Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

INTRODUCTION TO the VOLUMERachel S. Goodman, Ph.D.Volume EditorWilliam F. Sands, Ph.DVolume EditorOverviewAcademic courses in government generally highlight several keyelements: different styles and levels of government with theircomponents, processes, and interactions; analyses of the policiesand laws of different types of government, and their implications;the relationship between different branches of a government and itsconstituents; and the transformations of governments that enable themto meet society’s changing needs. All of these subjects fall within therealm of ideas and actions. Consciousness-Based education however,provides its students with an additional element: direct experience andtheoretical understanding of the field of pure consciousness describedby Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as the basis of thought and action, andtherefore the foundation of the policies and actions of government.Moreover, students learn how development of individual consciousnessand the collective consciousness of society enables each style of governmentto effectively meet the needs of its citizenry and to effectivelyfunction in the international climate of all other governments.Maharishi’s Absolute Theory of Government, a principle element ofMaharishi Vedic Science, regards the individual as the basic unit of thesociety as a whole. The quality of the society or the collective consciousnessof that society depends upon the consciousness of all the individualsof the society. In Maharishi’s view, all the myriad actions of eachindividual are the inputs that effect the outcomes of government.Government is the innocent mirror of national consciousness,reflecting whatever is presented to it, even though the members of agovernment may have their own personalities, opinions, and educationaland political backgrounds. When members of government areengaged in governing, their actions are determined by the nation’s collectiveconsciousness. Thus a government’s ability to fulfill the needs of13