Celebrating Transcendental Meditation "End of Silence" & Our 3rd Anniversary!

The story is that the Maharishi used to take a week of silence starting with his birthday on January 12. Following his silence -- about which we will write more this week -- the TM faithful used to have a huge celebration of the "End of Silence." Each year from the 70s until his death in 2008, the Maharishi would announce the theme for his Movement in the coming year: "The Year of the World Plan," "The Year of Invincibility for Every Nation," those sort of modest goals (listed here for your reading pleasure.)

We launched TMFB 3 years ago on January 12, 2007 with "Happy Birthday, MMY, You Old Sod!" Since our launch, we've been visited 182,000 times, by 72,000 "Absolute Unique Visitors"; published 787 articles, built a thriving community through an uncountable scads of comments, and generally had a grand old time as we sought to inform and warn our readers -- as well as entertain with the spice of satire.

We thought about kicking off an Anniversary Celebration last week, but, given our mission, somehow it just felt right to Celebrate the End of Silence. (Ooooh! Spooooky!)

So want to invite you to a week of raucous noise making, with articles like "10 Worst TM Predictions" and "Hate-Mail-Palooza."

We will even have a contest or two, like "Karma Anti-Yogi of the Year" and "The Most Bizarre TM-Sponsored Site" -- with prizes for believers and critics alike.

Most of all we want to have fun -- but stop this short of outright cheesy.

If you long to be hip after all those years rounding your brains out, check back here daily for our latest installment.

Be there or be square!

J.

Transcendental Meditation property listed in New York City

The Global Country of World Peace has listed their Wall Street Maharishi Invincibility Center, The Global Financial Capital of New York, onto the real estate market.

Article: Wall Street Meditators Seek $45 Million for Property (Update1).

Cult critics have long suggested that the Transcendental Mediation Group's push to build "Peace Palaces" with donated funds and tax-exempt bonds was merely a real estate investment program backed by tax payer funds.

This "Global Financial Center" is still functioning to recruit and teach various TM programs in New York City's financial hub, such as their latest (inauguration pending October 9) Center for Leadership Performance.

A September 18, 2009 Bloomberg article describes the recent listing of this TMO property in New York City's financial district.

The article explains that most New York office buildings have dropped in value by 30 to 50 percent, since their peak in 2007.

Yet, this " Wall Street center for transcendental meditation is being offered for sale for $45 million, eight times more than the followers of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi paid for it in 2004"

"The non-profit Global Country of World Peace bought the property in the Financial District, two blocks south of Wall Street, for $5.5 million in May 2004. The Iowa-based group used the city’s backing in 2005 to obtain $6.2 million in financing through tax-exempt bonds. The group uses the building to teach meditation."

“Thanks to a remarkably flexible zoning, 70 Broad Street can be used either as an office, mixed-use property or residence and is ideal for a corporation, individual, or institution,” reads the listing by broker Danielle Grossenbacher. The building was subject to “an extensive and complete renovation” this year.

Grossenbacher referred calls to Brown Harris Stevens spokeswoman Amy Gotzler, who declined to comment. Robert Roth, a spokesman for Global Country of World Peace, confirmed that the group is selling the building.

“The whole place is going great, there’s a great interest in this now,” Roth said.

Luxury Apartments

One of the luxury apartments inside the building is sometimes used by John Hagelin, the Natural Law Party’s 1996 and 2000 candidate for U.S. president, Roth said. Hagelin is the chairman of the Center for Leadership Performance, the transcendental meditation program based at 70 Broad that is geared toward CEOs and business professionals.

Roth said the center was formerly known as the “Maharishi Invincibility Center,” while the Web site refers to it the “International Center for Invincible Defense.”

Meditation classes at the Broad Street location cost between $750 to $1,500 for a one-hour-a-day program that spans four days, Roth said.

Global Country of World Peace benefited from a city economic development program that allowed non-profits to use triple tax-exempt bonds to help pay for capital projects."

The full Bloomberg article, September 18, 2009 :

Wall Street Meditators Seek $45 Million for Property (Update1)

The Giggling Guru says:

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Unfortunately, we can't show you, but,

Please Google:

http://mumpress.com/p_a07-sav.html

This is posted only for edification, not endorsed by me or this Blog.

A couple of comments already made have wondered whether there's a special phone number where you can listen to a heavy breathing voice read it aloud and why did it take creative intelligence 40 years to come up with this? Obviously creativity itself isn't dead.

I wonder about that as well. And once again, please note: in celebration of a Hindu religious festival and complete with photos of Hindu religious figures. AND SCIENTIFIC CHARTS, this really proves, to me, that ... oh, well, never mind; it's what it demonstrated to you that's important.

And, there are 18 chapters in the Gita. Word is that Mahesh commented on all of them. So, once again, why'd it take 40 years to just get one more chapter published. I enjoyed reading the Gita, many years before I knew there was such a thing as TM. It's so easy to get good translations and good commentaries on the Gita that I wonder why MUM Press (Press Here, as Jerry used to say) has bothered. I suppose the faithful will flock. And, ohhh, look at all the pretty colours, ohhh.

What happened to YES, WE ARE NO RELIGION. Probably lost somewhere in the cutting room when all the gold edges were being added to distract attention from what's going on.