How Rand Paul Could Ride the Maharishi Effect to Victory

At Earth & Water, a teahouse in downtown Fairfield, Iowa, patrons sit cross-legged on mats as they down cups of oolong or puerh. Shoes are optional, if not discouraged. On a typical afternoon, it’s crowded with students from the Maharishi University of Management, which opened in 1974 to teach a curriculum inspired by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the progenitor of Transcendental Meditation.

Fairfield, the center of Transcendental Meditation in the U.S., is a hotbed of support for Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul. Earth & Water regulars Jeff Shipley and Roger Leahy helped turn it and surrounding Jefferson County into a stronghold for Paul’s father, Ron, the Texas congressman who came in a close third in the 2012 Iowa caucuses. Now they’re using Earth & Water as a base to help Rand get all the way to the White House. “There’s a self-reliant attitude here,” says Shipley. “The people who want to end the wars and end NSA spying are the same people who want to be able to sell raw milk.”