Hold up, Sal! How many yogic flyers are there per population in Skelmersdale,
any idea? I ask becuz it doesn't seem possible that there could be heroin use
that close to the enlivenment of natural law that is taking place in the Dome.
Unless the numbers in the Dome are too low to make the regular flyers one tenth
of one percent of the population of Skelmersdale, and even then you would think
there would be a zone of purity around the area that would prevent any such
activity.
--------------------------------------------
On Tue, 2/11/14, salyavin808 <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] RE: Skelmersdale
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, February 11, 2014, 6:33 PM
Anne, you could pay Skem a visit from Hebden
bridge, it's due south west from there - just follow the
rain clouds. The dome is in Ashurst which is the nice bit.
Downhill from there is a drive thru MacDonalds and an Asda
next to a dreary shopping centre on an industrial wasteland.
Wear some stout shoes for the broken glass and you'll be
OK. For something to do you could play "spot the
Domie" among the locals. Actually that's all there
is to do unless you want to join the local kids for some
wanton vandalism or heroin abuse, depends which age of
teenager you are most happy hanging around with. I really
seriously do not
recommend going to the local pub. And don't
bother looking for postcards to send to friends back home
because there aren't any. Which is never a good
sign.
But
seriously, the first time I visited Skem I thought it was
better than I expected.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com,
<awoelflebater@...> wrote:
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com,
<no_re...@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Yes
I've been there. What happened was, when I started
meditating the TMO was putting in a bid for an old US air
force base on the east coast. I went along to a few meetings
and was impressed at the ambition and possibilities even
though I had yet to learn of the general trajectory of
movement ideas. Basically they couldn't afford it but
they did buy a little corner and eventually started building
a perfect vastu village of about 30 (?) homes and a few
blocks of flats. They plan to build a peace palace but
nature doesn't seem to be supporting them in raising the
money. For some reason. Ahem...
I
haven't been inside the houses and have heard mixed
reviews but they look really good with double doors and
pillars, most people love them and love being in the
community even more. A friend of mine lives in one of the
flats though and I love it, I'd move in straight away if
I had the money. And that's the problem, they are really
expensive, so much so that you can't get a mortgage
because it won't have that resale value and the banks
are worried about losing out. But most who live there are
retired and were happy to pay the extra to live in
vastu.
I
don't like the place, walking around it gives me the
creeps, all the buildings line up on every axis so you can
look through one window and see through about 5 homes
in every direction. It makes me feel like I'm being
watched. I don't like the vastu principle anyway, I
think it's stupid and illogical and the idea of nature
support is a crock of shit. And not having a south facing
garden in England is the dumbest idea of them all. And you
can't put a conservatory on the side as it would break
the symmetry, one of my favourite things is sitting on my
south facing veranda of an evening listening to the rain on
the roof.
You
have to be a true believer to want to live somewhere like
this so it isn't for me but if it
makes them happy I'm happy for
them.
Both of
your posts today, the one on Skelmersdale and now this one,
are fascinating and very well written. I especially
appreciated your take on the architectural layouts and why
these were less than appealing. I had the same perception
looking at some of these planned Vedic cities, all of these
geometric and de-humanized looking regimented layouts. And
so funny when you mention about the non-south facing
entrances and gardens in England (of all rainy and cloudy
places to adopt that particular Vastu
quirkiness).
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mjackson74@...>
wrote:
I
have never heard of this place - you know anything about it
Sal? vedic village in Rendlesham
--------------------------------------------
On Tue, 2/11/14, salyavin808 <no_re...@yahoogroups.com>
wrote:
Subject: [FairfieldLife] RE: Skelmersdale
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, February 11, 2014, 8:13 AM
Sounds like someone didn't enjoy their
school days!
I
never lived there but spent a lot of time on courses and
felt both happy and sad for the TM kids. Maybe it's my
prejudice as a southerner from a really nice town near
London but I thought Skem was a seriously depressing place,
a sprawling low-rent estate built to ease overcrowding in
nearby Liverpool.
I
thought the Domies had built a really nice village though,
meditating in the dome was lovely and they had plenty of
activities for adults and kids alike. The people I used to
stay with organised a lot of it and were seriously cool and
respected other peoples beliefs - including my natural
scepticism which was rare in the TMO but they didn't
like the emphasis on Indian stuff in the TMO so maybe they
are part of a minority ;-). A lot of people weren't
like
that though and the emphasis was very much on TM conformity
to the extent that the directors had spies reporting back
to
them about people were talking about outside the
dome.
The
TMO is a very insular organisation, you couldn't move
there and set up a whole food shop for instance as you
would
be in competition with the dome shop and would be
blacklisted (this happened, I was disgusted) But it is a
cult and we shouldn't forget that.
There
are plenty of funny stories about people trying other
techniques and new age beliefs and the response of the TMO
but that's life, people experiment and it isn't
worth getting upset about.
This
is interesting:
The daughter
of my old Geography teacher, Ruth, told me that not long
ago
a couple of members of the British Humanist Association
protested outside the Maharishi school as they were
convinced it was teaching creationism because one of the
subjects is called the Science of Creative Intelligence
(SCI).SCI taught a
mixture of Vedic philosophy and lifestyle tools, but
steered
away from faith and religion of any sort – it was merely
the use of the word "creative" which riled people
up. “They said we were being brainwashed, but once we
spoke to them, they were really cool, they told us about
their practice and it was really interesting. We were going
to take the mick and pretend we were all robots.”I
wouldn't
say they were brainwashed
but they were definitely taught a load of shit. And this
must have been a pretty poor bunch of humanists not to have
spotted that, but then the TMO is always careful to give an
acceptable view of their beliefs, they make their crazy
kool
aid sound almost reasonable. Unified field based education,
my arse!I had so many
arguments about SCI with people I lost count. The idea is
totally without intellectual merit and supporting evidence,
and they teach jyotish there! I think lying to children is
wrong, I couldn't care less what adults choose to
believe but schools should keep it to what is known and why
we think that is the case (it's called science). There
are so many wonders you can teach in the school day, why
waste time with a stupid religious belief from iron age
India, mixed up with crap quantum physics and failed
sociology? It's the reason I never donated to the
school, I just felt sorry for the kids thinking they were
learning something in jyotish that
would be useful at university studying physics.I did envy
the laid
back school lifestyle and "quiet periods"
it's
a stark contrast to the school I went to. The small class
sizes help too and I've met some very cool and well
adjusted kids who went there, some of them rejected the TM
belief system when they got into the wider world and some
didn't. But I do remember a bit of friction between the
meddy kids and the locals, but nothing serious or worse
than
I got from grammar school toff's in my town. It's
part of growing up.All in all, Skem is
a nice place if you like that sort of thing but it's an
ageing community and the youngsters can't wait to leave
as there is nothing to do and the best careers will be
found
away from the depressed north west. Since the vedic village
in Rendlesham got built an awful lot of people have moved
away, but Skem still has a friendly community feel to it
which is all too rare these days.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com,
<mjackson74@...>
wrote:
This is
a fascinating article on the TM community written by a
woman
who grew up there. It is fascinating to read the article
and
then read the comments left by readers.
Those
of you on FFL who are Brits, whaddya think?
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/liverpools-decaying-yogi-commune
