I'm just going to riff off of one small aspect of your post, because it triggered a train of thought that I found inter- esting and wanted to rap about. No disrespect to the rest of your excellent post, really. :-)
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Michael Jackson wrote: > > Quite by accident or perhaps by Cosmic Design, I became > aware of some things that disturbed me a fair amount > with the behavior of Bevan and other members of the TMO > who were creating some shenanigans in Heavenly Mountain > - it was really the Boone, NC stuff that made me decide > not to have anything to do with the TMO except maybe > round sometime... Have you ever noticed that one of the never-noticed and never-spoken-of assumptions that many people make, *including* those who have stepped back from involve- ment in the TMO, is that being able to "round" is somehow inevitably linked to being in good enough standing with the TMO that you will still be allowed to go on one of their courses? The assumption is that "on a course" officially offered by the TMO is the only place they *could* round, or at least "safely" round. Did it never occur to them to just go to a nice place, rent a room with a great view, and just do some "extra rounds" on their own? Did it never occur to them to go on some other organization's retreat and just do their TM and/or TMSP program there? I suspect, now that this has been brought to my attention, that a LOT of people picked up this subliminal idea that one cannot or should not "round" except on a TM course. And why? Is it somehow "safer" to "round" as we were instructed on an "official" course? Do you believe that the people who led them had any ability to keep you safe, that they were taught things specific to rounding to watch for in course participants and how to help them out of the difficulties if they found themselves in one? I ran all of the TM residence courses offered in the Western US States for several years. In that capacity I was pretty much in charge of "residence course teacher training," in that I made sure that everyone who taught these weekend or week-long course followed certain guidelines sent down to us from "International." In the Regional Offices we tried our best to select good teachers, people with a good rep as teachers, but also as having a good head on their shoulders and being pretty real-world grounded. But I can assure you that none of them ever received any training on how to take care of anything woeful that might happen to a course participant during "rounding." It was as if the whole residence course idea was based on the assumption that this could never *happen*. What could possibly go wrong, after all, on a TM residence course that is by definition "100% life supporting?" This may have changed after I left the TM movement, and as more people freaked out on courses. I can only speak for the period up to 1972, and based on my own limited experience within the TMO. If anyone who ever taught residence courses has different memories, please speak up. Anyway, these were just thoughts triggered by something Michael said, thrown out to see if anyone identifies with them, or has anything to say about them.
