--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <jstein@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, turquoiseb <no_reply@> wrote: > > > > Being a big fan of the book "When Prophecy Fails,"
<snip> > > This should be a familiar pattern to everyone who has > > followed the ever-changing "magic numbers" necessary for > > TMSP butt-bouncers to bring about world peace. First it > > was one set of numbers, and they were achieved and damn! > > -- no world peace. > > Actually, I don't believe the specified numbers were > ever achieved on the sustained basis necessary to usher > in world peace. The "Taste of Utopia" course in '83, for > example, which did hit the prescribed numbers, lasted > only three weeks. > > > The solution was obvious. Not enough butt-bouncers, so the > > "magic number" was raised. And achieved. > > Not achieved, actually. > > > And still nothing happened, world-peace-wise. > > Actually, quite a few very interesting things happened > world-peace-wise back when the numbers were high--the > fall of the Berlin Wall, for example. Could have been > just coincidence, of course, but a number of promising > events took place around the world during this period > that took analysts by surprise and for which they had > trouble finding an explanation. > > The interesting thing is how hard non-TMers have worked > to attempt to debunk the various studies that have been > done on the positive effects of the big World Peace > Assemblies. One might almost wonder if *they* were the > ones wrestling with cognitive dissonance. The Maharishi effect theory certainly would give an experience of cognitive dissonance to the typical scientists working in fields related to this 'effect' because it does not fit into the current understandings. Research on meditation (not just TM), research on alternative medicine is generally regarded as being poorly designed so the studies are weak. The few better quality studies show fewer positive effects or no positive effects beyond the placebo in these areas. Scientific studies in the TM movement are aimed at advertising, not truth, though this does not mean a study is deliberately falsified to get a good result. There are many ways a researcher can be seduced into massaging his data to get some kind of result, and this may not be conscious manipulation. Incompetent studies are a plague in research areas where metaphysical ideas dominate. I read somewhere (sorry, reference is forgotten) that one researcher asked Orme-Johnson for his raw data on one of his Maharishi effect studies. Orme-Johnson refused him. And I once overheard Orme-Johnson a few years ago refer to this (he was sitting a few seats away down the table at lunch), saying regarding the data, "You know what they would do with it." Thus the free flow of information typical of scientific discourse was certainly not happening here. And, indeed, criticism of these studies is a normal part of the scientific process. Many feel they have found serious defects in these studies as they have been published, and have come up with alternative explanations. But if the raw data is kept hidden, it will not be possible to resolve these conflicts related to a specific study one way or another. Because the Maharishi effect theory is so far out of current scientific thinking, a series of really large, well-designed studies, preferably by non-meditators would probably be necessary to break the ice, with all the data freely available. If the experiments were successful and positive this would still not explain to the rank-and-file scientists how it worked because the explanation of the 'unified field' would go way beyond current science, which has yet to verify standard quantum mechanics, but it would demonstrate the effect to the degree that other researchers would likely finally think there was some reality to the idea, and take the time to study it. A few interesting positive events happening during the '83 course probably could not be shown to be causally related, and just the same for the great increase in murders during the Washington course some years later. So scientifically, the matter is undecided, but so far only movement scientists think the effect is real, and have thus failed to convince their peers.
