Leslie's story: "The Truth Pissed Me Off"

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.

---

Stock photo, not the contributor. (Shutterstock)

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. 

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."

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.

Ashley's story: My experience of my husband's journey into Transcendental Meditation

Stock photo of a generic young couple, not the contributors.
(scop.io)

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.

---

My experience of my husband's journey into Transcendental Meditation: 

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. 

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. 

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? 

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. 

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: 

• 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.
  
• 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.
  
• That some kind of a forcefield of goodness was created by meditators, especially those practicing yogic flying.
  
• That everyone in the world must do TM in order to live fully to their potential.
  
• That TM was the answer to climate change. 

Tony's story of his journey through, and out of, the TM program

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.

---

Photo illustration of a TM lecture, with video.
(Shutterstock/BBC World Service)

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

TM-Free Blog requests "flying" memories for study

Did you learn the TM-Sidhi's "yogic flying"?  What was your experience of it?  Some readers have commented that when they learned it, they realized "yogic flying" was a fraud.  When they "lifted off," they were aware that they were propelling themselves with their own muscles, similar to jumping or gymnastics.

But other people report that their subjective experience was the opposite - that it really felt like they were defying gravity, and were being lifted up by something outside their own conscious selves.

I hypothesize that there is a correlation between people's subjective experiences of "flying" and their speed of recovery from TM.  I hypothesize that those who experienced themselves as truly levitating without muscular effort were more suggestible.  Another way of saying that is that they were easier to hypnotize.  Or one could say that their mind/body coordination was more disrupted than those who were able to accurately experience the procedure as a volitional muscle activity.  So I am hypothesizing that their recovery from TM was more arduous.

Mahesh Yogi liked to say that TM and the TM-Sidhis increased mind-body co-ordination.  But I wonder if the opposite was true for some or all - that the "flying" may have disrupted the relationship between the mind and the body, because it trained one to not notice the mind sending instructions to the thigh muscles.

So I am requesting readers to comment below.  What was your experience of "yogic flying"?  And did you recover rapidly from TM's brainwashing and its cognitive, emotional or physical side-effects ?  Or was your recovery slow?

Yogic Flying and Post Hypnotic Suggestion

Following Maharishi’s tradition of brainwashing ridiculousness, and the power of post-hypnotic suggestion, you are invited to attend tomorrow’s “Yogic Flying Competition”. True Believers who paid thousands of dollars to learn the phrase “relationship of body and akasha - lightness of cotton fiber” will squeeze their gluteus maximus muscles with enough force to bounce upon high density rebound foam in the name of spiritual awakening and manipulating natural law to defy gravity.

Cookies will be served as gastronomic reinforcement of juvenile psychology.  Per the flyer below, you may also see an EEG brainwave demonstration - we assume to show, once again, how Transcendental Meditation creates coherent brainwaves.  TM teachers fail to mention that no one knows the significance of synchronous brainwaves.  It is known that comatose states and death also create synchronous brainwaves.

        If readers of TM-Free Blog attend tomorrow’s demonstration, we will be happy to share your photos and reviews of the session. 

Tingalingalingaling... Ringing Bells of Invincibility

In gold lettering, the white ribbon reads "A Woman's Place is in the Dome". The green ribbon reads "Maharishi Invincibility".

These bells were in a box with some old family items. These small bells probably came from the 1981 celebration to inaugurate the Bagambhrini Golden Dome. The bells were distributed for attendees to ring rather than clap. The sound of hand clapping was considered too crude. Attendees were told to ring these little bells, creating group tingalinging, in response to inspirational talks about group meditation, enlightenment, and Maharishi's world plan.

Such bells were also used in group meditation by an assigned "timer" or "bell ringer" to announce time to change from the mental practice of TM (...aingnamah... aingnamah... aingnamah... aingnamah..), to next think the TM-Sidhi Program (...friendliness.. compassion... happiness.. strength of an elephant...), tingaling to switch to deemed-flying (...relationship of body and akasha, pause, lightness of cotton fiber... repeat...), tingaling again to lie down and rest while listening to an oral reading about soma flowing through and around Hindu gods, from a translation of the Rig Veda's 9th mandala.

TM devotees still practice the TM-Sidhi program for hours twice daily in gender segregated domes. The better constructed men's dome was built first and is near to  the women's dome. Dome participants believe they influence global events through their TM-Sidhi program.

One friend, also raised in the TM Movement, responded when I texted him this bell image, "Ugh!! Such victimized sweet people. It really makes me sick to think about Maharishi and how callously he used people."

tingalingalingalingaling   You may excuse yourself now in silence.

Lies My Guru Told Me

An oldie but a goodie
                                     

Lies My Guru Told Me

(For my own good, of course)

By Michael D. Coleman, Ph. D.

One of the wonderful things about email on the Internet is the "democratization" of knowledge. We can compare notes with others around the world easily and quickly. No authoritarian structure can block it. Dictatorial structures hate free dialogue.

Recently I have been "listening in" to an on-going dialogue among three friends who have been sharing stories of their time with Maharishi. This made me realize that even 25 years after leaving the TM Movement, I have not come clean with myself and with others about the lies Maharishi encouraged me to believe and required me to tell others.

This is an open letter to anyone within the TM movement who is beginning to feel that they must be "crazy" because of the dissonance between what they are aspiring to and what the TM movement actually seems to be doing. It is also for everyone who has left the TM movement to validate your
sanity.

Let's begin with a short catalogue of lies with a brief commentary on each. I will give a deeper treatment of several. There are too many lies, with new lies coming out each year, to comment on them all.

In Memory of Beloved "Dan". Be True. Peace. Family Condolences.

(Names respectfully withheld, as requested by the mourning family)

A ‘gently grizzly” passed to eternal slumber last week. He wanted his story told.

"Whatever is unnamed, undepicted in images, whatever is omitted from biography, censored in collection of letters, whatever is misnamed as something else, made difficult-to-come-by, whatever is buried in in the memory by collapse of meaning under an inadequate or lying language- this will become,not merely unspoken, but unspeakable.”
-Adrienne Rich, On Lies, Secrets, and Silence

Electron webs of heavy-hearted global TM offspring buzz over another premature passing of a beloved peer. Like most TM-kids, “Dan” deeply loved his meditation and genetic family. Dan’s frighteningly strong arms will never again embrace anyone.

Many in TM’s global community care deeply for Dan and his kind family. Dan’s lifelong connections with the well-intentioned Transcendental Meditation community sustained him with compassionate love and commitment.

Raised with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s deemed enlightened peace plan through the global Transcendental Meditation Movement, Dan’s connections and love encompassed the world. Even as a youth, Dan lived by his recent favorite Facebook quote ~ “be true.”

Dan was one of the most kind, gentle and forgiving souls. He strove always to do right by himself and for others. Nearing age 40, Dan lived his last few years with his patient loving non-TM father. With support of his solidly stable father, family and far flung loved ones, Dan’s soul flowered peacefully through art, music, and his continued connections with global loved ones.

Dan joins one sister and his mother who passed before him.

"David Wants to Fly" opening in Toronto

Following the success at the Berlin International Film Festival,

"David Wants to Fly" film will be premiered on North American soil!

It will be screened during the world renowned documentary film festival HOT DOCS in Toronto.

Tue, May 04 9:00 pm Bloor Cinema
Wed, May 05 3:45 pm Cumberland 3

"David Wants to Fly" in Toronto

Trailer for "David Wants to Fly"

"David Wants to Fly" film review in Variety

Variety,
Sunday February 14, 2010

Berlin
David Wants to Fly
((Documentary) -- Germany-Austria-France)
By ALISSA SIMON

A Neue Visionen (in Germany) release of a Lichtblick Film Lichtblick Media (Germany)/Dschoint Ventschr (Austria)/Navigator Film (Austria)/SRG SSR idee (Switzerland) production with the support of Bayerisch Rundfunk, Arte, SFDRS, in cooperation with FFA, RTR Fernsehfonds Austria, Bundesamt fur Kultur Sektion Film, DFFF, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Kuratorium junger deutscher Film, Filmstiftung NRW, Zurcher Filmstiftung. (International sales: Autlook Film, Vienna.) Produced by Martin Heisler, Carl-Ludwig Rettinger. Co-producers, Johannes Rosenberger, Werner Schweizer. Directed, written by David Sieveking.

With: David Sieveking, Marie Pohl, David Lynch, Swami Swaroopanand, Dr. Michael Persinger, Judith Bourque, Earl Kaplan.
(German, English, Hindi dialogue)

A sprightly docu about finding your own artistic inspiration, "David Wants to Fly" follows German writer-helmer David Sieveking on his road to enlightenment, a journey that involves David Lynch, various headquarters of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement and the icy source of the Ganges. Both tongue-in-cheek and seriously questioning (particularly as pertains to TM's financial empire), this entertaining, globe-trotting pic already has bigscreen release dates in co-production countries. It could take off for further niche theatrical play, maybe even Stateside, before making a landing at broadcasters.

Read the rest of the review here

And a film marquee here

Transcendental Meditation "Flyers" to Support UN Climate Conference

The Danish Raja Bjarne is planning to place a ship in Copenhagen harbour with 300 "flying" TM-Sidhas/ Governors to ease the climate conference.

Can anyone imagine how the ship will always face due east, for deemed maximum benefit to the conference?

One of the basic tenants of devotees' practice of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and the TM-Sidhi Program (TMSP) is that "group practice of these programs will influence the environment (all surroundings) to function in accordance with natural law" -- e.g. bring rains on time, prosperity to all, dissolve hunger, support world peace, bring happiness to individuals & communities, decrease crime rate, help government figures to make good decisions, and now also influence global environmental policy.

In the effort to provide maximum transcendental support to the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference, taking place in Copehagen, December 7-18 2009, TM's Raja Bjarne of Cophenhagen is encouraging TM-Sidhas and TM Governors to come aboard a charted cruise ship for group practice of TMSP.

The TM belief is that group practice of the TMSP in the vicinity of this conference will create a "harmonious effect throughout the environment" to benefit the conference attendees and influence positive outcomes to this conference.

In this way, TMSP practitioners make a deemed altruistic sacrifice by volunteering, paying for their own time, or by sponsoring others' participation in this deemed noble endeavor. Participation in such programs validates the participants' ongoing sense of group exclusivity and elitism for their belief in "power to move the forces of nature" at will.

The Danish email and attached invitation follow below. If any readers here desire to participate, contact information should be in the text of message below.

****************************

From: Raja Bjarne
To: undisclosed-recipients
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 4:37 PM
Subject: Klimatopmøde i december!

Kære Alle

Se venligst vedhæftede dokument om vores 'FREDSPROJEKT' under klimakonferencen i december.

En nogenlunde tilsvarende annoncering er sendt ud til alle internationale ledere med opfordring om at respondere med deres mening om projektet. Efterfølgende vil det blive annonceret i alle lande.

Jai Guru Dev

Bjarne

Attached Document:

COP 15
UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
DEC 7 – DEC 18, 2009

Kære alle

FN’s klima topmøde i København er blevet beskrevet, som det vigtigste møde nogensinde i verdenshistorien.

Jeg mener vi har en yderst vigtig rolle mht. at sikre de bedst mulige resultater fra dette møde. Med en kohærens skabende gruppe midt i København kan vi skabe en meget kraftfuld indflydelse af fred og harmoni, altså skabe en atmosfære som er mest befordrende for at alle verdens politiske ledere kan tage de bedste beslutninger til støtte for eksistensen af liv på jorden i fremtiden. Beslutninger der kan hjælpe med at skabe balance og harmoni i naturens funktion.

Vi arbejder på at organisere en sådan kohærens skabende gruppe i Københavns havn.

TM in the news : Transcendental Meditation as military defense - and Paul McCartney's son at Maharishi University

TM Movement publicity updates:

From The Seoul Times, November 17, 2009 (in Seoul it's our tomorrow) Taking "The Men Who Stare at Goats" Seriously. The newspaper article is written by a TM echelon photographed in his mandated tan business suit. He is associated with the TM site www.StrongMilitary.org. The article discusses TM's magical thinking of harnessing power of the mind to control outside forces, to the point of training military to use TM's mental prowess to achieve victory over one's enemy at will.

From Radio Iowa, November 13, 2009 Son of Paul McCartney to make US debut in Iowa. TM and Scientology market celebrity appeal. It has always been fun to have easy celebrity access amongst TM's minions, great networking opportunities!
Probably likewise with Scientology gatherings.

Enjoy!

The Flying Fraud

Betty and Anomalous have made a significant contribution to TM criticism (perhaps a new genre similar to literary criticism). I think it is of tremendous importance that we first and foremost do not live in the past. HOWEVER, it is paramount that we do not forget the past because it is the foundation of right now and right now is the foundation of the future. I think we must make every effort right now to remember what Mahesh said when he beguiled us into his web of deceit and then how he changed his story to prop up his failing fantasy life.

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

Rocky said, “the wacky marketing schemes dreamed up by the TMO, said it was.”

Betty said, You are mistaken. I knew people who sat with MMY on the early flying courses. He asked them if they were afraid to actually fly and blamed them and not his teaching for the fact they were not floating in the air. We were told point blank in 1977 that we would learn to fly on these course, not hop. If we weren't successful at flying, the least that we would get was perfect health. The flagrant lies did not stop until the movement was sued for fraud. Maharishi is directly responsible for these lies, not some wacky TM teachers.

Anomalous said: Thanks Betty. This is the first response I have elicited on this forum which says what needs to be said about the ertswhile flying bullshit. I am glad you were there and know just what the facts are about this fraud. One wonders if the naive Westerners should also be charged with negligent stupidity. Perhaps they are also culpable for Mahesh's fraud in that they begged for it and refuse, even now, to see fraud for what it is, since he's so holy'n'shit. I have asked many times, to no avail, if there is any record of the Meshuganishi actually flying, but I never get even an acknowledgement of the query, let alone an answer. He never levitated. You know it. Then, they say that was never the point or something like that. Western suckers!

Transcendental Meditation and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi documentary - old footage needed

Hello All:

David Sieveking, a German filmmaker, is making a documentary about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Transcendental Meditation. David traveled the world to film at a variety of sites.

David is seeking more old film footage of Maharishi. Please read David's call for footage below. Feel free to contact him directly if you can help.

*************

Footage of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

I am working on a documentary about TM and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (MMY).
Therefore I’m looking for historical accounts. I’m specially interested in early footage
from the 40ies or even before until the 80ies.

Here are some topics that could be covered by your footage:

- 1940ies - 50ies MMY in the service of Brahmanand Saraswati (Guru Dev)
- 1957 India, MMY founding the Spiritual Regeneration Movement
- 1968 Rishikesh, India, Beatles, Donovan, Mia Farrow etc. visiting MMY’s ashram
- 1970 Rishikesh, India, Teacher Training Course
- 1972-84 Seelisberg, Switzerland, MMY arriving in limousine or helicopter
- 1974 Seelisberg, Switzerland, Celebration of the Dawn of the Age of Enlightenment
- 1975 USA, Merv Griffin Show, guests: MMY & Clint Eastwood
- 1976 Switzerland, First Spring Festival of the Age of Enlightenment
- 1976 Seelisberg, Switzerland, Inauguration of the Government of the Age of
Enlightenment
- 1977 USA, Merv Griffin Show, guests: MMY, Doug Henning & Burt Reynolds
- 1979 Seelisberg, celebration for National Day of Switzerland
- 1984-90 Maharishi Nagar, Delhi, India
- 1989 Maharishi Nagar, Delhi, India, Inauguration of the Year of Heaven on Earth

If anyone has usable footage of any kind (photographs, Super-8, 16mm, Video etc.)
and is holding the copyright of it (or thinks there is no copyright concern), please
contact me. We will find out if your material is interesting for my film and I will provide
you with more details about my project. Of course your footage would be licensed for
the film with an appropriate fee.

Please contact me under:
gabi@123.com or on my cell phone: +49 172 734 97 82.

Looking forward to hear from you!

Experiences!

Advanced TM practice emphasizes "experience," rather than externally measureable phenomena.
Of course only feel-good experiences are valued.
Negative experiences are discredited as "un-stressing."

Some of us (moderators), along with experts in coercive persuasion, agree that many TM "experiences of (so called) higher states of consciousness" were induced through prolonged meditations, pseudo-hypnotic suggestion and group dynamics.

We observed others' "experiences" to the extremes of psychosis, schizophrenic-like symptoms, some leading to mental institutions and suicides. sigh.

The following New York Times article describes studies of induced "out of body experiences."
This is among the first of such neurologic research, using external sensory stimuli to create internal experiences.

Using electronic devices, out-of-body experiences were induced in participants. We hope there will be more such studies to come. Such studies may eventually explain 'siddhi-experiences.'
To read about this, click here.

Photo of Amazing Levitating Cult Leader

I don't know what you see, but this photo of Japan's Aum Shinrikyo leader Asahara looks just like the Maharishi's "Yogic Flyers." Looks like the scam's been going on for years and years.

J.

Maharishi Central University to Be Established in Macedonia

Maharishi Central University will house 2,500 "Yogic Flyers" (see article below), establish peace for Europe, house the Founders of Invincibility for 192 nations, and comes with a FREE set of Ginzu knives.

J.