'Sites for Maharishi Effect (Welcome to Parma) Spread Across U.S.
David Ahntholtz for The New York Times
Thomas Murach is an architectural expert with the Global Country of World
Peace, which is trying to build peace palaces in Parma, Ohio, and elsewhere.
The palaces, all in the same style, would be centers for learning
Transcendental Meditation.
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return encodeURIComponent('February 22, 2008'); } By SEAN D.
HAMILL
Published: February 22, 2008
PARMA, Ohio Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the giggling guru who founded the
Transcendental Meditation movement, proclaimed throughout his 50-year career
that he knew the secret to worldwide peace. And now, this Cleveland suburb is
poised to play a role.
The Maharishi promised that if just 1 percent of the world practiced TM, as
it is known, then the Maharishi effect would take over and there would be
increased coherence in the collective unconsciousness, and peace would prevail.
But for decades he struggled to reach enough people, even though he lowered
the necessary figure to the square root of 1 percent. So, in 2000 he created
the Global Country of World Peace, a country without borders, to build at
least one so-called peace palace in or near the 3,000 largest cities in the
world as places to train people in TM.
One of the palaces could be completed later this year in Parma, a town of
83,000 people, where officials were more than a little surprised when TM
leaders outlined the proposal.
The nature of it was a little unusual, said Brian Higgins, the citys
director of public service. What do you mean a Maharishi Peace Palace? Were
Parma, Ohio. We eat pirogis and drink draft beer. We dont get operations like
this all the time.
Getting towns like Parma to welcome the palaces $3 million to $5 million
buildings with dormitories, classrooms and shops has become even more
important to the TM organization in the wake of the Maharishis death on Feb.
5. The peace-palace project will continue, movement leaders say, despite the
multimillion-dollar costs and the limited success so far.
There will be no change, Robert Roth, a spokesman for the organization
based in the Netherlands, said from Allahabad, India, where he attended a
funeral for the Maharishi on Feb. 11. It has always been a top priority of
Maharishi, and all the leaders of TM recognize that.
Some critics, however, have called the palaces nothing more than a way for
the Maharishis followers to raise money to buy more land for the groups
considerable coffers.
At least three palaces in Austin, Tex.; Houston; and Lexington, Ky. have
already been built by private individuals.
At least five others have been built, or are being built, thanks to donations
to various offshoots of the TM organization in Bethesda, Md., and in towns in
Iowa.
Nine more are being built by Global Country itself: three in Clevelands
suburbs; two in Sullivan County, N.Y.; and one each in Charlottesville, Va.;
Colorado Springs; Smith Center, Kan.; and St. Paul. Zoning and other issues
have prevented the organization from building right away in at least 18 other
cities where it has already bought land, organization officials said.
After originally hoping to build 2,400 palaces in the United States alone,
the organization now says it hopes to build 100 to 200 here.
Though the movement is admired for its finances, many independent critics
question its belief that large groups of people meditating or practicing yogic
flying where people meditate and hop while sitting cross-legged in the lotus
position can spread peace.
The organization cites studies that it says found that large groups of yogic
fliers helped temporarily lower crime in Washington, D.C., end the cold war and
briefly reduce hostilities in the Middle East.
To the best of my knowledge, it has never been studied truly independently,
said Dr. Herbert Benson, director emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute for
Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a TM practitioner
himself. Its been hypothesized for many years, but never proven.
The peace palaces are intended to be gleaming white, two-story buildings,
10,000- to 12,000-square-feet, and to replace the typical rented space where TM
is now taught at more than 200 locations in the United States.
Each is designed to be large enough to have dormitories, retail space to sell
TMs health products and clothing, and, most importantly, space for TM classes
that currently cost $2,500. (Instruction in yogic flying costs an additional
$2,000.)
They are being built to follow the Vedic architectural guidelines, which,
among other requirements, mean each building faces east to greet the energizing
morning sun.
The result is something like an Indian temple crossed with a Southern
plantation mansion, a look the organization hopes will become a visual brand,
much like the golden arches signify McDonalds the world over.
The upside to it is in the recognition. In every town where theres a peace
palace, people will realize this is what it looks like, said Richard Quinn,
director of project finance for the Maharishi Vedic Education Development
Corporation, which oversees palace development in the United States.
The nine palaces being built by Global Country are being financed by $40
million worth of tax-free bonds backed by the Colorado Health Facilities
Authority thanks to the asserted individual health benefits of TM and
secured by some of the more than $250 million in land TM owns in the United
States.
Despite its spiritual leanings, and promises of peace, Global Country does
not make that part of its pitch to towns when it seeks permission to build a
palace, which would be tax-exempt. Instead, it focuses on the retail and health
benefits it would bring.
My feeling is theyre trying to downplay the world peace goal, said Mayor
Gregory S. Costabile of Mayfield Heights, Ohio, where a palace may be built
this year.
Even when towns do learn about the movements larger aspirations, it usually
comes down to whether a development fits a site and complies with zoning.
And despite their skepticism, city and town officials concede, it is hard not
to want what TM offers.
Theyre interested in peace and harmony and good vibes, and were interested
in that, said Robert M. Parry, director of planning for Westlake, Ohio, where
a third palace is planned for the Cleveland area. Who isnt?
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