Vicki Alexander Herriott, J.D., LL.M.
Associate Professor of Law and Government
Co-chair of the Department
B.A., Wellesley College
J.D., Boston University of Law
LL.M., New York University School of Law
Vicki retired from the full-time practice of law in 1983 to co-found the Institute for Research on Consciousness and Human Development with her late husband, Charles (Skip) Alexander. Under the auspices of the Institute they studied the effects of the practice of TM on a variety of populations including a project with institutionalized elderly and groundbreaking research in Israel on the effects of the collective practice of the advanced TM and TM Sidhi program on society as a whole. Vicki teaches Business Law, Taxation, Human Resource Management, Mediation and Negotiation, and Environmental Law. She is currently studying the natural laws relating to management and decision-making.
2. • When Transcendental
Meditation is practiced
by the people, national
consciousness, collective
consciousness, becomes
aligned with Natural Law
– the Constitution of the
Universe – and all
aspects of society
become evolutionary,
progressive, and
harmonious.
3. What is sustainability?
• Sustainability creates and maintains the
conditions under which humans and nature
can exist in productive harmony, that permit
fulfilling the social, economic and other
requirements of present and future
generations. (EPA Website)
4. The Golden Rule
• Robert Gillman, editor of the In
Context magazine, makes it easy to
understand "sustainability refers to a very old
and simple concept ...do unto future
generations as you would have them do unto
you."
5. What is the basis of sustainability?
• Sustainability is based on a simple principle:
Everything that we need for our survival and
well-being depends, either directly or
indirectly, on our natural environment.
• What happens if we forget this simple fact?
• We lose the wholeness as we scramble after
the parts.
6. Sustainability and Natural Law
“Natural Law is that irresistible, infinite power
of life that makes everything always
evolutionary.” Maharishi
• Natural Law is that which makes everything
sustainable.
7. Organizing power of Natural Law
• “The organizing power of Natural Law is that
infinite organizing power which sustains
existence and promotes the evolution of
everything in the universe, automatically
maintaining the well co-ordinated relationship
of everything with everything else.” Maharishi
8. Natural Law guides life in an
evolutionary direction
• Nature left to its own devices is “sustainable”.
• The Industrial Revolution and the rapid pace of
technological development has led to our
present unsustainable way of life.
• Our growth has not been balanced and in
accord with all the laws of nature.
9. Why do we violate Natural Law?
• Humans, along with all other creatures, have
an innate sense of self-preservation. We don’t
put ourselves in harm’s way or hurt ourselves
intentionally.
• So why do we behave, individually, and as a
society, in a way that is self-destructive?
• Why do we violate Natural Law?
10. Violation of Natural Law is due to
stress and weakness
• When we are tired or ill our thoughts are not
clear and we make mistakes.
• Maharishi’s Technologies of Consciousness,
The TM and TM Sidhi programs offer a way to
strengthen the mind and body and eventually
live a life free from mistakes.
• More than 600 studies at 250 research
institutions in 33 countries.
11. Where does consciousness fit in?
• Maharishi defines consciousness in its pure
most settled state as the source and
foundation of the universe.
• Physicists have described this source of
creation as the Unified Field of all the Laws of
Nature.
• If we could contact that source, we could have
access to the unlimited power of Natural law.
12. Individual consciousness expands
to universal consciousness
• Consciousness or awareness of the individual
can be limited or narrow, but it can also
expand to include the universe. It can swing
from point to infinity.
• As our consciousness expands, our awareness
and sense of Self expands to include those
around us and our environment.
13. The root of biomimicry
• Spontaneously the conscious mind identifies
itself with the self-referral unified field, the
fountainhead of all the streams of activity in
nature. As we gain more and more familiarity
with that self-referral performance, our
thoughts and actions spontaneously begin to
be as orderly and evolutionary as all the
activity of nature. (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi,
1986: 97)
16. Brain Integration of American University
Students after 3 months of TM
p < .001
B
B
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
Pretest Post Test
BrainIntegration
Brain Integration Scale (3 months TM)
TM Delayed Start
p < .001
21. Natural Law is the basis of our
inner and outer environment
• “The universe is governed by Natural Law –
the eternal, self-generated, self-perpetuated
Cosmic Intelligence, omnipresent
intelligence, fully awake intelligence at the
transcendental basis of every grain of creation
– the Cosmic Constitution, the Constitution of
the Universe.
22. Enlivening Natural Law
• When Transcendental Meditation is practiced
by the people, national
consciousness, collective
consciousness, becomes aligned with Natural
Law – the Constitution of the Universe – and
all aspects of society become
evolutionary, progressive, and harmonious.
25. Principles of Natural Law that
guide sustainability
• Nature takes the path of least action
• Do Less and Accomplish More
• Established in Being, Perform Action – In CC we
spontaneously perform right action
• Nature knows best how to organize - bio-mimicry
• Giving is the Basis of Receiving – principle of
reciprocity
26. Growth of Individual and
Collective Consciousness
• The shift to sustainability has to take place on
both the individual and collective level.
• The “tipping point” will come, and we will have
total acceptance of a new age of sustainability an
economy of love, the Solar Age where progress is
measured by Gross National Happiness.
• Dependence on fossil fuels and GDP that
antiquated understanding of success will be seen
as ignorant as the belief that the world is flat.
27. • When Transcendental
Meditation is practiced
by the people, national
consciousness, collective
consciousness, becomes
aligned with Natural Law
– the Constitution of the
Universe – and all
aspects of society
become
evolutionary, progressive
, and harmonious.
28. Technique to expand
awareness
• The technique that we use to enliven
thiscosmicpotential of human consciousness is the
knowledge of thetotal value of natural law .
• Through the practice of the Maharishi Technology
of the Unified Field we open our awareness to the
• total potential of natural law, which transcends
boundaries and
• transcends isolated values of the laws of nature.
29. To live life in accord with
Natural Law
• In this way,
• enlivening the full potential of natural law in our
consciousness,
• we spontaneously live according to natural
law, according to the
• evolutionary program of nature.
30. Laws of Nature governing the
galaxies govern the human brain
• Different levels of creation are governed by different laws of
• nature. Human life as a whole has the total potential of natural
• law to guide it. All the laws of nature, which can be seen governing
• the multitude of galaxies in the universe govern the billions of
• neurons in the human brain, and give man the ability to be a whole
• universe in himself.
• Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
31. Goal of Scientific
Progress
• “The fulfillment of science and of man lies in the expansion of
consciousness not merely to the stars but beyond – to the
direct experience of that infinite, unbounded, eternal reality
which alone can fulfill the natural direction of man’s growth
and which is the ultimate aim and goal of scientific progress.”
Editor's Notes
This is a pretty strong statement, and perhaps hard to believe, but research has shown that as we meditate and our brain becomes more coherent, our body functions more efficiently and we perform better in activity. We make fewer mistakes. Let’s look at some of that research.
Randomly assigned to groups
Study on Ego Development which generally doesn’t change after the onset of adulthood. This was a 10 year longitudinal study that found that young adults who practice TM and the TM-Sidhi program reach higher levels of cognitive development than had ever been reported. At pretest 9% of the subjects from MIU scored in the highest “autonomous” and “integrated” stage as defined by Loevinger, the developer of the measure. At post test 38% scored at these levels.Control groups showed little change which was the result found in earlier studies.The study also found that TM group increased significantly in moral reasoning compared to controls. Principled moral reasoning has also been found to be correlated with EEG coherence.A subsequent study on advanced practitioners found that 87% were at that highest level.
Compared 42 independent outcomes on the effects of various meditation and relaxation techniques on measures of self-actualization.Found that over an average 3 month intervention time they gained a more positive view of self and humanity, were better able to integrate dichotomies and increasingly embraced higher values such as nurturance of the good in oneself and others . The responded more adaptively to the both internal and external challenges.
Ability to evaluate parts in the context of wholeness. Don’t get lost in the parts. See the big picture and solve the problem.
U.S. quality of life, as measured by an index of 12 variables, was declining throughout the 1960’s and early 1970’s as indicated by the blue tint. The Maharishi Effect (the green tint) reflects the percentage of U.S. participants in Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation program, and the group practice of the TM and TM-Sidhi program at Maharishi International University. The declining trend began to reverse in 1975 after a large increase in the number of TM practitioners in the U.S. After the TM-Sidhi group at MIU reached the square root of one percent of the U.S. population (1982-1983), the improvement markedly accelerated.Reference: Orme-Johnson, D.w., Gelderloos, P., & Dillbeck, M. (1988)