Transcendental Meditation: The solution to terrorism?

by Daniel Ben-Tal

A small number of meditators can stop terrorism in the Middle East, a leading US scientist told a Tel Aviv news conference yesterday.

"We have an important message for the people of the Middle East," said Dr.

John Hagelin, a quantum physicist and author, and recipient of the prestigious Kilby Award for scientific research.

"If the square root of 1 percent of the population regularly practice Transcendental Meditation (TM) techniques in a group, the wave effect of calm will eventually halt terrorism," he claimed.

Speaking by telephone from Fairfield, Iowa, where he heads the Maharishi University of Management, Hagelin pointed to what he calls the root cause of the Middle East conflict. "The Palestinians are violent and vengeful, while Israelis are stressed and angry. This core negativity is driving social conflict. The circumstances are ripe for escalating violence. Negotiated settlements and peace treaties are barely worth the paper they're written on," he told Israeli journalists. "They cannot hold as long as people's hearts are filled with enmity."

Hagelin, a former director of the Washington-based think-tank, the Institute of Science, Technology, and Public Policy, has been lobbying the US Congress, and was presidential candidate for the Natural Law Party that drew some 500,000 votes in the 1996 elections.

"This practical approach, known as Invincible Defense Technology, applies cutting-edge discoveries in quantum mechanics, neuroscience, and human consciousness to diffuse stress, effectively disarming aggressors," he said. "It targets the root cause of violence--acute stress resulting from religious and ethnic tensions."

"Just as anger can spread though a population, so can calm. Humanity is connected at the deepest level of human interaction--an abstract, quiet communication--so that collective consciousness can be influenced in a tangible and measurable way."

"There is a proven correlation between meditation and reduced social stress," he claimed, pointing to 19 published research studies. "In recent years, even the US military has started using TM techniques for treating post-trauma stress."

According to Hagelin, there has been a noticeable reduction in Indian-Pakistani tensions since some 9,000 meditators began gathering on the banks of the Ganges in India over the past three-four weeks. This action is being organized by the Maharishi Yogi--leader of the worldwide TM movement--now in his nineties and based in Holland. . . .

Copyright 2002 The Jerusalem Post