In the 1960s, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, guru of the transcendental meditation (“TM”) movement, came to global prominence when he became spiritual advisor to the Beatles.
The band soon broke with him, but the Maharishi used his fame to build his TM movement into a multi-billion dollar self-help industry. According to the New York Times, “In the United States, the organization values its assets at about $300 million, with its base in Fairfield, Iowa, where it operates a university, the Maharishi University of Management. In 2001, disciples of the movement incorporated their own town, Maharishi Vedic City, a few miles north of Fairfield.”
The Maharishi died in 2008. But apparently his Iowa followers have turned their enthusiasm toward another leader with far-out beliefs: Congressman Ron Paul.
In a story entitled, “Meditators Back Paul for Peace,” the Wall Street Journal’s Neil King reports:
Seekers of peace and personal fulfillment have streamed over the past three decades to this epicenter of transcendental meditation known for its ties to the Beatles’ onetime spiritual leader.
Though the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is dead now, the college he founded here, with its Golden Domes of Pure Knowledge, remains. So do the lofty ideals of his meditation enthusiasts, many of whom have found the presidential candidate who they believe best embodies their aims: Texas Representative Ron Paul.
Thanks to its uncommon history, Fairfield and surrounding Jefferson County boast a large group of transcendental meditators—forming also what is perhaps the country’s most concentrated pool of Ron Paul supporters.
“There are just a lot of people around here who think like Ron Paul thinks, who really want to scrap the Patriot Act and get rid of the Fed and don’t want to be in all these endless foreign wars,” says Roger Leahy, a veteran meditator and president of sheepskin- and leather-goods retailer Overland Sheepskin Co., who moved to Fairfield from Taos, N.M., in 1982.
Mr. Paul came in a distant fifth in the Iowa caucuses four years ago, fetching just 10 percent of the vote. But he ran away with the contest in Jefferson County, taking nearly four in 10 votes….
Some of the Paul policy stances that irk traditional conservatives are exactly the ones that appeal to the town’s meditators, particularly his noninterventionist approach to foreign policy and his emphasis on personal liberties and on diminishing the powers of the federal government.
No doubt we’ll soon hear a new song at Paul’s campaign rallies: “All we are say-ing, is give Paul a chance…”
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