Authors Barry Spivack and Patricia Saunders, Ph.D., describe how a rise in collective tensions spills over into increased social unrest, crime, violence, accidental deaths, and hospital emergencies. They examine 20 peer-reviewed studies from over four decades, indicating that it is possible to neutralize or reduce stress in collective consciousness through the practice of the TM program by a sufficient number of individuals, an effect that is amplified in groups.

This reduction in collective stress leads to decreases in violent crime and war fatalities, and increases in quality of life and cooperation between nations. Researchers named this phenomenon of rising coherence in the collective consciousness of a community or society the “Maharishi Effect,” after TM Founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who predicted this effect in the 1960s.

The Maharishi Effect was first studied and validated by scientists in 1974, when the number of people participating in the TM program in twelve U.S. cities reached 1 percent of the population, and rising crime rates in those cities began to drop.

The term now includes the influence generated by group practice of the advanced “Tm-Sidhi” program, through which even the square root of 1 percent of a community is sufficient to create measurable changes in social trends. Published research confirms that collective practice of the TM and “Tm-Sidhi” programs by large groups of trained experts neutralizes societal stress.

David Orme-Johnson, Ph.D., one of the principal researchers on the TM program worldwide, commends the book: “This hypothesis has been tested and verified by over 50 studies on the levels of cities, states, nations, and the whole world. Spivack and Saunders carefully review the evidence and alternative explanations for the 20 strongest studies published in peer-reviewed journals. This research has been replicated on a multitude of variables, in many different cultures and countries, showing holistic effects.”