This is not a counter rebuttal, simply another view, a point for further discussion and examination.
The tipping point was when a portion (I think it was 11.73% but others may quibble on this)of the full time community -- and some ardent part-timers, kept clung to the notion that M. and his TMOs were all about, only about, the seven step program for teaching 20 min 2x / day. A parallel is Apple and Steve Jobs. When he went more digital (i-tunes, i-phone) and creating superb customer experiences (Apple stores) etc, many of the faithful said, "Huh, what does this have to do with selling Macs" and "What possible effect can a company with 3% market share have on digital music". Steve's vision was that Apple was a "digital gateway company" (or something along those lines with a core emphasis on superb design. Apple would not be the company with the largest market capitalization in the world (subject to check) and Steve Jobs would not be revered as the CEO of the decade(s), if he limited his vision to selling Macs. M. and his TMOs, in my view, were / are about being a "Consciousness gateway org" -- not limited to 20 min 2x, but having 50 product lines that enable Consciousness to shine in all parts of a persons life. Yet many whined, "when will we get OUR old TMO back, 20 min 2x". "When will M come to his senses and do what he is supposed to do, teach TM". --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@...> wrote: > > The sense of near-desperation with which some on this forum are hoping > that Oprah is the "new Merv" and that TM is finally on the upswing again > left me thinking about its past, and trying to pinpoint where it all > went wrong. Many have speculated on this forum about what that "phase > transition moment" was, the point at which it all began to unravel and > go downhill. For many (including luminaries like Charlie Lutes and Jerry > Jarvis), that point was the introduction of the TM-Sidhi program. Me, I > have a different theory, and I'm going to rap about it in a little > mini-essay today. Be warned...this may be a little long (although not > the length of Robin's epics), and it may piss a few people off. But it's > what I honestly believe. > > I cannot pinpoint the exact day or month or year in which TMers went > officially bat shit crazy (some TM historian type here may be able to do > that for us), because I'd already left before it happened. But I can > pinpoint its nature, and what was said -- and believed -- that caused > everything after that point to be a loony bin. It's the day that > Maharishi first tried to convince people that bouncing on their butts on > slabs of foam in a big room full of other butt-bouncers could end crime, > change the weather, and bring about world peace. > > This pronouncement almost certainly predated the term "Maharishi > Effect," which was invented later to glorify his pronouncement, and > "scientific data" made up to make it seem true. But from my point of > view the fact that ANYONE believed this spiel for even an instant > signifies the "phase transition point" from relative sanity to total > madness. > > Try it yourself by performing your own scientific experiment. Go out > onto the street and pick someone at random, and tell them several things > that you believe. First, tell them what you heard when you first learned > TM -- that it was good for you, and that the deep rest enabled you to > function more efficiently and with less stress. You will probably get a > general agreement with this. Then say that it is your belief, based on > scriptures and reported historical instances and such, that some humans > can develop special powers and abilities (the siddhis) that others have > not, and possibly even levitate. No one's likely to call you crazy for > this, because it is after all a matter of belief, and is no weirder > after all than believing in a heaven filled with angels playing harps or > that Christ walked on water. > > But now tell them that you believe that a number of people as special as > yourself generate so much Woo Woo by grunting and bouncing around on > their butts on slabs of foam that THEY CAN CREATE WORLD PEACE, all by > themselves, with no further action needed. My bet is that the strangers > you've selected for this experiment are going to start edging away from > you nervously, if not actually running down the street away from you. > The very idea is absurd, and based on a level of self-importance that > most people on the planet associate only with full-blown insanity. > > As I've said, I'd left the TMO before Maharishi ever started talking > about this. If I'd still been there I would have laughed in his face and > walked out of the room, never to return. So I find it difficult to > imagine people listening to it and being SO self-absorbed and > self-important that they actually bought it. > > The TM-Sidhis were originally introduced as a means to an end, a way to > speed up the enlightenment process. There was not a WORD about what > performing them might do for anyone else. That only came later, after a > number of people had actually learned the siddhis and (surprise!) > neither siddhis nor enlightenment had appeared. The whole original > "selling point" of getting people to pay thousands of dollars to learn > them had been revealed to be false. So Maharishi had to do *something* > to try to get people to keep doing them, and to entice new people to > learn them. > > Voila. The "group consciousness" thang. What began as mere pragmatism > (finding a room somewhere and chipping in to get a discount on slabs of > foam rather than each person buying some for their own home) was turned > into an exercise in Woo Woo. "Doing program" in a group was presented as > being Good In Itself. You were "off the program" if you *didn't* do your > program in a group. Hierarchies were invented to make the butt-bouncers > "higher" and more important than "mere meditators." Dogma was invented > about how powerful the group Woo Woo was, and how its peace-causing > properties were even more important than individual enlightenment. This > proved an easy sell to the gullible, because their own experience had > already shown them that neither real flying nor enlightenment were right > around the corner. They believed the insanity being told to them and > shifted their allegiance to altruism and "doing it for the world." > > That's my theory of The Day It All Changed. Maybe someone here was > around *on* that day, and can pinpoint when they first heard it. Maybe a > few of you can try to explain why you chose to believe it. As I've said, > I was long gone by that time, and was so distanced from the TMO and its > craziness that I didn't even know this "dogma shift" had taken place > until I heard about it years later on groups like > alt.meditation.transcendental. People started talking about the > "Maharishi Effect" as if it were a real thing and as if everyone should > know what they were talking about, and I had no clue. When they > explained it to me I remember laughing for about fifteen minutes at what > I'd heard, and how bat shit crazy it was. > > I honestly think that's the day everything shifted over into total bat > shit craziness. MORE bat shit crazy followed, such as being terrified to > enter a building from the wrong direction and people paying a million > dollars to dress in robes and crowns and call themselves kings of an > imaginary country, but the "phase transition moment" for me was that day > when Maharishi announced that bouncing on your butts on slabs of foam > could bring about world peace. And people were so gullible, so > guru-whipped, and so in need of something to feel self important about > that they believed it. >
