She served as his driver, cooked his food,
washed his silk clothes, tucked him into his bedclothes, made his phone calls,
booked hotel rooms, prepared leaflets and posters, took dictation for his books
and performed many other exhausting tasks and duties, all in the name of
assisting him to realise his inordinate and unrealistic ambitions.
She came to know him very well, and saw at
close quarters how he operated and what effect this had on his followers.
Much of her book Call No Man Master is about
the time she spent in the Maharishi’s company. Her account of her involvement
is disillusioning and sometimes chilling. Casualties and broken people abound. Some
damage was spiritual and emotional, but people’s ability to earn a living was
also greatly impaired.
Anyone who is interested in cults and cult
leaders will find it educational; anyone who is interested in unseen influences
will find it fascinating. It contains many elements that have been featured in
other articles.
Joyce Collin-Smith gives many examples of the
Maharishi’s spiritual powers, which he did not always use for beneficial
purposes. He sometimes used these powers against people in ways that sound all
too familiar: some of the witches mentioned on here did much the same things. For
example, because of his hypnotic influences the people around him did not
notice what was happening right in front of them.
There are a couple of suspicious deaths involving
the Beatles that she attributes to him too.
Before we go into details of these sinister unseen
influences, here is some background information about Joyce Collin-Smith’s
involvement with the Maharishi Yogi, known to his devotees as His Holiness and
to less infatuated people as the Giggling Guru:
Why it all started
It all started in the early 1960s, at a time
when Joyce Collin-Smith had a gap in her life after moving on from a few
groups. She did not enjoy studying esoteric matters on her own, and despite
previous disappointments she still hoped to find a Master who would teach her
and whom she could trust.
Such people are exploitable.
Some of Vernon Howard’s words of wisdom have
been quoted in various articles. This extract from The Power of Your Supermind is
particular relevant here:
“A major problem of the seeker is his
inability to distinguish true sources of aid from false ones. In his
bewilderment, he stumbles from one system or teacher to another, often falling
victim to useless or dangerous doctrines. His hopes are raised to the heights
of elation, but before long he tumbles down once more, to begin another
wearisome search.”
This is a perfect description of Joyce Collin-Smith’s
involvement with the groups and masters described in her book.
How it all started
There is a saying that when the pupil is
ready, the master appears. It does not say what sort of master he will be
though!
A friend told Joyce Collin-Smith that there
was an extraordinary new Hindu guru in town and that she should go and hear him
speak. She was invited to attend a small meeting that was being held at his
London residence.
She met the Maharishi Yogi there, found him
impressive and was pretty sure that he was a genuine Master.
He homed in on her immediately. He offered to
initiate her. It seems likely that he used his hypnotic powers to influence
her. She decided to join his group.
The rest is history.
The effects of the involvement
The early days were as good as it got. One
small step at a time, it turned into a nightmare.
In Joyce Collin-Smith’s own words:
“I was entering six years of my apparent
destiny. They destroyed me as a novelist and writer. They left me as a shadow
of my former self. I swung from the heights of heaven to the depths of inner
despair, and escaped eventually barely with my life.”
“... a pilgrimage into the pit, into the
valley of the shadow of death; though it was seen as such only by very slow
degrees. The climb out of it has taken me many years.”
Anyone who has been through something
similar, which could be called the dark night of the soul, will find these
descriptions very familiar, former cult members in particular.
The downward path
Like many others of his kind, the Maharishi
started out with good intentions and ethical behaviour but gradually went over
to the dark side. He compromised his principles in order to attain his goals. He
developed a lust for power and money. An angel turned into a demon.
From Joyce Collin-Smith’s obituary in theTelegraph:
“After a while, however, she began to feel
that the guru was beginning to lose ‘his cleanness of intent’. She noted that
he was becoming ‘rather ruthless’ in the use of his spiritual power, showing no
concern when people began breaking down as a result of practising TM (she
herself was once driven to the brink of suicide as a result of overindulging in
the practice), demanding big fees for ‘spiritual benefits’, and discarding
those followers who could not pay.”
The details given above are more than enough
to explain Joyce Collin-Smith’s disillusionment with the Maharishi, but there
is still
much more to come.
The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in his younger
days:
