Rick I have sent this 4 times today to FFL but it's not posting. Any
suggestions why? Could you post for me? thanks! Brian
Sal, My understanding from Ted Gurr's colleague John Davies is that he
stands by his quote but is not involved with TM or TM research and does not
want to comment further on it.
All of the quotes I listed were published in articles and websites reviewing
the Maharishi Effect research. The authors of these quotes are well known
and the quotes have been around for 10 years or more. If any were not
correct the authors have had plenty of time to challenge them or withdraw
them. None have, including Prof Gurr.
I compiled this list for a proposal to the Bermuda Police Commissioner when
I was living there. He was so impressed with the research he offered in-kind
support from the Bermuda Police for a demonstration of the Maharishi Effect.
We were given exclusive use of the Bermuda Police Recreation Club for 2
weeks. With Maharishi's approval we gathered 50 Sidhas in Bermuda in March
of 2000 for 2 weeks. And we had a 10 member Review Board of persons with
significant positions in the community. These included the President of the
Chamber of Commerce, The Vice President of the Senate, The Commissioner of
Prisons, The Director of the Natural History Museum, The President of the
Bermuda Employers Council and other well known persons. The Review Board
were asked to witness our prediction we would reduce violent crime by at
least 20% for the 2 weeks of the experiment, compared to a control period
which we specified in advance would be the weekly violent crime for the 4
weeks prior to the experiment.
The results we found were;
Violent Crimes % Change
Prior 4 weeks Average 9 -
Week 1 of experiment 7 -22.2%
Week 2 of experiment 6 -33.3%
Week 1 after 4 -55.6%
Week 2 after 10 +11.1%
Bermuda is very small place and these numbers are too small to be considered
statistically significant. So this study does not rank amongst the 40 or so
peer reviewed studies of the Maharishi Effect. But it was impressive enough
to our Review Board that they all provided comments supportive of doing
further experiments of the Maharishi Effect in Bermuda.
The participants in the course all reported that this was one of the most
fulfilling WPA's they'd ever participated in, and I still get comments to
this effect. I personally feel that when the super radiance number of a
country is reached for the first time it creates a huge wave of bliss in the
participants. It was certainly so in Bermuda in 2000.
Sal, I don't know why you feel to attack so strongly people with whom you
disagree. Can't we just respectfully disagree? As to the Maharishi Effect
- it's certainly a paradigm breaking concept while we may not understand how
it works - it's been shown to work many times and published in peer reviewed
journals.
Bermuda Creating Coherence Project (March 2000) Review Board Members'
Comments
Senator Walton Brown Jr., President, Research Innovations Limited: "In my
view the link between the onset of the project and the demonstrated decline
in criminal activity clearly merits greater attention, if only because this
is what was predicted. More importantly, if there is a genuine correlation
between the Creating Coherence Project and diminished criminal activity
-however this might be explained -there is a clear public policy dimension
involved here. In order to lend greater support to what is suggested by
these initial findings, I believe it is important to conduct more studies of
the same nature and over different time periods. In this way, one will be
able to determine whether or not a pattern exists, or if it is simply part
of the normal variance. With more information, and if this continues to
support the argument, you will have a compelling story to tell and quite
likely influence public policy on these and related issues."
Cris Valdes Dapena, President, Bermuda Chamber of Commerce: "The achievement
of attaining a hoped-for and predicted goal is considerable and appears to
earn the respect even of those versed in statistical sciences -despite the
fact that the inevitably small sample sizes undermine the possibility of
'statistical significance'. I suggest the local results be more widely
publicised within Bermuda, with the contextual element of other, larger
scale studies as a background. The fact that this work has had a measurable
effect in other locations would undoubtedly come as news to most people and
render the local results more credible in many minds. I am supportive of
the project and of its being repeated or, ideally, continued in some fashion
on an ongoing basis in the future."
Clare Hatcher, Barrister and Attorney, Francis & Forrest: ".it has been my
view since the preliminary results came out that, even though the study in
the 1980's also had positive results, a longer study would probably be
needed if wider support for the TM method in reducing crime levels is to be
garnered. There seem to be no real downsides to such further study or
studies save for the enormous amount of organisational work involved and the
cost and the advantages may well include (on the basis of past prediction
and experience here and elsewhere) the immeasurable community benefit of
reduced crime rates for the relevant period. I think the approach of the
BCCP is exciting and fitting for the new century. I think the energy and
enthusiasm that has been put into it is quite amazing and that the existence
of the possibility of channeling of that energy into any future projects
augurs well for the future of the project and for Bermuda as a whole."
Sen. Dr. Idwal W. Hughes, Vice President of the Senate: "My concerns over
the small sample size and the lack of replications still make me skeptical
of the claimed correlation. I share the views of Jamsheed Khan that
repeating the project in Bermuda over a longer period of time is the best
way to support the claim that group meditation can indeed bring about
statistically significant and reproducible reductions in violent crimes."
Jamsheed Khan, Statistician, Bank of Bermuda: "The low weekly counts of
crime statistics for the BCCP mean that standard statistical tests of
significance, such as the Student's "T"test will not be applicable in this
case. More sophisticated techniques using time series analysis are
generally not applicable when the data counts fall below 30. Repeating the
project in Bermuda over a longer period is the best way to lend support to
the theory that meditating groups can lower violent crime. The fact that
the results were what was expected, by itself, warrants further
study/investigation -it will be counter-intuitive to discard the results
because they could have been by chance."
Mr. Khan's comments are also endorsed by Edward Dyer, Commissioner of
Prisons, and Sheelagh Cooper, Chairperson, Coalition for the Protection of
Children, who also added: "I think the results generated elsewhere in larger
populations gives us sufficient reason to run the project again with or
without stunning results."
Ray Medeiros, President, Bermuda International Business Association: "I
believe that the review findings, although encouraging, cannot be conclusive
as they lack a sound enough statistical base as there was insufficient data.
With a further review and analysis perhaps these deficiencies can be
overcome."
Gerald Simons, President, Bermuda Employers Council: "The idea that a group
of people meditating might cause a reduction in violent crime is
fascinating, especially since the connection between meditation and crime is
not easily explained. While the number of instances of violent crime in the
2000 Bermuda experiment was too small to be statistically significant, since
the results were similar to what was predicted, they should not be
dismissed. Further research is needed."
Dr. Wolfgang Sterrer, Curator, Bermuda Natural History Museum: "While the
sample sizes of Bermuda's violent crimes per week are (and hopefully will
always be) too small to permit statistically significant interpretations per
se, the fact that the experiment's predictions came true cannot be disputed.
Your experiment must be seen in the context of more than 40 similar studies
of which nearly half have been reported in peer-reviewed journals, and most
of which have shown similar effects, which were frequently announced in
advance. Together, these experiments make a convincing case for a
beneficial effect of coherence-creating groups on the incidence of violent
crime. I suggest that the only way to make the Bermuda study significant is
to have several more repeats, in whatever form is most appropriate. I hope
you will be able to drum up the community support necessary for the
continuation of the project."
