What if there were a viable, scientifically validated means to significantly reduce the possibility of terrorism and war? Researchers in the field of conflict resolution agree that the first stage in the emergence of war is rising societal stress—acute political, ethnic, and religious tensions among rival factions in hotspots throughout the world. If these tensions grow unchecked, they eventually reach a boiling point and can erupt into social violence: crime, war, and terrorism.

Quantum physicist Dr. John Hagelin is a Harvard-trained scientist whose contributions to quantum field theory and cosmology include some of the most cited references in the physical sciences. He is one of the first scientists to apply the advanced knowledge of modern physics to societal problems such as crime and violence.

The Global Union of Scientists for Peace applies scientific, field-tested solutions to conflict resolution

“Conventional approaches to conflict resolution are simply too superficial,” says Dr. Hagelin, in an interview on HuffPost Live TV. “They are ‘Band-Aid’ approaches in that they do not address the underlying root cause of war: mounting political, religious, and ethnic tensions in a society. History shows that political settlements and negotiated treaties are hardly worth the paper they’re written on. These treaties are historically short-lived because they do not address and defuse the deep-seated tensions.”

The Global Union of Scientists for Peace, an international alliance of scientists led by Dr. Hagelin, proposes a scientific alternative to conventional approaches of creating peace through politics and diplomacy.

“If we can defuse these societal tensions before they erupt, even a little,” says Dr. Hagelin, “they are much less likely to break out into social violence. Water does not boil at 99 degrees centigrade.”

A foundation for lasting peace: Neutralizing collective stress

It is well established and widely accepted that the Transcendental Meditation® technique relieves individual stress, as shown by hundreds of scientific studies. What is less widely known is that research has also demonstrated that the practice of the TM technique by even 1 percent of a population reduces societal stress, leading to substantially reduced violent crime, fewer psychiatric crisis calls, and decreases in other measures of acute social stress.

Human beings, individually and collectively, can be coherent or incoherent. When our brains are stressed and functioning incoherently, our thinking is not as clear and our higher, executive functions can shut down. When society becomes more coherent, we are all better protected from disruptive influences. This is the principle of collective consciousness, the overall social atmosphere that arises from the cumulative thought and behavior of the individual members of a community or society.

It is not that members of society who tend towards violence or have become violent must learn the TM technique. Rather, they become less stressed as their society becomes less stressed; they become more settled as the society becomes more settled. As a result, they are less violent.

The quantum physics of peace

Dr. Hagelin turns to quantum physics to explain how people practicing the TM technique generate a positive influence of coherence on society and reduce collective stress, in a message from his Institute of Science, Technology, and Public Policy:

Modern science has probed deeper levels of nature’s functioning, from the macroscopic world of classical physics to the world of the atom, then to the underlying nucleus, then to the subnuclear levels of nature’s functioning. This exploration has culminated in the discovery of the unified field, the unified source of the diversified laws of nature governing the universe. Because this unified field is vastly more powerful than any other level of nature’s dynamics, a technology of defense based upon the unified field is of historic importance. It will completely change the whole science and technology of defense. —Dr. John Hagelin

Because this nonmaterial unified field is the most fundamental level of everything, it is also the basis of human consciousness. This understanding offers a paradigm aligned more with quantum field theory rather than classical physics, and views consciousness as a fundamental unifying field that connects us all.

We can each find the unified field deep within our own minds. The TM technique takes one’s attention from the surface, active levels of thinking to the deepest, most transcendental field of consciousness, where we can experience the unified field.

Chart showing Decreased War Deaths in Lebanon as correlated with group practice of the TM and TM-Sidhi programs

Reference: D. W. Orme-Johnson, Alexander C. N., Davies J. L., et al. “International Peace Project: The Effects of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field.” Journal of Conflict Resolution, 32, no. 4 (1988): 776-812.

“Since the unified field is an all-pervading field at the basis of consciousness and matter, when unity is enlivened in the individual, unity is enlivened everywhere. This is a field effect of consciousness,” Dr. Hagelin explains in HuffPost.

The phenomenon whereby a small fraction of the population can produce a society-wide influence of positivity is called the Maharishi Effect because it was predicted by TM Founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

The practice of Transcendental Meditation and the more advanced TM-Sidhi® program in large groups has been found to produce an even more powerful societal influence, known as the Super-Radiance Effect. Multiple studies looking at war in the Middle East, as well as global terrorism, have shown that an assembly of people as few as the square root of 1 percent of the population of a given region, practicing the TM and TM-Sidhi programs in large groups, can defuse and prevent social conflict throughout an entire region.

As the chart “Decreased War Deaths in Lebanon” shows, changes in the quality of life in Israel and war deaths in Lebanon correlated with changes in the numbers of people practicing the TM and TM-Sidhi programs as a group. (Brief research summary)

Peaceful individuals create a peaceful society and world

“If we want peace, we should enliven peace in the collective consciousness of society,” says Dr. Hagelin. “If we want happiness, then enliven happiness in the collective consciousness. There is an abundance of research that shows that TM practice [and the TM-Sidhi program] enlivens both.”

Chart showing Replications of Lebanon Study - correlating other studies of group practice of the TM and TM-Sidhi programs with increased positive effects in society

Reference: J. L. Davies, Alexander C. N. “Alleviating political violence through reducing collective tension: Impact assessment analysis of the Lebanon war.” Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 17, no. 1 (2005): 285-338.

With 24 published peer-reviewed studies and 50 demonstrations of the Maharishi Effect, this foundational, brain-based, Consciousness-BasedSM approach to peace has been shown to be one of the most rigorously tested and effective methodologies for preventing war and promoting peace.

In the chart “Replications of Lebanon Study,” for example, the Peace-War Index improved on seven different occasions during assemblies of experts practicing the TM and TM-Sidhi programs in locations ranging from the United States to Europe to the Middle East.

Pioneers of peace

Under the auspices of the Global Union of Scientists for Peace, Dr. Hagelin and other scientists are promoting to governments and philanthropists the global introduction of this age-old—and now evidence-based—approach as a standard practice to prevent terrorism and war and promote peace.

Chart of Decreased Global Terrorism, correlated with weeks of a Peace-Creating Assembly practicing the TM and TM-Sidhi programs

Reference: D. W. Orme-Johnson, M. C. Dillbeck, C. N. Alexander, H. M. Chandler, & R. W. Cranson. “Effects of Large Assemblies of Participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Program on Political Crime: Decreased International Conflict and Terrorism.” Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 36 (2003): 283-302.

This chart shows the effects of three 8-to-10-day assemblies from 1983 to 1985 of approximately 7,000 TM and TM-Sidhi program experts in Fairfield, Iowa; The Hague, Holland; and Washington, D.C. During the assemblies, fatalities and injuries due to terrorism decreased 72 percent, according to data obtained from the Rand Corporation.

Everyone practicing the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs is a pioneer of peace, contributing every day to the well-being of those around them and raising the level of harmony in their community, their nation, and the whole world.

We all want peace, prosperity, security, and happiness for everyone. Lasting peace for society and the world is possible by transcending twice a day and enlivening that level of life where we’re all interconnected.

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Harbour Hodder
Author: Harbour Hodder