Theory and Research on Conflict Resolution through the Maharishi Effect

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi approaches peace from collective consciousness, the holistic level of society where all its component parts are integrated. Collective consciousness arises from the consciousness of all individuals in society and reciprocally influences each individual’s consciousness and behavior. The basis of all levels of individual and collective consciousness is transcendental consciousness, which the individual can directly experience as the unified field of nature’s intelligence and infinite organizing power. Extensive, well-controlled research demonstrates that the square root of 1% of a population experiencing transcendental consciousness through Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program propagates coherence in collective consciousness, thereby resolving conflict and improving the quality of life. This phenomenon is known as the Maharishi Effect. The Theory of the Maharishi Effect Modern physics has discovered that nature is fundamentally composed of quantum fields that mediate action at a distance and at the basis of all fields is the unified field of natural law (Hagelin, 1987, 1990, please refer to Hagelin’s article in this issue). Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has brought to light the Vedic understanding that the unified field is a fundamental level of consciousness, transcendental consciousness, at the basis of each individual’s mind. In Maharishi’s view, direct experience of transcendental consciousness is an experience of the unified field of nature’s intelligence, which has testable consequences of propagation and influences of coherence throughout society. Extensive research, to be reviewed below, has demonstrated that when individuals experience transcendental consciousness through the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program, conflicts decrease and cooperation increases within society and between nations, a phenomenon that scientists have named the Maharishi Effect. MIU WORLD PEACE CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS CONFLICT RESOLUTION THROUGH THE MAHARISHI EFFECT 77 Although action-at-a-distance phenomena have not been reliably observed within contemporary social research, they are now well accepted in the natural sciences. Gravity and the transmission of radio and television signals are both examples of action at a distance that have become familiar to us today. To understand these phenomena, physics developed the concept of abstract quantum fields that mediate these effects. The basic understanding given by quantum theory is that all of creation is the expression of fluctuations of underlying universal fields, and all bodies and processes are therefore connected at fundamental levels. (Hagelin, 1987, 1989, please refer to Hagelin’s article in