I just stumbled into the web site Permanent Peace. Failed ideas never seem to die. The thesis of the site is that the world is controlled by a universal conciousness, and that, through a new thing called transcendental idealism, we will be able to control the waves of the universal conciousness. Using quantum mechanics, a new set of gurus has created a new scientific foundation for the universal conciousness called the "Field Theory of Consciousness."

The group claims to be unifying science and the ancient Vedic tradition under a new guru "His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi." They have a school in Iowa called the "Maharishi University of Management." I suppose it is trying to cash in on both the business and religious guru trends. They even have a new thing called a "US Peace Government" in position ready for any power grabs the group might aspire to in the future.

a single unified field of intelligence (or consciousness) lies at the basis of all diversity in the physical world.

Just like most of the other transcendental idealisms, this new transcendental idealism seems to be picking up the dialectics of Zeno as well.

The funny thing is how similar this new transcendental idealism is to the long list of transcendental idealisms of the last several centuries. Each have the formula where they claim to be tapped into the universal oneness. Each claim to be new.

The new group seems to be attracting adherents. I am just left wondering if people will ever realize that these groups seeking to manipulate the "universal conciousness" generally end up doing more harm than good. They end up doing things like ramming airplanes into buildings.

Gurus claiming working to manipulate the universal oneness tend to promote group think and the pack mantality in their followers. It seems to me that the better path to peace is to encourage individuality. Historically, it seems that the people promoting freedom, human rights and limited government tend to have a better track record for promoting peace and prosperity than those claiming scientific control of history.

Anyway, Permanent Peace shows how old ideas never die. They just claim to be new again as people forgot the lessons of history.