Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

consciousness-based approach to human securityalleviates the stress of the individual, influence these meta-conditions?The Consciousness-Based approach provides both theoretical understandingand a methodology for addressing these issues.Collective ConsciousnessA basic tenet of the Consciousness-Based approach is that the individualis the basic unit of society. The quality of consciousness of all theindividuals in a society may be said to form the collective consciousnessof that society, whether it is the family, the community, the city,province, nation, or the world. Just as an individual’s consciousness maydisplay qualities that are more or less successful, energetic, orderly, anxious,or calm, so each society also reflects a degree of coherence, whichmay fluctuate over time. Coherence, in this context refers to the level ofintegration of the diverse concerns of all the individuals in the societywith the needs of the society as a whole. When the individuals in a societyare predominately stressed, stress permeates all levels of collectiveconsciousness and influences all individuals in society. According toMaharishi, war, terrorism and other collective disasters are ultimatelycaused by the accumulation of stress in the collective consciousness. 16In contrast, if the collective consciousness of a society is more coherent,the society will flourish:Coherence means togetherness—that is, a situation in which differencescease to dominate and friendliness begins to reign. Any country withinwhich harmony dominates becomes very powerful, because no energyand intelligence is wasted in resolving arguments and conflicts amongits citizens. The government can structure steps of progress instead ofworrying about whether it will survive and where the next shock willcome from. 17This perspective offers a choice to the individual with every thoughtand action: create coherence in consciousness, or contribute to thealready overwhelming stress in society. Yet, it has been found that noteveryone need practice the Transcendental Meditation program forcoherence-creating effects to be observed in society. In the early 1970’s,researchers began testing a prediction by Maharishi, based on physicsprinciples and on citations in the Vedic literature. (The Veda is consideredto be the oldest continuous tradition of human knowledge; “Vedameans knowledge, pure knowledge, complete knowledge.”) 1859