Book Review: "The Secret of the Mantras" by Richard Blakely

I just finished reading "The Secret of the Mantras" by Richard Blakely, and I highly recommend it.  This memoir of a baby boomer growing up in the U.S. and moving to France in time for the student uprisings of 1968 includes a 3-month TM Teacher Training course in Rishikesh, India with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the Beatles. 

What a fun read!  What a witty sense of humor Blakely exhibits as he confesses his own foibles, as well as the foibles of TM life.  Of particular interest to readers of TM-Free Blog may be the following revelations:

- In 1968, Mahesh gave new initiators three mantras, chosen by age.  (Nowadays there are about 16 mantras, chosen by age.)

- In 1968, Mahesh taught initiators only the Sanskrit and the hand gestures for the exotic ceremony preceding TM instruction.  (Nowadays, initiators must also memorize the English translation and the emotions one is attempting to experience during the rite.)  

-  In 1968, students meditated for hours non-stop on courses.  Due to the emotional unraveling of some Westerners, Mahesh added yogic stretching.  (Nowadays, short meditations are alternated with yoga stretches and breathing exercises.)  

- In 1968, Mahesh taught that TMers shouldn't force themselves to change habits such as smoking, drinking and meat-eating if they found the change stressful.  Mahesh said that with continued meditation, unhealthy habits would automatically fall away.  (Nowadays, "advanced" TMers are encouraged to take up vegetarianism, celibacy, early bedtime, silent meals, etc. etc.)

This last point particularly catches my attention.  I find Mahesh's level of hypocrisy? extent of unclarity on fundamental principles? unfathomable.  Whatever could he have been thinking, either then or now?  What kind of teacher is this?  

Another Deception By Maharishi Uncovered?

Another Deception by Maharishi Uncovered? 

"Puja Feeling" as related to the "Purity of the Teaching"

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that this information has been published anywhere on the internet. 


I attended my TM Teacher Training Course (TTC) in 1974.  The course was three months long, and it was a big day for us when we finally started learning the puja (the Hindu ritual of worship that is done by the TM teacher before teaching someone TM.)   Once we started learning the puja, we were getting the real stuff, the esoteric stuff, the secrets that separated us and raised us higher than the average TMer.  So we were told by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.  

Mahesh was very strict about us being able to perform the puja properly.  We were tested on it, and to pass the test, we had to memorize everything perfectly.  Mahesh used two phrases a lot: "The Holy Tradition," and "the purity of the Teaching."  

We had already been taught to tell our students that the puja was simply "a traditional ceremony of gratitude," non-religious in nature.  But now we were getting the inside scoop.  According to Mahesh, TM had been practiced in India in the distant past, much to the benefit of Indian individuals and Indian society.  But due to incremental small misinterpretations of the procedure, over time the technique had become lost, and India had therefore become a poor and apathetic nation.  Therefore, now that the correct technique had been rediscovered, it was imperative that TM be taught meticulously, so that the "purity of the teaching" be maintained for as long as possible into the future.  

According to Mahesh, teaching someone TM was not a simple matter of giving them their own particular mantra and teaching them how to use it the TM way.  Rather, instruction required careful preparation by the TM teacher in order to ensure the "purity of the Teaching" as handed down by the Holy Tradition of Masters, and to not dilute the purity of this precious life-giving technique.  Unbeknownst to the student, the TM teacher needs to enter an exalted state of consciousness in order to transmit a subtle spiritual essence that allows the technique to work.  The way to enter that higher state of consciousness was to do the puja as taught on TTC.
 
Mahesh taught us that he was the anointed custodian of TM.  And that he was the ultimate arbiter of the Truth.  TM went back for millenia.  Mahesh passed TM along in its purity by making sure we performed the traditional rite before teaching it.  The puja, exactly as he taught it, was the only means by which the purity of the teaching could remained intact.  Every syllable had to be performed perfectly.  If you didn't do it exactly as Mahesh taught it, your student couldn't learn TM.  If you didn't do it right, your student couldn't do TM properly.  If you didn't do it right, you were compromising the purity of the teaching.  If you didn't do it right, you were putting the future of TM at risk.  If you didn't do it right, you were putting the future of the earth at risk.      

Therefore on our TTC in 1974, we labored to memorize the component parts of this venerable ancient puja.  We had to have all components down letter-perfect in order to pass the final exam to become a TM teacher.

Fast forward 35 years.  A few years ago, Sudarsha (a fellow co-contributor to TM-Free,) was telling me about his 1970 TTC.  On his course, there were 3 (three) components to Mahesh's  puja.  


But on my 1974 TTC, there were 4 (four) components.

Oh.

So much for Mahesh's life-shaking claims.
  
To me, this is just one more deception in the long list of lies Mahesh told us.  To me, it is just one more disappointing piece of evidence of Mahesh's frequent modus operandi: be dishonest when it suits your purpose. 

Here are the three components Sudarsha learned:

(1)  "Puja Movements:"  how to hold the flowers, how to place the offerings on the altar before the painting of Maharishi's guru, etc.,
(2)  "Puja Pronunciation:" how to pronounce the Sanskrit properly.  (The entire 11-minute ritual is in Sanskrit), and
(3)  "Puja Translation:" what the puja means in English.

The fourth component, the additional one my TTC learned, was called "Puja Feeling."  This was the emotions the initiator was encouraged to feel while performing certain portions of the puja.

To the best of my knowledge, the complete "Puja Feeling" has never before appeared on the internet anywhere.  I haven't found it on any of the other websites skeptical of T.M. (You can find those websites listed on the right hand column on this page). 

So for your edification, I will quote the relevant Sanskrit puja passages.  After that, their English translation.  And then, the "Puja Feeling." 

My great thanks go to minet.org and to trancenet.org at the link  www.onwww.net/trancenet.org/secrets/puja/tradt.shtml for providing the Sanskrit and English portions.  I take responsibility for changes in punctuation that I have made for increased clarity. 

Sanskrit:

"...AVAHANAM SAMARPAYAMI SHRI GURU CHARANA KAMALEBHYO NAMAH. 

ASANAM SAMARPAYAMI SHRI GURU CHARANA KAMALEBHYO NAMAH. 
SNANAM SAMARPAYAMI SHRI GURU CHARANA KAMALEBHYO NAMAH. 
VASTRAM SAMARPAYAMI SHRI GURU CHARANA KAMALEBHYO NAMAH. 
CHANDANAM SAMARPAYAMI SHRI GURU CHARANA KAMALEBHYO NAMAH. 
AKSHATAN SAMARPAYAMI SHRI GURU CHARANA KAMALEBHYO NAMAH. 
PUSHPAM SAMARPAYAMI SHRI GURU CHARANA KAMALEBHYO NAMAH. 
DHUPAM SAMARPAYAMI SHRI GURU CHARANA KAMALEBHYO NAMAH. 
DIPAM SAMARPAYAMI SHRI GURU CHARANA KAMALEBHYO NAMAH. 
ACHAMANIYAM SAMARPAYAMI SHRI GURU CHARANA KAMALEBHYO NAMAH. 
NAIVEDYAM SAMARPAYAMI SHRI GURU CHARANA KAMALEBHYO NAMAH. 
ACHAMANIYAM SAMARPAYAMI SHRI GURU CHARANA KAMALEBHYO NAMAH. 
TAMBULAM SAMARPAYAMI SHRI GURU CHARANA KAMALEBHYO NAMAH. 
SHRI PHALAM SAMARPAYAMI SHRI GURU CHARANA KAMALEBHYO NAMAH. 

ARARTIKYAM.... 

 ...ARARTIKYAM SAMARPAYAMI SHRI GURU CHARANA KAMALEBHYO NAMAH. 
ACHAMANIYAM SAMARPAYAMI SHRI GURU CHARANA KAMALEBHYO NAMAH. 
PUSHPANJALIM.... 

 ...PUSHPANJALIM SAMARPAYAMI SHRI GURU CHARANA KAMALEBHYO NAMAH." 

 English Translation:

"...Offering the invocation to the lotus feet of SHRI GURU DEV, I bow down.
Offering a seat to the lotus feet of SHRI GURU DEV, I bow down.
Offering an ablution to the lotus feet of SHRI GURU DEV, I bow down.
Offering cloth to the lotus feet of SHRI GURU DEV, I bow down.
Offering sandalpaste to the lotus feet of SHRI GURU DEV, I bow down.
Offering full rice to the lotus feet of SHRI GURU DEV, I bow down.
Offering a flower to the lotus feet of SHRI GURU DEV, I bow down.
Offering incense to the lotus feet of SHRI GURU DEV, I bow down.
Offering light to the lotus feet of SHRI GURU DEV, I bow down.
Offering water to the lotus feet of SHRI GURU DEV, I bow down.
Offering fruit to the lotus feet of SHRI GURU DEV, I bow down.
Offering water to the lotus feet of SHRI GURU DEV, I bow down.
Offering a betel leaf to the lotus feet of SHRI GURU DEV, I bow down.
Offering a coconut to the lotus feet of SHRI GURU DEV, I bow down.
Offering camphor light....
...Offering camphor light to the lotus feet of SHRI GURU DEV, I bow down.
Offering water to the lotus feet of SHRI GURU DEV, I bow down.
Offering a handful of flowers....
...Offering a handful of flowers to the lotus feet of SHRI GURU DEV, I bow down."

"Puja Feeling," (1974, with 1974 explanatory notes):

 -- Upon saying the line that starts with "Avahanam," and while placing that offering 

(or its symbolic equivalent, raw rice grains) upon the altar, feel the following: 

"I feel the upsurge of purifying waves of knowledge."

Explanation:  This offering of the invocation to the great Masters of the Holy 

Tradition brings a lively awareness of eternal wisdom. 

-- Upon saying the line that starts with "Asanam," and while placing that offering 

(or its symbolic equivalent) upon the altar, feel the following:

"I am realizing the ideal of yogastah kuru karmani." [Note from Laurie:  Maharishi 

told us that"yogastah kuru karmani" translated as "Established in Being, perform 

action."] 

Explanation:  This offering symbolizes the immovable seat of life in Being.  In 

offering this seat we feel stablized in the immovability of Being.  Offerings on 

this firm basis are actions to fulfil cosmic purpose.

-- Upon saying the line that..."Snanam,"...

"I feel the joy of standing in the cosmic waters of pure consciousness."

Explanation:  This offering of an ablution symbolises the refreshing omnipresence of

Pure Consciousness.

-- Upon saying the line that..."Vastram,"...

"I am secure in the Omnipresence of Being."

Explanation:  This offering of cloth symbolizes the garment of all-pervading Being.

-- Upon saying..."Chandanam,"...

"I am refreshed by the tranquility of the Transcendent."

Explanation:  This offering of sandalpaste spreads some pleasant cooling influence 

in the atmosphere.

-- Upon..."Akshatan"...

"I feel the wholeness of individual awareness."

Explanation:  This offering of full rice symbolizes the fullness of eternal life.

-- Upon..."Pushpam"...

"I feel the blossoming of inner Being."

Explanation:  This offering of a flower symbolizes the full bloom of life.

-- Upon..."Dupam"...

"I feel a pleasant wave of inner and outer purity."

Explanation:  This offering of incense symbolizes the sweet fragrance of purity.

-- Upon..."Dipam"...

"I feel the light of life, Pure Consciousness, illuminating everything."

Explanation:  This offering of light brings the light of wisdom to dispel all 

ignorance.

--Upon..."Achmaniyam,"... (before "Naivedyam")

"I feel the support of the waves of bliss."

Explanation:  This offering of water softens the atmosphere.

-- Upon...."Naivedyam"...

"I feel fulfilled in the plentiful life."

Explanation:  This offering of fruit symbolizes the state of fulfillment.

-- Upon..."Achmaniyam"... (said after "Naivedyam")

"I feel the flow of fulfillment in the omnipresence of Being."

Explanation:  This offering of water brings the flow of life in fulfillment.

-- Upon..."Tambulam"...

"I feel everywhere the cleansing and purifying influence at the source of speech."

Explanation:  This offering of a betel leaf brings freshness, purifying the abode 

of speech.

-- Upon..."Shri phalam"...

"I feel the fullness of life welling up."

Explanation:  This offering of the complete fruit [the coconut - Laurie] represents

the fullness of life, unmanifested and manifest.  The entire field of manifest life 

(gross, subtle and subtlest) is represented respectively 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 symbolized by the self-contained unmanifest space 

within.

-- "Arartikyam."

(Offering a camphor frame)

-- Upon..."Achmaniyam"... (after "Arartikyam")

"I feel the flow of fulfillment in the light of Being."

-- "Pushpanjalim."  (first)

(Offering a handful of flowers)

Explanation:  This offering of a handful of flowers is the offering of the full 

bloom of life which has arisen from the offering of light.

-- Upon..."Pushpanjalim"...  (second)

"I feel oneness with the Omnipresent."

Explanation:  This offering of a handful of flowers symbolizes the surrender of the 

fully blossomed heart and mind in all the glories of the Relative and the Absolute. 

 I hope this newly available information is helpful.  Individuals and websites are welcome to 

use this information, with proper attribution. 

Please Help Us Update: How are TM Mantras Chosen?

The founder of the Transcendental Meditation movement, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,  was insistent that the TM mantras came from a long "Holy Tradition,"and that the "purity of the teaching" had to be maintained.  He taught that each individual instructed in TM had to have his or her mantra carefully chosen by a highly trained teacher in order for it to be suitable for that individual and to produce the best results.  It was implied that choosing the correct mantra involved metaphysical knowledge.    

Mahesh cautioned teachers of TM that except during initiation, they were never to say aloud or write down the mantras that he had taught them.  They weren't even permitted to say them to other TM teachers.  So it wasn't until TM teachers got disillusioned, broke Mahesh's rule, and started sharing mantras that they discovered that Mahesh, rather than passing down the categories for mantras with perfection, precision and purity, had actually taught mantras based on changeable categories.
  
Readers of TM-Free Blog and other websites skeptical of TM now know that over the years, Mahesh has taught TM teachers to choose the mantras based upon the initiates' age, or sex, or age plus sex.  On different TM Teacher Training Courses (TTC), Mahesh added mantras, deleted mantras, changed the spelling or pronunciation of mantras, and changed which category got which mantra.

The excellent website minet.org, written many years ago by TM-Free Blog coordinator Mike Doughney, provides the following table, listing which mantras Mahesh taught on different TTCs:

                               The TM Mantra Tables

1961		1969-Male		1969-Female		Fiuggi, 1972
Sex	Mantra	Age	Mantra	Age	Mantra	Age	Mantra
MALE	RAM	0-15	ING	0-15	IM	10-11	ING
FEMALE	SHIRIRAM	15-30	AING	15-30	AIM	12-13	IM
		30-45	SHRING	30-45	SHRIM	14-15	INGA
		46 +	SHIAM	46 +	SHIAMA	16-17	IMA
						18-19	AYING
						20-21	AYIM
						22-23	AYINGA
						24-25	AYIMA
						> 25	SHIRING

1976		1977		1978		October,1978		1987
Age	Mantra	Age	Mantra	Age	Mantra	Age	Mantra	Age	Mantra
03-10	ENG	03-10	ING					0-11	ENG
10-12	EM	10-12	IN	10-12	ENG	10-12	ENG
12-14	ENGA	12-14	INGA	12-14	EM	12-14	EM	12-13	EM
14-16	EMA	14-16	INA	14-16	EMGA	14-16	ENGA	14-15	ENGA
16-18	AENG	16-18	AING	16-18	EMA	16-18	EMA	16-17	EMA
18-20	AEM	18-20	AIM	18-20	AENG	18-20	AING	18-19	AING
20-22	AENGA	20-22	AINGA	20-22	AEM	20-22	AIM	20-21	AIM
22-24	AEMA	22-24	AIMA	22-24	AENGA	22-24	AINGA	22-23	AINGA
				24-26	AEMA	24-26	AIMA	24-25	AIMA
24-30	SHIRING	24-30	SHIRING	26-30	SHIRING	26-30	SHIRING	26-29	SHIRING
30-35	SHIRIM	30-35	SHIRIN	30-35	SHIRIM	30-35	SHIRIM	30-34	SHIRIM
35-40	HIRING	35-40	HIRING	35-40	HIRING	35-40	HIRING	35-39	HIRING
40-45	HIRIM	40-45	HIRIN	40-45	HIRIM	40-45	HIRIM	40-44	HIRIM
45-50	KIRING	45-50	KIRING	45-50	KIRING	45-50	KIRING	45-49	KIRING
50-55	KIRIM	50-55	KIRIN	50-55	KIRIM	50-55	KIRIM	50-54	KIRIM
55-60	SHIAM	55-60	SHIAM	55-60	SHYAM	55-60	SHIAM	55-59	SHAM
60 +	SHIAMA	60 +	SHIAMA	60 +	SHYAMA	60 +	SHIAMA	60 +	SHAMA

Notes: The year at the top of each column indicates the year the teacher was trained.
"Age" is that of the initiate at the time of learning the technique.
_____________________________________________________

This table was compiled by interviewing former TM teachers who had been trained on different TTCs.  Some of the table comes from the old TM-EX newsletter:  http://minet.org/TM-EX/Spring-91.  (By the way, I looked at this newsletter and found it fascinating.)

It is clear to me that this table is incomplete.  For instance, the mantra "rarim," which my mother received, is not listed anywhere here.  

Can you help us?

If you are a former TM teacher, and you got a different set of mantras or different how-to-choose categories from the ones listed on the table, could you please write us a "Comment" with the list you were taught, and the year and location of your TTC course?

If you are not a TM teacher, but when you learned TM you were taught a mantra that doesn't line up with any of the mantras listed above, could you please "Comment" for us as well?  If it doesn't interfere with your privacy, we'd like to know your sex, your age at the time of initiation, and what year you were initiated.  

We would be interested in any other inconsistencies, oddities  or tidbits, like who your TM teacher was, what TTC they attended, if you learned TM in a group rather than individually, did you learn TM from Mahesh personally and what was that like, etc. etc.

Or if you were under 21 on your TTC, did Mahesh forbid you to teach anyone over 25?  Did he only give you child and young adult mantras?  When you reached age 21, did he give you the mantras for adults?  If so, list those too, if they don't match the table, and let us know what year you received them.  

Or, if you were given "special" mantras for monks, nuns, seminarians, etc., please list those, how chosen, date of receiving them, etc.  We already know that some TM teachers were told to give this group the same mantras that were given out to teens!
  
Many thanks!  Here's for increased truth!

I'm really sorry that I lied to you.

A trip down memory lane. Admitting a mistake and making amends. Pondering the power of mind control. Healing. Clearing your conscience. Whatever you call it....Here is an opportunity to share those inexplicable moments when you or someone you cared about experienced a split in consciousness, a moment of cognitive dissonance, the creepy power of doublethink, programmed dissociation. I have spoken with former TM teachers, and we are really sorry , and ashamed, that we lied to you.

I'll start the ball rolling by sharing some of the lies I and other former TM Teachers (initiators) regret having said while we were under the influence of TM.

Initiator #1: "I was giving an introductory lecture. I emphasized the physiological, psychological and social benefits, and the scientific research, as I had been trained to do. During the question and answer period, someone asked if this technique had a spiritual aspect. I answered, "No. Absolutely not. There is nothing spiritual about this technique. It is absolutely practical, to be more effective in the world."

Commentary: What the heck was I thinking? I was lying. After all, on the third day following initiation, the topic was how TM leads to cosmic consciousness. Mr. Mahesh had a phrase,"TM unfolds 200% of life - 100% material and 100% spiritual." So why the heck did I say that? I guess because on my TM Teacher Training Course (TTC) we had been taught to swear that TM was not a religion, did not interfere with anybody's religion, did not conflict with anybody's religion. That we should emphasize the practical benefits of TM and not turn people off by mentioning cosmic consciousness, God consciousness or unity consciousness. Mr. Mahesh tutored us, "In the scientific age, we speak in the language of science." I'm really sorry that I lied to you.

Initiator #2: "I was co-teaching a TM course with another initiator. During the first day following initiation, a student asked about the exact pronunciation of his mantra. My fellow initiator said that it didn't matter, you shouldn't think about it, it wasn't even an English word; it was a Sanskrit word. My mother, who had been initiated a few months earlier, called me on his comment. 'What do you mean, it's a Sanskrit word? We were told it was a meaningless sound.' I thought very fast, trying to find some wording that covered the behind of my fellow teacher, and said, 'Well, it comes from the same tradition as Sanskrit words.' "

Commentary: What the heck was I thinking? I was lying. Why? Because I had already intuited that there was something dishonest in TM about the mantras. I had not exactly been taught that the mantras were Sanskrit words, but I had not exactly been taught that they weren't, either. (Mahesh definitely had not taught us that they were the "seed form" of Hindu gods). However, my fellow initiator made his comment in his official capacity, in public, to a bunch of new, impressionable TMers. So I wasn't about to blow TM's reputation by admitting that my fellow initiator didn't know what he was talking about, or that we didn't actually learn precise information on TTC - no! The impression we initiators were working so hard to create was that we were so thoroughly, rigorously trained that we didn't contradict each other or make errors about TM. I'm really sorry that I lied to you.

Initiataor #3: "On my TTC, they drilled it into us that TM was the solution to all problems in all fields of life. TM research was especially impressive on health benefits. I remember that they said, 'If someone has a heart condition, encourage them to start TM right away. Because you never know when a person might have a heart attack, and TM is so helpful for the heart.' But on one of the very last days of TTC, they mentioned very quickly in passing that TM might worsen an epileptic condition. Fast forward to several months later. I have given the introductory and preparatory TM lectures. Now I sit in private with a soon-to-be-initiate, reviewing her personal interview form. And there, under 'physical problems,' they've written 'epilepsy.' What can I possibly say? 'Oh, ignore everything I've said at both lectures. The research is biased. Protect your health. Don't learn this meditation. It can be deleterious to you.' Can I say that? Of course not. So I said what Mahesh had taught us to say, 'Oh, good, TM will be helpful with this, too.' I'm really sorry that I lied to you."

Commentary: The whole reason for the introductory lectures is to convince more people to start TM. The charts, graphs, scientific research, all are to raise the hopes of the audience that TM will give them marvelous gifts. Mahesh has even instituted a "World Plan," promising that TM will solve all the physical, emotional, social, law enforcement, economic, educational, governmental and spiritual aspirations of humanity....Except if you have epilepsy? Then TM might make you sicker? No, our job was to say whatever we could at the intro lectures to successfully recruit. Even if that meant lying. Even if we had to present fraudulent research. We had unknowingly been conscripted as missionaries to spread TM. So what can you say to this hopeful recruit? So I swallowed my saliva, and my integrity, and said, "Oh, you have epilepsy - well TM should help with that too." That happened decades ago. I don't remember your name, or if you are still alive. But I remember that shameful moment, and I pray that I didn't injure you with that initiation. I apologize, and I hope some day you will forgive me. I am really, really sorry that I lied to you.

Well, now it's your turn. Do you have any stories you want to tell about lies you or your friends told while you were under the thrall of Maharishi?

Mantras and other secrets of Transcendental Meditation

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If You Do Transcendental Meditation Will You Look Like This?

Tucked into a Maharishi University of Management newsletter, Achievements, is the announcement:

More students at Maharishi University of Management are planning to become teachers of the Transcendental Meditation^® technique inspired partly by an increasing demand for teachers to teach at-risk children in schools around the world. [Emphasis added.]

Fortunately, they included pictures of what your children might grow up to look like.

Parents: Fair warning! You might want to ask the kids to leave the room—so you don't scare 'em!

Brandy C. Lee-Jacob, Ph.D. student in Maharishi Vedic Science. You'll note that women are encouraged to wear bright colors, especially red, in the TM Org.

It's considered more feminine, Vedically speaking.

Puki Freeberg, MUM alumna and Teacher of the Transcendental Meditation Technique. Puki is modeling an Indian sari, traditional female garb in India.

No lifestyle changes here!

Dr. Fred Travis, Chair of the Department of Maharishi Vedic Science. Sporting a "scientific" lab coat, Fred looks the picture of Vedic health.

Note to TM Marketer$: Guy could use a good spray-on tan!

Bobby Roth, Vice President of the David Lynch Foundation, and Head of Public Relations for TM Org for decades, explaining why TM costs money to learn. Bobby has endless YouTube videos that explain why TM is not a religion, how it changes the brain, and why you can't learn TM from a book.

Helpful stuff! Only viewed by a handful of people on the entire planet.

"Do," aka Marshall Applewhite, spiritual leader of Heaven's Gate suicide "religion," explaining why you should be "initiated." Shortly after this video was shot, White and 38 members committed mass suicide.

I just included him for comparison purposes.

Notice the eyes on all of these johnnies!

J.

Transcendental Meditation's Attitude on Mental Health

This essay is yet another of my trips down memory lane - this time, my memories of the TM organization's (i.e. Maharishi's) attitudes about mental health.

Back in 1970, before I ever learned TM, I had meditating friends who liked to tell me anecdotes about how rapidly TM improved mental health: "One man walked into the TM initiation room looking stressed and miserable; he walked out one hour later looking radiant," or, "This woman showed up at her therapist's office one week after learning TM, and the therapist said, 'My goodness! You seem so much better! What's happened to you?!' " I was 19 years old at the time, and I was very impressed. Now, with 40 years more experience under my belt, I would be less impressed. I would ask, "Did those benefits continue? Were there any harmful side effects?"

Back in 1970, the TM introductory lecture consisted of four speakers, each one speaking on a different topic: TM for mental potential, TM for health, TM for social behavior and TM for world peace. TM was presented as the solution to psychological problems.

After I was initiated, there were three days of follow up. We filled out forms that asked if we saw benefits in our lives yet. Almost all the people in my class had. The implication - which no one questioned - was that these changes were permanent, these benefits were from TM, and more benefits would be forthcoming soon.
The implication was that TM was both faster and more effective than psychotherapy.

My initiator had a condescending attitude towards psychotherapy. I think the rule back then was that if you were seeing a counselor more than once a week, you couldn't learn TM. My initiator said, "Either decide that the therapy's done what you wanted it to do, so you don't need it anymore and stop; or decide that the therapy isn't working, and stop. Either way, you can learn TM after you stop therapy."

Psychotherapy seemed to be a step down from TM. TM research was coming out showing that practicing TM produced mental health, and it produced it faster, less expensively and more holistically than psychotherapy.

This condescending attitude towards psychotherapy was explicit at the 1972 Humboldt College, Arcata, California, USA one-month course which I attended. Someone asked Maharishi about the value of psychotherapy. He replied that in the old days, people would go to their grandparents for advice, but nowadays, since families didn't live near each other, if you had problems you paid someone to listen to you. "Psychotherapy," he explained, "just stirs up the mud." It just made people worse. "Carl Jung's brother said that Carl was such an unhappy, miserable person. So how good could psychotherapy be?" Maharishi posited. (Someone in the audience pointed out, "Maharishi, Carl Jung was an only child." "Oh," Maharishi replied.)

If you were seeing a psychotherapist, you wouldn't be accepted for a TM teacher training course, or for an advanced teacher's course, (ATR), or for the TM-Sidhis course.

I had an initiator friend who was seriously depressed. I advised her to get professional help. She refused, saying, "But then I won't be accepted for an advanced course!"

What was the reason for this policy? Was it to keep meditators away from psychotherapists? Was it to keep meditators coming back to TM courses? Was it to keep meditators ignorant of the benefits of other methods? Was it to prevent unstable people from flipping out during rounding? Was it to keep knowledge of TM out of the hands of psychotherapists? I don't know, but it kept many meditators away from the help they dearly needed.

It also turned some meditators into liars. "Have you seen a psychotherapist?" asked the TM-Sidhis application form. "Well, I did see someone for career counseling," responded a friend of mine who received psychotherapy from a career counselor/psychotherapist. "Was he a therapist?" asked her TM interviewer. "Well, he did have a master's degree in English," she replied honestly. (And a doctorate in counseling, she omitted.) She was accepted for the course. "Filling out TM applications is an...'art form'," an initiator friend of mine wryly advised me.

Meanwhile, more scientific research continued to come out of the TM movement, showing that TM improved all areas of a person's life, including their mental health. These "independent scientific studies" have been criticized for inaccuracy and bias. For a critical analysis of TM research, click here:

http://trancenet.net/reserach/index.shtml
http://spacecityskeptics.wordpress.com/2009/01/07/how-to-design-a-positive-study-meditation-for-childhood-adhd/#comment-170

By 1975, Maharishi's "World Plan" was in full swing, promising that once a certain percentage of people around the world practiced TM, seven goals would be achieved, two of which were "to develop the full potential of the individual" and "to solve the problems of crime, drug-abuse and all behavior that brings unhappiness to the family of man." In other words, TM led inexorably to mental health.

Meanwhile, some people were attending TM Teacher Training courses and meditating for over 6 hours a day. Rumors were coming out that all that meditating was harmful for some people. Despite Maharishi's assurance that all manner of discomfort was "unstressing" and that "something good was happening," there were rumors of suicides, of people who became mute, of mental hospitalizations....

I was also starting to hear stories of people who after learning TM became more and more withdrawn and unsociable, and just sat in their houses all day and did TM.

In 1975 I visited my sister who was working at the Academy for the Science of Creative Intelligence in Livingston Manor, New York, USA. To thank the facility for letting me stay a few days, I offered to put their free lending library in order. The director at Livingston Manor instructed me to remove all books about psychology and self-help (and about other spiritual paths, too).

In 1977, I applied for the TM-Sidhis course. At that time, I had just been laid off from my job, my boyfriend had just broken up with me and had kept the apartment, leaving me homeless, and an accident had left me on crutches. I told my TM interviewer that I was a stressed out due to these pressures, and she replied that "TM should have strengthened you enough so that you would handle these challenges with calm and equanimity; therefore I have to conclude that you aren't emotionally stable enough for the course." (In retrospect, I wonder if she meant that this demonstrated that TM didn't work, or that I was somehow deficient.) The official cure for "emotional instability" and/or "unstressing" was to get your meditation checked, do more pranayama (yogic breathing exercises) and do more yoga asanas. That would set things right.

Another initiator friend of mine - I believe he got his Ph.D. in physics from an Ivy League college - gave me this thoughtful analysis of the genesis of mental illness: "People talk themselves into mental illness. I knew this woman who decided she had problems, and she just talked it into herself and talked it into herself, til finally she did become mentally ill."

In 1978 I got some counseling, and I became sufficiently "emotionally stable" that I was accepted for the TM-Sidhis course. In addition to learning the TM-Sidhis, the instructors used to read the English translation of the Ninth Mandala of the Rig Veda (a Hindu holy book) aloud to us for 15 minutes at a time. Jerry Jarvis (the former director of the Students International Meditation Society, U.S.) informed us that "the Ninth Mandala dissolves emotional hang-ups." Maharishi also helpfully explained that most mental illness was caused by not bathing frequently enough.

On the last day of the TM-Sidhis course, Maharishi begged us all to immediately move to Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa, USA. He explained that our "flying" together on this recent course had prevented the outbreak of war, but the end of the course would create a sort of vacuum where there was even more chance than ever for war. I - and hundreds of others - moved to Fairfield that month.

I was depressed and anxious in Fairfield, doing my TM-Sidhis program two to four times a day. Was I unstressing? Was I simply too emotionally unstable? I felt that I needed counseling, but unfortunately there was no counseling department on campus. I had heard a rumor that such a department had once existed, but that Maharishi had told them to shut it down, as it just led to increased "negativity". I believe the counselors were transferred to the "academic counseling" office. So I contacted the academic counseling dept. and asked for an appointment. When I told the academic counselor of my emotional state, he encouragingly replied, "The only thing wrong with you is that you need a buddy!" (The buddy system was a TM tradition whereby you went everywhere with your buddy, and let them know if you were "unstressing.") One of the women in my dorm agreed to be my buddy, but since she continued to spend all her time with her friends from home, I never did find out if the only thing wrong with me was the lack of a "buddy." I did cheer up, however, when I moved to a dorm where I knew the people, and got a job I liked.

Several months later, an MIU friend confided to me that she was miserable, near tears, anxious, depressed, "unstressing." She went to a higher up and "confessed" that she had lied on her TM-Sidhis application form, and maybe she wasn't really evolved enough or stable enough to be worthy of living at MIU. The supervisor consoled her with, "No, if you're here, you were meant to be here."

A year and a half later, I started having anxiety attacks when I did the sidhis. These attacks were spilling over into my daily life. I left Fairfield about this time. Back home, I phoned the TM-Sidhis Administrators to ask them how to deal with the anxiety during my program. They never called me back. Eventually I stopped doing the TM-Sidhis.

A few years later, I read that several MIU students had ended up in the county mental hospital. How could that be, since TM improves mental health? An MIU professor explained, "Going to college is very stressful."

Others in Fairfield were also being hit with bouts of anxiety and depression, which was called "roughness" or "unstressing." When they complained about their condition, they were chided, "You're purifying the whole earth of its impurities, and you complain about unstressing!"

Slowly, counseling slipped into the Fairfield TM community. People kept it a secret if they were receiving counseling - after all, they could be thrown off courses, and their friends might look down on them for "stirring up the mud" and for not following Maharishi's wishes. But as one Fairfield TMer apologetically explained, "Of course we don't want to go to counselors. But if there's a n\crisis - you know, like your husband's having an affair, or your kid's on drugs - well, then, you do it if you have to." She never did explain how a husband could be having an affair or a child could be on drugs if they were all practicing that mental health-producing technique, Transcendental Meditation.

Well, those are my memories of the TM attitude towards mental health. Anyone have any memories that they would like to share? (Anonymously is fine.) Or any other comments?

Transcendental Meditation Teacher Training Goes Through Changes

An anonymous TMFB reader has sent me an email promoting an upcoming Transcendental Meditation^® Teacher Training Course (TTC) to be offered at Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa, from September 30, 2009 to February 17, 2010

Some info from the email:

• "Please feel free to forward this message to any Meditator and Sidha you know."
  
• It appears the structure of Phase I, II, and III has been done away with. Citizen Sidhas will become teachers after a single, 4 1/2-month course. (There are special arrangements being made for applicants who do not have the sidhis.)
  
• "Each course participant is required to indicate before the course which Maharishi Invincibility Center they will associate with after graduation."
  
• "There will be separate courses for men and ladies." No mention of special arrangements for couples.
  
• "TTC fee is US $14,500." Courses in the 19070s cost about $4,000, however allowing for inflation, the course actually costs less than in the past.
  
• "Transportation to and from the course, visa application fee, health care insurance, and any other personal expenses are the responsibility of each course participant."
  
• "For more information about the course,... please contact the following: For US citizens: education@tm.org; For Canadian citizens: worldpeace@maharishi.ca."

Please note that TMFB does not recommend involvement with any Transcendental Meditation program. This material is presented only to educate and to spur discussion.

J.

With our very best wishes

Jai Guru Dev

International Course Office