This is a call for a Meditation and Prayer Intervention for a peaceful resolution to inner city violence across the United States of America in the wake of the blatant public murder of George Floyd by the hands and knee of a Minneapolis police officer with the publicly witnessed assistance of fellow police officers. Outrage and public demonstrations are needed to shake awake the sleeping giant of justice at the helm of nearly 250 years of prejudice in this country. Progress has been made, but the undercurrent of systemic racism undermines the platitude of progress. Criminal actions on the part of protesters is not the answer.
Obviously remaining quiet using civil disobedience since the days of Martin Luther King, Jr. has only marginaly worked. Justice cannot be reached by arresting protesters nor calling on the military to hush the voices and actions of law-abiding protesters. This would be unconscionable, going against the very fiber of freedom for all people that the Constitution, and Bill of Rights of the United States of America stand for. There is another way we can help in this seemingly helpless time.
Does prayer and meditation reduce crime in inner cities? Yes, according to the 1993 controlled study done in Washington, reducing the crime rate in the District of Columbia by 48 percent. This study has been written about many times before, but given what is happening at the United States of America’s inner cities, as well as cities all over the world, now is a good time to remember this study, and how prayer and meditation can benefit us, and the cities and countries we live in. Washington, D.C. is again sorely in need of meditation and prayer.
Meditation and prayer works, as those of us who have tried know, especially when all else fails. Now is the time to take a moment out of your day to join this effort to raise the consciousness of the inhumane conditions we find ourselves. Given that many of us find ourselves at home during this COVID-19 pandemic, now is a good time to dedicate an hour during the day to prayer and meditation, light a candle and storm heaven with prayer.
Crimes against humanity are not necessary to solve this problem, nor is doing nothing to stop crimes against humanity an answer.
Here is the report called, Effects of Group Practice of the Transcendental Meditation Program on Preventing Violent Crime in Washington, DC: Results of the National Demonstration Project, June-July 1993
John S. Hagelin, Maxwell V. Rainforth, David W. Orme-Johnson, Kenneth L. Cavanaugh, Charles N. Alexander, Susan F. Shatkin, John L. Davies, Anne O. Hughes, and Emanuel Ross
This study presented the final results of a two-month prospective experiment to reduce violent crime in Washington, DC. On the basis of previous research it was hypothesized that the level of violent crime in the District of Columbia would drop significantly with the creation of a large group of participants in the Transcendental Meditation® and TM-Sidhi® programs to increase coherence and reduce stress in the District.
This National Demonstration Project to Reduce Violent Crime and Improve Governmental Effectiveness brought approximately 4,000 participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs to the United States national capital from June 7 to July 30, 1993. A 27-member independent Project Review Board consisting of sociologists and criminologists from leading universities, representatives from the police department and government of the District of Columbia, and civic leaders approved in advance the research protocol for the project and monitored its progress.
The dependent variable in the research was weekly violent crime, as measured by the Uniform Crime Report program of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; violent crimes include homicide, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery. This data was obtained from the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department for 1993 as well as for the preceding five years (1988-1992). Additional data used for control purposes included weather variables (temperature, precipitation, humidity), daylight hours, changes in police and community anti-crime activities, prior crime trends in the District of Columbia, and concurrent crime trends in neighboring cities. Average weekly temperature was significantly correlated with homicides, rapes and assaults (HRA crimes), as has also been found in previous research; therefore temperature was used as a control variable in the main analysis of HRA crimes. Using time series analysis, violent crimes were analyzed separately in terms of HRA crimes (crimes against the person) and robbery (monetary crimes), as well as together.
Analysis of 1993 data, controlling for temperature, revealed that there was a highly significant decrease in HRA crimes associated with increases in the size of the group during the Demonstration Project. The maximum decrease was 23.3% when the size of the group was largest during the final week of the project. The statistical probability that this result could reflect chance variation in crime levels was less than 2 in 1 billion (p < .000000002). When a longer baseline is used (1988-1993 data), the maximum decrease was 24.6% during this period (p < .00003). When analyzed as a separate variable, robberies did not decrease significantly, but a joint analysis of both HRA crimes and robberies indicated that violent crimes as a whole decreased significantly to a maximum amount of 15.6% during the final week of the project (p = .0008). Analysis of 1993 data, controlling for temperature, revealed that there was a highly significant decrease in HRA crimes associated with increases in the size of the group during the Demonstration Project.
Several additional analyses were performed on HRA crimes to further assess the strength of the main findings. These indicated that the reduction of HRA crimes associated with the group of participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs could not be attributed to changes in police staffing. These secondary analyses also found that the reduction of HRA crimes was highly robust to alternative specifications of the statistical model-that is, the effect is independent of the isolated details of the models used to assess seasonal cycles and trends. No significant decrease was found in any of the prior five years during this period of time, indicating that this effect was not due to the specific time of year. Furthermore, the intervention parameters for the group size revealed that the effect of the group was not only cumulative with the increase in group size, but also continued for some time after the end of the project.
Based on the results of the study, the steady state gain (long-term effect) associated with a permanent group of 4,000 participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs was calculated as a 48% reduction in HRA crimes in the District of Columbia.
Given the strength of these results, their consistency with the positive results of previous research, the grave human and financial costs of violent crime, and the lack of other effective and scientific methods to reduce crime, policy makers are urged to apply this approach on a large scale for the benefit of society.
It is again time to practice meditation and prayer, this time for the specific goal of reducing racism and prejudice in all its insidious forms of dehumanization in all cities across the United States of America.
We are not alone in suffering from the plaque of systemic racism. People from all over the world are affected by this embarrassing and inhumane treatment of all human beings born with the same God-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Caucasian humans are not the only people who deserve the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
This blog is read by every country, protectorate and territory worldwide. Please join me in meditation and prayer each day for an end to human cruelty and misery inflicted by inhuman current policies in the United States of America, as well as worldwide.
Reference: Hagelin, J.S., Rainforth, M.V., Orme-Johnson, D.W., Cavanaugh, K. L., Alexander, C.N., Shatkin, S.F., Davies, J.L, Hughes, A.O, and Ross, E. 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(2): 153-201.
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