Will Department of Defense Turn to Meditation to Bring World Peace?

An article,


“A proven enlightened counter-measure,” written by
Dr. David Leffler, an eight-year US Air Force veteran,
now the Executive Director at the Center for Advanced
Military Science (CAMS), appeared in The Aljazzera
Magazine, an “independent media organisation
established in 1992 in London” reporting on world events
that affect the Middle East.

In the article, Leffler discusses US Defense Secretary
Robert Gates in Gates’

recent speech at the


U.S. Institute of Peace. Gates said that “[e]nlightened
counter-measures … will bolster the internal strength
of vulnerable states so they will not harbor violent
networks seeking to launch the next attack.” Leffler
suggests that in the DoD’s “struggle to eliminate
violent extremism,” eastern-style meditation techniques
should be used:

“Extensive scientific research indicates that the
best way to reduce collective societal stress,
eliminate extremism and thereby snuff out war
and terrorism, is to adopt an ancient strategy.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has revived the ancient
Vedic technology of Invincible Defense Technology
(IDT) in a non-religious manner. It has been quietly
and successfully used by members of many faiths to
eliminate conflict in the past.”

According to research, special units would be trained
using Transcendental Meditation (TM) and TM-Sidhi
programs.

Leffler’s article states that for this “Maharishi
Effect” (ME) to take place, a certain percentage of
the population would have to practice this joint-efforted
meditation: “Extensive research shows that the group
size needed to reduce social stress depends on
population size. It needs to be at least the square root
of 1% of the population.” Leffler says that based on
research, crime drops and quality of life goes up when
the ME takes place. He gave a 1993 example where an ME
intervention was studied in the U.S. capital – crime was
said to have dropped by 23%.

The article says that “the U.S. is close to achieving
the requisite number of IDT experts through the


Invincible America Assembly in Fairfield, IA,” but
that economic conditions in Iowa are keeping the
meditation group from full success. Countries like
Holland, Bolivia, Colombia, Trinidad, and Peru are said
to have enough practitioners of the TM-Sidhi program to
create the Maharishi Effect in their countries.

Leffler states that the ME could take place around the
world if each country’s military would establish what he
calls

Prevention Wings of the Military. This group would
make up for the percentage supposedly needed to meditate
for world peace. As for the US military, Leffler says,
“Ultimately, it is the DoD’s duty to build a Prevention
Wing of the Military.”

According to New Age teachings, Leffler’s proposition
that a certain percentage of meditators will rid the
world of terrorism, crime, and even poverty could
work. New Agers say that a

“critical mass” of meditators is needed to bring the
ME about. While critical mass is a scientific term, it
is used here to refer to “an explosion in global
consciousness capable of ‘touching’ or transforming all
of humankind.” The idea is that when a certain critical
number of people all share the same awareness, then
change can come to all people’s thinking because of the
critical mass. This critical mass would bring about a
global paradigm shift.

As Lighthouse Trails has documented for several years
now, the number of people practicing eastern meditation
is quickly increasing. From


babies being taught to meditate to a huge
infiltration of meditation in all sectors of society,
and finally through the contemplative (i.e., spiritual
formation) movement in the evangelical church,
meditation practice is overwhelmingly accepted and
embraced in the world today. Leaders of meditation
believe that it is through meditation that the world
will finally experience true peace and unity.

While the Bible says that the world will at some point
reach a momentary, false global peace (through occultic
practices, we believe), it will be short lived and
demonically inspired. Ray Yungen discusses the false
sense of unity and oneness that is achieved through
meditation and why it is spiritually dangerous:

“Dr. Rodney R. Romney, former Senior Pastor of the
First Baptist Church of Seattle, is a person
frequently quoted as an example of a New Age
Christian. He very candidly revealed what was
conveyed to him in his contemplative prayer periods.
The ‘source of wisdom’ he was in contact with told
him the following:

‘I want you to preach this oneness, to hold it
up before the world as my call to unity and
togetherness. In the end this witness to the
oneness of all people will undermine any
barriers that presently exist.’

“Could this be a familiar spirit speaking here?
Jesus Christ did not teach that all people are one.
There are the saved and the unsaved. And Jesus
Christ is the catalyst for this distinction.”

We have established in previous articles and reports
that contemplative spirituality is a New Age belief
system with which meditation is implemented and altered
states of consciousness are reached. We have also shown
how New Agers believe that the one common factor that
unites all religious traditions is the metaphysical
(i.e., mystical meditation). Listen again to Ray Yungen:

“But the spirit who spoke to Dr. Romney also
revealed something else of vital importance. It
declared, ‘Silence is that place, that environment
where I work.’ Please pay attention to this! God
does not work in the silence — but familiar spirits
do. Moreover, what makes it so dangerous is that
they are very clever. One well-known New Ager
revealed what his guiding (familiar) spirit candidly
disclosed: ‘We work with all who are vibrationally [meditationally]
sympathetic; simple and sincere people who feel our
spirit moving, but for the most part, only within
the context of their current belief system.'”

Warren Smith, in his book Reinventing Jesus Christ
talks about the critical mass. Here he quotes New
Ager Marianne Williamson:

“So it is that a new politics centers around the
arousal of that power, using prayer and meditation
to create a forcefield of transformation.

“It is a mystical revolution that will usher in a
mystical age.

“As a loving critical mass coalesces, as hearts
around the world continue to yearn and work for
peace, then new forms will emerge to actualize our
new planetary vision.”

Williamson is not some obscure New Age guru. Today, she
works diligently in Washington, DC, rallying for the
support of Congressmen and others to start a U.S.
Department of Peace. Every year, she and other
influential individuals and groups grow that much closer
to the DOP becoming a reality.

1

Some may think our headline for this story, suggesting
that the US Department of Defense would turn to
meditation techniques, is absurd. Perhaps the DOD would
never consider taking Leffler’s advice to use eastern
mystical practices. But consider this: In October 2008,
the Department of Defense awarded a $411,000 grant to
the Center for Mind-Body Medicine to study the
effectiveness of a non-drug approach for brain-injured
soldiers who are suffering from depression.

2 The Center for Mind-Body Medicine uses various
forms of eastern-style practices including guided
imagery, meditation, and has an advisory board that
includes New Age sympathizer Dean Ornish. Caryl
Matrisciana discusses Ornish in her book Out of India:

“In the 1970s, Ornish met Sri Swami Satchidananda
(who was teaching Ornish’s sister meditation
techniques at the time) and told the guru he wanted
to learn from him too. Today, he credits
Satchidananda for inspiring his heart disease
program. His book, Program for Reversing Heart
Disease, became a New York Times
best-seller and is a product of the swami’s advice.
Ornish says:

‘Swami Satchidananda began teaching me in 1972
the meditation and Yoga techniques that evolved
into the stress management program described [in
this book]. Since then, he has remained my
teacher and close friend.

“Ornish devotes two chapters in his book to Yoga and
other meditative techniques, explaining that “Yoga
is a system of powerful tools for achieving union .
. . with a higher force,” and through meditation,
the higher self can be experienced. Quoting Swami
Vivekananda, he states:

‘In one word, this ideal is that you are divine
. . . All the powers in the universe are already
ours.’

“Ornish was appointed to the White House Commission
on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy by
former President Clinton and also served as a
physician consultant to Clinton and several
bipartisan members of the U.S. Congress.” (from


Out of India, pp. 165-166)

It is Swami Vivekananda’s spirituality to which the
Department of Defense is giving nearly 1/2 million
dollars. So Leffler’s hope that the DOD will incorporate
meditation will most likely become a reality.

It is tragic to watch the futile efforts of the world
seeking so desperately after peace in all the wrong
places. The world has rejected Jesus Christ as the only
Prince of Peace and has turned to the prince of this
world (Satan) and his methods instead. Those methods
convince humanity that it has the capability within
itself to mend, heal, and save. Those methods, in
particular meditation, convince man that he is divine
and he needs no savior because salvation comes not from
one person but from humanity itself.

What is even more tragic is that those calling
themselves Christian leaders have turned to these
methods as well, and now instead of being the salt of
the earth and a light shining on the hill (always
pointing to Jesus Christ), they have joined forces with
the world to bring about peace through meditation. The
fact that Henri Nouwen believed in “reconciliation” and
peace through meditation and is touted by countless
Christian ministries, organizations, schools, and
churches is astounding.

Contemplative spirituality (i.e., spiritual formation)
is of the same spirit as the Maharishi Effect. That
silent sacred space that Christian contemplatives
promote is the same silent space that is promoted by
Hindu yogis and New Age leaders. It is interspiritual,
interfaith and recognizes no single savior.

We beseech Christian figures and ministries to turn away
from contemplative spirituality and return to the pure,
simple and saving Gospel of Jesus Christ, offering
that to the world of lost humanity. Many of these
Christians leaders talk about Jesus through one side of
their mouths while declaring the spirituality of Henri
Nouwen, Thomas Merton, and Richard Foster out of the
other side. It cannot work. It never will. The very
nature of contemplative rejects man’s sinful nature and
his need for a savior.

The peace that Jesus Christ offers is to individual men,
women, and children, one soul at a time. This is why the
preaching of the Gospel is so vital. It is indeed a
Gospel of peace but not the peace the world gives, yet
it is the only eternal peace there is. Jesus Himself
explained this:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man
cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known
me, ye should have known my Father also: and from
henceforth ye know him, and have seen him … And I
will pray the Father, and he shall give you another
Comforter … Even the Spirit of truth; whom the
world cannot receive, because it seeth him not,
neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he
dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. Peace I
leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as
the world giveth, give I unto you.” (from John
14)

The apostle Paul, who was martyred for his faith,
understood this as well:

“And the peace of God, which passeth all
understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus … Those things, which ye have
both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in
me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you
(4:7,9)”

The true peace of God can never be reached through
meditative practices but comes only to the repentant
heart who accepts Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
Peace plans, peace coalitions, three-legged stools,
mystical reformations, man-induced awakenings,
enlightened counter-measures will never accomplish what
only Christ can do.
 

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