World Oneness Day - Global Peace Meditation

In the comments on an earlier post, we were discussing various attempts to monitor the positive effects which might be produced by mass meditation and prayer. People wanted to know if anyone had really proved that such things made a difference. In the course of this discussion, I mentioned the Global Consciousness Project at Princeton University, the purpose of which is to measure the effects of consciousness on physical systems. You can see the Wikipedia entry for the Global Consciousness Project here.

In another recent post, I wrote about Deeksha, a transfer of energy which is claimed to initiate an evolution in human consciousness. Deeksha, or the Oneness Blessing as it is now becoming known, has been brought into the world by Bhagavan and Amma, founders of the Oneness Movement, which is based at the Golden City in southern India. Their aim is to bring into being a new golden age for mankind.

Now, in an interesting piece of synchronicity, the Global Consciousness Project and the Oneness Movement are coming together for an exciting event called World Oneness Day, a Global Peace Meditation, on Sunday 20th May. On that day, many thousands of people worldwide will be coming together to meditate and pray on the theme of global peace and harmony with nature. There will be twelve main events, the largest of which, with an estimated attendance of 50,000, will be led by Bhagavan and Amma at the Oneness Temple in Golden City. The other main events will be at Mount Fuji, Japan; Sydney, Australia; Auroville, India; Lucknow, India; Tel Aviv, Israel; Budapest, Hungary; Damanhur Federation, Italy; Duluth, MN, USA; Hawaii, USA; Samoa; and online. The effects of this global meditation are to be monitored by the Global Consciousness Project and the results will be made public. Many of these events will also involve the giving of Deeksha. For details of all the above events, including contact information, plus some information on the measurements which are to be taken, please see here. For some other good articles about the events and the associated experiments, see here and here.

In addition to the above events, many smaller gatherings will also take place worldwide. It's not too late to organize your own! The best way to find the events is probably to do a google, but if anyone knows of an event they would like to publicize here, please leave the details in a comment on this post. Here are a few that I've found: California, USA; Virginia, USA; Bristol, England - contact Paul for details; Leeds, England - contact Heidi or Ed for details. My wife Chris and I, together with one or two Secret of Life readers, will be at the Leeds event all being well, so perhaps we will see you there?

Do have a read about Deeksha (Oneness Blessing) before you attend one of the events: follow the links above or take a look at the article on Deeksha in the latest edition of Kindred Spirit Magazine. There are also some interesting articles and DVDs on Deeksha available at Path To Oneness. If you can't make it to one of the events but would like to participate online, you can sign up here.

Comments

[Amit]

Hey Simon,

Sounds like an awesome experiment and I might even get my friends in on this and have a meditation session! :)

[Mr Zip]

The attempts at scientific monitoring by random generators look interesting, but when I look at the other sites I keep running into things like "50 scientific research studies conducted over the past 25 years using rigorous research methods and evaluation procedures have confirmed the effects" of joint prayer and meditation. Why can't I find evidence of these studies on the net?

[jennifer]

Hi Simon... thank you for giving us this information. I have been reading about the Oneness Movement since I first read your blog about it.

I am hoping to participate in a group meditation session here in Virginia!

We'll see how it goes!

Thanks Simon...

Jennifer

[Andy]

Hi Simon,

I will be attending a meeting with Gangaji that weekend so won't be coming along. Maybe this event will be mentioned there.

Andy

[Brian]

Simon,
Sounds like an interesting gathering! Reminds me of something I read about the Transcendental Meditation crowd attempting a long time back. Although I've heard some sketchy things about them so I'm not sure if it is the same thing.

I think anything done in a group becomes magnified more than the sum of its individual parts, and can have the ability to create change. And who couldn't use some meditation?

[Secret Simon]

Thnaks for all your comments!

Amit - If you can get a gathering of your own together, that would be great!

Jennifer - It's great that you're near one of the gatherings - I hope you have a good time!

Andy - Sorry you won't be joining us in Leeds, but I hope you enjoy your weekend!

Mr Zip - I understand your concern. I found an interesting site where they organize weekly group meditations: http://www.metamorphosismagazine.com/PlanetaryPeaceGathering.html#power
If you click on 'Scientific Research on Prayer' near the top, there's some detailed info from a book by a guy called Larry Dossey about the power of the mind in medicine. The wider effects of group meditation which are also claimed (under 'The Power Of Consciousness') appear to be less well documented, though maybe the various medical experiments would be too if Larry Dossey hadn't written his book! I don't think we can assume that experiments which predated the internet will necessarily be written up on it, though of course it is always possible that the evidence is being exaggerated.

I am encouraged, however, that there seems to be a genuine desire to measure things now. The numbers involved in World Oneness Day aren't actually vast, if you look at the estimated figures, but what makes the experiment particularly exciting for me is the large meeting which is being led by Amma and Bhagavan. We are talking about a large number of enlightened people here. If anything will get those dials turning, that should do it!

Brian - The studies done by the TM people *were* well documented. There are links on my earlier post 'What The Bleep Do We Know?' and in the comments on another post, 'Global Meditation/Prayer For Peace And Healing'.

I've certainly noticed that meditating in a group is more powerful than meditating alone. I suppose that explains the local effects which were measured in the TM Studies. What I don't understand is why the effects *should* be local however. I should have thought that when we meditate we connect with an energy which is outside space and time - so why get 'local' effects? Can anyone explain that?

[Mark]

Thank-you for brining this event to our attenetion! This will be awesome.

[Secret Simon]

I'm certainly looking forward to it, Mark - and thanks to Linda who contacted me to point out that Oneness Day is actually part of a larger global meditation and prayer event called 'Breakthrough Celebration - Compassion to Action' which lasts from May 15th to May 29th. "It is anticipated that over 1,000,000 people will participate in this two-week program from virtually every faith-system, religious group, indigenous community and meditation assembly currently in existence. Concurrent with the prayer-meditation practices we will monitor crime statistics, emergency call data and other social indicators to ascertain change as a result of this peace-creating program." So it seems like those measurements will be taking place in addition to the Global Consciousness project data.

The umbrella web site is http://www.commonpassion.org and details of the organizations and events involved in the two week project can be found at http://www.commonpassion.org/partners/organizations.php

[Secret Simon]

Here's a further URL where you can register to participate in the May 20th Oneness Day online: http://www.enlightenment-online.com/Online_Deekshas.html

[Malcolm Campbell]

The Maharishi Effect has been documented often in formal studies as causing a noticeable impact. Kabbalists meditating at synchronised times have also found real and verifiable results.

Malcolm

[Mr Zip]

I'm sure after the acknowledged stress of moving you'll be delighted to know that I've now tagged you with a meme - here.

[Battlerocker]

Sounds intriguing. I never knew it had been documented so.