Good points ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote :
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <steve.sundur@...> wrote : Share, I do like Barry, but I think he has gone ecstatic with this new theory he's put forth. I think he thinks he's found the Rosetta Stone or something. Steve, I suspect you might want to rethink this. Yesterday I posted a *theory*, presenting it very much *as* a theory. I only replied to my original post a few times about the theory itself -- once to Michael, twice to Share, once to Salyavin, and once (humorously) to Bhairitu. I made a couple of posts under the topic correcting Judy on inaccuracies (a polite word for "lies") she was trying to spread about the history of the TM-Sidhi courses, but not arguing the Placebo Effect thang per se. At no point did I attempt to "sell" the theory, to you or anyone else. In contrast, *most* of the other 58 posts (so far) in the thread were from people dumping on Barry. One might suspect that something about it "pushed their buttons." Another bunch of the same people -- Judy, Richard, Ann, Nablus -- also produced dozens of posts under another thread dumping on Barry. Presumably they got *their* buttons kinda pushed, too. As for the theory itself, I can think of two more pieces of "supporting evidence" for it. Do you remember how the "flying" (actually, hopping) took place in "waves?" Nothing would happen and nothing would happen, and then one person would start to bounce, and almost immediately a whole bunch of other people would start bouncing around as well. Might I suggest that suggestion might have had something to do with this? The other thing is the barking and growling and shouting and moaning. I don't know if you were around back then, but it was pretty much a feature of early TM-Sidhi practice. People would start barking like dogs and shouting and flailing their arms about and moaning and all sorts of other stuff. Again, it tended to happen in "waves" -- one person starting it and then others picking up on the suggestion and doing it, too. That certainly speaks to the possibility of suggestion. However, something *else* speaks even more strongly of suggestion. At some point Maharishi heard about all of this ruckus, which made the domes sound like an out-of-control evangelical tent meeting, and he declared that it was inappropriate. Almost overnight, it stopped. The *same* people who had been claiming that all this noise emanating from them was "not in their control" suddenly found that it was. Go figure. The way I figure it, it's all explained handily by Placebo Effect -- suggestion, then effect. But again, all of this is just theory on my part, and furthermore a theory I am *not* trying to sell you. If you somehow feel threatened by me presenting it -- as Judy, Richard, Ann, and Nablus obviously do -- I would look inside for the cause of that rather than to me.
