Aum Marathon (group)

The Aum Marathon was a 48-hour Pune One residential therapy group led by Veeresh, AUM standing for "awareness, understanding, meditation". His process has undergone many adaptations of form since the early Pune One marathon and now survives at his Humaniversity as a two-hour "social meditation" which "guides you in a safe and supportive environment through 14 aspects of the human experience: hatred, forgiveness, love, stamina, life energy, chaos, dance, sadness, laughter, sensuality, chanting, silence, respect and sharing".

Going back to Pune One, stories and info about this group show up several times in early Darshan Diaries. The first is in Hammer on the Rock, from 12 Jan 1976, where Maneesha, apparently citing another source, likely Veeresh, describes it as:

a forty-eight hour intensive, ego-awareness, and ego-reducing, encounter group. Within the structure given by Bhagwan, situations will be created, the emphasis being on awareness, exposure of blocked and reflex emotions, and avoidance mechanisms.

Techniques from the various therapies, including bio-energetics, gestalt, synanon, energy awareness, and meditations, will be used— but mostly the moment will determine what happens.

There are short breaks for eating and sleeping, but the group stays together for the entire duration of the marathon. No physical violence is permitted.

More DD excerpts to come . . .

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