Maharishi Effect
Improved Progress towards Peace in Lebanon
Seven large assemblies of participants in Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program in various parts of the world had an extremely significant positive influence on the Lebanese conflict, as indicated by a 66% increase in cooperation among antagonists, a 48% reduction in the level of conflict, a 71% reduction in war-related fatalities, and a 68% reduction in war-related injuries (p's<.00001). The Peace/War index showed a significant positive impact for each of the seven assemblies with a 1.22 standard deviation improvement (all assemblies together, p<.00001).
Reference: Davies & Alexander, 2003.
Population influenced: Lebanon.
Coherence group: The seven assemblies held in various parts of the world between 1983 and 1985 that had a theoretically sufficient number of TM-Sidhi participants to influence the conflict in Lebanon. Three of these assemblies were in the United States, and one each was in Israel, Lebanon,Yugoslavia, and The Netherlands.
Dependent variables: Daily cooperation among antagonists; war intensity; war-related fatalities and injuries; and a composite Peace/War index score. All variables were blind scored by an expert Lebanese who scored from eight international news sources and the regional Foreign Broadcast Information Service.
Experimental design: Box-Jenkins time series impact assessment analysis of the effect of the seven intervention periods over an 821-day period, controlling for holidays, prior level of conflict, and daily temperature in Beirut.
Results: The seven assemblies were found to have an extremely significant positive influence on the Lebanese conflict, as indicated by a 66% increase in cooperation among antagonists, a 48% reduction in the level of conflict, a 71% reduction in war-related fatalities, and a 68% reduction in war-related injuries (p's<.00001). The Peace/War index showed a significant positive impact for each of the seven assemblies with a 1.22 standard deviation improvement (all p's<.00001).
Conclusions: This multiple-replication study provides very strong evidence for the reliability of the Maharishi Effect even under extreme conditions of protracted political violence.
References: Davies, J.L. (1988). Alleviating political violence through enhancing coherence in collective consciousness: Impact assessment analysis of the Lebanon war. Dissertation Abstracts International, 49(8), 2381A.
Davies, J.L., & Alexander, C.N. (1989, August). Alleviating political violence through enhancing coherence in collective consciousness: Impact assessment analyses of the Lebanon war. Paper presented at the 85th Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Atlanta, GA. (Summary printed in Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Program: Collected Papers, Vol. 5, pp. 3260–3262.)
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