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From: antonsen@cnd.hp.com (Tim Antonsen)
Subject: Re: better than other mediations?
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Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 22:38:27 GMT
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Rangaswamy Keshavan (rangok@wpi.WPI.EDU) wrote:

: [ ... wunders of TM ... ] TM does have an introductory lecture which is
: completely free of cost and obligation, and I would whole heartadly
: reccomend that you go there and check it out, and not listen to any of
: us here.
Interested newcomers *should* attend the introductory session.  But bear
in mind that you'll only hear a part of the story there: 

*  You'll not be told that the massive "scientific validation" so
   proudly trumpeted is composed of biased and invalid studies, and 
   that the researchers make truly astonishing leaps of logic in 
   their conclusions.

*  You'll not be told that many people (not all, by any means) have
   experienced long-lasting negative effects from the practice.

*  You'll not be told about an unchallenged US court ruling that
   declared TM a religion.

*  You'll not be told about TM's inextricable roots in Hindu doctrine,
   and the deeply religious beliefs of its most devoted advocates.

*  You'll not be told about the attrition rate among TM initiates (which
   almost certainly exceeds 90% over the past 30 years (I'd love to 
   have hard data on this point; does anybody?)).

*  You'll not be told about the bizarre social structure in the
   organization upon whose threshold you stand.

If you speak up at the introductory meeting about these topics, your opinion
will be invalidated, your arguments will be brushed aside.  You will, if you
persist in asking hard questions, be asked to leave.  TM does not tolerate
scrutiny.

: I do not take the advice about something which I deem so important in my
: life as a meditation technique from people who I don't know.

Most people are forced to learn TM from a nearly total stranger.  And those
who learned it from a loved one (like myself) fare no better.  It seems to me
that most people have no choice but to take advice about meditation from
people they don't know.   Hell, if they take *your* advice to "not take
anyone's advice," they're taking a stranger's advice on the subject!

: There are some who will give you very negative advice about TM and
: meditation in general because of the energies it stirs up inside you.  

Or, in Western terms, "the psychoses it stirs up inside you."

--Tim