Global Meditation/Prayer For Peace And Healing

My friend Linda has recently sent the following letter about continuous meditation/prayer for peace and healing to her Peace Information Network. I think it's a wonderful idea, so I suggested we could also publish it here. After all, we were talking last time about sending out positive thoughts to attract the things we want in our lives - and I think that peace and healing for the earth are on everyone's list. Linda quotes several instances of the benefits of this sort of practice, and in my previous post, on the movie What The Bleep?, I included links to some published research on the positive effects of group meditation on crime. Perhaps now is our chance to make a real difference to the world...

Over to Linda:

According to some recent experiments that measured results from global healing meditation/prayer times, it was shown that while the meditation/prayers were in progress, changes were being made on the earth -- for example, the number of bad things happening reduced dramatically during a synchronized global healing. However, as soon as the meditation/prayer ended, the number of bad things started to rise again.

Therefore, I would like to propose that we set up a global network of people, someone in each time zone, who would dedicate one hour a day to a global meditation/prayer. This would produce a wave of continuing meditation/prayer for global peace and at times, if we wanted, we might add in a healing meditation for specific people.

I have personally witnessed what seemed to be a miracle healing for a teenager who was in a very serious car accident and in a coma, not expected to live. I contacted someone who was part of a prayer chain, the chain was activated and people all over the world who got the message prayed or sent healing to this boy. The chain was kept activated for 4 days, at the end of which the boy came out of his coma. I am also aware of a time when a group of people in one place decided to meditate 24 hours a day to bring peace to a specific conflict. They did this for a month, making sure there was always someone who was 'on duty' during the meditation.

I would like to ask if there are any of you (or those with whom you are in contact) who would like to join in a global continuing meditation for peace on earth. I would hope that we could have someone somewhere in the world who was in meditation/prayer at all times for this one simple request -- the healing of the earth.

If you are interested, please email me and I will happily co-ordinate the efforts. I know many of you will have joined in the International Day of Peace on the 21st September and I believe that had an effect. So now, what about we get together for a continuous healing of the earth.

I look forward to hearing from anyone who would like to join in. I already meditate every day so I expect many of you do as well.

With love and peace and healing to all - Linda

Don't forget to email Linda if you are interested in taking part in this great idea.

My promised post about law of attraction techniques will follow on next time. Many thanks to all who sent in comments on the previous post. I found the discussion fascinating and it has helped me to develop my ideas on the law of attraction. I hope to be writing more about this soon...

Comments

[People in the Sun]

"the number of bad things happening reduced dramatically during a synchronized global healing."

But what are bad things? It's easy to give a teenager in a coma as an example, but how many other objectively naturally bad things are there? Isn't one of the benefits of meditation the understanding that things are as there are (whether for a reason or not, whether directed by God or by any other force)? This exercise may prove to be successful not because less people get hurt in accidents but because through meditation more people may accept accidents and pain as a part of life.

[surjit]

This is a great and noble idea.I am willing to participate in the Prayer for World Peace.

[Mr Zip]

Sorry to be sceptical, but how on earth do you define, monitor and measure "the number of bad things happening"?

[Andy]

Don't the 'Transcendental Meditation people' claim to measure such things? I remember reading something on their website (after watching a program on TV) that they monitored the local crime rates for the city where they were meditating in and allegedly received positive results.

[Mr Zip]

I doubt the TM people could guarantee that they hadn't simply sent the crime rates rising in a different city. And the people in this post were doing "a synchronized global healing" which allegedly reduced the number of bad things happening "on the earth." I don't believe there exists a system to monitor such results.

[Desiree]

Well you can count me in Simon I've sent off my email to Linda! Thanks!

[alpaca]

Perhaps it was because while everyone is praying, nobody is free to do crimes, like getting teenagers off trouble by engaging them in some healthy activities. For that, prayers are indeed an useful healthy activity, both mentally and temporally.

[Marion]

Prayer works. It's as simple as that.

Must we always need to measure how or why or when?

I have emailed Linda. Thank you, Simon.

[Malcolm Campbell]

I wonder whether it's the number of people involved in healings or the manner in which they synchronize their efforts with the true desires of those they're sending energy to that makes a difference in group actions. Those who "need to be healed" have, of course, chosen their condition, so part of the process might be learning (at a deep level of mind) whether they want to continue with that condition or move on to something else.

--Malcolm

[Mr Zip]

Most of the posts in your blog have seemed reasonable to me, Simon. You suggest ways of approaching the experience of life on a "see for yourself" basis. But here we have someone suggesting that the number of bad things happening on the earth actually reduced dramatically during a synchronized global healing. And apparently I'm expected to believe that without any evidence. I feel the earth moving under me ...

[Andy]

"According to some recent experiments that measured results from global healing meditation..."

If we could get access to this then that would be great. I did some searches with some keywords but didn't find anything on-line.

[Sally]

Well I think I can either do something ....or do nothing cos I'm not sure if it will work. I will get involved with this because ....what the heck! I can do something positive here. I meditate every day and so why not focus some positive energy out there. I work with The Secret after all so positve intention put out there has to be good. Mother Theresa did say (and I misquote I know) the greatest mistake we make is by doing nothing because we cannot do enough to solve this problem. So I will do a bit and when added to other's bits ......could become a lot! And who knows it could make a difference .....so why not go for it and stop analysing how it can be quantified and just project some positive energies out there.Our world sure needs a little help at this time does it not.
My best to all
Sally

[Simon]

Thanks for all your comments! It looks like I'd better get a move on and post some responses. I'm worried about all the steam coming out of Mr Zip's ears...

First of all, many thanks to Surjit, Desiree, Marion, and Sally - and indeed, to anyone else who may have emailed Linda. I'm delighted you wish to take part in this!

People - your comment echoes the concerns I expressed in my previous post, 'Positive Thinking For Beginners' about the apparent contradiction between accepting what is (on the one hand) and seeking to influence specific outcomes (on the other). After further reflection (and all the discussions we've had on this blog) it seems clear to me - for the time being! - that accepting 'what is' has to be the priority, but that we can also, if we wish, use the law of attraction with the intention of producing a specific outcome - as long as we have no attachment to that outcome. As you suggest, calling something ‘bad’ is less an objective assessment than a judgement. We have to accept that we live in a world where there is darkness as well as light and that many of the things we label as ‘bad’ have a purpose we may not understand. Yet accepting ‘what is’ is not about disempowerment – quite the opposite. It entails accepting things as they are right now *in this moment*. It doesn’t mean that we can’t change things in the future.

[Simon]

Mr Zip - There is no need to apologize for being sceptical. Scepticism is always welcome here - as long as it's politely and/or entertainingly expressed. And I am very pleased that you think most of the posts on this blog are 'reasonable'. It is an important part of my purpose to present the ideas here in such a way that people who might normally find them too wacky will give them due consideration. I do find, however, that this requires me to choose my words very carefully. We are speaking of tricky concepts here and the appropriate words can often be hard to find. I suspect I know what Linda was talking about when she spoke about a reduction in 'the number of bad things happening' but taken entirely literally this does kind of conjure up a picture of Kafkaesque clerks keeping an intricate global tally: "9,235 stubbed toes, 13,987 nose bleeds, 5,728 blocked dishwashers" etc. etc.

Clearly this hasn't happened, but as Andy suggests, it is worth looking at what evidence there is. I don''t know precisely what experiments Linda had in mind, and I know that she's jet-lagged at the moment so I'm not going to nudge her into responding, but as I said in the post and Andy has also mentioned, there have been a number of studies by 'the TM people'. There are links in the earlier post 'What The Bleep Do We Know?' to studies on the effects of meditation on local crime rates, and there's also a similar study on the quality of life & violence in the Middle East, the link to which is http://jcr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/32/4/776?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=maharishi&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=HWCIT.

Admittedly, none of these are global studies but the latter is clearly of global significance and they all seem to me to be relevant to the kind of project which Linda is proposing. Another (fascinating) study is also of significance, and this one *is* global. The Global Consciousness Project is a long-running study of the interaction of consciousness with physical systems. You can find the Wikipedia entry for this at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Consciousness_Project

As far as prayer is concerned I've read about a number of studies over the years, though unfortunately I haven't time to chase them up right now. The other demands of life are having a serious impact on my blogging at present, but perhaps this is something we can return to later.

I've more to say, but I think I'll post this now and then start a new comment...

[Simon]

The studies I've quoted above provide food for thought, I believe, though of course they're not *proof* that the project which Linda is proposing will be effective. The chances are that any substantial proof will never exist, if for no other reason then because it is unlikely to further any researcher's career to get involved in anything so wacky. In the end, it has to come down to the same as everything else I've mentioned in The Secret Of Life. How does it feel to you? Are you drawn to do it?

I asked Linda if I could republish her original email here because I thought it was, to quote Surjit, "a great and noble idea". There may not be explicit proof that such a project can work, but if we consider what is now widely believed about the nature of matter: that it doesn't really exist at all and is simply waves of energy, then the idea of our thought waves going out into that matrix of energy and having an effect is not inconceivable. Contrary to what is sometimes claimed (most recently in the book of The Secret) it does not seem me that the science *proves' any of this stuff, but the two are by no means incompatible - and sometimes you just have to make an intuitive leap.

I've a few more responses to make, but those will have to wait till tomorrow...

[Simon]

Alpaca - Welcome and thanks for your comment, though any response escapes me just at this moment! I guess I should pray for divine inspiration. At least it will keep me off the street...

Malcolm - You seem to have a knack of making brief comments which really demand a volume or two in response! This is not a complaint on my part, you understand, just an observation. Your speculation about the way in which healing works makes a great deal of sense. The idea that those who suffer have - at some level - chosen their condition is one which I share, though it can cause a great deal of hurt and offence if the context is not understood. I should really do a full post on the subject at some stage, but briefly: I believe that we all have to undergo such suffering as part of our long journey - through a great many incarnations - back to the light. It is fine to seek to ease the suffering of others, but all such suffering cannot be eradicated, because that is not the nature of this world. My interpretation of what Linda wrote about 'the healing of the earth', however, was not about this so much as a) healing the damage to our planet (as in global warming etc) and b) healing the overall mindset of humanity, to help us to understand that we are all one and do not have to be at the mercy of the violent urges of our egos any longer.

That, however, was *my* interpretation. It may be that when we pray for the healing of our planet, we all have something rather different in mind.

And after all that analysis, I should add that I also agree with Sally. There is a time when we should stop analyzing and simply go for what we feel drawn to do!

Thanks once again to you all for your responses.

[Linda]

Linda's response:

I don't know how many of you will read this, as the last entry was 8 days ago. However, I will attempt to answer what has been said.

As many of you have pointed out, the way to measure a reduction in 'bad' things on a global scale has not really been found. The study in question was one that was done in a specific city for a specific reason by specific people -- and they measured the crime activity before, during and after the concentrated meditation -- and during the time of the meditation, the crime activity was reduced.

There have been several studies done, and you can read about them here:
http://www.dubrovnik-peace-project.cro.net/sci/maharishi_effect.htm. As you can see it is associated with what is called the Maharishi Effect.

Another study that has been taken to be effective in the UK against crime can be found at:
http://www.natural-law-party.org.uk/pressreleases/UK-19960425-British-study-shows-TM-proven.htm which also shows a change in the crime rate that is measurable with the use of meditation.

Having said all that, however, I did say 'global' and was a bit overenthusiastic in that. I was paraphrasing badly! Nevertheless, I believe that we can change the world by bringing together those of us already on the pathway that Simon has been writing about. For those who have responded directly to me, I have given out a more general suggestion -- as it became impossible for me to try to synchronize everyone's meditation times and also people were fuzzy on when they actually did so, being human as we are we meditate at different times. Here is a copy of my email:

"In general your comments confirm that it would be difficult for people to commit to a particular time and space for their meditations to join together with others and cover the globe as I had envisioned -- at least for the moment. Therefore, I am simply asking each of you who are meditating for peace to link into a general 'network of meditation for peace' as there seem to be a rather large number already on this pathway around the world. I feel sure the universe will recognise what we are all up to!

If someone in every time zone eventually contacts me, that would be good, but most of you have said you cannot commit to a specific time every day. Therefore, if you would like to simply add some phrase to your regular meditation that somehow shows that we are all one and we are all in this together, in whatever words you might like to use, then for now, that will be a wonderful addition.

In my own meditation, for example, I am simply saying at the start something like this: 'May this time of meditation be connected with all those around the world who are putting energy towards peace, and may our efforts be successful in bringing love and peace to all.'

I am going to keep track of every person who writes and we will see what comes of it in the next few weeks."

Thus, if you wish to participate in this, all you need do is link into the universal mind, which is timeless, and harmonize your thoughts in concert with others. I know the universe will hear us!!

Thank you for any participation you wish to take, and if you want more information on how intention can change the world, I suggest you look at this site: http://www.theintentionexperiment.com/ which is about to launch a huge experiment -- it does entail being prepared by reading an excellent book called The Intention Experiment by Lynne McTaggart (who also wrote The Zero Point Field).

[Linda]

Actually I meant she wrote THE FIELD you can read a review at http://www.lighttravels.com/thefield.htm