Maharishi Effect:
Papers and
Presentations

Citation

Experimental Design

Findings

Maharishi's Global Society Campaign: Improved quality of life in Rhode Island through the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program.
Reference: Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programme: Collected Papers, (Vol. 4, pp. 2521–2531).
Dillbeck, M. C., Foss, A. P. O. Zimmermann, W. J. (1989).

300 TM-Sidhi experts went to Rhode Island from June 12 to September 12, 1978. Using Delaware, a similar state, as a control, time series analysis on monthly data from 1974 to 1980 for crime rate, motor vehicle fatality rate, motor vehicle accident rate, death rate, beer consumption, cigarette consumption, unemployment rate, and pollution, was used to assess the impact of the Maharishi Effect.

• Quality of life—as assessed by an index composed of crime rate, vehicular fatality rate, vehicular accident rate, death rate, beer consumption, cigarette consumption, unemployment and pollution—improved significantly both during (p<.01) and following (p<.005) the intervention.

The Transcendental Meditation program and crime rate change: A causal analysis.
Reference: Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programme: Collected Papers, (Vol. 4, pp. 2515–2520).
Dillbeck, M. S., Landrith III, G. S., Polanzi, C., & Baker, S. R. (1989).

Cross-lagged panel correlation was used to assess causality between TM participation and crime rate decreases in two studies, one using 160 randomly chosen cities, the second using 80 randomly chosen metropolitan areas which include over 47% of the total US metropolitan population. The studies controlled for 10 confounding variables and used linear regression to predict crime rates from baseline years 1964–1971. Evidence for causality in the 160 cities on a year-to-year basis exceeded p<.05 on 3 and p<.01 on 3 of the 7 years total. In 80 metropolitan areas, p<.01 for all 7 years.

• Crime trends nationwide in the US fell an average of 18% below conservatively predicted levels attributable to TM participation during years 1972–1978.

• Crime reductions due to TM participation were established on a high level of statistical significance.

A time series analysis of the effect of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field: Reduction of traffic fatalities in the United States.
Reference: Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programme: Collected Papers, (Vol. 4, pp. 2589–2599).
Dillbeck, M. C., Larimore, W. E., & Wallace, R. K. (1989).

The MIU TM-Sidhi group exceeded the US threshold of 1,520 17 times in 1982. Interrupted time series analysis was used to assess the group impact on US traffic accidents. At level 1,520 participants, a significance of p<.014 was obtained. At higher level 1,600 (reached 10 times) p<.005 was obtained.

• Traffic fatalities in the US nationwide fell 2.8 per day when the MIU TM-Sidhi group exceeded threshold (p<.014).

• Traffic fatalities in the US fell 7.5 per day for a day with an addition of 100 to the 1,520 group size, lagged slightly.

A time series analysis of the relationship between the group practice of Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program in crime change in Puerto Rico.
Reference: Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programme: Collected Papers, (Vol. 4, pp. 2678–2686).
Dillbeck, M. C., Mittlefehldt, V., Lukenbach, A. P., Childress, D., Royer, A., Westsmith, L., & Orme-Johnson, D. W. (1989).

A TM-Sidhi group reached the predicted threshold of 185 for Puerto Rico during April, May, and June 1984. Using "Category 1" (major crimes) crime data from 1969 to 1984, time series intervention analysis was used to assess the impact of the group.

• Crime in Puerto Rico fell an average of 649 crimes per month below predicted values when the TM-Sidhi group threshold was exceeded (p<.025).

• Crime stayed below predicted levels for 4 months following consistent with the predicted effect from the large US assembly in 1984 (p<.025).

Impact assessment analysis of behavioral quality of life indices: Effects of group practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program.
Reference: Proceedings of the American Statistical Association, Social Statistics Section, (pp. 38–43).
Dillbeck, M.C., & Rainforth, M.V. (1996).

Study 1: A behavioral index was computed based on monthly data from 1970 to 1986 on U.S. motor vehicle fatalities, suicides, homicides, accidental death, notifiable diseases, alcohol consumption and cigarettes taxed and analyzed as a dependent variable, with TM-Sidhi program participation (avg. daily number of participants) as the independent variable using Liu and Hanssens linear transfer function.

Study 2: Data collection and analyses in Study 1 were replicated for Canada.

• A significant effect, 36.1%, of the threshold value of the independent variable (the square root of 1% of U.S. population) on behavioral quality of life in the U.S. was obtained.

• A similar statistically significant effect, 31.6%, was obtained in the replication for Canada.

The dynamics of U.S.-Soviet relations, 1979–1986: Effects of reducing social stress through the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program.
Reference: An abridged version of this paper, entitled "A simultaneous transfer function analysis of U.S.-Soviet relations: A test of the Maharishi Effect" published in the Proceedings of the American Statistical Association, Social Statistics Section, 1990, pp. 297–302.
Gelderloos, P., Cavanaugh, K. L., & Davies, J. L. (1990).

Simultaneous transfer function modeling was used to study US-Soviet relations over the years 1979–1986. Content analysis of articles from the Zurich project was analyzed using Azar's coding rules. Analysis yielded p<.00001 for the positive effect of the TM and TM-Sidhi programs on US-Soviet relations. Both monthly and weekly data were assessed, with comparable result.

• US actions towards the USSR improved after the MIU TM-Sidhi group exceeded threshold, lagged 3 months.

• US actions towards the USSR improved with a 2-month lag as the group reached a size of 1,700.

• USSR actions toward the US improved 2- to 4-months after the TM-Sidhi group reached 1,700.