Transcendental meditation may reduce stress: study

By Pol Allingham via SWNS

When a portion of the population practices transcendental meditation a whole nation’s stress levels go down, according to a 17-year-long study.

In Iowa, a 1,725-person group - the square root of one percent of the American population - practiced Transcendental Meditation for four years - and during the period, all stress indicators in the U.S. started decreasing.

Study leaders claimed during that period, drug-related deaths fell on average by 14 percent, meaning there were 79,941 fewer drug deaths.

Murder, rape, assault, robbery, infant mortality, vehicle fatalities and children deaths by injuries also fell when the group meditated – each was termed a stress-related tragedy.

When the numbers meditating fell, the nation’s stress indicators began to return to previous levels.

The authors are now calling for a permanent Transcendental Meditation group to be set up for the whole world, with 8,000 participants in one place.

As an additional buffer, they would also like to install a group in each continent.

The form of meditation first gained international recognition when the Beatles traveled to India in 1968 to learn its secrets from its creator Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Transcendental Meditation (TA) involves going beyond active cognitive processes to access the “silent mind," focusing the mind on one thought, and training the mind to not react emotionally to traumatic memories.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi believed when enough people practice Transcendental Meditation it impacts and improves the collective consciousness, which is the “consciousness of society as a whole.”

He claimed crime rates fall, people are less sick, and people begin thinking in ways that favor society.

He claimed reaching the one percent mark induced a phase transition to increase social order, just like the period when a substance changes from a solid, liquid or gas state to a different state.

To test his theories, in 2000 a group from Maharishi International University (MIU) - founded by the leader - began meditating.

They gradually increased their numbers until in 2006 they reached 1,725 - the square root of one percent of the population.

Between 2007 and 2011 the meditating numbers stayed the same and all stress indicators in the US immediately started decreasing.

The researchers noted the signs of national stress only began decreasing once the square root of one percent of the US population was reached and concluded this was evidence of a phase transition in action.

Once the group numbers fell beneath this threshold in 2011, the national stress continued to increase until the study finished in 2016.

The Howard and Alice Settle Foundation reportedly provided a 75 million dollar grant to provide stipends to group members, allowing hundreds of Transcendental Meditation experts to fly over from India and boost the strength of the group.

Lead author Dr. David Orme-Johnson said: “What is unique about this study is that the results are so visually striking and on such a large scale.

“We see reduced stress on multiple indicators at the predicted time for the entire United States over a five-year period.

“And when the size of the group declined, national stress began increasing again. Clearly, the group was causing the effect.

“This is a lot of money, but the savings from the 10% reduction in crimes would save over 200 billion dollars, not to mention all the other savings from reducing other sources of stress in the country.”

Co-author Dr. Kenneth Cavanaugh claimed no factors other than the meditation group could account for the results.

He said: “This study used state-of-the-art methods of time series regression analysis for eliminating potential alternative explanations due to intrinsic pre-existing trends and fluctuations in the data.

“We carefully studied potential alternative explanations in terms of changes in economic conditions, political leadership, population demographics, and policing strategies.

"None of these factors could account for the results.”

The findings were published in the World Journal of Social Science.