War ready: First-year recruits at Norwich University, the military college in Vermont, United States, train in transcendental meditation. The goal of the training is to provide coping tools before going into combat and to prevent post-traumatic stress disorder. (Kayana Szymczak/The Boston Globe/Getty Images)
PEACE-BUILDING
We are living in times where people throughout the world are divided. And yet, regardless of political persuasion, there are certain points of agreement: corruption in many governments has reached unprecedented levels; ethics and integrity have given way to deal-making and intimidation.
Although this is not how most of us choose to live our lives, we cannot find a way to come together to effect positive change. So what can we do in these challenging times to restore a level of sanity not only to our political structures but also to our day-to-day living?
The answer to our dilemma lies within rather than outside of ourselves. There is a powerful tool for change available to anyone who seeks positive solutions to supposedly insurmountable problems; a tool that anyone can access. This tool is a ground-breaking and effective means for ending conflict and violence: invincible defence technology (IDT), a brain-based technology which uses non-religious advanced techniques of transcendental meditation (TM).
Scientific research has demonstrated that these advanced techniques, when practised twice a day in large groups, have the effect of raising the consciousness of all those within its field.
By raising the consciousness of our leaders, as well as that of the general population, positive solutions will naturally occur and society will shift to one of unity instead of division.
You may ask: “How can this be? It seems too simple to be true?” And yes, sometimes the simple approaches are the most effective. Consider: IDT was used in Washington DC over a two-month period in 1993, when 4000 meditators gathered for an experiment to lower crime. The result, as documented by an independent board of criminologists, was a 24% reduction in criminal violence.
This reduction in social stress also influenced the public approval of the United States’s president, which suddenly changed from a negative trend to a positive trend, as predicted, according to the Social Indicators Research (1999) journal.
A study published in May last year in the journal Studies in Asian Social Science found that IDT implementation by students trained in the advanced TM techniques resulted in a 96% decline in sociopolitical violence in war-torn Cambodia as compared with the violence in the preceding three years.
The Global Union of Scientists for Peace advocates IDT as a cost-effective, simple way to rapidly reduce the societal stresses held to be the underlying cause of terrorism and war.
Military and civilian groups in South America, Africa and parts of Asia are field-testing this approach by creating Prevention Wings of the Military, using IDT to reduce crime, quell violence, create prosperity, prevent the rise of enemies and create the conditions for lasting peace.
Peer-reviewed scientific research has repeatedly confirmed that when large groups of experts practice these advanced techniques together, a powerful field effect is generated which affects the surrounding population. This results in measurable decreases in war deaths, terrorism, and crime whenever IDT is used.
What might be a practical way to implement IDT? Volunteers (and their families) could be trained in advanced transcendental meditation techniques in exchange for taking part in large group meditations twice a day for a set period of time.
The big question remaining is funding: Who would pay to make this happen? While militaries worldwide have already begun to implement IDT in their own nations, many other countries have yet to embark on this course of action on a large scale.
Since time is of the essence, a call to the private sector may be in order. In the US the current political climate right now has billionaires running for president to effect change in the nation; perhaps there are other billionaires worldwide who would be equally committed to effect change by funding IDT projects designed to unify their home countries with positive solutions.
For those who remain sceptical, we recommend reading An Antidote to Violence: Evaluating the Evidence, by Barry Spivack and Patricia Anne Saunders, which details in depth the scientific research supporting this approach, and visit gapwm.org.
We have no time to lose: as the coronavirus affects international markets and as stock markets plunge, we need to come up with immediate, effective solutions to our societal issues before it is too late.
David Leffler is the executive director at the Centre for Advanced Military Science and Arlene Schar is his executive assistant