Articles
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: Call Back And Internet Telephony
Dt: 23/7/18
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: Call Back And Internet Telephony
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was the very well-known exponent of Transcendental Meditation. Not only did he have millions of followers in India inducted into TM ; he had millions more in Europe and US. He was funded very generously by the European and American followers (sishyas). He established one University in Netherlands in 1974 . He had a satellite earth station and studio from where he was broadcasting his messages and discourses. The Maharishi established a Vedic University in the year 2001 in Fairfield, a small town in the state of Ivow in the US.
2. One of his educational institutions was Maharishi University of Management . In the early 1990s, a group of graduates from this institute coordinated the highly successful assault on the world telecommunications system , breaking the hold of major national phone companies ( especially outside the USA), dramatically cutting the cost of phone calls and pioneering the “phone by internet” revolution. Following is an extract from the book, "The Armies of God” ( a study in Militant Christianity by Iain Buchanan published by Citizens International in 2010.
“The process was sparked by the invention, in the late 1980s, of the call-back device. Initially, two companies were involved. One, Telegroup, began in Fairfield in 1989 and started using the device in 1990. The other, USA Global Link, was formed in 1992. As in the case of the Telegroup team, USA Global Link’s co-founders and chief executives had both trained in the techniques of Transcendental Meditation. And when USA Global Link expanded its premises on Highway 34, taking over Wooly’s Gourmet Frozen Custard in the process, it built a new h.q. fully in accordance with the principles of Maharishi Sthapatya Veda.
The company did extremely well. Aimed initially at the Southeast Asian market, it soon became the largest in a field of over 200 companies, with an annual turnover by 1997 of around $1 billion – and joint control ( with Telegroup) of over 50% of the world call-back market. When call-back technology became obsolete, the two companies adjusted by setting up a global network of strategic “switch” points to connect regional customers to the world system. And Global Link further outmanoeuvred the long distance providers by becoming the first company to enable global phone-to-phone calling via the Internet. USA Global Link created two sister companies - Global Online (1997) and Global Online India (1999) – and when the three were successfully merged or liquidated in 2001, their aggregate market value was around $ 2.8 billion .
The two founders, of course, became very rich men. One, Christopher Hartnett, had already made a fortune trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and dealing in precious stones – becoming owner, in the process, of the world’s largest heart-shaped pink emerald, weighing 169 carats. Hartnett’s true worth, however, was in other things.
When his companies merged in 2001, Chris Hartnett and family controlled 85% of their value. More significant, however, was Hartnett’s wealth of “intellectual property”: according to ICANN, he was by 1994 the largest private owner of URLs in the world; by 2000, he was the sole owner of some 12,000 domain names, and part owner of 20,000 more – most of these being acquired between 1992 and 1996, before most people were aware of the Internet and its potential.. Unsurprisingly, Hartnett also became chairman of Tedhens Ltd (www. Tedhens.com), the oldest and biggest provider of international domain names on the Internet – serving global insurance, e-commerce, exchange, banking and organic and jewellery businesses with “world-class, one -of-a-kind” domain names.
In addition to such commercial wealth, Christ Hartnett has a deep and abiding commitment to that other source of Fairfield’s fame- the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s project for World Peace. Having graduated from the Maharishi University of Management, Hartnett became a member of the sect’s executive – with the responsibilities of Minister Governing the Global Country of World Peace, and Chairman of the Global Central Bank. Hartnett is a complex man: he is a stock market millionaire and accomplished gemnologist; he is ( according to the Financial Times) “ the father of Internet telephony and VOIP technologies “ and (according to Telephony Online) founder of the most insidious call-back company of all”; and he is also a Vedic scholar and elite member of a cult promoting meditation and levitation as the way to world peace.
According to Maharishi University researchers, the “Maharishi Effect” has been tested successfully in a number of countries - including Israel, Lebanon, Mozambique and Brazil. In all cases, it is claimed, a combination of Yogic Flying and unified and directed consciousness has measurably reduced the level of violence. To believers, the science is incontestable: Yogic Flying, according to Craig Pearson, Maharishi University’s Executive Vice President, “… is the only scientifically validated solution to ending terrorism and creating world peace.” The case is more eloquently made by Bevan Morris, of M.U.M’s Program of World Peace.
“The powerful, integrating, harmonising, peace-creating effects of …Vedic pace performances will mean that the enmity and hatred will be turned into harmony and friendship – and peace perpetual will reign on earth….
“…The US needs now to dissolve violence and tension in national consciousness through 8,000 Yogic Flyers in the Golden Domes and in new Super Domes in Maharishi Vedic City. This too will prevent the birth of any enemy to the nation, and avert all national disasters before they arise.”
But for Christ Hartnett, there was another ( and rather less ethereal) way of reducing the world’s violence.
“The Maharishi used to tell me, “ says Hartnett, “that if you sit down with people and you make money together and they are your friends, you don’t bomb them, you don’t go kill them. But breaking the telecommunications monopoly our company was able to help foster communication between people . When you can communicate for 2 - 3 cents a minute around the world ….people can form bonds and relationships and start making money together. When you do that you can eliminate a lot of conflict. (996 words)
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