One study that demonstrates this spill over effect is The National Demonstration Project that was done in Washington DC. The project brought in 4,000 participants in Transcendental Meditation to Washington DC from June 7-July 30, 1993. The results of the study indicated that the long-term effect associated with a group of these meditators in Washington DC was calculated as a 48% reduction in violent crime. That would almost cut violent crime in half with just 4,000 people regularly meditating within a city, that's huge!
Washington DC has approximately 600,000 inhabitants, so if 1 out of every 150 people in any given community regularly meditated then hypothetically we should be able to accomplish similar results everywhere.
Another study was done over a three year period of time at a Detroit based chemical plant. The company posted the following results three years after implementing meditation:
- Absenteeism fell by 85%
- Productivity rose 120%
- Injuries dropped 70%
- Profits increased 520%
These are dramatic changes to a company's statistics! With numbers like this, you would think that meditation would be commonplace in all businesses! Many CEO's at large corporations are known to regularly meditate and it's no wonder. Meditation is encouraged, taught and utilized within some top organizations such as Google. Steve Jobs at Apple, allowed employees to take 30 minutes per day while at work to meditate, held meditation classes and offered a meditation room for employees to use. At Harpo Productions, Oprah Winfrey's production studio business, a bell rings at 9 am and 5 pm to announce meditation time for all of Harpo's employees. Nike, Prentice Hall Publishing, HBO, AOL Time Warner, Yahoo!, Procter & Gamble all promote meditation in the workplace. It's spill over effects provide some nice benefits to these corporations.
According to reports, there have been over 1500 separate studies since 1930. All were related to meditation and its effects on practitioners. Here are some additional statistics that impact people who meditate personally:
- Normalized blood pressure.
- Heart rate and respiration are decreased.
- Meditators are less anxious and nervous.
- Reduced anxiety and depression.
- 75% of insomniacs who started a daily meditation program were able to fall asleep within 20 minutes of going to bed.
- Production of the stress hormone Cortisol is greatly decreased.
- Women with PMS showed symptom improvements after 5 months of daily meditation.
- Thickness of the artery walls decreased which effectively lowers the risk of heart attack or stroke by 8% to 15%.
It has also been noted that people who use meditation and mindfulness techniques may be physiologically younger by 12 to 15 years. Meditation and mindfulness can affect the physical body in a positive way, just as stress and other factors effect the body in a negative way.
These are just some of the positive benefits of meditation on people personally, on businesses where meditators work, and on the community as a whole. Research supports that meditation is a huge secret weapon that can benefit us all. If you haven't started your own meditation practice yet, check out my earlier blog post titled Meditation 101 - The Beginner's Guide. I'm here to help you get started, leave me a comment or an email if you have any questions.
Hagelin, J.S., Rainforth, M.V., Orme-Johnson, D.W., Cavanaugh, K.L., Alexander, C.N., Shatkin, S.F., Davies, J.L., Hughes, A.O., and Ross, E. 1999. Effects of group practice of the Transcendental Meditation program on preventing violent crime in Washington D.C.: Results of the National Demonstration Project, June-July, 1993. Social Indicators Research, 47(2): 153-201.
http://www.project-meditation.org/a_wim1/statistics_on_people_who_meditate.html'>Statistics on People who Meditate</a>