Transcendental Meditation in America by Joseph Weber
The Indian spiritual entrepreneur Maharishi Mahesh Yogi took the West by storm in the 1960s and ’70s, charming Baby Boomers fed up with war and social upheaval with his message of meditation and peace. Heeding his call, two thousand followers moved to tiny Fairfield, Iowa, to set up their own university on the campus of a failed denominational college. Soon, they started a school for prekindergarten through high school, allowing followers to immerse themselves in Transcendental Meditation from toddlerhood through PhDs. Although Fairfield’s longtime residents were relieved to see that their new neighbours were clean-cut and respectably dressed - not the wild-haired, drug-using hippies they had feared - the newcomers nevertheless quickly began to remake the town. Stores selling exotic goods popped up, TM followers built odd-looking homes that modelled the guru’s rules for peace-inspiring architecture, and the new university knocked down a historic chapel, even as it erected massive golden-domed buildings for meditators. Some newcomers got elected - and others were defeated - when they ran for local and statewide offices. At times, thousands from across the globe visited the small town. Yet Transcendental Meditation did not always achieve its aims of personal and social tranquility. Suicides and a murder unsettled the meditating community over the years, and some followers were fleeced by con men from their own ranks. Some battled a local farmer over land use and one another over doctrine. Notably, the world has not gotten more peaceful. Today the guru is dead. His followers are greying, and few of their children are moving into leadership roles. The movement seems rudderless, its financial muscle withering, despite the efforts of high-profile supporters such as filmmaker David Lynch and media magnate Oprah Winfrey. Can TM reinvent itself? And what will be the future of Fairfield itself? By looking closely at the transformation of this small Iowa town, author Joseph Weber assesses the movement’s surprisingly potent effect on Western culture, sketches out its peculiar past, and explores its possible future.
Weber, Joseph: - Joseph Weber, Ph.D. (San Francisco, CA) has more than a decade of experience in digital video and its application to television services. He is currently Director of Product Management at personal video recorder (PVR) pioneer TiVo, Inc. Previously, as Director for Digital Video Platforms in the Strategic Assessment department for Cable Television Laboratories, Inc., Dr. Weber participated in the department's analysis of new technologies and business models that affect the cable industry. His particular focus was on the next generation of digital video technology and the transition of cable services to digital technologies. Dr. Weber also served as a product marketing manager at C-Cube Microsystems and participated in the development of consumer MPEG-2 video encoding technology, including the first PVR devices. Dr. Weber received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley. His thesis was on the measurement and use of visual motion, in particular as applied to robotics. He also holds a Master of Arts in Physics from Berkeley, an MBA from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Notre Dame. After completing his Ph.D., he was a lecturer at the California Institute of Technology and then at Santa Clara University, where he taught classes on video compression, image processing, and computer vision.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781609382353 |
| ISBN 10 | 1609382358 |
| Title | Transcendental Meditation in America |
| Author | Joseph Weber |
| Series | Iowa And The Midwest Experience |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | University of Iowa Press |
| Year published | 2014-04-30 |
| Number of pages | 212 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |