John Hagelin

John Hagelin

JOHN HAGELIN e’re living in an epidemic of stress. reduction in crime and stress-related behavior would then Doctors report an alarming rise of stroke, be expected to follow. W hypertension, and heart disease—now called Nobody would have ever guessed—I wouldn’t have metabolic syndrome—all of which are diseases of stress.As guessed—the extraordinary degree to which you can reduce a result,we would expect to see stressed behavior in society, social violence through meditation, because it doesn’t take and it turns out there is plenty of it: crime, domestic everyone meditating to generate profound effects.A relatively violence, terrorism, and war. small number of people meditating together has a powerful Since meditation provides an effective, scientifically spillover effect,reducing stress throughout a surrounding area proven way to dissolve individual stress, and if society is in a measurable way.That’s the phenomenon I want to focus composed of individuals, then it seems like common sense on.That’s where the really interesting physics and metaphysics to use meditation to similarly defuse societal stress. A can be found. N O I T N E T N I F O E U Q I T S Y M E H T JUNE–AUGUST 2007 • # 15 • SHIFT: AT THE FRONTIERS OF CONSCIOUSNESS REAL-WORLD EFFECTS department to participate in the experiment by collecting and analyzing the data. In the end, the police department A study I conducted in the summer of 1993 in Washington, signed on as one of the authors of a published paper (see DC, shows rising crime levels over a period of six months, Social Indicators Research 47:153–201, June 1999). which take place every year as the temperature gets hotter In this case it was only a few thousand people in a city between the winter and the summer. People stay out later, of about a million and a half.So a relatively small group was they are more aggravated and agitated, they get into more influencing a much larger group.This is what is so fascinating. fights, and the crime rate goes up. This is an absolutely And it has implications for more than just crime. In my known annual trend.From June through July of that summer, opinion the most immediate implications today in the we brought to the area a large number of practicing meditators world are stopping ethnic wars, the conflict in the Middle and trained quite a few others.When the group reached a East, and so on.And in fact a similar experiment was done particular size—2,500 (ultimately reaching 4,000)—which during the peak of the Israel-Lebanon war in the 1980s.We was about halfway through the period, there was a distinct found that on days when the numbers of meditators were and highly statistically significant drop in crime compared to largest (and also on the subsequent day), levels of conflict expected rates based on previous data, weather conditions, were markedly reduced—by about 80 percent overall.This and a variety of other factors. turned out to be a statistically significant effect and also a surprising one, because there were only about 600 to 800 Reduced Violent Crime people meditating in the midst of this entire conflict and the in Washington, DC highly stressed surrounding population. 4,000 0% The results were published in Yale University’s Journal of 3,500 Conflict Resolution (32:776–812, December 1988), which also , e s z 5% i e d published a letter urging other universities,collaborators,and S i 3,000 c s p i t u l m o groups to repeat this study. The editors felt that the u r o 2,500 a G s H 10% s g implications of this were so far reaching, so fundamentally n A i n i t d 2,000 e a n g important,that it must be repeated to test the likelihood that e a n r , a C s 15% h - 1,500 e e the results were a statistical fluke. And that’s exactly what C p c t a n n R e e happened over the next two and a quarter years.During this r 1,000 c e r h 20% e o P 821-day period, seven subsequent experiments were C 500 performed to examine the effects of group meditation on 0 25% the Israel-Lebanon war.These groups gathered in Israel, in 1 2 3 45678 Week Number of Assembly Lebanon itself in the actual conflicted neighborhoods, and at locations throughout the Middle East,Europe,and other Source: Social Indicators Research 47:153–201, June 1999 parts of the world. We collaborated with the local police department,the FBI, In each case, when the size of the group reached the and 24 leading, independent criminologists and social threshold that was predicted (based on previous research) to scientists from major institutions, including the University have an effect,there was a marked and statistically significant of Maryland,the University of Texas,and Temple University, reduction of violence. We have also found in other studies who used highly sophisticated research tools to control for that in the geographic vicinity of such a meditating group, variables such as weather. Everyone ended up agreeing on people experienced physiological changes—increased EEG the language, the analysis, and the results, and those results coherence,reduced plasma cortisol,increased blood levels of were quite astonishing.We predicted a 20 percent drop in serotonin, biochemical changes, and neurophysiological crime, and we achieved a 25 percent drop. Just before the changes—as if they were meditating. study,the Washington,DC,chief of police went on television When you put all these studies together,the likelihood that and said something like,“It’s gonna take a foot of snow in June to reduce crime by 20 percent.” But he allowed his continued on page 19 SHIFT: AT THE FRONTIERS OF CONSCIOUSNESS • # 15 • JUNE–AUGUST 2007 TM and Intention And there are predicted outcomes about such things as crime rates that some or perhaps most of the course participants have As Shift and the team at the Maharishi University of Management heard. But it’s not something that one thinks much about, and collaborated on this article, a conversation ensued on the role of certainly it isn’t a part of the techniques themselves. Maharishi intention and location. Here is part of that thread: explains that it is like going to the store.You have that initial inten- * * * * tion, but you don’t think at each step of the way, “I am going to Matthew Gilbert: In thinking about this phenomenon and the store . I am going to the store . .” You put it on automatic. related research, would you say that intention is an aspect of it? The mechanics of it are very subtle. There are no specific It occurred to me that intention may have nothing to do with these intentions about specific impacts on society in any part of the effects, that they are the result of a general, undifferentiated program,but the overall intention of being in these assemblies is resonance shift without specific purpose. to make things better in a somewhat specific way,such as world Ken Chawkin: You raise a very interesting point.The Demon- peace.We are hoping for the best but leaving it to God, if you stration Project that John Hagelin led in Washington, DC, in will, to define what is best and to work out how to accomplish 1993 had an associated prediction: that meditation would lower it.What we have to do is raise our own level of consciousness. the severe crime rate. Same thing with the Israel-Lebanon war MG: The other question I have is whether violence-reduction in 1987. Would you call each of those an intention? measurements are taken in a particular place (for example, The only role that intention plays in Transcendental Meditation Washington,DC) because it’s more conducive to these techniques (TM) is that one does the specific technique; participants don’t or whether in theory the same effect would be found everywhere. intend anything in the outside environment. If anything, they are DOJ: In theory the effect would be found everywhere. The told to “mind your own business,” which means focusing inward limitation is available variables. Crime is one variable that is and on the practice.The outward effect is a lessening of negativity systematically kept. Additionally, since our primary goal is world in the surrounding environment;the larger the group,the greater peace, we focus on stopping violence as a first step. Obviously, the extent of their influence. we also want economic prosperity, equity, justice, and a David Orme-Johnson: Just to reinforce what Ken said:During reduction in racial and cultural tensions—the (Maharishi Effect) TM there are no specific intentions for any specific effect, only theory predicts that everything will improve globally. The the intention to do the simple procedure.The TM-Sidhi program challenge is how to measure it. does entail specific intentions related to specific predicted KC: We also noticed that once our groups were pulled out of outcomes—for example, to gain some perceptual abilities or to an area, the violence would return to historical levels.We want “fly” [an advanced TM-Sidhi technique].But these are all personal to create permanent world peace and not just a momentary results that the person wants to have.There is no intention to quelling of violence in a specific area.To that end, large groups achieve a specific collective effect.

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