User talk:Ruinia
Arbitration notice[edit]
You are involved in a recently-filed request for arbitration. Please review the request at Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests#Transcendental Meditation movement and, if you wish to do so, enter your statement and any other material you wish to submit to the Arbitration Committee. Additionally, the following resources may be of use—
Thanks, –MuZemike 19:46, 15 February 2010 (UTC)
Thanks[edit]
I wanted to thank you for your comment on the Request for Arbitration for the Transcendental Meditation articles. I liked that you saw what the pro-TM editors were doing wrong. I liked that you were honest and open about your relevant background. I liked that your statement was objective and non-judgmental.
I, too, practice TM and the TM-Sidhi Program. I have commented on this edit war in the past, and I will again during the actual arbitration.
I suspect that the pro-TM editors will get banned, since the people conducting the arbitration have already expressed the opinion that the outcome will most likely be similar to that of the Scientology arbitration, in which all the offending editors were banned in various ways.
Perhaps you and I could edit these articles in the future so that they are correct, balanced, and compliant with WP policies and guidelines. You sound like a reasonable person who, like me, wouldn't participate in edit wars. This is important since after the pro-TM editors are banned, the remaining editors might be inclined to remove important parts of the articles, such as the reliable scientific studies (if any) on the effects of TM. These anti-TM editors are not very familiar with TM, so they lump it in with what they see as new-age religions (they've explicitly stated this), cults (they've implied this on occasion), quackery (they've explicitly stated this), and scams (they point to the great wealth of the TM organizations in the past, assume that this wealth is still present now, and assume that the wealth is being used for nefarious purposes).
This would be a simple case if it weren't for the fact that the body of knowledge and services associated with TM has grown dramatically since the 1970s. In my opinion, most of TM and the TM-Sidhi Program is reasonable and confirmed by my experiences, those of my friends, students, and clients, and further confirmed by some of the research performed by scientists affiliated with the TM Movement and some by independent researchers as well.
However, after the early days of SCI, Maharishi Ayurveda got established, and the validity of this new knowledge and new services was no longer so firmly established. With the addition of high course fees, Jyotish, Yagyas, Pulse Diagnosis, Vibration Technology, Ghandarva, Vastu, etc., Maharishi seems to have abandoned everyone except rich people, and devoted himself to restoring ancient Vedic guidelines for life (yama). This new direction naturally alienated many people who were attracted to learning TM. As a teacher of a competing transcending technique (NSR Meditation), I can state that a good number (I'd estimate roughly half) of my hundreds of clients chose NSR over TM either because of its high price (the majority), or its "religious" flavor (a large minority).
Almost none of these additional programs and services have any scientific backing, in spite of their claims to bring about perfect health and even to cure cancer. Remarkable claims require remarkable validation.
As you can see, I am pro-TM in certain areas and anti-TM in others. I have two specific points of view.
It is for this reason perhaps a little easier for me to edit the article in a neutral way. I hope you will join me in helping to reduce conflict and in offering editing suggestions so that the article can be improved more quickly. As I said above, if editors are banned, you and I will needed even more.
If you wish to reply, please do so here and I will see it. Or feel free to contact me directly (see how on my User Page). David Spector 05:03, 17 February 2010 (UTC)
Thanks for your reply. I agree with your thoughts. Also, I hope you don't think that you and I will be the only editors here in the future who have first-hand knowledge of TM. If TM is really beneficial, editors will show up to prove it with their intelligence, cooperation, and kindness. You and I won't have to tackle everything ourselves! David Spector 23:13, 17 February 2010 (UTC)
An Arbitration case involving you has been opened, and is located here. Please add any evidence you may wish the Arbitrators to consider to the evidence sub-page, Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Transcendental Meditation movement/Evidence. Please submit your evidence within one week, if possible. You may also contribute to the case on the workshop sub-page, Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Case/Transcendental Meditation movement/Workshop.
On behalf of the Arbitration Committee, Dougweller (talk) 11:22, 18 February 2010 (UTC)