Bringing Back the Silent Minute

What is the most powerful force we can align with to heal the soul of a nation?

In the United States, these are deeply troubled times. Our population is more polarized than it has been at any time since the Civil War.

Trust—for our fellow Americans, our government, and our institutions—seems to be breaking down. Things become increasingly confusing and chaotic.

Mental health and other medical professionals in the U.S. have reported increased numbers of patients seeking relief from stress, anxiety, and depression. An unprecedented number of Americans lie awake at night wondering what the future of our country will be. I have been one of them.

Like many others, I’ve become more politically active than ever before in my life—working to educate myself and others about issues, writing and calling my elected representatives, supporting voter-registration efforts, collecting signatures on petitions, donating to political campaigns. But as the disorder in our nation deepened, it didn’t feel like I was doing enough.

Of course, action on a material level is necessary—but I began to feel that we needed to work powerfully on another level—by gathering our collective spiritual forces and reaching out to a higher power—for the best possible outcome and the healing of our Nation.

Many of us have been praying privately for help in this situation, and some have been praying together in places of worship—but again, it didn’t seem to be enough.

Years ago, British Spiritual Healer Malcolm Smith told me about the SILENT MINUTE that was kept each night in the United Kingdom during World War II. Many Britons, he said, credited the winning of WWII to this collective effort—a minute of silence observed throughout the UK each night, at 9 pm. Each participant kept the time in whatever way felt right—through prayer, meditation, or whatever—but with a shared intention of securing freedom and a just peace. For those who lived in London, the Silent Minute was observed during the 9 pm chiming of Big Ben.

The current turmoil in the U.S. seemed to me to require the same kind of concentrated spiritual response that turned the tide in WWII.

I wanted to share the idea of the Silent Minute—but mundane concerns caused me to try to set it aside for later. We had family coming to visit, my house badly needed cleaning—and I kept trying to put off the Silent Minute effort to another time. Somehow, though, I couldn’t seem to concentrate on anything but sharing the Minute. The need to “do it now” became irresistible—as if some force compelled me and wouldn’t let me accomplish anything else until I did what I could to spread the idea.

It was soon made clear to me that bringing back the Silent Minute was not “my idea.” I started sharing about the Silent Minute in Facebook groups in mid-July. One of the first to respond was Amber Napier Bozeman. Amazingly, Amber and her mother had had the same inspiration and had started observing the Silent Minute together two weeks earlier!

Although we live in neighboring towns, I didn’t know Amber or her mother, Connie Utpaul. But they had decided on 9 pm as the time to observe the Minute, just as I had. And they had created a Facebook page to spread the concept. (I had started a Facebook group.) Because of this experience, I believe this idea was “seeded” within us by a Higher Power.

A growing group of participants are now committed to observing the Silent Minute. We have no idea how many people are involved. We do know, from those who have chosen to join the Facebook group, that there are now people observing the Silent Minute simultaneously all over the U.S. and in England, France, Germany, Israel, New Zealand, and India.

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The focus of this Silent Minute is on Peace, Justice and the Highest Good—for the U.S. and the world.

Participants in the group include people of many faiths and none. Non-believers are welcome to participate and just hold an intention for peace and justice. We encourage participants to keep their prayer or intention non-partisan during the Silent Minute—just focusing on Justice, Peace, and the Highest Good, and having faith that Spirit, the Universe, or whatever we believe in, knows best how to bring that about. [Editor’s note: The Peace Pole message, “May Peace Prevail on Earth,” could work as a collective focus for those seeking a message to focus on, as the peace poles are also worldwide. Read more here.]

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The Commitment

If you choose to participate in this effort, the commitment to “keeping the Minute” consistently is important. BUT we’re all human—so if you miss the time or forget and then remember later, do your Silent Minute when you remember, if you can.

If you miss a night—or several—don’t beat yourself up about it. Just get back into the flow as soon as you can.

The U.K. is all in one time zone, but in the U.S. we have several. In order keep the Silent Minute simultaneously as much as possible, here is the plan:

• On the U.S. East Coast, we have committed to keeping the Silent Minute at 9 pm
• In Central Daylight time, that’s 8 pm
• Mountain Daylight time: 7 pm
• Pacific Daylight Time: 6 pm
• Hawaiian Time: 3 pm
• In the U.K and France, the time is 2 am. (A challenging but excellent time for meditation and prayer.)

When observing your Silent Minute, it helps to be aware of all the others doing it, too—and join your intention with theirs. However, if you cannot possibly observe the time when the rest of the collective is tuned in, pick a time that works for you! The most important thing is the shared intention for Justice, Peace and the Highest Good. Science tells us that once ten-percent of a population holds an unshakeable belief, that belief will spread to the whole population. Why shouldn’t the same be true for a strongly held intention?

Since this is an effort to create an energy field or group consciousness, we offer the Silent Minute Facebook group as a venue for sharing about your experience with the Silent Minute or anything related. It is, of course, completely optional.

Keeping the Silent Minute with all my unseen, and mostly unknown—but strongly felt—co-creators is helping me to be more hopeful, and far less anxious, about events in our world. That doesn’t mean I’ve become less active in the outside world. It means that I can be active in a calmer and more effective way.

What is the most powerful force we can align with to heal the soul of a nation—or a world?

The power of our own engaged spiritual forces multiplied by the highest intentions of our fellow beings in oneness with a Higher Power.

Read about the history of the Silent Minute in our other feature on the Silent Minute.

—Lynne Salomon Miceli ©2018

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When there has been in the earth those groups that have sufficiently desired and sought peace, peace will begin. It must be within… ”

—Edgar Cayce Reading 3976-28

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