TranceNet:
Joe Kellet
A Simple, Natural, Relaxation Technique?
I'd
like to relate a few of my adventures from my years as a TM
meditator and teacher.
PART
I: SOMETHING GOOD IS HAPPENING!
At TM introductory lectures no mention is made that there could
be any unpleasant experiences associated with TM. True to it's
nature as an "esoteric" teaching (a teaching with
many hidden levels of indoctrination), TM keeps the fact of
possible negative experiences from the student until he is already
past the first level of initiation. Only after initiation, on
one of the "Three Nights After Initiation,"is the
concept of "unstressing" introduced.
TM doctrine
teaches that all (absolutely all!) personal difficulties and
restrictions are caused by "stress," which is some
"abnormality" in the "nervous system." If
we could free ourselves of stress we would be able to experience
"pure consciousness" at all times. That is, we would
be in "Cosmic Consciousness" (CC) and would be blissful
and would effortlessly perform "spontaneous right actions"
at all times. Furthermore, these "right actions" would
enjoy the "support of Nature" and would therefore
be successful. This is the "normal" state of life
that would be enjoyed by all people if only the "stress"
weren't in the way.
Notice,
by the way, that we just said that this "simple relaxation
exercise" is supposed to produce people who are morally
perfect, people who will "perform spontaneous right action"
in everything they think or do. Also they will receive "support"
from something called "Nature." Yet TMers deny to
the public that theirs is in any way a spiritual or religious
teaching.
This is one example of the fact that TM is an esoteric spiritual
system where the full truth is revealed in degrees only as one
becomes more deeply indoctrinated. Students are told in the
"Three Nights after Initiation" that a mere "twenty
minutes twice a day" (20x2) of meditation is enough to
produce CC. This is a deliberate misrepresentation of actual
"insider" TM doctrine. MMY told us on Teacher Training
Course (TTC) that mere 20x2 meditation would not produce CC,
but that we should continue telling people that it would. Only
long "rounding" (see below) courses could produce
CC, he said, but once we got people doing 20x2 meditation then
maybe they would come to longer courses so we weren't really
lying. This is an example of TM-style "spin doctoring"
directly from the Master.
This
is also an example of how people are deceived about TM doctrine
even after they are initiated. As a teacher I frequently lied
to people "for their own good" because "they
weren't ready yet" to receive the full truth, and so did
my friends who were teachers. We didn't think of it as "lying."
We thought we were giving the people as much truth as they could
handle. We thought it would be wrong to tell them more than
they could handle since they might "misunderstand"
and not start or continue with TM, which would be bad for them.
We did a lot of "spin doctoring." We deceived people
by deliberately using words that would be misunderstood by the
audience. We said "TM is not a religion" even though
we knew that insider TM doctrine as a whole was incompatible
with all major religions (including mainstream Hinduism in large
part). But we didn't think of ourselves as "lying"
because we were mentally using a very restrictive definition
of "religion," using the word to mean something like
"an organization that demands faith in a doctrine."
Even though we were teaching doctrine incompatible with other
religions we weren't demanding faith so TM was "not a religion."
We ignored the fact that people could be and were kicked out
of the Movement for openly disputing TM doctrine -- we didn't
consider this as "demanding faith," rather it was
"protecting the purity of the teaching."
But
I digress. TM doctrine declares that the "deep rest"
produced by TM is the answer to this barrier of stress that
is keeping us from CC. Stress is only removed by rest. The rest
of sleep is supposed to be able to remove casual, surface-level
stress. However, the rest of sleep is insufficient to remove
the deeper, more serious, more obstreperous stresses "deep
in the nervous system" that are keeping us from being morally
perfect, happy, and successful.
TM doctrine
says that only by experiencing the much deeper rest of TM can
these deeper stresses be removed. Since this involves a physical
purification of the nervous system there can be physical and
emotional experiences associated with this purification ("we
all know how emotions are affected by our physical state").
These experiences can be pleasant or unpleasant, but the quality
of the experiences is completely irrelevant. The only important
thing is that stresses are being removed and we are closer to
our goal of CC and even higher states of consciousness (including
"God Consciousness" (GC)!). One is just supposed to
ignore the experiences associated with "unstressing"
and "return to the mantra." The whole thing sounds
very innocuous as presented in the "Three Nights after
Initiation."
What
one doesn't hear about on these three nights of post-trance
indoctrination (more on this below) is the concept of "heavy
unstressing." A meditator usually only receives doctrinal
instruction regarding heavy unstressing on "residence courses"
where one goes off for several days of peace and quiet plus
the opportunity to meditate more than just 20x2. There he may
learn that if a major stress is released there can be negative
physical and emotional experiences long after the meditation
is over.
And these major stresses are more likely to be released on a
residence course. This is because this is where the "prolonged
deep rest" over a period of days is supposed to produce
rest deep enough and prolonged enough to attack those whopper
stresses that are really impacting our lives and keeping us
from CC. The experience of having these major stresses "unstressed"
can be emotionally and physically very uncomfortable, but we
should just keep meditating and should be happy the stress is
on the way out.
But we should never make important decisions while on a residence
course because our decision-making process is clouded by the
process of stress release. (Actually, the reason we shouldn't
make major decisions is because we are in a trance state so
much that we can become dissociated -- more on this below).
Note that according to TM doctrine there is no possible excuse
for abandoning TM. If you feel great it's because you practice
TM and you should therefore continue meditating. If you feel
absolutely miserable it's because "Something good is happening!"
(a major TM catch phrase) in that those bad old stresses are
being released, you should therefore continue meditating. TM
is working its wonders no matter what happens to you in your
life!
Anyway,
this "heavy unstressing" is something that the Movement
doesn't talk about in public, and that MIU doesn't do four-color
bar charts on. The experience of "heavy unstressing"
is real and fairly common, regardless of whether you accept
TM doctrinal explanations for the cause of it. A significant
number of people come home even from weekend residence courses
with very uncomfortable negative emotional overcasts, and similar
problems can occur even for 20x2 meditators. What is a "significant
number of people"? Enough people so that all TM "checkers"
and teachers are taught how to help people with such problems.
On a
long course, such as a Teacher Training Course (TTC), heavy
unstressing is a major fact of life for many people. My TTC
(the "Mallorca/Fiuggi Fonte Course" circa '72) was
infamous for the "heavy unstressing" that went on.
One TTC staffer (for any TM historical buffs this was Billy
Clayton who was a "skin boy," one of MMY's personal
attendants who carried MMY's deerskin and laid for him to sit
on) called this the "General Hospital" TTC because
so many people had severe problems.
At one
point we were "rounding" for 14 hours a day! A "round"
is a period of meditation followed by a period of yoga postures
or "asanas." Meditation, asanas, meditation, asanas,
etc. etc. etc. for 14 hours a day, day after day. At other points
in the course we rounded fewer hours a day which gave us time
for hours and hours of indoctrination sessions. This went on
for a minimum of three months for everyone, but there were people
like me there for six months and even longer doing this.
It was
very common for people to acquire major tics of large muscle
groups, most commonly in the form of very noticeable head jerks.
I'm talking about sudden jerks of the head to right or left
of about 45 degrees. In addition there were people with major
emotional problems. MMY had to establish "heavy unstressing
clinics." At attempt was made to help unstressors at these
clinics by application of physical therapies including body
massage and foot massage.
Several
people were not able to become TM teachers at this course because
they were not able to free themselves of the major body tics
before it was time to "receive their mantras." MMY
could not send people back to their communities as official
"Exponents of Reality" when they had been so conspicuously
damaged by the TTC experience.
One
course participant went home and was hospitalized for mental
difficulties by his father, a psychiatrist. MMY was quite disturbed
by this event (he of course particularly wanted the endorsement
of psychiatrists) and he discussed this negative turn of events
in an open session. I met another course acquaintance again
after I "graduated" TTC and returned to the LA area,
and she was still having very conspicuous and embarrassing major
head jerks. I myself managed to overcome my physical tics in
time to become a teacher, but I went home in a very strange
mental state. (More on this below.)
I stayed
on for a month after the official TTC ended to witness the taping
of the original "Science of Creative Intelligence"
course by MMY. MMY was openly unhappy by the amount of "heavy
unstressing" that had gone on (again, that's how we heard
about the psychiatrist's son). His position was that the course
selection process had let too many people into the course who
"weren't ready" for the dramatic evolutionary power
unleashed by such prolonged meditation.
In fact
"heavy unstressing" is never considered to be caused
by "something wrong with TM." It is considered to
be a fact of life which must be faced by anyone who wants to
attain the happiness of CC. TMers are told that the answer to
unstressing is to ignore it and keep meditating on their regular
schedule. If a person stops meditating, according to TM doctrine,
the stress is left in an "unstressing" state and the
negative experiences will continue indefinitely. Sometimes a
person is advised to reduce their time of meditation, and in
extreme cases meditation is temporarily replaced by a body awareness
practice called "feeling the body," but TM itself
cannot be dropped permanently without bad consequences.
Supposedly,
if a person keeps on as instructed the stress will ultimately
be unstressed and the person will be forever free of it. This
hope is what keeps people meditating through some excruciating
emotional experiences. They can't stop TM no matter how horrible
they feel. The worse they feel, and the longer they suffer,
the bigger the stress is that they are unstressing, and the
more important it is to continue TM and get that stress completely
unstressed. According to TM doctrine, there is never a good
reason to give up TM -- the worse things get for you the more
you need TM.
When
someone does the unthinkable and gives up TM anyway as a result
of heavy unstressing everyone is sorry they stopped. But they
feel that (1) the person is better off as result of the evolution
they did gain before quitting and the person will be in a better
position to march towards CC in their next life and (2) it's
just too bad they were too weak to face the unstressing, keep
meditating, and overcome the stress in this life. There is never
a thought among the hard-core that perhaps TM itself is at fault
in some way, or even that TM just wasn't right for that person,
or that the person is in fact worse off for having done TM.
There
is another danger from heavy TM involvement other than from
heavy unstressing. So let me start over and tell my story again
from a different angle.
PART
II: SPIRITUAL COUNSELLING FROM THE MASTER
The
religious (or spiritualistic, or psychic, or occult -- take
your pick) side of TM was covered up in the "great scientification"
of TM in the '70s. I was first introduced to this side of TM
by knowing Helena Olsen. She was the woman whose family took
MMY in as a houseguest in LA during his first tour around the
world. MMY affectionately called her "Mother Olsen."
She
described the experiences of hosting MMY in her book A Hermit
in the House . She herself told me the Movement asked her to
pull this book from publication because it presented MMY as
a Hindu spiritual teacher and presented TM as a spiritual teaching,
which conflicted with the newly mandated "scientific"
presentation of TM. The book documents the early days of the
"Spiritual Regeneration Movement" when the publicly
avowed goal of this Movement (that's where the phrase "the
Movement" came from) was to "spiritually regenerate
the world." The Movement at least presented an honest face
to the public back then.
She
had become a teacher on one of the "India courses,"
the TTCs conducted before "scientification," and she
had had extensive doctrinal instruction from MMY over the course
of many years. At the time I met her, she and her husband (a
phone company executive) were running the "American Meditation
Society" which attempted to reach business executives similarly
to the way that the Student's International Meditation Society
(SIMS) was targeting the student population. (AMS was short
lived.)
Helena
Olsen introduced me to such ideas as that there were "dangers"
from negative spiritual powers at "subtle levels of the
mind" without the "protection" of the mantra.
She also talked about Hindu deities (now called "manifestations
of Creative Intelligence") making it clear that subtle
levels of the mind were well populated ("anything that
you can name exists"). This was no big deal to TM teachers
who had gone to the "India courses" before scientification
but this was inside knowledge for a new initiate of the scientific
70's. She was merely introducing me to what had been taught
before the "science" facade began to be painted on.
My attention definitely began to focus on the hidden spiritualistic
side of TM.
Note that my current objections to TM are not based on the fact
that MMY was and is teaching Hindu thought and practice (although
quite modified from traditional Hinduism). My concern, as you
will see, is that MMY is at the very least a dishonest and incompetent
teacher of Hindu thought and practice.
Anyway,
I went to a seven day residence course, got good and dissociated
from spending many more hours in trance (meditation) every day
and I soon had an experience wherein I felt the spiritual presence
of the late "Guru Dev" (as MMY's teacher is usually
called by TMers). I "knew" that Guru Dev wanted me
to go to TTC and become a TM teacher. Back home I checked with
Mrs. Olsen who felt that the experience was valid. She endorsed
my TTC application, and soon I withdrew from UCLA and was on
a plane to TTC on the island of Mallorca. And (unfortunately
as it later turned out) I had enough money to pay for six months
of TTC rather than just the required three.
TTC
involved hours of "rounding" alternated with daily
hours of doctrinal instruction from MMY. For some reason we
later had to move the course to Italy, so we had to "come
down" in the number of "rounds" we were doing
so that we wouldn't be too dissociated to deal with the practical
requirements of travel (this wasn't the doctrinal explanation
for why we had to reduce rounds).
After
the course moved to Italy, we came "up" in rounds
again, I began having severe headaches. I went to see Helena
Olsen, who was also at the course to visit MMY, for help. She
decided that my problem was that my evolution had advanced so
rapidly that I was experiencing my mantra at extremely fine
levels of thought, which I didn't know how to handle yet. She
was quite happy for my spiritual progress and said that I should
talk personally to MMY because I should have an advanced technique.
She took me to see him. We caught him as he got off of a helicopter
after looking over real estate for the newly proposed Maharishi
International University (MIU). But he only said that he'd see
me the end of my TTC.
More rounding and indoctrination, rounding and indoctrination,
rounding and indoctrination. For weeks and weeks, and months
and months. (Combined with "heavy unstressing" as
described above.)
During
TTC we listened to an audio tape where MMY explained why TM
had to be presented in the context of science. He said that
the world was just not ready to receive the spiritual message,
and therefore we had to present TM in ways that the world understood
and respected. Someday, he said, we would be able to present
TM using the "sweet language" of spirituality again.
We were played another tape wherein MMY described TM's relationship
to all other spiritual teachings. TM, he said, was like the
trunk and roots of a large tree. All other spiritual teachings
were like branches emerging from the tree. These other spiritual
teachings contained, at best, only parts of the truth. Each
of the world's "great religions" represented whatever
parts of the truth that could be sustained within the cultural
context in which the religion developed. Only TM contained the
entire spiritual truth, and we were part of the great effort
to reveal this truth once again to the world.
Well,
when I was finally ready to go home at the end of the SCI extension
MMY did in fact give me my "advanced technique" which
just involved adding a "shri" to my mantra. He also
gave me my teacher mantras since my head jerks had stopped when
I had come down to two meditations a day, and I went home. But
I was still suffering from severe dissociation (as I now understand
the condition) and from ever increasingly bizarre and powerful
"spiritual experiences" (as I then understood the
condition).
These
problems really threw me for a loop. At home I was so dissociated
I wasn't certain I properly remembered my teacher mantras. This
was extremely distressing to someone as dedicated as I was.
I had to go up to Humboldt College to see MMY at a TTC-prep
course he was giving there to have the mantras verified. After
I went home again I was still too dissociated and self-absorbed
in an increasingly fantastic inner "spiritual" world
to continue my studies. I could not handle the real world because
of the dissociation, and I did not care about the real world
because I was becoming so "spiritual" and the focus
of my attention was increasingly being focused on TM spirituality.
I walked away from my classes and drove up from UCLA to the
ATR course (a sort of R&R for TM teachers) that MMY was
conducting near UC Santa Barbara. This is where MMY accepted
me into "M-group" ("monastic-group," a group
of teachers dedicated to celibacy) and where he privately accepted
my personal offer of love and service to him as my spiritual
Master.
Shortly
after that I went up to Santa Barbara again to stay for a week
or so at the rented college dormitory which by now being used
as the first MIU campus. MMY was in residence there overseeing
the founding of MIU. Someone close to MMY had suggested to me
that I might be able to get on MMY's staff. I got there before
MMY arrived and helped this person prepare MMY's apartment for
his arrival -- everything had to be extraordinarily clean. After
his arrival, I helped the skin-boys a few times with some of
their chores such as spot-cleaning MMY's dhotis (the white robes).
Mostly I spent a lot of time in a small group of people who
were listening to the first MIU catalog being read to MMY for
his approval.One such meeting was conducted at the beach estate
of one of the Beach Boys.
I remember
vividly the absolute command that MMY held over those around
him in these very private sessions. I remember how intelligent
and sophisticated and forceful he was. There was no "giggling
guru" stuff in these private sessions. He displayed all
the talents and abilities that could have made him a very successful
executive in any secular business enterprise. I was never after
able to believe that anyone in the Movement was able to institute
any major policy that MMY didn't approve of. Such belief is
a major way TMers rationalize the insanity of the Movement;
they say "MMY just couldn't know about this" thinking
that he is a simple other-worldly sort of person who has only
a loose grasp on his underlings.
I had
a couple of opportunities to privately relate some of my "spiritual"
experiences to him, including an ever deeper awareness on my
part of my dedication to him as my spiritual Master. MMY approved
of the direction things were going for me.
Finally,
during this same stay at the "MIU campus" I had very
dramatic "spiritual" realization one night. The next
morning I waited for MMY and walked with him to his car (he
was heading out to view potential Academy real estate in the
Santa Barbara hills) to confirm this new realization. I said
to him "I am a rishi." For those not familiar with
the term, I was telling him that I could cognize ultimate spiritual
truths for myself. This was a truly incredible delusion on my
part, yet he replied "Yes" in an affirmative tone.
I said "What should I do?" He replied "Be practical
in society."
That
evening I additionally "cognized" that I was not really
human. I was an incarnated "deva" (analogous to an
angel) and, what's more, so was MMY. We had been peers working
together on a spiritual plane as "devas" for aeons.
But I had done something spiritually wrong (the fallen angel
gig) whereas MMY had continued on a spiritually upward path.
Now MMY had deserved to incarnate here and lead the spiritual
regeneration of this planet, and I was getting a chance to incarnate
here also as a human being and redeem myself by helping him.
I wanted
to "verify this with the Master" also, so I followed
MMY into an elevator as he was on his way to his rooms after
the evening meeting. As he turned about to face the door I started
opening my mouth to tell him this "cognition." He
looked into my eyes and interrupted me by saying forcefully
"What you have in your mind is right! -- be practical in
society." Then the elevator door opened and he walked out
of the elevator and off into his rooms.
Well,
after having the greatest Master on the planet confirm my spiritual
status, I didn't question it. Based on a series of continuing
"cognitions" I dropped out of college and embarked
on eleven years of making important personal decisions based
on these delusions, and living in a fantastic and increasingly
horrific inner world based upon these delusions. The personal
sufferings from mistaken personal choices and from this deluded
mental state were excrutiating.
Finally
someone was able to successfully help me to question the basic
unproven assumption underlying my delusions. This assumption,
this belief that had been programmed into me since I first walked
into an introductory lecture, was the premise that "MMY
is a great spiritual teacher with the highest teaching on the
planet." After I finally realized that I had absolutely
no basis for believing this, and after I further realized that
this was even quite unlikely based on what I had gone through,
I was finally able to start recovering. Once I realized that
MMY was at best an incompetent spiritual teacher the whole set
of delusions based on the indoctrination I'd received, and based
on his private "spiritual counseling," began to fall
like a house of cards.
One
of the people who helped in my recovery was Dr. Margaret Singer
at UC Berkeley, one of the world's foremost experts in the study
of destructive cults and their use of "mind control"
(or "thought reform" as it's more commonly called
by researchers). She had been studying TM and was quite interested
in hearing my TM experiences. She confirmed that a significant
percentage of the population (I've read elsewhere that it is
10-15%) are highly susceptible to post-trance indoctrination.
That is, such people are likely to have a severely reduced level
of critical evaluation about anything that they are told immediately
after they come out of a trance state. These people are therefore
in particular very susceptible to any spiritual indoctrination
received while they are in such a post-trance state.
Well,
TM is a trance-induction technique and almost all TM indoctrination
is conducted after meditation while the student is in a post-trance
state. The TM technique itself is taught only after the student
witnesses a puja that is likely to induce trance in many. The
"Three Nights after Initiation" indoctrination is
always given right after the "group meditation." And
I had six months of almost continuous post-trance indoctrination
at TTC, not to mention the residence courses that I had attended
prior to TTC. Dr. Singer considered TM indoctrination such as
I had experienced at TTC to be among the most powerful of any
group she had studied. Dr. Singer also said she had talked to
many TMers who were graduates of long rounding courses. She
considered dissociation and induced psychosis to be a very real
risk of heavy TM involvement. (She also said that many people
react very badly to any form of extended relaxation practice
and such practices are therefore not a general panacea.)
Mine
was admittedly a much more intense experience of the destructive
nature of MMY's influence than most people ever get. Why bring
it up then? To let people know what TM is like at its esoteric
core where MMY gives personal instruction. This may make some
of the outer eccentricities of the Movement seem more explicable.
Most TMers think "Yes, this is not the way things should
be, but MMY would correct it if he knew about it!," but
I assert that the Movement is the way it is because of MMY rather
than despite him. And my story may make someone think twice
about starting or continuing with TM. Even though few will suffer
as much as I did, every step further into TM involvement is
a step towards experiences like mine. A desire to warn people
is my only motivation for publicly revealing these events.
Go ahead and remotely psychoanalyze my own weaknesses that may
also have contributed to this very real personal tragedy if
you want, but don't lose sight of MMY's role in this. He's at
best an incompetent teacher, and at worst he's also malicious
or crazy. He is completely unworthy of any trust.
PART
III: BEWARE OF SCORPIONS!
I don't
attribute any malicious motives to those defending TM, even
when they attack me personally. I know that I had no malicious
motives when I used to defend TM, and I would have been pretty
ticked after reading this story because of all the "harm"
I would have foreseen from the "misunderstanding"
it would cause.
A TM
apologist who has internalized the TM Prime Directive (see below)
just "knows" that there is nothing wrong with either
MMY or with TM. So there must be something wrong with me! But
they are just trying to defend Truth against Untruth. They are
just trying to protect the public from being being confused
and thus being denied the "benefits" of TM. Sometimes
they get a little aggressive and forget to "speak the sweet
truth," but then they see me as being pretty aggressive
by posting this story.
There are only a few responses that a fully believing TMer can
have to my story. The absolutely unquestionable core of TM doctrine,
the ultimate foundation of the TM belief system, the TM "Prime
Directive" (my term), is that MMY is a great spiritual
teacher with the highest teaching on the planet. Fully indoctrinated
TMers have been induced to accept this without the slightest
objective proof.
Based
on prior experience (I posted an earlier version of my story
to alt.meditation.transcendental in 1993), I have found that
for someone who accepts the Prime Directive there are only a
few possible explanations for my telling this story to the public,
and these explanations tend to fall into categories. I'm going
to go through some of them, along with my responses, so that
I won't have to keep responding to them individually if they
pop up again.
Category
1: "Malicious motivation"
(1a) One explanation is that I am maliciously making this all
up. This is because I am anti-spiritual, or anti-Hindu, or anti-something-else.
Or I am just generally hateful and want to bring down anything
that is good and pure, and TM is the most good and pure thing
on the planet. Consider the saint who tried to save the scorpion
from drowning and got stung. He tried to save the scorpion again,
and got stung again. When asked why he persisted in the face
of such treatment, the saint explained that it was his nature
to try to save, and the scorpion's nature to sting. I'm just
a scorpion.
My response: I can't prove my motivations. I assert that my
motivations are to help other people avoid having their minds
abused, and incidentally to also avoid having their finances
abused, by warning them about MMY and TM.
(1b) Another variation on (1) is that I am in cahoots with,
or am influenced by, the nefarious "TM-EX" organization
which is some sort of cabal that makes money by telling lies
about TM and by then charging people for anti-TM materials and
for needless "exit counseling." Anyone who charges
money like that is suspect.
My response: Note that it is perfectly fine for the Movement
to make millions because "that's different." There
is also room for concern in that destructive cults have a real
animosity for cult education organizations and "exit counsellors."
Category 2: "Unreliability"
(2a) There are several approaches to arguing that I am just
not in touch with reality. One argument is that I am just experiencing
"heavy unstressing" and the whole story above is itself
a distortion that originates from this unstressing. It's too
bad I didn't continue meditating and finish getting rid of this
particular stress, which must be a really huge one.
My response: This argument is pretty hard-core and will probably
not be offered for public consumption, although will seem possible
to hard-core TMers. If you accept TM dogma then the "unstressing"
theory becomes a real possibility. If you don't accept TM dogma,
then you're probably already skipping on to...
(2b) Another variation on (2) that is more suitable for public
consumption is this: I have already admitted to having had delusions
about spiritual experiences, so I could also be having delusions
about the things that I claim MMY said to me. You can not trust
that anything I described ever actually occurred as I described
it.
My response: You'll have to make your best guess as to my reliability.
There is also room for concern in that this is a classic dodge
that destructive cults use in response to charges from persons
damaged by cult experiences: "That person admits to having
had severe problems so they are untrustworthy!." This is
a Catch 22 in that we can only trust tales of abuse from those
who have not been abused.
(2c) A subtler variation is: Every organization, no matter how
wonderful it is, will have disgruntled people leaving it. These
disgruntled people view all of their experiences with the organization
through the lens of their disgruntlement. You can't trust the
objectivity of someone who is disgruntled.
My response: Why are we asked to believe that only people who
are "gruntled" can be objective? Also note we have
Catch 22 again in that we should only listen to the complaints
of those who have no complaints.
(2d) Another variation on (2) is: Every organization has people
joining it who have unreasonable expectations. I was undoubtedly
looking for something in TM that TM never claimed to offer.
I may have been looking for a "God" in MMY, rather
than just doing the TM technique and receiving The Knowledge
he teaches.
My response: All I can say is that he accepted a Master-disciple
relationship between us, was told everything that was going
on with me, had ample opportunity to personally correct me,
but never did. As I've said, he is at best an incompetent teacher.
Category 3: "Take the moral high ground"
TM apologists like to take the moral high ground. They will
argue that those who promote TM are being "positive"
because they are saying "good things," whereas I am
being "negative" because I am saying "bad things."
You don't want to listen to someone who is so "negative,"
do you?
My response: Hmmm...yelling "Don't stand in front of that
moving truck!" is "negative," isn't it?
Category 4: "It's all a misunderstanding"
Those who are inclined to be charitable towards me (which I
do appreciate) tend to argue that I may be basically of good
intention but I had undoubtedly failed to properly understand
MMY's responses to me. The whole episode is tragic but was based
on my misunderstanding. It was completely reasonable, somehow,
for MMY to say "what you have in your mind is right"
to me without even listening to what I had in my mind, even
though he had verbally accepted my discipleship several months
before, and even after he had confirmed that morning that I
was a rishi.
My response: As I've said, I think this whole thing demonstrates
that MMY is at best an incompetent spiritual teacher.
Category 5: "Master knows best"
As a last ditch defense it can be argued that the Master always
knows what he is doing but his purposes may not be understandable
by others who are at a lesser state of spiritual attainment.
What MMY said to me was perfect for my spiritual needs at the
time, even if I can't understand why. If I had remained faithful
to the Master all would have been made clear.
My response: This argument is also pretty hard-core and is not
often offered for public consumption. There is also room for
concern in that this is another classic cult dodge, "Everything
The Leader does is by definition correct!"
Well, those are the kinds of arguments that were offered last
time. All arguments involved either an "ad hominem"
attack ("blame the victim"), or involved "spin
doctoring," or involved the last ditch irrefutable argument
of "Master knows best."
Again, MMY and TM can't lose. Anyone who thinks TM is a good
thing should be respected and listened to, but if anyone has
a serious objection to TM then please refer to (1) through (5)
above. To the fully indoctrinated TM apologist it is absolutely
inconceivable that MMY could be at fault, or that TM could be
less than the highest teaching on the planet. For the fully
indoctrinated everything, including my little story, has to
be explained in the light of the Prime Directive.
Of course there are also a good many meditators reading this
who do not find my story inconceivable, just hard to accept.
You have not internalized the Prime Directive but you probably
still think TM is generally a good thing. Your opinion of TM
is based on the fact that you've only personally seen and heard
good things.
Perhaps you are a 20x2 meditator and are enjoying the benefits
of deep relaxation without having really internalized the indoctrination.
(Not everyone falls completely over for post-trance indoctrination!)
MMY seems like a good sort, and at worst harmless. The TM teachers
seem a bit spacey and pompous. The exaggerated pronouncements
of the TM Movement are laughable. But so what? What's the big
fuss? It seems harmlessly eccentric at worst and actually does
seem to do some good! This was the attitude of the largest percentage
of meditators when I was involved. You've never seen or heard
anything like what I am describing. You are perhaps thinking
that what I am describing is theoretically possible, but it
doesn't correlate to your experiences.
Well, to these people I can only say this: I think that your
position is quite reasonable! All I can do is tell you what
I learned and experienced through TM and then let you draw your
own conclusions. Be sure to keep an open mind though. You might
try getting the TM packet from the Cult Awareness Network and
you might contact TM-EX (note to conspiracy theorists: I have
no affiliation with TM-EX, not so much as even a fee-splitting
arrangement!). If you're reluctant to expose yourself to "negativity"
about TM then beware, you might possibly be succumbing to indoctrination
already!
If you're already a 20x2 meditator then don't let them get you
on a rounding course, even for a weekend. As a matter of fact,
keeping your wallet and checkbook in your pants or purse has
the almost magical effect of protecting you from the worst negative
effects of TM, both the unstressing effects and the indoctrination
effects. This is because you have to pay for most of the opportunities
to have your mind really blasted. If you've already paid for
20x2 (I hope you got it before the prices went up), and if you
like it, then of course go ahead and do it, but don't let it
get past that. And if you start feeling bad effects from 20x2,
give it up. You're strong enough to live life without TM! --
if you think you're not you should also consider whether you
may be succumbing to indoctrination.
Of course, my critics could also be right about me, about my
base motivations and my negativity and my unreliability and
all. So do your own research and then you be the judge about
TM. You're going to be the judge anyway! Personally I wouldn't
recommend touching TM with a ten-foot pole.
There are too many methods of secular stress reduction, techniques
that don't come with so many destructive side effects, that
don't have so much weird mental input ("The Maharishi Effect,"
"Maharishi X" (substitute almost anything for "X"
with more strange developments always appearing)), that don't
weaken you by teaching you how not to deal with your problems
("just meditate and act"), that don't lie to you ("CC
for just 20 minutes twice a day"), that don't always have
newly invented courses or initiations to pay for, that don't
produce dissociation, and that don't encourage people to develop
and maintain destructive delusions.
As I said, there are secular stress reduction techniques (take
a look at Benson's The Relaxation Response ). For those who
want to pursue Enlightenment there are many respectable Eastern
practices. And there are of course spiritual practices in other
religious traditions. Just find a group or teacher that promotes
true personal growth, that takes care of people rather than
abusing them, and that respects individual free will by allowing
people to know the doctrines and practices of the group before
they submit their hearts and minds to to the group's care.
