--- In [email protected], "sparaig" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > --- In [email protected], "Paul Mason" <premanandpaul@> wrote: > > > > > > On 29th September 1967 'The Frost Programme' included an > > > interview with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at London Airport. > > > During the chat the topic of mantras came up. His answer > > > would give the listener the idea that the TM movement > > > used a palette of 'thousands' of mantras, which, if it were > > > not true, would amount to false advertising. > > > > > > Frost - Is that the same sound that you give to each person? > > > MMY - No, each person gets different but we don't have as > > > many sounds > > > as we have men in the world. So they are grouped together. > > > Frost - How many sounds are there? > > > MMY - Oh there are lots of sounds. > > > Frost - I mean hundreds or thousands or ...? > > > MMY - You could say thousands. > > > > I look forward to discussion of this topic among > > the TM TBs, especially the...uh..."creative" ways > > they'll come up with to deny that Maharishi was lying. > > > > It's a fascinating phenomenon, one that I saw in the > > Rama trip as well. He'd go on some television show > > like Larry King and look into the camera and lie > > through his teeth about something, like what he'd > > said about himself in the past or what he'd told his > > students to do. *All* of the students watching would > > know from their own personal experience that he was > > lying, but some would just "not hear it," and blot > > it out and then later deny that he'd said it, and > > others would say things like, "Well, the people in > > the media are just not as evolved as we are, so it's > > Ok to lie to them," and so on and so on. > > > > It always struck me at the time as fascinating, > > partly because I'd already seen so much of this same > > phenomenon earlier, during in my time in the TMO. I > > guess this stuff happens in every spiritual movement > > -- seekers gazing at the teacher and never really > > seeing what he does and says, only what they want > > to see and hear... > > > So, I have some idea of why Paul cares, though he won't > admit it. I also have some idea > why YOU care, though you won't admit it. > > Why should *I* care?
There is absolutely no reason at all why you should care whether Maharishi has no problem with telling deliberate lies. Unless, of course, you count the fact that you spend a great deal of your life -- hours a day, every day -- defending what he's told you as accurate and the truth. It's your call, of course. However, if you were serious about asking why you should care, I refer you to the following citations, posted here over the last year by a noted expert on liars and lying: **************************************************** Study: Adept Liars' Brains Are Built Differently By Robert Lee Hotz L.A. Times Staff Writer 10:47 AM PDT, September 30, 2005 In the lexicon of lying, there are white lies and bare-faced lies. Facts can be fudged, forged or shaded. There are fibbers, fabricators and feckless fabulists. By whatever clinical term, the truth simply is not in some people. Now scientists have an anatomical inkling why. A new study from the University of Southern California, published in the October issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, suggests that the talent for compulsive deception is embedded in the structure of the brain itself. People who habitually lie and cheat - pathological liars - appear to have much more white matter, which speeds communication between neurons, in the prefrontal cortex than normal people, the researchers found. They also have fewer actual neurons. The differences affect a portion of the brain, located just behind the forehead, that enables people to feel remorse, learn moral behavior and plan complex strategies. The surplus of connections between neurons might enable these people to be more adept at the complex neural networking that underlies deceit. Lying is hard work and these brains may be better equipped to handle it, the researchers said. "Lying is cognitively complex," said USC psychologist Adrian Raine, the senior scientist on the research project. "It is not easy to lie. It is certainly more difficult than telling the truth. Some people have a biological advantage in lying. It gives them a slight edge." The researchers recruited 108 volunteers, then sorted them into groups based on psychological tests designed to determine how often they lied. The volunteers were then scanned using magnetic structural imaging to obtain detailed anatomical images of their brain tissue. The group of compulsive liars had 25.7% more white matter in the prefrontal cortex and 14.2% less gray matter than the normal control group. "To our knowledge, it is the first imaging study on people who lie, cheat and deceive as a group," Raine said. http://tinyurl.com/8vxjk **************************************************** Two more points on this, the first from another report on the same study: "Pathological liars have less gray matter and more white matter in their prefrontal cortex, according to a report in the October issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry. Gray matter consists of the cells that do the thinking, while white matter consists of the cells that connect them." http://www.healthcentral.com/newsdetail/408/528266.html And this insightful analysis from a commenter on Kevin Drum's Political Animal blog: "What the study seems to be saying is that the people who are great liars have less grey matter to work with, which is the element that does the serious calculating work, so it's terrifically harder for them to work out the actual truth of something, but really easy to make up a great story about it, a story that outwardly fits tightly to the few most obvious facts which are all they can really determine." http://tinyurl.com/c9f82 **************************************************** Experienced, chronic liars ... tend to make use of fractional truths to deliberately convey an impression contrary to fact, and then complain that those who unravel the carefully spun tissue of untruths surrounding a minuscule bit of fact are just "nitpicking." **************************************************** Yeah, I know, most of the folks here [FFL] have a marked lack of interest in facts. They prefer liars to truth-tellers, hypocrites to straight-shooters, at least among their own number. So very spiritual. **************************************************** 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/
