Suspicious Fire Levels Texas Meditation Center

FORESTBURG, Tex. — The abandoned Dallas-Ft. Worth Capital of the Age of Enlightenment, a transcendental meditation center, was destroyed by a suspicious fire, officials said.

The 55,000-square-foot structure with 14 golden domes and 108 rooms burned to the ground Friday, said Montague County Sheriff Glenn Watley.

Watley said the fire was suspicious because it spread so quickly. Fire departments from five communities battled the blaze, but were too late to save the frame-and-stucco building that had become a target of vandals.

The building, started in 1980 by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as part of a project to generate world peace through collective meditation, was never completed.