Study 4: Decrease in number of car accidents and suicides in 1% cities

This study compared 24 cities where 1% of the population had learned the Transcendental Meditation technique, and compared these to control cities chosen by an independent researcher based on their similar demographic variables (number of citizens, number of students, average income, average level of education, etc.). In these 24 studies an earlier study had already noticed a decrease in crime rates, but considering that the prediction was that all negative trends in society would reduce as soon as 1% of the population would start practicing the TM technique, further research was carried out on two other trends, the number of suicides and the number of car accidents. The statistics for both were requested from the relevant government departments and compared over a period of 10 years and 5 years before 1% of the population in the 24 cities had learned the TM technique (in 1972) and 5 years later.

The statistics showed that the trends for 1972 were the same in both the control and 1% cities. During the subsequent 5 years, the control cities followed the same trend of ever increasing numbers, but in the 1% cities the number of car accidents and suicides decreased significantly (p<.001 voor beide).Ref.Scientific Research on Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation, Collected papers. vol. 4, 317, pp 2479-2486