The Twin Towers of Peace
Today is the 25th anniversary of 9/11 terrorist attacks and it reminded me of another story I’d told about the event on the 10th anniversary 15 years ago.
Like most Americans, I’d been forced to revisit the horror of September 11, 2001, on every anniversary for the past nine years, as every television channel relentlessly replayed the familiar sequence of events: the first flight crashing into the North Tower; then the second into the South Tower; then the bodies cascading out of one-hundred-story windows; and finally, the slow-motion concertina of the two towers into a cloud of fulminating black dust.
It had been the we-will-never-forget imagery that America believed necessary to cling to in order to properly commemorate the dead, but I grew determined that summer to offer up an alternative.
I’d enlisted Dr. Salah Al-Rashed, the Deepak Chopra of the Middle East, and we held an Intention Experiment® to lower violence in two provinces in Afghanistan, the Taliban stronghold, involving some 25,000 people from 75 countries, but specifically inviting Americans and Arabs from all the Gulf States. We held the Intention over eight days and had other live broadcasts to the audience every day.
The result exceeded our expectations, with German general Carsten Jacobson, a leader of NATO’s combined forces, disclosing data to me confirming, he said, “This is the longest sustained downward trend in enemy-initiated attacks.”
Now, it is impossible say with any certainty that a lowering of violence in this or any war effort is down to our intentions. And clearly we had no effect on how those in charge handled Afghanistan in subsequent years. But what impressed me even more was the Mirror Effect on participants.
Ending the conflict another way
Many of our Western participants began to instant message and befriend people from the Arab countries who could write in English—and vice versa. The resentment and suspicion about Arabs was beginning to transform into love and acceptance.
The Westerners began wishing the Arabs well (“You are always in my Heart”) and as they began to feel connected to them, “like a support from the right side one can virtually lean on, like feeling brothers from far away,” their attitudes toward the Middle East began to shift.
“The experience of IM’ing with people from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and many other Middle Eastern countries—during the IM messages, we wished each other peace and expressed love—made me cry,” wrote John from Tucson.“It was very therapeutic for me—a citizen of the USA.”
Many of the Arab participants reached out in friendship to the West: “We are brothers, we will always be here for you. Although I don’t know you, I feel a connection with your pure souls.”
“This day is the day that we all felt the loss and no one felt the gain,” wrote Bahareh. “Your God is my God. My God is your God.”
After Dr. Al-Rashed voiced an apology to the West on our broadcast, our participants began apologizing to the Americans, a point of view that “millions of Arabs and Muslims are sharing.”
“In six minutes,” said Kholood, “he said what I’m trying to say in years.”
The Mirror Effect on their lives
Many had completely transformed in the way they related to other people. They were “more apt to apologize and forgive,” felt a certain “urgency to let go of the past hurts,” were “listening more without judgment.”
And once more, these positive effects seemed to spill over to other areas of their lives. “I see myself in everyone I meet, experiencing their feelings, finding compassion,” wrote one.
If the feedback from participants were anything to go by, the act of sending intention was ending the war in another way by created peace in their hearts that seemed to be transforming their lives and views of East and West. For many on either side, the experience had been extraordinarily healing, a simple means of breaching ideological divides.
I didn’t know if God had answered our prayer for peace, but certainly our prayers had given us a glimpse of God—and even a fleeting glimpse of heaven on earth.
“I had the sense that although we had a specific ‘target,’ ” said Aimee, “we were healing everyone everywhere at once.”
On this 25th anniversary of 9/11, don’t watch the Twin Towers falling down yet again. Say a prayer for peace, forgive someone you’ve been angry with and see what happens.
Your thoughts can heal war and divisions from the ground up. And stay tuned for more Intention Experiments®. We’re due another series soon.
