His farming techniques include the playing of the Vedas 24/7
----- Original Message ----- From: "ffia1120" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 10:03 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: TM article in Cleveland Plain Dealer > Honest to god, I read this article with a big smile on my face but > when I got to: > > "In addition to building Peace Palaces, Murach said Maharishi has > leased "hundreds of millions of acres" of land in Brazil and plans to > hire poor people to grow food there using his farming techniques." > > I laughed out loud. MMY's "farming techniques"?? I wonder if he's > also planning a takeover of John Deere? Instead of green and yellow > farm equipment trawling the fields, they'll be gold plated. > > > --- In [email protected], "Alex Stanley" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> Maharishi sees Peace Palaces; others see pipe dreams >> Past failures raise questions about local development plans >> Sunday, January 07, 2007 >> Amanda Garrett >> Plain Dealer Reporter >> >> When the Maharishi bought a fading Avon Lake resort in 1993, his >> people promised not only to revive the former hot spot but also to >> reduce area crime by meditating. >> >> Two months later, when Maharishi bought a shuttered Holiday Inn in > the >> shadow of Thistledown race track, his people said they wanted to >> reopen the 10-story tower as a class hotel catering to nonsmoking, > non >> drinking vegetarians. Neither plan ever materialized. >> >> The Maharishi's company let both properties languish for years, >> racking up building code violations and back taxes. At the Avon Lake >> site, not only didn't the tenants prevent crimes, they often > committed >> them. Ultimately, the properties were sold, but only after > frustrated >> officials threatened to take both sites via eminent domain. >> >> Now Maharishi - undaunted by his past failures, both to his own >> enterprise and to the community - is again asking Greater > Clevelanders >> to have faith. >> >> Maharishi wants to open 3,000 so-called Peace Palaces around the >> world, including three in our area. His organization already has > paid >> millions for property in Mayfield Heights and Parma and is firming > up >> deals on parcels in Strongsville and Brecksville. >> >> What's the giggling guru up to? >> >> Maharishi has shrewdly shaped and reshaped his message since the >> Beatles embraced him as their spiritual leader four decades ago. >> >> Among other things, he opened an accredited university in Iowa, >> promised tantalizing superhuman powers, vowed to bring world peace > and >> launched a political party, which in 2004 endorsed Cleveland >> Congressman Dennis Kucinich's bid for the presidency. He also > amassed >> a fortune estimated between $5 billion and $9 billion with his web > of >> businesses and charities. >> >> His latest strategy is to do for yogic flying what Starbucks has > done >> for a cup of coffee. His chain of Peace Palaces will sell $2,500 >> classes to study Maharishi's trademarked Transcendental Meditation, > a >> myriad of his health remedies, and Maharishi-driven architectural >> consultation aimed at lassoing all of Earth's powers. >> >> Two local palaces -- in Mayfield Heights and Parma -- also include >> plans for private high schools, each teaching 160 teens everything >> from algebra to inner consciousness. >> >> And in Brecksville, where the group is negotiating to buy a 48-acre >> parcel across from the VA hospital, Maharishi hopes to teach medical >> doctors ancient forms of alternative health care because he believes >> modern medicine has failed. >> >> So is Maharishi selling religion? A cult? A pile of rubbish? >> >> People have been trying to figure that out for a long time. >> >> The 1960s: >> >> Beatles' spiritual guide >> >> Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was born in central India some time between > 1911 >> and 1918. The precise date -- as with so many parts of Maharishi's >> life -- has never been clear. He graduated with a physics degree > from >> an Indian university and then moved into the Himalayas where he >> studied with a guru. >> >> What happened next is murky, but Maharishi emerged in the West > during >> the late 1950s and later found rock-star fame in the mid-1960s as > the >> spiritual guide of the Beatles. >> >> The Fab Four later renounced Maharishi as a fraud, but it didn't >> matter. The surging counterculture had already embraced Maharishi > and >> an earlier appearance on "The Tonight Show" had cemented his place > in >> pop culture. >> >> Maharishi's message was inspirational: >> >> "Life is bliss." >> >> "Man is born to enjoy." >> >> "Within everyone is an unlimited reservoir of energy, intelligence, >> and happiness." >> >> Transcendental Meditation -- or TM -- was the key, Maharishi said. >> >> The TM technique was so simple anyone could do it, Maharishi said. > But >> to learn, you had to take classes from a certified TM teacher. In > the >> late 1960s, an introductory course cost less than $100. Thousands >> signed up. >> >> And Maharishi's spiritual and financial empire was born. >> >> The '70s and '80s: >> >> Is TM a religion? >> >> TM was so popular, even parts of the U.S. government bought in, said >> the Rev. J. Gordon Melton, who directs the Institute for the Study > of >> American Religion in California. >> >> During TM's peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Maharishi was >> awash in government grants to teach TM in the Army and many schools, >> Melton said. >> >> Then someone asked the inevitable: Is TM a religion? >> >> A U.S. federal court said it was in a tax case ruling. U.S. > government >> funding suddenly dried up. "It was a major blow to TM," Melton said. >> >> Maharishi knew he needed something else to make TM work in the > United >> States. In the early 1980s, he tweaked his message. >> >> The guru re-introduced TM as a hybrid cross between spirituality and >> science -- some would say pseudo-science. And for the first time, >> Maharishi promised TM could not only bring peace, but also unleash >> super powers. >> >> Human brain-wave physiology was the computer hardware of the cosmic >> computer, he said. If programmed correctly -- through the advance >> study of TM -- humans could fly like birds, become invisible and >> harness the strength of elephants. >> >> Skeptics clamored. >> >> But John Hagelin -- a respected physicist who earned his doctorate > at >> Harvard -- wasn't among them. Hagelin signed on to chair the physics >> program at a university Maharishi had established in a tiny Iowa > farm >> town. >> >> "Really significant shifts in paradigm, such as those associated > with >> . . . this more universal view of consciousness, have often > required a >> new generation of scientists," Hagelin told the Chicago Tribune in > 1985. >> >> Hoping to prove TM worked, Maharishi believers took a very public >> stance -- and chance. Legions of TM experts -- called yogic fliers - > - >> moved to the nation's capital, claiming their twice-daily meditation >> would lower the city's soaring crime rate. >> >> It obviously didn't work. >> >> About the same time, a few disappointed TM students sued and won > after >> studying yogic flying but never taking flight. >> >> "It wasn't substantial money," religious scholar Melton said, "but > all >> of the sudden, TM's credibility in the U.S. was called into > account." >> >> The 1990s: >> >> Foray into politics >> >> TM next emerged in the United States in the early 1990s with a new >> strategy -- politics. >> >> Maharishi's followers formed the Natural Law Party and 800 delegates >> held their first convention in April 1992 in Washington, D.C., >> selecting Hagelin, the Harvard-trained physicist, as the party's >> presidential candidate. >> >> Hagelin was pummeled, but the Natural Law Party grew, running > hundreds >> of candidates across the nation, including 53 in Ohio in 1996 alone. >> >> Maharishi made new financial moves, too. In the early 1990s, he > began >> buying up hotels and resorts across the United States, from Denver > to >> Hartford, Conn. >> >> Locally, he bought the Aqua Marine Resort -- a once-swanky hotel, >> restaurant and 18-hole golf course in Avon Lake -- for $1.5 million > in >> August 1993. Two months later, he picked up the former Holiday Inn > in >> North Randall for $1.4 million. >> >> Both properties had seen better days. But Maharishi's > representatives >> said they planned renovations at both sites. They envisioned >> first-class hotels that would cater to TM students. >> >> Officials in Avon Lake and North Randall soon realized that was >> unlikely to happen. >> >> Aqua Marine lost its liquor license and couldn't keep up with > building >> code violations. >> >> In North Randall, the story was much the same. No one even mowed the >> grass, recalled Chuck Horvath, the city's building commissioner. The >> city considered citing the Maharishi people with fire code > violations, >> Horvath said, but the owners were scattered in eight different >> countries beyond legal reach. >> >> In 1996, North Randall launched an effort to seize the hotel by >> eminent domain. Before the case reached court, the village settled >> with Maharishi's people, buying the building. The village hoped to >> tear it down and build a new village hall on the site. A downturn in >> the economy delayed those plans. The vacant hotel still sits, > boarded up. >> >> Officials in Avon Lake also considered seizing the Aqua Marine, but > a >> developer ultimately moved in, bought the resort and razed it. > Luxury >> condos are now rising in its place, Mayor Robert Berner said last > month. >> >> If a Maharishi-connected business wanted to do business in Avon Lake >> again, Berner said he would be leery. "They basically didn't do >> anything they said they were going to do," Berner said. >> >> The 21st century: >> >> An emerging religion >> >> In recent years, Maharishi -- now in his late 80s or early 90s -- > has >> continued to remake his movement. In 2002, he launched the Global >> Country of World Peace, a borderless, imaginary land he said was >> designed for peace-loving people everywhere. >> >> Two years later, the Natural Law Party closed its U.S. headquarters >> and Hagelin opened a branch of Maharishi's mythical country called > the >> U.S. Peace Government. >> >> Hagelin based the capital on 480 acres in Kansas near the geographic >> center of the United States -- a location selected according to >> Maharishi teachings to maximize effectiveness. >> >> According to the group's Web site -- uspeacegovernment.org -- the TM >> group doesn't compete with the existing U.S. government. Instead, it >> works as a complement, promoting peace and TM philosophies > nationwide. >> >> Part of that promotion is launching Peace Palaces -- 2,400 in the >> United States. So far, at least four have opened: In Fairfield, > Iowa; >> Lexington, Ky.; Bethesda, Md.; and Houston. And Maharishi has bought >> dozens of building sites. >> >> But his harshest critics doubt many of the palaces will be built. >> >> Rick Ross, who describes himself as a cult researcher, said that > once >> the aging guru's name is seared into the minds of a whole new >> generation and he has brought in lots of money -- Maharishi is in > the >> midst of a $1 billion fund drive to build the Peace Palaces -- >> Maharishi will likely change course. >> >> "My guess is in Cleveland . . . maybe you'll see one out of the > three >> Peace Palaces," said Ross, who believes this is just a money-making >> scheme. >> >> Thomas Murach, longtime director of the Maharishi Enlightenment > Center >> in Rocky River, insists Ross and other skeptics are mistaken. >> >> "Maharishi always has a huge plan that's nearly incomprehensible," >> Murach said. When the Maharishi bought the old Holiday Inn and Aqua >> Marine Resort he was merely investing, said Murach, who managed the >> local sites. >> >> Now Maharishi is using the money he made from the sale of those >> properties and many others to bankroll his new $10 trillion project, >> Murach said. >> >> In addition to building Peace Palaces, Murach said Maharishi has >> leased "hundreds of millions of acres" of land in Brazil and plans > to >> hire poor people to grow food there using his farming techniques. >> >> All of this -- the Brazil plantings, the Peace Palaces -- are a >> culmination of everything Maharishi has worked for, said religious >> scholar Melton. >> >> "Maharishi wants to establish TM as dominant cultural force around > the >> world," Melton said, comparing it to what Evangelical Christians > have >> done in the United States. >> >> Evangelicals run bookstores that sell everything from jewelry to > CDs; >> they have psychologists operating on a Christian platform; >> creationists serve on school boards; and the religious right emerged >> as a powerful lobbying force in Washington, D.C. >> >> Maharishi wants to do the same thing with TM, Melton said. But about >> 80 percent of Americans are Christians. And there are 1,000 > religious >> groups fighting for the remaining 20 percent, Melton said. >> >> Maharishi believes TM will win them over. Melton and others doubt > it. >> >> Most people who study TM end up abandoning it. Some followers > believe >> they learned something. And others, like the Beatles, leave > disillusioned. >> >> As John Lennon wrote after changing the name of a song he originally >> called "Maharishi": >> >> Sexy Sadie what have you done/You made a fool of everyone. >> >> To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: >> >> agarrett at plaind.com, 216-999-4814 >> > > > > > 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 > > >
