Maharishi dies

In contrast with my earlier post, the news of the Maharishi’s death is bringing up no complex feelings at all for me; just glee. It’s terrible, isn’t it? I didn’t even know him, but that’s not my fault — I didn’t have a million dollars to give him for the pleasure of hanging out.

I just hate gurus and frauds, and he was both.

He made some pretty astounding claims:

• Transcendental Meditation is a scientifically valid way to attain enlightenment.
• TM was responsible for lowering crime rates in cities.
• Using TM, you could learn to fly.
• If someone would give a billion dollars, he could train 40,000 expert meditators to combat terrorism

Sadly, even though people gave him tons of money, no one ever learned to fly or to attain enlightenment, as far as anyone knows. And the claims about crime fall apart if you try to examine them with statistics (but how Western!).

The really sad part is that if a mystical movement manages to survive its founder, it usually goes on forever. These people may be bouncing on their butts for generations to come.