TM-Free Blog Comments Now up to 10K characters allowed
Comments interpolated in the paste if the original below
'TM-Free Blog is an educative tool for those determined to live Transcendental–Meditation- and cult-free. It is the project of a small group of former TM Teachers and veterans.'
Even though I came across this blog only a couple of days ago, I think I qualify as a veteran, though not a teacher.
'We intend this blog to be a resource for people considering starting the practice of TM, as well as those leaving -- or who have already left -- any of the Transcendental Meditation Organizations founded by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. We also offer information we hope will help therapists understand their TM-affected clients.'
Fair enough. I'm a little cynical about therapy - what with the repressed memory thing, and stuff like that - but no doubt there are some good therapists.
'Trained in a variety of professions, coming from differing backgrounds, we contributors embrace a variety of viewpoints and disagree freely on the best ways to support those who use us as a resource. But we remain united in our support for the community we serve.'
I'm happy with that. Some of us have gone on to other eastern practices, some, I suppose, back to the religion from whence they came, and some - me for one - have decided that they are better off without religion.
But anyone who has gone deep down the rabbit hole of TM, and can or may come out the other side, has my support.
'Our experience tells us that leaving TM challenged us in all areas of life, including friendships, love relationships, finances, community, law, spirituality, recreation, physical well-being, and mental well-being. We hope to offer insight and support in all these areas -- from our differing perspectives.'
I'm not quite happy with the phrasing here. I didn't feel challenged in all those areas, though certainly in some of them. Others may have felt challenged in different areas to those that particularly affected me.
I think this needs rephrasing, to better reflect that different people have different problems. The last couple of lines to some degree address what I'm trying to say, but I'm still not happy with it.
Rather than come up with something off the top of my head, though, I'll give it some thought, and then make a suggestion, perhaps.
It might be something simple, though, like 'our various experiences tell us that people can be challenged in may areas of life, including some or all of ...... but that is a bit clumsy.
It shouldn't, I think, be hard to get a consensus here.
'Our postings may contain humor, at times, directed toward what we perceive as the hypocrisy of public figures – including the Maharishi. But we intend to always respect the experiences and feelings of individuals who practice TM – or any spiritual path or discipline.'
I refer 'sympathise with' to 'respect'. One of the better things to come out of Christianity, in my view, is the phrase 'hate the sin
I seem to have run out of space. There was more than this.
Looking to see if I can get it back on screen again, else I'll recreate the rest of the post tomorrow.
David
To continue
I refer 'sympathise with' to 'respect'. One of the better things to come out of Christianity, in my view, is the phrase 'hate the sin, not the sinner'. I can sympathise with, and empathise with, those who have fallen into other traps with other experiences. Those who have fallen for Jim Jones, the Branch Davidians, Raelians...the list goes on - but I don't respect the belief. Or the experiences. However, while I think that some have jumped from the frying pan into the fire, and others may feel that I have become over cynical about alleged spiritual experiences, I still feel a bond with those who have been led down the Rabbit Hole - and in our own individual ways dug ourselves out of it. I fear that many of my contemporaries in the movement are still trapped.
'We intend to shed light on aspects of TM life that the TM Organizations have concealed from the public.'
Good!
'In summary, we offer our forum as a safe place to share our points of view for the benefit of others -- and ourselves.'
Also good!
I hope I'm not being too presumptuous as a very new discoverer of this blog to offer these thoughts and suggestions.
I've read most of the site now, and, as I say, feel a bond with the contributers
David B
I think it's fine.....I remember hours of meetings with my 'group' on teacher training formulating a 'question' for Maharishi and hours in the class meetings with hundreds of ladies formulating the exact phrasing and re-phrasing of that question that Maharishi never actually answered directly but we accepted the answer and convinced ourselves we understood why he answered it so 'vaguely'.
So the Mission Statement is just fine - because you are bringing up some bad mojo analyzing the phrasing. Don't get defensive about this but you sound too much like the MOVEMENT.
I enjoy reading TM-Free Blog. It is quite refreshing whether you are a former, current, or latter meditator. It's the ideal site for the non-joiner.
You can't be serious! 'We intend to shed light on aspects of TM life that the TM Organizations have concealed from the public.' You couldn't shed light on a blank wall with a searchlight. Why don't you shed light on your mitives. What about coming clean on your own affiliations and sources? I bet you can't do it. What about your connections to the Church? Are you going to reveal the sources of your funding? I know you won't; to do so is to reveal your true motives. You are hear to destroy value with lies and deceit. You have an agenda and it is derived from your Masters in the chrurch who are paying you to write these lies. You make it sound all innocent and you have been hurt by TM or whatever, but you are driving a special agenda. Come clean and explain your sources.
Hi, ElectraSetting,
I see you've raised the same questions here, too.
There basically is no funding of the site, excepting the $100/month of ads and an occasional private donation of a few hundred dollars.
I can't think of an organization that I am affiliated with. I used to belong to the ACLU, but had to drop them this year because money is tight.
What sources do you refer to? Or do you mean money again?
J.
Being told to examine our own 'mitives' is the most boring tired 'cult speak phrase of the year.
A Treatise on Troll Tactics
This board has been remarkably free from such visitors but this seems to be changing. As they say in the Scouts, be prepared.
(quote)"As soon as more than one troll shows up, they will feed off each other until everyone else is gone. You have to control them.
"And don't start talking about free speech; the troll's goal is to shut down speech, to either fill the channel with noise until no one can talk to each other, or to get everyone talking about him instead of the subject at hand.
"He's a guy in a coffee shop screaming nonsense over a bullhorn."(unquote)
Quoted from "5 Ways to Stop Trolls From Killing the Internet"--read the whole thing. The graphics are hilarious.
http://www.cracked.com/article_1...g-
internet.html
For additional reading:
"Beware the Troll"
http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/...co.uk/
troll.htm
"Recognizing and Dealing with Trolls/Troll Tactics"
http://www.teamtechnology.co.uk/...co.uk/
troll.htm
(a small quote)
Tactical Trolls
Tactical trolls take much more care and effort over the creation of their personae. Such trolls are likely to be seen as long term list members, and have the confidence and trust of the bona fide people on the mailing list. They use many of the techniques listed for Playtime Trolls, but in addition:
They engage in off list email dialogues to gain the confidence and trust of influential individuals on the list.
They are friendly and humorous in the posts, to put you at ease with their persona.
They have a well-thought-through story such that the persona seems to be very real.
They will give apparently personal and intimate information, particularly in off list emails.
They win trust by giving trust. For example, they may hint at something confidential on-list, but then only reveal the full story to someone off-list. By bringing someone into their confidence, they create a feeling of confidence towards them by the individual's concerned.
In off list emails, they win allies and support for some of their views. Their offlist emails are subtly manipulative.
*They 'set up' bona fide members to argue with each other.
Any view, no matter how outrageous, can be made to sound rational when put in a certain context. By setting different contexts for different people offlist, they create a setting whereby they can raise a topic on-list, in a seemingly innocent manner, and then watch the two list members argue because they have interpreted the topic/message in very different ways.
**In off-list emails, they use techniques borrowed from NLP and Speed-Seduction to make people have a great deal of affection for them. This naturally suppresses any suspicion there might be.
**They use gimmicks that win sympathy and bring out the 'nurturing parent' in other list members, which also suppresses any feelings of suspicion. E.g.: being blind, handicapped, an orphan, rejected, bullied etc..
They build up a reasonable knowledge of the topic of the list. This enables them to take part for some time as apparently bona-fide list members.
(I call this sting-in the-tail')**They use language that is carefully constructed to be subtly invidious. This language is designed to identify two or more separate groups of people, and encourage list members to identify the negative traits of those groups. This creates argument and dissent between list members. Note that subtlety is often their main objective, so this language is difficult to spot.
They don't enter into the argument directly, but facilitate an argument between list members, e.g.: by highlighting points that one list member has made, perhaps in a way that is more confrontational than the original intention.
They sometimes create a fictitious persona supported by a web-site, photographs and apparently personal data.
They may suggest meeting up in real-life, but the meeting doesn't take place.
Many of these behaviours are things that 'real' people would engage in. It is very difficult to distinguish real people from trolls in an internet environment. The only method that can be used to verify the bona fide nature of list members is to investigate their personal information. Trolls will invent personal information, but when you investigate it you will keep coming to dead ends.
A.K, I think it is important to remember,as you point out,that many "real people" communicate in this way too.
And of course trolls, though they may not tell the truth about themselves,are also "real people".
I used to notice a phenomenon in our group, whereby people often not long before they finally left, would go through a period of strongly defending the group.Sometimes it seemed like a "last gasp" where a lot of times, they were really arguing with themselves..
Perhaps its the same phenomenon that makes politicians who are uncomfortable with their natural sexuality, make anti gay comments because they are still working to come to terms with the fact that they are not themselves hetrosexual? ( And wouldn't it be wonderful if they could get to the point of truly being able to accept themselves? I hold out for that hope for trolls too.)
Probably the trolls are learning a lot here, whether they consciously aware of it or not.
Also ,many groups teach that outsiders to the group will treat them badly, and that kindness and acceptance can only be found within the group. If nothing else, its always good to break down that propaganda.Just another point of view.
I also think that there is a difference between trolls and ranters. Trolls don't care what they say, they are just trolling for a reaction. Ranters care very much about what they say and it either becomes tiresome through repetition or is not wanted because it is contrary to the culture of the board.
Having a ranter stop by once in a while is ok here provided that they don't become too repetitious which will derail discussions or are personally insulting. This particular ranter(or troll) was so far off base that I doubt anyone believed what they said.
Folks, keep an eye on the new comments side bar. Some nuisance named 'TaioZao is placing spam for replica watches on this blog.
Let John know any time you spot this stuff.
Once useful Google listserves and Yahoo groups get scummed over with spam, just the way gas station restrooms go to hell unless the janitors are vigilent.
TM is probably craving to get lots of nostalgic folks packing in to attend the concert and probably dont want TM free to get any extra hits from Google searches.
If anyone comes here and finds it full of spam, they'll go 'Eeeew' and be less likely to read any further.
Tks AK, for reminder!
I'll forward your words directly to John, just in case he missed the spam.
g 
Thank you, A.K., for the alert.
Dear John M. Knapp,
My family practice TM and TM Sidhi from 20 years and many friends from all of the World.We not have any problems with TM!The benefits are so grate!We thinking that you are sended away from the TM mouvment.Your personal bad experiances with some people, must not
be reality for every body! "What you sow,sow shall you reap!"
This is Karma Yoga...
We was in the IAPAssembly in USA Fairfield,Iowa.The eperiences and the benefits are so incredible!...
We are sory that your personal negativity stop your development, and not only your's!It's a pity that you lose your time and energy for this negative www
Sorry for you,
With all my Love!
A Sidhi from Europe.
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