I have a friend who meditates for a living.
Yup. Gets paid to sit on his butt.
He’s living in Fairfield, Iowa, the US home of TM (Trancendental Meditation).
Apparenly, some gajillionaire (I think he actually has gajillion dollar bills!) believes that if enough TM people meditate (long, hard, with feeling, without feeling… something) enough, then they can change the course of human affairs and make the world a better place.
Don’t try to tell me that it’s true… or that it’s not. That’s not important.
What’s important, and what I love about this experiment is this: There’s no way they can lose!
If something — anything — changes in the world in what someone calls a “better” direction, they can say, “See, we did that by sitting on our butts!”
And if nothing changes, then that simply “proves” that the world simply needs more, better, faster, stronger, butt sitters.
You know that question, “Would you rather be happy or right?” Well, with a setup like this one, where you can be right no matter what… you could be very both!
I’m glad this guy has gajillions to spend.
Comments
3 responses to “The little experiment that could”
steven…
you make it hard for me NOT to question my beliefs… and still like you.
(my wife will love you! she is a fan of linda goodman who, she thinks, has described ‘me’ under Taureans in her book sun signs.)
I think anybody in the business of making cushions, selling hemoriod cream and other great items to end rectal pain would benefit from this movement…..or lack off. The nice thing about selective filtering is even if world war 3 broke out most of these guys would still be in denial anyway. Yes the magic of thinking happy lah lah thoughts.
Just the fact that the DOW hasn’t hit 14,000 and peace hasn’t broken out in the Middle East (2 things they predicted would happen thanks to all the meditation), *should* have been enough to stop the “experiment.”
But unless WWIII was happening IN Fairfield, I tend to agree with you, Matt. Our ability to ignore evidence contrary to our beliefs is astonishing.