Send Patrick to the Peace Course

I’m in this photo somewhere. Four years earlier, I helped build this geodesic dome. It houses large group meditations to cultivate a more peaceful world. Scientists have validated the impact; the World Journal of Social Science published most recent study last year.

Measurable impact requires a critical mass of meditators. But it’s hard to assemble and sustain such groups. So organizers hold and measure the results of short-term demonstration projects.

It’s time to do it again. I have most of the money needed to attend. You can get me over the top.

This might seem far out, but science

Our world is; well, <wave hands>. And good-hearted people are stepping up in the ways good-hearted people do, with donations, activism, prayers and emotional support.

But the mental techniques practiced in this dome (and another like it) have been documented to reduce bad things, making room for good things.

In fact, the first peace project was held in the Middle East, which is the ultimate testing ground for peace creation.

These ancient mental techniques foster peace two ways: They rouse more life-supporting thoughts and actions in the larger population, which in turn supports the active efforts of all the people working to for peace, health, and happiness.

Because I’ve been trained in these mental techniques, I want to participate. It would not be right to miss this opportunity to demonstrate once again—I mean, it’s only been demonstrated 56 times!—that our fellow human beings don’t have to suffer as they are suffering.

So 2024 is starting with a big meditation assembly for peace. Thousands of us—maybe 2,000 in Iowa and for sure 10,000 in India—are gathering to practice the TM-Sidhi program together.

(If all this is new to you, “TM" stands for Transcendental Meditation; “Sidhi” is a Sanskrit word for “perfection.” They’re teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who first gained fame by teaching the Beatles TM in 1967.)

The chart tells the story

The chart below comes from that new paper I mentioned above. The authors write:

We have presented the results of a 17-year demonstration study. It found that during the years in which a coherence creating group in Iowa reached or exceeded the size predicted to create coherence for the entire United States, there were immediate and simultaneous reductions in multiple national statistics of stress, indicating less overall crime, accidents, and health problems.…In this field-theoretic model of society, thinking and behavior are interconnected and guided by an underlying field of collective consciousness (emphasis added).

What is collective consciousness?

(If you’re tired of reading, this five-minute video shows what I’m talking about.)

We are all conscious. The concept of “collective consciousness” posits that we all share an underlying transcendent field of experience. Many philosophies have posited this reality.

When people do the TM-Sidhi program together, they tap that transcendent field. Becoming aware of that field enlivens it. It “wakes up,” as it were. As a result, the life-supporting intelligence of that underlying field influences the thinking and behavior of everyone, not just the meditators waking it up.

I think of collective consciousness as being like groundwater. If some people somehow draw the water closer to the surface of the earth, it’s easy for everyone else to get a drink.

What’s in it for us?

That experience of inner stillness correlates with many, many benefits, from improved cardiovascular health and self-actualization. Life moves more in flow, as the expression goes.

And as it turns out, meditation’s benefits are not limited to the individual meditator. When a critical mass of meditators become aware of their non-changing selves and cultivate flow, our societies operate more in flow, also.

Hence the colored lines on that chart.

Here’s what I’m asking of you

For me to attend this winter’s North American 2000 Course for World Peace, I need another US $677. If we go over that amount, I’ll find other people who need sponsorship and donate to their fundraising.

What do you say?

If you want to talk about any of this, please let me know.

P.S. Want to read the latest research study?

Check out Field-Effects of Consciousness: A Seventeen-Year Study of the Effects of Group Practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Programs on Reducing National Stress in the United States.

I have yet to read the whole thing, so if you do read it, let me know!