I get a lot of calls from reporters, so I was not surprised to pick up the phone in late June and speak to a producer from a national network news show. The producer, a soft-spoken man calling from New York City, said he was working on an hour-long news special on the mind and healing. He was interested in including a five-minute segment on the Yogic Flying technique.

We talked for over an hour. Rather than cynical or superficial, this producer was open, probing, genuinely interested. In fact, it was probably the most remarkable discussion I have ever had with a reporter from the national press. We talked in depth about the mechanics of the TM and TM-Sidhi programs, and how, according to the ancient Vedic texts and modern quantum physics, a person could actually fly.

He asked if he could bring a camera crew to the Maharishi Vedic School in Manhattan, interview several Yogic Flyers, and videotape some of them practicing the technique for a show to be aired nationally later in the autumn.

Janet Hoffman, who has administered Maharishi’s programs in the New York metropolitan area for over 25 years, organized the event. She invited three local Sidhas to be interviewed: Walter Zimmerman, an energy broker on Wall Street; Laure Edwards, the editor of a national financial magazine; and Gary Kaplan, M.D., Ph.D., a neurologist from Long Island. Mat Boutrin, a member of Maharishi Thousand-Headed Purusha, flew up from The Spiritual Center of America in North Carolina.

The video shoot went extremely well. Walter and Mat demonstrated the Yogic Flying technique. "He looks blissful," the producer said of Walter’s face as he hopped lightly through the air. Mat’s rise up several feet onto a stack of foam mattresses in cross-legged, full-lotus sitting position, drew a soft whistle of amazement.

Laure and Walter then spoke about the benefits of the Yogic Flying technique in their personal lives and professional careers—describing an exponential growth of the benefits they had received from the TM technique, such as a razor sharp mind, near boundless energy, ideal health, and so forth.
Dr. Kaplan discussed published scientific research showing the dramatic increase in EEG brain wave coherence at the moment the body lifts up and moves forward in short hops during the technique—and the research correlating EEG coherence with increased creativity, intelligence, and problem-solving ability.

All of them emphasized that while their hops—the first stage of Yogic Flying—were impressive in their own right, promoting mind body coordination, bubbling bliss, and coherence in society, what was most satisfying was the growth of consciousness, the growth of enlightenment that allows such a phenomenon to take place so effortlessly and naturally.

Evening fell over Manhattan as the camera shoot wound down, and with the lights from the Empire State Building sparkling through the windows of the Maharishi Vedic School, my mind slipped back to the first Yogic Flying demonstration at the Washington, DC Convention Center in summer 1985. Hundreds of reporters and camera crews covered the event and their stories went out worldwide. Those reports were generally quite straightforward and positive—but to be honest, they lacked depth, lacked seriousness.

Not so this time. This producer—and even his camera crew—were very open, very receptive, and very intrigued. They asked serious questions over several hours and they seemed satisfied with the answers.

Maharishi has commented that the media is a mirror of collective consciousness, a reflector of the times, and over the years in my own way I have marked the rise in national consciousness from my conversations with reporters. This interview was most noteworthy because it was not an exception. During the past few months I have had many remarkable discussions with the press similar to the one in New York. There is a new openness and interest from the public and the press in the power of the mind, in the power of consciousness: what it is, how it can be developed, and what that means in daily life.

The conclusion from all of this is clear: The knowledge of consciousness is becoming cutting edge knowledge in society today, and Maharishi’s technologies for the development of consciousness are leading society into an enlightened new era. With so much receptivity, now is an ideal time to give the enclosed brochure on the mention the Transcendental Meditation technique to your friends, your family, your business associates, your family physician. And if you have an opportunity, to introduce the technique into the corporate wellness program where you work. People are open, they want to know more, they want to do more.

But most importantly, start with yourself. If you are not yet practicing the TM-Sidhi program, become a Yogic Flyer. You deserve it, and the world will certainly be better for it, too.