How do we fix South African crime?
To beat South African crime we need to create a Prevention Wing in the SANDF. The wing would consist of several thousand troops trained to create coherence.
It must be obvious that our crime rate problem is so deeply woven into the fabric of our unequal society that the only way to fix it is to go deep.
It must be obvious that crime is driven by the huge and complex interaction of urbanisation, education, economic, social, health factors. Addressing these issues at the level of the issues is like watering the leaves of a tree. A good gardener would rather water the root.
So why don’t we look to the experience of the past 30 or so years and take seriously the research on an idea we call creating coherence? The idea is you create coherence in national consciousness and that translates into more orderly behavior of the people. This would reduce the South African crime rate.
The bottom line is a coherence creating group of 1000 or so people trained in the specific practices mentioned in this link would lead to a reduced crime rate.
Every time such a coherence creating group has been established (in countries including India, the Netherlands, Israel, the USA and many others) the media has noted economic growth, greater consumer confidence, reduced fatalities, reduced suicides, more optimistic statements by governments, and a reducing crime rate.
Over and over again, the research showed that these are the first signs of increasing coherence in a country.
OK, you think I’m nuts? For more information go to http://www.invincibledefense.org/research.html.
There you will read that the unique effectiveness of this approach in preventing social violence, terrorism, and war has been confirmed by more than 50 demonstrations and 23 scientific studies. This research has been carefully scrutinized by independent scholars and accepted for publication in top academic journals (see references). In every case, this approach produced marked reductions of crime, social violence, terrorism, and war, and increased peace and positivity in society.
SELECTED REFERENCES
Assimakis, P. D., & Dillbeck, M. C. (1995). Time series analysis of improved quality of life in Canada: Social change, collective consciousness, and the TM-Sidhi program. Psychological Reports, 76, 1171–1193.
Davies, J. L., & Alexander, C. N. (2005). Alleviating political violence through reducing collective tension: Impact assessment analyses of the Lebanon war. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 17(1): 285–338.
Davies, J. L., Alexander, C. N., & Orme-Johnson, D. W. (1988). Alleviating political violence through enhancing coherence in collective consciousness: Impact assessment analyses of the Lebanon war. Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science, 95(1), 1.
Dillbeck, M. C. (1990). Test of a field theory of consciousness and social change: Time series analysis of participation in the TM-Sidhi program and reduction of violent death in the U.S. Social Indicators Research, 22, 399–418.
Dillbeck, M. C., Banus, C. B., Polanzi, C., & Landrith III, G. S. (1988). Test of a field model of consciousness and social change: The Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program and decreased urban crime. Journal of Mind and Behavior, 9(4), 457–486.
Dillbeck, M. C., Cavanaugh, K. L., Glenn, T., Orme-Johnson, D. W., & Mittlefehldt, V. (1987). Consciousness as a field: The Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program and changes in social indicators. Journal of Mind and Behavior, 8(1), 67–104.
Dillbeck, M. C., Landrith, G. III, & Orme-Johnson, D. W. (1981). The Transcendental Meditation program and crime rate change in a sample of forty-eight cities. Journal of Crime and Justice, 4, 25–45.
Goodman, R. S., Orme-Johnson, D. W., Rainforth, M. S., & Goodman, D. H. (1997). Transforming political institutions through individual and collective consciousness: The Maharishi Effect and government. Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C.
Hagelin, J. S., Orme-Johnson, D. W., Rainforth, M., Cavanaugh, K., & Alexander, C. N. (1999). Results of the National Demonstration Project to Reduce Violent Crime and Improve Governmental Effectiveness in Washington, D.C. Social Indicators Research, 47, 153-201.
Hatchard, G. D., Deans, A. J., Cavanaugh, K. L., & Orme-Johnson, D. W. (1996). The Maharishi Effect: A model for social improvement. Time series analysis of a phase transition to reduced crime in Merseyside metropolitan area. Psychology, Crime & Law, 2(3), 165–174.
Orme-Johnson, D. W., Alexander, C. N., & Davies, J. L. (1990). The effects of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field: Reply to a methodological critique. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 34, 756–768.
Orme-Johnson, D. W., Alexander, C. N., Davies, J. L., Chandler, H. M., & Larimore, W. E. (1988). International peace project in the Middle East: The effect of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 32(4), 776–812.
Orme-Johnson, D. W., Dillbeck, M. C., & Alexander, C. N. (2003). Preventing terrorism and international conflict: Effects of large assemblies of participants in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 36 (1-4), 283–302.