Pardon my common sense, but all of this spinning, based on a few moments of videotape, strikes me as unscientific in the extreme. A bit of mental midgetry, imo. Might as well be speculating on the motives of Kim Kardashian, for all any of us knew of Maharishi during his last days.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <awoelflebater@...> wrote : ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <curtisdeltablues@...> wrote : I was struck by the posted interview between the Aussie and the Maharishi through closed circuit TV where Maharishi was unable to field a question about whether or not he could actually fly by going into "you kids get off of my lawn" mode. What struck me because I have spent quite a bit of time around old people in the last few years and it seemed obvious that Maharishi was clearly suffering from the diminished capacity of age and very likely dementia. He was not well. This observation only matters because at the heart of a lot of the premises in TM is that the state of consciousness in enlightenment transcends the functioning of the brain. This is the premise on which we have claims about witnessing deep sleep for example, and all the conjectural nonsense surrounding what happens after a "conscious" enlightened death. It is stated in different ways as a premise underneath many claims about how a person functions in enlightenment. We saw Maharishi, who in his salad days would have gigglingly swatted away such a direct question calling him on an outrageous claim, completely flummoxed and left with a broom in his hand chasing the local scamps out of his rutabaga patch. How can it be that "consciousness development" can have an effect on the person after their brain stops functioning and rots, when it couldn't even weather the storm of old age for the supposedly most developed person, Maharishi himself? Apparently consciousness development has the same impact as imagination development when it comes to being able to resist the ravages of age. Brain functioning trumps all imagination of it being otherwise. And the difference between Maharishi in old age and my own father can only be seen clearly in the zeros in their bank accounts. This is an interesting subject and one on which I have cogitated on briefly having watched the same tape you did here. If one thing should be assured in enlightenment it should be that the functioning of the brain would remain relatively smooth and unobstructed until physical death. At least in my own limited understandings of such things which is, granted, limited. Maybe the other organs can be subject to riddling disease and rot but the brain is the seat of consciousness if anything could be said to be while one still has a body. And that well-exercised and healthy 'seat' should be invulnerable to the ravages of Alzheimers or other cognitive failings that mere mortals regularly succumb to. And many ordinary joes in the world remain sharp as a proverbial tack until the end even though the rest of their mortal coils are relegated to wheel chairs and the use of bed pans. So, what give here? Karma? MMY was not enlightened? There is no such thing as enlightenment? The body, no matter how infused with consciousness (and supposed higher states at that) is still just as vulnerable to decay and ultimate death? Are there no happy endings?
