Simple practical weekly inspirations to improve various aspects of your thought patterns, emotions, habits and lifestyle.

A WORD, A THOUGHT, A QUESTION

In the last edition of Heartfulness Magazine, we explored transmission, or pranahuti—the transformative, yogic essence of Heartfulness.In this edition, Daaji shares the power of pause; Suraj Sehgal explains the importance of Heartfulness trainers on a meditator’s journey; Jemina Watstein reflects on her experience as a Third Culture Kid; Ravi Venkatesan encourages setting intention through listening; and much more.Our upcoming edition will focus on satsangh, which carries the dual meaning of “spiritual assembly” and “being with Reality.” We’d love to hear from you—please share your letters, articles, and stories at contributions@heartfulnessmagazine.com.

July-August 2025 Edition

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">DAAJI explores the transformative power of pausing—how taking a moment before making decisions, reacting, or acting can lead to greater clarity and wisdom.&nbsp;</h4>Over the years, I’ve cultivated a habit that has guided me toward better decisions. Whether I am discerning where to build the next ashram, finalizing my travel plans, choosing the title of a book, or grappling with the next number in my Sudoku, I have found value in simply sleeping over it. The next day, I arrive at a decision faster and with greater confidence. Giving space before deciding—pausing—often reveals possibilities I hadn’t considered.It felt validating when I read that even in the world of machines, the wisdom of a pause matters. An associate shared with me a research paper from Google titled “Think Before You Speak.” It explored a novel approach in artificial intelligence, introducing something called learnable pause tokens in the language model. These tokens allowed AI to reflect more (pause) before responding. When tested on reasoning and question-answering benchmarks, the delayed inference led to measurable gains of up to 18%.This is a striking reminder: if even artificial intelligence benefits from pausing, imagine what a pause can do for natural intelligence. Wisdom, after all, is not just knowledge—it is knowledge transformed by <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/patience-the-spiritual-path-to-personal-growth" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">patience</a>, humility, and awareness. A pause is a critical element of that transformation.Time and again, I have witnessed how taking a pause invites clarity. In a world where activity is often mistaken for progress, this may seem counterintuitive. But nature offers its own testimony. The human heart beats in a rhythm. Even synaptic transmissions—those lightning-fast messages between neurons—benefit from milliseconds of delay, allowing the nervous system to respond more wisely rather than more rapidly. In times of illness, medicines are most effective when administered in a spaced-out manner—giving the body time to respond. Pause is not a delay; it is part of the process that fosters life.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/pause_moment_integration2_69c4b42bc6.webp" alt="pause-moment-integration2.webp">In our own lives, the same truth holds. A pause is a moment of integration, where we allow a deeper intuitive wisdom to guide us. In moments of conflict, a pause can help us shift from a reactive mind to a responsive heart. It gives space for our better angels to find their voice. When someone says something hurtful, for instance, taking a breath—just one—can be the difference between escalating the argument or disarming the other with humor.At work, a pause can lead to clarity. We have all had experiences where, after wrestling with a problem for hours, we step away—and while taking a walk or folding laundry, we have a breakthrough. Insight needs room to surface. This is why I define meditation as the art of pausing with poise—stepping back from doing, thinking, judging, and striving. It is in this sacred <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/vighnas" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stillness</a> that we rediscover our deeper intelligence.If someone cuts you off in traffic or a colleague says something upsetting—pause. Even a few seconds can help you respond from calm rather than chaos. You may still need to speak firmly, but your words will come from clarity, not fury.If you’re stuck on a creative problem or can’t make a decision, step away. Pause. Let your subconscious do its quiet work. Solutions often emerge during mundane moments—tying shoelaces, washing dishes, walking the dog.Before meals, before a meeting, or just before you go to bed, take a moment to check in with your breath or your heart. These micro-pauses can reconnect you with yourself in powerful ways.And if you’ve tried pausing in the past and found it hard, know this: you are not alone. Like any meaningful habit, the art of pausing takes time to cultivate. Some days you might forget. Other days, you may pause a moment too late. But even the intention to pause begins to reshape us. Over time, it becomes second nature—like a muscle that grows stronger with use.So today, let this be your gentle reminder: Don’t just rush to the next thing. Pause. Let your presence catch up with you. There is wisdom waiting in that stillness.

A Pause is a Moment of Integration

Chicken Soup for the Successful Soul

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">SURAJ SEHGAL speaks with MAMATA SUBRAMANYAM about coming together and creating community with change and vision.</h4>Q: You're a Heartfulness trainer. Can you explain what that means?SS: A byproduct of what we do is serving humanity and serving each other. One of the primary roles and responsibilities of a trainer, however, is to represent the living guide and to understand that he has a purpose in the work that he’s doing, and work on his behalf. There's often more to the work than we understand at our mundane and human level.Q: Why is having a living trainer essential for meditation practice, whether for new or seasoned practitioners?SS: I think mastery of any field always benefits from a teacher, whether it's a karate master or an art teacher; we learn by mimicking and by understanding those who have excelled in the field before us. As humans, we have a unique ability to read books and understand things from the past and then build on them. The entire scientific body is all about constantly iterating and reworking and retesting and discovering new things, building on what we've already learned so far.To me, the spiritual field is total. It dictates and influences every aspect of your being and life, making it even more important to have someone who can guide you and provide direction when needed. There's so much that I've learned. I think it's that quote of “Inspiration is caught, not taught,” right? And while the guides of Heartfulness have developed and codified a set of practices that, if followed, will deepen a person, spiritually speaking, there's still so much more that is learned by just observing the way that they talk, conduct themselves, the way they respond to a question, the way that they walk.So much of human life is about how we respond, where we place our attention, and how we respond to what’s around us. And I think in observing Daaji and the guides before him as well, sometimes consciously, I've picked up things about the way they place a glass on a table, or the way they notice something that seems like they had ignored. And they continued to think about the feelings of someone they had spoken to just a few hours before. Some of that I can consciously imbibe, but a lot of it is unconscious, the sitting, the way that we, on a mass scale, like during a large meditation gathering, unconsciously imbibe from that teaching done in silence together.Q: As you say this, I'm just reflecting on the trainers that I've watched. I see the uniqueness of how each trainer conducts themselves, whether it is their poise, the way they pause, or their awareness of others and their needs. I also know that, like any of us, they are human and consistently work on growing to be the type of person they want to be, based on the principles of Heartfulness.In the moments where you, as a trainer, feel like you struggle with that point of growth, how do you handle it? And what should we even be aspiring toward?SS: Most recently, I became a parent. It has had me reflecting a lot on what the role of a parent is in a child's life. In many ways, we're all emotional machines, right? We come into this world with a capacity for thinking, attention, and skill development. But a lot of that is dependent on where we place our attention. Much of where we direct our attention is dependent on the emotions that guide us.Why does a kid focus on one thing or the other? Somewhere, it is the expectations and the emotional reward or punishment, however slight, given by the structure in which they grow up. The ones around us shape us. It's a simple fact. Whether it's a schoolteacher with expectations or a school system that gets you to focus a lot on grades, you place a lot of emotions on these situations, and your achievements are motivated by that.I’ve had friends who were really into physical fitness, mainly because their family history in the military emphasized the importance of physical fitness and prowess. Even though they ended up pursuing their PhD, being fit was just a part of their being, right? The emotions from early on and throughout our lives make us emotional machines.The reason I bring that up is that we're each so different, and we all have our desires, thoughts, and aspirations. Thinking about the role of a parent, I cannot stop my kid from falling. I cannot protect them from the fact that they have fallen; life happens. Their heart will be broken. They will aspire for something and fail. I cannot save them from that. But often the role of the parent is to guide and direct a kid's attention, to say, “Oh, you failed. But look at what you can do next. You can also get back up.” Your role is almost to serve as an emotional guide on how to handle something, because we are emotional machines.Every time we face something for the first time, it is extremely emotional, right? When I was a graduate student instructor at UC Berkeley, I would sit one-on-one with so many students who were receiving a C for the first time in their lives. As someone who generally tries to be empathetic and meet people where they’re at, I would engage with these students and understand that “failing” feels like a lot. This feels like the end of the world for you. And the only thing I can tell you, as someone who’s lived ten more years, is that you will probably receive a few more Cs throughout college. This is your first semester, your first year, and it’s okay; you will get through it. This isn’t easy, but it’s something that you can learn from. It gave me a lot of insight into the role of a parent, which is that you've just been through a lot of things before. That's why grandparents can be so comforting; they've experienced a wide range of emotions and ups and downs.The role of a trainer is very similar; when I reflect on the way I’ve grown in the last ten years, it’s all been inward. Much of it revolves around emotions and conditions, encompassing the mastery of intense emotions. How do I deal with a day when I suddenly feel an intense craving to become one with the Divine, and it’s unbearable? Where do I go? Does anyone even understand what that feeling is? That’s where having a trainer is important; it’s not just somebody who has mastered it and knows exactly what to do next. It's somebody who’s maybe experienced that condition before you and can tell you, “Hey, you're not alone, and I see that you've fallen, I've also fallen.” It reminds us that having experienced a certain level of emotions and mastery in the past doesn’t necessarily mean we’re good. It only serves as a foundation for us to continue learning, trying, and remembering that, no matter what difficulties we face, a trainer is also there to give us support.&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/heartfulness_trainer2_dfa91dff31.webp" alt="heartfulness-trainer2.webp">&nbsp;Q: Heartfulness is now millions strong, with over 16,000 trainers supporting the organization in 160 countries. We're growing rapidly, and it can be challenging to stay connected to one another. There are all these links, including trainers, that keep us all together. I often reflect on my responsibility as a trainer to build community wherever I am around meditation, not because I think my way is the best, but because I know that I simply want to connect with people, heart to heart. I imagine that it is a similar feeling for you.SS: One of the keystones of a good spiritual practice is the community. There is so much that we can learn from one another; in supporting each other, we also grow. I grew up in a world where both my parents were trainers, surrounded by weekly group meditations and people visiting our home for individual sessions. That translated to what I thought of as community; it felt super normal to host a housewarming, a Diwali party, or a holiday get-together and simply start with a meditation, followed by food. You mark it with a sacred silence in communion with the people around you. It is in silence that we share, not only our love with the Divine, but we share that divine love.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">One of the keystones of a good spiritual practice is the community. There is so much that we can learn from one another;&nbsp; in supporting each other, we also grow.</h4><hr>What made our marriage ceremony so special was that it was conducted by my spiritual guide, in silence, and surrounded by some of our closest family members. In those forty minutes, I felt like I shared and received so much more with these loved ones than you could have ever said or given in an envelope. To me, that's deep, unshakable, and it relies purely on your openness, your heart, and your intention.When it comes to building a community, what’s been truly transformative is coming from a place of: “What is the world that I want to live in? What do I want the world to look and feel like? What are the best parts of humanity that I've experienced, whether in the Heartfulness community, another meditation community, or just in general?” And then to be able to say, “Okay, based on my capacity and means, what can I emulate right now?” But even more than that, “What can I set an intention for, for what I want this area around me to look like?”I think it will soon extend beyond just whether people meditate or not, but to start with the folks who share this sacred silence with you. It goes much further, at least that’s what I felt. We begin with those around us and those we want to look out for. We do whatever is within our means and set an intention for what we aspire to. It will happen. We have the power of meditation and the support of our guide behind us.

The Role of a Heartfulness Trainer

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Reuniting Soul and Soil

Hope Versus Action

Greening the future: science, care, and sustainability

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Meditation for centeredness

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">ROSALIND PEARMAIN speaks of the attitude of softness, the world of the senses—of hard and soft, force and forcelessness, warmth and cold—and how we harken to a more profound and beautiful world at the core of our being through the heart.</h4>&nbsp;We are living in a time of hardening edges, of ever harsher decisions affecting millions of our fellow human beings.On the other hand, Babuji stressed from the very origins of Heartfulness that it was fundamentally based on a forceless force—on softness.Another Heartfulness Guide. Chariji, often reminded us of the strength of a tiny plant root in breaking up rocks:“What is this miracle, you see, that the softest thing can penetrate the deepest, hardest substance known? Whereas a hard thing can only up a hard thing. Can you break water by bashing it with a crowbar?“It was a tremendous risk that the Masters took, Lalaji and Babuji. Because it’s like building a house of butter and then asking the people who come in to have torches in their hands. The whole thing would melt. But they had this almost nonsensical stupid faith, that a soft thing can never be broken.“And we have also, in our fairy tales, that when the wind blew, all the hard trees which would not bend were just blown down, and the soft things which were willing to bend, bent almost to the Earth, recovered. It is the soft which wins the battle always. Not the hard, you see; the hard is broken. It survives until it meets something harder than itself. But the soft, nothing in the universe can break it. Nothing in the universe can destroy it.”<h4 style="text-align:justify;">Our journey in forceless force</h4>It seems that as human beings our souls choose to inhabit a specific existence in time and space as it unfolds on our planet and in relation to all creation.So we find ourselves inhabiting a field of feeling unique to each. Is it woven from DNA and patternings that have been transferred into this lifetime? This field of feeling has many layers and dimensions and knots that we perceive through different sensory gateways. They could be in terms of color or light, density and heaviness, warmth and cold, sound, or as qualities of touch. With the help of a being who is attuned to subtlest dimensions, we can harken to a more profound and beautiful world that is ours at the core, and long to return to this original part of creation.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/the_power_of_softness2_6da4490505.webp" alt="the-power-of-softness2.webp"></figure>&nbsp;The core of this sensibility is in the organ of the heart which integrates energetic information from the nervous system, from the organs, from viscera, from the brain, from soul. Furthermore our heart can be seen as a kind of organ of sensibility and perception whose intelligence can refine throughout life as it links with the capacity of the mind to focus <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/lack-of-awareness" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">awareness</a> with the array of feeling at the most subtle levels.In this vein, then, our existence is a field of vibratory exchange with environment, with all sentient life forms, with human beings. This vibratory array is like a glimmering or a shimmering, sometimes soothing sometimes discordant, similar to the domain of music.It seems to me that the <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/spirituality-in-daily-life" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">spiritual journey</a> can bring us closer and deeper to the source of all manifestation of life, as a sound of love resonating through all creation. It is potentially experienced by us in layers of a kind of infinite softness that absorbs and transforms and brings everything into a larger field of connectivity which can keep expanding and softening as it moves towards a steady flow of coherence that can integrate increasing complexities within evolving life.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/the_power_of_softness3_b5a40fe2a1.webp" alt="the-power-of-softness3.webp"></figure>&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">It seems to me that the spiritual journey can bring us closer and deeper to the source of all manifestation of life, as a sound of love resonating through all creation.</h4><hr>Heartfulness gives us a resource emanating from the most profound and subtle level of vibration; the very original stir, in which to be reminded through a silent soft intimation felt within the heart of our source. This awakens our dormant longing to be dissolved into this field, and resonate in harmony with a nameless and marvelous ultimate. It is in the service of coherence, beauty, truth, and infinite love that we feel our longings for this return to our origin. Our individual journey is shaped by our intrinsic uniqueness and the kinds of samskaras and tendencies that need to be dissolved and reconciled with this core longing.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Illustrations by ANANYA PATEL</h4><hr>

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The power of softness

Ravi Venkatesan and Mark Milton explore listening skills and empathy.

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The superpower of listening

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">This World Storytelling Day, March 20, we bring you a story by SARA BUBBER, based on a common folk template. May the stories within the story entertain you!</h4><h4 style="text-align:justify;">Stories have been a tool in the passage of rites from one generation to the next since time immemorial. Entertainment, knowledge, wisdom, and education was passed down in the form of stories.</h4>Once upon a time, the Earth was an open canvas. People lived a nomadic life. Traveling from one place to another for food, shelter, and clothing was a common sight. With no radio, television, and phones the only way to entertain each other was to tell stories. Stories about new roots, giant trees, and scary tigers. Travelers were given lodging in exchange for stories, work could also be done by telling stories.One such day, a group of friends were traveling. After a long day they were tired and were trying to decide who would fetch firewood and cook for the group. They tried many ways of deciding but then saw a young girl who was coming the same way. They thought they could get her to cook for them while they rested. They asked her where she was from and if she cared to listen to some stories.The young girl loved stories. She immediately agreed. The group of travelers asked if she wanted to make the story session interesting. They placed a little bet. The travelers would tell the girl a story that was absolutely impossible. If the girl said that the story was impossible, she would have to cook food. The bet also went the other way. The young girl would tell a story, and if the travelers would say that it was impossible, they would cook for her instead.The story session began.One of the travelers started: “My grandfather was a poor farmer who worked in a rich household. He was always called names for working as a slow and careless worker. He prayed to God every day. However much he tried, he couldn’t work faster and was scolded endlessly. One day, the God he prayed to appeared in front of him and when he woke he had great strength. The next day as he was scolded, the energy he had felt rushed through his veins, he grew in size, lifted the house, and took a big leap. The house shook, the cupboards fell, the beds flew out and the windows shattered. He kept flying high until his employer begged him to stop. His employer not only stopped calling him names but also gave him the place of a family member.&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/tale_of_tales2_7bab8dfbf1.webp" alt="tale-of-tales2.webp"></figure>&nbsp;“How was the story? Does someone disagree?” No one disagreed.Another traveler continued: “Once there was a famine in my grandfather’s land. My grandfather was a very weak person. One day, in a fight with his brother, he had to leave home. He thought of finding fame for himself. He walked into a forest and came across a man painting. He painted a deer and, as my grandfather continued watching, to his surprise the deer came alive. He thought it was such an amazing device, that he wanted to possess it. When he got the chance, he went ahead and painted a boat with the owner of the brush in it. He added winds on the lake and blew the owner away. Now he had full possession of the paintbrush. He took the brush back and painted clouds and grains which solved the problems of his village. He became the treasurer of the village and one day, he created a son from the paintbrush. He was so exceptional that there was no girl to match him. Then he created a fully grown young girl as a match for his son. And thus, I was born from parents who were painted. The brush is gone, but it seems like my smooth hair is a gift from the paintbrush. I use the best herbs from the best orchard that my grandfather painted.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/tale_of_tales3_5c925060a1.webp" alt="tale-of-tales3.webp"></figure>&nbsp;“This is my story, do you agree?” “Yes we all do.”Now it was the little girl’s turn. She began her story. “My grandparents possessed many things. They were well respected in their community, and helped many people achieve greatness. They possessed hulk-like strength and various magical possessions. One day, in a civil strife, the servants of the house ran away with the chest of hulk strength and some of the magical possessions like a wish-granting paintbrush. My parents looked for it all their life, and today I set off in search. I have finally found all my family possessions with you. It seems you are the long lost servants of our family who have our possessions.&nbsp;“This is the end of my story. Do you agree?” “Yes we do.” The little girl continued, “That is wonderful news, now, give my possessions back.” “But… no we do not agree,” said the group. “Oh, then you must cook for me.” And the little girl, using her wit, rested as the team cooked for her.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/tale_of_tales4_c3079e9217.webp" alt="tale-of-tales4.webp"></figure><hr><h3>Interesting facts about stories</h3><h4> &nbsp;Aesop’s Fables</h4>Aesop was a slave who lived in ancient Greece. He wanted freedom more than anything else. He noticed the supervisor of slaves and began to tell stories every day. The supervisor was impressed and one day asked Aesop what he wanted. Aesop asked for food for all his fellow slaves. His selfless gesture made the supervisor give Aesop and his community the freedom they deserved. These tales were combined into the <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/once-upon-a-time" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Aesop’s Fables</a> that you have all loved growing up!<h4>Grimms’ Fairy Tales</h4>Grimms’ Fairy Tales is a German collection of fairy tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, first published on December 20, 1812. It is considered the seminal work of Western children’s literature and is listed by <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/master-yoga-2024-unesco-paris" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">UNESCO</a> in its Memory of the World Registry.<h4>Panchatantra&nbsp;</h4>Panchatantra is a collection of stories from ancient India based on politics, behavior, communication, and economics. These stories are based on the Vedas, Upanishads, the Ramayana and Mahabharata as a trove of wisdom. The princes of Amarasakti had no interest in pursuing their studies and thus a teacher, Vishnu Sharma, made a comprehensive manual for these princes to be taught in the form of stories. The Panchatantra started the story within a story form of learning, which delights young readers to this day. &nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/tale_of_tales5_3adb201b5e.webp" alt="tale-of-tales5.webp"></figure><hr><h4>Activity 1</h4>Guess these popular stories from the details: 1. A young girl who loses her shoe that gives her the chance to marry a prince:……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………2. A boy who climbs a tall natural element that grows from magic beans and finds treasures in the clouds:&nbsp;…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 3. A prince who moves to the forest with his brother and wife to live for fourteen years. The wife is kidnapped and he goes to rescue her with an army of monkeys:……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………4. A little creature born into a family of ducks goes into the world alone to find his true form:……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………5. Two unusual friends who come together near a riverbank. The friendship ends when one large friend asks his tree-dwelling friend for his heart:&nbsp;……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………<hr><h4>Activity 2</h4>Write your own story here. It can involve animals, kings, kingdoms, humans, plants, or anything else that tells a story.Create a story with a beginning, some problems that come up, and a solution to end the story.&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">AI generated images</h4><hr>

Join Sara Bubber’s adventure tale this World Storytelling Day.

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The tale of tales

<h4 style="text-align:justify;">LYNNE McTAGGART is one of the central authorities on the new science of consciousness, and the award-winning author of seven books, including the internationally bestselling The Intention Experiment, The Field, The Bond, and The Power of Eight. Here, Lynne is interviewed by PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN about the transformative power of intention, the profound impact of group intention, and the potential for individuals to create significant change in their lives and the world.</h4>&nbsp;Q: Lynne, welcome. You are known for your pioneering work in the science of intention in <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/the-journey-of-total-health" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">consciousness and healing</a>. You’ve explored this science behind intention so deeply. Can you share how you personally define the power of intention?&nbsp;LM: Okay, well, first of all, it’s important to understand that our thoughts aren’t locked inside our heads. They’re trespassers, and they can go out and affect other people and things. We’ve seen that from countless studies on everything from single-celled organisms to human beings. In my own work, I’ve seen that we can affect everything from making plants grow faster, to purifying water, to lowering violence in war-torn and violent areas, and even healing people of things like post-traumatic stress disorder. And I’ve seen it in big groups and small groups. Essentially, thoughts are energy, just as everything else in the body is a collection of energy and energy fields of different varieties. And those thoughts can go out and affect things.I see an intention as a focused thought. You and I are having about 80,000 thoughts a day, and most of them are undirected, most of them are negative. And they oftentimes undermine our life because we’re focusing on negative outcomes, instead of intending for what we want.So, I always teach intention as a respectful and very specific request to the universe. And I find it gets amplified in small and large groups.Q: During your intention experiments, have you encountered any surprising results? Are there poignant moments, epiphanies, which have made you stop and think? What has defined or redefined your expectations of these intention experiments?LM: I think many of the peace intention experiments really surprised me. I wasn’t at all sure they were going to work when we started in 2007. We started with simple things, trying to affect the light emissions of a leaf. And then we moved on to seeds, trying to make them grow faster. And then we moved on to water, trying to purify water, then trying to lower violence in areas.My first experience of something mind-blowing was the seed experiments. I did my very first seed experiment in 2007 when I was speaking in front of an audience in Sydney, Australia. I worked with the University of California’s Dr. Gary Schwartz, a noted psychologist who has a special laboratory with the Laboratory for Consciousness and Human Evolution. He prepared four sets of seeds, each set with 30 seeds, and had his team photograph them and send them to me. And I showed these to the audience and allowed them to select one of the four seeds to send an intention to. So we sent an intention to seed group A for ten minutes. After we were done, I called Dr. Schwartz and told him we were done, but I did not tell him which seeds we sent the intention to. I told him as that was the cue for him to plant the seeds.Five days later they measured the seeds. After they’d measured them, I unblinded the study and told them which seeds we’d sent an intention to. And lo and behold, those seeds grew taller than any others.We did this five more times in different locations with different-sized audiences. And every single time the seeds that were sent an intention grew taller than the controls. But here’s the fascinating part—I was with my audience in Sydney, Australia, and the seeds were back in Tucson, Arizona, 8,000 miles away. Plus, we weren’t sending an intention to the seeds themselves, only to a photograph of the seeds, a symbolic representation of the seeds. So I realized from that very early time that we essentially create a psychic-internet when we make an intention in a group scattered around the globe. That I could see over and over again with the other intention experiments.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Essentially, thoughts are energy, just as everything else in the body is a collection of energy and energy fields of different varieties. And those thoughts can go out and affect things.</h4><hr>Another one that blew my mind was a Sri Lanka peace intention experiment we ran in 2008, when Sri Lanka was in the midst of a 25-year civil war. We did a peace intention for 10 minutes a day over eight days with 15,000 people participating from around the globe. Now, during that week, to my alarm, violence went up rather than down. And I had a professor of statistics doing the analysis. It then plummeted after that. But a more interesting thing happened. The government won a few decisive battles during that week that turned around the entire course of the war. For some time, both sides had been at a stalemate. Then, within a few months, the government was able to take back the north, which was held by the rebel forces. And a few months later, that 25-year intractable war was over.Now, did we do this? Well, it turned out that during the week of our intention pivotal battles occurred, and that was cause for an extraordinary surprise. When you do one experiment like that, it means nothing. There are too many variables in a war. But when you keep doing it and keep getting results, as we’ve done with peace intention experiments, they start becoming interesting.For instance, in 2017, we ran an experiment to lower violence in St. Louis, Missouri, officially the most violent place in America. And we chose a neighborhood called Fairground that was the most violent of all. We had very accurate police data. I once again asked Dr. Jessica Utz from the University of California to analyze data from several years beforehand to six months afterward, to look at the effect of our intention. She found that violence had been going up in all areas of St. Louis, and continued to go up everywhere except the neighborhood we intended where violence went down by 43%. And so it’s happened over and over again.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/intention_revolution2_38d89b0431.webp" alt="intention-revolution2.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_intention_revolution2_38d89b0431.webp 110w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_intention_revolution2_38d89b0431.webp 353w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_intention_revolution2_38d89b0431.webp 529w," sizes="100vw"></figure><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">I always teach intention as a respectful and very specific request to the universe. And I find it gets amplified in small and large groups.</h4><hr>Perhaps the one that amazed me the most is an intention experiment I did that same year, at the end of 2017, with eight Arab cities and a large audience of Israeli Jews. I had special equipment so we could put cameras in eight different locations in Arab cities. Each different Arab city had an audience there. And the ninth camera was with an audience of Israeli Jews. I asked them all to make an intention to lower violence in an area of Jerusalem that was suffering from a high degree of violence.Before that, I had to broker the entire thing, as nobody was speaking to anyone else. They started talking, because I could call on the different places. They would talk to me, and then they would also communicate with the people in all the other locations. And they started sending love to each other, they started sending “Your God is my God,” talking about beautiful visions of people coming together from both sides. There was a big love fest. I found that every time I put together polarized and hated enemies, they seemed to come together after these intention experiments.Since 2008, I’ve run 41 intention experiments, and 37 have shown measurable significantly positive effects. I also surveyed the people involved, and for those who responded, about 40% have reported more peace in their own lives. They’re getting along better with estranged partners or parents or children. They’re getting along better with bosses and coworkers. They’re feeling more love for everybody, and around 50% consistently report they feel more love for everyone they meet.Essentially, they’re hugging strangers and peaceful things happen in their lives. Also, about one-third have reported an improvement in a health condition or a downright cure. So that is the biggest and most amazing effect, the mirror effect of these intentions: the people who are sending intentions are being healed as much as the targets.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">So that is the biggest and most amazing effect,&nbsp; the mirror effect of these intentions:&nbsp; the people who are sending intentions&nbsp; are being healed as much as the targets.</h4><hr>Q: I was blown away by the seed experiment. How has the scientific community embraced this, or conversely, what are the challenges you’ve faced to try to share this with them?&nbsp;LM: I'm not interested in the scientific community because they aren’t going to accept it. Scientists are supposed to be explorers and very few of them really are. There are a lot of reasons for that. People lose their positions at universities for stepping out of the accepted paradigm. So I don’t need to convince scientists. There are enough scientists who are true explorers, who are fascinated by my work, and who have helped to measure the work.I work with people at prestigious universities to run the intention experiments—Princeton, Penn State, University of California, University of Arizona, and others in Europe. I choose people who are open-minded enough to do decent research.There are skeptic organizations who attack my work, but they attack it in the flimsiest of ways. My book, The Field, had more than 400 solid scientific references. I had interviewed exhaustively—frontier physicists, biologists, etc.—and had them check every last fact in that book to make sure I had written it correctly. The skeptics have said the book was based on nothing more than Star Wars, which is just incorrect, close-minded, and ignorant.So, I’m not interested in that. I’m interested in getting this information out to people so they can understand that we have extraordinary capabilities waiting to be unleashed, and we are very different from what we are told in mainstream orthodox science.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/intention_revolution3_b56b5be71b.webp" alt="intention-revolution3.webp" srcset="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/thumbnail_intention_revolution3_b56b5be71b.webp 214w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/small_intention_revolution3_b56b5be71b.webp 500w,https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/medium_intention_revolution3_b56b5be71b.webp 750w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;Orthodox science is only 300-plus years old, and new studies and discoveries are being found in universities, in little pockets of academia here and there, that are completely transforming the way we think about ourselves and our world. And we’re far greater than we’ve been told!Q: Thank you for that very candid response. For someone who’s intrigued by your work, who’s curious about your work, and who wants to start applying this <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/how-to-manifest-peace" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">power of intention</a> in their own life, how can they begin?LM:&nbsp;They can join my community and my website. When they join, they receive some basic tools and information about how to do intention and how to form a group. They can also read my books. <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/the-intention-revolution" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Power of Eight</a>, the last book published on this topic, has basic descriptions of how to do intention in a group. For people who really want to learn more, I have a whole series of foundation courses.I also have a <a href="https://lynnemctaggart.com/courses/intention-masterclass/the-power-of-eight-intention-masterclass-2025/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">year-long masterclass</a>, my kingpin course, where I work with people live and interactively for a year. Participants start working in groups after six weeks, and each group meets once a week. Under my instruction, they use intention for relationships, for health and healing, for finances and career, and for life purpose. There’s specific information and instructions, and I coach them throughout the year.So there are all kinds of things at all kinds of price points, including free, and every intention experiment is free. I feel everybody should be able to participate.Recently, Gaia released a documentary about my work with large and small groups, The Power of Eight, plus the intention experiments. They interviewed the various scientists who’ve worked with me, and numerous people who have had extraordinary healings with The Power of Eight, too. And it will culminate in an intention on February 1, 2025. I’m going to have a live audience at Gaia’s headquarters in Boulder, Colorado, and we’re also going to livestream it around the world.It's an invitation. So everyone can take part by going to <a href="https://lynnemctaggart.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://lynnemctaggart.com</a>, where there are instructions.Q: I am really looking forward to it.To be continued.

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