--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Susan" wrote: > > > > My opinion is that they developed the buddy system and > > all the other "precautions" because there had been a > > few really sad and serious situations where people did > > become unstable or have breakdowns while on various > > course, or even died. > > That is correct. Even though there were freakouts back > on the India courses (one guy lost it and ran through > the jungles screaming for several hours before they > could catch him), the concern on the part of the TMO > started, as I understand it, back in Estes Park, where > people were having all sorts of mental and physical > issues related to the long meds (no asanas then), so > Maharishi tried "rounding." > > When that didn't stop the negative effects of the longer > periods of meditation, he started to talk about "unstress- > ing" as related to this phenomenon, and claim that it was > because Westerners carried more "stress" in their systems > than people in India he had been more used to, and that > it was a Good Thing, because, after all, "stress" was being > released. And everybody just bought this, just as they had > everything else he had said. > > The addition of asanas to "program" on courses didn't do > anything to stop these negative side effects, however, as > anyone who was on the Fiuggi course should remember. The > first 2-3 rows at that course were reserved for "heavy > unstressers," and it was a real zoo. It looked like a > convention of people suffering from epilepsy, Tourettes > Syndrome, or both. Arms jerking and flying around, people > grunting and yelling and moaning -- and all of this *in > activity*, sitting in a lecture hall, not during "program." > In fact, most of these people were told to *stop* rounding > and meditate normally, and *the symptoms did not go away*. > For some of them these tics and jerks and uncontrollable > spasms lasted for months. (Please note that all of this > was the result of plain, vanilla TM, *long* before the > Sidhis and *their* brand of grunting and twitching > appeared upon the scene.)
Doesn't seem to happen any more, though, does it? Wonder what changed? Anybody have any ideas? > > My guess is that most of these people were unstable before > > coming to the course. I suspect this happens in all > > spiritual groups and churches, too. > > What I'm trying to tell you is that -- based on my exper- > ience and that of thousands of others who have attended > in-residence long meditation courses in other techniques, > NO SUCH PHENOMENA ARE PRESENT. No one ever had to > make up "rules" or "guidelines" to deal with such extreme > side effects, because they NEVER APPEARED. You've spoken with these thousands of people to find out what their experience has been? How many such courses have you attended, and how many different techniques were involved? > Personally, I believe that the basic laziness of the basic > TM technique is at fault. The techniques of meditation at > these other courses involved more focus. *Not*, as TMers > were often told, "concentrating" on the mantra or other > point of meditational focus, just being aware enough not > to sit there for long periods time -- or for the whole > meditation session -- lost in thoughts and daydreams. With these other techniques, in that state of "enough awareness," what is it that reminds the meditator to return to the mantra or other point of meditational focus?
