Like I said, I was never on any of those courses - always heard things about courses like Majorca but no specifics were ever talked about, at least not from the people I heard - it was third hand rumors - I think Rick and Mark Landau are the first people I ever talked to who were on that course.
________________________________ From: Steve Sundur <steve.sun...@yahoo.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2013 7:12 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: RE: Mitchell Kapor Just a little correction. I think the course Mitch was on must of had YF. That wasn't on the radar on my course. As far as unstressing goes. Hell, it was the more the better. I mean my attitude was "bring it on". I remember thinking to myself if I would rather have unstressing manifest itself in a physical, or a mental fashion. And I seemed to get plenty of both. And this may surprise you, but I really never saw evidence of people really going off the deep end - in any of my courses. Of course, I may have just been blind to it. From: Michael Jackson <mjackso...@yahoo.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2013 8:00 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: RE: Mitchell Kapor Well, I wasn't there - but from what I have heard of the heavy unstressing on many courses, it doesn't sound like there was an effective means or program in place to assist those who were going through stuff. If there was I would like to know that and to know what things were put into place to assist people going through the unstressing. Such a thing would make me think more highly of the Movement than I do now. From: Steve Sundur <steve.sun...@yahoo.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2013 7:51 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: RE: Mitchell Kapor Hey Mikey. How you livin'. Listen, I was on the six month course. The first one actually, where the experimentation was rampant. Enemas, diet control, (or at least many theories to consider). Rick was on that course too. I guess for Mitch, it wasn't his cup of tea, so he left. I think he may have been on a later course. Or at least I don't remember him on my course. But I thoroughly enjoyed it, and felt I gained much from it. I think what Jim is saying, (and really, I just skimmed it), is that if there is such thing as a spiritual path, and you choose to be on it, that as you move along that path, and you will have to clear away any wreckage. Now probably, many times you may progress a certain amount, and then decide to take a break. And of course, so what if you do. I don't know what on with Mitch, other than he felt he got all he could from the program and then moved on - either with prejudice or without prejudice. I think that's what Jim is saying. But at some point, if you decide to take up the path again, in a more focused way, then you may well have to engage in some heavy lifting again. P.S. My favorite part of that course was the hours of reading the Upanishads. More interesting (and enjoyable) than the Rig Veda readings. P.S.S. The food was...............excellent!! From: Michael Jackson <mjackso...@yahoo.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2013 6:09 AM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: RE: Mitchell Kapor Kapor didn't say he was looking for a magic bullet or a panacea, he was just wanting what Marshy promised and to see if the sidhis was the real deal, if M could really teach anyone to fly. Obviously he couldn't teach anyone to fly, and Kapor was not looking to get screwed up from the rounding. I will leave it to those who did the six months courses to comment on the experiment comment Kapor made. I have heard of heavy unstressing, but not the enemas and Hindu food combining rituals, not that early in the Movement history anyway. I have a hell of a lot more admiration and respect for Kapor for getting himself out and making something substantive of his life as opposed to asses like Russel Brand and Howard Stern. From: "awoelfleba...@yahoo.com" <awoelfleba...@yahoo.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2013 11:36 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] RE: RE: Mitchell Kapor --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com> wrote: Interesting that these people that get so bent out of shape about TM, are the ones that put all their eggs in that one basket, expecting Easter, and candy treats from then on. It's a technique, people, not some panacea for life itself. It doesn't stop the hard work being done, or the sometimes uncomfortable looking at ourselves in the mirror. WTF did you expect? No free lunch on this planet, no matter who you are, or what you do. Absolutely Doc. I have been wanting to say this for a long time now and you just did - perfectly. If someone is let down, disappointed, left feeling cheated or bereft then look to yourselves, people. There is no magic pill for happiness, fulfillment or anything else and if you think MMY indicated this then you read it all wrong. Great things come with great effort. Period. You have to spend years, sweat buckets, will yourself silly and desire it with everything you've got. And this is just the start. Anything that comes too easily is either not worth it or will not be appreciated for what it truly is. People need to stop whining, take responsibility for being naive. You should have doubted MMY if you felt he indicated heaven would be yours by merely closing your eyes twice a day for 20 mins. It could never be so and if you believed it you have only yourself to blame. >--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <fairfieldlife@yahoogroups.com> wrote: > > >Mitchell Kapor, Founder of Lotus Software on TM > > > >Tricycle: It seems that the material you’ve been involved with has addressed internal and external freedom and an entrenched wariness of authoritarian rule. Is this perspective influenced or affirmed by your experience with the Maharishi? [His full name is Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.] > > >Kapor: My dislike for authoritarian structures goes back as far as I can remember in my childhood. If I could remember past lives, I’m sure my memories would extend there too. But my experiences in Transcendental Meditation ultimately really deepened my commitment to anti-authoritarianism. > > >Tricycle: How did you get involved in TM? > > >Kapor: Well, my experience was typical for my generation. I had gotten to college in the 60′s and started experimenting with marijuana and psychedelics, fairly heavily. I had some distressing experiences with LSD. Bad trips. So I stopped doing drugs and then started getting acid flashbacks. I decided to give meditation a serious try to see if that could have some calming effect. I got hooked in to TM and eventually made the decision to go through advanced training to become an initiator, an instructor. > > >Tricycle: How long did you stay involved with TM? > > >Kapor: I was involved for seven years. It all ultimately came to a head in 1976. The movement went into a new phase and Maharishi started talking about siddhis, powers, and techniques for doing levitation and other things. This created so much cognitive dissonance in me that I didn’t know what to do. I had to find out if it was real or not, and I wanted to believe that it was real, but something in me said that it couldn’t possibly be real. People weren’t really going to levitate. So I went to Switzerland for the sixth-month course on "powers." > > > >I went and I fell apart. They were using us as experimental subjects. There >was fasting involved and various austerities that come out of Hindu traditions, enemas and various bizarre food combining rituals. A lot of madness got released. > > > >After five months of this I said whatever problems I might or might not have, >TM is not making them better, it is making them worse and I decided to leave. This was like leaving everything, because I had severed all of my other ties and relations: no job, no career, no marriage and no prospects. I got up in the middle of the night and walked to the train station. I felt like I was crossing from slavery into freedom, from one intolerable situation into the great unknown. > > > >By the way, no one really levitates. I fully satisfied myself as to that. > > > >http://www.kapor.com/writing/tricycle-interview/
