Guru’s Firm Scouting for ‘Heavenly’ Homes

A real estate company representing the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is scouting the Sacramento area to build a 200-acre-plus housing development of $500,000 homes touted as “Heaven on Earth for Everyone.”

The homes would be constructed under guidelines set by the maharishi, the Indian guru who was brought to the world’s attention by the Beatles and who popularized transcendental meditation.

“Sacramento’s growing population and the availability of land makes the area very attractive,” said Henry Clark, vice president of the Maharishi Heaven on Earth Development Corp. of Santa Monica.

In addition to the community envisioned for the Sacramento area, Clark said, his firm is involved with a Los Angeles developer who is negotiating to buy a specific site in Marin County’s San Geronimo Valley and another in south San Jose for similar communities.

The developments, to be called Cities of Immortals, would be open not just to disciples of the maharishi or those who practice transcendental meditation.

Details of the proposed developments were reported by The Sacramento Bee.

The prospectus for the maharishi’s community calls for one house per acre, to be built in exact orientation of the compass points, north, south, east and west.

The reason, according to the prospectus, is that “the quality of energy produced by the sun promotes the success of the activity being performed in that room.”

For example, Clark said, when entering the dining room at the proper hour, residents’ appetites would be stimulated, and when entering the bedroom, they would feel sleepy.

Two such City of Immortals communities are under construction in North America--one on 200 acres near Montreal and the other on 300 acres in Virginia, adjacent to Washington, Clark said.

There also are plans for a 480-acre theme park near Florida’s Disney World, to be called Veda Land, as well as worldwide marketing of herbs, soaps, bottled water and tape cassettes.

Eventually, Clark said, the company hopes to have 100 Cities of Immortals worldwide, of 200 to 500 acres each.

Gas-powered cars would be banned from the developments, and tracts of land would be set aside for organic agriculture and dairy farming, according to the prospectus.