2013-18 A Bonus Report

2013-18

FAIRFIELD IOWA

one of the best Victorian homes in Fairfield

A Bonus Report

Fairfield Iowa

A Bonus Report

My friend Lavon has given me some great tours around this area of Iowa and on my last day in the Fairfield area she gave me a tour just of the local town and surrounding area.  What an insight into this unique small town in Iowa.  

The original town has a wonderful layout with a square park in the center of town, shops lining all four sides.  A large civic center and historical courthouse are one block behind the main square.  Many ethnic restaurants have popped up around the center of town including a coffee shop that always has folks coming and going or sitting outside at little cafe tables.  

Great shops around the square park

Our tour began at the Maharishi Business University where I had already driven too to get some pictures of the two large domes where they do their transcendental meditation.  Lavon tells  me that even in meditation there is some competition as one group of Higher elevated meditators put down the more common meditators.  perhaps the ones that are paid to meditate.  The transcendental meditators are known for being able to float in the air.  the locals call it “butt jumping”.  Had to laugh out loud at that one.

One of the two meditation domes at the university

The college was once an expensive private college that went bankrupt and the Maharishi bought it and transformed it into his University.  We toured the civic center that has a display of a wonderful set of church windows and pictures of the historical church that the Maharishi had torn down after he purchased the property.  The locals were not happy.

As we drove around the university campus and surrounding area, we could see the many large homes of the “meditators” as the locals call them.  Each one of their homes has the typical onion dome centered on the top of a roof or cupola.  You see many of these large home or mansions really have a center atrium going up through the center of the home which is used for mediating.  Even many of the more moderate sized houses all have the onion dome and cupola as a feature on their modest homes.  

Out past the town, in the surrounding farmland, I was take down a gravel road where in the middle of all the corn and soybean fields were row after row of white and light tan colored double wide and single wide trailers strung together.  Essentially these are dormitories for over 600 men who’ve been brought here from India to meditate.  They have no other job than to live in this compound and meditate.  The property is guarded with a fence surrounding it and no visitors are allowed.  From the outside a few of the men walk in pairs around the compound all dressed in white.  It looks quite clean and neat and orderly, though word from folks who have had to work on plumbing and stuff inside the compound say it is quite a mess inside the barracks type buildings.

600 Indian men imported for meditation

One can see the gradual expansion those in this religious community have made on the surrounding area.  Not sure they have integrated all that well.  The locals did like that the “meditators” were able to get the constant train traffic running through town to stop blowing their horns day and night in the city limits.  Only flashing lights and a rail crossing guard now keep folks off the tracks.  

Over at the University, there’s a tower called “The Maharishi Tower of Invincibility”.  The legend on the side of the tower indicates that they plan on building one in each country as a way to “crown each country with the invincibility on the ground of the discovery of the Unified Field - the field of Total Natural Law”.  So there you are.  The Transcendental Meditators are here promoting peace, meditating for peace, even paying meditators to meditate on peace all surrounded by fields of corn in the heartland of America.  

Whole subdivisions are now cropping up specifically designed for these folks.  In addition, those who have embraced a greener lifestyle have also migrated to the area.  One community, the Abundance Village, a mix of contemporary style homes that are completely off the grid.  Powering their homes with passive solar power, solar panels, a few wind turbines etc.  Over the years many from California arrived to join the meditators, eventually become disillusioned with parts or all the the movement but not wanting to move back to California.  Eventually adding a hipper type community that has integrated into this dynamic community.  Building many new businesses along the way.

I’m sure there is much more to understand, experience and explore in the Fairfield area and am glad I had such a good guide to show and tell me all about it.  You never know what you’ll find when traveling down the road and that’s why I enjoy RV travel so much.

till my next report,   

Copper Dome House intown