Occupy Consciousness: Healing the collective mind
by Jeanne Ball

The Huffington Post    Translate This Article
27 November 2011

On 27 November 2011 The Huffington Post reported: Reflecting on the 'Occupy' movement's widespread protests that have swept the US in recent months, writer Jeanne Ball comments, 'In support of social change, there's another powerful approach, one that's complementary to all viewpoints -- an approach essential to social evolution, yet so quiet it's easily drowned out amid the general media's focus on the obvious and sensational. That approach: meditation.' It is a joy for Global Good News service to feature this news, which indicates the success of the life-supporting programmes Maharishi has designed to bring fulfilment to the field of world peace.

Her article in The Huffington Post explores the theme 'Change Begins Within'—promoted by the David Lynch Foundation in its initiatives to help high-risk groups, including combat veterans and inner-city schoolchildren, overcome the effects of traumatic stress through Transcendental Meditation.

'Why this initiative to teach people a meditation technique—why not food, shelter, clothing, or job training, as other altruistic organizations provide?' she asks. Because 'our world is as we are . . . whatever good can be accomplished in society depends on the quality of heart and mind of those creating the change—individually and collectively.'

She highlights the crucial importance of 'effective meditation' as 'the most powerful stress buster'¹—especially since, as she puts it, 'the total stress of all individuals coalesces to become collective stress—affecting the overall quality of life in society.'

Meditating for social change
Ms Ball writes: 'Imagine: countless numbers of people across the country, in their homes or together in meditation halls, sitting, closing their eyes and transcending, experiencing a level of consciousness where we're all interconnected. What if, by silently stirring this underlying, unified field, an influence of orderliness and cooperation could be created throughout collective consciousness—dissolving social tensions and relieving government gridlock, stimulating economic confidence and supporting positive change?'

She notes the existence of 'large, permanent ''coherence-creating'' groups' practising Transcendental Meditation in the US and other countries, and references two of her previous Huffington Post articles discussing the 'field effect' of social coherence and harmony produced by such groups, documented by scientific research published in peer-reviewed journals²:
∙ 'Did Group Meditation Cause The Plummeting Crime Rate?'
∙ 'Are We All Interconnected By An Underlying Field?'

On the individual level, Ms Ball comments that effective meditation 'allows us to tap into our inner reserves of creativity, clarity and orderliness of mind . . . . we can develop and fully occupy our own consciousness—infusing possibilities that our minds have never seen—and thereby gain the wherewithal to accomplish the big, positive changes needed in the outer world.'

She closes with an extended quotation from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi about how 'this deep source of creativity within us . . . . from which all change arises, the interior reservoir of creative energy, gives to those who have learned to systematically draw upon it a quiet and justified confidence born of inner silence and strength.'

Click here to read the full article in The Huffington Post.

References:
1. American Journal of Health Promotion 12:297-299, 1998
2. Crime and Justice, IV, 26-45,1981; Journal of Mind and Behavior, 9, 457-486, 1989; Journal of Conflict Resolution, 34(4), 756-768, 1990; Social Indicators Research, 47: 153-201, 1999

© Copyright 2011 TheHuffingtonPost.com

Every day Global Good News documents the rise of a better quality of life dawning in the world and highlights the need for introducing Natural Law based—Total Knowledge based—programmes to bring the support of Nature to every individual, raise the quality of life of every society, and create a lasting state of world peace.

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