[FairfieldLife] 'PR Pitch of the Day'

[Robert Gimbel]

  PR pitch of the day                                                           
                         And you thought the stock market was rising because of 
world growth and increasing corporate earnings. Not so, says Global Financial 
Capital of New York. The stock market is rising because: “Large group 
meditations in Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa, are creating coherent national 
consciousness—the basis of a healthy, prosperous, invincible nation.”  
If it's a joke, it's a very elaborate one. They've been sending me email press 
releases for years. And they have a Web site. Last summer 1,800 people in Iowa 
started projecting positive vibes, the press release says. Lo! Since then the 
stock market has gone up. Memo to statistics professors: If you need a case 
study showing the importance of distinguishing correlation from causation, this 
would be it. 
More from the press release:
 "Prior to the Invincible America Assembly, since January 1, 2000, the Dow 
decreased on average approximately 0.02% percent per week. However, immediately 
following the beginning of the Assembly on July 23, 2006, there was a 
statistically significant shift to a rapid, positive average rate of growth of 
0.50% per week. The probability of observing a change this large in the Dow’s 
rate of growth purely by chance is less than 0.014. 
"As predicted one year ago, a surging U.S. stock market has charged to 
record-breaking highs, the longstanding nuclear crisis with North Korea is 
quietly being resolved without incident, and public backing and congressional 
support are on the rise for peaceful new approaches to resolving the Iraq war 
and other conflicts around the world. 
"These dramatic and unexpected developments are just a few of the concrete 
signs of the success of the Invincible America Assembly in Iowa—the 
largest-ever scientific demonstration project to document the effects of large 
group meditations on the economic and social trends of the nation, according to 
Dr. John Hagelin, world-renowned quantum physicist, executive director of the 
International Center for Invincible Defense, and President of the Global Union 
of Scientists for Peace, who is leading the Assembly." 
                            
                                                                                
       
                         
                                                     Posted by Jay Hancock on 
July 24, 2007 10:32 A
       
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