Violent crime wave expected in UK

(Or not – you decide.)

According to reports, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has ordered his followers to stop teaching his advanced meditation and levitation techniques in Britain, and is leaving the country:

Disgusted at Tony Blair's support for the US in the Iraq war and the British electorate's failure to unseat the prime minister at the general election, the 95-year-old guru says there is no point continuing to waste the "beautiful nectar" of TM on a "scorpion" nation.

"The good effects of transcendental meditation - increased creativity and long life - should not be given to a dangerous country that is constantly busy destroying the world," said the maharishi, speaking at one his regular press conferences in the Netherlands. "TM is a gift from me to those who want to create peace and harmony in the world."

(Snip)

…he ordered his followers at Skelmersdale, Lancashire - the site of an ideal maharishi village complete with a gold meditation dome - to beam peace-loving thoughts to the British electorate with the aim of overtuning the Labour government.

It was the failure of that thought experiment that prompted the maharishi to withdraw from Britain, a decision first communicated to his followers in a conference call from Holland the day after the general election.

Funny, he’s pulling out of the UK but not the US – a country I’d have thought even more associated with aggressive warlike behavior. And the US reelected George Bush – why is that better than the Brits reelecting Blair? Also you would think a country that supports war would be more in need of the Maharishi’s influence, not less. Why doesn’t he stay to try to improve things?

…Oh I get it – rather than admit that it doesn’t work he’s taking his bat and ball and going home. Boo hoo.

We shouldn’t be surprised it didn’t work though – the “Maharishi effect” is an absurd idea that has never worked, despite claims to the contrary. (Although admittedly it did win an Ig Nobel Peace Prize.)

I did note one interesting quote:

Mike Owen, a psychotherapist with Sunabitur Healthcare, who has recommended TM to many of his patients, said that, for many, flying overseas was both impractical and prohibitively expensive.

Flying was both impractical and prohibitively expensive? Is this finally an admission that yogic flying is just hopping on mattresses? Or that the Maharishi charges too much for the lessons? I think we should be told.

Are we in Holland yet?

Comments

[Ariel]

If I'd lived in Skelmersdale for any length of time then I'd probably want to abandon the UK as well...

[Jakanden]

Oddly enough I have never heard of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi or his "flying" although I had vaguely heard of TM but never actually looked into it.

[jre]

Now, now -- having the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi ("Hesh" to his friends) come to your burg is not necessarily all that bad. As Greg Brown put it:

If the floaters come to your town, your town, your town,
Floaters come to your town,
You might wanna stick around.

They meditate and get focused, focused, focused,
They do a little hocus pocus,
And the money just rolls in.

[paul]

Disappointed, but not surprised that David Lynch is a TM fanatic, starting some sort of organization in LA to bring it to schoolkids. His solution for world peace. Stick to off-the-wall movies, David.

[Pierce R. Butler]

This item was reported on the 16th Skeptics Circle [http://redstaterabble.blogspot.com/2005/09/16th-skeptics-circle.html] with the notation, "although if you want to bounce up and down on a mattress you'll have to do it alone now." This may well result in a violent crime wave, but even more so in a significant decrease in population...

[Eric]

So it's been nearly 2 months since the Maharishi left. Surely a crime wave must have started in the UK by now. No? Really? Huh.