Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

consciousness-based education and governmentthe environment than does the Transcendental Meditation techniquealone, leading to a stronger positive effect on social life (MaharishiMahesh Yogi, 1978).In addition, it was theorized that the collective practice of theTM-Sidhi program would enhance the sociological impact even more(Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 1986). This more powerful effect of the collectivepractice over individual practice is understood to operate accordingto a general principle of coherence in nature. The power or intensityof a field is proportional to the square of the amplitude of the field, andit can be increased by the coherent summation of amplitudes from differentsources. This is known in physics as the principle of constructiveinterference (Hagelin, 1987b). Generally, physical systems of many (N)elements displaying wave phenomena will exhibit such overall coherentfunctioning if the coherent subpopulation (n) is proportional to thesquare root of N; in other words, the cumulative effect of the coherentelements is proportional to their number squared (n 2 ). Thus, with theMaharishi Effect having been demonstrated by 1% of the populationpracticing the Transcendental Meditation program, the coherent effecton collective consciousness and behavior created by the group practiceof the TM-Sidhi program is predicted to require the participation ofonly the square root of 1% of the population to improve the quality oflife in society (New Horizons in Criminology, 1979, p. 160). Time-seriesanalysis techniques have indicated this Extended Maharishi Effect inseveral different countries (Alexander et al., 1987; Dillbeck et al., 1987;D.W. Orme-Johnson, Alexander, Davies, Chandler & Larimore, 1988;D.W. Orme-Johnson & Dillbeck, 1987), and recently even on a worldwidescale (D.W. Orme-Johnson et al., 1988) during periods when therequired number of TM-Sidhi participants have practiced together atspecific assemblies.HypothesesThe Transcendental Meditation technique was introduced in the U.S.in 1959; by 1970, about 200,000 people were practicing the technique.The growth in the number of practitioners in the early 1970’s was almostexponential, and 1975 saw a dramatic increase, with more than 225,000new practitioners. By that time, the total number of TranscendentalMeditation practitioners had become sufficient to expect that the qual-540