Lying: A Core Practice of Transcendental Meditation. (A Seven-Part Series.) Part 1: Broken Promises

When I learned TM in 1971, my initiator promised me that if I practiced TM for 20 minutes twice a day I would become enlightened in eight to eleven years.

I've heard that Maharishi originally taught, "3-5 years." When enlightenment didn't come after 5 years, he said, "5-8 years." Then "8-11 years." What did he say after that?

What did he promise you?

Later we were taught that TM 20 minutes twice a day plus the occasional weekend residence course would bring us to enlightenment.

When Maharishi first introduced the "Six-Month Courses," which were the predecessors to the TM-Sidhis courses, he said, "One six month course is enough to enlighten some people, two six month courses is enough to enlighten most people, and three six-month courses is enough to enlighten a horse!"

He also promised us that by learning his TM-Sidhis program we would be able to walk through walls and to become invisible. (Later these two promises were eliminated.) Also that we'd have increased friendliness, compassion, happiness, physical strength, control of hunger and thirst, ability to see the motion of the stars, ability to see into our body any illnesses and to heal them, and to levitate.

He also promised us that if we did TM, we would have "support of nature," which translated more or less as having our wishes fulfilled almost without effort.

We were told that our houseplants would grow better, and that unhealthy behaviors would spontaneously drop away. (How long has the cigarette smoker, David Lynch, been practicing TM?)

He promised we would be able to "do less and accomplish more."

He promised us that if we did the TM-Sidhis we would have "perfect health." Also immortality. (Ask Gina, contributor for this website, for stories of Sidhas dying of horrible diseases in Fairfield.)

He also promised us that by "flying" together we would create world peace and good will between the family of nations. Also that it would bring favorable weather condition. (Hurricane Katrina, tsunamis, global warming, anyone?)

He also promised that TM would raise our intelligence, improve our health, our family life, our social relationships, and our financial success.

He also promised us that practicing TM twice a day for 20 minutes would lead to spontaneous right action - that what we did would be "life-supporting" for ourselves and for those around us.

He promised that TM would make Christians better Christians, Jews better Jews, Moslems better Moslems, Hindus better Hindus, Buddhists better Buddhists....He promised that TM was not at odds with any religion.

He promised that TM asked no change in lifestyle: not in beliefs, not in diet, not in clothes, not in socializing, not in sexual activities, not in medical preferences, not in daily activities....

He promised that TM worked for everyone. And that it had no negative effects on anyone.

He promised that the ceremony (puja) during personal instruction was not religious in nature. He promised that TM itself was not religious in nature. He promised that the mantras were not religious in nature. He promised new student that they would not have to participate in the initiation ceremony.

He taught that "that which we put our attention grows stronger." Medical clinics, counseling clinics, and workplace safety measures were all reduced to discourage "putting our attention on negativity."

We were promised that 1,000 people "flying" together would make world peace. Then 5,000. Then 5,000 pundits flying and chanting together. Then many communities of flyers and chanters all over the world would create world peace.

He promised that eliminating south-facing doors would eliminate most obstacles to success and disharmony.

He promised that communities having a large percentage of people meditating would have a very harmonious civic life. (See the Fairfield Ledger newspaper, Fairfield Iowa, with a giant percentage of the population practicing TM and the TM-Sidhis. Read the police blotter and other daily reports for suicides, rapes, murders, mental hospital commitments, traffic accidents, robberies, fires, drug use, adultery, divorces, etc.)

What promises did Maharishi and the TM organization make to YOU? Which promises did they keep? Which ones did they break?

The Charisma of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Founder of Transcendental Meditation

About a month ago, I attended a 2-hour workshop on healing through movement. After this brief workshop, I wanted to immediately buy the presenter's book, take his classes, do home practice off his audiotapes, immerse myself in his technique and philosophy, and become a true believer, practitioner and follower.

I had to shake myself awake! It was only because of my years in recovery from TM that I so quickly recognized that I was thinking irrationality. Why would I become a "true believer" after only 2 hours?

I picked apart my reactions, and realized that what I had been reacting to had been the teacher's "charismatic" presentation. Here is what he did that won me over:

1. He appears absolutely sure of the truth of his knowledge.

2. His teaching encompassed sweeping areas of life (health, biology, movement, evolution, physiology, healing, the brain).

3. His teaching was internally consistent.

4. He promised us great things.
(fluidity of movement, no more aches and pains, healing of chronic injuries).

5. He backed up his promises both with fascinating anecdotes and with quotes from science.

6. He appeared knowledgeable about his competitors' products, and discredited them in a way both loving and condescending.

7. His teaching was original and off the beaten track.

8. His personality was attractive (a happy, warm man.)

9. He promised his technique would give me exactly what I longed for (relief from chronic pain and healthy aging.)

Put this all together, and it was so easy to take the internal steps from, "How nice if this were true," to "Wow, there is some evidence that this is true," to "This must be true. How lucky I am to have found it!"

Upon reflection, I could see how closely this brief experience paralleled my experience with Maharishi. Each of the qualities I experienced in this exercise teacher, I also experienced 40 years earlier in Maharishi:

1. Maharishi seemed absolutely convinced of the truth of his knowledge. No gray areas.

2. Maharishi's teachings encompassed physical, mental, emotional, social, financial, governmental, educational, philosophical and spiritual regeneration.

3. His teachings were internally consistent. (If you didn't dig too deep.)

4. He promised great things for us: enlightenment, having the support of nature and inner peace; and later he also promised us perfect health, immortality, and world peace.

5. He backed up his promises with endless fascinating anecdotes of people who he said had benefited from TM, as well as appeals based on scientific research.

6. He described what he said were the different types of meditations, and explained why his meditation technique was superior. He quoted scientific research to back it up.

7. His teaching was original and off the beaten track.

8. His personality was attractive (joyous, bubbly, happy).

9. He promised that his technique would give me exactly what I personally longed for (peace of mind, self-esteem.)

So it wasn't surprising that at the naive age of 19, I fell under the sway of Maharishi and his teachings.

What were your experiences of the persuasive powers of Maharishi?

As long as I'm talking about Maharishi's public appeal, I wanted to comment on Maharishi's physical appearance. It's ironic that TM teachers became known for looking "corporate" (business suits, clean shaven, etc.), - Maharishi had a strict dress code - because in fact, Maharishi looked like the quintessential "flower child." He had the long hair, flowing beard , beads, carried a flower, sandals or bare feet, sat cross-legged, talked about love. In fact, his only lapse was wearing a dhoti instead of blue jeans and a tie-dyed shirt! Which came first - Maharishi, with flower children emulating him? Or flower children, with Maharishi imitating them?

Wishing for immortality

There's a section of the Maharishi University of Management website that contains an archive of the school's yearbooks - most of them from the days when it was called Maharishi International University, from 1975 through 2004. They're a fascinating window into some of the often unwritten history of the TM movement - some of them show what projects were important at the time, and some show how the claims that were made, the language that was used, and the expectations among people involved with TM, changed over time.

This is an example of one of those claims or expectations. Back in the early to mid-1980's, some years after the TM movement introduced the "TM-Sidhi" program that featured bouncing on foam rubber and calling it "flying," the movement rolled out its own version of "ayurveda" and other dubious products. Around that time, primed by the expectation created by gatherings with names like "Taste of Utopia," there was a lot of talk about "immortality." Some might claim in hindsight that most people didn't take those claims seriously. But some obviously did.

This is a 1986 yearbook advertisement for the local Maharishi Ayurveda store. It suggests that for at least some around the MIU and the TM movement at the time, the expectation of a lifetime of more than 200 years among those who participated in the TM movement's programs was perfectly normal. It wasn't something that could easily be found in print, but it was obviously a common enough belief that this ad was accepted and printed in the school's yearbook. Putting the last line in quotes makes the claim perfectly deniable; it could be defended as the statement of some random person who could have expressed the hope of being around for a 200 year class reunion. Unlike the movement's direct claims made when marketing its products, it seems to originate from the expectations that were generated among meditators, from the people who bought the movement's claims, hook, line and sinker.