If anyone can send an informed opinion on this article about TM being introduced to the Portland, Maine public schools, contact:

Portland Schools
196 Allen Avenue
Portland, Maine 04103
207-874-8100
email: superintendent@portlandschools.org

Letters to the Portland (ME) Press Herald/Maine Today can go to Betsy Ring, Letters Editor:
(207) 791-6485 or: [pressherald.mainetoday.com]
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"Stress-Free New Mantra for Schools?": http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/nemitz/060514nemitz.shtml

". . . .Organized by the fledgling Maine Committee for Stress Free Schools, the conference focused on introducing transcendental meditation into the daily grind of any school willing to give it a try.

That's right, TM. As in the Beatles and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the early 1970s. As in closed eyes and silent mantras. As in, proponents say, a healthy alternative to a culture that force-feeds millions of kids medications like Ritalin each day in a frantic attempt to calm them down.

'They say Americans are drowning in an ocean of stress," said "TM" author Bob Roth, one of the organizers. 'Well if that's true, our children are drowning in that ocean.'

Truth be told, the three-hour seminar [in Portland, ME] (free lunch included) was a sales pitch. Behind the Maine Committee for Stress Free Schools is the Consciousness-Based Education Program, a nonprofit business brought to Maine by Katie and Roger Grose of Biddeford.

Their goal: To persuade school systems in Maine that by teaching kids to meditate for 10 minutes twice a day, test scores will go up, behavioral problems will go down and the need for attention-getting medications will all but disappear.

School-sanctioned TM . . . in Maine?

. . . .Not to mention curious. Last week's audience, which included dozens of teachers, school administrators and guidance counselors, listened in rapt attention as speaker after speaker extolled the virtues of school-based meditation.

One was Dr. Ashley Deans, director of the Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment in Iowa. He explained how TM has helped his students score repeatedly in the top 1 percent on national standardized tests - and how they've won more than 100 championships in sports and academics over the past decade.

'People often say to me, You're sitting on one of the best-kept secrets in the world,' Deans said. . . ."

Columnist Bill Nemitz can be contacted at 791-6323 or at: bnemitz@pressherald.com

IMHO, your concern is justified.

You may wish to review the following:

[www.behind-the-tm-facade.org]

[www.suggestibility.org]

[www.culteducation.com]

[www.csj.org]

I think most people's fears about meditation are based upon fear and a lack of information. Based upon my own experience with meditation, a ten to twenty minute period of stillness, silence and focused concentration reduces stress and brings the mind and body back to a state of balance. What could be better for children in our schools than to take a few minutes for themselves before classes start and/or at the end of the day? It will bring stillness, clarity of mind and an enhanced ability to concentrate to their day. Nothing could be more perfect or a better gift to give to our children.

I agree that meditation and similar forms of stress-reduction techniques can be very helpful for people of any age, and I use these practices in my life. However, I have serious concerns about endeavors that may be affiliated with some groups, including Maharishi University/School or with "TM."

One of the presenters at the Maine "workshop" was from Maharishi School in Iowa. Is the non-profit behind the event also affiliated with TM? ("Behind the Maine Committee for Stress Free Schools is the Consciousness-Based Education Program, a nonprofit business brought to Maine by Katie and Roger Grose of Biddeford....Last week's audience, which included dozens of teachers, school administrators and guidance counselors, listened in rapt attention as speaker after speaker extolled the virtues of school-based meditation....One was Dr. Ashley Deans, director of the Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment in Iowa.")

Maharishi University/School and the official "TM" group have many critics. I have not been a part of this group, but am very aware of the controversy. Bringing presentations from any group affiliated with TM into the school system, would be, in my opinion, similar to allowing a person representing a religious group to take part in public school activities. . .i.e. As a child in Catholic school we "prayed" at specified times throughout the day (which, by the way, didn't relieve the stress from school regardless of the level of trance induced by the prayers.)

Should the public school system want to include meditation, stress-reduction, yoga, etc., in the curriculum, there are practitioners who would be willing to do this without any potential hidden agenda or spiritual/religious affiliation. However, parents would need to give permission for this to happen in any case, and would, hopefully, be informed about the background and affiliations of the presenters.

I think one concern might be that some forms of meditation are actually religiously based...and our Constitution guarentees us a division of Church and State. TM has been proven to be a religion in more than one court case...and also...trance states have been known to make those who are susceptable more likely to be susceptable to 'post trance suggestions'.

I actually feel that meditation is best left to the adults who have chosen it for themselves! Yikes! Even Mahesh (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi) was careful about children and meditation, because he said something to the affect that you couldn't be sure if they were concentrating or not, or in some way incurring stress.

AS a buddhist, (no not some crazed Ashawara cultist , but just a meditator), meditation unto itself can be considered to be a secular non-ritual. In non-objective meditation, we just sit and listen to our own minds. It -does- have a pacifying effect upon stress. However, to use this as an agenda towards "getting better health " or worse, "fortune". is BS. We are in charge of our own lives.

I do not now much about TM other than there are some who practice it who are cultists and others who are not. (The same is true for buddhism) Some practitioners belong to organizations. Some of these organization are coersive and others are not.

I think there is a difference between our referential use of the word "cult" vs. Culture. Most organizations that are belief based and/or religious or not, develop their own internal cultures. If those cultures are hope or fear based and buy into their own myths and beliefs as being somehow solified into truth, they degrade into cultism.

We need to make this distinction about borderline independant orgs like the variety of T.M. groups out there.

-Prosemo

Prosemo I get your point...meditation can be a good thing and there should be a distinction between labeling anything 'iffy' as a cult right off the bat. But as a former TM practitioner of 20 some years, I can tell you that TM is not all that 'borderline'. It has a definite agenda, and that agenda really shouldn't be mixed up in public school education!

The basic TM practice takes 20 minutes twice a day. In schools already a mess as to curriculum and educational needs, where is there time for meditation? Would the kids be asked to give up recess? Lunch? Or come to school early in order to meditate together as a group? (One of the 'strong suggestions of TM practice is that group meditation is BETTER. Usually followed by some nice taped message from the 'Maharishi' exclaiming that world peace is achievable in our lifetime.) Which in itself isn't bad, except for the religious aspect of Hinduism that is insidiously entwined with TM teaching.

Oh, and lets not forget that according to the rules of teaching children, at least one of the parents must also be taught TM and currently practicing it.

If nothing else, it just blurs the line about separating church and state. We may think 'our' brand of meditation is harmless! But one mans 'harmless' is another man's RED FLAG. I think spirituality needs to be taught in the home as a family belief system. I wouldn't want my kids taught PRAYER in public school...because I'd be asking "Who's prayer are they learning?" Even in Christianity there are serious polar opposites in what is 'true' and what should be believed.

In a perfect world, kids could be taught a well-rounded method of meditation and encouraged to practice that technique. But who gets to pick that 'well rounded method?'

I take your point. It is when such agenda is mixed with non-parochial and private educational environment, where such ideologies will likely do harm to an educational system already in disarray from not enough focus upon real education. (Indeed, private education also has top be held in check for propagandizing and thus abusing children. But, in private education, in some cases, such agendas actually have been beneficial.)

I am distinctly against such systems as the No Child Left Behind Act, that concentrate on teaching students how to pass test as opposed to learning and critical thinking. Meditation? If the child shows an interest and wishes to practice it in off time, its up to her or him. But, public institutionalization is as bad as any of the religiosity which is being foisted upon us against our civil right and liberty.

-Prosemo.

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gratefully awake
If anyone can send an informed opinion on this article about TM being introduced to the Portland, Maine public schools, ...

I'm not surprised TM is making its way in the school system. Maharishi University (sic!) gets grants from the National Health Institute for research on health benefits of TM.

[www.mum.edu]

The NIH is now a strong supporter of Complementary and Alternative Medicines. It looks as if New Age gurus have infiltrated the medical world and Universities (like Harvard). The NIH is even funding clinical trials on "distant healing" as promoted by Deepak Chopra, a student of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Chopra is a superstar, having sold his books by millions (best sellers). Why are you so surprised TM is now entering our schools? And how can we possibly stop all of this nonsense?

[www.globalcountry.org]

Well, one way of stopping it would be to make sure EVERYONE saw where your "TM DOLLARS AT WORK" are really going! Not for World Peace or to teach a safe and effective stress release technique, but rather for idiotish and delusional "Global Countries" which are being funded by all that amassed fortune of Mahesh Yogi. Check out www.globalcountry.org and click around until you see the images of the actual Ceremony where someone is crowned "Raja" of this new Global Country and take a gander at the fancy Royal Carriage made of Gold that he gets to tool around in. Anyone who thinks TM is a benign teaching after looking at that nonsense REALLY needs to be deprogrammed! "Maharishi" doesn't appear to be all that happy teaching his enlightenment technique while remaining a poor monk...he seems rather to be obsessed with becoming King of the Universe and Top of the Heap!

Do you really want your children indoctrinated at a young age with someting that has THIS as it's goal? And remember, boys and girls, it won't be YOU who EVER gets to ride in the golden carriage! No! You will be stuck making 40 dollars a month steaming rice in the back kitchen for these 'Inauguration Ceremonies!"