Dear Fairfield Lifers,
In response to the recent discussions on this list about the TM course
fee [Why does T/M cost so much to join? A little help?], I'll re-post
my controversial essay from a few years ago. I first posted it on this
list, and then to my amazement it got forwarded/networked all over the
world - to meditators' e-mail lists, to other TM-related discussion
groups - and even translated into many languages. It generated more
encouraging and appreciative e-mail responses to me than any other essay
I've written.
So here's another go-round (slightly edited to bring it up-to-date).
I hope that this essay is of some use to you. It is offered in a spi-
rit of love and compassion and humility to the tradition. Respectful
comments or questions from readers are very welcome via e-mail, either
privately or on this list.
Namaste,
Michael
-
TM Course Fees and The Real Goals of the Movement
By Michael Dean Goodman
The issue of the higher ($2500) TM course fee has stirred up a lot
of controversy over the years. Something that someone wrote about
that finally prodded me into action and I wrote the following re-
sponse. I hope it gives you some food for thought:
When I started TM in 1970, as an adult I paid $75 to learn (and by
a few years later it was $125). It is estimated that prices for
many things have almost doubled every decade. In 1970, gasoline
cost .29/gallon; today it costs 2.39/gallon - 824% of the original
cost. In 1970, a new mid-sized Ford with a big engine cost $2500;
today it costs almost $20,000, 800% of the original cost.
Applying that same percentage factor, my $75 TM would cost $618
today, simply based on adjustment for inflation. Actually, today
TM costs $2500, about 4 times that $618 inflation-adjusted figure.
Like [deleted] wrote, I feel that I would have paid a huge amount
had I known how effectively the TM program would have brought me
back home to my goal. Please be careful in your assumptions here:
I'm not talking based on some true belief or some faith in what
the future might bring; I'm talking based on my own simple direct
personal experience over these years. The time/money/energy that
I invested in the TM program was far and away the best investment
I've ever made. It's made this life worthwhile. I appreciate that
some of you don't feel that way - some feel disappointed, tricked,
abused, misled - and I'm sincerely and deeply sorry that you've
found yourself on a different road.
Even knowing as little as I did before I started, I came up with $75 -
which is equivalent to $618 today. Today the TM movement is charging
4 times that, or $2500. Back then, when I learned, would I have come
up with 4 times the $75 that I paid (or $300)?
After really letting myself get back into the feelings that I had
back then, I say yes - I would have. Certainly, because of the
greater amount of money involved, I would have slowed down, thought
more deeply about my decision, weighed it as more than the cheap
lark that I saw it as, but as drawn as I was to have that inner
stability and peace that I saw in the TM lecturer, I would have paid
the $300.
That $300 was 3.75% of an average year's income in 1970 - a little
under 2-weeks' wages. It was also 13% of the cost of a new car back
then. In my life since then, a lot of income and a lot of cars have
come and gone - and a lot of money has been foolishly spent on things
that have disappeared or were a mistake to begin with - but what the
TM program delivered me to, the Self, goes on forever. In fact, think-
ing back over those days when I was initiated and my behaviors and
attitude toward TM back then, I feel that I would actually have taken
the whole thing a lot more seriously - especially the 3-days of in-
struction after initiation, and the regular practice of TM thereafter -
if I hadn't thought that it was such a cheap bargain at $75.
Today, based on what TM brought me, $2500 is a steal. But I am realis-
tic, and I understand through direct personal experiences with friends
and counseling clients over these past years that many people don't see
that value at first, and that $2500 is a very significant, often daunt-
ing, obstacle in some peoples' minds. It is daunting for me to tell
people $2500, especially when I assume that they're not serious spir-
itual seekers - but merely looking for some relative benefit (like re-
ducing their stress level or improving their relationship or making
school easier) - and therefore might not see the deeper value that I
now see in hindsight.
So why does TM cost 4 times more today than it did back in 1970 (af-
ter adjusting for inflation)? And, as a corollary: is Maharishi, as
some people assert, either a bumbling idiot about practical financial
matters, or just overly greedy - or is he a brilliant seer of the fu-
ture? Let's investigate.
I've thought back over many things I've heard from Maharishi over
