On Jul 4, 2009, at 1:29 PM, Rick Archer wrote:
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."
It's pretty sad if people believe this kind of thing--and IMO very
dangerous. TM/TMSP, TMO and McRishi tactics like this have killed a
lot of people. I don't see it as that different from the same type of
thing you see in Charismatic and Evangelical Christian trips. It's a
placebo effect or sometimes these things just happen on their own.
Believers find something to believe in. A mother reconciles with her
daughter by allowing her to perform her woo woo
ceremony...magic!...the healing power of Guru Dev's Holy ghost! Ta da!
That's not to say there are not meditation forms with legitimate
research which shows a benefit in regards to pain--if you've seen Bill
Moyer's Healing and the Mind, you know what I mean. But this is too
anecdotal to have meaning, other than a warning sign saying "don't
come here"...
