---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <turquoiseb@...> wrote :
Ah, flashbacks to when TM was actually fun. I used to teach a lot of residence courses, back in Toronto and all over the West Coast of the US, and before the TMO turned into the Reichstag and tried to turn residence courses into concentration camps. It really *was* nice arranging for good food, comfortable facilities, a *few* audio or video tapes, and then a number of prepared advanced lectures and discussions, plus plenty of time to enjoy the solitude, take walks and enjoy what a "retreat" is really supposed to be all about. Then the assholes in Seelisberg started trying to impose their Fascist ideas on everyone, and started creating "rules and regulations" that teachers of these courses were required to follow. A "buddy system" so that no one was ever allowed to be alone unless they were in their rooms meditating. Yeah, THAT's a sane idea for someone who has paid money for a retreat to allow them to get away and experience what it's like to be alone with themselves for a weekend. Next the participants weren't allowed to leave the facilities. They couldn't go into town, or drive a car, or go out for a dessert, even if the restaurant was across the street. Finally, the schedules for these courses began to be "padded out" so that the participants were not allowed even a moment of free time. Every moment was accounted for -- they had to either be eating, meditating and "doing program," or on an official Walk And Talk while in the company of their buddy, or sitting in a room watching a videotape of Maharishi trying to sell them something. No *wonder* these guys are still in business and still attracting students to attend their retreats. They understood why people liked them in the first place. This is it, TM for me was all about open fires in oak panelled drawing rooms and dozing off to a lecture about higher states of consciousness when I'd dream about the fine meal we'd get in the candlelit dining hall. Those were the days, I didn't know who Bevan Morris was back then and our exposure to Hagelin was in the form of his contrived lectures on levitation and physics. It isn't like that now, last time I attended any official function it was all straight backed chairs and lectures taped from the Marshy channel. God it was awful, no way you could pretend the "knowledge" didn't matter and you could be there for the food and company... But I always did like the fact we weren't allowed into town, that sense of apartness made the relaxation seem more profound when I got out, except I had to get a train to London which was always a shock. These MTers know what people like, they get loads of people on courses whereas the TMO haven't had an academy for at least ten years. There's only the dome in Skem and there are plenty who won't travel that far, and don't like the area when they get there. It's a good lesson in making sure you've got what the crowd wants rather than assuming they'll want what you offer. From: salyavin808 <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, October 26, 2014 8:35 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: TM Scorpion Renegades ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <mjackson74@...> wrote : Hey Sal, you ever do any rounding in this joint? Nope, I never met any of the teachers there either. They were leaving just as I started working for HQ. In fact I was on the conference call when they started complaining about Marshy's new pricing scheme, it was my first glimpse of collective coherence or "field independence" as the case may be ;-) Nice building though, I know TMers who go on courses there (shock, horror. They only tell me about it under dire injunctions of silence) and who enjoy the non-movementness of it all. This is what TM is all about for me, weekends in stately homes with good food and company and no Bevan Morris and John Hagelin in sight, cosy and fun and not too religious - that's how it should have stayed. The MT are cheap though and they are successful, maybe those things are coincident but they don't have anything (or anyone) to put you off, the last official introduction tape I saw was appalling. It had the usual mood-making bliss bunnies in suits going on and on about vedic "science" and sthapatya veda even! It put me off and I'd been doing it 15 years at the time, can't imagine what newbies thought about it. http://www.meditationtrust.com/transcendental-meditation-retreat/ http://www.meditationtrust.com/transcendental-meditation-retreat/ http://www.meditationtrust.com/transcendental-meditation-retreat/ Learn Transcendental Meditation on Retreat http://www.meditationtrust.com/transcendental-meditation-retreat/ Learn Transcendental Meditation on Retreat with the Meditation Trust, experienced teachers of meditation, at our tranquil countryside retreat near London View on www.meditationtrust.com http://www.meditationtrust.com/transcendental-meditation-retreat/ Preview by Yahoo
