TM kids were told
they were enlightened and blessed by
karmically elevated birthright. As
adults, their ongoing bonds were
forged through shared secrets of
neglect and loss while their spiritually
devoted parents pursued mystical
goals. Like many idealized TM kids, Dan
grew up alternately globe-trotting
between his mother’s advanced
teacher-training courses with
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and
family-values midwestern roots. He
was equally at home in Wisconsin,
France, Holland, San Diego,
Switzerland, Kansas, India, Iowa,
Arizona, Florida, and Massachusetts.
Dan’s mother, Susan, was one of my
dearest friends. She and I met in 1979
when Maharishi called together several
thousand followers for his first World
Peace Assembly in Amherst,
Massachusetts. At that time Susan had
already divorced Dan’s father for a
deemed better-than-normal life. She
followed Maharishi’s directives and
remarried a Governor of the Age of
Enlightenment (title for a level of
mystical achievement in TM). When we
met, Dan was an adolescent, and his
youngest sister, Lara, floated inside
Susan’s womb. Later in Fairfield, Iowa,
teenage Dan played for hours with my
young sons. He called me his Mamma
Catena after his own mother passed
away.
“A gentle heart is tied
with an easy thread.”
—George Herbert
(1593–1633)
During her life, Susan’s magnanimity
graciously embraced everyone. Susan’s
idealistic devotion to Maharishi guided
the indoctrination of her children with
Maharishi’s teachings. As a TM Initiator,
and later a more advanced Governor of
the Age of Enlightenment, Susan’s
family was destined to bring heaven
on earth. Maharishi promised our
community would change the world.
In 1980 the TM community’s next
exciting global vortex sucked us in.
Susan and I traveled together to join
with a few thousand other devotees
from around the world in New Delhi,
India for Maharishi’s month-long First
International Vedic Science Course.
Between bouts of dysentery from
unsanitary food, she and I consoled
ourselves while our hearts longed for
our children in the United States of
America. On an overcrowded, dirty bus
amidst New Delhi’s diesel fumes, I
vowed never again to leave my child
for Maharishi’s dictates. Susan,
however, did not make that vow.
In 1983 Susan and her children
relocated to our TM community in
Fairfield, Iowa for social support after
another divorce. Her son, Dan,
integrated as an adolescent into
Maharishi International University’s
(MIU’s) Prep School.1 Susan trusted that
Maharishi’s enlightened education
would salvage her family.
Dan later lived with my ex-husband
and me for months when Susan
attended Maharishi’s advanced
programs in the Netherlands. It was
common practice for the community
to care for each other’s children when
parents traveled abroad for extended
time with Maharishi. Susan’s gift of
Dutch delft dishes from one such trip
hangs on my kitchen wall to
commemorate altruistic loved ones
who were lost to Maharishi’s whims.
In the private middle school Dan
publicly questioned Maharishi’s
promises that practicing TM for hours
daily would bring happiness, wealth,
health, and world peace without
action. Dan would not accept
“Maharishi says…” to be an adequate
answer for everything. MIU prep
school evicted Dan because he dared
to publicly question the guru, thus
denying him further higher knowledge
(TM’s term for mystical teachings).
When transferred to Fairfield’s public
schools in the mid-1980s, Dan was
taunted with the derogatory nickname
of ‘Ru, short for Guru, which Fairfield
locals applied to the exotic outsiders
who invaded their town.
As a marginalized teen, Dan
sometimes appeared at my family’s
doorstep rather than attend school.
“What will I tell your mother about
sheltering you as a truant?” I objected.
Dan answered with a smile, “She’d
prefer me to be here with you, rather
than getting stoned on the streets
somewhere.” He earned entry to my
home.
Susan’s Dutch delft dishes in the author’s
home commemorate loved ones lost to
Maharishi.
they were enlightened and blessed by
karmically elevated birthright. As
adults, their ongoing bonds were
forged through shared secrets of
neglect and loss while their spiritually
devoted parents pursued mystical
goals. Like many idealized TM kids, Dan
grew up alternately globe-trotting
between his mother’s advanced
teacher-training courses with
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and
family-values midwestern roots. He
was equally at home in Wisconsin,
France, Holland, San Diego,
Switzerland, Kansas, India, Iowa,
Arizona, Florida, and Massachusetts.
Dan’s mother, Susan, was one of my
dearest friends. She and I met in 1979
when Maharishi called together several
thousand followers for his first World
Peace Assembly in Amherst,
Massachusetts. At that time Susan had
already divorced Dan’s father for a
deemed better-than-normal life. She
followed Maharishi’s directives and
remarried a Governor of the Age of
Enlightenment (title for a level of
mystical achievement in TM). When we
met, Dan was an adolescent, and his
youngest sister, Lara, floated inside
Susan’s womb. Later in Fairfield, Iowa,
teenage Dan played for hours with my
young sons. He called me his Mamma
Catena after his own mother passed
away.
“A gentle heart is tied
with an easy thread.”
—George Herbert
(1593–1633)
During her life, Susan’s magnanimity
graciously embraced everyone. Susan’s
idealistic devotion to Maharishi guided
the indoctrination of her children with
Maharishi’s teachings. As a TM Initiator,
and later a more advanced Governor of
the Age of Enlightenment, Susan’s
family was destined to bring heaven
on earth. Maharishi promised our
community would change the world.
In 1980 the TM community’s next
exciting global vortex sucked us in.
Susan and I traveled together to join
with a few thousand other devotees
from around the world in New Delhi,
India for Maharishi’s month-long First
International Vedic Science Course.
Between bouts of dysentery from
unsanitary food, she and I consoled
ourselves while our hearts longed for
our children in the United States of
America. On an overcrowded, dirty bus
amidst New Delhi’s diesel fumes, I
vowed never again to leave my child
for Maharishi’s dictates. Susan,
however, did not make that vow.
In 1983 Susan and her children
relocated to our TM community in
Fairfield, Iowa for social support after
another divorce. Her son, Dan,
integrated as an adolescent into
Maharishi International University’s
(MIU’s) Prep School.1 Susan trusted that
Maharishi’s enlightened education
would salvage her family.
Dan later lived with my ex-husband
and me for months when Susan
attended Maharishi’s advanced
programs in the Netherlands. It was
common practice for the community
to care for each other’s children when
parents traveled abroad for extended
time with Maharishi. Susan’s gift of
Dutch delft dishes from one such trip
hangs on my kitchen wall to
commemorate altruistic loved ones
who were lost to Maharishi’s whims.
In the private middle school Dan
publicly questioned Maharishi’s
promises that practicing TM for hours
daily would bring happiness, wealth,
health, and world peace without
action. Dan would not accept
“Maharishi says…” to be an adequate
answer for everything. MIU prep
school evicted Dan because he dared
to publicly question the guru, thus
denying him further higher knowledge
(TM’s term for mystical teachings).
When transferred to Fairfield’s public
schools in the mid-1980s, Dan was
taunted with the derogatory nickname
of ‘Ru, short for Guru, which Fairfield
locals applied to the exotic outsiders
who invaded their town.
As a marginalized teen, Dan
sometimes appeared at my family’s
doorstep rather than attend school.
“What will I tell your mother about
sheltering you as a truant?” I objected.
Dan answered with a smile, “She’d
prefer me to be here with you, rather
than getting stoned on the streets
somewhere.” He earned entry to my
home.
Susan’s Dutch delft dishes in the author’s
home commemorate loved ones lost to
Maharishi.
