World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates

Dr. John Hagelin Presents the  Gloabal Union of Scientist for Peace - GUSP´s Approach to Peace at the 19th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates

CONFERENCE REPORT

by

Gerry Geer and Craig Pearson

reprinted by permission of the authors from the website of the Global Union of Scientists for Peace - GUSP  https://www.gusp.org/world-summit-nobel-laureates/

On September 20, 2024, GUSP international president Dr. John Hagelin addressed the 19th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates and presented the innovative, field-tested, evidence-based approach to peace supported by the Global Union of Scientists for Peace. Given the state of the world today, Dr. Hagelin’s presentation on this global stage was a powerful and timely call to action to create peace in our time.

Nobel Peace Laureates and conference organizers at the opening of the World Summit.

A globally prestigious gathering

The World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates is one of the most prestigious gatherings in the field of peacemaking. Launched in 1999 by Mikael Gorbachev, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 for his role in helping end the Cold War, this annual conference brings together Nobel Peace Laureates, renowned leaders of peace organizations, peace activists, distinguished academics, and hundreds of college and university students from around the world to address global issues related to peace and to explore new avenues for peace creation on earth.

This year’s Summit was held in Monterrey, Mexico, from September 18 to 21. It was structured around seven key themes related to peace, with panel discussions led by 15 Nobel Peace Laureates and many other widely recognized global leaders in the field of peace. Over 1,500 enthusiastic students attended, many of them presenting “Peace Labs” about their own peace-creating efforts. Many leaders of peace organizations and universities presented complementary workshops as well to explore new approaches to peace and create collaborative initiatives with other Summit participants.

Kara Anastasio (wife of Dr. Hagelin) and students Dylan MacDonald and Sam Okorie in the audience in Monterrey.

World peace through inner peace

Dr. Hagelin had been invited by the Summit organizers to speak as part of the summative panel, titled “Global Peace: Time to Act,” on the last day of the conference—a fitting venue in which to present the GUSP approach to peace.

Earlier speakers had stressed that the world is now closer to nuclear war than at any time in history. Despite the passionate and heartfelt commitment to peace of all the conference speakers and participants, many of the discussions had focused on the challenges to global peace and the immense complexity of resolving these problems. Dr. Hagelin’s presentation, in contrast, offered a clear and compelling path forward to create global peace, here and now.

Dr. Hagelin addresses the World Summit.

The precursor to war and violence, Dr. Hagelin said, is stress. Stress in the individual shuts down the prefrontal cortex — the higher brain — while stimulating the amygdala, triggering the body’s fight-or-flight response. Mounting stress is causing ill health, psychological distress, depression, and anxiety, and rising levels of social violence throughout the world.

The traditional approach is to try to reduce the stressors — poverty, wealth disparity, and so on. But this has proven difficult if not impossible to do, he said. Instead, we can reduce the stress itself and thereby reduce violent behavior.

Dr. Hagelin reviewed studies showing how the Transcendental Meditation technique has been used effectively in prisons, significantly reducing recidivism, and how the Pentagon has used it to significantly reduce PTSD in veterans.

Then he showed how the same effect can be leveraged through large meditation groups to reduce stress throughout society. He summarized studies demonstrating how this approach reduced violent crime in Washington DC by 23% while improving the quality of life for the whole city. And he described how the same approach dramatically reduced the intensity of the Lebanese Civil War in the early 1980s, with seven different studies confirming this effect.

“No other approach to peace in history, as far as I know, has had a comparable track record of success,” Dr. Hagelin said. “And this particular approach to peace is not that difficult. It’s relatively easily and cost-effectively implemented in schools and colleges” as well as in the military and in police training.

“Even a small fraction of a population produces demonstrable results,” he said, adding, “It has been very effective in Mexico itself in certain school programs here.”

He then described how the effect works — how Transcendental Meditation practice allows the mind to settle effortlessly inward to its basis in pure consciousness, which is identical with the unified field, understood in quantum physics to lie at the basis of all change throughout the universe.

“Meditation expands consciousness,” Dr. Hagelin said. “It takes our scattered mental activity, our disorderly EEG, and transforms it into coherent brain functioning.” Coherent brain functioning in turn is correlated with high IQ, learning ability, memory, intelligence, creativity, and moral reasoning.

“Regular practice of meditation brings inner peace, inner stability, inner fulfillment, inner contentment,” he said. “It brings life-supporting behavior.”

As a result, he said, “You know yourself for what you really are — unbounded, universal being. And you recognize others as unbounded universal beings — you recognize others as your own self. That brings the golden rule of behavior. And that brings a peaceful world. This is world peace through inner peace, an evidence-based, scientifically proven process.”

Click here to watch Dr. Hagelin’s entire talk (password: peace). Click here for a video of all the Summit presentations on September 20 (Dr. Hagelin’s talk starts at 2:41:30).

Dr. Hagelin with the other panelists: Carlos Slim, Kailash Satyarthi, and Óscar Arias Sánchez

A renowned panel of speakers

Dr. Hagelin’s Global Peace panel also included, as pictured above:

• Carlos Slim, the Mexican business magnate, investor, and philanthropist, ranked as the wealthiest person in Latin America and the 11th wealthiest in the world, according to Bloomberg (he was ranked #1 from 2010 to 2013 by Forbes), with a net worth of $105 billion.

• Kailash Satyarthi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2014 along with Malala Yousafzai, for efforts to ensure child education and prevent child suppression. He presaged Hagelin’s talk by saying that consciousness is the foundation of life and that education is the birthright of all children.

• Óscar Arias Sánchez, the former President of Costa Rica, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 as the architect of a peace accord also signed by Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras, designed to end the long-raging civil wars in those countries. He also won the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism and has been awarded fifty honorary degrees.

After his presentation, Hagelin met with Dr. Karen Hallberg to discuss future collaborative efforts. Hallberg, a prominent Argentinian physicist who also spoke at the Summit, has just been appointed Secretary General of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, an international organization founded in 1955 that brings together scholars and other leaders in pursuit of a world free of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. The organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995 for its work on nuclear disarmament.

The presenters at the Summit. From left to right: Sam Okorie, Ash Pachauri, Dylan MacDonald, Muna Askar, Craig Pearson, John Hagelin, Gerry Geer, and Kara Anastasio.

Additional presentations and participants

Dr. Hagelin’s invitation to the Summit had been championed by Dr. Ash Pachauri, GUSP senior advisor on environmental security, who as senior mentor to the Protect Our Planet (POP) movement has been working closely with key Summit organizers for many years. He also helped ensure that Dr. Hagelin’s powerful slide presentation could be included during the Global Peace panel discussion.

Also accompanying Dr. Hagelin to the Summit were Maharishi International University faculty members Craig Pearson and Gerry Geer, who presented a youth workshop at the Summit that paralleled Dr. Hagelin’s talk and was attended by many enthusiastic and engaged students who were eager to bring this knowledge to their schools and universities. Three top MIU students—Sam Okorie, Dylan MacDonald, and Muna Askar—also attended the Summit and presented a compelling Peace Lab focused on implementing this GUSP approach to peace on a wide scale.

The future

Dr. Hagelin’s address at the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates was a truly historic moment—one that places the GUSP approach to peace on the global stage and gives it the international attention and prestige it deserves. The collaborations and connections resulting from this Monterrey Summit will help create a new wave of lasting peace around the world.

Scientific Research

The unique effectiveness of the Brain-Based Approach to Peace in preventing social violence, terrorism, and war has been confirmed by more than 50 demonstrations and 28 scientific studies. This research has been carefully scrutinized by independent scholars and accepted for publication in leading, peer-reviewed academic journals. In every case, this approach produced marked improvements in various social indicators, for example, reductions of crime, social violence, terrorism, and war, and increased peace and positivity in society.

Decreased War and Terrorism

A critical experimental test of the societal impact of the Brain-Based Approach to Peace was conducted during the peak of the Lebanon war. A day-by-day study of a two-month assembly in Israel in 1983 showed that, on days when the number of participants (“TM Group Size,” right) was high, war deaths in neighboring Lebanon dropped by 76%

(p = .0006). In addition, crime, traffic accidents, fires, and other indicators of social stress in Israel (combined into a Composite Index) all correlated strongly with changes in TM group size. Other possible causes (weekends, holidays, weather, etc.) were statistically controlled for (Journal of Conflict Resolution 32: 776-812, 1988) [2].

These results were subsequently replicated in seven consecutive experiments over a two-year period during the peak of the Lebanon war. The results of these interventions included:

• war-related fatalities decreased by 71% (p < 10^-10)
• war-related injuries fell by 68% (p < 10^-6)
• the level of conflict dropped by 48% (p < 10^-8)
• cooperation among antagonists increased by 66% (p < 10^-6)

The likelihood that these combined results were due to chance is less than one part in 1019, making this effect of reducing societal stress and conflict the most rigorously established phenomenon in the history of the social sciences (Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 17(1): 285–338, 2005) [3].

In addition, the global influence on terrorism of three large coherence-creating assemblies was studied retrospectively through an analysis of data compiled by the Rand Corporation. The data revealed a 72% reduction in worldwide terrorism during the three assemblies taken together, as compared to all other weeks during a two-year period. Each assembly had approached or exceeded the participation threshold (8,000) predicted to create a global influence of peace. The study ruled out the possibility that this reduction in terrorism was due to cycles, trends, or drifts in the measures used, or to seasonal changes (Journal of Offender Rehabilitation 36 (1-4): 283-302, 2003 and references) [17].

Decreased Crime and Social Stress

A National Demonstration Project conducted in Washington, D.C., from June 7 to July 30, 1993, tested the efficacy of the Brain-Based Approach to Peace for reducing crime and social stress and improving the effectiveness of government.

In this carefully controlled experiment, the coherence-creating group increased from 800 to 4,000 over the two-month period. Although violent crime had been steadily increasing during the first five months of the year, soon after the start of the study, violent crime (measured by FBI Uniform Crime Statistics) began decreasing and continued to drop until the end of the experiment (maximum decrease 23.3%), after which it began to rise again. The likelihood that this result could be attributed to chance variation in crime levels was less than two parts per billion (p < .000000002). The drop in crime could not be attributed to other possible causes, including temperature, precipitation, weekends, and police and community anticrime activities (Social Indicators Research 47: 153-201, 1999) [1].

For a more extensive review of all the research on peace-creating groups, click here.

For an overview of the societal benefits resulting from this approach, as confirmed by research, click here.

Selected References

1. Hagelin, J. S., Orme-Johnson, D. W., Rainforth, M., Cavanaugh, K., & Alexander, C. N. (1999). Effects of group practice of the Transcendental Meditation program on preventing violent crime in Washington, D.C.: Results of the National Demonstration Project, June—July 1993 Social Indicators Research, 47, 153-201.
2. Orme-Johnson, D. W., Alexander, C. N., Davies, J. L., Chandler, H. M., & Larimore, W. E. (1988). International peace project in the Middle East: The effect of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 32(4), 776–812.
3. Davies, J. L., & Alexander, C. N. (2005). Alleviating political violence through reducing collective tension: Impact assessment analyses of the Lebanon war. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 17(1): 285–338.
4. Eppley, K., Abrams, A.I., & Shear, J. (1989). Differential effects of relaxation techniques on trait anxiety: A meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 45(6), 957–974.
5. Dillbeck, M.C., & Orme-Johnson, D.W. (1987). Physiological differences between Transcendental Meditation and rest. American Psychologist, 42, 879–881.
6. Rees, B., Travis, F., Shapiro, D., & Chant, R. (2014). Significant reductions in posttraumatic stress symptoms in Congolese refugees after 10 days Transcendental Meditation practice. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 27(1), 112-115.
7. Rees, B., Travis, F., Shapiro, D., & Chant, R. (2013). Reduction in post traumatic stress symptoms in Congolese refugees practicing Transcendental Meditation. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 26, 295-298.
8. Brooks, J. S., & Scarano, T. (1985). Transcendental Meditation and the treatment of post-Vietnam adjustment. Journal of Counseling and Development, 64, 212-215.
9. Rosenthal, JZ, Grosswald, S, Ross, R, & Rosenthal, N. (2011). Effects of Transcendental Meditation (TM) in Veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): a Pilot Study. Military Medicine, 176(6), 626.
10. Heffner, K. L., Caine, E. D., Crean, H., Franus, N., Moynihan, J. A., & Talbot, N. (2014). Meditation for PTSD demonstration project: Final report to Mental Health Services, Department of Veteran Affairs. Final report to Mental Health Services, Department of Veteran Affairs (pp. 172). Rochester, New York: Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester.
11. Rainforth, M. V., Bleick, C., Alexander, C. N., & Cavanaugh, K. L. (2003). Effects of the Transcendental Meditation program on recidivism among former inmates of Folsom Prison: Survival analysis of 15-year follow-up data. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 36, 181-203.
12. Alexander, C. N., Rainforth, M. V., Frank, P. R., Grant, J. D., Von Stade, C., & Walton, K. G. (2003). Walpole study of the Transcendental Meditation program in maximum security prisoners III: Reduced recidivism. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 36(3), 161-180.
13. Alexander, C. N., Robinson, P., & Rainforth, M. V. (1994). Treating alcohol, nicotine and drug abuse through Transcendental Meditation: A review and statistical meta-analysis. Alcohol Treatment Quarterly, 11, 13-87.
14. Gelderloos, P., Walton, K. G., Orme-Johnson, D. W., & Alexander, C. N. (1991). Effectiveness of the Transcendental Meditation program in preventing and treating substance misuse: a review. International Journal of Addictions, 26(3), 293-325.
15. Schneider, R. H., Grim, C. E., Rainforth, M. A., Kotchen, T. A., Nidich, S. I., Gaylord-King, C., Salerno, J. W., Alexander, C. N. (2012). Stress reduction in the secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease: Randomized controlled trial of Transcendental Meditation and health education in Blacks. Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality Outcomes, 5(6), 750-758.
16. Hagelin, J. S. (1987). Is consciousness the unified field? A field theorist’s perspective. Modern Science and Vedic Science, 1(1), 29-88.
17. Orme-Johnson, D. W., Dillbeck, M. C., & Alexander, C. N. (2003). Preventing terrorism and international conflict: Effects of large assemblies of participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 36 (1-4), 283–302.
18. Hatchard, G. D., Deans, A. J., Cavanaugh, K. L., & Orme-Johnson, D. W. (1996). The Maharishi Effect: A model for social improvement: Time series analysis of a phase transition to reduced crime in Merseyside metropolitan area. Psychology, Crime, & Law, 2(3), 165-175.
19. Dillbeck, M. C., Cavanaugh, K. L., Glenn, T., Orme-Johnson, D. W., & Mittlefehldt, V. (1987). Consciousness as a field: The Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program and changes in social indicators. Journal of Mind and Behavior, 8(1), 67–104.
20. Dillbeck, M. C., Banus, C. B., Polanzi, C., & Landrith III, G. S. (1988). Test of a field model of consciousness and social change: The Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program and decreased urban crime. Journal of Mind and Behavior, 9(4), 457–486.
21. Dillbeck, M. C. (1990). Test of a field theory of consciousness and social change: Time series analysis of participation in the TM-Sidhi program and reduction of violent death in the U.S. Social Indicators Research, 22, 399-418.
22. Assimakis, P. D., & Dillbeck, M. C. (1995). Time series analysis of improved quality of life in Canada: Social change, collective consciousness, and the TM-Sidhi program. Psychological Reports, 76, 1171–1193.
23. Dillbeck, M. C. & Cavanaugh, K. L. (2016). Societal violence and collective consciousness: Reduction of U.S. homicide and urban violent crime rates. SAGE Open, April–June, 1–16.
24. Cavanaugh, K. L., & Dillbeck, M.C. (2017). Field effects of consciousness and reduction in U.S. urban murder rates: Evaluation of a prospective quasi-experiment. Journal of Health and Environmental Research, 3 (3-1), 32–43.
25. Cavanaugh, K. L., Dillbeck, M. C., & Orme-Johnson, D. W. (2022). Evaluating a field theory of consciousness and social change: Group practice of Transcendental Meditation and homicide trends. Studies in Asian Social Science, 8(1), 1–32.
26. Cavanaugh, K. L. & Dillbeck, M C. (2017). The contribution of proposed field effects of consciousness to the prevention of U.S. accidental fatalities: Theory and empirical tests. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 24 (1–2), 53–86 (34).
27. Dillbeck, M. C. & Cavanaugh, K. L. (2017). Group practice of the Transcendental Meditation® and TM-Sidhi® program and reductions in infant mortality and drug-related death: A quasi-experimental analysis. SAGE Open, January–March, 1–15.
28. Dillbeck, M. C., & Cavanaugh, K. L. (2023). Empirical evaluation of the possible contribution of group practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program to reduction in drug-related mortality. Medicina, 59, 1–32.
29. Orme-Johnson, D. W., Cavanaugh, K. L., Dillbeck, M. C., & Goodman, R. S. (2022). Field-effects of consciousness: A seventeen-year study of the effects of group practice of Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs on reducing national stress in the United States. World Journal of Social Science, 9(2), 1–38.
30. Cavanaugh, K. L., King, K. D., & Ertuna, C. (1989). A multiple-input transfer function model of Okun’s misery index: An empirical test of the Maharishi Effect. Proceedings of the American Statistical Association, Business and Economics Statistics Section, 565-570.
31. Goodman, R. S., Orme-Johnson, D.W., Rainforth, M.V., & Goodman, D.H. (1997). Transforming political institutions through individual and collective consciousness: The Maharishi Effect and government. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington D.C.
32. Soares, Claire (23 October 2007). Joaquim Chissano: Democrat among the despots. The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/joaquim-chissano-democrat-among-the-despots-397608.html
33. Dai, T., Proceedings of the International Conference on Invincible Defence, 21 (1994). MVU Press, The Netherlands; Dai, T., Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Invincible Defence, 9 (1995). MVU Press, The Netherlands; Chissano, J. A., & Dai, T., Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Invincible Defence, 11–13 (1995). MVU Press, The Netherlands.
34. Villamil, J. M., & Leffler, D. (29 January 2003).  Project: Coherence. What’s Hot—Analysis of Recent Happenings, India Defence Consultants, New Delhi.

GUSP  copyright © 2024. All rights reserved.