The group meditations in Fairfield, Iowa were long, large and twice daily then.
As the transcendental meditators generally arrived in Fairfield, Iowa during the mid and late 1970's and throughout the 1980's the Fairfield group meditations then were large and inclusive of the whole TM meditating community. The group meditations once facilitated in the 1980's by the TM organization were long, large and twice daily attended. Initially there was not need to have distinct Quaker meetings for worship separate from the long hours of the much larger corporate enterprise as the TM group meditations were facilitated in Fairfield, Iowa. Only very occasionally would the meditator-Quakers meet of their own being in Quaker Meeting as they were certainly in discipline as peace-activists otherwise in the long group meditations as meetings for worship as Quakers could recognized themselves within the TM group. It was only after some years when TM administration of the Dome meditation became exclusionary and the size of the Dome meditations declined that meditating-Quakers of Fairfield also added in a turning back to their own meditation schedule a Quaker Meeting to fill a vacuum created by communal purgings and depletion then of what had been the larger TM Dome meditation community. Since that time of the declines in the TM Dome meditation of the 1990's and 00's in Fairfield there has been sustained a regular schedule of old silent Quaker Meetings kept in an addition as their own Quaker's refuge of inclusive communal spirituality. Quaker Meeting for Worship, 17th Century. Entering into this form of worship. . “… the first that enters into the place of your meeting, be not careless, nor wander up and down either in body or mind, but innocently sit down in some place and turn in thy mind to the Light, and wait upon God (The Unified Field Transcendent) simply, as if none were present but the Lord, and here thou art strong. When the next that come in, let them in simplicity and heart sit down and turn to the same Light, and wait in the Spirit, and so all the rest coming in fear of the Lord sit down in pure stillness and silence of all flesh, and wait in the Light. A few that are thus gathered by the arm of the Lord into the unity of the Spirit, this is a sweet and precious meeting in which all are met with the Lord…. Those who are brought to a pure, still waiting on God in the Spirit are come nearer to God than words are… though not a word be spoken to the hearing of the ear. In such a meeting where the presence and power of God is felt, there will be an unwillingness to part asunder, being ready to say in yourselves, it is good to be here, and this is the end of all words and writings, to bring people to the eternal living word.” -1660 -Alexander Parker, Letters of Early Friends, ed. A.R. Barclay (London; Darton and Harvey, 1841), pp. 365-66. Alexander Parker was a close companion of George Fox. "There is a principle which is pure, placed in the human mind, which in different places and ages hath had different names. It is, however, pure and proceeds from God (the Unified Field). It is deep and inward, confined to no forms of religion nor excluded from any, where the heart stands in perfect sincerity. In whomsoever this takes root and grows, of what nation soever, they become brethren." -John Woolman, Quaker 20th Century Quakers coming to Fairfield, Iowa in a form of spiritual direct-action peace-activism as re-enforcement joining with the large group meditations facilitated by Transcendental Meditation(TM) in Fairfield held a natural affinity to Quakers. To come as re-enforcement to the enterprise of what was identified then as the spiritual Meissner Effect (ME) of group consciousness had a recognized legitimacy to spiritual Quakerism. That corporate group spirituality is a Quaker practice that particularly attracted a number of old Quakers in to the TM movement early on. Initially upon coming to Fairfield, Iowa to re-enforce the aggregate numbers in meditation the old-style Quakers joined in alongside the TM meditations; as when in Rome do as the Romans do. This history in context now becomes an additional chapter in The Quakers of Iowa. See: http://iagenweb.org/history/qoi/QOITOC.htm http://iagenweb.org/history/qoi/QOITOC.htm The Quakers of Iowa A history of the Quaker settlement of Iowa including the nature of the under ground rail road in 19th Century Iowa. Written by Louis T. Jones, 1914 http://iagenweb.org/history/qoi/QOITOC.htm For sometime, the transcending meditation group practices of Quakers as the Society of Friends was a dominant spiritual practice in the settlement and cultivation of America and as so often has happened with Knowledge in sequence of time the now ancient silent transcendental Quaker practice fell crashing upon shoals of spiritually ignorant ideologies and the primitive Quakerism itself almost entirely foundered out of sight as a spiritual movement of the Meissner Effect [ME] of consciousness development in group meditations. The parallels of these two spiritual movements (TM and the old Society of Friends) as groups are remarkable to see and witness from inside and out. -Buck, an old Quaker and conservative meditator in the Dome No brag just fact. Turqb, my people are old Quaker and I too am Quaker and by experience I take that very seriously and even deadly seriously, which is why I am in Fairfield, Iowa as an attender of the large group meditations in the Golden Domes of the Fairfield meditating community. George Fox and early Quakers long ago cognized the spiritual value of the group affect of transcending meditations. Since the 1650's that has been the corporate practice of Quakers. Seriously, -Buck in the Dome What would George Fox Say? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhsvqbCIaAs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhsvqbCIaAs The Fairfield, Iowa group meditation then became the largest group to Be with as the group of transcending meditators like Quakers gathered in Iowa from the late 1970's. Quite a number of old-style Quakers like me joined on with the large group meditation in Fairfield, Iowa from the beginning then as recognized Quaker support in direct-action in the value of our form of Friends spiritual practice that the TM'ers had adapted to their own ends. What the Quakers have known all along Maharishi then had recognized as the Meissner Effect of consciousness in the corporate silent practice of inner transcending meditation like the Quaker meeting has long provided. A nice thing about the Quaker group practice as the Friends Meeting itself is that it is stripped of religious forms, of alters, brahmasthans, steeples, no stages, no ostentatious hats or robes such like some clergy and TM-Rajas and other climbers would wear above others. The nice thing about Quaker Meeting as a place is that it is without the veneers of formal religion otherwise. Self run and no paid clergy. You just 'go in' sitting with others and the field effect of absolute, bliss, consciousness that the meeting of Friends creates for yourself and others. Jai George Fox, -Buck in the Dome
