> Dan Koenig writes:

>Silvia, I think that the study you were referring to had its origins
>with the TMers.  They have done studies that claim they can reduce crime
>rates in a community if they get a certain proportion of the people
>(perhaps 1%) in the community to meditate everyday.

No Dan, I have heard of the theory of morphogenic fields
which would substanciate the possibility of personal transformation
as a way of exerting an influence on the entire species. I would
agree this needs a lot more research to convince me but the study
I was referring to is more along the lines of the quote you mentioned:

>the power of one is in everyday putting one stone upon
>another, working in the community, speaking truth to power, and refusing
>to join forces with the pestilence.

The study was done in three parts by ethologists who
wanted to understand why humans are the only species
who's behavior is destroying the entire species. They
chose a community of birds to study how they maintained
social stability without self-destruction.

During the first part of the study they spent several
years observing this community of birds to detect the
specific conduct that led to self preservation. They
discovered that the birds had a parasite that lived on
their skin. They needed the other birds of the community
to help them take off the parasites. To accomplish this,
"all" of the birds would adopt a very "cooperative"
attitude at every moment and towards any bird they
encountered. In other words, each bird would "clean"
any other birds that passed by him.

After a certain time the scientists noticed that the
birds "remembered" who had helped them get rid of the
parasites. If one bird cleaned another but the other
bird did not return the "favor" the first bird would
remember who the "uncooperative" individual was and
would never again clean him of parasites.

The outcome was obvious!...If the "uncooperative" bird
did this "negative" behavior too often he would not be
cleaned of parasites by many other birds in the community
towards whom he had been "selfish" and would ultimately
die himself of the parasites.

So they discovered there was a "natural" behavior that
rid the community of unhealthy, uncooperative,
self-destructive behavior. They took this information
and applied it towards humans. Do humans have a cooperative
and positive initial attitude towards each other?...Well,
they devised a "game" to see exactly what the situation
was among humans. It would take too long to describe this
game but the outcome was astounding!....
The overwhelming majority of the participants adopted a
"I'll hurt you and take advantage of you before you can
do the same to me" attitude.....Imagine if the birds had
adopted this behavior! What would have happened?....
They would have ALL died of the parasites!
Not unlike what is happening to us...We are destroying
ourselves because we "judge" the other "bird" we have in
front of us without checking out to see what his true
intentions are first.

So what would be the self-preserving creative attitude
for us humans to take? To have an intital positive and
cooperative attitude towards everybody we encounter
"assuming" they are the same. Now, if their behavior
subsequently proves they aren't.....Then our behavior
you should change accordingly towards that specific
individual without generalizing and assuming other
individuals will be the same.

The scientists took this information and then extrapolated
it to a hypothetical human population represented
mathematically in a computer program. They asked:
What percentage would it take in "x" population with
"y" characteristics to transform it into "z" population
with "p" behavior? Well, amazingly they discovered that
the percentage was actually quite small! Somewhere around
the order of 10-15% of the entire population!

So what is the conclusion of this?.....If each of us
adopts a positive, cooperative attitude towards every
person we meet everyday of our lives assuming we will
be corresponded but being "smart" enough to remember who
didn't and avoid cooperating with that specific individual...
through time it is the single biggest contribution we can
make to the wellfare of our species as a whole.
Silvia