BlogHer - Religion & Spirituality - Comments

MMY was a public figure.

ruthsimplicity — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 20:28:36 -0500

MMY was a public figure. His life and his work are there for all to criticize or praise.

I have seen no place where Knapp has presented rumors and fact. In fact, he has repeatedly said that TM works fine for many. Get your facts straight before you slam someone.

John Knapp comment

ruthsimplicity — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 20:24:02 -0500

Well, some nasty posts about Knapp.

I think Mr. Knapp is doing a service by providing links to another point of view. To criticize his motives is childish. You cannot read his mind. You have no idea if he is bitter or not. And to assume so reflects more on you than on him. At least he uses his name. Those of you who leap criticism upon him don't use your names or give any facts.

Maharishi and John Knapp

ihsiraham — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 11:55:50 -0500

Thankyou,Mata, for your balanced reportage on the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s passing.

JohnKnapp’s self-depiction (read his links, above) as a simple, innocent helper andtherapist of those “10-20%” who experienced “negative effects” oftranscendental meditation is palpably false. As is evident from his vociferous website, Mr. Knapp is afervent, almost indefatigable, amazingly active campaigner againsttranscendental meditation and in particular, against his former guru, theMaharishi Mahesh Yogi, whom Mr. Knapp defames at every opportunity, using thetried and true method of accusing this man of “having affairs”, based upon—youguessed it-- hearsay.

Thefact is verifiable that the rumours of “the Maaharishi’s sexual improprietyagainst Mia Farrow (Sintra, as she was then)” --of which Mr Knapp is so proud-- were simply alie told by “Magic Alex” (a.k.a. Janni Alexis Mardas, and Alex Mardas), one ofJohn Lennon’s groupies and a drug dealer who was disgruntled at the Maharishinot letting him join the Beatles in the Rishikesh Ashram in 1968. By Googling Mardas’ names and aliases,one will read a fascinating tale of the power of character assassination byrumour.

JohnKnapp is a past master at this and makes a rich living for himself and for hisorganization through exactly that technique.

OnKnapp’s own website, he even puts the Maharishi akin to Adolf Hitler and theNazis, asserting that meditators are the victims of concentration-camp-like,human experiments.

…thisis way-out stuff… BUT, boy, JohnKnapp is going to save you fromthe cults and the weird people.

Despitethe supposedly “open” image John Knapp is selling (in his little “intro”spam-boxes), on his own self-promoting website he gives no credence totranscendental meditation being good for anybody. Read it; he allows not one iota of good from it. If we are to believe John Knapp, it’sjust incredible that people survive even a few days of practising transcendentalmeditation!

Heasserts unabashedly, “If transcendental meditation were a drug, it would longago have been taken off the market”.

Ibelieve that Mr Knapp is the kind of guy who, if he were a lawmaker, would makeit illegal to practise transcendental meditation.

Hecasts himself as the self-appointed sheriff of the meditation police, and hewants constantly to remind us “Just say ‘no’(…to transcendentalmeditation)”.

Unfortunatelyfor John Knapp and his highly-committed employees who want us to believe that Maharishi was worsethan Pol Pot, the world will leave John Knapp’s eminently forgettable methodsbehind, and continue to seek out the Maharishi’s teaching, by the hundreds ofthousands every year.

John Knapp must get nightmares thinkingof the vast majority of millions of happy practitioners of transcendentalmeditation who will continue to inspire millions of new learners. I’m afraid Master Knapp simply will notbe able to keep up with the pace of the spread of transcendental meditation.

Althoughit is apparent that it is their life’s work to prevent transcendentalmeditation from becoming even more popular, I fear Mr Knapp, Inc had better diversify, say, trydiscouraging fundamentalist christianity or fundamentalist islam.

Knappis sensible enough in his public comments to confess that his assertion of “10-20% of practitioners” having “negative effects” from transcendentalmeditation is based in his own biased personal speculation, drawn purely uponundocumented “anecdotes”.

Onelook at John Knapp’s website reveals a negative bias so extreme as to appearrather obsessive and cult-like in itself.

Seeingthe hundreds of places where John Knapp’s comments and advertisements pop up,he can’t possibly be the one person he markets himself to be. If Mr Knapp truly is so busyde-programming the “hundreds” of transcendental meditators he claims to be“helping” to “recover” from this “dangerous” practise, how does he have thetime to be all over the world-wide web daily, as evidently he is?

Mr.Knapp’s organisation employs a highly commercialised, sophisticated spam methodto make sure his name, anti-transcendental meditation advertisement and linksappear anywhere on the world wide web wherein the words ‘transcendentalmeditation’, ‘Maharishi’, or “TM” appear.

Inaddition to appearing, vulture-like, at the bottom of the slightest mention of“transcendental meditation” or “Maharishi”, Mr. Knapp’s customary online behaviour is publicly to lodgecomments lauding any blog or article that is derogatory to transcendental meditationor its guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. John Knapp openly and gleefully cheerleads any effort by any commentatorwho slanders, vilifies, belittles or smears Maharishi, irrespective of whatalternative or cult-like worldview the blog may promote.

Inhis own website, Knapp decries so many techniques and teachers (though hisfavourite whipping-posts are transcendental meditation and Maharishi), but indefending himself once in a critical blog, he claimed to be a Shaivite Hindu. Apparently his own, watered down brandof Shaivite Hinduism must be just dandy, since, presumably, John Knapp reallyhas done his homework diligently, unlike when he supposedly wasted so manyyears flunking life because of hispractising transcendental meditation. Wow, what a life of regret andbitterness, and just think: and it was all caused by someone else, thatMaharishi fella who tricked him into meditating, and even tricked him intobecoming a (failed) teacher of it.

HasMr. Knapp investigated thoroughly the “10-20%” who might get “harmed” byShaivite Hinduism? Of course not—Shaivite Hinduism is John Knapp’s own cult-of-choice, so naturally we areexpected to assume that nothing dreadful ever has happened to anyone while practisingShaivite Hinduism, or that, “anecdotally”, we could blame on John’s religion.

Iwould wager that a considerable body of “anecdotal evidence” could be “accrued” (invented) that, carefully spun,could cast Shaivite Hinduism’s worldwide track-record into question. One could do the same to jogging. Or to the dreadful practise of havingsex. Or to drinking water.

Whystop there?

Mr.Knapp’s organisation does not stop there.

MrKnapp’s character assassination of the Maharishi is attempted by his calling fora collection of rumours thatslander the Maharishi, and then gleefully retailing these “reports” as “fact”.

Onewonders how Master Knapp’s personal life would stand up if we were to invitethe world to offer anecdotal speculation about “affairs” he might have had, or“bad effects” his “therapeutic” approach might have. If ever anyone is interested in finding out if Mr. JohnKnapp’s Knowledge program has a deleterious effect, please let me know where tosign on. This man’s claims make meboth sick and tired.

Mata

tlenski — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 11:00:20 -0500

Thanks for the link and the other great resources! As the daughter of an immigrant (mother born here of Scottish parents, father came as a child from Germany) I found myself nodding at your comments about the spirit with which so many of last century's immigrants came to the U.S. And I like your thinking that independence and interdependence do not need to be considered mutually exclusive.

Best to you,
Tammy

Response to John M. Knapp comment:

Inspector108 — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:22:19 -0500

Many critics consider John M. Knapp to be a self-promoting spammer who has nothing worthwhile to offer, but tries to make money by creating fear about useful programs like TM. A previous post of his indicated that he is a disgruntled former TM'er. With any organization that has attracted millions of participants, it is inevitable that a few people will become detractors. While I am impressed that John M. Knapp has shown the resourcefulness to transform his disgruntlement into a career, I do object to him labelling TM as a cult and spamming every article about TM on the Web. Although it is perhaps more worthy of sympathy to see an individual allowing his personal or professional life to revolve around some lingering bitterness, in the interests of fairness I feel I must counter the comments he is leaving.

The Transcendental Meditation technique has helped millions of people and will continue to do so. Its benefits have been validated by hundreds of scientific studies over the past 35 years, many of which were published in peer-reviewed journals. Its efficacy has been recognized by the National Institutes of Health, the premier body overseeing medical research in the US. And it has been introduced into school programs in the US, Canada, Peru, India, South Africa, the UK, and other countries. In the US, TM is taught by a federally-recognized nonprofit organization.

For more information, just Google 'transcendental meditation' and you'll find plenty of good sources.

Hi Tess

Mata H — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 11:17:43 -0500

It was a pleasure linking to your blog. BTW, your latest post had me laughing out loud!

~~ Contributing Editor, Mata H. also blogs right along at Time's Fool

Thank you for the link. It's

Froniga — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:02:47 -0500

Thank you for the link. It's really heartening that so many people are thinking along the same lines.

Answer bearer

Mata H — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:15:56 -0500

Some of the wonderful things about living in America are religious freedom and freedom of speech. I don't think "better times" were when "liberalism was not tolerated". I think America is great because of the tolerance for both liberlism an conservatism.

Actually Obama does not embody radical liberalism in Christianity. While he may look that way to someone who is very conservative, he is actually pretty mainstream.

"Radical liberals" -- interesting choice of words as I think about it. My guess is that Jesus and St Paul and John the Baptist were called the Aramaic equivalent of that in their days on earth. It all depends on to what you compare the person.

~~ Contributing Editor, Mata H. also blogs right along at Time's Fool

Hello Amanda

Mata H — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:04:16 -0500

I think we could post a lot of comments about our differences, but I am not sure that heat would create a lot of light. I believe that it is true that two faithful Christians can look at the same piece of scripture and hear it differently. That is the nature of being human.

We all rely on someone's scriptural interpretation in addition to our own faith experience in addition to prayer to discern God's will. Our hearts and intellects and all that we are seek to understand what God wills. I do not believe that any single religious person has a corner on that discernment.

Dobson and Obama disagree. I hope it gets a lot of people thinking more about their faith and the role it has in their lives.

~~ Contributing Editor, Mata H. also blogs right along at Time's Fool

You are Still Wrong

manda2177 — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:55:05 -0500

Amanda

You cannot be a Tritarian AND a 'faithful' Christian. The meaning of Christian is follows the teaching of Christ.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Trinitarian_Universalism

Your belief system is based on a mans (when I say man I mean human) interpetation of the Bible. What you stand for is some mans version of religion.

You did get your facts wrong.

http://www.citizenlink.org/content/A000007770.cfm

as stated very clearly here.

I dont have an opinion on the matter.. I have a Biblical Truth that I stand by.

God bless-

Amanda

Dobson

AnswerBearer — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:32:49 -0500

I have always respected James Dobson and his staunch support for the family and God's role in restoring health family relationships. I also appreciate his voice in politics. I think he may come across as too religious or overbearing, but remember he is of a different generation and he remembers better times when such radical liberalism was not tolerated.

I am glad for his voice in these matters. I'm sure he not 100% right all of the time, but give him a break. He's a great man of God and his ministry is a wonderful blessing to this nation. We are so quick to judge our own. We must be more careful than that. Jesus said the world will know us by our love for one another. Yet we jump on the bandwagon of criticism way too fast. Let us not be so fast to add insult to injury and distort the character of a great man like Dobson. No one is perfect. Let us not be so hard on him.

Workday or Worthwhile-day

rebellious thinker — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:12:16 -0500

This is an excerpt from a thank you letter that I received from one of my students: "Thank you so much for being such a great teacher. As smart and accomplished as you are, you could have gotten a higher paying job but instead you chose to share your knowledge with us."

Tears came to my eyes when I read her letter, and I knew that I had made the right career move. No matter how great the brochure I would write, there is no getting around making a connection to another person and inspiring her.

By the way, mine was a forties career switch. It was my auspicious moment.

Laura, reflecting on the life in and out of school www.rebelliousthoughtsofawoman.com

Trickle Up

Rachelle Mee-Chapman — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:44:53 -0500

Thank you so much for this inspiring link. I've seen great things happen with micro loans and I'm a big fan.

Rachelle Mee-Chapman
http://www.magpie-girl.com
http://twitter.com/magpiegirl

Sari Bari

Rachelle Mee-Chapman — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:43:41 -0500

Those are so beautiful! Thanks for the link!

Rachelle Mee-Chapman
http://www.magpie-girl.com
http://twitter.com/magpiegirl

I'll definitely check out

semicharmedwife — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:16:12 -0500

I'll definitely check out your post! It seems like this is a common phenomenon among my friends--the late 20s/early 30s career switch. It's great to know that others have pulled it off successfully!

Jen

Semi-Charmed Wife
Helping you find your purpose and live your dream