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Peace answer seen in 40,000 By JANE NORMAN Register Washington Bureau 09/29/2001 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Washington, D.C. - World peace could be achieved through establishing a group of 40,000 experts in India practicing transcendental meditation techniques, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi said in a press conference here Friday relayed via satellite from Holland.

"This is the solution," said the maharishi, who has not made a public appearance for seven years but claimed that he was compelled to speak out after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "This is the time in the long, long history of man that total knowledge is available to us."

He said he wants to "stop, completely stop, all the wild gestures of this most important country" to retaliate against the attacks, as President Bush mobilizes the nation's military to strike back at Osama bin Laden, the Saudi billionaire living in Afghanistan and suspected to be the mastermind behind the attacks.

The maharishi said it is "insane" to believe that such an approach can work. "This man, this president of America, is not an educated man - he doesn't know science," he said. "Who is this man who can say, 'I can stop crime"?"

If the proposal for 40,000 meditators succeeds, there will be "a happy, affluent world without negativity, without problems," the maharishi said.

The maharishi introduced transcendental meditation more than 40 years ago, and founded Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Ia., which enrolls about 650 full-time students.

His latest proposal is for a billionaire or group of wealthy people to establish an endowment of $1 billion, the interest from which would be used to support the 40,000 meditation practitioners in India. The young men are from families in India that traditionally have practiced the technique and would each need about $200 a month to sustain them.

John Hagelin of Fairfield, the Natural Law Party presidential candidate in 2000, said Bush deserves everyone's support in the fight against terrorism, but at the same time it is "vitally important we do something that can disarm terrorism."

The group of 40,000 meditators would be large enough to create an "upsurge in positivity," initiate global harmony and unity, and deter terrorism, Hagelin said.

He said construction of a facility in India that would accommodate 16,000 meditators is already under way.

-- Anonymous, September 29, 2001

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Meditators seek to create cycle of world peace By KATE KOMPAS Register Staff Writer 09/29/2001 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- Donations are wonderful, but the solution to the world's pain and problems after terrorist attacks is intense meditation, officials at the Maharishi University of Management say.

More than 1,000 people from across the country have converged on the Fairfield campus to practice transcendental meditation and what they call yogic flying, or levitation.

"Only peace can generate peace," school spokesman John Revolinski said. He said school officials want to attract as many followers of transcendental meditation as possible to create a peaceful feeling around the world.

They sent e-mails to like-minded groups and communities across the nation and in Canada, asking them to come to Fairfield.

"The idea is that there's a shared level of awareness, and when you have that many people, it creates a stir, and then peace and harmony that will get woken up everywhere," Revolinski said.

The more people gather to meditate, the more people around the world will feel it, he said. "It's a very, very effective technique to create peace within one's self," Revolinski said. "With that unified field, if everyone was stirring that feeling, it would be a tremendous change."

Steve Dawson, 53, of Littleton, Colo., cleared his schedule for a week to come to Fairfield.

"It seemed almost to be an obligation on my part to come," said Dawson, who has practiced transcendental meditation for 29 years. "There's a very strong feeling that we're creating an influence that can be felt in the world."

Renie Praver, 53, of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., is originally from Long Island, N.Y.

"It not only makes me feel better, but we could have some positive effect on the world," Praver said.

Followers of transcendental meditation, a movement founded by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, have settled in large numbers in Fairfield.

The followers created the state's newest city, Vedic City. Meditation and yogic flying are as much a part of the curriculum at local transcendental meditation-influenced schools as mathematics and science.

Revolinski describes yogic flying as settling in one's deepest state until one "has the intention that the body should lift up. If the desire comes from that most powerful level, in fact the body does lift up."

He said transcendental meditation enthusiasts hope to bring more people to Fairfield to meditate for world peace.

He estimates between 40,000 and 100,000 meditators could move the world's population to peaceful behavior.

"Everyone wants to do something, and here's something very powerful they can do if they're instructed in this technique," Revolinski said.

-- Anonymous, September 29, 2001

There's an idiot born every minute - "For only $200 a month you can support your very own meditator on world peace".

As you can tell I have no love for this particular group. The Marharishi has so much money, HE could support this without asking for donations.

-- Anonymous, September 29, 2001

The idea of making donations for something that is overseas isn't gonna sit well with most of America, right now.

-- Anonymous, September 29, 2001

I heard Deepak Chopra suggesting something similar, although very subtly. There's someone to watch carefully.

-- Anonymous, September 29, 2001