A visiting Washington Post writer, Ben Terris recently came up with this, 'transcendentalmeditationists' as a shorthand descriptor largely for who or what we are in meditating Fairfield, Iowa. Technically this descriptor is pretty good. It encompasses the larger range of what has become transcendental meditationists in the community in Fairfield, Iowa. Non-capitalized the term is not limited by franchise of a trademark but is left describing Fairfield as its experiment in transcendentalism, that yes we are transcendentalists that can go back to the philosophy of transcendentalism or its philosophers. But 'meditationist' infers that we are here as transcendental meditationists in discipline of practice, more than just a bunch of philosophers and idealists. I like the shorthand 'transcendental meditationist' gives. I go out to conferences around the State of Iowa or out around the country where people will ask, “So, what is going on in Fairfield, Iowa?” Depending on what the person really wants to know I may just give the short answer, “Oh, we are a bunch of 'transcendentalists' living there. That suffices on one level in quick conversation and says not much either. But, that we are a community of 'transcendental meditationists' says it more particularly. I like that. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-transcendental-meditationists-who-turned-an-iowa-farm-town-into-a-bernie-base/2016/01/29/b4de383c-c5e1-11e5-8965-0607e0e265ce_story.html The.. Fairfield “transcendental meditationists”.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <dhamiltony...@yahoo.com> wrote : The.. Fairfield “transcendental meditationists”. Dawn asks: What are *taters* or *rus*? Nick names Townies had for people in the TM movement. *Tater* was short for a meditater, also a shortened forum for a tuber called a potato . Rus were short for gurus. What would be real interesting to know is how Townies voted compared to *taters* or *rus*. Jefferson County, which includes Fairfield, went 73% for Sanders, 27% for Clinton -- an amazing result, and easily Bernie's biggest victory margin in Iowa. Nothing else came close. Would be interesting to see how the Vedic City republican transcendental meditationists split on their candidate preference. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <dhamiltony...@yahoo.com> wrote : Dear Friends, to help facilitate scholarly research I have recently sent the accompanying memo around to groups of scholars and journalists who study communal groups like our meditating community in Fairfield, Iowa. This is meant to be of help for folks looking in on our meditating community in Fairfield, Iowa from the outside. As a two-for tool this also can be helpful towards bringing our own local community up on more current processes that are evolving in the Fairfield, Iowa meditating community. Paste.. January 1, 2016 To facilitate scholarly research I have collated some material that communal studies historians and social scientists might enjoy looking through. There is an old Yahoo-groups forum [ FairfieldLife ] related to the meditating community in Fairfield, Iowa. https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FairfieldLife/info https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FairfieldLife/info The forum is fifteen years old and is an amazing archive of notes on communal meditating Fairfield, Iowa. There is treasure of material, some from eye-witnesses who 'were there' spread throughout the archive. Over the years I have kept an index that I periodically update. On January 1, this year (2016) I updated some of the indexing and brought up to date with some more current threads about the meditating community in Fairfield. Collating this material to January 1st as a date makes it much easier to find and research with only a few clicks. To navigate on the FairfieldLife main page scroll down towards its bottom to a calendar matrix where you can easily click on to 2016 and the month of January. That takes you directly to Jan 1 of 2016. You can then scroll down and find the indexing that is posted there and other relevant communal studies threads within the January 1st posts. It Seems easier to operate on a laptop vs smart phone screen. Some browsers and their settings may choke at the yahoo interface. Switching browsers may help. You will get the hang of it once you get going. The FairfieldLife at yahoo-groups main page is home at: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FairfieldLife/info https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FairfieldLife/info Social scientists might like the more current summary posts on communal mental health in the Fairfield meditating community and the posts on recent demographic trends. Some of these subjects are currently touchy hot for various reasons. I put some of these subjects together in this post: 423699Year-end, 2015 Post-Founder TM, an Index https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FairfieldLife/conversations/messages/423699 Also, A much longer FFL subject index is posted to be found there on Jan 1 at: 423593Re: An Old Index to FFL https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FairfieldLife/conversations/messages/423593 https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FairfieldLife/conversations/messages/423593 Once there, at the bottom of that page click on 'previous posts' in the thread to expand the index. Within these January 1 posts rolling further in to the month of January are some posts are some that historians of Quakers and others as spiritual community might like, for instance. 423590Re: Spirituality https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FairfieldLife/conversations/messages/423590 https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FairfieldLife/conversations/messages/423590 and 423568Re: Morphology of Spiritual Communities, Morbidity and the Baby-Boom https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FairfieldLife/conversations/messages/423568 https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FairfieldLife/conversations/messages/423568 Happy hunting! These are just the tip of an iceberg in communal studies. Warm Regards from Fairfield, Iowa, -Doug Hamilton