Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

improving national economy—alliance with nature’s government5On three occasions when the size of the Maharishi University ofManagement group was briefly exceeded by that of temporary TM-Sidhi groups (World Peace Assemblies) in Washington, D.C., andAmherst, Massachusetts, the size of the larger group was used in thecalculation of the monthly average size of the Super Radiance group.6In calculating the misery index series for the U.S., the rate ofinflation was computed from the month-to-month percent change inthe consumer price index for all urban consumers (CPI), seasonallyadjusted, BCD series 320c, as reported in Business Conditions Digest,March 1988 (p. 98) and July 1988 (p. 84). The compound annualizedinflation rate, in percentage units, was calculated as 100[(l+d)12-l]where d is the monthly percent change in the CPI (in decimals). Unemploymentwas measured by the civilian unemployment rate, seasonallyadjusted, BCD series 43, from Business Conditions Digest, July 1988(p. 62) and February 1988 (p. 99).7Through June of 1990, the U.S. economy had experienced 92 monthsof uninterrupted economic expansion, beginning in November 1982. Theaverage for all six previous peacetime post-World War II expansions was34 months (U.S. Department of Commerce, July 1988, p. 102). Canadalikewise enjoyed a remarkably sustained economic expansion of roughlythe same duration which began near the end of 1982. Although the smallnumber of data points makes it difficult to statistically test the hypothesisthat the unprecedented longevity of the current U.S. economic expansionis related to the rise in the size of the Super Radiance group to alevel consistently exceeding the square root of 1% threshold, it is perhapsmore than an intriguing coincidence that (1) both the U.S. and Canadianeconomic expansions began a few months after the Super Radiancegroup at Maharishi University of Management first began to frequentlyexceed the predicted critical threshold for the U.S. on a monthly averagebasis beginning in the spring of 1982, and (2) that the U.S. expansioncontinued unabated, despite widespread and repeated predictions ofits imminent demise (Pluckhahn, 1989, p. 1), during the portion of thelast decade in which the Maharishi University of Management groupexceeded the predicted √1% critical threshold on a consistent basis.8While progress has been slower in resolving some importantremaining economic problems, principally the large U.S. trade andfederal budget deficits, both of these “twin deficits” have declined as a435