Prison of Indoctrination - TMO

The author of this unsolicited contribution requests to remain publicly anonymous for now. 
This person was raised in the Transcendental Meditation Movement.

Being born into a TM Cult family has lasting impacts on relationships both physical and emotional, personal and working.

The broad strokes can be traced back to a few things, most noticeable in my eyes are: Jyotish, the blabberish of your entire life being predetermined and predictable, and the built in assumption that you must be with another cult member (read true believer), or convert the one you have into a true believer. 

This has had a devastating effect on my relationships with non-TM friends, with girl friends, and significant others. How? 

Growing up as a second generation TM kid, you were constantly told what a special gift to be born into a family of yogi's, truly amazing, and that you, and others born into TMO families would bring about heaven on earth. 

The constant reinforcement through TM schools engrained in the pschye that no happiness would be possible, and no-one would truly know you unless they also were helping "heaven on earth" eventuate by joining the TMO. This ingrained brainwashing led to the brink of sex addiction - seeking a connection, but never allowing any emotional openness because "it would never lead to anything, they aren't TMO". 

Looking back, the callous way this destroyed any playful emotional connections, and removed any possible seeds of a relationship with meaning to flourish is the saddest thing to me. A 3 year relationship finally ended on the back of mental turmoil - I couldn't see her embracing the TMO, and closed myself off, ending it suddenly and refusing any chance of reconciliation. This relationship lasted this long almost in spite of myself - I was experiencing significant dissonance and attempted to live a "normal life", not meditating, making friends not within the TMO, and making a go of it. 

In spite of all this, I was conflicted throughout, wrestling with truly giving in and having a relationship about us, and not her or my beliefs. I failed, it failed, and I reverted back to several years of emotionally restricted physical encounters, despairing of finding someone "on my level" and fully TMO. 

Regular lectures from my TMO invested father throughout this period on how important it was to have a wife of the same background and values (read TMO faithful) were endured during this time, including strong positive reinforcement when I ended the 3 year relationship, saying it was the right decision, and discouraging me from second-guessing myself. 

Jyotish was the counter-punch one-two blow that landed regularly in conduction with the conditioning. Being told throughout childhood and adulthood that my life would be hard, difficult, and unhappiness would reign if my main focus wasn't on the spiritual side of life (read TMO only, no other), due to my particular chart combination, built in another reason to shut down any connection that wasn't interested in TM.

It took a lot to break that, to the point that the delightful person I'm married to was pre-emptively dumped after a month of dating because I couldn't see her becoming part of the TMO. Thankfully she didn't take no for an answer and persevered with me, held on even through being coerced into learning TM (she felt nothing, had no positive effects, and it bored her), and almost pushed into becoming a teacher of ™. 

The dissonance I experienced between the conditioning of being born into the TM Cult and cold, hard, beautiful reality finally broke through the veil and started the exiting process that is filling me with more self awareness than any of Mahesh's sleepfest mumbles ever did. 

Scientifically validated. Except when it's not.

Promoters of the Transcendental Meditation program, including the David Lynch Foundation, always work to place scientific studies of the introductory practice of TM in the forefront of any media coverage of the subject. These often uncritical stories in media, sometimes written and placed by TM teachers themselves, are a tiny part of the whole story. TM is only the initial product offered by the global TM movement; there are many other things related to TM, sold by the same organization, offered as enhancements to TM practice, that they claim will improve one's life. The details of such additional practices and products are generally not discussed in any detail, if at all, during the initial process of offering and teaching TM; almost all of them are supported by zero recognizable scientific evidence, and in fact, some of them are completely ridiculous when viewed from a rational, skeptical perspective.

One such set of products is "Maharishi Vedic Astrology." Yes, you read that right. The same organization that promotes the allegedly scientifically validated Transcendental Meditation sells astrology. This form of astrology, which is, as with all things sold by the TM movement, is claimed to be part of the religious, Vedic traditions of India, and thus should be accepted without question as being safe, effective, and of course, better than any other form of astrology that might be offered, say, by your friendly neighborhood storefront psychic.

But as with all things related to TM, there is a price tag, and unlike your neighborhood storefront psychic, "Maharishi Jyotish" consultations, which claim to offer predictions of future events after determination of a horoscope, are billed at the rate of ten dollars per minute, in fifteen-minute increments.