Science of Creative Intelligence

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The Science of Creative Intelligence (SCI) was developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as an effort to integrate modern physics, such as unified field theory, with ancient Vedic beliefs and scripture, ultimately proposing that pure consciousness (including creativity and intelligence) underlies the universe and a person can connect to that consciousness through Transcendental Meditation (TM). [1] [2] SCI has been criticized as a pseudoscience. [3] [4] [5] [6]

Contents

Overview

Maharishi Institute of Management in Bhopal, India, where SCI is taught as part of the curriculum. Maharishi Centre for Educational Excellence, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India..jpg
Maharishi Institute of Management in Bhopal, India, where SCI is taught as part of the curriculum.

In 1961, the Maharishi created the "International Meditation Society for the Science of Creative Intelligence" and, in 1971, inaugurated "Maharishi's Year of Science of Creative Intelligence," [7] descibing SCI as a link between "modern science with ancient Vedic science." [1] Between 1970-1973, various SCI symposiums were held in places such as Humboldt State University and University of Massachusetts, attended by international scientists. [2] [8] [9] [10] In 1974, the Maharishi created a "World Plan" to spread SCI across the world. [11]

Education

SCI has been integrated into the curriculum of various universities across the world, including Maharishi International University (MIU) in Fairfield, Iowa, The Maharishi College of Natural Law in Odisha, India, [12] [13] and the Maharishi Institute of Management with various campuses all across India. [14] [15] For a time, a 33-lesson video course on SCI was available at universities such as Stanford, Yale, the University of Colorado, the University of Wisconsin, and Oregon State University. [16] [17] In 2010, it was reported that children at the Maharishi School in Lancashire were taught SCI principles. [18] Children in other schools, such as those in Iowa, Maryland, and the United Kingdom were also taught SCI as part of their primary school education. [19] [20]

Medicine

SCI also served as the foundation for the Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health (MVAH), an ayurvedic alternative medicine founded by the Maharishi during the mid-1980s, based on models and practices of health and disease that conflict with modern medicine and biology. [21] [22] [23] According to MVAH researcher Hari Sharma, their model understands the human body as an abstract pattern of intelligence, drawing from quantum mechanics and Vedic tradition to postulate the existence of "a unified field of pure, non-material intelligence and consciousness whose modes of vibration manifest as the material universe." [24] Tony Nader, as successor to the Maharishi and "maharaja" of the TM movement, [25] has written books detailing astrological influence of the planets upon the human brain and correlations between Vedic literature and human physiology in an overarching attempt to find scientific basis for SCI. [26] [27] This includes using Vedic mantras in efforts to "to enliven the inner intelligence of the body" and heal a person of disease through sound vibration. [28]

Physics

Physicist and MIU president John Hagelin proposed that unified field theory is the same as with the Maharishi's "unified field of consciousness", but this postulation was rejected by "virtually every theoretical physicist in the world" in 2006, [29] with academic peers "ostracizing" Hagelin for connecting science with a "form of Hinduism that doesn't acknowledge its roots." [30] Dennis Roark, former chairman of the physics department at MIU, referred to Hagelin's work as "crackpot science". [31]

Criticism

The Science of Creative Intelligence has been criticized as unscientific in nature. [3] SCI (and TM in general) have been described by scientists, academics, and skeptics as containing pseudoscientific claims, [32] [7] [5] [4] including for its goals of supernatural abilities (such as yogic flying) and for obfuscating its Vedic-Hindu beliefs. [5] [6] [33] SCI has been compared to creationism and characterized as religious in nature, including indoctrination into its metaphysics (including "creative intelligence") and participation in Sanskrit puja rituals invoking Hindu deities. [34] In 1977, a US district court ruled that a TM-based curriculum in SCI that was being taught in New Jersey schools was religious in nature, violating the First Amendment and therefore prohibited. [35] [36]

References

  1. 1 2 Humes, Cynthia A (2005). "Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: Beyond the T.M. Technique". In Forsthoefel, Thomas A; Humes, Cynthia Ann (eds.). Gurus in America. SUNY Press. pp. 55–79. ISBN   0-7914-6573-X.
  2. 1 2 Goldberg, Philip (2011) Harmony Books, American Veda, page 165
  3. 1 2 Dhaliwal, Pavan; Ernst, Edzard; Colquhoun, David; Singh, Simon; et al. (12 May 2012). "Schools of pseudoscience pose a serious threat to education". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 10 September 2017.
  4. 1 2 Randi, James (1982). Flim-flam!: psychics, ESP, unicorns, and other delusions. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books. p. 106. ISBN   0-87975-198-3.
  5. 1 2 3 Stark, Rodney; William Sims Bainbridge (1986). The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 289. ISBN   0-520-05731-7.
  6. 1 2 "Transcendental Meditation". Religious Movements Homepage Project. January 12, 2001. Archived from the original on August 31, 2006.
  7. 1 2 Kennedy, John W; Hexham., Irving (January 8, 2001). "Field of TM dreams". Christianity Today . Vol. 45, no. 1. pp. 74–79.
  8. ↑ Johnson, Benton (1992). "On Founders and Followers: Some Factors in the Development of New Religious Movements". Sociological Analysis. Presidential Address — 1987. Vol. 53, no. –S S1–S13.
  9. ↑ Jefferson, William (1976). ' 'The Story of The Maharishi' ', pp118-123. Pocket Books, New York, NY.
  10. ↑ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Fuller, Buckminster (1971) Maharishi Channel Maharishi and Buckminster Fuller Press Conference YouTube, retrieved September 24, 2012
  11. ↑ Melton (2003). "Eastern Family, Part I". Encyclopedia of American Religions. p.  1045. ISBN   0-8153-0500-1.
  12. ↑ Welcome to Maharishi College of Natural Law Official web site
  13. ↑ "Vedic Management". Maharishi Institute of Management. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  14. ↑ "Distinctive Features". Maharishi Institute of Management. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  15. ↑ "Our Campuses". Maharishi Institute of Management. Retrieved May 22, 2013.
  16. ↑ Irwin, T.K. (October 8, 1972). "What's new in science – Transcendental Meditation: Medical miracle or 'another kooky fad'?". Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
  17. ↑ "The Science of Creative Intelligence Course". maharishi.org. Archived from the original on November 25, 2010.
  18. ↑ Teasdale, Michelle (June 3, 2010). "Mummy, can we meditate now?". The Independent. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016.
  19. ↑ Buckley, Stephen (March 19, 1993). "This School Offers Readin', 'Ritin' and Mantras". The Washington Post. p. D.01.
  20. ↑ Tolley, Claire (January 12, 2002). "Children meditate on top class GCSEs". Daily Post. Liverpool. p. 13.
  21. ↑ Wujastyk, Dagmar; Smith, Frederick M. (2008). Modern and global Ayurveda: Pluralism and Paradigms. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN   978-0-7914-7489-1.
  22. ↑ Sharma, Hari (1995), "Maharishi Ayur-VedaAn Ancient Health Paradigm in a Modern World", Alternative and Complementary Therapies, 1 (6): 364, doi:10.1089/act.1995.1.364
  23. ↑ Micozzi, Marc (2010), Fundamentals of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Fourth Edition, St. Louis: Saunders Elsevier, ISBN   978-1-4377-0577-5
  24. ↑ Sharma, Hari M.; Clark, Christopher (1998), Micozzi, Marc (ed.), Contemporary Ayurveda : medicine and research in Maharishi Ayur-Ved, Medical Guides to Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Foreword by Gary Kaplan, New York: Churchill Livingstone, ISBN   978-0-443-05594-2
  25. ↑ "Coronation of Vishwa Prashasak Raja Raam". Maharishi Open University. Archived from the original on July 5, 2002. Retrieved January 18, 2010.
  26. ↑ Raval, Indravan B. (2001) "Non-Traditional Interpretation of 'Anarthaka Hi Mantrah' Journal of the Oriental Institute, Vol. 50, Nos. 1–4, Sept. – June 2001, pp. 17–22
  27. ↑ Brown, Ian (January 30, 1997). "'Vedas' influence on human anatomy proved". The Hindu. Chennai. p. 1.
  28. ↑ Belok, Steele. "Science and Vedic Sound". Maharishi's Vedic Vibration Technology web site. Archived from the original on June 12, 2010.
  29. ↑ Woit, Peter (2007). Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law. London: Vintage Books. p. 206. ISBN   9781446443019.
  30. ↑ Fox, Jonathan (October 5, 2000). "Good Vibrations". Dallas Observer. Archived from the original on June 17, 2011. Retrieved December 8, 2009.
  31. ↑ Rohrlich, Justin (October 14, 2018). "Ivanka Trump's Gurus Say Their Techniques Can End War and Make You Fly". thedailybeast.com. The Daily Beast Company LLC. Archived from the original on May 22, 2024. Retrieved May 21, 2024. TM has its own set of scientists, viewed with skepticism by the mainstream scientific community.
  32. ↑ Sagan, Carl (1997). The Demon-haunted World: Science as a Candle In the Dark. New York: Ballantine Books. p. 16. ISBN   0-345-40946-9.
  33. ↑ Chryssides, George D.; Margaret Z. Wilkins (2006). A reader in new religious movements. London: Continuum. p. 7. ISBN   0-8264-6167-0.
  34. ↑ Price, Robert M. (Winter 1982). "Scientific Creationism and the Science of Creative Intelligence". Creation Evolution Journal. 3 (1): 18–23. Archived from the original on 2010-03-31.
  35. ↑ American Bar Association (Jan 1978). "Constitutional Law ... Separating Church and State". ABA Journal. 64: 144.
  36. ↑ Humes, C.A. (2005). "Maharishi Mahesh Yogi: Beyond the T.M. Technique". In Forsthoefel, Thomas A.; Humes, Cynthia Ann (eds.). Gurus in America. SUNY Press. p. 69. ISBN   0-7914-6573-X. This lawsuit was the most significant setback for TM in the United States ... Since then TM has made a comeback of sorts with some governmental sponsorship
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