For the record, when exactly did TMers develop such a "groupie mentality," willing to fall all over themselves gushing over some supposed celebrity who had once learned TM, and feeling more self-important *themselves*, as if some of the celebrity's greatness had rubbed off on *them* because this person had also once gathered up fruit, flowers and handkerchief and paid for a mantra?
Buck is living in the distant past, and in an attempt to find a "TM spokesperson" to replace Stephen Collins is conveniently ignoring the fact that Kurt Vonnegut did not think as highly of Maharishi as he'd like you to believe. >From "The Gospel from Outer Space (Or, Yes We Have No Nirvanas)" -- "Maharishi replied that any oppressed person could rise by practicing Transcendental Mediation. He would automatically do his job better, and the economy would pay him more, and then he could buy anything he wanted. He wouldn’t be oppressed anymore. In other words, he should quit bitching, begin to meditate, grasp his garters, and float into a commanding position in the marketplace, where transactions are always fair. "And I opened my eyes, and I took a hard look at Maharishi. He hadn’t wafted me to India. He had sent me back to Schenectady, New York, where I used to be a public-relations man—years and years ago. That was where I had heard other euphoric men talk of the human condition in terms of switches and radios and the fairness of the marketplace. They, too, thought it was ridiculous for people to be unhappy, when there were so many simple things they could do to improve their lot. They, too, had Bachelor of Science degrees. Maharishi had come all the way from India to speak to the American people like a General Electric engineer." Also, from a letter to the New York Times written by Vonnegut scholar Dan Wakefield after his death: To the Editor: I am sorry that Kurt Vonnegut “seemed sad” when Kurt Andersen met him in 1980; the experience appears to set the tone for Andersen’s dismissively elegiac view of Vonnegut’s work (“True to Character,” Oct. 28). He wonders if the reason he did not love Vonnegut’s later novels was that “I was no longer an adolescent” or that “the ’60s were long over” and adds, with mock regret, “Alas, for Vonnegut, the countercultural moment was short-lived.” Ironically, Vonnegut was really a counter-counterculture figure. He disrobed Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in a satiric essay for Esquire called “Yes, We Have No Nirvanas” and skewered transcendental meditation by citing a Western technique that achieves the same results — “reading short stories,” which Vonnegut called “Buddhist catnaps.” ________________________________ From: "s3raph...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, October 9, 2014 4:56 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Somebody Rick should interview tells a joke. Thanks "Buck in the Dome". That was new info for me. It sounds a high-energy period in the life of the TMO. And "Duveyoung": what was the novel you refer to? I've read a couple of Kurt's novels (Slaughterhouse-Five andCat's Cradle) but the TM link isn't in either of those. ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> wrote : Yeah, Ol' Kurt loved TM so much he wrote a novel in which a character learned TM, and Kurt DISCLOSED HIS MANTRA IN THE BOOK, and then that character proceeded to GO VIOLENTLY NUTS.
