Welcome to My Page on Academic Writing

...featuring my book on Maharishi's talks on literature and language. See below for other publications and books in progress or in press. If you are looking for my Unified Field Theory of Literature article, please scroll down.

In the fall of 2010 this volume finally appeared, published by MUM Press. See link below. It was the project of many years, begun while I was teaching at MIU/MUM. We often played Maharishi's talks to the students so they could benefit from his profound insights into the creative process and the mechanics and effects of literature and language upon consciousness. It was soon apparent that students and scholars would need to have these talks in print to study and cite in their writing. And so I began the lengthy process of selecting, transcribing, editing, and introducing these talks. My colleague Susan Andersen took on the job of editing and introducing the language talks. 

I was recently interviewed about the book and it is quite a lively interchange with Mario Orsatti on TM News. Check it out.

We finished a version of the book in the 90s, but it languished at the international headquarters of the TM movement as the leaders there focused on world-wide events and creating a peaceful influenced in our troubled times. After Maharishi's passing in February 2008, I proposed that the MUM Press print the volume. In order for this to happen, they had to scan the text and I had to proof it many times to get out the scanning errors. In addition, I had to bring the Introduction up to date, to include events of the past 15 years and the development of new areas of research in the movement. I also had to update the section on scientific research on the Transcendental Meditation technique, including a bibliography of over 250 papers published in peer-reviewed journals and books, and the references to these papers throughout the volume. We added an Index and the volume finally arrived from the bindery in November 2010.  

Click here to go to MIU Press to purchase this book

You can also order the book directly from me. I can sign it anhttps://miupress.org/product/the-flow-of-consciousnessd/or dedicate it if you like. Email me rhodaoj at earthlink.net

Proof reading was lengthy and detailed, but it was always pleasant to dwell on Maharishi's ideas and his expressions.

I have made a few videos talking about the ideas in this book and illustrating them with some poetry. They are very lively, and the best may be the talk I gave at the Literature Reunion at MUM in September 2013. It was allergy season and my nose itched. Please try to ignore that! This part of the talk goes about 35 minutes. It is very informal and off the cuff.

Click here to access that talk on the MUM website.

Videos on Literature and Consciousness

I also made a series of three talks on the book which I posted on YouTube. They are each about 15 minutes long. You can search for them under my name 'Rhoda Orme-Johnson'. I also made them in French (imagine!) and they are right after the English ones.

Signing books was very fulfilling. See the small red version of the poster the press put out to advertise the signings on the right? Here I am with fellow author Linda Egenes. She had just come out with a book on Maharishi's Ayurveda for families.

Click here for a link to Linda's book for sale at MUM Press.com

Click here for a link to Linda's website

Look below Publications and Presentations for a note about my current project.

Other Academic Publications and Conference Presentations

Publications: 
With Silvine Farnell and Susan Anderson. "Chapter Sixteen: Literature" in Heaven on Earth through Maharishi Vedic Science and Technology: Theory and Practical Application from the Perspective of all Disciplines (1989). Fairfield, IA: Maharishi University of Management Press, pp. 1-35. Revised and reprinted in Consciousness- Based Education: A Foundation for Teaching and Learning in the Academic Disciplines. Vol. VI Consciousness-Based Education and Literature. Consciousness-Based Books. Fairfield, IA: Maharishi University of Management Press, 2010, pp. 441-484.

"The Use of Names in The Professor's House." The Willa Cather Yearbook 1 (1991): 131-146.

"A Unified Field Theory of Literature." Modern Science and Vedic Science 1 (1987): 322-373. Reprinted in Consciousness Education, pp. 19-96. 

Click here to access the full paper from the MUM website.

Conference Presentations:
"Fannie Hurst's Appassionata and The Hands of Veronica: Miracles in Babylon." Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA), Chicago, Nov. 7-9, 1991.

"Studying Feminist Utopian Fiction: Opening Students' Awareness to Change and Creating Heaven on Earth." Iowa Council of Teachers of English-College Section (ICTE), Kirkwood Commuity College, October 5, 1990.

"From the Aeneid to The Song of the Lark: A Feminist transformation of a Classical Myth." Fourth National Seminar on Willa Cather, Santa Fe, NM, June 16-23, 1990.

"The Song of the Lark, the Aeneid, and the Transformative Experience." MMA, Minneapolis, MN, November 1989.

"Connecting the Learner to the Discipline: Teaching Literature with Unified Field Charts." ICTE, Des Moines, IA, October 27, 1989.

"The Artist and the Creative Process: Theory and Praxis in Portrait. 1989 James Joyce Conference, Philadelphia, PA, June 12-16, 1989.

"Vedic Psychology and the Understanding of Higher States of Consciousness Described in Modern Fiction." Conference on Literature and Psychology, Institute for the Psychological Study of the Arts, University of Florida, Gainesville, March 9-12, 1989.

"Mystical Experiences in the Fiction of May Sinclair: A Non-Mystical Analysis." MMLA, St. Louis, MO, November 1988.

"Transcending and the Creative Process: James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." ICTE, Des Moines, IA, October 16, 1987.

"Naming and Meaning in Willa Cather's The Professor's House." Third National Seminar on Wila Cather, Hastings, NE, June 14-21, 1987.

"Reading the Text in the Light of Unified Field Theory." MMLA, St. Louis, MO, November 7, 1985.

"Experiences of Expanded Consciousness and the Second Self in the Fiction of Willa Cather." ICTE, DMACC, Ankeny, IA, October 11, 1985.

"Unified Field Theory and the Theory of Literature." ICTE, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, October 5, 1984.

"Oceanic Images in Meditation and Literature." With William Haney. Sixth American Imagery Conference, San Francisco, CA, November 5, 1982.

"The Archetypal Journey Within." With Silvine Marbury. Fifth American Imagery Conference, Chicago, IL, October 10, 1981.

"Doris Lessing's The Marriages between Zones Three, Four, and Five: An Archtype for the Evolution of Consciousness." Ninth Annual Conference on Twentieth-Century Literature, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, February 27, 1981.