I'll probably get flak for saying this, but it almost sounds like Michael's emotional development got arrested at around age nine or ten. Maybe when a child begins to separate reality from fantasy.
I never swallowed whole on all the claims made or implied by MMY. I mean, a teacher lays out a vision, or a path, and everyone's experience is going to be different. If there is anyone who places MMY on a pedestal, a likely candidate would be Michael, who seems to feel betrayed because the organization or the technique isn't producing an ideal citizen in everyone touched by it. Okay, so the ME effect seems to have some flaws. I don't know the mechanics of how a large group of people practicing TM or the TMSP might affect the environment, or if it affects the environment at all. I don't know if yagyas are totally bogus or legitimate, or maybe somewhere in between. Yea, like most, I'd like to see some vetted scientific research. I'm one who believes that there should be some physiological correlates in those who are said to have a higher state of consciousness. After all, Yogananda, IIRC, made some claims, which were borne out, such as the lack, or very slow decay, of his body after death. I think he also demonstrated going into a state of samadhi, with no detectable breath for significant period of time. I would say events such as those bear further investigation. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <sharelong60@...> wrote : Steve, your last two paragraphs make a lot of sense to me based on my own experience. I think in general it's wise to take what's good about someone or something and leave the rest. UNLESS there's violence happening in which case I think it's essential to do what one can to prevent it, even if that's only speaking out about it. On Tuesday, April 8, 2014 7:50 AM, "steve.sundur@..." <steve.sundur@...> wrote: Well, I would say you may still be a little wet behind the ears. I think many have taken this route. A friend of mine who was an active teacher back in the day, and lived in FF for a spell, is now priest in an archdiocese in Iowa somewhere, IIRC, and he tells a similar store as Kai Druhl, and his objections run along the same lines. I think you have a tendency to take at face value every claim MMY or the TMO has made, and then when they don't pan out you start pounding. I think others were able to figure in a discount for the "vision of possibilities" and go from there. Yes, some of things that have come to light in the intervening years have caused me some cognitive dissonance, and forced me to look at things differently, but I know what I have taken away from the experience overall, and that has allowed me to overcome some of the dysfunctional parts of it all.
