Transcendental Meditation: a cult? a religion? Raph's rant.

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I thought it would be interesting for me to record a few of my thoughts when I'm doing research for the course. And I've had the opportunity this week to talk with one of the Transcendental Meditation representatives. And I had contacted him because I had paid for a refresh of the course because I had done the course. And I was interested in asking a few questions as well as maybe dig into some advanced practices for myself. And also, maybe it's a research for you guys, for the courses, for the podcast, for the YouTube channel. And so I had a discussion with him. I'm not going to say his name, of course, but an older person who has been teaching the official Transient Meditation Court for approximately 50 years, I think he said 40 games. Exactly. And we had a little discussion, and I was not very satisfied with this discussion. This is what I want to talk about today, which is also one of the issues that I have with the whole transcendental Meditation movement. The first issue is I mean, that's maybe going a little bit political, which is not something that I wish to do at all, but there are some correlations in the philosophy here. Every time you meet somebody in 2,021 for the first time, how are you doing? Yes, I'm okay, of course. Boo, you're going to be talking about the virus. And he wanted us to meet, as I said, he's an older gentleman and he does not believe in masks, and he does not believe in vaccine and all these types of things. And I quickly change the subject because I'm not really interested in talking about these things, neither here for you nor with me with some person of the Transcend Meditation organization. Apparently everybody is in medical experts in 2,020, and everybody has their opinions, which they confuse as fat. And I don't really want to dig into that at all, but it kind of shaped the discussion, the feeling of the discussion also. And we talked about meditation. I told him I didn't no, I'm not doing the transplant meditation every day, twice a day, because there are some other types of meditation that I like. I've been doing these vibrational meditations. I've been doing some Panama. I've been doing some mindfulness, some breathing meditations. I've tipped my toes and different types of 10 oriented meditations and all sorts of types of meditations because there's a lot of different techniques. We're going to talk about the relationship between different techniques, something that have been journaling about this. We've also. But anyway, there's a vast array of possibilities because there's a vast array of cultures, because there's a vast array of being able to go to a place where you feel at peace and it doesn't have to be transcendence of the thought doesn't have to go beyond it all. Sometimes it's a contemplation. Sometimes it's a contemplation idea on the concept, on a symbol, sometimes it's a contemplation on your breath, on your body, and so on. And I don't think that there is a better way to meditate. In a note, I think that some meditations are complementary. And I think that some meditations are for different sensitivities and also for different times at different times during the day, for different times in our lives. And so I told him that not specifically like I think that every meditation is valid. But I said Yes have been faring. And he was like, well, you shouldn't do that because transcendental meditation is the only meditation. And I was like, well, no, it's not the only meditation is like, Yes, it is not the only meditation, but it's still need good hesitation. So it's very good that you're coming back to the to the practice in a more advanced way. And I knew that there was no point in in discussing further, because this is the whole this has always been like this in the transient meditation environment for them. And they say it very clearly if you read the book by Bob Roth, Strength and Stillness, if you read the books by Jeff Forum or by Norman Rosenthal, all these people that have been writing extensively options on meditation, who, of course, revolves in the centralization of Mass. And most recently I have been reading a book by Carol Bluefield, Michael Peter Cane and Dennis Jaffe Jaffe. I'm not quite sure how to pronounce. It called TM, Discovering the Inner Energy and Overcoming Stress. And it's kind of interesting because it's one of the first books, Entres and some meditation written in the Lake Sixties, but it always goes into that same direction of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Of course, they don't say that he invented these techniques. He brought them to the West. That's what they say. But his word is a little bit like the word of a Prophet, and his word is the truth and nothing, nothing else is the truth. And this is why a lot of people to tell me or ask me, Yeah, I've been going to the introduction of the Transnet meditation course, but not only it costs 1,000 2,000 dollars, wherever it depends where you are. Not only is it extremely expensive, but I felt it was a little bit of cultish. So I've always asked the question to transfer them from education to cult. And so we would kind of have to define what is a cult. And I also asked if it's a religion. And so we would also have to ask, well, what is a religion? And it's not a cult in the sense that we see it, you know, in the movies, in all documentaries or in new documentaries. Also similar thinks he's Jesus. And everybody thinks he's Jesus. There was one side by a River for that 10 years ago, something like this cult with, you know, living in the same village a lot of the time, one man and multiple women and group events and maybe finish it by a group killing or something crazy like this. And this is the mission we have. And we talked about a cold. Now I don't think that it is a cause. Instead, I did the official training. So they have all my data on my Imation that's been quite aggressive when I've been trying to share my experiences, the people online and offline. And when I say often even me myself. So they were like, Hey, but you shouldn't you shouldn't talk about just on the meditation, even to your wife, to your sister or to to a friend or whatever. And this is very, very, very cute. This is very strange. It's not natural. It's not something that I'm I'm not really okay with that. But to go back to the cultish thing in the religious thing, it is a little bit because they have that certainty. And this is why I digress. I go from thoughts to fall to multiple directions. I apologize for of this, but this is also why should send some meditation was burned from a lot of schools at some point. They wanted to put us in meditation in school. And he would say, well, that's really awesome. And it is I think that mindfulness meditation is something that is extremely important. And I think that meditation is it normal negotiable in art, in age, we get so much input, we get so much similar, so much information. We need to be able to step back, take some perspective, take a nice deep breath. So I do think that meditation should be in schools. I do think that we should also do yoga and these type social practices in schools. It's just as important. Other practices, mental practice, mind practice. And I know if you want to call it spiritual spiritual as just a thought, it's just a simple it's just an idea practice in and of course, non religious inside of schools. But just in meditation was banned from in schools, all schools that were considered secular. And the reason for that is that they have the data that it was religious. So, of course, in transience meditation, in Stars, with that with kind of a religious process. And again, was up to define religion is but we can kind of define it that it has some elements such as certainty. Usually religions are certain that they're right in that nobody else is right, which is the case. But then there are some rituals, which is also the case of. And then there are some representative of God, which is also the case with him. And they don't really say that Mavis is some sort of a Prophet, but they believe in his word as sacred and the word God. It doesn't have to be God, like we see in Christianity, in Islam, with Judaism, but in the creator of all things. And when you talk about pure consciousness. And when we talk about the unified field that there's that could also be a definition of and no, the definition of what I say, go. And you know, I told you about this book, this also from the Sixties. And it starts. It starts. I'm gonna find the sentence right here says, I'm talking about Maharishi. I Subscribe unreservedly to his philosophy. I Subscribe unreservedly to his philosophy was a star. That means that there is no there's no space for refuting any of his ideas or for even thinking outside of his word. And for me, this is dangerous. This is this is the dark side of face there's of religion. There's a good side of religion in some religions where you are meant to ask questions or where you are meant to. And those are usually derived from religions and their what you might call more Liberal religions, but their religions, but you cannot derive from his word. And transient to meditation is the only one and only meditation practice. That is how. And this is what they tell you. This is what the teachers tell you. This is what the representatives of the organization tell you. And I think that this is very dangerous. So it was the same thing when I took the course, and the teacher asked me, Have you ever meditated before? And they said, Well, Yeah, I've been meditating for some years now, doing some mindfulness meditation and focusing on my breath and so on. She said, Well, then you have never meditated ever in your life. And back in the day, my old self, especially when they took the transcendent meditation course, I took it because I was in a very dark place in my life. I was extremely depressed. And so on. I don't want to go back into my story. But I wasn't a vulnerable point. And I know that there's a lot of people that are in the vulnerable point that might be influenced when somebody tells them this is the truth. This is the truth. This is a certain truth. And by doing this, you will be better than anybody else. And this is also something that is very strange for me is that we transcend thoughts to the source of thought. The source of thought is pure consciousness. Everything around us is created by pure consciousness. Everything is made of pure consciousness, so that's atoms, molecules. And if you go down the other and if you go really to the source, that is pure energy, pure consciousness. And so we are all linked because we all belong to that entity of life, to that pure consciousness. Okay. But still, even though this is what you learn in that philosophy, and it's beautiful. And I love those principles of of quantum field philosophy and ideas, still, they will tell you that this is an advantage over other people if you do it. And this is a problem. This is a problem for me because without other people, you can want to be yourself. Your condensed in a way that everything is dependent upon everything around you. So it's like this with the fans. So it forms is in the soil, and it cannot be apparent without soil. Otherwise. What a dead plant. Right. So it is dependent on its environment. We are as human beings, animals, beings. You can call them However you want, dependent on the nature around us, depending on the consciousness around us. And we are all linked to that consciousness because of these theories of unified feeling. Still, they will say, and I can quote again, the transcender Meditation book and most of these books. I've been studying them because I've been I wanted to go back to some concept, but they're all really marketing elements for the course. But this is what he says, Subscribe unreservedly to his philosophy and his employment of meditation to evolve and the members physical in the physical advantage of others. Advantage of others can't speak very advantage of others. So do this, and you'll be better than the others to be better than the others because you'll be connected. It doesn't really make sense. It doesn't really make sense. And so, Yeah, I find it a little bit. The more I dig into it, the more I find it what you might call it cultish or religious. And I've been also rereading the book by Bob Rob in Stillness, which is basically the features on