U.S. quality of life, as measured by an index of 12 variables, was declining throughout the 1960s and early 1970s (blue tint). The Maharishi Effect (green tint) reflects the percentage of U.S. participants in Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation program, and the group practice of the TM and TM-Sidhi program at Maharishi International University (MIU). The declining trend began to reverse in 1975 after a large increase in the number of TM meditators in the U.S. After the TM-Sidhi group at MIU reached the square root of 1% of the U.S. population (1982-1983), the improvement markedly accelerated.

Reference: Orme-Johnson, D.W., Gelderloos, P., & Dillbeck, M.C. (1988).

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Population influenced: United States.

Coherence group: Percentage of TM participants distributed throughout the United States as well as the permanent national coherence-creating group of participants in the TM and TM-Sidhi program at Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa, U.S.A.

Dependent variables: Quality-of-life index composed of 12 social indicators: crime rate, hospital admissions rate, infectious disease rate, infant mortality rate, suicide rate, cigarette consumption per capita, alcohol consumption per capita, GNP per capita, patent application rate, divorce rate, degrees per capita, and traffic fatality rate.

Experimental design: Regression analysis of yearly data for 25 years, 1960-1984.

Results: A significant increase in quality of life in 1976 followed a sharp rise in the number of TM meditators in the United States in 1975. A second marked increase in the quality of life in 1982-1984 corresponded to the achievement of the square root of 1% of the U.S. population practicing the TM and TM-Sidhi program at Maharishi International University (p's<.0001). The effect of Maharishi International University on the quality of life was stronger in Iowa than in the United States as a whole.

Conclusions: Taken together, both aspects of the Maharishi Effect, the number of TM meditators throughout a nation's population and a large national coherence-creating group, have a significant impact on improving the quality of national life, even to the point of dramatically reversing a previously declining quality of life.

References: Orme-Johnson, D.W., Gelderloos, P., & Dillbeck, M.C. (1988). The effects of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field on the U.S. quality of life (1960-1984). Social Science Perspectives Journal, 2(4), 127-146.

Orme-Johnson, D.W., & Gelderloos, P. (1984). The long-term effects of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field on the quality of life in the United States (1960 to 1983). In R.A. Chalmers, G. Clements, H. Schenkluhn, & M. Weinless (Eds.), Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Program: Collected Papers (Vol. 4, pp. 2634-2652), in press. Vlodrop, The Netherlands: Maharishi Vedic University Press.