Anne, you could pay Skem a visit from Hebden bridge, it's due south west from there - just follow the rain clouds. The dome is in Ashurst which is the nice bit. Downhill from there is a drive thru MacDonalds and an Asda next to a dreary shopping centre on an industrial wasteland. Wear some stout shoes for the broken glass and you'll be OK. For something to do you could play "spot the Domie" among the locals. Actually that's all there is to do unless you want to join the local kids for some wanton vandalism or heroin abuse, depends which age of teenager you are most happy hanging around with. I really seriously do not recommend going to the local pub. And don't bother looking for postcards to send to friends back home because there aren't any. Which is never a good sign.
But seriously, the first time I visited Skem I thought it was better than I expected. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <awoelflebater@...> wrote: ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> wrote: Yes I've been there. What happened was, when I started meditating the TMO was putting in a bid for an old US air force base on the east coast. I went along to a few meetings and was impressed at the ambition and possibilities even though I had yet to learn of the general trajectory of movement ideas. Basically they couldn't afford it but they did buy a little corner and eventually started building a perfect vastu village of about 30 (?) homes and a few blocks of flats. They plan to build a peace palace but nature doesn't seem to be supporting them in raising the money. For some reason. Ahem... I haven't been inside the houses and have heard mixed reviews but they look really good with double doors and pillars, most people love them and love being in the community even more. A friend of mine lives in one of the flats though and I love it, I'd move in straight away if I had the money. And that's the problem, they are really expensive, so much so that you can't get a mortgage because it won't have that resale value and the banks are worried about losing out. But most who live there are retired and were happy to pay the extra to live in vastu. I don't like the place, walking around it gives me the creeps, all the buildings line up on every axis so you can look through one window and see through about 5 homes in every direction. It makes me feel like I'm being watched. I don't like the vastu principle anyway, I think it's stupid and illogical and the idea of nature support is a crock of shit. And not having a south facing garden in England is the dumbest idea of them all. And you can't put a conservatory on the side as it would break the symmetry, one of my favourite things is sitting on my south facing veranda of an evening listening to the rain on the roof. You have to be a true believer to want to live somewhere like this so it isn't for me but if it makes them happy I'm happy for them. Both of your posts today, the one on Skelmersdale and now this one, are fascinating and very well written. I especially appreciated your take on the architectural layouts and why these were less than appealing. I had the same perception looking at some of these planned Vedic cities, all of these geometric and de-humanized looking regimented layouts. And so funny when you mention about the non-south facing entrances and gardens in England (of all rainy and cloudy places to adopt that particular Vastu quirkiness). ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mjackson74@...> wrote: I have never heard of this place - you know anything about it Sal? vedic village in Rendlesham -------------------------------------------- On Tue, 2/11/14, salyavin808 <no_re...@yahoogroups.com mailto:no_re...@yahoogroups.com> wrote: Subject: [FairfieldLife] RE: Skelmersdale To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Date: Tuesday, February 11, 2014, 8:13 AM Sounds like someone didn't enjoy their school days! I never lived there but spent a lot of time on courses and felt both happy and sad for the TM kids. Maybe it's my prejudice as a southerner from a really nice town near London but I thought Skem was a seriously depressing place, a sprawling low-rent estate built to ease overcrowding in nearby Liverpool. I thought the Domies had built a really nice village though, meditating in the dome was lovely and they had plenty of activities for adults and kids alike. The people I used to stay with organised a lot of it and were seriously cool and respected other peoples beliefs - including my natural scepticism which was rare in the TMO but they didn't like the emphasis on Indian stuff in the TMO so maybe they are part of a minority ;-). A lot of people weren't like that though and the emphasis was very much on TM conformity to the extent that the directors had spies reporting back to them about people were talking about outside the dome. The TMO is a very insular organisation, you couldn't move there and set up a whole food shop for instance as you would be in competition with the dome shop and would be blacklisted (this happened, I was disgusted) But it is a cult and we shouldn't forget that. There are plenty of funny stories about people trying other techniques and new age beliefs and the response of the TMO but that's life, people experiment and it isn't worth getting upset about. This is interesting: The daughter of my old Geography teacher, Ruth, told me that not long ago a couple of members of the British Humanist Association protested outside the Maharishi school as they were convinced it was teaching creationism because one of the subjects is called the Science of Creative Intelligence (SCI).SCI taught a mixture of Vedic philosophy and lifestyle tools, but steered away from faith and religion of any sort – it was merely the use of the word "creative" which riled people up. “They said we were being brainwashed, but once we spoke to them, they were really cool, they told us about their practice and it was really interesting. We were going to take the mick and pretend we were all robots.”I wouldn't say they were brainwashed but they were definitely taught a load of shit. And this must have been a pretty poor bunch of humanists not to have spotted that, but then the TMO is always careful to give an acceptable view of their beliefs, they make their crazy kool aid sound almost reasonable. Unified field based education, my arse!I had so many arguments about SCI with people I lost count. The idea is totally without intellectual merit and supporting evidence, and they teach jyotish there! I think lying to children is wrong, I couldn't care less what adults choose to believe but schools should keep it to what is known and why we think that is the case (it's called science). There are so many wonders you can teach in the school day, why waste time with a stupid religious belief from iron age India, mixed up with crap quantum physics and failed sociology? It's the reason I never donated to the school, I just felt sorry for the kids thinking they were learning something in jyotish that would be useful at university studying physics.I did envy the laid back school lifestyle and "quiet periods" it's a stark contrast to the school I went to. The small class sizes help too and I've met some very cool and well adjusted kids who went there, some of them rejected the TM belief system when they got into the wider world and some didn't. But I do remember a bit of friction between the meddy kids and the locals, but nothing serious or worse than I got from grammar school toff's in my town. It's part of growing up.All in all, Skem is a nice place if you like that sort of thing but it's an ageing community and the youngsters can't wait to leave as there is nothing to do and the best careers will be found away from the depressed north west. Since the vedic village in Rendlesham got built an awful lot of people have moved away, but Skem still has a friendly community feel to it which is all too rare these days. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mjackson74@...> wrote: This is a fascinating article on the TM community written by a woman who grew up there. It is fascinating to read the article and then read the comments left by readers. Those of you on FFL who are Brits, whaddya think? http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/liverpools-decaying-yogi-commune http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/liverpools-decaying-yogi-commune
