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Meditating for peace in Iraq
by Donald Sosin

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19 February 2007

Published as a guest editorial in the Litchfield (Connecticut) County Times, February 9 2007

President Bush has asked for suggestions about dealing with the war in Iraq, so here's mine. Of the approximately 133,000 US troops in Iraq, take 1,500 (a little over 1%) of them and train them in the Transcendental Meditation program, and after two months, advanced yogic flying program. This would have a number of scientifically proven effects, based on results from similar experiments held in Washington, DC in 1993, and one currently in progress in Fairfield, Iowa, where there is a group of over 1700 yogic flyers silently creating harmony and positivity through their practice. The current program began in mid-July, when, if you remember, gas prices were over $3.00, the stock market was in a long slump, and the morale of the country was pretty low. At that point, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi announced a program called 'Invincible America' and asked for a large group of advanced meditators to gather at the university he founded in Iowa, and at a TM program facility in Bethesda, MD.

The results of this program have made the headlines across the country in recent weeks, with major positive reports in the Washington Post, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and the notoriously skeptical Philadelphia Inquirer, and a widely circulated story from the Associated Press. An upswing in the stock market, lower gas prices, the absence of what was predicted to be a worse hurricane season than 2005, and a turnaround in the direction of our government, are being attributed to the silent group of meditators, numbering about the square root of 1% of the US population. This number is significant because in physics, any system becomes more orderly, coherent and impermeable to destructive outside influence when that number of units are acting in a coherent manner, such as the behavior of a laser beam, or a magnetized iron bar.

Similarly, a group of people practicing the advanced yogic flying techniques taught by Maharishi, can have a far-reaching influence simply because their brain waves are measurably more coherent. The power of individual brain waves is magnified when a group is all together in one location.

According to the Associated Press story, John Hagelin Ph.D., the assembly's organizer, said that since the number of daily meditators in Maharishi Vedic City and Fairfield reached about 1,200 on July 23, the Dow Jones Industrial Index has hit record levels, the S&P reached a 5 1/2-year high, and the Nasdaq climbed to a five-year high.

Dr. Hagelin went on to say that once the 2,000 meditators are in place for the assembly called Invincible America, Hagelin predicts the Dow will surge toward 15,000, oil prices will fall below $45 a barrel, the U.S. crime rate will drop 20 percent and tensions in North Korea and Iran will be resolved peacefully. Violence in Iraq will also dramatically decline, Hagelin predicted.

I was in Bethesda for a few days each in August and September, and also in Fairfield the week of the election, as the numbers climbed toward 1,730, the desired number for our country (other countries with lower populations, like Holland, have already reached their required 'superradiance' number in recent months and are reporting great positive trends in society as a result). The atmosphere in both places was buoyant and delightful, and the numbers continue to increase each week, supplemented by a group of 1,000 young men from India who are coming here at Maharishi's request to help make America invincible. An independent 12 million dollar scientific study, privately funded, is supporting research on this whole project, and the statistics show that there is a one part in a billion chance that the positive trends in American society since July are due to any other reason than this simple approach.

In addition, the conflict between Israel and Lebanon that threatened both of those countries died down very quickly right after this program started, as the US became more involved in peacekeeping negotiations.

This was also predicted, and studies from past experiments as far back as 1978 confirm that these groups can have a very powerful effect on war and violence, even thousands of miles away.

Iraq's population is around 26 million, so to achieve a result similar to what has been accomplished here since July would only take 510 people. The number of our troops I am proposing be trained is three times that number, as a precaution. The cost would be a one-time expenditure of about 3.75 million dollars for the initial training, and twice that for the advanced program. The time commitment for each soldier is 20 minutes in the morning and evening, and they would benefit personally as a side effect, gaining measurably more rest than they can even in deep sleep, and relief from the stress they encounter in their difficult work (The Transcendental Meditation technique is by far the most efficient means of releasing stress that has been studied, and has been learned by 6 million people from every walk of life, every religion and culture around the world). So, considering that the daily cost of the war is about 200 million dollars, my proposal would be insignificant financially, and potentially of enormous benefit to the Iraq situation.

The expected results would be an immediate downturn in violence, more harmony among the different factions, fewer accidents, less sickness, and an increase in the economy of Iraq.

Since nothing else the administration has tried up to now has had any effect on reducing the violence in Iraq, and we are virtually bankrupting our country in the process (the cost of the war to Connecticut residents is over 8.5 billion dollars, in addition to the lives of 22 of our young people), I believe that it is well worth the money and the time to see whether implementing this admittedly novel approach has any effect. Instruction in the TM program is easy, simple, and only takes a couple of hours. The cost is negligible in comparison to what else we are doing.

More information about the assembly is available at http://www.demonstrationproject.org/, and general information about the Transcendental Meditation program at http://tm.org/.



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