Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!rochester!cornell!uw-beaver!tikal!phred!daveh
From: daveh@phred.UUCP (Dave Hampton)
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: Re: Transedental Meditation....
Message-ID: <2182@phred.UUCP>
Date: 27 Apr 88 15:24:12 GMT
References: <1126@maccs.UUCP> <995@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk>
Reply-To: daveh@phred.UUCP (Dave Hampton)
Organization: Physio-Control Corp, Redmond, WA
Lines: 35

In article <995@crete.cs.glasgow.ac.uk> jack@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) writes:

>The Maharishi's latest product line is a "Unified Field Theory". I would be
>mildly curious to know what this is but have no intention of spending time
>or money finding out.

   A year ago, when I was working for a group which makes EEG Mapping devices,
we got a call from the folks at MIU in the midwest (the Maharishi International
University).  They were preparing for a big demonstration of levitation on
the fourth of July of last year, in which they were going to show the world
press how they could levitate.  They were interested in measuring brain-wave
coherence during flight as a way of "objectively" demonstrating the altered
mental state.

   We sent a mapping unit out to Washington, DC, for the demo, and I later
saw the result on the evening news and in Newsweek.  Essentially, while in
a cross-legged position, they pushed down hard with their knees and popped
into the air briefly.  (This made it very hard to keep the electrodes on;
I don't think that the EEG portion of the demo went very well...).  I
talked with the researcher at the University afterwards, and he said it
was a great success, because (1) The theory that they used predicted that
they woould hop as a prelude to flying, and (2) They actually were flying
(levitating) for a moment during the hop.

   I try to be open-minded about things, but from what I saw and what I
read in the scientific reprints that they sent, I'm not nearly convinced...

      -- Dave Hampton


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