Group's Plan Causes Tension in Kan. Town

[Judi Lynn]

Group's Plan Causes Tension in Kan. Town
By CARL MANNING
Associated Press Writer

June 7, 2006, 2:09 PM EDT

SMITH CENTER, Kan. -- Supporters of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi see his Transcendental Meditation movement as fostering world harmony. But in this farm town in the heart of the heartland, the movement's plans to build its "World Capital of Peace" here are creating more tension than tranquility.

Folks became alarmed when the outsiders bought up large tracts of land. Nine local pastors warned the movement that it is encroaching on their spiritual turf. And when a TM representative started throwing around terms at a meeting like "waves of coherence" and "silent zero point," the farmers just shook their heads.

"It hasn't split the community, but it has caused a lot of tension," said Mayor Randy Archer. "We're an older community, and new things that come to town are scary for some people."

The TM movement -- whose founder, the Maharishi, was the Beatles' guru -- has announced plans to spend $15 million to build a dozen marble "peace palaces" facing east in Smith County. Because TM's practitioners want to disperse "waves of coherence" as widely as possible to influence others, they chose a spot just 10 miles west of the geographic center of the Lower 48 states.
(snip/...)

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-transcendental-tension,0,2350712.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines



Furriners. Run away! Run away!

[Catch22Dem]

1. "spiritual turf?" WTF is that?

However, couldn't that money be put to better use than building marble palaces?

[KansDem]

2. "Kansas: As Bigoted As You Think"

Eric Michener, who works as project coordinator out of a storefront office on Main Street, conceded his group, the nonprofit Maharishi-affiliated Global Country of World Peace, probably could have made a better first impression.

"I don't think we've run into this vibrant level of misunderstanding before," he said.

Just how long have you lived in Kansas, Eric?

[atommom]

3. Please build the palaces. We REALLY need those waves of coherence!

And maybe this will help people see the folly of their fears, when the world doesn't end, the milk doesn't sour, and the children are not born with horns.

[stevedeshazer]

4. Kansans oughtta go after Fred Phelps instead of the Maharishi followers

Just a thought. :grr:

[Javaman]

5. "new things that come to town are scary for some people."

A bigot by any other name...