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... He (Maharishi) always brought the topic back to meditation. It was on this trip (through Northern California) that I first caught glimpses of some of his “supernormal” powers. One was his acute sensitivity to vibrations. People always talk about good or bad vibrations. Usually it is a colloquial way of describing something you like or don’t like. Maharishi, as with all masters, is keenly aware of the negativity or positivity of a place or a person. The “antenna” is extremely refined.

The reason Maharishi always sits on a deer skin is to insulate himself from the vibrations of people who sat there before. No matter where he is, he sits on a deer skin. Over the years I have seen him with several different ones, but he uses one, day in and day out, as long as it lasts. They come from India. He says he prefers the deer skin for its properties of softness, calmness, and serenity. The Guru Dev used a tiger skin.

We were in Sacramento, staying on the twelfth floor of one of the better hotels, and were late getting to the lecture downstairs. We got halfway down the aisle to the stage when I remembered I had left the deerskin upstairs. I told Maharishi.

“We don’t worry for it. I do without it,” he said.

“Well, I can run up quickly and get it,” I offered.

“No, no. No need,” he assured me.

Even a master can be wrong. And wow, was he wrong this time. On the platform there was a big soft chair, Maharishi sat down on it and jumped straight up in the air onto his feet

. “I stand while you run for the deer skin,” he said, with the closest expression to panic I ever saw on his face.

I hustled up to get the deer skin for him.

After the lecture, he commented to me that the vibrations in the room were very bad. He had a hard time generating his lecture, which was unusual for Maharishi.

I checked with the hotel staff afterwards and found it out the lecture had been given in a beer cellar. The hotel had dealt us dirty. There had been a mix-up and the banquet room where Maharishi was to give his lecture had been booked twice for the same time. For accommodation’s sake, the management put us elsewhere. Big side curtains and screens had been set up to hide the truth. It looked like a small auditorium, but it was a camouflaged rats Keller.

We might drive through a town, or, as on later trips, fly over countries, and Maharishi would say it has good vibrations or bad vibrations. He could feel something you and I couldn't feel. He knew.

When we entered a new hotel room, he would always stand just inside the door for a minute, testing the atmosphere. Sometimes he would say it was best that we find another room. Often I would ask the management for two or three different room keys and Maharishi and I would go off so he could test the vibrations in each room and pick the one that suited him best.

Once we were checking out a room and he didn’t like it one bit. And it was quite a pleasant room. Later I was talking to the desk clerk and he told me the hotel had just had a convention. That particular room had been used by some of the gentlemen as a sex, drinking, and gambling den. They had cleaned the room afterwards but the vibrations remained.

An event on that trip I’ll never forget was the time we were racing to catch the ferry in Port Angeles to take us over to Victoria on Vancouver Island. We were running late and had to make the ferry in order for Maharishi to keep an important speaking engagement.

We were still a distance out of town and I figured that we would have to drive a hundred miles an hour or more to make the ferry. I told Maharishi.

“Then why not drive that fast,” he said matter-of-factly.

I said to myself if the master thinks it will be okay then it must be. So I stepped on the gas. Soon, we were racing along at about 103 miles per hour down a long, long grade through the mist and a beautiful pine forest. I could see an intersection down the road and I started to slow for it.

“Why go slower?” Maharishi wanted to know.

I explained what was up ahead.

He then closed his eyes for a moment or two and said, “The road is clear, so you keep driving fast.”

And so whoosh, I went right through there. It was clear. A little ways further on we came to a section of the highway overlooking the city and the docks. I could see the ferry down below. I checked my watch. The boat was scheduled to leave in a couple of minutes and it would take us at least fifteen to get there, I told Maharishi.

“Don’t worry, you just go fast,” he said, calm as ever. Down and down we went and drove right up on the dock and up onto the boat. I no sooner got on than the back gate went up and off we went. The purser came down and said, “Today’s your lucky day, mister.”

“What do you mean?” I said.

“Well, the captain has been doing this run for about eighteen years and in all that time he never has failed to leave the dock on the minute. Today he has been standing on the bridge like he was in a trance.”

I said something like, “How about that,” and gave him a count-your-lucky-stars smile. Maharishi in the seat next to me never said a word. We got out and sat up on the deck and enjoyed the boat ride.

Maharishi, of course, has abilities that are extraordinary by our normal standards. But he never makes a show out of them and it is only rare that he manifests these powers. He certainly hasn't been given to wholesale displays of psychic or physical feats such as other yogis do.....

 

From The Himalayas to Hollywood
A Personal Account of Maharishi’s Early Days

By Charles F. Lutes
As Told to Martin Zucker