Collective stress

According to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, just as stress in the individual can build up until it results in a violent outcome in order to reduce the tension, stresses can build up in the collective unconscious of a society. Such societal stress manifests in a number of problems such as negativity, crises and conflict and can be the cause of that society finally resorting to violence and war. Since societal stress is more than just an accumulation of individuals' stress, it can also be disproportionately affected by individual lack of stress, and the Maharishi has programmes which exploit this latent capacity of the individual to initiate peaceful thought and action in the underlying field of consciousness.