FREMONT — It takes only a few drops of cold water to temper a boiling pot.

That’s the theory behind a proposed partnership between the United States and India to build universities that would teach meditation and peace-building strategies based on
ancient practices and modern science.

The primary backer of the project — which includes a 40,000-student university in India and an 8,000-student university in the United States — will detail his plan for the first time Friday night at the third annual Unity Dinner, sponsored by the Fremont-based IndoAmerican Community Federation.

In his keynote speech, John Hagelin, a Harvard-trained quantum physicist, will solicit support for his aggressive plan to train students in the Vedic science of consciousness, a
practice used to relieve stress and promote harmony by Indian practitioners for thousands of years. The approach “is specifically designed to reduce not only individual tension, but to have the maximum spillover ef- fect into one’s social environment,” said Hagelin, director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.