Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

consciousness-based education and governmentis on the unified field level, then group meditation should effect inanimatedetectors as well as the larger society. Preliminary research hasshown that persons practicing the Transcendental Meditation techniquecan directly influence quantum mechanical processes (Farwell &Farwell, 1995) and that group meditation influences random generatorsplaced near the group (Mason, Patterson, & Radin, 2007). There arealso encouraging prelimi nary data indicating positive effects of TM-Sidhi groups on natural phenomena as fires (Orme-Johnson, Alexander,Davies, Chandler, & Larimore, 1988) and droughts (Anklesaria &King, 2003), but more research is needed in this area.Rationale for how the Maharishi Effect Could Avert Natural DisastersThe idea that human consciousness and behavior can effect naturalphenomena and prevent natural disasters is present in many indigenoustraditions. Indeed, the suggestion that individuals interact directly ata distance through an underlying common field of consciousness hasa long history. It is embedded in the “perennial philosophy,” the termAldous Huxley first applied to the universal system of thought thathas persisted throughout history in all parts of the world (Huxley,1944/2009) and which continues to be seriously discussed by majorthinkers (Shear, 1994). The key tenets of the perennial philosophy canbe stated as: (1) the phenomenal world is a manifestation of an unmanifesttranscendental ground, a field of consciousness or Being, which isthe infinite organizing power structuring all forms and phenomena inthe universe; (2) the human mind also has a transcendental ground,which is the silent level of transcendental consciousness at the basisof all thought and perception; (3) transcendental consciousness is thedirect experience by the individual of the transcendental ground of theuniverse; and (4), this experience organizes individual and collectivelife to be fully evolutionary, creative, harmonious, and problem-free.From this perspective, the key to creating an ideal society is a technologythat promotes transcending from the waking state mind toexperience transcendental consciousness (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,1977). As noted earlier, the physiological correlates of transcendentalconsciousness through Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation techniquehave been extensively studied (Badawi, Wallace, Orme-Johnson,514