Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

Modern science and vedic science: an introductionnals throughout the world, have been collected in the volumes calledScientific Research on the Transcendental Meditation Programme: CollectedPapers, Vols. 1–6 (1977–1991). This research provides experimental validationof the efficacy of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhiprograms, including Yogic Flying. Because this research— from over600 scientific studies at over 300 universities and research institutionsin 33 countries, published in more than 100 scientific journals—istoo extensive to summarize here, the reader is referred to the CollectedPapers for articles cited in this and other professional journals. Overall,this research probably represents the most concerted, well-designedresearch program on a potential means to benefit mankind ever conceived.Its present standing is that, taken together as a body of research,it is one of the most impressive confirmations of a theory of humanpotential ever executed.Although it is beyond the scope of this introduction to go into thedetails of this research, it is worthwhile to mention some of the broadcategories of scientific investigation that have evolved to guide theresearch program of the Science of Creative Intelligence. The mainareas of research include studies on the individual and society. Researchon benefits to the individual may be further subdivided into studies ofphysiological changes (both during and after the practice); cognitive,psychological, and behavioral changes; benefits to health and socialbehavior; and benefits to athletic performance, performance in business,and academic performance. Research on social benefits throughcollective practice may be further grouped into research on families,city populations, national populations, and global population. Theseresearch studies fall into the categories of crime prevention, accidentprevention, benefits to economy, health, violence reduction, and worldpeace.On the basis of this research, basic assertions of Maharishi VedicScience become verifiable through empirical science. There is, moreover,a unity of theory underlying these diverse predictions and tests.These studies, taken as a whole, constitute a coherent research programthat tests the prediction that repeated experience of the unified fieldresults in greater orderliness, coherence, and positivity, in both individualand social life. Research on these changes not only tests fundamentaltheory, but demonstrates the practical benefits of this new591