--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, blusc0ut <no_reply@...> wrote:
>
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "TurquoiseB" <turquoiseb@> wrote:
> >
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, blusc0ut <no_reply@> wrote:
> > >
> > > I think that group-program, from its very outset, was
> > > never meant to create world-peace or anything. It was
> > > always a control mechanism, and that shows. If group
> > > programs would work, the chinese could have never
> > > massacred tibetan monastries, who had thousands of
> > > people meditating together, on a permanent basis.
> >
> > Thanks for your thoughtful analysis. I was also
> > around "back then" in 1977, and agree with you.
> >
> > > One more clue, why that is so, is the fact how it
> > > developed: there was never any emphasis on group
> > > meditation before the sidhis, that is approximately
> > > before 1977. Until that time people simply meditated
> > > in their rooms, and that was perfectly alright. With
> > > the introduction of sidhis, and especially flying,
> > > foam matrazes were needed, and having people hopping
> > > in their beds, with the consequent damages was simply
> > > no option. Originally people came together only for
> > > flying sessions into a flying room or tent.
> >
> > Exactly.
> >
> > > Only around the years 1977, towards the end, beginning
> > > of 1978 the whole ideology of group- practise for world
> > > peace, super-radience or how-ever it was called developed.
> >
> > Exactly again. I bailed from the TMO towards the end
> > of 1977, after coming back from my TM-siddhis course.
> > Up until the time I left, there was never a *hint*
> > of the "Maharishi Effect" or "You're doing it for
> > world peace." That was all invented later, as you
> > say.
>
> Interesting. I knew quite a few people then, who left right after the
> Siddhis/Enlightenment course,some right away to India to either Muktananda or
> Osho. At the time I was still thoroughly immersed in the TM movement. I would
> have bailed out some 4 years later, but ironically, it was meeting a saint,
> who made me stay in the movement some years more, and actually have both
> worlds, until it became clear which way to go.
>
>
> > My theory as to *why* it was invented is a little
> > different than yours. Yes, "group practice" is a
> > control mechanism, and an enforced test of fealty
> > ("You're either with us or against us, and check-
> > ing attendance allows us to see which"), but the
> > whole ME "You're doing it for the world" thang
> > was not trotted out until people had started to
> > realize that the siddhis had very little "payoff"
> > for them, personally. There was no there there.
> > People were starting to quit and drift away from
> > the TMO, because they'd paid big bucks for its
> > most expensive "program," and it did diddleysquat
> > for them.
>
> Certainly the promises were to high by far. We all thought we would fly
> within a few month, get lots of initiations. When I first heard of siddhis
> there were reports of people waking through walls, getting invisible, (I
> still got that sutra, it was skipped later on)
>
>
> > Can't have that. Rephrase things to take the
> > emphasis away from discernible personal benefit,
> > and cast it in terms of "You're doing it for the
> > world." Try to appeal to the higher motives of
> > people to get them to stick around, because the
> > techniques themselves weren't sufficient to keep
> > them around.
>
> This 'appealing to higher motives' was a very conscious thing from Maharishis
> side. I actually heard him say, we should always make very general (not
> specific) appeals, like mentioning 'ideal society' and the like. There is an
> added thing. People started to move to communities to be able to 'fly'
> together. Sidhaland came up.So people become dependend (psychologically) on
> group practice, on the existence of such groups, move their whole lives,
> families, jobs to other places, Fairfield for example, and such become more
> and more dependend on the group.
>
> If you had an individual scheme of enlightenment, you were told that we are
> doing it for the world, we are like soldiers for world peace, that we are
> karmically connected to the world. Sort of like the Bodhisattva ideal, but TM
> movement version. Skip your own individual enlightenment, and wait till day X
> when we get all enlightened. May be you weren't around anymore, when
> Maharishi would answer to questions, why we don't fly yet, that it was
> because of world consciousness. Again the shift from individual to
> collective.
>
> This is called goal displacement
> http://www.ex-premie.org/papers/goal_displacement.htm
Just as a small follow up: the siddhis were already a goal displacement to the
original goal of enlightenment. The group effect, was a goal displacement for
the siddhis. The siddhis (as goals in themselves) were just an intermediate
station of a larger goal displacement from individual to collective
enlightenment. (Some might argue that enlightenment was a goal displacement to
just living happy and without struggle)
>
>
> > That's my theory, anyway. Like yours, it's just
> > a theory. Anyway, welcome to the forum. I look
> > forward to more insightful posts from you.
>
> Thanks, and so do I.
>
