Transcendental Meditation in America: How a New Age Movement Remade a Small Town in Iowa

The Indian spiritual entrepreneur Maharishi Mahesh Yogi took the West by storm in the 1960s & ’70s, charming Baby Boomers fed up with war & social upheaval with his message of meditation and peace. Heeding his call, 2K followers moved to tiny Fairfield, Iowa, to set up their own university on the campus of a failed denominational college. Soon, they started a school for prekindergarten through high school, allowing followers to immerse themselves in Transcendental Meditation from toddlerhood through PhDs.

Although Fairfield’s longtime residents were relieved to see that their new neighbors were clean-cut & respectably dressed―not the wild-haired, drug-using hippies they had feared―the newcomers nevertheless quickly began to remake the town. Stores selling exotic goods popped up, TM followers built odd-looking homes that modeled the guru’s rules for peace-inspiring architecture, & the new university knocked down a historic chapel, even as it erected massive golden-domed buildings for meditators. Some newcomers got elected―& others were defeated―when they ran for local and statewide offices. At times, 1000s from across the globe visited the small town.

Yet TM did not always achieve its aims of personal & social tranquility. Suicides & a murder unsettled the meditating community over the years, & some followers were fleeced by con men from their own ranks. Some battled a local farmer over land use & one another over doctrine. Notably, the world has not gotten more peaceful.

Today the guru is dead. His followers are graying, & few of their children are moving into leadership roles. The movement seems rudderless, its financial muscle withering, despite the efforts of high-profile supporters. Can TM reinvent itself? And what will be the future of Fairfield itself?  

Midwest