Lynch Takes Assault On 1st Amendment to Kentucky
File under: The Siddhi of PR
David Lynch's plan to get his religion into your kids' schools has moved into its post-concert phase. Money made at the concert will now flow to the various regional "peace palaces" of the TM™ org so that efforts to indoctrinate your children can be made on a local basis, including in the state of Kentucky:
Part of the initiative includes funding from the David Lynch Foundation for 1,000 kids in the Central Kentucky area...And a whole lot of "encouragement" to open your wallets to pay for it all.
In Lexington, anyone can learn the TM technique at the Maharishi Peace Palace, which offers free introductory lectures as well as further instruction to learn a seven-step program.
And that's the whole plan. Raise money to introduce TM™ to children to develop paying customers and adherents to what is CLEARLY a religion.
If TM™ meditation can be in schools, why not Zen, or Vipassana, which is clearly more well-suited to the task of being secular. TM™'s tireless efforts to secularize their ideology is only a few microns thick, folks, covering up what is essentially one grandiose man's grandiose vision of a world ruled by kings (rajas) who will mete out Vedic law, but only as it was interpreted by him. In this world, we will all literally be bowing to pictures of the Maharishi!
Yeah, we know, it's effing crazy, but there are thousands of people who believe it, and those are the people who are trying to get TM™ into the head of as many children as they can.
Gp pal John Knapp has put out a call to the citizens of central Kentucky for any information they might be able to provide. Recently, he attempted to organize a web-meeting about TM™ in schools that was quashed by lawyers from the David Lynch Foundation. We encourage everyone to call their schools and raise a ruckus about this absolute assault on the First Amendment, and not just in Kentucky. TM™ is trying to get in schools from San Francisco to Rhode Island. It's likely that wherever there's a "Maharishi's Peace Palace," there's an effort to trojan their religion into your schools.
Update: For those who want to decide for themselves whether TM™ is a religion, check this out:
Maharishi is expressing this because He has felt a great opening in world consciousness. He now feels that He is ready and able to train as many governors as come forward to be real channels for the decent of Heaven on Earth, Sat Yuga. He wants to bring all the old time people to a mature state of knowledge and experience. He wants to train us to create for ourselves and for the world from within ourselves, and to know by Being, and to create from Being, so that we are masters of our own destiny and the destiny of the world.This is sacred business for TM™. In other words, their religion.
Labels: The Siddhi of PR
posted by guruphiliac @ 7:35 PM
27 Comments:
I have seen first hand the wonderful effect Transcendental Meditation has on students and young people. They become calmer, more focused, and their grades improve too! Also their thinking and decisions are more balanced which ain’t bad either, just ask their parents! I also defend the seperation of church and state. But with this mental technique that is not a problem. Just go to this web site to see a dozen letters from religious leaders of all faiths that proclaim there is nothing religious about Transcendental Meditation. http://www.truthabouttm.org/truth/IndividualEffects/IsTMaReligion/ReligiousLeaders/index.cfm Peace!
oh my god!! cult!! cult!!! let's burn them at the stake!!! nail them to the cross!!! TM, yes, it must be a religion -- people say so on the Internet!! therefore it must be true!!! our kids will all be tuned into goat-sacrificing hindus without even knowing it!! Converted into to demon multi-headed-god worshippers without even knowing it!!! how deceptive! and the TM teachers meanwhile are all growing so filthy rich, driving Lamborghinis and living in "Palaces!" thanks for warning us!!
Funny how nobody is denying that TM™ and GCWP is led by "rajas" who they believe will rule the world.
Puh-leeze, folks -- this is *not* about TM as a technique. It is about TM as an organization -- and, as such, it has all the earmarks of a religious cult, including near-worship of its founder and overtly religious ceremonies for its teachers. Most of the "religious leaders" endorsing TM have no idea what goes on inside the organization with regard to beliefs, promulgation methods, and goals -- they are commenting of the observed efficacy of the technique. Period.
That technique is really just a minor variant on an ancient practice. Such a simple method can be taught without involving the very dubious TM organization, and there are reliable secular advocacy groups who will gladly assist educators wishing to implement any of a number of meditation techniques without the cultish baggage that comes with the "official," trademarked TM.
Keith, if you are honest you will also admit to having seen first hand the sincere practitioners of TM who have lost their minds. When I lived in Fairfield, Iowa, the main TM community in the US, there was a conveyor belt from the town to the nearest mental health facility. If you are honest, you will mention the drug problems that exist among the children of TMers in Fairfield, Iowa. What about the chronic poverty there among sincere believers? They have given their lives to Maharishi and he made his own family wealthy on their efforts.
TM teachers like yourself tend to lie about the religious nature of the organization. It's not that Hinduism is a bad thing, why lie about promoting it?
TM, despite the benefits it has for some people, does not belong in our schools any more that Christianity or Scientology.
i think it is important to point out here that john knapp is a well known internet troll for his "counseling" services - he tries to make his living targeting non-mainstream programs and organizations and then trying to convince people that they are actually involved in a "cult", so that they will pay him to help them get out of their "cultish" dependencies - and there probably are some weak-minded people who more easily get overly involved with (and cultishly dependent upon) other people, organizations, diets, etc, and knapp likely finds some of those people who he then gets to fall for his "shtick" - he would love for them to instead be dependent on his commercial counseling - so he posts all over the internet trying to stir up controversy and to get people focused on his dependency "services"
interestingly, john knapp himself admits to once being heavily involved with TM meditation - and when it didn't completely meet his expectations, he angrily quit practicing tm and decided that he would make a business out of being against TM (and any other organizations or programs - he will readily take someone's money no matter what the focus of their cultish over-involvement is)
meditation, tm or otherwise, is not a panacea for all of someone's problems - it won't make all your "issues" just disappear - its just a tool (albeit a very effective one) for getting rid of the stress and fatigue that are obstacles to learning and growth - and different people may just have more substantial & challenging issues to work and grow through
but millions of people have learned TM meditation over the last 50 years and happily practice it twice a day - and not only do they enjoy the deep rest and relaxation of the 20 minute meditation period, but they are most appreciative of the greater clarity and reduction of stress that it provides throughout their whole day - in fact there have been almost 400 peer reviewed medical and scientific studies published in hundreds of top science journals from dozens of established research institutions around the world over the last 40+ years documenting the positive health effect of the practice of TM
you may well find a handful of very vocal critics trying to scare people away - "meditation is a religion from the east - beware!" "meditation will damage your brain - beware!" " meditation doesn't do anything - beware!" "research on TM shows that meditation does phenomenal good, but instead learn our meditation by email - for less!" "meditation is a cult - instead join MY commercial counseling program"
tm is a wonderful adjunct to healthy living - and it is not a religion
it is important to point out here that john knapp is a well known internet troll for his "counseling" services
I think you mean he's been on the net for a long time as a TM™ critic.
john knapp himself admits to once being heavily involved with TM meditation
That makes him an expert in my book.
you may well find a handful of very vocal critics trying to scare people away - "meditation is a religion from the east - beware!"
Nobody is against meditation here. We are against a very simple practice cribbed from Hinduism sold back to us. Its efficacy is a function of its being *meditation*, not TM™ meditation.
We're also not on board with rajas ruling our lives. From a 2005 TM™ document:
Maharishi wants to train those Governors and Sidhas, who will be full time, to be Rajas—real administrators of Natural Law—who will begin to function from the level of the Constitution of the Universe, Total Natural Law.
tm is a wonderful adjunct to healthy living - and it is not a religion
Not according to this:
Maharishi is expressing this because He has felt a great opening in world consciousness. He now feels that He is ready and able to train as many governors as come forward to be real channels for the decent of Heaven on Earth, Sat Yuga. He wants to bring all the old time people to a mature state of knowledge and experience. He wants to train us to create for ourselves and for the world from within ourselves, and to know by Being, and to create from Being, so that we are masters of our own destiny and the DESTINY OF THE WORLD [caps ours]
The auspicious dates for the groundbreaking and the start of Raja Training will be on the full moon days of April, May, and June. Then, on Guru Purnima Day in July, in the midst of Vedic recitations of the Constitution of the Universe, in the presence of His Majesty Raja Raam, First Ruler of the Global Country of World Peace, and with 3,000 new Rajas trained for their Peace Palaces, Maharishi will celebrate the descent of Sat Yuga on Earth
This material is from 4 years ago. It pretty much meets the definition of religious text. Or if you'd prefer, imperial decree. Either way, it doesn't belong in our schools. The program in the schools will be ultimately administered by the TM™ org, that is, governed by those the Maharishi appointed "governors" and "rajas."
This reminds me of the TM'mers once dropped in for a week long teaching on meditation at our school in India. This was a typical Hindu run school but very secular in outlook.
The best part was that the whole gang that landed there consisted of canadian origin. If I remember right, it was from some place called Bermuda. A dozen white blonde guys humming hindu mantras in a "hindu" school was a sight to see.
They were very soft spoken and well behaved and totally tolerant. Especially dealing with some rowdy boys in my class. They did the regular gig like lighting up incense sticks and lamps (are these the religious or cultish attempts ??) and whispering secret mantras (which was the same darn mantra for everyone)etc.
But coming to the point, after the week long fun of watching them doing meditation, because none of us even closed our eyes properly, we got back to our regular schedule, I am sure, absoultely untouched by anything that happened for the whole week. It just did not make any difference to me or to my friends and we never even bothered to practice it against the 'promise' we made to them.
Well I forgot to add that the TM guys visited my school was in the 80's. To be precise it was in 1982 monsoon season(rainy days).
Seems to me Bruce makes a good point. The basics of meditation are extremely simple and don't require support from any organization, including TM.
But per my comment in the previous post, I'd still question introducing meditation to children in the public schools for the reasons given I gave there.
The basics of meditation may be extremely simple, but most people who try to practice it without some kind of support do not continue. It is very helpful to have the supprt of someone who is both experienced and without motives to control or direct the student. The TMO knows how to teach a basic, beautiful and traditional meditation but it also knows how to set up conditions whereby numbers of people develope difficulties which the TMO then does not have the knowledge or the desire to help them with.
TM without the organization or stupid beliefs that go with it might be a fine thing for children, 15 minutes twice per day. The religious nature of the organization makes this impossible in the US.
Dr. Keith DeBoer said...
> there is nothing religious about
> Transcendental Meditation.
It's possible to practice techniques taught by the TM org without embracing any religious ideas. This is true of any technique.
Based on quotes shown here, it appears that Maharishi wrapped the technique in religious ideas, and that lots of people in his org did the same. I'm not particularly concerned about what religious beliefs anyone holds, as long as they don't force them on others.
So the issue would swing on precisely what they're proposing to do in schools. I haven't seen the details discussed here.
Are they suggesting that the course be called "TM" or "Transcendental Meditation" (as a way of advertising the org and it's for-pay offerings)? Or would the school course be entirely free of such advertising? Would the course be the teaching and practicing of a technique, or would any beliefs be introduced? These are key details.
If they're just teaching a technique without including any sort of belief, or any sort of plug for the org, I don't have a problem with that. If any beliefs or advertising is include, that'd make a significant difference.
Stuart
http://stuart-randomthoughts.blogspot.com/
when i first started to be disillusioned with TM™ and MMY,i checked his Art of Living book, and found out that in the chapter Art of Speaking (in croatian translation that i was reading it was called Art of Proper Speaking), there was almost no mention of 'truth'.
Actually, there was only one - and it was followed by an immediate ', but...'!
Now, what kind of 'spiritual teacher' is it, that practically doesn't mention Truth when talking about 'proper' speaking!? And when he does - once! - he immediatelly follows it with a 'but' (as in "you should speak the truth, but...")!
Spiritual, indeed.
As in 'Spirit, unlike hard matter, is as light as hot air... thus, spiritual teaching is akin to selling hot air'...
'So the issue would swing on precisely what they're proposing to do in schools. I haven't seen the details discussed here.'
I haven't seen the details disussed anywhere. The proponents have simply promoted this exercise as an unalloyed 'good thing for children' with no apparent consideration of what, if anything, is to be taught as a corollary, or who will monitor and help the proportion of children who may be prone to excessive dissociation.
This emphasis, so far, on the unalloyed beneficial results of the technique without consideration of the possible problems, flags it for me as a marketing exercise, and a cynical one at that as it is directed at the vulnerable and unformed minds of children.
I don't see cults everywhere, I've spent 30 years meditating and regard it as a beneficial practice--but, like everything, it has its downside and that should be acknowledged before prescribing it wholesale for children.
Every child will have to stand in front of an altar while puja is done. Every child will be gestured to kneel along with the teacher in front of a picture of a Hindu Pontiff. Every child will be given the identical mantra which relates to Goddess Saraswatti. Every child will be told about the concept of enlightenment and be told that TM is the best way to get there. Every child will be told that world peace will dawn when enough people practice TM.
No child will be told they need to believe in the above for it to produce good effects in their lives. No child will be told that numbers of young adults have lost their minds and health by following the instructions they were given on "advanced TM courses".
ah betty, this was THE best way to describe it! kudos.
Thank you, Blazenko. I practiced TM and "advanced techniques" from 1972-1989. I loved TM, it was so easy and I experienced so much pure joy and bliss doing it, felt much happier, etc. Then I began to go on retreats and longer courses, having been told I could reach enlightenment faster that way. I did experience very "profound" states of consciousness doing this, but also began to feel exhausted physically, spaced out mentally, restless emotionally, believing that if I could just go on the next course or afford another advanced technique, I would reach the goal, described as a state where no mistakes were possible, where everything I needed or wanted would be supplied to me by "Nature" ie God, without effort.
Every single long course I went on had casualties, people having break downs and being sent home or to hospitals. Several friends completely lost their minds. One went from being a very successful businessman to living on the street. I almost lost my mind as well and experienced states of fear and loathing it is hard to imagine now. Certainly some of this can be explained by saying that some were ill before they started meditating.
I believe that meditation is a great thing. I still meditate every day for an hour, not TM. There are problems associated with mantra repetition done for too long. A little is fine. The problem with the TM organization is that it tells lies. It creates problems that it doesn't have the answers for. It believes that the imagined ends justifies everything. Money and power are at the basis of everything this organization does. Dr. Keith DeBoer, who posted first on this topic, knows the truth of what I am saying but he will not admit it. As a teacher of TM, he has probably spent or given to the organization far more money than he has received from teaching the basic technique. Meanwhile Maharishi's family have become very wealthy.
It is actually very sad that these children cannot be helped by TM. They are mostly very poor and live in stressful situations. Any number of old TM teachers would be willing to teach them at no cost if asked. The problem is that it is part of a religion and it will likely create mental problems for a small percentage of the children.
meditation, tm or otherwise [is] just a tool [...] for getting rid of the stress and fatigueNo, so-called TM is just a tool for getting rid of stress.
Meditation is supposed to be a tool for reaching and realising your true self; not just for having more energy in a career-obsessed life.
Especially so for something calling itself transcendental.
What's so freaking transcendental about relieving stress? Sex does it, as does a good night's sleep.
Even the name and the stated purpose of the "technique" are out of synch. It is neither transcendental nor a real meditation.
But i guess a name like "Light Hypnotic Trance By Means of Repeating a Meaningless Word for 20 Minutes" (LHTBMRMW420M™)wouldn't sell as good as TRANSCENDENTAL™ MEDITATION™
It should at the very least change name to Trance Dental, it would be closer to truth...
'But i guess a name like "Light Hypnotic Trance By Means of Repeating a Meaningless Word for 20 Minutes" (LHTBMRMW420M™)wouldn't sell as good as TRANSCENDENTAL™ MEDITATION™'
I hear the sound of a hammer hitting a nail on the head, ovajonaj
And:
"Subject your children to LHTBMRMW420M™ so that we can then sell them unrealisable dreams at inflated prices for the forseeable future. Not all of them will suffer mental problems and breakdowns........"
though honest, would be less effective as a salespitch directed at parents and educators.
ellen said...though honest, would be less effective as a salespitch directed at parents and educators.
It would also speed up the inevitable process of the decay and demise of the organization teaching this technique. Why wait 50 years for an institution to reach its highest potential to trap people in dreams, then decay and go out with a whimper. Just tell the truth up front and it will all happen very quickly.
Actually, a simple letter-shuffle would give the proper name:
TranceMental Dedication*after prolonged practice, start using our TranceMental Medications™
I once ate at burgerking and had a mental breakdown and saw many ppl get crazy there.
plz don´t go there burgerking is very bad.
A fine parallel you draw, Karl Jacob, between TM and Burgerking. Both big business, corporate, for profit enterprises engaged in taking raw ingredients, processing them and selling them on with enormous hype at a huge mark-up.
A continued diet of either will be detrimental to your health.
Would you feed your child exclusively on Burgerking products and expect a healthy result?
A fine parallel you drawThat was one of the finest replies I've ever witnessed here. If you could put that in a bottle, I'd be buying.
I eat at burgerking sometimes and have no idea why anybody would or could eat that stuff excluseively.
but I also have not the slightest clue, why TM "makes ppl ll and crazy".
to me their stuff seems boring and harmless.
The "craziness" aspect of TM seems to be confined to the advanced or "Siddhis" offerings rather than the simple practice that is the TM organization's "entry-level product."
That generally harmless (and almost entirely traditional) practice is unfortunately employed as a "gateway drug" by the organization for its own ends, which are ambitious and lavish in much the same way as Scientology's.
do they get psychotic ?
from what kind of technics ?
Post a Comment
<< Home