Donovan to open meditation-based college
Donovan, singer of such fantastic 60s tunes as "Mellow Yellow" and "Sunshine Superman" is opening his own Donovan University in Scotland where students will all practice transcendental meditation. He's working on the idea with his surrealist film director pal David Lynch. From the Associated Press:
"The Maharishi told me during that 1968 visit that I should build a university in Edinburgh. I went to my room and drew a beautiful dome-shaped place of learning," he said Friday...Link (Thanks, Jess Hemerly!)
Donovan and Lynch, Oscar-nominated director of "Blue Velvet," "Mullholland Dr." and "The Elephant Man," are part of a tour to promote transcendental meditation as a means of reducing violence, crime and stress in schools and colleges...
"For a country the size of Scotland it would take only 250 students meditating to protect Scotland from its enemies and to bring peace, to stop violence and drug abuse," Lynch said. "That is just a byproduct of the students meditating together."
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Just wondering. Why do you ridicule the idea of God (see Flying Spaghetti Monster posts), while the idea that transcendental meditation leading to world peace gets a free pass?
I guess an earlier typo must have been corrected, but on the RSS feed, this article is titled
"Donovan to open medication-based college"
Somehow that seems just as plausible.
...Hey, waitaminit! Is he referring to the same "Hurdy Gurdy Man" he hung out with during the Beatles' infamous "trancendental masturbation" retreat? The one where the guru was trying to hit up on every groupie who accompanied the Fab Four?
Oy. I can just see Simon Pegg as Scotty boasting how he learned to care for his wee bairns at Donovan U...:p
T.I, I agree with your implied sentiment that this a bunch of new age horse-hockey, but it's harmless and non-violent, whereas religious extremism quite often leads to hatred, violence, and opression (cf. abortion clinic bombings, The Troubles in Ireland, the KKK, Islamic militantism and terrorism, anti-semitism, forced conversion/cultural eradication in Colonial Latin America) For something that seems so fundamental to our species, it sure is harmful. Only within the last few hundred years has speaking out against a religion been something that's not likely to get you killed, and in many countries, it still will. Upsetting yourself about FSM jokes is just one example of how tight a grip this phenomenon of believing in magical overlords has on us.
this ignoramus, I mock all imaginary beliefs equally. The Pastafarians do have a point about the pirate/global warming thing though.
*puts on his pirate hat*
*waits for flying yogi reference*
I find it interesting how the mind of the reader inserts a tone to this post, as in comment #1. I read it as completely matter-of-fact, with no positive or negative judgment attached. However, it could just as easily be seen as mocking or praiseworthy in nature just because it was noted here.
Meditation isn't religion. It's just calming your mind and making your thoughts deliberate and un-neurotic. A neighbor of ours used to do it and it kept her good and sane through some hard times.
Donovan and David Lynch are dumb (and also fortunately for TM, rich) dupes for the most grandiose guru alive today, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Here is a man who honestly believes his cult will rule the world, and he's already appointed various rajas (kings) to administer it for him.
The fact is that TM has nothing over any other meditation practice, and that the "Maharishi Effect" is nothing more than one psychotically grandiose nincompoop's narcissism made manifest.
No. Nothing wrong about meditation. 'Scool if you do it, I'm not gonna mock you just because. But something about a meditation center does strike me wrong because it fosters belief in new-age hokum. Went to India this May. Big meditation movement sweeping the whole country. People I've known to be rational my entire lives caught up in it.
Its no different than organized religion. People giving money to them in droves, there's always that slight jingoistic "kill them n-words" tinge, and promises of curing cancer among other diseases.
L. Ron Hubbard probably got his tips from the OG Maharishis.
TM is a racket. The U.S. rate for the course is $2500.
Also, from Wikipedia's page on TM-
Kropinski v. WPEC
In a civil suit against the World Plan Executive Council filed in 1985,[71] Robert Kropinski claimed fraud, psychological, physical, and emotional harm as a result of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs. The district court dismissed Kropinski's claims concerning intentional tort and negligent infliction of emotional distress, and referred the claims of fraud and negligent infliction of physical and psychological injuries to a jury trial. The jury awarded Robert Kropinski $137,890 in the fraud and negligence claims. The appellate court overturned the award and dismissed Kropinski's claim alleging psychological damage. The claim of fraud and the claim of a physical injury related to his practice of the TM-Sidhi program were remanded to the lower court for retrial, and the parties then settled these remaining claims out of court.[72]
Butler/Killian vs. MUM
Two lawsuits were filed as a result of a stabbing at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa on March 1, 2004[73] The families of the murdered student and a student who was assaulted earlier in the day have sued MUM and the Maharishi Vedic Education Development Corporation. Their separate suits, filed on February 24, 2006, allege that the twice-daily practice of Transcendental Meditation, which the university requires of all students, can be dangerous for people with psychiatric problems. They also charge the university with failing to call the police or take action to protect students from a violent, mentally ill student.[74][75]
@hemidemisemiquaver: new-agers generally aren't as extreme as the christians but that doesn't mean nobody gets hurt. remember heaven's gate? lots of people get taken for a ride by hucksters such as "the secret" and then when their children get cancer they forgo treatment for crystal licking with predictable results. nip it in the bud i say.
@jimh: just reporting it gives it credibility. proper criticism would be another matter.
@Technical Writing Geek: true it's not religion that meditation benefits the meditator, but it is religion to claim that it will "bring peace to scotland".
...And now, for the requested Flying Yogi reference:
"Hey Hey, Boo-Boo! The view is gre-gre-great up here! I can see all the pic-a-nik baskets in Jellystone Park, and all this smarter-than-the-average-grounded bear has to do is swoop in and collect them!"
Hey all of you "meditation ≠ religion" people: You're wrong in this context.
This isn't just generic meditation of the "anyone can listen to his breathing and do biofeedback" school. This is Transcendental Meditation, a specific set of mystical beliefs that involves a lot of supernatural claims, including yogic flying.
For example, the Lynch quote about 250 people protecting Scotland is based on a TM precept that goes something like "If the square root of one percent of a population does TM, then there will be peace". See reference on this page under the section "Bringing peace to the world". Note that the TMists attribute this to "scientists" but of course that's hooey; no reputable scientist has ever put their name behind this nonsense.
Meditation is as much mind-blanking mysticism as religion, superstition and socialism. The Eastern spiritual arts are in no ways superior. All mysticism is antithetical to reason.
Expecting that an ironical attitude toward one of the world's great religions (one that is at least culturally threaded through the lives of the majority of the earth's population) be balanced by an ironical attitude toward a minor cult is to forget that one of the fundamental reasons for satire is to tweak the powerful.
The reason the flying spaghetti monster (or any joke about christianity) is funny is because it reflects secular (or alternative faith) acknowledgement and resistance to the stranglehold that Christianity continues to exert on this supposedly secular nation's cultural discourse.
Until an American politician has to pander to the (TM, Mormon, Jew, Confucian, etc.) base to get elected, crying "Poor Christian" just seems silly.
Spot (12), aren't as extreme as which Christians? The ones you probably have in mind have gotten very good at conveying the idea that they represent a large constituency (usually false) and that almost all Christians think as they do (absolutely false).
Scoutmaster (15), wherever did you get the idea that meditation is about blanking your mind? For that matter, where did you get the idea that that's what religion does? As for socialism, do you know any socialists? The ones I've met know more than the average bear.
Reason depends upon knowledge, as knowledge depends upon reason. An unreasoning and uninformed elevation of the abstract idea of reason is itself a form of mysticism.
@jimh: The same sort of thing happens on Wikipedia, where people accuse dry facts of being biased ("POV") because they don't like them. Lots of eyes helps.
Who let the trolls out?
I'm not really interested in the university
they are founding, nor am I interested in
slamming any kind of religion or meditation.
Break time over. Back to work.
There already is a TM university in Skelmersdale, in Lancashire, northeast of Liverpool. I'm sure there's more than the square root of one percent of the population meditating there; that's only 20 people, but it doesn't seem to have brought peace. Peas, maybe.
I did some TM and found it a useful technique for relaxation, but got a bit jaded as I was introduced to the more woo-woo facets of it.
To me, the clincher was being fed all the statistics about the amazingly positive effects of having the sqare root of 1% of a population being meditating masters (I forget the terminology for the people who'd paid the big bucks to get the inside knowlege.)
This guff was meant to be proof to sceptics.
I said "Let me walk around underneath a levitating yogi and check for wires. If you really can defy gravity, that's more bloody convincing that any amount of statistics!"
Strangely, yogic flying doesn't seem to work if anyone's watching...
Hi,As a Scot I do believe that 250 people is not enough- even if ever Scottish person started using TM(tm) within a week schisms would begin and we would begin to fight within,say,a week,given a month it would be situation normal -except with levitating
bigotry!its not big,its not clever bit its what we do!
xcuze typoes i s tried
........expect to be moderated!!!
Did the Maharishi mean that Donovan should wait 40 years before taking enrolments. Maybe he meant Jason Donovan.
I agree with 7 & 8...
And although the idea of meditation causing any real changes in the world is farfarfarfarfarfarfarfetched, aiming to create any sort of "positive energy" does foster a good social environment and enriches the lives of those involved.
I guess David Lynch wasn't being ironic? Damn.
nothing will ever save you from death. do not ever forget that.
Wow, very nicely put Teresa (#17). Refreshingly insightful, and you did it without calling anyone irrational or or stupid. Any time beliefs or religion come up in a discussion, there should be more people around talking like you.
Some of you may be amused by this message I received from my sister, who was dragged along to a lecture by Donovan and David Lynch in London last week:
"I think theyre doing a tour to promote Transcendental meditation, but it was basically just DL taking questions from the floor from various chancers trying to give him their screenplays and then Donovan playing his greatest hits. Then they said "Peace" at the end.
My friend is a journalist so got a press pass which included an after party. Donovan rocked up in a long soft velvet coat and played with various kids that were hiding under tables saying boo etc.
David Lynch was being followed everywhere by a camera and hordes of people. By the time he finally made it across the room to the buffet table there was hardly anything left.
I was standing next to the table (wasn't me guv'nor!) and have a vision of his forlorn face just staring at the dregs for ages.
(Hold that shot .. cue ethereal background music by Julee cruze ....unexplained camel wanders across the screen...)"
Lynch and his entourage did a tour of US universities a few years ago in which they pitched their Transcendental Meditation cult. They made a stop here at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, and I attended the lecture titled "Creativity and Consciousness" hoping to hear him talk at least a little bit about his creative approach to filmmaking.
What the audience got instead was a ridiculous barrage of uncited statistics (Transcendental Meditators make higher salaries, lead happier lives, live longer, and are more creative!), completely outlandish statements (x% of the population meditating round the clock will "manufacture" world peace, whatever that even means), and half-veiled pleas for money (with a stated goal of raising over $7 billion).
I am proud to say that at least half the audience was laughing in Lynch's face by the end of the lecture. I'm scared, though, that a sizable portion of the audience took him seriously.
And against this helpful texture of "mellow," social rebellion will still play out at the opposite end of the range. A portion of the population will always resist being numb, centered, neutral vessels, mired in inaction. This is someone who can't let the 60's die. Meditation would just be the new opiate of the masses.
Say what you want against violence, it's stimulating and practically makes the economy run. What will films & news be about after we all meditate (snark)? How can we have international scapegoats w/o violence? I guess the other big cultural manipulating tool (fear) will be all that's left.
Ack! Someone other than me approved comment #28.
Many critics consider Transcendental Meditation a cult led by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. For an alternative view of the TM Movement, readers may be interested in checking out TM-Free Blog, TranceNet.net, or my counseling site, KnappFamilyCounseling.com, where individuals recovering from Transcendental Meditation and similar groups will find helpful information.
John M. Knapp, LMSW
http://KnappFamilyCounseling.com/
Response to John M. Knapp comment:
Many critics consider John M. Knapp to be a self-promoting spammer who has nothing worthwhile to offer, but tries to make money by creating fear about useful programs like TM. A previous post of his indicated that he is a disgruntled former TM'er. With any organization that has attracted millions of participants, it is inevitable that a few people will become detractors. While I am impressed that John M. Knapp has shown the resourcefulness to transform his disgruntlement into a career, I do object to him labelling TM as a cult and spamming every article about TM on the Web. Although it is perhaps more worthy of sympathy to see an individual allowing his personal or professional life to revolve around some lingering bitterness, in the interests of fairness I feel I must counter the comments he is leaving.
The Transcendental Meditation technique has helped millions of people and will continue to do so. Its benefits have been validated by hundreds of scientific studies over the past 35 years, many of which were published in peer-reviewed journals. Its efficacy has been recognized by the National Institutes of Health, the premier body overseeing medical research in the US. And it has been introduced into school programs in the US, Canada, Peru, India, South Africa, the UK, and other countries. In the US, TM is taught by a federally-recognized nonprofit organization.
For more information, just Google 'transcendental meditation' and you'll find plenty of good sources.
Its benefits have been validated by hundreds of scientific studies over the past 35 years
Almost all of these studies have either been performed by TM™ "scientists" or funded through the TM™ org. None of these studies has compared TM™ to other, equally effective meditation techniques. The Maharishi Effect is nothing more than a superstitious notion propped up by a convenient interpretation of crime data. It has no support whatsoever from the social sciences at large. All these "findings" are nothing more than the product of the TM™ propaganda machine.