Lawson and Judy, good points. turq, to whom was Maharishi *marketing* TM when he went on the Merv Giffin Show? TV watchers?! And in your opinion would those folks be in an *at risk* group? Or a privileged, wealthy group? Or a mental problem group? All of the above?!
I remember that a couple weeks before I started TM I "slipped into the zone." So much so that my Mom asked me what was making me so peaceful. A few days later I saw a poster of Maharishi announcing an intro lecture. I decided to go, but sort of casually. When I walked into the room, the guy was giving out pamphlets. I said I didn't need one because I knew I was gonna start. Which I did. A week before Maharishi's appearance on the Merv Griffin Show. Not being from California, I knew very little about meditation, etc. I had once taken a yoga class in which we did asanas and stared at a flame. I had read Autobiography of A Yogi which a gorgeous young man left on my table at Yes! Health Food Restaurant in Georgetown. Which is all to say that I was not a seeker. Nor was I having problems. Nor was I wealthy. All in all, I'd say I was simply very fortunate. Because I heard decades ago that when a person gets on a spiritual path, the teacher as if makes an agreement with the universe to get that person enlightened. I feel very fortunate that in my case, the teacher was Maharishi. On Friday, April 18, 2014 6:10 AM, "lengli...@cox.net" <lengli...@cox.net> wrote: The David Lynch Foundation offers TM instruction for free to people in "at risk" groups, but the $2500 price tag was originally set by Maharishi to entice wealthy people and only wealthy people to learn TM. Weren't you complaining about how insanely high that price tag was? Seems to me that no matter how TM is marketed and for what price and for whichever group of people -the homeless, war refugees, students in El Barrio watching their cousins kill their cousins, or world famous actors and actresses, CEOs worth as much as small countries, etc.- you'll find a reason to kvetch. It's just an idea. YMMV. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote : One of the things I've noticed over the years is how many long-term TMers say things like, "I'd be dead if it weren't for TM," or "TM saved my life," or "TM cured me of my depression/anxiety/suicidal thoughts/mental illness/whatever." I've always found these claims difficult to relate to, because I didn't have anything to "cure" or "get over" when I first started TM. I had already left drugs behind me, having discovered them back when LSD was still legal and came in a bottle with Sandoz on the label. I did my time with them, enjoyed them *not* because they were an "escape from my problems" but because they enhanced an already-enjoyable life. But then I got tired of them, and even more tired of the scene surrounding them, and left them behind. I'm probably one of the only people here who didn't have to wait 15 days before starting TM. :-) I was also neither depressed nor suicidal. In fact, I was a pretty happy frood, and merely one who was looking for ways to become even happier. And for a time, TM presented what I was looking for, something to enhance a good life and help me to appreciate it even more. But then it became as boring and as stagnant as drugs had been, and with an even more stifling social scene, so I moved on again to other forms of meditation that worked better. But there seem to be any number of long-term TMers who don't look back on their TM experience this way. They seem to focus on what it enabled them to "get over" or "cure" or "get beyond," almost as if (almost) before TM they had been "broken" and TM had "fixed" them. This gets me to thinking about tent revival meetings in the South (which, of course, you can't help but attend a few of if you grow up in the South), in which the most fervent "believers" and most fundamentalist Bible-thumpers were ALL those who formerly were drunks or whores or thieves or something BAD. It's as if they don't feel they can adequately shout "I've been SAVED!" unless they feel they had a lot to be saved FROM. And *this* gets me to thinking about whether Maharishi always pitched TM to losers and people with problems and low self esteem because they become the best disciples. And *disciples* is what he was looking for. Think about it. Does the TMO really spend any energy trying to market TM to "regular people," who have few problems in life and are just looking to enjoy it more? They do not. They focus on People With Problems. Kids doing badly in school. Criminals locked away in prisons. Veterans with PTSD. Can't this be seen as a continuation of a long-standing trend to look for prospective new students among populations who are more likely to be easy to convert into True Believers and thus become disciples? It's just an idea. YMMV.
