Except for Plato earlier, one of my first Gurus: http://www.umassd.edu/cas/philosophy/faculty/charliedonahue/
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "dhamiltony2k5" <dhamiltony2k5@...> wrote: > > With Best Regards, > -Doug Hamilton > <paste> > > Transcendental Meditation and Utopian Iowa (History) > It is now nearly 40 years since Transcendental Meditation came to Iowa and > planted itself there. Before those who were living there as Transcendental > Meditation (TM) came to Iowa might pass entirely from the scene I am placing > this chronicle of those days with you. The arrival of Transcendental > Meditation in Iowa could rightly be catalogued along with other utopian > settlement in Iowa. Utopian American settlement had come to Iowa before > during the earliest pioneer days of the old Quaker settlements, or > Fourieristic Communia, Abner Kneeland Universalists, communal Amana Colonies, > New England transcendentalists of Springwater and Hesper in Winneshiek > County, Icarians, communal Swedes or even the Amish settlement to modern > time. The history of Iowa is also a history of utopian settlement. > Transcendental Meditation evidently is within a part of the history of > utopian Iowa. The arrival of Transcendental Meditation in Iowa dates back to > the early 1970's. > > Transcendental Meditation Comes to Iowa in 1970 > > In the Spring of 1970 the first course in Transcendental Meditation was > taught in Iowa. > Introductory lectures were given on the campus of the University of Iowa with > one of the lectures attended by about 300 people in the Phillips Hall > auditorium. 22 people then signed up to learn the meditation starting on May > 4th, 1970. > > University of Iowa Mathematics Professor J.P. Lediaev and wife, Students LB > Shriver, Tom Vosteen, Tom Carsen and Edie Vonnegut were on that course and > among those first to be taught Transcendental Meditation in the State of > Iowa. LB Shriver is purported to be the first Transcendental Meditator to be > taught in Iowa. Shriver, born in Fairfield, Iowa was living in Iowa City at > the time. Charlie Donahue who had been trained by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in > India to teach Transcendental Meditation in the late 1960's was the teacher > of this first TM course in Iowa. > The connection for having this initial course taught in Iowa City came by way > through the Kurt Vonnegut family. Novelist Kurt Vonnegut was teaching then > in the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop. At that time Vonnegut was > residing with his family in Iowa City. A Vonnegut family acquaintance from > the East coast, Joe Clark had in the late 1960's studied with Maharishi > Mahesh Yogi, the Indian founder of Transcendental Meditation. Joe Clark then > had urged another early trained American as a Transcendental Meditation > teacher, Charlie Donahue to contact Edie Vonnegut who was then an art student > at the University of Iowa. At the time Donahue was a graduate student at the > University of Chicago and also teaching Transcendental Meditation in the > Midwest. With help of Edie Vonnegut an introductory course in > Transcendental Meditation was arranged for in Iowa City. The first > one-on-one initiations into Transcendental Meditation were held at 215 > Bloomington Street, where Edie Vonnegut was renting a room at the time. The > subsequent introductory course meetings and lectures came to be held later in > the Iowa Memorial Union on campus. > > Within three weeks some of that early group of Iowa meditators attended a > meditation retreat held in Waukegan, Wisconsin. Subsequent introductory > courses in Iowa City became weekly events throughout 1970 and the next > several years. Through the fall months of 1970 and the following years of > 1971-3 about 100 people per weekend were learning Transcendental Meditation. > Introductory lectures were held on campus with the one-on-one session of > teaching of the technique occurring at the Lediav home and subsequently at an > apartment rented then by Nancy Judge on Burlington Avenue in Iowa City. > Follow-up meetings of the introductory course in TM were held in the Iowa > Memorial Union. > Other Transcendental Meditation teachers subsequently traveled to Iowa City > to assist Charlie Donahue with teaching the rising swell of people to > meditate then. In January of 1971 a resident teacher of Transcendental > Meditation was arranged for by Charlie Donahue to live in Iowa City. A house > was then rented and Donna Seibert then came to Iowa City to reside as a > full-time teacher of Transcendental Meditation. > > Weekly advanced lectures and large group meditations held at the Iowa > Memorial Union were popular events and weekend meditation retreats also held > at the Memorial Union were widely attended. Within a decade 7,500 people > had learned Transcendental Meditation in Iowa City and about 130 people had > also traveled to study with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi directly to learn to teach > Transcendental Meditation. Throughout the 1970's other towns in Iowa then > received their own resident teachers of Transcendental Meditation from this > original teaching of meditation in Iowa City. Transcendental Meditation > flourished for some years in some places in Iowa at that time. > > From that original May 4, 1970 course in Transcendental Meditation, LB > Shriver resides in Fairfield, Iowa and J.P. Lediaev is a retired Professor > living in Iowa City. From those times, Donna Seibert (Colby) and Nancy Judd > currently reside in Fairfield. Doug Hamilton who writes this remembrance > was born & raised in Iowa City, a graduate of the University Elementary and > High Schools, and the University of Iowa. He was witness to those times when > Transcendental Meditation came to Iowa. He learned Transcendental Meditation > at that time and within a short time then studied for many months over many > years directly with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, also becoming a teacher of > Transcendental Meditation. He currently lives in Fairfield, Iowa active in > many facets of the widely diverse and active meditating spiritual practice > utopian community, as it is collected there presently (2009). > Postscript: I have written this as a meditator who was there, not intending > to do the whole history of what has become TM in Iowa. I have instead > written it only to be a remembrance of when it (TM) came to Iowa. >
