Book Review
Greetings from Utopia
Park: Surviving a
Transcendent Childhood
By Claire Hoffman
HarperCollins, 2016. ISBN-10: 0062338846
ISBN-13: 978-0062338846 (hardcover). $15.46 (Amazon.com)
(paperback, $11.04 Kindle, $10.99). 288 pages.
Reviewed by Gina Catena1
Claire Hoffman offers a tender and honest memoir about her
childhood in Transcendental Meditation’s (TM’s) mecca in
Fairfield, Iowa. Born in 1977 to parents who were practicing
TM, Claire lived in TM’s Iowa community from age 5 to age 16.
This story is not a full exposé of TM lifestyles.
The Preface opens with the author in present time, in her mid-
30s. As a successful journalist, she is a happily married young
mother living away from her cult origins. She returns to her
former community to resolve what she labels as “youthful
cynicism.” She wants to believe. Belief versus cynicism is the
thread winding through this narrative.
Clare then weaves a beautifully written story beginning with
the 1970’s seduction of her hippy parents by the Beatles’
guru during TM’s heyday. The young adults find Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi’s promise of inner tranquility, world peace,
and eventually, a community with other meditators to be a
welcome respite from their own abusive childhoods. Claire
is their second child. When her father stops practicing TM,
succumbs to alcoholism, and abandons his young family
in New York City, her mother lacks the means to support
her children. They initially relocate from New York to the
the Florida home of Claire’s grandmother, then resettle in
Maharishi’s so-called Ideal Society, with his university, in
Fairfield, Iowa.
Young Claire eagerly anticipates enrolling in her third
kindergarten that year to join classmates who also practice
TM’s childhood mantra meditation, or Word of Wisdom—she
quickly learns she will not attend Maharishi’s private school
because the private tuition is prohibitive. Instead, she and
her brother attend a local public school where classmates
taunt them as ‘rus, short for gurus. An anonymous sponsor
eventually enables Claire and her brother to attend Maharishi’s
school. She happily dons the requisite blue jumper and bow
tie to instantly bond with the other children who together
sing Maharishi songs, learn the guru’s teachings interwoven
with the three Rs, and receive grades for meditation.
When they move into one of 200 dilapidated trailer homes in
Utopia Park, Claire and her brother merge with a close-knit
subculture of unsupervised children who create excitement
while parents daily attend hours of group (Program)
meditation. A few unusual childhood deaths provide a
shadowy backdrop to childhood mishaps. There is one close
brush with a man who befriends many children and targets
Claire alone for physical exploration she runs from his
apartment while he showers with the bathroom door open.
She mentions others’ stories of wild teenage explorations,
fathers who have affairs with teenage babysitters, and easy
access to recreational drugs. She calls her world “binary,”
divided between those who follow Maharishi’s teachings
and those who are not to be trusted. Their mother struggles
financially through a series of jobs with meditator companies
and a series of heartbreaks with sequential boyfriends.
In contrast to their life of struggle, Claire provides a brief
overview of TM’s history and casually mentions Maharishi’s
multibillion-dollar global empire.
Their father becomes sober and reenters their life to explain to
his now-adolescent children that they live in a cult. Her father
is a writer who encourages his children to express themselves.
As Claire prepares to enter high school, her anonymous
sponsorship evaporates. She enrolls in public high school
along with other TM kids who are stigmatized because their
families cannot afford Maharishi School. She finds her way
with townie teens. After a drug-laden party at an abandoned
rock quarry, 16-year-old Claire can no longer tolerate the
confusing lifestyle. She apologizes to her mother and joins her
father in California to finish school and obtain a mainstream
education.
The story jumps forward 15 years to find Claire, an
accomplished professional, flipping her perspective on her
early years. She has a crisis of meaning in her seemingly
mundane life. She holds a faculty position with the University
of California and has published articles in The New York Times,
Washington Post, and Rolling Stone. With a supportive husband
and crying baby, Claire misses her community and connection
to a higher purpose. In an ironic twist, she misses the safety of
her childhood community.
TM luminaries David Lynch and Bobby Roth invite Claire to
meetings in Los Angeles with Hollywood celebrities recently
recruited to TM. She questions her youthful cynicism, feeling
that her negativity about a TM childhood should not prevent
celebrities from benefitting with TM. Lynch and Roth meet
individually with Claire, tempting her back to her roots. The
memoir concludes as it began. Claire attends advanced
meditation retreats and returns to her childhood home to
learn TM’s advanced meditation to fly, bouncing on high-
density foam. She experiences the inner bliss that initially
captivated her mother. However, she fails to mention the
$5,000 price tag for TM’s advanced flying program she does
22 ICSA TODAY
Greetings from Utopia
Park: Surviving a
Transcendent Childhood
By Claire Hoffman
HarperCollins, 2016. ISBN-10: 0062338846
ISBN-13: 978-0062338846 (hardcover). $15.46 (Amazon.com)
(paperback, $11.04 Kindle, $10.99). 288 pages.
Reviewed by Gina Catena1
Claire Hoffman offers a tender and honest memoir about her
childhood in Transcendental Meditation’s (TM’s) mecca in
Fairfield, Iowa. Born in 1977 to parents who were practicing
TM, Claire lived in TM’s Iowa community from age 5 to age 16.
This story is not a full exposé of TM lifestyles.
The Preface opens with the author in present time, in her mid-
30s. As a successful journalist, she is a happily married young
mother living away from her cult origins. She returns to her
former community to resolve what she labels as “youthful
cynicism.” She wants to believe. Belief versus cynicism is the
thread winding through this narrative.
Clare then weaves a beautifully written story beginning with
the 1970’s seduction of her hippy parents by the Beatles’
guru during TM’s heyday. The young adults find Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi’s promise of inner tranquility, world peace,
and eventually, a community with other meditators to be a
welcome respite from their own abusive childhoods. Claire
is their second child. When her father stops practicing TM,
succumbs to alcoholism, and abandons his young family
in New York City, her mother lacks the means to support
her children. They initially relocate from New York to the
the Florida home of Claire’s grandmother, then resettle in
Maharishi’s so-called Ideal Society, with his university, in
Fairfield, Iowa.
Young Claire eagerly anticipates enrolling in her third
kindergarten that year to join classmates who also practice
TM’s childhood mantra meditation, or Word of Wisdom—she
quickly learns she will not attend Maharishi’s private school
because the private tuition is prohibitive. Instead, she and
her brother attend a local public school where classmates
taunt them as ‘rus, short for gurus. An anonymous sponsor
eventually enables Claire and her brother to attend Maharishi’s
school. She happily dons the requisite blue jumper and bow
tie to instantly bond with the other children who together
sing Maharishi songs, learn the guru’s teachings interwoven
with the three Rs, and receive grades for meditation.
When they move into one of 200 dilapidated trailer homes in
Utopia Park, Claire and her brother merge with a close-knit
subculture of unsupervised children who create excitement
while parents daily attend hours of group (Program)
meditation. A few unusual childhood deaths provide a
shadowy backdrop to childhood mishaps. There is one close
brush with a man who befriends many children and targets
Claire alone for physical exploration she runs from his
apartment while he showers with the bathroom door open.
She mentions others’ stories of wild teenage explorations,
fathers who have affairs with teenage babysitters, and easy
access to recreational drugs. She calls her world “binary,”
divided between those who follow Maharishi’s teachings
and those who are not to be trusted. Their mother struggles
financially through a series of jobs with meditator companies
and a series of heartbreaks with sequential boyfriends.
In contrast to their life of struggle, Claire provides a brief
overview of TM’s history and casually mentions Maharishi’s
multibillion-dollar global empire.
Their father becomes sober and reenters their life to explain to
his now-adolescent children that they live in a cult. Her father
is a writer who encourages his children to express themselves.
As Claire prepares to enter high school, her anonymous
sponsorship evaporates. She enrolls in public high school
along with other TM kids who are stigmatized because their
families cannot afford Maharishi School. She finds her way
with townie teens. After a drug-laden party at an abandoned
rock quarry, 16-year-old Claire can no longer tolerate the
confusing lifestyle. She apologizes to her mother and joins her
father in California to finish school and obtain a mainstream
education.
The story jumps forward 15 years to find Claire, an
accomplished professional, flipping her perspective on her
early years. She has a crisis of meaning in her seemingly
mundane life. She holds a faculty position with the University
of California and has published articles in The New York Times,
Washington Post, and Rolling Stone. With a supportive husband
and crying baby, Claire misses her community and connection
to a higher purpose. In an ironic twist, she misses the safety of
her childhood community.
TM luminaries David Lynch and Bobby Roth invite Claire to
meetings in Los Angeles with Hollywood celebrities recently
recruited to TM. She questions her youthful cynicism, feeling
that her negativity about a TM childhood should not prevent
celebrities from benefitting with TM. Lynch and Roth meet
individually with Claire, tempting her back to her roots. The
memoir concludes as it began. Claire attends advanced
meditation retreats and returns to her childhood home to
learn TM’s advanced meditation to fly, bouncing on high-
density foam. She experiences the inner bliss that initially
captivated her mother. However, she fails to mention the
$5,000 price tag for TM’s advanced flying program she does
22 ICSA TODAY
