Concerned by the state of the world, eight Trinidadians joined over 10,000 people in India to try to bring about a decrease in the level of conflict around the world.
From December 29, 2023-January 13, over 10,000 people gathered at Kanha Shanti Vanam outside of Hyderabad, India for the 10,000 for World Peace Assembly, organised by the Global Union of Scientists for Peace (GUSP).
The aim was to demonstrate what the followers of the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi called “the proven consciousness-based approach to creating world peace.”
The idea is, that if the square root of one per cent of the population, about 9,000 people, practised Transcendental Meditation (TM) and TM-Sidhi programmes twice a day consistently, it would create “the field effect of consciousness” throughout the world.
The Global Union of Scientists for Peace website called it the Brain-Based Approach to Peace. It said there had been over 50 demonstrations and 28 scientific studies over the years which proved the approach would prevent social violence, terrorism, and war.
It said, “This research has been carefully scrutinised by independent scholars and accepted for publication in leading peer-reviewed academic journals. In every case, this approach produced marked reductions of crime, social violence, terrorism, and war, and increased peace and positivity in society.”
Certified TM teachers Shelley Hosein and Anthony Grell were two of the people representing TT at the assembly in India.
[caption id="attachment_1065963" align="alignnone" width="720"] Vedic pandits specially trained in chants and recitations were part of the 10,000 for World Peace Assembly in India. Photo courtesy Shelley Hosein. -[/caption]
Hosein said previously, when the Maharishi was alive when there were “disturbances” in countries, he would send or arrange for groups to do meditation and the advanced TM-Sidhi programme in or near those countries.
“Of course, the individuals always feel the deeper peace and happiness but, it had the effect of reducing crime, reducing hospital admissions and a few other negative trends, and when things settled a bit people would leave.”
Grell added that such mass meditations were done in 1983 in Israel during the Lebanon war and in Washington, DC in 1993.
According to the Global Union of Scientists for Peace, over a two-year period during the Lebanon war, there were seven sessions in Israel; Utopia, US; Lebanon; Yugoslavia; Fairfield, US; Netherlands and Washington, DC, US.
It said during those periods war-related fatalities and injuries decreased by 71 per cent and 68 per cent respectively, the level of conflict dropped by 48 per cent and co-operation among antagonists increased by 66 per cent.
In the 1993 Washington experiment, measured by FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, it said soon after the study started, violent crime began to decrease, up to 23.3 per cent. And the rate stayed at those lower levels until the end of the experiment.
Hosein said, “Based on that and the state of the world, I think that is what really mo