Dear Friends,

In the thread about cloud-busting, a study was brought up which purports
that thousands of people practicing transcendental meditation in
Washington D.C. helped decrease the violent crime rate one summer.

Quoted from that thread:

"As the spiritual moves grows and becomes strong, it's effects will be
felt much more. As the momentum builds, as the energy builds, it will
affect the consciousness of all people in a good way. See
http://permanentpeace.org/ for an idea on how this might happen. Imagine
paying people to meditate on peace every day. In Washington, DC one summer
this reduced the crime rate in a measureable way. And as more poeple
started meaditating, the crime rate declined further. More than 40 studies
world wide have documented this effect, including one study in Isreal."

It should be pointed out that there were many flaws to this study, not the
least of which is that during the study period, the murder rate in
Washington D.C. was higher than ever before or since then!

Critical commentary about the study can be found at:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_5_24/ai_67691836
http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2005/04/what_the_bleep_.html

Incidentally, this study won the 1994 Ig-Nobel Prize in Peace:

1994 Ig-Nobel Peace Prize

John Hagelin of Maharishi University and The Institute of Science,
Technology and Public Policy, promulgator of peaceful thoughts,
for his experimental conclusion that 4,000 trained meditators
caused an 18 percent decrease in violent crime in Washington, D.C.

[REFERENCE: "Interim Report: Results of the National Demonstration
Project To Reduce Violent Crime and Improve Governmental
Effectiveness In Washington, D.C., June 7 to July 30, 1993,"
Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy, Fairfield,
Iowa"]

http://www.improb.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html#ig1994

I don't want to give the impression that all we skeptics want to do is
rain on other people's parade, that we're anti-peace, anti-free-thinking,
anti-open-mindedness. Quite the contrary ... skeptics want peace and love
as much as the next peace-loving individual, and we whole-heartedly devote
ourselves to free-thinking (which is why we're so unpopular sometimes),
and we are extremely open-minded (but not so much that our brains start
falling out.)

What bothers me as a skeptic is that I'm asked to believe extraordinary
claims without extraordinary evidence. And when evidence is presented, it
is one-sided and falls to pieces when examined critically. Granted, the
intentions of the TM study by Hagelin were good, but the science was
really, really messed up. I wouldn't start diverting city funds from the
police department to the Maharishi University based on it. Indeed, one way
transcendental meditation can truly make a difference in the crime rate is
if EVERYONE (especially the criminals!) practiced it all day long, such
that everyone did nothing except TM. Yeah, that'll surely solve the crime
problem overnight.

Keep the studies coming, keep the hope up, keep the debate going, but
above all, keep your brains intact! We would be thrilled to accept a new
way to understand the Universe, and we would welcome a revolution in our
thinking. But let this revolution be based on reality, and not fantasy.

Best,

HF