Author's Note

C H A P T E R 7

Reducing Crime in Society and Creating World Peace

We are in a highly stressed area, an area that has a lot of drugs and a lot of violence," says Dr. George Rutherford, Principal of the Fletcher-Johnson School in southeast Washington, D.C. There are 840 students in grades pre-K through 9, and 125 staff at the school. Dr. Rutherford has been practicing Transcendental Meditation for 2 years.

"Some of my students and former students have been shot; some of my former students have been killed. That brings about tremendous stress in me because I know these kids, and I have to worry that my school is safe for my students and staff. I have to make sure that I don't have the outside forces coming in. In order to do that I've got to be able to think clearly enough to run my building and still try to assure youngsters that this is a safe haven.

"Transcendental Meditation is the best thing I have ever done to help myself. I have more energy.

I am less stressful. I can think clearer, and I believe I have become a better principal. My tolerance level is higher, so I am able to talk clearer to youngsters and understand the things that are affecting them.

"My health is outstanding. If I had not started Transcendental Meditation, I'd have left the school system or I'd be dead because of all the pressure. It has made me much stronger physically and much stronger mentally.

"I truly feel that Transcendental Meditation is a vehicle that we can use to reduce or eliminate the violence in our community. It will help to remove all the baggage that young people bring to school with them that makes them ready to jump and fight at the first moment anyone touches them. If they can meditate at home, it will help them remove the stresses that they have each and every day -- and that is from hearing gunshots at night and seeing people get killed -- family members and friends. Transcendental Meditation is going to eventually remove that kind of behavior.

"I would whole-heartedly support large groups of Transcendental Meditation meditators in Washington to reduce crime and create peace in the community. Nothing else has worked. I feel, based on my experience with Transcendental Meditation, that this is the means, the vehicle that is going to get us to a peaceful society. The government should support these large groups, if, in fact, it is serious about reducing or eliminating crime."

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"Only a new seed can yield a new crop. Only new knowledge, new principles, and new programs can put an end to conflict, sickness, and suffering, and prevent such problems from arising in the future. Only new knowledge can create a healthy, prosperous, harmonious society and a peaceful world." -- Maharishi

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The Problems of Violence

Crime spreads at an alarming rate through our cities. Regional conflicts rage in many parts of the globe.

Billions of dollars urgently needed for education, health care, etc., are allocated to build more prisons and hire more police, but no one is safe from the threat of rising violent crime.

Peacekeeping forces are sent, at considerable risk and expense, to far-off lands to quell conflicts. Experienced diplomats hammer out peace accords between opposing factions. Yet order is not maintained, and lasting peace is not delivered.

Nothing is working. What's wrong?

The Cause of Crime and War

What's wrong, according to Maharishi, is that the root cause of violence -- both in crime and war -- has not been addressed. Both are the outburst of built-up stress in society. And stress in society is created by all the people in society continually violating the laws of nature.

"As long as individuals continue to violate the laws of nature, they will continue to create stress in their own lives and create stress in the collective consciousness of the whole nation," Maharishi says. "As a result, governmental efforts to promote peace will prove ineffective, and the world will face violence and conflict everywhere. Peace will only remain an abstract, unattainable ideal."

Old Approaches Fail to Reduce Stress in Society

Like smokestacks pouring pollution into the atmosphere, individuals suffering from stress pour stress into the environment, creating the ground for crime, violence, and conflict in society.

The approaches that have been tried repeatedly -- more police, longer prison terms, military force, peace agreements -- have ultimately failed because they fail to solve the problem of high levels of stress in society.

A New Seed for a New Crop

Only a new seed can yield a new crop. A completely new approach is needed that can reduce the dangerous rise of stress and crime in our cities and, at the same time, reduce the dangerous rise of stress and conflict in the world's trouble spots.

Fortunately, such an approach exists. It has been developed during the past 36 years, and it has been found to work. What follows is a brief explanation of this approach, including a history of its development, a discussion of its mechanics, and the research that shows that it works.

Individual Is the Basic Unit of World Peace

When Maharishi first started teaching Transcendental Meditation in 1958, he said that the technique was a way for the individual to grow in health and happiness, and for the world to rise in peace.

"For the forest to be green, every tree must be green," Maharishi said. "The individual is the basic unit of world peace. For the world to be at peace, every individual has to be at peace."

Maharishi said that Transcendental Meditation was the key to producing a peaceful individual, and therefore was the basis for creating world peace.

One Percent for World Peace

A few years later Maharishi made a prediction: If as little as 1% of the world's population practiced Transcendental Meditation, there would be no more wars. The peaceful influence created by people practicing Transcendental Meditation, he said, radiates throughout the environment, like the light from a bulb radiates throughout a darkened room.

At that time, in the early 1960s, there were too few meditators in the world to test Maharishi's prediction, even on a small scale. But by the end of 1974, more than 250,000 people were meditating in the United States, and many small cities in the country had 1% of their population practicing the technique.

The first study to test Maharishi's prediction occurred in December 1974, when scientists measured quality-of-life indicators in 4 cities where 1% of the population was practicing Transcendental Meditation. They examined such standard and publicly accessible indices as crime statistics, accident rates, and hospital admissions.

Decreased Crime in 1% Cities

When these findings were compared with similar research from four control cities matched for population density, geography, economic conditions, etc., a remarkable discovery was made.

The cities with 1% of their populations practicing the Transcendental Meditation program showed a decrease in crime rate while the matched control cities showed an increase in crime rate -- as did the U.S. as a whole.

The researchers then expanded their study to include eleven 1% cities and eleven control cities. They found a 16.6 percent reduction in crime rates among the 1% cities compared to the non-one-percent cities.

What did it mean? It was the first scientific validation of Maharishi's prediction that the quality of life could be improved through a small percentage of a population practicing Transcendental Meditation.

On January 12, 1975, in the presence of leading scientists, doctors, educators, business leaders, and the world press, Maharishi hailed the significance of this discovery by inaugurating "the dawn of the Age of Enlightenment" for the world.

Maharishi said, "With 1% of a city's population practicing Transcendental Meditation, crime rates decrease. One percent of the world's population practicing the Transcendental Meditation program will neutralize stress and negativity, and promote positivity and peace, throughout the world. With just this first scientific research on the sociological effects of Transcendental Meditation we can see the onset of a new age of progress and harmony for all mankind."

Transcendental Meditation Is the Causal Factor

The research continued. The 11-city study was expanded to include 48 cities, with similar results. The study, entitled "The Transcendental Meditation Program and Crime Rate Change in a Sample of Forty-Eight Cities," was published in the Journal of Crime and Justice (Vol. IV, 1981).

Since 1974 Transcendental Meditation crime-rate studies have been conducted in hundreds of cities in the United States, using some of the most sophisticated, computerized, statistical procedures to control for a broad spectrum of variables.

The conclusion: Transcendental Meditation program participation was found to be the causal factor in crime rate reductions in cities and metropolitan areas throughout the nation. Scientists named the effect the "Maharishi Effect."

How is this possible?

We'll see in a moment.

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