In Washington DC in the summer of 1993, a group of 4000 meditators began a seven-week experiment. Their goal was to meet daily in shopping malls, office spaces and condo recreation rooms to sit together for between two and four hours with the sole focus of reducing crime in the city. At the time the city had earned the nickname ‘murder capital’ of the United States due to a violent crack cocaine epidemic, which contributed to some of the highest crime rates in its history.

During the seven-week experiment, named ‘The National Demonstration Project to Reduce Violent Crime and Improve Governmental Effectiveness’, the crime rate in the city dropped significantly by 23%.

In addition to crime control, quality of life, which was measured in four other parameters: emergency psychiatric calls, hospital trauma cases, complaints against the police, and accidental deaths, also improved.

Due to its success the experiment was cited in a Washington Post article; – ‘They came, they meditated and everything got better.’

The effect was referred to as ‘The Maharishi Effect.’

The Maharishi Effect is a phenomenon where the group practice of Transcendental Meditation (TM) by a small percentage of a population (1%) is claimed to reduce societal stress and crime while increasing positive trends like prosperity and harmony.

Coined in the 1970s by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the Transcendental Meditation movement, The Maharishi Effect posits that individual consciousness affects collective consciousness, acting as a ‘field effect’ of peace.

As someone who has been involved with various collective awakening groups over the past few years, I can attest to a tangible and dynamic current of evolution and awakening that presents itself whenever group participants meet. This current often carries over and runs through regular daily life, a subtle energetic connection that becomes present even when we are not meeting together.

Although difficult to measure or prove, this suggests that the gathering together of spiritual groups with the common goal of evolving planetary consciousness is therefore also optimized within the ‘Maharishi field effect.’

But what does this mean for the solo meditator who may not have access to a group of like-minded individuals or may not particularly want to participate in a collective group but still wants to contribute to the healing and awakening of the world?

While there is no way to track exactly how many people are sitting in meditation with this same goal at any precise moment, estimates suggest that between 200 million and 500 million people practice meditation worldwide and 275 million people practice meditation regularly.

It could therefore be said that one is never alone when sitting in meditation even if one is alone!

And so, I suggest that while there seems to be a growing desire for the support and camaraderie of collective awakening groups and that they are becoming more prevalent, they are not necessarily necessary.

And so, to any lone meditators who desire to contribute, to awaken, to make a difference by bringing peace, joy, and harmony to the world, I hope this article brings confidence of mind through the understanding that what we each contribute to our practice, solo or in groups, has a profound effect.

We are all powerful individuals, all making a difference – awakening together alone.