At one point he said impatiently, "Of course there's a fall-out rate in meditation! And I think there are millions of people in this world we cannot reach."

Then, sensing his blunder, he asked if he could "take that back." Instead, he said that "It's not as if the technique doesn't work, it's just that in a few circumstances it is misused. Some people stop meditating, but it is usually found that those few who may temporarily stop will come back. Anybody who is willing to come to checks will find very positive results."

I asked Geer another question that bothered me, about the political stands of the movement. Yes, said Geer, officially SIMS supported America's actions in Vietnam, although, of course, meditation would eventually eliminate war altogether.

"Bliss Consciousness"

SIMS's attitudes on politics are disturbing not because they are forced upon meditators--they are not--but because all those who have been in the movement for a long time, who have reached "bliss consciousness," think alike. Further, as Jerry Jarvis intimated in an interview last November, any meditator who reaches this ultimate end of meditation will develop a particular attitude toward world events.

Jerry Jarvis is a quiet, serene man. He heads a growing organization of over 5000 meditators. He laughs often, and usually when nothing is funny; in this respect, he is as engaging and curious as his master. I asked him how meditation would end war, as Maharishi promises. War is an effect, not a cause, of suffering, Jarvis told me. In order to assure peace, the level of personal tension in the world must be lowered. "Maharishi can remove the tension," said Jarvis. "He says if 10 per cent of the world meditates, the world will enter a golden age." What if none of the 10 per cent is Chinese? "That wouldn't matter. The influence will be automatic--if all the meditators were in the United States, the influence would still be felt in Russia and China."

"Meanwhile, what would students do about Vietnam?"

"One's rulers are always wiser and know more than the followers. Maharishi believes one must always be obedient to authority."

"Even in a dictatorship?"

"The leaders of a country are not to be blamed for conditions in his country, or for decisions that affect other countries," Jarvis patiently explained. "The people determine the atmosphere of their nation, while the leaders are mere slaves."

"But if a meditator thinks a war is wrong, and non-meditators order him to fight, should be refuse?"

"Maharishi says we shouldn't violate any laws. We are not in a position to make an accurate evaluation of whether a law is just, if we meditate or not."

"How about the hippies, then?" I asked. "They are your largest group of supporters and they break all sorts of laws, written and unwritten."

Think Power

"A creative person contributes to his society. It's legitimate for a weak person to drop out--it's all he can do. But meditation will give him more strength to achieve goals through legitimate means."

Toward the end of the interview, I posed my loaded question. "How can meditation help the poor? For example, aren't there some external causes keeping the black men down?"

Jarvis rather wearily said that "Each man is responsible for his own life. Nobody can keep an intelligent man down--even a Negro; a man is poor only because he lacks creative intelligence."

AS I PREPARED to leave, Jarvis said, "You know, someone said recently that Maharishi is giving Goldwater's campaign speeches!" We had a good laugh over that.

Maharishi directs his efforts toward self-enrichment and personal peace. He wants to help humanity as so many individuals, not en masse; although he claims that his is a "jetage philosophy," his ideas obviously remain oriented much more toward the East than the West.

As I have said, SIMS doesn't much push its opinions on anyone. Still the much emulated Maharishi has chosen at times to make his political views public, and his influence here can only be baneful, as far as I'm con-