• FULL PAGE ANNOUCEMENT in major US newspapers details the plan outlined by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - calling for $1 billion Endowment Fund for Permanent World Peace. (See European edition of International Herald Tribune, 25 September 2001.)
  
  
• NEWS CONFERENCE Maharishi will speak to the world's press on Friday, 28 September, at 10am (EST), National Press Club, Washington, D.C., USA. (This is Maharishi's first news conference in seven years. He will speak live via satellite from Vlodrop, Holland.)
  
  
• URGENT CALL TO ACTION for all those in Great Britain who practise Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation programme.

For more information, and to arrange interviews, call Sam Katz in the USA, +1 202-339-9782; or Deirdre Warburton in Britain, 01622 815380 For full text of Maharishi's press announcement and the background to it, please see website: www.globalcountry.org.uk

Proven programme for world peace ready for implementation as soon as funds become available

In a series of press announcements in the major US newspapers, and today in the European edition of International Herald Tribune, His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has presented a proven plan to eliminate terrorism without the need for conflict and further bloodshed. At a time when the whole world is fearful of the consequences of the strategies now being implemented by the US and its allies, Maharishi is appealing to the wise and the wealthy of the world to create a $1 billion Endowment Fund. This fund will support a group of 40,000 experts in the Vedic technologies of consciousness to create world peace.

The experts are already training at Maharishi's Vedic Schools throughout India, and, as soon as sufficient funds are available, they will come together in groups of 8,000. These groups will collectively perform ancient Vedic technologies of peace which have been revived by Maharishi over the past 50 years. Extensive research has clearly established that these technologies, practised collectively by such groups, will create an indomitable influence of peace and harmony in world consciousness.

News conference speakers

Maharishi will present his proposal during a news conference in Washington, D.C., on Friday, 28 September, 10 a.m., at the National Press Club. Maharishi will speak live via a video satellite link from Maharishi University of Management in Vlodrop, Holland. Also speaking at the news conference in Washington will be John Hagelin, PhD, Harvard-trained quantum physicist, Natural Law Party presidential candidate in the 2000 election; Major General Kulwant Singh, a highly decorated 35-year military leader from India and an expert in anti-terrorism; and John Davies, PhD, Research Director of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management at the University of Maryland.

Representatives of the British media in Washington are cordially invited to attend the press conference.

Urgent call to action in Great Britain

Dr Geoffrey Clements, leader of Maharishi's organisation in Britain, says that he and his colleagues are doing all they can to support the programme to create world peace and are approaching wealthy people in this country to support the fund. Dr Clements, a physicist, is also offering to brief the Prime Minister and the Cabinet on this new approach. " We need to caution our government to avoid falling again into the vicious circle of attack and retribution," he said. "Violence has never been, and can never be a means to secure peace. We want our Prime Minister to know that there is a practical and proven means to protect national security and eliminate the threat of global terrorism without having to take recourse to violence and destruction.

"We do not agree with the government when it says that loss of life of British people is inevitable. This is not a civilised approach, and it is not worthy of the 21st Century. Maharishi's technology of peace utilises the deepest principles of modern science to eliminate at its source the stress in world consciousness that gives rise to terrorism, conflict and war. This is a unique, unprecedented opportunity to destroy enmity in the world and create an invincible armour of coherence and positivity for every nation."

In addition to approaching the wealthy and the government to support Maharishi's proposal, Dr Clements has also appealed to all those in Britain who already practise Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and its advanced techniques, including Yogic Flying, to come together daily at the 80 TM Centres and Academies around the country in order to practise this programme in groups. Already, over 120 have gathered at the Maharishi Golden Dome in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, to practise Transcendental Meditation and Yogic Flying together twice daily.

People in Britain encouraged to learn Transcendental Meditation immediately

Maharishi Foundation is also encouraging many more people in this country to learn Transcendental Meditation immediately. "This is something every individual in this country can do to directly improve the situation," Dr Clements said. "Rather than watching the news and feeling helpless as Britain and the world sink into war, we can enliven the field of infinite peace within ourselves. By practising Transcendental Meditation, we can create a more peaceful and coherent national consciousness. This will enable our leaders to think in a more constructive way, so that they stop leading this country down the path of destruction: 'As you sow, so shall you reap.'"

END

SUMMARY OF MAHARISHI'S PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT

As millions of soldiers around the world gird for war, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is mobilising tens of thousands of experts to create peace. In full-page announcements in the New York Times, Washington Post, and International Herald Tribune, Maharishi, founder of the Transcendental Meditation programme, revealed the details of his "Proposal for Permanent World Peace" and appealed to the wise and the wealthy to implement it immediately.

The need, the announcement states, is clear. "When the U.S. Government, with the most powerful defence force in the world, and a defence budget of over $300 billion, has hopelessly failed to defend its nation against the attacks of the enemy, what hope is there for any nation to protect itself against its enemies through the use of arms."

Maharishi¹s solution? Establish one group of 40,000 experts trained in ancient Vedic technologies of peace - technologies that have been shown by extensive research, published in leading peer-reviewed journals, to dissolve acute ethnic and religious tensions, and dramatically reduce violence and war.

Two approaches that have failed

The announcement describes the perilous state of the current global crisis: "With the US government and the allies of NATO on one side, and the terrorists on the other side, life on earth - whether it is American life, Chinese life, Afghani life, or any life - will be burnt in flames.

"Can the prevailing national defence system of any country save that country from space-based warfare, chemical warfare, biological warfare, information warfare, guided missile warfare, suicidal attacks, and any other destructive system of warfare where the enemy is seen or unseen?"

"We must take recourse to a more effective approach which will be better than the two approaches that have failed: negotiations and the use of destructive weaponry," the announcement states.

Solution

"The wise retaliation against terrorism will be to take a step which will completely root out terrorism forever - and this will be by creating a very strong influence of positivity and harmony in world consciousness, so that any kind of negative trends do not arise," the announcement reads. For that, the proposal calls for establishing a group of 40,000 experts in the Vedic knowledge and technologies of peace.

Scientific validation

More than 50 studies, published in leading peer-reviewed scientific journals, have documented the ability of group practice of Transcendental Meditation and its advanced techniques, including Yogic Flying, to reduce societal stress and violence, and to calm open warfare in war-torn areas. In the mid 1980s this approach was used to quell violence in the Middle East, and resulted in an 80% drop in war fatalities and war-related injuries, according to articles published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution and other scientific publications.

Endowment Fund for Permanent World Peace

The announcement also outlines the financial requirements of the proposal. "What is immediately needed is an endowment fund of $1 billion in order to permanently engage 40,000 peace-makers in India - at the rate of $100 to $200 per person per month - in the performance of Vedic technologies of peace.

"There must be a few peace-loving billionaires in America who would understand our offer and who can immediately, in one day, create the required endowment fund to try this new peaceful angle of approach to establish permanent world peace. The US Congress has just voted $40 billion for the war against terrorism. If they want to truly eliminate terrorism, they should put $1 billion in the Endowment Fund to create peace in the world through the power of the Vedic technologies of peace."

Maharishi predicted World Trade Centre attack two years ago

The announcement also highlights the fact that Maharishi predicted the chilling attacks on Washington and the World Trade Centre over two years ago, on 12 April 1999, in an announcement that appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the International Herald Tribune of Europe, and the Financial Times of London.

Calling on the world's wealthy to establish an Endowment Fund for Perpetual World Peace during the war in Yugoslavia, the announcement predicted the dire consequences if a group of peace-promoting experts was not created:

"The horror of war being witnessed in Yugoslavia is creating fear in the hearts of everyone everywhere. This crisis is a challenge to the wealthy of the world to save their own wealth and the life of all people in their nation. What is happening in Yugoslavia can happen to any nation anytime. Can you imagine if bombs began to fall on Washington, D.C., and to destroy the high-rises of money markets of New York? Will NATO be able to prevent this?"