But meditation, once dismissed as Eastern mysticism, has gained
legiti- macy. The National Institutes of Health has had a Center for
Complimentary and Alternative Medicine since 1998 to research
nonconventional practices.
Maharishi's claims of the power of TM, including the ability to
fly, have led to occasional claims of fraud.
“I let people make remarks about me, but it doesn't touch me, all
those remarks,” Maharishi says.
Home in seclusion
The Hindu holy man took up residence in 1990 on the 65-acre grounds
of a Franciscan monastery in a secluded forest near Vlodrop, an
eastern Dutch village near the German border.
Inside the security fence, huge satel- lite dishes provide his daily
link with
blueprint for feeding the hungry and bringing peace to the world.
In his metaphysical world, Maharishi
— a Hindi-language title for Great Seer— believes the unifying field
that Albert Einstein sought has been within us all the time, in the
“unbounded con- sciousness” of the mind.
“There is one unity, unified whole- ness, total natural law, in the
transcen- dental unified consciousness,” he in- tones to the camera
that broadcasts his
Maharishi speaks during an AP interview in Vlodrop on Wednesday, February
1, 2006, which was also broadcast on the Internet. Sitting from left are:
spokesman Bob Roth, AP reporter Arthur Max and director of the Maharishi
University of Man-
agement John Hagelin (right).
harmonize construction with nature. And send
meditation groups to world hot spots as psychic shock troops whose
com- bined positive energy will dispel nega- tivity, reduce crime, ease
conflict and promote world peace.
And his latest project: a $10 trillion plan to eradicate world poverty.
A prominently displayed adver- tisement has run daily since mid-De-
cember in the International Herald Tribune seeking investors of a
mini- mum $60,000 for a World Peace Bond, promising a 10 percent to 15
percent annual return.
His idea is to buy 5 billion acres in
100 developing countries for labor- intensive farming, providing
employ- ment and income for the world's poor- est people by feeding the
industrialized world's market for organic food.
The ads so far have failed to produce any takers. “We don't expect anything
so soon. Because the project is big, people have to examine it
from their different angles,” said project director Benny Feldman.
Governments can't do it, Maharishi believes. Neither can they bring peace.
“To resolve problems through nego- tiation is a very childish approach,” he says.
A few hundred meditators on either side of a conflict is all that's needed to create an aura of peace. “We create world consciousness and coherence. Therefore, fighting will stop all over,” he says.
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“Don't fight darkness. Bring the light, and darkness will
disappear.”Active agenda
Eliminate poverty? End war and create world peace? One wonders whether an agenda so ambitious can be grounded in reality.
But in Maharishi's nonlinear world, the scales are cosmic and time frames have little meaning. If it takes 50 or
100 years, so be it. Yet he operates as if time is running out.
“He runs several shifts of us into the ground,” said American John Hagelin, a physicist who interprets Maharishi's thoughts into science-based language that falls more easily on a layman's ears. “He is a
fountainhead of innovation and new ideas — far too many than you can ever follow up.”
Last July Maharishi brought 2,000 people from all over the world to his Dutch compound to mark 50 years since he began teaching Transcenden- tal Meditation, a movement that claims 6 million practitioners since it was in- troduced.
“Our time of talking about peace is over. Now it's time for us to produce the effect,” his aides quote him as tell- ing the group. The first 50 years, in- structing people how to meditate, were just a warm-up, he said.
Transcendental Meditation, or TM, is a 20-minute twice daily routine in which the meditator silently focuses on
a sound, or mantra, to induce relaxation and “dive into a state of pure conscious- ness.”
Practitioners say the technique, which anyone can learn for a fee of $2,500, taps into the deepest resources of the brain and intelligence.
“Anger, stress, tension, depression, sorrow, hate, fear — these things start to retreat,” said American movie direc- tor David Lynch, who has practiced TM for 32 years. “And for a filmmaker, having this negativity lift away is mon- ey in the bank. When you're suffering you can't
create,” he told hundreds of students at Amsterdam's Vrije Univer- siteit, or Free University.
The movement claims more than 600 studies have proven the benefits of TM. Most scientists agree it can
ease stress, high blood pressure, pain and insomnia, but some argue it's no more effective than many other mind-body the world. His wood-and-glass pavilion has a dozen conference rooms for visit- ing experts and researchers who lodge in temporary huts on the
grounds.
In recent years, Maharishi has rarely left the two rooms he has made his home. Concerned about his health, he talks by video with aides and visitors who gather in a separate room “Few local people know anything about them. It's a closed community,”
said Ton Wolswijk of the Roerstreek Heritage Society.
Little is known of Maharishi's early years, and he refuses to talk about them. It's believed he was born Jan. 12, 1917, in central India. He earned a phys- ics degree from Allahabad University, was the longtime secretary to a lead- ing Hindu sage, then went into silent retreat for two years in the northern Indian hills.
In 1955, he began teaching Tran- scendental Meditation, and brought his technique to the United States in
1959. But the movement really took off
Maharishi's interview is broadcast live over the Internet.after the Beatles visited his ashram in
India in 1968.
His aides say he was disappointed that TM became identified with
the counterculture, and before admitting a reporter to the camera room, the
sage's aides make clear he doesn't want to talk about the past.
www.Maharishi.org |
