The problem I see for the TMO, moving into the future, is that it's an organization in which NO ONE inspires confidence.
You would *have* to be an existing, pre-programmed-as-the-result-of-decades-of-propaganda True Believer to find *any* of the leaders or "celebrity spokespersons" of the TM movement in any way charismatic or confidence-inspiring. Show photos of them to anyone under 30, straight off the street, and they'd laugh at you for considering them worthy of attention, much less worthy of being "followed" in a spiritual context. Young, dynamic people don't "follow" people who look like this: From: "Xenophaneros Anartaxius anartax...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Monday, April 13, 2015 10:29 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] ~~~~~~~~~~ about TMO friendship ~~~~~~~~~~~ I was talking to a well-placed governor a few years ago, and the concern he expressed was in the old days, people just wanted to hang out around Maharishi, but now of course that is impossible, and people have a different attitude toward both learning and going on courses because the draw of an alleged 'master' is nowhere in sight. Also even getting existing practitioners on courses needs some new impetus because it has to be practical, convenient and affordable for them to go on courses. A lot of facilities have been shut down, and renting places can be expensive locally. For example, opening a TM center these days requires it face a certain direction, and finding real estate that meets just this simple requirement is rather difficult. Also as far as knowledge, there is nothing really new in the offerings, though there seem to be some techniques His Appointed Royalness Tony is giving out to long time teachers on special courses. There are these 'Experience of Self' courses at MUM, but everybody experiences this every day anyway, even if they do not realise it. It is basically the same old thing with new dressing. TM's real problem is it is heavily invested in beginning a spiritual trek, but does not have the chops to effectively take it to completion which is why so many people drift off to other teachings or give up. I hear it is difficult getting new teachers because M is not there, they are very concerned about it as a career, how they will support themselves etc., the enthusiasm about being around M is not the driving factor any more, so a realistic business model as a profession looms in people's mind now. Basically any spiritual philosophy has certain ideas that are discussed and certain techniques that are practised and over time something happens or does not. Standing out from the crowd with this kind of thing seems to be getting more difficult as more or less generic versions of techniques are proffered in the marketplace. The main problem as I see it is the TM organisation is boxed in with a set of specific beliefs and guidelines that actively prevent them from looking at more possibilities. The tithing/donation model which works for religions who have been able to brainwash their flock is more difficult for TM because it has to pretend it has no religious associations, but the DLF is basically working on this model, and just how that will pan out when he goes is unknown. If TM manages to maintain some respectable amount of initiations, there will always be a few celebrities that will fall into the net, but whether the glow around them is enough is another matter. TM has not managed to get really established as a major brand on its own; so far it seems to have always depended on some kind of exposure based on the celebrity status of someone, like Maharishi, Merv Griffin, The Beach Boys, Beatles, etc., which is not a very stable model, particularly because celebrities' foibles are far more likely to become public and screw the image being created (recall Mr Collins recently). Also, as a person practices a technique, over time, the initial enthusiasm a person has is likely to diminish over time. For example, recently the Beatles and Clint Eastwood, while they have lent some support to the DLF projects, they do not appear to be particularly enthusiastic about it. Celebrities often do this if it does not involve a lot of time and energy if the project seems reasonable. But these people can't offer what the people seeking relief from their problems need, they are just window dressing. From: "TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: "FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Monday, April 13, 2015 2:45 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] ~~~~~~~~~~ about TMO friendship ~~~~~~~~~~~ Something I think the TMO should be thinking about for the future -- were the TM movement given to thinking about the real-world (as opposed to fantasy) future -- is "What are we going to do when the existing pool of celebrity TMers runs dry? What's that mean for our sales model?" This pool of celebs WILL, after all, run dry. There aren't going to be any NEW celebrity TMers. There is no mechanism for "raising them properly." David Lynch was one of the last who was "raised" in the ashram model of being taught to revere the guru from afar, and then finally being offered the opportunity to meet him in person, even if it cost him a million dollars. So he got to meet Maharishi, got to get MMY to focus on him, and even got his blessing-from-afar as he went out and worked to sell his products and fulfill his dreams. That path clearly *worked* to turn Lynch into a True Believer, and a lifer. But that path is no longer open to the TMO. There ain't no guru to introduce future celebrities to. What? You think they're gonna pay big bucks to meet "King Tony?" Or Bevan? Or Hagelin? Get real. Maharishi was the "draw." To meet him was why the Beatles and Clint and Merv and most of the other old-time celebrities allowed Maharishi to use their names to sell his products. And their names definitely did help to sell his products, so people in the TMO came to rely on the "celebrity spokesperson model" for spreading their message, just as Scientology did. But there ain't no Maharishi these days, and nothing even close. There is nothing to actually draw a big celebrity in to the cult with. So the pool of celebrity TMers is gonna dry up. What are they going to do then to market TM? Any thoughts? From: "TurquoiseBee turquoi...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> From: "Michael Jackson mjackso...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com ... The current Movement is being propped up by an aging bizarro movie maker who parades a bunch of celebrities in front of the world waving their hands and saying "Look at us! We are famous and rich! We got that way by doing TM! Do TM and you can be famous and rich too!" ... The Movement has very little traction these days, far too many people see through the absurdities they proffer. It is on its last legs. I give it another maybe 7-8 years before it is marginalized enough that you won't much of it anymore. When Lynch kicks the bucket, the celebrity pitch will run out of steam, RIP TM Movement, and good riddance. A good point. The TM movement is being propped up -- financially and in PR terms -- by a 69-year-old guy who chain-smokes American Spirits and cigars, drinks a dozen or more cups of coffee a day, and (by his own admission) gets zero exercise. He's like a heart attack waiting to happen, and my bet is that not a single person whose livelihood depends on him has given a single thought to what they're going to do when he finally has one and croaks. From: "dhamiltony...@yahoo.com [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, April 12, 2015 11:31 PM Subject: Re: [FairfieldLife] ~~~~~~~~~~ about TMO friendship ~~~~~~~~~~~ “The problems and thesolutions for the TM movement are in the first three sutras:Friendliness, Compassion, Happiness.” -A friend who is successfulin life, an old meditator who moved to Fairfield, Iowa in retirementobserves. ..when did the movement change? Reminisces:More distinctly it changed in 1977 with the coming of the Vedic Atomre-organization and the wholesale sweeping out of a corporate orderof national leaders and coordinators then who had used metrics ofnumbers of initiations to guide the movement up to that point. Fromthen the movement became sidhis-centric, it overlooking entirely theteaching of TM, it overlooked the meditators, and the newadministrators adjudicated based much less on merit and metrics andmuch more by their sense in fealty of a faith and belief in Maharishiand Maharishi's teaching using a one-way, “never do weentertain negativity, never do we denounce anyone”. There was achange in the cultural esprit de corps in teaching of TM from then tobeing more of a faith-based organization. >From themoments of the Vedic Atom creation a lot of the most experienced >andeffective TM teachers were left out with no place to return to 'outin the >field' within the movement. These were the experienced fieldteachers who >themselves were still on courses in Europe or just thengoing over to courses >and not in sync in that free-for-all creationof teams made up of just anyone >and going out in usurpation. I wasthere and saw this, eye-witness. It was like witnessing thedecapitation of the whole officer corps of a standing army then.Chaos ensued out in the field and autocrats tried to control it fromon top at a distance. It was quite sad to watch what happened topeople. It was something that happened. Even great leadership makesmistakes in history. Yearslater now in TM, scientist CEO's, administrators, with some who areeffective teachers by character being more in charge the teachingmovement now is getting back to metrics of performance and evaluationin the teaching of TM. We may yet wait for the remainingold-guard Plutarchs to get out of the way and in to their retirementor die, whichever can come first. An alarming message for changewithin sent by some retrogressive element in this more recently wasin honors granted in a re-appearance and rehabilitation of theWilsons, Neil Patterson, Abramson and some others being brought upand placed seated on stage at the 40th anniversary celebrationof MIU. Is that a movement that people would come back to, goingforward? # ..when did the movement change? Bhairitu writes: After the AE courses. Some teachers came back and assumed being "TM Gestapo". Most of them were very mediocre souls probably lifetimes away from attaining any permanent state of enlightenment. They were rude and mean to other teachers and made pronouncement as if they had a stick up their butt. That's when folks started fleeing elsewhere. ..I've been away from the TMO since 1985 but I seem to recall some of them got drummed out themselves. They never bothered me but I sure heard stories from people who were their victims. Sometimes what goes around comes around. # Are any of them still in charge of anything:? L Discussing: “One thing which is interesting hereis that this movement was founded by people who had a distinct lackof the first list and an abundance of the second list. To takea year off college and go to a 3-month TM TTC in 1972 required agreat lack of obedience, compliance, conformity, discipline andadherence; and a great abundance of authenticity, self-direction,self-expression, appreciation of diversity, critical analysis, andplayfulness. When did we change?” ..when did the movement change? As the culture of the movement becameTM-siddhis centric. Back when the metric changed from numbersof meditators and the teaching of TM over to groups of people practicingTM-yogic-flying. The friendly, compassionate, and happy movementbecame something else under a new administrative leadership with a different mission from then. Discussing: “Specifically,our community culture highly values: obedience, compliance,conformity, discipline and adherence. These values go directlyagainst the grain of: creativity, authenticity, self-direction,self-expression, appreciation of diversity, critical analysis, andplayfulness which are generally the characteristics of later stagesof development.” ..Discussion:I feel this is a very powerful way of analyzing. ..examples ofour community culture valuing “conformity,” for example? LEnglish5 wrote : I think you're wrong all the way across the board in your conclusinos, even if you make partially valid points.The TM organization appears to be thriving, and on the verge of being 100x laster than it has ever been, while being recognized by the largest organizations in the world as being important. Of course, that last may never happen, but what if does? L Yes,granted that in places the TM movement is progressing. Thatevidently depends though on people and a character of the peopleinvolved how it is going. In Latin America pretty obviously it ishappening because of the integrity of the person there leading it.Elsewhere the TM movement is pretty small. They guy in Latin Am. isway inclusive in language and nature, sort of like the new pope, and simplyteaching TM. At the level of the Global Country of World Peace itevidently is way exclusive as a faith-based organization. Their GCWP is avery small organization actually. It is some numbers of hundreds. Itseems is not out of the woods yet, post MMY: 'All chiefs and noindians', as the old saying went.. And certainly no young leaders onthe stage or at the microphones yet at important functions. TheGlobal Country is about 30 Rajas and some 'Ministers' like Bevan andNeil holding fast to the movement tiller and microphone. Lot of the Rajas evidentlybailed in various ways. A meditator communityobserver here with a valid Dome badge watching their meetings andvideos comments, 'they should look and see if anyone is following'. By contrast, I was up at Mayo Cliniclast week. Consistently rated at the top in healthcare, their contrastin organizational culture of ease, fluidity, collaboration, graciousness, mission of service, focus and outcome is spectacular by contrast withthe halting organizational cultural of fears endemic withinorganizational TM. anartaxius wrote :I suspect Michael, that Maharishi as a young spiritual groupie was much like the people who eventually surrounded him, with that bright naive sense that everything would be grand. And then the reality of the world, the incapacities of the people, began to set in. Nothing goes the way you think it will go (though statistically there are always a few people who are on the lucky end of the curve). He did acknowledge there would be a flaw that would derail the whole thing. But there is always more than one way for something to come off the rails, and it can come from inside oneself just as well as from outside. Creating an organisation, especially a large one, is one way to bollix up the works because resources that might have been used to supposedly enlighten people have to be diverted to support and sustain the organisation. The organisation then becomes a vampire that sucks its supposed beneficiaries dry in order to sustain itself. Anyone at the head of such an organisation who has personal issues or flaws in relation to its stated mission becomes a major distorting factor in its growth, along with the flaws of all the rest who become part of it. Add to that that enlightenment offers nothing in the end except the knowledge that there was nothing to get in the first place and cuts you loose to live your life independently means those few who do 'succeed' in getting what this truly odd business of 'spiritual' growth is about are not usually going to be enthusiastic about being surrounded by spiritual cretins and their inept dreams of a utopia. mjackson74 wrote :Too bad he was a damnable liar. From: "email4you mikemail4you@... [FairfieldLife]" <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> To: Cc: Sent: Monday, April 6, 2015 5:32 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] ~~~~~~~~~~ about friendship ~~~~~~~~~~~ [1 Attachment] [Attachment(s) from email4you included below] | | | | | | | I will fill the world with Love, and create Heaven on Earth. 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