[Buddha-l] FW: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi dies

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

>> The other day I saw some TM-people being interviewed and they still 
>> bragged about the Maharishi effect, if more then 10% of the 
>> population is doing TM, the crimerate should go down. At the time I 
>> knew a student in criminology and there was a village in Holland 
>> where 14% of all people were meditating that way. So he carried out 
>> an investigation into the effects. It appeared that since the 
>> critical threshold had been reached, crime had gone up a few percent. 
>> Of course his inquiry was not accepted by the TM movement, but it was 
>> enough for him to get graduated.
>
> I'd love to see that research. Was it published?
We're talking about 1974, so it would be difficult to trace. Besides, it 
is probably in Dutch. If you're interested, if believe there plenty of 
fish in the sea, I would check the websites of Skeptics.
>
> It seems the ME is predicated on this alleged coherence they are 
> supposed to produce. But the _Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness_, 
> the most recent textbook which includes the 'state of the art' on 
> meditation research, claims that the coherence they are touting is a 
> great exaggeration and really statistically insignificant.
>
> So therefore, if there is no individual "coherence", there cannot be 
> any "group coherence". It would be wonderful if it was true, but alas 
> it appears to be just another marketing ploy to sell more product.
It's amazing how easy a model catches on. Our brain is not a radio, that picks its info from waves out of the sky. And even then: if everybody listens to ABC, it doesn't make it more likely for an individual with his own radio to tune in to the same station, unless someone tells him to. It is true of course that one angry person can cause an angry mob, but this is caused by perceptible signs. A holy person is supposed to have this benign effect on his envirinment in many religions. In a recent documentary on the BBC, called 'Extreme Pilgrimage', a guy stays 20 days in a recluse's cave in Egypt. His instructor tells him to pray all day. He asks why. The answer is that he prays for all humanity and if he doesn't humanity will go to hell. Is this holy arrogance? 

Erik

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