A campaign has been launched to raise around $10 million to build a Transcendental Meditation (TM) college in Bermuda which, its supporters say, would reduce crime on the Island by at least 20 percent each year.

Dr. Brian Horsfield of TM Bermuda, who is behind the campaign, said about 50 studies world-wide, around half in respected scientific journals, had shown significant slumps in criminal activity when people there had taken part in group Transcendental Meditation.

A small study in Bermuda in 1984 showed crime fell by 49.7 percent during group Transcendental Meditation, and in a March 2000 project involving 49 people meditating, crimes against the person fell by 22 percent, 33 percent, and 56 percent during a three-week period.

Philanthropists have already raised $78 million towards a University of World Peace in India which is aimed at attracting 40,000 students people practising full-time Transcendental Meditation.

Organisers, led by the former Harvard University physicist Professor John Hagelin, are hoping to have around 3,000 smaller branch campuses around the world, including Bermuda, to promote peace globally and at the local level.

Dr. Horsfield said over the past five years several wealthy individuals had expressed interest in the idea, but so far there have been no donations of cash.

At a meeting at Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute on Sunday, he said the Island needed a purpose-built building with bedrooms to house around 50 people who would twice daily practise Transcendental Meditation.

He said studies in quantum physics, neuro-science and human consciousness showed that ethnic, religious and political tensions have declined when numbers of people practise Transcendental Meditation.

"The approaches we have taken to violent crime have been violent. It is ridiculous to think this strategy is going to work," he said.

"What we are doing to address violence globally, we've not a shred of evidence to suggest it will work, and even the perpetrators (of the strategy) don't suggest it will.

"We ought to be thinking about a fundamentally different approach than threatening to imprison an individual or imprison them with the offer to rehabilitate.

"To believe that this approach will work is to perpetuate the status quo. Let's think about doing something different. We have suggested (in the past) a 20 percent reduction and we have always exceeded it. If we perpetuated this on a longer term in Bermuda, we would be down to the crime levels of before the 1970's.

"We know that it works, it's worked 40 or 50 times in the past to the highest necessary statistical significance, so you can't say it is coincidence.

"We need to create a professional group of peacemakers in Bermuda. And provide the housing and facilities to train Bermudians to make Bermuda the paradise we all feel it should be. It is a most exciting proposal and this formula is very viable.

"It has breathtaking potential benefits for the Island. The alternatives look a little unsettling for the future

"It would have to be significantly funded, so we are looking to people to consider the long-term future of Bermuda in ten years time so we can create this institution which will prevent the continued escalation of stress in Bermuda.

"This is paradigm-breaking research, so I don't anticipate Government being a supporter in a significant way, though of course that would be very welcome.

"We have approached individuals and the response has been some interest. I've been surprised by the response of people who could have the potential to fund the entire project in Bermuda."

Afterwards, he told The Royal Gazette: "It is inevitable it will happen. The project is going ahead in India where over 100 philanthropists have supported the first stage and it will take place in every country for their own sustainability.

"I am optimistic it will occur, it is just a matter of when. People in Bermuda are not optimistic about the future in Bermuda in ten years, so we have a choice. Either status quo approaches which have produced large increases in violence here, or we can try something new and solve the problems that have evaded us to date."