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Jeanne Ball

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9/11: Have We Overlooked the Most Effective Way to Prevent Terrorism and War?

Posted: 09/11/11 03:04 PM ET

We were vulnerable and unprepared for September 11, 2001. Ten years later, we take off our shoes at airports and undergo full body scans. These measures might make some of us feel a little safer, and no doubt the demise of bin Laden was a huge relief, but authorities still caution of serious threats to national security.

What if there were a viable, scientific means to significantly reduce the possibility of terrorist attacks, but because the approach is new and different, the most technologically advanced countries have not taken notice?

Quantum physicist John Hagelin is a Harvard-trained scientist whose contributions to quantum field theory and cosmology comprise some of the most cited references in the physical sciences. He is one of the first scientists to apply the advanced knowledge of modern physics to social problems, such as terrorism.

"A universal principle in nature is that internally coherent systems possess the ability to repel disruptive external influences," says Dr. Hagelin. "While incoherent systems are easily penetrated by disorder from outside."

Dr. Hagelin cites physics' Meissner effect as an example of invincibility in nature: a superconducting metal, due to its internal coherence, repels any disruptive field.

Homeland Security tried -- and failed -- to create a defensive shield around the nation. Billions of dollars were spent constructing a "virtual fence" of sensors, cameras and radar around U.S. borders and to install high-tech radiation detectors at the nation's ports. These projects failed and were scrapped.

If we look to principles of quantum physics, explains Dr. Hagelin, an effective "virtual fence" against terrorism can indeed be created, if based on deeper scientific knowledge of the natural world.

Discovering The Unified Field

Dr. Hagelin: "Modern science has probed deeper levels of nature's functioning, from the macroscopic world of classical physics to the world of the atom, then to the underlying nucleus and the subnuclear. This exploration has culminated in the discovery of a single, unified field at the basis of all forms and phenomena in the universe."

While unified field theory is undergoing important refinements, the consensus among leading theorists is that the unified field exists -- nature is unified at its source.

Unified Field Theory not only revises our foundational understanding of nature, it spawns new technological possibilities.

"Because this unified field is vastly more powerful than any other level of nature's dynamics, a technology of defense based on the unified field will completely change the science and technology of defense."

Our ability to create a unified field-based "defense shield" does not depend on government or Lockheed Martin. We the people can do it ourselves -- though governments and organizations are welcome to participate.

Any human being can access the unified field, if one knows how.

Because this non-material field is the most fundamental level of everything, it is also the basis of human consciousness. We can each find the unified field deep within our own minds.

Using a mental technique that takes one's attention from the surface, active levels of thinking to the deepest, most transcendental field of consciousness, we can experience the unified field.

"Our minds profoundly mirror the hierarchical structure of nature," says Dr. Hagelin. "We can dive within to deeper levels of mind, accessing more powerful levels of thought and ultimately the unified field itself, the most powerful, limitless, universal level of our own consciousness."

The Transcendental Meditation technique is designed for this very purpose.

Creating The Field Effect For National Defense

Numerous scientific research studies on the TM technique show that during transcendence, the brain becomes highly coherent1, leading to improved mental performance2, reduced stress3 and more harmonious behavior outside of meditation4 -- along with a host of other benefits for mind and body5.

"The orderliness of brain functioning in the individual spills over into society," says Dr. Hagelin. "Since the unified field is an all-pervading field at the basis of consciousness and matter, when unity is enlivened in the individual, unity is enlivened everywhere. This is a field effect."

When a sufficient number of people are experiencing the unified field, especially together in large groups, the influence on society is significant: research studies on group practice of the TM technique and its advanced programs show a direct influence of decreased terrorism and war deaths when "peace-creating" groups are deployed in war torn regions. During the Lebanese war in 1983, on days when the numbers meditating together were largest, war deaths decreased by 76%. Increased group attendance also correlated strongly with reduced crime, traffic accidents, and fires, and with improved economic indicators in that region.6

That's one example -- this effect of creating social coherence has been successfully demonstrated over 50 times, documented by peer-reviewed research studies, scrutinized by independent scientists, and accepted for publication in mainstream academic journals.

This proven, ridiculously cost-effective way to avert terrorism can create a genuine protective shield around the nation -- while saving untold billions of dollars.

"If The People Lead, Our Leaders Will Follow."

In Fairfield, Iowa, a group of about 2000 meditators, called the "Invincible America Assembly," meets morning and evening in two semi-geodesic golden domes built for this purpose. Sociologists are monitoring the group's numbers and tracking social indicators such as national crime rate (which has been declining conspicuously since the group's inception).

Human beings, individually and collectively, can be coherent or incoherent. When our brains are stressed and functioning incoherently, our thinking is not as clear and our higher, executive functions can shut down. When society becomes more coherent, we are all better protected from disruptive influences.

We don't have to wait for the government to better secure our borders. According to the research, even a few thousand people practicing this "unified field-based" technology together are enough to create coherence for the whole country.

The UNESCO charter declares that wars begin in the human mind. That is also the place where war and terrorism can end.

VIDEO: John Hagelin: A New Approach To Averting Terrorism And War

1. Consciousness and Cognition, 8, 302-318, 1999; International Journal of Neuroscience 14: 147-151, 1981; Cognitive Processing, 11:1, 2010
2. Intelligence 29: 419-440, 2001; Personality and Individual Differences 12: 1105-1116, 1991
3. Journal of Clinical Psychology [45] 957-974, 1989
4. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 1, 10, 2003; Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 23, S100, 2001; Journal of Social behavior and Personality, 17, 65-91, 2005
5. American Psychologist [42] 879-81, 1989; Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 16(3):415-424, 1992
6. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 32(4), 776-812, 1988

 
 
 

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02:21 AM on 09/15/2011
Totally, and we can also levitate and walk through walls!

The science of "invincibility" is so simple! http://www.invincibledefense.org/fundamentals.html

Someday, Israel will be invincible! Uh, I mean peaceful. Or something. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhRiPjDdlDs
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Saijanai
Micro bio? We don't need no stinkin' micro bio...
10:01 PM on 09/18/2011
That talk between David Lynch and President Peres is a total hoot: You can see exactly what is going through his mind ("I am going to KILL whoever arranged this meeting..."). Mind you, to a certain extent, I agree with everything that David is saying, but still, talk about your captive and totally uninterested audiences...
07:25 PM on 09/14/2011
There is so much about this article I love but there are some elements I don't.

I believe we (all humans, animals, living creatures, objects, atoms, forces, energies) are united as one and that we all share the same centre. That centre is love and love is something we all, at our hearts, enjoy and move towards I don't exclude any manifestation from this and that includes terrorists, weapons, and anyone that is experiencing fear or hate. It may seem paradoxical. The perceptions of duality (eg good/bad) are illusory. A useful model for looking at it is to think of our human experience as movement along a mobius strip. There seems to be two sides when there is only one, and in whatever direction you move, if you keep following that direction you will always end up back at the centre.

The best we can do is to live our lives well, be kind and good and let limitless love channel through us, to accept and tolerate others as they are, to abandon fear and cultivate awareness and to wish peace and love for all, and especially those that feel the most fear and hate, including terrorists or those that would harm us. In response to threat we are safest if we are relaxed and loving and move slowly and gently, as you would with a wild or aggressive animal.

In full oneness there is no conflict.
01:14 AM on 09/15/2011
Yes, this is just what this article is all about, actually living and achieving Oneness. This particular article focuses on what happens when large groups achieve this together. But the basis is still individual peace and unity. The forest is only green when all of the trees are green. Thank you for mentioning the individual basis of the Maharishi Super Radiance Effect.
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englishman545
English Born, Brooklyn Raised
10:47 AM on 09/13/2011
Thanks or the article, but it requires Americans to think beyond their own selves, if it could be accomplished it would be a Miracle in itself.
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Saijanai
Micro bio? We don't need no stinkin' micro bio...
03:51 AM on 09/14/2011
Not a miracle at all...

http://invincibleamerica.org/tallies.html just requires a bit more to make it a full-time reality.
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englishman545
English Born, Brooklyn Raised
11:08 AM on 09/14/2011
When Americans consider themselves American Citizens first and not a member of some political party marching in lock step with the "Parties" agenda.
10:05 AM on 09/13/2011
this is so inspiring and awesome thanks for sharing!
09:57 PM on 09/12/2011
We are reminded on 911 that even the most powerful superpower in the world isn't safe from determined men with box cutters. The USA spends more money every year than all the rest of the world combined on war / defense and is the country any safer from terrorist ? Finally Jeanne Ball's article provides us with clear vision of a prevention oriented method to stop terrorism, inexpensively without vast expenditures of war for profit. Dr Hagelin lays out a systematic way of preventing war and all acts of violence before they start. By eliminating the underlying cause of violence and averting the danger that has not yet come. Thanks for publishing this amazing article.
09:08 PM on 09/12/2011
Very eloquent and most timely. The 'one stone unturned' as a previous leader promised.
06:33 PM on 09/12/2011
I read that a couple of large groups of TM experts have assembled somewhere in Latin America. Are they going to monitor the indicators that you mention, such as "reduced crime, traffic accidents, and fires, and improved economic indicators in the region"?
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Saijanai
Micro bio? We don't need no stinkin' micro bio...
03:52 AM on 09/14/2011
Dunno.

They may just do something like what is done in the USA and publish the daily figures and let anyone who wants, do the statistics:

http://invincibleamerica.org/tallies.html
05:56 PM on 09/12/2011
I find greater personal coherence with my TM meditation. Only since learning TM, my mind stays clear and my body relaxed when faced with stressors. And the TM studies show strong positive effects from group coherence. This is an approach worth supporting.
01:25 PM on 09/12/2011
Great article, great solution, great discussion. Well done, Jeanne!

To start, at the very least, we can support adding TM to the work table, where cool heads are needed for making important decisions. Who wouldn’t feel much more optimistic for the world if we knew our top world, national, and local leaders were calm, clear, and focused! A group meditation to start and end government work days: brilliant.

As always, it starts with us though. One by one, we can make a change in our environment by regularly practicing this simple technique in our own routine, adding coherence in our daily lives. Then we can support such ideas as are presented here in this article, lighting the light quietly and efficiently with our thoughts and actions.

Given the research already done on TM, it looks like this simple technique does what it says: it enlivens unity in individuals, and even more so in groups of individuals practicing it collectively (say, an army), radiating coherence into their environment. Disorder and chaos cannot remain in such an area for long: studies back this up.

We know that war is the inevitable result of intense unrelieved stress in an area — remove that stress, what remains is a much better quality of life for the locals, the nation, the world.
12:17 PM on 09/12/2011
I truly believe it's time to think and act out of the box in regards to creating peace - worldwide! TM both practiced individually and in a group is just that. Let's do it!
11:30 AM on 09/12/2011
Way to go, TM is the way go!
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Keith DeBoer
Meditation Teacher
10:41 AM on 09/12/2011
This idea deserves some serious attention. Right now our "peace keeping" efforts consist of 100's of billions of dollars spent on tanks and planes with our young people coming home in caskets and wheelchairs. History shows that violence only creates more violence. We need another option and strange as it seems, this principle also seems to work.
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HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Jeanne Ball
Teacher of meditation, David Lynch Foundation
12:23 PM on 09/12/2011
Surprisingly, most people get it that improving our internal orderliness and harmony as a nation will strengthen our defense against terrorism. They just don't know there is a quick and easy way to do it.
06:11 AM on 09/12/2011
I like the video --- where hagelin says: "there is more evidence that group meditation can create peace than there is evidence that aspirin reduces headache pain." actual scientific evidence based on research studies, he means....
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Jimmy Goodman
06:45 AM on 09/12/2011
In the video when he says, "one part in ten million million million", that's actually 10 to the exponent -19. The possibility that the research findings happened by chance is one in ten million million million. And people are still not "taking notice?"

It's like the climate change deniers....
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05:09 AM on 09/12/2011
Thank you for emphasizing the science behind this. As others below have said, this is so far ahead of its time. But at least it's being discussed (albeit marginally) on Huffington Post.

For more on the scientific research: http://www.tm.org/benefits-society-and-peace
02:14 AM on 09/12/2011
Seems after ten years of war and watching 100's of billions spent on trying to make the world a safer place, that another approach like this might be considered... even experimentally. It would coast so little in comparison to the present exhaustive approaches.
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HUFFPOST BLOGGER
Jeanne Ball
Teacher of meditation, David Lynch Foundation
06:30 AM on 09/12/2011
Yes, at present, the expense is very minimal for funding this project. Thanks to the generous donations of a few philanthropists the group has grown to almost 2,000. But, to expand the size of the peace keeping group, more funds are needed from those who can grasp this kind of technology and its evidence.