Chris Smith

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Science and Technology of Consciousness is the first class all incoming students take first.  This was a great class that was mostly group and class discussions about all the areas of this vast subject.  As you can imagine since consciousness is the home of all knowledge this class touches upon many aspects of knowledge like music, health, art, literature, architecture, different states of consciousness, history, and many other more specific elements that will be discussed further in future classes.  Although this is a fun class it is also very important because it is in this class that we learn the common terminology that is going to be used in all our other classes.

STC is a six week course that includes; “Base Camp” an actual camping trip to the Ozark Mountains, Transcendental Meditation instruction for though students who have not learned it before coming to M.U.M., a “Residence Course” which is a couple days to just relax and do a little extra meditation, regular classes, and the final week we work in a group to prepare and then present a final project that encompasses what we had learned.  For me the class seemed to fly by and it is hard to believe we did and learned all the things we did in just those six weeks.  Since all new students take this course it is divided in half with the boys in one class and the girls in the other.  This is the only class that is split this way.  Going into this class I had no idea how great it would be to build friendships with all the other guys and how bounding of an experience it ended up being.  With a class this size we had about four professors so that everyone who had any questions or needed anything could easily talk with one of them.  They were all great teachers and truly wanted to keep the course going in a way that suited our class and just not the previous classes.

It was amazing to see the change in a lot of the students by the end of the course.  By being in this very nurturing environment for growth and the introduction or continued practice of TM everyone got along, quickly felt at home, and started to shine in their own individual way.  I learned just as much from my new friends as I did from the material in class.  It was a lot of fun to call back home and tell my friends and family about the new friends I had made from Norway, Sweden, Germany, Holland, Finland, Ethiopia, and China.  It was also as much fun to meet people representing every area of the United States as well.  Being from Boston I think some people had a harder time with my accent then some of the foreign exchange students.

The best part of STC is it gave me a taste of the material I was going to be studying.  There are so many great classes offered here that it is very common that most students want to double or triple major.  A lot of my friends are also still undeclared and are feeling out the different departments to see where they fit in best.  As for me I came here knowing I wanted to major in Vedic Sciences but know I also want to major in education or literature or both as well.

Follow your heart and keep true to yourself!

One who meditates, all his knots of his heart, the bondages are opened; all the doubts are eliminated and one becomes gradually free from the fetters of action with ego. – Mundaka Upanishad 2:2:8

For my first blog about my life at M.U.M. I thought it would be appropriate to talk about why and how I came to be a student here.  Looking back my journey started a few years ago.  As a result of the economic done turn I was laid off from the job I had been working since high school.  At the time I had no idea what a gift it truly was.  I did not like my job or the life I was living.  I felt stuck.  I was able to find a new job but I had to accept six dollars an hour less with no overtime.  I knew that I could not live on this or be happy unless I became willing to make some major changes in my life.  I thought that community college was one of my few options that seemed promising.  I quickly remembered my previous experience and why I had dropped out ten years before.  I found the classes to be tedious, uninspiring, and I also felt like there was an unspoken rule between the teachers and the other students; that whoever showed up and were able to simply reword what was in the books would pass.  I really wanted to learn and grow as a person.  Again I felt stuck.

During this time I began to read a lot of books and start learning about the things that interested me even though it would not help me graduate.  One of the books I read was David Lynch’s book “Catching the Big Fish.”  In this book he talked a lot about how Transcendental Meditation had changed his life and gave him a more natural and greater creativity then he had had before.  In this book is where I got my first glimpse of M.U.M. and what being a student there was like.  He spent a little time describing the students who all practiced TM and where able to put together a very enjoyable play for him.

Then I started noticing advertisements on Facebook for the M.U.M. and after looking at their web site I requested an information packet and DVD.  It was long till I felt like I had found what I had been desiring my whole life but never knowing where to look for it.  In my mind I did not know a college could be so different then what I was experiencing.  The block system, the organic vegetarian cafeteria, the facilities, the high profile professors, meditation, and having my own dorm room were all things I did not expect from a small University.  Soon after that I flew to Iowa for one of their visitor weekends.  The visitor weekend was amazing!  The thing that really made me decide that Fairfield Iowa was going to be my new home was this incredible feeling of peace on the campus and how nice everyone was.  All the students I talked to all were all having the most amazing experiences.  The professors were unlike any I had ever had; they were so friendly, intelligent, and open minded.

When I returned I now had a goal and started to figure out how to make it happen.  I could not see any way of being to attend for at least another year so first I wanted to learn TM.  Being taught TM immediately changed everything!  All of a sudden everything just started falling into place to make my desire to attend M.U.M. happen.  Within a month I called my admission’s counselor James and was accepted.  One month later my Father was kind enough to drive me the twenty-six hour long drive to Fairfield.

Then the true journey began…