Briefly: David Lynch teleconference with University of Montana Media Arts students is blogged by the campus newspaper; the paper characterized the event as a "lesson" in Transcendental Meditation... More news on David Sieveking’s film “David Wants to Fly” that's slowly making its way across the U.S. The film may have been the subject of an on-campus Q&A at MUM with Bobby Roth earlier this week... Onetime MIU student Jeff Peckman is running for mayor of Denver... TM promoters are again attempting to propagandize for the use of TM to treat PTSD among soldiers, this time in the Sri Lanka Guardian. They must be out of media outlets that will cover what they say, because this Guardian freely admits that it's a website that will run almost anything - see their disclaimer... Ramani Ayer, retired insurance executive and board member of both the David Lynch Foundation and MUM, joins the board of directors of XL Group, a global insurance firm... How many racehorses are named Maharishi?
The TM-Free Blog is on Facebook, where you'll see both pointers to new postings here at the Blog and news articles and other items as we receive them.
There's also a TM-Free Twitter stream.
TM-Free News Brief, 9 March 2011. Published irregularly here on Wednesdays by Mike Doughney, who's solely responsible for its content unless otherwise noted.
Showing posts with label news brief. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news brief. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
TM-Free News Brief, 23 February 2011
"Pulse Diagnosis" quackery, coming to a hospital near you? Almost twenty years ago, Andrew Skolnick's expose' of Maharishi Ayur-Veda appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association. An article co-authored by Deepak Chopra, praising the alleged benefits of these products, had previously appeared in the journal, and the authors had failed to disclose their financial association with the movement's commercial enterprises. This led to Skolnick's investigation of the movement, which included this key section:
It appears that after twenty years of the TM movement's hammering of the medical establishment, the coming-of-middle-age of longtime TM devotees, and the apparent acceptance of outright quackery across-the-board by the healthcare industry, the promoters of Maharishi Ayur-Veda may now be gaining unimpeded and unquestioning entry to the nation's top medical institutions.
The "Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine" - another example of the growing and inexplicable trend of medical schools and healthcare providers throwing science-based medicine overboard in favor of, presumably more profitable, quackery and pseudoscience - will be sponsoring a "training program for health professionals" in "Clinical Ayurveda™," which appears to be yet another of the TM movement's trademarked names for its products. The program is hosted by three medical doctors who are also employees of the TM movement, in its "Maharishi Ayur-Veda Association of America" (MAAA). One of the three doctors, Kulreet Chaudhary, who's prominently featured on the website of this TM front group, is also on the staff of Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, California. For some reason, John Hagelin is also affilated with these so-called "medical education programs," a man whose main talents these days seem to be wearing a gold crown and spouting gibberish.
Featured in this so-called "training program for health professionals" is "pulse diagnosis," which has been described by various critics as "a variation of palm reading" or "no more plausible than analysis of toenail clippings." It involves taking the pulse of a patient and rendering, just from that, a diagnosis of disease. Unlike much pseudoscience, this program appears to be interfering with the decision-making ability of doctors, seemingly suggesting that they may ignore scientifically-valid methods of diagnosis in favor of what they think they learn by taking the pulse.
Ironically, considering the AMA's original role in helping debunk Maharishi Ayur-Veda and its proponents twenty years ago, this "training program" now offers "AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™" for participation.
Update, 24 February: A further search of the web indicates that this program of offering AMA-approved CME credit for courses in Maharishi Ayur-Veda under the auspices of Scripps is not new; this website, operated by MAAA, announced a previous course, which began in November, 2009 and ran through May, 2010.
Another report on Transcendental Meditation in San Francisco public schools surfaces: San Francisco public radio station KALW recently produced a story on the David Lynch Foundation (DLF) program to introduce TM in three San Francisco public schools. In this report, the only hint of any evidence that the TM program in these schools is effective is a reference to the usual unscientific marketing surveys and anecdotes TM promoters regularly spew, made midway through the report: "Most of the evidence of the program is anecdotal. Students and teachers participate willingly and say it’s helpful for them, and surveys that school has done return positive feedback."
In the past, we've noted various reports about two of the San Francisco schools mentioned, Visitacion Valley Middle School and Everett Middle School, from various sources including the DLF. In 2009 TM-Free received this unconfirmed report of "a crew of 20 bullying, clueless T.M. fanatics working for the David Lynch Foundation" at Everett. This is the first mention I've been able to find of this program having been introduced at a third school, John O’Connell High.
A web page from the Everett Middle School website reads much like the same promotional materials TM salespeople have used for decades, emphasizing "a simple, scientifically proven, nonreligious technique," all points which are regularly disputed by former meditators and critics. As with many of the David Lynch programs in public schools, TM is renamed "quiet time;" the artifice of a "quiet time" of as short as 60 seconds has been known to be used by some as a vehicle to introduce, or legitimize, prayer in public schools. The Everett website also prominently features a TM/DLF front group, the "US Committee for Stress-Free Schools," which from its description is the actual corporate entity attempting to introduce the TM program into public schools.
James Dierke, mentioned in the report as the principal at Visitacion Valley, has been named as an adviser to one of the many TM organization front groups pushing to establish the TM program in public schools; the people identifed on such websites are often if not almost always longtime meditators, having started TM during its height of popularity in the mid-1970's.
David still wants to fly, really, really badly: The Sunday Times magazine (London) published a lengthy feature article on David Lynch, his foundation, and TM at the end of December, and it just found its way to my desk. Alex Hannaford wrote up a wonderful lede, quietly indicating from the start that maybe the rest of the world should assume David Lynch isn't the least bit sane, particularly when he starts talking about interfering with the education of children by teaching them TM:
This silly notion that people are about to fly any second now if only "negativity dissolves" is the same kind of crap I heard over thirty years ago. Some people simply refuse to grow up, don't they? All the more reason to keep Lynch and his minions away from schools of any kind. Let's be clear, that one of Maharishi's last directives, echoed by Lynch here, was to make sure that middle and secondary school students were taught, not just how to meditate, but also "Yogic Flying" and the rest of the anti-scientific quackery - some would say "religion" - that the "Global Country" sells.
Briefly: More news from David Sieveking; his documentary/expose film on today's TM movement, "David Wants To Fly," has received three award pre-nominations, and continues to be shown in the U.S. at various film festivals... David Lynch's "online charity music label" kicks off; despite all the press and hype, only a handful of paying downloads in the first few days of the campaign... The transfer of a UK Maharishi School to state control (story in the 9 February News Brief) has come under more criticism.
The TM-Free Blog is now on Facebook, where you'll see both pointers to new postings here at the Blog and news articles and other items as we receive them.
There's also a TM-Free Twitter stream.
TM-Free News Brief, 23 February 2011. Published irregularly here on Wednesdays by Mike Doughney, who's solely responsible for its content unless otherwise noted.
An investigation of the movement's marketing practices reveals what appears to be a widespread pattern of misinformation, deception, and manipulation of lay and scientific news media. This campaign appears to be aimed at earning at least the look of scientific respectability for the TM movement, as well as at making profits from sales of the many products and services that carry the Maharishi's name.
It appears that after twenty years of the TM movement's hammering of the medical establishment, the coming-of-middle-age of longtime TM devotees, and the apparent acceptance of outright quackery across-the-board by the healthcare industry, the promoters of Maharishi Ayur-Veda may now be gaining unimpeded and unquestioning entry to the nation's top medical institutions.
Featured in this so-called "training program for health professionals" is "pulse diagnosis," which has been described by various critics as "a variation of palm reading" or "no more plausible than analysis of toenail clippings." It involves taking the pulse of a patient and rendering, just from that, a diagnosis of disease. Unlike much pseudoscience, this program appears to be interfering with the decision-making ability of doctors, seemingly suggesting that they may ignore scientifically-valid methods of diagnosis in favor of what they think they learn by taking the pulse.
Ironically, considering the AMA's original role in helping debunk Maharishi Ayur-Veda and its proponents twenty years ago, this "training program" now offers "AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™" for participation.
Update, 24 February: A further search of the web indicates that this program of offering AMA-approved CME credit for courses in Maharishi Ayur-Veda under the auspices of Scripps is not new; this website, operated by MAAA, announced a previous course, which began in November, 2009 and ran through May, 2010.
- Clinical Ayurveda™ - A Practical Training Program for Health Professionals - Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine
- Maharishi Ayur-Veda: guru's marketing scheme promises the world eternal 'perfect health', Andrew A. Skolnick, JAMA, Medical News & Perspectives, Oct. 2, 1991
- Course Faculty and Curriculum Development Committee, Maharishi Ayur-Veda Association of America
- Quackademic medicine in the U.S.: The view from the U.K., Orac, Respectful Insolence, Scienceblogs, February 18, 2008
- "Heaven on Earth." Any second now. Mike Doughney, TM-Free Blog, January 25, 2011
In the past, we've noted various reports about two of the San Francisco schools mentioned, Visitacion Valley Middle School and Everett Middle School, from various sources including the DLF. In 2009 TM-Free received this unconfirmed report of "a crew of 20 bullying, clueless T.M. fanatics working for the David Lynch Foundation" at Everett. This is the first mention I've been able to find of this program having been introduced at a third school, John O’Connell High.
A web page from the Everett Middle School website reads much like the same promotional materials TM salespeople have used for decades, emphasizing "a simple, scientifically proven, nonreligious technique," all points which are regularly disputed by former meditators and critics. As with many of the David Lynch programs in public schools, TM is renamed "quiet time;" the artifice of a "quiet time" of as short as 60 seconds has been known to be used by some as a vehicle to introduce, or legitimize, prayer in public schools. The Everett website also prominently features a TM/DLF front group, the "US Committee for Stress-Free Schools," which from its description is the actual corporate entity attempting to introduce the TM program into public schools.
James Dierke, mentioned in the report as the principal at Visitacion Valley, has been named as an adviser to one of the many TM organization front groups pushing to establish the TM program in public schools; the people identifed on such websites are often if not almost always longtime meditators, having started TM during its height of popularity in the mid-1970's.
- From time-out to quiet time: meditation comes to SF schools, Natalie Jones, KALW News, February 10, 2011
- Report on TM in San Francisco Schools, TM-Free Blog, April 7, 2009
- Quiet Time - About the Program, Everett Middle School
- Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education - Management
- TM in public schools - TM-Free Blog label
- Know Your Rights: Religion in Public Schools A Guide for Administrators and Teachers - ACLU of Tennessee - see "Moment of Silence" section
- Map: Lynchian Education
David Lynch is sitting at a huge desk in his studio --a mess of boxes, bits of wood and electric cable -- telling me how he believes he will one day be able to fly. As in levitate. Take off. Vooom. For him, a champion of Transcendental Meditation, Yogic Flying would be the ultimate life-enhancing experience. The technique involves bouncing along the floor in the yoga lotus position, and practitioners are convinced that eventually the "collective cosmic consciousness" generated will be so powerful that they will be able to raise themselves into the air and soar. "Yeah, right now it's hopping, not flying," Lynch says, looking very serious. "It's intense bliss. They don't get tired. On the contrary, just more and more energy and bliss propels them up in the air." He is no doubt that, as world negativity dissolves, meditators will have lift-off. And he would like British schoolchildren to learn how to do it, too.
This silly notion that people are about to fly any second now if only "negativity dissolves" is the same kind of crap I heard over thirty years ago. Some people simply refuse to grow up, don't they? All the more reason to keep Lynch and his minions away from schools of any kind. Let's be clear, that one of Maharishi's last directives, echoed by Lynch here, was to make sure that middle and secondary school students were taught, not just how to meditate, but also "Yogic Flying" and the rest of the anti-scientific quackery - some would say "religion" - that the "Global Country" sells.
- Mantra with a mission, Alex Hannaford, Sunday Times Magazine, December 26, 2010
Briefly: More news from David Sieveking; his documentary/expose film on today's TM movement, "David Wants To Fly," has received three award pre-nominations, and continues to be shown in the U.S. at various film festivals... David Lynch's "online charity music label" kicks off; despite all the press and hype, only a handful of paying downloads in the first few days of the campaign... The transfer of a UK Maharishi School to state control (story in the 9 February News Brief) has come under more criticism.
The TM-Free Blog is now on Facebook, where you'll see both pointers to new postings here at the Blog and news articles and other items as we receive them.
There's also a TM-Free Twitter stream.
TM-Free News Brief, 23 February 2011. Published irregularly here on Wednesdays by Mike Doughney, who's solely responsible for its content unless otherwise noted.
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
TM-Free News Brief, 9 February 2011
Where Maharishi Failed, David Lynch... Succeeded? Back in the days of the Beatles, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi clearly knew that associating himself and his meditation technique with the pop stars of the day would pay off. There was nothing he could do, though, when the Beatles walked out and returned home, disassociating themselves from their alleged guru. But what if Mahesh had set up a record label and enticed the Beatles onto it? Then they'd be tied together with a contract... and marketing... and who knows what else?
That rather farfetched scenario seems to now be coming to pass, courtesy of the fact that the music recording industry is on its deathbed, and recording artists today are down to every last gimmick available to stay afloat. The David Lynch Foundation is in the process of announcing something called DLF Music. From its website:
Meanwhile, an e-mail reposted to the Fairfield Life Yahoo group offers a partial list of the bands and people who will be associated with the label:
No word yet on whether any of these people are familiar with "His Majesty Maharaja Adhiraj Raja Raam" (pictured above), their "deity in human form" monarch-in-charge, or any of the other internal strangenesses of the "Global Country of World Peace" (GCWP), the organization that teaches Transcendental Meditation; the David Lynch Foundation today is primarily a marketing arm of the GCWP. Part of the proceeds from the sales of these artists' music will be used to promote the Transcendental Meditation program, and to encourage the adoption of TM as part of a questionable strategy focused on vulnerable populations that's lately included the homeless and child prostitutes.
But the other half of what's going on here really wouldn't be possible without the ongoing decline and fall of the record industry. For the sake of having another outlet for their music, these artists evidently will be paying a portion of whatever sales are made through DLF to promote TM, and David Lynch gets to drop their names in association with TM. The artists get... I dunno, association with David Lynch, for whatever that's worth, and another online storefront with its own marketing, that's run with volunteer labor? This thing isn't even creating real jobs with living wages, it's just cheap marketing for largely past-their-prime artists (without the expense of paid labor) that's raising money to support TM's marketing arm, and in so doing, supporting a bunch of guys in robes and gold crowns who think they're bringing about "Heaven on Earth."
UK Maharishi School to transfer to state control: The Maharishi School in Ormskirk, Lancashire, will be the first British state-funded school to incorporate TM as part of its program. It is one of the first batch of private schools to be transferred to state control under the "free schools" program, similar to U.S. charter schools. The 80 pupil school, for four to sixteen year olds, has three 10-minute meditation sessions every day.
Russell Simmons continues his series of lifestyle-guru books with "Super Rich: A Guide to Having It All," and this time, Simmons himself appears on the cover with a guru's halo. Bloomberg BusinessWeek editor Ian McGugan panned some of the "noble truths" scattered between all the product mentions in Simmons' work, like "Work for free, seek enlightenment, bling it up:"
Briefly: Howard Stern spent two minutes on the David Letterman show plugging Transcendental Meditation, which he's done for almost forty years, like almost everyone who does TM... Another decaying downtown hotel, vacant for 15 years, has finally been sold by the Maharishi Global Development Fund... MUM graduate and former participant in the Invincible America program (that is, he got paid to meditate and bounce on foam rubber 8 hours a day) is now an artist in Sacramento... More fresh red meat for the "TM will send you to hell" set, this time, it's Rick Warren teaming up with Muslim, meditating, Swedenborgian Dr. Oz.
The TM-Free Blog is now on Facebook, where you'll see both pointers to new postings here at the Blog and news articles and other items as we receive them.
There's also a TM-Free Twitter stream.
TM-Free News Brief, 9 February 2011. Published irregularly here on Wednesdays by Mike Doughney, who's solely responsible for its content unless otherwise noted.
ABOUT DLF MUSIC
DLF Music is the David Lynch Foundation’s newest venture—a digital music company that brings together exclusive artistic talent and support for the good works of the David Lynch Foundation’s educational programs.
All Profits Will Support the David Lynch Foundation’s Mission To Teach One Million At-risk Youth to Meditate, dramatically reducing the traumatic stress in their lives and transforming violent, stress-filled schools into places of peace, coherence, and creativity.
Meanwhile, an e-mail reposted to the Fairfield Life Yahoo group offers a partial list of the bands and people who will be associated with the label:
Alice in Chains,
Andy Summers featuring Geeta Novotny,
Arrested Development,
Au Revoir Simone,
Ben Folds,
Ben Lee,
Ben Harper,
Blind Boys of Alabama,
Dave Stewart,
Eddie Vedder,
Heather Nova,
Iggy Pop,
John Mellencamp,
Julio Inglesias[sic] Jr.,
Lou Reed,
Leonard Cohen,
Meatloaf,
MGMT,
Michael Franti,
Mary Hopkin,
Maroon 5,
Moby,
Nancy Sinatra,
Neon Trees,
Ozomatli,
Pato Banton,
Peter Gabriel,
Salman Ahmad featuring Valerie Geffner,
Sinéad O'Connor,
Slightly Stoopid,
Sheryl Crow,
Smokey Robinson, Tommy Lee, Tom Waits
No word yet on whether any of these people are familiar with "His Majesty Maharaja Adhiraj Raja Raam" (pictured above), their "deity in human form" monarch-in-charge, or any of the other internal strangenesses of the "Global Country of World Peace" (GCWP), the organization that teaches Transcendental Meditation; the David Lynch Foundation today is primarily a marketing arm of the GCWP. Part of the proceeds from the sales of these artists' music will be used to promote the Transcendental Meditation program, and to encourage the adoption of TM as part of a questionable strategy focused on vulnerable populations that's lately included the homeless and child prostitutes.
But the other half of what's going on here really wouldn't be possible without the ongoing decline and fall of the record industry. For the sake of having another outlet for their music, these artists evidently will be paying a portion of whatever sales are made through DLF to promote TM, and David Lynch gets to drop their names in association with TM. The artists get... I dunno, association with David Lynch, for whatever that's worth, and another online storefront with its own marketing, that's run with volunteer labor? This thing isn't even creating real jobs with living wages, it's just cheap marketing for largely past-their-prime artists (without the expense of paid labor) that's raising money to support TM's marketing arm, and in so doing, supporting a bunch of guys in robes and gold crowns who think they're bringing about "Heaven on Earth."
- DLF Music (David Lynch Foundation Television)
- DLF Music on Facebook
- Fairfield Life Yahoo group posting, 1 February 2011
- Meditation school to transfer to state sector, Richard Garner, Independent, 29 January 2011
- Meditation to be taught every day at the state school run by followers of The Beatles' yogi, Daily Mail, 31 January 2011
- DfE contemplates meditation independent's free school bid, Richard Vaughan, The TES, 28 January, 2011
- Meditations begin on academy status, David Marley, The TES, 13 February, 2009
Simmons insists the first priority in life is to move toward enlightenment. Why? "Because the road to enlightenment is paved with gold!" According to Super Rich, if you attain a holy state, oodles of money will soon follow. Somewhat mystifyingly, Simmons also argues that people should work without expecting payback. He extols yoga, preaches veganism, and gushes over Transcendental Meditation even though he earned his money the old-fashioned way: by working 16-hour days and by promoting groups like South Central Cartel, fonts of deeply spiritual insights such as, "When I let these bullets fly, from this heat, you goin' die."
- Book Review: Super Rich: A Guide to Having It All and The Soul of Leadership, Ian McGugan, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, February 3, 2011
Briefly: Howard Stern spent two minutes on the David Letterman show plugging Transcendental Meditation, which he's done for almost forty years, like almost everyone who does TM... Another decaying downtown hotel, vacant for 15 years, has finally been sold by the Maharishi Global Development Fund... MUM graduate and former participant in the Invincible America program (that is, he got paid to meditate and bounce on foam rubber 8 hours a day) is now an artist in Sacramento... More fresh red meat for the "TM will send you to hell" set, this time, it's Rick Warren teaming up with Muslim, meditating, Swedenborgian Dr. Oz.
The TM-Free Blog is now on Facebook, where you'll see both pointers to new postings here at the Blog and news articles and other items as we receive them.
There's also a TM-Free Twitter stream.
TM-Free News Brief, 9 February 2011. Published irregularly here on Wednesdays by Mike Doughney, who's solely responsible for its content unless otherwise noted.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
TM-Free News Brief, 19 January 2011
Photos of Transcendental Meditation's King and Queen: The promoters of Transcendental Meditation, like David Lynch and his friends, don't feature this basic fact on their web pages when they're promoting TM. But the head of the global organization that teaches TM, a former medical doctor from Lebanon with an MIT Ph.D. named Tony Nader, is today called "His Majesty Maharaja Adhiraj Raja Raam" by those who remain with the organization, which calls itself the "Global Country of World Peace." They earnestly believe that their "global administration through Natural Law," which generally means selling Vedic products and practices produced by their particular sect, will bring about world peace, and their "administration" takes the form of a monarchy.
While the spectacle of a bunch of grown men playing at government but not actually having one in reality might evoke the image of a fading royal family and court in exile, for King Tony, as I call him, it's a 24/7 lifestyle at the TM organization's world headquarters compound in Vlodrop, Netherlands, or a rumored 2-story Paris condo. These photos of Tony, his wife and their kids, are now circulating among some of the TM faithful; they were taken during the organization's celebrations of Tony's and Maharishi's birthdays last week.
Birthday of a King of a "Global Country" that will "Transform the World:" January in the TM movement has long been marked by the birthday of its founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on January 12, and now the movement also celebrates the birthday of its King, er, Maharaja on January 10. Through one of the worlds' most boring, glacially-paced and incomprehensible (to the casual Western observer, anyway) TV channels - Maharishi Channel 3, delivered over the Internet - we can, at a distance, get an idea of what passes for "celebration" among the kingdom's subjects.
Much of the celebration, outside of the Vedic recitation, Maharishi video-watching, bagpipe-playing and cake-cutting, consists of a bunch of robed guys with crowns telling Tony that he'd make a good deity, and that he's about to lead the world to Sat Yuga which will begin Real Soon Now. In those professions of devotion there were a number of passages in which, for example, a king is called "deity in human form," and the inevitability of world transformation brought about by the existence of his Global Country is simply assumed. For instance, Bevan Morris invoked the mythical ancient kingdom of Ayodya, ruled by Raja Raam the Great, the seventh incarnation of Vishnu, while implying that the Global Country was the return of that kind of kingdom, in which "suffering belonged to no one."
I'll have a later post here with more of those kinds of details, for now, here are some stills taken from the Maharishi Channel.
Like that image of Guru Dev, only different: The celebration of the January 12 birthday of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi seems to serve as a reaffirmation of the connection between the current TM movement and some stream of the "tradition" that spawned Mahesh and "Guru Dev," whose picture was seen by all meditators when they learned TM. In this vein, the several hours of speech-making, puja, Vedic recitation and Maharishi video-watching also included the presence of His Holiness Swami Vasudevanand Saraswati Maharaj, Bhagwan Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, to use the full title that Bevan used when introducing him. The Shankaracharya is patron of the Brahmananda Saraswati Foundation, which is in charge of the pundit project.
Here's a video still of the Shankaracharya and his entourage. This might be familiar to those who remember the Guru Dev image from their initiation into TM, but wait - who's that guy on the right?
That is, in fact, an armed security or police officer. Times have changed, haven't they?
"David Wants to Fly" Plays in San Francisco: David Sieveking’s masterful account of his journey through and around today's TM movement played at the Castro Theatre this past Sunday as part of the German Gems Film Festival. Check out Gina's review of the film, and her personal reflections of the day, both here at TM-Free, and on her personal blog, Coming to Life. The next scheduled showing in the U.S. is in Cambridge, Massachusetts on March 15, but stay tuned here for updates as we hear about them.
Briefly: Another story about the Gore-Tex family fortune feud I covered last week showed up in the Wilmington, Delaware News-Journal... Looks like at least one TM center, or whatever they call them now, is down to advertising in newspapers for volunteers to handle clerical tasks... Despite the continued prevalence of articles like this one, it bears repeating that the main thing the TM program will "empty" is your wallet, though your mind might follow.
TM-Free News Brief, 19 January 2011. Published irregularly here on Wednesdays by Mike Doughney, who's solely responsible for its content unless otherwise noted.
While the spectacle of a bunch of grown men playing at government but not actually having one in reality might evoke the image of a fading royal family and court in exile, for King Tony, as I call him, it's a 24/7 lifestyle at the TM organization's world headquarters compound in Vlodrop, Netherlands, or a rumored 2-story Paris condo. These photos of Tony, his wife and their kids, are now circulating among some of the TM faithful; they were taken during the organization's celebrations of Tony's and Maharishi's birthdays last week.
Birthday of a King of a "Global Country" that will "Transform the World:" January in the TM movement has long been marked by the birthday of its founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on January 12, and now the movement also celebrates the birthday of its King, er, Maharaja on January 10. Through one of the worlds' most boring, glacially-paced and incomprehensible (to the casual Western observer, anyway) TV channels - Maharishi Channel 3, delivered over the Internet - we can, at a distance, get an idea of what passes for "celebration" among the kingdom's subjects.
Much of the celebration, outside of the Vedic recitation, Maharishi video-watching, bagpipe-playing and cake-cutting, consists of a bunch of robed guys with crowns telling Tony that he'd make a good deity, and that he's about to lead the world to Sat Yuga which will begin Real Soon Now. In those professions of devotion there were a number of passages in which, for example, a king is called "deity in human form," and the inevitability of world transformation brought about by the existence of his Global Country is simply assumed. For instance, Bevan Morris invoked the mythical ancient kingdom of Ayodya, ruled by Raja Raam the Great, the seventh incarnation of Vishnu, while implying that the Global Country was the return of that kind of kingdom, in which "suffering belonged to no one."
I'll have a later post here with more of those kinds of details, for now, here are some stills taken from the Maharishi Channel.
 |
| King Tony on the throne at MERU, Holland. |
 |
| Bevan Morris at the Brahmastan of India. |
 |
Girish Varma, Maharishi's nephew, and head of TM movement operations in India. |
 |
| The setting in India, with various "ministers," "Rajas" and other functionaries surrounding Girish Varma. |
 |
| These are the "Mothers of the World from the Sovereign Domain of Consciousness." |
 |
| A sampling of "Maharishi's Vedic Pundits" who performed Rajabhishek, the traditional Vedic ceremony of coronation. |
 |
| "Royal Bagpipers" who concluded their appearance by playing "Amazing Grace." |
 |
| Cutting the cake, which was in the form of a "Maharishi Tower of Invincibility." |
 |
| The audience at the India gathering; only young boys could be seen on the video feed. |
 |
| "Raja" John Hagelin, in the standard "raja" costume he wasn't wearing at the Met last month. |
 |
| Eike Hartmann, the movement's "Minister of Architecture," which means he'd probably like to rebuild the planet by bulldozing your house. His tribute to King Tony consisted, in part, of reading from verses 2 through 8 of chapter VII of the Laws of Manu. |
Like that image of Guru Dev, only different: The celebration of the January 12 birthday of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi seems to serve as a reaffirmation of the connection between the current TM movement and some stream of the "tradition" that spawned Mahesh and "Guru Dev," whose picture was seen by all meditators when they learned TM. In this vein, the several hours of speech-making, puja, Vedic recitation and Maharishi video-watching also included the presence of His Holiness Swami Vasudevanand Saraswati Maharaj, Bhagwan Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, to use the full title that Bevan used when introducing him. The Shankaracharya is patron of the Brahmananda Saraswati Foundation, which is in charge of the pundit project.
Here's a video still of the Shankaracharya and his entourage. This might be familiar to those who remember the Guru Dev image from their initiation into TM, but wait - who's that guy on the right?
That is, in fact, an armed security or police officer. Times have changed, haven't they?
"David Wants to Fly" Plays in San Francisco: David Sieveking’s masterful account of his journey through and around today's TM movement played at the Castro Theatre this past Sunday as part of the German Gems Film Festival. Check out Gina's review of the film, and her personal reflections of the day, both here at TM-Free, and on her personal blog, Coming to Life. The next scheduled showing in the U.S. is in Cambridge, Massachusetts on March 15, but stay tuned here for updates as we hear about them.
Briefly: Another story about the Gore-Tex family fortune feud I covered last week showed up in the Wilmington, Delaware News-Journal... Looks like at least one TM center, or whatever they call them now, is down to advertising in newspapers for volunteers to handle clerical tasks... Despite the continued prevalence of articles like this one, it bears repeating that the main thing the TM program will "empty" is your wallet, though your mind might follow.
TM-Free News Brief, 19 January 2011. Published irregularly here on Wednesdays by Mike Doughney, who's solely responsible for its content unless otherwise noted.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
TM-Free News Brief, 12 January 2011
- Tweet by rajafelix on January 6, 2011
- Haters Are Choking On Their Insults Now That Ray Dalio Just Made ~$2 Billion In 2010, Katya Wachtel, Clusterstock, Business Insider, January 6, 2011
- Bridgewater Employees Rave About Getting Blackout Drunk And Mud-Wrestling With Ray Dalio, Katya Wachtel and Courtney Comstock, Clusterstock, Business Insider, November 2, 2010
- Transcendental Meditation boosts Hedge Fund profits, "Raja" Felix Kägi's "Good News" blog at silentadministration.org, October 27, 2010
- Ray Dalio Explains How The Beatles Inspired Him To Meditate, Courtney Comstock, Clusterstock, Business Insider, October 26, 2010
- Ray Dalio Is Too Modest To Admit He Returned 38% YTD Using Transcendental Meditation, Courtney Comstock, Clusterstock, Business Insider, October 25, 2010
- Finally We Find Out How Ray Dalio's Bridgewater Is Making Billions More Than Every Other Hedge Fund This Year, Courtney Comstock, Clusterstock, Business Insider, October 22, 2010
- Ray Dalio's Bridgewater Is Mysteriously Up 31% Through August, Courtney Comstock, Clusterstock, Business Insider, October 18, 2010
- Landmark Sold to Chinese Buyer, Josh Barbanel, Wall Street Journal, December 21, 2010
- Would-Be Wall Street Mansion Sold to Chinese Firm for 60 Percent Off, Matt Chaban, The New York Observer, December 22, 2010
- On the Market: Make the Craziest FiDi Mansion Ever, Curbed, September 17, 2009
- Yahoo group Fairfield Life, Bob Brigante, September 19, 2009
According to The News Journal, Susan Gore also donated money and time to one of the TM movement's projects to introduce its meditation into a Vermont prison. At one point Gore was paying $12,000 a month to a Wyoming woman who served as a spiritual and financial advisor.
- The Gore war: W.L. Gore's descendants take sides in a fight over millions, Cris Barrish, The News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware), January 2, 2011
- Generations of Gores clash in courtroom: Trust heirs dispute bizarre adoption, Cris Barrish, The News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware), January 11, 2011
Go see "David Wants to Fly." It's playing in the United States at a few festivals and events: in Palm Springs tonight, Denver and San Francisco this weekend, and in Boston in March. Here's Gina's rundown with all the details, on the blog.
Also, recently, on the blog: Laurie on "Transcendental Meditation's Testimonials," a great antidote for when somebody tries to tell you they've made lots of money because of TM, and "Making Sense of a Nonsensical Movement," where I tackle the "Vedic" roots of the TM movement and the "it's not a religion" TM technique. Again.
TM-Free News Brief, 12 January 2011. Published irregularly here on Wednesdays by Mike Doughney, who's solely responsible for its content unless otherwise noted.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
TM-Free News Brief, 22 December 2010
Other than the vague reference to the apparent worldwide resending of the AFP story, the only reference to a specific article by GGN is to the Telegraph (UK) article entitled "David Lynch and Russell Brand hawk meditation for traumatised veterans: is that really wise?" This article by the Telegraph's film columnist, which clearly emphasizes caution when dealing with those who "are pushing transcendental mediation," and ends with the suggestion, "maybe they could leave the more specific prescriptions to the medics," probably wasn't the kind of glowingly supportive press coverage Lynch and TM organization heads were hoping for.
- Media coverage of David Lynch's Operation Warrior Wellness in the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Asia (Global Good News, 19 December 2010)
- David Lynch and Russell Brand hawk meditation for traumatised veterans: is that really wise? (The Telegraph, December 15, 2010)
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| Wikimedia Commons/gdcgraphics |
- Rose McGowan: "You know they’re all lying. None of these bitches meditate." (TM-Free Blog, December 16, 2010)
- Party Lines Slideshow: Rose McGowan, Russell Brand, Katy Perry, and More at the David Lynch Foundation Benefit (New York Magazine, December 15, 2010)
- Rose McGowan would 'hang' herself if she gains a pound this holiday season, calls meditators 'drunk' (Gatecrasher, New York Daily News, December 15, 2010)
- Miller performance ‘Peaks’ interest (Gainesville Sun, December 16, 2010)
Briefly: Bill Coop has identified many TM organization related locations across the planet and created a Google Earth .kml file that locates them on the map. Want to find out where all those alleged billions of dollars went? Here's your chance... One of the TM related files that appeared on Wikileaks last year has been reposted to (Yahoo group) Fairfield Life. The "Governor Recertification Course Overview of Policies and Procedures" document was purportedly written by Kingsley and Leslie Brooks... Here's installment number 534,296 of "TM will send you to hell."
From the Archives:
- Inspiration from the Emailbag, April 12, 2007
- Response to "Request for Help" by Gina, April 13, 2007
- Depersonalization and Meditation - journal article and commentary by Sue, April 13, 2007
TM-Free News Brief, 22 December 2010. Published irregularly here on Wednesdays by Mike Doughney, who's solely responsible for its content unless otherwise noted. The News Brief will be on holiday hiatus until early-to-mid January.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
TM-Free News Brief, 15 December 2010
If David Lynch Falls in the Forest: The top story this week is almost a non-story: the nearly complete lack of serious news coverage of the David Lynch Foundation's latest "Change Begins Within" event, which was apparently intended to sell the concept of Transcendental Meditation as a treatment for PTSD to war veterans. For the sponsors, the hazard with this sort of gala event is that the the presence of celebrities, and the resulting gossip, are the only thing even vaguely interesting to the rest of the world.
Here in the U.S. the only mention of the event in a hard-news outlet was a single blog post on the USAToday.com website late last week. Everything else... well, we're down to also-ran celebrity-stalker websites that follow what Katy Perry's doing every waking moment, like PopEater.com and BackseatCuddler.com (that's not a typo). People, MTV, OK! and Gordon Smart's Bizarre! at The Sun ("Lynch job for Russ and Katy") each ran a few celeb-focused lines, with a brief, vague mention of meditation at the end of each piece.
You had to look outside the U.S. for mention of the DLF gala outside the gossip columns. The definitive bit of news coverage on the gala and press conference is this subtly snarky Guardian article ("There was no mention of the impact on stress of Brand's autobiography My Booky Wook"). European news wire AFP reported on the gala before it even happened. The Sydney Morning Herald worked from those two stories for its website. Sky News Australia gave it all of four lines.
While as far as I can tell George Lucas and Oliver Stone were no-shows (should I still call it "Billionaires for TM?"), Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese submitted pre-recorded videos, giving testimonials endorsing the TM program. Here's a list of those who walked the red carpet, culled from the Getty Images archive of photos from the event. How many of these people have the slightest clue about TM, its history, or those isolated "raja" fellows wearing crowns and dissing doctors? Many may have just been there to rub elbows with Lynch and get their photos out there - at a thousand dollars a plate.
Dr. Oz graduates to official TM program spokesperson: Dr. Mehmet Oz, cardiac surgeon turned Oprah-spawned talk-show host, seems to have now graduated to the role of celebrity endorser of the TM program. In an eight-minute presentation dripping with worn-out Maharishi metaphor ("deeper waters of our consciousness"), Oz revealed that Bob Roth, TM and DLF press contact, was his TM teacher. Oz repeated many of the claims for TM concerning blood pressure, insulin resistance, and cholesterol that have been made by the organization in recent years, with the aid of animated graphics. He used the fact that some of the research was funded by the NIH to imply that that was a governmental stamp of approval of the findings, which it is not.
Any discussion of research on meditation, particularly TM, should be prefaced with this observation, from the abstract of a University of Alberta meta-study that can be found on the website of a U.S. Government agency: "Many uncertainties surround the practice of meditation. Scientific research on meditation practices does not appear to have a common theoretical perspective and is characterized by poor methodological quality. Firm conclusions on the effects of meditation practices in healthcare cannot be drawn based on the available evidence."
Continuing down the list of vulnerable populations: First it was urban schoolchildren, followed by American Indians, and then, veterans. We're now down to the homeless and child prostitutes. Featured at the DLF gala was Lois Lee, the founder and president of Children of the Night, an organization that assists children and teenagers involved in child prostitution. She said, "Earlier this year, Children of the Night partnered with the David Lynch Foundation in order to bring Transcendental Meditation to this very special group of children." Lee was followed by an anonymous endorsement of TM by a young meditator who learned TM through this program.
Listed on the David Lynch Foundation website is an "immediate funding need" for "$50,000 a year for one specially trained teacher to provide an intensive 12-month program of individualized instruction and follow-up in Transcendental Meditation for 100 at-risk teenage girls" through Children of the Night.
Preceding Ms. Lee at the podium was Nazerine Griffin, program director of the Harlem facility of The Doe Fund, a New York non-profit working to "meet the needs of a diverse population working to break the cycles of homelessness, addiction, and criminal recidivism." Griffin also endorsed Transcendental Meditation, which was taught to him and others involved in Doe Fund programs. Mention of this program is also on the David Lynch Foundation website: "$75,000 a year for each specially trained teacher to provide an intensive 12-month program of individualized instruction and follow-up in Transcendental Meditation for 200 at-risk men and women at the Doe Fund in New York City." Also mentioned is a need for "$63,000 for a first randomized controlled study on the effects of Transcendental Meditation on homeless veterans."
Curiously, no mention of these programs associated with the David Lynch Foundation could be found on the websites of the organizations involved.
The Incredible Shrinking Research Bibliography: They sometimes claim 600 published studies supporting TM, other times, 300 or so. The research bibliography released by the David Lynch Foundation last week, with its announcement of this week's events, is down to... twenty-one studies, one of which hasn't even been published yet. At least twelve of the studies involved current and former Maharishi University of Management faculty including John Hagelin, Sarina Grosswald, Robert H. Schneider, David W. Orme-Johnson, Robert Keith Wallace, and Fred Travis. The TM organization has had almost forty years to provide lists of research that aren't seeded with self-performed or self-financed pilot and preliminary studies. Today, this is, evidently, all they have to offer when providing support for the claims made during one of the organization's premier events. They've even recycled one of the first published studies on TM and put it on this list, from way back in 1973. Ironically, it's the "pilot study" (are there any others on TM?) on the focus of the gala, veterans with PTSD, that's the one still "in review" with some unnamed journal.
Briefly: James Wolcott, Vanity Fair columnist, continues to mention Transcendental Meditation in his blog; I wrote about his initiation into the TM program in June 2008... Former Natural Law Party candidate is still pushing anti-GMO hysteria, on the Dr. Oz show: "Jeffery Smith, a former Iowa political candidate for the Natural Law Party with no discernible scientific or agricultural training" ... Mick Jagger tells his own, unique version of Maharishi's amorous advances in Rishikesh, according to Christopher Isherwood... Baptist Press columnist still maintains that TM (and yoga, and simplistic sounds, and yoga postures, and pop culture, and maybe even breathing) will send you to hell. Some things haven't changed much in 35 years.
Here at the TM-Free Blog: Laurie reports that "Robes of Silk, Feet of Clay," Judith Borque's book on her (sexual) love affair with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, is now on sale at a reduced price. I also offered some observations on "Where the TM Program Clearly Resembles a Religious Faith," noting how so many TM devotees, seen online and at events such as the DLF gala, are usually of a very narrow demographic, over 50 and started TM before 1976. Also appearing this week in preparation for the gala was the "Who Are These People" detailed explanation of the backgrounds and affiliations of many of the individuals seen during the DLF press conference and gala.
The TM-Free Blog is now on Facebook. Updates to the blog will be posted there.
TM-Free News Brief, 15 December 2010. Published irregularly here on Wednesdays by Mike Doughney, who's solely responsible for its content unless otherwise noted.
Here in the U.S. the only mention of the event in a hard-news outlet was a single blog post on the USAToday.com website late last week. Everything else... well, we're down to also-ran celebrity-stalker websites that follow what Katy Perry's doing every waking moment, like PopEater.com and BackseatCuddler.com (that's not a typo). People, MTV, OK! and Gordon Smart's Bizarre! at The Sun ("Lynch job for Russ and Katy") each ran a few celeb-focused lines, with a brief, vague mention of meditation at the end of each piece.
You had to look outside the U.S. for mention of the DLF gala outside the gossip columns. The definitive bit of news coverage on the gala and press conference is this subtly snarky Guardian article ("There was no mention of the impact on stress of Brand's autobiography My Booky Wook"). European news wire AFP reported on the gala before it even happened. The Sydney Morning Herald worked from those two stories for its website. Sky News Australia gave it all of four lines.
While as far as I can tell George Lucas and Oliver Stone were no-shows (should I still call it "Billionaires for TM?"), Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese submitted pre-recorded videos, giving testimonials endorsing the TM program. Here's a list of those who walked the red carpet, culled from the Getty Images archive of photos from the event. How many of these people have the slightest clue about TM, its history, or those isolated "raja" fellows wearing crowns and dissing doctors? Many may have just been there to rub elbows with Lynch and get their photos out there - at a thousand dollars a plate.
Presenters: Russell Brand, David Lynch, Clint Eastwood (recorded video), Martin Scorsese (recorded video), Dr. Mehmet Oz, Nazerine Griffin, Emily Lynch, Lois Lee, Candy Crowley, Jerry Yellin, John Hagelin. Others on the red carpet: Lisa Edelstein, Ben Folds, Fleur Folds, Desiree Gruber, Dayle Haddon, Laura Elena Harring, Donna Karan, Bettye LaVette, Lori Levine, Kyle MacLachlan, James McCartney, Rose McGowan, Moby, Edward Norton, Daphne Oz, Katy Perry, Denise Rich, Susan Sarandon, Frederique Van Der Wal.
- Eastwood and Lynch launch Operation Warrior Wellness to teach 10,000 veterans to meditate (David Lynch Foundation)
- David Lynch Foundation Press Event. video (David Lynch Foundation)
- David Lynch Foundation Change Begins Within, video (David Lynch Foundation)
- Who Are These People? The Backgrounds of David Lynch's "Researchers" (Mike Doughney, TM-Free Blog)
Dr. Oz graduates to official TM program spokesperson: Dr. Mehmet Oz, cardiac surgeon turned Oprah-spawned talk-show host, seems to have now graduated to the role of celebrity endorser of the TM program. In an eight-minute presentation dripping with worn-out Maharishi metaphor ("deeper waters of our consciousness"), Oz revealed that Bob Roth, TM and DLF press contact, was his TM teacher. Oz repeated many of the claims for TM concerning blood pressure, insulin resistance, and cholesterol that have been made by the organization in recent years, with the aid of animated graphics. He used the fact that some of the research was funded by the NIH to imply that that was a governmental stamp of approval of the findings, which it is not.
Any discussion of research on meditation, particularly TM, should be prefaced with this observation, from the abstract of a University of Alberta meta-study that can be found on the website of a U.S. Government agency: "Many uncertainties surround the practice of meditation. Scientific research on meditation practices does not appear to have a common theoretical perspective and is characterized by poor methodological quality. Firm conclusions on the effects of meditation practices in healthcare cannot be drawn based on the available evidence."
- David Lynch Foundation Change Begins Within video, at about 44:00 (David Lynch Foundation)
Continuing down the list of vulnerable populations: First it was urban schoolchildren, followed by American Indians, and then, veterans. We're now down to the homeless and child prostitutes. Featured at the DLF gala was Lois Lee, the founder and president of Children of the Night, an organization that assists children and teenagers involved in child prostitution. She said, "Earlier this year, Children of the Night partnered with the David Lynch Foundation in order to bring Transcendental Meditation to this very special group of children." Lee was followed by an anonymous endorsement of TM by a young meditator who learned TM through this program.
Listed on the David Lynch Foundation website is an "immediate funding need" for "$50,000 a year for one specially trained teacher to provide an intensive 12-month program of individualized instruction and follow-up in Transcendental Meditation for 100 at-risk teenage girls" through Children of the Night.
Preceding Ms. Lee at the podium was Nazerine Griffin, program director of the Harlem facility of The Doe Fund, a New York non-profit working to "meet the needs of a diverse population working to break the cycles of homelessness, addiction, and criminal recidivism." Griffin also endorsed Transcendental Meditation, which was taught to him and others involved in Doe Fund programs. Mention of this program is also on the David Lynch Foundation website: "$75,000 a year for each specially trained teacher to provide an intensive 12-month program of individualized instruction and follow-up in Transcendental Meditation for 200 at-risk men and women at the Doe Fund in New York City." Also mentioned is a need for "$63,000 for a first randomized controlled study on the effects of Transcendental Meditation on homeless veterans."
Curiously, no mention of these programs associated with the David Lynch Foundation could be found on the websites of the organizations involved.
- David Lynch Foundation Change Begins Within video, at about 52:00 and 59:00 (David Lynch Foundation)
- Homeless Shelters - David Lynch Foundation
The Incredible Shrinking Research Bibliography: They sometimes claim 600 published studies supporting TM, other times, 300 or so. The research bibliography released by the David Lynch Foundation last week, with its announcement of this week's events, is down to... twenty-one studies, one of which hasn't even been published yet. At least twelve of the studies involved current and former Maharishi University of Management faculty including John Hagelin, Sarina Grosswald, Robert H. Schneider, David W. Orme-Johnson, Robert Keith Wallace, and Fred Travis. The TM organization has had almost forty years to provide lists of research that aren't seeded with self-performed or self-financed pilot and preliminary studies. Today, this is, evidently, all they have to offer when providing support for the claims made during one of the organization's premier events. They've even recycled one of the first published studies on TM and put it on this list, from way back in 1973. Ironically, it's the "pilot study" (are there any others on TM?) on the focus of the gala, veterans with PTSD, that's the one still "in review" with some unnamed journal.
- How to Design a Positive Study: Meditation for Childhood ADHD at Space City Skeptics
- Independent TM Research Archive at trancenet.net
- Problems with TM Research by Barry Markovsky, at trancenet.net
Briefly: James Wolcott, Vanity Fair columnist, continues to mention Transcendental Meditation in his blog; I wrote about his initiation into the TM program in June 2008... Former Natural Law Party candidate is still pushing anti-GMO hysteria, on the Dr. Oz show: "Jeffery Smith, a former Iowa political candidate for the Natural Law Party with no discernible scientific or agricultural training" ... Mick Jagger tells his own, unique version of Maharishi's amorous advances in Rishikesh, according to Christopher Isherwood... Baptist Press columnist still maintains that TM (and yoga, and simplistic sounds, and yoga postures, and pop culture, and maybe even breathing) will send you to hell. Some things haven't changed much in 35 years.
Here at the TM-Free Blog: Laurie reports that "Robes of Silk, Feet of Clay," Judith Borque's book on her (sexual) love affair with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, is now on sale at a reduced price. I also offered some observations on "Where the TM Program Clearly Resembles a Religious Faith," noting how so many TM devotees, seen online and at events such as the DLF gala, are usually of a very narrow demographic, over 50 and started TM before 1976. Also appearing this week in preparation for the gala was the "Who Are These People" detailed explanation of the backgrounds and affiliations of many of the individuals seen during the DLF press conference and gala.
- "Robes of Silk, Feet of Clay" at reduced price
- Where the TM Program Clearly Resembles a Religious Faith
- Who Are These People: The Background of David Lynch's "Researchers"
The TM-Free Blog is now on Facebook. Updates to the blog will be posted there.
TM-Free News Brief, 15 December 2010. Published irregularly here on Wednesdays by Mike Doughney, who's solely responsible for its content unless otherwise noted.
Wednesday, December 08, 2010
TM-Free News Brief, 8 December 2010
Wall Street Journal reports on David Lynch's latest "Billionaires for TM" event: The November 29 Wall Street Journal reported, without the tiniest bit of criticism or skepticism, on the latest David Lynch Foundation gala, this time to be held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 13. Names liberally dropped in the evidently slightly-rewritten DLF press release included George Lucas (reported net worth: $3 billion), Clint Eastwood (worth $400 million), and Martin Scorsese (worth a mere $40 million).
This time, the DLF's gimmick and targeted population are "to help 10,000 veterans overcome Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other war-related illnesses." As with most of the claims for Transcendental Meditation made by its promoters, a small amount of inconclusive and/or preliminary scientific research, largely created and/or financed by those same promoters, exists to support these claims of benefit to a particular population - a tiny bit that amounts to nothing compared to almost any other generally accepted therapy or treatment.
In fact, it's been proposed that prolonged "cult involvement" similar to that which long-term participants in the Transcendental Meditation program and the organizations that promote it have experienced may induce its own form of trauma.
The second "Change Begins Within" event on December 13, like the last one, will feature a short list of celebrities; some, like Lynch, have been involved with TM for decades, while others are clearly newcomers. Notable among the new names is TV talk-show host Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardiac surgeon whose embrace of pseudoscience and woo has been the subject of online commentary by prominent science bloggers.
Also on that celeb list is Katy Perry, née Hudson, a pastor's daughter and former Christian recording artist who married event co-host and comedic meditator, Russell Brand, in October. Their lavish wedding in Ranthambhore National Park, India, officiated by a Christian pastor, was widely mis-reported as having been a traditional Hindu ceremony. Sounds to me like, in the same way I've noticed that TM can be considered a piece of Indian or Hindu culture taken completely out of context, many of these cultural elements are available off-the-shelf to dress up your life, for a not-so-small price.
- Filmmaker Introduces Veterans to Meditation - Wall Street Journal, November 26, 2010
- Change Begins Within Benefit Event - David Lynch Foundation
Remembering John Lennon: Today marks the thirtieth anniversary of John Lennon's death. Among the many tributes and retrospectives published today is this one, from Radio Netherlands Worldwide, exploring the Beatles' time in India and how Lennon was influenced by Indian music and culture.
- ‘Take me to your heart’ – how John Lennon fell for India - Johan van Slooten, Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 8 December 2010
Chicago Tribune's Living Section features Fairfield, Iowa: Tribune reporter Josh Noel pays Fairfield a visit; his travelogue has the usual interesting-things-around-town elements, followed by some time at The Raj, the TM organization's ayurvedic spa, for a round of shirodhara. Noel warns that staying at "the heart of the TM action" can be boring - "there's nothing else to do there."
- The Iowa aura: In Fairfield, you can't help picking up the maharishi vibes - Josh Noel, Chicago Tribune, December 3, 2010
What If They'd Copyrighted the Mantras? - The New York Times reports on the growing debate over the relationship between yoga and traditional Hinduism. The "Take Back Yoga" campaign by the Hindu American Foundation is the main focus of the article. Transcendental Meditation, of course, has its own relationship with the religious, cultural and spiritual traditions of India - whether I call them "Hindu" or "Vedic" (the preferred term of TM promoters) is irrelevant. Reading this, I wonder what would have happened had the TM movement's organizers attempted to copyright the mantras and other core elements of the program that remained in the public domain - the backlash might have been interesting to watch. The organization's trademarking of all sorts of terminology - like the word "sidhi," a misspelling of the usual translation - may already be a source of friction.
- Hindu Group Stirs a Debate Over Yoga’s Soul - Paul Vitello, The New York Times, November 27, 2010
Briefly: Natural Law Party veterans are still out there railing against GMO crops - this time, on the Dr. Oz show... In 1994, "Russian officials in the immediate post-Soviet era were not too choosy about what ideas they were seen to be giving their backing to," including the TMO's silly notions of "invincible defense" ... "The Hindu Young World Painting Competition" was held at one of the schools of the TM affiliated chain in India, Maharishi Vidya Mandir... this mismash of TM and Buddhist practice, including the vague, unsupported claim that group practice of (not even TM-branded!) meditation has a magic effect on bystanders, may be disrupting the peace of some purist in the TM organization right about now.
Here at the TM-Free Blog: John Knapp, founder, in January 2007, of the TM-Free Blog, has stepped down as blog coordinator and contributor. John will continue to comment here as his time allows. We're all going to miss John around here, and we thank him for having created and guided this unique resource of "independent, skeptical & critical views" - and a source of help and healing for many - through the years.
Recent topics here on the Blog have included news of an upcoming San Francisco showing of David Sieveking's acclaimed documentary, "David Wants to Fly," its DVD release in Europe, and Laurie's account of instruction in one of the Transcendental Meditation "advanced techniques."
From the Archives: Going back to the start of the first year of the TM-Free Blog (2007)...
- End of the road - Joseppi writes about leaving the TM organization in 1977. (January 14, 2007)
- Lifton's Thought Reform Criteria applied to TM, by Gina, in eight parts; first article starts here. (January -February 2007)
- Mantras by Sudarsha. (January 22, 2007)
TM-Free News Brief, 8 December 2010. Published irregularly here on Wednesdays by Mike Doughney, who's solely responsible for its content unless otherwise noted.
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