News Release
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Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy
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Comprehensive Report Released:
Violent Crime Decreased 18% in Washington DC during Last Summer's TM
Demonstration Project.
4000 Transcendental Meditation Experts Reduce Urban Crime and Improve
Government Achievements:

(Grand Hyatt Hotel, Washington, D.C.) 
Last summer in Washington DC, 4000 TM experts from 82 countries gathered for
a $6 million "National Demonstration Project".

The demonstration was the world's largest - and most public - scientific
experiment to test the effects of group practice of Maharishi's
Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program in reducing violent crime and
social stress and improving the effectiveness of government.

THE RESULTS ARE IN: 
Violent crime decreased 18% in Washington DC during the project, and the
declining trend in public approval and confidence in the Clinton
administration was reversed.

The findings - all highly statistically significant - are included in a
comprehensive report released today by the Institute of Science, Technology
and Public Policy at Maharishi International University. The research
replicated findings of 41 previous studies on group TM practice.

According to Institute Director John S. Hagelin, Ph. D., the DC crime results
are based on statistics received from the Disctrict of Columbia Metropolitan
Police Department. Analysis of the results was carried out by the Institute's
Research and Evaluation Division and approved by an independent Project
Review Board of scientists from such leading institutions as the University
of Maryland, The University of Texas, Temple University, The University of
Denver School of Law, the University of the District of Columbia, American
University, and Howard University.

"RESULTS ARE DRAMATICS":
"The results of the analysis presented in this report are dramatic and
support the major hypotheses lodged in advance of the Demonstration Project -
that a group of experts in Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi
program relieves social stress and reverses negative social trends, including
violent crime," Dr. Hagelin said.

"DESIGN WAS RIGOUREOUS":
John Davies, Ph. D., Research Coordinator for the Center of International
Development and Conflict Management at the University of Maryland, is a
member of the Project Review Board who evaluated the project. According to
Dr. Davies, "The project design was rigoureous, the analysis was conducted in
a highly competent manner, and the results are impressive."

"IMPACT OF RESEARCH EXCEEDS ANY OTHER SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH PROGRAM":
David V. Edwards, Ph. D., Professor of Government, The University of Texas at
Austin, is a member of the Project Review Board: "The claim can be made
plausibly that the promised practical societal impact of this research
significantly exceeds that of any other ongoing social-psychological research
program. For this reason alone the research along with the theory that
informs it deserves the most serious evaluative consideration by the social
science community." Dr. Edwards does not practice Transcendental Meditation.

"EXPERIMENT APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN COMPETENTLY UNDERTAKEN":
According to Emanuel Ross of the Planning and Research Division at the DC
Police Department, "The data on violent crime used in the experiment was
provided by the Police Department. The experiment appears to have been
competently undertaken, and to be a good faith effort on the part of the
Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy and the independent
Project Review Board of scientists formed to oversee the project."

Mr. Ross acknowledged that the Police Department is not in a position to
comment on the results of the Demonstration Project, or to assess the
statistical significance of the results. "For this, you would have to talk to
members of the Project Review Board who are experts in time series analysis,"
he said.

"AN IMPRESSIVE, STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT CORRELATION":
Beverley Rubik, Ph. D., biophysicist and Director of the Center for Frontier
Sciences at Temple University, is a member of the Project Review Board: "The
data show an impressive, statistically significant correlation: a decrease in
violent crime for the time period over which the group meditated. An
impressive number of variables were considered in analyzing the data, and I
am satisfied that the research team made a serious effort to examine the data
in light of numerous other possible influences".

"I WOULD RECOMMEND CONTINUED FUNDING":
Anne Hughes, Ph. D., Professor of sociology and Government at the University
of the District of Columbia, is a member of the Project Review Board and a
non-meditator: "To a skeptic I would say, 'What is your solution?' I haven't
seen one yet. We need to consider other possibilities than the conventional
wisdom. It's too bad this project couldn't extend over a longer period of
time. I would recommend continued funding."

CRIME DECREASED AS THE GROUP SIZE INCREASED:
The Report was based on analysis of crime called "Radio Runs". Radio Runs
data for homicides, rapes, and assaults (HRA crimes) used in the analysis
extended from January 1992 through August 30, 1993. The size of the
coherence-creating group of experts participating in the Demonstration
Project increased in the three tiers from June 7 to July 30, 1993 - from
approximately 1,000 to 2,500 to 4,000.

"Time series methodology analyzed actual crime levels with the
coherence-creating group, and also predicted crime levels without the group,"
Dr. Hagelin said."By the end of the Demonstration Project, when the group was
largest, actual crime decreased sharply below the predicted level without the
coherence-creating group. This approximately 18% decrease was highly
statistically significant."

CONTROLLED FOR VARIABLES KNOWN TO INFLUENCE VIOLENT CRIME:
Dr. Hagelin said that the analysis controlled for variables known to
influence violent crime and found that the drop in crime could not be
attributed to temperature, precipitation, weekend effects, or trends in the
data. In addition, a community-based 72-hour crime vigil and an increase in
police surveillance in certain police districts could not account for the
decrease in crime throughout the District of Columbia over the two-month
project.

MARKED TRANSFORMATION IN PRESIDENT CLINTON'S PUBLIC OPINION POLLS:
Before the Demonstration Project, President Clinton's popularity had declined
to the lowest point ever recorded for a new president; news reports
constantly underscored the disharmony among the president, Congress, and the
media. As The Washington Post commented on June 5, 1993 - two days before the
experiment began, "Twenty weeks old, the Clinton presidency is setting
records as the most mistake-prone in modern history."

However, time series analisis of 86 opinion polls on President Clinton from
January 20, 1993 through December 19, 1993, showed a highly significant
reversal of this trend durind the Demonstration Project. "As predicted in
advance, the experimental period witnessed a marked transformation in public
approval for the government as measured by increasing support for the
president in the polls," Dr. Hagelin said.

A PRACTICAL TOOL TO REDUCE VIOLENT CRIME AND IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE:
The Washington study is the 42nd consecutive experiment demonstrating reduced
violent crime and other positive social changes resulting from group practice
of Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program.

"Each study has produced consistent, stastistically significant results," Dr.
Hagelin said. "This large body of research shows that governments now have a
practical tool to reduce inner city crime and dramatically improve the
quality of life for the whole population."

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi
program, congratulated the scientists and the media for giving their
attention to this study, but he indicated that future progress will come not
as a result of modern science, but on the basis of his Vedic Science.

"It is good for us to know that we are on the right lines," Maharishi
explained. "Some day the ice will break. But it will not break on the basis
of modern scientific research. I'm convinced it will break only on the ground
of Vedic Science and research into consciousness."

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Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy
Maharishi International University
1000 N 4th St
Fairfield, Iowa, 52557
USA 
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