New Narratives · Monitor 08
The Super Radiance EffectCoherence at scale, observed.
In 1960 Maharishi Mahesh Yogi predicted that one percent of a population practicing TM (transcendental meditation) technique would produce measurable improvements in the quality of life for the whole population — a kind of social super-radiance.
The premise
TM is a technique of consciousness, and scientists are now seeing consciousness as a field similar to other fields known in physics (electromagnetism, gravity). When enough people enter coherent consciousness states simultaneously, they produce measurable effects on the surrounding population.
This phenomenon was first documented in scientific research in 1976: when 1% of a community practiced TM, the community's crime rate decreased by 16% on average.
The thresholds
The square-root threshold is the lower bar — coherence detectable at smaller numbers when the meditators are practicing the more advanced TM-Sidhi program.
Tipping point for phase transition
A phase transition is when a system moves from one state to another. Water moving from liquid to gas at 100°C is the most familiar example.
The super-radiance phase transition kicks in immediately at the square-root of 1% for any population. The coherence process, once started, is fast: people who have experienced it say it feels like the turning on of a light switch.
Research history
According to Robert Oates in The Maharishi Effect: the first experimental evidence for this phenomenon arose in 1974. In this study, scientists observed 11 cities in the United States with populations over 50,000 in which 1% of the population was practicing transcendental meditation. They then looked at one major index of life in those cities — the crime rate — and compared it to the crime rate of 11 other cities matched by population and geographic location. From 1967 to 1972 the crime rate was increasing in all the cities. After 1972, in the cities with over 1% transcendental meditation participation, crime decreased by an average of 8.2%. In the matched cities, crime continued to rise.
Since then, many studies have been done — including an ambitious study where the global minimum of Extended Maharishi Effect was assembled at Maharishi University.
Recent peace projects
- 2007–2010 TM-Sidhi StudyWhen the size of a group of advanced TM-Sidhi program participants exceeded the threshold predicted to reduce negative trends (∼1%), there was a significant shift in the US national homicide rate and urban violent crime.
- Rhode Island StudyConducted with 300 TM meditators in 1978, with a long-term effect that lasted for years afterwards.
- Lebanon Peace ProjectReduced war deaths by 76% during the period of the coherence assembly.
Magnetism theory · why it works
Many scientists believe that when we meditate, coherence happens and a field much like electromagnetic radiation, laser, halo or light is produced. Mass coherent meditation may produce a similar effect at the field of human consciousness.
Laser analogy: normal light is emitted in direct proportion to the number of atoms in the light source. When the atoms in a laser are in perfect coherence with each other — emitting in the same phase — the intensity scales as the square of the number of atoms. The same may be true of meditators in coherent group meditation.