High Seas,
I apologize for the delay in responding to you.
Your first question concerns the raw data. In most cases, as with the study that I examined for my Harvard doctoral dissertation, the data is publicly available, archival, with research hypotheses lodged in advance of the experiments. The research I examined is part of an ongoing program with systematic replication.
What were the assumptions and experience of the data at the time of the experiment? We have several indications. The outcomes were evident to researchers in the first-level compilation of data, that is with eyeball examination. This data is evident in published charts. For example, the Journal of Conflict Resolution Study that I examined published a chart, showing “a tendency toward an inverse correlation between the MTUF group size and the war intensity in Lebanon) (see Journal of Conflict Resolution, 32 (4), Dec. 1988, 776-812)
We also have reports from observers, from independent board members who were sent the data as it was collected, from public officials, and from meditating participants.
Dr. Kurt Kleinschnitz in private correspondence describes the response of a Chief of Police below:
“For one of the best of these studies, predictions were lodged publicly in advance, and a panel of more than 20 scientists not affiliated with the organization and the police of the district agreed to review the findings (Washington, DC in 1993). At the presentation of the prediction, a 25% drop in crime in the District over an 8-week period over June and July, the Chief of Police replied with his own prediction—to the effect that the only way you could produce such an effect would be 25 inches of snow. By the end of the demonstration project, crime had decreased below baseline projections by the predicted 25%. The panel of scientists and the police signed off on the study. The city itself was noticeably calmer—with many fewer sirens at night for example.â€
Dani Kesler, an Israeli participant in the assembly in 1982-83 (when the Journal of Conflict Resolution study was conducted) describes being a reservist who was drafted to be among 8000 Israelis who surrounded 4000 Palestinians, all “absolutely ready to fight.â€
“On that Friday, it was tanks and armed carriers – the whole show. On Friday there was a schedule for the event to happen. All of the hospitals north of Tel Aviv were put on the highest degree of alertness. The Air Force was on highest alert. The tension was building up. When the date came, we actually reached 200 (square root number for Israel). When the operation took place, not even one gunshot happened. Not one. The day before one guy was shot cleaning his gun in my tent.
“It was just something that nobody expected. Everybody was expecting the worst. The Palestinians (4000 of them), they knew what was happening on our side, even though we were surrounding. That was the biggest miracle that could have happened in those circumstances. There was no flaring of violence. The soldiers had clear instructions. Slightest deviation from what we want to do, we shoot. We were all going with loaded guns.â€
Dani explained it was only after the experiment was conducted that he realized that the group was sufficiently large according to the theory to have affected these events.
“To be honest I didn’t believe in it at first. I told the people, ‘We will see.’ Even when personally I was there, it still didn’t convince me enough. I didn’t know we had the right number in Jerusalem.
I was meditating in some ambulance. A few months later, I looked at the numbers and I said, ‘Oh, look that is the day I was there. We were 200, perhaps 250 [meditating, which was near the threshold number needed to have an effect]. I didn’t realize it.†When I realized it, the researchers were no longer around.
In the same time period, Dani related that his cousin, a lawyer had a similar kind of confirmation regarding drop of crime.
“One of the days of good numbers was Succoth, a holiday near the end of the summer, harvest something. Takes about a week. During Succoth there is more chance for crime. My cousin, a lawyer, came to the Police station. It is the busiest time of the year, summer, hot, more crime. She apologized to the guy at the police station, not wanting to bother him because it was a busy time. She wanted to see about a guy in jail. The guy said, ‘I don’t know what happened. There is hardly any crime. I have so much time on my hands.â€
Box-Jenkins Time Series analysis provides a control for trends that might otherwise explain these immediate results.
I asked Dr. Kleinschnitz to address your next question re: the theoretical explanations involving the unified field. His doctoral dissertation dealt with this question:
“How is the effect generated? It emanates when a group of people practice the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program together in synchrony. As the size of the group increases, an influence is detected in a larger population. The formula, based on the ‘super-radiance’ phenomenon from quantum optics, predicts that a population of 100 times the square of the group size will be impacted in a detectable fashion.
So, for the US with a population of 300 million, a group of 1,700 or larger is enough to produce the influence. This formula empirically builds upon the earliest findings that in a society where 1% of the population practices the Transcendental Meditation program individually—not as a group—trends in society will significantly improve. The 100 in the formula comes from this finding, first predicted by Maharishi in the late 60’s and early 70’s. The Transcendental Meditation technique itself dramatically increases orderliness across the individual brain, as measured by EEG studies. In many studies the group was far distant from or quite isolated from the populations studied—for example, a group in Iowa, USA was related to the decrease in war intensity in the Lebanese civil war halfway around the world.
So how does it work? What is the mechanism? Well—in my opinion this is Nobel Prize territory for someone who sorts it all out. In physics we know that consciousness impacts the object of investigation physically. You mention the Bell phenomenon, and there is the whole subject of quantum measurement theory. But how does this happen? There are a number of investigators at work in this field now doing quite interesting research, apart from the research on the Maharishi Effect. But physicists can’t say at this point.
It is actually easier to say what mechanisms it cannot be than what mechanism it is. For example, it is not weak or strong nuclear force because they are far too short range. It is not likely to be classical gravitation—which is long-range but incredibly weak, and there is no reason to propose a human sensory capability of detecting such weak gravity waves. And at the source there is no reason to suspect a classical gravitational influence. Electromagnetism at first blush seems to be a candidate for the mechanism, but as one looks more deeply into it, it becomes apparent that it cannot be the mechanism. There is a distinct electromagnetic signal associated with the practice of Transcendental Meditation. However, EEG signals are extraordinarily weak and are further attenuated by the skull. It would be very difficult to build a device to pick up EEG at even a short distance from a human subject. Further, some of these groups were situated either in metal buildings or beneath the ground, yet the influence was detected. And more, there is little to suggest a very weak electromagnetic signal could directly be received by the human physiologies across sometimes thousands of miles—and by so large a percentage of a population that very significant changes in behavior of society occur. Other more classical mechanics can also be ruled out—chemical pheromones can dramatically alter behavior in biological organisms and at long ranges, but such explanations would be quite unlikely over thousands of miles range. Also, there is no hint of such a chemical basis at the source where it would be most concentrated. Sounds, vibrations, sight, etc. all also can travel long distances, but again there is no basis at the source—the group—to suspect such a mechanism. Being nicer to people, smiling, etc. won’t produce long-range instantaneous influences. One can go through any list of potential mechanisms and rule them out.
Quite the opposite for the unified field. The unified field suggests itself as the mechanism for a number of reasons. It could be long range. It is bosonic, like gravity and electromagnetism, and so a super-radiance-like phenomenon can make sense. This is a highly important clue. The unified field is, as the writer mentioned, at the scale where gravity is united with the other three forces. The Maharishi Effect is profoundly connected with a quantum gravity scenario, as the most striking feature of such a group is that people are lifting up into the air during the practice of Yogic Flying—the most powerful of the TM-Sidhis and probably the practice most responsible for the Maharishi Effect. This lifting up could be connected with quantum gravity in a profound way. The unified field in its character is neither energy, nor matter, but extraordinarily most like thought-stuff. This also connects very well with a profound meditation practice that enables an individual to most clearly experience the subtlest currents of thought within themselves. There is a very developed history of the existence and abilities of human consciousness to directly impact the surroundings—contained in practically every religious tradition around the world, though mostly overlooked in the scientific literature. The more detailed of such explanations match extraordinarily well with comparable specific details for the unified field. Inside unified field theory itself, there are a number of promising potential candidates for the mechanism. Each point above could be unfolded in really great detail.
However, truthfully, mechanism is not the central issue. It is really a red herring. Our civilization was able to employ the telegraph with only a very rudimentary understanding of the electromagnetic field. Likewise, contrast the state of aeronautics at the time of the Wright brothers and today. What will we know about DNA a hundred years from now? Our ignorance doesn’t stop us from using what we do know. In almost every field of science and technology we employ whatever limited understanding we possess, and surely not a complete understanding, of natural law for the benefit of the human race.
There is no technology comparable whatever to the Maharishi Effect. The cost-effectiveness, the humanity of the approach (as opposed to warfare, conflict, competition, etc.), the simplicity, the immediate (almost instantaneous) payback, and its reliability set it apart from any other methods for resolving conflict, and administering society. A practical government would put it to work today, pay attention as they went along, and sort out the mechanism over time. It is my hope someone gets excited about all this, and just pushes it forward. There is research, there are countless anecdotes, there is so much to all of this for anyone to just look, satisfy theselves, and give it a try.â€