Audio only
Length8h 1m
About this audiobook
In this engrossing, provocative, and intimate memoir, a young journalist reflects on her childhood in the heartland, growing up in an increasingly isolated meditation community in the 1980s and ’90s—a fascinating, disturbing look at a fringe culture and its true believers.
When Claire Hoffman’s alcoholic father abandons his family, his desperate wife, Liz, tells five-year-old Claire and her seven-year-old brother, Stacey, that they are going to heaven—Iowa—to live in Maharishi’s national headquarters for Heaven on Earth. For Claire’s mother, Transcendental Meditation—the Maharishi’s method of meditation and his approach to living the fullest possible life—was a salvo that promised world peace and enlightenment just as their family fell apart.
At first this secluded utopia offers warmth and support, and makes these outsiders feel calm, secure, and connected to the world. At the Maharishi School, Claire learns Maharishi’s philosophy for living and meditates with her class. With the promise of peace and enlightenment constantly on the horizon, every day is infused with magic and meaning. But as Claire and Stacey mature, their adolescent skepticism kicks in, drawing them away from the community and into delinquency and drugs. To save herself, Claire moves to California with her father and breaks from Maharishi completely. After a decade of working in journalism and academia, the challenges of adulthood propel her back to Iowa, where she reexamines her spiritual upbringing and tries to reconnect with the magic of her childhood.
Greetings from Utopia Park takes us deep into this complex, unusual world, illuminating its joys and comforts, and its disturbing problems. While there is no utopia on earth, Hoffman reveals, there are noble goals worth striving for: believing in belief, inner peace, and a firm understanding that there is a larger fabric of the universe to which we all belong.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.8 (1.6K)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon, StoryGraph, LibraryThing
GenreBiography and Memoir, Spirituality and Religion
Length8 hrs 1 min
Narrated byAndi Arndt
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateJun 7, 2016
LanguageEnglish
The Way of RoninTu Lam12h 9m4.9 (1.3K)$29 · $0.00
Matters of the HeartJacinta Nampijinpa Price9h 35m4.8 (359)$29 · $0.00
The StepsSylvester Stallone9h 4m4.8 (635)$29 · $0.00
How to Test Negative for StupidJohn Kennedy8h 13m4.7 (9.7K)$28 · $0.00
Bad Fat Black GirlSesali Bowen6h 32m4.7 (2.8K)$24 · $0.00
Send MeMarty Skovlund, Joe Kent8h 10m4.7 (1.6K)$26 · $0.00
John Muir: The Story of My Boyhood and Youth & Letters to a Friend (Annotated)John Muir10h 13m4.7 (1.1K)$1.99 · $0.00
Invisible StormJason Kander6h 48m4.7 (3.2K)$24 · $0.00
Forever BoyKate Swenson9h 27m4.7 (5K)$29 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m4.7 (4.8K)$29 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m4.6 (11.9K)$29 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m4.6 (9.3K)$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m4.7 (343)$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m4.6 (10.8K)$24 · $0.00
Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m4.6 (256.4K)$29 · $0.00
The Dangerous Truth about Today’s MarijuanaLaura Stack CSP, MBA9h 57m4.7 (385)$20 · $0.00
Birdie & HarlowTaylor Wolfe7h 50m4.6 (6.5K)$26 · $0.00
The Way of RoninTu Lam12h 9m4.9 (1.3K)$29 · $0.00
Proud Police WifeRebecca Lynn4h 52m4.8 (14K)$10 · $0.00
I Hear His Whisper 365 Daily Devotions (Gift Edition)Brian Simmons, Gretchen Rodriguez9h 23m4.8 (2K)$10 · $0.00
A Little God Time for Women Morning & Evening DevotionalBroadStreet Publishing Group LLC15h 15m4.9 (1.2K)$10 · $0.00
The Chosen Presents: A Blended Harmony of the GospelsSteve Laube, Amanda Jenkins, Dallas Jenkins7h 8m4.9 (823)$10 · $0.00
Prayers from the Throne RoomBrian Simmons8h 55m4.9 (256)$10 · $0.00
31 Decrees of Blessing for Your LifePatricia King2h 38m4.8 (1.4K)$10 · $0.00
Loved BabySarah Philpott4h 51m4.8 (1.4K)$10 · $0.00
The QuranAllah23h 7m4.7 (136.1K)$1 · $0.00
The Secret of the RosaryLouis de Montfort6h 1m4.7 (16K)$2 · $0.00
The Holy Qur-an: Text, Translation and CommentaryAbdullah Yusuf Ali22h 16m4.7 (133K)$1 · $0.00
All of Grace (Annotated)Charles Spurgeon5h 1m4.7 (1.3K)$1.99 · $0.00
Steps to ChristEllen G. White3h 12m4.7 (13.8K)$2 · $0.00
The Doctrine and Selected CovenantsJoseph Smith13h 53m4.7 (10.4K)$1.99 · $0.00
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God & Other Sermons (Annotated)Jonathan Edwards7h 51m4.7 (1.5K)$2 · $0.00
Swayam Ki AwaazPrem Rawat8h 34m4.7 (1.1K)$26 · $0.00
Behind the BadgeAdam Davis10h 18m4.7 (2.7K)$10 · $0.00
The New Human Revolution, vol. 1Daisaku Ikeda7h 46m4.7 (669)$12 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m4.7 (4.8K)$29 · $0.00
Praying GraceDavid A. Holland3h 2m4.7 (658)$10 · $0.00
You may also like
Darling DaysiO Tillett Wright10h 45m4.3 (3.5K)$29 · $0.00
The Hospital Always WinsIssa Ibrahim10h 2m4.3 (436)$20
Which Side Are You OnRyan Lee Wong5h 39m3.7 (1.7K)$17
FeverJonathan Bazzi11h 23m3.9 (7.3K)$20
When You Find Out the World is Against YouKelly Oxford8h 7m3.8 (3.2K)$26 · $0.00
What's So Funny?David Sipress7h 33m4.2 (1.4K)$26 · $0.00
A Song Called HomeSara Zarr7h 37m4.1 (1.6K)$26 · $0.00
True Stories from an Unreliable EyewitnessChristine Lahti5h 30m4.1 (427)$24 · $0.00
This Boy We MadeTaylor Harris8h 25m4.3 (2.8K)$20 · $0.00
When You Find Out the World is Against YouKelly Oxford8h 7m3.8 (3.4K)$26 · $0.00
HomeschooledStefan Merrill Block7h 10m3.6 (18.5K)$28 · $0.00
Of Human BondageW. Somerset Maugham28h 19m4.2 (206.5K)$2.30
Many Points of MeCaroline Gertler6h 54m4.2 (734)$24 · $0.00
My DyslexiaPhilip Schultz2h 16m3.9 (1.6K)$10 · $0.00
Little Miss DiagnosedErin Nance, MD6h 57m4.4 (384)$24 · $0.00
Ms. Hempel ChroniclesSarah Shun-lien Bynum5h 53m3.5 (2.3K)$14 · $0.00
PopsMichael Chabon2h 17m3.9 (3.3K)$16 · $0.00
Out Came the SunMariel Hemingway9h 6m3.8 (2.8K)$20
Bits and PiecesWhoopi Goldberg6h 44m4.3 (20.6K)$23
Childhood - Boyhood - YouthLeo Tolstoy14h 16m4.0 (15.8K)$4 · $0.00