Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation and one-time guru to the Beatles, is proposing a City of Immortals somewhere in Oklahoma to start building his vision of Heaven on Earth.
Representatives of the Indian guru met with developers Saturday in Oklahoma City to discuss plans for a low-density housing community proposed by the Maharishi Heaven on Earth Development Corp. It is one of several such communities planned across the nation, backers said.
A winning Winfrey ideaBackers said the communities would be "noise-free, pollution-free and free from crime and anxiety." Scott Demaree, a Stillwater builder who acts as Oklahoma liaison for the corporation based in Malibu, Calif., said it was hoped ground could be broken as early as April near Tulsa, Oklahoma City or Stillwater. Homes, which would be set on a minimum one-acre plot, would range from $60,000 to several hundred thousand dollars, Demaree said. Demaree and other backers said the community would not be limited to followers of the maharishi and would not be used to recruit followers. Although the Beatles called the maharishi their guru in the 1960s, they later rejected him and his teachings.