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Armed conflicts continue to rage around the world, causing terrible pain and suffering, which establishes that every war is a tragedy. But the biggest tragedy today is that these conflicts are no longer necessary or inevitable. Experts claim that they can be resolved quickly, easily, safely and at little cost. We approached one such expert to describe a simple approach – a technique, really – that has proven effective over the past 50 years and has been tested in places all over the world, East and West, and at every level of society, from cities to countries.
Its effectiveness has been documented in 58 studies published in 28 peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly journals such as the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Social Indicators Research, Journal of Mind and Behavior, International Journal of Neuroscience and Journal of Social Behavior and Personality. In other words, the expert claimed that this technique works consistently and none of the existing approaches to peace – ceasefires, peacekeeping forces, mediation, negotiation – are comparable.
Unconventional and Highly Effective
In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Dr. Tony Nader, MD, PhD, MAAR shared, “Rewind forty years, to the summer of 1983. Lebanon, my home country, is engulfed in a violent civil war that has been going on for eight years, untouched by all efforts to stop it. That summer, about 200 people settle into a hotel in downtown Jerusalem. Their goal: to reduce the fighting in Lebanon, just across the border to the north. They plan to do this through prolonged meditation – specifically, Transcendental Meditation and its advanced techniques. These “techniques of consciousness” enable them to effortlessly settle into a natural state of pure, awakened silence.”
He added, “They are not wishing or praying for peace. They are simply experiencing a state of profound inner peace, as described by sages and others in traditions around the world for millennia. During those two months, the quality of life in Jerusalem and Israel changes. Crime, car accidents and fires in Jerusalem decrease significantly. Throughout Israel, fires decrease significantly, the stock market booms and the national mood improves. Most notably, the intensity of fighting in Lebanon and the number of war deaths decrease significantly. The study was published in the prestigious Conflict Resolution Journal, Edited at Yale University.”
“Over the next two years, the experiment was repeated six more times,” explains Dr. Tony Nader. “When the scientists combined the results of all the experiments together, what they found was astonishing: during the experimental period – that is, when large meditation groups gathered – war-related deaths in Lebanon decreased by 71%, war-related injuries decreased by 68%, the level of conflict decreased by 48% and cooperation between adversaries increased by 66%. Such experiments have been carried out around the world.”
Meditation responsible for drop in crime in Washington, DC
In June and July 1983, meditation experts gathered in Washington, D.C., for a highly publicized experiment to demonstrate this technique – 4,000 people from 73 countries, traveling at their own expense. “They predicted they would reduce violent crime in the nation’s capital – known as the “murder capital of the world” because of its high murder rate – by 20%,” said Dr. Tony Nader. A D.C. Police Department spokesman joked that it would take “twenty inches of snow” to keep people off the streets. But soon after the demonstrations began, the violent crime rate began to drop unexpectedly, continuing to fall throughout the two-month period. During the last two weeks of July, when about 4,000 people attended the group, Violent crime dropped by 23%At the same time, the quality of life improved significantly throughout the city.”
Attention to improving the quality of life in America
The longest-running experiment took place in the United States between 2007 and 2010. Dr. Tony Nader said, “A long-running meditation group at Maharishi International University (MIU) in Fairfield, Iowa, grew large enough to, theoretically, have an impact on the entire country (about 1,700 participants, or the square root of one percent of the population). During these four years a wide range of negative trends, which had all been increasing, suddenly began to decline. Murders decreased by 16%, rapes decreased by 6%, aggravated assaults decreased by 11%, robberies decreased by 12%, drug-related deaths decreased by 15%, traffic accidents decreased by 21%, child injury-related deaths decreased by 18%. Even infant mortality decreased by 11%.”
Reality check of results
Dr. Tony Nader explained, “In each experiment, the negative variables were increasing before the experiment began, decreasing simultaneously during the experiment, and increasing again when the experiment ended and the participants dispersed. It was as if a light was turned on and then turned off.” In these studies, the scientists predicted the results in advance. They collected data from open, public sources, and they used advanced statistical tools to show that other possible factors could not account for the changes and that the changes were not due to chance.
Why is it effective?
Dr. Tony Nader responded, “I am a physician by profession and I know that treating disorders involves more than suppressing symptoms. You have to address the source of the illness. That is why this new approach is so effective. These large meditation groups go to the source of the problem: they neutralize the tension in the country’s social fabric, or what we call its collective consciousness. We know that as stress increases in individuals, it can manifest as mental or physical illness or negative behavior, including violence. Stress exacerbates or causes more than 90% of diseases.”
He elaborates, “The same principle applies in society. Just as the TM technique has proven highly effective in relieving individual stress – a recent $2.5 million clinical trial sponsored by the US Department of Defense found TM practice as or more effective than the “gold standard” treatment for PTSD among military veterans – so practicing these techniques in a large group neutralizes collective stress, which is the root cause of many of our social sufferings. This “technology of consciousness” is known as maharishi effect, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi predicted this, provided meditation techniques to create it, and urged scientists to test it empirically.”
How does this work?
How can groups of people sitting with their eyes closed, without interacting with other people, reduce murders, traffic accidents and infant mortality rates across the country – or reduce the intensity of fighting across the border?
Dr. Tony Nader said, “We first need to understand what is going on inside individual meditators. Through the practice of Transcendental Meditation – a simple, natural, spontaneous, non-religious process usually done twice a day for twenty minutes sitting comfortably with eyes closed – they reach a state of inner peace. Two other things happen: their bodies reach a uniquely deep state of relaxation, releasing deep stress and fatigue (this is the reason for many of TM’s health benefits). And their brains change from somewhat disorganized functioning (indicated by EEG) to a very organized, coherent style.”
He emphasizes, “These changes occur spontaneously, a natural byproduct of the simple, natural process of “transcendence” or diving within. Studies show that this inner peace and harmony pervades society. For example, several studies have found that subjects who live around people who practice the TM technique have increased EEG coherence, even if they are not meditating themselves. Another study found that when the size of the peacemaking group at MIU was large, non-meditating residents of Fairfield showed higher levels of serotonin (associated with happiness and well-being) and lower levels of cortisol (associated with stress).”
What influences its effect?
According to Dr. Tony Nader, the Maharishi Effect shows the phenomenon of action at a distance, indicating that a field effect is at work. He explained, “We take advantage of field effects all the time. For example, when we exchange calls and texts with people, even though our devices are not hardwired together. The signals are carried through space at nearly the speed of light by the underlying electromagnetic field—the same invisible, omnipresent field that carries sunlight to Earth, but the electromagnetic field cannot mediate the Maharishi Effect. Although the human brain creates its own electromagnetic field through its electrochemical activity, it cannot operate over such great distances. Scientists believe the Maharishi Effect is carried by the underlying, omnipresent unified field of natural law, which is thought to be beyond the electromagnetic field and the three other force fields. They further suggest that the Maharishi Effect indicates that the unified field must be the field of pure consciousness.”
Expanding our paradigm
Dr. Tony Nader said, “If this is so, then beyond the phenomenal benefits of the Maharishi Effect for creating peace and improving quality of life, we are looking at evidence supporting a new worldview, namely that consciousness is fundamental in the universe. This means that we are all connected to an underlying field of consciousness and that we can all access this field within ourselves. Not only has this been the worldview of ancient traditions around the world, but many of the great scientists of the last century – Max Planck, Erwin Schrödinger, Sir James Jeans, Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington – also held that consciousness, not matter, is fundamental. Eddington declared: “The stuff of the world is mind-stuff.”
He highlighted, “This view is gaining support among philosophers and scientists today. Consciousness is not only fundamental, consciousness is everything. In other words, all forms and phenomena in the universe are manifestations of the underlying, all-pervading field of consciousness. I call this the Consciousness Paradigm. In the current materialistic or materialistic paradigm, which holds that matter is primary, the Maharishi Effect is impossible. In the Consciousness Paradigm, it is normal and natural.”
Now is the time to take action
Dr. Tony Nader concludes, “The Maharishi Effect has phenomenal experimental evidence, a solid theoretical basis behind it – and many challenges to its application. We just need to scale it up – to create large, sustainable peace-building groups of TM experts, ideally large enough (around 10,000 people) to create harmony and goodwill for the whole world. The cost is extremely low, and the effects are immediate. Any government could easily do this for its country. A wealthy individual or family could donate to a large group many years into the future. As a doctor, if I had to find a new remedy for an incurable disease that had good research support, a solid track record, no negative side effects and many side-benefits, I would feel obliged to use it.”
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