Like most Americans, I recently revisited the horror of September 11, 2001, as I have done on every anniversary for the past 16 years, when every television channel relentlessly replays the collapse of the twin towers.
In the summer of 2011, with the 10th anniversary looming I was determined to offer up a life-affirming alternative.
The alternative 9/11
For year, I’d been running experiments with numerous prestigious scientists and hundreds of thousands of my readers, testing the power of collective intention.
This time, I asked Dr. Salah Al-Rashed to partner with me. A Kuwaiti from a prominent Arab family, Salah single-handedly has pioneered the human potential movement in the Arab world.
He is the Deepak Chopra of the Middle East, and, of all people, he would be able to drum up huge Arab participation in my experiment.
By that time, the war in Afghanistan had been raging for almost 10 years. We decided our target would be the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, which had incurred the highest number of war-related injuries and deaths in the country.
Our 9/11 Peace Intention Experiment attracted about 25,000 participants from 75 countries, including every Arab country on the planet.
Lowering of violence
Several months after the experiment ended on September 18th, I got hold of official figures from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), a NATO-led mission which controlled the combat operations in the region. They’d been sending out official reports about the war’s progress, for several years.
The monthly number of casualties in the three months after our experiment fell well below the average death rate that had occurred the 28 months prior.
In fact, November 2011 represented the second-largest percentage decrease of civilian casualties since the beginning of 2009, as did overall attacks by the Taliban.
This was even more compelling because big decreases in violence that had occurred in our target provinces had not been uniformly experienced around the country.
Although any number of circumstances could have accounted for these decreases, something else was happening that I began to notice on social media and the surveys I’d conducted of the participants.
Powerful new connections
During the daily broadcasts, which had an instant messenger chat room, many of our Western participants began befriending people from the Arab countries – and vice versa.
The Westerners began wishing the Arabs well, and as they began to feel connected to those from the Arab countries, their attitudes towards the Middle East began to shift.
‘The experience of IM’ing with people from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and many other Middle Eastern countries – during the IM messages, we wished each other peace and expressed love – made me cry,’ wrote John from Tucson, Arizona. ‘It was very therapeutic for me – a citizen of the USA.’
‘Your God is my God. My God is your God,’ wrote Bahareh.
Peace rebounded
Participating in this experiment had also brought peace into their own lives, particularly their relationships. Three-quarters of my participants spoke of how their newfound sense of peace had improved relationships in every regard.
They were getting along better with clients, ex-husbands, siblings, neighbors, even employers. ‘On the first day, I was holding hands with a friend I’d just made peace with, after a long time of not talking to one another,’ said Susan from Spokane, Washington. ‘And when we were done, we hugged.’
I had no idea if my 9/11 Peace Experiment could take the credit for the improved peace in those two southern provinces of Afghanistan. But the outcome of the actual experiment was almost irrelevant; the real healing was happening with the participants themselves.
‘I had the sense that although we had a specific target,’ said Aimee, ‘we were healing everyone, everywhere at once.’
And that’s what I consider heaven on earth: the power of collective intention, whether in a small or large group.
A year after I began the global experiments I decided to try to scale down the entire process in my workshops by placing participants in small groups of about eight, just to see what would happen if group members tried to heal one of their group through a collective healing intention.
These Power of Eight groups experienced a transcendent state identical to that of the large Peace Intention Experiment participants, but in many instances, both senders and receivers reported instant, near-miraculous healings.
Marekje’s multiple sclerosis had made it difficult for her to walk without aids. The morning after being the target of a Power of Eight group, she arrived at the workshop without her crutches.
Marcia suffered from a cataract-like opacity blocking the vision of one eye. The following day, after her group’s healing intention, she claimed that her sight in that eye had been almost fully restored.
Diane in Miami had with such pain in her hip from scoliosis that she’d had to stop working out. During the intention she’d felt intense heat and a rapid-fire, twitching response in her back. The next day, she declared, ‘It’s like I have a new hip.’
And there have been thousands more. Intention in a group, whether large or small, creates what could only be described as an ecstasy of unity – a palpable sense of oneness. A cosmic power seems to work through us, breaking down separation between individuals, allowing them to experience the ‘God consciousness’ of pure connection.
Perhaps praying together as a group affords a glimpse of the whole of the cosmos, the closest you can get to an experience of Heaven on Earth. And it may be that this state, like a near-death experience, changes you forever.
Given the results of our 2011 experiment, I’ve decided to do something similar again – this time for my beloved America. I am running The American Peace Intention Experiment this
Sept 30-October 5.
In my 9/11 experiment, the most powerful healing occurred in the participants themselves. Their ability to forgive and to create peace in their own lives can be the energy that radiates out to heal America.
Join The American Peace Intention Experiment:
www.americanintentionexperiment.com
Lynne McTaggart
Martin Rutte
