20 Years of the Maharishi European Sidhaland

From TM News

Twenty years ago last month, in September 1980, the first Meditators, Sidhas and Governors arrived in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, to form the coherence-creating group that became the Maharishi European Sidhaland. Twenty years on, its achievements have been recognized with a prestigious "best practice" award from the British Urban Regeneration Association.

This award reflects the significant progress made towards the goals for which the Sidhaland was founded-to provide working models of the effectiveness of Maharishi's programmes for creating a society free from problems, with ideal education, perfect health care, and a crime-free, stress-free, pollution-free environment where life is lived in accord with Natural Law.

Over the past twenty years, more and more of Maharishi's Vedic Science has been incorporated into the life of the Sidhaland, including the wonderful Maharishi School, which deeply impresses all who come in contact with it; the Maharishi Ayur-Veda Health Centre; the Maharishi Golden Dome for group practice of Yogic Flying, and the adjacent housing project; and most recently, the first Maharishi Sthapatya Veda building in Britain, the new sports and arts centre.

Constructing the Maharishi Golden Dome. The building paid for by donations from the supporters of the Maharishi European Sidhaland, cost £1m. It was opened by West Lancs MP Ken Kind in March 1988.

Central to the life of the Maharishi European Sidhaland is the group practice of Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programme. Of the bliss experienced in group practice of Yogic Flying, Maharishi said in 1988 that "world peace is a by-product of it; heavenly life on earth is a by-product of it." This ability to generate a coherent influence in collective consciousness means that a group of Yogic Flyers not only improve their own lives, but also improve the quality of life in their surroundings. When the Maharishi Golden Dome was opened in 1988, Maharishi said that "this will be a place from where the coherence will radiate to purify the whole world consciousness, generation after generation."

Evidence of this Maharishi Effect was documented in a 1995 study in the journal Psychology, Crime and Law, which detailed how the numbers of Yogic Flyers in Skelmersdale's Dome correlated with a large unexpected downturn in regional crime. Between 1988 and 1993 on Merseyside, there were 255,000 less crimes that would have been expected according to national trends. In economic terms alone, this represented a saving of £1,250 million.

This is a new and exciting concept in urban regeneration-that it is now completely feasible to regenerate individuals, and whole communities, through Maharishi's technologies of consciousness-but the accolade of a BURA award will accelerate the Maharishi European Sidhaland's role as a catalyst to see these achievements repeated many times in cities and towns around the country.

To celebrate the BURA award, we'll run a special series of articles focusing on aspects of the Maharishi European Sidhaland, and report on progress in applying these "best practices" elsewhere in Britain and abroad.

The mechanics of enlightened urban regeneration: 3,500 sq ft of space is available for Yogic Flying in the Maharishi Golden Dome

Above: Decreased crime rate in the vicinity of increased coherence: the study on Yogic Flying in the Maharishi European Sidhaland and decreased Merseyside crime rates, by Guy Hatchard, published in Psychology, Crime and Law. A further 42 studies have replicated these findings, making the Maharishi Effect the most rigorously validated phenomenon in the social sciences.

Moving to the Sidhaland

Recent months have seen an increase in people moving to the Maharishi European Sidhaland. What do they find when they get here? Ian and Sheila Dalling have been here for a long while now, and share their experience on the new Maharishi European Sidhaland website.

Sheila: We used to visit from 1980 onwards, and we would enjoy our TM-Sidhi programme here so much and feel part of the community and really not want to go home. So we decided to move here, and we really haven't regretted one minute. We wouldn't live anywhere else. It's such a nice community, such nice people, and there's always a lot to do here, interesting things happening. Our life seems to have taken off, really-even though we are going on retirement, we don't feel that sort of age at all.

Ian: Certainly from the point of view of my business, I found that meditating has made me much more creative. For the last 18 months I've been working for myself, and everything in life seems to flow that much more easily when you live here, and the community is very supportive, it's an ideal place to live. And it's easy to meet up with people who are doing similar things to you, it's easy to socialise.

Sheila: You just feel as if you are with one big family, there are so many people you know. People are living a very evolutionary life here; you're getting rid of your tiredness all the time, so you're not accumulating stress, you're not ageing as fast as you would have anywhere else, and you look around at all the people you know and you see that they are not ageing as fast as your friends who live in other parts of the country.

Ian: One particular thing is that living up here is an ideal geographical location, because you can get out to the Lake District, Wales, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and there are so many open spaces; they're a complete contrast to where we lived in the south, which was very beautiful but more closed in. Here you are absolutely spoiled for places to go, we've been up here ten years and are still discovering new places, it's great.

Sheila: And we're near Manchester airport-half an hour away-so you can get off anywhere on business or holiday.

Ian: From the business point of view it's ideal-I've even been to Belgium for a meeting and got there and back in a day. I can get down to London for a daily meeting or go to Glasgow for a daily meeting. We've got an international airport which is second to none, and I find that travelling here is probably the best you'll get in the UK.

(edited version of interview)

Maharishi European Sidhaland, Golden Dome, Woodley Park Road, Skelmersdale WN8 6UQ, UK
Tel +44 (0)1695 728847
Education Charity No 270157