--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "steveemming" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>
> Has Anyone read Jon Michael Millers' Book? It's called "A Wave on
the
> Ocean: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Transcendental Meditation, Mallory
and
> Me. Please submit a review. This one book came out and I must of
missed
> it.
>
Jon Michael Miller was a former Governor-cum-Ambassador in the TM
movement through the 1970s and has penned an autobiographical account
of his ups and downs. (His book is on the Lulu label a print-on-
demand, self-publishing outfit.)
Be aware that the first half of the book has no reference to TM
whatsoever but is an account of Miller's journey from poor country
boy origins (Pennsylvania way) through to college lecturer in English
(which doesn't prevent a lot of literals in the text, such as "Jane
AustIn" and "GinsbUrg"). Mostly though we learn of his complicated
love life. His very complicated love life. He alternates between
hedonistic periods involving a succession of liberated ladies while
pining for a more committed and meaningful relationship and then
marrying more suitable (?) women (plural) who he then quickly tires
of. Eventually Miller develops a habit of using porn on the one hand
(no pun intended) and on the other romantically fixating on a former
idealised lover - and fellow TMer - the "Mallory" of the book's
title. It's not her real name but as his lady love used to teach
Sanskrit at MIT and still lives in Fairfield, with the help of other
details in the book she shouldn't be hard to identify for locals. As
the lady doesn't approve of Miller's book, however, no doubt she
deserves to be left in peace.
Miller lacks the dry humour and eye for telling detail of Gilpin's
recent Maharishi Effect or the insider celebrity goss of Nancy Cooke
de Herrera's All You Need Is Love (both those are surely essential
reads for Fairfield Lifers?). However he tells a (painfully) honest
tale and for a reader who wants an alternative slant on the Movement
during its period of greatest public exposure this could be worth a
read. Miller had an interesting encounter with Aryan security supremo
Peter Heubner (aka Hubner) at Seelisberg and he later worked for the
TV channel KSCI when it first launched. Miller eventually left the
Movement at the end of the seventies disillusioned with the elitism
and the emphasis on siddhis and he seems to have also eventually
abandoned meditation to return to his beloved Keats and Wordsworth.
His admiration for Maharishi is undimmed however.
