The Effects of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field
David W. Orme-Johnson, Charles N. Alexander, John L. Davies
Journal of Conflict Resolution December 1, 1990 DOI: 10.1177/0022002790034004009 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Commentary Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Interventions | Transcendental Meditation (TM) TM-Sidhi program |
| Citations | 24 |
| Key points | The authors argue that the 1988 finding of reduced Lebanon-Israel conflict associated with TM and TM-Sidhi practice is robust: political-boundary specification of the independent variable is consistent with theory and forty other studies, "reverse causation" cannot account for the effects, and results hold across fourteen transfer function models, with the Akaike Information Criterion selecting an optimal model yielding t=5, p<.0001. |
Abstract
This article replies to a methodological criticism of Orme-Johnson et al., (1988). The original study reported that participants in the Transcendental Meditation (TM) and TM-Sidhi program located in Jerusalem significantly reduced tension in “collective consciousness” and behavior as measured by decreased conflict in Lebanon and improvement on several social indicators in Israel. Specification of the independent variable on the basis of political boundaries rather than geographical distance alone was shown to be consistent with both theory and forty other studies. It is explained how “reverse causation” cannot account for observed effects. Also, reanalyses show that the results are robust across fourteen alternative transfer function models. Using a purely objective criterion for model selection, the Akaike Information Criterion, the optimal model yields the most significant result ( t=5, p <.0001). Liu's linear transfer function approach yields similar results. Other robustness checks (substituting “pseudo” independent or dependent variables) do not yield spurious results.