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.]

T.M. in Yoga Journal, March/April 2001

Just for fun, I'm sharing with you the results of my spring cleaning.  This week I was going through old magazines, and picked this issue at random to browse through.  Wow!  Maybe it was a slow month at Yoga Journal, because they sure filled up a lot of space with T.M. related stuff.  Maybe the T.M. organization (TMO) public relations department sent out a bunch of "infomercials" (advertisements disguised as news items.)

Here's what I found:

1.  Paid advertisement: "America's Premier Ayur Veda Health Center - Maharishi Vedic Medicine at the Raj. Offering medically supervised programs based on….."  It included a testimonial: "I decided to try The Raj to avoid a lung transplant. It saved my life. Today I can converse without coughing, my heartburn is gone…."

[Since this is the TMO I'm dealing with, I googled the patient's name.  For what it's worth, I found her obituary - she had died of cancer seven years after the advertisement, at the age of 71.  She was treated at The Raj for something other than cancer.  - Laurie]

2.   News note: "A recent study found that ancient Vedic healing techniques….Four patients suffering from diabetes, sarcoidosis, hypertension and Parkinsons….Three weeks of Maharishi Vedic Medicine which incorporates diet, herbs, purification, yoga, T.M., Vedic sound therapy," ["Vedic sound therapy" is the term the article used for chanting - Laurie] and "yaghyas" (sic) which were defined in the article as "a Vedic therapy for restoring the harmony between an individual and the cosmos."   "….Over 18 months, many of the symptoms were reduced and some were even able to lower or discontinue medication. Source: Behavioral Medicine 2000; 26: 34-46."

3. Health article: "Allergy Alert: Stop Sneezing with these Herbal Remedies….Medical Director of Raj Maharishi Ayur-Ved Health Center in Fairfield, Iowa…imbalance of kapha dosha…Director of Research for Maharishi Ayur-Ved Products International says…."

4.  Paid advertisement: "Experience the Youthful Skin Transformation. Our Youthful Skin(™) line contains potent, natural-sourced….$26.95 for sample pack (4-step regimen of 4 lotions)."

5.   Health article: "Bathe in the Elements: Ayurveda prescribes cleansing your body in water, air, earth, fire and space….Ayurvedic 'bathing'….For example, 'an air bath…of deep breathing and focused awareness of the breath…bathes the lungs…,' says a visiting consultant at The Raj, an ayurvedic health center in Fairfield, Iowa…."

6.   News note:  "The Beatles Anthology.…Some consider the Fab Four's personal friendship with the Maharishi to be an early inspiration for the popular rise of yoga and meditation in the West."

7.  First-person story:  This one had no mention of T.M., but it ended with this paragraph, which, considering the heartbreak that sometimes results from following Maharishi, seemed to me ironically  apropros:

"Don't bow down to just a man," [a local guru  - Laurie]  I reply.  "Instead, bow down to your own Self that you recognize inside him.  Then bowing down to him is no different than bowing down before your own higher nature."  My student finally did choose to bow down.  Afterward, he looked relieved.  That's one of the opportunities that gurus provide:  They give us a chance to put aside our selfishness and replace it with surrender and service."

  

Crunching the Facebook Numbers: How Many Meditators Are There?

One of the most persistent claims made by the TM movement is that there are currently about one million people practicing Transcendental Meditation in the United States. There is very little evidence to support this claim, other than the fact that, according to the movement's own records, about 919,000 people learned TM in the US between 1968 and 1977. This figure was once published in a chapter on the TM movement in the 1986 book, The future of religion: secularization, revival, and cult formation.

This figure, while interesting, may not be relevant today. As many former TM teachers and even meditators have noted, the dropout rate among new meditators is very high, with many giving up the practice in as little as six months or less. Informally, anecdotally, it's relatively easy to run into people who used to do TM in the distant past, but people who are currently active meditators are much more difficult to find.

Through use of an advertising targeting tool on Facebook, it's possible to measure the popularity of a number of topics related to Transcendental Meditation across age groups, and thus extrapolate from that sampling of Facebook users to the general population. This method suggests that only about 60,000 people in the United States have any current interest in these topics, which is a tiny fraction of the "one million meditators" that the TM movement claims currently live in the United States.

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

What Went Wrong? Transcendental Meditation's Age of Enlightenment

Deborah1900 would like to bring up a topic for discussion:

In your view, why do you think things have degenerated socially since the 1960s? There seemed to be so much promise, but although there are now more rights for formerly marginalised or disenfranchised groups—women, blacks, children, gays—in some ways we have entered a new Dark Ages.

Great question! Keep 'em coming. In fact, readers here who would like to start a topic or post an article can just reach me at jmknapp53@gmail.com.

See y'all in the comments below.

J.

ABC News Nightline with Deepak Chopra, "Does God Have a Future?"

Many former TMers knew Deepak Chopra, his split with Maharishi, then Chopra's repackaging of Maharishi's programs in a slightly more mainstream package for his own financial gain.

Deepak Chopra is now more of a household name than Maharishi ever was, thus ABC invited him to a discussion on spirituality.

Nightline's description of this show :

The "Face-Off" is a recurring series where opposing sides debate hot topics. In the sixth installment of the series, Deepak Chopra, a physician and best-selling author of "How to Know God," and prominent scholar, philosopher and writer Jean Houston, will face-off against Michael Shermer, founding publisher of "Skeptic" magazine, and Sam Harris, author of "The End of Faith" on the tension between God and science."

Gina's comments on the show:

This conversation between critical thinkers with Chopra could just as easily have taken place with Maharishi.
In this conversation, Chopra mouthes MMY's teachings, sometimes word for word.
Coming from the same Hindu tradition, the Indian accent, and MMY's pseudo-science jargon, Chopra inadvertently provides good comedy for those familiar with Maharishi.

Chopra speaks circuitous non-sense which can cause a hypnotic effect for vulnerable listeners.
We've seen the hypnotic effect work with True Believers listening to Maharishi.

Chopra responds to discussion of the history of diety and sociology of religion with vague circuitous monologues on consciousness, inner experience and (undefined) quantum mechanics. This sounds so familiar!

Many of us know the futility of conducting these same conversations with TM or New Age True Believers!
(thus successful exit-counseling, "deprogramming," requires a professional)

Per Sam Harris talking to Chopra :
"Sprinkling in a bunch of scientific terms with New Age terminology does not make it scientific."
Harris also states that Chopra's merging of New Age philosophy with scientific terminology is neither scientific nor spiritual.

Unfortunately, True Believers listening to this show would merely state that critics of Chopra or Maharishi are "lost in the darkness of ignorance."

It's fascinating to watch Chopra spew the fluff, and become angry when confronted with analysis of his teachings.

This Nightline show may be watched by clicking :
"Does God Have a Future" The Nightline Face-Off

Enjoy!

Thirty Years Later: What was all that about? (Part 8 of a series)

(To read this series from the beginning, start here.)

Helena Olson, observing the reception given to the founder of TM in 1959, made this comment in her memoir of the events of that year, a book originally titled "A Hermit in the House:"

It seemed to bother some people that we were receiving pieces of wisdom from a man from India, since from our viewpoint America was a more progressive country than India.

Here in one sentence is an apparent paradox inherent to the marketing of TM. By the reasoning of "some people," at first glance, TM should have been universally dismissed as useless, as a throwback to a backward land. While some clearly rejected TM based upon its source, many embraced it, in ways that I think reflect America's often complicated relationship with the rest of the world.

"America... a more progressive country" also implies that Americans, secure in some notion of supremacy versus the rest of the planet, can't be conned by foreigners. This notion lies in tension with certain desires, that poverty, unhappiness, stress and other ills will allegedly be remedied by something relatively exotic, in the form of the TM program. These are things that often lie in areas where some feel the West has reached a dead end and has nothing to offer. By this line of thinking, there is no domestic product that addresses these areas - fields that, before encountering the TM program, people often didn't think would have anything to do with paying for meditation instruction packaged as a consumer product.

It's into this realm that the decontextualized pieces of Indian culture presented in the TM movement's programs came into play. The entire movement took on an appearance that was just alien enough to clearly support the assumption that it wasn't from here. TM instructors dressed in formal Western clothing and with otherwise conservative appearance accepted money and performed a ritual that clearly came from somewhere else, in front of an image of a dead Hindu monk, in a language most people here couldn't understand, while being told not to disclose what they've been taught. These collisions are deliberately created, sending a series of messages: "Your Western lifestyle is basically lacking. You will pay us to fill that need. You think all your Western science, medicine and technology still doesn't address those needs, so you'll accept something alien you don't understand on the flimsy promise that it'll eventually satisfy you. Finally, since we know you think you can't be conned, you'll accept our instructions and our non-answers to your questions, otherwise you might suspect that there's a lot less to this program than you think there is, and you wouldn't want to feel foolish about what you're doing and all the money you're spending, would you?"

Over the years the TM movement has evolved, and the Indian cultural aspects of the movement have moved from the background to front-and-center. A standard photo of the movement's founder is now likewise always present on websites and materials. The movement's products have also evolved from simple meditation to astrology, herbs and architecture, clearly identifying them as being of Indian origin. References to the Vedas, a text generally considered to be of Hindu religious or spiritual origin, are recast as "scientific" in a further decontextualization of their original meaning to be successfully sold to a credulous audience.

All of these contemporary aspects of the TM movement reflect an underlying strategy: to frame itself as an external source that supposedly addresses the alleged shortcomings of Western life. It is designed to exude a level of strangeness that enhances its attractiveness, but not so much strangeness as to be completely irrelevant or repulsive.

(Continue to Part 9)

Thirty Years Later: What was all that about? (Part 7 of a series)

(To read this series from the beginning, start here.)

It’s often been said, often by those who are talking about Transcendental Meditation in a critical light, that TM is some form of Hinduism. But I take a somewhat different view; to me, TM is as American as apple pie, or at least, it is a Western product, reflecting aspects of Western culture. It is as Hindu as Chow Mein is Chinese: the result is something that came from the interaction of two different cultures. From the standpoint of the original cultural context, it becomes something tolerated and even embraced when dealing with tourists, particularly when the tourists are bearing dollars.

The TM program, as we've known it for the last few decades, is traceable to the intersection of a man of a foreign culture with the prototypical American suburbia of 1959: Los Angeles, California. It is likely the result of a man surveying everyday life around him - in what was probably a very alien culture, to him - and making certain observations about that lifestyle. He brought with him certain artifacts of his own culture, and presumably some sort of a reason for traveling if not a fully-formed plan, perhaps not necessarily the plan he publicly talked about; perhaps a general idea to set up an organization that would, first and foremost, keep him and his family comfortable for decades if not lifetimes. From that fusion of cultures came this product, and from that, came the marketing (if the product wasn't itself the marketing), the celebrity endorsements, and the global organization.

Let's take the marketing of TM, and, rather than accept it at face value as being reflective of some process of "scientific research" to benefit the world, flip the premise upside down. From the perspective of someone who devised significant parts of this program while sitting in suburban America, what is it about the American suburbanite that his program, and the marketing of it, seek to address?

Perhaps the feature of American suburban life that drew the attention of the founder of the TM program is its pervasive consumerism. A man who showed up in L.A. in 1959 carrying the most meager of possessions in a bedroll came face-to-face with the material wealth of the middle class. That material wealth provided a lifestyle of relative ease to the average American that's still inaccessible to a majority of the earth's population.

But it's not enough to simplistically suggest that consumption of material things gives happiness. To some degree, consumption brings some element of control to everyday life, some suggestion that the consumer can control aspects of their lives by purchasing the right products. This is true across the spectrum, from soap and deodorant to cars and homes; ownership of material goods gives one control over one's time, mobility and to some degree, social status, and here, that ownership is not limited to an exclusive few of upper caste. While these things may be obvious or trivial for those of us who've lived all our lives with them, they may have seemed extraordinary to a man described as a 'hermit' from India in 1959.

Meanwhile, there are the things over which the individual still has little to no control, starting with the perceived level of "stress" such a lifestyle produces. The marketing of the TM program promises yet another level of control over many of those things that aren't particularly controllable. The promises stretch from the everyday scale to the global scale: from reducing one's stress level and raising one's happiness to bringing about world peace. It is the consumer product to end all consumer products, giving the buyer (the illusion of) complete control of the uncontrollable. Far from being an example of the counterculture of the late 60's, at its core it was completely tailored to the needy, somewhat conservative suburban American of the early 1960's, so much so that the movement required that former "hippies" cut their hair, shave and wear a tie before they were allowed to learn how to be TM instructors.

(Continue to Part 8)

Thirty Years Later: What was all that about? (Part 4 of a series)

(To read this series from the beginning, start here.)

In asking "what was all that about?" I am looking for things of substance, something more substantial than meaningless sounds, alien rituals in foreign languages, and repetition of elements of the sales pitch for the practice. There are more substantial aspects to the program - but they aren't all that obvious unless one turns the tables and considers what the prospective meditator brings to the initiation.

The marketing of the TM program, all the way from product placement of the program in popular culture through the two evenings of introductory lectures that precede initiation, accomplishes two things which are both, in a sense, rather obvious. The marketing first serves to select for individuals who are receptive to certain aspects of the program, which might not actually be the meditation practice itself. Secondly, the marketing sets certain expectations even while being vague as to what the actual process of initiation is; "easy" and "effortless" are part of that expectation-setting, as well as the assumption that, after having spent a considerable amount of time and money, there will be benefits from the practice.

One example of the marketing is "The TM Book," a paperback written by two then-TM teachers in 1975 and distributed by the movement. It was given free to new meditators when I started. While the book is 221 pages long, it can be summarized with a quote from the beginning, and one from the end of the book. In one sentence on the first full page of the book is this remarkable summary of the program:

The Transcendental Meditation program changes the quality of life from poverty, emptiness, and suffering to abundance, fulfillment, and happiness.

The book is illustrated throughout with two cartoon characters representing a TM teacher and prospective meditator. On the next-to-last page of the book, the prospect gets out of his chair, stands up, puts his finger in the air and declares, "I'll take it!" as if he'd just finished the negotiations for purchase of a used car.

It's these two elements that I think epitomize TM, elements that have been central to the nature of the TM movement all along. First, the program is presented as being more important than pretty much anything else in life, can influence all aspects of one's life, and that acceptance of the program can cause profound positive change in one's life; in this sense, the program emulates religious faith, certainly a "born-again" faith hinging on a one-time "decision" as it often appears in American culture. Second, the program is a package, a consumer product, marketed as if it were any other product, where "I'll take it!" indicates a decision to buy. Nothing special is required - the prospect need not learn new skills or meet anything other than the most simple requirements. The "easy"-ness and "effectiveness" of the product are in the forefront of the sales pitch for it.

The prospective meditator brings two things: their expectations and the means by which they pay the purchase price for the product. Here is where things get interesting, because the TM movement offers an endless series of just this kind of purchase transaction, up to a scale that is hard to believe.

(Continue to Part 5)