Group Meditations linked to dramatic decrease in violent crime

A dramatic drop in crime in the USA last year -- with New York experiencing its safest year on record -- and a rise in "peacefulness" in the nation are among the findings associated with the Invincible America Assembly, now in its fifth year and the first-ever scientific project to document the long-term peace promoting effects of group practice of Transcendental Meditation.

A significant drop in violent crime nationwide, and improved US relations overseas were predicted in advance of the start of the Assembly, which was launched on 23 July 2006 at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa. These predictions have been borne out by FBI Uniform Crime Reports and by an independent analysis of US domestic and foreign policy trends. Rigorous statistical analysis shows that the upsurge of positive trends started on the month the Assembly began — July 2006 — when an initial group of 1200 experts assembled.

The Washington Post reported on May 25, 2010:

"The national violent crime rate had risen in 2005 and 2006 ... But crimes of violence began going down in 2007, falling 0.7 percent that year and then an additional 1.9 percent in 2008. The trend accelerated [in 2009] with a 5.5 percent reduction in overall violent crime ..."

Reuters highlighted the dramatic and unexpected reductions in crime rates in 2009:

 

"Year-end statistics from the largest US cities defy the predictions of many police commanders who braced for a crime wave they expected to be unleashed by the recession, rising home foreclosures and social despair. ... Last year turned out to be the safest on record in New York City, with the murder rate in the nation's biggest metropolis plunging to its lowest level since the city began gathering comparable data in the early 1960s. ... Los Angeles, the second-most populous U.S. city, posted its lowest crime rate in about 50 years ... Homicides alone in Los Angeles dropped by 18 percent."

At the same time, according to the "Global Peace Index" (GPI) of the Institute for Economics and Peace, the US experienced the biggest year-on-year improvement in peacefulness since 2007. (The GPI is composed of 23 qualitative and quantitative indicators, which combine internal and external factors ranging from military expenditure to relations with neighbouring countries.)

While the current project is the longest research study on this phenomenon to date, extensive research has previously found that positivity is created in collective consciousness when a small number of people practise Transcendental Meditation and its advanced techniques together in a group.

"We predict that America will rise to become a true powerhouse of peace when the number of group meditation experts in Iowa rises from its current average of 1850 to the desired level of 2500," said Dr John Hagelin, Executive Director, International Center for Invincible Defense.