Maharishi Effect:
Papers and
Presentations

Citation

Experimental Design

Findings

The Maharishi Effect and Government: Effects of a national demonstration project and a permanent group of Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program practitioners on success, public approval, and coherence in the Clinton, Reagan, and Bush Presidencies.
Reference:Dissertation Abstracts International 58(6): 2385A, 1997.
Goodman, R.S. (1997).
(Also in Goodman, R.S., Orme-Johnson, D.W., Rainforth, M.V., Goodman, D.H. (in press). Transforming political institutions through individual and collective consciousness: The Maharishi Effect and government. Proceeding of the 1997 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C.)

Study 1: A Maharishi Effect intervention group called the National Demonstration Project (NDP) was created in the US capital. Predictions were lodged in advance with government leaders and newspapers. The research protocol was approved by an independent Project Review Board comprised of criminologists, sociologists, and political scientists from six independent universities as well as civic leaders and representatives from the police department. The first study used time series structural break analysis.

Study 2: ARIMA times series transfer function analyses was used to measure the effects of large groups practicing the TM and TM-Sidhi programs (the independent variable) on the Clinton, Reagan, and Bush administrations.

Study 1: Variables showed a significantly changed trend in the predicted direction toward greater positivity after NDP began, p values are one-tailed:

• Clinton's approval rating showed a net change increase (p=5.29 x 10^-8).

• Media positivity toward Clinton showed a net change increase (p=.01).

• Emergency psychiatric calls decreased (p=.009).

• Hospital trauma cases decreased (p=.02).

• Complaints against the police decreased (p=.01).

• Accidental deaths decreased (p=.05).

• Quality of life index improved (p=3.22 x 10^-5).

Study 2: All p values are one-tailed.

• Bi-weekly data showed statistically significant increase of approval rating and media positivity for Clinton (from p=.03 to p=.0005). Bush and Reagan (Reagan media positivity not available) monthly data showed similar results (p=.035 to p=4.09 x 10^-18).

• Analysis of U.S. interactions with other countries (net cooperation, WEIS data set) during Reagan administration showed significant influence of the TM-Sidhi group (p=4.82 x 10^-12).

• Increases in TM-Sidhi group associated with increases in net cooperation of the U.S. with other countries (p<.01 for significant lags of independent variables).

What does the Maharishi Technology of the Unified field mean for social work? A study in Australia.
Reference:Unpublished BSW honors thesis. University of Sydney, Australia. Gowing S. G. (1986).

Time series analysis was used to assess the impact of two above-threshold Maharishi Effect events on Australian trends in January 1983 (n=400) and on New South Wales trends for April 1984 (n=192).

• Traffic fatalities fell 13.9%, a reduction of 34 fatalities (p<.0005).

• Unemployment fell 8.3%, meaning work was found for 39,230 people (p<.0005).

• Stock value increased 1% per day of the impact period p<.025).

Influence of the Transcendental Meditation program on crime rate in suburban Cleveland.
Reference: Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programme: Collected Papers, (Vol. 2, pp. 1199–1204).
Hatchard, G. (1989).

40 suburban areas of Cleveland were studied for a relationship between crime and TM participation over the years 1972 through 1976. Crime decreases from 1973 to 1974, from 1974 to 1975, and 1975 to 1976, the years for which some areas exceeded 0.5% participation in the TM program, were significant at p<.001, p<.01, and p<.001 respectively.

• 4 of the 40 Cleveland suburban areas reaching 1% TM in 1974 .

• Crime dropped 8.1% in 1974 compared to 1973 in 1% suburbs, while increasing an average of 4.0% in the remaining suburbs (p<.001).

• Crime in 1% neighborhoods dropped an additional .7% from 1974 to 1975 while increasing an average of 5.7% in the remaining suburbs (p<.01).

The growth of coherence in society through the Maharishi effect: Reduced rates of suicides and auto accidents.
Reference: Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programme: Collected Papers, (Vol. 4, p. 2479–2486). Landrith III, G. S., & Dillbeck, M. C. (1989).

All US 1% cities with populations greater than 10,000 (n=21) were matched with control cities for geography, population, and college population but less than .07% practicing TM. The study controlled for eight demographic variables and compared rates for 1972 to 1977 to those of control cities and to rates for 1967 to 1971 for the same city. Multivariate t-test analysis of the data yielded a statistical significance of p<.005.

• Suicide rates fell 3.2% in 1% cities but rose 2.7% in control cities (p<.001).

• Traffic accidents fell 1.8% in 1% cities, but rose 5.2% in the controls (p<.001).

Reduction in homicide in Washington, D.C. through the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field, 1980–1983: A time series analysis.
Reference: Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programme: Collected Papers, (Vol. 4, pp. 2600–2608).
Lanford, A. G. (1989).

Time series analysis of weekly homicide data for the period August 1980 to November 1983 (n=173) in Washington, D.C. was investigated for a threshold of 400 TM-Sidhi experts, obtained 38 out of 76 weeks.

• Homicides fell by 0.9 per week, a 22% decrease, when threshold was exceeded (p<.02).

The effect of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field on stock prices of Washington, D.C. area based corporations, 1980–1983: A time series analysis.
Reference: Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programme: Collected Papers, (Vol. 4, pp. 2609–2615).
Lanford, A. G. (1989).

Time series analysis of weekly stock price data for Washington, D.C. corporations 1980–1983 (n=173) in Washington, D.C. was investigated for a threshold of 400 TM-Sidhi experts locally, obtained 38 out of 76 weeks, or for the MIU TM-Sidhi group.

• Stock prices for Washington D.C. corporations rose an average of $2.46 during weeks in which either the local TM-Sidhi group exceeded threshold, or the MIU group exceeded threshold (p<.01, and p<.0005, respectively).