Maharishi Effect
Improved International Relations
During a 10-week period in 1978, when coherence-creating groups of participants in Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program went to five major trouble-spot areas in the world, international relations improved, verbal hostility and hostile acts declined, and cooperative events increased. The improvements in these three conflict-scale categories were determined by time series analysis of worldwide data from the Conflict and Peace Data Bank International File.
Reference: Orme-Johnson, Dillbeck, Bousquet, & Alexander, 1985.
Population influenced: World population and populations of five major trouble-spot areas in 1978 (Nicaragua, Lebanon, Iran, Cambodia, and Zimbabwe [then Rhodesia]).
Coherence group: 1,400 participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program distributed in five groups in the world's five major trouble-spot areas.
Dependent variables: Conflict and Peace Data Bank (COPDAB): International and Domestic Files, Conflict Scale Category, and Primary Issue Type (1968–1978).
Experimental design: Aggregate scores were compared by contingency table analysis with a baseline period for the same year for (1) trouble-spot countries and (2) worldwide. Using weekly data of the intervention period, the experimental period was also compared both worldwide and for the trouble-spot countries with the prior ten years, by means of both contingency table analysis, and Box-Jenkins time series impact assessment analysis and transfer function analysis.
Results: Box-Jenkins time series results: worldwide decreases in hostile acts (p<.002) and verbal hostilities (p<.01), and increase in cooperative events (p<.007) during the ten weeks of the World Peace Project in late 1978. Contingency table results were also highly significant (all p's<.001) for the trouble-spot areas combined.
Conclusions: This study verified the effectiveness of sending coherence-creating groups to major conflict areas to alleviate international conflict for as long a period as the groups can be maintained.
Reference: Orme-Johnson, D.W., Dillbeck, M.C., Bousquet, J.G., & Alexander, C.N. (1985). An experimental analysis of the application of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field in major world trouble-spots: Increased harmony in international affairs. 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. 2532–2548), in press. Vlodrop, The Netherlands: Maharishi Vedic University Press.
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