[FairfieldLife] 'Saint John asked to meditate on 'peace palace' plan'

[Robert Gimbel]

            Saint John asked to meditate on 'peace palace' plan  Last Updated:   Friday, October 13, 2006 | 11:26 AM AT         CBC News                                    A group representing the guru who inspired Beatle George Harrison to play the sitar has asked Saint John city council to donate a piece of land for a "peace palace" it promises would foster harmony and relaxation in the port city.  The organization, called Global Country for World Peace, is led by Indian Transcendental Meditation (TM) advocate Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The elderly guru, who is now reported to be living in Holland, won celebrity followers in the late 1960s and early 1970s by teaching the trademarked practice.   The group wants to build peace palaces in 3,000 of the
 world's largest cities, including 40 across Canada, at a price of $2.5 million each. One would be in Saint John, one in Moncton and one in Fredericton.  Miville Couture represents the group and says the palace would reduce crime and increase economic activity in the city. "This peace palace is for the benefit of the whole city at a time when there is more stress, more violence."  The group has written a letter requesting a meeting with city council to talk about its plans. The letter details the programs that would be offered at the peace palace, suggesting they would "create a measurable effect of peace and harmony for the whole city, which will be seen in reduced crime rates and other negative trends."   The building would also house what the group calls an "invincibility school" where up to 100 high school students would study the traditional academic curriculum and "practice technologies for the development of
 consciousness, including Transcendental Meditation.' The group says students who perform TM get better grades.    Saint John council hasn't had a chance to talk about the idea, and won't be able to schedule a meeting with the Global Country for World Peace group until at least January.   The idea likely won't fly, however, given that there is some onus on the city to get fair market value for its surplus land.  One councillor, however, is supportive of the idea. Coun. Ivan Court is a retired teacher who recently attended a workshop given by Canadians
 for Stress-Free Schools, a group connected the TM movement.  He says a peace palace could help students achieve more in school. "They seem to have all kinds of research indicating that is the result of it, and there probably is some validity in that in the sense that we're in such a rush every day."   But the schools have their critics, too, among them Joe Kellett, a former TM teacher who left the movement in the 1970s and now lives in California.   "A certain amount of people will get sucked into the religious aspect of it. And the religious aspect of it would be introduced at the schools under the guise of something called the science of creative intelligence," he said.  The Global Country for World Peace preaches peace and harmony, but some say it is little more than a corporate enterprise, because it costs approximately $2,500 to enrol in the course.   This is the second attempt
 by the group to gain a foothold in Saint John. During the early 1990s, the group bought a big red mansion in the city's downtown but eventually sold it because of a lack of interest in the programs it offered.                      
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