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US violent crime continues its 5-year steep decline, baffling authorities - but not the Transcendental Meditators in Iowa

Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy Translate This Article
20 September 2011

Violent crime plunges 12 percent in US in 2010
September 17, 2011
Associated Press

''The number of violent crimes fell by a surprising 12 percent in the United States last year, a far bigger drop than the nation has been averaging since 2001, the Justice Department said. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported there were 3.8 million violent crimes last year, down from 4.3 million in 2009.
Experts aren't sure why. The expectation had been that crime would increase in a weak economy with high unemployment like that seen in 2010.''

PRESS RELEASE
Breaking news that violent crime in America continues its rapid and baffling steep decline has confirmed, yet again, predictions lodged by scientists six years ago: that large group meditations at Maharishi University of Management in Iowa would have a positive and measurable national impact in defusing the underlying acute societal stress that fuels crime and violence.

This announcement comes from Dr John Hagelin, internationally renowned quantum physicist, president of the Global Union of Scientists for Peace, and director of the ''Invincible America Assembly'' in Fairfield, Iowa, where over 1,700 experts from 60 countries have gathered to practice advanced Transcendental Meditation techniques together to promote ''coherence in national consciousness.''

''As we predicted before the launch of the Invincible America Assembly on July 23, 2006, there has been a dramatic and sustained decrease in violent crime in the United States since the Assembly began,'' Dr. Hagelin said.

Forty years ago, most scientists would have been skeptical that meditation could reduce stress for the individual, let alone for society, Dr. Hagelin acknowledged. Today, however, the Transcendental Meditation program is widely recognized by medical science as a highly effective, scientifically proven approach to overcoming stress and stress-related disorders, such as hypertension, stroke, and heart disease.

In addition, extensive research, including 50 scientific replications and 23 studies published in peer-reviewed journals, has demonstrated that group practice of advanced Transcendental Meditation techniques is an effective, and highly cost-effective, approach for reducing societal stress and associated violent crime and social conflict.

''It is both surprising and fortunate that even a relatively small proportion of a population practicing these powerful, stress-reducing meditation techniques in a group produces a disproportionate—and demonstrable—reduction in societal stress and in associated crime and social violence. The meditating group produces an extensively documented 'spillover' effect of orderliness and calm in the surrounding society,'' Dr. Hagelin said.

Dr. Hagelin predicted that violent crime in the nation would continue to fall as the number of advanced TM experts in the Invincible America Assembly increases from the current 1,700 to the next target of 2,500.

For information and to interview Dr. Hagelin, please contact Ken Chawkin at +1 641-470-1314, kchawkin@mum.edu.

Maharishi University of Management ∙ Fairfield, Iowa 52557 ∙ ISTPP.org ∙ +1 641-470-1314

© Copyright 2011 Maharishi University of Management

Global Good News comment:

For the good news about Maharishi's seven-point programme to create a healthy, happy, prosperous society, and a peaceful world, please visit: Global Financial Capital of New York.

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