Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions - James Randi [59]
In reply, I received yet another paper from another learned man who went on at length not about the reference I made to the levitation but about the similarity between the claims of the Maharishi and observations made by the ancient Greek philosophers. And along with all this was the same paper I'd referred to, with various passages underlined in blue pencil. Nowhere in the reply was an answer to my question. Instead, I was shunted off to an obscure man in Switzerland who could perhaps "further [my] understanding." No, thanks. I have now attained a state of Complete Understanding of Transcendental Meditation. It is a pleasant state, not unlike pure bliss, in which one smiles knowingly, now fully aware that the Maharishi is a total put-on and his followers are deluded Dorothys tripping on down the Yellow Brick Road. No levitation, no walking through walls, no invisibility. Now, that's a comfort indeed. I need not fear that some nut will drift into my bathroom through the tiling, invisible and seated in a lotus position five feet off the ground.
Perhaps Jacobs grew weary of avoiding my questions, for I received a letter from one Orme-Johnson, Director of TM's International Center for Scientific Research, who informed me that now there are four stages to levitation. They are:
1. Shaking and Sweating (this I can manage)
2. Hopping Like a Frog (not so easy)
3. Walking on Cobwebs—Hovering
4. Flying—Complete Mastery of the Sky.
Previously, it was claimed there were only three stages. Shaking and Sweating had been left out. Thus, instead of having accomplished only one third of their objective, the TMers have now reached the halfway mark, just by redefining their goals. Great!
But I must admit, Orme-Johnson did directly answer my question. "We do not claim," he said, "that anyone is hovering in the air." Oh, yeah? Dr. Rabinoff claimed it. Orme-Johnson had better check with him. TMer Doug Henning claimed it, even maintaining that he'd heard the Maharishi had trained one chap to stay up several minutes! Most important of all, in a television interview the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi said that "thousands" had learned to do it. Either the director of the International Center for Scientific Research doesn't know his subject, or there is some fibbing going on.
And what about those highly publicized photos of your people in midair, smiling vacuously, Orme-Johnson? Nowhere do I see any acknowledgment that these are phony pictures, or photos of a girl bouncing on a mattress. The text invariably describes the act of levitation and advertises that it will be taught to the customers.
Doug Henning, the brilliant young magician who astonished Broadway audiences and then moved on to further triumphs in Las Vegas and on television, has been a devoted Transcendental Meditator for years. In response to a letter from me, he promised that as soon as he had mastered the levitation sidhi I would be the first one to see him do it. But disturbing developments have taken place of late. Although Henning had honestly said that he had never actually levitated—and I appreciated his candor—he had always claimed that every time he tried he "felt lighter." His nonmeditating friends joked, "It's because you don't eat!" (Henning is known to subsist on nuts and berries and such.) Behind the scenes at one of his recent TV appearances was a sign proclaiming NO LEVITATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION— another effort to make light of an aspect of Henning's total preoccupation with TM and associated miracles. Now, suddenly, it seems that Doug Henning has gotten carried away (so to