Iowa’s aura
Fairfield is “not just any Iowa town,” said Josh Noel in the Chicago Tribune. Though “hemmed in by farms” and rich in traditional Midwestern charm, this small county seat does double duty as a mecca for transcendental meditation, or TM. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who began the TM movement in the late 1950s, moved his Maharishi International University from California to Fairfield in 1974. The town got caught up in the phenomenon, and today “a quarter to a third of the population” practices meditation. Twice a day, hundreds of locals, including the mayor, meditate at precisely the same time. Visitors are welcome, and can book tours of various TM sites. I made an appointment for shirodhara, a treatment that involves “pouring a steady stream of oil on the forehead” to balance the mind. “Life’s busy thoughts faded as the oil rhythmically fell.”
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