Greetings from Utopia Park: Surviving a Transcendent Childhood

Written by Claire Hoffman

Narrated by Andi Arndt

In this engrossing, provocative, and intimate memoir, a young journalist reflects on her childhood in the heartland, growing up in an increasingly isolated meditation community in the 1980s and ’90s—a fascinating, disturbing look at a fringe culture and its true believers.

When Claire Hoffman’s alcoholic father abandons his family, his desperate wife, Liz, tells five-year-old Claire and her seven-year-old brother, Stacey, that they are going to heaven—Iowa—to live in Maharishi’s national headquarters for Heaven on Earth. For Claire’s mother, Transcendental Meditation—the Maharishi’s method of meditation and his approach to living the fullest possible life—was a salvo that promised world peace and enlightenment just as their family fell apart.

At first this secluded utopia offers warmth and support, and makes these outsiders feel calm, secure, and connected to the world. At the Maharishi School, Claire learns Maharishi’s philosophy for living and meditates with her class. With the promise of peace and enlightenment constantly on the horizon, every day is infused with magic and meaning. But as Claire and Stacey mature, their adolescent skepticism kicks in, drawing them away from the community and into delinquency and drugs. To save herself, Claire moves to California with her father and breaks from Maharishi completely. After a decade of working in journalism and academia, the challenges of adulthood propel her back to Iowa, where she reexamines her spiritual upbringing and tries to reconnect with the magic of her childhood.

Greetings from Utopia Park takes us deep into this complex, unusual world, illuminating its joys and comforts, and its disturbing problems. While there is no utopia on earth, Hoffman reveals, there are noble goals worth striving for: believing in belief, inner peace, and a firm understanding that there is a larger fabric of the universe to which we all belong.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Jun 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9780062566072

Claire Hoffman

Claire Hoffman writes for national magazines and holds a master’s degree in religion from the University of Chicago and a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. She was a staff reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Rolling Stone. She serves on the board of her family foundation, the Goldhirsh Foundation, as well as ProPublica and the Columbia School of Journalism. She lives in Los Angeles, California.

Reviews for Greetings from Utopia Park

[S.A. Hoffman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As her brother I might be somewhat biased but, I say (as do the experts) this is the absolute pinnacle of all mankind's literary achievements (and I hear the film adaptation will be even better; though if any actor other than Denzel plays my character I'm gonna be very sad).
Btw, should anyone be interested, I am selling autographed copies of this incredible book for the low, low price of 3.5 million Rupiah! Own a genuine piece of history! One that can only appreciate over time like a fine wine. Buy ten get another copy free! They make fantastic holiday gifts for friends, family, or even just familiar faces! Can't go wrong!

[Tamasina Eagleson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Incredible depiction of what it’s like to grow up in Fairfield.

[Hermes · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Best of the TM disillusionment books

writing: 3/5

narrator: 4/5

content: 4/5

I offer my sincere thanks to the author for chapter three. Even as a disenchanted ex-member, I was shocked and dismayed.

The personal facts of this story sound realistic and perceptive. I am an ex-TM-Sidha (fraud!) who also lived in Fairfield for a year and a half. The difference in my case (and that of a whole generation of seekers in the 1970s) is I chose to gradually become a follower of the ‘Maharishi’ whereas she was born into it and this means an entirely different context, which she recognizes and elaborates on. The book seemed to be as much about her family and the TM insulated society than the author. But for much of the book I literally couldn’t picture the protagonist because it wasn’t clear how old she was in that section – especially important when she was literally growing up. I found her descriptions of her mother especially well crafted. Despite his alcoholism and irresponsibility, she painted a very interesting and somehow sympathetic picture of her father too.

However, I found it a little frustrating when she was so descriptive about other people’s behaviour, tone and even the details of their physiques and hair styles, but was usually vague about her own appearance, especially any changes as she matured.

And what was ‘making out’? Was that like when I was engaging in heavy petting (kissing, caressing, fellatio, cunnilingus etc) with my lover on ‘Town Super Radiance’, while everyone was at the Dome – because it was the only truly private time we could get more than it felt delicious being rebels? Does ‘making out’ mean real sex (coitus) or Bill Clinton non-sex sex (a blowjob)? True, I was twenty-six, not fourteen. But why not be, if not graphic, then at least frank? It was left to the imagination of the reader whether she first had sex with a ‘townie’ or a ‘guru’ and what it was like. BTW, in my few years there I never heard us called ‘gurus’, it was ‘roo’. Hoffman spends so much time on detailed descriptions of drug use (methamphetamine parties, WTF?) but almost nothing on the sex life of herself and her peers. No mention of teen pregnancy, STDs, abortions or homosexuality. A gaping hole, you might say.

And why so much quoting of TM publications? I tolerated Maharishi’s boring way of talking at the time, and find now myself becoming impatient hearing more of his bizarre vocabulary – neither science nor philosophy, neither humanistic nor truly Vedantic. OK, he was peddling a sort of Brahmanism-lite, a diluted version for westerners. I am indeed interested in the author’s experiences, as well as the explanations of the when and how of the TM leadership engaged in constantly changing practices (which of course was essentially MMY himself, as he micro-managed and valued unswerving loyalty and unquestioning obedience). As she could not know the reasons, but only the responses of herself and her family and peers, it is completely understandable why she spent so much time on official announcements. And the book was written for mass audiences not ex-TMers, so I understand the need.

It just doesn’t match my experience, which is that there were no reasons given, just suddenly there would be more complications, time and money added to what you were expected to do. Especially disconcerting, and she does adequately mention this, was the practice of banning from group practice those who even visited other teachers. Even the Catholic Church doesn’t do this.

I also was a little disappointed in her choice of what to include, because there seems to be a whole chapter missing. She is a questioning teen (14 or 15) in a communally-practicing quasi-Hindu cult then suddenly she is taking magic mushrooms and dating football players at the townie school. Did I fall asleep? It’s possible. I would like to learn more about that transition. And part three (chapters 18 to 20) jumps ten years in the author’s life. Nothing interesting happen as an adult in the real world, such as adjusting to having two to three hours extra free time every day and her relationships with still-meditating meditators? Was this the hand of an editor? It was a little truncated for me.

Yet, the author comes back with gusto describing her shock at the aging Indian’s newest plans that truly sound insane. Maybe he was? I started to actually feel sorry for the little man with grand ambitions. Did he develop Alzheimer’s?

I learned a few things about TM organization that I didn’t already know. Thinking back how many years (and dollars!) I spent in intellect and action-numbing following of “Maharishi says...” the book actually elicited sadness in me. And that included nostalgia for simplicity, focus, community and wholesome living, despite far-reaching intrusions by administrators with the full blessings of Mr. Mahesh Srivastava, whose three nephews apparently inherited billions.

The author explains very well the financial realities of the struggling TM working class in Fairfield in an elitist tightly-knit community that favoured the rich. In my opinion, this is a theme throughout the book and she does it extremely well. Best part of her book. Hoffman is not bitter in the tone of her epilogue (very different from the rest of the book).

This was a one day ‘read’ because the story is my own, sort of (male versus female, adult vs. child and teen, convert vs. born into it). Despite my criticisms I recommend this book.

[Mark Friedman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Stay tuned because the last few chapters are really great.

[Jason Pittman · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very good and fizzled at the end. Read I though.