--- In [email protected], Rick Archer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> posted: > > July 14, 2005 > The Fairfield Ledger > Opinion > > A tale of two gurus > > Could the Transcendental Meditation movement learn a thing or two > from 'the Hugging Saint'? > > By Erik Gable > > Rick Archer had been practicing and teaching Transcendental > Meditation for nearly three decades when he first met Mata > Amritanandamayi, the Indian holy woman known to her followers > as "Amma" or "the Hugging Saint." > > He didn't see any conflict between going to visit Amma and his > regular practice of TM in the men's dome at Maharishi University > of Management. In fact, Archer recalled, his experience during > his daily meditations actually improved. > > But a few years later, after a meeting in which two TM movement > officials questioned him about his involvement with Amma's group, > Archer's dome badge was revoked.
As chance would have it, I read this article while watching a DVD of Michael Mann's "The Insider." The parallel was not lost on me. Without drawing overly dramatic comparisons between Rick and Jeffrey Wigand, the man who risked a great deal to blow the whistle on the tobacco industry's lies, I just want to say thanks, Rick. The thing that finally made me bail from the TM movement was *exactly* what you talked about to this reporter. At that time (the mid 70s), the TM movement controlled people -- both teachers and non-teachers -- via coercion. If someone showed signs of going "Off the program" (the "program" never being actually defined), the TM organization would threaten to take away from them the very thing they joined it for -- access to light and knowledge and enlightenment. It was unconscionable then and it is unconscionable now. It revealed the *real* nature of the TMO then, and it does now. Unc To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
