As the nation experiences fear and uncertainty about its economic future, a quiet, unexpected phenomenon is spreading across the country. According to FBI reports, violent crime has fallen for three straight years, with the murder rate now the lowest in four decades. These statistics defy predictions; police authorities had braced for a crime wave, expected to be unleashed by the recession, rising home foreclosures and social despair.
Federal law enforcement officials neither anticipated the sustained drop in violent crime nor have they been able to explain it. The Washington Post states, "Criminologists describe the trend as baffling."
Historically, economic recession and crime go together, yet we seem to be handling it better than in the past. Is there a shift occurring in collective consciousness, toward greater harmony, calmness and resilience?
Crime and violence are an expression of national levels of stress. More and more people are finding ways to manage stress and chill out rather than allowing it to escalate in their lives. Reports of increasing numbers of Americans turning to yoga, meditation and natural health spas during the recession reflect this growing trend.
Though charitable donations are down, people are still choosing to give and are volunteering time and talents to make a difference in their neighborhood, community and world. Volunteerism is up -- showing the biggest increase in a single year since 2003. Many more people are pulling together rather than away from each other, weathering the recession through cooperation, creative thinking and giving.
Why the unexpected positive trends during such punishing times?
One possible explanation, if true, may be more surprising than the shift itself. It comes to us from a quiet, yet progressive little town in America's heartland. Every morning and evening in Fairfield, Iowa -- seven days a week -- 2,000 volunteers from 50 countries and all races and religions come together to practice group Transcendental Meditation. Their endeavor, called the "Invincible America Assembly," is based on the ancient tradition of maintaining large group meditations to neutralize negative societal trends. "In the vicinity of unified awareness, hostile tendencies disappear," say the Yoga Sutras, compiled some 2,000 years ago by the venerated sage Patanjali.
Since the start of the Assembly, scientists have monitored crime rate and other social indicators, tracking possible correlations between the number of meditators and societal trends. Some people see the rising positive trends, such as the inexplicable drop in violent crime, as evidence that the group meditations are working.
Is the power of coherent, unified consciousness greater than we realize?
Some interpret findings in quantum physics to suggest that all the fundamental components of the natural world -- all the forces and subatomic particles -- are in fact nonmaterial waves traversing nonmaterial fields. Could meditation be a way to access an underlying, nonmaterial field of consciousness to create an influence of harmony and orderliness throughout society?
Whatever the reason for rising positive trends amidst this economic downturn, it's something to be thankful for. As our government struggles with political gridlock and economic reform, people in one Midwest town are volunteering their precious time to offer a silent gift of peace for the nation.
Gifts given in silence are sometimes the most powerful.
Follow Jeanne Ball on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jeanneball
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Meditation: Take a stress-reduction break wherever you are ...
“I have been following the research on peace-creating groups as it has developed over the last twenty years. There is now a strong and consistent body of evidence showing that this innovative approach provides a simple and cost-effective solution to many of the social problems we face today. In my view, this research is so strong that it demands action from those responsibl e for government policy.”
Huw Dixon, Ph.D Professor of Economics, York University , England
“I think this research evidence on a new approach to peace, and the theory that informs it, deserve the most serious consideration by academics, policy makers and concerned citizens alike.”
David Edwards, PhD Professor of Government University of Texas (Austin)
“In the studies that I have examined, I can find no methodological flaws, and the findings have been consistent across a large number of replications. As unlikely as the premise may sound, I think we have to take these studies seriously. ”
Ted Robert Gurr, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Government and Politics University of Maryland
For those who know what they are, the Princeton "eggs" are a lot more active than they used to be. I am not sure if they have just changed the way they are measured, but the "green dot" is hardly ever green any more.
5. You quote the Yoga Sutras as follows; "In the vicinity of unified awareness, hostile tendencies disappear."
I believe you're referring to sutra 2:35:
ahiṁsā pratiṣṭhāyāṁ tat saṁnidhau vaira tyāgaḥ.
Translator Dennis Hill renders this: "When one is established in harmlessness (ahimsa), those near are at peace."
This sutra is referring to the yamas (dos) and niyamas (don'ts) of yoga as forming a behavioral basis for spiritual progress. Ahimsa is one of the behaviors for the yogi to uphold. Hill's commentary says: "The virtue of ahimsa is not attained through practice of non-violence. This observance is born in meditation. When one becomes established in undisturbed inner peace then harmlessness is practiced effortlessly in the world. Not only is the yogi undisturbed by provocation but the state itself is a calming force that shines in one’s company." http://hrih.net/patanjali/archive/ysp-eng-by-Dennis_Hill.pdf
Using 2:35 as a scriptural basis for the Invincible Assembly effectively lowering crime for the entire country seems like it might be a stretch.
DId the Invincible meditators take a break for several years starting on March 20, 2003? That day the US started a war that in the next 7 years killed between 100,000 and 1,000,000 people in another country and 4,000 of our citizens. (Not to mention the tens of thousands being killed in the other war we propagated at the same time....)
This is a bizarre sort of meditation that reduces crime and violence that we do to ourselves at home but has no effect or even the opposite effect on the violence and killing that we do to those in other countries.
All behavior is based in consciousness, correct? If you're going to claim that group TM meditation has an overall effect on consciousness and behavior of our society, then surely that effect must extend also to our behavior towards other countries; this includes war. Now may be a good time to take your head out of the sand.
A meditation effect that reduces crime slightly (not agreeing to this, but for the sake of discussion) while massivelyincreasing--or at least not preventing--killing that we do in war is not a good one. Maybe we should stop this dangerous meditation if it helps us at home but allows or promotes massive killing from war(s)?
Crime rate rises with population growth and concentration of populations within large urban areas. according to sociologists, and that's why crime rate had been increasing steadily. It's also recognized that crime increases during periods of high sociological stress -- such as bad economic times, intense heat, political unrest, etc.
There are many translations of the Yoga Sutras, and I wouldn't acknowledge the translation you cited as the ultimate authority or most universally recognized translation. Every Sanskrit scholar and every true yogi knows that samadhi is the ultimate state of ahimsa or non-violence. Without the state of Yoga, ahimsa has little meaning and is just a philosophical concept or moral code. Patanjali meant it as a living reality based on stabilized pure consciousness (yoga), not as an intellectual ideal to try and follow.
First, there is no evidence that TM creates samadhi or "perfect harmony"...you believing it and MMY saying it doesn't make it so. Yes, it can result in increased alpha waves...but so do many other practices.
Anyhoo, there is no scientifically known mechanism for TM increasing crime just as there is no scientificallyknown mechanism for TM decreasing crime (Hagelin's and MMY's unified field concepts notwithstanding.)
The point is this: you can't cherrypick the data.
If TM is affecting the entire "field" of consciousness in the US (and TM people mediating in the US are somehow affecting people only located in the US), then you have look at ALL the results happening in the US.
In the last few years,
- Foreclosures, joblessness, bankruptcies and poverty are up
- Crime is down
You can't just cherrypick one result from consciousness such as crime out of all the results and claim that result for TM.
If TM is affecting "the field of consciousness" its affecting it as a whole. You have to take the good with the bad.
Is this a type of meditation that reduces crime and also reduces jobs?
Both ideas are equally silly.
Here's Maharishi's comment on this:
"Without Being [the direct experience of transcendence], confusion of cause and effect invaded every field of understanding. It captured even the most practical field of the philosophy of Yoga. Karma Yoga ( attainment of Union by way of action) began to be understood as based on karma ( action), whereas its basis is Yoga, Union, transcendental consciousness. The founder of the Yoga philosophy, Patanjali, was himself misinterpreted and the order of stages on his eightfold path reversed. the practice of Yoga was understood to start with yama, niyama, and so on ( the secular virtues), whereas in reality it should begin with samadhi. Samadhi cannot be gained by the practece of yama, niyama, and so on. Proficiency in the virtues can only be gained by repeated experiences of samadhi. It was because the effect was mistaken for the cause that this great philosophy of life became distorted and the path to samadhi was blocked."
Um yeah, maybe, but then again maybe not…
I wonder if there any more credible hypotheses as to why crime's declining…?
1. Social scientists have one: increased abortion may have something to do with it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Impact_of_Legalized_Abortion_on_Crime
2. Another credible hypothesis is reduced lead exposure. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States).
3. Or it could be more that more proactive policing methods in larger cities have led to lower crime: http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/iotw/20050228/200/1335
All of these seem more likely than it being due to people meditating in Fairfield, Iowa, especially since:
A. Crime has been going down since 1993.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States)
B. The Invincible meditator’s group has only consistently numbered more
than the putative needed level of 1750 meditators starting in 2008!
(http://istpp.org/news/2008_09_ia_assembly.html)
Large group meditations in Iowa have been going on since the early 1980s, growing larger or holding steady. By the early 1990s the group size started to increase again -- which is when the crime rate began to fall.
I can't wait to meditate in a group this size - it will be out of this world in terms of spiritual experience!
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