Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

U.S.-Soviet Relations and the Maharishi Effectness are reduced through the Maharishi Effect, rising coherence andharmony in national consciousness is predicted to contribute to moreharmonious and cooperative behavior in international affairs.This change in foreign policy behavior is predicted to occur eitherthrough new policy initiatives on the part of existing leaders or throughthe rise of new leadership committed to a more cooperative and peacefulforeign policy. One advantage of viewing the transformation of Sovietpolicy toward the US as an endogenous result of the global MaharishiEffect is that this theoretical perspective is more parsimonious andcomprehensive than one that adds the new Soviet leadership as an additionalexplanatory variable.In the context of this theoretical perspective, it is significant that newSoviet leadership, committed to easing East-West tensions, came topower in March 1985 in the wake of three global World Peace Assembliesheld over the period December 1983 through January 1985. Theseglobal Assemblies were predicted to have a powerful purifying effecton world consciousness, reduce global stress and tension, and therebyprovide a foundation for more peaceful international relations. It is alsosignificant that on July 3, 1985, during the fourth global World PeaceAssembly, agreement was reached to hold the first summit meetingbetween Reagan and Gorbachev in Reykavik, Iceland during November1985, a meeting which marked a turning point in US-Soviet relations.Further empirical support for the theoretical perspective on governmentoutlined above was provided by related research on President Reagan’spublic statements toward the Soviet Union. Gelderloos et al. (1988,1989) analyzed weekly content-analyzed data on US presidential statementsconcerning the Soviet Union for the period April 1985 to December1987. A statistically significant softening of President Reagan’s publicstatements on the USSR was found during weeks in which the size ofthe permanent TM-Sidhi group in the US was larger. This group, establishedin the US in 1979, gradually grew in size until, from approximatelySeptember 1983 on during the period of this study (Figure 3), the averagedaily size of the group for the month consistently exceeded the predictedcritical threshold for the US of approximately 1500 participants.In sum, the findings of this study lend strong empirical support tothe hypothesis that large assemblies of experts in the TranscendentalMeditation and TM-Sidhi program in the United States and Holland483