"In 1960 Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the Transcendental Meditation program, predicted that a transition in society toward a more orderly and harmonious functioning would occur when a small fraction -on the order of one percent- of a population practiced the Transcendental Meditation technique (6), and in December 1974 we found that crime rate did decrease in four midwestern U.S. Cities in which one percent of the population was practicing the TM technique." -Scientific Research on the Transcendental Meditation Program
Collected Papers, Volume I, Group meditation . .increases the degree of Self-realization of each member of the group by the law of invisible vibratory exchange of group magnetism.. . Group meditation is a castle that protects the new spiritual aspirants as well as the veteran meditators. Meditating together increases the degree of Self-realization of each member of the group by the law of invisible vibratory exchange of group magnetism. —Paramahansa Yogananda Prophetically writing, Alice A. Bailey with some very technical and useful spiritual books (talk about jargon!) on mysticism published in the 1920 and 30's anticipates the rise of group spiritual affect coming now in the 21st Century. This writing was from before the height of Yoganada who had just arrived in the West at about that time and who then rose to cultural significance by mid-20th Century and then Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in sequence arriving in the West in the late 1950's. Both Yogananda and Maharishi taught spirituality also employing the spiritual importance of group practices of meditation. Maharishi then coming to declare a dawn of an age of enlightenment based on the scientific discovery that one percent of a general population meditating has a spiritual effect of well-being on the larger population. Remarkable. . Alice A. Bailey writing: “. . to be more practical and generally useful. It deals primarily with the training of the aspirant so that he can, in his turn, act as a conscious creator, and as he works serve the higher ends of Life which enfolds him. Thus he aids in the materializing of the plans of God (the Unified Field). The training of the aspirant, the indicating to him of possible trends and lines of evolution, and the definition of the underlying purpose is all that it is wise to impart at the present stage in which the average aspirant finds himself. . In the next century, when man's equipment is better developed and when a truer meaning of group activity is available, it will be possible to convey more information, but the time is not yet.” We come a long ways, baby! “In the next century, when man's equipment is better developed and when a truer meaning of group activity is available, it will be possible to convey more information, but the time is not yet.” -Alice A. Bailey Om
