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Principles and Practice of Sustainability in Maharishi Vedic Science
Lee Fergusson,
Geoffrey Wells,
David Kettle
Issue:
Volume 3, Issue 3-1, May 2017
Pages:
1-15
Received:
27 October 2016
Accepted:
4 November 2016
Published:
17 January 2017
DOI:
10.11648/j.jher.s.2017030301.11
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Abstract: Concepts such as the “self-sufficient” and “self-perpetuating” nature of human consciousness and “man must learn to live in harmony with nature”, and programs such as Vedic organic agriculture and creating a “global green revolution”, are situated centrally in Maharishi Vedic Science—the complete science of the Veda and Vedic Literature as presented by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. A prima facie case can therefore be made that these and other elements suggest Maharishi Vedic Science may play a part in creating a sustainable future for humanity. However, the potential role of Vedic knowledge and technology in, and its practical contribution to, the conversation surrounding sustainability science have yet to be fully explored. Research undertaken to date, while extensive, has been restricted mostly to the relationship of Maharishi Vedic Science to agriculture (with a particular focus on soil science and genetically-modified food) and, to a lesser degree, architecture and forestry. For this reason, the present paper considers the fundamental principles and practice of sustainability in Maharishi Vedic Science and explores its possible impact on creating a sustainable world future.
Abstract: Concepts such as the “self-sufficient” and “self-perpetuating” nature of human consciousness and “man must learn to live in harmony with nature”, and programs such as Vedic organic agriculture and creating a “global green revolution”, are situated centrally in Maharishi Vedic Science—the complete science of the Veda and Vedic Literature as presente...
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The Effect of Coherent Collective Consciousness on National Quality of Life and Economic Performance Indicators—An Analysis of the IMD Index of National Competitive Advantage
Guy Hatchard,
Kenneth Cavanaugh
Issue:
Volume 3, Issue 3-1, May 2017
Pages:
16-31
Received:
13 January 2017
Accepted:
16 February 2017
Published:
20 March 2017
DOI:
10.11648/j.jher.s.2017030301.12
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Abstract: The scores of New Zealand and Norway on the IMD Index of National Competitive Advantage increased significantly when they passed the predicted coherence group threshold in 1993 (1% of a population practicing the Transcendental Meditation program or the √1% practicing the advanced TM-Sidhi program in a group) when compared to 44 other developed nations as shown by cross-country panel regression analysis robust to serially correlated errors, heteroskedasticity, and contemporaneous correlation of residuals (p < 0.000000000000003). Subsidiary analysis and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) data confirmed that the changes were unusually broad-based (p <.000000065), sustained, and balanced in nature with five years of high growth, low unemployment, and low inflation. Taken as a whole, the findings suggest a prescription for balanced and sustained growth based on a method to enhance quality of life and innovation among the population.
Abstract: The scores of New Zealand and Norway on the IMD Index of National Competitive Advantage increased significantly when they passed the predicted coherence group threshold in 1993 (1% of a population practicing the Transcendental Meditation program or the √1% practicing the advanced TM-Sidhi program in a group) when compared to 44 other developed nati...
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Field Effects of Consciousness and Reduction in U.S. Urban Murder Rates: Evaluation of a Prospective Quasi-Experiment
Kenneth L. Cavanaugh,
Michael C. Dillbeck
Issue:
Volume 3, Issue 3-1, May 2017
Pages:
32-43
Received:
14 February 2017
Accepted:
22 February 2017
Published:
20 March 2017
DOI:
10.11648/j.jher.s.2017030301.13
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Abstract: Creation of a sustainable society ideally should include promotion of an enhanced overall quality of life, including freedom from crime, violence, and other key indicators of social stress. This study is part of a comprehensive empirical evaluation of the results of a prospective four-year quasi-experiment that sought to reduce rates of homicide and violent crime as well as to improve other measures of the quality of life and public health in the United States. The current research tests the hypothesis that group practice of the Transcendental Meditation® (TM) and TM-Sidhi® program by a group of theoretically predicted size would be sufficient to reduce collective stress in the larger population, as reflected in decreased rates of homicide in a sample of 206 large U.S. urban areas. Time series regression analysis of monthly data for 2002–2010 using a broken-trend intervention model found significant reductions in trend for the urban homicide rate during the 2007–2010 intervention period (p = 1 x 10–13). Controlling for pre-intervention trends, seasonality, and autocorrelation, the estimated total reduction in homicide rate was 28.4% (7.1% annually). The practical significance of these findings is also indicated by an estimated 4,136 murders averted by the reduced trend in murder rate during the intervention. Diagnostic tests are satisfactory and indicate that the results are unlikely due to “spurious regression.” The mechanism for these macro-social effects is discussed in the light of possible alternative hypotheses.
Abstract: Creation of a sustainable society ideally should include promotion of an enhanced overall quality of life, including freedom from crime, violence, and other key indicators of social stress. This study is part of a comprehensive empirical evaluation of the results of a prospective four-year quasi-experiment that sought to reduce rates of homicide an...
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Addressing the Wicked Problems of Sustainability Through Consciousness-Based Education
Christopher Jones,
Gabriel Akura
Issue:
Volume 3, Issue 3-1, May 2017
Pages:
44-62
Received:
6 March 2017
Accepted:
6 April 2017
Published:
27 April 2017
DOI:
10.11648/j.jher.s.2017030301.14
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Abstract: In order to imagine and then create a sustainable future, education will have to be significantly rethought and redesigned. Starting from the UNO 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we tackle the competencies, and then the curricula and methods, that education will have to adopt in order to pursue this agenda. After identifying outstanding issues in competencies, curricula and methods, we introduce a new agenda for education structured around developing the consciousness of the knower, or learner, as a basis for improved teaching and learning. This new agenda, which addresses several of the issues of Education for Sustainability, is called Consciousness-Based Education, first introduced by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the early 1970s. At the end we present a model that integrates the development of consciousness into higher education for sustainability.
Abstract: In order to imagine and then create a sustainable future, education will have to be significantly rethought and redesigned. Starting from the UNO 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we tackle the competencies, and then the curricula and methods, that education will have to adopt in order to pursue this agenda. After identifying outstanding iss...
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Responding to Climate Change: The Contribution of Maharishi Vedic Science
Geoffrey Wells,
Lee Fergusson,
David Kettle,
Anna Bonshek
Issue:
Volume 3, Issue 3-1, May 2017
Pages:
63-78
Received:
1 April 2017
Accepted:
6 April 2017
Published:
27 April 2017
DOI:
10.11648/j.jher.s.2017030301.15
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Abstract: The scope and reach of the climate change challenge is clearly unprecedented, as is its level of global urgency. We review the broad results of the scientific program associated with it. These results identify serious impacts on physical, biological, and human systems, as separate systems and as cascading through them. The global risks associated with these impacts are daunting. Modern analytic approaches to this order of complexity and uncertainty have so far made only a limited contribution to its understanding and resolution. In particular these approaches identify a crucial gap: the understanding and modelling of the whole, rather than the parts, of the system. We then advance the promise of Maharishi Vedic Science in providing this missing scientific knowledge, in principle and in practice. In particular we explore a model offered by Maharishi Vedic Science which describes eight levels of Natural Law to embrace all the complex diverse systems of which the global climate system is comprised. Further we review the technologies through which Maharishi Vedic Science offers to restore balance, integration and orderly growth to all systems from their foundation in the Unified Field of Natural Law. We outline the extensive scientific research program which has provided robust support for the predictions of Maharishi Vedic Science with respect to both individual and collective life; which extend, we suggest, to the global community and to the global challenge of climate change.
Abstract: The scope and reach of the climate change challenge is clearly unprecedented, as is its level of global urgency. We review the broad results of the scientific program associated with it. These results identify serious impacts on physical, biological, and human systems, as separate systems and as cascading through them. The global risks associated w...
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Human Development and Capability: Reconstructed and Fulfilled Through Maharishi Vedic Science
David Kettle,
Geoffrey Wells,
Lee Fergusson
Issue:
Volume 3, Issue 3-1, May 2017
Pages:
79-89
Received:
12 April 2017
Accepted:
13 April 2017
Published:
9 June 2017
DOI:
10.11648/j.jher.s.2017030301.16
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Abstract: This paper reconstructs the concept of human development in light of Maharishi Vedic Science. In Maharishi Vedic Science, the fulfillment of human development is realised in higher states of consciousness. In higher states of consciousness, the mind, body and senses still function in daily life, but at a much more refined and integrated state of functioning. The key aspect of human development explored is that of human capabilities, through the concept called the ‘Capability Approach’. The Capability Approach places the importance on people’s ability to have freedoms (capabilities) to lead the kind of lives they want to lead, to do what they want to do and to be the person they value and want to be. The major constituents of the Capability Approach are ‘functionings’ and ‘capabilities’. A ‘functioning’ being an achievement, and a ‘capability’, the ability to achieve the functioning. Maharishi Vedic Science places human consciousness at the level underlying that of capabilities, essentially, an underlying Universal Capability which allows any individual to naturally and spontaneously develop the full range of functionings, leading to the fulfilment of human development in everyday life. The growth of human consciousness and subsequent fulfillment of dimensions of human development is then explored through published scientific research studies on those practicing Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program (the means to contact and enliven this field of human consciousness).
Abstract: This paper reconstructs the concept of human development in light of Maharishi Vedic Science. In Maharishi Vedic Science, the fulfillment of human development is realised in higher states of consciousness. In higher states of consciousness, the mind, body and senses still function in daily life, but at a much more refined and integrated state of fu...
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