The Significance of One Minute Silence (11/11/2024 @11.11 am)
H. H. Gurumahan and the Universal Peace Foundation plan to hold a one-minute silence for peace at Coimbatore at 11:11 am on November 11, 2024. The practice is also known as Samacheer Pranayama, suggesting that the practice is linked to pranic energy.
The event is expected to attract over a thousand people. This brief note explains the significance of the event.
First, the mechanics of the practice. While sitting on a chair or on the floor, assume the practice-position by closing your eyes and then placing the end of thumb and ring finger on the canthus of your eyes, and forefinger and middle finger on the third eye (forehead). Now, inhale to the count of three seconds, then hold the breath in for the count of three seconds, exhale to the count of three seconds, and finally continue with silence (neither inhaling nor exhaling) for the count of three seconds. This practice adds up to 12 seconds. Repeating the practice five times completes the Samacheer pranayama practice, one minute silence.
How does this practice make the world more peaceful?
Gurumahan suggests that regular practice of this one-minute silence increases the lifespan of the practitioner. Collective practice with a large number of people provides additional benefits for the individuals engaged in the practice over and above that which an individual would derive if he/she alone were practicing. The volume of benefits is expected to rise with an increasing number of participants.
Take the example of termites. The Late Dr. Lewis Thomas, MD, Harvard University who was President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York wrote in his book, The Lives of a Cell, that termites with some 50,000 neurons in their heads are hardly able to do anything individually much less think. However, in a colony of tens of thousands of termites, thinking begins and they wind up building colonies containing symmetrical columns and beautiful arches. This example is indicative of the enormous power of collective consciousness.
Relatedly, scientists have studied the effect of singing on heart rates, reporting that heart rates tend to synchronize during the singing session. See the references under Further reading.
The late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and his associates have shown that a small fraction of the world population in meditation can make the world more peaceful. The Global Union of Scientists for Peace published a full-page letter in the Wall Street Journal on November 3, 2023, addressed to the President of the United States and all world leaders urging them to adapt the Maharishi technology under the auspices of which some 9,000 meditators would meditate for world peace.
Specific scientific studies aimed at investigating the impact of one-minute silence on peace are lacking but indirect evidence suggests a positive outcome.
Acknowledgments
This note is written with the blessings of H. H. Gurumahan (www.universalpeacefoundation.org). For the past thirty-three years, Gurumahan has been going into three weeks of meditation annually with no food for world peace.
Further Reading
1. Open Letter to President of the United States in the Wall Street Journal, Nov 3 2023 (https://theuncarvedblog.com/2023/11/05/global-union-of-scientists-for-peace-open-letter-in-the-wall-street-journal-to-the-president-of-the-united-states-and-all-world-leaders-offering-a-proven-technology-for-peace-security-and-a-swift-r/).
2. Elaine Chew, et al., How Music Can Literally Heal the Heart, Scientific American, September 18, 2021.
3. Björn Vickhoff, et al., Music structure determines heart rate variability of singers, Frontiers in Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience, July 9, 2013.
About the Author
Pradeep B. Deshpande is Professor Emeritus in and former Chairman of the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Louisville. He is also president of Six Sigma and Advanced Controls based in Louisville, Kentucky. He is an author of eight books and over one hundred fifty articles in reputed journals that include Proc. Royal Society–UK, Chemical Eng. Progress, Ind. Eng. Chem. Proc. Des Dev, Chem. Eng. Science, among several others, and is a recipient of several international awards. He is a Fellow of ISA. pradeep@sixsigmaquality.com.
