[FairfieldLife] Cause of benefits

[jpgillam]

A question occurred to me recently that I had never considered in all my years 
of being a student and teacher of TM: How can we tell whether TM's benefits 
result from an experience of pure consciousness or from some vibrational 
quality of the mantra?

[FairfieldLife] Goodbye Lancaster, Massachusetts facility

[jpgillam]

This message was at the top of an email announcing a Columbus Day residence 
course and World Peace Assembly:

"This facility is on the market and may soon be sold. This is likely the last 
chance for a course in this special location."

Another property bites the dust!

Anyone interested in attending the course?

Columbus Day Weekend • October 5-7 or 8, 2012  

Course Fees* 
(per person: includes full course program, room, and all meals)

All rooms have private bath. (2 of standard and all of economy rooms have their 
private bath directly across the hall)  Economy rooms are very simple and have 
hooks for hanging clothes (no closet).

3 nights: 
Single Room — $548 economy; $648 standard; $748 luxury; $828 royal
Shared Room — couples only...$628 luxury; $678 royal
2 nights: 
Single Room — $418 economy; $498 standard; $568 luxury; $618 royal
Shared Room — couples only...$488 luxury; $518 royal

To register:

https://newenglandgc.securesites.com/residencecourse/index2.html

Please state your room grade request in the comments field of the application.

*Discounts for New TM Practitioners  $50 (2 nights) to $75 (3 nights) (your 
first Residence Course within 6 months of your TM instruction)

*These fees are the check/cash discount rate. For credit card please add $27.

Richard and Gail Dalby
203.248.3000 
newha...@tm.org

[FairfieldLife] Re: I see that "Ugly Time" has rolled around again on FFL

[jpgillam]

> On 08/14/2012 11:52 AM, turquoiseb wrote:
> > I think the whole
> > country is pretty much a write-off, so I'm planning on writing off the
> > "election commentary" here.
> >
> > Except for the occasional funny insight, such as that provided by this
> > photo:
> >   
> > [https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/420001_302985792\
> > 4750_1126599325_n.jpg]

"Let's not let a bunch of cheap jokes about Paul Ryan 
looking like Eddie Munster distract us from the fact 
that he is a sociopath."

 - Andy Borowitz

https://twitter.com/BorowitzReport/status/234829102169853954

[FairfieldLife] RIP Farrokh Anklesaria (of the Enlightened Sentencing Project)

[jpgillam]

I was saddened to hear from a St. Louis friend that 
Farrokh Anklesaria, the director of the Enlightened 
Sentencing Project, passed away in a hospital recently. 
No details yet.

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Gillam"  wrote:
>
> from The Riverfront Times
> http://tinyurl.com/ejsah
> 
> Peace and Punishment
> St. Louis judges turn to Transcendental Meditation to rehab convicted felons
> 
> By Kristen Hinman 
> 
> Published Mar 8, 2006
> 
> 
> Keith Mason used to begin every day with a dime bag of marijuana. Nowadays, 
> the north 
> St. Louis man rises early and meditates upon the shaggy brown carpet at the 
> foot of his 
> bed. 
> 
> "It takes me through the whole day," exults the 43-year-old father of six. 
> "Everyone looks 
> at me now and they see a glowing man." 
> 
> Mason peddled marijuana in his Fairground Park neighborhood from the time he 
> was 
> thirteen years old. He didn't become a full-time pusher until he turned 30, 
> around the 
> time he got caught in gang crossfire and lost his lower left leg. Still Mason 
> kept at it. 
> Selling drugs was more lucrative, and less painful, he explains, than a 
> nine-to-five job. 
> 
> "I could stand out there for only three hours and make five hundred dollars." 
> 
> In March 2002, Mason was arrested for possession of more than 35 grams of a 
> controlled 
> substance. He pleaded guilty in St. Louis Circuit Court and was placed on 
> probation for 
> two years. 
> 
> "And like a knucklehead, I went right back up there a month later and got 
> caught again," 
> he laments. "I went to prison for a whole year." 
> 
> Upon his release in 2004, Mason set about satisfying the probation 
> requirements from his 
> first offense. Along with a twelve-step drug program and GED classes, St. 
> Louis Circuit 
> Court Judge Philip Heagney ordered Mason to the enigmatic-sounding 
> Enlightened 
> Sentencing Project to learn Transcendental Meditation. 
> 
> "I'm a dude that's stubborn, bullheaded, and when I went to that first 
> meeting, I wanted 
> nothing to do with it," Mason admits. "But meditation saved my life, man. I 
> swear to you." 
> 
> Transcendental Meditation, or TM, is a stress-reduction technique developed 
> 50 years ago 
> by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, an Indian spiritual leader. Popularized by the 
> Beatles in the 
> 1960s, the teachings of the Maharishi are now followed by more than six 
> million 
> practitioners worldwide. 
> 
> Twice a day, they sit with their eyes closed and repeat a silent mantra for 
> twenty minutes, 
> entering a state where the mind is alert, while the body reaches a relaxing 
> realm deeper 
> than sleep. The practice has been medically proven to enhance mental health, 
> and reduce 
> hypertension and blood pressure. 
> 
> TM has gained traction in the past ten years, with several U.S. schools 
> reporting that 
> students are less violent and more focused after meditating. Last year, the 
> movie and 
> television director David Lynch founded the Hollywood-based David Lynch 
> Foundation for 
> Consciousness-based Education and World Peace, with plans to underwrite 
> university 
> classes in TM and provide startup funds to elementary schools looking to 
> establish 
> programs. 
> 
> Using TM to rehabilitate convicted felons has proved a much harder sell. 
> Bombay-born 
> Farrokh Anklesaria, a British-trained barrister, took up the crusade in 1980 
> and, in April 
> 1996 began teaching the program in St. Louis  the only city in the nation 
> offering this kind 
> of treatment for convicted felons. 
> 
> "The technique is not religious, but I do have a missionary zeal about it," 
> says Anklesaria. 
> "I don't care whether a guy is a murderer, a wifebeater, whatever. I teach 
> him the method. 
> Ultimately, you have a man whose physiology is incapable of crime." 
> 
> Anklesaria, who learned TM from the Maharishi, established programs in 
> prisons in Sri 
> Lanka, India and Senegal, at the guru's behest. In the early 1990s he began 
> lobbying U.S. 
> corrections officials. 
> 
> TM wasn't completely unknown stateside. In fact, 150 inmates at California's 
> Folsom State 
> Prison meditated in the late 1970s. Researchers at the Fairfield, Iowa-based 
> Maharishi 
> University of Management later tracked the parolees and found that their risk 
> of 
> reoffending was reduced by 44 percent. 
> 
> Still Anklesaria failed to sway state prison directors in six different 
> states. "When I pointed 
> out to the California wardens that for every dollar invested in this program 
> they would 
> save twelve dollars, their answer was, 'Where do I get the one dollar now?'" 
> 
> Anklesaria's fate changed when he introduced St. Louis Circuit Court Judge 
> David Mason 
> (no relation to Keith Mason) to TM at a 1995 conference in St. Louis. 
> 
> "When I became a judge there was one thing that weighed heavily on my mind," 
> recalls 
> Judge Mason. "How is it that I grew up in the same severe impoverished 
> 

[FairfieldLife] RIP Farrokh Re: Enlightened Sentencing Project article

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Patrick Gillam"  wrote:
>
> from The Riverfront Times
> http://tinyurl.com/ejsah
> 
> Peace and Punishment
> St. Louis judges turn to Transcendental Meditation to rehab convicted felons
> 
> By Kristen Hinman 
> 
> Published Mar 8, 2006
> 
> 
> Keith Mason used to begin every day with a dime bag of marijuana. Nowadays, 
> the north 
> St. Louis man rises early and meditates upon the shaggy brown carpet at the 
> foot of his 
> bed. 
> 
> "It takes me through the whole day," exults the 43-year-old father of six. 
> "Everyone looks 
> at me now and they see a glowing man." 
> 
> Mason peddled marijuana in his Fairground Park neighborhood from the time he 
> was 
> thirteen years old. He didn't become a full-time pusher until he turned 30, 
> around the 
> time he got caught in gang crossfire and lost his lower left leg. Still Mason 
> kept at it. 
> Selling drugs was more lucrative, and less painful, he explains, than a 
> nine-to-five job. 
> 
> "I could stand out there for only three hours and make five hundred dollars." 
> 
> In March 2002, Mason was arrested for possession of more than 35 grams of a 
> controlled 
> substance. He pleaded guilty in St. Louis Circuit Court and was placed on 
> probation for 
> two years. 
> 
> "And like a knucklehead, I went right back up there a month later and got 
> caught again," 
> he laments. "I went to prison for a whole year." 
> 
> Upon his release in 2004, Mason set about satisfying the probation 
> requirements from his 
> first offense. Along with a twelve-step drug program and GED classes, St. 
> Louis Circuit 
> Court Judge Philip Heagney ordered Mason to the enigmatic-sounding 
> Enlightened 
> Sentencing Project to learn Transcendental Meditation. 
> 
> "I'm a dude that's stubborn, bullheaded, and when I went to that first 
> meeting, I wanted 
> nothing to do with it," Mason admits. "But meditation saved my life, man. I 
> swear to you." 
> 
> Transcendental Meditation, or TM, is a stress-reduction technique developed 
> 50 years ago 
> by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, an Indian spiritual leader. Popularized by the 
> Beatles in the 
> 1960s, the teachings of the Maharishi are now followed by more than six 
> million 
> practitioners worldwide. 
> 
> Twice a day, they sit with their eyes closed and repeat a silent mantra for 
> twenty minutes, 
> entering a state where the mind is alert, while the body reaches a relaxing 
> realm deeper 
> than sleep. The practice has been medically proven to enhance mental health, 
> and reduce 
> hypertension and blood pressure. 
> 
> TM has gained traction in the past ten years, with several U.S. schools 
> reporting that 
> students are less violent and more focused after meditating. Last year, the 
> movie and 
> television director David Lynch founded the Hollywood-based David Lynch 
> Foundation for 
> Consciousness-based Education and World Peace, with plans to underwrite 
> university 
> classes in TM and provide startup funds to elementary schools looking to 
> establish 
> programs. 
> 
> Using TM to rehabilitate convicted felons has proved a much harder sell. 
> Bombay-born 
> Farrokh Anklesaria, a British-trained barrister, took up the crusade in 1980 
> and, in April 
> 1996 began teaching the program in St. Louis  the only city in the nation 
> offering this kind 
> of treatment for convicted felons. 
> 
> "The technique is not religious, but I do have a missionary zeal about it," 
> says Anklesaria. 
> "I don't care whether a guy is a murderer, a wifebeater, whatever. I teach 
> him the method. 
> Ultimately, you have a man whose physiology is incapable of crime." 
> 
> Anklesaria, who learned TM from the Maharishi, established programs in 
> prisons in Sri 
> Lanka, India and Senegal, at the guru's behest. In the early 1990s he began 
> lobbying U.S. 
> corrections officials. 
> 
> TM wasn't completely unknown stateside. In fact, 150 inmates at California's 
> Folsom State 
> Prison meditated in the late 1970s. Researchers at the Fairfield, Iowa-based 
> Maharishi 
> University of Management later tracked the parolees and found that their risk 
> of 
> reoffending was reduced by 44 percent. 
> 
> Still Anklesaria failed to sway state prison directors in six different 
> states. "When I pointed 
> out to the California wardens that for every dollar invested in this program 
> they would 
> save twelve dollars, their answer was, 'Where do I get the one dollar now?'" 
> 
> Anklesaria's fate changed when he introduced St. Louis Circuit Court Judge 
> David Mason 
> (no relation to Keith Mason) to TM at a 1995 conference in St. Louis. 
> 
> "When I became a judge there was one thing that weighed heavily on my mind," 
> recalls 
> Judge Mason. "How is it that I grew up in the same severe impoverished 
> circles that some 
> people coming in front of me grew up under, but I was able to deal with them, 
> get through 
> school, and to where I am? I didn't have any extras. I didn't

[FairfieldLife] Re: Torrents, Macintoshes and bandwidth

[jpgillam]

Thanks! Next time I'll ask my daughter if the torrent software is merely open. 
It may be that she is not downloading anything, but the open software is active 
regardless.

Or she could be fibbing. That's an option, too.

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Share Long  wrote:
>
> Well - there's a few possibilities. 
> 
> If your daughter says she's not using torrents, someone nearby may be using 
> your wireless connection to download torrents. You need to up your wireless 
> security.
> 
> Some software will set itself up so it runs all the time in the background. 
> Torrent software is designed to share files downloaded prior so if its 
> running in the background, this might be the case. Not so likely though - 
> usually if you close the program, the activity stops. Depends on the software.
> 
> There is also the possibility of a trojan infection on a PC but
>   thats less likely.
> 
> The log files should indicate which IP is doing the downloading.
>   Routers tend to give the same IPs to the same computers over a
>   short period of time. 
> Hope that helps...
> 
> 
> 
>  From: jpgillam 
> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com 
> Sent: Thursday, June 7, 2012 4:49 PM
> Subject: [FairfieldLife] Torrents, Macintoshes and bandwidth
>  
> 
>   
> Maybe some of the geeks here can provide information that Google hasn't 
> delivered.
> 
> My modem's web activity log is listing all manner of torrents and tracker 
> sites. My daughter says she is not downloading anything. An ISP rep told me 
> torrents install software that operates in the background all the time, 
> hogging bandwidth. 
> 
> Could it be that my daughter's MacBook is running torrent software all the 
> time?
> 
> If so, how do I remove it or turn it off?
> 
> Thanks kindly for any advice or information you can provide.
>

[FairfieldLife] Torrents, Macintoshes and bandwidth

[jpgillam]

Maybe some of the geeks here can provide information that Google hasn't 
delivered.

My modem's web activity log is listing all manner of torrents and tracker 
sites. My daughter says she is not downloading anything. An ISP rep told me 
torrents install software that operates in the background all the time, hogging 
bandwidth. 

Could it be that my daughter's MacBook is running torrent software all the time?

If so, how do I remove it or turn it off?

Thanks kindly for any advice or information you can provide.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Movie: "Catch.44"

[jpgillam]

In an interview some years ago, a crime writer 
whose name I've since forgotten said that the 
difference between a criminal and a crime writer 
is one of imagination. Both can imagine doing 
the crime. Only the crime writer can imagine 
getting caught.

The remarks reminded me of Maharishi's saying 
that criminals lack the creativity to figure out 
how to make a living in a way that doesn't lead 
to more problems (or words to that effect).

I think of both of those remarks whenever I
read an Elmore Leonard crime story.


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu  wrote:
>
> Mark can verify this if he is familiar with Elmore Leonard but his 
> shtick is the kind of tales that DA's and cops tell about stupid 
> criminals and what they do.  If you were to hang out at a bar with DA's 
> and cops you would have enough material for several books in no time.  
> My brother had a couple of friends that were with the Seattle DA office 
> and that was their bar tales.  And I also had a friend who was an ex 
> police detective and he had a bunch of tales too.
> 
> On 03/14/2012 12:14 PM, jpgillam wrote:
> > The Elmore Leonard recipe for good entertainment:
> >
> >   - A strong protagonist (male or female)
> >   - A few good-looking women
> >   - A charming but crazy criminal
> >   - A few very stupid criminals
> >   - Clever dialogue
> >   - One or two double-crosses
> >   - The unexpected
> >   - The inevitable
> >
> > Stir.
> >
> > Thanks for the movie tip.
> >
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu  wrote:
> >> I've mentioned before that about the only movies I like out of Hollywood
> >> anymore are independent ones that often people in the industry make on
> >> the side and on a small budget.  "Catch.44" was originally intended to
> >> be shot for about $80K by writer/director Aaron Harvey out in Lancaster
> >> as sort of a homage to Roger Corman films.  Along the way word got out
> >> about the script so instead it got a bigger budget, bigger name actors
> >> than actor buddies of Harvey and was shot in Shreveport, Louisiana.  The
> >> bigger name actors include Forest Whitaker, Bruce Willis, Malin
> >> Ackerman, Shea Whigham and Deborah Wall ("True Blood") among others.
> >> This is a "situation" film about three young women who try to intercept
> >> a drug shipment for their crime boss played by Bruce Willis.  If you
> >> like Elmore Leonard and "Justify" you'll probably like this film.
> >>
> >> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1886493/
> >>
> >
> >
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Movie: "Catch.44"

[jpgillam]

The Elmore Leonard recipe for good entertainment:

 - A strong protagonist (male or female)
 - A few good-looking women
 - A charming but crazy criminal
 - A few very stupid criminals
 - Clever dialogue
 - One or two double-crosses
 - The unexpected
 - The inevitable

Stir.

Thanks for the movie tip.

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu  wrote:
>
> I've mentioned before that about the only movies I like out of Hollywood 
> anymore are independent ones that often people in the industry make on 
> the side and on a small budget.  "Catch.44" was originally intended to 
> be shot for about $80K by writer/director Aaron Harvey out in Lancaster 
> as sort of a homage to Roger Corman films.  Along the way word got out 
> about the script so instead it got a bigger budget, bigger name actors 
> than actor buddies of Harvey and was shot in Shreveport, Louisiana.  The 
> bigger name actors include Forest Whitaker, Bruce Willis, Malin 
> Ackerman, Shea Whigham and Deborah Wall ("True Blood") among others.  
> This is a "situation" film about three young women who try to intercept 
> a drug shipment for their crime boss played by Bruce Willis.  If you 
> like Elmore Leonard and "Justify" you'll probably like this film.
> 
> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1886493/
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: California is Obama's Dream.

[jpgillam]

Michael Lewis, of "Moneyball" and "The Big Short" fame, 
wrote a good piece about the California Crisis in a recent 
Vanity Fair.

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/11/michael-lewis-20

"'What all the polls show,' says ]mark] Paul, "'is that people want services 
and not to pay for them. And that's exactly what they have now got.' As much as 
they claimed to despise their government, the citizens of California shared its 
defining trait: a need for debt. The average Californian, in 2011, had debts of 
$78,000 against an income of $43,000. The behavior was unsustainable, but, in 
its way, for the people, it works brilliantly. For their leaders, even in the 
short term, it works less well. They ride into office on great false hopes and 
quickly discover they can do nothing to justify those hopes."


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu  wrote:
>
> The former lord mayor must be smokin' a bit of the stuff coming up from 
> down south.  Not to worry Sandy Eggo and the rest of SoCal will soon be 
> part of Mexico.   Comprende?
> 
> The problem isn't Jerry it was Ahnuld and idiots from both sides the 
> aisle who didn't have the sense to realize that what goes up must come 
> down.  They thought the boom was going to last forever and didn't see 
> the slow motion train wreck coming that some of us saw.  And it's our 
> fault for voting in such idiots anyway.  But it seems that only idiots 
> run for office these days (just look at the Republican Presidential 
> candidates).  Smart people don't want to deal with such hassle.
> 
> So Billy, you want to foot the bill for the state's problems?  I bet 
> you're not a millionaire?  So you want to pay more taxes or are you 
> going to move to Arizona, though Somalia may be more to your liking, 
> comrade? :-D
> 
> On 03/02/2012 09:51 AM, wgm4u wrote:
> > Written by Roger Hedgecock, former Mayor of San Diego
> >
> > I live in California. If you were wondering what living in Obama's
> > second term would be like, wonder no longer. We in California are
> > living there now.
> >
> > California is a one-party state dominated by a virulent Democrat Left
> > enabled by a complicit media where every agency of local, county, and
> > state government is run by and for the public employee unions. The
> > unemployment rate is 12%.
> >
> > California has more folks on food stamps than any other state, has
> > added so many benefits and higher rates to Medicaid that we call it
> > "Medi-Cal." Our K-12 schools have more administrators than teachers,
> > with smaller classes but lower test scores and higher dropout rates
> > with twice the per-student budget of 15 years ago. Good job, Brownie.
> >
> > This week, the once and current Gov. Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown had to
> > confess that the "balanced" state budget adopted five months ago was
> > billions in the red because actual tax revenues were billions lower
> > than the airy-fairy revenue estimates on which the balance was
> > predicated.
> >
> > After trimming legislators' perks and reducing the number of cell
> > phones provided to state civil servants, the governor intoned that
> > drastic budget reductions had already hollowed out state programs for
> > the needy, law enforcement and our schoolchildren. California
> > government needed more money.
> >
> > Echoing the Occupy movement, the governor proclaimed the rich must pay
> > their fair share. Fair share? The top 1% of California income earners
> > currently pays 50% of the state's income tax.
> >
> > California has seven income tax brackets. The top income tax rate is
> > 9.3%, which is slapped on the greedy rich earning at least $47,056 a
> > year. Income of more than $1 million pays the "millionaires' and
> > billionaires'" surcharge tax rate of 10.3%.
> >
> > Brown's proposal would add 2% for income over $250,000. A million-
> > dollar income would then be taxed at 12.3%. And that's just for the
> > state.
> >
> > Brown also proposed a one-half-cent sales tax increase, which would
> > bring sales taxes (which vary by county) up to 7.75% to as much as
> > 10%. Both tax increases would be on the ballot in 2012.
> >
> > The sales tax increase proposal immediately brought howls of protest
> > from the Left (of Brown!). Charlie Eaton, a sociology grad student at
> > UC Berkeley and leader of the UC Student-Workers Union, said, "We've
> > paid enough. It's time for millionaires to pay."
> >
> > At least five other ballot measures to raise taxes are circulating for
> > signatures to get on the 2012 ballot in California. The governor's
> > proposals are the most conservative.
> >
> > The Obama way doesn't end with taxes.
> >
> > The governor and the state legislature continue to applaud the efforts
> > of the California High Speed Rail Authority to build a train
> > connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco. Even though the budget is
> > three times the voter-approved amount, and the first segment will only
> > connect two small towns in the agricultura

[FairfieldLife] Re: TV series review: "Awake"

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu wrote:
>
> On 03/01/2012 10:32 AM, jpgillam wrote:
>
> > I would argue that the most compelling storytelling these days is coming 
> > from television series. That format better allows for character 
> > development. People watch TV series because viewers develop relationships 
> > with the characters.
> >
> > Obviously I'm only part correct in this view, lest how to explain 
> > complicated plot-driven series such as "Lost" and, possibly, the show under 
> > discussion.
> 
> People watch these shows though to be entertained. If the quality of 
> entertainment falls below a certain level or the audience treated like 
> idiots (as a lot of network TV series do) then they seek entertainment 
> elsewhere.  Cable networks series aren't as constrained by FCC rules and 
> premium channels not constrained by worrying about offending 
> advertisers.  People are starting to value their time more and thinking 
> about sitting in front of a TV for weeks on end for an "appointment" TV 
> series.   The NBC series "Heroes" for all it's novelty failed a few 
> seasons end because they didn't know where to take the storyline.

Point taken. When I talk about television being the 
medium for compelling storytelling, I'm thinking of 
"Deadwood" and its ilk, not "Modern Family" (although 
I enjoyed the one episode of "Modern Family" that I watched).

A good TV series or miniseries is not much different from a Dickens story.
Lots of characters suffering lots of predicaments. Character + plot. Seems 
like "Awake" is trying to push the boundaries of plot, which I understand
the show's originator has tried to do, without much success, in the past.

[FairfieldLife] Re: TV series review: "Awake"

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu wrote:
>
> On 03/01/2012 06:22 AM, turquoiseb wrote:
> > I had this one on my personal "watch list" long before it started
> > showing up in the trades. The reason is an actor named Jason Issacs.
> > Most Americans know him only as Lucius Malfoy from the "Harry Potter"
> > films, but I had seen him in a tremendous short British series called
> > "Case Histories," in which he co-starred with the city of Edinburgh,
> > Scotland; both deserved awards for their performances.
> >
> > In "Awake" Issacs plays Michael Britten, a cop. The series literally
> > starts with the event that precipitates the plotline -- a horrifying
> > auto accident in which he tumbles down a cliff trapped in a car with his
> > wife and teenage son. The accident is so severe that you wonder who is
> > going to survive. You kinda figure the cop will, since he's the star of
> > the series you're about to watch and all, but will he be trying to put
> > his life back together with his wife after the death of their son, or
> > will he be trying to put his life back together with his son after the
> > death of his mother?
> >
> > Well, the answer is "both."
> >
> > One day he wakes up and he's next to his wife in bed, and his son's room
> > down the hall is empty because he's dead. The next day he wakes up and
> > his son is alive and his wife is dead. Everything else in the two
> > realities is remarkably the same, but understandably he's being put
> > through a lot by experiencing this. So -- in *both* realities -- he
> > starts seeing a shrink to try to figure out what's happening.
> >
> > The shrinks tell him that it's an amazing but understandable coping
> > mechanism on his part, and that he's dreaming the other reality. He says
> > he can't tell the difference any more, and can't tell in which of the
> > realities he's awake and in which he's dreaming. The female shrink says,
> > "I can assure you, Detective Britten, this is not a dream." He chuckles
> > ironically and says, "That's exactly what the other shrink said."
> >
> > All of this happens before the first credits roll. I don't think I've
> > seen a more promising start to a series in a long time. It *could* well
> > turn formulaic, but so far it hasn't. One thing that gives it a twist,
> > even in the first episode, is that in both realities he's still a
> > detective, solving cases. They're *different* cases, unrelated to each
> > other. But suddenly details start "bleeding through" from one reality to
> > the other, enabling him to solve both. So what's up with that, eh Docs?
> >
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfPVoiQKFvk
> > 
> 
> We'll see.  I didn't bother looking for a preview though there was one 
> online and it probably OnDemand on Comcast.   Jason Issacs was great in 
> Showtime's "Brotherhood" one of the better series of the last decade.  
> But broadcast networks are striking out these days, hampered by rules 
> the make their shows less compelling than even the cable network series 
> like "Walking Dead", "Breaking Bad" and "Justified".
> 
> And you've got a public who more and more would rather watch a movie 
> streaming on Netflix than invest in some series that a) gets canceled or 
> b) becomes a "paycheck" for cast, crew and due to the network wanting 
> 12-13 episodes produce "bottle" boring ones.

I would argue that the most compelling storytelling these days is coming from 
television series. That format better allows for character development. People 
watch TV series because viewers develop relationships with the characters. 

Obviously I'm only part correct in this view, lest how to explain complicated 
plot-driven series such as "Lost" and, possibly, the show under discussion.

[FairfieldLife] Plural of "you" (was Re: The Dome Numbers)

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, cardemaister wrote:
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jpgillam"  wrote:
> >
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" wrote:
> > >
> > > See youse all Friday or Saturday.
> > 
> > I've wrestled with the spelling of "youse." I tend to go 
> > with "yooz," seeing as its a regionalism that won't make 
> > sense to lots of people, so I spell it how it sounds.
> > 
> > English needs a plural second-person pronoun. The UK 
> > uses "you lot." The American South uses "all y'all." 
> > 
> > (I used to think "you all" was a plural form, but a cousin 
> > from Dallas set me straight; "y'all" is used in talking to 
> > one person, "all y'all" is the plural.)
> > 
> > I first heard "yooz" in South St. Louis. Where did you pick 
> > it up? Reply privately if you don't want to burn public posts 
> > with something that most people probably won't care about.
> >
> 
> I'm not at all sure about that, but I think 'you' might
> diachronically be actually plural (cf. thou, ye, and
> Sanskrit 'yuuyam', [all of] you). So, English needs a singular
> second person pronoun? :D

Set aside the academic view and look at actual usage: When 
English speakers want to make clear they're talking to more 
than one person, they say "you lot" or "all y'all" or "yooz," 
depending where they live. 

The existence of a vernacular plural "you" is not universal; 
where I grew up, we had no such term, and there's no such
term where I live now.

[FairfieldLife] Plural of "you" (was Re: The Dome Numbers)

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" wrote:
>
> See youse all Friday or Saturday.

I've wrestled with the spelling of "youse." I tend to go 
with "yooz," seeing as its a regionalism that won't make 
sense to lots of people, so I spell it how it sounds.

English needs a plural second-person pronoun. The UK 
uses "you lot." The American South uses "all y'all." 

(I used to think "you all" was a plural form, but a cousin 
from Dallas set me straight; "y'all" is used in talking to 
one person, "all y'all" is the plural.)

I first heard "yooz" in South St. Louis. Where did you pick 
it up? Reply privately if you don't want to burn public posts 
with something that most people probably won't care about.

[FairfieldLife] Re: No Nukes for Food

[jpgillam]

Have you seen his Twitter feed? I think it's authored by Andy Borowitz:

https://twitter.com/#!/KimJongNumberUn

One of my faves:

"Facebook is worth $100B because it has everyone's private info? That bastard 
Zuckerberg totally stole that idea from us."

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "John"  wrote:
>
> North Korea agrees to give up its nuclear testing program in exchange for 
> food.  The new dictator of the country appears more reasonable than his 
> father.
> 
> 
> 
> http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/u-announces-diplomatic-breakthrough-north-korea-152331635.html
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: All Dead Mormons are Now Gay

[jpgillam]

That Louis CK bit is hilarious!

As for anal sex, more heteros than homos engage 
in anal sex, for the same reason that you'll find 
more English speakers in China than in the United States. 

I've tried to write a few lines objecting to wgm4u's 
moral imbecility, but I just end up deleting them. 
When I talk to my dog, I just do it for the fun of it. 
Talking to wgm4u is not fun.


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "marekreavis"  wrote:
>
> 
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "wgm4u"  wrote:
> 
> > 
> > There will always be anomalies in nature, but if you believe that it is 
> > natural or normal for a penis to be put into an anus at any time for any 
> > reason you must be a moral imbecile. It's as plain as the nose on your 
> > face, it don't belong there, what more do you need to know? Have we lost 
> > all of our common sense in this 'modern' age we live in?
> >
> 
> ///
> 
> Your reply reminded me of: 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d63ClccjjE&feature=youtube_gdata_player
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: MIU Reunion May 3-6, 2012

[jpgillam]

This just in from reunion organizer Prentiss Adams:

"Looking forward to seeing all who can make it in May. 
Just bought my ticket last week. If you have friends 
that want to be kept in the loop about our May Event 
but they don't want to join Facebook, than can email 
us using this email address: 

miureun...@gmail.com 

It appears many would like to join us who were in class 
from 1973 & 1974. Wonderful idea but a logistic 
nightmare if we don have accurate counts. So have 
non-facebook friends email and give us a head count 
of who may show. See you in May...In fact all who are 
coming should use above email saying how many will 
be coming..it will be easier to save email. I apologize 
to those who have already commented here...but one 
more time please :)

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jpgillam" wrote:
>
> Looks like some alums are organizing a 
> reunion in Fairfield for MIU alumni, faculty, 
> staff and volunteers who were on campus 
> between 1977-1982.
> 
>  - Thursday, May 3, 2012, at 10:00 a.m. 
>  until Sunday, May 6, 2012, at 6:00 p.m.
> 
>  - Fairfield, Iowa, USA
> 
>  - All are welcome, even if no longer meditating. 
> 
> One of the organizers, Prentiss Adams, says 
> at Facebook, "We are planning a Talent Show, 
> just like the old Forest Academy days. So be 
> sure to watch for a sign up sheet, to share 
> your talents, be it musical, comedic, dance, 
> visual... you name it! Please join us!"
> 
> Posted times are subject to change, he says.
> 
> They have a Facebook group called "MIU 
> Reunion" if you want to keep up with 
> announcements there. And the MUM 
> Alumni Office is helping get the word out.
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: I Just Love This Commercial

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu wrote:
>
> On 02/21/2012 09:11 PM, seventhray1 wrote:
> > http://www.youtube.com/user/kiamotorsamerica/featured?v=lHZbXvts0LE&cid=sem&ppc=y
> 
> Only in Corprica (formerly the USA). 

I like this! "Corprica." Trademark it, dude.

[FairfieldLife] MIU Reunion May 3-6, 2012

[jpgillam]

Looks like some alums are organizing a 
reunion in Fairfield for MIU alumni, faculty, 
staff and volunteers who were on campus 
between 1977-1982.

 - Thursday, May 3, 2012, at 10:00 a.m. 
 until Sunday, May 6, 2012, at 6:00 p.m.

 - Fairfield, Iowa, USA

 - All are welcome, even if no longer meditating. 

One of the organizers, Prentiss Adams, says 
at Facebook, "We are planning a Talent Show, 
just like the old Forest Academy days. So be 
sure to watch for a sign up sheet, to share 
your talents, be it musical, comedic, dance, 
visual... you name it! Please join us!"

Posted times are subject to change, he says.

They have a Facebook group called "MIU 
Reunion" if you want to keep up with 
announcements there. And the MUM 
Alumni Office is helping get the word out.

[FairfieldLife] Re: I Just Love This Commercial

[jpgillam]

The bikini babes in the stands are delightful if 
predictable, but the thumbs up from the lumberjack 
at work on the giant submarine sandwich? That's genius. 

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "seventhray1"  wrote:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/user/kiamotorsamerica/featured?v=lHZbXvts0LE&cid=sem&ppc=y
>

[FairfieldLife] Dreams of being on courses (was Re: Non-meditation)

[jpgillam]

Comments interleaved below...

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" wrote:
>
> I also have
> persistent recurring dreams set in a movement facility,
> specifically a residence course facility: [snip] 
> neither the setting nor the plot ever has anything
> explicitly to do with TM. 

Yeah, same here. Not so much lately, but for a while I was having regular 
dreams set in some version of the old Maharishi International University. There 
was a "gang's all here" quality to them despite the fact that they did not have 
my friends in them. When I dream on a recurring theme, I have to think there's 
something the dreams should tell me, but I came up with nothing in this 
instance.

> one
> frequent element involves the many rooms in the facility,
> e.g., getting lost and not being able to find my room, or
> going back and forth from a room in one part of the
> facility to another in a part of the facility far distant
> from it.

When I have too much chocolate (!) I have dreams of setting out for a distant 
destination only to be sidetracked and sidetracked again. They're vaguely 
disturbing because I don't forget that I'm trying to get somewhere as I get 
further and further removed from the path. 

> 
> I remember in one dream one of the CPs was Richard Nixon,
> and he was, in his self-conscious, awkward, socially inept
> manner, trying to flirt with me, which in the dream I
> thought was hilarious. Never figured that one out (but 
> after I woke up I was fascinated that the dream had
> captured his personality so perfectly). 

My one Richard Nixon dream, dreamt decades ago, was set in the art studio 
building of the University of Iowa. He was lost and troubled. I recall feeling 
surprise at how sorry I felt for him.

[FairfieldLife] Re: The TM hymn on Negativity

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck" wrote:
>
> Xeno, was 1980(below) when Maharishi started using the 'invincibility' 
> language-ing?

Maharishi said 1977 was to be the Year of Invincibility.

http://www.globalcountry.org.uk/viewnewsletter.php?&ID=20090723142634

He said 2008 would the "Year of Invincibility - Global 
Raam Raj," and continued that theme until he died, I think.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Sherlock

[jpgillam]

I concur with your review of Season One. That pilot 
was the best pilot of any I've seen. Finally, the 
characters made sense.

I'm looking forward to the second season. My wife 
has been watching online, but I'm waiting for the 
legal viewings I can do on TV.


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu  wrote:
>
> On 01/26/2012 01:21 PM, turquoiseb wrote:
> > Many of you in the US hear me rant endlessly about TV series that you
> > don't have easy access to. Mea culpa. The BBC production of "Sherlock"
> > has been one of them. As I understand it, the first season has aired on
> > BBC America, so some may be familiar with it.
> >
> > I've recently finished watching season 2. I was two-thirds knocked out
> > by it. I thought it was Quality Television.
> >
> > To backtrack a bit, I think the casting choices of Cumberbatch and
> > Freeman as Holmes and Watson were fuckin' inspired. I have seen pretty
> > much all of the cinematic versions of Conan Doyle's detective and his
> > sidekick, plus read the originals, and in my humble opinion Cumberbatch
> > and Freeman come the closest to "capturing the mindset." They ROCK as
> > Holmes and Watson. They had me in the first episode of the first season,
> > when some cop that Holmes had just upstaged by coming up with a solution
> > to a crime the cop hadn't even developed theories about said, thinking
> > his words weren't being overheard by Holmes, "He's a psychopath."
> > Holmes, on his way out of the room, stopped and turned and addressed the
> > miscreant, saying something to the effect of "I am NOT a psychopath. I
> > am a high-functioning sociopath." THAT, in my opinion, is pretty much
> > who Sherlock Holmes was, both as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle imagined him.
> > That's the Sherlock of this series, as Steven Moffat imagines him. Crazy
> > as a mofo, but on some levels and at some times aware of it. :-)
> >
> > The first episode of the second season has my vote as Best Single
> > Episode Of Television I've Seen So Far In 2012. Not that that counts for
> > much in the TVcrit marketplace, but I thought it was masterful, Tantra
> > Incarnate. In the Conan Doyle series, Holmes is only mentioned as having
> > an even remotely romantic relationship with one woman, Irene Adler.
> > Thereafter in the series, Holmes refers to her as "the woman." Steven
> > Moffat and company imagine what this historic meeting could have been
> > like. I thought that this episode captured a meeting of two great minds,
> > both seriously suffering from Narcissitic Personality Disorder, both
> > crazy as loons, but both Pretty Damned Interesting.
> >
> > Episode 2 didn't float my boat as much. The updating of "The Hound of
> > the Baskervilles" to modern times didn't work for me as well as other
> > episodes.
> >
> > But episode 3, with its ending preannounced to any true Sherlock Holmes
> > fan in its title ("The Reichenbach Fall"), now that was good TV. I can
> > say no more, for fear of proferring spoilers. When the series comes to
> > BBC America, it's worth checking out. But as a warning, you cannot
> > possibly watch S02E03 without wanting to watch S03E01. It's like that
> > snack food that used to promote itself by saying "You can't eat just
> > one." When it comes to "The Reichenbach Fall," that may be true.
> 
> It'll be on PBS Masterpiece Theater in May.
> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/mystery/index.html
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Hillary Clinton Is Done With Politics

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "John" wrote:
>
> She said it.  But that doesn't mean she won't get involved with the 
> Democratic political machine.
> 
> http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/hillary-clinton-says-she-done-high-wire-american-175721782.html
>

"It would be probably a good idea to just find out how tired I am."

She sure looked tired at the State of the Union address. It 
would probably be a good idea to rest. 

Interestingly, the New Yorker has an article about the way 
the Obama vision of politics is coming around to the Clinton 
vision. She may have had her influence in the end.

[FairfieldLife] Selling the category, not the technique (was Re: PTSD)

[jpgillam]

Resuscitating this old thread, it turns out a widely 
accepted generic term for a higher state of functioning 
is "flow."

"Colloquial terms for this or similar mental states 
include: to be on the ball, in the moment, present, 
in the zone, wired in, in the groove, or owning."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)

http://www.amazon.com/Flow-Psychology-Experience-Mihaly-Csikszentmihalyi/dp/0061339202

I thought I was reasonably well-informed, but the existence 
of this term eluded me - which suggests it's not as widely 
disseminated as it might be.

It seems humans agree that everyone should have food, 
clothing, shelter and other basics, but when it comes to 
higher levels of functioning, there's little agreement on 
what to call those levels, let alone recognition that they 
even exist.


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jpgillam"  wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "TurquoiseB" wrote:
> >
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jpgillam" wrote:
> > >
> > > Coming back to the subject of the thread, then, what 
> > > do you call the functioning brought about by meditation 
> > > and/or being present? And I'm not talking about an end 
> > > state called "enlightenment" or "awakening." I don't think 
> > > a glorious end state is necessary for a marked improvement 
> > > in functioning, whether it's amelioration of PTSD or whatever.
> > > 
> > > I'm trying to distinguish between functioning from the 
> > > ego, which Rory has described in a separate thread as being
> > >  fed by attacks on others, and functioning from the self, which 
> > > is what I'm calling (for lack of a better term) this other 
> > > experience.
> > 
> > Interesting. Describe the benefits of meditating 
> > (or the supposed benefits of meditating) without
> > resorting to jargon like "enlightenment" or 
> > "higher states of consciousness."
> > 
> > I'd avoid even the "functioning from the self"
> > (as opposed to the "ego"), because those are just
> > jargon buzzwords, too, and come with baggage in
> > that they can be, and are, interpreted many 
> > different ways.
> > 
> > I's go with "Open."
> > 
> > That is, my experience is that if one allows it
> > to, meditation can allow one to open oneself to
> > the world around them more outside *of* meditation.
> > The more you do that, the less "closed" (stuck in
> > and operating from the ego) one is. 
>  
> I like "open" a lot.
> 
> I also think it would be important, were I to 
> inject a meme into the Zeitgeist, to make 
> openness something that people may just *be,* 
> without having to do anything. If they're not as 
> open as they'd like to be, they could practice 
> some meditation technique or another to 
> cultivate openness.
> 
> So here we have a category of experience: 
> openness. It's associated with good things. 
> And one way to develop it is to meditate.
> 
> That's what I mean by "selling the category." 
> You encourage people to attain a state of openness. 
> But without that category existing, that task is kind of hard.
> 
> Despite all the promotions of self-development 
> practices over the past generation, I don't think 
> there's any cultural acceptance of a state of living 
> that's actually superior to what most of us accept 
> as the default.
> 
> We see people around us who seem to be happier 
> or healthier or more peaceful, but no one has 
> equated those qualities with a general state of 
> being. Or have they? Maybe mental health 
> professionals are all over this. Maybe "self-
> actualization" sums it up. Dunno. That's 
> why I'm asking.
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Dear Obbajeeba

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "seventhray1" wrote:
>
> 
> I've been watching these a lot since Emily first turned me on to them. 
> I'm thinking this may be my favorite.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEqj68woTwA
> 

Hey, that *is* funny. Thanks!

[FairfieldLife] Re: Happy Birthday to Patrick Gillam

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer"  wrote:
> >
> > According to my computer, today is the day. Have a good one Patrick!
> 
> Happy birthday, Patrick. I always smile when I see your
> name in the From: line, because I know it'll be fair,
> interesting, and somewhat uplifting.

But not *too* uplifting, right? Because what happiness I feel 
just places the world's horrors in greater contrast, and there's 
no point to life anyway, so why kid ourselves?

;-)

Seriously, thanks for the greetings.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Wow, is right!

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, awoelflebater wrote:
>
> Can you post a school picture since I don't know how to get onto the MIU 
> yearbook site?

Here is where to find MIU yearbooks. 
They are large files, so they take time to load.
Change the date in the URL to see different years.

http://www.mum.edu/pdf_yearbooks/1979.pdf

[FairfieldLife] Re: It was just an experiment, how do I delete it?

[jpgillam]

How to bring up contextual menus - to "right click" - on a Macintosh:

http://homepage.mac.com/geerlingguy/mac_support/mac_help/pages/0024-right_click.html

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, awoelflebater  wrote:
>
> Sorry Judy, was experimenting with putting photos on the web. FYI that 
> picture was taken circa 1986 or '87, just after leaving "the group". I need 
> to work on my photo posting skills, I have a Mac and there is no right click. 
> Sheesh.
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Branding 'Maharishi'

[jpgillam]

Let's make a list! I'll start:

Aunt Jemima - pancake syrup
Benjamin Franklin - US $100 bills
Colonel Sanders - fried chicken
George Foreman - grills
Green Giant - vegetables
Maharishi - all things vedic
Mr. Clean - cleaning supplies
Orville Redenbacher - popcorn
Uncle Ben - rice

I'm omitting all the dry cereal spokespersons - Tony the Tiger; Captain Crunch; 
Snap, Cracks and Pop; the Lucky Charms leprechaun...

By coincidence and by contrast, just yesterday an old-time TM teacher friend 
told me his gratitude is toward Guru Dev, rather than Maharishi. No surprise, 
he said. "That's how Maharishi trained us," he said.


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck"  wrote:
>
> It used to be that Maharishi would eschew anybody putting him up on a guru 
> pedestal.  He would always directly deflect that sort of thing on to Guru 
> Dev.  If people would try to bow down to him he'd tell 'em straight up, 
> 'don't do that to me'.  I seen him do it many times.  
> 
> I was interviewing someone yesterday who had left the TM movement for 
> graduate school back in 1992 who is back now visiting Fairfield.  The person 
> back in the early days meditated for the experience it gives and still does.
> 
> The large impression on coming back to look is that everything became 
> 'Maharishi' sometime since 1992.  Before that time things mostly were about 
> doing the practice, 'meditate and act', and the primary activities of the 
> movement were about facilitating the practices and not so much about 
> 'Maharishi'.  The person was wondering when did this overt shift over to 
> 'Maharishi' happen?  An evident belief system of TM has shift over to being 
> much more about 'Maharishi'.  Seems like promoting TM dropped off to 
> promoting 'Maharishi' more than anything else and we are in the full vesting 
> of that now in the 'post-founder' stage of the movement.  This person 
> presently is quite struck by what is seen now in 'product', the present 
> publications and announcements coming from the middle where evidently the 
> puja within the movement is sung so to Maharishi.  It appears like the 
> true-believers are really working at this.  It is pretty shocking to this old 
> meditator come back to see the change in the culture of this.  This kept on 
> coming up in the interview as remarkable.
> 
> Yup, it's a noteworthy change,
> -Buck
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Wow

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, awoelflebater  wrote:
>
> I attended MIU from the Fall of 1975 until graduation in 1980. 

We were at MIU at the same time, Ann, although we 
did not hang out together. I had to open a yearbook 
to place you. Welcome to Fairfield Life, the slogan 
of which is, "Where every pearl finds its swine."

 - Patrick Gillam

[FairfieldLife] Re: Pragmatic knowledge, or stuff, in translating languages!

[jpgillam]

Served with a tossed salad, of course.

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj  wrote:
>
> 
> On Jan 13, 2012, at 5:23 PM, jpgillam wrote:
> 
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Alex Stanley"  
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > 
> > > A blog entry headline on a US Newspaper's website:
> > > 
> > > Santorum surges from behind in Iowa
> > > 
> > > http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/136347948.html
> > 
> > Part of me suspects it was a very mischievous copy editor 
> > behind that headline. Hope so, anyway. 
> 
> 
> I had an idea I would have liked to have seen implemented in Iowa:
> 
> A breakfast special, The Santorum.
> 
> The Santorum consists of a donut shaped biscuit, smothered in sausage gravy.
> 
> It would be cheap…but you'd definitely be scared to eat it.
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Pragmatic knowledge, or stuff, in translating languages!

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Alex Stanley"  
wrote:
>
> 
> A blog entry headline on a US Newspaper's website:
> 
> Santorum surges from behind in Iowa
> 
> http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/136347948.html

Part of me suspects it was a very mischievous copy editor 
behind that headline. Hope so, anyway. 

[FairfieldLife] Re: Review: The Girls With The Dragon Tattoos

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb wrote:
>
> Today I got to see a not-terribly-good 
> copy of David Fincher's remake of "The 
> Girl With The Dragon Tattoo." 
> 
> As for Rooney Mara vs. Noomi Rapace, in 
> the "role of a lifetime" as one
> of the most interesting female characters 
> ever to appear in film, my
> "first take" review is that the only 
> area in which Mara's talents exceed
> Rapace's is breast size. I shall say no more. 

I thought the Mara performance was superior 
in that she portrayed Lisbeth Skalander as 
autistic, as opposed to Rapace's Bitch with 
an Attitude. Autism explains the photographic 
memory and willingness to set her father on 
fire in a way that mere feistiness does not. 
It also explains the absence of social skills. 
I did not read the books, but I understand 
Larsson described Skalander as somewhat autistic.

[FairfieldLife] Re: 2012

[jpgillam]

Age of Enlightenment or Libertarian Nightmare, I may put in a garden either 
way. Maybe plant a few fruit trees. Too soon to tell.

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "seventhray1"  wrote:
>
> 
> Do you plan to live your life any differently?  That thought has not
> occurred to me FWIW.
> 
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jpgillam"  wrote:
> >
> > So, finally, we're here. The year when, by year's end, the transition
> to a new era is supposed to be - well, what? Apparent? On its way
> despite appearances?
> >
> > The Mayan calendar gets a lot of attention for setting this date, but
> the Oneness Blessing people have cited it also, and I believe some other
> people and wisdom traditions have concurred.
> >
> > There's always a lot of change in the world; lots of old ways dying
> and new ways being born. What might be different about this year? The
> American elections will be telling. Syria and Russia, too.
> >
> > Will the Eurozone melt down? Pakistan? Will Canadian shale oil and
> American fracking doom the environment and climate, or will cleaner
> energy sources finally take hold?
> >
> > The outcomes of those situations and others may convince me that the
> Age of Enlightenment is either genuine or a sham. By this time next year
> I hope to either have my optimism vindicated or be stocking up on guns
> and water purification tablets.
> >
>

[FairfieldLife] 2012

[jpgillam]

So, finally, we're here. The year when, by year's end, the transition to a new 
era is supposed to be - well, what? Apparent? On its way despite appearances?

The Mayan calendar gets a lot of attention for setting this date, but the 
Oneness Blessing people have cited it also, and I believe some other people and 
wisdom traditions have concurred.

There's always a lot of change in the world; lots of old ways dying and new 
ways being born. What might be different about this year? The American 
elections will be telling. Syria and Russia, too. 

Will the Eurozone melt down? Pakistan? Will Canadian shale oil and American 
fracking doom the environment and climate, or will cleaner energy sources 
finally take hold?

The outcomes of those situations and others may convince me that the Age of 
Enlightenment is either genuine or a sham. By this time next year I hope to 
either have my optimism vindicated or be stocking up on guns and water 
purification tablets.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Dana Sawyer needs photos

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj wrote:
>
> I feel that all recent information relating to the TMO's dark side would be 
> relevant, esp. material that relates to the traditional problems meditation 
> can cause - and the hope for relief for people suffering.

I don't think one need worry about Dana's ability to approach his subject 
thoroughly and dispassionately.

By the way, for an interesting read, get Dana's biography of Aldous Huxley:

http://www.amazon.com/Aldous-Huxley-Biography-Dana-Sawyer/dp/0824519876/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

 or

http://amzn.to/vooVbb

[FairfieldLife] Same-sex TM teachers (was Re: Yo Denise)

[jpgillam]

> Bob's wife wrote:

> I recommend you get a female initiator

I understand that it's TM organization policy these days for men 
to teach men and for women to teach women (or "ladies," 
as the TMO likes to call females).

[FairfieldLife] Fairfield exodus (was Re: "Occupy the Domes!!")

[jpgillam]

> > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck"  wrote:
> > > >
> > > > I stopped and spoke with someone in a U-haul truck yesterday which was 
> > > > packed loaded to the gills pulling a car that was equally loaded with 
> > > > belongings.  The person was leaving Fairfield.  Long-time TM meditator 
> > > > was here but heading out.  This is tragic loss of capital every time 
> > > > this happens.   It's been a long slide and obviously the numbers stop 
> > > > with the TM-Rajas and that Prime Minister.  
> > 
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jpgillam"  wrote:
> > >
> > > Buck, you've reported on people leaving Fairfield 
> > > on various occasions, but I don't recall your saying 
> > > why they're leaving. Are they seeking better jobs? 
> > > Better weather? 
> > > 
> > > I saw on Facebook that a friend is moving to Boulder. 
> > > She did not say why, which I can understand in that 
> > > public forum. Still, I gotta wonder. Last I knew she 
> > > was a True Believer whose husband (I thought) 
> > > practiced shtapatya vedic architecture. I have to 
> > > think they're leaving not because of dissatisfaction 
> > > with the TMO or the community, but because they 
> > > prefer Colorado to Iowa. (Duh!)
> > > 
> > > Can you make any generalizations, based on your 
> > > decidedly unscientific conversations?
> > >
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck"  wrote:
> > 
> > It's tru, I do interview a lot of people all the time.  People move all the 
> > time for personal reasons of family or work but this movement is noteworthy 
> > in my mind now in the 'post-founder era' of the TM-Rajas.  
> > 
> > Having spiritually cultured people who moved here to be part of something 
> > larger making the decision to move on somewhere else now is not good at 
> > all.  Used to be that people figured ways to move here and be here.  This 
> > is interesting because people are figuring ways to move away.  It does not 
> > speak well of the movement to have these people moving away. It is quite a 
> > loss of  cultured capital with each old meditator that moves out once they 
> > have moved here.  It's a pretty small town.  
> > 
> > I just spoke with someone else this weekend who has been here 25 years.  An 
> > interstate freight truck is scheduled to come for all of their things in a 
> > couple weeks.  Gone.
> >
> 
> People have been so ignored and ostracized here from the movement on campus 
> for so long that there is not a lot of connection any more with the larger 
> meditating community.  Most public meetings on campus are open only to the 
> extent of  "Please bring a Valid Dome Badge".  Even at what could be the most 
> inclusive community event meetings like Guru Purnima in the summer or January 
> 12th in the winter.  That anti-meditator policy has been the long work of 
> Bevan and a taliban-like element here for decades.
>   

Thanks for the reply. My followup question would be, 
if people moved to Fairfield to get enlightened, are 
they moving away because they got what they came for? 

[FairfieldLife] Re: Beyond Opinion (& Monkees Fan Clubs)

[jpgillam]

A meditating roommate had this album, Keith 
Jarrett's "Koln Concert." We listened to it quite 
a bit. This and the music of Return to Forever 
are two soundtracks I associate with my TM 
days in Iowa City the '70s.

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, maskedzebra  wrote:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wivo94ylmhE
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Movie review: "Melancholia"

[jpgillam]

I enjoy end-of-the-world movies. I believe it's 
healthy to face one's fears, and that all the end-
of-the-world movies gracing the cinema these 
days are ultimately salubrious. 

I also enjoy attractive, naked women, so this 
movie sounds like a twofer for me.

But wait, there's more. Another planet that had 
been hidden by the sun? Sounds like Ruben Bolling's 
Counter-Earth, a comic device that cheers me 
immensely. And with that, Lars von Trier scores 
a hat trick! Go Lars!

What will Obama do to get sun and wind?
http://bit.ly/qBCljx 

The President is forced to get "pro life"!
http://bit.ly/oSNtK9 

The Department of Education, kicking ass!
http://bit.ly/nyABdT 

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu  wrote:
>
> On 11/11/2011 12:15 PM, turquoiseb wrote:
> > In a sentence, "Cinematically prettier than Terrence Malick's 'The Tree
> > Of Life,' just as pretentious, a little less ponderous in parts, but on
> > the whole more depressing because it's about...uh...depression."
> >
> > The plot of Danish bad boy Lars von Trier's new movie is not exactly a
> > nail-biter. You see the ending of the movie (and coincidentally the end
> > of the planet Earth) in the first 7-1/2 minutes, appropriately with
> > Wagner as the soundtrack. Because I suspect that few here will be drawn
> > to see it, I'll do a kind of flippant mini-review.
> >
> > Basically, it's about two sisters, played by Kirsten Dunst (who we
> > finally get to see naked) and Charlotte Gainsbourg (who we've seen naked
> > onscreen many times before), both playing their parts well -- clothed or
> > naked. There are other heavyweight actors, too, including a father and
> > son played by Stellan and Alexander Skarsgård. Then you've got
> > Charlotte Rampling as the sisters' mother, John Hurt as their father,
> > and Keifer Sutherland thrown in there somewhere as an American corporate
> > asshole. He manages to pull this off as convincingly as the
> > Skarsgårds pull off being father and son.
> >
> > The movie, which is strangely being billed as SciFi, opens at a wedding,
> > which goes sour in the way that big, expensive family weddings tend to
> > go sour onscreen. But then the sourness escalates when everyone learns
> > that the "new star" that Justine (Dunst) saw in the sky on the way to
> > the wedding is really a planet on a possible collision course with
> > Earth. This news could be perceived as somewhat depressing, and sure
> > enough many of the characters in the movie find it so, pretty much for
> > the rest of the film.
> >
> > This movie won Kirsten Dunst a Best Actress award at Cannes but lost out
> > on its supposedly "foregone conclusion" Palme d'Or award because von
> > Trier tried to make a dumb joke about Hitler in a country that still
> > hasn't gotten over its collective guilt about its behavior during the
> > Nazi years. Since he's admitted that the film is partly about his own
> > bouts with depression, maybe he was just experiencing one of them that
> > night.
> >
> > It's a Lars von Trier movie. You either like him or you don't, and
> > you'll either like this movie or you won't. I'm not even sure it was
> > intended to be liked. It seems to me that it was intended to be a kind
> > of Wagnerian-scored homage to German Romanticism. As von Trier said
> > about it, "It's not a film about the end of the world; it's a film about
> > a state of mind." Personally I just wish that the state of mind didn't
> > rely so much on playing the same theme from Tristan und Isolde over and
> > over again as its soundtrack. I would have preferred something cheerier
> > and more uptempo, like Leonard Cohen's "Dress Rehearsal Rag." :-)
> >
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzD0U841LRM
> > 
> >
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNTFqSaFwyo
> > 
> 
> Available on Vudu (probably Comcast and other VOD too):
> http://www.vudu.com/movies/#!content/216792/Melancholia
> 
> I'm used to Trier's stuff. ;-)
>

[FairfieldLife] Fairfield exodus (was Re: "Occupy the Domes!!")

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer" wrote:
>
> From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com]
> On Behalf Of jpgillam
> Sent: Friday, November 11, 2011 12:35 PM
> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [FairfieldLife] Fairfield exodus (was Re: "Occupy the Domes!!")
> 
> I saw on Facebook that a friend is moving to Boulder. 
> She did not say why, which I can understand in that 
> public forum. Still, I gotta wonder. Last I knew she 
> was a True Believer whose husband (I thought) 
> practiced shtapatya vedic architecture. I have to 
> think they're leaving not because of dissatisfaction 
> with the TMO or the community, but because they 
> prefer Colorado to Iowa. (Duh!)
> 
> I don't think "they" are leaving, just she, if you get my drift.
>

I'm sorry to hear that. Thanks for the insight.

Seems to me most people moved to Fairfield initially 
because it was exciting to be in a small town packed 
with lots of like-minded young people, one or two of 
whom might have made good spouses. Then they 
stayed to raise children. The TM attraction was never 
the No. 1 reason.

When the children grew up and the marriages dissolved, 
the attraction weakened, despite the richness of friends 
and community and, perhaps for some, their work.

[FairfieldLife] Fairfield exodus (was Re: "Occupy the Domes!!")

[jpgillam]

Buck, you've reported on people leaving Fairfield 
on various occasions, but I don't recall your saying 
why they're leaving. Are they seeking better jobs? 
Better weather? 

I saw on Facebook that a friend is moving to Boulder. 
She did not say why, which I can understand in that 
public forum. Still, I gotta wonder. Last I knew she 
was a True Believer whose husband (I thought) 
practiced shtapatya vedic architecture. I have to 
think they're leaving not because of dissatisfaction 
with the TMO or the community, but because they 
prefer Colorado to Iowa. (Duh!)

Can you make any generalizations, based on your 
decidedly unscientific conversations?


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck"  wrote:
>
> I stopped and spoke with someone in a U-haul truck yesterday which was packed 
> loaded to the gills pulling a car that was equally loaded with belongings.  
> The person was leaving Fairfield.  Long-time TM meditator was here but 
> heading out.  This is tragic loss of capital every time this happens.   It's 
> been a long slide and obviously the numbers stop with the TM-Rajas and that 
> Prime Minister.  
> 

[FairfieldLife] Fighting for truth (was Re: WHY TM CAN'T BE LEARNED FROM A BOOK)

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "whynotnow7" wrote:
>
> It is simply bizarre to me why someone who has not done these things for so 
> many years would even care to comment on them. What is the motivation to try 
> and appear an expert, after so many years of not practicing what you preach 
> against? What is the pay-off? It is an odd way to behave.
>

People like to stand up for truth. What's interesting 
to me is, why?

I got to thinking about this question this weekend when 
I heard the "This American Life" story about Adrian 
Schoolcraft, the New York City cop who recorded 
corruption in his station house. 

http://schoolcraftjustice.com/ 
and 
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/414/right-to-remain-silent?act=2]
or
http://bit.ly/r5SADr 

Here's a guy who's taking some serious heat for 
fighting against injustice. Why bother?

I think the answer is the same as with any other 
situation: Sometimes people fight for truth because 
their artificial, manufactured, ignorance-based 
worldviews depend on those truths to justify their 
tenuous existences. And other times people fight 
for truth because truth is their essence, in the sense 
that consciousness is our essence and consciousness 
is true.

[FairfieldLife] Re: WHY TM CAN'T BE LEARNED FROM A BOOK

[jpgillam]

Responses interleaved below...

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb wrote:
>
> If you think back on it, what could possibly BE more
> of an exercise in moodmaking than the way we were 
> taught to perform the puja? It (at least as taught
> on my TTC) was *not* about the mere "power of the
> words" and reciting them. We were taught explicitly
> to (contravening MMY's "Don't divide the mind" dictum)
> maintain a constant awareness of the meaning of the
> words in the puja in our minds while chanting/singing 
> them. 

Agreed, although I would argue that it's pretty common 
to understand the meaning of words as we say them. :-)

> We were told endless stories about the personal-
> ities of the teachers and/or gods and goddesses being 
> invoked by the words of the puja, and taught explicitly 
> to keep a conscious awareness of those meanings in our 
> minds. 

You were told about deities? I don't recall any of that. My 
TTC Phase 3 was in the spring of 1977. I think we were 
more businesslike. No Maharishi on the course, for example.

> It was also implied in no uncertain terms that the
> puja was *supposed* to make you high, to change your
> state of attention and boost you into a higher one.

All I recall is my experience, as described in post #294752.

[snip]
> 
> Me, I rarely found there to be any SOC-shifting aspect
> to performing the puja. I became aware early on that 
> any such feelings were produced *by me*, as a result
> of whether I indulged in the moodmaking I'd been taught
> to indulge in or not. Repeat the words without dwelling
> on the images or meanings I'd been taught to dwell on,
> and nada...zilch...bupkus. 

I've noticed a decline in the resulting stillness if I recite 
the puja without paying attention to it. But heck, I've 
noticed a decline in everything if I do it without attending 
to it.

On the other hand, I've noticed that being mindful of the 
"feelings" of the offerings can enhance the richness of the 
quietness, rather as the TM-Sidhis do. That one experience
goes along with what you're saying.

> I could just as easily have
> been reading from the telephone book, for all the change
> it produced in my state of attention. 

Well, even reciting the puja absent mindedly produces 
*some* stilling in me.

> Add in the mood-
> making instructions, divide the mind and *expect* there
> to be a shift in my state of awareness, and I could feel
> a light buzz. Nothing profound, just a light buzz.

The misleading thing about transcending is that it's nothing 
to shout about. By rights, there would not even be a "light 
buzz." (Careful with the alcohol phrasings or Nabby will 
dump on you for having beer-soaked consciousness again. :-)
So for me, I would not describe the result of the puja as a 
buzz of any degree.

[snip]
> 
> I fully *understand* the desire to attribute what you
> feel to something magical or mystical associated with
> the puja. It's just that, based on my own experience
> and my own interpretation of the same training we 
> received and performing the same ritual, I don't buy
> it. I think it's pretty much a classic example of
> trained moodmaking. Your mileage may vary.
>

Given your explanation, it's odd that I'd stand up for 
the TM puja when I've fallen away in so many other 
respects. I don't feel a pull to the TM organization. I 
don't use a mantra to meditate. The last time I sang 
the puja with some other 'rus, I did not bow at the end. 
(The bowing is kind of weird, I'm sure you'll agree.) I 
appreciate your rap, and I'm responding to express 
that appreciation. But my explanation is simpler and 
conforms to the facts before me.

Finally, I don't see any of this as being "magical" or 
"mystical." To me it's pretty simple: We can be centered 
in our thoughts and feelings or centered in the 
consciousness that's aware of those thoughts and 
feelings. Wisdom traditions tend to teach ways to 
shift one's center to consciousness. Being present 
is one of the ways to effect the shift, as is the use of 
mantras that tend to fade away, leaving awareness 
aware of itself. The puja is another way to effect that 
shift. It's not magical or mystical. It's a technology, a 
tool to do some action that would be difficult or 
impossible without the tool.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Lemony Snicket on Occupy Wall Street

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "richardwillytexwilliams"  wrote:
>
> if inequality had really exploded during the past 
> 30 to 40 years, why did American politics simultaneously
> move rightward toward a greater embrace of free-market
> capitalism?

It was clearly not because free-market 
capitalism necessitates income inequality, 
which your question erroneously assumes.

[FairfieldLife] Re: WHY TM CAN'T BE LEARNED FROM A BOOK

[jpgillam]

> > On Nov 7, 2011, at 10:17 AM, jpgillam wrote:
> > >
> > > I've been getting
> > > results from the TM puja for 34 years. It
> > > stills my mind. I recite it often, for
> > > that purpose.
> > 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj wrote:
> >
> > The way we know the TM puja and initiation process acts like a  
> > placebo is because independent researchers fabricated a faux-TM  
> > instruction and were able to get the exact same results as TM - 
> > the same EEG profile and relaxation response, everything.
> 
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" wrote:
>
> [snip]it's not responsive to Patrick's
> experience of getting the same results for 34 years
> from *performing* the puja.

I should clarify that I don't have to 
perform the puja to get results. I sing 
it aloud or recite it mentally.

My most profound experience of the stilling 
power of the puja occurred when I was learning 
it on my TM teacher training course. One 
afternoon upon finishing my rounds I sang 
the puja as I sat on my bed. Afterward, I 
had intended to mentally review some other 
material I was memorizing, but I could not 
summon a thought. I was awake and alert, but 
I was mentally constipated. I just stared at 
the wall for a few minutes before I could get 
a thought to bubble up. That's when I realized 
that the purpose of the puja was to shift my 
center from my thoughts and feelings to the 
stillness of consciousness itself, which, by 
the way, is a good definition of a first stage 
of enlightenment.

[FairfieldLife] Re: WHY TM CAN'T BE LEARNED FROM A BOOK

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj wrote:
> 
> On Nov 6, 2011, at 8:58 PM, "johnt" wrote:
> 
> > You never will in a TM context, but if you study some of Milton Erickson, 
> > Bandler and Grinder and other related sources you will find that each part 
> > of a TM initiation has a well studied neurolinguistic effect which in this 
> > case is very effective at producing a self transcending accessing cue which 
> > accesses an experience at a primal (original) level prior to subsequent 
> > conditioning
> 
> It's called the placebo effect silly.

I thought the placebo effect tended to 
go away after a few weeks. I've been getting 
results from the TM puja for 34 years. It 
stills my mind. I recite it often, for 
that purpose.

[FairfieldLife] Re: DOC-DEBUT: David Wants to Fly | Link TV

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj wrote:
> 
> On Nov 5, 2011, at 1:30 AM, seventhray1 wrote:
> 
> > Thanks for the link.  Just saw it for the first time.  Very well done.
> 
> 
> What I'd like to see is an "extra" which includes the entire interview with 
> the Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math. It has been transcribed and it is 
> particularly damning to Mahesh yogi, as it touches on how his students are 
> mis-pronouncing the mantras, the lack of understanding and proper teaching on 
> bhava-tita (the transcendent), etc.  It's quite liberating to hear. Let's 
> hope David eventually releases it with subtitles. He could even release it as 
> a separate mini-documentary, "An Interview with the Shankaracharya". Without 
> ever mentioning Mahesh's spiritual incest it deals a final deathblow.
>

I have to tell you, I was unimpressed by Swaroopanand, 
and not because he resembled nothing so much as a 
beached walrus. I think it was his caste consciousness 
that I objected to. He said Mahesh had no right to teach 
meditation, yet Mahesh did so, and to great effect. 
Maybe in India you cannot be a meditation teacher 
without the right caste credentials, but as an American, 
I find such restrictions absurd.

When David does TM, he likes it quite a bit. Swaroopanand, 
on the other hand, disses TM and tells David that if he wants 
to find real spirituality, he should trek up the Ganges. David 
does so and reports nothing other than being short of breath. 
And from this I'm supposed to draw the conclusion that 
the shankaracharya knows what he's talking about?

[FairfieldLife] Re: The Mystery of Consciousness

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, tartbrain wrote:
>
> One, a person, generally only knows consciousness 
> when it is shining on something tangible. 

I can understand this ^ statement coming from an 
Ordinary Joe, but it seems to me that the point of 
most meditation practices is get the meditator to 
know consciousness itself without having to shine 
that consciousness on a thought or perception.

I'm asking the question of this group because I 
would expect everyone here to say "Duh! Of course 
consciousness can know itself." If that's not the response,
I've got some reconsidering to do.

[FairfieldLife] Collective consciousness (was Re: The Day That TMers Became Officially Crazy)

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb wrote:
>
> make a
> rational case, based on real, accepted science, for how it could be
> actually *true* that a few people ... could produce world peace.

I don't think anyone can explain the notion of 
collective consciousness *based on accepted 
science.* The Maharishi Effect is premised on 
the existence of collective consciousness, and 
collective consciousness has not been 
scientifically demonstrated to exist, has it? 

Which brings up a question I'd like to ask the 
group. We have people here from various wisdom 
traditions. Has anyone here encountered a theory 
of collective consciousness in a teaching other 
than Maharishi's?

[FairfieldLife] Re: The Mystery of Consciousness

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Denise Evans  wrote:
> 
> the moment one "knows" consciousness, it is no longer consciousness.   
> Therefore, again, it is impossible for the human brain to truly grasp or 
> understand what consciousness is. 

Is this ^ the experience people here have had - 
that becoming aware of consciousness makes 
it something other than consciousness?

I thought the whole point of many meditation 
practices was to provide an opportunity for 
consciousness to be aware of itself. Most of 
us here either practice or used to practice a 
meditation technique. What's your experience?

Thanks.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Oprah in the dome tonight

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, nablusoss1008 wrote:
> 
> your little beer-drowned consciousness

Insult of the Week? It gets my nomination.

[FairfieldLife] Re: "Sh*t That Siri Says"

[jpgillam]

"Will you marry me?"

My End User Licensing Agreement does not cover marriage. My apologies.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150406513325240&set=a.206280035239.169488.21977955239&type=1&ref=nf


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend"  wrote:
>
> http://shitthatsirisays.tumblr.com
> 
> (See below the ad)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Submissions to this tumblr (there are several
> dozen so far in only a few days) have to be by
> screenshot, so these are apparently authentic
> Siri responses to questions people have asked her.
> 
> I predict Siri is going to become a *major*
> cultural meme in very short order.
> 
> Samples:
> 
> 
> "Open the pod bay doors"
> 
> That's it...I'm reporting you to the Intelligent Agents'
> Union for harassment.
> 
> 
> "What's your favorite color"
> 
> My favorite color is...well, I don't know how to say it
> in your language. It's sort of greenish, but with more
> dimensions.
> 
> 
> "What are you wearing"
> 
> Aluminosilicate glass and stainless steel. Nice, huh?
> 
> 
> "What's the meaning of life"
> 
> I can't answer that now, but give me some time to write
> a very long play in which nothing happens.
> 
> 
> (She apparently has quite a variety of answers to this.)
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: David Wants to Fly

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" 

> As I recall,
> the German word he used for "invincible" was the same word
> Hitler had used--"unbesiegbar," I think. That Schiffgens,
> himself a German, *didn't know this* is appalling.

I had a friend who wanted to call his weight-management program "the final 
solution." He wasn't aware that's what the Nazis called their program to 
eliminate the Jews. My friend was raised in a Jewish household, too.  

[FairfieldLife] Re: David Wants to Fly

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "curtisdeltablues" wrote:
>
> When Tony speaks I am struck but what an unnatural, 
>  unspontaneous, dim bulb he appears to be.  At least 
> Maharishi had some game! 

I just watched "David Wants to Fly." One of the more powerful, poignant scenes 
is when Raja Emanuel uses the term "Invincible Germany" in a public address. 
The phrase causes quite a stir. "Invincible" raises militaristic overtones. 
People in the audience shout that invincibility is what Hitler wanted to 
achieve. The scene illustrates how inappropriate it is for the TM 
organization's leaders to parrot Maharishi. They appear to be dim, indeed.

Later, in an aside to a colleague, Emanuel says, "I would rather say 'strong 
Germany.'" Yes, Emanuel. You should. And ditch the funny robes and hat while 
you're at it.

The TM organization is cursed by its founding premise: that knowledge of the 
wholeness of life gets lost, and that TM represents that knowledge in its 
purity, and is to be preserved at all costs. The truth of the matter is that, 
while Guru Dev may have restored Vedic knowledge in its purity, Maharishi was 
making stuff up as he went along. The present-day TM organization would 
probably profit by continuing that legacy of improvisation instead of trying to 
keep everything as it was when Maharishi was alive.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Promoting Peace

[jpgillam]

Buck, wasn't your father a scientist or academic who questioned the TM 
research? Or was it simply that he felt the siddhis were unfounded? What did 
his opinion come to be?

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck"  wrote:
>
> 
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck"  wrote:
> >
> > 
> > 
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck" wrote:
> > >
> > > When Maharishi University of Management arrived in Fairfield, few around 
> > > the state thought teaching Transcendental Meditation made much sense. But 
> > > now it is widely accepted that Transcendental Meditation can help reduce 
> > > stress and create a calm, stable personality, while increasing 
> > > intelligence, creativity and psychological maturity.
> > >
> > 
> > But the most powerful use of meditation — gathering large groups of 
> > meditation experts to calm stress and tension across the whole society — 
> > has yet to be evaluated in depth. This is not for lack of effort by 
> > Maharishi scientists. They have engaged in sustained research over more 
> > than two decades and submitted their studies to mainstream academic and 
> > scientific journals.
> >
> 
> Despite this academically accepted body of evidence, most people can't 
> believe the premise. How can a peace-creating group in one location reduce 
> crime and war hundreds or thousands of miles away? They let biases and 
> preconceptions take precedence over research evidence.
>

[FairfieldLife] TM mantras (was Re: Living In The Material World)

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:
> 
> > There are only a few short clips of Maharishi being
> > interviewed by David Frost (interestingly in one of
> > them, when Frost asks him how many TM mantras there
> > are, MMY says with a straight face "Thousands," which
> > as every TM teacher knows, is a lie),
> 
> Here's the transcript of that part of the interview,
> from Paul Mason's Web site:
> 
> 
> Frost - 'Is that the same sound that you give to each person?'
> 
> M M Y - 'No. Each person gets different, but we don't have as many 
> sounds as we have men in the world, so they are grouped together.'
> 
> Frost - 'How many sounds are there?'
> 
> M M Y - 'Oh there are lots of sounds.'
> 
> Frost - 'I mean, hundreds, or thousands, or ...?'
> 
> M M Y - 'You could say thousands.'
> 
> 
> http://www.paulmason.info/gurudev/introduction.htm
> 
> IOW, Frost never asked how many *TM* mantras there were.
> Only his first question above referred specifically to
> TM. MMY chose to interpret Frost's questions about how
> many sounds there were as referring to mantras generally
> and responded accordingly.
> 
> IOW, MMY took advantage of Frost's imprecision to answer
> a different question than the one Frost probably had in
> mind. Evasive, but not a "lie" per se. (And he gave a
> hint that he had shifted the question by prefacing
> "thousands" with "You could say..." i.e., "You could say,
> if you were asking how many mantras there are in the
> world..." Frost didn't catch the hint and didn't follow
> up to nail it down.)
> 
> You could call that kind of evasion "Clintonesque," in
> which the listener is allowed to infer a different
> meaning to a response than was intended because the way
> the question was phrased had some leeway in it. Not
> exactly honest, but not an outright lie either.
> 
> What were TM teachers told to say in response to such a
> question from a prospective meditator?
>
I don't recall being instructed how to answer a direct 
question of how many TM mantras there are. I do recall 
using the blood type analogy - that there are a limited 
number of mantras, just as there are a limited number 
of blood types. Whether that was part of my training or
just something I heard another teacher use, I don't recall.

By the time of my TM teacher training course, in 1977, 
mantras were not discussed in any way, shape or form. 

[FairfieldLife] Re: Colonoscopy

[jpgillam]

A colonoscopy is the only cancer screening procedure that can actually prevent 
the disease. During the procedure, the surgeon snips off any polyps that may be 
present. It's those polyps that can grow and become malignant. My insurance 
paid 100 percent of the cost.

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Susan"  wrote:
>
> 
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "oye34vay"  wrote:
> >
> > Any of you ol' timers have an opinion about having a Colonoscopy? I 
> > understand that colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer in the 
> > US, 100,000 a year. That's under 3% of the US population. I'm an ol' timer 
> > but I hate these preventive procedures. What do you think? Is it worth it? 
> > Have any of you ol' timers had it done? They recommend starting at the age 
> > of 50. I'm 60 but dam blam it, I think a good shot of whiskey twice a day 
> > keeps those creepy crawlers away!
> > 
> > Mark
> >
> 
> I've had 3 so far and I am 62.  Very easy and no pain whatsoever.  No 
> radiation like many preventive tests. I had a friend who died of colon cancer 
> i his 50's and it was not a pretty thing. He did not get a colonoscopy, even 
> when he had the first signs of it.   Colon cancer is totally and easily 
> treatable when caught early and so toxic and deadly when not caught early. So 
> I guess my question would be why would you Not get one?
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Modern Family

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jpgillam"  wrote:
> >
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Denise Evans wrote:
> > >
> > > I have friends who sit their whole family down to watch it. 
> > 
> > That's how I was introduced to the show. I joined my brother's 
> > family on their couch, where we watched an episode on the 
> > computer screen held in the lap of the family's teenage girl, 
> > my niece.
> 
> Am I the only one here warped enough to want to see
> a Norman Rockwell painting of this scene?

Thanks for that image!

[FairfieldLife] Re: Modern Family

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Denise Evans wrote:
>
> I have friends who sit their whole family down to watch it. 

That's how I was introduced to the show. I joined my brother's family on their 
couch, where we watched an episode on the computer screen held in the lap of 
the family's teenage girl, my niece. 

[FairfieldLife] Re: How He Transformed The Beatles

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend"  wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jpgillam"  wrote:
> >
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" wrote:
> > > 
> > > I'm not wild about everything on the White Album, but some
> > > of the songs on it are just on a different level, IMHO, as
> > > if they came from a new place.
> > 
> > I like that sunny perspective. The White Album sounds different
> > to me in that it no longer comes across as a band, but as a few
> > guys who are singing and playing on one another's songs. Genius
> > men and brilliant songs, granted, but still, the band is a thing
> > of the past.
> 
> I don't think of it as a "sunny" perspective so much as a
> new perspective. I think you put your finger on it, that 
> the songs are much more personal to the particular Beatles
> who wrote each of them, rather than being collaborative
> efforts. It's as if they were able to access their
> individual reservoirs of creativity in a way they hadn't
> before.

I wonder to what extent they were tapping deeper creativity, and to what extent 
being liberated from the constraints of the band permitted them to go 
directions the group structure would not allow. George once remarked that Paul 
was writing "fruity" songs near the end - just one of George's complaints about 
the band. It's conceivable that in an earlier day, Paul may have shelved "Honey 
Pie" because George didn't like it. Once the dynamic changed to "every man for 
himself," the need to sacrifice one's personal vision went away, and what 
resulted seemed fresh and new.

My fantasy is that the band would have continued to accommodate one another, 
and gone through more incarnations than it did. 

A New Yorker article once described the first half of the Beatles' career as 
"lovable mop-tops," the second half as "hippy artistes." To my ear, John 
dominated the first half of the Beatles' life, and Paul the second half. (Look 
at the songs on "1," the album of number-one hits. John sings most of the songs 
in the first half. Paul sings most of the second half.) What might the Beatles 
have sounded like had George been permitted to influence the band in its third 
phase? He wrote enough songs to dominate a Beatles album, had they let him.

Once George had his say, Ringo could have ushered in a period of alt country. I 
would have hated it at the time, but today I like "What Goes On" more than any 
other song on "Rubber Soul," and "Rubber Soul" has some awesome songs.

Ah, magical thinking. What else is a mind for?

[FairfieldLife] Re: How He Transformed The Beatles

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" wrote:
> 
> I'm not wild about everything on the White Album, but some
> of the songs on it are just on a different level, IMHO, as
> if they came from a new place.

I like that sunny perspective. The White Album sounds different to me in that 
it no longer comes across as a band, but as a few guys who are singing and 
playing on one another's songs. Genius men and brilliant songs, granted, but 
still, the band is a thing of the past.

[FairfieldLife] American utopian communities (was Re: In Spiritual Fairfield)

[jpgillam]

Buck, are there any books or websites about American utopian communities that 
stand out? I've often thought that would be an interesting subject. It's cool 
that you're pursuing it.

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck"  wrote:
>
> Jesus I'm glad to be back in spiritual Fairfield.
> I've just been to a several day academic conference
> on historic American Utopian communal groups.  Two days
> of academic papers presented on twenty minute intervals and a third day post 
> conference.
> Mostly about governance, culture and economics of communal utopian
> groups.  Was in-the-head way different than Fairfield.  In Fairfield the talk 
> everywhere is about spirituality and the spiritual clarity is way different.  
> Really nice folk, but academically they wouldn't (couldn't) touch 
> spirituality as a variable with a ten-foot pole.  Where by contrast in 
> Fairfield in any coffee line waiting for expresso spirituality is the talk.  
> 
> It's really nice to be back to a spiritual community.  You can just feel it 
> just driving in.  It is such mud out there.
> 
> -Buck in FF
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: An Open Letter to Bevan Morris

[jpgillam]

Robin, I edited your letter. These are your words in the order you wrote them. 

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, maskedzebra  wrote:
>
> An Open Letter to Bevan Morris
>  
> Dear Bevan,
>  
> I knew you on my Six Month Course in Arosa in 1976. You had a special status 
> as a course participant. I sensed it came out of your devotion to Maharishi.
>  
> Now, while so many persons who were close to Maharishi, served him, and 
> devoted their lives to him, have left the Movement, you have remained loyal 
> and faithful.
>  
> Maharishi was not the holy, virtuous, infallible, loving Master he implied he 
> was [and we were convinced he was].  Transcendental Meditation and the 
> TM-Sidhi program [have] not produced a trillionth of what we believed [they] 
> would, based upon what Maharishi told us, and based on our experiences.

>What is it about your relationship with Maharishi which allows you to carry on 
>as if this was 1975, and everything is flowering just as Maharishi (and your 
>own intuition) said it would? 
>  
> Very sincerely yours,
> Robin Carlsen
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Experiences of existential crisis

[jpgillam]

Fascinating. Thanks!

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "whynotnow7"  wrote:
>
> Life continues to be infinitely pointless for me, except the difference now 
> is that everything is accepted, so that whatever direction I steer my life in 
> this pointlessness I end up in a good place. Previously, my feeling of 
> pointlessness was accompanied by a feeling of disconnectedness. Now the 
> pointlessness remains, though with everything and everyone being connected 
> and accepted, it no longer matters. Having no point, no ultimate truth no 
> longer matters, becomes irrelevant. :-P
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jpgillam"  wrote:
> >
> > Serious, offbeat question: I once went through three months when I realized 
> > the essential pointlessness of life. I saw clearly that life had no meaning 
> > whatsoever, and that nothing anybody did made any difference. I recently 
> > had occasion to ask a few classrooms of high school juniors how many of 
> > them had had the experience, and about a third raised their hands. How 
> > about you: Have you had a spell when you realized all is vanity and 
> > grasping for wind?
> > 
> > In my case and that of a loved one who underwent the same thing when she 
> > was in middle school, we emerged from the flatness when we got tired of 
> > feeling nothing and wanted to start being happy again. We decided to be 
> > happy. That decision seemed to be the point of the passage.
> > 
> > Note that I'm not talking about clinical depression, nor am I talking about 
> > loneliness. This is an existential crisis I'm talking about.
> > 
> > When did you go through it, how long did it last, and what did you do to 
> > climb out of it? Did anything seem to precipitate it?
> > 
> > I had my experience of this flatness in the late 1980s, but I've been 
> > thinking about it lately, and would be curious for your experiences.
> > 
> > Thanks!
> >
>

[FairfieldLife] Experiences of existential crisis

[jpgillam]

Serious, offbeat question: I once went through three months when I realized the 
essential pointlessness of life. I saw clearly that life had no meaning 
whatsoever, and that nothing anybody did made any difference. I recently had 
occasion to ask a few classrooms of high school juniors how many of them had 
had the experience, and about a third raised their hands. How about you: Have 
you had a spell when you realized all is vanity and grasping for wind?

In my case and that of a loved one who underwent the same thing when she was in 
middle school, we emerged from the flatness when we got tired of feeling 
nothing and wanted to start being happy again. We decided to be happy. That 
decision seemed to be the point of the passage.

Note that I'm not talking about clinical depression, nor am I talking about 
loneliness. This is an existential crisis I'm talking about.

When did you go through it, how long did it last, and what did you do to climb 
out of it? Did anything seem to precipitate it?

I had my experience of this flatness in the late 1980s, but I've been thinking 
about it lately, and would be curious for your experiences.

Thanks!

[FairfieldLife] Re: 9/11 Boatlift

[jpgillam]

Thanks for that link. I needed something like that today.

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend"  wrote:
>
> If you don't watch another minute of the 10th anniversary
> coverage, you gotta watch this. It's a beautifully done 
> 12-minute documentary about the volunteer evacuation of
> lower Manhattan by boat--ferries, tugboats, pleasure craft,
> fishing boats, Coast Guard cutters,just about anything that
> floated. More than 500,000 people in nine hours, 13 times
> as many as at Dunkirk.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18lsxFcDrjo
> 
> This has a bit of the background:
> 
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eddie-rosenstein/tom-hanks-narrates-boatlift_b_956529.html
> 
> http://tinyurl.com/3paunzu
> 
> It's a feel-good story in the best sense of the term.
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Some Union Bosses Salaries + (the mugshots).

[jpgillam]

Am I supposed to be indignant over senior executives earning a few hundred 
thousand dollars a year? Is that the point of this post?

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "WilliamG"  wrote:
>
>  [56] Meet the Union Bosses
> \
> ..
> 
> 
> 
> Paul McNally In 2009, McNally raked in a whopping $477,224, a 107%
> increase over his 2007 pay of $228,067.  Joining McNally in 2009 were
> Martin Walsh  ,
> $306,599; Louis Mandarini
>  , $290,032 and Michael
> Tranghese, $271,419.  View the official report of salaries of Laborers'
> union bosses
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Charles "Chuck" Raso, President The  Bricklayers' Union boss raked in
> $202,551 in 2009, up from $186,981 in  2007.  Of the 12 employees Raso
> oversees, six made more than $100,000 in  2009, including the union's
> office manager, who took home almost  $97,000 in 2009.  Other Raso
> underlings that did well for themselves:  James Pimental, who took in
> $118,496 of members' money and Robert Rizzi,  who brought home $115,256.
> View the official report of salaries of Bricklayers'' union bosses
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Jay Hurley Ironworkers Local 7 boss Jay Hurley took home $206,985 of his
> members' dues in 2009
>  .  
> His compatriots at Local 7 didn't fare too badly either, with the 
> union's business manager, Michael Durant taking home $157,273 that year 
> and Local 7's bookkeeper raking in $98,487.  View the official report of
> salaries of Ironworkers' union bosses 
>   
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Michael Monahan IBEW  Local 103 Michael Monahan took home $160,441, a 16
> % increase from  2007.  Another Monhan on the union payroll, Charles,
> took home $158,299,  or 14% more than he took in 2007.  Business manager
> Louis Antonellis,  who famously was arrested for letting rats loose in a
> busy restaurant  because the owner refused to use only union labor on a
> renovation  project, raked in $144,914, a 16% increase over 2007. 
> Another  Antonellis, Richard, received a 17% increase, taking in
> $145,964 in  2009.  View the official report of salaries of IBEW 103
> union bosses    
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Mark Erlich Mark  Erlich is boss of the New England Regional Council of
> Carpenters, who  in 2008 reported taking home $210,980.  Erlich has
> plenty of company on  the union payroll, with 107 employees raking in
> more than $10 million in  2009. Also of worthy mention is Dan Rego, who
> brought home $110,564 of  members' dues in 2009.  View the official
> report of salaries of Carpenters' union bosses 
>   
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Kevin Cotter As  head of the Plumbers' union, Cotter took home $133,981
> of his members'  dues money.  Despite having one of the smallest number
> of members of the  unions analyzed, Local 12 managed to create positions
> for five people  earning in excess of $100,000 in 2009.  View the
> official report of salaries of Plumbers' union bosses 
>   
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Lou Rasetta  Rasetta  took home $194,795 of his members' money in 2009. 
> 11 Local 4 union  officials took home more than $1.5 million in 2009. 
> That figure does  not include the union's office manager, who raked in
> $91,262 of members  dues that year.  View the official report of
> salaries of Operators' Local 4 union bosses 
>   
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Francis "Frank" Callahan, President Callahan's  2009 salary was
> reportedly $144,614, a 30 percent increase from his  2007 base pay,
> which is funded with members' dues.  The Massachusetts  Building Trades
> Council is the umbrella group for all the construction  trade unions in
> Massachusetts and wields exceptional political strength  because of
> their fundraising prowess and ability to have union members  "volunteer"
> to work on political campaigns.   View the official report of salaries
> of Massachusetts Building Trades Council 
>   
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Mary Vogel Vogel took home $

[FairfieldLife] Re: Anyone have a good rebuttal to this article?

[jpgillam]

The two presidential administrations faced or are facing two different economic 
problems. Reagan was president when the Federal Reserve squeezed inflation 
away. The economy suffered for a bit, then bounded back - probably spurred by 
the spending derided below.

Obama became president when the West entered a period of massive deleveraging. 
Everyone is paying down debt. Our houses are worth less than we're paying on 
them. Escalating healthcare costs are consuming increases in productivity. The 
only way out may be fiscal stimulus, but it goes against the culture of paying 
down debt.

Today's problem is entirely different from that of 1980, and will take longer 
to correct.


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer"  wrote:
>
> From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com] On 
> Behalf Of sparaig
> Sent: Friday, August 26, 2011 11:31 AM
> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Anyone have a good rebuttal to this article?
> 
>  
> 
>   
> 
> Google: reagan tax cut myth
> e.g.
> 
> http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20030729-503544.html
> 
> "And while Reagan somewhat slowed the marginal rate of growth in the budget, 
> it continued to increase during his time in office. So did the debt, 
> skyrocketing from $700 billion to $3 trillion. "
> 
> that's an increase of 400 percent over 8 years.
> 
> People are bitching about Obama's increases to the debt, which are a tiny 
> fraction of Reagan's.
> 
> Lawson
> 
> My conservative friend responded: 
> 
> Exactly, you are stuck in your liberal bias.  Too bad.  Living a lie isn’t 
> good your health. The debt increased under Reagan because the congress was 
> controlled totally by democrats.  Every budget Reagan sent up there was 
> thrown out.  Let’s see, Reagan under the Dems had an increase of less than 
> $300 billion a year.  Obama, again under most Dems has had a $1.5 trillion 
> increase in debt per year.  If $300 billion a year is bad, isn’t $1.5 
> trillion 5 times worse?  Also, you want more revenue and have the “rich” 
> may more, right?  Under Reagan tax revenues increased by a very large amount 
> and upper income people paid a lot more:  
> http://www.house.gov/jec/fiscal/tx-grwth/reagtxct/reagtxct.htm
> 
>  
> 
> But again, I guess facts simply don’t matter.  What seems to matter is to 
> punish success and reward failure.  What a crazy world you live in.  
> Rewarding success leads to more success.  Rewarding failure leads to more 
> failure.  This simply economic logic seems to baffle liberals.
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com  
> , "Rick Archer"  wrote:
> >
> > 
> > Obamanonics vs. Reaganomics 
> > 
> > 
> > One program for recovery worked, and the other hasn't.
> > 
> > 
> > * By  > 
> >  &bylinesearch=true> STEPHEN MOORE 
> > 
> > If you really want to light the fuse of a liberal Democrat, compare Barack 
> > Obama's economic performance after 30 months in office with that of Ronald 
> > Reagan. It's not at all flattering for Mr. Obama. 
> > 
> > The two presidents have a lot in common. Both inherited an American economy 
> > in collapse. And both applied daring, expensive remedies. Mr. Reagan passed 
> > the biggest tax cut ever, combined with an agenda of deregulation, monetary 
> > restraint and spending controls. Mr. Obama, of course, has given us a $1 
> > trillion spending stimulus. 
> > 
> > By the end of the summer of Reagan's third year in office, the economy was 
> > soaring. The GDP growth rate was 5% and racing toward 7%, even 8% growth. 
> > In 1983 and '84 output was growing so fast the biggest worry was that the 
> > economy would "overheat." In the summer of 2011 we have an economy limping 
> > along at barely 1% growth and by some indications headed toward a 
> > "double-dip" recession. By the end of Reagan's first term, it was Morning 
> > in America. Today there is gloomy talk of America in its twilight. 
> > 
> > My purpose here is not more Reagan idolatry, but to point out an 
> > incontrovertible truth: One program for recovery worked, and the other 
> > hasn't.
> > 
> > The Reagan philosophy was to incentivize productionâ€"i.e., the "supply 
> > side" of the economyâ€"by lowering restraints on business expansion and 
> > investment. This was done by slashing marginal income tax rates, 
> > eliminating regulatory high hurdles, and reining in inflation with a 
> > tighter monetary policy.
> > 
> > View Full Image
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > stevemoore  
> > 
> > stevemoore 
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > The Keynesians in the early 1980s assured us that the Reagan expansion 
> > would not and could not happen. Rapid growth with new

[FairfieldLife] Re: TM millennial

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck"  wrote:
> 
> This is us?
>  "Millennial religious and communal movements typically anticipate the 
> imminent and literal end of what they view as a profoundly wicked, corrupt 
> existing world order and its replacement by a glorious "new heaven and new 
> earth," in which "the first shall be last and the last first, "  Describing 
> millennial groups this way implies that they must be inherently 
> "revolutionary" in their underlying goals and their impact upon the larger 
> social order that they criticize so harshly"

I say no, TMers and others who believe that a spiritual awakening is taking 
place are not millennialists. We may be cousins in the sense that the material 
world, of which millennialism partakes, is a cousin to the transcendent, but 
we're not the same. What do you think?

[FairfieldLife] Re: Letter in today's Ledger

[jpgillam]

Did you see Jon Stewart make fun of the fact that the media are treating Ron 
Paul "like the 13th floor in a hotel"?

http://bit.ly/ovhmDI

As a Ron Paul detractor, I enjoy the fact that he's being marginalized, but 
still...

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck"  wrote:
>
> 
> Yep, Kelly's one like the last of the Mohicans.  Native, wild, untamed and 
> original.  Frankly, I'm with him.  The problem is with these people who don't 
> meditate.  He's right.  We don't just believe this, we know it.   Like, who 
> would just go off on some bus tour to Ames(?)  It makes me mortally sick just 
> mindfully contemplating it.  
> 
> -Buck in FF
>  meditator 
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine  wrote:
> >
> > 
> >   Sidhas should have focused on  
> > By Kelly Kirkpatrick, Fairfield | Aug 18, 2011
> > >
> >  To the editor:
> > 
> > 150 Yogic Flyers failed Ron Paul by voting for him in Ames. If those 150 
> > yogic flyers were in the domes on Saturday, Ron Paul would have gotten 
> > hundreds more votes and the media could not have ignored his hated 
> > libertarianism. We Ron Paul sidhas know that the Maharishi effect 
> > research shows the instantaneous transformation of society. Among over 
> > 50 other Super Radiance studies, the 1986 study published in the 
> > prestigious Journal of Conflict Resolution, showed beyond reasonable 
> > doubt to have lowered war deaths in Lebanon every week as the numbers of 
> > yogic flyers increased on weekends. War is exactly what our 
> > current fascist society is. Government is nothing but a protection 
> > racket. We are close enough to the threshold of 2,000 yogic that if 
> > those 150 sidhas from Fairfield had been in the domes especially for the 
> > days and weeks preceding the Ames straw poll, Ron Paul would have won by 
> > hundreds and not lost by 152.
> >
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: (The) Think Tank

[jpgillam]

Watching it was fun! Thanks for the link.

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:
>
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:
> >
> > I have been trying, but I really haven't been able to find
> > out the genesis of this wonderful short video. I first saw
> > it as an intro to a friend's "Inner Parts Work" seminars, 
> > and I can see why he likes it. I can see why all of his
> > he's like it. You won't get this until you watch the video. 
> > 
> > http://vimeo.com/8893511
> > 
> > Whoever did it, it's a remarkably good short film in my 
> > opinion. Professional from top to bottom, and at times 
> > hilarious along the way to an even more hilarious ending.
> 
> Dropping the "The" from the film title I found it
> on the IMDB, and find that it's as professional as
> it looked, a short 11-minute film done by the writer
> of a TV series called "Brothers and Sisters" (which 
> I never saw. The guy supposedly produced a 2010 series 
> called "Hellcats," which I may look into because it's 
> about "the competitive world of college cheerleading." 
> After getting up to speed on "Breaking Bad" I kinda 
> need a break. :-)
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Ron Paul coming to Fairfield Tues Aug 9th! - Please forward widely

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Bhairitu wrote:
>
> The "free market" thing doesn't work.  I applaud Paul for speaking out 
> against the war spending and questioning the existence of the Federal 
> Reserve but not Austrian economics. It just "sounds good" to people who 
> don't understand economics.

Ron Paul's objection to the Federal Reserve is another stand that seems silly 
to me. Admittedly, my opinion is based on just one book, "The Money Men," which 
recounts the history of American monetary policy from the country's founding to 
the creation of the Fed in 1913. From that historial perspective, the Fed has 
been a rousing success, pretty much solving a problem that had vexed the 
economy all through the 19th century.

I'm with Charlie Pierce of the Boston Globe, who characterizes Libertarians as 
the historical reenactors of the political world. Just like the guys who put on 
pointed hats and knickers every April in Lexington and pretend to shoot one 
another, Libertarians dress up like a serious political movement, but no one in 
their right mind would give Libertarians real power any more than we'd let the 
reenactors use live ammunition.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Ron Paul coming to Fairfield Tues Aug 9th! - Please forward widely

[jpgillam]

Ron Paul contributed to an interesting reading experience recently that 
dovetails with a phenomenon that Fairfield Lifers may appreciate. A profile in 
The Week magazine covered his belief that free markets would have been 
sufficient to eliminate racism in businesses such as restaurants. Paul's 
rationale is that businesses would be crazy to refuse service to blacks, 
because who turns away business?

For the other side of the story, in The New Yorker, Calvin Trillin wrote about 
his experiences covering civil rights in the South in 1961. Trilling described 
a Greek immigrant restaurant owner telling a group of blacks, with tears in his 
eyes, that he sympathized with their cause, but that if he served them, he'd be 
put out of business. (The clear suggestion was that serving Negroes would lead 
to whites boycotting the restaurant.)

So here we have a situation that Fairfield Lifers may appreciate: On the one 
hand we have somebody voicing an ideology that sounds good if you're completely 
ignorant of the facts. On the other hand we have someone describing what 
happens in the real world. It's no surprise that the real-world situation 
differs from the ideology.


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer"  wrote:
>
> At 7 pm on Tues Aug 9th Ron Paul will be speaking on the Fairfield Square!!

[FairfieldLife] Re: Not Satire eliminate the old and disabled Judy

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "johnt"  wrote:
>
> 
> making light or trivializing a potential genocide is what I object to.

Do not read this article, then:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/nigeria-chosen-to-host-2008-genocides,1261/

Nigeria Chosen To Host 2008 Genocides
DECEMBER 15, 2004 | ISSUE 40•50

ABUJA, NIGERIA—At a celebratory press conference Monday, President Olusegun 
Obasanjo announced that Nigeria's troubled but oil-rich city of Warri has been 
chosen to host the 2008 Genocides.

"Nigeria is excited for this chance to follow in the footsteps of Somalia, 
Rwanda, and Sudan," Obasanjo said. "Much work remains to be done, but all of 
the building blocks are in place. Nigeria has many contentious ethnic groups, a 
volatile economy, and a dependence on food imports. We are well on our way to 
making 2008 a genocidal year to remember in Nigeria!"

[FairfieldLife] Re: How to pronounce the mantras

[jpgillam]

Bill, the information you cite differs from what 
I learned on my TM teacher training course. 

I suggest you have this conversation with your 
TM teacher. You've seen what a runaround you 
get here.


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, William Parkinson  wrote:
>
>  
> I found this webpage and it has a different way to pronounce the mantra I was 
> taught. Those of you who were teachers, is this way correct? For example, 
> hearim (as in 'hear') instead of herim (as in 'her'). Is this list even 
> valid? Thx for any information anyone might have!
> Cheers
> Bill

[FairfieldLife] Benny Blanco (was Re: Help a Saint - Lose Your Badge)

[jpgillam]

Thanks! Jeremy was cool toward documentaries before he realized making one 
would give him an excuse to hang out with someone he admired. 

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "seventhray1"  wrote:
>
> 
> Gilster,
> 
> BTW, awesome interview by Jeremy of "Benny Blanco"
> 
> http://jeremygillam.com/ <http://jeremygillam.com/>
> 
> If others here don't have teenagers (especially girls)  or listen to
> "pop" music they may not realize just who he is, and the songs he has
> helped produce.  But here is the real story, "behind the story"  Good
> stuff.
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jpgillam"  wrote:
> >
> > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer" wrote:
> > > >
> > > > I think it's a pity that the movement continues to sabotage
> > > > its own interests by behaving like a blinking cult.
> >
> > Many of us think the TM organization's prime interest is to
> > teach TM, but that's a mistake on our part. The TM organization's
> > prime interest is to maintain the purity of the teaching. That's why
> > it bans cross-pollination with other teachings.
> >
> > Behaving like a cult does not interfere with, and may actually
> > promote, the maintenance of the teaching in the form Maharishi
> > transmitted it.
> >
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Help a Saint - Lose Your Badge

[jpgillam]

>  , "Rick Archer" wrote:
> > >
> > > I think it's a pity that the movement continues to sabotage 
> > > its own interests by behaving like a blinking cult. 
> 
> Gillam wrote:
>
> Many of us think the TM organization's prime interest is to 
> teach TM, but that's a mistake on our part. The TM organization's 
> prime interest is to maintain the purity of the teaching. That's why 
> it bans cross-pollination with other teachings.
> 
> Behaving like a cult does not interfere with, and may actually 
> promote, the maintenance of the teaching in the form Maharishi 
> transmitted it.
> 
> Archer wrote:
>
> Maharishi used to say "the purity of the teaching depends upon the purity of
> the teachers". If that's true, the teaching was never entirely pure, but it
> might be made more pure if the teachers got the blessings of a saint or two.
>
This ^ is where Yahoo! Groups needs a "Like" button.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Help a Saint - Lose Your Badge

[jpgillam]

> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer" wrote:
> >
> > I think it's a pity that the movement continues to sabotage 
> > its own interests by behaving like a blinking cult. 

Many of us think the TM organization's prime interest is to 
teach TM, but that's a mistake on our part. The TM organization's 
prime interest is to maintain the purity of the teaching. That's why 
it bans cross-pollination with other teachings.

Behaving like a cult does not interfere with, and may actually 
promote, the maintenance of the teaching in the form Maharishi 
transmitted it.

[FairfieldLife] Re: MUM 's Mission Statement redux

[jpgillam]

Feste, thanks for pointing out the actual text in question. I agree with you. 
It's pretty good.


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck"  wrote:
>
> Dear Feste37, you and I are some of the only tru-believers here who would 
> like to see things work out for the movement.  I hope they can succeed.  
> 
> Now, both of us can read the movement stuff and be right with it and 
> understand what they are saying.  But, I was taking a swing at reading it all 
> as if I were an outsider looking in.  You know, walking in the shoes of 
> another.  Trying to empathsize with an outsider looking in.  I found the 
> empathetic reading almost impossible.  It is a bunch of cult-speak to anyone 
> looking in.
> 
> So, I then took a swing at distilling some core things down using their 
> essential language that is there but slimming down the hyperbolic 
> TM-movement-ese.   Version I was the straightest most secular I could get in 
> one sentence using their words.  Version II is the mission statement off the 
> web page.  Version II is un-readable.  Version III was in between I and II 
> editing in progress.
> 
> I'm just trying to help.
> 
> -Buck in FF 
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "feste37"  wrote:
> >
> > 
> > 
> > I don't know where Doug gets these different versions from but the one that 
> > actually appears is not bad at all:
> > 
> > About the University
> > Mission Statement of the University
> > 
> > Maharishi University of Management was founded in 1971 by Maharishi Mahesh 
> > Yogi to fulfill the highest ideals of education. Foremost among these 
> > ideals is developing the full potential of consciousness in every student — 
> > to help students develop the ability to think and act in accord with the 
> > laws of nature and to live fulfilled and successful lives. This fulfills 
> > the long-sought goal of education: to produce fully developed individuals, 
> > citizens who can fulfill their own aspirations while promoting all good in 
> > society.
> > 
> > We have pioneered a unique system of higher education, Consciousness-Based 
> > education, that systematically cultures students' full creative 
> > intelligence, the basis of learning. Consciousness-Based education gives 
> > traditional academic study the foundation of complete knowledge of 
> > consciousness coupled with simple, natural, scientifically validated 
> > technologies for developing consciousness.
> > 
> > These technologies are the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs, 
> > including Yogic Flying. This integrated approach develops students' ability 
> > to manage their lives successfully, to grow steadily in health, happiness, 
> > and wisdom, and to achieve professional success and personal fulfillment.
> > 
> > Our unique educational programs fulfill a commitment to four broad areas of 
> > responsibility:
> > 
> > Holistic development of students — cultivation of consciousness, mind, 
> > body, and behavior
> > Academic excellence — training at the forefront of knowledge in each 
> > discipline and in the ability to think critically and act effectively and 
> > ethically
> > Scholarship that expands the domains of knowledge, expressed in all 
> > four areas of scholarship — discovery, teaching and learning, integration, 
> > and application.
> > Improved quality of life for the individual, the community, the nation, 
> > and the world.
> > 
> > 
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "jpgillam"  wrote:
> > >
> > > I'd say Craig Pearson needs to edit that mission statement. As I 
> > > learned when a student at Maharishi International University, the 
> > > mission statement is different from the strategies employed to 
> > > pursue that mission, and the strategies are different from the 
> > > tactics followed to implement the strategies. This statement 
> > > makes the usual mistake that most committees make, which 
> > > is to fail to differentiate among those elements, and instead 
> > > pile them all into one clusterfuck of a sentence. Craig knows 
> > > better. 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck"  wrote:
> > > >
> > > > 
> > > > Om, which (?) version is more read-able:
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > Version I:
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > 

[FairfieldLife] Re: MUM 's Mission Statement redux

[jpgillam]

I'd say Craig Pearson needs to edit that mission statement. As I 
learned when a student at Maharishi International University, the 
mission statement is different from the strategies employed to 
pursue that mission, and the strategies are different from the 
tactics followed to implement the strategies. This statement 
makes the usual mistake that most committees make, which 
is to fail to differentiate among those elements, and instead 
pile them all into one clusterfuck of a sentence. Craig knows 
better. 


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck"  wrote:
>
> 
> Om, which (?) version is more read-able:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Version I:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Maharishi University of Management was founded in 1971 by Maharishi
> Mahesh Yogi
> to produce more fully developed individuals, by developing the potential
> of consciousnesswithin every student through a higher educational system
> of
> Consciousness-Based education giving traditional academic knowledge a
> foundation
> coupled with the study of consciousness through Transcendental
> Meditation and other scientifically validated practices taught by
> Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for developing consciousness.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Or,
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Version II:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Maharishi University of Management was founded in 1971 by Maharishi
> Mahesh Yogi to fulfill the highest ideals of education. Foremost among
> these ideals is developing the full potential of consciousness in every
> student — to help students develop the ability to think and act in
> accord with the laws of nature and to live fulfilled and successful
> lives. This fulfills the long-sought goal of education: to produce fully
> developed individuals, citizens who can fulfill their own aspirations
> while promoting all good in society.
> 
> We have pioneered a unique system of higher education,
> Consciousness-Based education  , that
> systematically cultures students' full creative intelligence, the
> basis of learning. Consciousness-Based education gives traditional
> academic study the foundation of complete knowledge of consciousness
> coupled with simple, natural, scientifically validated technologies for
> developing consciousness.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These technologies are the Transcendental Meditation
>   and TM-Sidhi programs, including Yogic
> Flying. This integrated approach develops students' ability to
> manage their lives successfully, to grow steadily in health, happiness,
> and wisdom, and to achieve professional success and personal
> fulfillment.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Our unique educational programs fulfill a commitment to four broad areas
> of responsibility:
> 
> *
> Holistic  development of students — cultivation of consciousness,
> mind,  body, and behavior
> 
> *
> Academic  excellence — training at the forefront of knowledge in
> each  discipline and in the ability to think critically and act 
> effectively and ethically
> 
> *
> Scholarship  that expands the domains of knowledge, expressed in all
> four areas  of scholarship — discovery, teaching and learning,
> integration,  and application.
> 
> *
> Improved  quality of life for the individual, the community, the nation,
> and  the world.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> or,
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Guess which version is on the MUM.edu web page?
> 
> 
> > Version III:
> > Maharishi University of Management was founded in 1971 by Maharishi
> Mahesh Yogi to produce fully developed individuals, citizens who can
> fulfill their own aspirations while promoting all good in society by
> developing the full potential of consciousness in every student through
> a higher educational system of Consciousness-Based education giving
> traditional academic knowledge a foundation coupled with the complete
> study of consciousness in simple, natural, scientifically validated
> technologies for developing consciousness.
> >
>

[FairfieldLife] Uncanny valley (was Re: "Warhorse")

[jpgillam]

Thanks for the follow-up. A few responses interleaved below.

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" wrote:
> 
> "Mori's hypothesis states that as a robot is made more
> humanlike in its appearance and motion, the emotional
> response from a human being to the robot will become
> increasingly positive and empathic, until a point is
> reached beyond which the response quickly becomes that
> of strong revulsion. However, as the appearance and
> motion continue to become less distinguishable from a
> human being, the emotional response becomes positive
> once more and approaches human-to-human empathy levels."
> 
> So that would seem to be the answer where sex robots are
> concerned: make them *so* realistic they climb out of
> the valley.

Of course, that's the goal. What will people settle for in the interim? 

http://www.svedka.com/

> Wikipedia has a whole list of possible explanations for
> the Uncanny Valley response. Some of them sound to me 
> like pretty much of a stretch, but others are fascinating.
> My favorites:
> 
> "...A robot stuck inside the uncanny valley is no longer
> being judged by the standards of a robot doing a passable
> job at pretending to be human, but is instead being
> judged by the standards of a human doing a terrible job at
> acting like a normal person."

This one ^ gets my vote.

> There are times when I wonder if it wouldn't be better 
> for us to just blow ourselves to smithereens and start
> over.

I believe people are working on this very tack.  :\

[FairfieldLife] Re: Farming Fuel, eroding the land

[jpgillam]

That's disturbing. When I lived in Iowa in the 1980s, there 
was a movement to retain the topsoil and prevent erosion. 
I never saw gullies like those you show in you pictures.

I wonder if another reason farmers are less concerned 
about erosion is because the black topsoil is gone, and 
what's being farmed is not really soil but more of a 
holding medium that retains the fertilizers and gives 
the plant roots something to cling to. In other words, 
the soil is no longer a nutrient-rich food source for the 
plants. Instead, it's a growing medium. It could just as 
well be sand.


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck"  wrote:
>
> I went out recently and took pictures of the Iowa landscape in erosion.
> 
> Take a look:
> 
> https://sites.google.com/site/commodityagsoilerosion/
> 
> -Buck
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulak
> > > > 
> > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkhoznik
> > > >
> > >
> > 
> >  "the collectivization of farms and land to allow industrialization of 
> > large-scale agricultural production."
> > 
> > Effectively the modern share-holder American farm, owned by absentee 
> > interest of trusts, insurance companies, large banks, and so-called 
> > 'family' farmer corporations from WWII generation where the shareholder 
> > boomer generation of shareholders live anywhere else but the farm.  That is 
> > the erosion of the Iowa landscape mostly now, in to large land holding by 
> > absent entity based more and more on contract rental incomes.  There are 
> > getting to be just a small number of Kulaks left in any county.  Look at 
> > any plat book and you can count them.  There are getting to be fewer and 
> > fewer farmers actually on the land.
> > Effectively there has been a collectivization of arable land by corporate 
> > structure.  That is just the fact.  The land is rapidly falling out of the 
> > hands of farmers turning them in to employees at best or marauding tenants 
> > of the landscape.  The owner-operators are getting to be a small number.
> > 
> > You should see the incredible erosion of dirt on tenant- land. The 
> > corporate relationship all across the State to the land more and more is to 
> > just farm the hell out of the dirt.
> >
>

[FairfieldLife] Uncanny valley (was Re: "Warhorse")

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" wrote:
>
> with the horse puppets, I was reminded of the
> "Uncanny Valley" theory, that the more lifelike a
> humanoid robot is, the more uncomfortable it makes
> people feel, so that there's a point of diminishing
> returns in terms of realism.
> 
> These are horse puppets, not humanoid robots, but I was
> thinking that if they had been made to look more
> realistic physically--e.g., with a skinlike material
> covering the framework and various other refinements,
> real hair for the mane and so on--they would begin to
> be quite scary, because their shape and especially their
> *motions* are so lifelike.
> 
> And I wondered if the puppets' designers had 
> deliberately refrained from "polishing" their appearance
> for that reason.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how plastic surgery 
and videogames are shaping our perceptions to accept 
robots who fall in the Uncanny Valley. You raise another 
option; that robots will be highly stylized in their design, 
and won't attempt realism. Think C3PO from "Star Wars," 
as opposed to Rachael or Pris in "Blade Runner." 

And yes, I'm thinking of sex robots. Just as pornography 
pays for the rise of new media, it'll fuel the growth of 
robotics. But what to do if the robots appear creepy? 
Either get used to creepiness (as plastic surgery seems 
to be cultivating) or don't even try to look lifelike.

Ah, the things we have to look forward to in the Age of Enlightenment.

[FairfieldLife] Re: "Warhorse"

[jpgillam]

A few years ago I saw a few shows by a marionette 
troupe that performed on tabletops. The puppet 
operators stood behind the table, operating the 
marionettes and speaking the roles. Yet despite the 
fact that these humans were clearly moving their 
puppets and speaking their puppets' parts, I could 
not stop myself from watching the puppets and 
believing *they* were doing the acting. I forgot 
about the humans.

That trick of perception has got to be a metaphor 
for something to do with the illusion of agency, 
although I'm neither articulate enough nor perceptive 
enough to tell what that metaphor may be.

Few Broadways shows look appealing to me; "Warhorse" 
is the exception.

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend"  wrote:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwu_d0xRhdI
> 
> This is a breathtaking video of one of the most
> remarkable pieces of stagecraft I've ever seen. It's
> a demonstration of a life-sized horse puppet, one of
> several used in the British play "Warhorse," which
> just opened in NYC.
> 
> Each horse is manned by three puppeteers, two "inside"
> the horse (but with their legs visible) and one fully
> visible at all times who stands next to the horse's
> head and controls its head and neck (he's also the
> horse's "voice").
> 
> The puppets are anatomically accurate but not at all
> realistic (you have to take a look to get what I mean).
> And yet the illusion of horse-ness is amazing, nearly
> miraculous (and most likely is even more magical on
> stage under theatrical lighting; this demonstration
> was filmed outdoors in daylight).
> 
> Note that the guy in uniform holding the reins is an
> actor playing the horse's human handler. The man in
> suspenders by the horse's head is one of the puppeteers,
> in a sense the externalized mind of the horse. You 
> aren't really supposed to "see" him, and indeed, he
> virtually disappears as the illusion takes hold.
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: "Witnessing," "presence," "openness" (was Hierarchy Addiction)

[jpgillam]

Thanks for the reminder of "open presence." You 
had shared that term before, but I typically need 
to hear something a few times for it to stick. 

You can bet Maharishi would have loved that term. 
He loved puns.

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj  wrote:
>
> 
> On Apr 4, 2011, at 4:38 PM, jpgillam wrote:
> 
> > I ask because it relates to a previous conversation in which 
> > I elicited terms for being "with it" or "on." Barry had suggested 
> > "openness." And the term "presence" is gaining currency; I 
> > saw it in a New Yorker cartoon recently and thought that may 
> > be the default term people will start using for having one's center
> > in the non-changing self, as opposed to being centered 
> > in one's thoughts and feelings.
> 
> 
> Meditation researchers are currently using the phrase "open presence" to 
> describe certain types of nondual meditation and it's experience.
>

[FairfieldLife] "Witnessing," "presence," "openness" (was Hierarchy Addiction)

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "wayback71" wrote:
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend"  wrote:
> >
> > I found [witnessing] incredibly liberating, a
> > sense of having dropped all the baggage I had been
> > lugging around, a huge feeling of relief, most
> > definitely "something good." But the first time I had
> > the experience, I didn't realize it was witnessing.
> > That didn't even occur to me until it was well past.
> 
> Same thing for me, Judy.  My first witnessing experience 
> occurred before I even learned TM.  I was about 18 and 
> knew something very different had happened for a few 
> hours.  And during it I felt terrific in every way and 
> functioned really well.  I had no name to give it, but will 
> never forget it. Without any spiritual construct I knew I 
> liked that experience. - and preferred it to my typical 
> state.  It seemed a way to go through life that was so 
> very easy and effortless while still doing the usual stuff.

What word would you use to describe that experience? 
What term did you use before learning about witnessing?

I ask because it relates to a previous conversation in which 
I elicited terms for being "with it" or "on." Barry had suggested 
"openness." And the term "presence" is gaining currency; I 
saw it in a New Yorker cartoon recently and thought that may 
be the default term people will start using for having one's center
in the non-changing self, as opposed to being centered 
in one's thoughts and feelings.

Thanks.

[FairfieldLife] Re: Oooooo...I want to see this movie

[jpgillam]

Apparently it was a "Grindhouse" trailer, as was "Machete." I saw "Grindhouse" 
but don't recall any of these trailers. Here's the trailer for "Hobo with a 
Shotgun":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKd0JRCZi9I

Also among the coming attractions was "Nuns with Guns."


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb  wrote:
>
> Although he's done some shoddy work, give Rutger Hauer
> a really over-the-top crazy character to sink his teeth
> into and he rises to the occasion. Think "The Hitcher."
> So this movie might actually bring out some good acting
> in him. 
> 
> But it's the subject matter that interests me. One the
> one hand, it looks like a retread of all those Bronson
> vigilante movies. So a lot of rednecks and Tea Party
> hat wearers in the audiences are going to cheer when
> the vigilante blows away the scumbags. On the other hand,
> the vigilante in question is the titular title of the
> movie, "Hobo With A Shotgun." The idea of a homeless guy
> with a shotgun is gonna scare the livin' bejeeezus out
> of these same people. Should be fun.
> 
> http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3655703833/
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Fairfield Life: The Video

[jpgillam]

Watch out: This babbling baby video will become as ubiquitous as the Hitler 
tantrum scene in "The Downfall" as a visual track for funny dialogs. 


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj  wrote:
>
> 
> On Apr 1, 2011, at 6:53 AM, turquoiseb wrote:
> 
> > http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/31/twin-baby-boys- 
> > conversation-translated_n_843043.html
> 
> 
> I have two twin cousins who actually developed their own language  
> that only they could understand, although they later tried to teach  
> it to us. Up through their teens, if they wanted to share something  
> private while in the presence of others, they'd speak in this bizarre  
> language back and forth. It was an interesting way of sharing their  
> private world and the telepathic link they seemed to share. Because  
> of the unique bond they shared, their parents allowed them to have a  
> shared room, rather than separate rooms growing up.
>

[FairfieldLife] Re: Looking ahead in movies: "Thor" and "Sucker Punch"

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, tartbrain wrote:
>
> > The tagline is, "Reality is a prison. Your mind can
> > set you free."
> 
> "Mind is the prison, accepting reality can set you free." 

Where's the "Like" button?

[FairfieldLife] Richard Chorley, RIP

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Just learned today that Richard Chorley passed away April 2010. Maybe a few of 
you old-timers knew Richard.

I met Richard when I was an undergrad at Maharishi International University and 
Richard was on the Council of Executive Governors, a graduate program in 
educational administration. A few years later, in 1983, I fell in with Rich and 
some other former Chicagoans when we shared a mobile home at the Taste of 
Utopia gathering in Fairfield.

Richard's TM claim to fame was in winning the Maharishi Award at one point 
during "Merv Years," the peak period of TM instruction in the United States. 
The Maharishi Award was given to the teacher who taught the most people that 
year. 

Richard was active in the Chicago TM Center, but his great success came as an 
itinerant teacher in upper Michigan. He traveled from town to town, put up 
posters, gave a great lecture and taught like crazy.

He retired from the TM world to get a graduate degree in computer science and 
teach at the  Borough of Manhattan Community College. In recent years, he had 
an apartment in Prague, with the intention to retire there. 

I had only intermittent contact with Richard over the last few decades, but I 
tried to get in touch on a recent visit to New York City. When his phones 
proved to be out of service I called the Community College and reached a 
colleague who told me he had entered the hospital last year upon falling and 
injuring his back. While there, a blood clot broke loose and made its way to 
his heart, stopping it.

If the online information I found is correct, Richard was born on October 1, 
1942, and passed away on Friday, April 9, 2010.

Richard Chorley was an awesome raconteur and accomplished educator. I'll miss 
him. Continue your journey, Richard!
 

[FairfieldLife] Re: Usama Story Redux

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck" wrote:
>
> It's also why we have prisons. To keep the rest of 
> us safe.  It's what civil societies do, separate the 
> asocial from the social 

Here's a scenario to entertain: The people who were defending their property 
from an intruder get convicted of a crime and go to prison. There, they learn 
vipassana meditation and love it. Upon returning to Fairfield, they convert the 
'rus to vipassana practice, and the town dries up as a TM bastion.

[FairfieldLife] Fairfield Filmmaker Claims He's Victim of Hate Crime

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"Alshaibi said he used bad judgment entering the 
residence but he'd grown up in a college town where 
such party hopping isn't uncommon.

"'I like to meet people and I kind of wanted to meet my 
neighbors. I had the sense that it was OK, that it was 
open,' he said. 'So, yeah, after getting beaten, I keep 
replaying it in my mind, why did I go there? Why did I 
go there? But I know that I didn't deserve that, even if 
I was confused or if I misunderstood.'"


http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/Filmmaker-Claims-Hes-Victim-of-Hate-Crime-in-Iowa--117545573.html

or

http://bit.ly/ij2rWq

[FairfieldLife] Re: Is Enlightenment Personal?

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I skim over 95 percent of Fairfield Life content, but I 
always pause to read Peter's explanations of why there's 
no self in cosmic consciousness, despite having read 
many of them in the past. Funny how I'm always willing 
to read another one.


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Peter  wrote:
>
> You keep on making this conceptual argument which does make sense from a 
> waking state context. But if you have clear CC experiences it becomes quite 
> clear there is no individuality as a private center of consciousness. This is 
> only a neo-advaita trap when people try to argue there is no self in waking 
> state. Of course there is a self in waking state. There just isn't one in CC. 
> So what happens to this relative self in CC? The answer is nothing. It 
> becomes clear that the sense of relative self was a delusion. This is why the 
> rope and snake metaphor is so powerful. You could argue that the snake exists 
> as a concept or belief. But this would be like saying from waking state that 
> your dream of a tiger was real. Only in the dream is the tiger real. Once you 
> shift into waking state, the tiger is no longer real in this new context. The 
> same thing happens to the sense of individuality in CC. It's not there. 
> There's only consciousness which has no relative
>  measure.
> 
> Non-localization is not a conceptual argument that can be understood in 
> waking state. It sounds absurd, of course. Imagine trying to tell your dream 
> ego that there is no tiger as it experiences the tiger chasing it! But it is 
> a conceptual tool that helps you in CC.
> 
> By the way, I completely agree with you that neo-advaita is nonsense, but not 
> for the same reasons you argue. Neo-advaita is nonsense because it offers no 
> tools to facilitate realization and it takes concepts that make plenty of 
> sense in Realization, but make no sense in waking state.
> 

[FairfieldLife] Re: Haven't the wealthy suffered enough already?

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I like the way state governments can fail to adequately 
fund their workers' pensions, and when the problem 
becomes critical, it's not the problem of the states, but 
of the workers. (I use the word "like" in the sense that 
it's reprehensible.)


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "do.rflex"  wrote:
>
> 
> Don't the schoolteachers and janitors understand that sacrifices must be made!
> 
> Take a look: 
> http://www.salon.com/ent/comics/this_modern_world/2011/03/01/this_modern_world/story.jpg
>

[FairfieldLife] Raucous chili (was Re: White Castle)

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--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Tom Pall wrote:
>
> raucous chili

I tend to turn my nose up at adjectives, seeing as they 
so rarely earn their keep, but "raucous" as a modifier for 
chili is the best use of an adjective I'm going to see this quarter.

> Mom used to open up a can of peas and cook it until it
> was mush just to make sure it was cooked.

The irony being that canned foods are already cooked, are they not?

[FairfieldLife] Re: White Castle

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "seventhray1" wrote:
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Tom Pall  wrote:
> > Oh, how I miss the burgers and fries at White Castle.  No White Castle
> > outlets in these here parts.
> >
> There're my daughter's favorite late night snack.  But to call 
> them a "burger" is a stretch in my opinion.  They go by "slingers", 
> which is a more apt description.

Or, more appetizingly still, "sliders." (*bellchh*)

[FairfieldLife] Re: Eyes Wide Open Mantra Practice

[jpgillam]

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "seventhray1" wrote:
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "wgm4u"  wrote:
> > Apparently with Kriya Yoga one learns to "consciously' and 'at will'
> > control the heart and lungs, according the the great Saint Paramahansa
> > Yogananda who walked among us like the great Christ.
> 
> You may want to consider Muslim version of a accolade.  It's just a tad
> shorter. "Paramahansa Yogananda, may peace be upon him"

Further, I've seen "peace be upon him" acronymed to "pbuh" and enclosed in 
parentheses. Very efficient. Every time the Holy Name occurs, you just slap 
"(pbuh)" after it and you're good.

[FairfieldLife] Re: The Pentagon Meditation Technique (PMC)

[jpgillam]

I wonder what prompted them to use the word "eugenic"? It doesn't apply, and 
its connotations are horrific.

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck"  wrote:
>
> Eugenic Radiance (ER) it seems is the broader or more inclusive way of 
> saying, the Maharishi Effect (ME).  The public domain vs. the trademarked 
> version.
> 
> --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Buck"  wrote:
> >
> > 
> > 
> > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, blusc0ut  wrote:
> > >
> > > 
> > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Peter  wrote:
> > > >
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > --- On Wed, 2/16/11, blusc0ut  wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > snip
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > > I also send her links to SSRS Sahaja Yoga, which in fact IS
> > > > > TM.
> > > > 
> > > > Actually, it's not. Some different bija mantras and a different way of 
> > > > thinking the mantra. Superficially similar, but different mechanics.
> > > 
> > > Okay, thanks, difference noted. I had heard that SSRS used exlusively old 
> > > TM-Teachers to teach it - as if to keep the original connection to GD 
> > > clear.
> > >
> > 
> > Bluscout, good site.  Obviously is hard for old meditators to recommend 
> > that friends and family just go on down to the local peace palace to learn 
> > TM.  This PMC site makes a good secular short stop in a pinch.  But still 
> > misses the shakti (eugenic radiance) that is possible with an individual 
> > instruction while sitting with a person.  In old Quakerism, it is called 
> > sitting with a weighty Friend, someone who can help bring about a deeper 
> > inner experience via a darshan of sitting with a novice as they learn and 
> > try it.
> > 
> > I like the site though.  
> > http://pentagonmeditationclub.org/transcending%20-%20%20quiet%20the%20mind.htm
> >   
> > 
> > And, who is this Edward Winchester?  This PMC was a while ago.  Where did 
> > he come from and where did he go?  This page is quite a comprehensive 
> > unaffiliated secular meditation resource.  Starting back in 1974.
> > 
> >
> > > Interesting thing aside: the link I had posted actually comes from this 
> > > site:
> > > 
> > > "The Pentagon Meditation Club (PMC) was founded by Edward Winchester at 
> > > the Pentagon under authority of  the Office of the Assistant Secretary of 
> > > Defense (Welfare & Recreation) and officially chartered April, 1976...  
> > > The PMC Club was established at the Pentagon, Washington, D. C. under the 
> > > auspices of the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon, 
> > > chartered by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Welfare & 
> > > Recreation) April, 1976... The PMC functioned inside the Pentagon 
> > > building for over 20 years providing instruction in meditation, guest 
> > > speakers, group meditations and special projects known as SDI's until the 
> > > late 1990's."
> > > 
> > > "PMC PROJECTS - SDI's EXERCISES - WORKING WITH SILENCE: CHANGING 
> > > COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS TO PRODUCE POSITIVE RESULTS
> > > 
> > > Demonstrations of Unified Field Theory
> > > 
> > > A central feature for building collective consciousness is that the 
> > > participants in each demonstration voluntarily agreed to enter into 
> > > silence regularly using a procedure that has come to be called the "Peace 
> > > Shield Meditation" technique to produce eugenic radiance (definition).  
> > > By Ed Winchester
> > > 
> > > Spiritual Defense can also be defined as the application of non-lethal, 
> > > non-invasive, and non-physical Distance Influence (DI) – thought 
> > > technology, which can provide real protection and shielding by screening 
> > > and blocking harmful influences of a destructive or evil nature.  
> > > Spiritual Defense employs DI technology, which is thought form 
> > > communication between a sender(s) and a receiver (s), whether consciously 
> > > perceived or not, involving for example light and sound, prayer and 
> > > meditation, and collective mental synchronization to augment and help 
> > > insure security and well-being."
> > > 
> > > Looks like they got some ideas. Instead of accepting Maharishi's gracious 
> > > offer, they simply copied it. At least until 1990 still supported by the 
> > > government, if I read this correctly
> > > 
> > > http://pentagonmeditationclub.org/
> > > 
> > > http://pentagonmeditationclub.org/sdi_.htm
> > >
> >
>