Maharishi Effect:
Papers and Presentations

Citation

Experimental Design

Findings

The Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field and reduction of armed conflict: A comparative, longitudinal study of Lebanese villages.
Reference: Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programme: Collected Papers, (Vol. 4, pp. 2623-2633).
Abou Nader, T. M., Alexander, C. N., & Davies, J. L. (1989).

Five Lebanese villages in the war region, each with population of 10,000, were studied over the period October 1978 to March 1984. In July 1982 one village, Basinka, reached the 1% TM threshold. Quarterly war data was obtained from the most objective newspaper in Lebanon. Differences between Basinka and control villages reached a significance of p<.005.

• War shelling fell (p<.005).

• War casualties fell (p<.005).

• War property damage fell though fighting in the region intensified (p<.005).

• Violence ceased in Basinka compared to control villages (p<.00001).

Effects of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field on the war in Lebanon: A time series analysis of the influence of international and national coherence creating assemblies.
Reference: Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programmr: Collected Papers, (Vol. 4, pp. 2687-2714).
Alexander, C. N., Abou Nader, T. M., Cavanaugh, K. L., Davies, J. L., Dillbeck, M. S., Kfoury, R. J., & Orme-Johnson, D. W. (1989).

TM-Sidhi groups assembled for two weeks on three occasions in 1984, in the US, Lebanon, and Yugoslavia, each of size predicted to impact events in Lebanon. Studied with time series intervention analysis, each assembly produced a significant impact with p<.0038, p<.000036, and p<.016 respectively, while the impact of the three together was p<.000046.

• Positivity in Lebanon rose strikingly by an average of 2.34 points (on a -4 to +4 scale) above a baseline of negativity of -.82 (p<.000046).

• War deaths fell by 55%, an average of 3.6 per day (p<.00036).

• War injuries fell by 38%.

• Currency value rose by .93 cents per week during assemblies, but declined .13 cents per week across the six-month period (p<.01).

Change in the quality of life in Canada: Intervention studies of the effect of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program.
Reference: Dissertation Abstracts International, 50(5), 2203B.
Assimakis, P. D. (1989).

The impact of the MIU TM-Sidhi group on violent death, accident fatalities, cigarette consumption, and work-days lost in strikes over the years 1972–1986 was assessed using time series impact analysis.

• Violent deaths (traffic fatalities, homicides, & suicides) fell 4.1% (p<.01).

• Fatalities due to accidents fell 5.1% (p<.005).

• Cigarette consumption fell 10.1% (p<.001).

• Work-days lost in strikes fell 18.8% (p<.001)

The group dynamics of consciousness and the U.K. stock market. Reference: Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programme: Collected Papers, (Vol. 4, pp. 2616–2622).
Beresford, M. S., & Clements, G. (1989).

The "All Share" Index for Great Britain was studied for 1982–1983. Time series analysis was used to assess the impact of a British TM-Sidhi group exceeding a threshold of 250 on nine occasions.

• "All Share Index" of Great Britain rose during and following above-threshold periods (p<.01).

• "All Share Index" during above-threshold times rose at 8 times the ordinary rate.

Improved quality of city life through the Transcendental Meditation program: Decreased crime rate.
Reference: Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Program: Collected Papers, (Vol. 1, pp. 639–648).
Borland, C., & Landrith, G. S. III. (1976).

The change in crime rate in 11 US 1% cities, with population greater than 25,000, from 1972 to 1973 were compared to changes in matched control cities using FBI Uniform Crime Report data for these years.

• Crime rates fell 16% as compared to 11 matched control cities (p<.001).

• Crime rates fell 8.2% compared to 1971–1972 rates for these same cities (p<.002).

Sociological effects of the group dynamics of consciousness: Decrease of crime and traffic accidents in Holland.
Reference: Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programme: Collected Papers, (Vol. 4, pp. 2566–2582).
Burgmans, W. H. P. M., Burgt, A. T. van der, Langenkamp, F. P. Th., & Verstegen, J. G. (1989).

A retrospective time series analysis study of national crime and traffic accident rates in Holland over the years 1971 to 1981 was conducted using monthly figures provided by the Holland Central Office for Statistics.

A Holland national TM-Sidhi group exceeded threshold three times in the years 1971 to 1981.

• Crime rate dropped each time the TM-Sidhi group exceeded threshold (p<.02).

• Traffic accident rate dropped each time the group exceeded threshold (p<.001).

Time series analysis of U.S. and Canadian inflation and unemployment: A test of a field-theoretic hypothesis. Reference: Proceeding of the American Statistical Association, Business and Economics Statistics Section (pp. 799–904).
Cavanaugh, K. L. (1987).

Monthly figures for Okun's "misery index" (sum of inflation and unemployment rates) for the US. and Canada were assessed for years 1979 to 1988 using Liu's linear transfer function method. The null hypothesis, the Maharishi Effect produced no influence, was strongly rejected.

• Misery index in US fell 39.9% as the MIU group exceeded threshold (p<.01).

• Misery index in Canada fell 29.3% as the MIU group exceeded threshold (p<.00004).

Simultaneous transfer function analysis of Okun's misery index: Improvements in the economic quality of life through Maharishi's Vedic Science and technology of consciousness.
Reference: Proceedings of the American Statistical Association, Business and Economics Statistics Section (pp. 491–496).
Cavanaugh, K. L., & King, K. D. (1988).

US. misery index, monetary growth and crude materials prices were studied using a linear transfer function method. The three taken together were significant at p<1.6 x 10^-12 indicating a significant impact of the group on the US national economy.

For the years 1979 to 1988 as the MIU group exceeded threshold economic trends improved in the US as the MIU group exceeded threshold.

• Misery index fell 36.1% (p< 8.7x10^-7).

• Growth rate of monetary base impacted (p<.00001).

• Crude materials rate of price increase fell 13% (p<.000026).

A multiple-input transfer function model of Okun's misery index: An empirical test of the Maharishi Effect.
Reference: Proceedings of the American Statistical Association, Business and Economics Statistics Section, (pp. 565–570).
Cavanaugh, K. L., King, K. D., & Ertuna, C. (1989).

Okun's "misery index" was studied in the US from 1980 to 1988 controlling for monetary growth, rate of change of crude material prices, and rate of change of industrial production using a multiple-input transfer function method.

• Decline in the US. misery index from its peak in 1980 to 1988 was due in measure to the Maharishi Effect.

• Misery index fell by 1988 to 40% of the 1980 peak value with 31.1% of the decline attributable to the MIU group (p<3.2x10^-9).

• In this model each 100 additional participants in a the TM-Sidhi group produced a further decrease of .31% in US. inflation and unemployment.