It's time for... Transcendental Meditation Commenter Bingo!

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!

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.

Emotional Problems Post-TM; Relating to Fairfield Relatives, Part II

[This is Part II of the previous article "Emotional Problems Post-TM; Relating to Fairfield Relatives, Part I" - ed.]

Second topic:  How to Relate to Fairfield TM Relatives

Reader's comment:

"I’d like to get back to some previous comment threads on how to relate to family in TM if you are not in it....

'...I don’t expect my [relatives] to give up TM, and I don’t even try to convince them much or argue with them. But I do want to be able to visit them and find things to do (even if by myself or with other family) that are not completely connected to TM or MUM.  I don't mind spending some time at MUM....

'There is certainly a lot of sensitivity to criticism of Maharishi by most I talk to. 

'I’m curious if others have found ways to visit Fairfield and their TM friends and family comfortably, or if it is always uncomfortable for those who are not part of TM any more (or never were).

'...Finally, I’d add that I’m continuing in my reading and effort to see TM as a new religious movement rather than destructive cult, even if some on this site think this misguided or impossible."

My response:

I don't have friends or family in Fairfield, so I won't respond to the first question.  I hope others have some pointers for this reader.  But I will respond to his/her final comment.

My take on it is that the reader is confusing him/herself by trying to compare apples and oranges.  Religions, whether old or new, are in my opinion defined by beliefs and practices.  Destructive cults, on the other hand, are not defined by beliefs and practices, (no matter how unusual the beliefs and practices.)  Rather, destructive cults are defined by the manner in which a person is drawn into and kept in the group.

There are several models to describe this process.  One of my favorites is this simple model:  A groups is a destructive cult if outsiders are: (1) drawn in my deception, and (2) kept in by mind control.

For example, when a person is given an introductory lecture on TM, is s/he told that if they learn TM, in a few years, they might be celibate, meditate  6 hours a day, spend thousands of dollars on astrology and Vedic rituals, wear beige or scarlet, eat a lacto-vegetarian diet, buy an expensive new house, and be convinced that if they don't do their daily TM program, will be personally responsible for World War III?  

Are they told that on relaxing residential retreats, the extra meditations will put them in a state of reduced critical thinking, where they will absorb quasi-Hindu doctrine?  And that in this state of cognitive vulnerability, they will be told that (sub-standard) research "proves" that TM is the solution to all human problems?         

My suggestion to the reader is to learn more about new religions and also more about destructive cults, and then decide for him/herself what they think TM is.  (It could be both!)  There are other models on what constitutes a destructive cult beside the 2-point one I've reviewed here.  I recommend googling Margaret Singer Ph.D., and Robert J. Lifton, M.D, and Steve Hassan, M.Ed's website as noted above, for other useful models.  Also you could look at websites listed on the right hand side of the TM-Free homepage for a start.

Thank you to all commenters for your many, many intelligent and insightful comments.  Also thanks to all who read TM-Free but do not send comments.  

If any other reader would like their comments placed in this position of prominence as a TM-Free Blog "post," please let us know, and we will try to oblige!

Emotional Problems Post-TM; Relating to Fairfield Relatives, Part I

Recently I saw two readers' comments on TM-Free Blog that caught my attention in that I thought they lent themselves to serious discussion.  

The first one mentioned psychological problems the reader has had since leaving the TM movement.  

The second one asked how others manage the tricky terrain of visiting true-believer TM relatives and friends who live in Fairfield and Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa.

I was surprised that no one responded to these two comments.  Since some TM-Free readers read only the essays, but not the reader comments, I suspect this may have been what happened, and these two topics slipped through the cracks.      

So I hope I have not overstepped these two readers' privacy by reprinting portions of their comments below:

First Topic:  Emotional Problems Post-TM?

 Reader's comment:   

"...My commitment to TM lasted about 8 years....I did not have any acute psychological trauma as a result of the rounding and the indoctrination, and the recovery, although a bit slow, was not traumatic either. But I sometimes wonder if some of my psychological/ emotional difficulties are related to my years with TMO [TM organization - ed]."

My response:  

It is not uncommon for people who have left high-demand groups and have re-integrated themselves into the non-cult world to find that they have emotional problems.  The problems may not seem connected to the group; therefore it may not occur to them that these problems are a result of their time in the group.  If they see a psychotherapist, the psychotherapist may also agree that the problems are due to pre-existing issues.  (Psychotherapists are only slowly being educated on this new field of post-cult syndrome.)  For example, long ago I told my psychotherapist that I walked around in constant terror that the world was about to blow up.  He interpreted it in the standard psychodynamic way.  That is, he theorized that I must be angry about something from my childhood, and that I was experiencing that anger in a disguised form, as fear of the world exploding.  

Then, I met with Steve Hassan, an exit counselor.  Steve asked me, "What did they tell you would happen if you left TM?"  I replied, "Why...they said that if I left Fairfield, I would be 'personally responsible' for World War Three!"  And as soon as I made the connection, the terror went away!

That's an obvious example, but it illustrates my point.  I recommend Steve Hassan's website freeminds.org, and his books.  I hope these help.        

Second topic:  How to Relate to Fairfield TM Relatives

Reader's comment:

"I’d like to get back to some previous comment threads on how to relate to family in TM if you are not in it....

'...I don’t expect my [relatives] to give up TM, and I don’t even try to convince them much or argue with them. But I do....

[NOTE:  Something's gone wrong with this computer program, so I will continue this article as Emotional Problems Post-TM; Relating to Fairfield Relatives, Part II. - ed.]

Clarification: Yes, you can make comments about old TM-Free posts!

TM-Free Blog has been publishing articles since January 2007.  Have you read any of our older posts?  Some older articles and comments are extremely thought-provoking.  If you've never read any of them, you might find you've missed something excellent.

I invite you to look up old articles of interest to you.  (And no, I don't get a commission if you look up the ones that I wrote!)  To look up posts and scintillating comments about your favorite topic, check out "Blog Archives - Labels" on this page (TM-Free Blog homepage).  Look in the right-hand column, the last section.  Click on a topic of your choice, and all posts regarding that topic will appear in the left-hand column.

If the post is more than one month old, the "Comments" section is closed, and you won't be able to comment directly into that post's comment thread.  However, if you are moved to share a comment, return to TM-Free's most recent article, go to the "Comments" section, and write your comment there.  Just mention title of relevant article (and/or date published) in your comment, so that other readers can look it up if they want.  (To find a post by its date, go to "Blog Archive," in the right hand column, and click open the "Blog Archive" window to find publication dates.)

And, of course, you are always welcome to write about any TM-related topic of interest to you in the "Comments" section, even if it has nothing to do with any post.

Here we go again

Today's post is something I wrote earlier this morning as a comment over at Daily Kos, on a diary entry that was, frankly, yet another one of those promotional press release sorts of things that the movement sometimes gets placed on blogs or other places where almost anything can be posted without going through a flesh-and-blood editor. There's nothing here I haven't written before, but it's specifically intended as a response to this kind of credulous, superficial, uncritical reporting of a media event staged by the David Lynch Foundation.

---

Photo: David Lynch Foundation

It's hard to watch a group of relatively powerful, influential women who really should know better, endorsing one of the more blatantly patriarchal, sexist organizations on the planet. Perhaps it's because Transcendental Meditation still has this lingering pop-cultural aura of being something oh-so-liberal if not countercultural. The fact that the global organization that sells TM is run exclusively by (royal robe and gold crown wearing) men, structurally excluding women from any actual power within the hierarchy, is perhaps hard for many to comprehend, if they've even bothered to do a few minutes of research online into what they're endorsing. But it's true, and it's plainly obvious from the movement's own publicly available documents and websites.

It's also hard to watch what's essentially yet another faith-based program getting sold in an allegedly liberal forum. That's right, despite its promoters insistence that no particular belief is required, the TM organization is inherently religious in nature. Its core doctrine is that of traditional religious scripture, the Veda, its proselytization strategy is that "Everything should be Vedic," and the practices they promote (which includes complete bogosities like singing to plants and east-facing houses) should be adopted by everyone, whether they believe them to be effective or not, with the backing of government and social institutions. The core doctrine of the TM hierarchy holds that the thinking or chanting of various sounds of Vedic origin have positive effects on the individual, society and the planet, an assertion that is completely without scientific backing. In fact, all of biology and physics would have to be discarded for their doctrine to be considered the least bit true.