A friend sent me this. As I read it I thought of the people on FFL who feel
that TM is a watered down, ineffectual technique. You know I have my issues
with the TM Movement. I agree that the research is cherry-picked for use as
a PR tool. Decades of TM practice doesn't necessarily make you an honest,
ethical, compassionate person, etc., etc. But I take issue with
fundamentalists on either side of the issue who see the world in black and
white. There are many accounts of dramatic transformation with TM, including
my own, my mother's and others I have witnessed firsthand. I think that a
balanced perspective requires acknowledging these, then throwing in all the
crazy stuff, then trying to make sense of it all.
"I initiated his mother, who was in the hospital. It was a very dramatic TM
benefit. She had had ovarian or uterine cancer and the radiation treatment
had destroyed most of her intestines, pretty much turning them into Swiss
cheese. The doctors needed to operate but she was too weak. She kept asking
for more pain meds every few minutes.
"I initiated her in the hospital. She was just alert enough to follow the
instructions, but too weak to sit, she was lying down, only slightly propped
up. After her first few minutes of TM she looked at me wondrously and said,
"I feel good." When I came back for the first night of checking, her son met
me at the door and said the nurses were all wondering what she was doing
because instead of asking for more pain meds every few minutes, when they
came to give her her shot she sent them away, saying she was meditating and
didn't need or want it. At the end of the week she was strong enough for
surgery. I heard from her son several years later that she had made a
complete recovery and was still well."
