The Legacy

The people of Vermont were early adopters of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's message of how to create enlightenment and end suffering for everyone in the world.

There was an early presence in the late 1960s of “SIMS,” or Students International Meditation Society, which put the University of Vermont and its community in contact with the earliest Transcendental Meditation™ teachers trained by Maharishi.

Vermont attracted many strong teachers and has been a place of innovation for the TM™ organization such as the “Vermont Prison Program,” which taught meditation to prisoners and the institutional program at Norwich University for cadets in the 2000s.

At every turn, the community has had an innate interest in understanding the relationship between individual growth and the building of strong communities. We have benefited and relied upon an active donor community of meditators, which has included quiet “superstars” such as Hans Raum, Susan Gore, and Jim & Lucy McCullough among many other steadfast participants.

However, this fertile ground for the teachings has not seen the sustained growth, impact, and stability that Edwards and Janet Smith have since provided.

Edwards and Janet Smith arrived at the end of 2011 and started teaching in rented hotel rooms. In April 2012 they found a home in Williston where they could live and teach TM.

From their home, they made available many programs developed by the international TM organization and created a true “center” for personalized and group knowledge and experience. We have enjoyed the longest uninterrupted support and growth under their leadership in Vermont’s history.

Dallas Edwards Smith, “Edwards”, chose to leave his medical practice in Virginia in 1983 and move to Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa. There, he taught academic courses and was co-director of the MIU Maharishi Ayurveda Health Clinic until 1993.

After seven years of teaching early childhood and parent education, Janet attended the first large TM World Peace Assembly in Amherst, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1979. Inspired, she moved to Fairfield and, over the next 14 years, worked on staff, taught at Maharishi School for the Age of Enlightenment, and earned an MA in the Science of Creative Intelligence.

It was there that Edwards and Janet met and were soon married. They both completed their TM Teacher Training in 1990. Later, in 1993, Maharishi requested that faculty and staff set up as many Maharishi Vedic Universities and Ayurvedic Colleges as possible. This led to the Smith's working in Columbus and Cleveland Ohio; and Albuquerque, New Mexico. During that time, Edwards also went to Europe to work with Dr. Tony Nader on the first research studies on Maharishi Vedic Vibration. They both went to India when Maharishi sent US doctors to educate Indian doctors about the value of Maharishi Ayurveda.

Then on to Lexington, Kentucky, and Baltimore, Maryland. After all these outstanding endeavors they were ready to put down roots closer to family, so they moved to Williston, Vermont.

That brings us to the present day. The local meditation community has established this foundation to sustain the quality of leadership Edwards and Janet have provided for the foreseeable future as we navigate a transition period over the next few years. The goal is to provide fiscal resilience, uninterrupted support for meditators, and innovative expansion of these programs to our community through the precious gift of Maharishi’s teachings.