Wanted: €7.65m for yogi’s good vibrations

WANTED: Financial backers and 250 people to practise the art of transcendental meditation and yogic flying to reduce Ireland’s crime and accident rates.

Reward: Unlimited inner peace for all and €8-an-hour for full-time meditation students.

Apply to: Maharishi International University (Ireland) Ltd, a registered charity in Waterford.

A bizarre advertisement appeared in yesterday’s Irish Times appealing for €7.65 million to fund 250 people to meditate and “fly” for the good of Ireland for a year.

With links to India’s Maharishi spiritual leader of 1960s Beatles fame, the organisers claim their initiative will see crime and accident rates tumble across the island of Ireland in a year.

Joseph Hayden, president of the charity, told the Irish Examiner the 250 people would be meditating to spread calm among Ireland’s people — who are described as a “collective consciousness”.

He said: “We look upon accident rates and crime as a demonstration of or an effect of disorder on the collective consciousness.

“So we see this group of 250 individuals as a way of reducing stress in society: the vibes they create together will spread outwards and reduce stress, causing accident and crime rates to fall. It worked in Washington DC.”

In 1993 a group of Maharishi followers spent almost two months meditating in the American capital city and said their vibes slashed crime rates by 23.3%.

Registered with Ireland’s Revenue Commissioners as a tax-exempt charity, the organisation also wants to build a transcendental meditation centre in Dublin where the 250 will practise.

But first Mr Hayden is trying to raise millions of euro so he can pay the recruits €8-an-hour to carry out a 40-hour week of meditation and calming practises such as yogic flying, which is a kind of cross-legged hopping.

The fund-raising plan begins today to coincide with the full moon.

The Maharishi International University (Ireland) said it has three possible ways of funding its plan for the 250 people to meditate Ireland’s crime and accident rates downward for a year:

* Two wealthy people to donate €750,000 each and six to give €375,000.

* 55,000 people to give just over €5 a month.

* Every man, woman and child in the North and the Republic to give 5.5 cent a month to the charity.

Mr Hayden said: “Initially we are talking about having one big group of 250 in Dublin but we would want to expand it around the country to Cork, Belfast, Waterford and Limerick”.

Donations to the Bank of Ireland, Blackrock, Dublin.