Description
A literary memoir traces the author's five-year membership in Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's transcendental meditation group and his decision to revisit twenty years later, a trip during which he was alarmed by disturbing changes within the organization and the Maharishi's latest endeavors.
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From the Back Cover
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\nOne of the most important influences on the spiritual revolution of the Sixties was Transcendental Meditation. TM is a simple meditation technique popularized by the Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The cultural explosion that followed-the "human potential movement" and the New Age-began with Maharishi as much as anybody.I was among those who learned TM back in the day. I wasn't content to sit with my eyes closed, however; I wanted to find out if Maharishi had anything else to offer. My curiosity led me into the Movement, the worldwide organization that Maharishi established to teach TM and bring enlightenment to the planet. I spent five years in the Movement, from 1973 to 1978, as a hanger-on, volunteer, and student at Maharishi International University.
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\nWhen I left, it was for the usual reasons. I got a job, a wife, a house in the suburbs - the whole nine yards. I continued to meditate, but I was out of the Movement loop for two decades.
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\nThen I went back. In part, I wanted to reconnect with the spiritual life I'd neglected since young adulthood. I'd also heard of some unsettling developments in the Movement and I was curious to find out what was going on firsthand. There might have been a small midlife crisis in there somewhere as well. For a few months in 2001, I took a local apartment and lived in the town that's at the center of America's spiritual revolution. - from The Maharishi Effect
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