Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

consciousness-based education and governmentThe sharp upward trend in the misery index for the U.S. beginningin the mid-1960’s was reflected in a growing dissatisfaction with U.S.economic performance and a deterioration in the sense of well-beingof the American people (Maisel, 1982, pp. 15–16). In virtually everynational Gallup public opinion poll conducted between 1973 and 1983,a majority of the American people felt that inflation, or unemployment,or both were the most serious problems facing the nation, rankingahead of such quality-of-life issues as crime, environmental pollution,and the threat of nuclear war (Dornbusch & Fischer, 1988, p. 537). Theresults of these surveys suggest, therefore, that the misery index alsoprovides a measure of an important economic dimension of the qualityof life. That the misery index may be associated with broader measuresof the quality of life is indicated by research showing a strong correlationbetween unemployment and several measures of social stress,including increased mental and physical illness, suicide, homicide, cardiovascularmortality, and prison admissions (Brenner, 1979).The Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Group atMaharishi University of Management (Previously MaharishiInternational University, 1971–1995)The statistical analysis of the Maharishi Effect examined the influenceof the group practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhiprograms on the misery index for the U.S. and Canada over the periodApril 1979 through April 1988. April 1979 marked the founding of thelargest permanent Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi group inNorth America at Maharishi International University (Maharishi Universityof Management) in Fairfield, Iowa, U.S.A. At that time, a groupof experts in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programsat Maharishi University of Management began the practice of this technologyof consciousness together twice daily (morning and afternoon)to create the Maharishi Effect for North America. By analogy with thephenomenon of superradiance in physics, through which a phase transitionprocess leads to the emission of coherent light by a laser, the grouppracticing the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programstogether to create coherence in collective consciousness has been termedthe “Super Radiance group.” A plot of the monthly average size of the420