Here’s a good Interview With Mike Love of the Beach Boys posted May 29, 2012 on Stories of Success. He discusses how the band was formed, his creative output as a singer/songwriter, their stages of success, the impact of drugs and alcohol on their lives and careers, and more.
At about the 9:55 mark, Mike is asked the question of what kept him from getting caught up in drugs and alcohol, and the responsibility he had of acting as a role model. He answers by talking about his TM practice, how he was personally instructed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and later invited to join The Beatles and Donovan in Rishikesh. He continued with a discussion on karma and the results of our actions, why people choose to abuse drink and drugs and how different people react, finding one’s dharma or what you’re meant to do and enjoy doing the most, and persevering to fulfill your chosen career path. The video is posted on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/43009744.
See this great article, Mike Love, Not War, written by Virginia McEvilley for the Iowa Source when The Beach Boys came to Fairfield, Iowa for an outdoor Labor Day concert, sponsored by the David Lynch Foundation, on Monday, September 7, 2009.
Dennis Raimondi, Burt Chojnowski, and KRUU-FM station manager James Moore enjoy a short visit with CNN’s Candy Crowley. She was in Fairfield, Iowa to deliver the Commencement Address at Maharishi University of Management, May 26, 2012. (Photo taken by Ken Chawkin)
Dennis mentions that Candy was one of the first to make it possible for other women to become broadcast journalists. She thanks him for that observation, if it is true, but did not set out to purposefully make that happen. With television being a visual medium, she says, “I’m clearly not the 20-something blonds that are currently on TV. But you can do it your way, you can be who you are, and do what you want. You might have to work a little harder, you might have to be that much better. … You have to be so good at what you do that they can’t ignore you.”
Candy told Burt she had lived in Iowa before, in Des Moines, for 5 years, and could probably see herself living here in Fairfield. She said, stepping off the plane, you can really feel yourself breathing deeply, for the first time. Burt asked Candy what she would say to women in third-world countries to inspire them to become leaders. She said the best leaders, not the ones that got the most votes, but the ones who did something, are the best listeners. “A leader has to be able to take the hopes and desires of the people looking to him or her and make it into reality. Well, what’s the first step of that—what are those hopes and desires? The leaders listen first, and if you skip that step, you’re never gonna be a leader.” Speaking of leaders, a big thank you to Bob Roth for listening and bringing Candy Crowley into the studio despite her tight schedule!
Greenhouses at Maharishi University KTVO’s Kate Allt
FAIRFIELD, IOWA — The cafeteria at Maharishi University is like no other dining hall on any campus in the country. Every meal is vegetarian and organic, and many of the ingredients are grown right on campus by students and staff.
Ayurvedic food preparation, which pays particular attention to seasonal foods, is a growing trend and the roots of the movement are planted in the greenhouses at Maharishi University.
“This greenhouse has been here since 2004; we put it up,” said Steve McLaskey, Director of the Maharishi organic farm. “The university had been organic – the food service had been organic for quite a number of years before that and then in 2003, they decided to take the next step and grow as much of their own food as possible.”
Maharishi’s greenhouse is the first of its size to grow crops year-round in a cold climate. The students and staff who work with the plants have learned much more than identifying a cucumber from a zucchini.
“I get a lot of satisfaction out of growing good produce and providing it to the university,” McLaskey said. “We also sell at the Golden Dome market, the little market on campus, and at the farmer’s market, and I get a lot of comments from customers who appreciate the quality, the freshness.
“When we’re eating good food, then the action that happens from putting good things in is more directed and its more focused,” said Molly Haviland, a MUM student. “So it goes along with the principle of do less, accomplish more.”
James Gavin, a worker at the greenhouse, said he has learned so much from working at the greenhouse and it has improved his quality of life.
“This greenhouse is a real opportunity for all of us… and for the county, I think,” he said.
“I really encourage everyone to grow their own garden and to look up alternative methods of making sure everything is natural, no chemicals, and everything like that,” said student Sultan Salah. “So I would say the experience of working with fresh vegetables is probably the best experience.”
“We grow some of the tastiest vegetables there are,” said Edward Hipp, another greenhouse worker. “When its fresh off the plant, it doesn’t get much better than that.”
Then – fresh off the plant – the food goes to the Maharishi kitchens, where vegetarian, organic recipes and Ayurvedic methods are utilized.
“We’re trying to keep all the Ayurvedic guidelines in touch with the recipes so that it still tastes really good for everybody,” said Sharon Stinogel, Maharishi Executive Chef. “So it’s kind of a challenge, but it’s fun.”
“Since we’ve arrived here at Maharishi, we’ve shared the fact that organic and vegetarian is out there,” said Ken Zimmerman, food service director at Aladdin Food Management Services. “There’s a lot of our accounts that do offer organic vegetarian but not on a wide range like we do here in Fairfield.”
The cafeteria serves 800 to 1,000 people a day and after the meal, the leftover food is collected to be turned into compost, completing the cycle back to the earth.
In my book, THE RELUCTANT VEGETARIAN, I make the point that it’s ever more important to eat organic than it is to be a vegetarian, but at the MUM cafeteria, where I love to go to eat, we can have it all. Good food, safe food, and good company. I love MUM!
Kelsey Minor visits Maharishi School for a special report on Fairfield Iowa’s Key to Education Success, on FOX 28 News at Nine and CBS 2 News at Ten, May 17, 2012.
Tiffany O’Donnell: On the surface it looks just like any other Iowa town square, but if you look a little closer, you’ll find it’s international flare.
Jack Miller: And that’s not the only reason people are flocking to Fairfield. It’s the center of a meditation movement. And our Kelsey Minor spent some time there to uncover the big mystery behind how meditating is helping the people there thrive. Kelsey?
Kelsey Minor: I know Tiffany’s excited about it; she’s been there. Jack, you need to get there.
You don’t often hear of Iowa being associated with meditation, but it’s happening right here in Eastern Iowa, and it’s in the process of shaping some of our state’s youngest minds, as well as the minds of Fairfield’s leaders.
FAIRFIELD, IA (KGAN/KFXA) — Tucked deep in Iowa’s flatland, among the barns and fields, is one of the 12 great places Mother Earth News says you’ve probably never been. It’s Fairfield, Iowa, and something’s been happening in this city of 95-hundred, a mystery, until now.
“Trust me, we want to get the secret out. We’d love for people to come and discover our community. We believe that’s happening now,” says Mayor Ed Malloy.
This small place, less than a two-hour drive away from Cedar Rapids, has its international flavor with its Indian restaurants and Italian coffee houses. But that’s not the mystery. I have to bring you here, to the Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment, where for nearly four decades, the simple act of meditating, twice a day, everyday, has attracted all sorts of people, including the students in this private school.
“We’ve been the kind of pioneering or flagship school for this approach we call Consciousness-Based education,” says Head of School, Dr. Richard Beall.
It’s like any other college prep school across the State of Iowa but here the students, faculty, and staff all take time to practice Transcendental Meditation or T-M.
“So we are taking a significant amount of time in the morning and afternoon, bookends, before and after school, to practice meditation and yoga, so that our kids when they go into the classroom are wide awake,” Beall said.
Those 20 minutes, says school officials, rids everyone of stress making it easy to learn and perform better.
“Of course there are cynics out there who may say that this doesn’t work, and your argument against that would be what,” CBS 2’s Kelsey Minor asked.
“We kind of welcome skepticism because you can put it to the test and I think it stands up really well,” says Beall.
And so far it has. This consciousness-based learning helps send more than 95 percent of its seniors to top colleges and universities across the country. They always score in the top one percent in Iowa’s standardized test, not to mention the top honors in Math, Science, the Arts, and Sports.
“All that’s evidence that something good is happening here,” says Beall.
But this isn’t just a school thing. Roughly 25 percent of Fairfield’s population practices TM, including Mayor Ed Malloy who’s been practicing for 38 years.
“The science shows that there is an influence of reduction of crime and stress,” says Malloy.
A town that takes TM seriously.
“You have arrived right when people are first arriving for their meditation,” says resident Jim Mayhew.
Each day between four and five o’clock the cars and the people start to arrive, joining together in large numbers for meditation groups. This is the end result of that rush hour traffic—a parking lot full of cars, their owners meditating inside these golden domes. It’s a town like no other, and the people who practice TM say what they do inside these domes helps create change. And it all started here, at the school where consciousness-based learning is helping to shape tomorrow’s leaders.
“They say it takes a village to raise a child and I couldn’t imagine a better village,” says student Caroline Fulcher.
(A great village it is indeed.) Now Transcendental Meditation has become so popular that other schools across the country are now implementing the program for its students. As for Fairfield, there’s plenty to do there, and if you haven’t been already, they sure would like to see you.
In the studio, Kelsey Minor, FOX 28 News at Nine/CBS 2 News.
South Asians are becoming painfully aware of the high incidence of heart attacks, often fatal, frequently among seemingly healthy, trim, and physically active close family & friends.
The South Asian Heart Center (SAHC) at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, California has developed a four-pronged approach to prevent and successfully manage heart disease among men and women of South Asian descent living and working in America. Here is an introduction to their work presented by Executive Director Ashish Mathur, and SAHC Medical Director Cesar Molina, MD, FACC: South Asian Heart Center Helps South Asians Fight Heart Disease.
In this fourth of a four-part series on Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes Dr. Molina focuses on the importance of deep rest and its effect on heart-health and diabetes. He specifically covers the importance of meditation (or restful alertness) on longevity and health, and the science behind the effective technique of Transcendental Meditation (TM), which produces a “hypo-metabolic state of restful alertness.” Learn the evidence on the profound impact of this unique form of meditation on a whole class of chronic ailments. This is a very clear and comprehensive presentation!
At 26:26 of Part 4, Dr. César Molina begins talking about resting while awake with Transcendental Meditation and how it impacts our health, especially for South Asians and their propensity toward heart disease. One of the therapeutic modalities from the South Asian Heart Center is Transcendental Meditation as a stress-reduction technique. Dr. Molina reviews his talk starting at 56:18. He summarizes the lifestyle methodology to prevent heart disease and enhance longevity at the South Asian Heart Center: nutrition, physical activity, the importance of restful sleep, and the importance and benefit for stress reduction through Transcendental Meditation decreasing cardiovascular risk factors, decreasing hospital expenditures and admissions, and enhancing longevity.
Dr. César Molina presents Wednesday Lunch-hour Webinar Series TLC: Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes. Here are the 4 topics where you can download the video and a PDF of the main points and graphs for each talk. The recommendations can be applied to all Americans regardless of ethnicity or geographical location.
Here is a partial transcription of Olivia’s acceptance speech. Very beautiful and wise! Olivia is an exceptional person!
Here I go again. I can talk about George, you know, forever. But uh, I won’t. There was a quote by the Indian poet Tagore that George read to me one day. He said, “Blessed is he whose fame does not outshine his truth.” And here we are in the Hall of Fame. But the inductees are not chosen because of their fame, but because they expressed their truth through their music. George said that he tried to write songs that would, uh, still mean something years from now. And I think it’s safe to say that in spite of his immense fame his truth will never be out-shined or forgotten. (applause) Good.
Olivia went on to say that had George been there that night he would have thanked a lot of people. But she did thank one person in the room that George knew the longest in his life—”someone who looked after him, and all of them, from the time they were 13, for George, the end of his life, and that’s the mysterious Neil Aspinall.” And she thanked Neil for holding it together, otherwise the phenomenon (of the Beatles) might not have happened or stayed together as long as it did.
See George Harrison – The Last Performance (John Fugelsang), a rare and wonderful interview on VH1, where George and Ravi Shankar came in to talk about an album he had produced called, Chants of India. George also talked about a concert he gave for the Natural Law Party, and the need to educate students on how to raise their consciousness. He answered questions about his concert for Bangladesh, the first benefit concert of its kind; and how he introduced the Beatles to Transcendental Meditation when they met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who was going to be speaking at the Hilton Hotel. He unexpectedly played some music, including a new song, Any Road, with the line, “If you don’t know where you’re going any road will take you there,” which came out on his posthumous album, Brainwashed.
I later found this sweet video clip of George posted Nov 29, 2019 by @GeorgeHarrison, the official Twitter feed for the Estate of George Harrison, on the 18th anniversary of his passing. Olivia Harrison described that moment: “There was a profound experience that happened when he left his body. It was visible. Let’s just say, you wouldn’t need to light the room, if you were trying to film it. He just…lit the room.” George was a great soul and we remember him today with much love and affection.
On Sunday Night, February 5, 2012, Channel 7 reporter Ross Coulthart conducted an exclusive interview with Ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney for Channel Seven’s Sunday Night. Besides talking about his latest CD, Kisses on the Bottom, Paul answered questions about his earlier days in the Beatles and visit to Australia, his music, and his wives.
Speaking of Paul’s wives, here’s something I caught by surprise on YouTube while watching Paul McCartney on Ellen recorded November 2005—Nancy Shevell in the audience! Paul was still married to Heather Mills at the time. The lady in the front row audience shots 0:22–0:25, and 5:15–5:16 definitely looks like her.
According to Wiki, McCartney started dating Shevell in November 2007, before he finalized his divorce with Heather Mills. But this show was taped 2 years earlier in Nov 2005. Wonder if they knew each other back then, if she actually met Paul back in 2005 on the Ellen show? If not, 2 years seem to have passed until they started dating. Either way, it’s kind of prophetic! They announced their engagement three and half years later on 6 May 2011, and were married after five months on 9 October 2011. This one looks like a keeper. We wish them both much happiness. I especially love the beautiful song Paul wrote for Nancy, which they danced to on their wedding night, My Valentine.
Here’s an online streaming event with Donovan and Deepak talking about the old days with Maharishi, Transcendental Meditation, The Beatles, and the music from the 60’s. Thanks to Linda, Donovan’s wife and muse, for suggesting Donovan be on this special event: http://livestre.am/1IWyp on abc carpet & home via @livestream.
Here’s a recently produced inspiring 7-minute video showing the benefits of the Quiet Time program for students, teachers, and administrators at Visitation Valley Middle School, and other schools in the San Francisco Unified School District in California. Principal James Dierke and Superintendent Carlos Garcia are featured.
This new video beautifully encapsulates Dr. Tony Nader’s paradigm-changing discovery. He shared these profound details with an audience during one of the first New Paradigm Tour events. He explained how, under the guidance and blessings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, he discovered that the sounds of the Veda and Vedic Literature, and their architectural design, are actually structured in the human physiology. He described it as “a tremendous enlightening discovery.”
As a scientist, Dr. Nader said the Ramayana was a scientific treatise on the human physiology, “a precise scientific description of how our body works, how our body evolves” towards enlightenment. Dr. Nader shows events that take place in the story of the Ramayana and what they mean in terms of the growing and evolving human physiology. “Now we know we truly are wholeness.”
This video was published today, May 1, 2012, on the Tony Nader M.D. YouTube channel. You’ll also notice other videos listed there of Dr. Nader answering questions on this topic. But this clip was taken from an actual presentation in the early part of the tour, which began in California. More videos from the tour will be added as time allows.
Some relevant quotes by famous scientists on changing paradigms
All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them. — Galileo Galilei (1564–1642)
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. — Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
A scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it. — Max Planck (1858-1947)
I love MUM!
The Uncarved Blog 