Not to mention, we have no idea what the relative percentages are of TMers who commit suicide versus those in the general population. For all we know, the percentage of TMers could be smaller. Certainly suicidal TMers tend to draw more attention because it's so contrary to what TM promises. But does that mistakenly foster the idea that there are more of them than in the general population?
Also, as Ann suggests, it would be important to look closely at TMers who end up in a bad way (or dead) to see whether they were headed in that direction before ever starting TM. There are just too many unknowns to suggest that TM practice in and of itself is the cause. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mjackson74@...> wrote : How is this dropping names? I was giving you info on what Shikantaza is since you mocked it as being some kind of "designer meditation" - it has been around as part of Buddhist practice for centuries. I think you are taking pot shots at it just because I like it and you don't care for me since I am honest about what a liar and huckster Marshy was, what a liar and huckster the TMO leaders are and how much damage TM, TMSP and TM mentality can cause and HAS caused under certain circumstances. The suicides, attempted suicides, people admitted to mental institutions and more are no joke. Talk to Kyle Cleveland sometime - he was born and raised in the Movement, is all over the Net as a very vocal critic of TM and Marshy. Ask him about his experiences sometime and see how you feel afterwards. I still say if you have hundreds of thousands of people doing something there are bound to be those who end up murdering people, dying, committing or attempting to commit suicide, winning the lottery or publishing a book. It has to do with statistics and probability. To try and "pin" mental illness or psychiatric breakdown primarily on the fact that someone rounded or started TM is a bit iffy. I've talked about this before with regard to those who go overboard on something. Do they go overboard (join Mother Divine, round non-stop for 6 months etc.) because they are obsessive or unbalanced to begin with or do they become unbalanced because they do too much of one thing? I am pretty sure if someone were to practice little old TM twice a day for 20 mins and ended up going stark ravers, they were bonkers to begin with.
