Northern Ireland

NATURAL LAW PARTY WESSEX
Dorset, Hampshire and Isle of Wight

Email: nlpwessex@bigfoot.com
Web: www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex

75 Fairfield Rd
Winchester
Hants
SO22 6SG

Tel: 01962 852122

A Dorset man has called for concerned businesses and individuals to sponsor a unique peace initiative in Ulster, following a highly successful test project that took place during the Northern Ireland Assembly elections in June. The Natural Law Party put out a call across the UK for a group of TM meditators and Yogic Flyers to gather in Belfast during the elections, and Dorset volunteer and NLP supporter Graham Scriven from Weymouth attended in response.

Although tension and violence has now returned to Northern Ireland following the return of the meditators to their home towns across the UK, there was a clear mood of peace and reconciliation created during their presence in the province which enabled the elections to pass with remarkable and unexpected calm.

The day before the election the editorial of 'The Newsletter', a major daily paper in Northern Ireland, was titled "Quiet Vote for Northern Ireland" and began: "Northern Ireland's voters go to the polls tomorrow after an election campaign that has been astonishingly quiet, given the history shaping significance of the event. Historians may well decide that the quietness itself was significant."

The day after the results the 'Sunday Times' devoted half a page to analysing the reason why 'the vitriol of previous campaigns', as they termed it, was gone. The article concluded: "While political commentators and the main political parties struggle to explain why one of the most important elections in Northern Ireland's history produced the most low-key campaign in living memory, one of the participants insists he has the answer. It was not election fatigue or World Cup mania - it was all down to more than 100 men and women meditating and flying through the air to improve the atmosphere and promote harmony. That's the argument of James Anderson, leader of the Natural Law Party. He believes his Yogic Flyers created 'a calm and settled atmosphere' to help voters make the best decision about their future. Anderson would also like to see more members of the public, and politicians, taking part in similar activity to create the conditions in which the assembly can succeed."

Returning to Dorset Mr Scriven emphasises the need for truly fundamental change: "What is needed is not simply political change but, much more fundamentally, a change of minds. Coherence has to be enlivened in the collective consciousness of society in order for its individuals to be first 'conflict free' within themselves and then spontaneously so with one another."

Explains Mr Scriven,"The outer spectacle of 'Yogic Flying' is accompanied by a far more spectacular and significant increase in brain wave coherence that can be scientifically verified. Experiments have shown that this 'coherence' becomes shared by the population surrounding the project causing disharmony to evaporate and the right solutions automatically to appear. This approach may seem novel - and understandably so - but the practical benefits have been demonstrated time and time again."

"It may itself need a growth in public consciousness to remove prejudice towards a scientific solution but how many more must lose their lives - the inevitable result of that same prejudice - before that happens? We must take that leap in understanding and give peace a chance."

During the campaign Natural Law Party leaders made contact and held meetings with leading politicians from other political parties, and this dialogue is continuing. There was a genuine appreciation among them for the contribution of the Natural Law Party and the importance of reducing individual and collective stress.

A large number of published scientific studies have shown that groups practising Transcendental Meditation and Yogic Flying are able to dissolve social stress and tension in any locality by creating an effect of "coherence" in the collective consciousness of the population. This approach has been successfully used to reduce crime in areas such as Merseyside, and to dissolve conflict in war zones such as the Lebanon.

"Regrettably the effect only lasts as long as the group lasts. The problems with Drumcree and other incidents started immediately the coherence project in Belfast disbanded, but at least this demonstrates how important coherence is in creating a peaceful situation. The reality is that Ulster will never have peace unless if first creates coherence. We have demonstrated how quickly that can be created. The most important thing, however, is that this should now be created on a permanent basis," adds Mr Scriven.

Following the clear success of the temporary project Mr Scriven has put out an appeal for local businesses in Dorset to sponsor the training and establishment of a permanent group of 200 Yogic Flyers in Northern Ireland to bring the troubles to a peaceful end once and for all.

"We should not have to rely on volunteers from across the UK to do this work on an occasional basis by taking annual leave away from their jobs and families. What is needed is people providing coherence on a full-time professional basis. We ask caring people and businesses in Dorset to consider contributing to the cost of setting up such a group. Northern Ireland is not just a problem for those in Ulster. Terrorism can strike out at any of us throughout the UK at anytime, and whilst the troubles continue Ulster remains a huge drain on the whole kingdom's economy draining much needed financial resources away from places like Dorset."