--- In [email protected], Sal Sunshine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Feb 18, 2007, at 10:34 AM, TurquoiseB wrote: > > > Would you shirk at asking John Gray about how the 'Ph.D.' > > suddenly started appearing at the end of his name on his > > promotional materials? IF you asked, you might learn that > > the "degree" came from the University of P.O. Box 2000, > > and that the "course of study" involved in earning that > > degree consisted of putting a check in the mail. Would > > asking about *that* be impolite or insulting? If not, why > > would questioning Maharishi's claim to a degree he seems > > unable to document be impolite or insulting? > > Because you're not giving him a chance to answer, for one > thing.
As we've discussed before, there is no possibility that the questions could ever be posed directly to Maharishi at this point. His handlers would never allow it, and he wouldn't answer if they did. So I don't think it's inappropriate to ask the ques- tions in an open forum and possibly inspire others to do the legwork necessary to determine the truth of them one way or another. > Paul's blog is simply a smear job, it doesn't appear to > be intended to cast light anywhere or to be something > that MMY would even answer, as the questions appear to > have a clear agenda in mind, especially the last but I > would also say most of the others as well. That *would* > be highly insulting to most people. Nobody likes being > browbeaten or put on the defensive. > > And how many of us can "document" our degrees, Barry? > What kind of documentation would that be, especially > for a degree earned some 60+ years ago? I could get you documentation on my degrees, from the universities I attended, in less than a week. I could get you similar documentation on my father's degrees, and my grandfather's and his grandfather's, in the same period of time. That's the most easily answered of all of Paul's questions -- all it should take is the right type of questions posed to Allahabad University's registrar. Me, I don't know and I don't care. What the fuck does a degree in Physics have to do with teaching meditation anyway? But if it's possible that no such degree was ever earned, that might indicate something about the character of the person who has allowed tens of thous- ands of people to believe for decades that it was. > I guess I would ask all of the people who seem to go out > of their ways to attack MMY on a personal level--what has > he ever done to you that you guys dislike him so much? Do you include me in that group? If so, the question is irrelevant. I don't particularly dislike or like him. He's just another guy who taught me some things 'way back when. *MY* interest, as I've said many times before, is in comparative spirituality, and the ways in which seekers in *any* environment consistently seem to deceive themselves. A common reaction, when one of them finds out that they *have* been deceiving them- selves, is to find someone else to blame for the deception. I think that's what's going on with some of the more strident TM critics. Me, I don't really have much of an interest in Maharishi at all. I'm interested in his *students*, and where they take all of this in the next few years. THAT is interesting; Maharishi himself is not.
