--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "sparaig" <lengli...@...> wrote: snip:
ME: The lone TMer practicing quietly without the full blown belief system is a myth. > Lawson> Not really. In situations where elderly meditators in rest homes have been > turned loose with no consitent followup past the first few months, TM is > still practiced decades later, I'm willing to look at this but I have a few skeptic points upfront. I mean I play music in rest homes and they don't have decades left. But more importantly, this is a non representative group. They will do anything regularly, they kind of run on routines. In any case let me see how many people this was and I'm willing to be proven wrong about people in nursing homes doing it regularly. But if one nurse in the home is a big TMer, all bets are off. Or if they get visits by young checkers if they claim to meditate...you know how people are in places like this don't you? They are desperately lonely. unlike the other meditation relaxation techniques, > even though all were taught using a format deliberately similar to the TM> > program's. Hey you are the studies guy here. I'd love to read it if you can give me a link. > > And there IS a followup in the case of the TM quiet time thing. Its just not > formally associated with the TM center. Having the kids come in > every day at the same time to do TM is certainly more formal than what the> > rewst home residents did, and they showed very high compliance yeras later> > compared to the other meditation;/relaxation techniques. We'll see. This group doesn't regularly stay out of jail or stay unpregnant so I think this is a bit naive. But I'm just teaching them to write songs so I'm not exactly saving he world either. > > > > > > But these kids who I have taught in school, at risk kids, with so many > > sociological problems pulling at them that special education teachers > > struggle to teach them to read a menu before the succumb to gangs who offer > > them a family, these kids are going to do what millions of people with > > higher educations and incomes failed to do: stick with TM. > > > > Again, giving them a structured quiet time may make more difference than you > > believe. We'll see. I'm sure the attention will create glowing reports at first. Certainly, without any evidence either way, ytour concerns are premature, Not exactly. I was the guy who had our center call the 10,000 initiates in the DC center from the past decade. I have a unique knowledge base on this issue that the movement wants nothing to do with. > and in fact, looking at the equivaent programs in rest homes and prisons > suggest they are simply misplaced. Given a chance to be regular in TM, > including > having a time formally set aside for practice, most people WILL be regular > in TM practice. I heard the them hearing blues regularly did them a world of good. At least that is the belief I am pitching. > > > > Good intentions aren't enough. And panacea cures don't address the social > > ills that are dragging down these kids. But it wouldn't even matter if TM > > did work to raise them up. They wont practice TM, nobody does. And the > > movement couldn't care less about this fact as they launch program after > > program destined to fail after scooping up a few bucks. > > > > > Are you really claiming that MMY (in his previous incarnation), Hagelin, > Morris, Roth, > not to mention Lynch and McCarthy, are involved in this MERELY to make money? No, they believe it too. > > I think you're as far off in your attitude here as you are in your 'tude about > TM being the same as Benson's Relaxation Response--maybe further. There is no end to my 'tude is there? I know you believe that there is enough research to separate the Benson technique from TM and I don't. I may be completely wrong about it. But it is a moot point because I know that people not in rest homes don't continue TM anyway. > > The long-term goal of the TMO is to have converts. The rationale for having > the converts is that the participants think that participation BY the converts > will do the converts some good. It isn't JUST about the marketing numbers. > The participants aren't merely employees of the TMO with loyalty only to the > organization that pays their paycheck. They have motives outside of > marketshare for the sake of income for the imeediate benefit of the TMO and> > its stockholders. Agreed. And I believed I was doing good when I was teaching so I don't mind you calling me on any reductionist point about the money. > > > Lawson >
