--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Aug 17, 2005, at 7:25 AM, sparaig wrote: > > > In other words, its the ultimate busy-work for the TMO: he's just > > assigned them an impossible task that will keep the organization > > (assuming anyone, in the long run, embraces the goal that has been > > set) busy for the next few hundreds or thousands of years. > > Well Lawson, any group that is to survive will have to attract young > members. In the movement pictures I see people posting here it's all > the same ole students still hanging around. The only youngsters are > these peoples kids and grand kids. Sure there are a few, but the TMO > will be very lucky if it survives another 10 years let alone another > 100!
I'd say 20 years, until the first generation dies off. And then maybe another 10 years while the next generation -- the ones indoctrinated into TM dogma in schools -- find that there is nothing really to be part of any more. Did you see any young people in the photos from Guru Purnima in Vlodrop? But you do put your finger on the real issue. In my opinion, an evangelistic spiritual organization has lost its "viability" the moment it begins to focus more on its existing members than it does on attracting new members. For the TMO, I suspect that happened about the time of the Yawning of the Age of Enlightenment. At that point (or around that point), the fees were raised for basic instruction in TM, with the result that very few new people were starting. As a result, more and more courses and "advanced programs" for existing teachers and existing TMers had to be invented, to keep the incoming revenue stream flow- ing, and to keep the members convinced that some- thing worth being part of still existed. At this point, almost no new members are being attracted, and the *entire* focus of the movement seems to be on creating myths and "grand projects" to keep the few remaining members on board, by pandering to their sense of self importance. They are being told that the entire fate of the world depends on them. And they'll be told that until Maharishi dies, and then they'll tell each other that after he dies, and then they'll all die. IMO, the TM movement will pretty much die with them. And it didn't have to be like that. If the organ- ization had simply maintained its focus as a provider of a simple, effective, and accessible (in terms of cost) technique of meditation, it could have gone on for a long, long time. But instead it has system- atically driven the people who believed in that goal *out* of the organization. Sad, when you think about it... ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
