World Peace
“An individual influences the entire cosmos by every thought, word and action. Therefore someone with peace in his heart naturally radiates peace and harmony and influences the whole universe.”
The idea expressed in this quote, which has its origin in Vedic knowledge, has been expressed in more recent times in the language of quantum physics. Physics now recognises the interconnectedness of everything in the universe – that all of creation is interconnected through fluctuating continuous fields which pervade the universe.
Similarly, consciousness is an underlying field which connects everyone and everything. By transcending in meditation our awareness goes to that underlying field, stimulating the field of consciousness and enlivening its qualities in our own lives. Because consciousness is a field, the effect radiates out and influences the environment, in much the same way as a drop falling into water creates waves spreading out in ripples in all directions. This phenomenon of a ‘ripple effect’ is seen in other systems. Nothing happens in isolation – an event in one place creates an effect elsewhere.
This principle is known in physics as action at a distance whereby an event at one location can exert an influence which carries information through the field. And this effect can be instantaneous – just as turning on the light immediately eliminates the darkness.
Maharishi first spoke of individual peace being the unit of world peace when he began teaching Transcendental Meditation around the world in the late 1950s. He said it was not possible to have a peaceful world without peaceful individuals, and often used the expression: For the forest to be green, the trees have to be green.
Since those early days of teaching Transcendental Meditation there has been repeated research to measure the widespread social effects in whole communities of a large number of people practising Transcendental Meditation. It was hypothesised that with 1% of the population meditating, negative trends such as crime, violence, hospital admissions etc., would decrease and positive effects would increase.. The phenomenon of creating increased coherence and peace was first reported in research published in 1976, which found that when 1% of a community practised the Transcendental Meditation program, the crime rate dropped by an average of 16%.
More experiments were conducted, bringing large numbers of TM meditators from around the world together to measure the effects when the advanced Transcendental Meditation Sidhi program was practised by people meditating together in groups. The number hypothesised to produce a coherence-creating effect was predicted to be even smaller, of the order of the square root of 1% of a population.
The repeated and consistent results of these boundary-breaking experiments, ranging from reductions in crime rates and violence in local communities and towns, to reductions in war deaths and hostilities in conflict areas, have demonstrated that the powerful, stress-reducing effect of the Transcendental Meditation technique has a measurable, calming, “ripple” effect in the surrounding population. See Scientific References on World Peace.
During the periods of three large assemblies of experts in the Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Program, which approached or exceeded in number the square root of one percent of the world’s population, there was a significant decrease in international conflict worldwide, as measured by daily time series analyses of news events reported in the press. During the three assemblies there was also a significant reduction in fatalities and injuries due to international terrorism, as indicated by time series analysis of data provided by an independent research organization. Similar changes were not found in previous years during the calendar periods in which each assembly was held.
References: Journal of Offender Rehabilitation 36 (2003): 283–302.
“This work, and the theory that informs it, deserve the most serious consideration by academics and policy makers alike.”
These results have been published in leading scientific journals, sometimes after having been subjected to more intense scrutiny than usual because the results seemed so unbelievable: that a small number or group of people meditating could have a measurable positive influence on the trends of the wider society. The research has established that when groups of individuals practise the TM and the more advanced TM Sidhi program together, there is a dramatic and immediate reduction in societal stress, crime, violence and conflict – and a similarly dramatic increase in coherence, positivity, and peace as a whole.
“Peace is not on the level of understanding. It is not on the basis of discussion. Persuasive procedures have always failed. It is on the basis of creating the effect, creating the effect that disharmony will not exist.”
John Hagelin: Peace from the Quantum level
View this short video of physicist Dr. John Hagelin explaining what is now a proven technology for creating world peace. World Peace is no longer just a dream or a hope. The Transcendental Meditation organisation world-wide has dedicated itself to establishing purposeful peace-creating groups in many countries.
“You are invited to join us to establish this simple and cost-effective technology for creating peace, first by learning TM for your own enjoyment, and supporting peace creating groups everywhere.”