLF insiders.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Right from the start, they note that </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Malnak </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is “a case that is over 40 years old.” This is an irrelevant distraction. Since this opinion has never been overturned by the Supreme Court nor has it otherwise been superseded by more recent, conflicting decisions elsewhere, it is still established law. </span><a href="https://casetext.com/case/malnak-v-yogi/how-cited?PHONE_NUMBER_GROUP=P&citingPage=1&sort=relevance&sortCiting=date-descending" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s been cited at least 64 times in other cases, most recently this past November, 2020</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The David Lynch Foundation hasn’t yet been challenged in court for promoting the same activity enjoined against by </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Malnak</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and that fact in no way negates the validity of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Malnak</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> precedent. While critical observers have for many years noted the apparent violation that may substantiate another lawsuit on the same grounds, potential plaintiffs seldom have the resources to bring a case of this nature. Other attempts to push this so-called “Quiet Time” in US public schools </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2007/01/letter-to-san-rafael-school-boardor-how.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">have been blocked or have fizzled out on their own</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, both by way of the objections of parents, and the retirement or relocation of the meditating school administrators who invited the DLF into their own schools.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">More problematic is the misleading claim that the precedent set by </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Malnak</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> does not apply, because in Chicago, TM was taught in public schools without being connected with a formal course in the so-called “Science of Creative Intelligence” (SCI). This assertion relies on the incorrect assumption that there is no religious content, of which either the organization or the meditator would be aware of, connected with TM when taught and practiced by itself, and that its teaching and practice are merely a mental technique that exists independent of any other information, expectation or teaching. These assumptions contradict the reality, as is even admitted in the DLF’s promotional materials related to the teaching of TM in schools, that TM is just one part of an extensive program which includes, as they call it, “coaching and follow up support.”</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Echoing the speculative musings of one appellate judge who concurred with the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Malnak</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> decision, musings which were in no way legally binding or meaningful nor were they necessarily from a fully informed perspective, </span><a href="http://meditationasheville.blogspot.com/2009/12/more-about-religion-science-and.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">recent proponents of TM in public schools maintain that TM and SCI may be completely separated</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, when that is not at all possible. Transcendental Meditation “</span><a href="https://tm-women.org/science-creative-intelligence/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is the practical aspect of the Science of Creative Intelligence</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” The assumptions underlying all claims for TM’s effectiveness are based on the inherently religious doctrine of SCI, SCI underlies the presumptive rationale behind the research studies offered in support of TM, and SCI creates an unrealistic expectation, present in TM’s marketing and introductory material, that scientific evidence supporting TM’s effectiveness is plentiful and that TM is effective for each and every individual who practices it. Behind the “evidence-based” claims made for TM, SCI doctrine and practice (of TM) has motivated a small number of TM-affiliated researchers to generate, under their direction, questionable and often flawed studies. That evidence is put forward by the TM organization as if it were part of some general scientific consensus, which in reality does not exist and after more than 50 years of trying has not emerged.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The overwhelming majority of such studies put forward by the TM organization and the DLF feature investigators in key roles who are long-term meditators and MIU faculty</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> who should be assumed to have been fully indoctrinated in the doctrine of SCI - </span><a href="https://www.miu.edu/general-education/foundational-courses" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">it is a basic fundamental course requirement at MIU</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - and they play critical roles in designing such studies and interpreting data independent of the particular institution in which the studies are conducted.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It’s impossible to learn TM without being exposed to some of the major doctrinal tenets of SCI. Even an introductory lecture contains some of the core concepts that are central to SCI, which is the product of a systematic, misguided attempt to recast and reframe traditional religious, Hindu or Vedic concepts and doctrine as a “science,” largely through word substitution.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here is one such example, taken from </span><a href="https://youtu.be/fO3AnD2QbIg?t=259" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a TM introductory lecture by Bob Roth which can be found on YouTube</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, in which, remarkably, he leads off by admitting that TM is sourced to “ancient meditation texts” which are the scriptures (the Vedas) that are central to the dominant religious culture of India. I’ve </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">italicized </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">specific terms which are inherent to SCI doctrine.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The ancient meditation texts used very big words...they say it's a source of our </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">unbounded creativity</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">unbounded intelligence</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, happiness, focus, clarity. It's there...it was there--if it's there--it was there yesterday, it's there right now, it'll be there tomorrow...we've just lost access to it. We're stuck up here, we're stuck up on the surface gotta gotta gotta level. And Transcendental Meditation is a simple, natural, effortless technique that allows the active thinking mind to just, all of it to just settle down, and experience quieter levels of thought, and quieter levels of thought, and then experience what has been called </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">'the source of thought</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,' or the '</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">unified field of consciousness</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,' or '</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">transcendent level of the mind</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,' '</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pure consciousness</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,' within every human being.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As soon as a TM teacher uses the word “unbounded,” they have strayed into unscientific religious territory. When they say “source of thought” or “unified field of consciousness” or “pure consciousness,” they are </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2020/09/maharishis-many-euphemisms-for-god.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">using sanitized terms that are actually synonymous with a Hindu or Vedic concept of supreme divinity underlying all existence</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which is the source of everything - including the “source of thought”, “unbounded awareness,” or “creative intelligence.” All of these concepts can be traced back to the definition of SCI, and they imply that every individual’s consciousness is fundamentally connected with, and through TM may develop a beneficial relationship with, some “unbounded” universal consciousness underlying everything that exists. No scientific consensus, nor any proposed scientific “theory of everything” supports such assertions, outside of a bubble containing a tiny number of TM-connected individuals who were once educated in the scientific method.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br />The following definition comes from the curriculum once published to be used as the basis of an SCI course in US public secondary schools, which likewise references a universal “constant source of intelligence, energy, and happiness” of cosmic origin, allegedly present in every individual.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAHDn-hBfyPm_VZYl2yjNwE0euhVpOOFogm0e_2fPqeifSSkPiR6bn9x4PKVTKotPY1_d8yRm0nVpAcWgavt2geHIYEbttCyhXLzSUGJhNfLg5r5ySUUEoguoP83f5v8mcEjgi/s792/Cover+narrow+crop+sci+secondary+education+three+year+curriculum.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="792" data-original-width="755" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAHDn-hBfyPm_VZYl2yjNwE0euhVpOOFogm0e_2fPqeifSSkPiR6bn9x4PKVTKotPY1_d8yRm0nVpAcWgavt2geHIYEbttCyhXLzSUGJhNfLg5r5ySUUEoguoP83f5v8mcEjgi/w191-h200/Cover+narrow+crop+sci+secondary+education+three+year+curriculum.png" width="191" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SCIENCE OF CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE —DEFINITION AND SCOPE</span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SCIENCE — A science is a systematic investigation by means of repeatable experiment to gain useful and testable knowledge.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">CREATIVE — Creative means having and displaying creativity. Creativity is the cause of change present everywhere at all times. When active, it generates new expressions enriching to life, progressive and evolutionary in nature.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">INTELLIGENCE — Intelligence is a basic quality of existence exemplified in the purpose and order of change.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE — The single and branching flow of energy (creativity) and directedness (intelligence) is called creative intelligence.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SCIENCE OF CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE — The Science of Creative Intelligence includes the experience and knowledge of the nature, origin, range, growth, and application of creative intelligence.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This science arose from the major discovery that there exists in every human being a constant source of intelligence, energy, and happiness and that this source can be easily and systematically drawn upon by everyone for spontaneous use in everyday life through the practice of Transcendental Meditation, brought to light by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the Science of Creative Intelligence.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Science of Creative Intelligence, Three-Year Curriculum for Secondary Schools</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (1974) page 51</span></p><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think it’s important to notice that, if you take these terms and phrases that Bob Roth uses in his introductory lecture - which is very similar to that which any prospective meditator will hear - they all appear very frequently in this SCI curriculum book:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Pure consciousness” - 16 times</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Source of thought” - 20 times</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Unboundedness” - 13 times </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Unbounded awareness” - 27 times</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Levels of thought” - 8 times</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The DLF’s promotional techniques for placing TM in various venues where it does not belong, such as public schools, involves a bit of sleight-of-hand in an attempt to substitute something that could well be secular and carrying no meaning - simply closing one’s eyes and relaxing on a regular basis - with the complexity and specific agenda of the TM movement, which is that of both personal and global transformation through some specific internal experience that is, supposedly, exclusively offered by the TM organization. This can be seen in </span><a href="https://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/pdf/Quiet-Time-Brochure.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">part of a brochure promoting the so-called “Quiet Time” TM-in-schools program on the DLF website</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Transcendental Meditation technique was selected as the primary strategy taught in the Quiet Time program because it is a simple, easily learned, and secular (non-religious) technique…</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not mentioned here is that </span><a href="https://meditationsydney.org.au/overview-david-lynch/#:~:text=He%20attributes%20this%20practice%20to,a%20single%20meditation%20ever%20since." style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">David Lynch has been a TM meditator since 1973</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and the foundation he created </span><a href="https://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/message.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">exists for the sole purpose of popularizing Transcendental Meditation</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">; it exists for no other reason, it promotes the teaching of no other techniques, and there was no process of “selection” of the TM technique for use in their programs. This is clearly a disingenuous, misleading remark that attempts to center the DLF in some more general context of other popular methods or techniques of meditation.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The next section of the brochure reveals that the TM “Quiet Time” program is something much more elaborate than just the mental technique itself.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3. Coaching and follow-up support</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To ensure long-term success, the Quiet Time staff also provide extensive coaching for </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">all teachers and individualized follow-up support for all students at the school. These </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">activities are core to the Quiet Time program design:</span></p><br /><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Individual instruction and peer support groups for any interested faculty member or student, from certified meditation instructors.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><br /></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">School assemblies, special events, and workshops that promote health and wellness.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><br /></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Retreats that integrate yoga, meditation, exercise, and group discussions.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><br /></span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Capacity-building activities that address the school's unique needs, such as mentoring of at-risk youth, coaching a sports team, or starting an afterschool chess club.</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Follow-up support for the meditation practice of both students and teachers</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">throughout their lifetime, from a network of Transcendental Meditation centers</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">nationwide. This is a lifelong resource for sustaining personal health and learning.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The items named in the first three bulleted points should be familiar to any long-time TM meditator, though by other names, and most of them contain elements of SCI. Points of this doctrine are progressively revealed after the meditator is initiated, beginning with the third follow up session, and later in “advanced lectures” which here are cast as being “peer support groups” when clearly such sessions are directed by “certified [TM] meditation instructors.” In that third follow up session, points that were briefly mentioned before TM instruction are clarified and then used as a filter through which the meditator’s own experiences are interpreted; the personal experiences, both within meditation and outside of it, are reframed into the context of the assumed benefits of TM, and put forward as validation of the particular doctrinal points of SCI. This pattern continues through advanced lectures, residence courses and other programs offered to meditators which are all part of the TM “program” which is much more than simple instruction on what to do with one’s eyes closed. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In this sense, SCI and TM reinforce each other: the doctrines of SCI are reinforced through interpretation of experiences obtained through the practice of TM, and regular practice of TM is reinforced through instruction in the doctrines of SCI.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For one example of that relationship between SCI doctrine, TM practice, and the perceived experiences of new meditators, here are excerpts from the third night’s “checking notes” </span><a href="http://minet.org/www.trancenet.net/secrets/checking/3day3.shtml" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as they were revealed by one former TM teacher and placed online</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2020/09/maharishis-many-euphemisms-for-god.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Terms that are synonymous with the Hindu/Vedic concept of supreme divinity</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and that are inherent to SCI have been </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">italicized</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">:</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The pure nature of </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Creative Intelligence</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Transcendental Consciousness, likewise has its corresponding state of physiology, (it is a fourth state of consciousness). We have experienced how the breath becomes slower and slower as the mantra becomes finer and finer. Restfulness of the body corresponds with the restful state of the mind in Transcendental Consciousness. Every sitting in meditation creates this restful state for both body and mind. Daily practice stabilizes this restful condition of body and mind even during dynamic activity. The first 2 days we have been examining the inward stroke of meditation and now this evening we want to understand the outward stroke and the value of our daily activity. The inward stroke of meditation, in its increasing quietness, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">located the Infinite</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and the outward stroke of meditation draws that </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">transcendental infinite</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> out into the field of activity. As </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pure consciousness</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> or </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pure intelligence</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> grows in life one spontaneously, out of one's own nature, starts to be more effective. So, if we want to locate the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">infinite</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, meditate. If we want to substantiate the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">infinite</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, act. Mediate and act. Stability through activity, location (of the pure nature of </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Creative Intelligence</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) through meditation.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think it’s important to emphasize that these elements of SCI doctrine are present through basic instruction of TM, without exposure to the much more detailed and lengthy formal SCI curriculum. The situation which prompted the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Malnak</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> lawsuit involved the teaching of TM, and an ongoing classroom course in the “Science of Creative Intelligence,” together as one program. In Chicago, there is no obvious evidence that an organized classroom course in SCI was part of the so-called “Quiet Time” program. But I think it’s important to read the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Malnak</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> opinions, not as disqualifying a combined TM/SCI course as a single unit, but as that combined course was disqualified because it contained certain specific elements that are disallowed on Constitutional grounds in public schools. Those specific elements are always present whenever anyone is instructed in Transcendental Meditation, as part of what they formally call, the “TM program.”</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since TM is the practical element of SCI, and SCI underlies all the other aspects of TM instruction, there is therefore no clear separation between the two. It is misleading and incorrect to present TM as simply instructions given for something that is practiced with eyes closed, with no input from the senses at any time. What is at issue is the TM </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">program,</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> which is the entire system of marketing, introduction, preparation, instruction or initiation, followup, and subsequent encouragement to participate in the organization’s advanced programs for meditators, or to buy other products that it offers. What was offered to students in Chicago as part of some questionable alleged research study with a fundamentally flawed methodology is the entry point of this program.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here is the excerpt of the New Jersey district court opinion, specifically equating “creative intelligence” to the concept of a “supreme being” or “god” as described by other religious traditions. Note that it isn’t just the use of the term “creative intelligence” that is at issue, it is the specific meaning and attributes associated with that term in the TM teaching context that disqualify any program containing that context from access to public schools.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These concepts concerning God or a supreme being of some sort are manifestly religious when they appear as tenets of Christianity or Buddhism or Hinduism. These concepts do not shed that religiosity merely because they are presented as a philosophy or as a science.[23] Similarly, whether an unmanifest and eternal field of life with all the characteristics attributed to it as the textbook attributes to creative intelligence is called a supreme being, god, the ultimate reality, Brahman, Tao, Allah, Nirvana, THIS, creative intelligence and the field of creative intelligence, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, it, or the One is immaterial to determining the religious nature of the concept; although the precise conceptions or definitions of the ultimate reality or supreme being will differ from religion to religion, the religious nature of the concept is incontrovertible. Whether "God" is considered an ultimate universal principle or being or essence or entity or field of life on which the universe is based, has no bearing on the religious nature of the concept. It cannot be doubted that concepts of "God" or an ultimate level of life or ultimate reality are religious concepts.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5388567843432021194&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr#p1322" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Malnak v. Yogi, 440 F. Supp. 1284 - Dist. Court, D. New Jersey 1977</span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> at 1322</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjjAraIS92mUneSw3Y_0FvhLeMg6i-3qwcI_Kfq-opvXlSCMO1AOiCXpoFLBtq2l36ur8rY539p2bSryUPYjD4cxStdJRbw7Xbt2XnNsVeQBEbGDjJhDNwmXtW-hZhX5g2mBYM/s2048/IMG_20191115_153536.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjjAraIS92mUneSw3Y_0FvhLeMg6i-3qwcI_Kfq-opvXlSCMO1AOiCXpoFLBtq2l36ur8rY539p2bSryUPYjD4cxStdJRbw7Xbt2XnNsVeQBEbGDjJhDNwmXtW-hZhX5g2mBYM/s320/IMG_20191115_153536.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Puja table set up for TM instruction.<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 10.56px;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 10.56px;">The framed image is a registered trademark/service mark</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 10.56px;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 10.56px;">held by Maharishi Foundation Liechtenstein in the United States.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 10.56px;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 10.56px;">Photo by the author.</span><br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Malnak</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> court also addressed the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the ceremony that is always performed at the start of individual instruction in TM. In Chicago, as has been described by students, the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and TM instruction were conducted on school premises; in New Jersey, initiation and the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> occurred off campus. Nevertheless, the New Jersey court decision dismissed the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as inherently being a prayer inappropriate for a public school program, implying that that fact should be obvious to anyone:</span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The puja chant is an invocation of a deified human being who has been dead for almost a quarter of a century. An icon of this deified human being rests on the back of a table on which is placed a tray and offerings. During the singing of the chant, which identifies the items on the table and in the room as offerings to this deity, some of these offerings are lifted from the table by the chanter and placed onto the tray. It cannot be doubted that the invocation of a deity or divine being is a prayer. ... The religious nature of prayer has been recognized by many courts, … and the proposition needs no further demonstration here.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5388567843432021194&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr#p1323" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Malnak v. Yogi, 440 F. Supp. 1284 - Dist. Court, D. New Jersey 1977</span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> at 1323</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In an earlier filing in the Chicago case, the David Lynch Foundation made it clear that the teaching of TM disregards any conventional requirement for fully informed prior consent, that the high school students learning TM did not, and need not, know anything about the traditionally religious ritual that was an inherent part of TM instruction, which they would at minimum witness and in which they may cross the boundary into some form of incidental participation. In the course of defending themselves, they agree that basic information about what the ceremony is and what it means to the people performing it, and the organization, is withheld from prospective meditators. That it has been held to be a religious prayer in Federal court is not a trivial detail.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Plaintiffs take particular issue with a one-time “Puja” initiation ceremony led by a certified TM instructor, which ceremony students observed prior to learning and beginning to practice TM themselves through the practice of silently repeating “mantras” that were assigned to them by the instructor. Plaintiffs claim that the “Puja” and repetition of the mantras are Hindu religious rituals, although they readily concede that defendants did not attach any religious significance to any of these exercises; instead, admitting that students did not receive any explanation regarding any meaning behind the ceremony and that the mantras were not ascribed any meaning by the instructor.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/n656sb4ytnwf4jk/050-dlf%20motion%20to%20dismiss%20memorandum%20of%20law.pdf?dl=0" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Defendant The David Lynch Foundation's memorandum in support of its motion to dismiss plaintiff's amended complaint," N.D. Ill. 1:20-cv-04540 #50 10/27/2020</span></a></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Along with the obvious nature of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as a religious expression, it may also be viewed as another practical aspect of the “Science of Creative Intelligence” which was previously enjoined from being taught in public schools. To establish that connection, an alternate definition of “creative intelligence” includes a description of terms and a doctrine into which a specific reason for the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> performance may be understood and is consistent with the basic understanding of how the universe works as depicted in SCI teaching materials.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a preface to the first issue of a “Creative Intelligence” journal, attributed directly to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and published in 1973, he discussed the “two values” of creative intelligence: absolute and relative. The “absolute” is that supreme being or impersonal source of intelligence expressed with many different synonyms in TM culture - including that it is a “field of creative intelligence” - and the “relative” is the physical reality in which we all live:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoRz_NMEFv2FzvXEpSmJeGAXGilwCvEVGaEs1QgoLagso1iojptA5xz6iQnUJ0FU1KjMHRuGWrDPLSsNlvgvW7ylA12WHQl0H2_GE88ahkdWz0iLdcacCdUmgr5Xio2dR6N471/s1132/Cover+crop+creative+intelligence+1.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1132" data-original-width="796" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoRz_NMEFv2FzvXEpSmJeGAXGilwCvEVGaEs1QgoLagso1iojptA5xz6iQnUJ0FU1KjMHRuGWrDPLSsNlvgvW7ylA12WHQl0H2_GE88ahkdWz0iLdcacCdUmgr5Xio2dR6N471/s320/Cover+crop+creative+intelligence+1.png" /></a></div></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have found, as the writers of the Vedas in the past found and the many thousands of practitioners of transcendental meditation in the present are finding, that creative intelligence in its functioning has two values: absolute and relative. Creative intelligence springs, like a banyan tree, from the centre of its seed, in which seemingly there is only a hollowness. In that unmanifest centre, that abstract area of the seed, lies the potentiality of the whole tree, the unexpressed source of all its expressions… We have described how the whole of creation in its manifest relative state arises from the absolute field of creative intelligence like the sprouting of a banyan tree from the hollowness within its seed.</span></p><div><span><p></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, quoted in “Creative Intelligence, an international publication devoted to the Science of Creative Intelligence, number 1” (1973)</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The significance of all this discussion of “absolute” and “relative” - terms that are often used informally among long-term meditators to describe what in other religious cultures might be called the “seen” and “unseen” worlds and (often using other synonymous terms) are key components of SCI doctrine - is that establishing a connection between those two realms is one of the specific purposes of the performance of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The following quoted text, which describes explicitly one of the intentions of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as expressed at the beginning of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> performance, is part of a doctoral thesis written by a teacher at one of the Maharishi schools in India, where the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is simply a frequently performed “school prayer.” Unlike the translations of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and other explanations of the ritual previously available, this version, which I consider to be authoritative and an accurate account of how this </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is understood in India, includes clear explanations of meanings and purposes of many parts of it. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The purpose of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">described here is that it leads the mind (of both the teacher and prospective meditator) to that “absolute,” here described with a shift in terms, the “supreme state of purity.” It is indeed synonymous with “prayer,” but the means and mechanisms are made to sound completely irreligious, secular and somehow “scientific,” consistent with the ubiquitous word substitution which is the hallmark of SCI. It’s an attempt to misleadingly rewrite the Vedas into scientific texts, that has been the holy grail of </span><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331867229_SPIRITUAL_BYPASS_AND_ENTANGLEMENT_IN_YOGALAND_yogastana_HOW_NEOLIBERALISM_SOFT_HINDUTVA_AND_BANAL_NATIONALISM_FACILITATE_YOGA_FUNDAMENTALISM_2" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">global Hindu revivalist movements</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/02/hindu-nationalists-claim-ancient-indians-had-airplanes-stem-cell-technology-and" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">their domestic right-wing political counterparts in India</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> for at least the past century and a half.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The performance of the invocation starts with a resolution. This lays open to the intellect the clear possibility of fulfillment of life lived in Supreme Knowledge. The intention of the proclamation is to lead the mind to the supreme state of purity, which is gained permanently in the state of Supreme Knowledge, in which the Divine Unity becomes a living reality. The situation is that life as it is a composite of two spheres - relative and absolute. The relative is changing and the absolute is constant. Therefore, the Absolute is said to be pure and the relative impure. It is present in the waking state of consciousness, the state of pure consciousness and in the Cosmic Consciousness. Whatever be the state of life, it is necessary to have life in the celestial field or to have activity in the celestial light for Unity to develop and become a living reality.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10603/224749" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Amlan Kumar Dey doctoral thesis, Gauhati University, 2017</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, page 82</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(A more detailed exploration of this document, which reveals the specific meaning of each of the offerings including those usually brought by the prospective meditator, is being prepared for a future series of posts here at the TM-Free Blog.) </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As was true in the late 1970’s and is true today, the teaching of TM involves specific religious aspects that continue to be inappropriate for introduction into US public schools, or to otherwise entangle TM with government by any means or for any reason. In the intervening four decades, </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2011/11/is-it-religion-or-dessert-topping.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">literal mountains of evidence of that fact have been generated by the TM organization to support that assertion</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Even after constant denials by TM’s proponents over all that time, the conclusion reached in Federal court, that the religiosity of TM is a “proposition [that] needs no further demonstration” is more true today than ever before.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the time of this writing, it remains to be seen whether the Chicago lawsuit against the DLF and its allies will be dismissed on the basis of other technicalities, or whether it will continue forward to some conclusion consistent with these precedents and facts. </span></p><br /><br /><br /></span><span><!--more--></span><span><!--more--></span><span><!--more--></span><span><!--more--></span><br /></div>Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-88390643809894220302020-09-28T21:50:00.004-04:002021-02-14T17:58:05.253-05:00Maharishi's many euphemisms for "God"<p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The TM organization has for almost a half-century now denied the religious nature of its methods and doctrine, almost to the point of absurdity. The fact of the matter is that almost all of the TM promotional material - books, websites, the content of introductory lectures - is littered with various synonyms for, what people in much of the world call “God.” More specifically, the underlying system is that of a Vedic, or Hindu, cosmology, and there’s a central concept of supreme divinity or ultimate reality in the TM subculture that they repeat under many alternate names. </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBnVDJIXlKFqPT03bOA8VHOLWQI-jSjfcTFO2rkVF6T3c2xrStX7st5kXQoYOEbkhLU-zR9IrXCQ5o1hmkbH264b3GUNRAoaLRaabnbsXz0Y9ZavXxnVwBc5CXnp7hyS3l2ToW/s1537/maharishi+guru+dev+trimurti+from+girish+varma+video.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1051" data-original-width="1537" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBnVDJIXlKFqPT03bOA8VHOLWQI-jSjfcTFO2rkVF6T3c2xrStX7st5kXQoYOEbkhLU-zR9IrXCQ5o1hmkbH264b3GUNRAoaLRaabnbsXz0Y9ZavXxnVwBc5CXnp7hyS3l2ToW/w400-h274/maharishi+guru+dev+trimurti+from+girish+varma+video.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://youtu.be/fb_Zj04rLa8?t=1608" target="_blank">From a TM organization, in India, video</a>. Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva<br />behind Maharishi and his guru, Brahmananda Saraswati.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span id="docs-internal-guid-9a360ad9-7fff-0480-6026-1308c6dde117"><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That supreme being in Hinduism is a triad of deities known as the </span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/trimurti-Hinduism" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trimūrti</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">: Brahma the creator, Vishnu the maintainer, and Shiva the destroyer. Direct references to the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trimūrti </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">are not common in TM culture, but they can be found, as in the video image above, and </span><a href="https://press-conference.globalgoodnews.com/archive/september/07.09.04.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as in this excerpt of an address given by Maharishi in 2007 referencing a phrase that’s contained in the </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that’s the central ritual of TM instruction</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, in which the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trimūrti</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> are mentioned in Sanskrit. I’ve emphasized the relevant parts here:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are fortunate to perform Puja to Guru Dev because in Guru Dev we have the reality of Krishna—reality of Total Knowledge is embodiment of Total Knowledge. "Gurur Brahma, Gurur Vishnur, Guru Devo Maheshvarah, Guruh Sakshat Param Brahma, Tasmai Sri Gurave Namah." </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Guru Brahma—Guru is the creator. Guru Vishnu—Guru is the maintainer. Guru Devo Maheshvarah—Guru is eternal Shiva, absolute silence.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> And Guru Sakshat Param Brahma, and Guru is the summation of the three, diversity, and unity. Tasmai Sri Guruve Namah. That is why we bow down to Guru Dev. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bowing down to Guru Dev is in essence, in reality, subjecting ourself to that eternal unified state which is the be-all and end-all of existence.</span></p><div><span><a name='more'></a></span><span><br /></span></div><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Efforts to recast Vedic or Hindu philosophy or doctrine as somehow basically secular or scientific in nature, to gain acceptance and status for it in Western culture, </span><a href="https://swarajyamag.com/magazine/the-monk-who-saw-religion-through-the-prism-of-science" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">have been attempted for more than a century</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, through obfuscation, avoidance and word-substitution, and capitalizing on the unfamiliarity of Vedic culture in the West, took this process to absurd lengths in the process of popularizing Transcendental Meditation, sanitizing his teachings by removing all religious language that might be recognized by most people unfamiliar with the underlying cosmology of Hinduism and doing a wholesale word-substitution on any term that might reinforce the religious underpinnings of the TM program. This sanitized, ostensibly theoretical framework, understanding or agreement with which is not required by new meditators (though it is partially explained in the multi-day process by which TM is learned), is inherent to the purpose and world transformative aims of the TM organization and its teachers. Today, any suggestion that TM is a central part of a religious culture is often met with a defiant attempted rebuttal, particularly among long-term meditators who have had little exposure to the cultural context of Hinduism from other sources outside the TM movement.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the TM movement’s initial, formal attempts to repackage Hindu/Vedic cosmology as a “science” is the so-called “Science of Creative Intelligence” (SCI). At MIU it is an initial, required course, along with instruction in TM. </span><a href="https://www.miu.edu/general-education/foundational-courses" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is how it’s defined on the Maharishi International University (MIU) website</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SCI is the systematic study, experience, and development of the full range of life – both individual and cosmic. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of Maharishi International University, presents in this course the universal principles that are responsible for the creation, maintenance, and evolution of the individual, society, and the cosmos. Maharishi uses analogies and effective repetition in these comprehensive lectures to enable students to understand and integrate the principles of consciousness and intelligence underlying all creation.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This course, </span><a href="http://maharishitm.org/en/thescien.htm" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">which consists of 33 videotaped lectures by Maharishi</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, has been offered to meditators by the TM organization since the early 1970’s. It serves to reframe TM, and the underlying doctrine of TM as scientific and irreligious, when there is nothing scientific about them, and </span><a href="https://ncse.ngo/scientific-creationism-and-science-creative-intelligence" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">it may be likened to the belief in “scientific creationism” among some Christians</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Efforts to test claims made for TM, beyond some apparent benefit for some people through simple relaxation, based on this doctrine - beliefs like the “</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_Meditation#Maharishi_effect" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maharishi Effect</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,” that large numbers of people practicing TM would affect the environment (</span><a href="https://research.miu.edu/assets/collected_papers/rabi1981e1coll4-324.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">even the weather!</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) and the behavior of people and society around them - have always fallen flat. </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This kind of research has always been performed at the direction of longtime true-believer meditators and MIU faculty</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and such claims don’t reflect any more general scientific consensus among researchers not connected in some way with the TM organization.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This term, “creative intelligence,” is one of many euphemisms for what most would call a mostly impersonal, potentially directly experienceable, “God” regularly used by the TM organization. It’s considered by them to be the source of everything, including human thoughts, and is said to be directly experienced through the practice of Transcendental Meditation, and, they say, is the source of the benefits gained through regular practice. The twisting of language to popularize concepts equivalent to that of “God” or of divine influence or control, in secular language, is found throughout TM doctrine, beginning with the very first contact that a prospective meditator may have in an introductory lecture, using many different terms that all tend to mean the same thing.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the process of doing research for another forthcoming article, I kept running into more and more euphemisms for the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Trimūrti,</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> or “God” if you prefer, in the books and websites created by the TM organization, and in other materials like videos of introductory lectures. So here is a by no means complete list of these sorts of terms, some of which have multiple meanings that include the same sort of connotation or reference to some all-pervading cosmic intelligence or its influence, summarized by a slogan sometimes found in TM literature: </span><a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/2013/10/heaven-place-earth" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The Individual is Cosmic.”</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The terms also combine, so that some of the words and phrases like “consciousness” and “field” show up multiple times in this list.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From an introductory lecture (Bob Roth on Facebook, September 2018), as well as most introductory material on TM:</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">unbounded field of creativity</span></p></li></ul><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(the word “unbounded” always connotes some cosmic, divine connection beyond an individual’s own consciousness)</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">state of restful alertness</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">unbounded awareness</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">source of thought</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">field of silence</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">field of consciousness</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From “</span><a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Transcendental_Meditation_TM_Book.html?id=8T4qAAAAYAAJ&source=kp_book_description" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The TM Book</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” (1991 edition):</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a field of pure energy deep within the mind</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">source of intelligence</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">source of pure creativity and intelligence at the basis of the thinking process</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">unified field</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">deepest level of objective nature</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">deepest level of human nature</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">fountainhead of natural law</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the state of least excitation of consciousness</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the unified field of all the laws of nature</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a field of all possibilities</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ground state of all the laws of nature</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">source of the infinite organizing power of nature</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">field of infinite correlation</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bob Roth’s books </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=s7pJDwAAQBAJ&newbks=0&hl=en&source=newbks_fb" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Strength in Stillness</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=FcOAAAAACAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&hl=en" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Transcendental Meditation</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">:</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“the intelligence that runs the universe” (attributed to Ellen DeGeneres)</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">your own innermost, unbounded self</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"self-referral" state/level of awareness</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">unified field of natural law</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">inner reservoir of energy and intelligence</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the deepest level of the mind</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">field of maximum energy and intelligence</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">an unbounded reservoir of pure energy</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the field of pure consciousness</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the unlimited potential of nature at its source</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a field of infinite dynamism</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">transcendental consciousness</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the total potential of nature's creativity and intelligence</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=suOxxwEACAAJ&dq=editions:OvIXifvfZQIC&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiniu7CmI3sAhUooHIEHXwWB50Q6AEwAXoECAIQAg" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Science of Being and Art of Living</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi), 1976 hardback edition:</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">transcendental field of eternal Being</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pure state of Being</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ultimate basis of creation</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the absolute energy</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“the unmanifested aspect of existence which lies beyond the subtlest aspect of an energy particle”</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the state of pure existence</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the ultimate reality of creation</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Existence, life or Being is the unmanifested reality of all that exists, lives or is. Being is the ultimate reality of all that was, is or will be. It is eternal and unbounded, the basis of all the phenomenal existence of cosmic life. It is the source of all time, space and causation. It is the be-all and end-all of existence, the all-pervading eternal field of the almighty creative intelligence. I am That eternal Being, thou art That and all this is in its essential nature That eternal Being.”</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Experience shows that Being is bliss-consciousness, the source of all thinking, of all existing creation. It lies beyond relative existence, where the experiencer or mind is left awake in full awareness of itself without the experience of any object. The conscious mind reaches the state of pure consciousness, which is the source of all thinking. The almighty creative intelligence of the Absolute is the source of all intelligence. Being is the source of all power. It is the source of all nature and of the natural laws which maintain the different forms and phenomena in creation.”</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The basis of thought-energy we call the state of Being. Thus, Being and the Absolute are synonymous.”</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From an explanation of the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the TM instruction ritual, taught in India:</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Absolute being</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Supreme Knowledge</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Divine Unity</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pure consciousness (because “the Absolute is said to be pure”)</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">eternal Being</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">immortal Being</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the Transcendent</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">fullness of life</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">purity of life</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">light of eternity</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Transcendental Bliss</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Absolute Consciousness</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">field of creation</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">celestial field of life</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Guru Dev (as a personification of divinity)</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">supreme field of life</span></p></li></ul><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From other TM organization sources:</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pure knowledge</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">totality of knowledge</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">total bliss consciousness</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Constitution of the universe</span></p></li></ul><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These pseudonyms for a blatantly religious concept are unavoidable when approaching Transcendental Meditation. While presented in the context of a faux universalism - that posits that what’s described by these words is the actual basis of reality, and that all of it falls into the realm of science and physics that underlies human existence - what is actually described here is very specific, in every detail, to the Vedas and to what is generally called Hinduism. Framing these terms and the underlying belief system (which the organization always denies the existence of) as not only the basis of reality but as the true basis of all other religions, is the clear exercise of religious supremacism, placing Vedic scripture and the spiritual culture rooted there as the basis of all other religions.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since this underlying doctrine behind TM is unavoidable and is constantly present, even in introductory lectures and books written by representatives of the organization, I think it’s important to consider how these morsels of doctrine, always offered simultaneously with the instruction in meditation, may also be considered the source of TM’s alleged benefits for some people. There is no stand-alone “meditation” in the TM program, meditation is only taught in the context of at least some part of this whole system of belief that propels the organization and movement, whether explicitly defined with a title, as in the “Science of Creative Intelligence,” or more subtly delivered without giving it a formal name.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Promotion of an awareness if not a belief in some “higher power,” or as I’ve quoted a prominent meditator’s description, “the intelligence that runs the universe” can be a profound motivator to change human behavior, in the same way that religious conversion is often attributed as something that “changed my life” or “saved my life” by those who’ve experienced it. It places human life in some likely to be imaginary, larger or even cosmic context, through the use of language.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://religiondispatches.org/is-alcoholics-anonymous-a-religion/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One good example of this phenomenon is Alcoholics Anonymous</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, in which some vague belief in a “higher power,” often one that the participant already believes in, is central to that program and is part of a system in which people change their behavior. But in TM there is nothing vague about that “higher power” and the specific qualities attributed to it; Maharishi may have flipped some of the directional metaphors from what many in the West are used to hearing (higher becomes downward, upward becomes inward), but the ultimate purpose is still much of the same. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While meditators may develop their own explanations of what happens to them in TM, from the perspective of the organization, its world-transformative intent, and what it teaches as part of the TM program, this “higher power” is specifically the cosmology and aspects of supreme divinity defined in a specific religious tradition. It is for this reason that the teaching of TM in public schools has historically been prohibited in the United States, despite the organization’s attempts to the contrary.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While much of </span><a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5388567843432021194&q=Malnak+v.+Yogi&hl=en&as_sdt=20000006" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the district court’s opinion in the original case against TM in public schools, </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Malnak v. Yogi</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, centered on a high school textbook teaching the “Science of Creative Intelligence” to students already initiated in the practice of Transcendental Meditation, it’s impossible to separate SCI from TM. The concepts and terminology central to the doctrine of SCI are present throughout the promotion and teaching of TM, and it permeates most if not all the promotional material created by the TM organization, most obviously in “The TM Book” of the 1970’s which was, in its structure, a miniature SCI course. Specifically, as soon as the word “unbounded” is uttered by a TM teacher, the threshold has been crossed into a realm of religious belief. Indeed, the word “unbounded” is quoted or mentioned over thirty times in the district court’s opinion, which is very specific in its equating of TM’s unavoidable “field of consciousness” or “creative intelligence” concepts and that of “God,” as in this excerpt:</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The [SCI} textbook clearly teaches and assumes that there exists and has existed eternally an unmanifested or uncreated field of life which is unbounded or infinite. This field of life is present everywhere, both within and without everything in the universe; it permeates everything and every being and is the ultimate reality of everything in the universe. This field of life is active in the form of "creative intelligence," is the source of all power in the universe, has "unlimited power," and encompasses all knowledge. This field of life is pure and perfect and contains all qualities of the universe in their pure, perfect, and infinite form. This field of life is alternately termed perfection of existence, bliss, and intelligence. This field of being contains love, justice, and truth in their pure and infinite forms. Contact with this field of being bestows upon individuals the ability to choose between right and wrong spontaneously, without regard to moral codes and laws. Manifestly, the textbook describes some sort of ultimate reality which in its various forms is given the name "god" in common usage.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Court also pointed to one of the obvious conflicts between TM’s “creative intelligence” and the religious faith or the lack of it held by others, in the context of Jerry Jarvis’ profession of unspecified religious views. Jarvis was then president of the TM teaching organization at the time, World Plan Executive Council.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Defendants call attention to defendant Jarvis' religious views as demonstrative of the lack of religiosity in SCI/TM, ... and these views illustrate one of the problems with the teachings of the SCI/TM course. While defendant Jarvis is able to accept as a matter of religious faith that God created creative intelligence, he was unable to explain in terms of reason how something that has existed "always," was created by God who also has existed always. The same metaphysical conundrum no doubt would confront some high school students of SCI/TM. In addition, those students who doubt or deny the existence of God or any other unmanifest field of life will be subjected to inculcation of a belief in an unmanifest field of life which is pure, perfect, and unbounded.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This unavoidable connection between Transcendental Meditation and language which frequently references some vague something larger than oneself, brings into question the actual mechanism that may be the true cause of some of the individual or social consequences that are attributed to TM by its proponents. Unlike many other forms of meditation, which are strictly some sort of mental exercise, TM comes bound to a certain peculiar language and description of the mind and human consciousness, and through the use of words like “unbounded,” some “field” that extends well beyond the physical, individual mind. As with other life-changing experiences, such as those with Alcoholics Anonymous and its vague references to “higher power,” or full-on religious conversion to faiths with explicit references to deities, the placement of the individual in a much larger, or even “cosmic” context, particularly one that claims to be tied to an “ancient tradition” and delivered by way of a mysterious ritual, can serve as a pretext to change behavior.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The scientific research conducted on Transcendental Meditation, </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">since it is usually directed or strongly influenced by individuals who’ve lived inside the TM cultural context for decades</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, always focuses on the mental practice, and never makes any mention of everything delivered with instruction in that mental practice. TM is never offered with a “try this, it might work for you” sort of caveat. It is always sold as a panacea that always works, provided it is practiced properly - and that emphasis on proper practice is used as a method of deepening the relationship between the meditator and the organization, with devices such as meditation “checking” and advanced lectures and programs. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is no means by which the underlying doctrine of an ubiquitous “creative intelligence” can be separated from TM and somehow controlled for in a scientific study, to rule out the likely possibility that a shift in individual outlook stimulated by way of TM teaching outside of the meditation itself, is at least partially responsible for any beneficial changes in behavior or health. Nor is there any means by which the constant expectation-setting through the repetition of TM’s alleged benefits in every facet of life - all of which, in a research context, constitutes coaching of research subjects - can be isolated from TM practice. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TM is never taught strictly as just a mental, meditation practice, but always along with at least five to seven hours of other information which presents the organization’s view of what TM is, the organization’s peculiar, SCI-based belief system of how human consciousness works, and how, in that secular-sounding refinement of Vedic doctrine, the practice of meditation is a means of self-realization. The placement of the individual into some universal, cosmic, “unbounded” whole - with mention of the baseless assertion that individual meditation, practiced by a sufficient number of people, would bring about positive effects on others and society up to and including “world peace” - is always part of the process of initiation into Transcendental Meditation.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From the organization’s perspective, all of this doctrinal material is extremely important; the need for it to always be repeated accurately when teaching TM is reinforced with the phrase that’s drummed into TM teachers, “purity of the teaching.” It is so important to them that a TM mobile app is in the process of development and testing, so that all of that “teaching,” other than the </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">puja</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and the delivery of a mantra, will in the future be delivered by way of a digital recording, without the need for an individual teacher who might leave out or miscommunicate some portion of it.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The broad, “TM is not a religion” assertion by the TM organization and its teachers is one of the basic misrepresentations that’s an essential, core aspect of Transcendental Meditation. It might as well be in its DNA, and it’s not something that can be eliminated through reason or science, because it’s part of an unchangeable, “pure,” teaching based in religious scripture. It’s a deception that dates back before Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s first departure from India. It’s one of the primary reasons why the TM organization and its teachers aren’t trustworthy, why TM should be avoided, and why it should never be considered a legitimate practice endorsed by government, science or medicine.</span></p><br /><br /><br /></span><span><!--more--></span>Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-33520305989568880672020-09-15T11:40:00.014-04:002021-12-10T17:58:49.053-05:00Update: Chicago lawsuit against TM public schools program expanded into class action<p>Plaintiffs bringing legal action against the David Lynch Foundation (the DLF), a Chicago Public Schools district, and the University of Chicago, seeking redress as a result of the so-called "Quiet Time" program to introduce TM into public schools, have amended their complaint, making it a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_action" target="_blank">class action lawsuit</a>.</p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXHJt1QSx_DcreGLg9PLEvu5COobkeT9InOJF7MMbTrL3wGSLvhmIL6axTsjXs4zY3zrcoZINOZKm5vgSEeKYz_nl80yx77KLJ-jaF5EJ3ktFlJdozSDfmEe8sL6varzescrJ0/s2048/IMG_20191115_152831.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXHJt1QSx_DcreGLg9PLEvu5COobkeT9InOJF7MMbTrL3wGSLvhmIL6axTsjXs4zY3zrcoZINOZKm5vgSEeKYz_nl80yx77KLJ-jaF5EJ3ktFlJdozSDfmEe8sL6varzescrJ0/s320/IMG_20191115_152831.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Puja table set up for TM instruction.<br />The framed image is a registered trademark/service mark <br />held by Maharishi Foundation Liechtenstein in the United States.<br />Photo by the author.</td></tr></tbody></table><p><span></span></p><p></p><blockquote><span><span style="font-family: arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Previously, from August 2020:</b></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><p></p></span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2020/08/lawsuit-in-progress-david-lynch.html" style="font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif;">Lawsuit in progress: David Lynch Foundation abandons TM "Quiet Time" program in Chicago</a></span></blockquote><p><span>Here's the relevant part of the amendment which was filed yesterday.</span></p><blockquote><span><b>A. Class Definition(s)</b><blockquote>94. The (b)(2) Injunctive and Declaratory Relief Class consists of:<blockquote>All persons who are CPS students, CPS teachers, parents or legal guardians of CPS students directly associated with any CPS school facilitating the “Quiet Time” program, or any other program involving the practice of “Transcendental Meditation.”</blockquote>95. The Three (b)(3) Sub-Classes consist of:<blockquote>All students who attended a CPS school during a period when the school facilitated the “Quiet Time” program.<p style="text-align: left;">All teachers at CPS schools who were required to accommodate, endorse, facilitate, or enable the “Quiet Time” program at a CPS school where they were employed at the time.</p>All parents and legal guardians of students who attended a CPS school during a period when the school facilitated the “Quiet Time” program.</blockquote></blockquote></span></blockquote><p><span>This is apparently the second class action lawsuit brought against organizations attempting to offer TM in public schools. In 1975 a California school district was the target of a class action for offering TM as an English elective, for credit, and as part of a physical education program. The suit was dismissed as moot after the school district declared that they would never again offer or recommend such courses.</span></p><p><span>The three defendants have not yet replied to the complaint, except to successfully challenge a demand for an immediate temporary restraining order.</span></p><p><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/u0wdbuqx568351x/027-1%20amended%20class%20action%20complaint.pdf?dl=0" target="_blank">The amended complaint may be viewed and downloaded, here.</a></p><p><span><br /></span></p><p><span><br /></span></p><p><span><br /></span></p><p></p>Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-56237163223110966442020-08-15T00:48:00.010-04:002022-01-09T09:35:14.596-05:00Lawsuit in progress: David Lynch Foundation abandons TM "Quiet Time" program in Chicago<p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">A lawsuit has recently been filed against the David Lynch Foundation (the DLF), a Chicago Public Schools district, and the University of Chicago as a result of the Transcendental Meditation organization’s effort to orchestrate what it called a “research study,” to demonstrate what they have claimed are the benefits of TM for high school students. The plaintiffs bringing this action include the student, parent and substitute teacher who testified at a Chicago Board of Education hearing one year ago. They alleged that, to participate in the program, students were required to participate in the TM initiation “puja” ritual, which had already been found to be religious in nature in a previous Federal court case. They also alleged that students were coerced in various ways to participate in the program and that class time was wasted on meditation. All of these activities were running under the “Quiet Time” moniker, the somewhat generic, obfuscating title that the DLF has given to its advocacy of TM in both public and private schools.
</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI_-nJpv2u4qDtdjklUFoCNyUqQ6yiX1zoTpLAx-I4cNPdLEL4Ri6xTjlMEhRu6IerK35-aBlb6tHMomVWNOKMebojhyphenhyphen27FXGwFTs1yfbM0NaOA4zQWS0rck6X8gJiePsEblmu/s2048/IMG_20191115_153126.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI_-nJpv2u4qDtdjklUFoCNyUqQ6yiX1zoTpLAx-I4cNPdLEL4Ri6xTjlMEhRu6IerK35-aBlb6tHMomVWNOKMebojhyphenhyphen27FXGwFTs1yfbM0NaOA4zQWS0rck6X8gJiePsEblmu/w512-h384/IMG_20191115_153126.jpg" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Puja table set up for TM instruction.<br />Fruit, flowers and handkerchief are generally provided by the prospective meditator. <br />Photo by the author.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b></b></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Read the original story here at the TM-Free Blog, from August 2019:</b></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif;" /><a href="http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/08/chicago-tribune-reports-on-allegations.html" style="color: #086661; font-family: arial; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">Chicago Tribune reports on allegations made by high school students, that they were coerced to practice TM</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 10px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/search/label/Williams%20v.%20Board%20of%20Education" target="_blank"><b style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">Updates to this story, </b><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Williams v. Board of Education</b></span></span></a></p></blockquote><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">The plaintiffs, who also include an advocacy group and an association of local churches, asserted that they were deprived of their rights by the DLF, the public school system and the University of Chicago, by violating the establishment and free exercise clauses of the First </span><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">Amendment to the United States Constitution. The suit seeks redress in the form of an immediate restraining order against these three institutions, and various injunctions against the teaching of TM in Chicago public schools. The broadest of these requests is for “a declaratory judgment that facilitating, establishing, implementing, or reimplementing the “Quiet Time” program, or any other program involving the practice of “Transcendental Meditation,” within or through any CPS school violates the United States Constitution.” Finally, the suit seeks to obtain “compensatory damages for the mental anguish and emotional distress suffered in connection with the constitutional deprivations suffered at the hands of the named Defendants.”</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a>Conspicuously absent from this suit as defendants are the entity that actually teaches and promotes Transcendental Meditation in the United States, along with the TM front group that works with the David Lynch Foundation to teach TM in schools. These legal entities are the Maharishi Foundation and the Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education (CWAE). The California-based CWAE claimed to have delivered the TM program to 2000 students, teachers and staff during the year ending July, 2017. The Maharishi Foundation manages the teaching of the Transcendental Meditation program in the US, collects TM course fees, and sends a licensing fee amounting to about ten percent of the funds collected through the teaching of TM, to the movement’s international headquarters.<p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">The lawsuit is currently in the initial stages of litigation. Of particular interest are the disclosures now being made in documents that are part of the responses by the David Lynch Foundation and the Chicago Board of Education. The response by the DLF includes a formal statement that as of August 4, 2020, the DLF, the University of Chicago and the Chicago Public Schools haven’t offered any programming related to TM, including meditation instruction, for more than one year. They also stated that “there are no plans further to discuss programming in the Chicago Public Schools and the Foundation does not intend to offer such programming in the Chicago Public Schools at any time in the future.”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvB3uUFsuIx9VDMfRqjYLGwh-OvREVka6i3yZgkt6RaCI2NxdKP_PQXZXK99ov5Oz3dOAg6w0qd-sANIMl2bunrjKARAMJM6J4BSA5sxH7WU1k5aEKM0f-LIw26Ac9t5O-CtTQ/s649/chicago+dlf+reply.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="649" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvB3uUFsuIx9VDMfRqjYLGwh-OvREVka6i3yZgkt6RaCI2NxdKP_PQXZXK99ov5Oz3dOAg6w0qd-sANIMl2bunrjKARAMJM6J4BSA5sxH7WU1k5aEKM0f-LIw26Ac9t5O-CtTQ/w512-h426/chicago+dlf+reply.png" width="512" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">From a court filing submitted by the David Lynch Foundation, August 6, 2020.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">The response by the Chicago Board of Education includes a memo dated October 25, 2019, from Michael Deuser, the Chief of College and Career Success of Chicago Public Schools. This memo was a formal announcement by school administration, in response to the concerns raised by a student at the July school board meeting, particularly with respect to the puja ritual which is an integral part of the Transcendental Meditation instruction process. The DLF refused to remove the puja from TM instruction, and for that reason the so-called “Quiet Time” program was discontinued.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">DLF confirmed that the TM programming does include a ceremonial/ritual element at the beginning and DLF was not amenable to removing the ceremony component from their programming. Therefore, the Office of College and Career Success has made a programmatic decision to not continue the program with DLF.</span></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">At this point most of the proceedings concern the demand for an immediate temporary restraining order to prohibit the continuation of any aspect of the TM or Quiet Time program in Chicago public schools, which the defendants are contesting on the grounds that the DLF’s program has already been ejected from the school system. It remains to be seen how the other aspects of this case, particularly those involving compensation for mental anguish, emotional distress, and violation of constitutional rights, will be handled by the court.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">Links to some of the documents from this case:</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/obe9pdohx4ktsn5/001%20Separation%20of%20Hinduism%20v%20Chicago%20Public%20Schools%20complaint.pdf?dl=0" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Complaint</span></a></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/aoguk3szqcz2ygl/004-0%20memorandum%20of%20law%20.pdf?dl=0" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Memorandum of Law</span></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/tiaekd3mvt0s2pv/004-2%20dasia%20skinner%20declaration.pdf?dl=0" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Declaration of Dasia Skinner, the substitute teacher</span></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/a29ht2v1kef56n7/004-3%20amontae%20williams%20declaration.pdf?dl=0" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Declaration of Amontae Williams, the student</span></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/ay0gaa2abjcb1y8/004-4%20darryl%20williams%20declaration.pdf?dl=0" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Declaration of Darryl Williams, Amontae’s father</span></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/wxo6nnbxleb4zoc/015%20reply%20motion%20david%20lynch%20foundation.pdf?dl=0" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Resistance to Motion (from the David Lynch Foundation)</span></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/86m7te6tnun6u3j/019-2%20board%20of%20education%20response%20exhibit%202%20tm%20removed%20memo.pdf?dl=0" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Board of Education’s Response, Exhibit 2</span></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-35041457428060939172020-01-25T15:00:00.000-05:002020-01-25T15:02:09.718-05:00Leslie's story: "The Truth Pissed Me Off"<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is another unsolicited, contributed story from a former TM meditator, Leslie (not her real name). She points out the habits that TM critics are quite familiar with: pervasive narcissism, isolation, avoidance, and dependence on others to live a life that's supposedly "without stress." Ultimately, for some, living with a long-time meditator, who's living a lifestyle centered on TM and adopting the movement's pervasive belief system - a lifestyle and belief that TM's proponents consistently maintain, does not exist - may be hazardous to your health.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<br />
<hr />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi80uc9RqFNOlp2vraA2ecq3dY4RAz6SZAHA1cgd12VP1uT5aTBgA-GSYtSqbe_ECV3H0lnNZhNoIFeeVVbXGdDbTmxXwQ6BU7r7GV33pMAO_BuJCSPWoCp4cu9bUdvObRvv_uq/s1600/shutterstock_1054146593.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi80uc9RqFNOlp2vraA2ecq3dY4RAz6SZAHA1cgd12VP1uT5aTBgA-GSYtSqbe_ECV3H0lnNZhNoIFeeVVbXGdDbTmxXwQ6BU7r7GV33pMAO_BuJCSPWoCp4cu9bUdvObRvv_uq/s320/shutterstock_1054146593.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stock photo, not the contributor. (Shutterstock)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I learned TM in 1999 after meeting my husband-to-be, who was a long-time meditator and "Siddha." Soon we got married--and I moved from the U.S. to Europe where he lived. We would meditate together every day during the entire length of our marriage--15 years. </span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-610f8396-7fff-7bdc-f432-07c4cd4c8e73" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We never joined any of the advanced programs due to the fact that we never had the funds to do so (or I should say, I never joined because he had already taken those advanced programs long before we met). But we started to get very interested in the developments in Fairfield, Iowa and the "Global Country of World Peace." We would have moved to Iowa if we had the funds. In a way, we had been in the "fringe" of the movement, just meditating on our own. My ex-husband did not practice the Siddhi program very often, and when he did, I never saw him do the yogic flying or even hops, only twitches in the body. He never told me any details about this program due to his "secrecy" vows. Through him, I learned about the many fantastic benefits of moving up on the Consciousness ladder, and he often described how "superior" he was in his physical perceptions, his creative power and his ability to read people--attributing those to the TM and Siddhi program, leading me to aspire to one day be able to take the advanced courses and move toward "Cosmic Consciousness."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"></b><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">During the entirety of our marriage, the theme of "living without stress"--one of the promises of TM--was prominent. It was his life goal and he made sure he did his part--he quit his job as soon as I moved in with him, letting me do all the hard work to bring home the bacon. Since then he never held any meaningful jobs for more than a short period of time. After 15 years of this, I was anything but "free from stress." However, "thanks to" the daily meditation, I felt I could go on with this lifestyle because it was helping me de-stress and forget about life's struggles. After all, we lived a life rather isolated from the rest of the world and felt "free" in our own world. But I developed a serious physical illness because of frustrations of not being able to develop a meaningful career for myself due to the need to support his creative career. I also had bouts of depressive episodes, burnout and suicidal ideation. Sometimes I would have outbursts of anger due to this internal frustration, but was gaslighted and my feelings dismissed.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"></b><br />
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After our divorce, I realized that my ex has Narcissistic Personality Disorder, or at least strong traits of it. Then I realized my mother falls into the same category. I analyzed that this was the reason why I have fallen into similar relationship patterns over the years and accepted the abuse.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidwNBodmq2tQTYuU3pQ8GfnzUXFPtL0ILYtd-C7brqDWaFykZVgHt24O2GrFMnQih05Hc6UZSHo8PxTz1fdxLf2dokurlXcquAfU454VGc_Qn30Nub_aKgl3w-YLWrJ6berMsV/s1600/Universidad+Maharishi+-+Vista+Aerea+-+Uso+Autorizado+196+Kb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="911" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidwNBodmq2tQTYuU3pQ8GfnzUXFPtL0ILYtd-C7brqDWaFykZVgHt24O2GrFMnQih05Hc6UZSHo8PxTz1fdxLf2dokurlXcquAfU454VGc_Qn30Nub_aKgl3w-YLWrJ6berMsV/s320/Universidad+Maharishi+-+Vista+Aerea+-+Uso+Autorizado+196+Kb.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aerial view of MIU in Fairfield, Iowa<br />
(TM organization press photo)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have been burnt out and financially ruined by this marriage. Moving in with my mother did not help me in finding a place to recoup as she has treated me harshly. In an attempt to get refuge from all these traumatic experiences, I visited Fairfield to see if there would be a chance for me to settle down there, as I thought it would be nice to live among TM meditators, who always appear to be kind and helpful. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had a few observations of the "oddness" of the community. In addition, I realized this place would hold people "captive" and leave them with no freedom to move out due to the low level of compensation paid to the staff and the lack of opportunities for those with ambitions. Still, I did not question the TM technique. I even met with my TM teacher when I came back, who said he had not gotten involved in the TM Organization over the years and chosen not to live in Fairfield, but preferred to focus on teaching the technique, which is pure and has no fault of its own. He spoke of Maharishi with a great sense of love and devotion.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But upon more research, it has been revealed to me that the guru to whom I and my ex devoted ourselves to with 100% trust and faith, turned out to be a big con artist, manipulator, liar, Narcissist--whatever you call it!</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I finally overcame my denial and the fear of losing this one strong anchor in my life. I started feeling disoriented, and now I am mostly feeling angry--angry of having been fooled, betrayed and exploited--not in a blatant way as in the cases of sexual abuse or such in certain other cults, but in the subtle way I had been "hypnotized" and mind-controlled into giving away my resources--energy and money--as well as my trust and generosity. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I started to realize, that not only did my ex-husband enjoy his stress-free life at the expense of me, he was under the influence of Maharishi and of his long-time exposure to the techniques, so that he had absolutely no qualm about using others to further his "stress-free" life goal! </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I found his lack of conscience appalling, and what is even more appalling is the similar trait I finally saw in Maharishi, through the investigative material on the Internet--some old and some newly available. Both my ex and Maharishi often talked of love but did not practice it in any real sense. In hindsight, this was more like "mood making," which Maharishi often spoke against. Personally, I did not FEEL the love, not from my ex-husband nor from the TM Movement. It was mainly just talk and no action. I cannot stand hypocrisy, dishonesty and deceit! And to awake to the fact that I have been duped for so long further enrages me!</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What's worse is that this meditation technique, according to a certain analysis, is a kind of trance induction, so the mind becomes vulnerable to indoctrination or any brainwashing or convincing after the meditation sessions. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Long-time meditators are more prone to this influence. And since I have dutifully meditated over a period of almost 20 years, based on the promise of rising consciousness level that will unleash more of our human potential and improve all areas of life, plus help contribute to world peace, I had been under this "trance" exposure for a long time and became more and more vulnerable. No wonder I was so easily persuaded by whatever my ex demanded of me, especially when it came to buying him expensive musical instruments and anything he demanded. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was also easily under his influence and was often convinced of his point of view as he used his longer and more advanced level of meditation as a badge of honor to elevate himself to be the superior one, the more evolved one, better than anyone else. I had thought that this was a trait of a Narcissist. Very true. But I realized that he also borrowed a great deal of self-righteous rhetoric from Maharishi. Because I was under this "trance," I did not see anything wrong with it. In fact, I rubbed off of his self-righteousness and felt "superior" in a certain way due to my practice of TM. But now, the bubble has burst, and I no longer feel this way.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Because of this major disillusionment, I have stopped doing TM two days ago. Of course, this decision was not made lightly, but was spurred by a dozen of books, hundreds of articles shared by ex-TMers and the documentary, “David Wants to Fly.” I devoured them and felt many light-bulb moments. It dawned on me that enlightenment was something I finally achieved when I quit my search for “Enlightenment.” My feet landed on the ground for the first time in 20 years, and I started to live life as I would’ve without sacrificing time and my mind for an empty pursuit.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of course, I do recognize the benefits of those 20-minute meditation sessions--mainly that they helped me calm down, regain energy and focus, and clear my “monkey mind.” But they did not, as the TM Organization had purported, act as a panacea to all my problems and made me “invincible.” </span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am immensely relieved that I now have reclaimed the control of my own mind and am living in reality--hard as it might be sometimes, it is what being human is about. </span></div>
Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-28314118667645415392019-11-25T08:52:00.000-05:002019-11-25T08:54:09.593-05:00Allen Ginsberg on Maharishi: "he sounds inexperienced or ignorant and unfamiliarly authoritarian"<br />
There's this widespread misconception about the basic nature of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, that shows up in a lot of news reporting and reminiscing about him, <a href="http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/beatles-spiritual-guru-who-gave-west-transcendental-meditation-is-dead/269941/">even in his New York Times obituary</a>, where they say, "he was often dismissed as a hippie mystic."<br />
<br />
What doesn't seem to have been mentioned very often is that the yogi detested "hippies." His politics, as much as he ever expressed them, were quite illiberal and entirely supportive of the "establishment," and he maintained ties with right-wing, Hindu nationalist politicians in India. Here in the US, many of his followers were of that class that are today often called the "one percent" - celebrities, businessmen, and billionaires like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey">Oprah Winfrey</a> ($2.7 billion) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Dalio">Ray Dalio</a> ($18.7 billion). (That's why I often call TM "the favorite meditation technique of the om percent.") Maharishi's fabled ashram in Rishikesh was paid for in 1963 with a $100,000 donation (almost a million in today's dollars) from tobacco heiress <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Duke">Doris Duke</a> ($1.3 billion at her 1993 death).<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFTR3VBCJjajc74p9rulC2AU3MgC3aiypG91cddvB5_ZnrYTwI2XufBHZCOvOYsXO5F6H6UZg7ZSKW1nZKOWk3IcsNxohmNGzpl0QgFUTrX_8C9xOf2Y_lyxcKXy3DRAladIQc/s1600/girish+varma+and+defense+minister+rajnath+singh+20190813+fb+screen.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="854" data-original-width="1496" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFTR3VBCJjajc74p9rulC2AU3MgC3aiypG91cddvB5_ZnrYTwI2XufBHZCOvOYsXO5F6H6UZg7ZSKW1nZKOWk3IcsNxohmNGzpl0QgFUTrX_8C9xOf2Y_lyxcKXy3DRAladIQc/s320/girish+varma+and+defense+minister+rajnath+singh+20190813+fb+screen.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Girish Varma with India defense minister, and former<br />
president of the BJP, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajnath_Singh">Rajnath Singh</a>, August 2019</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The not-so-obvious political leanings of the founder of TM are still relevant today, when it turns out that his nephew and apparent heir to the TM movement in India, <a href="https://maharishividyamandir.com/chairman-desk">Girish Varma</a> (aka Brahmachari Girish Ji) spends a lot of time hanging out with politicians of the ruling party in India, the Hindu supremacist/nationalist, right-wing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharatiya_Janata_Party">Bharatiya Janata Party</a> (BJP). Rather than obscuring or avoiding mention of those connections, as they used to, today all you need to do is <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BrahmachariGirishJi/photos/a.535736323128729/2337271342975209/?type=3&theater">follow Varma's Facebook to see the photographic evidence</a>. In this photo he's meeting with the defense minister, congratulating him on his party's recent election victory.<br />
<br />
With all that in mind, here's philosopher and poet <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg">Allen Ginsberg</a>'s description of his brief meeting with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in January of 1968. This was published in the London underground newspaper, The International Times, and this article was reprinted in other underground and alternative newspapers in the following months.<br />
<br />
<hr />
<br />
The Maharishi and Me<br />
by Allen Ginsberg<br />
<br />
<a href="https://archive.org/stream/InternationalTimes1968/IT_1968-02-16_B-IT-Volume-1_Iss-26#page/n2/mode/1up">International Times, #26, Feb 16 - 29, 1968</a><br />
<a href="https://www.fifthestate.org/archive/54-may-16-31-1968/the-maharishi-and-me/">Fifth Estate, #54, May 16 - 31, 1968</a><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiES7_HvvTCb10gsKdA__LtgVBicngtFGHmRpzlrOwJM8mjshTaAuLM2FFjXKt5XJvYnbgembbrvpjxswoQ_N-VMNmJdOe0bFdtNLu99129MMc649qcrXb0vcx4B1dREtNKIMwg/s1600/Allen_Ginsberg_1979_-_cropped.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiES7_HvvTCb10gsKdA__LtgVBicngtFGHmRpzlrOwJM8mjshTaAuLM2FFjXKt5XJvYnbgembbrvpjxswoQ_N-VMNmJdOe0bFdtNLu99129MMc649qcrXb0vcx4B1dREtNKIMwg/s200/Allen_Ginsberg_1979_-_cropped.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Allen Ginsburg in 1979.<br />
<i>Dutch National Archives -<br /> Wikimedia Commons</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I saw Maharishi speak here January 21st and then went up to the Plaza Hotel that evening (I’d phoned for tickets to his organization and on return telephone call they invited me up, saying Maharishi wanted to see me)… so surrounded by his disciples I sat at his feet on the floor and listened while he spoke.<br />
<br />
At a previous press conference I’d not been at I heard he’s said all sorts of outlandish things like poverty was laziness and I saw in “IT” (International Times, an English underground paper) his equatory communism—weakism. So after I was introduced I sat at his feet and literally started yelling at him… spoke for half an hour almost, challenging, arguing… all in good humor though his business managers and devotees gasped with horror occasionally. But I never got impolite and he stayed calm and rather sweet so no harm.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
He’d been discussing U.S. “dissatisfaction” as Johnson’s phrase had been quoted to him earlier, so I said that specific dissatisfaction was among young people over the Vietnam war, and it was a problem troubling everyone in his audience that day, at least of the young people; that though the U.S. was as he said Creative, its creations were massively negative as Vietnam at this point and that’s why people were restless and looked for spiritual guidance from him and that he, Maharishi, hadn’t covered the problem satisfactorily. He said Johnson and his secret police had more information and they knew what they were doing. I said they were a buncha dumbells and they don’t know and his implicit – support of authoritarianism made lots a people wonder if he wasn’t some kinda CIA agent. He giggled “CIA?” His devotees began screaming so I said it was a common question so it should be proposed and they shouldn’t stand around silent and fearful to speak.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJSD8pvZkOAVt-v3-ePyxRjaog0Ad3KqxrbDMVnUmLi33ykAZnhg1ubeeovPvTUpokGUvINPma_TtLTacDyVEb-AnIyKEUk9KumlSikxFRZMejGKxCuTw0lO8Y5t-TgYcBJMZp/s1600/ginsberg-it-article-image.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="268" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJSD8pvZkOAVt-v3-ePyxRjaog0Ad3KqxrbDMVnUmLi33ykAZnhg1ubeeovPvTUpokGUvINPma_TtLTacDyVEb-AnIyKEUk9KumlSikxFRZMejGKxCuTw0lO8Y5t-TgYcBJMZp/s200/ginsberg-it-article-image.png" width="118" /></a>Then I asked what about the draft resistant kids, going to war and murder? He said either way meditate. I asked about Hari Krishna. He said one mantra won’t fit everybody. As he’d put down drugs I said there wouldn’t have been anybody to see him if it hadn’t been for LSD. Devotees gasped. He said, well, LSD has done its thing, now forget it. Just let it drop. He said his meditation was stronger. I said excellent, if it works why not? I said, I would be glad to try; can’t do anything but good. Then he said that “acid” damaged Hippies nervous systems, he had six hippies visit him in a room in LA and had to take them into the garden, they smelled so bad.<br />
<br />
I said WHAT? you must have been reading the newspapers. He said he didn’t read newspapers. I said he likely had a misconception from his friends (at that point, I guess I said acid hippies were largest part of the day’s audience). He insisted that hippies smelled. I must say that was tendentious. His final statement on war was he didn’t want to get into that, he wanted only to emphasize meditation, meditation, meditation. I said that’s fine. I’ll meditate.<br />
<br />
All in all I thought his political statements not so evil as dim and thoughtless, somewhat sucking up to the establishment so as not to cause opposition and trouble. But judging from voice tone of his business manager a sort of business man western square sensitive sounds like he is surrounded by a conservative structure and he would come on unsympathetic in relation to social problems. I told him major cause U.S. youth dissatisfaction was increasing military police state tendency in U.S. and spoiling everyone’s normal life and feelings which I think is a statement partially accurate and something for him to consider since he makes social generalization as apparently he does.<br />
<br />
In a sense his position is not far from Krishnamurti of Leary [though Leary has become more political recently —ed.] stay out of politics, “avoid the authorities, get into meditation and inner peace etc.” His division of the peace problem into parts…individuals solve their own… is real enough. I don’t suppose he’s built or required to be a social utopian structure messiah. But in as much as he does stray into political generalizations he sounds inexperienced or ignorant and unfamiliarly authoritarian.<br />
<br />
So anyway, that’s what I could come to listening and talking. He was nice to me, didn’t know who I was, asked at first what I did. I said Kovie—poet. There’s an element of too much mesmerized politeness at his darshans (public viewings)—a guru is someone who you should make it with, learn from, listen to, enquire—otherwise it’s mere “religion,” which Maharishi himself puts down as a failure.<br />
<br />
The main burden that everyone should meditate half hour morning and night makes sense. His blank check claims that his extra special meditation form is more efficient than any other is something I haven’t tried so I can’t judge. His high powered organization method of advertising meditation is getting, like Pyramid club of people meditating and massive enthusiasm application which would certainly tend to accomplish general peacefulness if it caught on massively and universally. His political statements are definitely dim-witted and a bit out of place.<br />
<br />
<br />Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-30439389772903464092019-11-17T23:02:00.000-05:002019-11-17T23:03:18.451-05:00It's time for... Transcendental Meditation Commenter Bingo!<br />
This bingo card is culled from, and inspired by, comments on the TM-Free Blog Facebook page in recent months, and also from my experience online over the past 25 years. Particularly that free square in the middle!<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Mn1_T0jULtj8gj-jMPL9906uGwx3-pwM5Vu4-R0-5LwWALSXXkmNl7nJdS1_I3csW9aXky6dL6al8hNG6TLfNclVRwAAbzTKHD8EtALAxusxGoYFOBJOc2BYeRol_bG2gvCJ/s1600/bingo+card+v+1-0.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1074" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Mn1_T0jULtj8gj-jMPL9906uGwx3-pwM5Vu4-R0-5LwWALSXXkmNl7nJdS1_I3csW9aXky6dL6al8hNG6TLfNclVRwAAbzTKHD8EtALAxusxGoYFOBJOc2BYeRol_bG2gvCJ/s640/bingo+card+v+1-0.png" width="427" /></a></div>
<br />
This card is mostly based on the comments from meditators defending TM, but two squares are from the Christian, "TM will steal your eternal soul and cause demonic possession" sort of viewpoint, to which we don't subscribe nor support.<br />
<br />Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-86086935780363735732019-11-10T23:43:00.000-05:002020-01-02T03:43:14.961-05:00The dubious research claims of Transcendental Meditation, part 5: The bottom of the barrel of published TM research articles<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><a href="http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" target="_blank">Read this series from the beginning</a>.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-dubious-research-claims-of_27.html" target="_blank">Read the previous installment of this series (Part 4)</a>.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxrQZRQXeg0t-FSrRTBqyWLKVySiV4bQb85NIhyphenhyphenTlbVJdwyEDsNQ0cMtk324KZmSuJulRSAxDoNXtaD53hzFCSs7dH9DFscMBu4H6Bgi-0sVkx7_2WjWSVFNOmDIeCLttv88qL/s1600/oj-1975.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="640" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxrQZRQXeg0t-FSrRTBqyWLKVySiV4bQb85NIhyphenhyphenTlbVJdwyEDsNQ0cMtk324KZmSuJulRSAxDoNXtaD53hzFCSs7dH9DFscMBu4H6Bgi-0sVkx7_2WjWSVFNOmDIeCLttv88qL/s320/oj-1975.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David W. Orme-Johnson. From "Inaugurating the<br />
Dawn of the Age of Enlightenment," 1975</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We here at the TM-Free Blog have received a comment from David W. Orme-Johnson. He’s a former Maharishi University of Management psychology department chairman and a frequent defender and promoter of TM research studies. I’ve mentioned him and his website a number of times in previous parts of this series, “</span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The dubious research claims of Transcendental Meditation</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” He submitted his comment in response to the second part posted here at the TM-Free Blog on September 22, 2019, subtitled ‘</span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of_22.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Peer review" doesn't always mean "quality" or "accuracy.”’</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150206005104/http://www.truthabouttm.org/truth/Home/AboutDavidOrme-Johnson/index.cfm" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 2015, he claimed to have no formal affiliation with the TM movement on his website</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, but a published comment that same year indicated that </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26538382" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">he was then associated with the “Research Desk, Maharishi Foundation USA.”</span></a></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-df937f25-7fff-e9c9-efbc-50d7f9627a8e" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As a matter of editorial policy, the contributors to the TM-Free Blog don’t particularly care to reprint the TM movement’s marketing materials. There are thousands of TM movement operated or affiliated websites worldwide that serve that purpose. There is also, of course, Orme-Johnson’s own website, “</span><a href="http://www.truthabouttm.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Truth About TM</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,” that contains plenty of defenses of TM research and a few rebuttals of critics from his point of view, that’s evidently very similar to that of the TM organization. Parts of his submitted comment are of a promotional nature, therefore I won’t be running his comment in the comments, or as a post, verbatim.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJqj36-FVbT1jTdmdFhcOPlDbkOYkb6_i2d_NXUoMqNMwtB4fDBVarwydChpp-gMRYJZDqqVEK7OgTQnbZQGYC7OlTBeNBKKgobiXllFVGdU5x7r8SinbQmkzEE4o4y_HeMAgI/s1600/tm+org+evidence+based.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="351" data-original-width="465" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJqj36-FVbT1jTdmdFhcOPlDbkOYkb6_i2d_NXUoMqNMwtB4fDBVarwydChpp-gMRYJZDqqVEK7OgTQnbZQGYC7OlTBeNBKKgobiXllFVGdU5x7r8SinbQmkzEE4o4y_HeMAgI/s320/tm+org+evidence+based.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The "evidence-based" claim, as it appears on the<br />
tm.org website at the time of this writing.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I may write up a full response to Orme-Johnson’s comment at some later date. Since this is a series about the usual claims made by the TM movement, particularly with respect to research findings and how they are represented, particularly with respect to being published in “peer-reviewed” journals, I will respond here to two elements of his comment. The first part of his comment further illustrates the problems with TM research that contradict the TM movement’s claims that, among other things, Transcendental Meditation should be considered “evidence-based” because of this body of research studies. He wrote:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The second paper the blog uses to criticize TM research is a preliminary study by the late Sarina Grosswald and co-authors on ADHD. In children with ADHD, the study showed statistically significant reductions in stress, anxiety, and improvements in ADHD symptoms and executive function. The authors were obviously not naïve about experimental design, as the blog portrays them, because they said in the title that this was “An exploratory study”. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This passage in Orme-Johnson’s comment leaves me chuckling to myself. The idea that calling their work “an exploratory study” excuses blatant problems and errors in their methods is, in my view, ridiculous. If the experimenters really wanted to draw serious attention to their work, which makes a rather novel if not controversial claim, why wouldn’t they take particular care to ensure that what they were doing wasn’t obviously problematic? Relying on self-reporting and self-controls, ensuring that the schools’ most prominent authority figure was an enthusiastic TM meditator, and coaching the student subjects to expect positive results - and recording that coaching on video! - are not excusable because the study was “exploratory.” If anything, these faults show that the claimed results were most likely the result of the kind of wishful thinking and confirmation bias common among TM meditators, and aren’t really worth considering for further study. But a paper like this, published in a third- or fourth-rate journal, provides the kind of story that’s commonly circulated among TM insiders, that reinforces, for them, that what they’re doing, spending time and money on, is a valid and worthwhile cause. It also provides fodder for press releases that are sent to reporters who aren’t in a position to approach these matters with the skepticism, resources or time to do anything other than to publish these claims verbatim without the most basic examination of how these conclusions were reached.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"></b><br />
<a name='more'></a><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Orme-Johnson continues, and attempts to fault my reporting and analysis:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In contradistinction to good science, the blog fails to report a second study on ADHD by these authors. This study found that TM improved verbal fluency, and that a parents’ survey reported that the students significantly improved on five ADHD-symptoms over the six months of the study. Significantly, the study found that TM reduced objective brain measures associated with ADHD (decreases in theta/beta ratios) and TM increased brain measures associated with improved cognitive function (increased theta EEG coherence, a trend for increased alpha and beta1 EEG coherence). These objective neurophysiological measures corroborate the behavioral observations of improved ADHD, and are clearly not fakable or suggestible.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Without addressing the faulty methods identified by others in the initial study, he’s moved on to talk about another matter, another study which was outside the scope of my blog post. That there was another study done by the same people, making similar claims and using similar methods, but adding the TM movement’s research hobby-horse of “EEG coherence” to the mix, is marginally relevant to my point, which was that the same errors and methodological faults are common across many TM research studies performed by meditators formally affiliated with the TM organization, in this case, in two studies thirty years apart. But if he’s going to bring up this additional study, I’ll play. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">First red flag on this one is that Orme-Johnson hasn’t provided a reference to the “second study on ADHD,” despite having footnoted more than a dozen other references in his comment. No problem, as it turns out this study is actually included on the list I’ve been working with from the tm.org website, which is billed as only containing research published in “peer reviewed journals.” Here’s the citation as they list it, in the “Brain Function” section, italicized/bolded exactly as they have:</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Travis F, Grosswald S, Stixrud W. ADHD, brain functioning, and Transcendental Meditation practice. Mind & Brain, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Journal of Psychiatry</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 2011 2(1):73-81</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, let’s go find this journal. </span><a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Mind+%26+Brain%2C+The+Journal+of+Psychiatry%22" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you Google the full journal title</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, nothing resembling a journal’s website shows up in the results, and that’s odd since I’m used to easily locating the website for most journal titles pretty much instantly with that kind of search on the name. But on the first page of the results of a Google search on just the journal’s name, </span><a href="https://psychcentral.com/news/2011/07/27/transcendental-meditation-lessens-kids-adhd-symptoms/28078.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the eighth</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-07/muom-nss072611.php" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the tenth</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> are the text of a Maharishi University of Management press release touting this mystery “second study” to which Orme-Johnson refers. Hmm.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But the ninth result is a link to the article at ResearchGate, which is a kind of social network for researchers. I find it very handy at times, because researchers may upload their own papers, or as they say on the front page of the website, “Share your work from any stage of the research cycle to gain visibility.” Sometimes papers that were published in high-quality journals, that are only otherwise available behind a rather expensive journal’s paywall appear on ResearchGate. At the same time, ResearchGate is not peer-reviewed or edited, so almost anything might show up as an uploaded file there.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In this case, </span><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228450921_ADHD_Brain_Functioning_and_Transcendental_Meditation_Practice" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the copy of this paper on ResearchGate is the only one available online.</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> It was evidently uploaded to ResearchGate by Sarina Grosswald herself, and it looks much like a journal article in any other scientific journal. But then you look at the bottom of every page and see a website address - </span><a href="http://www.slm-psychiatry.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">www.slm-psychiatry.com</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - which is a dead link to a blank page.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Looking up that address in the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine shows that the website went away sometime between mid-2012 and mid-2014, after three issues of the journal were produced. </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120620142404/http://www.slm-psychiatry.com/journal/mind-brain-the-journal-of-psychiatry/jop-vol-2-issue-1/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The ADHD paper in question was in the final issue</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120620143250/http://www.slm-psychiatry.com/mind-brain-the-journal-of-psychiatry/editorial-board/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sarina Grosswald is also listed as a member of the editorial board of the journal</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A bit of further digging through the Wayback Machine, turns up </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120620142223/http://www.slm-psychiatry.com/about-slm/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the name and address of the publisher, “San Lucas Medical” of Middlesex in the UK</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. This publisher was briefly producing journals under ten different titles.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I mentioned in the previous part of this series, in the scientific publishing field the “predatory journal” has become a more frequent issue for researchers in recent years. </span><a href="http://mdanderson.libanswers.com/faq/206446" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As simply defined by this page at a University of Texas website</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, “Predatory Journals take advantage of authors by asking them to publish for a fee without providing peer-review or editing services.” Given the apparent fly-by-night nature of this “Mind and Brain” journal, was it in fact a predatory journal? Given the insistence by TM promoters, including Orme-Johnson, that editing and peer review actually count for something - has he, at the same time, in the course of defending the validity of research on TM performed by longtime TM meditators, called my attention to a paper that they paid to have placed in a publication that publishes most anything without reviewing it, based on the ability to pay for that service? And as a bonus, this same paper is represented on the tm.org website research list as if it were published in a legitimate, peer-reviewed, scientific journal.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The ‘San Lucas Medical” (SLM) journals, and the publisher, were in business so briefly that they don’t appear on lists of predatory journals that were beginning to appear around the time that these journals went out of business. But </span><a href="https://retractionwatch.com/2016/04/08/scientists-call-for-retraction-of-seriously-misleading-paper-with-asbestos-industry-ties/#comment-1004423" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">an anonymous comment at the Retraction Watch website</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> points to UK government public records that reveal a link that certainly suggests that the SLM journals were, in fact, predatory, pay-for-play operations. This is because </span><a href="https://www.companydirectorcheck.com/asif-ali-11" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">at least one of the directors of SLM, Asif Ali, was later the director of another predatory journal publisher, Premier Publishing</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which </span><a href="https://predatoryjournals.com/publishers/#P" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">appears on a list of known predatory publishers</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and that has also since gone out of business.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As for the contents of the paper itself? Orme-Johnson highlights an obvious, likely flaw: again, as with the first ADHD study, evaluation of the children’s symptoms by professionals is not the sole means of evaluating any changes in their behavior. He seems to think that the parents having been surveyed to determine if the children are improving or not is worth mentioning. I tend to think that the parent’s views would likely be the most unreliable and biased means one could ever choose to evaluate a research subject’s behavior; this would be particularly true when they’ve likely been told that their children are participating in a study of a method that is consistently oversold as always being positively life-changing and effective, as TM is always sold to prospective meditators.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Orme-Johnson seems quite insistent that the addition of EEG recordings in the second study, allegedly demonstrating changes in “coherence,” somehow further legitimizes the methods that were used in, and the conclusions of the first study. The problem is that “EEG coherence,” I think, should be considered part of a common article of faith in the TM movement, and not a clear scientific reality. While coherent brain activity is observed when people are active, particularly when performing creative tasks, the assertion that coherence observed in meditators is always beneficial is a position that is largely that of meditating researchers affiliated with TM institutions. These researchers provide a very tenuous basis for an implied claim that appears in TM marketing materials and websites, where “whole brain creativity,” EEG coherence and an observed increase in EEG coherence among meditators are strung together to give the incorrect impression that a concrete and generally accepted causative relationship among these three items exists, that supports the practice of TM because it supposedly improves creativity among meditators. </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160113092208/https://tm-ireland.org/creativity/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here’s one example that recently appeared on a number of TM website</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">s:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Creativity, perhaps more than any other aspect of life, depends on the extent to which the brain is able to work coherently as one whole. In scientific circles this is also referred to as “whole brain creativity”. This can be measured through EEG coherence measurements, and transcending [through Transcendental Meditation], more than any other experience ever researched has been found to increase EEG coherence.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another issue with the TM movement’s vague talk of “EEG coherence” in which coherence is always viewed as a good and beneficial thing, is that there is considerable ambiguity as to what TM researchers mean by that term, since the type and pattern of coherence is of diagnostic importance, not that it simply exists in greater or lesser amounts. For example, </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3654376/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">EEG coherence patterns are observed in epileptics and are associated with epileptic seizures</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. More relevant to these claims that attempt to show that TM practice and allegedly resulting EEG coherence reduces ADHD symptoms, </span><a href="https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-017-0805-9" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is that in one recent study (note the red lines in figure 3)</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, an increase of coherence in certain patterns has been associated with ADHD patients and not with subjects in a control group.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29363843?dopt=Abstract" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another recent paper reported that in a study that compared brain coherence measurements</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> between scalp and intracranial (inside the brain, implanted) electrodes in monkeys, there wasn’t a reliable relationship between the two kinds of measurements. The authors advised caution when interpreting EEG coherence effects:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Although we found inter-area coherence at both scales of measurement, we did not find that scalp-level coherence was reliably related to coherence between brain areas measured intracranially on a trial-to-trial basis, despite that scalp-level EEG was related to other important features of neural oscillations, such as trial-to-trial variability in overall amplitudes. This suggests that caution must be exercised when interpreting EEG coherence effects, and new theories devised about what aspects of neural activity long-range coherence in the EEG reflects.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To sum up, I tend to think that paying to get published in an evidently “predatory journal” would be “in contradistinction to good science,” which is how Orme-Johnson attempts to characterize my criticisms, in which he notes that I failed to cite exactly that kind of paper and journal that wasn’t relevant to my argument. Claims in published papers implicating EEG coherence as the means by which TM practice is beneficial, by TM affiliated researchers, </span><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">which have most often appeared in the neuroscience journal whose faults I discussed in the previous part of this series</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, may be much less than they appear, and seem to exist primarily to provide some marketable set of claims of “scientific” validation (</span><a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-07/muom-nss072611.php" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">including, by way of Maharishi University of Management press releases</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) that don’t hold up very well to further scrutiny. These claims aren’t supported by any scientific consensus outside the bubble of TM-affiliated research, as is again true in this case, where the study was funded by the David Lynch Foundation and performed by people with well-known formal affiliations with TM organizations. But what do I know, I’m just an unpublished college dropout, which Orme-Johnson also attempts to address elsewhere in his submitted comment:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I looked the blog writer on Google Scholar and did not find he had single publications in a peer-reviewed journal. His blog would not make it through peer-review process because it does not tell the whole story about the two TM papers it takes issue with.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I make no secret, here and elsewhere, of being a University of Maryland dropout. Unlike the edifice, which I personally liken to a Potemkin village, that the TM organization has constructed over the past 50 years or so in Fairfield, Iowa, in which to house and feed its authorities, I’ve made no claim to any particular level of scholarly authority or institutional affiliation; what you see is what you get. I can at least proofread my work and rarely let slip a broken sentence like the first one Orme-Johnson wrote here. Despite the missing words, again he’s stating the obvious: no, my name doesn’t appear in a peer-reviewed journal, although I’ve co-written a few pieces in other fields that have actually been printed on paper, a series of articles in a specialty newsmagazine and twice in one of the longest running alternative newspapers in the United States. My professional achievements, and for that matter, failures, are a matter of public record.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This sort of comment, I think, is indicative of someone who’s used to discrediting critics in the presence of like-minded advocates of Transcendental Meditation; after all, he’s created and maintained a website for this purpose, for over a dozen years now. But science is not a black box tended only by credentialed, published scientists. Actually, I think it’s essential that non-scientists, particularly those in any position of responsibility, develop some minimum ability to evaluate scientific claims. It’s really not that hard, and there are plenty of resources online (</span><a href="https://www.nature.com/news/policy-twenty-tips-for-interpreting-scientific-claims-1.14183" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here’s a popular one</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><a href="https://www.compoundchem.com/2014/04/02/a-rough-guide-to-spotting-bad-science/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here’s a handy poster</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) that can help people develop that sort of understanding of how science works. This is particularly true in the realm of public policy and politics, relevant to all matters involving Transcendental Meditation since the movement, and now the David Lynch Foundation, have long attempted, and continue to work toward, inserting TM into government, government-sponsored programs, prisons, and public schools, despite </span><a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=969246082363008637&q=Malnak+v.+Yogi,+592+F.+2d+197+%E2%80%93+Court+of+Appeals,+3rd+Circuit+1979&hl=en&as_sdt=6,36" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">court decisions in this country standing in the way of such efforts</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What I see at Orme-Johnson’s website is a single-minded devotion to the advancement of TM as the usual religious-tradition-based, panacea and solution for everything that its founder described it to be, and not anything resembling an objective, dispassionate evaluation of both the possible benefits of meditation for some people, and the limits of scientific research, particularly when that research is performed by people who by definition have more than a casual interest in the outcome. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Maharishi University of Management (MUM) would not exist except for the fact that its primary purpose is to serve as a means of attempting to legitimize, in the Western world, a particular interpretation of a spiritual tradition by a religious sect, Maharishi being the most recognizable leader of that sect. By centering an unusual institution of higher learning on TM, or as they more generally call it, “Maharishi Vedic Science,” their attempted research in these fields has been elevated to a level of legitimacy, and lack of scrutiny, that it has never deserved.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is in that context that research conducted by MUM, or anyone currently or ever formally associated with it, should be critically viewed. Every objection raised against research by such individuals, focused on TM and all the rest of the Maharishi-related products may well chip away at the legitimacy of the institution in which they work, that they support, and that in many cases provides them with employment. That relationship is very seldom explicitly disclosed in the published research, and in my view it constitutes an undisclosed conflict of interest, which customarily and technically need not be disclosed, if MUM were just another university. But MUM isn’t just another university, it’s completely dependent on the assumed legitimacy of the products and practices connected with the religious tradition (so-called “Vedic science”) on which it was founded.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><a href="http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" target="_blank">Read this series from the beginning</a>.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-dubious-research-claims-of_27.html" target="_blank">Read the previous installment of this series (Part 4)</a>.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;" /></span>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-10390072207124533572019-10-27T14:26:00.000-04:002019-11-10T23:50:03.641-05:00The dubious research claims of Transcendental Meditation, part 4: When "peer review" becomes "meditator review"<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><a href="http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" target="_blank">Read this series from the beginning</a>.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" target="_blank">Read the previous installment of this series (Part 3)</a>.</i></b></span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqZV1IgkuIa27lxXtk3MXUKRizCaVd2iVYeqr1UDCxiqop-mSBUGBO1EumMh6M9EIibwDCysJyZggTA6tv3qPAhJLQCM1sDDvIjjTLeogh-vdO8nWpgoCshJiYwlzESUTpzkIT/s1600/jsbp-cover-640.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1028" data-original-width="640" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqZV1IgkuIa27lxXtk3MXUKRizCaVd2iVYeqr1UDCxiqop-mSBUGBO1EumMh6M9EIibwDCysJyZggTA6tv3qPAhJLQCM1sDDvIjjTLeogh-vdO8nWpgoCshJiYwlzESUTpzkIT/s400/jsbp-cover-640.png" width="248" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Cover of the final volume of the </span><br />
<i style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Journal of Social Behavior and Personality.</span></i><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Does this look like a legitimate,
independent scientific journal to you?</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I’ve discussed in earlier parts of this series, the organizations that offer Transcendental Meditation (TM), including the David Lynch Foundation (DLF), have long claimed scientific legitimacy and validity for all the claims they regularly make for TM on the basis of scientific research. They imply that the fact that this research has “appeared in many leading, peer-reviewed journals” is as good as a formal stamp of approval, for the accuracy and legitimacy of everything they say in support of TM.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"></b><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But what do they really mean when they use the phrase, “peer-review?” Earlier, I quoted David Orme-Johnson, the retired psychology department chairman at the TM movement’s university, Maharishi University of Management (MUM), who is currently a promoter of TM by way of his “Truth About TM” website:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Moreover, one purpose of the peer-reviewed process is to screen out studies that may have been biased by the orientation of the investigators. The numerous published studies on the Transcendental Meditation program have met the high standards of peer-review.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the course of sorting through many of the research papers often cited on lists of TM research that appear on the tm.org website and elsewhere, I came upon an important detail, in a paper written by David Orme-Johnson and two other Maharishi University of Management staffers. This is in the context of </span><a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Critique-of-the-National-Research-Council-%E2%80%99-s-on-Orme-johnson-Alexander/12f60105b2158ebb45377067fd3ffdbeb74aa5a4" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a critique of two National Research Council (NRC) reviews of the research on meditation published in 1991 and 1994</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Their critique is largely centered on their opinion that the NRC’s reviews did not include certain studies that would have supported their position that TM produces beneficial physical and mental effects that do not occur with other forms of meditation, and that TM provides greater relaxation, greater improvements in human performance, and other benefits compared to other methods, that went unreported in the NRC review.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Near the end of their critique is this statement, which I think is a rather extraordinary demonstration of a basic ignorance or outright avoidance of the scientific method, that I also think contradicts <a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of_22.html">his earlier comments on the bias of investigators</a>, with emphasis added by me:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How can we insure objectivity in future reviews of technologies from non-Western cultures or from radically new scientific paradigms that may be outside the knowledge and experience of the reviewers? We suggest that half of the membership of review committees for new or controversial research be comprised of researchers from different universities or research institutions </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">who are practitioners of the technology in question</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, who have published research in the field, and who are well conversant with the theoretical frame that informs the research.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So there you have it in their own words. They are suggesting that half of the people who review research on Transcendental Meditation should be meditators themselves; that is what they mean by “practitioners of the technology,” because another name for Transcendental Meditation is the “Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field.” I suppose the phrase means very little if, as is true of most people, including scientists, you aren’t familiar with the background on Transcendental Meditation to recognize that reference. The “Unified Field” pseudonym for TM was frequently used during the early 1990’s in various TM related publications, and it’s defined that way on page 26 of the first, 1987 edition of Bob Roth’s book on TM. (It doesn’t appear in later editions of that book, but <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=%E2%80%9CMaharishi+Technology+of+the+Unified+Field.%E2%80%9D">it’s mentioned in numerous other publications around that time</a>.)</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFK1sG3JZ4EZid_BYMbufpIgHeeBVlccVnIuW-ksz2soMDet3Lo0R6ZGeg4z4-CsfiGM1h1EfEZu04hIhfkYIhN4Ibq1svzEZXBmB0GsgO1p6DC-rRSdqSBdTIc5_zqRtPQCy_/s1600/technology.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="1377" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFK1sG3JZ4EZid_BYMbufpIgHeeBVlccVnIuW-ksz2soMDet3Lo0R6ZGeg4z4-CsfiGM1h1EfEZu04hIhfkYIhN4Ibq1svzEZXBmB0GsgO1p6DC-rRSdqSBdTIc5_zqRtPQCy_/s200/technology.png" width="200" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">… we only need to restore the natural connection - through the practice of TM - between the active thinking mind and the source of thought; between the active mind and the unified field.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When we make that connection we develop creativity and intelligence, reduce stress and fatigue, and enjoy greater progress and achievement in life. We gain the support of nature in everything we do.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And this is why TM is called the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When, as Roth does in this excerpt, they start talking about getting the “support of nature” because meditators have connected with the “unified field” or “source of thought” or “pure consciousness” or the “</span><a href="https://www.merucourses.com/blog/total-knowledge-possible/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">field of all knowledge</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,” they are expressing a religious concept rooted in the Vedas, which they will insist is not religious at all, but is simply an expression of fundamental reality. Much as they desperately try, they’ve failed to demonstrate by way of scientific research that this is true, that might be viewed as valid by anyone other than themselves. They also claim that this process that occurs through TM also creates the effect of “</span><a href="https://excellenceinaction.globalgoodnews.com/07-june/june-4.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">spontaneous right action</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” - that the TM meditator “gains the spontaneous ability to think, speak, and act correctly, in a way that brings the best response from one’s surroundings.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In my view, what this all means, when strung together, is that they believe that only meditators, who are practicing TM which they believe allows them to contact the “field of all knowledge,” will be able to “act correctly” with respect to evaluating and reviewing scientific research on any aspect of the TM program, or for that matter, any aspect of the “Vedic Science” which they attribute to Maharishi. By insisting that half of scientific committees that review TM research be meditators, their definition of “peer” evidently deliberately favors those individuals who practice TM; it is not based on knowledge or expertise, but instead implies that a specific internal experience or “state of consciousness,” that they believe may only be brought about through the practice of Transcendental Meditation, is necessary to "objectively" evaluate research on TM. Many of the rest of us would identify this as a requirement that reviewers have demonstrated, through prior personal experience, a likely bias in favor of positive reviews of anything that, in their view, might support a claim of TM's effectiveness and uniqueness.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is, of course, no precedent in science that would support the rather ridiculous idea that only the people who practice this kind of mental technique would be qualified to evaluate scientific research on, or related to, that technique. If anything, that is a veiled expression that a certain kind of "satisfied customer" bias, that only happy users of a product are qualified to scientifically evaluate it, is preferred among such reviewers, given the doctrines </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">that are delivered with instruction in Transcendental Meditation and its subsequent advanced lectures and courses. The</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> absolute unqualified insistence that the benefits that Roth enumerates ("</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">creativity," "intelligence," "reduce[d] stress and fatigue," "greater progress and achievement") allegedly</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> accrue in every case for every person who regularly and properly practices TM are not just claims, but are core tenets, doctrines that have been put forward for TM since shortly after its founding. A demand that those who are satisfied if not very impressed with their experiences of TM practice (as evidenced by their continued practice and involvement with the TM organization for years if not decades), who have heard those doctrines over and over since learning TM, be uniquely privileged in the process of scientific review, is what David Orme-Johnson and his Maharishi University of Management colleagues have proposed here.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We know that Maharishi University of Management has published its own journals, including “</span><a href="https://research.mum.edu/modern-science-and-vedic-science-journal/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Modern Science and Vedic Science</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” and “</span><a href="https://maharishivedicresearch.com/journal-of-maharishi-vedic-research-institute/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Journal of Maharishi Vedic Research Institute</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,” that have been entirely written, edited and reviewed by meditators. But given that Orme-Johnson's proposition is an apparent statement of intent - that they would prefer that any research on TM only be reviewed by TM meditators, or by a near-majority, or more, of meditators among reviewers - has there ever been any instance where a seemingly independent scientific journal published research on Transcendental Meditation, that was almost exclusively authored by TM meditators, that was edited by meditators, and where documented meditators were at least half of the reviewers of those studies?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This has occurred at least once; in this case, one entire volume of</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> what would appear at first glance to be an independent scientific journal, contained 26 papers which show TM in a favorable light, that are frequently cited as "peer-reviewed" research in independent journals by TM promoters. These</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> 26 papers were authored by 47 TM meditators and two individuals whose affiliation, or not, with TM could not be determined, and were reviewed by a group of “consulting reviewers,” 56% of whom could be documented as being TM meditators. That the “peer review” of these papers was accomplished primarily by people with obvious connections with the TM program, whose confirmation bias could lead them to overlook the obvious flaws in research methodology or even basic plausibility of the studies they were examining, was never disclosed in the journal or elsewhere. Seven of those studies appear on the research list currently on the tm.org website.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Journal of Social Behavior and Personality: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The last gasp of a defunct journal</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Journal of Social Behavior and Personality</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (JSBP) shouldn’t be confused with another similarly titled journal, </span><a href="https://www.sbp-journal.com/index.php/sbp" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Its publisher, Select Press, was co-owned and managed by Rick Crandall, who, </span><a href="https://www.rickcrandall.net/about-me/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">among other interests</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, wrote </span><a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=%22rick+crandall%22&tbm=bks" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a number of books on marketing, selling, management and customer service</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="https://www.google.com/search?biw=1920&bih=937&tbm=bks&q=%22rick+crandall%22+%22select+press%22&oq=%22rick+crandall%22+%22select+press%22" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">some of which were, at least initially, self-published by his firm</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. The JSBP was the only journal published by Select Press.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is no online index of articles or past issues of the JSBP, unlike most influential and commonly available scientific journals. </span><a href="https://library.ohio-state.edu/search~S7?/XJournal+of+Social+Behavior+and+Personality&SORT=D&searchscope=7/XJournal+of+Social+Behavior+and+Personality&SORT=D&searchscope=7&SUBKEY=Journal+of+Social+Behavior+and+Personality/1,31,31,B/holdings&FF=XJournal+of+Social+Behavior+and+Personality&2,2," style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Library indexes like this one</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> show that the JSBP was regularly published from 1986 to 2001. This roughly corresponds to </span><a href="https://rickcrandallconsulting.wordpress.com/services/jsbp/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the description of the JSBP that’s on Crandall’s personal website</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, where he states that the JSBP “stopped publishing after about 13 years in 1999 due to family demands on the publisher.” But apparently, that wasn’t the final end of the JSBP.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the academic publishing industry, there’s what’s called a “guest-edited special issue.” This is when a set of articles covering one particular topic of interest is produced by guest editors instead of the journal’s usual staff editors. Four years after the JSBP ceased regular publication, a rather curious special issue was published by Select Press, and while the name of the journal appears on the volume’s spine, it doesn’t appear on the front cover. Instead, the title is “Applications of Maharishi Vedic Science.” This is the kind of subject matter that usually only appears in the journals and publications directly produced by the Maharishi University of Management (MUM). As with those MUM produced publications, all of the journal’s guest editors are MUM faculty and staff. With the apparent exception of two individuals, all of the authors have an institutional connection with the TM movement, most often as MUM faculty and staff.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s a list of “contributing reviewers” in the back of the volume, and more than half of the reviewers - at least 23 out of 41 - have an easily documented connection to TM institutions. Some of the others have some less formal connection with TM research, as co-authors of, or having been credited in, some TM research studies primarily authored by TM meditators. Even the front cover was designed by MUM’s design director.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are also reviewers who have interests that overlap with that of the TM movement, such as </span><a href="https://www.parapsych.org/users/rdnelson/profile.aspx" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Roger Nelson</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, who has created </span><a href="http://global-mind.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">experiments that attempt to detect the existence of some “Global Consciousness,”</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> which of course is a concept espoused by TM's founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, as part of the TM movement’s points of Veda-based, religious and unscientific doctrine.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since the journal does not indicate it, we have no way of knowing which papers were reviewed by which reviewer(s). It would be reasonable to assume though, given Orme-Johnson’s statement (which actually appears in a paper contained in this journal volume), that reviewers would have been selected so that they would view the papers containing material with which they were already familiar, and whose hypotheses they would not immediately dismiss. Reports of research quite similar to the more conventional and well-known studies advanced by the TM movement claiming benefit of TM practice for the previous few decades, inconclusive and preliminary as they may be, are included in this same journal, along with papers putting forward the more controversial aspects of TM advocates’ claims. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One such claim in particular is that people practicing the TM and TM-Sidhi program in groups have had a calming effect on cities or regions of the world by means of the so-called “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_Meditation#Maharishi_Effect">Maharishi Effect</a>” (ME). Two papers in this volume report on their attempt to demonstrate this alleged effect in Lebanon, and the resistance to outright dismissal that they have encountered from policymakers to their propositions, which they attribute to “stereotyping and prejudice.” Other papers attempt to show that a building’s orientation, the direction in which its doors or windows face, has an effect on the quality of life of its occupants, in support of “Maharishi Vedic Architecture,” or that the traditional classical music of Northern India has similar beneficial and unique effects on listeners, in support of “Maharishi Gandharva Veda” music. Though a number of such ME papers have been infrequently published in various journals in the 25-30 years before the publication of this volume, I believe it’s very unlikely that these papers would even be considered for publication today by any reputable scientific journal, given <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022002790034004008">the past publication history of such studies</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_Meditation#Maharishi_Effect">the resulting criticism of the published ME papers</a>, and the basic implausibility of the claims which defy all known science, and paucity of evidence in the rest. As is true of so much of the TM research that exists outside of the realm of “prestigious journals,” a brief glance through some of these papers suggests major and obvious issues with respect to methodology, use of controls, unwillingness to consider and control for other, sometimes obvious, factors, and a reliance on self-reporting by research subjects.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnjIFODAGvV5qhTo7HfhzNSha4vpdJAiDrGSbOeDOA3g1GmKxJcR0mGPRJu67L8P3huWby4WdiwmpeN9DKLlav-X_g7Gl4V_94_9-8beNr1JS3bIBFZcs1DQnfKuttOEQtK44r/s1600/26%252341Travis+excerpt.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1237" data-original-width="1600" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnjIFODAGvV5qhTo7HfhzNSha4vpdJAiDrGSbOeDOA3g1GmKxJcR0mGPRJu67L8P3huWby4WdiwmpeN9DKLlav-X_g7Gl4V_94_9-8beNr1JS3bIBFZcs1DQnfKuttOEQtK44r/s400/26%252341Travis+excerpt.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Experiment described in “</span><a href="https://peacepalace.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Sthapatya-Veda-effect-on-crime-and-mental-health.pdf" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; text-align: start; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Can a Building’s Orientation Affect the Quality of Life of the People Within? Testing Principles of Maharishi Sthapatya Veda</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” No mention is made as to whether or not the researchers surveyed Fairfield to determine what proportion of homes had entrances facing in particular directions, or that they considered any other confounding factors.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Given the easily-noticed anomalies with respect to this journal volume, it’s worthwhile to consider how well-known scientific and academic publishers handle the production of a guest-edited special issue of a journal, and how that contrasts to the production of this volume. For example, a major scientific publisher, Elsevier, has a formal “</span><a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/physiology-and-behavior/policies-and-guidelines/special-issues-guidelines-for-guest-editors" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Guidelines for Guest Editors</span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” that clearly defines how such an issue is produced, including, specifically, that the same criteria apply for articles in both special and regular issues:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Guest Editors take the primary responsibility for liaison with contributing authors and peer reviewers. The same review processes and criteria of quality and originality apply to articles in Special Issues as to regular issue articles. Paper submitted by a GE must be edited by another GE, or if that is not feasible, by another independent party, e.g. the Editor-in-Chief or another handling Editor on the journal. All papers accepted for publication (except Editorials) should be peer reviewed by at least two independent referees.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What authority a guest editor might have had when producing a special issue of the journal of a small publisher that might have been in the process of shutting down its operations would not be as clear, and in this case, this is a special issue that was published almost fifteen years ago. In searching online for clarification of how other journals handled these situations, I found some discussions at the online forum of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Chronicle of Higher Education</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that suggest that editing standards and authority may vary widely from journal to journal. Here’s one example, </span><a href="https://www.chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,39505.msg608900.html#msg608900" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a bit of advice offered to someone who was offered the opportunity to guest edit</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, with my emphasis added:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Typically, as a guest editor, you make the final decisions about which manuscripts the journal will publish. The power (such power!) comes from being able to both solicit and accept work from colleagues you particularly admire, whether you know them personally or not. In other words, the issue you guest edit will have your personal stamp of approval (or whatever) on it.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You should ask more specific questions of the regular editor, or managing editor, now. For instance: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">will the regular readers or editorial board be screening [manuscripts] and sending them to you, or is everyone taking a sabbatical and dumping everything into your lap</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">? Will it be your job to send [manuscripts] out for reader reports, or will the managing editor continue to do this? How much material can you, yourself, solicit for the journal--all of it, or only part of it? How much, if anything, are you authorized to say that the journal will pay (information you should provide up front in your solciitation letter, especially if you are soliciting bigwigs in your field). What sorts of deadlines are you on, official or unofficial?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since TM proponents often insist that “peer review” is some gold standard of legitimacy and quality, while one particular TM authority figure has admitted that they’d prefer that research reviews be conducted primarily by meditators, how are reviewers selected for journal special issues? </span><a href="https://www.chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,39505.msg608993.html#msg608993" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Indications are that those reviewers are selected by the guest editors.</span></a></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once the papers come in, typically, you will [manage] the review process. That will mean skimming or reading the papers to make sure that they fit within the scope and quality expectations of the journal and special issue. Once you determine a paper is ready for review, you must make sure it is blinded for review and prepare reviewer document forms. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You need to find reviewers and request their participation</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (you will need to contact many more than you need). You need to send out the paper to reviewers. You need to follow up with reviewers to make sure they return their reviews. You then need to read over the reviews and more carefully read over the paper. You make a decision. Then you followup with the authors and manage the process again if it ready for second submission. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In any other active field of research, this process is not considered suspect; reviewers should be familiar with and competent to review what they’re reading. While TM proponents make claims about hundreds of studies, the field of TM research is actually very small and is of interest to a relatively tiny number of academics and scientists, many of whom have an unusual, ideological and emotional interest in promoting their preferred practice and products. Given the outsized role that each study on TM may serve to advance the interests of TM organizations - backing claims of TM and Maharishi-branded products in the absence of any more general scientific consensus supporting most of those claims - every published paper in a journal that they don’t own or control directly adds to their desired image of scientific legitimacy, which is essential to their efforts to market TM.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In this case, seven papers in this one volume of the JSBP are currently on a list of 123 papers describing research on TM that appears on the tm.org website; clearly, this one volume made a significant contribution to their “scientific” image. This is true despite the fact that out of over 1,100 articles published in the JSBP over its entire history, </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=%22journal+of+social+behavior+and+personality%22" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">only 8 of its articles are indexed in the National Institutes of Health’s PubMed - only 3 of those with more than just an article title</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - and </span><a href="https://www.scimagojr.com/journalsearch.php?q=30087&tip=sid" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">its SCImago page, for the six years for which it could be ranked there, has a lot of orange and red, indicative of a journal with little to no scientific influence</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This “scientific” image is then promoted in news coverage of these articles, because reporters seldom mention or consider the quality of a journal in which research is published when reporting on such studies, and of course these factors have mattered little in the bibliographies and lists of TM research studies that have been generated on the TM movement’s behalf as part of its promotional efforts.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How then, did this volume of the JSBP get published? All that can be gleaned from this volume’s pages is that it was edited by meditators, and mostly reviewed by meditators. There is no mention of the JSBP’s former editorial board or anyone else who could be associated with the journal, only the owners of Select Press, Rick Crandall and his wife Carolynn. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Crandall had a rather contrarian view of the academic publishing business, as is obvious from </span><a href="https://rickcrandallconsulting.wordpress.com/services/jsbp/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the page describing the JSBP on his personal website</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. There he broadly uses the word “unethical” twice to describe the editorial process of journals, first in a paragraph titled “Our Approach:”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are mounting a crusade to improve editorial and review procedures. Existing procedures of current journals have been shown to have an unethical lack of timeliness, reliability and validity. We are using an unusual set of procedures to provide editorial decisions in five weeks and publication in an average of four months with courteous and tested procedures. In return, accepted papers share some of the costs of publication—but this is independent of editorial decisions!</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Crandall admits he’s on a crusade, doing something he says is “unusual.” But, what’s this? “Accepted papers share some of the costs of publication” - but a paper can’t pay. He’s indicating that, to some degree, the author pays to be published, and the expedited publication process raises the obvious question. Was the JSBP a “</span><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Pseudojournal" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pseudojournal</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,” a journal that had all the trappings of a legitimate scientific journal, but in fact was something similar to a vanity press? </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To my eye, the language in Crandall’s screed describing the JSBP is combative, and centers on getting papers published that would otherwise be rejected by other journals. Any discussion of a standard of quality or accuracy is rather vague and left unclear beyond Crandall’s personal assessment. This thread runs through his entire description of the journal, as if to indicate that authors who couldn’t be published elsewhere may be published in the JSBP, as long as those papers adhered to Crandall’s alternate standard of quality.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This tone continues in another paragraph titled “Our Editorial Philosophy:”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We believe that the standard editorial process combines the efforts of many people with good intentions into an unethical system. It is an unrecognized tragedy of the commons. It is in no one’s personal interest to improve the process. The ethics codes of professional associations would rule against any test publisher who sold tests with as little evidence for reliability and validity as their own journal review processes have. Journals with 90% rejection rates need to find reasons to reject papers just to keep their loads manageable. We’re more interested in facilitating the publication of information that can be of value. Whether accepted or rejected, we generally specify how papers can be improved for publication.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even more explicit is the section titled “Types of Papers Encouraged,” where I’ve emphasized one passage:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Particularly encouraged are:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">controversial papers that provoke debate (papers criticizing published papers will be subsidized)</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">new theoretical work or integrations across fields</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">papers on important real areas which are under-researched such as marriage, sex, and quality of life</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">true interdisciplinary topics which most journals might say were good papers, but not for their readers</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">new applications of basic research</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">papers (with reviews) which have been turned down by other journals for bad reasons</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 36pt; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">replications, including negative results</li>
</ul>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Because of our ongoing crusade to improve the editorial and review process, papers in this area will be subsidized by the Journal.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is not the only statement of Crandall’s views on academic publishing, as his commentary has been published in various journals and publications over the course of years. One such commentary came to my attention because </span><a href="https://creation.com/images/pdfs/tj/j22_1/j22_1_44-49.pdf#page=4" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">it was quoted in a 2008 issue of the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Journal of Creation</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> a Christian creationist publication that advances young earth, six-day-creation views. This is how he was quoted, from </span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=PWQ0AAAAIAAJ&lpg=PP15&vq=rick%20crandall&pg=PA23#v=onepage&q&f=false" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Crandall’s article published in another journal in 1982</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The editorial process has tended to be run as an informal, old-boy network which has excluded minorities, women, younger researchers, and those from lower-prestige institutions … Authors can feel that they’re dealing with hostile gatekeepers whose goal is to keep out manuscripts on picky grounds rather than let in the best work.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The problem with this sort of seemingly well-intentioned “crusade,” in my view, is that depending on the circumstances, it may provide an excuse to publish pseudoscience, which might satisfy such a publisher’s desire to print studies that would not be published elsewhere. Whether that was the publisher’s intent, or not, is irrelevant; this situation may benefit others with an ideological agenda, perhaps one that is rather well concealed and unfamiliar to many. Those who wish to redirect scientific institutions to support anti-scientific organizations may take advantage of such sentiments to advance their cause.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If we were discussing, for instance, research papers supporting Christian young-earth six-day creationism being promoted by fundamentalist Christians, there would be little argument that material of that nature would not belong in a credible scientific journal. The situation with TM has historically been quite a bit different, with its proponents having actively denied the significance of TM’s religious origins at every possible opportunity. The movement’s establishment of an accredited university, Maharishi International University, now Maharishi University of Management, in the 1970’s served to obscure the underlying agenda of the promotion of “Vedic Science,” particularly since their university is populated with credentialed individuals who studied at recognizable universities. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The fact that organized opposition to TM, and a legal verdict against TM, initially came from groups of fundamentalist Christians also helped create a sort of role reversal relative to that of Christian creationism. Thus a thin veneer of scientific legitimacy around TM was created through their university, its researchers, and the fact that initial opposition to TM came from a subculture long perceived by many as being hostile to science. In my view, that has been sufficient to allow proponents of TM to gain entry to realms that would have been denied to any group or movement with an agenda culturally understood to be of a religious nature.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I concluded in the previous installment of this series, journals are the product of editors and reviewers, who are human, fallible, and who can be influenced by the usual methods just like anyone else may be. Many are often not as skeptical of new and novel scientific claims and lines of research as they should be, and may be vulnerable to being compromised and used in the promotion of an unusual agenda or ideology, such as that which underlies Transcendental Meditation. Since the publication of this particular volume in 2005, obscure journals with questionable or nonexistent editorial standards, which may not even review papers before publication - “</span><a href="http://mdanderson.libanswers.com/faq/206446" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">predatory journals</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” - have become much more numerous, particularly with the simultaneous growth of “open access” online journals in recent years. There are now many more opportunities for researchers to publish in such “journals,” and to then claim that their research was published in a journal, when in effect they merely paid to have their paper placed on a website without any of the usual processes of editing or review.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One TM research paper which appeared in a questionable and now defunct journal of this nature will be a point of discussion in the following installment of this series.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Laurie, another contributor here at the TM-Free Blog, assisted with editing this article. Thank you!</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<i><b><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;">Continue to part 5 of this series: "</span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The bottom of the barrel of published TM research articles."</span></span></a></b></i><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><a href="http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" target="_blank">Read this series from the beginning</a>.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" target="_blank">Read the previous installment of this series (Part 3)</a>.</i></b></span><br />
<br /></div>
Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-48788422721478680312019-10-17T23:38:00.001-04:002019-11-09T00:08:48.838-05:00Ashley's story: My experience of my husband's journey into Transcendental Meditation<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNZZo99RZM6FxBOd6_sMvHXlsmfPpvkinKsV2H0GQR-G9ewLJ5T_OS6Ehqm4O6_g0ZEecqfNOaKW5NXB98NKkTqxBad3_LuMhF0ih-yg-1kBonDf_dIaNLbtD56jA5j6Go9RLP/s1600/couple+stock+image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNZZo99RZM6FxBOd6_sMvHXlsmfPpvkinKsV2H0GQR-G9ewLJ5T_OS6Ehqm4O6_g0ZEecqfNOaKW5NXB98NKkTqxBad3_LuMhF0ih-yg-1kBonDf_dIaNLbtD56jA5j6Go9RLP/s320/couple+stock+image.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stock photo of a generic young couple, not the contributors.<br />
(scop.io)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here's the second of the personal stories contributed by Tony and Ashley (not their real names), a couple who were challenged by Tony's involvement with the Transcendental Meditation program. This is Ashley's recounting of her experience, in which she explains how she watched her husband both gain some benefits from TM practice, while his behavior and beliefs changed in ways she found uncomfortable and disturbing. She describes in detail how an individual's priorities can radically change over time through TM involvement, beginning with simple twice-a-day TM, to the point of threatening their marriage. All of this occurred despite the frequently repeated claims by TM teachers that TM doesn't involve a change in beliefs or lifestyle. Fortunately, as Tony recalled in the first part, he disengaged from the TM program and they're now working to bring their relationship back to normal.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 73.67999999999995pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
</div>
<hr />
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 73.67999999999995pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My experience of my husband's journey into Transcendental Meditation: </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 2.6399999999999864pt; margin-top: 21.12pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A few years ago my husband Tony announced that he would like to learn Transcendental Meditation. He'd been looking into various mindfulness apps and still hadn't found what he was looking for. At this time he suffered from crippling social anxiety to the point where it was difficult for us to even have a normal social life, so I agreed that this was worth a try. The cost seemed pretty exorbitant and part of me was skeptical, but if this form of meditation worked the way it said, it would it all be worth it. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 0.4799999999999045pt; margin-top: 20.88pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There were a few odd things about the course: Despite being "non-religious" it started with a ritual involving prayer, fruit and a handkerchief but this was no big deal really and he did love what he learned. Despite my doubts, my husband threw himself into this new regime of meditating morning and night for 20 minutes, and indeed it did seem to be working. We could now go to a dinner party or drinks with his colleagues without him becoming agitated and withdrawn on the way there. In this one small way TM had changed both of our lives for the better and it had all been worth it. The daily meditation continued like clockwork. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 12.239999999999952pt; margin-top: 20.88pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My husband started going along to weekly meetings at his local TM center which was only 10 minutes walk from our house. He'd found an exciting new interest and wanted to meet others who practiced TM. He went along to an advanced course which would set us back about an extra US$ 600. I didn't mind the cost but I was quite surprised when he seemed to be back from the course within an hour or so each day. Surely a weekend course costing that much money would be all weekend? </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 3.1200000000000045pt; margin-top: 21.12pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He continued his meditation through the following months and there were more advanced courses and a few weekend retreats. These were very regimented programs of relaxation which sounded awful from an outsider's point of view but he loved them, so I was keen to be supportive. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 6pt; margin-top: 21.12pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I can't pinpoint at exactly what point in the process my husband began changing his belief system, but I remember some very uncomfortable discussions where he was telling me things that just sounded plain crazy as non-negotiable facts. Some of these facts were: </span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<br />
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That if he did enough advanced courses he could learn "yogic flying," a basic form of beginner levitation that would eventually lead to him being able to fly. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That a certain number of people doing yogic flying together could stop wars and car accidents in other parts of a country where yogic flying was happening. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That some kind of a forcefield of goodness was created by meditators, especially those practicing yogic flying. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That everyone in the world must do TM in order to live fully to their potential.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">That TM was the answer to climate change. </span>
</li>
</ul>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 0.9599999999999227pt; margin-top: 21.12pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We live in an extremely culturally diverse society and have friends who are Catholic, Muslim, Hindu, mainline Protestant, Buddhist. It's important to me to support others in whatever system of belief they need, but even so something deeply troubled me about my husband's new apparent belief system. I was torn between needing to respect him and knowing something wasn't right. Also what wasn't right in my head was his belief that TM would solve everything for everyone. If a friend or family member was going through any kind of rough time he'd recommend TM or say afterwards, "Man, they really need to do TM." As a friend was telling us about his alternative meditation practice he just shook his head at this "non-effective wrong meditation." </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 0.9599999999999227pt; margin-top: 21.12pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At one stage he had decided that he wanted to teach TM. This in itself wasn't surprising given he has a passion for both TM and teaching in general. What was surprising was that in order to teach TM we would have to live in a house that faced a certain direction. He'd checked online and our house did not fit the requirements. Before he could train as a TM teacher we'd have to move. I was furious. We loved our house. We'd nearly paid off the mortgage and we'd put so many hours into decorating it in a way that was completely unique and "us." This time I really put my foot down. I wanted to support him but we were simply not leaving our house for TM. He dropped the subject and we didn't speak of it again. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 19.43999999999994pt; margin-top: 21.12pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He mentioned someday wanting to visit the "worldwide home of TM" and Maharishi University in Iowa. This seemed reasonable. I wanted to visit an animal sanctuary in Tennessee so we decided we could do another tour through there sometime. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 6.719999999999914pt; margin-top: 21.12pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TM continued to be a uniform and in my case slightly uncomfortable part of our lives but the next time that it really popped up as a problem in our relationship was after he completed his final "advanced technique." He came home from the course on an unnatural high, talking non-stop about how wonderful TM was and how inspiring it was to be around "TMers." He hinted that he somehow thought that people who did TM were in some way on a higher plane than people who didn't. He told me that people who did TM looked younger than people who didn't. Because this hit such a nerve with me, I unfortunately didn't question where these thoughts came from. I just argued back. This would be one of the many sources of guilt for me down the track as I missed an obvious opportunity to question what was going on. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 6.719999999999914pt; margin-top: 21.12pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Another thing that happened around this time was that he started exchanging messages with a girl in his TM group. He was truly on top of the world but there was a giant wall between us and it was getting harder and harder to communicate. Despite my husband being trustworthy and our relationship being strong, my previous experience tells me that when this big of a communication breakdown happens in a relationship there is somebody else so I tried to put 2 and 2 together. This would also become another major regret in the months to come because it distracted me from what was actually going on. I became jealous and unsettled. During this time the Sidhis course became available and my husband jumped at the chance to throw US$ 4500, not including some hundreds more for flights and accommodations. This would take up 3 weekends and then part of our summer vacation. The day that he got the dates of the Sidhis course he decided to enroll in a weekend retreat on the holiday weekend before the Sidhis course started. This was becoming out of control. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.199999999999932pt; margin-top: 21.12pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">His daily meditations had become longer so despite our mutual belief in equal gender roles in a marriage, I was doing all of the cooking, and nearly all of the housework as he simply had to fit in his meditation no matter what. He kept trying to reassure me but I just knew something was amiss. I kept trying harder in our marriage as did he. He tried to end any suspicion or jealousy I felt by showing me the string of messages between him and the other TM participant. Of course there was nothing to suggest him being unfaithful but what did really shock me, however, was part of the conversation where they were talking about the draw of the "Purusha" and "Mother Divine" programs, where you essentially pay many thousands to go overseas and become a celibate monk or nun meditating full time with no contact with the outside world. How do two talented and successful people with lives and careers sign up to learn a relaxation technique and end up even considering such a thing? </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.919999999999959pt; margin-top: 20.88pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It also unsettled me from a personal level. What was missing in our relationship that my husband would even be tempted by such a prospect? </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.919999999999959pt; margin-top: 20.88pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I had been trying to meditate with him (using a phone app rather than the actual TM method) and had some success but I got to the stage where I just couldn't continue. Even the thought of meditation made me mad. This "relaxation technique" was rapidly wrecking our lives and our marriage. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 1.67999999999995pt; margin-top: 21.12pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We went through a number of ups and downs. I went to our good friend's birthday dinner alone while he went to a talk by a visiting "Vedic physician" at the TM center. He also paid nearly two hundred dollars to see the Vedic doctor for a brief appointment only to be given a list of vegetables he shouldn't eat as they "aggravated his dosha." I was even more annoyed - not only was I on dinner duty alone but I was limited by the TM center by what I could cook. We already had a cupboard full of expensive Vedic herbs that hadn't worked last time which he dutifully went back to taking. (These I would later gleefully empty into the trash bin while singing "Na na na na… Hey-Hey.... Goodbye!") </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 4.079999999999927pt; margin-top: 15.840000000000003pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The breaking point came just when we thought we were really fixing things between us, I suggested asking his TM contacts on Facebook how others manage their relationship with a "non-TMer." Funnily enough nobody really seemed to know anything about having a non-TM partner but they all offered "support" talking about having had their families "initiated" (how creepy!) and insisting that the Sidhis course would strengthen our relationship and that I must learn to understand how important it was to do the full Sidhi program of 70+ minutes twice a day. WHAT?! He was also told that cutting the program short wasn't an option and would have terrible effects on him. HUH? This was a life sentence? We'd mutually decided not to have children as we didn't want our lives together to be so restricted. Now our lives would be permanently restricted by TM with no holidays, no days off, no retirement, yet somehow this was something he needed and couldn't not do? </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 2.6399999999999864pt; margin-top: 20.88pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I tried to keep it together for a bit but got overtaken by anxiety and grief for the easy happy future that we wouldn't have. On my worst day I cried so much that I had to tell co-workers that I had hay fever to explain away my red eyes and sniffles. After I got home from work that day I told my husband that I could no longer be married to a TMer. I'd never thought to leave him for a moment but at the time I couldn't see another way forward. As soon as I said it and saw his face I regretted having even said the words I couldn't unsay. I didn't mean it. I wanted us and our life together, so did he. We'd make it work somehow. We just didn't know how yet. The fear of losing each other was a wake up call and in some ways bought us closer at least but things still weren't right. We didn't know how to get through the Sidhis and for me asking him to give up his favorite thing wasn't an option. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 0.4799999999999045pt; margin-top: 20.88pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We muddled through our next few weeks. In a move unusual for me, I reached out to my two best childhood friends for support. Not only were they understanding, but one of them actually had an ex partner try to involve her in an indoctrinating course based on Scientology. She really understood my predicament in a way I hadn't expected, and she got me thinking of a new problem. Was TM a cult? Obviously not, how ridiculous. Everyone kept telling me that meditation is a good, scientifically proven, beneficial thing to do. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 5.759999999999991pt; margin-top: 21.12pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The next morning on a whim I googled the words "Is TM a cult?". 90% of entries said "absolutely not, it's a simple and effective relaxation technique." Ok. But how had my husband changed his entire belief system? I kept googling and found information about Gina Catena, her escape from a TM life in Fairfield and the blog she contributes to, the TM-Free Blog. I was intrigued but still didn't quite believe it in my own mind. Maybe TM was a cult if you were living in Iowa, but here it was definitely just a relaxation technique with some wacky ideas about flying. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 4.319999999999936pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I tried to show my husband some of the articles on the TM-Free Blog. He was upset and hurt. "Why are you only looking at the negative?!", "Why are you making me sound crazy?". He was so certain on the "science" of TM that I actually started to question my own reality. Am I just a horrible cynical atheist who's trying to burst his bubble? He started meditating less (or so I thought - he was actually just mediating when I was asleep or out) and things seemed to be improving so I let it go, however something still didn't add up. I couldn't sleep and I couldn't stop worrying. On a whim I contacted Gina through the TM-Free Blog and she offered the names of a whole bunch of cult exit therapists.. I honestly thought that was a bit dramatic, there was no question that I needed to get my husband away from this but surely it wasn't an actual cult? I didn't know anymore. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 8.879999999999995pt; margin-top: 21.12pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">During this period of time I somehow had to function as normal. It's easy to get time off work for an illness or a family bereavement but because you're trying to get your husband out of a cult? They don't have special leave for that and I couldn't even imagine telling anyone this. I didn't know where to turn or who to talk to. I searched the TM-Free Blog and found a link to</span><a href="https://archive.org/details/DavidWantsToFly" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the documentary, "David Wants to Fly."</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Amazingly my husband agreed to watch it with me. The content was absolutely shocking to both of us but somehow he still wanted to go ahead with the Sidhis course. He felt like the organization was questionable but the techniques he was learning were everything. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 8.879999999999995pt; margin-top: 21.12pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I couldn't believe he would pay money to this corrupt organization. The indoctrination was strong. I started to feel like we were getting somewhere and for the first time I had hope. Life doesn't stop, however, and I also had a 5 hour long work session scheduled that day, I was scared to leave my husband on his own. I was completely distracted during the session and had my phone in front of me and messaged him throughout. My mind wasn't in it and I had to redo some of my work, but I got home exhausted and pulled out the TM-Free Blog again. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 8.879999999999995pt; margin-top: 21.12pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I found the link to </span><a href="http://suggestibility.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Suggestibility.org" by Joe Kellett, former TM teacher</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, where the brainwashing techniques are explained in detail and we both read it. Every time I think I've learnt the worst of this organization I find something even more shocking. I had to stop reading as it was too upsetting. My husband read the whole thing. He kept bargaining with me. "Can I just do the first half of the Sidhis course?", "Can I just do the retreat? I really need a break." I gently stood my ground and we took most of the night either talking or reading or just holding hands while his brain started to un-fog. Finally there came a point where he started to come back to reality. He looked so confused, exhausted and heartbroken that I didn't know what to do. We fell asleep and the next day I knew he was different because I woke up next to him. I hadn't woken up next to my husband for years - he was always meditating. I had the relief of all of this being over but still the nagging fear that he might regress. I couldn't do this alone anymore so I called my Mom and promptly burst into tears admitting that my husband had been taken in by a terrible cult. We talked to close family and friends who were all loving and supportive. He said he felt like he'd woken up after being drunk. I was afraid to let him out of my sight. I was giddy with relief. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 5.279999999999973pt; margin-top: 20.88pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I will never entirely understand how a cult could warp the mind of the best person I know but I do have some insights, some from the suggestibility page and some from my own perception. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 2.3999999999999773pt; margin-top: 20.88pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Meditators initially do receive genuine benefits from meditation and won't necessarily see any ill effects with their initial twenty minutes twice a day. This helps them develop a sense of trust with the organization and a willingness to continue on a journey. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 5.279999999999973pt; margin-top: 20.88pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Meditators are in a vulnerable "trance-like" state post meditation at the weekly meetings, courses and retreats. This is when the indoctrination happens. I liken it to the time my perfectly intelligent Aunt got woken up during a nap by a telephone scammer. In her vulnerable confused state she obediently read out her credit card number to the scammer as she was told. At any other time she would never have done that. The TM meetings and video showings all happen post meditation when the participants are in that state almost like the state between sleep and waking. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 8.639999999999986pt; margin-top: 21.12pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TM participants are flattered into believing that they are superior to others. They are bombarded with suspect "scientifically proven research" about higher brain coherence and amazing benefits on their lives that they start to believe it. Studies are mentioned showing the brain coherence of "Top Musicians," "Top Athletes" and "Top Business People." My husband is an incredibly talented pianist and a superb athlete as well as a successful professional at a well known company. Of course he would have subconsciously related to this. Likewise, participants are subtly told that non-TMers don't have the right brain coherence to understand the wackier concepts in the TM dogma. We don't understand levitation, not because we're skeptical and grounded in reality. Simply put, they say, we're just not smart enough to get it. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 8.639999999999986pt; margin-top: 21.12pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I can also personally relate to this. When I was studying at school I had one (largely unsuccessful) instrumental lesson with a popular music teacher. It was immediately clear that we weren't a good fit, however at the end he said to me "You are the ONLY person in this school who actually makes the changes. No one else does this, they don't have a clue." I was flattered into thinking I'd had a successful lesson and should consider changing to this teacher. An hour later I was horrified, realising that I'd been subtly manipulated and so I stuck with my favourite teacher who was great, with no regrets.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 0.4799999999999045pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">TM participants have this in a much more subtle and on-going way, the indoctrination that they are better than others happens over a long slow period. It's truly cruel and ironic when a corrupt organization can tell its members their brains are at a higher level and at the same time make them believe they can fly. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 1.1999999999999318pt; margin-top: 20.88pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lastly, and maybe most importantly, I genuinely don't believe that the TM teachers even understand that they are manipulating or indoctrinating anyone, which is precisely why it works so well and is so incredibly dangerous. They really do believe that they're creating world peace through yogic butt-hopping. They are sincere and genuine. Their insistence that this actually works is contagious. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 10.319999999999936pt; margin-top: 21.12pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As to our future, it will be a slow road to recovery for both of us with many ups and downs. I love my husband more than ever and now have so much enthusiasm for our future free from indoctrination and nonsensical dogma to live by. It's heartbreaking to watch him go through and question everything in his reality. It's a hard thing for anyone to do and I think he's the bravest person I know for coming forward and admitting that he was wrong on this one. One day he'd still like to be a meditation teacher. I think he'll be a brilliant teacher but only once he deals with his confused relationship to meditation and separates the TM dogma from the genuine simple benefits of a daily meditation. It will be a long time before I'm willing to try meditation again but when the right time comes I will be his first student. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.67999999999995pt; margin-top: 21.12pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I will never blame my husband for what happened to him with TM but I am trying to let go of the guilt that I let my him join a cult right under my nose. I also had my reality warped, in a lesser way than he did. (At what time could I have ever considered it normal for my husband to spend his vacations and multi-thousands, learning to levitate?). I'm also trying to let go of the fear and shock at how our lives could have turned out. Mostly, though I'm just pleased to have a promising future with the man I love. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.01007556915283pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #212121; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 12.0101pt; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/10/tonys-story-of-his-journey-through-and.html"><b><i>Continue reading: Tony's story of his journey through, and out of, the TM program</i></b></a></span></div>
<br />Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-83396286177060662712019-10-11T22:29:00.000-04:002019-11-09T00:09:40.774-05:00Tony's story of his journey through, and out of, the TM program<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We’ve received here at the TM-Free Blog, a dual submission of personal stories, from Tony, a meditator, and his wife Ashley. Their names have been changed to protect their anonymity. Here's Tony's story, which starts with his search for a meditation practice, and ends, while deciding not to proceed with the TM-Sidhis, also known as the "Yogic Flying" course, with the realization that he'd "been handing over my mind to the TM organization in exchange for 'Enlightenment.'" He also talks frankly about the balance between the benefits of TM that he experienced, and what those benefits might have eventually cost him if he'd continued down the path of deeper involvement with the TM program.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 12pt;">
</div>
<hr />
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 2.3999999999999773pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjA4eSilni2jxXtp_3xGG9PlVgS4qscsV7l2ZaCYj8JRKks97pmkMIO5R69-Wtp-P60MUSvCQQqle9yh-CCpbLG4PCwdFHS65IjJdsilT3MByCSXR2GPeEI8BhzaWf-ay9Kph4/s1600/maharishi+conference+room.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjA4eSilni2jxXtp_3xGG9PlVgS4qscsV7l2ZaCYj8JRKks97pmkMIO5R69-Wtp-P60MUSvCQQqle9yh-CCpbLG4PCwdFHS65IjJdsilT3MByCSXR2GPeEI8BhzaWf-ay9Kph4/s320/maharishi+conference+room.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo illustration of a TM lecture, with video.<br />
(Shutterstock/BBC World Service)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve always been interested in the non-physical world, lightly dabbled in various meditations and read various spiritual books over the years. However, in 2016, I decided to make a go of practicing meditation. I wished to find an inner sense of stability in life and not get as stressed internally about upcoming events or past failures. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 1.1999999999999318pt; margin-top: 18.96pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The most popular way that didn’t involve a teacher was using the Headspace app to develop a mindfulness meditation practice. I practiced this daily for a few months and indeed found benefits of more control of my reactivity in stressful or pressured situations, such as at work. This was great but I felt like the meditation was a lot of hard work for the mind, struggling to bring it back to focus on something all the time, and I had the feeling there must be a more effortless technique out there. I stumbled upon Transcendental Meditation (TM). I was disappointed in not being able to find much about the technique online - it always said one needs to learn it from a teacher. However, as my luck would have it, I found a TM teacher close by so I signed up for an intro talk. I was a bit confused about why the teacher wouldn’t tell me much about the technique itself, they just went on and on about the benefits. However, I was intrigued and had to find out if it was indeed that beneficial. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 0.4799999999999045pt; margin-top: 18.96pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, a few months later I learned TM from this certified teacher. In my very first meditation (at the instruction session) I experienced a profound settling of my mind - moments of beautiful silence. This seemed encouraging. As it seemed very expensive given the length of the course (about US$ 1000 for 1 hr/day over 4 consecutive days), I was very dedicated to doing the prescribed 20 minutes morning and 20 minutes in the evening every day without fail. Within my first week, my social anxiety dropped to virtually zero. I realized this one day when about to go to a social gathering and the very uncomfortable feeling of wanting to get out of my own skin and run and hide from the world was simply gone. Over the next few months, the enjoyability of my meditations always varied - mostly on the enjoyable side. Once back from our 2 month summer vacation, I made sure to attend the free Thursday evening TM center group meditations with the hope of maximising my progress. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 2.3999999999999773pt; margin-top: 18.96pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">During these Thursday group sessions, after the 20-minute group meditation, the teacher would show videos of Maharishi (the founder of TM) talking on various subjects. I found listening to Maharishi’s answers rather long-winded, and he didn’t always make total sense to me. Meditation seemed to be enhancing my life by slowly but surely giving me a sense of inner calm. Thus I had developed quite an enthusiasm for promoting it and would find myself recommending it to other people and talking about it whenever the chance arose in conversation. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 6pt; margin-top: 18.96pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The TM center Thursday group evenings often had a component of the teacher saying what was new in the TM world. One time the teacher mentioned that one can learn “advanced techniques” to speed up one's progress to Enlightenment. The analogy used is that regular TM was like walking toward Enlightenment, the advanced techniques were like taking a car and the TM Sidhis program was like talking a jet plane. This should have been a red flag right there as my initial goal of meditation was not to “get Enlightened.” However, this analogy was repeated many times by the teacher, and I believe planted the seed in my mind that I must do the advanced techniques. So the following year when a special advanced technique teacher came (all the way from India) I jumped at the chance to learn the “night technique.” Upon learning it, I was a bit shocked by how simple the technique was and why that cost nearly US$ 600 but reasoned that a trained teacher needed to be flown out. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 0.4799999999999045pt; margin-top: 19.2pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">With my attention now turned toward this “Enlightenment” thing it did feel like I’d hit upon a secret/not-so-secret club that was going to bring about world peace. Something which my TM teacher kept mentioning that fueled this notion was “research” by TM scientists claiming that a certain number of people practicing this super special technique called Yogic Flying would create world peace. Of course one could also aspire to become a Yogic Flyer, but first needed to complete all four advanced techniques. Over the next two and a half years I dutifully completed the remaining three advanced techniques. With each one, if I’m honest, there was this background doubt as to why they cost so much, the personal instruction so simple and brief, and why I needed to watch the same video of Maharishi talking each time. I did, however, feel inspired by being around other students and teachers who seemed positive, sincere and joyous. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 0.9599999999999227pt; margin-top: 18.96pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After completing the final advanced technique, I felt on top of the world as I had everything in line to do the Yogic Flying course. I’d also managed to connect with a fellow meditator, who is on a similar path with learning TM and the advanced techniques. We enjoyed talking about different spiritual and personal development modalities we’d come across. We stayed in touch through the coming months over Facebook chat to share our TM experiences and enthusiasm. At the same time, I was trying to share my rapidly increasing enthusiasm for TM and the Sidhis course with my wife, Ashley. I would quote statistics and studies from the group TM evenings which all pointed to TM being the solution to all of the problems of the world. I don’t word things the best way when I’m excited about something and unknowingly at the time made her feel inferior for not being a meditator. Also, she consequently mistook my correspondence with my meditating friend to be something more than friendship or a shared interest. This meditation which was supposed to create such harmony was day by day increasingly tearing my marriage apart! Many of our usually pleasant night time walks together were ending in tears. Somehow we managed to resolve the issue with the friend and I was all on track to book in for the TM Sidhi course. At this point, I don’t really know what I was expecting to get from being a Yogic Flyer. I guess any thoughts of what I personally wanted were long down the drain as the one big thing I was looking forward to was that course. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 7.919999999999959pt; margin-top: 18.96pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is where things really came to a head. The Sidhis course is comprised of three weekends (in a different city) and two weeks in residence in an even more distant town. Also, it’s advised to do a retreat before the course. This added up to the best part of over six thousand (US) dollars, not to mention a lot of time away from my wife while she has time off from work - a time we usually look forward to spending lots of time together. Also as a Yogic Flyer, one’s meditation program becomes 70 minutes morning and 70 minutes evening, every day. Clearly this was not just eating into spending time as a couple in the short term but every day after the course finished. I failed to see this simple fact, especially when other TM Sidhi practitioners would say “you just find time to fit it in” and “your relationships will benefit so much from being a Sidha, people will notice the change in you.” </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 0.4799999999999045pt; margin-top: 18.96pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My wife now had such an aversion to me doing the course that we would argue most nights for a couple of weeks, always ending in tears. I didn’t really want to confront all the practical details of being a Sidha - how to fit in that much meditation and keep up all my usual hobbies and fitness activities - many that I shared with my wife. Finding yet more evenings to practice Yogic Flying with other Sidhas in my city. It was clear the commitment was huge and everything else in my life was sliding to second best. My wife managed to find some independent, skeptical and critical views of TM as well as a movie called “David wants to Fly.” She also got in touch with a person who helps people out of the mental fog TM advanced courses and Sidhis create. I read through the articles and we watched the movie together. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 1.1999999999999318pt; margin-top: 18.96pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Doubts about the course and why it needed to be such a focus were starting to form in my mind. Seemingly solid assumptions I had taken for granted for years about TM creating world peace were beginning to melt as this other perspective was emerging. Part of me was still quite defensive as I took in this new information. Fortunately, throughout this time I had been reading non-TM books on meditation and spiritual teachings. The one which I was currently reading was by Adyashanti called “Falling into Grace” and had a section on how his teachers didn’t want to be an authority for his waking up/enlightenment process. This was the final straw to make me realize that all these years I’d been handing over my mind to the TM organization in exchange for “Enlightenment” rather than learning to listen to my own inner guidance system. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 5.279999999999973pt; margin-top: 18.96pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Over the course of an evening, I went from downgrading from the full course to just the weekends, to completely pulling out of the Sidhis course altogether. I had lost some money in this move but fortunately not huge amounts. Flights I had booked were thankfully all able to be changed relatively inexpensively. If my brain was a washing machine, it felt like it was undergoing some sort of deep wash and rinse cycle! It seemed like it wasn’t really me wanting to do the Sidhis course all along, thus there was no regret once I’d make the choice to cancel. A bizarre feeling indeed. The following couple of days were not easy. I was in a weird state of emotional shock, feeling emotionally numb sometimes and very uncharacteristic outbursts of anger at other times. As my wife pointed out, I also need to break the routine of actually doing TM for half an hour twice a day for a while. Again I was resistant to this but eventually saw the wisdom. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 6.719999999999914pt; margin-top: 18.96pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Having spent a lot of time and energy through my TM involvement wearing down my relationship with my wife, I'm so grateful for her strength, love and questioning mind to look out for me and saving me from a potentially expensive and lonely path. Now just a few days after this brainwashing realization, it feels like we are stronger together than ever. Wonderfully, of course, we now have much more quality time together each day. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-right: 13.43999999999994pt; margin-top: 18.96pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Despite this experience, I don’t think meditation is a waste of time - not even the basic 20 minute TM practice - which did, after all, alleviate my social anxiety. I look forward to using </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">meditation in a flexible way to keep myself balanced and able to fully enjoy life. I may even look to teach a form of meditation someday, just not TM! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<br />
<hr />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/10/ashleys-story-my-experience-of-my.html"><i><b>Continue reading: Ashley's story, which she tells as a witness to this process from the perspective of Tony's spouse.</b></i></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-15467113356760574602019-10-04T04:00:00.000-04:002019-11-09T00:06:54.249-05:00The dubious research claims of Transcendental Meditation, part 3: Journals are the product of editors and reviewers<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><a href="http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" target="_blank">Read this series from the beginning</a>.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><a href="http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of_22.html" target="_blank">Read the previous installment of this series (Part 2)</a>.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjStYjWoDvqJ_TZkj2xfzhOJ8LYouSk0lNHGQjiMZOsrcLXVEHDSF_Vxo2f3getYlG9lu59tRBQxqJEbcFVuv9JGiOeiY1tXjPMyHLOvUGM0mpgBBS30kc5hCWs-wCXtHPnJ4zT/s1600/ines20.v129.i11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="723" data-original-width="555" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjStYjWoDvqJ_TZkj2xfzhOJ8LYouSk0lNHGQjiMZOsrcLXVEHDSF_Vxo2f3getYlG9lu59tRBQxqJEbcFVuv9JGiOeiY1tXjPMyHLOvUGM0mpgBBS30kc5hCWs-wCXtHPnJ4zT/s200/ines20.v129.i11.jpg" width="153" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Recent issue of </span><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">International </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">Journal of Neuroscience</i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px;">November 2019</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many people are easily impressed by what look like big numbers, and the organizations that offer Transcendental Meditation (TM), including the David Lynch Foundation (DLF), often use numbers in a bid to establish scientific legitimacy among non-scientists and the general public. Here’s a particular paragraph that is part of </span><a href="https://uk.tm.org/documents/12132/0/TM+Research+Summary+-+Chalmers+16+September+2017.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the preface to one bibliography of research on TM, produced by a TM affiliated doctor in the UK</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">:</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-e776d45c-7fff-0521-2294-04242060f3eb" style="font-weight: normal;"></b><br />
<b id="docs-internal-guid-e776d45c-7fff-0521-2294-04242060f3eb" style="font-weight: normal;"></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Scientific research on the Transcendental Meditation technique comprises more than 600 studies conducted at over 250 independent universities and research institutions in 33 countries... These studies have demonstrated a wide range of benefits for mind, body, behavior, and society... and have appeared in many leading, peer-reviewed journals.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I explained earlier, this frequently mentioned number of “600 studies” gets significantly reduced in practice, and that’s because, in my opinion, it includes a few hundred studies performed at TM institutions, including Maharishi University of Management, that were never published anywhere other than their own, seven-and-soon-to-be-eight volume, “Collected Papers” series. It’s also interesting to note, that at the inauguration of the so-called “Age of Enlightenment” in 1975, forty-four years ago, it was already claimed that 300 studies were performed at 200 universities.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Today, the list of studies on the tm.org website only includes studies that were published in books, journals or other scientific publications. </span><a href="http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When that list is pared down to include only original research and not other articles, only 123 studies remain</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and they say they were “published in peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals.” Only 21 of those studies were authored entirely by people with no connection to TM movement institutions.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When the list of publications in which those 123 studies appear is analyzed, a pattern emerges: ten of those studies appeared in a single journal, eight of them over a ten year period. Another seven of those studies appeared in a single issue of another journal. Four journals each published four of these articles, and one of those journals published four articles in a single issue.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Given that there are so many journals in which researchers could publish their findings, the question arises: why is it that there are these clusters of TM research papers in a few journals? </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"></b><br />
<a name='more'></a><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here I’m going to focus on four journals, that accounted for 23 of the studies reporting on original research, on the bibliography that appears on the tm.org website. That’s over 18% of the entries included there. The journals and the abbreviations for them I’m using here:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0;">
<li><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">International Journal of Neuroscience</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (IJN) in which 8 papers from this list appeared from 1980 through 1989, and then two others in 1997 and 2006. Nine of these ten were authored by individuals with TM institutional connections, seven of them exclusively so.
</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Journal of Social Behavior and Personality</i></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> (JSBP) in which 7 papers from this list appeared in a single 2005 issue that was also later offered as a book. All the authors across all the papers therein, and all the editors, were connected with the TM movement. This guest edited special issue was published after the JSBP had ceased regular publication. Over half of the reviewers could be connected with TM institutions, and others clearly had a past history indicating sympathy with TM or had participated, with TM meditators, in performing research. This issue was later offered as a book, titled “</span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1890777145/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1" style="font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; text-decoration-line: none;">Applications of Maharishi Vedic Science</a>,</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">” containing over two dozen papers.
</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>The Permanente Journal</i></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> (TPJ) in which 4 papers from this list appeared from 2014 through 2018. All four were authored by individuals with TM institutional connections. An associate editor of this journal is a TM meditator and Maharishi Ayur-Veda practitioner who, in another article, editorialized in this journal in support of TM and related products, exclusively citing research performed by TM affiliated individuals. His co-authored book promoting TM and ayurveda has been published by the affliated Permanente Press. He's also on the research staff of Maharishi University of Management.
</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline;">Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"> (ATQ) in which 4 papers from this list appeared in a single issue in 1994. Three of these four were authored by individuals with TM institutional connections, two of them exclusively so. This was a guest edited special issue, and both editors were connected with TM. This special issue was later offered as a book, titled “</span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=pCsiAwAAQBAJ&ppis=_c&source=gbs_navlinks_s" style="font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Self-Recovery: Treating Addictions Using Transcendental Meditation and Maharishi Ayur-Veda</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">.”</span></span></li>
</ul>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">International Journal of Neuroscience: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"It's hard to find the reviewers you want."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The IJN, in my view, is of particular interest when considering how TM research was published, particularly during the 1980’s, but not only because of the unusual volume of TM related papers that appeared in its pages. The IJN’s then-editor-in-chief, Sidney Weinstein, once gave a glowing endorsement of the research on TM performed by researchers connected with TM institutions including MIU/MUM, and that is still frequently quoted in TM promotional materials today, </span><a href="https://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/component/content/category/13-research.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">including at the David Lynch Foundation’s website</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Over the past 10 years the editors and reviewers of the International Journal of Neuroscience have accepted several papers on Transcendental Meditation because they have met the rigorous standards of scientific publication.”</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If Weinstein was dating those ten years from when his journal first accepted a TM related paper, that would place his statement at having been made around 1990, so this is in no way a new or recent endorsement. </span><a href="https://www.hallwynne.com/dr-sidney-weinstein/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Weinstein died in 2010</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, having been editor-in-chief of the IJR for over thirty-five years, </span><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/00207459209000529" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">starting in 1975</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A cluster of 8 TM-related research papers appeared in this journal between 1980 and 1989, and then two others afterward, according to the research list on the tm.org website. Other TM related research papers were also published in this journal. According to another TM research bibliography (</span><a href="http://dl.globalgoodnews.com/pdf/research/Bibliography_TM_Research_21_Sept_2017_Chalmers.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chalmers, 21 September 2017</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">), seventeen TM papers were published in this journal, with twelve from 1980 to 1990, and five afterward, starting in 1996. I’ve noticed a pattern here. Coincidentally, around the time that Weinstein likely gave his endorsement, did something happen around 1990 that might have had some effect on the volume and frequency of TM papers published in his journal?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As it turns out, there were two controversies, starting in 1989, which may have had an effect on the IJN’s editorial and review policies and procedures. The first of these concerned an alleged cure for epilepsy, </span><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/00207458908986261" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">published by the IJN in early 1989</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/245/4925/1444" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">reported on later that year in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Science</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and summarized in </span><a href="http://webdoc.sub.gwdg.de/edoc/aw/nspi/1989/PRIC12.HTML" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">an American Library Association newsletter</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> as follows:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">... the September 29th issue of SCIENCE reports on a "cure" for epilepsy published in Gordon and Breach's INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE. The article in question, written by two Greek researchers, is blasted by American scientists, including two who are members of IJN's advisory board. Lloyd Kaufman [a member of the IJN’s own advisory board] is quoted in the SCIENCE article as saying, "It's the worst thing I have seen in a scientific journal." The complaints come because the researchers did not describe adequately their "device," did no follow up, used no controls, and on "maps" of electro-magnetic impulses, provided no scales on before and after scans. One of IJN's reviewers, according to its editor Sidney Weinstein, believed the finding was worth a Nobel prize. He does admit, however, that with the number of issues produced each year, "It's hard to find the reviewers you want."</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Science </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">article puts forward many of the same issues that I am raising generally, with respect to the research offered in support of Transcendental Meditation. The insistence that journals, editors and reviewers are unlikely to be wrong and that quality and accuracy of journal articles is a given - as I earlier explained, the sort of argument put forward by TM researchers like David Orme-Johnson, and that I’ve seen in recent days from meditators and former MUM students in online comments to the previous two parts of this series - is called into question by this one paragraph in the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Science</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> report:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This remarkable claim [of an epilepsy cure by way of an electronic device] - and the decision by a peer-reviewed journal to publish it - raise several troubling questions about the role that such journals, their editors, and reviewers play in establishing scientific truths. Who is responsible for controlling the quality of articles? Should standards be relaxed for laboratories outside the wealthy industrial nations? What are the dangers of lowering standards? How representative is this case of the selection process at other journals? It is apparent from the wide range of opinion Science encountered among those who know of the epilepsy "cure" article that on these issues there is no consensus.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The theme of “lowering standards” for various, sometimes vague, reasons is a common thread here across at least two of these journals I’m focusing on. One TM related paper in particular, published in the IJN in 1983, I think is of particular concern, titled “</span><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/00207458209147147" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Intersubject Eeg Coherence: Is Consciousness a Field?</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” While it’s evidently placed on lists of research like this one on the TM website as support for the alleged individual benefits provided by TM - reduction of “stress,” resulting health benefits, and so forth - this sort of research is of an entirely different nature. This study attempts to prove one of the points of Vedic/Hindu fundamentalist doctrine, recast into scientific-sounding secular language: </span><a href="https://www.mum.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/hagelin.pdf#page=30" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that the source of human consciousness is some “unbounded” field that is common to all physical existence</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Attempting to show brainwave “coherence” between research subjects separated at a distance, and that they are affected by a distant group of people practicing a mental technique - “2500 students [participating] in the TM-Sidhi program at a course over 1000 miles away” - is an attempt to refute all known laws of physics and biology, in a futile attempt to validate a point of religious dogma. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This nonsense - at least, that’s what it is from any authentically scientific viewpoint - has been a core feature of the TM movement’s academic efforts for decades. In my view, the sole reason Maharishi University of Management has existed, beyond seeking legitimacy and institutional support for Transcendental Meditation worldwide, is to endlessly work on this task of creating the illusion of scientific validation of this so-called field of “pure consciousness,” “unbounded awareness,” or the resulting “Maharishi Effect,” in which the environment and society are calmed and made more orderly by the existence of people with allegedly “coherent” brain activity brought about through the practice of Transcendental Meditation.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The existence of this paper or anything like it in the pages of this journal should have raised an alarm back in the early 1980’s, but I suppose that having one’s own university, populated with a number of educated professionals from Harvard and other brand-name schools, churning out piles of “research” in service to a religious, and ultimately political, agenda, provides a veneer of legitimacy that may make it easy for some to disregard the obvious. The unfamiliarity of Vedic/Hindu principles and other such concepts from Eastern religions on the part of many people at the time may also have played a role in the decision to publish such a study.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The second controversy involved a Russian scientist whose cause was that of good old fashioned, and familiar to Americans, Christian creationism. The paper that was published in the IJN in 1990 has a long and technical title, but the last few words of it should have been taken as evidence of some other agenda at work: “</span><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/00207458909087038" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a New Criticism to a Modern Molecular-Genetic Concept of Biological Evolution</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” The blatant deficiencies if not outright fraudulent nature of this paper went unnoticed for a few years, perhaps because this molecular biology paper was published in a neuroscience journal. But in 1993, when its author, Russian biochemist Dmitrii Kuznetsov, was about to arrive in Sweden for a lecture tour promoted by Swedish creationists, a creationist handed Swedish medical genetics professor Dan Larhammar a copy of Kunetsov’s IJN article. </span><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3109/00207459408986031" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Larhammar’s critique was published in the IJN the following year</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span><a href="http://www.unz.com/print/CreationEvolution-1994q2-00001/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A less technical version was published in the Skeptical Inquirer magazine and Creation/Evolution Journal</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, where he wrote, and I’ve bolded one important point that shows that someone seriously dropped the ball when reviewing and editing this paper:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am aware of only a single report in modern times in an established scientific journal that has claimed molecular data argue against evolution… [Kuznetsov’s] article apparently went unnoticed by scholars for a long time because this type of work is not within the regular scope of that journal; Dr. Kuznetsov's star has risen in creationist circles, meanwhile, because he holds an acknowledged doctorate and was winner of a Lenin Prize in the old Soviet Union, making his intellectual embrace of "scientific" creationism particularly dramatic to Western creationists. I was recently made aware of Kuznetsov's article by a Swedish creationist.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">…</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The experimental approach used by Kuznetsov is extraordinary and obscure (</span><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3109/00207459408986031" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">for technical details see my 1994 critique</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). None of his experiments were documented qualitatively; the report contains only tables and numbers, and the numerical results indicate experimental precision that is beyond normal accuracy for such assays. This could indicate that some of the results were fabricated.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">…</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the procedures that Kuznetsov used was ... cited as a technique published by researchers in "Uppsala University Research Reports" in 1974; this is the university where I work, and no such journal has been heard of here, and no persons with the names he cites could be traced. Other important aspects of his methodology were referenced to four other scientific journals. None of these journals could be found… </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, an article ascribed to Holger Hyden, a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Neuroscience, is unknown to professor Hyden himself (personal communication).</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The Scandinavian journal where the article was said by Kuznetsov to have been published does not exist. The purported article, as well as several others in the list of references, had illogical titles with grammatical errors. Taken together, this strongly suggests that many of the references were fabricated by Kuznetsov.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In conclusion, Kuznetsov's obscure experimental approach, qualitatively undocumented results and incomplete evaluation undermine all his conclusions. All key methodological references seem to be non-existent. Thus, Kuznetsov's critique of evolution has no scientific basis whatever. That his antievolutionary article was simply a bad joke is unlikely, because he does indeed include it in his list of scientific publications, and creationists at the ICR (and worldwide) take his work seriously.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s much more detail about Kuznetsov’s relationship with the IJN in two articles published in 2002 in the magazine published by The Italian Committee for the Control of Claims on Pseudosciences (in Italian: </span><a href="http://www.cicap.org/n/articolo.php?id=275315" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Il Comitato Italiano per il Controllo delle Affermazioni sulle Pseudoscienze</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (CICAP)), </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Science & Paranormal</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (</span><a href="http://www.cicap.org/n/articolo.php?id=274248" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Scienza & Paranormale</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). Both articles were written and translated by Gian Marco Rinaldi, mathematician, writer, and consultant to CICAP. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/35913196/The_Kuznetsov_dossier_1_Dmitry_Kuznetsov_the_imaginary_scientist_2013_updated_translation_" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first article is a biography of Kuznetsov</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (</span><a href="https://www.cicap.org/n/articolo.php?id=100974" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">original in Italian</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">), including his relationship with various creationist organizations, including as adjunct professor at the </span><a href="https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Institute_for_Creation_Research" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Institute of Creation Research</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span><a href="https://www.academia.edu/35913112/The_Kuznetsov_dossier_2_fraud_in_experimental_reports_2013_updated_translation_" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The second article</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (</span><a href="https://www.cicap.org/n/articolo.php?id=100976" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">original in Italian</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) is a complete dossier of Kuznetsov’s alleged scientific fraud over the course of at least eleven years. The first part of this second article concerns Kuznetsov’s relationship with IJR and Sidney Weinstein, where additional details are revealed.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Out of 65 references in Kuznetsov’s IJN paper that launched this controversy, “it can be concluded that, for the most part, the publications listed in the bibliography do not exist.” Rinaldi, in his 2012 English translation, revisited the question, using modern online databases, and states “that out of 65 references, I have found only 6 which surely do exist.” </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even more disturbing is that Kuznetsov successfully had a total of 9 papers published in the IJN, the sixth of which was this paper which came to be examined and exposed as scientifically fraudulent. The relationship between Kuznetsov and Weinstein began with correspondence between them when Kuznetsov was in Russia, which resulted in Weinstein inviting him to visit his Connecticut lab, where he ended up staying in his house for seven weeks. Eventually Weinstein was so impressed by him, that he appointed him to the Editor’s Board of the journal. Rinaldi quotes from a letter from Weinstein:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As for how such nonsense got through the reviewing process of the IJN, I must sadly tell you that we have had two other instances of plagiarism during the decades of my tenure as Editor-in-Chief on the journal. (...) In my more than fifty years of experience in science I have learned that we are not entirely immune from such sociopathy. We must therefore continue to be vigilant, and I am grateful to Professor Larhammar for discovering this fraud and exposing it. Kuznetsov had been very highly recommended by professors in the USA, who were quite familiar with his former, presumably valid, scientific work and publications, and he was therefore appointed to the board. Our policy has been to allow board members to secure only one other reviewer in addition to themselves, to review any paper they submit. Apparently, Kuznetsov either found one of his nonscientist "creationist" colleagues, unknown to us, or merely avoided getting another reviewer. He was dismissed immediately from the IJN as soon as we learned of his malfeasance.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rinaldi goes on to point out the obvious, that Kuznetsov was very skilled at gaining the trust and confidence of others, even while everything about him was completely fabricated. The weakness in science, as I see it, is that scientists may often be uniquely unprepared to be approached by people with nefarious intent, who see the scientific system as an object to be bent and harnessed for their own purposes.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How could the young Kuznetsov, just over thirty years of age, lacking an academic position and without a prestigious career, deserve to be appointed to the Editorial Board? Now Weinstein, as we have seen, justifies himself by saying that certain American professors, whom he does not name, had spoken so well of his work as a toxicologist. This may be true. Perhaps one should also consider the possibility that Weinstein, to some extent, had been the victim of what seems to be an outstanding talent of Kuznetsov: his captivating ability to gain the confidence of other persons.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The newsletter of the National Committee of Australian Skeptics </span><a href="https://www.skeptics.com.au/wp-content/uploads/magazine/The%20Skeptic%20Volume%2012%20(1992)%20No%202.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">also published an excerpt of a letter from Weinstein</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, emphasizing that he and his journal did not support creationism or similar, irrational beliefs.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am aware of Dr Kouznetsov’s unfortunate belief in the “miraculous” creation of the universe. He is technically correct in saying that “miracles cannot be explained by science”. How can they, since by definition “miracles”, not rationally based can only be “explained” by legend and poetry, but surely not rationally. Naturally, I share your realization that this miracular dogma is absurd.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unfortunately, the Creation Science Foundation has apparently misappropriated the good name of IJN by attempting to insinuate a nonexistent affiliation between us and religion. Therefore, I will caution him that such an implied association is inappropriate. Although he has the right to preach his religion I also hope that the efforts of the creation “science” people to proselytize by implying authorisation of a scientific journal is challenged by scientists’ awareness of its devious intent. I urge you to make our position clear: Neither this editor nor this journal supports irrational beliefs.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I believe that all of this should be viewed with a somewhat cynical eye. Though it may not have been clearly obvious to Weinstein, his editors, or his reviewers in 1983, Kuznetsov’s paper would not have been the only attempt to systematically use his journal to promote irrational, religious beliefs under the guise of scientific research. The entire basis of TM’s global aspirations to create “world peace” or “heaven on earth” rest on an idea with no rational basis, that originated in a religion: that action at a distance, measurable by monitoring brain activity, supposedly caused by mere thoughts, is not just a research hypothesis but is an absolutist, divinely delivered truth in the ideological system in which those researchers are working. Scientific and medical journals are one part of the process that they seek to use to legitimize that and similar ideas, sometimes by very indirect means, in those fields and eventually throughout all aspects of all societies.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Journals are the product of editors and reviewers, who are human, fallible, and who can be influenced by the usual methods just like anyone else may be, and given the conventions of science and the rarity of this kind of scientific fraud, many are often not as skeptical of new and novel scientific claims and lines of research as they should be. Egregious cases such as this story of Dmitry Kuznetsov’s manipulation of the IJN, unquestionably demonstrate those weaknesses. Other more subtle, though similar means may have been used to gain access to scientific and medical institutions and publications for the purpose of, what I would call, falsely promoting the underlying, unsupportable, religious belief system behind TM by harnessing the legitimacy of those institutions and publications for their own purposes, under questionable pretenses.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-dubious-research-claims-of_27.html">This discussion of the role of journals, reviewers and editors, continuing with an examination of three more journals in which research on Transcendental Meditation was published, continues in part four of this series.</a>
</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><a href="http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" target="_blank">Read this series from the beginning</a>.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><a href="http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of_22.html" target="_blank">Read the previous installment of this series (Part 2)</a>.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">
</span></div>
Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-44564097067856363202019-09-22T20:37:00.002-04:002021-03-19T08:34:32.154-04:00The dubious research claims of Transcendental Meditation, part 2: "peer review" doesn't always mean "quality" or "accuracy"<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQjyv_gMCD9xvVS1JNkZ6R4XWbPUQbyOc8J_Gc8AlSVwyRi-yVW2PI0fl-b1fgZ6naOP3nYzfDE2RD7Jn529RXbsbGObsS_naiWDM7_RUi8mAp1e6Ulnev-MbsHMEaO4120S-S/s1600/lynch+grosswald+hagelin+crop.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="849" data-original-width="1131" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQjyv_gMCD9xvVS1JNkZ6R4XWbPUQbyOc8J_Gc8AlSVwyRi-yVW2PI0fl-b1fgZ6naOP3nYzfDE2RD7Jn529RXbsbGObsS_naiWDM7_RUi8mAp1e6Ulnev-MbsHMEaO4120S-S/s200/lynch+grosswald+hagelin+crop.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David Lynch, Sarina Grosswald,<br />
and John Hagelin at a David Lynch<br />
Foundation press conference,<br />
December 2011.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><a href="http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" target="_blank">Read this series from the beginning</a>.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" target="_blank">This series continues with Part 3, here.</a></i></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The organizations that have promoted Transcendental Meditation (TM), including the David Lynch Foundation (DLF), have for decades repeated the insistence of TM’s founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, that extensive scientific research supports their claims of TM’s validity. <a href="http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" target="_blank">As I discussed previously</a>, when their claim that “hundreds of published studies” is examined, it’s clear that an enormous proportion of those studies - 82% of the studies listed </span><a href="https://www.tm.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">from the front page of the tm.org website</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - have been authored, or co-authored, by researchers with a documentable, institutional tie to a TM organization. That’s just the first of the issues that arise, when their various claims of independence, volume and quality are contrasted with an analysis of this set of studies. I think we can safely assume that a list on the primary TM website would contain the best studies they can come up with and that support their frequent claims of scientific validation of TM. The response of, “is that really all you’ve got to offer after fifty years of trying?” comes to mind when the contents of that list are carefully examined. The methodology of many of these studies, versus the conclusions made, are the points at which the movement’s assertions don’t hold up under scrutiny.</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-6160a035-7fff-79aa-40c9-8dde0112d07a" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s also the implied insistence among those offering TM, that when a study is published in a “peer-reviewed journal,” that that study has some magical stamp of approval and that everything in any such study, particularly conclusions favoring TM, are always absolutely and perpetually true. This is, unfortunately, often the way that scientific research is reported in the media, leaving a misimpression with the public that published studies in prestigious journals are some fixed statement of scientific reality. This is seldom true. Science is an ongoing process of discovery, and often the findings of studies, even those published in highly regarded, peer-reviewed journals, will conflict with one another, are found to be not all they were initially thought to be, and in a few rare cases, the researchers were found to have committed fraud in the course of producing a study which supported their predetermined conclusion.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This reliance on peer review as some absolute stamp of accuracy and legitimacy is actively exploited by TM apologists. David Orme-Johnson, longtime psychology department chairman at the TM movement’s university, Maharishi University of Management (MUM), </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190709075546/http://www.truthabouttm.org/truth/TMResearch/TMResearchIssues/index.cfm" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">writes about peer review on his “Truth About TM” website</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> as if it would, in every case, notice and intercept every instance of shoddy science performed by a researcher, who’s also a meditator, working on a subsequently published study favoring TM:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Moreover, one purpose of the peer-reviewed process is to screen out studies that may have been biased by the orientation of the investigators. The numerous published studies on the Transcendental Meditation program have met the high standards of peer-review.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is not quite how academic publishing works in the real world, where faults in research, missed by reviewers, are noted by other scientists after they’re appeared in those peer-reviewed journals, and those faults are later discussed. Those critiques, rebuttals and counter-rebuttals of TM research can sometimes be found in the pages of the same journals in which the original studies of TM have been published.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The list that purports to be “Hundreds of published research studies” linked from </span><a href="https://www.tm.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the front page of the tm.org website</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, contains only 160 entries, of which 123 refer to original research. On that list are two studies that show how there are serious issues with much of the TM research that is performed by, or with the participation of, long-time committed meditators. These studies are uncritically reported on in the media, and are recirculated in TM promotional materials over years if not decades, despite the clear issues with the quality and veracity of the research. These two studies, published 30 years apart, have both been criticized for having similar problems.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When the current list of publications from the TM.org website is winnowed down and alphabetized, the first of these two studies comes up on top of the list. It can be found under the subheading list, “Insomnia.” Both authors were affiliated with the TM organization in 1978, the first of the two authors, Allen Abrams, was once an assistant professor of education at MIU, and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/pdf/quiet-time-research/Quiet-Time-on-School-Well-Being-Academic-Achievement.pdf" target="_blank">has published research while affiliated with a TM organization as recently as 2015</a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Abrams AI, Siegel LM. </span><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/009385487800500101" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Transcendental Meditation program and rehabilitation at Folsom State Prison: a cross-validation study.</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Criminal Justice and Behavior, 1978, 5(1):3-20.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Now there’s quite a bit of irony surrounding the appearance here of this particular study, starting with the fact that the people who decide what goes on this website haven’t yet picked up on the fact that the second author, “Siegel LM” is actually Aryeh Siegel, the former TM teacher who recently wrote and published a book called “</span><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=oKnjswEACAAJ&dq=transcendental+deception&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjCjuvP8ZrkAhUNnKwKHYU4Ab4Q6AEwAHoECAAQAg" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Transcendental Deception: Behind the TM curtain – bogus science, hidden agendas, and David Lynch’s campaign to push a million public school kids into Transcendental Meditation.</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">” Siegel is quite explicit, as you might expect from the full title, about how he believes TM’s claims are based on “bogus science.” This forty year old study still regularly shows up on TM research lists published by the organization. Clearly, after half a century of trying, the scientific evidence in support of TM is still so thin, that every possible study is included on this list, including one that’s both decades old and co-authored by someone who’s currently one of its most high profile critics.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In “Transcendental Deception,” at page 26, Siegel describes his later misgivings about TM research and this study which he co-authored:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I also recognized that other aspects of TM were failing me. Importantly, my strong research background led to a troubling realization: nearly every study done by TM researchers was at least somewhat biased, and most were poorly designed. To be fair, I had to include the study that I co-authored at Folsom Prison in that assessment.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As it turns out, we don’t have to rely only on Siegel’s self-assessment of this study. The other ironic thing about the inclusion of this study on a current list on a TM website, is that the study itself is not online. If you Google the title, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/009385487800500101" target="_blank">you’ll find the publisher’s page with an abstract of the study</a>, which mentions reduction in insomnia, among other alleged benefits. But you can’t see the article unless you’re willing to spend 36 dollars, which the usual prospective meditator layperson without everyday access to such journals is probably not willing to spend to confirm the claim.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But what is available online for free download is another article, entitled </span><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/009385487900600102?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.2" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“TM At Folsom Prison: A Critique of Abrams and Siegel,”</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> written by a British Columbia forensic psychologist at a prison there, which the same journal published a year later. The abstract says it all in a few words:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The article by Abrams and Siegel, "The Transcendental Meditation Program at Folsom State Prison: A Cross Validation Study" is examined and found wanting in several respects. Abrams and Siegel are criticized for inadequate controls which seriously limit the conclusions to be drawn from their study. In addition, the authors have taken greater than normal liberties in interpreting their statistical results. It is suggested that if there are any rehabilitative effects from Transcendental Meditation, they are not documented by Abrams and Siegel’s paper.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What I find fascinating about this critique, is that the writer’s “first point of contention” is very similar to that found in a critique of the subsequent study written thirty years later. Here is the kind of basic research methodology error, particularly regarding the use of controls, or not, that I think is common across so much TM research, and that I also think is almost completely unavoidable. This is because the multi-session method of teaching TM, taken as a whole, goes way beyond simply the assigning of a mantra and how to use it. It’s a process that’s full of coaching and expectation-setting that a certain sort of mental experience will occur, and that meditation practice will be followed by a great positive change in their lives and give them certain benefits, but only if the research subject meditates and meditates regularly. In the 1970’s, and still true to some extent today, it may also have been difficult to impossible to shield the research subjects from the ubiquitous media coverage of the claims for personal transformation through TM common at the time. All of these factors are difficult to control for, thus TM sympathetic researchers simply don’t bother trying.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first point of contention results from the authors’ failure to use any form of placebo control or to shield the Ss [subjects] from the Es [experimenters’] main expectations. Basically, what Abrams and Siegel have done is to take two groups of people, tell one they will be given training which will radically alter its members lives, show them the way in which this alteration will be assessed (by the use of the same instruments in the pre- and posttests), and then ask them if they feel their lives have been altered. This group was then compared with a second group whose members were told they would not receive treatment until a later date and therefore to expect no change in their behavior.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The critic goes on to allege that the study’s authors made multiple errors, one sentence begins, “A more flagrant example of an attempt to distort the data…” and the phrase “grossly misleading” also appears.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">These certainly aren’t the kind of things that one would normally think would be associated with a study, that an organization would put forward on a rather sparse list of scientific evidence in support of its products. But that’s what’s happened here, and evidently it’s not unusual. Few people ever scratch the surface of these lists or spend time examining, in detail, these claims, even while they’ve been sitting out in plain view for a long time. In this case, it’s certainly been easy enough to find in recent years, as these documents eventually become accessible online.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fast-forward to 30 years later, to 2008. I think it’s reasonable to think that, if the study of TM were a robust field of research, a lot of these obvious problems would have been resolved, subsequent researchers would have learned from the mistakes of their predecessors, and there would be studies that would move beyond the realm of “exploratory research” - that is, preliminary research of questions that aren’t fully defined, where hypotheses are being proposed, and where research design is being refined. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The reality is that, after fifty years of trying, most if not all TM research is still exploratory and in its initial stages. That never seems to stop this research from making its way into the media as some definitive proof that TM is effective and is every bit as important and valuable as its proponents say it is. These studies, at best, provide nothing more than tenuous suggestions for more research and are not solid evidence in support of all the claims made for TM. But a rather effective promotional effort aimed at the media, where celebrity endorsements are woven together with claims of scientific legitimacy, results in media coverage, that along with the studies themselves are perpetually recycled by the TM organization and the David Lynch Foundation. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The second study, published in 2008, received a considerable amount of media attention at the time. It’s listed in the “Stress and Anxiety” research section on the tm.org website.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Grosswald SJ, Stixrud WR, Travis F, Bateh MA. </span><a href="https://cie.asu.edu/ojs/index.php/cieatasu/article/view/1569" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Use of the Transcendental Meditation technique to reduce symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) by reducing stress and anxiety: an exploratory study.</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Current Issues in Education [On-line] 2008 10(2).</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Current Issues in Education</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is an online journal that’s edited by graduate students at Arizona State University. If the impression is to be maintained that TM research generally appears in highly regarded and influential journals, this is not one of those examples. For example, the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCImago_Journal_Rank" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">SCImago Journal Rank</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, for 2008, of this journal is 626, out of 828 publications worldwide. This ranking is a measure of the scientific influence of journals, as measured by how often articles are cited by other researchers; this one is not particularly influential.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once again, as with so much research concerning TM, there is the issue of the institutional connections of the investigators, with TM promoting organizations. Out of the 4 authors of the study, three are obviously meditators and they can be directly connected to TM institutions.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sarina J. Grosswald was an owner of a medical education consulting firm and was formerly employed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Ms. Grosswald, a TM teacher, died in 2015. She was a candidate for the United States House of Representatives, from Arlington, Virginia, in 1996 and 2000, with the Natural Law Party, which was the TM movement’s since-defunct political party. She also served in various roles with the David Lynch Foundation, including Executive Director, Office of ADHD and Learning Differences, was reportedly the DLF’s “director of research,” and was the director of the Arlington, Virginia Transcendental Meditation center, in the Washington DC area. Her name appears in seven studies listed on the tm.org website. </span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">William R. Stixrud </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPTGjKub9-E&feature=youtu.be&t=1856" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">admitted in 2016, at a DLF event in Chicago, that he’d practiced TM for forty-two years</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which would mean he started meditating in 1974, at the height of TM’s popularity. He’s a neuropsychologist in the Washington DC area, and is on the board of advisors of the David Lynch Foundation. Two studies co-authored by Stixrud appear on the tm.org website. </span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fred Travis learned TM in 1972 and became a TM teacher shortly afterward, according to his 1974 letter to the editor of the Ithaca Journal. He’s a 1976 graduate of Cornell University, his senior thesis was a study of 35 Cornell undergraduates who practiced TM. He received both his MA and PhD from Maharishi International University (now MUM) between 1984 and 1988, and has directed the Brain Center there since 1990. Twenty-eight of the 123 original studies on the tm.org website were authored or co-authored by Travis.</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mark A. Bateh was a University of Phoenix faculty member, which is the affiliation that appears on this study. He’s a statistician and data analyst with his own consulting firm, and has been an adjunct faculty member at the University of North Florida and Florida State College at Jacksonville. No evidence of a direct connection to TM institutions, or his status as a meditator, could be confirmed, nor is he known to have authored or co-authored any other study on TM.</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The authors of this study share some demographic quirks. Of the three who are clearly closely associated with TM, all of them were all born within a year of 1950 or 1951, and it's likely they all would have been undergraduate students between 1970 and 1974, during the period when Transcendental Meditation was being heavily promoted on college campuses. These traits match those that can be frequently seen among many of the published researchers associated with TM: most often, they learned TM as undergraduate students before 1975, sometimes almost immediately becoming TM teachers, and they have continued to be enthusiastic meditators for, at this point, forty years or more. Many of them moved to the movement’s base at Fairfield, Iowa, becoming staff or faculty at their university there and living and working almost exclusively among other meditators. They are outliers relative to most people who started TM at some point in their lives, and who stopped meditating some months or years afterward. In this case, two of these individuals lived and worked in the Washington DC area, where a large number of meditators settled in the early 1980’s and where an active community of meditators, and a prominent TM facility, still exist today, along with an office of the David Lynch Foundation.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Keep in mind, we’re looking at a paper co-authored by longtime meditators, one of whom was doing research on TM thirty years before working on this study, a few years after the Folsom prison experiment was skewered by at least one critic. If there was progress being made in this field, why would we see the same issues with this study, performed by a few people in a position to be fully aware of what’s come before?</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But the first thing that captures my attention, reading through the paper, is this passage which is something of a diatribe against the use of drugs to treat children with ADHD. There’s a substantial amount of propaganda produced by the TM organization which centers on the fear of “side effects” of medicine, both with respect to TM, as in this context, and with its efforts to revive their version of Indian folk medicine, Ayurveda, as </span><a href="https://www.mapi.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a commercial product under its own “Maharishi” brand name</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. While it may not be apparent to the reader unfamiliar with the culture around TM and the fear of medicine and science that it sometimes fosters, these few sentences, which start on the study’s first page, sounds a familiar refrain among meditators and TM critics:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Side effects of the ADHD medication can further compound the problem by causing or exacerbating emotional disorders. Consequently many children on ADHD medication are taking multiple drugs that include treatment for anxiety or other mood disorders, though most of those drugs are not FDA approved for use with children. The long-term health effects of ADHD medications are not fully known; however, evidence suggests risks of cardiac disorders and sudden death, liver damage, and psychiatric events.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To fan the flames of fear of the use of drugs, and to provide support for the TM organization’s products, including Ayurvedic remedies, here they are falsely implying that </span><a href="https://childmind.org/article/using-medications-without-fda-approval/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the off-label use of drugs, or their use outside specific FDA approval</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, is life threatening, by immediately raising in the next sentence, the specter of “sudden death” as a consequence of any drug-based therapy. This also matches the more general attitude among TM insiders, that TM is a solution to all problems, including those of mental health. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Such attitudes against conventional, authentically evidence-based, medicine and science are clearly present among TM leaders, teachers and many meditators. </span><a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/iowa-poll/2015/02/28/maharishi-school-fairfield-vaccinations/24193179/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vaccination rates at the movement’s primary school in Fairfield, Iowa, have been among the lowest in that state</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, resulting in </span><a href="https://siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/study-spent-on-measles-outbreak/article_78cafa89-87c3-5854-9e14-b47879da6d37.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">an outbreak of measles cases there in 2004</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. In India, where the movement and its founder have at times been much more explicit about their intentions, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ideal-India-Lighthouse-Peace-Earth/dp/9080600512" target="_blank">a book published by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi</a> contains a declaration that all medicine and medical practices must be banned, that do not conform to his concept of Ayurveda, which are largely folk medicine practices unsupported by modern science.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The authors continue:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In light of the growing concerns about the safety of ADHD medication, their actual effectiveness, and potential long-term health risks, the need to find effective non-drug interventions is becoming paramount.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Again, what’s oozing out around the edges of this paper is the assumption that TM is a fix for everything. The disregarding of the benefits of medicine, and instead, emphasizing those scientific studies that, they say, showed that modern medicine caused side effects and thus should be avoided, </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180401162425/https://www.mvvt.org/hazards_of_modern_medicine.php" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">could be seen on TM websites produced around that time</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. To drive home that point to students at MUM, a display in the lobby of the Dreier Building there, once held a clear plastic-enclosed stack of paper, piled almost to the ceiling, representing 7,000 studies that they say showed the “hazards of modern medicine.” </span><a href="https://www.globalcountry.org/wp/hazards-of-modern-medicine/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A similar graphic appears with one such page on the “Global Country of World Peace” website</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, one of numerous global TM organizations.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So the report of this study is rather remarkable in that it leads off with one of the underlying assumptions of the TM movement’s self-importance and world-transforming agenda, in plain view. The sentiment that the world and everything in it is horribly flawed, that a need to do something different is “paramount” to avert imminent disaster, and that the TM movement and all its products will bring about “Heaven on Earth” as well as personal and social benefit, colors everything that TM researchers do, and that’s reflected in the poor quality of what they produce. It is also a set of expressions of an unusual religious faith, that also asserts that its premises will invariably be verified by way of modern science.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="https://necss.org/speakers/clay-jones/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Clay Jones, a pediatrician who’s written under the handle “skepticpedi,”</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> today </span><a href="https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/author/clayjones/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">writes for the Science Based Medicine website</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. In early 2009, around the time this study was getting plenty of uncritical, credulous coverage in the media, he wrote an article at the blog of the Houston Skeptic Society, </span><a href="https://spacecityskeptics.wordpress.com/2009/01/07/how-to-design-a-positive-study-meditation-for-childhood-adhd/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“How to Design a Positive Study: Meditation for Childhood ADHD.”</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> As with the critique of the Folsom Prison study thirty years earlier, the lack of controls is mentioned in the second sentence, and then there’s much more.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The flaws in this study are numerous. The number of subjects is too small, there is no control group and it isn’t blinded. The study reveals that some of the children are on medication but it does not take into account the possibility of recent changes in medical therapy, or improved compliance while on the study. It is based purely on self-report and subjective questionairres and there is very high liklihood that a placebo effect could have been the sole responsible factor in the subjects’ apparent improvements. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He takes note of Sarina Grosswald’s obvious connections to the TM program, pointing out this particular quote in </span><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-meditation-adhd/meditation-seen-promising-as-adhd-therapy-idUSTRE5043P220090105" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a Reuters Health report on this study</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">:</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“The effect was much greater than we expected,” lead researcher Sarina J. Grosswald, a cognitive learning specialist in Arlington, Virginia, said in a written statement.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As Jones points out, and as can easily be confirmed through numerous sources, Grosswald is “a hardcore believer in TM,” and so are two of her three co-authors. This expectation is what many meditators express, it’s what’s learned through the process of being instructed in TM, which is much more than just being handed a mantra and being told how to use it. There is constant reinforcement of the idea that regular and correct practice of TM must in every case bring about positive results. If not, you must not be doing it right and it’s your own damn fault, and they think you should submit to having your meditation “checked,” which is more reinforcement aimed toward continued practice of TM. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s more, and this concerns the fact that the children, who are the subjects of this research study, may have been coached in various ways. If they learned TM in ways similar to how most people learned TM - through multiple sessions, during which new meditators are told several times over how practice of TM provides benefits, and will change the world - they have been influenced in ways that go far beyond being taught to meditate. Such influences would, under the usual circumstances, invalidate any attempt to call this a valid research study; they aren’t disclosed or being in any way controlled for. (In this case, there were no actual controls, only “self-controls” through before and after questioning of the ten students.)</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A more concerning red flag, and one which was also discovered <a href="https://youtu.be/brAj9fnm6UA?t=2974" target="_blank">in the talk given by Grosswald</a>, is the fact that the 10 children involved in the study may have been coached. <a href="https://youtu.be/brAj9fnm6UA?t=3715" target="_blank">In the last few minutes of the presentation, Grosswald presents clips of the children meeting with the TM proponents prior to the initiation of the study</a>, where it appears that they are told what the expected outcome of the trial is, that their symptoms will improve with TM. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not only are these kids aged 11 to 14 being told what the expected outcome of the study is by study investigators, the headmaster of the school, Linda Handy, <a href="https://youtu.be/brAj9fnm6UA?t=3917" target="_blank">can be seen at the very end of the video</a> discussing how amazing the technique is and how it will change the students’ futures for the better. I am forced to question whether the teachers, whose evaluations of the study subjects’ behavior and performance are an integral component of the study conclusions of positive effect, might have been hesitant to give a negative evaluation when their boss is clearly also a true believer.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jones noted the involvement of the Abramson Family Foundation in financing this study, a foundation created by a Washington DC developer and meditator, Jeffrey Abramson. </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060207044408/http://www.abramsonfamilyfoundation.net/advisors.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Its since-defunct website listed an advisory board</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that includes most of the current advisory board of the DLF, and that included co-authors Grosswald and Stixrud, along with school headmaster Linda Handy.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the acknowledgments section, The authors thank the Abramson Family Foundation for funding and the Institute for Community Enrichment for support. The Abramson Family Foundation is an organization which believes that TM can help students achieve the full potential of their brain… Of note, Grosswald sits on the Board of Advisors for the foundation. Joining her on the Board is none other than the school headmaster Linda Handy. Whatever doubt I had in my lack of enthusiasm for this study fell by the wayside upon that discovery.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Linda Handy was not just an advisor to the Abramson and Lynch foundations. According to </span><a href="https://www.woodsacademy.org/about-us/directory" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a recent biography on the website of the school where she is now “Director of Guidance & Counseling,”</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the Woods School, Handy herself is a meditator, as we might expect from anyone with any significant role with the DLF. As I mentioned earlier, many other meditators with various roles with the TM organization share the history of having been an undergraduate student in the 1970-1974 period, </span><a href="http://mcblogs.montgomerycollege.edu/insights/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/insightsspring04.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">which is also true of Handy</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Her direct association with the DLF on that biography is not evident, instead, she claims to be on the advisory board of the “Montgomery County Committee for Stress Free Schools.” No evidence could be found that an actual organization with that name exists. </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20131230234110/http://www.tmeducation.org/about-us" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The “Committee for Stress Free Schools” was, according to its now-defunct website, established “in partnership with” the DLF in 2005</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and Handy is listed among its “education advisors.” Since 2015, the web address for what was the Committee’s website has forwarded to the website of the DLF.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There’s also another peculiarity involving Handy, and <a href="https://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/board-of-advisors.html" target="_blank">this is in her bio on the DLF’s current website.</a> She is listed as being the “principal of the Waldorf School in Silver Spring, Maryland,” and she’s been described that way on the DLF websites since at least 2006 through to the present. But there isn’t, and hasn’t been, a school called the “Waldorf School” in Silver Spring, and Waldorf schools generally don’t have principals. Her current employer, the Woods School, is a private Catholic school in the Washington DC suburb of Bethesda, Maryland, and other than the fact that a co-author of this study, William Stixrud, </span><a href="https://stixrud.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/cv_stixrud.pdf" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">has given a lecture or workshop there</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, I haven’t located any public association between the Woods School and Transcendental Meditation. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The conclusion of Jones’ assessment is actually rather depressing, given that science and health reporting is often unable to question or filter out advocacy based on marginal-to-invalid research of this nature, and his prediction has certainly held true in the subsequent decade since this was written. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It wasn’t difficult to look at this study and see that the claims being made by TM supporters aren’t valid. It wasn’t even that hard to uncover the connections between the investigators, the school where the study was conducted and pro-TM organizations. Yet I was unable to find one news report that displayed even the slightest amount of critical thinking, instead reading like press releases from TM believers. The current state of science and health reporting is rather depressing, and I don’t see things improving any time soon as more and more dedicated science writers are falling prey to the poor economy.</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Having seen this phenomenon over and over, across decades, it should be clear that research on Transcendental Meditation, when it’s performed by MUM faculty or other allied, long-term meditators and TM teachers, is meant to serve as an inducement to get more people to practice TM, and thus fulfill their expectations of global transformation or even “utopia” via the so-called “Maharishi Effect” if only enough people would meditate. TM isn’t just a meditation method, it comes with an enormous amount of dogma that dictates that TM is effective, that its model of human consciousness based on some completely unsubstantiated connection to the “unified field” is valid, and that scientists simply need to catch up to what they already believe is true. Many of these basic assumptions about TM can be heard at an introductory lecture, and they are repeated frequently as a meditator becomes involved with other aspects of the program. As a result, meditators are, in my view, uniquely predisposed to assume that TM is effective in everything they do. </span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is what I consistently notice when exploring the research that's been offered in support of TM for decades now: </span><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/richard_p_feynman_137642" style="text-decoration-line: none;">whether they are fully aware of it or not</a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, meditating researchers bend basic hypotheses, research design, and data analysis in the direction of favoring TM. Frequently, what they are calling “hypotheses” are actually restatements of basic points of doctrine that come from Maharishi’s particular interpretations of Vedic scripture, taught to TM teachers as part of their training, and to meditators in advanced courses.</span><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It then comes as no surprise, among those of us who are longtime critics of Transcendental Meditation, that this is what the research looks like when it’s carefully examined. These studies always suggest that the bullseye is being drawn around the arrow; the arrow is the underlying anti-scientific, religion-based absolutism that they call “Vedic Science,” and the bullseye is what they think should result when science is placed into service for their own fundamentalist ends. Using science in this way is unlikely to work out very well for those with these obvious agendas, as scientists who aren’t among the very few who’ve been doing TM for 40 years or more, and who aren’t predisposed to favorable findings for TM, will very seldom reach the same conclusions.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><i>Corrected, 2021-02-25: There are actually 10 papers tagged as referring to 'Insomnia' on the tm.org research list, not 2.<br /><br /></i></b></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><i><a href="https://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" target="_blank">This series continues with Part 3, here.</a></i></b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><a href="http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of.html" target="_blank">Read this series from the beginning</a>.</i></b></span><br />
<br />
<div>
<span style="color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div>
</div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<i>Photo: Cropped frame from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttZK0cQ-uGg" target="_blank">David Lynch Foundation video at YouTube</a>.</i></div>
<br />Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28790320.post-12589790858416276632019-09-15T08:00:00.001-04:002021-05-20T18:51:13.363-04:00The dubious research claims of Transcendental Meditation, part 1: Truly independent research on TM is rare<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT0TbpuR86YGGc9P6XbUhV6jm7c5pJ3Edqwut-BDB3EzitFqTO_opfXFNm8EoxEuGYxoyTmhCzdL66StOqJt4-JhJcpzQyoIYajpX1tnfGall-gSrgyN093AxkWG7DJqTCEX3f/s1600/TM+participants%2527+role+as+researchers+in+TM+studies%252C+1971-2018.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="666" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT0TbpuR86YGGc9P6XbUhV6jm7c5pJ3Edqwut-BDB3EzitFqTO_opfXFNm8EoxEuGYxoyTmhCzdL66StOqJt4-JhJcpzQyoIYajpX1tnfGall-gSrgyN093AxkWG7DJqTCEX3f/s400/TM+participants%2527+role+as+researchers+in+TM+studies%252C+1971-2018.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">TM original research listed on the tm.org website, evaluated over <br />five-year periods. Meditating individuals and affiliated MIU/MUM<br />faculty have authored the majority of it since 1981.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">For over a half century now, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the movement and the organizations that he spawned, and now the David Lynch Foundation, have insisted that their claims supporting Transcendental Meditation have been scientifically validated, and are supported by some consensus among many scientists. The prominence of TM, and the reputations of public figures who are constantly named in the media as having learned this mental technique, have rested on the assumption that these claims are completely valid. They regularly make reference to a large pile of scientific studies - the actual number of those studies varies a great deal from moment to moment, but it’s usually in the hundreds - that confirm, for them, that these assertions are always true.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">But what happens when all those supportive scientific studies that they constantly mention in support of TM, are actually obtained, analyzed, sorted and evaluated? How many of them reflect the work of people who have no connection to TM at all, financial, emotional or otherwise - not as meditators, TM teachers, or faculty at the movement’s own university? Is it at all accurate for them to imply that because they can name-drop many universities, research institutions, and the titles of prominent medical and scientific journals, that some positive scientific consensus exists to support the claims they constantly make for the safety, efficacy and validity of Transcendental Meditation?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The short answer is, as you might expect, no.
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><a href="http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of_22.html" target="_blank">This series on TM's research claims continues with Part 2, here.</a></i></b></span></span><br style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;" /><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: medium; white-space: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>PDF files containing copies of spreadsheets with all the supporting data for this article are available at the bottom of this page.</i></b></span></span>
</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">As it turns out, as far as I can determine, no systematic, in-depth study, formal or otherwise, has ever been attempted, of the lists of journal articles, reports and other publications - even letters of complaint to journal editors! - furnished by the TM program that are offered as if they were all “published research studies.” To my knowledge, there has never been publicly available or online, a careful evaluation of any of those lists, that considers the identities and affiliations of the researchers named, the nature of the research, or even if each of the publications named actually reports on an original research study. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There has been one major attempt to address some of these questions, by way of </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ATranscendental_Meditation_research%2F341_studies" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a ‘talk’ page on Wikipedia associated with the ‘Transcendental Meditation’ entry there</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. It was last edited in 2010, and it relies on </span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100829072128/http://www.truthabouttm.org/truth/TMResearch/TMResearchPublications/PublishedResearch/index.cfm" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a 2009 bibliography created by a TM movement affiliated doctor,</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharishi_Vedic_Approach_to_Health#Chalmers_and_Davis" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Roger Chalmers</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, listing 341 studies. Individuals with a known connection to TM organizations have had their names bolded; of those 341 entries, <span id="docs-internal-guid-8cb405a4-7fff-7dc8-4d51-1413102bc0a1"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline;">264 of them </span></span>contain a bolded name as an author, meaning that 77% of the entries included an individual connected with the TM organization. No attempt was made to evaluate the nature of the published paper, or to remove entries that do not reference actual original research studies.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2018/05/national-institutes-of-health.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Another much smaller investigation, confined to 9 studies funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health that were cited by the David Lynch Foundation (DLF)</a></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, showed that all 9 studies involved TM-connected individuals. (</span><a href="https://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/national-institutes-of-health.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The current version of this list at the DLF’s website</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> names 16 published papers, 2 of which are duplicates or are the second part of a multi-part article, and all of them name TM-connected individuals as authors.)</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even a TM leader who has long specialized in creating and publishing research on TM has clumsily avoided even beginning to answer this question directly. David Orme-Johnson was the chairman of the psychology department at Maharishi University of Management (MUM, formerly MIU) for twenty-three years, beginning in 1973, and for a few years he was acting president of the university. His name appears on dozens of articles, appearing both in independent journals and the movement’s own publications, focused on TM and other programs offered by the organization. Since retiring from MUM, he’s created the “Truth About TM” website, which ostensibly exists to defend the reputation of Transcendental Meditation and to support almost every imaginable claim made in support of it. On that site, on a page addressing issues with the research, he asks the question: “</span><a href="http://www.truthabouttm.org/truth/TMResearch/TMResearchIssues/index.cfm" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are All Scientists Who Conduct Research On The Transcendental Meditation Program Affiliated With The TM Organization Or Do They All Practice The Technique?</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What follows this question is a paragraph that is a perfect demonstration of the method that I’ve seen attributed to Maharishi, that he supposedly once said during a TM teacher training course: "</span><a href="https://www.mail-archive.com/fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com/msg102102.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every question is a perfect opportunity for the answer we have already prepared</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">." Here, Orme-Johnson’s “answer” is to first repeat the same old party line and selling point as if he were a used car salesman who will first distract and obfuscate while attempting to avoid answering the question at all:</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">During the past 36 years, more than 360 scientists at 209 independent universities and research institutions from 29 countries have conducted research on the Transcendental Meditation program.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">By now this claim or something very similar to it can be found in almost one hundred thousand online pages, at least, that’s how many hits Google returns </span><a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=scientists+independent+universities+research+institutions+countries+conducted+research+%22Transcendental+Meditation%22&oq=scientists+independent+universities+research+institutions+countries+conducted+research+%22Transcendental+Meditation%22&aqs=chrome..69i57.8084j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">if you take the significant words from that sentence, along with “Transcendental Meditation” as a quoted phrase, and search on them</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. So this sentence is the same non-answer that most people visiting that website, interested in finding out more about TM research, would have likely already seen variations of, several times over. And then there’s the second sentence, where it’s clear, he has no answer for you:</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">No formal survey has ever been conducted to determine exactly how many scientists practice the Transcendental Meditation program, although it is clear that many do not practice the technique.</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Remarkably, Orme-Johnson then offers up a short “list of a few examples of the scientists who do not practice the Transcendental Meditation program, and the results of their research.” There’s only one slight problem: of the eleven examples he provides, only five are examples of research that was entirely the product of scientists who were not involved with the TM program in any capacity. The other six involved one or more individuals who Orme-Johnson admitted were, at least, practitioners of Transcendental Meditation. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So this is one of the few instances this question has been broached in public, with someone who’s created a website to defend TM from the standpoint of an experienced in-house investigator. They can only come up with five, yes, just five, studies that were produced with z</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ero possibility of that research reflecting any form of favor of a particular result, intentional or otherwise,</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> because of the involvement of a TM meditator. Given the weakness of that reply, obviously this issue is ripe for some detailed analysis. Careful study may also show that, after decades of trying to generate interest by performing their own studies, there is still very little interest among other scientists outside the TM movement, in testing these claims or replicating the research.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">There are many bibliographies circulated by a few people in the TM movement that contain up to about 400 studies, and the seven volume “Collected Papers” series published by MUM contains about 800 studies, many of them never published in peer-reviewed journals. Since those bibliographies aren’t all that accessible to the general public without considerable searching, I’ve instead focused my analysis on the list that is currently on the tm.org website as of August 2019. I think it’s reasonable to think that the list easily reached from the front page there would contain the best and most complete picture of what they believe the current state of research on the TM program to be, and that it would contain the most recent research they consider relevant, published through 2018. Another reasonable assumption is that what’s on the tm.org website today would be a list of studies that would be of interest to prospective meditators, attempting to make a convincing case for TM, and that, unlike what has come before, it would demonstrate that research supporting all the positive claims that they make would be the product of many unaffiliated researchers, not disproportionately representing researchers from the meditating community.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNzG0DGsmV3rVi6oNpZm_s5VuVk53qCKpmi3YMXQ0JFHWsb7E_i8865gPvJ9NbtEHVBz39E6p9QW-pG0fSBPnKVrYgF1QB24NJbjGAfll7Ilgk2r4SG-6js8njdwEKN5bzd3w8/s1600/tm+website+graphic+header+on+research+section.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="255" data-original-width="797" height="102" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNzG0DGsmV3rVi6oNpZm_s5VuVk53qCKpmi3YMXQ0JFHWsb7E_i8865gPvJ9NbtEHVBz39E6p9QW-pG0fSBPnKVrYgF1QB24NJbjGAfll7Ilgk2r4SG-6js8njdwEKN5bzd3w8/s320/tm+website+graphic+header+on+research+section.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">University and agency logos appearing on the tm.org website<br />
at the top of their "research studies" popup section.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Certainly that’s the impression that TM organization leaders attempt to create through the presentation of this list on that website. I’m referring to a popup section </span><a href="https://www.tm.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">on the front page of the tm.org website</span></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> which is much like what’s been included in the brochures, publications, and websites that we’ve seen for decades. The page comes up when you click on the link under the third heading, “Evidence–based/Hundreds of published research studies.” Go there, and you’ll see it’s topped by the logos of three universities and a government medical agency, followed by, “Hundreds of studies have been conducted at more than 200 independent universities and research institutions, and published in peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">What I think is happening here is what I sometimes call “firehosing.” It’s a situation where a lot of information is being thrown at the reader or viewer at one time in a somewhat disorganized way, as if being made to drink from a fire hose, and the recipient can’t quite keep up with the flow. Go through to those categories, and there’s a lot to read, and it all looks substantial, important, and to some degree, hard to question at first glance. A TM introductory lecture is also a lot like this, where many unfamiliar concepts, jargon and an air of authority that comes from the assumption of being recipients of some “ancient” “tradition” are part of the presentation. It’s hard to get a firm grasp on what the claims truly are, or whether those claims are reasonable based on the available evidence, if all you have to work with are what the marketers of TM have long produced.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">After carefully gathering the list from the categories in which it’s broken into online, removing duplicates</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - 23 papers are in more than one category, 3 are in 3 categories - </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">and inspecting the list, line by line, the first thing that I noticed is, despite the implied claim in the introduction that this is a list of “studies” directly performed with people practicing TM, that went through some process of peer review before publication, and not anything else, that’s not exclusively what’s listed there. The list has been padded out with other articles that don’t directly qualify as original research studies that have undergone peer review:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Meta-analyses and reviews of other published studies, which often contain the keyword “review,” were published in journals specifically tasked with publishing reviews, or otherwise were articles that did not describe new research but instead described research studies that were already published elsewhere. Oftentimes these are articles by TM affiliated individuals that review and promote research performed by themselves or by other TM affiliated researchers.</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Articles that were published in collections of presentations made at conferences, symposia, and other gatherings that may not have gone through the usual peer-review process that would apply to most journal articles.</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Opinion pieces and letters to the editors of journals by individuals directly connected with the TM movement, that either attempt to refute the conclusions of other published research, or that promote the views of the TM movement with respect to such research.</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Other material that was not clearly a description of a research study, including a statement by the American Heart Association that TM proponents have long interpreted as an endorsement of TM, which it is not, and that was later partially refuted by the AHA a few years later.</span></li>
</ul>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Despite the claim that there are “hundreds” of relevant peer-reviewed studies published in major journals, the website list only contains 160 entries, of which 37 were these articles that, by my criteria, don’t directly qualify as original research, leaving a remaining 123 entries for further consideration. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">In upcoming parts of this series, I’ll discuss the actual content of some of these studies, and the 37 that I’ve disqualified. Another part will explore the identities, affiliations and demographics of the 16 individuals whose names most frequently showed up as researchers on this list. Finally, I’ll offer an explanation as to what role the creation of these research studies plays in the broader TM movement, and how that movement reflects attempts by Vedic fundamentalists in India, over the past century or so, to recast their religious beliefs and scriptures as somehow scientific in nature. In this part, my focus is on the people who are doing the research, and the degree to which they are involved with the TM organization, generally as MUM faculty. Given that the same names are repeated over and over on this list, that fact suggests the obvious: that the research on this list, and research on TM in general, is dominated by a very small number of individuals who have long had a formal relationship to the institutions of the TM movement.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Further analysis of the identities and affiliations of the individual researchers, and the frequency with which their names appear, across this list reveals a pattern that isn’t evident when only one or a few studies are under consideration. For the entire 1970-2018 period during which these studies were performed and published, fully 83% of the studies were authored by at least one TM-affiliated individual. The average portion of researchers on each study who were TM-affiliated, was 66 percent. TM connections to these studies increased considerably after 1980, where during the 1981-2018 period, at least 93% of the studies were authored by at least one TM-affiliated person.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Doing a survey based on the list of studies currently on TM movement’s own website really isn’t that complicated, and that’s what I’ve done here. It’s easy enough to determine who’s been working at the Maharishi University of Management (previously, MIU) for decades, and a subset of that pool of people dominate the list of researchers on that list. Perhaps they’ve deliberately avoided creating such a list, for fear of what it would clearly show? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since in this context we can’t prove a negative - that any one individual does not practice TM, unless they’ve stated so in public or others have vouched for them, which I only know to be true with respect to two individuals named on this list - these numbers should be considered to be minimums, and there may be others named as authors in these published articles who are meditators. Learning TM, and certainly post-initiation contact with the TM organization, does involve being exposed to a substantial amount of ideology and assumptions that the movement makes about TM, and their expectations that what they offer will positively transform the world (internally referred to as bringing about “Heaven on Earth”). This exposure is particularly so for those who have gone on to take residence courses or instruction in additional mental techniques, which usually involves doubling, at least, the time spent in meditation during those courses while attending lectures or viewing videotapes. Conventionally, in scientific publishing, there isn’t a requirement that researchers disclose this level of entanglement with what they are studying, since there is no direct financial benefit to them, it’s more of an emotional or ideological disposition. But I believe that any direct participation as a TM meditator should be disclosed by researchers, beyond that of being obviously affiliated with a TM-related institution such as MUM or the DLF, and that that level of involvement should be included in any assessment of the alleged independence of the people doing these studies.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">As I already mentioned, this list appears on the TM movement’s most prominent website, on the front page, where you would likely think that the most convincing case would be made “from a vast body of 40 years of research showing very powerful long-lasting reductions in stress and sustained improvements in health.” This is exactly where the implied claim that these are unbiased, objective studies produced independent of the TM movement’s own organizations, </span><span id="docs-internal-guid-5a1dd577-7fff-6655-0639-d40ef1ec013c"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">were that true, should</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> hold up under scrutiny. It does not; overall, 83% of the studies are tarnished by the direct, unambiguous participation of Maharishi University of Management faculty and staff, and David Lynch Foundation staffers. But what trends can we identify from this list? Has there been a trend toward the production of more objective, independent research on TM, performed by unaffiliated people and then cited by the TM movement, or not?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">To answer this question, I separated the studies into 5 year long periods based on publication date. Viewed that way, it’s obvious that the golden age of independent research on TM ended by 1980, and there’s not the faintest glimmer of that ever returning. Over the 1970-1980 period, while TM was at the peak of its popularity and initiations or instructions in TM were at their historical zenith, only 39 percent of the named studies involved TM researchers. This contrasts with the period 1991 to 2018, where overall, 95% of the named studies involved TM researchers. For two five year periods after 1991, 100% of the studies had authors who were TM participants, and for no five year period did that proportion fall below 90 percent. For the most recent period included on that list, 2016-2018, 91% of the studies involved TM connected individuals.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">From this it’s clear that there isn’t a trend toward TM being an increasingly interesting subject to unaffiliated researchers. It’s evidently a stagnant field that very seldom attracts the interest of anyone other than those who have long been meditating, and when others are involved, usually they are working with meditators who are in a position to influence study design and the interpretation of data.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">To sum up: there are 160 scientific papers listed on the tm.org website. From my perspective, 37 of those papers don’t qualify as original research for various reasons despite the claims surrounding the list that imply that all of them are “published research studies” directly applicable to what benefits a prospective meditator can expect from TM. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Of the remaining 123 papers, 102 of them, or 83%, are a study in which at least one author has a documented institutional connection with TM. Only 21 studies, the remaining 17%, are studies that can’t be easily connected with the TM organization in this way, and are much less likely to have been studies in which the design, interpretation of data, or other influences would have affected the study’s outcome.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Clearly, the TM movement’s constant, misleading characterization of the evidence base to support TM, displaying the logos of institutions and repeating the phrase, “200 independent universities and research institutions,” doesn’t hold up to detailed examination. The location of the research is less relevant than the people doing the work. The people who did the research work, wherever they were, were overwhelmingly those who have experienced both the practice itself and the vast amount of ideology and doctrine that come with long-term involvement with the TM program and everything surrounding it, that go well beyond the twenty minute, twice a day practice.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><a href="http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-dubious-research-claims-of_22.html" target="_blank">This series on TM's research claims continues with Part 2, here.</a></i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Links to PDF's of spreadsheets with supporting data for this article:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tIAVNd-FJPh0mB2SjjjE824A8V40-kJB/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Original research listed at tm.org, August 2019. These are the 123 papers describing original research studies.</a></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aDRfGe0uCN7PcH3tpL-6CDrHiBQMGBVf/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Other research papers cited at tm.org, which were excluded from this analysis, because they were not original research studies.</a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1691kXhaFfAJC_EWKf_B6lmH0ydz6lmAu/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Authors of the 123 papers describing original research studies. This list includes only authors of two or more papers on the list.</a></span>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ErNuAVImO_OSFEywCAENkQg2L_bPfxva/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Calculations of TM affiliated researcher participation, based on the list in the first file above.</a></span>
Mike Doughneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04346868936890675130noreply@blogger.com0