The Maharishi Effect

How just 1% of us can reverse society’s negative trends

Imagine a world where peace isn’t just a vague unrealisable ideal but a tangible reality. A reality where communities thrive in harmony, where conflicts and hostility dissolve into understanding. A world where prosperity is available for everyone to enjoy. This vision lies at the heart of the Maharishi Effect. In essence, the Maharishi Effect explains how just one percent of our population practicing Transcendental Meditation (TM) can ignite transformative shifts in society.

In 1960, his Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi the founding teacher of Transcendental Meditation (TM) went on record to make an astounding prediction. Basically he proposed that just 1% of a given population practicing  TM was enough to rejuvenate society and reverse negative social trends such as crime and social disorder. He also felt that 1% was enough to “do away with the hatred that causes war”

This was certainly an astounding prediction at the time. Even so, by 1974 it seemed to be coming true. After a wave of extensive TM teaching in America, four cities actually reached this seemingly magical 1% threshold.  Sure enough, it became apparent that in these four cities crime had started to buck the inexorable upward trend. Rather than going up, crime in these Mid-Western towns was going down. This exciting revelation inspired a flurry of research studies into the collective effect of TM.

What is the Maharishi Effect?

The principle of the Maharishi Effect asserts that when enough individuals experience deep inner peace, this spontaneously creates a more peaceful society. As Maharishi liked to put it: ‘If you want a green forest, you must grow green trees’. In other words, we can have a peaceful society if enough individuals within society are peaceful themselves. However, the threshold for success in this respect is surprisingly low at just 1% of the total population.

At its core, the Maharishi Effect emphasizes the innate interconnection between individual consciousness and the collective consciousness of society. This principle is drawn from both modern unified field physics and ancient Vedic science. The concept suggests that at a deep level, our awareness is not confined to our individual selves. Consciousness is not just localized but part of a universal field of intelligence. In effect, both sciences perceive that, at the transcendent level of the Unified Field, there is a reciprocal relationship between a person’s individual consciousness and the collective consciousness of that same person’s surrounding population. In summary then, ancient Vedic Science and modern science now agree that both individual and collective consciousness interact fluidly with each other, just as drops of water interact to form an ocean. You can read more about the research into this concept here.

Eight Research Studies demonstrating the 1% effect

Since the 1970’s, researchers have observed that when individuals experience the transcendent, as happens during the practice of Transcendental Meditation, they are in effect tapping into the Unified Field. On a personal level the experience is both profoundly peaceful and stress reducing. But, amazingly, this personal experience ripples outward through the unified field. And it is this ripple effect that influences the surrounding environment, even extending to some distance away.

OK so that is the theory, but how do we know that it actually works this way? Well fortunately during the 1970s, there had been enough TM teaching in the USA to create numerous urban areas that had actually reached the magic 1% threshold. This presented researchers with an opportunity to test the theory in real life. Below is a quick summary of six USA studies and two more from other countries.

Landmark study showed a decrease in crime of 8.2%

 

Improved quality of city life through the Transcendental Meditation program: Decreased crime rate; 1976: Borland and Landrith’s study in the 1970s examined the impact of TM on crime rates in eleven US cities. This must be read in the context that in the early 1970s the USA was experiencing a prolonged growth in crime.

Observers in the media and social sciences couldn’t help but expect this increase to continue on into the eighties. Despite massive government sums being spent on crime prevention methods of one sort or another, neither the causes of crime nor the means to reduce it seemed clear. But in this study the researchers found that when 1% of a city’s population practiced TM, crime rates significantly decreased by an average of 8.2%. In stark contrast, 76% of comparable towns in the control group showed an increase in crime; the average increase being 8.3%.

This landmark study was the first to demonstrate that, all that was needed, to reverse the trend of crime was 1% of people meditating.

Less than a third of 1% is needed to starting pushing the dial

Influence of the Transcendental Meditation programme on Crime Rate in Suburban Cleveland; 1977: Hatchard’s study expanded on Borland and Landrith’s previous work. This study demonstrated that when about a third of 1% of people practice TM in a population, then the dial towards positive societal harmony would start to move. In effect Hatchard study of forty suburbs, showed that the ten suburbs with higher percentages of TM practitioners experienced notable drops in crime rates. On the other hand, the other thirty suburbs continued to experience the inexorable rise in crime.

Reduced rates of suicides and auto accidents

The growth of coherence in society through the Maharishi Effect: Reduced rates of suicides and auto accident; 1983: Landrith and Dillbeck’s study looked at 21 ‘1%’ cities. Their aim was to explore broader societal indicators like suicide rates and auto accidents.

They found that these 1% cities saw 5.7% reductions in suicides and 7.05% decreases in auto-accidents. Whereas in contrast the 21 matching cities in the control group registered a small increase in suicides (0.19%). Similarly there was no change in the level of auto-accidents.

48 cities study into the Maharishi Effect

The Transcendental Meditation Programme and crime rate change in a sample of forty-eight cities; 1981: Dillbeck, Landrith, and Orme-Johnson’s study covered a period of five and a half years.

The objective was to identify the cause of relative crime rate changes in 48 cities in the USA.

To try and ensure a fair comparison, the researchers carefully matched the control cities for several factors. These included: geographic region, population size, college population and changes in reporting methods.

Their findings indicated that there was an average of a 22% decrease in crime rates in the 1% cities.

Again, in contrast to the 1% cities, the researchers saw that the control cities in the study increased their crime rates by an average 2%.

The more meditators there are, the bigger the effect

The Transcendental Meditation Programme and a compound probability model as predictors of crime rate change; 1978: Dillbeck. An important criterion for a valid scientific theory is whether or not you can use the theory to predict a result in a controlled experiment. With this in mind, the researcher first looked at typical influencers of crime rates in a population. These variable factors included:

• Density of population.
• Percentage of unemployed.
• Per capita income.
• Percentage of the population living below the poverty level.
• Percentage of the residents living in the same residence after five years.
• Percentage of the population over the age of 65.
• Median years of education.

As it happened, none of these other variables he tested, provided a viable alternative hypothesis for crime rate changes.

Dilbeck also selected a sample of twenty-three towns in the Kansas City metropolitan area. In this instance, just four of these towns had reached the 1% threshold. On review, the statistics showed that these four 1% towns experienced a universal and significant reduction in serious crimes. Once again, most of the control sample towns experienced an increase in crime.

Furthermore, the larger the number of meditators above the 1% threshold the higher the drop in crime seemed to be. In one instance where 2.92% of the population was meditating there was a huge drop in crime of 30.03%.

The conclusion was that the Maharishi Effect model was a useful predictor of crime rate.

Study shows that the Maharishi Effect is the ‘causal factor’ in reversing the trend

The Transcendental Meditation Programme and crime rate change: A causal analysis; 1982: Dillbeck, Landrith, Polanzi, and Baker’s study built on the earlier 1% studies. As such they reviewed 40 randomly picked cities and 80 standard metropolitan statistical areas (SMSAs). In this case, the study covered a 24 year period. The idea was to eliminate the possibility that the cause of the reducing crime rate in USA urban areas was due to alternative unmeasured variable factors. To achieve this aim they adopted multiple regression analysis to assess the contribution other social variable factors had on crime trends. These other factors included education attainment levels, unemployment rates, per capita income, and poverty levels.

Their findings underscored the robustness of the Maharishi Effect on societal well-being. In other words, they could find no other possible causal factor behind the significant drop in crime in the towns under study.

The Maharishi Effect even works in war zones

The Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field and reduction of armed conflict: A comparative, longitudinal study of Lebanese villages; 1984: Abou Nader, Alexander, and Davies’s prospective study in war-torn Lebanon showcased how TM could mitigate social violence even in dire circumstances such as open warfare.

Prior to a TM teaching initiative, Baskinta, the town under study, had found itself in the middle of continuing battles between opposing ‘leftist’ and ‘rightist’ forces. And these battles continued generally during the entire study period (1978-84). However, once the teaching level had achieved 1% of the population, Baskinta experienced a complete cessation of hostilities. The researchers measured this impact by way of an index that aggregated incidences of incoming shells, property damage and casualties. I should add that, no other comparable village experienced this cessation of violence. Happily, Baskinta continued to enjoy peace and prosperity during the rest of the civil war. You can read more about the Baskinta peace research project here.

Two nationwide studies show the scalability of the Maharishi Effect

The Peace and Well Being of Nations: An Analysis of Improved Quality of Life and Enhanced Economic Performance Through the Maharishi Effect in New Zealand and Norway. A Longitudinal, Cross-Country, Panel-Regression Analysis of the IMD Index of National Competitive Advantage: Hatchard, Cavanaugh. But it is not all about reducing crime, suicides, accidents and open warfare. The Maharishi Effect also impacts every aspect of social behaviour including economic activity.

So far, there have been two documented occasions when a country has achieved the 1% threshold. One country was New Zealand and the other was Norway. In both instances, researchers found dramatic improvements in the economic competitiveness of both of them.

In this study the team used the IMD index (International Institute for Management Development) of National Competitive Advantage. Their aim was to track economic improvements in both countries subsequent to them reaching the 1% effect.

These were the results. Between 1993 until 1995, Norway came second in the IMD index, with a 54.16% improvement in its score. By the way this excellent ranking was out of a total of 46 countries. Meanwhile, New Zealand came third with a 40.03% pa improvement. These gains compared favourably with an improvement of only 11.61% pa for the UK and 4.29% pa for the USA. At the same time, 20 of the 46 countries on the index rated negative percentage scores.

General economic recovery not predicted by OECD

But the researchers didn’t just study the IMD Index. They also found that Norway and New Zealand improved their economic growth (GDP), inflation, and unemployment levels. In five years, the Norwegian GDP lifted a staggering 20%. And even the increase in the New Zealand GDP growth rate was a healthy average of 3.28% per year.

Incidentally, OECD forecasts had failed to predict the speed, timing and depth of the Norwegian and New Zealand recovery. Specifically, the OECD did not believe that the radical economic liberalization undertaken in New Zealand in the mid 1980s would correct what it saw as fundamental imbalances in the economy. You can read more details about this study here. 

The implications of the Maharishi Effect today

In summary, the research shows that the Maharishi Effect provides an exciting breakthrough. It means that a tiny percentage of us can become genuine agents of positive change. And all these few have to do is simply take up Transcendental Meditation and quietly practice it on a regular basis.

Just think, by sitting at home or at work in peaceful tranquillity a handful of us can foster peace, harmony, and well-being in the rest of society. As the research demonstrates, this tiny fraction of the population embracing inner peace can reverse the current negative trends. And this will pave the way for a brighter, more peaceful future for us all.

At government level, the Maharishi Effect could be self-funding

The Maharishi Effect is such a simple formula for a healthy societal transformation that it should pay for itself, many times over. One reason for this is the individual benefits that the actual practitioners receive across a wide spectrum of lifestyles. After all, the first to benefit from meditation is of course the individual practitioner.

In organizational terms these benefits are measurable in operational activity in a variety of ways. For example, an organization benefits from a meditator taking less time off for illness. Similarly, they will be absent less due to stress and disengagement. Also, there may well be less likelihood of the meditator leaving prematurely or retiring early due to illness and stress. Added to which, meditators, because they feel less stressed, tend to be more productive and conscientious. Now what this means is that a government agency training its people up to meditate will actually save money. But at the same time they would be contributing to greater harmony and coherence in society as a whole. In other words, a government initiative to create a 1% project could easily be self-funding.

You can see from the table below, the type of cost benefits that different government establishments would derive from individuals meditating. If even a few people across a number of different agencies (either service users or employees) meditated, they would very quickly reach 1% of the population. At that point, government funding would benefit from a second bite of the cherry. As the whole of society and the economy will reap massive benefits from the Maharishi Effect.

New Zealand managed a 320 : 1 return on costs

By the way, research has demonstrated this self-funding idea already. A cost-benefit analysis of the Maharishi Effect in New Zealand estimated conservatively that the cost benefit ratio to the country was $320 for every $1 invested in the cost of teaching TM. That is not a bad return for the taxpayer (Journal of Health and Environmental Research 3(3-1), 16-31. Dor:10.11648/j.jher.s.2017030301.12).

Cost benefits of individual staff and or clients practicing TM across different government agencies
	Agency	Who	Individual benefits	Cost savings to agency
1	Police	Police officers	Burnout, exhaustion, sickness, PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)	Therefore: Reduced absenteeism, early retirement, sickness, and attrition rate of skilled staff.  Less treatment costs for stress and PTSD. Improved interaction with the community.
2	Probation	Staff	Burnout, exhaustion, sickness, PTSD	Therefore: Reduced absenteeism, early retirement, sickness, and attrition rate of skilled staff. Less treatment costs for stress and PTSD.
		Clients	More orderly and creative lifestyles. Improvement in addiction treatments, improved compliance.	Therefore: Lower re-offending rate, lower treatment costs for PTSD.  Lower treatment costs for addictions and improved outcomes. Earlier return to productive life.
3	Schools	Teachers	Burnout, exhaustion, sickness,	Therefore: Reduced absenteeism, early retirement, sickness, and attrition rate of skilled staff. Less treatment costs for stress.
		Students	Less crowd control needed by teachers. Improved academic achievements, improved social behaviour and enhanced personal development	Improved IQ, improved creativity and attention span helps achieve better academic grades, higher Ofsted scores for the schools. Less stress Improves learning ability in preparation for career.
4	NHS primary care	Medical staff	Burnout, exhaustion, sickness, improved decision-making. Improved empathy towards clients.	Therefore: Reduced absenteeism, early retirement, sickness, attrition rate of skilled staff. Less treatment costs for stress and PTSD. Reduced patient safety incidents due to fatigue and loss of attention and mistakes.
		Patients	Excellent for blood pressure, heart disease, stress, anxiety, depression and improving poor lifestyle choices that lead to disease	Therefore: Less medication costs, reduced time in clinics and interfacing with medical staff. Reduced health care costs generally
5	NHS hospitals	Paramedics	Burnout, exhaustion, sickness, PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)	Therefore: Reduced absenteeism, early retirement, sickness, attrition rate of skilled staff. Less treatment costs especially for stress and PTS. Reduced patient safety incidents due to fatigue and loss of attention.
		Call centre staff	Burnout, exhaustion, sickness, PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)	Therefore: Reduced absenteeism, early retirement, sickness, attrition rate of skilled staff. Less treatment costs for stress and PTSD.
		Care-workers	Burnout, exhaustion, sickness, PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)	Therefore: Reduced absenteeism, early retirement, sickness, attrition rate of skilled staff. Less treatment costs for stress and PTSD. Reduced patient safety incidents due to fatigue and loss of attention.
		Medical staff	Burnout, exhaustion, sickness, PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)	Therefore: Reduced absenteeism, early retirement, sickness, attrition rate of skilled staff. Less treatment costs for stress and PTSD. Reduced patient safety incidents due to fatigue and loss of attention.
		Patients	TM alleviates a range of stress related illnesses and also greatly assists recovery and convalescence	Hence: Shorter time under treatment. Less input required from medical staff, reduced intake of medication. Lower healthcare costs generally.
6	Social services	Social workers	Burnout, exhaustion, sickness,	Hence: Reduced absenteeism, early retirement, sickness, attrition rate of skilled staff. Less treatment costs for stress.
		Clients	Improved outcomes for problems where stress, depression, PTSD, mental health issues and poor lifestyle choices are current.	Hence: Quicker progress made by clients towards living an independent life.
7	Job centres	Staff	Burnout, exhaustion, sickness,	Hence: Reduced absenteeism, early retirement, sickness, attrition rate of skilled staff. Less treatment costs for stress.
		Clients	Improved motivation, creativity and positive energy to resume working. Alleviates depression and stress and anxiety common in this category	Hence: Shorter time on benefits and quicker return to productive employment.

 

 

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