--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > On Jun 19, 2008, at 11:51 AM, Hugo wrote: > > > You also say that MMY believed it, but he was wrong! I think > > he was too but I did always find it a fascinating idea and just > > the sort of thing that would shake the world up if it turned > > out to be true. I kept hoping it was a real effect because of > > the "stronger" programmes I'd have when I was in a group, for > > years I couldn't see how it *wasn't* having an effect on the > > rest of the world. After a while I doubted it was doing me > > any good at all, which is very common but most people are in > > denial because they think it must just be unstressing, I'm > > not convinced about that either anymore. > > > Did he really believe it? Or was it just a money raising scheme?
> Consider the direct experience of one of the ME's main benefactors > and one of M's (former) closest students: > > "I was sitting with Maharishi privately, because at the time I had an > open invitation to > come to Vlodrop and sit with Mahesh whenever I wanted to. At that > time I > knew that Mahesh had many tens of millions of dollars, the money he > needed > to create a 10,000 group. He was talking about building big buildings, > buying airlines, etc. etc. I said, Maharishi, since you have the > money and > supposedly you have enough pundits, why don't you create a 10,000 > group in > India and then the world will experience peace and the TM movement > will gain > great support of the laws of nature and our other activities will > work out. > Mahesh looked at me like I was crazy and said "Earl, if we created > the group > then we don't know if it would create world peace or not. We would > have to > have the group and then see what the effect it has."" > > -Earl Kaplan, former TM benefactor > > [emphases mine] Straight from the horses mouth! I cracked up laughing first time I read that. To me it rings true because of the simplicity of the request: You have the money and people, why not just do it. You can imagine the look on his face can't you, all that money, all those years of believing *totally*. I was working at an academy when MMY said "Give me one billion dollars and I will save the world" I was the only one who said "But we've already got that much" and explained that the Guardian financial pages had rated the TMO as being worth £4.5 billion, and that was years ago. It didn't go down very well. Must've been just before the Kaplans bailed out. I still thought there might be something in it in those days
