Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

quality of life in the us (1960–1984)different fields were consulted, and parameters in previous quality oflife studies were considered (Gilmartin et al., 1979; Iowa DevelopmentCommission, 1985; US Department of Commerce, 1980; Verwayen,1984). Only those variables which were uniformly available for the wholeperiod studied, i.e., 1960–1984, were included in the computations:Selected Areas and VariablesCrime1) Crime rateHealth2) Notifiable disease rate3) Hospital admissions rate4) Infant mortality rate5) Suicide rateHealth Habits6) Cigarette consumption per capita7) Alcohol consumption per capitaEconomic Welfare 8) GNP per capitaCreativity9) Patent application rateMarital Safety10) Divorce rateSafety11) Traffic fatalities rateCrime. Rate of reported crime is an obvious choice as an index of society’swell-being. Although the number of reported crimes is undoubtedly less thanthe number of actual crimes (analysis of the National Crime Survey data,based on the interviews of over 125,000 people, actually show that only one inthree crimes is reported), the relative changes in crime rate year-by-year canbe expected to reflect to some extent the change in the actual crime volume.The Crime Data Survey data would have been preferred but were only collectedsince 1976.Health. Notifiable diseases could be considered as a sensitive measure ofthe general health condition of the population. The individual’s vulnerabilityto disease is correlated with the integration and strength of his physiologicalsystem. In addition, the incidence of notifiable diseases is directly linked tothe effectiveness of vaccination programs, another indication of the quality oflife. The following diseases were virtually uniformly reported since 1960, andtherefore were included in this parameter: aseptic meningitis, encephalitis543