--- In [email protected], "jyouells2000" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "sparaig" <sparaig@> wrote: <snip> > > Again, which state? And, while perhaps I misremember the original > > letter, my recollection is that Kaplan reported MMY as > > saying "there is no evidence that what you say would > > happen would happen." Kaplan took this to be referring > > to the ME. I took it to be referring to financial support > > from a grateful world... <snip> > > "This version of my story really starts about three years ago. I > was sitting with Maharishi privately, because at the time I had an > open invitation to come to Vlodrop and sit with Mahesh whenever I > wanted to. At that time I knew that Mahesh had many tens of > millions of dollars, the money he needed to create a 10,000 group. > He was talking about building big buildings, buying airlines, etc. > etc. I said, Maharishi, since you have the money and supposedly > you have enough pundits, why don't you create a 10,000 group in > India and then the world will experience peace and the TM movement > will gain great support of the laws of nature and our other > activities will work out. Mahesh looked at me like I was crazy and > said "Earl, if we created the group then we don't know if it would > create world peace or not. We would have to have the group and > then see what the effect it has." > > Earl Kaplans Letter 04/16/2004 > > Both Earl and Maharishi refer to creating world peace not wether > the the world would support it finacially after the fact.
In that version of the letter. There has apparently been more than one, as reported here; supposedly a draft got into circulation before Kaplan thought it was ready. Above Lawson refers to "the original version." Does he mean the draft, the first version that was circulated? If so, and if the quote Lawson remembers is accurate, Kaplan may have "revised" it in the later version to make what *he* understood MMY to be saying more explicit. Editorial analysis: The version you quote seems incomplete somehow. It's not clear why MMY would make such a statement and consider the matter closed. The natural response would be, "So why not create the group and see what happens?" But that question isn't asked. In the version Lawson cites, MMY's comment seems to complete the exchange, in the context of the various money-making endeavors they were talking about. Kaplan suggests that instead of doing all this other stuff to support the movement, MMY should create the pundit group, and that in itself will be all that is needed to keep the movement going indefinitely because *everybody* would then support the movement. But, in Lawson's verison, MMY responds that there's no evidence it would have that effect, i.e., that everyone would support the movement, implying that the TMO needs to establish solid financial foundation first before blowing the movement's existing resources on establishing the group. Once that's accomplished, then the group can be established and it won't matter whether anyone else supports the movement. Obviously we'd need to find the "original" draft version and see if Lawson's memory of how MMY is quoted is accurate. But if it is, that version seems to me to make more sense just in terms of the conversation itself. It would also be consistent with everything else MMY has been doing and saying. One other point: at the time of this conversation, there had been several large-scale tests of the Maharishi Effect, with published studies of the purportedly positive results (in particular the Jerusalem and D.C. gatherings). MMY clearly felt the ME had been documented (whether or not it had been), but there wasn't the outpouring of support from the world that he had initially expected. So in that context as well, the quote Lawson remembers makes more sense: from MMY's perspective, there *was* evidence that the ME worked, but there was no evidence that the world would recognize it and decide to support the movement. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
