b'30 GLOBAL UNION OF SCIENTISTS FOR PEACE SCIENTIFIC SOLUTIONS TO VIOLENCE AND GLOBAL CONFLICT 31NATIONAL IMPLEMENTATIONEDUCATIONAssessing the societal impact of a single large group of peace-creating experts: National Demonstration Project, USAThe United States plays a pivotal role in global politics and world events. Creating a powerful influence of peace in the USand by extension on US foreign policycould thus have a significant positive impact on global affairs and global conflict.Moreover, a large-scale successful implementation of the Brain-Based Approach in the US would help build support for this approach within the scientific, public policy, and philanthropic communities, and thereby accelerate the programs acceptance, funding, and implementation on a global scale.Previous published studies have shown that a single group of 2,500 advanced meditation experts positioned within the continental US is sufficient to produce a significant and demonstrable effect of peace and social coherence throughout the nationdefusing societal tensions, promoting social harmony, and reducing crime and violence on a national scale [21,22].Progress ReportPhase 1: National Demonstration Project In July 2006, the first long-term scientific demonstration project on the large-scale implementation of the Brain-Based Approach to Peace was launched in Fairfield, Iowa, USA. This experiment was designedPeace-creating experts. Seventeen hundred and fifty advanced TM practitioners for a University setting, and was held on the campus of Maharishi University of Management, wheremeditate together in two grand golden domes during a 20072010 demonstration students, faculty, and staff practice the TM and advanced TM-Sidhi program as a group, twice a day. Asproject at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, creating a powerful discussed previously, this practice fits logically and easily within an academic setting, since the benefitsinfluence of coherence and harmony for the whole US population.to brain functioning and academic performance are well documented. Because participants enjoy and benefit from their practice, compliance with the program is high. Associated costs are very low, since participants are already provided with food and housing in the context of their university education. Phase 2: Full ImplementationPredicted outcomes for this large-scale demonstration project were lodged in advance with the press,The Global Union of Scientists for Peace seeks to expand the current group of meditating experts in and included a marked turnaround of escalating crime rates across the United States. These predic- the US to 2,500, and thus produce a more powerful peaceful influence in US national consciousness. tions were met and exceeded. With a sustained average of more than 1,750 meditating experts (theThis will further reduce societal stress and associated social violence and, according to previous re-square root of one percent of the US population) participating in this study from 2007 to 2010, thesearch, will help to dissolve Americas current political divisiveness and government gridlock [28]and FBI Uniform Crime Index showed a dramatic and highly statistically significant decline in violent crimeempower the US to become a more positive, unifying, peaceful force in global politics. Restoring and rates coinciding with the launch of the demonstration project, including a reduction in murder rates insustaining a large, national peace-creating group of 2,500 experts in the US is a primary goal of the major US cities to their lowest levels in over 40 years. Simultaneous reductions were also seen in otherGlobal Union of Scientists for Peace.standardized measures of societal stress, including rates of automobile and other accidental fatali-ties, deaths due to drugs, and infant mortality [2326]. There was a simultaneous rise in positive social trends, as well as broad improvements in the national economyincluding a steady, highly statistically significant decline in the so-called misery index of inflation and unemployment [27].'