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Greetings from Utopia Park : surviving a transcendent childhood / Claire Hoffman.

by Hoffman, Claire.

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Hoffman, Claire -- Childhood and youth.

Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment.

Transcendental meditation -- Biography.

Women journalists -- United States -- Biography.

9780062338846 (hc.)

Alternate title:

Utopia Park : surviving a transcendent childhood

xiv, 265 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Preface -- Part one: Believing. Initiation ; The Hoffman curse ; Stranger in a strange land ; Levitation ; Taste of Utopia ; Fortunate are we! ; Utopia Park ; On the program ; 200 percent of life -- Part two: Doubting. Dad comes home ; Your meditation brought down the Great Wall ; The costs of karma ; Ojas ; Townie ; Meth heads and meditators -- Part three: Searching. Adulthood ; A new Utopia ; The flying course -- Epilogue.

"After Claire Hoffman's alcoholic father abandoned his family, his struggling wife, Liz, told five-year-old Claire and her seven-year-old brother, Stacey, that they were going to heaven - Iowa - to live in Maharishi's national headquarters for Heaven on Earth. For Claire's mother, Transcendental Meditation - Maharishi's method of meditation and his approach to living the fullest possible life - promises world peace and enlightenment just as their family is falling apart. At first this secluded utopia offers warmth and support, and makes these outsiders feel calm, secure, and connected to the world. At the Maharishi School, Claire learns Maharishi's philosophy for living and meditates with her class. With the promise of peace and Enlightenment constantly on the horizon, every day is infused with magic and meaning. But as Claire and Stacey mature, their adolescent skepticism kicks in, drawing them away from the community and into delinquency and drugs. To save herself, Claire moves to California to live with her father, breaking from Maharishi completely. After she works for a decade in journalism and academia, the challenges of adulthood propel her back to Iowa, where she reexamines her spiritual upbringing and tries to reconnect with the magic of her childhood"--Provided by publisher.

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