Dear Turqb, As a conservative and old meditator of the TM movement and satisfied customer, I find this analysis sage advice. I am going to forward it to where it will do some good. Science and analysis of science is what drives TM movement policy today in administrating Maharishi's Knowledge. Common sense and merit based on science is more and more in vogue inside the communities of TM. There are various elements still inside ranging between strict preservationists on the one hand and progressives on the other but it is a very exciting horse-race to watch and cheering like gets done here on FFL can actually influence the outcomes. Peace Be with You, -Buck
---In [email protected], <[email protected]> wrote: In my experience this is really good market analysis. I think you guys really care. -Buck > turq, I'm encouraged by these Gallup findings and I'm > sure a lot of long term TMers would be also. The ones > I know are practical, intelligent and compassionate. > Also I bet a lot of people would love to know about > and do something for world peace. Maybe whirled > peas too (-: My point is that the "marketing approach" of the TMO is that of cultists, while pitching their product to non-cultists. Many (including some of this forum) seem to equate "TMers" with "TM-Sidhas practicing in a group." They seem to believe that the leap from 20 minutes twice a day and an average of four hours per day (including travel time) is "No Biggie," and that everyone that wants to learn TM wants to learn to butt-bounce and spend that much time away from their real life, too. I'm merely pointing out that this is an assumption made by people who *themselves* in most cases gravitated to the four-hours-a-day lifestyle after *decades* of indoctrination by the TM movement. They've actually come to believe that such a schedule is "normal." It ain't. And very few people who have...uh...lives will see it that way, either. They *might* be open to learning a simple, 20-minutes-twice-a-day relaxation technique, but if the first thing that happens when they go to a TM center for their followup is that people start hustling them to learn the Sidhis and do them in a group, they're gonna smell cult. > > Just a note of caution to those who still believe that "If we charge more/less/enough for TM, they will come," *they* in this case being the untold millions you think are required to make the world a better place and who are out there, just waiting for the right TM marketing approach. Consider who you're talking to, and what *they* believe. > > The latest Gallup poll doesn't seem to indicate that John Q. American Public is quite on the same wavelength that you are. 58% of them probably wouldn't make it through the "15 day waiting period." The legalization of marijuana has five times the number of supporters as Congress does. 63% are unthreatened by homosexual behavior, and 53% believe that same-sex marriage should be legalized. The more-puritan-than-the-Puritans lifestyle ethic of many die-hard TMers just doesn't map to the way that most Americans see the world. > > > http://www.businessinsider.com/gallup-legal-marijuana-is-more-popular-th\ http://www.businessinsider.com/gallup-legal-marijuana-is-more-popular-th\ an-almost-anything-else-2013-10 http://www.businessinsider.com/gallup-legal-marijuana-is-more-popular-th\ http://www.businessinsider.com/gallup-legal-marijuana-is-more-popular-th\ an-almost-anything-else-2013-10 > > Me, I find these Gallup findings positive, and hopeful, because they're *pragmatic*, and on the whole they seem to indicate that Americans aren't quite the hyper-conservative know-nothings that the Tea Party and others would have you believe they are. But such pragmatism is not gonna be appealed to by Woo Woo propaganda about how many Yogic Flyers can butt-bounce on the head of a pin made of polystyrene foam, and how that's gonna magically create Whirled Peas. > > The thing that would make TM "marketable" again IMO would be a return to the more pragmatic approach of the late 60s, in which it was marketed as a simple relaxation technique that would help to make you less stressed and more productive in your real-world activities. Nobody gives a shit about enlightenment; if the Gallup organization polled for that one, my bet is that the percentage of people they'd find who believe it exists wouldn't crack two digits, and the number who would actually pay money for it would be a fraction of that. > > A non-drug technique that takes only 40 minutes per day and could help to lower stress levels is marketable. A Woo Woo "gateway drug" that only seeks to hook people on a path to spending several hours of their day bouncing on their butts with other people to create Whiled Peas is not. Just sayin'... > x
