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John, this is great!
This is something everyone needs to take very seriously. Even the little clique at work is a kind of cult and it damages us, whether we realize it or not.
That so many of us abandoned a balanced life for the cult of Maheshism is a sad and disturbing thing.
I thought I abandoned the old coot a long time ago, but I still find myself avoiding something or taking the long way around something because Mahesh put the evil eye on it.
Foolish of me?
Sure.
But also devious of Mahesh when I was young and vulnerable.
These things stick, like Velcro. Y'gotta be really careful.
GREAT article!! who-eey!!
I love the diagram w/ life's variety in color vs. cult black-n-white.... (the black and white offered a false, but seductive, security).
Excellent referencing of Lalich and Ryan.
Remember the movie "Pleasantville"? Everything was black and white, until folks awakened to life's color & variety, through their individual expression. Each had a personal awakening; rejoicing in their uniqueness.
Those individual awakenings reminded me of awakening from trance-group mentality.... leaving the rules.
Then the movie ended w/ the Beatles "Across the Universe" chanting "Jai Guru Dev-ahhh" (yikes! talk about a personal trigger!)
Let's rejoice in our colorful variety!
g 
P.S. John, I agree w/ the addiction model of cult involvement, even though ICSA's position states that addiction models do not apply to cult involvement. Tks again!
g
Dear John,
Thank you for your information on this site. What bothers me the most from having done TM for 10 years without missing, etc. is that I have a concern (fear sometimes) about where my mind goes now when I am doing nothing as opposed to being aware that I'm using a mantra. Example, when I'm reading in bed I sometimes notice I'm daydreaming. I worry that the mantra has begun by itself and that it is taking me where I don't want to go anymore. Has anyone ever shared this type of concern? Is this related to brainwashing? Before I stopped doing TM completely I had 2 big ugly beings (somethings) in my meditation. Tm became unconfortable after that and I gradually quit. Any thoughts on this?
Hi, Vickie,
It sounds like two different things may be going on for you. It sounds like the mantra remains a habit for your mind. And, it sounds like your mind may have learned to dissociate more than is comfortable for you. How long since you stopped meditation? For most people, both these habits gradually stop with time. There's a good article on dissociation at http://www.trancenet.net/researc...arch/
west.shtml , with some hints about how to gain control of it. To be honest, a thorough discussion of this lies outside the bounds of these comments. Please feel free to write me at jmknapp53@gmail.com. We can discuss this better in personal emails.
J.
John,
IMHO one of us should write a blog post about this. The grown TM kids that visit me, like myself, learned to self-soothe through inner chanting when we were young children. THis was reinforced each time we were re-initiated into adult techniques.
The mantra is always there, ready to pop through and induce spaced-out trance state (feels great, btw!).
My children tease me when I space out. They can see it.
Yes, we learn to control it.
more later. I don't have time to write another real blog post for a few weeks (water damage issues at home).
appreciation to all of you!
g
Oh John
You've just taken the old person-in-the-situation ideology; that Marxist, collectivist, securlarist viewpoint you learned in social work grad school and applied it. Looks more like an undergraduate paper actually.
Fine John. You are your training afterall. But what if man is more than his social environment? What about the deeper dimensions of mankind?
Lee Sanulav says:
"But what if man is more than his social environment? What about the deeper dimensions of mankind?"
I don't think John ignores this, he includes the importance of the spiritual, whatever it means to a person. As he said, "Focusing too much on one's individual needs seems to lead to suffering just as surely as not focusing enough."
My hunch is that if you have been engaged in much inward focus, like too much meditation, with long drawn out programs, it may very well be good for a person to focus outward a bit more and get some distance.
Googled "Lee Sanulav." Lots of rants across the Internet. This interesting "complaint" at University of South Florida:
"Once had a professor (Paul d' Oronzio) at USF in Tampa blacklist me because I expressed dissent with his ideology. He was a social work professor.
In my opinion the ethical "guidelines" published by the NASW (National Association of Social Workers) are too far to the left. They express a collectivist, socialist, and secular viewpoint once found in the old Soviet Union and only recently Cuba and North Korea.
I dissented and was prevented from finishing my BSW degree. I was forced to drop the major. My name is on a "list" preventing me from even registering for an elective course in the social work department.
Why should communist professors in state universities who are paid by public funds, be given this power?"
The power of Google! I just tuned out his "Marxist, collectivist, secular" viewpoint language as generally when I hear that kind of talk it doesn't mean anything and is just said to rile people up.
ah, so this sanulav guy is some looser who flunked his courses, lies about being blacklisted and is now some armchair critic with no personal experience in what he's talking about.
Got it. The Maha-slick probably cultivates the company of guys like this.
Thanks for the heads up
Very thoughtful analysis, John. Wish you all the best!
A response to Vicki regarding the mantra appearing in your head when you're trying to do something else: A person might find it amusing, or irritating, or horrifying ("oh, no, I'm programmed"). But, I remember being "taught" how to think about it by a TM teacher: "TM is so easy to do that it's actually easier to do than thinking. Sometimes when people are relaxed, their mantra comes into their heads!" It turned the experience from a slightly creepy experience into a sort of "magical" "superior" experience.
Laurie
Laurie, I never heard any TM teacher say anything this. I am not for one second doubting that this is exactly what you were told, however.
One thing I observed with some of the sycophants around Mahesh was that they could make up bullshit faster than Mahesh!
They would be ever so devout, modest, fawning and respectful around him and chuck up crap like you have reported at the drop of a hint to anyone not suspecting they were most likely more highly evolved than Mahesh himself.
TM was a fantastic excuse for some people to play "let's pretend" in a very realistic life drama where others were concerned. I remember one occasion when the wife of a national leader told me not to do something Mahesh had told me to do (in her presence), because, she said you know what Maharishi is like.
Actually, I had no idea what she was talking about, but I hesitated to do what Mahesh had asked me to do.
Obviously, he asked why I hadn't done it. I was backed into a corner, or thought I was. Bullpoo wasn't my speciality, so I told him what I had been told. Had I snapped him with a wet towel in the showers, I think I would have gotten much the same response.
He wanted to know who. So I told him. I never saw that national leader or his wife around again.
Hi, Sudarsha, re: your posting of 01.10.08, you say, "Foolish of me? Sure. But also devious of Mahesh when I was young and vulnerable."
You don't give yourself enough credit! You were also in an altered, suggestible, hypnotic state from too much meditating, in which things said to you would go into your brain while you had reduced critical thinking, and the information got processed differently than it would have if you had been fully awake.
Laurie
Well, yes, I suppose.
Thanks, Laurie
That altered state (and I didn't like rounding, so kept it to a minimum, by way of saying what kind of destructive potential it has) also didn't let me fully see what Mahesh was when I encountered him getting his wast wedic knowledge from a room full of American amateurs who were explaining what the Rig Veda said and what it meant.
The next day I heard him expound on yet another revelation (no credits, no footnotes, no citations like "a room full of American amateurs figured this out for me to share with you"). I knew he was not what he seemed and yet I hung in there. I wanted to teach TM and I wanted to know the secret of knowing which mantra was appropriate for an individual.
When I looked at the two columns (gender at the top, ages down the side), I had another confirmation and still didn't see.
The stories might help others. What else can I say.
Yes, Sudarsha, the amount of contradictions we were able to swallow without saying, "Wait a minute!" is mind-boggling!
I remember on Teacher Training, La Antilla, 1974, Mahesh finally disclosed to us the big secret of the mantras and how to choose them. The selection process that day was based on age. I didn't think, "What a stupid criteria" because, as I posted earlier, I'd already had that thought a few days previously and had rationalized it.
But I do recall that after he gave us the mantras and criteria, he gave us a little lecture on how to do the "personal interview." I remember he said, "Have a red pencil with you. Make little checks and circles on their form, to help you choose the mantra." One student asked, "Should we circle the age?" Maharishi said "No," and he looked ever so slightly embarrassed.
What did I think or feel at that moment of cognitive dissonance? "Well, what we have to offer is beyond compare, so if a little bit of subterfuge is what Maharishi feels we need to engage in in order to make sure people don't teach it without being properly trained to be initiators, then I'm willing to do that."
Yes, I did bring a red pencil to the personal interviews. Yes, I did check and circle things on the students' forms (but not their age.)
By lying, I became more committed to the TMO. Just like, when people are hazed or haze as part of the induction into a fraternity, it makes them more loyal to the fraternity. Maybe shame shuts down clear thinking.
Laurie
Alas and alack, Laurie -- how much this sounds like Nuremberg I vas only following ze orders. No criticism of you or any other teacher is intended. The "sounds" are the same, but both the intentions and the brainwashing behind them were somewhat different.
Our intentions were good, we were mislead into the greatest of best intentions with the view to establishing world peace. I think we have to congratulate ourselves for the good intentions we ourselves possessed and cease to blame ourselves or others for the misleading and devious trap into which we fell, face first and eyes wide open.
There is/was so much wrong about Mahesh and Maheshism as we find out every day, now. But openly saying so, showing others what we have learnt can only contribute to informed opinion for everyone.
If others feel they still want to do TM and all its add-ons (now sold as the "whole" program), at least they can have the advantage of information.
Many thanks to you, Laurie, you, AK, to John and Gina and Paul and Mike for pioneering research and commitment to understanding. Many thanks to all those people who not only thought "wait a minute" but did wait, look, think and report as well
"Yes, Sudarsha, the amount of contradictions we were able to swallow without saying, "Wait a minute!" is mind-boggling!"
Isnt one of the classic effects of being in trance that we become less able to recognize (and be troubled by)contradictions? Have a quick look at this article.
http://www.meridianpsych.com/trance.htm
(John Knapp can probably tell us very much more.)The article includes the following, rather icky advice:
"Gear your trance induction to the individual and how he is in the here and now. Don't ignore or deny the client's state. *For instance, if the client comes to you in a state of agitation, ***acknowledge that and use the situation to induce trance.*** Use what the person brings you, what is presented to you...use what you've got."('You're unstressing. So...do more!')
In the section 'Patterns that induce trance', note these--especially the first. Some Indian methods such as 'tratakam' (focusing eye gaze for lengthy periods such as on a flame or an image could do this) This might even happen if one focuses intently on items used in puja or during Aarti. (Even Bharati described the Aarti ceremony as inducing an almost 'narcotic' state(his words) , and surmised this had something to do with the sensory richness of the ritual. If a person had fasted before witnessing a puja and was in a state of eager anticipation, and had paid a meaningful sum of money ( violation of the ritual and dysfunctional in relation to the actual tradition of receiveing a mantra)that would enhance the persons focus. Joyce Collin-Smith noted how she was made to wait a long time before she witnessed puja and recived her mantra. Its discourteous to a fasting person and puts them at a grave disadvantage to be made to wait. Louis XVIII said 'Punctuality is the courtesy of kings.' Anyone who has a pattern of keeping people waiting is playing a power game and I dont give a damn how ancient it is. Some abuse patterns are ancient and still should be eradicated.
But when in trance..or when fasting, how can we do this. Fasting actually can have a tranquilizing effect-and at the same time vivifies the senses--which makes sense for a hungry animal that must hunt for food.This use of fasting before puja would heighten the senses and perhaps be part of trance induction.And...you'd not be told any of this. Nor be told you'd be adding a bunch of TM family secrets on top of whatever family issues you already had.
"Patterns" That Have Been Used to Induce Trance
Eye fixation approach (Walberg)- based on the fatigue caused by focusing. Sleep. Hand levitation (Milton Erickson)...Eye gaze technique - the operator looks into the eyes (holds the gaze) of the client and induces a trance y "Sleep", etc And.Relaxation
There is a list of characteristics of the trance state given in the article which are worth looking at. I have singled out two that seem important.
**Change in capacity for volitional activity: the loss of desire to take initiative – the therapist has to initiate directions and guide the client at this point.(Joyce C-S described how people became more and more passive and lost creative impulse after doing TM. In 'Call No Man Master Joyce tells us it was a problem getting work done in the early days at the London office because people turned zombiesh, making it important to get a constant influx of newbies who still had some gumption in them before they did enough TM to turn sluggish)
a) Literalness: one tends to be much more literal and so analogies are lost on them and taken literally. DON'T use negatives, don't say, "you will not feel afraid..." instead use positive affirmations such as, "you will feel confident." b)Trans logic: in the trance state the person is less bothered by contradictions. (Which means you can hear lots of BS and it will slide right by)
To use Mahesh's words something good is happening.
No matter how bad rounding felt for anyone, something good is happening was Mahesh's spin on it.
Translation: you are unimportant, just get totally stoned and then do what I tell you.
Alternative translation: you are useless unless you give me what I want.
Many thanks, AK. Your research and sharing access is astounding and very, very helpful.
S
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