AIMING FOR A HIGHER PLANE
Devotees seek world peace, gift of flight through Transcendental Meditation

By Rhonda Parks Manville, News-Press Staff Writer

Many groups in the Santa Barbara area are devoted to the pursuit of peace, but devotees of Transcendental Meditation recommend what is surely the most novel solution yet: yogic flying.

The world could be spared the hardship of war with Iraq—not to mention hunger and violence and grief—if only the square toot of 1 percent of the population would learn to practice the consciousness-changing technique, practitioners say.

Members of the Santa Barbara TM Center, who meet in an old Victorian home at 2565 Puesta del Sol Road, are trying to form a yogic flying troupe here as part of a worldwide effort to usher in “a new era of peace, prosperity and happiness of the whole family of nations,” in accordance with the teaching of TM founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

To demonstrate the technique for journalists this week, Steve Hospodar of Santa Barbara meditated cross-legged for five minutes while sitting on a mattress, and then suddenly began springing up and down with his mouth open and his eyes closed. After a series of hops, he and fellow flyer Ron Whitehurst rested a few seconds, and then one man’s hopping triggered the other up off his haunches. …

The men said the hopping may not look like much, but for the yogic flyer there is a deep sense of enlightenment and bliss that affects the larger community when groups practice the technique together. The practice could bring world peace tomorrow if even small numbers of people would take part, they said, citing the teachings of the Maharishi, who became famous 40 years ago when the Beatles became his students. …

Yogic Flying is made possible by the shifts in consciousness that are taught in Transcendental Meditation, said Mr. Hospodar, who noted that mystics like Teresa of Avila and St. Francis of Assisi were able to levitate by tapping into the same innate source of wisdom.

In the TM vernacular, this source of wisdom is called Natural Law, the deepest level of nature’s functioning. According to TM literature, the “unified field” of this natural law is what administers the universe, and yogic flying is what “thrills the unified field” and “enlivens natural law” to create the universal effect of harmony and positivity.

“What happens inside is wonderful, a sense of being connected to the universe, said Mr. Whitehurst, who noted that TM research has proven that groups of yogic flyers can reduce crime, hospital admissions and accident rates in major cities around the world.

When journalists expressed skepticism about such research, they were told that over 40 scientific studies have shown that small numbers of yogic flyers in one place can “generate a powerful influence of coherence in the collective consciousness of the whole population,” thereby decreasing a plethora of social problems.

“It works every time you do it, and it doesn’t depend on belief or mood-making,” Mr. Hospodar said. “Once you have it, it’s yours for life, and you are trained to develop higher states of consciousness.” …

Along with meditation centers, schools, and universities, TM has created a “Global Country of World Peace” based in Fairfield, Iowa, with plans to produce food for impoverished nations around the world. The Global Country of World Peace has its own administration, its own global bank, and its own currency. Details on the project can be found on the Web at www.globalcountry.org. …