Thanks for the scoop on Dianetics. Now how about Transcendental Meditation? Relaxation I can see. Cleansed thought processes, sure. But levitation? –Anonymous, Greensboro, North Carolina
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Naturally, being the repository of world knowledge that I am, the concept of competitive levitation did not catch me entirely by surprise. I first heard about it in a general way from another old college roommate (Cecil had a lot of roommates) named Thom, who’s been doing TM since the late 60s. Thom, who remains pretty rational despite 20 years of communing with the Maharishi, said he’d done some levitating himself, though I’ve never actually seen him in action.
TMers see levitation not merely as a novel method of transportation but as a mighty blow in the struggle for cosmic consciousness and world peace. According to David Orme-Johnson, a researcher at Maharishi International University, “Thirty-one sociological studies conducted throughout the world document that the quality of life in society significantly improves when as little as the square root of one percent of a population practices TM-Sidhi Yogic Flying together in one place.” Orme-Johnson was one of the authors of a recent scientific paper purporting to show levitation and related techniques had reduced the violence in Lebanon.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Slug Signorino.
