Press and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland
Saturday, 3 May 2003

A Group of Yogic Flyers who want to bring harmony to a deprived area of Aberdeen have invited members of the community to a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of planned palace of peace. A patch of land beside a betting shop in Tillydrone has been chosen for the first purpose-built meditation centre in the UK.

The £150,000 centre already has outline planning permission, and local members of the Transcendental Meditation group are working to take the project forward.

On Sunday, the yogic flyers hope their neighbours in Hayton Road will join them at the groundbreaking ceremony.

Anna Edwards, of the Aberdeen Maharishi Vedic Centre, said that, because of the alignment of the planets, Sunday was an auspicious day for marking projects of lasting achievement.

The event, she added, was also to celebrate the positive groundwork which had gone into planning for the meditation centre.

"The idea for this has come from the international TM headquarters, who are the people who are spearheading the building of these peace palaces," she said. "They told us this was an auspicious time and that anyone who has purchased land should lead a simple ceremony.

"As we are the only ones in the UK who have managed to find a piece of land, this will be the only ceremony of its kind here." Orders for the palaces of peace to be built came from the TM's founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who once inspired the Beatles. The criteria for site selection included the slope of the land and the direction of river flow.

Since Tillydrone was identified, negotiations have been taking place between the TM organisation and Aberdeen City Council planners. The land for the meditation centre, at 107 Hayton Road, will be decorated with ribbons and the dimensions of the building marked on the ground. To represent Scottish culture, a piper will also be present. Guests will be gathering at 10.15am, with the ceremony taking place at 10.55am.