Global Country of World Peace, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Transcendental Meditation, Conspiracy Theories, People's Temple, Book Review, Podcast
"Twitter is flooded with posts that claim a currency called "Raam" is being used as legal tender in Holland or the Netherlands. Such posts also claimed "Raam" is the most expensive currency in the world. However, the fact is "Raam" is not a currency but a bearer bond. Launched in 2001 by Global Country of World Peace (GCWP), "Raam" has been used as a medium of exchange within a closed group of stakeholders in some parts of the United States and Netherlands. Rs 500 Note in Which Green Stripe Is Not Near RBI Governor's Signature Should Not Be Taken? PIB Fact Check Reveals Truth Behind Fake Post.
The Global Country of World Peace, set up by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, launched "Raam" in October 2001. Headquartered in Maharishi Vedic City in US state of Iowa, the GCWP is a non-profit organisation. The Maharishi Vedic City described "Raam" as "the ideal local currency to support economic development in the city and development of local businesses and organisations wishing to accept that currency". Rs 1,000 Currency Note to be Rescinded Into Cash Circulation? PIB Fact Check Trashes Rumour, Says No Such Move Planned by RBI."
Esquire: Kurt Vonnegut's Trip to See the Guru
" ... I saw Maharishi in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after my daughter got hooked, before my wife got hooked, and on the very day that Mia Farrow got hooked. This was last January. Miss Farrow had been suggesting for about a year that she was a Transcendental Meditator, but that was the bunk. She had merely been hankering to be one. You can't be the real thing without an initiation.
And not just any Transcendental Meditator can turn you on. Maharishi has to do it, which would be a great honor, or one of the few teachers he has trained. Miss Farrow got the great honor in Maharishi's hotel room in Cambridge. My wife and daughter had to make do with a teacher in the apartment of a Boston painter and jazz musician who meditates.
Maharishi says that his thing is not a religion but a technique.
There is private stuff, but no secret stuff in the initiation. You go to several public lectures first, which are cheerful and encouraging. You are told lovingly that this thing is easy, never fails to make a person more blissful and virtuous and effective, if it is done correctly. The lecturer does not explain what meditation feels like because he cannot. It must be experienced, he says.
So you ask for an interview with the teacher, and during that he asks you a little about yourself. He will want to know if you are on drugs or drunk or under psychiatric treatment or plain crazy. You have to be clean and sober and sane, or you won't be initiated. If you're under treatment for mental kinks, you will be told to come back when the treatment is complete.
If the teacher thinks you're okay, you're told to go to a certain address at such and such a time, and to bring as gifts a handkerchief, some fresh fruit, some flowers, and $75. If you are a student or a housewife, you bring $35.
So I have $70 in this new religion so far. Maharishi says that his thing is not a religion but a technique. Still, at cocktail parties every so often, I can be heard to say sulkily, often within earshot of my wife or daughter, "I've got seventy goddamn simoleons in this new religion so far."
The money goes into traveling expenses for the Master and his teachers, and they don't live very high, and a decent set of books is kept, and the books are open. This is not Southern California religion. Sergeant Friday is not about to appear.
Only you and your teacher are present at your initiation into this thing that, to its followers, is so definitely not a religion. And there is candlelight and incense, and there are small pictures of Maharishi and his deceased Master, who was His Divinity Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, Jagadguru Bhagwan Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math.
Your teacher, most likely a fellow American in a business suit, will give you your own private mantra, a sound which, when contemplated, will begin your descent into your own mind. This giving of sounds, usually Sanskrit words, is the teacher's special art, or, I beg your pardon, science.
Video: Maharishi Veda Lila
Discover Magazine: Why People Become Overwhelmed by Conspiracy Theories — and How To Help Them
"Commonly driven by financial stress, many people will readily adopt even the wildest conspiracy theories. Disavowing them, on the other hand, often requires the help of social psychologists."
Joseph Szimhart: Journey to Nowhere, a review
"A review of Journey to Nowhere by Shiva Naipaul (1980), a journalist account about Jim Jones, his People's Temple, and the social context for the murder-suicide cult tragedy in Guyana in 1978. I suggest the book helps us understand how and why tension between radical left and right narratives continue today."
News, Education, Intervention, Recovery
Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.
CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.
CultNEWS101.com news, links, resources.
Cults101.org resources about cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations and related topics.
Selection of articles for CultNEWS101 does not mean that Patrick Ryan or Joseph Kelly agree with the content. We provide information from many points of view in order to promote dialogue.
Please forward articles that you think we should add to cultintervention@gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment