On the new Peace Government website, permanentpeace.org, I read the following:
"For three years, from 1988 to 1990, at a location just outside New Delhi, in India, a single philanthropist supported a group of 8,000 experts in the Transcendental Meditation technique and the advanced TM-Sidhi program, including Yogic Flying). Over those three years, every major conflict in the world peacefully resolved. First, a war of seven years between Iraq and Iran that had claimed millions of lives finally came to an end. Then, after five years, the Soviet Union's brutal invasion of Afghanistan was called to a halt. Most encouraging, in 1989 the Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union dissolved, and forty years of Cold War simply melted away." Was this a group of 8000 Sidhas (as opposed to a mixture of Sidhas and regular TM meditators)? And was the existence of this group widely known in the Movement? I read a mention of it a few years ago, I think in Enlightenment Magazine, but it doesn't seem to have been loudly trumpeted among the Movement. Perhaps because, the end of the Cold War notwithstanding, it doesn't seem that it produced much in the way of world peace. Wars ending, in itself, doesn't really provide evidence of increased world peace; all wars do come to an end eventually anyway. It's HOW the wars end. If a war stops because one side has been defeated or because of a mere cessation of fighting without a decrease in hostility between the countries, this can hardly be seen as evidence of increased world peace. And what about other factors that one would expect to show a change in a positive direction during the existence of a group of 8000? There's no mention of these. I looked at the US crime rate stats and there was no change in those years. Perhaps that's why the existence of this group has not been paraded by the TMO. I sure don't think anybody felt the collective consciousness of the world strongly and suddenly change back then.
