That is the funny thing. After the Beatles left India they gave the most powerful PR broadcast for this message possible. The world of popular culture hung on their every word as they described how they had discovered that Maharishi was a fraudulent monk. I was just a kid and I knew about it.
But the movement went through a Lady Gaga-like transformation from spiritual practice centered on the personality of Maharishi, to a sciency sounding pseudo medical practice focused on the scientific charts. It was brilliant re-branding very consciously orchestrated by Maharishi. It gave rise to the two teachings, one for the public and one for insiders. The one for the public spread far and wide (Mary Tyler Moore is meditating, woweee!) and the internal teaching became increasingly esoteric (better round up those trouser trout boys if you want to get to the promise land.) Those divisions exist today in the PR brochure version of what TM is about, delivered in Reaganesque affability (Ah shucks fellas TM isn't much more than 15 minutes of set'n a spell and let'n your mind and body settle down like dust after a rain storm.) But the inconvenient existence of the made-for-reality-TV Rajas has irrevocably broken down the separateness of these points of view. It gives any interested party a golden highway to how the inner circle views itself. (When ARE they going to break out the noise makers at those Raja gatherings, and why don't they hire a Wiggles impersonator band for this 5-year-old's birthday party? Sorry I'm on a roll here... and why can't the women join the fun with princess dress up tiaras and sparkly princess nails or ballerina dresses with platform toe shoes that make them all look like they are walking around on point? Sorry I got a little carried away there but I perform for a lot of kids and the dress-up fantasies seem remarkably similar. I saw a kid last night in a Luke Skywalker outfit and it was a dead ringer for a crown-less Raja outfit!) I suspect the nuthouse scene behind the curtain will be revealed in the documentary, "David Wants to Fly." http://www.rickross.com/reference/tm/tm185.html I don't think the movement has got anything to worry about with outside detractors. Attacks on the credibility of groups like TM just make the faithful rally together stronger against the common enemy. That is what makes it so tough for women in Judith's situation to come out if they are still invested in the group. It is the inner rot of people who have dumbed down the extravagant claims of the TM of their youth, blossoming into fairly ordinary problems and concerns of middle and older age. Reality has a way of intruding on fantasy like that. But I enjoyed my run on they yellow brick road. How about you? --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, tartbrain <no_re...@...> wrote: > > if the knowledge of the relationships had been common knowledge back then? >
