JMVRI Issue No. 28 features three studies: “Quantification of the Global Maharishi Effect: A Quasi-Experimental Study of the Three Most Violent Countries in the World”, by Kenneth L. Cavanaugh and Lee Fergusson (pp. 11–53); “Harmony, Vāstu Architecture and Contemporary Living”, by Aparna Datey and Anna Bonshek (pp. 55–75); and “Jyoti: A Large-Scale, Architectural, Sculpture Installation” by Anna Bonshek (pp. 77–92).
JMVRI Issue Number 28
JMVRI Paper 28.1
Quantification of the Global Maharishi Effect: A Quasi-Experimental Study of the Three Most Violent Countries in the World
Authors: Kenneth L. Cavanaugh and Lee Fergusson
This paper can be downloaded via the following link:
Citation: Cavanaugh, K. L., & Fergusson, L. (2025). Quantification of the Global Maharishi Effect: A quasi-experimental study of the three most violent countries in the world. Journal of Maharishi Vedic Research Institute, 28, 11–53.
Summary (excerpt):
This study investigates the sociological impact of the Assembly of 10,000 for World Peace held in India from December 2023 to January 2024. According to the authors, in the last 30 years the most prevalent and deadly form of armed conflict in the world has been violent conflict within states. However, the continued prevalence of so-called ‘intrastate’ violence suggests standard approaches to its prevention—such as mediation, negotiated settlements and peacekeeping operations—often provide little more than temporary mitigation.
The authors suggest these approaches have failed to effectively address the fundamental cause of collective violence: accumulated stress and tension in the individual and in the collective consciousness of society. They outline a comprehensive ‘consciousness-based approach’ advanced by Maharishi for reducing intrastate collective violence, called the Global Maharishi Effect, and present empirical evidence from the Assembly of 10,000 for World Peace to evaluate its impact on the three most violent countries in the world—Palestine, Myanmar and Syria.
The ‘treatment’ for this quasi-experiment was a theoretically predicted group size of at least 10,000 people engaged in practice of Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation and TM–Sidhi program during the Assembly. Time series impact-assessment analysis was used to evaluate data on political violence obtained from the Armed Conflict and Location Event Data (ACLED) project, an independent and impartial conflict monitor that collects, analyses, and maps data on conflict and protest, providing detailed information to help identify, understand, and track patterns and trends in conflict and crisis situations around the world. The data used in this study was derived from the three countries at the time of the Assembly experiencing the most extreme levels of intrastate violence.
Empirical support was found for the hypothesis that the Assembly was associated with a significantly reduced trend of violence, as measured by the total combined number of violent events in the world’s then three most violent and unstable countries, a finding consistent with previous studies on the Maharishi Effect. A photographic image of the assembled 10,000 participants at Kanha Shanti Vanam, near Hyderabad in India, is shown below.
JMVRI Paper 28.2
Harmony, Vāstu Architecture and Contemporary Living
Authors: Aparna Datey and Anna Bonshek
This paper can be downloaded via the following link:
https://www.academia.edu/144717531/Harmony_V%C4%81stu_Architecture_and_Contemporary_Living
Citation: Datey, A., & Bonshek, A. (2025). Harmony, Vāstu architecture and contemporary living. Journal of Maharishi Vedic Research Institute, 28, 55–75.
Summary (excerpt):
This study explores the knowledge and application of Vāstu, the traditional Indian science of architecture, which provides a holistic approach to design, construction, and the training of architects. Vāstu principles and guidelines are rooted in Vedic knowledge and fundamental environmental criteria, allowing for the design of congenial settings of living and working for enhanced harmony, stability and defence, for well-being, and, when implemented in a corporate context, for increased creativity and workforce development. This ancient system of architecture and city planning has influenced architecture and city planning globally.
In Vāstu, the built structure is a symbol of the physical body and a microcosm of universal energy, defining a correlation between the individual and the cosmic while emphasising coherence with environmental criteria. At the gross level, Vāstu deals with climate, comfort, and sustainability, and at the most subtle level deals with harmony and prosperity. Continuously practiced over the centuries in India by Sthāpatis or master architects, in the last three decades there has been a holistic revival of Vāstu, notably under the guidance of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and leading Sthāpatis, progressing the practice in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. This paper discusses the main principles of Vāstu, presents examples of it through multiple case studies, and references preliminary research results; it aims to increase awareness of this universally applicable system to validate its relevance for a broader global audience.
JMVRI Paper 28.3
Jyoti: A Large-Scale, Architectural, Sculpture Installation
Author: Anna Bonshek
This paper can be downloaded via the following link:
https://www.academia.edu/144717577/Jyoti_A_Large_Scale_Architectural_Sculpture_Installation
Citation: Bonshek, A. (2025). Jyoti: A large-scale, architectural, sculpture installation. Journal of Maharishi Vedic Research Institute, 28, 77–92.
Summary (excerpt):
This study presents a new sculptural installation titled Jyoti, inspired by the silence of a Jyotir Linga site in Aotearoa (New Zealand) while exploring resonance in place. The initial concept—under the working title Light Stone, accepted for inclusion at the ‘Swell Sculpture Festival: People Art Place’ in 2023 on the Gold Coast in Australia—drew inspiration from the Jyotir Linga structure that references 12 traditional sites in India where it is held that Shiva is represented in ‘light-manifested’ form.
The notion of Svayambhu or self-born, standing for complete knowledge and the basis of everything without form or attributes, suggests Shiva can appear in the bivalent aniconic pillar shape or lingam (without symbol or icon). This abstract lingam is held to mark “the presence of the invisible, transcendental reality of Shiva” or pure silence. Elsewhere, understood to represent the wholeness of natural law “available in complete full silence”, Shiva in the lingam form corresponds to the entire human brain, where the brain as a whole is the instrument of the experience of pure silence or pure consciousness, the Transcendence. As such, the quality of pure silence (signified by the name ‘Shiva’) is open to individual experience and relates to the balanced functioning of the brain.