Washington crime study research findings:
This was a large-scale two-month national demonstration project conducted in Washington, D.C. between June 7 and July 30, 1993. The aim was twofold. Firstly to show how a coherence-creating group of TM-Sidhas can reduce crime and social stress. But secondly how such a group can improve the effectiveness of government. In effect the study proves that the Washington meditation group reduced crime.
The study involved a coherence group of TM-Sidhas who increased in number from 800 to a maximum of 4,000 over the trial.
The research team predicted in advance of the project a crime reduction of 20%
Before the project, violent crime had been steadily increasing during the first five months of the year.
A week or so after the start of the study, violent crime began decreasing and continued to drop until the end of the experiment. By violent crime is meant HRA crime: Homicides, rapes and aggravated assaults, measured by FBI Uniform Crime Statistics.
Before the project the researchers had publicly forecast that the coherence group would reduce the trend of crime by 20%. Predictably the chief of police ridiculed the prediction. Instead he asserted that the only thing that would decrease crime that much in the summer would be 20 inches of snow. In the end, the maximum decrease was 23.3% below the time series prediction for that period of the year. This significant reversal in the crime trend occurred in the final week. At this point the group was at its largest and had to meditate in a blistering heat wave.
The statistical probability that this result could reflect chance variation in crime levels was less than 2 in 1 billion (p < .000000002).
When the project disbanded HRA crime began to rise again.
The research is extremely reliable by the usual standards of social science. As a result, we know that no one can attribute the effects of the coherence group to other potential causes, such as temperature, precipitation, and weekends. Similarly there were no police and community anti-crime activities influencing the result at the time.
Incidentally, as predicted by the theory of Super Radiance, during this trial period there was increased popular support for the US President.
Or read more about this fascinating study in our free download “The Super Radiance effect”
Research details
Hagelin JS1; Orme-Johnson DW; Rainforth M1; Cavanaugh K1; Alexander CN1; Shatkin SF1; Davies JL2; Hughs AO3; Ross E4; “Effects of Group Practice of the Transcendental Meditation Program on Preventing Violent Crime in Washington, D.C.: Results of the National Demonstration Project, June–July 1993″, D.C.Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy Technical Report 94:1, 1994. Social Indicators Research (vol 47 issue 2: 153-201, 1999)
Author Affiliations
1. Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy, Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, Iowa, USA
2. Center for International Development and Conflict Management, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
3. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C., USA
4. Planning and Research Division, District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, Crime Research and Statistics Section, Washington, D.C., USA
You can read the full paper in the Collected Papers of the Scientific Research on Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Program. Vol 6 – 489 published by Maharishi European Research University and Maharishi International University.
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