Meditation Experiments & Evidence: This will blow your mind
In case you’re still sceptical, here are documented events and experiments that demonstrate the impact of Transcendental Meditation on individuals and communities at large:
1. Washington DC
Washington DC is a hub of political power and has an important role to play in the state of affairs globally.
The experiment
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi conducted the experiment by creating a large group of Transcendental Meditation practitioners in the city. The idea was to reduce the social stress and promote clarity of thinking in the capital of a world power.
The baseline
Washington DC is counted as one of the most violent cities in the world. In 1982, there were 30.74 homicides per 100 000 population, or roughly 1 homicide per 3000 people, 3.38 times higher than the national average.
The outcome
Time Series Analysis showed that during a 3.5-year period whenever the Transcendental Meditation’s reached the threshold number, crime would decrease by 22%. In case you thought this was a coincidence, the times when the threshold was reached occurred randomly over 6 separate intervals, ranging from 1 to 28 weeks.
It is highly unlikely that another variable was causing the homicides to reduce at exactly the same time as those random 6 separate intervals.
2. The Lebanon War
During this experiment Israel was involved in the Lebanon crisis. They had troops stationed deep inside Lebanon. The summer of 1983, from 1 August through to 30 September was chosen to demonstrate the impact of Transcendental Meditation. The dates were logged months in advanced but were not made public to eliminate any societal expectation effects.
The experiment
The experiment began with local Transcendental Meditation practitioners coming into a hotel in east Jerusalem for their morning and/or evening programme. They needed 281 Transcendental Meditation practitioners to reach 1% of the population of Israel and Lebanon combined.
The baseline
Research was gathered within the 3 different regions.
- Jerusalem: The total crime, car accidents and number of fires were gathered
- Israel: The total crime, the performance of the stock market and the national mood derived from the front page of the Jerusalem Post
- Lebanon: Total number of war deaths and the intensity of the war determined by the level of conflict on any given day. There were 24.5 war deaths on average per day before the experiment started.
The outcome
Scientists predicted that all of the variables above would improve simultaneously, if the group was big enough. The number of Transcendental Meditation practitioners in the city fluctuated quite a bit, as people went on vacation or took a break from their studies. The outcome however was just as impactful.
Whenever the group reached above the threshold number the intensity of the war would drop dramatically to 0 – 1, which was no reported fighting or very little, consistently over the two months.
War deaths also dropped by more than 90%, to 1.5 per day. When the number of Transcendental Meditation practitioners was below the threshold, the war intensity would jump to full scale land battles.
Taking the Israel and Jerusalem variables into account was also interesting. During the 2 months all 6 variables fluctuated in the same way. When the threshold number was reached, the overall quality of life in the country improved. Fires, crime and car accidents decreased and the stock market improved. When the number of Transcendental Meditation practitioners was below the threshold; fires, crime and car accidents would increase and the stock market would take a dive.
3. Liverpool Crime Group
A community of Transcendental Meditation practitioners assembled in Liverpool, which presented a unique opportunity to carry out a long-term study on the effects of Transcendental Meditation on the crime rate in the area.
The experiment
The experiment ran from 1978 to 1991. In March 1988, the group exceeded 1% of the Merseyside population.
The baseline
In 1987, before the group was established, Merseyside had the third highest crime rate of the eleven largest Metropolitan Areas in England and Wales.
The outcome
By 1992, the Liverpool area had the lowest crime rate in the eleven largest Metropolitan Areas in England and Wales. This unprecedented drop was 40% lower than predicted by previous behaviour in experiments.
During the same time period the national crime average increased by 45% and crime in metropolitan areas increased by 28.5 crimes per 1000 people.
4. Reduction of Car Accidents and Suicides
After the interesting results from studies like those above, scientists decided to see what else was being positively impacted by the introduction of Transcendental Meditation practitioners.
The experiment
The researchers set out to see if 1% of an area’s population practicing Transcendental Meditation would decrease every negative trend as a result of the rising level of collective consciousness. They decided to specifically focus on car accidents and suicide rates.
The baseline
The number of suicides and car accidents in each city, before the Transcendental Meditation practitioners arrived between 1967 and 1977, continuously rose.
The outcome
Once the number of Transcendental Meditation practitioners reached the 1% threshold there was a reversal in the trend in just those cities. There was a significant decrease in suicide rates and car accidents compared to the other cities.
This confirms that transcendental meditation increases the harmony in society.
5. Reduction of Crime
Another experiment was conducted to expand on the initial experiment, on the effects of 1% of the population practicing Transcendental Meditation on the crime rate.
The experiment
Larger populations were included in this experiment; those ranging from 10 000 to 25 000 and 25 000 to 50 000 population size. This increased the number of cities to 24, instead of the 11 from the original research.
The study also ran for a longer time-period, from 1972 to 1977.
The baseline
The control cities were chosen using the same categories as the first study. They had to have matching population, college population and geographical region. To ensure maximum objectivity, the control cities were chosen by an independent investigator at another university.
The outcome
In the 1% Transcendental Meditation cities the crime rate decreased by 89.3% over 5 years. The FBI’s statistics revealed that there were typically 4.3 crimes per 1 000 population, which decreased by almost 90% during the 1% period. This means that there was virtually no increase in crime during 1972 to 1977.
In the other cities, the crime rate grew by 53.9% during the same time-period.