--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "salyavin808" <fintlewoodlewix@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <authfriend@> wrote: > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson <mjackson74@> wrote: > > > > > > A beautifully written article about TM and the race to > > > inner space. > > > > Funny how she gets so many of her facts wrong, isn't it? > > You'd almost think she'd learned TM from some independent > > who'd gone *way* off the range. Among other things, > > according to her, her teacher gave out the mantras at the > > end of the course, as a "graduation ceremony," and he wore > > a robe during the initiations. > > It's the first law of journalism: Never let the facts get in > the way of a good story.
I think you're getting caught up in The Corrector's nitpicking and attempts to present the author of this piece in a bad light, and as having malevolent intent. She (the author), after all, introduces it as a remembrance of something that happened (and that she was underwhelmed by) *ten years earlier*. It is natural that she might remember a few things hazily or inaccurately. As for the "end of the course" thang, that is how a number of people I've taught thought of the two introductory lectures, as "the course," the rest being (for them) something else, maybe the part where they actually got taught something that cost money. :-) This author may have thought similarly. As for the teacher wearing a robe, I have no explan- ations except that 1) she might have memory problems, 2) she might be embellishing things for effect, 3) she might have been dealing with one of the TM teacher nutcases I often had to deal with as a State Coordin- ator, who really *did* wear robes and sit on thrones, or 4) she might have been dealing with a TM teacher similar to Harold Bloomfeld, who was dressed in a robe because he was waiting for the drugs he'd slipped her to take effect so that he could molest her. :-) Anything is possible. The points of the article are sound, and valid -- TM is *hugely* overpriced, and simply not worth the price, TM is hyped as special and unique when it is anything but, and TM figures like MMY and David Lynch are *far* from as admirable as the TMO would like them to be. Just as the author may have skewed things a little to make her point, Judy skews things in her way to make the author seem malevolent. Anything rather than accept the fact that for most people, the author's piece strikes a resonance, and captures how insanely WEIRD TM and all the hoopla surrounding how it is taught are. Judy is so far from that exper- ience that she can't remember how WEIRD it all is; the author of this piece is not.
