More than 400 peer-reviewed studies have shown that the Transcendental Meditation® (TM) technique is a powerful program for eliminating stress, anxiety, and tension in the individual. And meditators often report that the inner peace they experience from their TM practice translates into a more harmonious, stress-free home.

But can TM help to defuse tension in society as a whole? Can it potentially prevent conflicts and outbreaks of terror?

According to a growing global coalition of Nobel Laureates, leading scientists, presidents, prime ministers, and other high-ranking officials—the answer is Yes.

Watch the HuffPost Live interview with Dr. John Hagelin and others (scroll to end of page: trailer 1:04; full interview 30:04)

The Global Union of Scientists for Peace has been testing and implementing this novel approach in dozens of countries—with highly promising results.

They are proposing an evidenced-based alternative to the conventional approaches of peace through violence, diplomacy, or governmental decree.

Since their approach is based on the latest discoveries in physics, physiology, and neuroscience, they are calling this new peace-promoting technology the Brain-Based Approach to Peace.

Defusing Acute Societal Stress—the First Stage in the Emergence of War

Experts in conflict resolution agree that mounting societal stress—political, ethnic, and religious tensions in critical hot-spots around the world—is the first stage in the emergence of war. If these tensions reach a boiling point, they erupt in social violence: crime, war, and terrorism.

“If we can defuse these societal tensions before they erupt—even a little—they do not break out into social violence. Water does not boil at 99 degrees centigrade,” says quantum physicist John Hagelin, president of the Global Union of Scientists for Peace and president of Maharishi University of Management.

Stressed individuals create a stressed society—a stressed “collective consciousness”—which can lead to crime and conflict, even war and terrorism. Research has shown that it’s possible to defuse acute societal tensions through the use of powerful, evidence-based, stress-reducing technologies by even a small portion of the population—such as within the military, or in universities or schools.

“If we can defuse these societal tensions before they erupt… they do not break out into social violence. Water does not boil at 99 degrees centigrade.” —Quantum Physicist John Hagelin, Ph.D.

Individual practice of the TM technique has been shown by extensive published research to relieve individual stress. And now, the practice of TM by a significant sub-portion of a population—even 1 percent—has similarly been shown to reduce societal stress, leading to reduced violent crime, domestic violence, psychiatric crisis calls, and other indicators of acute societal stress.

Peace Begets Peace

The effects are even more remarkable when TM and the more advanced TM-Sidhi® program are practiced by large groups of people at the same time and place. “Practice of TM and its related advanced meditation techniques in large groups has been found to produce an even more powerful societal effect,” says Dr. Hagelin.

“Multiple studies looking at war in the Middle East, as well as global terrorism, have shown that as few as the square root of 1 percent of the population of a given region, practicing in large groups, can very effectively defuse and prevent social conflict throughout the entire region,” he adds.

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 (Journal of Offender Rehabilitation 36 (1-4): 283-302, 2003 and references).

There have been seven interventions using this “Brain-Based” approach in the Middle East since the early 1980s. Every time, these interventions reduced war deaths and war-related injuries by an average of 80 percent and brought significant progress towards peace among the rival factions. (Here is a brief synopsis of the more than 50 demonstrations and 23 scientific studies published in leading peer-reviewed scientific journals.)

“There has never been an approach to preventing war and promoting societal peace that has been as rigorously tested, or shown to be as effective, as this Consciousness-Based^SM, Brain-Based approach,” says Dr. Hagelin.

“There has never been an approach to preventing war and promoting societal peace that has been as rigorously tested, or shown to be as effective, as this Consciousness-Based, Brain-Based approach.” —Dr. John Hagelin, President, Global Union of Scientists for Peace