Related articles and links |  1 of 5

Fairfield, Iowa, is the site of one of the most unusual town-gown relationships in the country: cornfields, summer park band concerts, and heavy industry mixed with Indian restaurants, colonic-irrigation clinics, and golden meditation domes.

It all started in 1973, when Parsons College, a 98-year-old Presbyterian-affiliated school in Fairfield went bankrupt, leaving the town of 10,000 in a quandary. A year later, the fledgling Maharishi International University—founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, onetime guru to the Beatles, Clint Eastwood, and Joe Namath—bought the campus for a bargain $2.5 million and transplanted from Santa Barbara, California. At first townsfolk rejoiced at what appeared to be their economic salvation. Some mainline ministers embraced Transcendental Meditation (TM) as an effective relaxation technique.

Yet the honeymoon soon ended when several evangelical pastors charged that TM represented Hindu religion, not science as Maharishi asserted. The relationship has been strained for most of the 27 years that the school, now known as Maharishi University of Management (MUM), has been in Fairfield. But the tensions have escalated in recent months as TM has started bulldozing historic campus buildings and as meditators (followers of TM) have taken steps to incorporate their own town, Vedic City (the Vedas are the Hindu scriptures), north of Fairfield.

While TM's influence continues to grow in Fairfield, most local evangelical churches are struggling—few have more than 150 attending services. Still, they are seeking ways not merely to condemn TM but to reach out to meditators.

Science or religion?
More than 1,200 TM instruction centers in 108 countries offer free introductory lectures, including 135 in the United States. In all, 6 million people worldwide have taken TM classes, including 1.5 million Americans. Several studies have concluded that the TM lifestyle leads to better health, with twice-daily relaxation periods, adherence to a largely vegetarian diet, and abstention from alcohol and tobacco. Government offices, businesses, and prisons in several nations pay for workers and inmates to learn the technique.

TM is also beginning to have a political presence, albeit a small one. John Hagelin, a quantum physicist at mum, nearly captured the Reform Party nomination for President of the United States. When that effort failed, he returned to the Maharishi-inspired Natural Law Party, which fielded more than 1,000 candidates in 50 states in November. He received 80,847 votes nationwide in the November election.

As a meditation technique, TM has its origins in Hinduism, the religion of 700 million people worldwide, concentrated mostly in India. Hindus are polytheistic, recognizing an estimated 300 million gods. Hindus believe in reincarnation, in people's choices influencing their destiny, and in the sacredness of all forms of life.

Meditators, though, deny they are engaged in religious activity. "The Transcendental Meditation technique is not a religion; it is not a religious practice," says Craig Pearson, 50, executive vice president of mum. "It has nothing to do with religion; it's all about developing a total potential of brain function." Pearson, whose office is near Taste of Utopia Street and Golden Dome Way, is the author of a forthcoming book on "yogic flying," a hopping maneuver performed with one's legs crossed.

Pearson says TM allows people to unlock their full "God-given potential." All problems in the world, including drug abuse, school violence, marital strife, and government corruption, can be traced to a failure to use total brain potential, Pearson believes. "There is no conflict with one's religion; in fact, there's only support for whatever one's religious tradition might be."

next page... |  1 of 5

January 8 2001, Vol. 45, No. 1