Please sign and forward! See petition link at the end of this message!
President Obama, President Putin, Prime Minister Cameron: We call on you to help send a peace group of meditators to the Middle East The Middle East is at the edge of an abyss President Putin has just launched 26 cruise missiles against rebel groups in Syria threatening to escalate the existing war and spread it across the Middle East. Over 200,000 people have already died in Syria. Iran and Saudi Arabia are increasingly being drawn into the conflict. Iraq is in turmoil again, Europe and Turkey are being inundated with refugees trying to escape annihilation and it looks like millions more are on their way. There are further eruptions of violence between the Israelis and Palestinians, civil war in the Yemen is further threatening stability in the Arabian peninsular. Hezbollah and Islamic state are fighting it out in Lebanon. We are in a very dangerous situation; our world leaders seem to have run out of options and are at a loss to know what to do to restore peace and order. Military action risks a further escalation of the conflict and could plunge us into the abyss of global war. Conventional armed intervention failed to stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan, despite the US spending $1.5 trillion. Group meditation is proven to create peace An overlooked and highly cost effective way to quickly bring peace and stability to the Middle East exists. Group meditation has been proven to work time and time again in peace projects and in controlled research studies around the world. Whether governments, security agencies and the media believe it or not, the simple fact is that groups of specially trained meditators using an advanced form of Transcendental Meditation calm down the fighting and hostility almost immediately when deployed in a conflict zone. Sometimes the fighting stops in as little as twenty-four hours. Fifty research studies demonstrate the effect of group meditation The research is so extensive that one quantum physicist is quoted as saying, "There is more evidence that the group practice of Transcendental Meditation can turn off war like a light switch than there is that aspirin reduces headache pain." In fact, this approach is so consistent, specific and measurable that we can predict that all we need is about 3,000 meditators to trigger a rapid change in positivity and harmony for the whole Middle East. Amazing as it sounds, this peaceful effect requires no physical, social or political interaction between the meditating group and the host population. Using group meditation, the peace process is activated from the level of the collective consciousness discreetly, spontaneously and in silence. The obstacle to peace is your disbelief Unfortunately, group meditation as a peace initiative, although easy enough to arrange, still appears bizarre and unreal to most people. We are bought up to believe that such things are impossible and, as psychologists know, early belief patterns are difficult to shift. Tragically, because there is no public belief in the power of meditation to restore peace, not one government in the G7 nations has had the courage to consider adopting this approach. Always looking to the next election, politicians and their advisers don’t want to appear ridiculous, and they refuse see what they don’t already believe in. You can help by signing the petition Now is the time for you to help persuade our political leaders to open their eyes and try something new. With public support, what have they got to lose? Lets face it: the apparent options open to them are all unpleasant, costly and difficult and also tend to perpetuate the suffering of the innocent. Whatever else our governments try to do is likely to make the conflict worse, and there is now a serious risk of escalation with other Middle Eastern countries hardening their attitudes and feeling the need to join in the fighting. It seems more and more likely that the western nations will start to commit ground forces in the region, and we can guess that this is going to be opposed by a resurgent Russian military. The prospects for peace look grim. So, being too embarrassed to try new ideas is no longer an acceptable or responsible option if we want to maintain peace in the Middle East and prevent terrorism and chaos in Europe. International help is needed The immediate challenge is to bring enough meditators together in one place in or near the Middle East, and this is where international help is needed. But the beauty of using group meditation to bring peace is that no one feels defeated. Everyone wins. It is literally a fact that from one place in or near the Middle East we can create a beautiful influence of coherence and harmony in the collective consciousness, and that influence will radiate around the whole region. Even the cost of keeping a residual garrison of 5,000 soldiers in Iraq is currently $1.95 billion per year, just to prevent the Iraqi government from collapsing. At a tiny fraction of this cost a group of expert meditators would bring peace to the whole of the Middle East region and, if kept in place, would end the brutality and bloodshed on a permanent basis. Jeremy Old World Peace Group References Lebanon peace project reduces war deaths by 76% - Journal of Conflict Resolution, 1988 http://www.worldpeacegroup.org/lebanon_peace_project_research.html <http://www.worldpeacegroup.org/lebanon_peace_project_research.html> The first world peace experiment showed a 352% increase in co-operative events in international affairs - Scientific papers on Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programme, Collected Papers volume 4, number 322. http://www.worldpeacegroup.org/first_world_peace_experiment.html <http://www.worldpeacegroup.org/first_world_peace_experiment.html> Washington crime study shows 23.3% drop in violent crime due to meditating group. Social Indicators Research (vol 47 issue 2: 153-201, 1999) http://www.worldpeacegroup.org/washington_crime_study.html <http://www.worldpeacegroup.org/washington_crime_study.html> Meditating group reduces cortisol in people nearby. Society for Neuroscience Abstracts 14: 372, 1988. http://www.worldpeacegroup.org/Meditators_reduce_cortisol.html <http://www.worldpeacegroup.org/Meditators_reduce_cortisol.html> Fifty peace research summaries, free download document http://www.worldpeacegroup.org/Peace_research_studies.html <http://www.worldpeacegroup.org/Peace_research_studies.html> If you want to read the full research papers you can buy the scientific papers on Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programme, Collected Papers volume 4, http://www.mumpress.com/books/scientific-research/collected-papers/b04.html <http://www.mumpress.com/books/scientific-research/collected-papers/b04.html> “I think the claim can be plausibly made that the potential impact of this research exceeds that of any other ongoing social or psychological research program. It has survived a broader array of statistical tests than most research in the field of conflict resolution. This work and the theory that informs it deserve the most serious consideration by academics and policy-makers alike.” David Edwards Ph.D., Professor of Government, University of Texas at Austin https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/President_Obama_President_Putin_PM_Cameron_We_call_on_world_leaders_to_send_a_world_peace_group_to_the_Middle_East/?tAsnXab <https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/President_Obama_President_Putin_PM_Cameron_We_call_on_world_leaders_to_send_a_world_peace_group_to_the_Middle_East/?tAsnXab> Sent by Avaaz on behalf of Jeremy's petition Avaaz.org <http://avaaz.org/> is a 41-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 18 countries on 6 continents and operates in 17 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here <http://www.avaaz.org/en/highlights.php/?footer>, or follow us on Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/Avaaz> or Twitter <http://twitter.com/Avaaz>.
