Surviving the TM experience
Posted by:
Gazz
()
Date: November 17, 2006 11:04AM
Hi
I was a TM member from 1979-1980 in Portsmouth, England, when I joined along with a friend and learned the basic technique for £35 (nearly $70 I think). I became good friends with the teachers and often helped out with the flower and fruit arranging for new initiates, and didn't see TM as a bad cult at the time, as the meetings seemed so relaxed and informal and there were no obvious restrictions placed on what I could do.
The alarm bells starting ringing when I attended a lecture by the 'Minister for the Age of Enlightenment' or some such title, and he came across as a slick double-glazing salesman with a smug, well-rehearsed style of patter. The final crunch came when after a year of meditating I confessed to the teacher that I felt I was developing some kind of tolerance or habituation to the technique and thought it wasn't really working any more. The teacher told me I had gone as far as I could with the standard meditation, and I was now ready for the Sidhis programme (lucky me!) He added that one of the handy side-effects of Sidhis is that I could learn to levitate, all for just £2,000 (nearly $4,000 I think). I was stunned but asked him if he could levitate there and then, and if so, I would be out the door and securing a bank loan immediately. He mumbled something about not having time to prepare and showed us photos of people bouncing on matresses. I said I'd think about it and left with my friend, telling him I felt it was outrageous for the teacher to claim to be able to teach super-human powers without even being able to give a real demonstration. He agreed, and we both promptly left the group.
I feel it is terribly sad that so many intelligent, creative and altrusitic people who sincerely want to make a better world often get duped and exploited by cults who just use them to further their own greed for money and power. I now think, like Groucho Marx said, "I will not join any organisation that would have someone like me for a member."
I have since been discovering the delights of science and rational, skeptical discourse with the few like-minded free thinkers I know, and it has given me great pleasure to read the posts here and get some useful insights into what the higher echelons of TM were really like. The mind control in TM may not be as obvious, heavy-handed or stringent as in, say, Scientology, but it is still an insidious technique for luring folks away from critical thinking and into the fathomless depths of self-delusion.
It is so inspiring and encouraging to read accounts of how ex-cultists 'saw the light' and found ways to regain their lives after being so dependent on the 'groupthink' attitudes these cults foster. I look forward to reading more!
:wink:
Gazz[b:344336997e][/b:344336997e]
I was a TM member from 1979-1980 in Portsmouth, England, when I joined along with a friend and learned the basic technique for £35 (nearly $70 I think). I became good friends with the teachers and often helped out with the flower and fruit arranging for new initiates, and didn't see TM as a bad cult at the time, as the meetings seemed so relaxed and informal and there were no obvious restrictions placed on what I could do.
The alarm bells starting ringing when I attended a lecture by the 'Minister for the Age of Enlightenment' or some such title, and he came across as a slick double-glazing salesman with a smug, well-rehearsed style of patter. The final crunch came when after a year of meditating I confessed to the teacher that I felt I was developing some kind of tolerance or habituation to the technique and thought it wasn't really working any more. The teacher told me I had gone as far as I could with the standard meditation, and I was now ready for the Sidhis programme (lucky me!) He added that one of the handy side-effects of Sidhis is that I could learn to levitate, all for just £2,000 (nearly $4,000 I think). I was stunned but asked him if he could levitate there and then, and if so, I would be out the door and securing a bank loan immediately. He mumbled something about not having time to prepare and showed us photos of people bouncing on matresses. I said I'd think about it and left with my friend, telling him I felt it was outrageous for the teacher to claim to be able to teach super-human powers without even being able to give a real demonstration. He agreed, and we both promptly left the group.
I feel it is terribly sad that so many intelligent, creative and altrusitic people who sincerely want to make a better world often get duped and exploited by cults who just use them to further their own greed for money and power. I now think, like Groucho Marx said, "I will not join any organisation that would have someone like me for a member."
I have since been discovering the delights of science and rational, skeptical discourse with the few like-minded free thinkers I know, and it has given me great pleasure to read the posts here and get some useful insights into what the higher echelons of TM were really like. The mind control in TM may not be as obvious, heavy-handed or stringent as in, say, Scientology, but it is still an insidious technique for luring folks away from critical thinking and into the fathomless depths of self-delusion.
It is so inspiring and encouraging to read accounts of how ex-cultists 'saw the light' and found ways to regain their lives after being so dependent on the 'groupthink' attitudes these cults foster. I look forward to reading more!
:wink:
Gazz[b:344336997e][/b:344336997e]
Surviving the TM experience
Posted by:
yoongkheong
()
Date: November 18, 2006 01:20AM
I empathise with you...
Surviving the TM experience
Posted by:
Joe K
()
Date: November 18, 2006 03:50AM
Hi Gazz,
Congrats on making what seems like an early escape! Some people (like me for example) didn't catch on so early and gradually got sucked far way into the TM machinery, often with some devastating psychological and financial impact.
If you haven't already you might check out [www.culteducation.com] and [www.freedomofmind.com] .
Congrats on making what seems like an early escape! Some people (like me for example) didn't catch on so early and gradually got sucked far way into the TM machinery, often with some devastating psychological and financial impact.
If you haven't already you might check out [www.culteducation.com] and [www.freedomofmind.com] .
Surviving the TM experience
Posted by:
Martin Adanac
()
Date: November 23, 2006 04:11AM
Hi, Gazz -- your story is good to hear. Not all of us realized, in time, just what we were being seduced into.
But, there are two things I notice: first, like you, TM in the days before Mahesh decided to get rich and famous, the centres were pleasant, decent and nice. Second, not everyone found that TM stagnated.
The second thing is curious. Mahesh's claims that TM worked for everybody and, by implication, I guess, [i:a5d4e16f7c]always[/i:a5d4e16f7c] worked and worked the same for everybody is just plain not true. It's one of Mahesh's narcissistic delusions that he was so special that his version of what was good for everybody just had to be right. Far from that!
Regarding first, above, yes, I really enjoyed the pre-money-making days before Mahesh had to get rich quick. I think being dumped by the Beatles and only being known to most [i:a5d4e16f7c]because[/i:a5d4e16f7c] of the Beatles really got in amongst him. I really think that he decided he'd show everybody just who he was and just how rich and famous he could be all on his own.
People, of course, still only remember him because of the Beatles without whom he's be a nobody.
But he first made huge numbers of teachers and then made up programs to sell to his specially created market. Y'gotta give the old git credit for cleverness. But deception? I think there will be a special hell for all the destructive cult creators; Mahesh will probably appoint himself the leader there, but who cares, right?
I don't know if you are familiar with Paul Mason's web site*, but Paul, who has written a bio of Mahesh, has also set about trying to understand Guru Dev, learn all he can about him and put it there for everyone to follow. Mahesh looks less and less like the Guru he claims to honour (curiously, by putting his own name on everything).
Says a lot about Mahesh and a lot about your perspecacity in seeing the red flags many of us didn't see in time.
Take care and please feel free to share everything you can with us about your observations about Mahesh and the Organization that personifies him.
Martin
______
* [www.paulmason.info]
But, there are two things I notice: first, like you, TM in the days before Mahesh decided to get rich and famous, the centres were pleasant, decent and nice. Second, not everyone found that TM stagnated.
The second thing is curious. Mahesh's claims that TM worked for everybody and, by implication, I guess, [i:a5d4e16f7c]always[/i:a5d4e16f7c] worked and worked the same for everybody is just plain not true. It's one of Mahesh's narcissistic delusions that he was so special that his version of what was good for everybody just had to be right. Far from that!
Regarding first, above, yes, I really enjoyed the pre-money-making days before Mahesh had to get rich quick. I think being dumped by the Beatles and only being known to most [i:a5d4e16f7c]because[/i:a5d4e16f7c] of the Beatles really got in amongst him. I really think that he decided he'd show everybody just who he was and just how rich and famous he could be all on his own.
People, of course, still only remember him because of the Beatles without whom he's be a nobody.
But he first made huge numbers of teachers and then made up programs to sell to his specially created market. Y'gotta give the old git credit for cleverness. But deception? I think there will be a special hell for all the destructive cult creators; Mahesh will probably appoint himself the leader there, but who cares, right?
I don't know if you are familiar with Paul Mason's web site*, but Paul, who has written a bio of Mahesh, has also set about trying to understand Guru Dev, learn all he can about him and put it there for everyone to follow. Mahesh looks less and less like the Guru he claims to honour (curiously, by putting his own name on everything).
Says a lot about Mahesh and a lot about your perspecacity in seeing the red flags many of us didn't see in time.
Take care and please feel free to share everything you can with us about your observations about Mahesh and the Organization that personifies him.
Martin
______
* [www.paulmason.info]
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