In January 2011, a group of 60 friends and colleagues in Austin, Texas, were inspired to gather on the city’s capitol steps to create change. Silently, they sat for an hour of meditation and mindfulness, focused on sending forth their collective energy and intentions for self, community and the planet. One month later, the group of Austinites numbered 250 and gathered again, this time in the capitol’s rotunda, and seven other U.S. cities simultaneously participated. MedMob was born, and nearly two years later, the hour-long public meditations, coordinated by MedMob Core, have spread to 380 cities worldwide.

Thousands of people from every background and level of meditative experience have joined Patrick Kronfli, Joshua Adaire and local MedMob coordinators to bring meditation and its ensuing peace, compassionate intention and higher vibration to the streets. Whether it is done in a soundproofed yoga studio or ashram, or at a mountaintop retreat, meditation is typically practiced in spaces where it is easy to quiet one’s thoughts and retreat from society. MedMob is exceptional because it is the opposite of this cloistered style of mindfulness. It is a tranquil, guerilla meditation through a wide third eye.

Saturday mornings on a busy city square, the scene is full of shoppers, toting bags of groceries, running errands and checking their to-do lists. Sirens and car horns punctuate the bustle of tour groups and pedestrians moving toward their next destinations. Walking through such a scene, anyone could be whisked away on the current of endless doing. However, with a pause, it becomes a perfect background to stop, sit and breathe; to practice being without judging. Is it possible that the wind of busyness all around us could actually deepen our dive within, allowing the life that is just outside our skin to enrich our internal connection?

MedMob is a type of flash mob—a large group of people meeting in a crowded public place in order to engage in a coordinated, unexpected, inspiring activity—but rather than being completely spontaneous, it is coordinated and mission-based. “Our intention is to create an environment for people from all religions, all world views and all experience levels to join together in meditation. Our vision is to continue inspiring worldwide meditations until the entire world is invited to join—literally!” says Kronfli.

Many organized MedMobs coincide with internationally recognized events, such as International Day of Peace and One Day. These MedMobs are coordinated across the world according to time zones, so that a wave of meditation travels from country to country and from continent to continent, crossing oceans with a sea of love and compassion. According to participants, on these days of successive, synchronized meditation, the field of steadily moving energy is palpable.

With other organizations, MedMob is co-creating a movement named UNIFY in order to extend the reach and transformational effects of these global events. UNIFY is orchestrated by more than 800 MedMob and BeThePeace organizers and 400 Earthdance organizers at locations that include Stonehenge, the Egyptian pyramids, four pyramid sites in Mexico and a number of Hawaiian volcanoes. UNIFY aims to gather people from all spiritual paths and religious backgrounds, encouraged by their spiritual leaders, to come together December 21 at 7 p.m. (Greenwich Mean Time), to connect to divinity in their own way, for 36 minutes (12 minutes of silent connection, 12 minutes of sound vibration and 12 minutes of imagining the world one aspires to create).

The gentle fervor that sustains the vision of MedMob for individuals and the collective is saturated with love, freedom and positive possibility. MedMob organizers, confident that meditation will improve the world, have created one giant, global meditation community, so that everyone can experience the joy of self-discovery. “In a social landscape that is changing worldwide, it is an opportune time to create a world of which we can be proud,” says Kronfli. “We come together as a global community to send positive intentions out into the world and to show that leading by example is the best way to lead. Simple acts can stimulate major paradigm shifts in thinking.”

Lancaster’s MedMob, co-coordinated by Amber Zimmerman and Trella Dubetz, gathers most Saturdays at 12:30 p.m., inconspicuously and usually with eyes closed, at Penn Square, in downtown Lancaster. Everyone is welcome. For more information, call 717-468-7523, visit MedMob.org or Facebook.com/MedMob.Lancaster.PA.

Trella Dubetz lives in Lancaster City and runs Sage Massage & Wellness, in Millersville. She has studied the mind-body connection for more than 26 years and has practiced as a mind-body therapist for 11 years. Connect with her at TrellaDubetz.com