Documentary on Scientology airing March 29

HBO (Home Box Office cable television network) is airing a highly-acclaimed documentary on Scientology tomorrow night, Sunday, March 29, at 8 pm.  I am posting this information on TMFree because one of the interviewees, Paul Haggis, a former high-level Scientologist, talks about mind-control and high-demand organizations with such brilliance and insight that readers who have been in TM may feel a shock of recognition at his words. 

 The documentary is entitled "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Faith."  Haggis here responds to attack pieces that Scientology has already produced in advance of the HBO airing:

"...Despite what is being said in their rather pathetic attack pieces on me, I was very involved in Scientology for most of my adult life. While I thought the OT levels ["Operating Thetan" - somewhat parallel to TM's "enlightenment" or "cosmic consciousness"- Laurie's editorial note] madness, I used many Scientology precepts in my daily life — so much so that it took several years after leaving to actually question the many “self-help” concepts that I had learned and used.  The slow indoctrination process is as subtle as it is dangerous — largely because you truly believe that you are thinking for yourself, when in fact you are discouraged to do anything of the sort.
 
Paradoxically, there is great pride in belonging to a stigmatized group. It’s like being in love with a narcissist. All your friends will warn you that you are just being used. You understand why they think what they think, but you believe in your heart that they just don’t see what you see. You just tune them out. 

For that reason, when I did discover what many outside the church [of Scientology] knew, I was truly shocked. While some of the information had been out there for many years, like all Scientologists, I refused to look. Yes, I was told not to, but I didn’t have to be [obedient].  This was my group and I knew there to be many people in the world who were bigoted and close-minded; and when I was told that we were “under attack” in Germany or France or wherever, instead of looking for the reasons, I assumed this to be the case — and donated many thousands of dollars toward our “defense.” Yes, there was considerable duress involved in those “donations,” but if I didn’t honestly believe what I was being told I would not have handed over such large sums.  It makes little or no sense in retrospect, and it’s very hard to understand unless you’ve been a part of a marginalized group. 

While I was a constant thorn in the side of the [Scientology] executives, questioning practices I thought unjust, it never crossed my mind to voice my concerns outside the organization. In fact, even after I sent my letter of resignation, I maintained a great fondness for “The Old Man."  [L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology.]  Yes, he was a rogue, and he might have gone insane later in life, I thought, but I still believed he had put together a pretty workable system for steering through life. Even then, I might have been outraged by injustices I witnessed or heard about, but I dropped the blame at the doorstep of David Miscavige and company [Scientology's leaders.]  

Miscavige, I later discovered to my amusement, never liked or trusted me — in his eyes I was a bad Scientologist — which I admit myself. I was told he was angered that I wasn’t “deferential enough,” and that I asked too many questions, even if internally.  

Too many, and as it turned out, not near enough.
 
It took years after leaving to understand that these practices I railed against had always been at the core of Scientology — that Miscavige was just very faithfully, if cynically, following L. Ron Hubbard’s cruel playbook. The reason this was hard to believe is exactly because of the duplicitous nature of Hubbard’s writing. He wrote tomes on the practice and necessity of critical thought; how nothing should be accepted at face value. His “ethics formulas” stress that when making a difficult decision you have to push aside all personal bias and truly look at what people are doing, not just what they are saying. “Look, don’t listen” is oft repeated advice — but it is advice given to the blind. All these high-minded teachings are useless when you factor in the thing you are never allowed to question — Scientology, its teachings, practices and leadership.
 
Somehow Scientologists are able to accept those incongruous and contradictory thoughts.  For example, they truly believe that only Scientology can save the world, and that they are making major strides in this direction every year. They hold onto this belief despite the fact that there isn’t even a modicum of evidence that they are having even the tiniest impact on any problem in any part of the globe.  Scientologists simply accept the assurances of the church leaders that it is so. To the contrary, volumes of compelling evidence from unimpeachable sources that the... organization has done and is doing serious damage to thousands of people is dismissed before it is ever inspected.

That’s what will happen to "Going Clear." At least that’s what the church hopes happens. Without even watching it, my former friends will condemn it as lies. You see it happening already. Understand that many of these Scientologists are damn smart people; many of them truly lovely and caring. But they are the same people who will not hesitate to cut their closest friend or family member out of their lives if they commit the ultimate crime of criticizing the church. You could do anything else and they would stand by you; commit any crime and they would be there to defend you. But not this.
 
I believe this is because somewhere in the back of their heads they know, as I did, that the very act of questioning could bring down their entire belief system. They have been slowly but surely trained to believe that if you don’t agree with something that [Hubbard] wrote, you just don’t understand it. Questioning anything means questioning everything. Even the slightest crack in that belief system could spread into a fissure. They cannot afford or allow the smallest doubt, because if it took root, their perfect world — a world where there is an answer to every one of life’s questions — could fall apart around them, and they would be left, like the rest of us, searching in the dark for their own answers in an uncertain world. Which brings to mind something a true genius wrote: “Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack, in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” For the sake of my former friends, many of whom I loved, I hope that "Going Clear" is the first crack, that they will watch it, and the light will slip in."

 — Paul Haggis

Second Hand Cult Abuse - Fifty Years

A TMFree Reader sent the following story in a small series of emails.
She gave permission to post the story minus names.
This resembles stories of many who lost loved ones to TM, or have TM family members.

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

I have been reading some blogs over the past few days and wonder if anyone is interested in my experience with TM?  I have communicated with ++++ a number of times. It comes in waves, at the moment I have been following the Pandit riot.  Anyway to cut a long story short I am a 70 year old grandma in Australia whose marriage and life was messed up for a very long time due to the fact my (ex) husband's obsession with TM.

Has anyone looked into the effect on families, i.e. those partners who are not TMers and what they are put througyh and what numbers divorce?  I would very much like to be in touch with other such persons here in Australia. I am sure there must be a number just like me.

MM visited Australia on 7 Dec 1967. Husband was asked to organise accommodation, media etc. We picked MM up from the airport in our little car. MM wrapped his sari around him pushed me aside and squeezed into the front seat leaving me carrying a 16 month old and heavily pregnant to attempt to get into the back seat.  It started right there. I was pushed aside over and over for 20 years until finally I said enough. I am still getting over the constant TM bashing (like a non smoker who inhales cigarette smoke I was contaminated).

Briefly my ex husband (of over 20 years) did the teacher training course in Fiuggi in 1972. We had been living in Italy for 2 years and I was sent home along with my +++ children ++++. He stayed for 3 months. This was upsetting for the children and put even a bigger burden on me. Starting children in school alone, opening the house after a rental of 2 years, getting used to Australian way of life etc.  He had been meditating since the early 1960s but it did not seem a big problem back then.   

When my husband returned from Fiuggi in 1972 he announced almost immediately he returned that sex would have to fit in with his duties as a TM teacher, i.e. none before or during...what a shock for a young 27 year old to be told essentially that our sexual relationship would make him "impure". That I would have to "book" him ahead of time. He didn't say that in so many words but for all those years that is what I carried inside me. Our married sex life was over really. 

Anyway "Down the Rabbit Hole" has left a big impression on me. I do so identify with what and who my husband became in those years after Fiuggi.  I think you call it "disassociation"? wonderful word and describes him exactly.     

He did his teacher training in TM in 1972 in Fiuggi as I said and we had just completed a 2 year stint in Genova where he did post doctoral work at the University.  I observed a changed person when he came home 3 months later. He was glassy eyed for weeks and talked of little else than the film the TMers had seen at the end of the course...The Beatles Yellow Submarine!!  I was so exasperated. I had spent 3 months learning to live back in Australia with 2 little boys beginning school. The "disappearance" of their father for such a long time had a long term effect on our eldest son who was very stressed at beginning school without his Dad around.

TM replaced a father who should have been around for his children. He never had time to take his sons to sports etc and was minimally involved in their lives. As for me I spent school holidays alone with the children as +++ chose those times (Uni holidays) to go on his extra TM courses.    

But those 25 years were a big part of my life and should have been healthy happy ones. I am also very angry with myself for tolerating so much for so long. Why didn't I leave so much earlier and had the chance of beginning a new life without him or TM?   But gradually I began to believe there was something wrong with me because I didn't embrace TM. I put 150% into our marriage because I thought if I worked harder he would care more for me. The more I did the less he did, so the last few years he sent all his spare time meditating and running marathons. My mother in law asked me why I worked so hard!

Fortunately I prevented ++++ taking the +++ children++  out of the highly prestigeous school they had managed to gain entry for. He wanted to put them in a newly opened TM school (as I suspected the school lasted all of 6 months). Thankfully I won that one. 

Recently +++ has spoken to the family about having a unit with the door "facing the right way". My son thought he meant Feng Shuey (dont know how to spell it)...but I realise now that it is another directive from the movement. It's just never ending.  In short TM I have believed for a very long time is an addiction for some people, or rather for people "in the hierarchy of the movement".  +++  was/is very influential in the movement in Australia. I know now that a lot of our money was syphoned off to the movement which is why I never had access to our bank accounts etc.    

Mostly I dont think about TM these days (unless at one of the grandchildrens' parties and their grandfather is there, then I get all shaky which seems ridiculous). When I begin to read some of the stories online which I do every now and then it takes me days to get over reading about things I was so close to. I really dont understand it as I have been alone for 25 years now. A counsellor told me, much to my horror, that I was emotionally abused. No he never laid a hand on me but I know that it was abuse. Being made to feel a 2nd rate human being on the "enlightened scale" , being called crazy, are not the acts of a so called "enlightened" person are they? Problem is my children and friends think of him as a quiet gentle person. They also think I should "get over it". I had noone to speak with about this in those 20 years as we lived interstate. Had we been near parents and friends he wouldn't have got away with his actions and behaviour. Because I was the one to initiate a divorce I was treated very badly by his parents for some time. Ironically toward the end of mother in law's life she confided in me that they both "live on another planet"!!! Whoa why didn't she speak up sooner? 

Anyway I do feel for you having been in a real family tradition of TM. I truly don't know how you cope.  Joe was great..I know some TMers have referred online to his "mental condition". That seems a standard comment about ex TMers who speak out and must originate somewhere in the movement?  I also came across an item referring to MM saying bad things would happen to those TMers who did not conform to his wishes, or some such thing.  In Weggis one of the little TM children I spoke of referred to an Australian couple whose little girl was born deaf...he, all of 8 years, said Maharishi told those people not to marry and that is why they had a deaf baby....scary?

I am amazed and truly horrified at the recent riot in Fairfield and the details surrounding it. Haven't the authorities done anything about these people?  My ex husband spent 10 years on the Fairfield University Campus after we divorced (with wife #2 also a teacher). He was a Prof of Mathematics and no dill, or I didn't think so for a long time.

We also spent 6 months in Lucerne Switzerland where husband was wired for the brain wave stuff. I saw a lot of neglected children in Weggis (children of very well known TMers and was horrified at the lack of time education and care taken of these children (who latched onto me as a sort of 2nd mother as I wasn't involved in the TM side of things).

I would love to hear of anyone in a similar position to me.  You see even now writing this I feel a sense of guilt and fear.  Discussing TM brings on a trembling and agitation I can't explain.  I have seen and heard what the movement is capable of over a period of 50 years.

Sincerely

  

Grandmother in Australia

"The Sopranos" illuminates Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

I recently read the book "The Psychology of The Sopranos:  Love, Death, Desire, and Betrayal in America's Favorite Gangster Family" by Glen O. Gabbard, M.D. © 2002.   I found these paragraphs:

"…In his study of how Nazi doctors could work at Auschwitz, [psychiatrist and thought reform expert Dr.] Robert Jay Lifton coined the term 'doubling' to characterize how the self was divided into two functioning wholes….They could spend their days committing genocide and their evenings listening to Mozart and helping their children with their homework.

…Lifton later studied fanatical religious cults and found similar mechanisms at work….Cult leaders often have the same form of division within the self.  Charismatic gurus may have the capacity for loving attachment and altruism in one corner of the psyche while promoting violence and mayhem from another sector.  Because the disparate aspects of the self remain unintegrated, they are less prone to come into conflict with one another and therefore less likely to cause guilt.  Hence the cult leader…may present an absolute certainty and conviction that is enormously appealing...."

Perhaps this explains the founder of the TM movement.  I have never understood what made him tick.  Unlike some former TMers, who feel Mahesh was always a con artist, I felt that he was sometimes very sincere in his beliefs.  Lifton's theory could explain Mahesh's personality dichotomy.

Growing Up Enlightened 1990

Blast from the past. 1990 Book about Maharishi's Education for Enlightenment. The photo must have been taken between 1984-1987, since my daughter is in the crowd.

This book's cover photo brings a flood of warm memories for idealistic community, believing we were safe and protected, followed by bittersweet memories of the young faces who are no longer with us.

My young daughter beams from her spot cocooned in the community that she once loved, with her dearest childhood friends directly behind Maharishi's photo. Fortunately, my children were spared the full experience of Maharishi's education since we moved away shortly after this photo was taken. I never signed permission for my daughter's image to be publicized in this way, nor in other promo material of the era in which she was specifically highlighted. I'm sure other parents also did not sign releases for Maharishi International University Press' use of their children's images.

Let's see, from my personal connections ~ some of these graduates of enlightened education grew up to create successful lives in the outside world, after stumbling away of their own accord.

A few of those no-longer-kids work for the TM Organization, blogging on TM - MUM - David Lynch Foundation sites, recruitment officers for Maharishi University, DLF administrators, or videographers.

A few died needlessly, some were alcohol and drug related. I know of at least one who threw themselves (I choose respectful gender neutraility)  before an oncoming train, and another of a self inflicted gun shot with a gun purchased at Fairfield's Wal-Mart.

Another is incarcerated in an Iowa penitentiary, for child abduction with alcohol and weapons.

A few others suffer from dissociative and other psychiatric disorders, having spent early adulthood in an out of psychiatric institutions.

Others became teenage mothers with attendant financial and social challenges (like myself, as a result of statutory rape in the very small previous generation of TM kids). At least one of the young girls in this photo later did not know which of many potential candidates had recreationally fathered her children - the gene donors came from amongst smiling crowds of such group photos commemorating Maharishi's perfect society.

Some parents or other family members had needlessly ugly deaths because they sought medical treatment only as a desperate last resort when it was too late for cure. Rather than seeking appropriate medical care, such devotees died from illnesses which raged unchecked as they spent thousands of dollars for fraudulent therapies with Maharishi's ayurvedic products, magic yagyas (mystical prayer ceremonies), and magical rubies, sapphires, and other gems because they believed as Maharishi taught "We are not going to take help from medical Drs. as medical professionals give poison. So don't engage any medical Drs. for anything - absolutely whatever it is - even if they are in our Movement family... Hold onto the fact that we are the supreme authorities on health - we know how to create perfect health - we are challenging all governments in world."

These so-called enlightened children were left to pick up the pieces of their fractured families.

So much for the lauded Heaven on Earth!

When I texted this photo to my adult daughter, she quickly responded :

"Yeah, I think that's me with the huge naive grin, just behind the Maharishi photo, two heads away from J. Makes sense." She then identified her favorite teachers, then more memories :

"Second grade teacher was the woman who married J.H.'s mom's ex-husband. Now, that sounds cultish... Haha"

Thankfully my daughter only had a taste of the cult dysfunction.

Would you help The David Lynch Foundation bring this program to your neighborhood school today? Not me.

If you were here, or remember pertinent stories, please comment.

Indoctrination is Subtle and Sneaky

At TM-Free we recently received a question from a concerned former TMer. What I found interesting about the email was that its writer is quite savvy about the hypocrisy of the TM organization, and has put a lot of serious research into cult issues. It brought home to me how there's always more to be learned about mind control, how it's all around us, how vulnerable we are to its sneaky tactics, and how we have to keep practicing our critical thinking. It also reminded me that we at TM-Free can serve a role in helping people learn how to deal with people they love who may be involved in a destructive cult.  

IMPORTANT NOTE: We at TM-Free are not professionals counselors in this field. If you are concerned about someone, read and consult professionals such as those listed on the right at our home page. (Note: We do NOT recommend the Cult Awareness Network, since that organization was bought by Scientologists a decade or so ago). 

Here is the question from the reader: I wonder if any of you know anything about the "XYZ" group. A dear relative of mine has gotten into it and swears her "cult radar" is not going off. But I keep seeing things in it that remind me of other groups that use undue influence. She is highly aware of the influence of group think, (emphasis added), having been along for the ride during the T.M. circus years in Switzerland during the 70's....  

Response from various TM-Free editors:  Keep an eye on things.  It doesn't necessarily matter how much she knew about cults ahead of time.  Once the right kind of person is in a trance state, the executive control function of the brain is shut down.  And without the executive control function, any foreknowledge about cults is not being processed or applied to the current situation.  Cult dogma can then be steadily ladled in without the person realizing it's happening.

And afterwards the person still doesn't know it happened, even after being away from the indoctrination experience for awhile.  People can't detect reality shifts; they don't remember what reality was like before the indoctrination.

Of course everything depends on how much "the right sort of person" she is.  Maybe she's not.

If you research nothing else, please watch this amazing YouTube for a demonstration of surreptitious induction of dissociation, and of exploiting it to change people's beliefs in under 5 minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzn9rX7rauA 

This is an extraordinary demonstration of how easy it is to get people under your thumb, of how to be a cult leader.

Do look up the group in some of the websites listed on the right.  Also, here are some questions that might help you determine if she's unknowingly come under their influence:  Does she seem evangelical about the group?  Defensive about criticism of it?  Questioning of it?  How much does she say her life was "transformed"?  Is she keen to go back for more?  Is she keen to get you to go?

I can understand you wanting to keep at arm's length from the group, but it I were you I'd start asking her to share what she had learned from the experience, and what growth she felt she had achieved from it.  For one thing, you might get a better idea of where her head is at regarding it.  And if there are current or potential problems, you're better off establishing that she can share things with you, thus keeping the line of communication open.  

If she starts sliding down the slope into full-scale cult involvement, you want her to share the ride with you as much as possible.  You would then be an open connection to reality.  The reason that you want to back off if she gets defensive is to avoid triggering a cognitive dissonance response.  If she gets defensive, then don't be critical about the group, or she might disconnect as far as sharing about it goes:

http://goo.gl/MWaj 

which would shut down communication.

Or of course everything might be just fine with her.  It still wouldn't do any harm to open a dialogue about it with her.  Just be interested, curious and respectful when asking, not critical, to see how things lie.

The "cult leader" in the video mentioned above is Derren Brown.  Brown is a master of a classic branch of stage magic called "Mentalism."  You can find many excerpts from his performances on YouTube.  A "mentalist" is a performer who simulates having supernatural powers, but who is honest that it is all a fake.  A mentalist uses mental acuity, cold reading, warm reading, hot reading, principles of stage magic, hypnosis and/or suggestion to present the illusion of mind reading, psychokinesis, extra-sensory perception, precognition, clairvoyance or mind control.

In other words, a mentalist uses the exact same techniques that a cult leader uses.  The only difference is that the mentalist is honest about it all being an act.

(Thanks to Wikipedia and www.suggestibility.org for selected quotes).

Book Review: "CULT" by William Howell

One of the things the TM movement promises is that the practice of TM leads to "enlightenment."  During his lifetime, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi confirmed that a very few people had reached enlightenment through his technique.

One of those people was Robin Carlsen, a TM teacher who, on a TM course in Switzerland in the 1970s, had an overwhelming experience of the divinity, beauty and unity of the creation.  At a subsequent course meeting, he described his experience to Mahesh (MMY).  Mahesh pronounced that Carlsen was "somewhere in the layers of wholeness."  Most course participants attending interpreted Mahesh's words to mean that that Carlsen had reached enlightenment.  (Mahesh never contradicted their belief.)

About a decade later, Carlsen, in the midst of lawsuits and countersuits against the TM organization, agreed to put the lawsuits to rest if Mahesh would unequivocally answer four questions.  The first question was, "Is Robin Carlsen enlightened?"  Mahesh answered "No."

We'll never know what Mahesh meant the first time.  However, after Mahesh's first comment, in Switzerland, Carlsen was generally believed by TMers to be "enlightened."  Carlsen then went on to slowly establish his own courses, techniques, ashram.  Over time, as he became more self-centered, manipulative and sadistic, his organization became spiritually and emotionally destructive and ground down the self-confidence and mental health of his followers.

William Howell, the author of "CULT," has changed most names in this memoir, but not the facts.  The name "Robin Carlsen" is never mentioned.  Instead, the former TM teacher at the center of this story is called "Justin Snow."  But this reviewer (that's me, Laurie) and  others believe that the book is about Robin Carlson.

The book "CULT" by William Howell tells the true story of how Howell, (then a TM teacher) had accompanied "Justin Snow" on his stroll in the Swiss Alps on the day that "Snow" had his divine experience.  Howell goes on to tell of how he followed Snow, lived at his community, followed his teachings, attended his courses, and suffered through years of increasing degradation and emotional stress until he left.  His other friends gradually left too.  They then helped each other, through mutual support, to exit, deprogram and rebuild their lives.  This book is that story of Howell's closing days with TM, his entry into Carlson's destructive cult, and his leaving and healing afterwards.  

I found this book fascinating because I have always wondered what a person would be like when they had reached the goal of "enlightenment" that we TMers were all ardently devoting ourselves to under Maharishi's guidance.  I also found this book helpful in that it detailed the exit and recovery of Howell and his friends.

You can read the book for free online here:

http://www.free-ebooks.net/ebook/CULT-A-Memoir/pdf/view

In the copyright section of the book, William Howell writes:  "This book is copyrighted solely to prevent its being misused.  People sincere about spiritual development, peace and growth of human awareness throughout the world have the author's permission to reproduce material from this book - with citing."

You can also read more about Robin Carlsen on TM-Free blog.  (Note tags/labels related to this post.)

TM Leader Hagelin Perverts Science to Sell Expensive TM Products

John Hagelin is the national director of the Transcendental Meditation(R) Program in the United States.  (His official title is "Raja of Invincible America").  He has a Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University.

A reader of TM-Free Blog who is on a TM email list was kind enough to send the TM-Free co-editors an email which he received from the TM organization in early September 2012.  It included a letter from Dr. Hagelin.  Highlights from Hagelin's letter are as follows.  (All quoted material is in red).

"Dear Friends,

As a direct result of the generosity and vision of our donors, the Maharishi National Yagya(SM) program has grown into a powerful force for America.  ["Maharishi Yagyas" are, briefly, large groups of people chanting Sanskrit for many hours or days in a manner taught by the TM Organization -ed.].  

We are beginning to see a correlation between the specific appeals of these massive Yagyas and positive developments for the Nation.

Last month our National Yagya included an appeal for rain where needed[.]

- Since the start of that Yagya we have been receiving many beautiful reports from supporters all around the country of welcome and refreshing rain. 

- In Fairfield, Iowa, where the largest number of National Yagya supporters reside, it started to rain when the Yagya began in India....

Previous National Yagyas included an appeal to increase the number of Pandits [TM org. chanters - ed.] in the U.S. campus[.]

- 556 Pandits now have passports....

- The first phase of the kitchen expansion to accommodate the new Pandits has been completed....

...In this time of great opportunity we hope that you will be inspired to give and-if at all possible-to commit to regular monthly sponsorship.  [Emphasis in original.]

Our next 11-day National Yagya will begin on September 19.  Please click now [emphasis in original] to offer your support....

With a donation of $1,250 or more, you-or anyone you designate-will be named in the Sankalpa [intention - ed.] of a National Yagya(SM) performance.

For smaller donations, a new feature on our web site allows you to make a gift in honor or memory of someone...."

As to the scientific sophistication of this national leader with a Ph.D., I quote from a Wikipedia article entitled "Correlation does not imply causation."  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation):

"Correlation does not imply causation" is a phrase used in science and statistics to emphasize that a correlation between two variables does not necessarily imply that one causes the other....

Example 
     With a decrease in the wearing of hats, there has been an increase in global warming over the same period.  
     Therefore global warming is caused by people abandoning the practice of wearing hats.

The website Sceptic School (http://scepticschool.com/2012/05/07more-logical-fallacies/) offers an excellent introduction to logical fallacies.  The author of the website teaches logic to 12-14 year olds, so one would think a Ph.D. would be familiar with this stuff.  From the website:  

"Post-hoc ergo propter hoc - saying that because A happened before B, A must have caused B....[C]laiming that because a rooster crows before the sunrise, a rooster's crow causes the sunrise."

So let's look again at Hagelin's comment:  "We are beginning to see a correlation between the specific appeals of these massive Yagyas and positive developments for the Nation."  i.e. the yagyas caused rain, and caused more chanters to head to the U.S.

Whatever is Hagelin thinking?  Why does he write messages like this?  Does he get a commission?  Is he so cynical that he thinks gullible people will believe him?  Is his mind so damaged by the cult-think of Maheshism that he can no longer think scientifically?  

And what about the people who buy the yagyas?  Have they lost the capacity to think logically?  Lots of people must be convinced, because the IRS tax form for non-profits (yes, you can get a tax deduction for buying Maharishi yagyas) for the Brahmananda Saraswati Foundation (http://www.vedicpandits.org/pdf/BSF-2011-Form-990.pdf) shows that in 2010, total donations received for purchase of yagyas were $2,027,650, and in 2011 total donations were $3,714,902. 

If you want to read more hard sell, guilt-induction, begging and flattering to obtain money; and pseudo-science, you can google "Maharishi yagyas."

Do you have any experience with the TM organization's yagyas?  With the pandits?  With the TMO's begging for money?  With the TMO's guilt-tripping?  With their poor science?

CPs : Course Participants or Captive Pandits

Essay 2 of a 3-part series.
For the first essay in this series on Vedic City's Vedic Pandits, please click here.

Oprah Winfrey’s televised visit to Maharishi Vedic City’s pandit compound provided an opportune excuse for a drive to the pandit compound during my recent visit to Fairfield, Iowa.

Oprah’s pandit visit is summarized in this short video clip : 

As I drive north of Fairfield on Highway One, in less than one mile I follow the highway's directional arrow left on Airport Rd toward Maharishi Vedic City.

Following the arrow due west 2 miles on Airport Rd / 180th Street, I drive through open farmland and pass a few vedic houses, identifiable by uniform east facing entrances with strange roof ornaments, and Fairfield's small airport where Fairfield's TM-wealthy house private airplanes and a leer jet or two. Two miles west of Highway One's turn off, I arrive at an empty country intersection for Jasmine Ave, the beginning of Vedic City.

Turning right, or north, onto Jasmine Ave I pass the turn to a few residences and the flagged Capital building for the Global Country of World Peace whose annual revenue, as a registered non profit agency, is in the range of $19 million,

And the entry sign for Maharishi Vedic Observatory, enhanced with bullet holes to document the sign's dual purpose for both vedic marker and target practice (click on image to enlarge).

I stop briefly at Vedic City's central information desk in The Raj spa which features costly Maharishi Ayurvedic treatments (more about visiting the "Observatory" and "The Raj" in another essay).

Exiting the Raj's tree-lined entry drive,I return to two-lane Jasmine Ave heading north as I pass farmland to my right and a few "Vedic" buildings on the left.

I turn left, or west, onto 170th Avenue’s country road along Vedic City's perimeter. After passing a few Vedic housing developments that are evidently slow on sales, I arrive to the lauded luxury Rukmapura Park Hotel's gravel entry.

Almost directly across from the most elegant hotel of Fairfield or Vedic City lies the fenced "Invincible America Campus", or pandit compound, with rows of white prefabricated buildings capped with golden ornaments, called kalashes, to maximize each building's spiritual energy.

An uniformed visitor could possibly mistake the pandit compound for an agri-business, but not for long.

“Women are not allowed past that fence. Actually, no one is allowed unless they have special permission and an escort. You can stand at the edge of this fence to take photos.” The friendly guard informs me from the simple wooden guardshack at the entrance to Vedic City’s pandit compound only a few miles north of Jefferson County’s courthouse in Fairfield, Iowa.

The guard sits alone or with one other at the fenced compound’s gate, surrounded by otherwise open farmland and a large torquoise sky. Maybe the job is boring or perhaps he enjoys sitting in the quiet countryside and reading.

I’m relieved that the friendly guard in khakis, a light plaid shirt and clip-on security badge is happy to chat. I hope this essay does not jeopardize his emplyment.  

"Since I can’t enter, may I walk along that road between the fences, still outside the pandit compound?" I ask while pointing to the moat-like dirt road separating the compound from the parking lot where we stand.  

"Nope." he responds. "Private property. You can take pictures from this parking lot fence." He extends his arm indicating the fence encircling the small gravel parking area.

I retort with a smile, “But Oprah filmed inside.”

The guard laughs, “But you’re not Oprah.”

"True enough.” I wink and continue, “Maharishi always gave extra benies to the wealthy. It’s about public relations and donations. Too bad I don’t have a zoom lens.”

The guard observes from his small shack while I walk freely in the fenced gravel parking lot, clicking photos with my red point-and-shoot camera across double fences to the pandits .

Pandits play baseball on a seemingly unmarked grass field. 

Three Indians in white gauze kurtas notice me. They walk closer to sit under a tree near the fence, watching the guard talk with me. They remind me of captive animals in a zoo who had watched my children and me from behind fences. I wave. The pandits wave back. 

Two beige former school buses parked beside the drive marked “Residents Only Private Drive” remind me of childrens' summer camp transportation. The guard informs me that buses transport pandits for occasional special performances at Maharishi University's Golden Domes or elsewhere, to return the same day.

Between snapping photos and chatting about the weather, I introduce myself.

“I just saw Oprah’s show and found this fascinating since I used to live here. I graduated from Fairfield High School 1975 as the first 'Ru to graduate from Fairfield High, before MIU began their high school here.

('Ru is slang term awarded by Fairfield residents to the meditators who invaded their town in 1974, shortened from Iowa-accented GuRUuuu. MIU, Maharishi International University, later became MUM, or Maharishi University of Management)

Seeking commonality, the guard names some high school classmates from his graduating class a few years before mine.

After thinking a moment, I respond. “No, I don’t remember them. I only attended FHS for my senior year; that’s when we moved here. You and your friends were out of school by then, so I didn’t meet them. I remember Myron Gookin who is now Iowa's local District Court judge. Myron was either our senior class president or the student body president. I think his family lived on North Main Street at the time, in a meticulous yellow house if I remember correctly. They moved to the other side of town after the 'Rus took over that end of town. I arrived with the first group that came here with MIU from California. My mother was an MIU Student. I fell in love with Iowa, but the old Parsons campus was such a mess!”

“I remember.” he smiles and nods.

We laugh together while sharing memories of 1974's awkward campus BBQ welcoming MIU’s arrival to Fairfield, when skinny vegetarian MIU students refused to eat barbequed pork donated by local farmers. 

I add, “I always loved Iowa. My children were born here. My daughter attended Pence elementary school on the south side of town,” thereby implying that I was not a die-hard 'Ru, since my own children attended a local public school rather than MSAE, Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment. "Eventually I couldn't take it and moved away."

The guard nods, then begins to open up. "There are 850 pandits here now. The Movement plans to have 1200 to keep the numbers here up for when dome numbers drop. They keep saying more will arrive soon," referring to Maharishi’s plan for a specified number of (TM-Sidhi) Program participants for the ever-promised "Super Radiance effect"  that would magically create World Peace.

"There are 88 buildings now and expanding." He points to one building with an orange and purple entry, "That's their Durga, or temple. The white entrance by a larger building is the administrative building. The large gymnasium is in back. Another building is the meditation building. All their needs are provided for.” 

He suddenly sounds scripted, “They meditate, have food, study and exercise time. They study Sanskrit and Vedic scriptures. You can see they’re playing baseball now.” He nods to the ball game before us, speaking as though this is normal. "A clinic will be coming to take care of their medical needs." he adds.

“They visit local doctors and the hospital now?” I ask.

“Usually. But there’s a doctor who comes to see them out here sometimes.”

“Have there been cases of tuberculosis or other infectious diseases?”

“I wouldn’t know.” He shrugs.

"I’m in the medical field. It’s good they provide medical care. This is impressive.” 

I wonder if the TM Organization is building a private clinic to avoid alerting public health authoritites, or if the clinic merely provides a cost-saving convenience.

We stand quietly looking at the compound and pandit baseball game for a few minutes in the Iowa sun. Not sure what to say next, “Where does the money come for all this?" I ask.

The guard shrugs, shaking his head,  "I'm not part of the Movement."

He points to his left, behind the guard shack, past open fields to a few rows of distant rectangular yellow buildings. 

"American pandit-types live there. I forgot what they're called."

"Purusha?" I ask,

"Yes. Purusha. Some Mother Divine women live near them. But most of the women are in New York or North Carolina.  Purusha men are sometimes allowed to attend pandit ceremonies. They once allowed a couple of Mother Divine women to attend a pandit ceremony, but apparently it became a scene. Women are too distracting for the pandits. So no more females." After a moment, guard adds, "There's no problem with Purusha men and Mother Divine woman living nearby. "

“I wonder how the pandits controlled themselves when Oprah visited.” I say.

The guard laughs.

After taking my few photos, I thank the guard and drive away, wishing I had better planned my questions.

Stopping briefly along the side the compound to photograph the street sign for "Vedic America Drive", one pandit approaches me. 

A moat-like ditch filled with knee-high prickly weeds deters me from getting close enough to the fence to talk comfortably. I wish I wore different shoes.

I wave “Hello" to the lone pandit.

He returns my greeting.

"It's a beautiful day!" I call to him from the roadside, standing beside my car.

"Yes" he agrees.

"How are you today?"

"Fine."

"How long have you lived here?" 

"One hour," he reponds while wobbling his head side to side, Indian style.

 I realize he does not understand. I speak more slowly.

"How many years you here?"

"Two years." 

"Are you happy?"

"Yes." He wobbles his head.

"May I please take your photo?" I hold up my camera.

"No." he turns to walk away from the fence, then quickly returns. "OK." 

I snap his photo while the guard watches us from his perch.

"I have to go now." We wave good bye.

The third essay in this series may be read here.