Hammer on Anvil '

Since my husband and I have roots in Fairfield, Iowa, we were naturally curious to see Oprah's recent show about TM, which was filmed there. The show was so offensive and so completely void of any objectivity that I knew I had to blog about it.

Oprah has never been accused of being anything even close to a journalist, but I was expecting more than groundless TM propaganda. If I didn't know better, I would think that Maharishi University of Management paid her to do the show.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with TM, it stands for transcendental meditation. It is touted as a "simple, natural, effortless procedure" that is "not a religion, a philosophy, or lifestyle." Really? I beg to differ.

Before I came to know Jesus, I was desperate for peace. When Maharishi University of Management (then called Maharishi International University) moved to Fairfield from Santa Barbara, California, in 1974, I became friends with a girl whose mother taught TM. She assured me that TM was not a religion, and would enhance whatever religious tradition I embraced. I paid a fee and went through the initiation ceremony, where I was given a supposedly unique mantra which I was to repeat throughout my twice daily 20-minute meditation. Since that time, I have learned there are only a handful of mantras, and they are assigned to an individual based on gender and age.

The initiation ceremony was bizarre, but I was willing to go through it so I could get my mantra and begin meditating. I walked into a room illuminated only by candlelight. I was asked to bring a clean white handkerchief and fresh flowers. In the center of the room was what looked to be an altar, with a photo of Guru Dev -- Maharishi's teacher -- prominently displayed.

Probably the weirdest thing, though, is that I was not informed ahead of time that the entire ceremony would be spoken in Sanskrit -- the primary liturgical language of Hinduism. So I just stood there while my friend's mom recited the puja. At one point I was asked to kneel, but I declined. My religious upbringing taught me enough that I felt uncomfortable kneeling in a ceremony in which I didn't understand the language being spoken.

I had been meditating just a few months when I discovered an English translation of the initiation puja. I'm curious like that -- I needed to know what was being said in that ceremony, and I needed to know why it was so secretive.

The puja is, in fact, an invocation to a host of Hindu gods. The truth angered me, and I confronted my friend about it. "How can you tell people this is not a religion?" I asked. It opens with "To Lord Narayana," who is Vishnu, the supreme god in Hinduism. Then "To Brahma the Creator," and the list goes on from there. Guru Dev is lauded as "the glory of Brahma the Creator and Lord Vishnu the Maintainer."

Oprah paid for herself and her entire staff to go through the TM initiation, which now costs a whopping $2,500. On the show, she interviewed TM practitioners, and one question she repeated often went something like this: "So Muslims and Jews and Christians can all meditate?" And then she would go on to say how it was so wonderful and had nothing to do with religion. She gushed about how TM enhances relationships because everyone is "centered" and at peace with themselves.

Oprah was irresponsible in presenting such a one-sided "advertisement" for TM. Not once did she interview any of the townspeople who do NOT practice TM -- she wouldn't want to hear their views on what this "university" has done to Fairfield. She also said the population in Fairfield has "increased ten-fold in the past ten years," which is not true. In fact, the population declined more than 3 percent from 2000 to 2009, according to census figures. And she obviously didn't do her homework about TM being a religion.

After watching the show, my husband and I took some time to pray. Oprah's following is unfortunately tremendous, and we prayed for those who would watch this and take her word for it that TM is okay. We prayed for the truth to be exposed.

Paul says we are to be "the sweet smell of Christ" among the lost. If we do our job as believers in Christ, perhaps people won't be lured into false religions like this one.