Study 11: Decrease in crime and car accidents in the Netherlands (1981)

Between January 1979 and December 1981 there were 3 periods in which groups of Yogic Flyers assembled, large enough to have an influence on behaviour in all of the Netherlands (376 Yogic Flyers, in line with the formula of the square root of 1% of the population). Two of these 3 assemblies were purposely organised by the Dutch TM organisations, with public predictions to the media that they would have an influence both on crime statistics and the number of car accidents. The third assembly was a large assembly in Germany, not far from the Dutch border, with 900 Yogic Flyers.

In order to paint a realistic picture of the effect of these 3 assemblies, statistics for crime and car accidents were requested for the same months in which the assemblies of Yogic Flyers occurred (January, August, and December) for the past 10 years.

Crime statistics showed that during the 3 assemblies an exceptionally low number of crimes took place in comparison to the previous 10 years (3,000 to 10,000 fewer crimes). The number for car accidents showed a similar result, a significant decrease during the 3 months of the assemblies, in comparison to the previous 10 years (p=.08 tot p=.002).Ref.Scientific Research on Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation, Collected Papers vol. 4, no. 325, pp 2566-2582