From: Steve Harris <sbharris@ix.netcom.com>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian,alt.fan.jai-maharaj,sci.med,alt.religion.hindu,
	alt.yoga
Subject: Re: MEDITATION LEADS TO LONGER LIFE
Date: 2 May 2005 17:11:09 -0700
Message-ID: <1115079069.045349.241930@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>

>>The Beatles were right: researchers have found that
hanging out with the Maharishi may make you live longer. <<

COMMENT:

I can't help but notice that 2 of the Beatles are dead. One of them got
the Ghandi treatment, and another smoked himself to death. Evidently
Hindu meditation doesn't work as charm against either of these fates.
You can play your sitar all you like, but the mets still go to your
brain.

One can suppose similarly from the experience of John Paul II that
intercessory prayer doesn't work too well against Parkinson's disease.
For that matter, I'm not sure Roman Catholics even have a patron saint
for Parkinson's disease. They have one for cancer, but the aptly named
St. Peregrine was a guy who never sat down and stood around all the
time and finally got varicose veins and probably a varicose ulcer. I
think his diagnosis of foot cancer in the 13th century was not exactly
biopsy proven, so it's hard to say if the patron saint of cancer ever
had cancer.

And to add weirdness, St. Peregrine isn't even the patron saint of
varicose veins, because when some nun in 1960 wanted to cure her
varicose veins, she tried praying for the intercession of Emperor
Charles I of Austria (say what?). Which reportedly worked. But Charles
I never had cancer OR varicose veins, as far as I can tell. Just bad
luck as a Hapsburg in WW I. He should have been the patron of empire
losers, or maybe just losers in general. Or people who live in damp
houses. In any case, John Paul II beatified Charles I not long ago, due
to the nun's veins. Charles I is STILL not the patron of varicosities,
but possibly one day he will be.

Helpfully,

SBH