Sunday, 5 October 2008

Meeting A Meditator on Creativity in America, Maharishi, Vedic City


I went to Vedic City in Fairfields Iowa while traveling through the U.S this September. The city was initiated in 2001 and is a secluded (because of its location) mini community built for people practicing the Maharishi transcendental meditation technique. Maharsihi was a spiritual guru whom introduced the Beatles to this technique 1967 while meeting in London and embarked on a life long relationship. Maharishi himself died on February 6 this year (source bbc.co.uk) but has affected hundreds if not thousands of people directly through his knowledge and philosophy which is based on ancient indian knowledge.

We had been driving from Chicago for several hours and arrived in the late afternoon perhaps a tad late to see people from the community just walking around doing their business. The sky was dark and had great, big clouds in one direction approaching, so there was no good time for people watching.

I was very interested however in getting a personal experience and perspective on Vedic City and ask a few questions about their views on life and creativity.

I found a sort of town hall house where I knocked on the door as I saw a man sitting in the front of the room. He politely asked me to enter, I introduced myself, my purpose and asked if I cold film an interview. The guy sitting in the chair was named Jim Palmer, a practitioner of transcendental meditation for some 40 years. He had a certain energy about him and it's not only the bright orange T-shirt he wore that I'm talking about here. He was focused and energetic but relaxed. He wasn't worried about the camera at all so I got a pretty good 20 minute talk with him on camera where he explains the how meditation and creativity can be connected.

He explains the philosophy of meditation and the benefits of it. The topics we talk about are fundamental really but he explains them well by using gesticulation and metaphors. Transcendental meditation is the state of mind which is still, the universal experience of practitioners are that there's a silence in oneself, a certain peace which you can reach only without effort.

One of the metaphors he uses is by comparing our state of mind to walking and lying down. You can run, you can walk, you can walk a bit slower you can stand still and in the end lie down. It is the sam with thoughts, transcendental meditation is to reach the place where the thoughts come from, where they emerge, once reaching that state you are in the now and can perhaps not stop your thoughts, they are there constantly, but after practicing people experience a silence. I

It's about not using all your senses outwards it's about using not taking in from the outside, but rather to focus inwards. When being in touch with oneself, Jim says that this is a source of true happiness, energy and creativity. To reach this state of mind is effortless which is why it can be difficult for stressed people to reach as they are used to work hard and push themselves to reach success. It's not about performing!

I ask what creativity means to him. I like his answers as they are long and enthusiastically delivered. Creativity is often connected to art, such as painting, but for Jim it is more about a fundamental matter, where it can mean to listen to oneself inner emotion, intuition or whatever you would like to call it in order to make the right decisions for yourself and create a reality, a life that brings you maximum amount of pleasure. To make the right choices and work with yourself, treat yourself right and create opportunities.

To look at creativity as a bi-product of a state of mind brings the question to a new level, I personally like the way that he talks about creativity as something greater than an ability to be artistic. To be creative can be to create a life that you are happy with, to be able to make the right choices without knowing it in order to get where you want.

I will quote him further and look back at the tape to get the correct information and if I make a visual dissertation I'll include the interview with Jim Palmer as a part of the research.


1 comment:

Teri Talpe said...

Did you ever post any follow ups to this encounter with Palmer? Am interested.