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

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?

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.

Child of the Cult - with Transcendental Meditation chapter

Nori Muster spent several years researching, interviewing, and editing stories of adults who had been raised in a variety of cults for her latest book "Child of the Cult".





This book is now available, here as an ebook or kindle through amazon.com.

Through skillfully applied personal narratives, psychological and sociological analysis, along with historical context for each group, Nori uses the stories of five individuals, raised in different cult groups, to illustrate how cult dynamics contribute to child neglect and abuse in totalitarian systems.

This e-book is a valuable contribution to the literature on cult dynamics, child abuse, cult recovery and personal voice.

Because this book defies tidy publishing categories, traditional publishers rejected it. They didn't know how to market the book.

Thus, Nori opted for an e-book through amazon.
To support the children.

Yes, there is a summary chapter of an upbringing (moi) in Transcendental Meditation.

There are virtually no profits from sales of this book. This is a public service document to help former-children from cults, now in recovery. This is also a useful tool for therapists, school teachers and social workers who suspect that youth under their professional guidance may be living in a totalitarian abusive system.

About Nori : After working in the publications dept of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness. Ms. Nori Muster authored "Betrayal of the Spirit" about her time with the inner core of the Hare Krishna group.

Nori is an activist on behalf of children injured in cults, and on cult recovery in general.
You may read more about Nori at norimuster.com

Reflections on Recent Transcendental Meditation Publicity

The Maharishi University of Management Development Office sent out an email on June 12, 2011, inviting TMers to come to Fairfield and Maharishi Vedic City (SM) for this summer's TM course. Amongst the enticements noted, such as international restaurants, the Raj Ayurvedic Health Spa, hiking paths, etc., was a quotation from a participant of a previous course. The complete quote is as follows:

"Each morning I emerge from the Dome I feel as if I am emerging with an entirely new physiology. I feel as if every cell in my body is clean, or more accurately, brand new. I experience a deep purity in my whole being, a crystal clarity, and the world and everything in it appears totally refurbished.

But it is not just my physiology that feels as if it has undergone a deep, deep cleaning; my psychology also feels that way. I am filled with a kind of sparkling happiness that I feel must be pouring from me and infecting everything and everyone around me.

It's as if my whole being gets saturated with this new, refined, glorified, indescribable level of my own awareness - as if this level is becoming increasingly structured in the very fabric of my whole body, my whole psychology, my entire Being day after day.

- An Invincible America Assembly participant"

This quote captured my attention. When I read it the first time, my TM-trained brain kicked in, and I thought, "What a wonderful experience! Clearly indicative of spiritual growth!" But when I thought it over, I realized what a telling quote it was, how it encapsulated some of the
tragedy and weaknesses of the TM movement.

So, switching from the part of my brain that experiences warm fuzzy emotions to the rational part of my brain, I started to critique the quote logically.

First, let's look at the language used. It's evocative, but when you read it with a critical mind, does it actually give information? What does "a deep purity in my whole being" mean? Is there usually a "dirtiness" in this TMer's whole being? What is "deep purity" as opposed to "purity"? What is "whole being"?

What is "crystal clarity"? Is it a physical state, a mental state, or what? How does it differ from "a clarity"? What is crystalline about it?

The TMer is filled with "sparkling happiness." What does this mean? How does it differ from "happiness?" How can happiness, which is an emotion, "infect...everything," meaning physical things?

Then, I decided to analyze three of the experiences the TMer reports:
(1) Every cell in the TMer's body feels brand new.
(2) It feels like the TMer's happiness is infecting everyone and everything around.
(3) It feels as if this glorified experience is becoming increasingly structured into the TMer's entire being.

Regarding the first experience, I think even the TM organization would concede that every single cell in the TMer's body isn't actually brand new each time s/he emerges from the Dome. It just feels that way. In other words, the TMer is feeling something that isn't true. In other words, the TMer is experiencing a delusion. The TMer is delusional.

Regarding the second experience, the TMer feels as if his/her happiness is infecting everyone around. But is this subjective experience objectively true? For instance, has the TMer asked everyone around (or even anyone around), "Do you feel infected with my happiness?" The TMer doesn't say. So we have no evidence that this perception is real. Therefore this is possibly a delusional experience. The TM publicists thought it was a worthwhile quote to print.

Regarding the third experience, wherein the TMer states that it feels as if her/his whole being is becoming increasingly structured at this level. This is, in effect, a comment made during the course in which the TMer predicts what will be the results after the course. There is no followup to determine that the prediction was accurate.

In summary, most of this quotation is pitifully unimpressive. And yet it was chosen by TM publicists to encourage TMers to attend the course. Why? Is the thinking of the PR people so impaired that they think this is a meaningful quote? Or are they taking advantage of what they perceive to be TMers' irrationality?

Since the MUM Development Office has presented one cherry-picked anonymous quote as convincing evidence of the value of the TM techniques, I thought it would be fair if I too offered some anonymous quotes of my own, as to some outcomes of TM programs:

1) "There was a higher percentage of suicides in Fairfield than in comparably-sized towns." - Former Sidha

2) "As people got off the plane in the U.S. after their TM Teacher Training course, I signed some of them into mental hospital." - Physician

3) "As a result of extensive meditating, my relative developed adult-onset Tourette's Syndrome." - Former TM teacher

4) "When I got back home, I walked around in a state of terror, because I had been taught that anywhere outside of Fairfield was polluted and cursed." - Former TM Governor

A weird thought about Armageddon

The battle of all battles between the forces of good and the forces of evil is supposed to take place at har Magiddo; at least that's the x-ian fantasy that fuels much of the fundamentalist and militant rhetoric of the reactionary right. Nothing like a bit of fear-mongering to generate some control, eh?

And this has what to do with TM?, you might inquire.

Well, as John has reminded me, we lived with the threat of WWIII all though the "cold" war period. And as John also reminded me, it is important, too, that we keep in mind that Mahesh was no slouch when it came to using fear-mongering to get more and more people to buy into his delusional reality/fantasy that TM and his 'sidhi' bollocks was going to make the world safe from disaster!

Yet, Mahesh was the disaster when it came to individual lives. TM and his cockamamy 'sidhi' conglomeration only made the delusional fantasy-world of Maheshism a nice place for Mahesh

It's just a thought, of course, but I was reminiscing about that moment when Mahesh handed me the piece of paper with the mantras (on that course, by age and gender). I knew at once, obviously, that there was no such thing as the mystical knowledge of assigning the right mantra and that Mahesh's so sweet and clever talk about choosing the right mantra was simply crap. The illusion and the delusion perished, much as that piece of paper would have had I taken a match to it. But, the human brain, even mine, does a lot of calculations almost instantaneously. It comes as no surprise, now, that there was more than that one illusion perishing. Other firmly held conceptualizations (since TM isn't a belief system «smirk», I can't say beliefs, now, can I?) were threatened, were teetering on the brink of distruction. The mind had to wonder, what other convictions (ok, beliefs) did I hold that I hadn't questioned?

Yes, and, well, you mentioned Armageddon???

Isn't this the real Armageddon, the mind itself, where the ultimate battle, the battle to end all battles takes place? and what battle is actually fought there?

One of the things that seems to me to be most responsible for keeping believers believing is the reluctance, the absolute dread and horror if we really must call a spade a spade, of questioning the unquestionable, thinking the unthinkable, speculating, wandering outside the safe boundaries the leader has established - for our own good, of course. Because the fear of straying is so adamentine in the doctrine (in this case, the dogmas of Maheshism), the fear of straying frequently outweighs the obvious conclusions any otherwise rational person might draw. It certainly kept me in line! At least for a little longer.

But the peculiar and unique thing about Maheshism and probably Scientology and the Rosicrucians and possibly those who follow Yogananda, is that there is something more being dangled in the not too distant, soon to come to fruition, future! The what if's set in!

I suspect that confusion of thought, that uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously, that inability to grasp how the magician does his tricks (and what if they aren't tricks but actually magic after all) that is the real Armageddon that most devout TMers are hiding from, buying all the TM stuff they can to buttress their mental fortifications against questioning their own beliefs and having to face that nasty business of one's own mental warfare! [horrors of horrors, what have I done?!?] Then you would have to actually question Mahesh, wouldn't you! Was he really what you imagined? What got you to imagine that in the first place? How did Mahesh manipulate you? Dare you look at what HE achieved, for himself, of course, by manipulating you?

I certainly didn't really question, even when Mahesh handed me that piece of paper. He was so diabolically clever, too. He had me recite those holy, sacred, immaculate, wonderful, special mantras, then he took the piece of paper, folded it, gave it to me and then held my hands in his (he had really huge hands), for several seconds that seemed almost eternal, as he gazed into my eyes and reminded me how important I was to him. (Daddy loves you best! «snork»)

Yet, the battle had started and the forces of Maheshism were already winning.

The real groundwork for that ultimate battle took place during those two years living with Mahesh and his travelling circus of TM courses from Mallorca to Fiuggi and then La Antilla, helping to make the SCI course (oh, why, oh, why, didn't we know about C.S.I.-type thinking then!!!), planning the placement of the microwave towers to broadcast SCI to the whole world and then trying for 9 months to teach it in India.

It's hard to just chuck it all, toss in the towel and walk away when you're on the other side of the planet from home and only have the little spending money Mahesh allowed. But those thoughts were beginning to gain the day.

I finally knew that the clash of mythos and reality was what was ringing the wake up! bell, causing all the racket that certainly wasn't musical. Something HAD to be done and I didn't know what and knew I was shrinking from facing the facts!

Now the forces of my own mind were beginning to see that there were more holes in Maheshism than in a block of Swiss Cheese!

Armageddon is very, very real. Cognitive dissonance is very, very real. The results are, to pull no punches, very difficult to manage, especially the internal, mental one I am talking about here. AND it's such a relief to have got on with it because now I can constantly question myself, my burgeoning beliefs and conceptualizations!

For example, Wow, this is a great book I'm reading, this is a great author! - really? and with whom are you comparing this author, what, I must constantly inquire, is the basis for the argument I am making in favour of gratifying my ego?

And, who knows, some day it may turn out that the right-wing reactionary fundys were right — although that kind of reasoning is like thinking that because you have been beating your head against the wall and finally it rained is a significant cause-effect relationship.

For more useful information relevant to getting free from the mental Armegaddon of TM vs Reality, click on the title at the top.

New York Times on exiting and exposing a cult (Scientology)

The New York Times of Sunday, March 7th (hard copy edition) had an interesting front page article about exiting and exposing Scientology.

Those who left the Transcendental Meditation Movement after working close to inner core activities probably can relate to Scientology tactics in this article... abysmally low wages, expensive advanced courses, repression of bad outcomes, promotion, protection & catering to celebrity participants, intimidation tactics about departure & about publicly disclosing inner 'secrets', rejection from so-called loved ones after speaking doubts about cult teachings or departing, difficulty integrating to the outside world.

For those interested, this link brings you to the online article:
Defectors say Church of Scientology Hides Abuse published by New York Times, March 6, 2010 (internet edition).

Reader requests views on Transcendental Meditation lifestyle

A TMFree reader requests views and discussion of his observations of unusual behaviors at Maharishi University.

I do not conduct private email conversations on these topics.

With permission of said TMFree reader, his private emails are posted below, with the hope of explanatory comments from educated and involved TMFree readers.

Please offer your views and experiences for this individual. The cumulative experiences of TMFree readers should make for an interesting discussion. (I will be unavailable for a few days)

Thank you!

********
email #1. Subject "money and delusions:

I have heard/read that the meditation fees are used to subsidize the various projects of the TMO. How is it that meditators pay such high prices w/o objections? In the early 1990's i spent a few months in Fairfield, Iowa and attended Annapurna dining hall w/some frequency. Several times i heard the phrase "the money just came to me" as in "manna from heaven", i suppose. I was surprised that no one seemed to be concerned about how the money was being spent or the high prices in general! At the time $3000 was the cost of the tm-sidhis.

I must admit that i enjoyed the meditations and i should have gone on staff in order to work for the tm-sidhis but i decided to return to the east coast. I spent a few weeks at this boarding house on the western edge of town. It was located across the street from a motel and a supermarket, called "Hi-V", as i remember. The owners were "tm-sidhas" and pleasant enough but their two cats urinated on sofas, carpets and almost everywhere. The stench was obvious to me but the owners appeared to be oblivious. The cats' litter box was in the basement and an ugly stench emanated from that. How could the owners not notice? A friend of mine was living just north of Fairfield and was telling me about his roomate and how he was such a prolific composer. It sounded like a modern Beethoven. He played several of his "compositions" for me. They sounded like new wage music, i.e. the chord progressions consisted of 2 or 3 chords, and just the basic triads, no chord extensions etc. He was claiming that practising the tm-sidhis made him so prolific.

The point of all this is: could the practise of tm contribute to a person's delusions and/or create a placebo effect? Is this the reason that tm teachers tend to defend the tm prices and projects? Is this why tmer's say that if i do not have $5000 for the tm-sidhis then i am not ready for them? Is this why so many believe in the maharishi effect, even though a student was murdered by another student on the MUM campus. If the maharishi effect does not function in Fairfield then where will it function? Please respond when you have time or if you can.


email #2. Subject "delusions"

If you can publish my questions then please do so. I forgot to mention that trailor park on or north of campus, if i remember, was called "utopia park". it was just an average trailor park. why was called "utopia park"? and what was that "heaven on earth" stuff in Fairfield? The town square was nice but much of the town was squallid,i.e., quasi slum. if I am mistaken then please correct me!

Finally, there was to be a lecture at this round structure called "yagya varna hall" or something similar to that, by Bevan Morris, a TM big shot. As i approached this ediface i noticed that many persons were walking toward the entrance very quickly, almost running. They appeared to be desperate or at least excited. Therefore i expected to hear some cosmic wisdom from Mr.Morris. I listened to his monologue for about 25 minutes and decided to leave. It was extremely boring. It was the typical "cosmic debris" that emanates from TM videos and dvd's.

If someone can correct me about all this then please do so.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Be there or be square!

J.

Transcendental Meditation's "King" has a royal family - Maharaja Nader Raam with wife and children

Frequent TMFree contributor, Bjarne Hansen shared this:

Just home from a lovely holiday in India and not updated ....have You guys shared the great news of normality?

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

From Raja Hagelin:

In a beautiful, tender moment following our Gita Study today, Maharaja-ji quietly shared the following.... See More

He announced that, with Maharishi's blessing, he had gotten married some eight years ago, and has two beautiful daughters, age 5-1/2 and 3-1/2. Maharishi had requested him to, for the children's sake, maintain the privacy of his family until the oldest was old enough to begin school. That time has come, and Maharaja therefore felt it was proper to share this news with his family of Rajas and Ministers and global leadership.

Maharishi had told him that, in the tradition of rulership, having the support of a Royal Family brought stability and strength to the Kingdom. Of course, as was obvious to all--and as Maharaja himself emphasized--nothing has changed, or would change, in his Administration, and his continued one-pointed focus on the fulfillment of Maharishi's global legacy: bringing Total Knowledge--Raam Raj--to the world, while focusing on his own deep silence and realization of the supreme goal of Brahmi Chetana.

Many were surprised, including me, but the atmosphere was most festive and joyous.

Jai Guru Dev

Raja John (Hagelin)

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.

Was Mahesh lying to himself when he preached TM?

Betty said, "I'll always believe that Maharishi was a scoundrel who lied to himself first and us second."

I think this remark is SO important and that it should not be just tucked away amongst the comments on a side panel of a blog. It is a really important perspective that should not be overlooked when trying to understand Maharishi's behaviour. In spite of my unflagging support for the practice of this meditation I do harbour doubts as to the veracity of some of Maharishi's statements. -- Paul M | Homepage | 09.11.09 - 3:36 pm | #

Like Paul, I, too, feel that this constitutes one of the central questions that cries out to be asked and answered concerning the propagation of TM and the emergence of the TMO. From my own perspective, I think Mahesh took someone's word for it that TM was actually conveying the attention to some area transcendental to the usual consciousness of discursive thought. I don't, however, feel that this is what TM does. As I have written before, I think TM simply allows the thinking awareness, the consciousness of discursive thought to spread out, become thin, diaphanous and, just as he said vague, faint.

But this is not transcending. Transcending is much more like the Tibetan Dzogchen Trekchö where the discursive thought is cut through and the underlying pure awareness itself is directly experienced. There is no mantra method for this. It takes something like 2 seconds to learn it from a teacher. BUT, of course, it required a sound and highly viable teaching to support a clear and useful, skillful understanding of that experience.

It is only my personal opinion, but TM/Mahesh/Maheshism provided neither a viable technique nor a viable teaching.

First and foremost, was Mahesh lying to himself? was he deluding himself? was he in some kind of denial?

And, what prompted us to buy into t/his folie à deux or what appears to be shared madness?