Recently I received the preliminary report from Jessica Utts, professor of statistics at University of California at Irvine. She has spent some weeks examining and analyzing the deaths and violent attacks in the Sri Lankan civil war for 26 months – two years before and two months after our Peace Intention Experiment.
The results she has reported thus far are extraordinary – suggesting that our Peace Intention Experiment may have been pivotal in helping to hasten the end of the war, which now appears imminent.
In order to show whether an effect is higher or lower than predicted, statisticians often use a trend-analysis plot.
Dr. Utts created just such a chart for all of the 26 months. The chart revealed that the violence vastly increased to levels far higher than predicted during the week of our experiment and for a few weeks afterward, and then plummeted to below what was expected.
In fact, the violence was the highest it had ever been over the entire two-year period during the very week of our experiment.
In this graph, you’ll see the analysis. The red line represents the average of predicted levels.
The fifth point from the end - the every high one - is the week of our experiment, and the four points afterward are the after effects. As you can see, the violence levels are far than predicted, sharply drop after the high week of the experiment and then fall below what is expected.
From the perspective of these two-plus years, our week of intention may have proved pivotal. During that week, the Sri Lankan army won a number of strategically important battles, which enabled them to turn around the war.
One week ago, on January 2, 2009, the army finally expelled the separatist guerrillas from their capital of Kilinochchi. Today, they recaptured the strategic Elephant pass, opening up the entire northern Jaffna Peninsula – where mainland Sri Lanka connects with the northern peninsula - for the first time in nine years, liberating the entire Wanni district – the very target of our intention.
This is the first time in 23 years that the government has taken full control of the strategic 142-km long A-9 road, which was the supply route of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebel forces.
Those of the LTTE terrorists that remain – and analysts believe the numbers of trained fighters have shrunk to 2000 – have been wedged into a tiny corner of northeastern Sri Lanka of about 330 square km. The military believes that they will move operations to the eastern port of Mullaittivu for their final stand.
So was this down to us and our intention? Certainly, in September, the rebels had a tight grip on the north. Although the army had made some inroads in August, even as recently as May commentators believed that peace talks were out of the question.
Now, after all the decisive wins in September and January, many political analysts have laid down predictions that the 25-year-civil war will end in 2009.
This could have been entirely coincidental – or it could be the result of intention. Only more Peace Intention Experiments will give us the answer.
But why did the violence initially increase before drastically falling? We don’t know the answer to that, either? It could be
1) coincidence
2) our intention to lower violence had the effect of accelerating the army’s victories over the rebels so that further violence would end
3) our intention made things worse before they got better
Until we run another Peace Intention Experiment, we won’t know the answer. But as Jessica succinctly put it, when noting that the highest weekly total for violence in the entire 26-month period was our very week: “Weird, huh?”
Facebook Comments
I certainly hope that our directed intentions helped to bring about peace but I dislike the use of the word "terrorists" One man's terrorists is another man's freedom fighter. Using words villify and dehumanise does not serve the cause of peace in any way.
It's like I've been telling my students for years -- just before the transformation, all hell breaks loose... it is the old paradigm fighting to stay alive ... this is where many lose heart and quit, thinking that Principle doesn't work ... however, this is the time to stand firmly in the Truth!
Well they do say, if you want peace, prepare for war, Lynn, but I don't think that most people were intending for the Sri Lankan army to defeat the LTTE. Especially since most of the intendors probably don't know what LTTE stands for.
I say YEAH! This is very good news for everyone involved.
This sounds similar to the physical body's healing and the phenom of a healing crisis that occurs when you undertake a cleanse for example - there may be additional discomfort and concentrated symptoms as the toxins are activated and begin to move.
Since this war has been going on so long the cleansing symptoms were bound to be strong (increased violence) before the toxins (the rebels) could be expelled!
I agree with Fergus. I know little about the region but I hope that the government's 'victory' does not mean that Tamil rights and freedoms have been taken away. I hope the statistical evidence quoted represents peace in hearts and minds and a fair and just truce. Now praying, and have been attending vigils, for the victims of the violence in Gaza where unbelievable levels of violence are taking place and the situation for children is hell on earth. As HG Wells said "Our true nationality is humankind" (he said mankind but I've updated him). Praying for the peace, love and justice for the whole of our race. xx Pauline
Me again - meant 'whole of humankind' at the end there.
Many more intention experiments are needed to evaluate, if there are any repeating patterns, according to the variables of the context.
I would suggest next time, we direct our intentions and attentions to the Gaza strip and surrounding areas.
Hallo. I agree with Fergus Tighe. And another thing: Justice is necessary for peace.
The graph you refer to was omitted from my page. I agree that typically the egoic situation digs in its heels before being overcome by a better idea.
Marilyn
I should make it clear that we didn't take sides in this Peace Intention Experiment and are not 'for' the government and 'against' the rebels.
Our intention was simply for peace - and greater co-existence. Remember: we used as a point of focus during the intention a photo of children of different ethnic backgrounds hugging each other.
All that statistics can ever tell us is whether there is more or less violence after our intervention.
We noted that the level of violence initially increased and then decreased, and the war may soon be over. Now let's hope that both sides begin to communicate with each other.
But let's also realize that we don't yet know whether mass intention has a 'good' effect or a 'bad' effect. All we can do is continue to study this over time. And have good intentions. But the evidence on this first time out is, as scientists like to say, compelling.
The result indicates that intention had an influence on the Shri Lanka conflict.
Publicising the results definately can influnce those that were doubtful of being involved in the experiment and it will encourage a bigger participation in future intentions on world conflicts. I am certainly glad I participated.
The middle East has been in turmoil since 1948, surly this needs some serious intentional input for peace.
The self-forgiveness process of Ho'oponopono is a wonderful tool to help negate the effects of the judgments I project upon the world. One of those judgments is that there is civel war in Sri Lanka. Certainly, evidence supports that idea, but what if I were to heal my own memory of war itself? Being an integral piece of the Mind of God, when I heal myself, I heal the world. The phrases to use are simple.
I love you.
I'm sorry.
Please forgive me.
Thank you.
I am personally experiencing major shifts using this process.
Also, keep in mind Glenn Ritch of Searsmont, Maine as you use these words in a mantra.
God bless you.
Wait a second though, surely the Sri Lankans, and the Tamils, have all been intending for peace to come, 0ne way or the other, for a long time?
I can't recall the exact wording we used but I seem to remember that it included words to the effect that our intention was to bring about peace in the area. Maybe this wording was crucial to facilitate circumstances that would ultimately lead to this outcome in the long run.
Please add the missing graphs - we would all love to see them. Thank you for providing a channel for all of this positive energy.
Love, Peace and Justice
XX
Me again. Yes, I did not want that Sri Lanka army win. I wanted that both armies stop fighting and that all people there start LISTENING TO AND RESPECT EACH OTHER and find a HUMAN resolution...
I will go off topic again and say if you have not read"The Field" yet, do so. I avoided it for a long time thinking it would be boring. Instead it is the very best book I have ever read on this subject in 40 years of study. clarifies many mysteries in science and spirituality.
Re Richard Dawkins, resistance creates persistance. I have noticed this with the atheistic attack pack on Christmas bringing on a deluge of articles and programs on spirituality.
Marilyn
I suggest that we begin the intention experiment as soon as possible on the Middle East. Please!
My God! This is so big responsibility! Do we know what we are doing and what we should and what we should not to do? I want that every human can feel safe at our home Earth, just I bacome a little scared about this effect because we do not know what we are really doing... Sorry, I do not want to panic, I just want to warn us - it is something that is maybe near God responsibility.
I agree... I think we should begin an intention experiment on Gaza/Israel ASAP. Great work as always Lynn!
An intention experiment on the Worlds financial troubles might also be useful.
I think it would be wise to do another intention soon on Gaza as others here suggest.
Thanks for this work!
Federico
My vote is for number 2... In most of the studies done by others to date (as well as a cliche or two, which all have some basis in truth) it is always darkest before the dawn.
If we allow LOA into the equation, there were a number of people who were very upset by the news of increased violence, as well, which can skew the results.
To Marjeta - think of it this way: If there is to be peace on earth, it must begin with those living here. If God means for war and violence to continue in an area we work on, then it will.
Otherwise, consider a vote for taking the good Karma of saving as many lives in any way as possible. Is this not the ultimate service to others that we could perform - to save a life?
All in all - I commend the entire community on a GRAND SUCCESS and look forward to participating in more experiments in the future!
I have found that in many healing forms there is often an acceleration of the condition that is being healed immediately after the healing session for a period before the relief is felt. This is sometimes called a healing crisis and I have experienced it personally with accupunture, on several occasions I have had accupuncture for painfull joints and experienced an increase in the pain for several hours after the treatment with the pain dissapearing, never to return by the next day. I beleive this is what has happened with our intention experiment in Sri Lanka.
No hold on, if we start intending for peace in Gaza, then given what happened last time, Israel will carpet bomb it and then there will be "peace", because everyone's dead.
"They made a wasteland and called it peace" - Tacitus
That's not MY intention.
marilyn: That's odd because there is no attack pack on Christmas... or at least there wasn't until you said that. I'll now be stamping on the next Christmas decoration I see, in response to what you said.
I agree to start another intention experiment, as soon as possible. I know that the problems en Gaza are the urgent ones, but nowadays México is a country with very high levels of violence. I hope in some moment we could organize an intention experiment in this country.
I'm interest to attend a Lyyn Taggart worshop, ¿where and when is going to take place a new one? Thank you very much for all the wonderful work that you do..., Mónica (Mexico City)
OOPS! I need to clarify my earlier post.
I said "Since this war has been going on so long the cleansing symptoms were bound to be strong (increased violence) before the toxins (the rebels) could be expelled!"
I really meant the VIOLENCE from any source could be expelled. Violence is definitely toxic for everyone. My intention during the experiment certainly was for peace and justice for all and on-going communication to prevent future violence.
GrannySue,
we still do not know, why violence in that week of peace experiment exceeded the prediction. If our activity had something with it, we are responsible for some deaths there... we can not take it in easy way like izrael army etc today take all died civilists in Gaza... in order to be peace there - for Izrael people... What about for people in Gaza? People, maybe is better to do such experiments with more responsibility and humbleness...
I want to first thank all of the people whose work and efforts made this possible. Second,whenever Light and Unconditional Love are focused in an area, the darkness or in this case violence has to surface to be transformed, and transmuted. Thus the level of violence rose and then deminished to levels below anyones expectations. Third, I would like to suggest like many that the next intention be put on all the people of the Gaza Strip and Isreal. Infact all of the Middle East. This time please DO NOT TRY TO LIMIT OR PUT RESTRICTIONS ON INTENT !!! Just measure the results. I think that you will be surprised at the results !!! Infact I know you will be surprised. Lastly to Marjeta, as long as our intentions are for the Highest Good of all involved then we are dear sister doing the work and being of service to God The Devine Creator and Source of All That Is; and to Humanity and this Planet. Much Love and Light to All,
Sorry, I was not able to partake in this experiment, But suggest that next time send in meditation only LOVE to the people who are involved in the violence.
Frank, I am answering you like I did to Granny Sue...
Energy is energy - neither good nor bad, we put the interpretation on it.
If we focused with so much intention on the situation in Sri Lanka and asked specifically for peace then it seems obvious that there is going to be a strengthening of energy across the board and that inevitably will lead to more energy being focused on the area.
If the intention in Sri Lanka was about fighting then our added energy would heighten that.
However, once our focused intention was withdrawn in such intensity then the energy would be able to balance out and that enabled a more peaceful energy to be present.
Whatever happened the pattern of energy was changed and possibly that allowed another element to come in.
It's a bit like the migraine syndrome - they say you don't get the migrain in the height of the stress but once you relax!?
It would be very interesting to do more experiments and see the affects.
As was already suggested, I think Gaza, perhaps the whole disputed region, should be our next target. I have a suggestion though . . . I would like to help bring together many like-minded social networks together to join in this effort and to make it huge. Let's make the next peace intention experiment viral by linking millions of people to participate. What can I do?
i commend you for your courage in launching out your work...i would like tp participate for the next experiment thanks
Hi Tamil Panther. If we send love and peace to Gaza and Israel carpet bomb - then I reckon they would have done so anyway, they practically are as it is. My son - who's 12 - spoke at the vigil we attended last night for Gaza and spoke of the hurt the Jewish community must feel because of the holocaust and other conflicts and how not to allow that hurt out as the continuation of violence. We could intend the end of the 'hurt' pattern and the entering of love and peace into all hearts and an openness to solutions - or something like that but much better worded. Love to all of you and thanks Lynne. xx
I am elated to see what has transpired during this pivotal week of the intention experiment. I just feel like Maseru Emoto with his water experiments....they work and are made visible by means of photgraphing the frozen water drops. The grapth above speaks for itself...almost like the physical body will resist at first to heal and then let it be very quickly.
I am very happy having been given the chance to participate in this experiment and am looking forward to many more hopefully very soon.
Love & Light
Perhaps the Holy Land is next.
Is their a way of creating an intention experiment that does not cause an initial increase of the violence ? If you accidently raise the violence too high in this region, then you may run the risk of something terribly unforseen happening like a nuclear event.
Perhaps instead of intending peace we intend forgiveness in this area ? Maybe this way we won't have the unintended side effect of a serious escalation in violence, which is already threatening to boil over into wider conflict.
Aha, so just imagine: We are in Gaza and people in USA and Europe, let say, who live in peace and speeking big words about peace in Gaza are saying that OUR DEATHS can be just "first resists" and then great peace will come.
I can't help feeling a little concerned in case the increase in violence was due to us focussing on the violent images before the intention on the peaceful one. I believe some others shared this concernat the time. I am worried that it sent a 'mixed message' , and maybe we should hold only peaceful images in our thoughts another time.
I applaud this experiment, but agree that more data is needed before any conclusions can be drawn.
I, too, would like to see a focus on Gaza.....just because I feel so helpless all alone to do something about the carnage. It seems to me that heartlessness exists at the root of the atrocities that are being created. My intention would be for all cold, heartless behaviour to be reduced by x% so that Heart can enter and replace the heartlessness.
Dear all, I read your comments with interest, and you made me smile. Why do we all think we can see the whole picture? Why do we need to judge all time and why cant we just wait and see and wonder what's happening. Maybe in 5 years we can see this was necessary for peace and love for everybody involved. Why fight about words, or interpretations? All people involved had the best intention they could have at that moment, isn't' that enough for us? Read this comments also with peace and love in your hart and you will feel what it really means, changing your intentions. Thanks Lynn by giving us the opportunity to be part of this. Thanks for the lessons.
To Lynne and everyone who reads this site- having lived "The Intention Experiment" with my son Andrew from the week of Dec 5th - I can tell you first hand the power of this work. My gratitude for Lynne and everyone is overwhelming. I KNOW first hand that this work - the work of this community is what created the change for Andrew and for the situation n Sri Lanka. I have been in class with Lynne and done group and web experiments but to live it provides even greater proof. I know that the people of Sri Lanka felt something, as I felt, while you all are where working on Andrew. Andrew to this day has had one healing miracle after another and as of his check up this week is only showing signs of s slight upper body weakness. When he was not even supposed to be walking with out a walker!!! The work on Andrew continued strongly for at least 6 weeks after the end of his week on this site. Things with him followed the same curve as the Sri Lankan curve, things were very serious for 4 days and then the improvement and the continued rise to his health. So perhaps there is a pause as the energy turns around to create a healing - I mean it is shifting or jumping to a new plane of existence so maybe things pause before the new energy kicks in? Andrew says he remembers going somewhere in those 4 day - he keeps remembering things and says" I swear it is not a dream, mom, I am remember where I was" So where was he when things on our side looked so bad - I think he was in the pause, and the universe was just making a u turn or changing directions and it just took time for the energy to catch up - and so the curve in the graph is just the pause... what do you think???
Great work Lynn and all who participated.
Thanks for allowing me to experience something unique and profound.
Next intention is clean food and water for all on our planet...
This is the largest concern, without food and water we perish.
Victoria
In reading that Glenn Ritch was formerly a hospital administrator, I would like to suggest he take the time to forgive himself for not being able to do more than he was able to while in that position. When you have tried everything and none of it worked then you can conclude that either you believed in none of them OR you have unconsciously called this pain to you. Time to forgive yourself.
As each one of us carries a spark of the Creator, I can see that many little sparks make a great light. And even if you do not see life through a Creator's eyes, you can know the connectiveness of the human spirit is great. There is so much we can do with good intention. It is powerful. I would be pleased if we could do something similar for the war in Gaza.
Still blabbering,
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. There is a difference between knowledge and wisdom. Human lives are at stake here and with knowledge now comes responsibility. If sending a peace intention increased the violence, that is now a piece of knowledge and now it comes with responsibility for all future intention experiements.
To say we need to do another experiment seems dangerous and unwise, especially if we point our intention towards the Holy Land.
We wish to travel the Road to Peace not the Road to Hell.
Yes, perhaps a healing crisis occured in Sri Lanka, but there is much work on the ground to do to ensure a lasting peace. That has to do with issues of social justice,economic opportunity etc.
If you dig more deeply into why these factions went to war in the first place. I think you will find that this war was rooted in something that happened 2300 years ago and is now playing out again. If you want to have a lasting peace, you must heal the initial ancestral wounds or the violence will again return.
Perhaps Ho'opononopono or something like it is part of the solution for both ourselves as participants in the intention project as well as for the combatants who are projecting their anger onto each other.
I ask everyone to reflect . Hiding behind the excuse that we don't know what happened and need to experiment some more is OK if you are dealing with plants not planets. We are dealing with the only planet we have and we are proposing to potentially ignite God knows what in the Middle East.
I am against war. Violence usually begets violence. Perhaps the war using military weaponry will end in Sri Lanka ? Perhaps that will lead to conditions where a reconciliation between the parties can occur ?
If that does not happen, then what you have is simply a lull and in that lull the rebels will rearm and perhaps with more sophisticated weaponry as will the government. Look to Southern Lebanon and Gaza, the weaponry is getting more sophistocated and this could lead to massive casualties on both sides or worse. Do we really want to further ignite things in this powder keg ?
We may now have a responsibility to Sri Lanka, as we played in their sandbox and people died. They are not outside of us. They are our brothers and sisters, not a scientific experiment for our intellectual gratification.
Let us reflect and think through the possibilities and probabilities before we send an intention somewhere outside of our sphere.
If you intend peace for your life, you will likely have a personal healing crisis in order to experience that peace. That is fine with me, it's your life.
I ask you if you have the right to do that to someone you don't know, and someone who might end up dead because of your noble intention.
Let us walk the Road to Peace and not the Road to Hell paved with our good intentions.
Perry
re: sophie and perry
how long is our historical view point? There are a lot of similarities between Sri Lanka and the british supported, artificial immigration of the jewish people. If there was no WWI (that started HOW?) there would be no 'Gaza strip'. I agree: send Love and Forgiveness (or is THAT peace?) .. is that not what our greatest god/prophets/teachers have taught us?
re: Tamil Tiger. Please replace your fears with love , and let God/collective unconscious/karma do the rest.
christine
P.S. looking forward to the next experiment
I think this experiment has been extremely inportant- who knows - maybe Lynne is on to something here...
Maybe this is an example of a law of nature that we are not very familiar with yet- the initial worsening of a phenomemon before great improvement comes along. I think they are familiar with it in homeopathy.
If we continue to observe this in different (maybe smaller) experiments, it might be a very significant finding. Then we will be able to expect this as part of any healing process (personal or social).
Another possibile explanation might be our focusing on negative aspects during our experiment. While sending our intention for peace- we might have been thinking "not war" at the same time. That would be very difficult to isolate and control- though.
Lynne- keep up the good work, we are behind you- thank you for the possibility to share this!
Ooops! change that to Tamil Panther.. what do i know (we have Koalas here (and they are Not 'bears') sorry Tamil..
On Dec 31st 2008 0400hrs local time San Diego we gathered to join in the annual Wolrd Peace Meditation that takes place all over the world..Today I read the beauty of what being at peace with other like minded beings can bring forth....Peace is the gift of creation..LOVE is it's manifestation...Once more manifested...Thank you all for sharing...Namaste
Thank you all, it's a delight reading such civilized discussion 🙂 Thanks Lynn for organizing. I'd like to reflect on knowledge, and the scientific method.
History) I agree w Perry, Tamil P and others, that the history should be revelealed in full context. I am no expert, we need a historian here. We know for millenia that after a power gap there are power struggles (i.e. here gaining independence from the british, who in my understanding actually helped rise the community identification of sri lankan tamils decades earlier of the independence, with good intentions (note the words good intentions, how staggeringly similar to what we are doing with this experiment) to later create an independent equal right state for all sri lankan inhabitants). In Power struggles those who are first, catch more. Thus the minorities often get underrepresented in newly formed constitutions (were the afro-caribbean slaves and the indigenous declared free and equal in every term when the American constitution where born and enforced? Tricky question, huh... and that is one of the best constitutions in the world) Through generations the minorities' dispair and tension escalates, the Sri Lankan government maked the people's life difficult (quotas on workforce, university attendance, etc.). Finally if there are no allowed equal rights by law, people get to change the law, or if that's not possible it can be understandable that separational activities start. It's normal reaction. Reacting to this from gov side on power will usually not supress it in the XXth century, because as Perry pointed out, the weaponry of guerilla warfare is sophisticated now (remember how the WWI became a surprise ditch-war slaughter as machine guns turned out to be much better at defending than attacking). Repression was a working military doctrine centuries earlier, but these days no way, and even with the threat of chemical, nuclear and biological wep terrorism it's more serious, though not happened so far, thanks god. So this escalating tension radicalizes already extremist, militant people, and the terrorists freedom fighters emerge. Exactly the same every time, let it be the French (The Great) Revolution's succeeding waves of leaders ending with napoleon, from monarchy to imperium... or Ireland... or Gaza or Sri Lanka. Freedom fighting is reacting to goverment escalated violence with more violence, though with the "justified" truth of having been victimized. But with religious fundamentalist brainwashing it is terribly effective, we sadly see. And who suffers? Everyone, and most of the civilians, who all want peace and usually like their neighbours, if not 2300 years old problem (also, like the Darfour region, where the conflict is essentially from the neolitic-age: between nomadic arabs and agricultural black). And will the repel of freedom fighter terrorists help the minority tamils in any civil right way? Not likely in near future. That's not peace. But look at Gandhi, e.g., he could do it without violence. Especially he could do it successfully, I say, _because_ he intentionally tried, most of the time succeded, to prevent every possible situation where violence could break out. Understanding the whole situation I think for every participant is essentially necessary. Then, forgive, and love. Yes. We do not want the mess that is in Afganistan or Irak (for this point forget the oil hunt and corporate greed, concern only the humanitarian situation as it is now), we want peace and love. So get involved carefully in peace intentions in places with complicated historical contexts. The only solution is to take sides with each side with patience and understanding, bring them closer, increase the intermingle of subsequent generations by cultural and economic ways. Look at the European Union. Could anyone believe in 1938 that it would become a reality? It is possible to do. Understanding each other, reflecting on our emotions and generally be generous. That is exactly the opposite of politics by power. Difficult thing. But forget fear and enter into love and understanding. Yes.
Science) Well. This is even more problematic, and touches the field of ethics as well. A scientific experiment must be repeatable, the confounding factors should be at least identified, even better, measured and at least a general understanding of the forces behind a phenomenon should be clearly stated unless we cannot state anything about cause and effect (in this case intention having any, or the direction of effects). As read in The Intention Experiment book, in a laboratory until a particular person left the room, the experiments were all deemed to failure, when he left, they succeeded again. That's not controlling for counfouders rigorously speaking. The Princeton Anomalies group found that great many people manifest the exact opposite of their intention (flip more heads than tails if originally wanted tails...) there is effect, but opposite. That was emotionally very a neutral experiment, yet the results were exact opposite, though significant. Do we know anything about these forces, what we call in recent new age and self help fashion the law of attraction (referring to comments above)? No. How do we know what happens in such high scale and complicated situation as what is in Sri Lanka? If we do not know how the intention force operates, and we cannot control the confoundings (were there not in Tamil Nadu, India, e.g. 2000 hindu meditating for tamils in sri lanka? ;-), okay a more realistic one: weren't our thoughts for 5 minutes focused on violence then 10 minutes on peace not giving energy to the violence first?, etc. thousands of unmeasurable, even unestimatable confounders). So after all I am happy to see that the scientific conclusion of the experiment allows for many possible effects: 1., 2., 3. But it is already biased to what we know so far. Until we actually see a longterm trend on decreasing violence, we cannot state, that the decrease after the escalation is not noise, the decrease of the last few months has not broke out of the confidence lines (which I do not see on the graph tough). I do not have the numbers just the graph, but I would not allow the conclusion, that the violence has decreased, to go through the peer-review of the paper if I were the reviewer of the publication. We should wait many month to conclude anything. And that is still far from having an effect by our intentions, it's just statistical conincidence. Statistics does not allow to state anything stronger than this. And what's the ethics part? How can we do a scientific experiment with people, who possible die (or harmed in any way) becuase of the experimenters intentions? No ethics board would give permission to such a scientific experiment (though no board would block experiments with intentions ;-), but we should be proactive). Also, normally, participanting subjects (when they are humans, not rats or insects) are made written consent for taking part in the experiment, with all known consequences understood. Even for just measurements, the disclosure of measured information to the public is normally needed to go through ethical permissions (the number of dead is usually not problematic, if their names are hidden, but for example stating more than their nationality - even often their sex - is not allowed). Also, since the experiment is international, there is no accepted way of regulating details of ethics, international law is in childhood in this asspect as well, so at least a UK or US ethical laws for scientific experiments should be the directions. In ethics there is no such thing allowed as: longterm goal is to have peace, so let's just kill a few hundred people for later achieving peace. The exact same ethical problem of dropping atomic bombs in Japan. Politically they were both maybe the right decisions of one of the participating parties (US and Sri Lanka government) given the resources (but I always refer to Gandhi in this regard as what is truly right), but ethically it's very tricky. It's the very power of our decisions, and their consequences. Scary as hell, yes. And now, with the Intention Experiments it has come even closer to us everyday good intending people: it is enough to think (or not think) to become involved on swampy ethical grounds. Apart from the problematic scientific methodology.
Suggestion) the Global Peace Intentions should be separated from the scientific part. I suggest scientific conclusions be made only for much more focused and smallscale experiments, where the known confoundings are controlled for, the experiments exacly repeatable and no ethical conflict arises. And meanwhile we can do Peace Intentions on every conflict in the world. With much love and devotion for that is truly heartlifting, reading all these people, you, want to help and spread peace and love. As we do weekly with the ill, and it's such a beautiful thing to see read thoses miraculous healings every time in these internet pages. We should, of course, make detailed notes on these peace intentions, calculate, put things together, collect as much data as possible, but do not call it a scientific experiment yet, as it is not such yet, because these issues are very very very complicated, as I tried to elaborate above some serious issues. It should separate the intial conflict for you Lynn, that gather together such ample love from many people and not using it for good. Use it for good, but do the scientific experiments much closer to the ground. So that scientific conclusions can be made. Do both.
Sorry, for being so long, thank you, dear organizers, for letting us participate in this incredibly exciting endeavour, the work is truly appreciated, and as we do, we grow in knowledge
peace and love to all
Marton
I agree that with more power (more people joining with an intention) comes more responsibility. The way I see it is that our duty is now to send more and more intention to people and places who need it. I think that by simply sending an intention of LOVE, without too much detail as to how and when, is enough to ignite a change.
How the energies will shift after that is out of our control, but I trust that a higher wisdom will take our additional energy and put it where it's most needed.
That's why I feel this is the right time to send as much as we can to Gaza. Should we stop healing because there is a crisis before? It wouldn't stop us from healing ourselves.
Since the stated 'intention' of the experiment was conceptualized and worded as a general and simple concept of peace, that left it open as to how that would be accomplished.
I actually was very specific in what I conceptualized and directed my thought and emotion to the souls and collective consciousness of those peoples involved, and at times, to the whole of human consciousness.
Christine,
How old is your soul and what is carried in it, in it's deepest parts that remains unhealed ? That is how far you need to go back historically in the Middle East. I'm not talking about you specifically, perhaps you are an emlightened bottisatva and have done all your inner work . I have not, so I continue to search in myself to heal the ancient wounds in my soul and transmute them.
If you really want to get picky you can trace all disharmony on the planet
to the moment we developed individuated 3rd dimensional consciousness ( eaten from the tree of knowledge so to speak). From that point on we had dualism and that inevitably results in competing belief systems, fear, greed etc, which coupled with advanced weapons technology puts the planet at risk.
I don't know what artifical immigration means but it seems to me you suggest that some immigrations are more legitimate than others. To those Jewish people fleeing persecution in Europe, and the Middle East the immigration to what is now Israel was the only option they had as no other country would take them and they too needed a place to live free from the threat of persecution. That does not give anyone the right, Israeli,Palestinian or otherwise to mistreat another and they both have, terribly. They have been doing this off and on for over 3000 years. Nothing is new under the Middle Eastern sun.
My understanding which is very limited and still developing, is that the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians has it's origins in the divisions of the house of Abraham, and the battlefields of Meggido during the time of the Exodus from Egypt. Of course we have modern causes too, like you mention. But to me it's the same fight being replayed by the same actors in different bodies. That is Karma.
I'm not sure you can send forgiveness because that is a difficult choice that individuals and nations must make for themselves but that is what is needed.
If you wish to pray for peace and send love to the Middle East, I see no harm in doing so. It's a great idea.
You can also support those grass roots Palestinian and Israeli groups who are now working together towards peace, they have reconciled and have stopped pointing fingers and instead have joined hands. They are the ones who if supported will bring peace, not the politicians.
The prophets taught us the Golden Rule. The Eastern Mystics teach us about letting go of judgement and being the peace.
We are working to bring the image of peace to our world. This is a group experiment in intention. Intention is not a new idea.
Like I said before, there is nothing wrong with learning. Learning brings knowledge and when applied wisely we may change the image of the unpeaceful to peaceful. First we should do this in ourselves. We should forgive ourselves until we become the peace we seek.
I am suggesting that we have learned that we are powerful co creators. The data suggests that sending an intention of peace caused a very high spike in violence.
Perhaps in Sri Lanka that worked out OK. (not for the families of those killed ) but perhaps to put an end to the fighting, which may allow for a reconciliation.
If we do an intention to the Middle East right now and cause a spike, it may bring a lasting peace because it caused someone to detonated a nuclear weapon.
Put yourself in their shoes for a moment. We are considering performing a proceedure on a distant and very unstable patient which we already know will cause an increase in violence and we are doing so without informed consent.
I can't do that. To me it would be a violation of their free will.
Perry
Perry
Yes, that is allso another important thing: We did not ask people in Sri Lanka if they want us to influence on their life and even if we asked them, what could we answer on their question: and what will happen to us after your experiment? We (our mind) could only said: Our intention is to bring you love, peace... And that is all. Nothing more. But this is not enought.
We need to focus on our bodies, how we feel in our bodies and how other people feel in their bodies... People in Sri Lanka, people in Gaza... Of course, ideas are important but we need to feel how people in Gaza, let say feel in their bodies now and how would we feel in our bodies if we were there... Just this. If you decide to make another peace experiment, you should ask people on tharget area if they want this or not. And you should tell them honestly about "the results" on Sri Lanka. If they agree, ok if they not, you should not influence in this way on them. I know, we all participate in Sri Lanka experiment because we care, we want peace for other people, too... it is great! But now, that we know about the results, that violence increased in that week of our experiment, we need to slow down. It is truth, we do not know if this increasing happened because of us or because of something else, it is truth, yes - but, you know I do not want to risk, specially when life and death is in question. Please, think.
Dear Lynne,
I hate to post about my problem here but I have been emailing the Customer Service and also had escalated my case with Pay Pal since January 2 but have not received any reply.
I posted on the 12 December to inform that I did not receive any download link for my purchase of The Frontiers of Science Part 1 on 23 November.
You promised a more responsive Customer Service in the New Year, looks like there's no improvement yet.....
Please help.
Good morning All,
And thank you so much for keeping up this extremely mind/heart challenging discussion on the search for peace and for remaining so realistic all the while.
For the time being, I am still thinking about the consequences a healing crisis can cause on an entire country, about the people involved and their freedom to choose to receive healing or not.
Somehow, I agree with Perry, thank you for putting it down so clearly.
Before each session of the experiment, I have asked to be able and send healing energy only if that was for the highest good of all people involved. However, because we were targeting an entire country, some people probably did accept the healing energy, others maybe not. But, maybe, the number of people who did accept the healing was high enough to cause enormous disruption for the entire country.
Some could say that as everything is precisely as it should be, then if that happened, it is because it really is for the highest good of all people.
I am not too sure about this as yet and am still reflecting on it.
For the time being I have found an article on http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/ (Caught in Sri Lanka's War Zone, January 9th 2009).
Tonight I'll send healing energy to the PEOPLE, (forgetting all about terrorists and instauring peace in the country). I'll concentrate specifically on the everyday life conditions and well-being of the population.
I wish you all a beautiful day
Namaste
Perry,
i agree.. the beginnings of our earthly wars (fears greed etc) started back -a LONG way back in our history's past. The british came to australia (unasked) and we see the result of this injustice - juxtaposed with the convicts rotting, diseased, in broken boats on the Thames.. and it hit me that it might have been the same , when Arab unity was thwarted when the Balfore declaration was signed - juxtaposed with the injustice of fleeing Jewish.. I just wonder if the problem had been approach with (our intended) peace (love and forgiveness) what the outcomes may have been. Yes immigration COULD (and is now)be legitimate (a legal term). BUT it was not my intention to point a finger - just musing on the conversation regarding the ramifications of a Peace Intention.. as Marton H. points out it is not WHO wins (who knows which one is best) so much as WILL the winners be a voice for equality (plenty of examples in history).. We have been given the opportunity to participate in an experiment - we wait to see the results unfold . The way i see it (the bottom line)people are going to die if a war continues. (can we judge who will bear the casualties) I bet you are 'right on the mark' when you speak of Karma. If you are 'standing in' the essence of Frogiveness, would it not be harder to shoot? I do disagree though when you say there is nothing new under the sun.. there is the internet ... and people can join in from all over the world, at one time, to share in an experiment. re: Freewill/choice.. just how much of these do you think anyone has .. while being shot at (in fear of rape/starvation etc) and the 'winners' do not get off 'scott free' either.. how many of us had (male) relatives with Post Tramatic Stress symptoms.. I am praying for Peace (love and forgiveness).
christine (student)
As stated by Sandy DeBoise above, the reasons for the intensified results were very much in accordance with Hering's Law of Cure.
Constantine Hering, M.D. (1800-1880) observed nature and discovered that healing occurs in a consistent pattern. He described this pattern in the form of three basic laws. This pattern has been recognized by acupuncturists for hundreds of years and is also used by practitioners of herbalism and other healing disciplines, and is known as Hering's Law of Cure:
1. Healing progresses from the deepest part of the organism - outwards - the mental and emotional levels and the vital organs - to the external parts, such as skin and extremities.
2. As healing progresses, symptoms appear and disappear in the reverse of their original chronological order of appearance. Homeopaths have consistently observed their patients re-experience symptoms from past conditions.
3. Healing progresses from the upper to the lower parts of the body.
As the symptoms change in accordance with Hering's Law, it is common for individual symptoms to become worse and more intense, before they get better.
I participated in the Peace Intention Experiment by chance from a link from another peaceful website. I absolutely loved it, the peace I felt myself and so projected out into the targeted area and the world. I think if everyone in the whole world did this then surely we would have peace on earth. We are part of God, we are part of each other, we are meant to live life helping each other to create beautiful and peaceful lives. I believe that doing these peace intention experiments helps to fulfill this. In response to Marjeta's seemingly negative feelings about the whole experiment I suggest she maybe think about not being involved in them because bringing your own negative thoughts into something as powerful as the experiment was could be detrimental to what we are trying to achieve, a peaceful world. We don't need to ask people ,"Do you want us to do a peace intention experiment on your part of the world?" Did they ask everyone else permission before they started their violence? I believe it is up to us to take the initiative to change the old paradigm of war and violence so that the world will become what it should, perfectly balanced. Maybe Marjeta you should do some soul searching before you continue and stop trying to influence people to your scared and negative way of thinking.
Karen Luther hi,
I think you did not undestrand the point. We got the results here, that in a week of our Peace experiment violence increased more than was predicted by statistic and in this report was said that our experiment could be the reason, too, but yes, this we do not know really... It is possible and because of this possibility I am asking myself and you: is safe for people in Sri Lanka, Gaza to do this, what we did? Maybe we need to be more carefull. And I am absolutly shore in this that we need to ask them, do they want our influence or not! People who do not ask them if they can be violence to them is not really good comparison. Ja, I am not the only one here who is worried about it. Read others opinions, too... But, ja, it is ok, you said what you think. Ciao.
Congratulations on the experiment - The one thing I see that maybe could help is what Julie mentioned to not - "focus on the violent images before the intention on the peaceful one."
Having done lots of very successful long distance healing we always use a smiling/healthy photo of the person we are healing. We never concentrate/think about or visualize their disease or would use a photo of them in pain etc. Address the health not the illness - Yes, I agree the middle east should be next-
the Tamil Tigers (no relation to me) use suicide bombers and conscript young children to fight among other things...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamil_tigers
it's "trendy" to call them Freedom Fighters, in some uninformed circles; but i glad its almost over and that they are almost done...
I can't seem to rid myself of the belief that the main reason for the escalation in fighting was due to the government of Sri Lanka having prior knowledge of the peace experiment. Believing in the power of such an attempt, they took advantage of the situation, which only leads me to believe that this war would have been over long ago had there been no need for a victor and a loser. Perry (#46) may be correct about this becoming a temporary victory, but I do not believe that our participation in the Peace Experiment is the cause for either the increase in violence or a temporary solution.
As a participant in the Peace Experiment, I find it odd that there can be a question that, what we accomplished as a group...intending peace and love to all...,can be anything but positive! Whatever the after-affect is or isn't.
I felt our connection. Many of us felt the overwhelming peace and love of connecting with humanity, as one, as we sent the intention for peace to those in the Wanni region.
If you felt it, there can be no question that what we participated in was what was needed.
We have all resisted change in our lives. It's part of being human. We have all gone 'overboard' in our reaction to our ego being challenged.
I feel that those involved in the violence were actually feeling our love and peace. The spike in violence was 'them' resisting 'us' or, rather, that new, loving energy and possibility of peace and brotherhood stirring within them. Perhaps they never knew anything else in their lifetime and reacted in the only way they knew.
I don't feel responsible for the deaths during the Experiment any more than before the experiment. We are dealing with human beings. I wish there was no spike in violence, however, that was not in my control. I am very comfortable with my intention full of peace and brotherhood. And in the knowledge that that is what was intended and delivered to those in the region.
One person at a time, the belief and knowledge that peace is possible will spread!
Christine,
I am not sure about your notion that there once was Arab unity. I am not sure that such a thing truly existed. I have not seen true unity in any large population group Arab or otherwise. It seems the same forces that divide differing groups also divide groups that have a common culture.
I know that the Arab world was very unhappy (can't blame them) with the Balfour Declaration and I can see why you see it as divisive. Empires do that, they divide and conquer.
I deeply regret the suffering caused by the creation of the State of Israel, as much as I regret the persecution that brought people together to create a Jewish homeland.
We now have the internet. It's a tool that can be used for any purpose one chooses. It has brought us together and this group together. For that I am grateful.
I would argue that communications technology is evolving far more quickly that humanity is and with that comes both opportunity and risk.
We also now have the technology of using the most powerful tool in the world at our dispossal, the human mind working as a collective.
One of the prophets said: "we would move mountains and 2 or more in my name would do greater things than I"
OK, so here we are about to fulfill this prophecy, we wish to move mountains and turn swords into ploughshares.
I read somewhere that "God was in the word " meaning we must be very careful how we phrase our intentions for God ( the creative capacity - let their be light) is in the word.
Let's choose our words and thoughts carefully when we set in motion the most powerful tool we have, our collective intention.
Lets' be sure we have it right before we aim it anywhere outside of ourselves as a group.
Perry
In a meditation group that I have met with that focuses on manifestation techniques, the teacher reminds us that often the "universe" will first give us the exact opposite of what we are trying to manifest. Almost like a "test" we observe our reaction. If calm and nonreactive and we continue to focus on our intention with utter positivity, that which we put our intention toward will eventually manifest. If when presented with the same old negative or undesired situation we react with strong emotions towards it, then we just bring more of that same energy or thing towards ourselves. I find it really interesting that the violence peaked during the week of our experiment. Luckily we did not know this at the time and kept meditating with positive intentions for peace. The significant drop in violence that followed the peak may be the manifestation of our intention realized. How exciting! Blessings to all, tina.
While everyone is hollering about the violence in Gaza, just reach back in your memory to 2005 when Israel pulled all Jews and the Israeli army OUT of Gaza in order to have peace. All they got for it since is rockets fired from Gaza into the civilian population of Israel. Children have not gone to school in quite some time due to rocket fire. Finally, in response to the continuous Gaza rocketfire, the Israelis say that if there is to be no peace in Israel then there is going to be no peace in Gaza either. Wars are fought for a reason. Frankly, I think the Israelis have the right to defend themselves from attack.
If you're going to do a peace experiment on this situation, you will have to go into WITHOUT the intent of "I hope side X wins." Another genocide of the Jews, for me anyway, is just not acceptable, and that is what Hamas has specifically said that it stands for. Please do not repeat the silly platitude that one is not against Jews, just against Israel - they are one and the same as it is the only Jewish state in the world.
I've read all the messages. Sounds like a great experimen! I noticed it was started by Lynne McTaggart. I hope its ok I say this, but the name was very familiar. I believe I saw her in a movie where I believe she was discussing something similar.
Personally, I like the idea of passive revolution, I see it as one of the most powerful weapons. Though, the catch is, getting enough people to use it, and consistently enough. Ghandi did it, and a country in eastern Europe, more recently did it.
Now if we can get the passive revolution strategy in use more, the world would be a better place. Not only because of less bloodshed, but it would stabilize freedom. It'll happen, but I'm not sure when.
Revolutions have be problematic. They all start out great. They often create the free-est countries in the world, but even in the best cases, those governments degenerate over time, to be worse than the government they overthrew.
What we need is smaller countries and more of them.
Small is beautiful.
They would each be more responsive to their people, they would be ideal places to live, and those who didn't find them ideal could move to one of many other countries. Each country would be ideal places because only people that believed in it and wanted to make it work would be there. And few if any would ever have enough manpower to to build a big enough army to be any threat, and if one ever did, it would be easier to neutralize.
That all up there is well and good, sorry, I'm an idealist who easily gets carried away. To the practical matters at hand.
I believe this is worth a shout. When it works, a great technology will have been discovered.
I know it works on a personal level. This seems to be the law of attraction being discussed here. I know it works on a personal level. I've discovered that, after years of being a defeatist person. Lately it is slowly but surely been working for me. If it works on a personal level, it seems that enough persons using it can enact it to work on a more massive level.
There however is the possibility that it may cause explosions of violence shortly before its completion. Often when sick, I've thrown up miserable, then after that, gotten better. Does the global body function as the physical body?
Though, my sligh problem might be, my personal life doesn't yet function perfectly, but I'm getting there. Might our day to day challenges that upset us personally have a negative effect? I don't know.
And how can negative people be offset? I see my father a few times a week. I and the Christian Republican military man type are often at odds. He's the Archie Bunker type. Often comments on the news which is often Fox News, and his hero is Rush Limbaugh. Might this have a negative effect?
The website I listed is something I'm doing to start a magazine I want to start, I'm not asking for money, but ideas on how to raise the money needed to start the magazine will be appreciated. It is to be a magazine the presents all side of an issue. one the religious/spiritual presented will be opposing views; Christians, Jewish, Islams, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, pantheist (that describes myself); on the political, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green, left, right, communist, socialist, anarchist, pacifist, and anything else I can't list.
I'm a pacifist myself, I can't understand why people need to kill each other, it makes no sense to me.
This kind of project might be something that the magazine could promote. Though, you might want to promote in a magazine that exists now, and is well read.
As I do want to start my magazine, that is not the reason I'm writing this and want to be involved in this project. I'd be here if I weren't going to start a magazine. Though, it does so happen to be one of my projects.
I hope I'm welcome.
Peace,
Kraig
Perry,
Ahh ! Make sure we have it 'right'. is that not where we came in? As beings that are not quite 'all knowing' only time will tell/will judge if we got it right. The one thing i intend is that God will be in the 'word'. That is perhaps why we should not need to cause ourselves unnecessary angst and leave the outcome to the god... what do you think?
Next? could we give some thought to the starving in Africa ( i know it is low on the agenda for media.. not enough starving women with guns)
I made it back. I'll bookmark this page. I got to this site from a link in a message at the PMEC Yahoo group, came here and left some messages and joined, and that sort of stuff, and left. Then I found the main site somehow and couldn't find this specific place.
So, the idea is the have think and send those thought of peace and love to Gaza and Israel. Right? Do thoughts travel and have this sort of power?
I've been spreading the word, please don't take anything in this message offensively. I don't think anyone here is an idiot, and I'm hoping not.
I tell people, "If this doesn't work, call them idiots, if it does, the gains will be enormous"
When this does achieve victory in Gaza, don't stop there. A great discovery and technology will have been made.
It was a good choice to use Sri Lanka as the first
case - as there are relatively few people who have
a vested interest in the parties to the dispute.
It would be VERY dangerous to tackle the Gaza
situation as there is a substantial number of
people with vested interests - and their intention
would be affected by their underlying views (even if the do not consciously so intend!). This
would distort, also, the statistical outcome and
do a disservice to the "cause" of intentionality.
Even in the Sri Lanka experiment, the neutrality
of the organising team could not be replicated
across the participants - and even the use of
the word "rebel" is tendentious. We are all in
the rebel category in the eyes of the other side.
Just because we have learned a little about the
subject of intention does not mean that we can
ignore the law of unintended consequences!
The Hawthorn effect of observation affecting
the outcome also comes into play. The real danger is that intentionality gets to be used as
an explicit tool in international diplomacy - and
then it would fail!
History is littered with fine schemes that worked
fine in the past on minor issues or in theory on
retrospective data but came unstuck when put
to a major test.
Long Term Capital Management in 1998 was
one clear example of that. More recently the
analogy has been put that accurate assessment
of Actuarial risk relating to human mortality is
now relatively easy, but assessing the risk of
earthquake occurrence is another thing entirely
- to the extent that insurance companies are quite unwilling to underwrite such risk.
Ending wars is akin to predicting earthquakes.
We just do not have enough data to control all
the factors. Bringing intentionality PUBLICLY
into the equation could just "muddy the waters"
- especially when the mass of the pre-existing
intention on either side is a factor in the
previous prolongation.
It is well recorded that various groups were
working on intentionality during the second
world war. They succeeded - but in the face
of a lot of darkness. I recall the August 1987
event known as Harmonic Convergence (the
start of a transition to December 2012). Those
who looked at the enormity of the task facing
humankind will have gained a sense of what was
facing the WWII groups.
Perhaps the new understanding of intention will
be a factor in facing the 2012 challenges.
However, we must avoid "blundering in"!
Alan Rayner
Bideford England
Hi Christine,
I think God wants us to use our God given talents to create the outcome that serves humanity's highest and best with the least amount of suffering.
On this earth, we are God because we are endowed with a creative capacity that is amoral, but not beyond the law of cause and effect. Meaning we are now responsible for our actions karmically speaking, because we understand that we can increase someone else's suffering - Do the ends justify the means ? Or should we alter the means before we try again ?
If we change the means then we are taking responsibility as physicians of the collective human soul. If not, it seems we are practicing a form of black magic.
We are operating like metaphysical physicians now. We have a patient that we see as sick. At the highest level of truth, that sickness is a projection of our own lack of inner peace reflecting back to us as a conflict in a distant land. That is what I have discovered about the nature of human consciousness. So at the deepest level we are working on ourselves not Sri Lanka ,Gaza, or Africa. (yes they need or help)
That said, we live in the third dimension where the illusion of separation and individuality is the predominat view point. (Alan is correct that 3rd dimensional time is collapsing as we come to the end of the age of aquarius, it seems our intentions will have much greater impact than ever before to influence what we observe on the collective screen). That is why we need to be cautious.
As physicans of the human soul, I suggest that before we operate on the patient that we take a full and proper history. Make the best diagnosis we can and then before we operate we explain the risks to the patient and then get their informed consent.
Before we operate we should access the highest wisdom by a variety of means:prayer,meditation,applied kinesiology, and a few other ways, then we should operate leaving the results in God's hands.
May I also suggest that at the deepest level we have come together to simply heal ourselves and we are looking outside of oursleves instead of inside ourselves for the disease.
We ultimately are one mind, fragmented into many apparently separated parts. It's the one mind that is unbalanced and it is the one mind that needs to be brought into better balance.
If we as a group focused our intention on oursleves, perhaps we could affect the planet even more dramatically then by focusing outside of ourselves.
Warning, I've done it and I experienced the same spike, as everything that was unpeaceful raised itself for me to experience and try to integrate.
Is this group willing to do this for itself ? Are we willing to take our own medicine before we dispence it?
I have taken the medicine and it was bitter. Yes, it did raise my level of consciousness and yes life became more peaceful but not because people changed but because I changed my reaction to outside dramas. This then attracted less drama into my life.
As we work for peace out there let us remind ourselves that we have an equal responsibility to work on peace in here, within us.
If we work from above and below so to speak, I think we will be more effective in healing the collective, if that is what our intention is.
Perry
What about timing, results, and results of waiting too long?
People in Gaza are dying. Hatred exists in the hearts and minds of Muslims and Jews in Gaza and Israel. Until that hatred is transmuted more violent actions will be take. There are consequences of actions as well as consequences of inaction.. Which are worse? If you wait for the time to be judged to be right, the time may never come.
My intention is for my grandchildren and myself to basque in the warmth of a peaceful planet earth,,, soon.....
I understand some peoples concerns here about whether or not we should go on sending intentions, due to the fact that initially there was an increase of violence. I don't know if we achieved anything, not to speak of "lasting peace".
What I know and feel is that we did the right thing. If someone is drowning, you are not waiting to get his permission to help, you won't hesitate in that doubt. You just know you have to do it and it's the right thing to do.
What if the violence escalated at first? If this is truly a healing crisis, that means that far more deaths have been prevented by this experiment in the long term, than the casualties during the experiment.
Please, let's not stop here. Don't have doubts about your power to do good.
thank you
re: Perry, Have given much thought to your notion of 'inner' focus. This has given me opportunity to make contact with a couple of people (made sure i was 'clear'). Your conversation is a great reminder (in a busy life) Thanks.. Getting back to using Intention in a considered fashion - is that not what Lynne did? AND perhaps we may need to pose the question to ourselves- as part of any future experiments- concerning our own 'inner peace'. Most of us would be aware of the idea 'go and make peace with your brother, before you take your offering to the alter '...
re: Alan R. too, i still don't see how we are responsible for the outcome if our only intention is 'peace'. Won't each faction be responsible for their own spirit/heart/intellect/philosophical reaction? We are just sending 'peace' in energetic terms. As this is an experimental enterprize, we are not sure if there will be 'spikes' (though i assume there will be), or what the outcome of any spikes will be. IS this experiment not already part of the 'cause and effect' of the violence perpetrated by people who don't wish to consider 'win/win' outcomes? I think we will get bogged down in detail/paperwork if we attempt to take a 'full and proper history' (you have already suggested how far back that really goes). I believe we are really only responsible for the experiment's intent. If we come to it with 'muddied/questionable' intentions then the experiment will probably not have a clear outcome anyway .. The WWII was 'dark' but would it have been darker without pray? But i do wonder at the Israeli/Arab conflict being our next focus - are we ready/experienced enough?
re: Markus, If we bother to ask (doubt if we really could) the different factions for 'permission' would that not increase the likelihood of the Hawthorn effect? As Paula pointed out rearranging where whole groups of people live has not had the desired effect - could we do any worst? A man i admired echoed Edmund Burke "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing". I am looking forward to the next 'something'. I am hoping for Africa.
P.S. Thanks everyone for the opportunity for reflection and community.. (back to the books)c.
It is sad if peace in the Wanni provice comes as a result of one side winning by crushing the resistance. A peace that comes about because all on the other side have been killed, can hardly be called a success for our experiment. This doesn't mean that intention doesn't work, but maybe that it works in undesirable ways, and it seems we have a great responsibility when undertaking such experiments.
Also, it's sad that Lynne McTaggart refers to the rebels as "terrorists", others see them as "freedom fighters". There is a reason for the rebellion, and I really thought that McTaggart was above such dichotomies. And maybe such language in combination with our experiment may have helped the goverment in their campaign to destroy the rebels. A big responsibility, indeed.
Paula - I do not want any side to win - I want the war, violence and pain to stop. You are part of a peace experiment so I am sure you want the same. I think so many of us are repeating the word Gaza because we are so sad to hear of what they are going through, especially the children. I, for one, have never heard before of bombardments where a people have no choice but to stay in a war zone because they are hemmed in on all sides, where the population is so densely knotted together that to 'identify' military targets is an impossible task, where children are left with the corpses of their dead parents for four days and where the world's press are not allowed access. And in saying all that I do not for one moment deny the pain that Israelis are going through because of the rocket fire. The point is non of it has any sense and is dead end violence. If we meditate for peace, minds might open, a greater wisdom step in and talking that leads to an enlightened solution ensue. Love to you and to all in the region.
Just wanted to add that I also believe that we must also strive as well as for peace, for just solutions - there is a material basis for the Palestinian/Israeli and I totally agree with those who rather than pseudo peace - ie one side forced into stopping fighting - want genuinely fair outcomes where all peoples have their life needs met and all voices are heard and represented.
Good luck with the magazine Kraig and let us know how it goes.
peace will come when we all want it to
Christine et al,
You make very valid points.
I acknowledge that when there is a medical emergency that taking too long a history could be fatal. At the same time if you miss something crucial, that could be fatal too.
This makes it difficult to ascertain how deep to go ino the history when we are facing a crisis situation like Gaza.
We could argue forever while Rome is burning as well, so ultimately action is needed and that will ultimitely be decided by Lynne.
As we move forward, Let's'aim our intention with the best intention and the most effective language.
In the meantime I leave you with this prayer.
A Prayer for Peace
Heavenly Father
We long to see a world without war.
We ask in your name and in your honour, that our prayers quickly manifest peace on earth,
as is your promise.
God, we acknowledge that only light can defeat darkness,
therefore guide our light so it may illuminate all dark places.
May the well of compassion fill the hearts of all God's children,
so that they recognize that we are all brothers and sisters in joy and in suffering.
May forgiveness displace revenge, and reconciliation replace retaliation
when we experience conflict within the human family.
May inner peace grow in the heart of humanity
and may it manifest outer peace at Godspeed on our planet.
Amen
Amen
What about a "greatest good for all" intention aimed at the various world issues? For a while now I have read all the "downer news" and treated---connect up with the oneness, and know the greatest good for all. It gives an outlet for turning the energy around to see the world I would like to live in, more than the energy of the contrast.
* My group calls for this visualization: all governments using win-win process asap. Win-win means listening to the concerns of all major groups on an issue, finding solutions that satisfy all of the main concerns, and making legislation that adopts only win-win solutions.
* A second suggestion is to visualize many people learning win-win process and many win-win candidates winning elections.
* http://win10.webs.com
Wonderfull experiment...but insted of using the will, i would go for, trying the feelings of compassion and forgiveness for both sides . there is a lot of pain and anger - but we know the missing of love is hate...forgiveness and compassion are my suggestion...love rie
Here here! (Or is it hear hear?!) Good suggestion Rie. Love the win win stuff too. Adversarial politics leads to lose lose.
[...] can read the full story on the Intention Experiment website. If you enjoyed this post share it [...]
I think these experiments are awesome but I do wonder at the energetic shifts that happen as a result. Sure the Tamil experiment may have reduced "war" in that region but have you noticed everything always stays in balance. So where did the suppression of war pop up? Gaza perhaps, seemed to flair at about the same time? War and peace appear to be opposites of the same coin just as happy and sad are. If you are happy about an event then you are suppressing your saddness over the same event (breakups are a good example or winning the lottery) So to see war as bad and try and supress it just pushes it to another area until we discover that if God truly is omipresent, omnipotent and omniescent then it's just all God playing around with God onto eternity. Can you watch a galaxy rip another galaxy to pieces and say it's destruction or creation in progress, or a tsunami as destroying or "cleansing". The same can be said for forgiveness and being sorry. If it's all God then there is nothing to be sorry for or to forgive. Once we see how war and peace serve then we can have inner peace while still being amongst it all. Perhaps an intention for those in war to see God's grace in their actions and attitudes. When you get to the point of loving war as God appears to then you become that..love, then there is no war just love. Go the big picture!!!
"PLACE YOURSELFS IN "THE GLOWING HANDS OF CHRIST". SEE HIS VISIONS OF LOVE AND LIGHT. TAKE A WALK THROUGH OUR GARDEN OF LOVE, "THE GARDEN OF EDEN", YOU MIGHT EVEN SEE OUR WHITE DOVE. YOU CAN EVEN PICK EACH FLOWER ON YOUR WAY... IT'S OK.! FOR WE WON'T MIND, IF YOU TAKE ALL THE MANY ROSES YOU MAY FIND. REALLY, IT'S TRULY FINE.! BUT WALK, ENJOY EACH PATH YOU MAY TAKE. IT'S TRULY OK, FOR HEAVEN SAKE.! EVEN SIT FOR A SPELL, WE WON'T TELL. FOR YOU CAN TAKE ALL THE TIME YOU MAY NEED, WHILE SIPPING SOME OF OUR TEA. IT'S FOR YOU, SO ENJOY THE VIEW. YET KEEP IN MIND; ALL THINGS WILL BE FINE, KNOW THAT WE ARE ALL, WALKING ALONG SIDE OF THEE.! AS YOUR NOT ALONE, NOT AT ALL. FOR WE WOULDN'T DARE LET YOU FALL.! REMEMBER THAT WHITE DOVE.? IT'S FILLED WITH LOVE... FOR IT'S 'THE GLOWING HANDS OF CHRIST', SURROUNDING YOU IN ALL HIS LOVE AND LIGHT.!" BY ELIZABETH KLUKEN KEEP SHARING THE LOVE... Elizabeth~HopesB4u2~"The Garden Of Eden" http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=28144907869