What is it about?
The Transcendental Meditation movement bought a bankrupt Presbyterian college in Fairfield, Iowa, in the 1970s and established its own university and settled a community of about two thousand followers there. The movement transformed the town's culture, politics, and social life. Followers, however, have grayed, and the movement's numbers nationwide have dwindled. Transcendental Meditation leader Maharishi Mahesh Yogi died in 2008. Now, like many other Utopian communities before it, the Fairfield group faces possible extinction. I look at the impact the community has had and ponder its likely future.
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Why is it important?
Utopian communities have a long and rich history in America. The TM community in Fairfield, Iowa, offers us an opportunity to look closely at one such group in what seems likely to prove to be its waning days.
Perspectives
The TM community includes a fascinating group of idealists. Studying them offers great insights into Utopianism and the perils and satisfactions of attaching oneself to such a group.
Professor Joseph Weber
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Transcendental Meditation and the Remaking of an Iowa Farm Town, Utopian Studies, October 2014, The Pennsylvania State University Press,
DOI: 10.5325/utopianstudies.25.2.0341.
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