Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

the maharishi effect and governmentwhich he introduced 21 years ago. Transcendental Meditation is saidto allow the mind to settle to pure consciousness, the unified field ofnatural law, and the TM-Sidhi program is said to train the mind tofunction from that level. This holistic level of natural law is only creativeand life supporting.At any isolated level of creation Natural Law could be used in a creativeor a destructive manner, according to one’s ability and desire, but theholistic value of Natural Law at the level of the Unified Field, being thesource of all the Laws of Nature, can be used only for creative purposes.It can never be used for destructive purposes because the quality ofdestruction is non-existent in the eternal continuum of the self-interactingdynamics of the Unified Field. (Maharishi, 1986b, p. 16, 17)When the individual learns to function from this fundamental levelof nature’s intelligence, all areas of his or her life are said to becomemore coherent. Over 600 studies conducted in more than 200 universitiesand research institutions have provided empirical support forthe theory, demonstrating improvements in all areas of individual life,physiological, psychological, and social (Orme-Johnson & Farrow,1977; Chalmers, Clements, Schenkluhn, & Weinless, 1989a, 1989b,1991; Wallace, Orme-Johnson, & Dillbeck, 1990).Moreover, over 50 studies and theoretical papers directly demonstratebeneficial effects on society as a whole. As early as 1960Maharishi proposed that as few as 1% of a population practicing theTranscendental Meditation technique would have a measurable influenceof coherence on the entire society. The theoretical rationalefor how a few can affect the many is the coherence principle foundthroughout nature, that coherence is more powerful than incoherence.For example, coherent laser light will shine further than incoherent,incandescent light. In 1974 a group of researchers found that whenone percent of a city was practicing the Transcendental Meditationtechnique, the crime rate dropped significantly compared to controls.This phenomenon became known as the “Maharishi Effect”(1995) inhonor of Maharishi who predicted it. Over the last several decades, theinitial research has been replicated in a series of increasingly rigorousexperiments, through greater sophistication of statistical methodology,investigation of larger sample sizes, comprehensive control for factors233