Practices of mindful thought and meditation have the ability to combat violence beginning with the individual person themselves. Violence is a successful tactic in obtaining and maintaining power, and has been known to exist for most all of humanity. It is debated whether humans have evolved with violence or is it in our DNA. Violent behavior is common and widespread, showing up historically throughout the world.
We currently live in an extremely violent nation. The United States has been active in war for 224 years out of our 241 years of existence. While violence has always been a part of our societal norms, the aspects of violence are changing. We have normalized violence in everyday life through the use of social media, movies, and video games, where violence occurs within the homes of our citizens even if the individuals are not violent themselves. Violence is normal within our youth. According to The FBI: Reports and Publications, the prevalence of gangs is alarmingly high, reporting that there are 1.4 million active gang members as of 2011. Crime is counteracted with more violence as a solution by our policing, and is even condoned by our political leaders. Violence shapes us to accept a more hostile environment often against those in whom we should be united.
As quickly as violence can evolve negatively, we can evolve positively through the use of tools built within each and every one of us, meditation.
The laws of nature suggest that everything in the universe moves and vibrates. Animate and inanimate objects have a specific frequency. The frequency of humans is connected at the lowest level to all other things on Earth; this level is called the Unified Field. Quantum physics describes the universe as vibrational strings of energy. Well known scientists have known this, such as Albert Einstein who states, “Everything in life is vibration.” As well as Nikola Tesla who states, “If you want to find the secrets of the universe think in terms of Energy, Frequency and Vibration.”
Eastern religions have known about vibrational existence for thousands of years, while modern day scientists have only recently been able to prove that the power of our thoughts has the ability to alter the physical properties of objects around us.
Numerous studies and experiments have validated this, including one of which was produce by Dr. Masaru Moto, a Japanese doctor of alternative medicine who conducted experiments on water in order to prove that our thoughts and feelings affect the physical reality. He has produced supporting evidence that water is a blue print for our reality, and emotional and thoughtful energies could change the molecular structure of water. In his studies he found that water exposed to positive thoughts and visualization produced beautiful and wholly aligned geometrical patterns, while negative thoughts and emotions produced incomplete and sluggish patterns. The book Dr. Emoto wrote called The Hidden Messages in Water demonstrated this in photographs, also verifying noticeable structural differences in the water before and after meditation. This is relevant to humans increasing their vibration through mindful thought and meditation, considering on average humans are made up of 70% water. What we think is flowing through our bodies and can have profound effects on the world around us.
The earliest written records of meditation dates back to 1500 BCE, and come from the Hindu traditions of Vedantism. Around the 6th to 5th centuries BCE, other forms of meditation developed in Taoist China and Buddhist India. Since then, meditation as a practice has spread throughout the world. According to the article “Everything in Life is Vibration”, the practice of meditation has proven to increase immunity, lower blood pressure, allows for better sleep, also bringing a sense of peace, happiness, compassion, deeper understanding of oneself, as well as, empathy for others.
Mindful thought practice and meditation is available anywhere at anytime. With scientific evidence supporting the health benefits of mediation, it is possible that individuals can combat violence with this individually unified form of nonviolence, forever changing the path of history.