Most who grew up in the US remember the old TV and radio commercials "Is it real, or is it Memorex?" The idea being presented in those commercials was that many people can't tell the difference between a live performance and one that was recorded on Memorex-brand tape.
I think that the ad agency that thought this up was bril- liant, because there are many people who *can't* tell the difference. Furthermore, they would argue that they, having only heard the recorded versions of, say, Segovia's work, or Keith Jarret's, or Glenn Gould's "know" as much about the work and the artist as someone who actually saw them perform. With Jarrett, for example, who is famous for... uh..."acting out" his musical performances by rocking and swaying back and forth on the piano stool, and (like Glenn Gould) uncontrollably humming along with his own music, someone who knew only the recordings could have gained a "feeling" about the music and the artist that was erroneous. Glenn Gould's recording company found ways to *edit out* his humming and moaning, so the Memorex set would not even be aware that he brought that kind of passion to his music. Now think spiritual teachers. There are some on this forum -- and there is no need to name them because you all know who they are -- who seem to feel that having only dealt with the Memorex version of Maharishi, they "know" the essence of "What he taught," and similarly "know" things about him as an individual or about his state of consciousness. I think this stance is...uh...self-serving bullshit served up by those who are anxious to hide the fact that they were willing to settle for the expurgated version of the teacher they claim to "know" things about. You on this forum who met Maharishi, or who spent hours, days, weeks, months, and years sitting in rooms listening to him talk, or working side by side with him getting to see *how* he worked, try to imagine for a moment the level of AVERSION a supposedly strong TMer must have had to have meditated regularly for 20 to 30 years and yet *avoided* ever seeing him in public. It's almost unbelievable. Claiming to revere someone as a great spiritual teacher, or even *their teacher* or "master," and yet finding ways *for decades* to avoid ever meeting him. And *then*, years later, presenting themselves as "authorities" on "What Maharishi taught." Scary. When it comes to spiritual teachers, my contention is that there is a difference between real and Memorex. If nothing else, the Memorex version disallows any perception of the teacher's "vibe," and what it was like to be around him. How can the Memorex set even *begin* to claim to be know- ledgeable enough about the subject of charisma or darshan if they have never experienced it? And yet they do. On another level, there is the issue of expurgation. At one point in my life, I would say that I had probably listened to or watched as many tapes of Maharishi as anyone on this forum. I was in charge of the Western Regional Office, and thus in charge of its tape library, which contained thousands of tapes. All of them were essentially "my private video and audio library." I could take them home and listen to them anytime I wanted, and was such a TB dweeb that I actually did. :-) But then, about 1976, the first "recalls" and attempts at systematic expurgation started. We started getting demands from "International" to send them our copies of certain tapes. And when I say "demands," I mean demands. If we did not comply, they sent someone over to the US to collect them from us. We were then told that they would be replaced by newer, "better quality" versions of the same tapes. This was only partially true. About 50% of the "recalled" tapes never appeared again in any format. And the tapes that were actually "replaced" invariably had "shrunk" somewhat. It was not uncommon for a tape that originally had lasted for 40 minutes and touched on some interesting or touchy subjects to come back to us in a "new, improved" version that was only 20 minutes long, carefully edited to make it seem that there had been no editing. At that point I stopped listening to the tapes, because I knew that there was never going to be anything interesting on any of them from then on out. Now try to imagine the Memorex set, who never knew that this was being done. There they'd be, sitting in some TM center or on some residence course thinking that they were getting the "real" Maharishi, all while listening to the 20-minute expurgated version of one of his tapes. But the biggest issue is that the Memorex set *never met the man*. They never had a chance to sit through an unexpur- gated lecture, and watch his thought processes as he form- lated it, without the benefit of "revisionist history" editing later. More important, they never got to feel the "vibe" of the man, or see him in any of his...uh...lesser moments, like the ones in which he said "We never speak ill of others," and then followed it up -- sometimes in the *same* talk -- with "George W. Bush is a rakshasa" or "England is a Scorpion Nation." The Memorex set missed out on all of these moments that could potentially cause cognitive dissonance. My feeling is that this is exactly why they avoided ever seeing Maharishi "live." The Memorex set is *terrified* of cognitive dissonance. They like their "spiritual teach- ings" edited, simplified down to a simplistic level for the lowest common denominator, and expurgated. Very, very expurgated. IMO they studiously avoided ever seeing MMY "live" because they preferred their FANTASIES of the man, and didn't want those fantasies messed with by such a nasty thing as reality. Me, I would never claim to "know" stuff about a spiritual teacher I had not met and spent some time with. For example, I would never claim to "know" Chogyam Trungpa, even though I have read many of his books. I've also heard things about him and his lifestyle from those who did meet and work with him, and I tend to value their insights almost more than I value his own writing. One of the reasons for this is that Trungpa could write like a mofo, but I know from several people who watched him create his books that he often did so while downing a couple of quarts of vodka during the creation process. In one sitting or "writing session." Go figure. Now try to imagine what a person "knowing" Trungpa only from his books -- some of which were *brilliant* -- might think of him if they didn't know that he had written them while half or totally drunk. They'd have only a partial picture of the man, an expurgated picture. That's the picture of Maharishi that I think the Memorex set has. I think they cling to it because they're reluctant to admit their own spiritual laziness in never having expended the effort to actually see him "live," and I think that they cling to it because they actually *prefer* the simplistic, heavily edited, expurgated version of the man and "What he taught." And yet they talk, talk, talk about the "truth" of "What Maharishi taught," which they know solely from his tapes and his books (some of which were not even written by him). Truth? I say to them the same thing Jack Nicholson said to Tom Cruise in A Few Good Men. "The truth? You can't *handle* the truth."
