Group meditation can bring world peace and stop war

Some days ago I read a letter from one of my favourite music creators Brian Eno. I became his fan after hearing Microsoft’s Windows 95 Startup Sound that he created. In the letter Mr. Eno mentioned many things about the Israel Hamas conflict. The most disturbing lines I found are mentioned below

“Today I saw a picture of a weeping Palestinian man holding a plastic carrier bag of meat. It was his son. He'd been shredded (the hospital's word) by an Israeli missile attack - apparently using their fab new weapon, flechette bombs. You probably know what those are - hundreds of small steel darts packed around explosive which tear the flesh off humans. The boy was Mohammed Khalaf al-Nawasra. He was 4 years old.

I suddenly found myself thinking that it could have been one of my kids in that bag, and that thought upset me more than anything has for a long time.”^[1]

Just like Mr. Eno I can’t tolerate innocent people dying just because some leaders aren’t flexible, sensitive enough & want to feed their ego.

The tremendous conflict ongoing in Middle Eastern countries (Middle West for Indians) hasn’t stopped for years. A UK-based Observatory that monitors violence in Syria through a network of activists & medical or security sources, said that real toll death was likely to be significantly higher at around 220,000 deaths. ^[2] Due to ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq & al-Sham) offense more than 5,500 people have died & 1.2 million have been driven from their homes over the first 6 months of year 2014 as per a United Nations report. ^[3] Around 1450 people reportedly lost their lives (majority civilians) due to the Israel Gaza conflict. ^[4] The mentioned number of deaths may rise tomorrow as many who are currently hospitalised or are getting medical care may not survive. The death of a family member devastates an entire family & it may take many years for the family to overcome the agony. The land where these missiles are being dropped may remain barren for years or even decades. We don’t get to know the number of innocent animals that die during war. Unfortunately these arrogant militants hardly think about the number of people dying, wealth lost, resources lost, territory lost, time lost during war & thus the war continues.

Today humans are fighting against each other due to religious issues. Many beliefs, faith, practices & religions  emerged & ended. I believe that if a belief, faith, practice or religion is righteous then it will exist. Humans don’t need to protect it. In my personal humble opinion humans should give more importance to other humans rather than giving importance to any particular belief, faith, practice or religion as humans are born for humans & not for any particular belief, faith, practice or religion.

I being a follower of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi came across a technique called developed by Transcendental Meditation as Invincible Defence Technology that is considered to be useful to reduce war & crime rate.

An experiment was conducted in which people performed transcendental meditation during the peak of the Lebanon war. A two-month study was conducted in Israel in 1983. The researchers found that due to the groups which performed transcendental meditation war-related fatalities decreased by 71%, war-related injuries fell by 68%, the level of conflict dropped by 48%, & cooperation among antagonists increased by 66%. ^[5]

A validation of this effect was conducted in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 1993 with a highly publicized National Demonstration Project directed by Dr. Hagelin. This carefully controlled experiment was conducted by 27 of America’s foremost criminologists & sociologists in conjunction with the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. The study examined the societal effects of approximately 4,000 practitioners of Transcendental Meditation & Yogic Flying in Washington, D.C. From June 7 to July 30th, the group of TM practitioners increased from 800 to 4000 over the two-month period. Violent crime (including homicide, rape & assault), which usually used to increase to a peak with high temperatures in July, plunged dramatically during the assembly with a maximum decrease of 23.6%. The likelihood of coincidence was less than two parts per billion. The drop in crime could not be attributed to other possible causes, including temperature, precipitation, weekends, & police & community anti-crime activities (Social Indicators Research 47: 153-201, 1999). ^[6]

Another study published in the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation (2003, in press) states that when large groups of 7,000 practicing Transcendental Meditation & Yogic Flying decrease international conflicts & decrease deaths & injuries due to terrorism. A global-scale study published in the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation documented a 72% drop in international terrorism when IDT groups were large enough to affect the global population. ^[7]

Some other experiments which justify that Transcendental Meditation can bring peace are mentioned below

 1.        TM-Sidhi groups assembled for two weeks on three occasions in 1984, in the US, Lebanon, & Yugoslavia, each of size predicted to impact events in Lebanon. As per the findings War deaths fell by 55%, an average of 3.6 per day. War injuries fell by 38%. ^[8]

2.         The impact of the MIU TM-Sidhi group on violent death, accident fatalities, cigarette consumption, & work-days lost in strikes over the years 1972–1986 was assessed using time series impact analysis. As per the findings Violent deaths (traffic fatalities, homicides, & suicides) fell 4.1%, Fatalities due to accidents fell 5.1%, Cigarette consumption fell 10.1%, Work-days lost in strikes fell 18.8%. ^[9]

References: -

1. Eno, Brian. Brian Eno Addresses Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in Passionate Letter on David Byrne’s Website. July 30, 2014. http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6194485/brian-eno-addresses-israeli-palestinian-conflict-in-passionate-letter-on-david-byrne (accessed August 14, 2014).

2. Dominic Evans, Raissa Kasolowsky. Death toll in Syria's civil war above 150,000: monitor. April 1, 2014. http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/01/us-syria-crisis-toll-idUSBREA300YX20140401 (accessed August 14, 2014).

3. Associated Press in Baghdad for The Guardian. Iraqi civilian death toll passes 5,500 in wake of Isis offensive. July 18, 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/18/iraqi-civilian-death-toll-5500-2014-isis (accessed August 14, 2014).

4. Gaza ceasefire comes into force as death toll tops 1,400. August 1, 2014. http://www.dw.de/gaza-ceasefire-comes-into-force-as-death-toll-tops-1400/a-17825404 (accessed August 14, 2014).

5. Davies, J. L., Alexander, C. N., & Orme-Johnson, D. W. (1988). Alleviating political violence through enhancing coherence in collective consciousness: Impact assessment analyses of the Lebanon war. Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science, 95(1), 1002E

6. Hagelin, J. S., Orme-Johnson, D. W., Rainforth, M., Cavanaugh, K., & Alexander, C. N. (1999). Results of the National Demonstration Project to Reduce Violent Crime and Improve Governmental Effectiveness in Washington, D.C. Social Indicators Research, 47, 153-201.

7. ORME-JOHNSON, D. W., DILLBECK, M. C., and ALEXANDER, C. N.: 2003, ‘Preventing terrorism and international conflict: Effects of large assemblies of participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs’. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 36, pp. 283-302.

8. Alexander, C. N., Abou Nader, T. M., Cavanaugh, K. L., Davies, J. L., Dillbeck, M. S., Kfoury, R. J., & Orme-Johnson, D. W. (1984). Effects of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field on the war in Lebanon: A time series analysis of the influence of international and national coherence creating assemblies. Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Program: Collected Papers, (Vol. 4, pp. 2687-2714).

9. Assimakis, P. D. (1989). Change in the quality of life in Canada: Intervention studies of the effect of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program. Dissertation Abstracts International, 50(5), 2203B.

10. Studzinski, Teresa. Creating an Invincible Military in the United States. http://www.invinciblemilitary.org/articles/sapratableii.html (accessed August 14, 2014).