---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, anartaxius@... wrote :
cult
1. a system of religious veneration and devotion directed toward a particular
figure or object.
2. a relatively small group of people having religious beliefs or practices
regarded by others as strange or sinister.
synonyms: sect, denomination, group, movement, church, persuasion, body,
faction
3. a misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing.
synonyms: obsession with, fixation on, mania for, passion for, idolization of,
devotion to, worship of, veneration of
Now that the banished person on FFL who devoted a considerable amount of free
time energy to explaining that the TM org is a cult is gone, and that
observation indicates approximately half the active members of FFL are still
under the influence of cult-like thought patterns; now that that person has
been eliminated, we should see an increase in docile, cult-like behaviour on
FFL, and a lowering of the level of intelligent discussion. (That is an
hypothesis by the way, not a truth)
There was a scientific paper written in 1984 by neuroscientist Michael
Persinger titled Striking EEG Profiles from Single Episodes of Gossolalia and
Transcendental Meditation in which he wrote:
'Transient, focal, epileptic-like changes in the temporal lobe, without
convulsions, have been hypothesised to be primary correlates of religious
experiences. Given these properties, direct measurement of these phenomena
within the laboratory should be rare. However, two illustrated instances have
been recorded. The first case involved the occurrence of a delta-wave-dominant
electoral seizure for about 10 sec. from the temporal lobe only of a
Transcendental Meditation teacher during a peak experience within a routine TM
episode. The second case involved the occurrence of spikes within the temporal
lobe only during protracted intermittent episodes of glossolalia [speaking in
tongues] by a member of a Pentecostal sect. Neither subject had any psychiatric
history. These observations are commensurate with the hypothesis that religious
experiences are natural correlates of temporal lobe transients that can be
detected by routine EEG measures.'
Persinger is a cognitive neuroscientist, and his theories of religious
experience have received some criticism; he is of the belief that strong
magnetic field can induce religious experiences, but his research has not been
convincingly replicated.
More of note Persinger wrote a book with two other authors in 1980 called TM
and Cult Mania in which he investigated the efficacy of TM.
'TM and Cult Mania takes a look at the assertions made by the Transcendental
Meditation movement and analyses them from a scientific perspective. The book
acknowledges that those who practice the Transcendental Meditation technique
feel relaxed and experience an increase in creativity. According to the book,
the physiological effects reported by the scientific studies on Transcendental
Meditation are relatively small from a scientific perspective and no more
effective than many other meditation techniques. Transcendental Meditation is
seen as most noteworthy due to its ability to manipulate stress and expectancy.'
The authors concluded 'Transcendental Meditation has achieved international
recognition through commercial exploitation' and 'poor scientific procedures '
and that 'the reported effects of TM upon human behaviour are trivial.
Considering the alleged potency of the TM procedure, the changes in
physiological and behavioural measures are conspicuously minute'. TM and Cult
Mania comes to the conclusion that, 'science has been used as a sham for
propaganda by the TM movement.'
The book was criticised by some because Persinger associated religious beliefs
and spiritual practices with mental illness, that he cast spiritual interests
under a cloud of psychopathology.
Having been on FFL now for about four years, I think that psychopathy is quite
evident on this Yahoo group, and that now that the Buck persona seems to be in
charge of the way things go, that pathology of cult behaviour will intensify
unless there are enough counterbalancing voices that are not suppressed, to
keep this mental illness from spreading.
Now I have practiced TM into my fifth decade, and as is known here, I seem to
have some slight sociopathic tendencies. These tendencies have increased
through the practice of TM. I feel the changes are positive, but they can be
described in negative language. Loss of the small self can be described as
'depersonalisation' which is as good a tag as any. The persona gets thrown out
from the centre of your life to the periphery, where it becomes an object, like
trees and rocks. Everything in the universe becomes an object, and
consciousness or awareness becomes the subject, and disappears from view.
During most of the practice though, before this
