As the TM Movement turned increasingly toward India, sidhas living in Fairfield became emboldened to experiment with other holistic health therapies and even rival meditation methods. By doing this they violated Maharishi’s order to “keep the teaching pure” and met varying degrees of censure. The worst offenders, those meditators who met with rival Hindu gurus (usually called “saints” in Fairfield-speak), were often barred from meditating in the domes.
This was a serious punishment for people who had sacrificed their former lives to move to Iowa to create world peace through group meditation. Eventually, so many meditators were barred from the domes that the punishment lost its power, and it became impossible for the TMO to muster the number of sidhas necessary to produce the Maharishi Effect. Perhaps recognizing this, the TMO has recently relented (as of 2012), allowing large numbers of repentant sidhas back into the domes.
