Posts Tagged ‘Fairfield Iowa’

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The Smithsonian’s 20 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2013. Fairfield, Iowa is in the Top 10 (No. 7)

March 23, 2013

Best-Small-Towns-Illustration-631

The 20 Best Small Towns to Visit in 2013

What makes a small town big on culture? For the second year running, we sought a statistical answer to this question by asking the geographic information company Esri to search its databases for small towns and cities—this time, with populations of less than 15,000—that have exceptional concentrations of museums, art galleries, orchestras, theaters, historic sites and other cultural blessings.

Happily, the top towns also boast heartwarming settings where the air is a little fresher, the grass greener, the pace gentler than in metropolitan America. Generally, they’re devoted to preserving their historic centers, encouraging talent and supporting careful economic growth. There’s usually an institution of higher learning, too.

Most important are the people, unpretentious people with small-town values and high cultural expectations—not a bad recipe for society at large. As a sign on a chalkboard in Cleveland, Mississippi (our No. 2), puts it, “Be nice. The world is a small town.”

Best-Small-Towns-Fairfield-IA-praying-large

Maharishi Patanjali Golden Dome (© Charles Ledford)

7. Fairfield, IA

Fairfield sits in an undulating landscape with farmhouses, silos, barns and plenty of sky. A railroad track runs through town and there’s a gazebo on the square. You have to stick around to learn about things you’d never find in Grant Wood’s American Gothic, like the preference for east-facing front doors. That’s the orientation prescribed by Transcendental Meditation movement founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, whose followers went looking for a place to start a university and landed in the cornfields of southeast Iowa.

The Maharishi University of Management now offers B.A.’s in 13 fields, among them Vedic science and sustainable living. With students riding bikes and plugged into iPods, it looks like any other college campus, except for twin gold-domed buildings where practitioners gather to meditate twice a day.

Fairfield could stand as a case study from The Rise of the Creative Class, Richard Florida’s book on the link between educated populations and economic development. Fairfield got the one when the college opened its golden domes, drawing accomplished people who saw its sweetness; it got the other when they started dreaming up ways to stay. “Everyone who arrived had to reinvent themselves to survive,” said mayor (and meditator) Ed Malloy.

The economy started perking in the 1980s with e-commerce and dot-coms, earning Fairfield the name “Silicorn Valley,” then launched start-ups devoted to everything from genetic crop-testing to investment counseling. Organic farmer Francis Thicke keeps the radio in his barn tuned to Vedic music; his Jerseys must like it because everyone in town says that Radiance Dairy milk is the best thing in a bottle.

But there’s more than mellow. The new Maasdam Barns Museum, with buildings from a farm that raised mighty Percheron horses, displays agricultural machines made by the local Louden Company. A walking tour passes the rock-solid, Richardson Romanesque courthouse, a Streamline Moderne bank, Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired residences and myriad examples of Vedic architecture.

Artists and performers find they can afford to live in Fairfield. ICON, which specializes in regional contemporary art, joins galleries and shops in hosting a monthly art walk, featuring the work of some 300 local artists.

The striking new Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts welcomes acts from chamber groups to Elvis impersonators. The soon-to-open Orpheum Theater will offer something that is dying out in big cities—an art movie house.

Solar panels help banish electricity bills at Abundance Eco Village, an off-the-grid community on the edge of town. But it’s less about altruism than well-being in Fairfield. Take, for instance, the quiet zones, recently instituted at railroad crossings to silence incessant train whistles; newly planted fruit trees in city parks; and Fairfield’s all-volunteer, solar-powered radio station, producing 75 homegrown programs a year. “Fairfield,” says station manager James Moore, a poet, musician, tennis teacher and meditator, “is one of the deepest small ponds you’ll find anywhere.”

Visit an interactive map at the end of the Fairfield article on the Smithsonian site and click on the pins for photos and more information.

Related news coverage: Fairfield Ledger: Smithsonian Magazine names Fairfield 7th best small town in America to visit. KTVO: Fairfield makes Top 10 in list of small towns to visit. Des Moines Register: Iowa town ranks No. 7 on list of Best Small Towns to Visit.

Here is a scan of part of the two-page spread in the print edition of the Smithsonian magazine. At the top is a wonderful photo Charles “Stretch” Ledford took inside Café Paradiso of the mural in the background and a couple having coffee in the foreground. The head covering and look on the face of the lady at the table matches the shawl covering the head of the female artist in the mural behind her. They share the same sideways glance to the left, and even share the same orange color on their clothing! Stretch said: “I had my lens trained on her and kept the composition for at least 10 minutes, probably 15 +, waiting for her to turn just the right way.  I have about a dozen or so shots, but knew the winner would be when she turned.  Eventually she did, I was lucky enough to still have my finger on the shutter, and I made the shot.”

Smithsonian-Fairfield

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Posted in Architecture, Articles, Sustainable Living | 9 Comments »

Diane Vance and Norman Zierold discuss his new memoir, That Reminds Me, at Revelations Café

March 12, 2013
Norman Zierold, author of “That Reminds Me,” autographs one of his books for Peter Ecob Saturday at Revelations Café, after a book discussion. Freddy Fonseca, center, pushes in a chair after attending Zierold’s interview while Terry Weiss, seated, talks with others across the table.

Norman Zierold, author of “That Reminds Me,” autographs one of his books for Peter Ecob Saturday at Revelations Café, after a book discussion. Freddy Fonseca, center, pushes in a chair after attending Zierold’s interview while Terry Weiss, seated, talks with others across the table. Photo by Diane Vance

Fairfield author talks about recent work

By DIANE VANCE
Ledger staff writer
Tuesday, March 12, 2013

More than a dozen people attended a book discussion Saturday featuring Fairfield author Norman Zierold talking about his latest publication, “That Reminds Me.”

An Iowa native, born and raised in the Amana Colonies, Zierold has written and published eight books, but this latest, subtitled, “A Conversational Memoir,” comes 40 years after his seventh book, “Sex Goddesses of the Silent Screen.”

Those first seven books, beginning with “The Child Stars,” published in 1965, mostly deal with Zierold’s first-hand encounters, insights and research about authors, stars of stage and movies, his life and work in New York and Hollywood.

Zierold moved to Fairfield more than a decade ago and works at Maharishi University of Management.

“For about 50 years, people have said I should write a memoir,” he said. “I was always doing other things. I moved to Fairfield — though I’d been in and out of here before — and it took a couple years to begin writing.”

Having committed words to paper, he wasn’t sure how to get it all together in a readable fashion. He asked a co-worker and friend, Ken Chawkin, for help.

“Ken helped me get it all on my computer so I could manage it,” said Zierold.

“I always felt like I’d do a memoir; I knew I had one more book inside. Everyone has one book in them — everyone has ups and downs, traumas and experiences, and if presented well, it makes an interesting read. Everyone has a book,” he said.

So while Zierold happily drops names throughout his memoir, it is not about bragging or a “kiss-and-tell” expose.

Rather, Zierold keeps the little-boy wonder of the Iowa farm kid who spoke only German in his youngest years and relates everyday incidents, family dynamics and serendipitous meetings with the likes of Andy Warhol, Dylan Thomas, T.S. Eliot, E.E. Cummings, Anais Nin, Groucho Marx and many more.

Working for nearly a decade in New York City at Theatre Arts Magazine, Zierold’s job included interviewing Noel Coward and others, attending theatre productions and rubbing elbows with intellectuals, playwrights and celebrities at Sardis.

Even before his magazine job, his service to country and Navy uniform got him in to see performances of Ethel Merman, Edith Piaf and Mae West— including a back-stage meeting with her after the show.

Anthony Quinn hired Zierold to help him organize writing his autobiography. Part one took place around Los Angeles, with Quinn’s favorite retreat for working on his writing in California’s Death Valley. Part two took Zierold on a six-week encampment in Libya in 1979 while Quinn was shooting a movie on location in the Sahara Desert.

Zierold’s second book, “Little Charlie Ross,” published in 1967, is a true crime story about the first kidnapping for ransom in America in July 1874. His book landed Zierold an interview on the “Today Show” in New York, with Barbara Walters.

While studying for a master’s degree in English at the University of Iowa, Zierold was alone in a faculty lounge when the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas walked in.

“He was lecturing classes there for awhile, and he walks in and we have a visit, then I hear him again when he’s teaching the class,” said Zierold. “His reading of poetry is incomparable.”

Zierold is an avid reader. Before the book discussion began Saturday, he was perusing the biography bookshelves at Revelations Café while his audience gathered.

“I grew up reading, and especially liked Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway,” he said. “Now I read biographies.”

He refers to Voltaire and Henry James as other favorites.

“I would encourage anyone to write,” he said. “Writing has a rhythm. Write without censoring yourself. Put it all in — you can take it out later. But if you leave it out and think you’ll go back to put something in later, it can interrupt the flow and not fit. It’s much easier to take something out than add it later.”

“That Reminds Me,” is a memoir, but it is not written in a chronological fashion. Zierold “puts it all in there,” and lets it flow as a conversation with a friend — this thought leads to another topic; that incident reminds him of another story.

Reading the slim paperback gives a full glimpse of a life, as he wrote in Chapter Five: “These digestible portions of prose will add up in time to a fully drawn portrait, just you wait and see. It will be like nature’s unfolding of a rose, petal by petal.”

Zierold writes about cocktail parties and gala weekends spent at various friends homes, at the shore or in Mexico. He writes about eventually asking himself if getting high, waking with hangovers and being witty at parties is all there is?

He relocates from L.A. to nearby-but-a-different-world, Laguna Beach. He describes the town’s peacefulness and incomparable beauty and power of the Pacific Ocean.

He sees a poster about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and decides to attend a meeting, where he meets young people who have learned Transcendental Meditation. At age 45, Zierold discerns meditation seemed to work for them, so he signs up to learn TM in 1972. It is a quiet, gradual transformation for Zierold that leads to transcendence, bliss and months of euphoria, then becoming a TM teacher himself. He adds more travels to his passport and continues learning.

One of the gems among the jewels in this book is Zierold’s story about his own father and their relationship as adults.

Zierold asks questions about life and offers some answers.

Posted with permission from The Fairfield Ledger. This article was featured prominently on the front and back pages.

Here’s an earlier announcement Diane Vance wrote Thursday, March 7 on the upcoming book discussion and signing at Revelations Café.

Author speaking about new book

Iowa native and Fairfield resident since 2002, Norman Zierold, will talk about his latest book, “That Reminds Me,” at 2 p.m. Saturday upstairs at Revelations Café in Fairfield.

Everyone is welcome to this meet-the-author session.

This is Zierold’s eighth book, which he’s subtitled, “A Conversational Memoir.” Reading it is nearly like having a conversation with him. He tells stories from his days of rubbing elbows with celebrities, including authors, artists, movie stars, Broadway stars, TV stars, news anchors and more.

Saturday provides an opportunity to have an actual conversation with Zierold. A time for questions and answers is planned.

Born and raised in the Amana Colonies, Zierold enlisted in the navy, graduated cum laude from Harvard and earned a master’s degree in English Literature at the University of Iowa.

He always wanted to write, but also travel, and he spent two years in France on a French Government Teaching Assistantship. After Paris, he spent a decade in New York City, teaching at Brearley School and working at Collier’s Encyclopedia before landing rewarding assignments with Theater Arts Magazine and Show.

His first book, “The Child Stars,” was published in 1965 and is available at the Fairfield Public Library. It features stories about the child stars of the 1920s and 1930s, including Shirley Temple, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland.

Other books followed: “Little Charlie Ross,” in 1967; “Three Sisters in Black,” in 1968, which won a Special Edgar Allen Poe Award; “The Moguls,” and “Garbo,” both in 1969; “The Skyscraper Doom,” in 1972; and “Sex Goddesses of the Silent Screen,” in 1973.

His books run the gamut of true crime novels, tales of Hollywood’s golden age in the 1940s and 1950s, and science fiction.

Posted with permission from The Fairfield Ledger.

For more information and other articles and interviews on Norman, see: That Reminds Me: A Conversational Memoir by Hollywood biographer Norman Zierold is now out! | Norman Zierold: Hollywood biographer, novelist, TM Teacher, member of Maharishi’s Purusha program, raconteur, publicist, beloved by all

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That Reminds Me: A Conversational Memoir by Hollywood biographer Norman Zierold is now out!

January 10, 2013

ThatRemindsMe Lynch quote

That Reminds Me is a conversational memoir by Hollywood biographer and award-winning author Norman Zierold. Rather than a chronology of his life, the author engages the reader in a conversational manner, relating various episodes from his life that come to mind, one triggering another. There’s never a dull moment!

Norman Zierold’s charmed life started humbly in the Amana Colonies of Iowa. All that changed after Norman joined the Navy. The war came to an end and Norman used the GI Bill of Rights to attend Harvard, where he graduated cum laude. He then earned a graduate degree in English Literature at the University of Iowa.

While looking for work he was given the opportunity to teach English in France. One of his jobs was enjoying English conversations with the son of the President of France. They even invited him to watch the coronation of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II on television at their personal residence. Other meetings with cultural luminaries ensued.

Upon Norman’s return to the States he headed for New York, where he worked his way up to becoming the editorial director of Theatre Arts Magazine. Eventually he went to Hollywood to fulfill his lifelong calling to become a writer and published several noted Hollywood biographies: The Child Stars, The Moguls: Hollywood’s Merchants of Myth, Garbo, Sex Goddesses of the Silent Screen; and two true-crime accounts, Little Charley Ross: The story of America’s first kidnapping for ransom, and Three Sisters in Black, which garnered a Special Edgar Allen Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He also wrote a science-fiction novel titled The Skyscraper Doom.

In the late 1960s, when Barbara Walters was an anchor on NBC’s Today Show, she interviewed Norman on his recently published book, Little Charley Ross. He describes a humorous account of what happened as they were preparing to go on air. Before the segment was about to begin Barbara was pressing her leg against Norman’s under the table in what seemed to him a suggestive fashion. He wondered if she might be coming on to him and didn’t know what to do. She asked him if he felt that, and he sheepishly said he did. She then explained that this was the signal for him to quickly finish his sentence during the interview so they could break for a commercial. Norman felt relieved. After the interview they had a private chat off camera about Judy Garland since Norman had written about her in The Child Stars, and Barbara’s then husband, Lee Guber, had produced one of Judy’s world tours. They had met and Judy’s issues about her mother came up. Barbara had her own opinion about Judy’s relationship with her mother, but you’ll have to read the book to find out what she said and Norman’s take on it.

In addition to Barbara Walters, Norman met many cultural icons of the day, like Andy Warhol, Shelley Winters, Anthony Quinn, Mae West, Groucho Marx, Roddy McDowall, Jackie Coogan, Rex Harrison, Anaïs Nin, Tennessee Williams, E.E. Cummings, Dylan Thomas, a president of France, the gifted composer Francis Poulenc, and TM founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, to mention a few. Anaïs mentioned Norman in her diary. Norman spent months with Anthony Quinn helping him edit down his thousand-page biography into something publishable. It did very well.

In the early 70’s Norman took up the practice of Transcendental Meditation. He found it so satisfying he became a teacher and taught the TM technique to several hundred people. Since 2002 he has been living in Fairfield, Iowa, and works in his retirement years as a part-time publicist in the communications office at Maharishi University of Management.

WHERE TO ORDER THAT REMINDS ME

Sit down with Norman Zierold and enjoy a fascinating conversation. Order copies of That Reminds Me from Amazon or Barnes & Noble in the US. Release date is January 12, 2013. Also available in Canada, the UK, Europe, Germany, Russia, and Brazil in paperback, and Amazon’s Kindle worldwide.

Cover design by George Foster, front cover photo by Mary Drew, and interior design by Allen Cobb for Anapurna Press.

ARTICLES

Diane Vance interviewed Norman Zierold at Revelations Café for The Fairfield Ledger, which came out March 12, 2013: Fairfield author talks about recent work. In case you can’t access the full article online you can see what it looks like here: Fairfield author talks about recent work – By DIANE VANCE – Fairfield, IA – Fairfield Ledger. I also posted it here: Diane Vance and Norman Zierold discuss his new memoir, That Reminds Me, at Revelations Café.

Tony Ellis wrote a feature article in the March 2013 issue of The Iowa Source, Iowa’s Enlightening Magazine: Norman Zierold: A Charmed Life: Celebrated Hollywood Author Reminisces on Six Decades of Extraordinary Encounters. You can also download a PDF of the article on Norman Zierold as it appears in The Iowa Source.

An edited version of Tony’s article later appeared in Britain’s National Transcendental Meditation Magazine—Transcendental Meditation News • June 2013 • Vol. 19 • No. 7 • Pages 12 and 13, titled, The Hollywood Biographer Who Found Bliss (Page 7 of PDF).

British writer & editor, Julie Eagleton also reviewed That Reminds Me by Norman Zierold.

Here’s a great article about Norman Zierold in The Chronicle of Higher Education: Notes From Academe: The Spokesman Who Kept Calling.

Here’s a comprehensive article Norman Zierold wrote for Healthy Referral on THE REMARKABLE DAVID LYNCH FOUNDATION.

INTERVIEWS

Norman Zierold was interviewed by KMCD host Steve Smith for the MUM Spotlight show on January 10, 2013. Click here to listen. (17:23)

Norman Zierold will be interviewed on 100.1 FM KRUU in Fairfield. The show, Writers’ Voices, airs Friday, January 11, 2013, 1:00–2:00 p.m. CT, and replays Monday, January 14, 2013, 8:00–9:00 a.m. CT. Tune in: Listen Live.

This great description posted by host Monica Hadley says it all: From Iowa, Around the World, and Back Again with Norman Zierold. “That Reminds Me: A Conversational Memoir” by Norman Zierold, takes the reader on an exuberant journey, both outward and inward, from pre-Depression-era Iowa (the Amana Colonies), to Europe, NYC, Hollywood, and back again to Iowa (Fairfield, that is.) Join Writers’ Voices hosts Monica Hadley and Caroline Kilbourn to learn from Norman the inside stories that only the author of such Hollywood biographies as “Garbo”, “The Child Stars”, and “The Moguls” would know. How did a boy from the Amanas come to rub elbows with the rich and famous of the mid-20th century? And what brought him back to Iowa?

Update: If you missed it, the Writers’ Voices Archives now has Norman’s interview (59:51) posted there as well as on monicahadley’s Audio page. And KRUU station manager James Moore created a permanent link to the interview here: http://www.kruufm.com/node/14926. KRUU’s website was rebuilt. The interview is now posted on the Writers Voices website.

A third interview took place at a book signing in the Maharishi University of Management Library on Saturday afternoon, March 2, 2013. Rustin Larson talked with Norman Zierold about his conversational memoir, That Reminds Me. Download and enjoy this very entertaining interview. (87 MB) It’s now available on YouTube.

A fourth interview took place on KHOE, the MUM campus radio station. Author and M.U.M.: Publicist Norman Zierold, interviewed by Dean Cathy Gorini and station manager Stan Stansberry on his newly published book “That Reminds Me.” Listen online here: http://link.mum.edu/NormanZierold.

Stan says: [This is] “a real-life adventure conversational memoir by our esteemed Norman Zierold. [Norman takes us from] “his hometown Amana Colonies, to the U.S. Navy, to New York City, to Hollywood, to finding Transcendental Meditation, teaching TM, and to the campus of Maharishi University of Management. Along the way he interviewed and hob-nobbed with famous New York and Hollywood actors, writers and people like Barbara Walters.” mp3 63 min, 18MB.

Here is the latest interview on KRUU FM with Producer, Writer & Host, Cheryl Fusco Johnson of The Studio: Small Town Boy to Hollywood Biographer: Norman Zierold’s Memoir, THAT REMINDS ME, July 14+16, 2014. You can listen here at this archived link: The Studio – 20140715-Norman Zierold.

How did small-town Iowa boy Norman Zierold become a Hollywood biographer, recording the stories of movie moguls, child stars, and famous actors? Even more exciting than his tales about the many celebrities he’s encountered is Norman’s own story. Lucky us! Norman’s recorded his journey from shelling peas beside cooks in his family’s Amana colonies restaurant to rubbing knees with Barbara Walters on TV. This week on The Studio with Cheryl, Norman discusses the mentors and experiences that inspired his life choices. Learn about his life and about THAT REMINDS ME, his stream-of-consciousness memoir (and what a consciousness it is!), by tuning in to The Studio with Cheryl and Norman this week.

Enlightenment, The Transcendental Meditation Magazine, has posted an article on Norman in Issue 16 under My Story: From Utopia to Hollywood and Back. In this column meditators share their stories of how they started the Transcendental Meditation technique and what kinds of positive changes have occurred in their lives.

The book has been updated with chapter headings, a table of contents, and a list of praise for the book, including a cover quote from filmmaker David Lynch, which reads: “What a creative and entertaining way to tell a story of a life and a time! Congratulations, Norman — a thoroughly enjoyable and informative read.”

March 9, 2018: Remembering Norman Zierold: Hollywood biographer, novelist, TM Teacher, member of Maharishi’s Purusha program, raconteur, publicist, beloved by all.

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Posted in Audios, Writing | 11 Comments »

Here’s the WordPress.Com Annual Report for The Uncarved Blog. See 2012’s most popular posts.

December 30, 2012

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt:

19,000 people fit into the new Barclays Center to see Jay-Z perform. This blog was viewed about 62,000 times in 2012. If it were a concert at the Barclays Center, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

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Transcendental Meditation may reduce death, heart attack and stroke in heart patients—AHA

November 13, 2012

Meditation may reduce death, heart attack and stroke in heart patients

November 13, 2012

Study Highlights:

  • Twice-a-day Transcendental Meditation helped African Americans with heart disease reduce risk of death, heart attack and stroke.
  • Meditation helped patients lower their blood pressure, stress and anger compared with patients who attended a health education class.
  • Regular Transcendental Meditation may improve long-term heart health.

DALLAS, Nov. 13, 2012 — African Americans with heart disease who practiced Transcendental Meditation regularly were 48 percent less likely to have a heart attack, stroke or die from all causes compared with African Americans who attended a health education class over more than five years, according to new research published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Those practicing meditation also lowered their blood pressure and reported less stress and anger. And the more regularly patients meditated, the greater their survival, said researchers who conducted the study at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

Robert Schneider, M.D., director of the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention and dean of Maharishi College of Perfect Health in Fairfield, Iowa. Courtesy MAPI

“We hypothesized that reducing stress by managing the mind-body connection would help improve rates of this epidemic disease,” said Robert Schneider, M.D., lead researcher and director of the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention in Fairfield, Iowa. “It appears that Transcendental Meditation is a technique that turns on the body’s own pharmacy — to repair and maintain itself.”

For the study, researchers randomly assigned 201 people to participate in a Transcendental Meditation stress-reducing program or a health education class about lifestyle modification for diet and exercise.

  • Forty-two percent of the participants were women, average age 59, and half reported earning less than $10,000 per year.
  • Average body mass index was about 32, which is clinically obese.
  • Nearly 60 percent in both treatment groups took cholesterol-lowering drugs; 41 percent of the meditation group and 31 percent of the health education group took aspirin; and 38 percent of the meditation group and 43 percent of the health education group smoked.

Those in the meditation program sat with eyes closed for about 20 minutes twice a day practicing the technique, allowing their minds and bodies to rest deeply while remaining alert.

 Participants in the health education group were advised, under the instruction of professional health educators, to spend at least 20 minutes a day at home practicing heart-healthy behaviors such as exercise, healthy meal preparation and nonspecific relaxation.
Researchers evaluated participants at the start of the study, at three months and every six months thereafter for body mass index, diet, program adherence, blood pressure and cardiovascular hospitalizations. They found:
  • There were 52 primary end point events, which included death, heart attack or stroke. Of these, 20 events occurred in the meditation group and 32 in the health education group.
  • Blood pressure was reduced by 5 mm Hg and anger decreased significantly among Transcendental Meditation participants compared to controls.
  • Both groups showed beneficial changes in exercise and alcohol consumption, and the meditation group showed a trend towards reduced smoking. Although, there were no significant differences between the groups in weight, exercise or diet.
  • Regular meditation was correlated with reduced death, heart attack and stroke.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. Death from heart disease is about 50 percent higher in black adults compared to whites in the United States. Researchers focused on African Americans because of health disparities in America.

“Transcendental Meditation may reduce heart disease risks for both healthy people and those with diagnosed heart conditions,” said Schneider, who is also dean of Maharishi College of Perfect Health in Fairfield, Iowa.

“The research on Transcendental Meditation and cardiovascular disease is established well enough that physicians may safely and routinely prescribe stress reduction for their patients with this easy to implement, standardized and practical program,” he said.

Co-authors are: Theodore Kotchen, M.D.; John W. Salerno, Ph.D.; Clarence E. Grim, M.D.; Sanford I. Nidich, Ed.D.; Jane Morley Kotchen, M.D., M.P.H.; Maxwell V. Rainforth, Ph.D.; Carolyn Gaylord-King, Ph.D.; and Charles N. Alexander, Ph.D. Author disclosures are available on the manuscript.

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute funded the study.

Follow @HeartNews on Twitter for the latest heart and stroke news.

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Statements and conclusions of study authors published in American Heart Association scientific journals are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the association’s policy or position. The association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. The association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific association programs and events. The association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations are available at www.heart.org/corporatefunding .

Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. 2012; 5: 750-758. Published online before print November 13, 2012, doi: 10.1161/ CIRCOUTCOMES.112.967406. November 2012 issue. Stress Reduction in the Secondary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease: Randomized, Controlled Trial of Transcendental Meditation and Health Education in Blacks. Abstract | Full Text | PDF

Also posted on EurekAlert! http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-11/aha-mmr110812.php

Also see: Transcendental Meditation May Lower Heart Risk: WebMD Heart Disease Health Center

Science Codex: Meditation may reduce death, heart attack and stroke in heart patients

Meditation could slash the risk of heart attack and stroke (and make you less angry) — Daily Mail

TIME Strongest Study Yet Shows Meditation Can Lower Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke

Excellent article by Tom Jacobs on Meditation: Strong Preventative Medicine for Heart Patients

AHA Newsletter: News from the Heart: Update from CEO Nancy Brown for AHA Volunteers (11/15/12) features Dr. Schneider’s study, “meditation reduces cardiovascular risk”

And many major articles around the world, including reports by CNN, CBS, ABC, and NBC.

I also included a review of some of the global news coverage and the report in our university paper the Review: New Study Shows Reduced Mortality, Heart Attack, Stroke (Vol. 28, #6, November 28, 2012). You can also read it in this news post: Results of American Heart Association publishing landmark TM study.

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Robin Lim Day — CNN Hero Returns to Fairfield, Iowa for a Hometown Hero’s Welcome

November 4, 2012

Robin Lim Day

Robin Lim Returns to Fairfield, Iowa for a Hometown Hero’s Welcome

Recent articles on 2011 CNN Hero Robin Lim appear in the October and November 2012 issues of The Iowa Source. Robin was on the October cover in a feature article, Midwives: Better Birth Outcomes, and in the November issue: Robin Lim Honored in Her Hometown.

Mayor Ed Malloy officially declared Robin Lim Day in Fairfield, Iowa on November 13, 2012. Robin is returning to Fairfield to accept the honor and give a free lecture on midwifery and her work in Indonesia Tuesday at 8 p.m. at the Sondheim Center in the Fairfield Arts and Convention Center. Admission is free.

Several events will take place between November 8 to 15, 2012, starting with a free showing of the award-winning documentary film, Guerrilla Midwife, at the Fairfield Public Library. The film was made by Robin’s daughter, Deja Bernhardt, about her mother’s work.

Robin will also be giving a series of talks starting at Des Moines University in the Student Education Center Auditorium at 7 p.m. Sunday. The event at the Sondheim honoring Robin takes place Tuesday night, followed by talks on Wednesday morning at the Maharishi School, on being a hero by pursuing your dreams and passions, and evening at 7:30 p.m. on sustainable parenting, in Dalby Hall in the Argiro Student Center on the Maharishi University campus, concluding Thursday morning at Fairfield Public High School.

In addition to her work in Bali at Bumi Sehat (Healthy Mother Earth), Robin and her team helped save lives and opened a second free clinic and birthing center in Aceh, that part of Indonesia most heavily hit by the tsunami in 2004. She later used her newfound disaster-response skills to aid victims of the earthquake that leveled parts of Haiti in 2010.

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the best-selling book, Eat, Pray, Love (the last part takes place in Bali), met Robin and had this to say about her: “Robin Lim is what we should strive to be—a great, abundant, generous, warm and tirelessly running faucet of humanity and grace.”

See the Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts announcement CNN Hero of the Year Robin Lim Speaks in her Hometown.

For more information on Robin Lim and her work visit Wikipedia, Bumi Sehat Foundation International, and YouTube Channel.

See Fairfield Ledger: CNN Hero Robin Lim visiting Fairfield and news coverage for Robin Lim is the 2011 CNN Hero Of The Year.

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Candy Crowley visits KRUU-FM before delivering Commencement Address at Maharishi University

May 28, 2012

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)

During her recent visit to Fairfield, Iowa to deliver the Commencement Address at Maharishi University of Management, CNN chief political correspondent Candy Crowley visited the local community-supported solar-powered radio station, KRUU-LP 100.1 FM, to tape an interview on Speaking Freely with Dennis Raimondi. The show aired Saturday, May 26, 2012 and Monday, May 28 at 1:00 and 6:30 pm. The complete interview is archived at: http://kruufm.com/node/13289. Station manager James Moore also posted a photo and quote from Candy on her love of radio.

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.”

Burt Chojnowski of Fairfield First! Buzz also produced a film of Dennis’s interview in the KRUU-FM studio: Candy Crowley on Speaking Freely with Dennis Raimondi. This Candy Crowley on Speaking Freely – Unplugged version includes the pre-interview banter starting off with her reciting the Gettysburg Address! Burt also enjoyed asking and posting 3 Questions with Candy Crowley.mov about her impressions of Fairfield, writing, and leadership, also recorded on May 26, 2012.

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!

CNN anchor Candy Crowley gives Commencement Address at Maharishi University of Management is now available on the YouTube channel.

See Fairfield Ledger: Crowley speaks to M.U.M. grads and CNN’s Candy Crowley to give Commencement Address at Maharishi University of Management.


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KTVO’s Kate Allt: From the earth to your plate; one university’s lesson in sustainable agriculture

May 25, 2012

From the earth to your plate; one university’s lesson in sustainable agriculture

By Kate Allt

Friday, May 25, 2012

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.

1 comment:

Sharalyn Pliler · Maharishi University of Management

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!

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CBS/FOX News: Kelsey Minor’s Report: Meditation Town: Fairfield Iowa’s Key to Education Success

May 18, 2012

MEDITATION TOWN: Fairfield Iowa’s Key to Education Success

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.

Thursday, May 17 2012, 10:05 PM CDT | Kelsey Minor | FOX 28 | CBS 2

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.

Links to see this news report on FOX 28 News at Nine: http://www.kgan.com/shared/newsroom/top_stories/videos/kgan_vid_11222.shtml, and on YouTube for CBS 2 News at Ten, which includes introductory comments by the news anchors: http://youtu.be/FZdOStcEkC4.

Related stories on Fairfield: Video segments of Oprah’s Next Chapter on OWN: Oprah Visits Fairfield, Iowa—“TM Town”—America’s Most Unusual Town | The Iowan: Sizing Up Small Towns: Rethinking Success in Rural Iowa: Fairfield Thinks Inclusively | The Cultural Oasis of The Midwest: Fairfield, Iowa | Finding peace in Fairfield by Diane Vance

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Maharishi University of Management featured in Education Executive Magazine — Spring 2012

April 14, 2012

Maharishi University of Management

Higher Education – Spring 2012 (pages 62-63)

Open Mindedness

Transcendental Meditation® helps students at Maharishi University of Management enhance their learning, the institution says.

All successful administrators believe firmly in the missions of their institutions, but the connection runs deeper for Dr. Craig Pearson, executive vice president of Maharishi University of Management (MUM). After graduating from Duke University in 1971 and feeling disillusioned from the tumultuous impact of the Vietnam War, Pearson discovered the practice of Transcendental Meditation (TM).

“I saw a need for change, and I wanted to participate in that and I wanted it to be meaningful,” Pearson says. “Finally, I realized it would be a nice contribution to make to this society that I lived in if I taught TM.” After he became versed in teaching TM, Pearson discovered an opportunity to teach at MUM, and what has followed has been a learning experience that has lasted more than 30 years.

“I’ve had just an amazing range of opportunities and experiences here,” Pearson says.

Located in Fairfield, Iowa, MUM was founded on the practice of TM, brought to light from the ancient Vedic tradition by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a Vedic sage who taught the practice in his native India before traveling the world with it. Not a religion or philosophy, TM is a simple, effortless technique practiced for 20 minutes at the start and end of each day that allows the mind to settle to a state of inner quiet. Those who practice TM say it can help expand consciousness and expand the mind’s capacity for learning. This is why the university’s approach is called Consciousness-BasedSM education.

“This is huge for education,” Pearson says, adding that studies have shown growth of intelligence and other measures of personal development to level off during adolescence. Practicing TM, research suggests, unfreezes that potential and allows the mind to continue growing.

Same, But Different

Aside from the beginning and end of each day, when students and faculty join in practicing TM, Pearson says MUM offers the same curriculum one would find at a top university elsewhere in the world. “If you or anybody were to come to MUM and walk around during the day, you would find a lot that’s similar to what’s going on in universities around the world,” he says. “If you were to go into a Shakespeare class, it’s the same Shakespeare.”

Where MUM differs from other universities, of course, is the 20-minute TM sessions twice a day, built into the daily schedule. Pearson says this has a profound impact on the campus culture and in the performance of its student body and the overall feeling on the campus. Pearson says TM significantly reduces stress and mental fatigue by allowing the mind effortlessly to relax and settle inward rather than focus on the outside world.

“These days, one of the things most problematic on college campuses is stress,” he says.

Through TM, students at MUM are able to expand their consciousness to a point where learning and personal growth are practically unlimited, Pearson claims. The implications for higher education are significant, he adds. “Now human development can be unfrozen, now it can continue to develop,” he says, adding that the university has found student IQs increase after enrolling. One study, for example, found IQ to increase an average of 4 points after one year and 9 points after 4 years.

Expanding Future

The university’s application of TM in the curriculum has implications for more than student performance and stress levels, Pearson says. It also affects enrollment trends, as nearly 75 percent of MUM’s student body consists of transfer students from other institutions. Most of them discover the university on the Internet, but an increasing number are hearing about it by word of mouth.

“Since that’s our mission, students come because they’re attracted to the mission,” Pearson says. “They transfer because they’re not satisfied with where they are.”

As the concept of meditation becomes more popular through yoga classes and other fitness regimens, MUM has seen a long-term upswing in enrollment. The university’s current enrollment of about 1,100 is double what it was five years ago, and nearly triple what it was 10 years ago, according to Pearson. “Now, meditation is mainstream and the idea of meditation in education isn’t so unusual,” he adds.

To deal with the continuing growth, the university 11 years ago embarked on an ambitious campaign to reconstruct its campus. Originally built as Parson’s College before it closed in 1973, the MUM campus has torn down 45 old buildings and has invested substantially in renovating a number of others. Additionally, 60-plus new buildings have been constructed on campus. The newest building is the university’s Sustainable Living Center, which, when completed, will be unique in the world, embodying four different sustainable building philosophies and completely off the grid with respect to heating/cooling, electricity, water, and sewage. Pearson says the university’s commitment to sustainability is another attractive feature for many students, citing the campus’ all-organic, vegetarian menu.

Pearson says the university hopes to reach an enrollment of 2,000 in the years to come, with a long-term vision of approximately 8,000 students. To help achieve that goal it has established an endowment campaign with an initial goal of $50 million. Pearson says the campaign has received some very good initial support, and that those funds will be used for scholarships, faculty support, academic programs, and campus development.

Seeing the university grow has been a rewarding experience for Pearson, and he says he believes the education students receive at MUM will give them a consciousness-based approach to decision making that will be needed to solve the world’s greatest problems.

“It’s one thing to change the way we get our power or food, but our students recognize there needs to be a change in the kind of consciousness that created those types of problems, and I’m very inspired by that,” he says.

—Chris Petersen

Copyright 2012 Education Executive Magazine. All Rights Reserved.

Links to the online version with only one photo: http://www.education-executive.com/index.php/higher-education/1125-maharishi-university-of-management and digital edition: http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/phoenix/eduexec_2012spring/#/64 of the two-page layout containing photos of Craig Pearson, Argiro Student Center, MUM campus, and the Aladdin Food Management Services ad.

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