A
crazy, yet interesting
effect that is probably more
coincidence than anything. In 1960,
Maharishi predicted that one percent of a
population practicing the
Transcendental Meditation technique would produce measurable
improvements in the
quality of life for the whole population. Fourteen years later this
phenomenon was fist noticed in the studies of Borland and Landrith. They
observed 11 cities in the USA where 1% of the population had been practicing the Transcendental Meditation
Technique for two years. They looked at things like
crime rate,
sickness, and
accident rates, along with corresponding improvements in
economic and social
trends. Then they compared this with other cities that had similar
population sizes and
geographic location. They found that when 1% of a city's population practiced Transcendental Meditation the trend of
rising crime rate was reversed, indicating increasing
order and
harmony. Numerous other experiments have been conducted with
positive results. In some experiments
violent crimes went down as much as 23% for the city.
According to the Maharishi,
"The formula for the Maharishi Effect has its theoretical basis in principles of physics which describe how coherent influences combine to create a phase transition to greater orderliness."