CultNEWS101 Articles: 3/16/2026
Patrick Ryan
Sarito Carroll talks with Laural Porter about the abuse she suffered as a child at Rajneeshpuram, the commune in central Oregon, in the early 1980s.
Coffee Talk with ADIKA: My Love Affair with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi! The Untold Story
"Author, Judith Bourque - Robes of Silk Feet of Clay: The True Story of a Love Affair With Beatles Guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Order the prizewinning audiobook here and receive a link to all of the printed book's photos: www.robesofsilkfeetofclay.com
In this book Judith Bourque describes the unexpected love affair that developed with Maharishi when she went to India as a young woman to become a teacher of Transcendental Meditation.
As of member of Maharishi's inner circle, she then traveled with him around the world for two years. When she eventually discovered that he was also intimate with other young women and she decided to leave him and the TM movement forever. She also shares the methods and means that took her from fear and disillusionment back to forgiveness and gratitude."
"'The Deceptive World of Transcendental Meditation - The Cult of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi' is a critical commentary on the ways in which the Transcendental Meditation (TM) organisation has deceived their customers and followers since the 1960s, when the group’s leader, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (also known as the Giggling Guru), became a prominent figure in the world of spirituality after attracting renowned celebrities like The Beatles to study with him.
The video explains how the Transcendental Meditation organisation (a.k.a TMO) targets children, sells products that fail to deliver on their promises, and attempts to gain scientific respectability by distorting research protocols and results. There’s a very good argument to be made that Maharishi was a con artist; a fraud, and his organisation’s science was - and remains - shabby at best (especially where the “Maharishi effect” is concerned).
Information is also given about the potentially negative side effects the meditation practice can have on people’s mental health if it is over-indulged in, and the question of whether TM is a religion or not is explored in the closing section.
Although many people fail to recognise it, Transcendental Meditation is a cult. People who’ve learned TM often dispute this fact because they’ve only encountered the public-facing side of the TM movement, hich is strictly intent on selling the Transcendental Meditation product. Those who seek to engage with the deeper levels of the organisation (by studying within Maharishi’s educational systems, becoming teachers or taking additional — and very expensive — courses) experience a very different world; an arguably crazy and highly deceptive one.
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