--- In [email protected], "Robert Gimbel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "sparaig" <sparaig@> wrote: > > > > > --- In [email protected], Robert Gimbel <babajii_99@> wrote: > > > > > > > > http://www.natural-stress-relief.com/stress/mantra-meditation.htm > > > > > > Single-mantra meditation instrution via CD ROM taught > > > by someone who claims that TM originally only used > > > one mantra...> > > > > They sponsor the TM-EX archive site, btw. > > Yeah, that's where I saw it: > Seems to be centered in Italy now; > I would presume- much like Benson's technique, the relaxation > technique, I think he called it; where he said to just use the > number one, as your mantra. > Or the relaxation response- He did the original study done, with > Keith Wallace... > One, one, one...
Just as a topic for conversation, how is what these guys (both Benson and the Natural Stress Relief guys) did different from what Maharishi did? It has been pretty well established here that Guru Dev never taught the TM technique, and that it was created by Maharishi. Even the strongest TBs on this forum agree with this, although some claim he "cognized" it. It's also not a "claim" that Maharishi began his teach- ing career using only one mantra (one that no longer appears in the "official" list). That's an established fact; I know people who learned TM back in the early days using this mantra, and as I remember there are other people who have posted here have who also have friends who learned the single-mantra experimental technique during those early days. It's also true that the "official" list of TM mantras has changed considerably over the years, and thus was clearly part of an *experiment* to find the one mantra or a set of mantras that best produced the effect that the experimenter (Maharishi) desired. It seems to me, therefore, that the only real difference between what these guys made up and what Maharishi made up is the "trappings" that accompanied what they made up. Maharishi chose to surround the technique that he made up (and tested on human subjects without knowing what the real results would be) with Hindu ceremonies (the puja) and the insinuation that it was a "traditional" technique that had been given to him by his teacher. The other guys chose "trappings" that were more consistent with having made something up (and tested it on human subjects without knowing what the real results would be).
