John Hagelin
Encyclopedia
John Samuel Hagelin is an American particle physicist
, three-time candidate of the Natural Law Party
for President of the United States
(1992, 1996, and 2000), and the director of the Transcendental Meditation movement
for the US.
Hagelin was a researcher at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN
) and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC
), and is now Professor of Physics and Director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy at Maharishi University of Management
. He has conducted research into unified field theory
and the Maharishi Effect.
Hagelin was appointed Raja of Invincible America by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
and is also President of the US Peace Government. He is Executive Director of the International Center for Invincible Defense, Executive Director of the Global Financial Capital of New York, Executive Director of the Center for Leadership Performance, Director of the Board of Advisors for the David Lynch Foundation
, Honorary Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Maharishi University of Management, and International Director of the Global Union of Scientists for Peace.
. During childhood, he played soccer, hockey and the piano. Hagelin won a scholarship to Taft School for boys, where he received a perfect score of 165 on a school-administered IQ test and, according to Neil Dickie of The Iowa Source, "(...) was also a dare-devil". In 1970, while at Taft, he was involved in a motorcycle crash that led to hospitalization and a full body cast. During this time, one of his teachers introduced him to quantum mechanics
, and he also learned the Transcendental Meditation technique
, both of which had major impacts on his life.
Hagelin later graduated from Taft and attended Dartmouth College
on a scholarship. After his freshman year, a continued interest in Transcendental Meditation led him to Vittel
, France, where he completed the studies necessary to become a qualified teacher of the Transcendental Meditation technique. While at Dartmouth, he earned an undergraduate degree in physics in three years with highest honors (summa cum laude). He also co-authored and published papers in physics research and won a fellowship to study physics at Harvard. While at Harvard, Hagelin worked under the noted physicists Howard Georgi
and Sheldon Glashow, best known for their work in Grand Unification theory (GUT). He received a Master's degree from Harvard in 1976, and a Ph.D. in 1981.
(the European Center for Particle Physics) in Switzerland, and in 1983 was recruited by SLAC (the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center), CERN's North American counterpart.
In 1984, Hagelin shifted his appointment from SLAC to Maharishi International University (MIU), where he continued his research in physics, pursued a long-time interest in brain and cognitive science research, and established an accredited doctoral program in theoretical physics. Hagelin's move to MIU in 1984 surprised and puzzled his colleagues. Howard Georgi
and John Ellis
tried to talk him out of it. But, according to Georgi, Hagelin "continued to do good physics anyway." Nobel Laureate, Sheldon Glashow was quoted in a 1992 article as saying, "His papers are outstanding. We read them before he went to MIU and we read them now." Hagelin remained in contact with colleagues from Harvard, Stanford, and CERN, and continued to collaborate with them. While at MIU, his contributions to the field of theoretical physics were supported by funding from the National Science Foundation
.
Hagelin is a Professor of Physics at Maharishi University of Management (formerly MIU). Hagelin is also identified as the Founding President of Maharishi Central University, which was announced in 2007. Central University was under construction in Smith Center, Kansas
at the site of a previously-announced Peace Palace until early 2008, when, according to Hagelin, the project was put on hold while the TM organization dealt with the death of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
.
, electroweak unification
, grand unification, supersymmetry
, and cosmology
, most of them in prestigious scientific journals. Several were described as "core papers" that were among the 20 most cited references in physics in their respective years, according to Current Contents
magazine. This includes his work on the "flipped SU(5)
, heterotic superstring theory" that is considered one of the more successful unified field theories or "theories of everything" and was highlighted in a cover story in Discover
magazine.
Hagelin co-authored a 1983 paper entitled "Weak symmetry breaking by radiative corrections in broken supergravity", which is included in a list of the 103 articles in the physical sciences that were cited the most times during the years 1983 and 1984. A 1984 study titled "Supersymmetric relics from the big bang", had been cited over 500 times as of 2007.
Critics of Hagelin have included physicist Peter Woit
and journalist Christopher Andersen. Peter Woit in his book, Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and The Search for Unity In Physical Law, precedes his critical remarks by acknowledging Hagelin as having published papers in prestigious journals that would eventually be cited in over a hundred other papers. Christopher Anderson wrote in a 1992 news article in Nature that Hagelin, co-developer of one of the "better-accepted" unified field theories known as the Flipped SU(5)
model, "is by all accounts a gifted researcher well known and respected by his colleagues".
's Journal of Modern Science and Vedic Science on the relationship between physics and consciousness. These papers discuss the Vedic
understanding of consciousness as a field and compares it with theories of the unified field derived by modern physics. Hagelin argues that these two fields have almost identical properties and quantitative structure, and he presents other theoretical and empirical arguments that the two fields are actually one and the same — specifically, that the experience of unity at the basis of the mind achieved during the meditative state is the subjective experience of the very same fundamental unity of existence revealed by unified field theories.
(which includes a practice called "Yogic Flying") which are said to have measurable effects on social trend parameters. This phenomenon is called the "Maharishi Effect". Hagelin cites numerous studies of such effects, and in the summer of 1993, he conducted a large scale study of the same type. Approximately 4,000 TM-Sidhi program practitioners gathered in Washington, D.C., where they practiced the TM-Sidhi techniques twice daily in a group for several weeks. Using data obtained from the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department for 1993 and the preceding five years (1988–1992), Hagelin and collaborators followed the changes in crime rates for the area before, during, and after the 6 weeks when the group was gathered in Washington, D.C. In 1999, the study, which controlled for effects of temperature changes and showed a highly statistically significant drop in crime, was published in Social Indicators Research. During the eight weeks of the study, the overall level of violent crime (homicides, rapes, and assaults) decreased by 23%, with rapes declining by 58%. Homicides averaged 10 a week during the study—the same as in the weeks preceding and following the study. For most of the eight weeks of the study the homicide rate declined, but gang fighting resulted in ten murders in a 36 hour period. Robert L. Park
, research professor and former chair of the Physics Department at the University of Maryland and well known skeptic of paranormal claims, dismissed the study as a "clinic in data manipulation" and accused Hagelin and his team of scientific misconduct. Maxwell Rainforth, Assistant Professor of Physiology and Health and Statistics at Maharishi University of Management and a coauthor of the Washington, D.C. study, characterized Park's criticisms of the study as "superficial, highly polemical" and "willfully misleading".
, Austria, organized by Stuart Hameroff
(University of Arizona) and Gustav Bernroider (University of Salzburg). Hagelin was a featured scientist in the popular movies, What the Bleep Do We Know!?
, What the Bleep? Down the Rabbit Hole (2006) and The Secret, which renewed interest in the quantum mind
paradigm. Science writer Simon Singh
questioned the credibility and motives of the interviewees in the film, and advised against seeing What the Bleep Do We Know!? as it would leave viewers misinformed.
Both Woit and Anderson have commented critically on Hagelin's interest in and publications on consciousness research. Woit says identifying a unified field of consciousness with a unified field of superstring theory is wishful thinking. He also asserts that most physicists think Hagelin's views are nonsense. Anderson says Hagelin's investigations into how the extension of grand unified theories of physics to human consciousness could explain the way Transcendental Meditation is said to influence world events "disturbs many researchers" and "infuriates his former collaborators." Dallas Observer
political reporter Jonathan Fox wrote that "Once considered a top scientist, Hagelin's former academic peers ostracized him after the candidate attempted to shoehorn Eastern metaphysical musings into the realm of quantum physics." According to Woit, Hagelin began connecting consciousness and the unified field in the late 1970s as a Ph.D. student at Harvard. Hagelin's collaborative work in particle physics continued until 1994. Anderson says that John Ellis
, director of CERN, was worried about guilt by association. Anderson quotes Ellis as saying "I was afraid that people might regard [Hagelin's assertions] as rather flaky, and that might rub off on the theory or on us."
Hagelin's linkage of quantum mechanics and unified field theory with consciousness was critiqued by University of Iowa
philosophy and sociology professors Evan Fales and Barry Markovsky in the journal Social Forces
. They wrote that Hagelin's equating consciousness with the unified field relies on a similarity between quantum mechanical properties of fields and consciousness, and that his arguments rely on ambiguity and obscurity in characterizing these properties. They dismiss Hagelin's parallels between the Vedas and contemporary unified field theories as a reliance on ambiguity and vague analogy supported by constructing arbitrary similarities. David Orme-Johnson
and Robert Oates, retired colleagues of Hagelin from MUM, replied to this critique in the Journal of Scientific Exploration
and said, in part, that Fales' and Markovsky's accusation of "vagueness" and "ambiguity" on Hagelin's part are in themselves vague and ambiguous and that there is no standard against which they can be evaluated.
(NLP) was founded in 1992 in Fairfield, Iowa
by Hagelin and a group of 12 educators, scientists, business leaders, and other professionals who desired a more scientific approach to national administration that would promote field-tested solutions to the nation's problems. The party platform included preventive health care, sustainable agriculture and renewable energy technologies. During his campaigns, Hagelin favored abortion rights without public financing, campaign-finance law reform and improved gun control. He proposed a flat tax and no tax for families earning less than $34,000 a year. Hagelin also campaigned to eradicate PACs
and soft money campaign contributions and advocated safety locks on guns. He endorsed school vouchers and efforts to prevent war in the Middle East by reducing "people's tension".
The party chose Hagelin and Michael Tompkins
as its presidential and vice-presidential candidates in 1992 and 1996.
Hagelin ran for President again in the 2000 Presidential election, being nominated both by the NLP and by the Perot
wing of the Reform Party, which disputed the nomination of Pat Buchanan
. Hagelin's running mate in the 2000 election was Nat Goldhaber
, an entrepreneur who, like Hagelin and Tompkins, was a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation.
A dispute over the Reform Party's nomination generated "legal action" between the Hagelin and Buchanan campaigns. In September 2000, the Federal Election Commission
ruled that Buchanan was the official candidate of the Reform Party, and hence, was eligible to receive federal election funds. As part of the ruling, the Reform Party convention that nominated Hagelin was declared invalid. In spite of the ruling, Hagelin remained on several state ballots as the Reform Party nominee, due to the independent nature of various state affiliates. He also was the national nominee of the Natural Law Party, and in New York was the Independence Party
nominee.
During his 2000 campaign, Hagelin appeared on ABC's Nightline (2000) and Politically Incorrect
(2000), NBC's Meet the Press
(2000), CNN's Larry King Live
, PBS's News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Inside Politics, CNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews
, and C-SPAN's Washington Journal
.
Hagelin's Presidential electoral results:
In the middle of the 2000 campaign, Hagelin said that having the party's principles reach the "marketplace of ideas" and be co-opted by the Democrats and Republicans would be a victory.
In April 2004, the U.S. Natural Law Party officially disbanded its national organization, although a few state parties may still be active.
In the 2004 primary elections, Hagelin and the Natural Law Party endorsed Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich
.
In 2010, Hagelin married Kara Anastasio
, the former vice-chair of the Natural Law Party of Ohio.
Hagelin helped to write a paragraph in Hillary Rodham Clinton's 10,000-page health proposal. He says that it was the only paragraph in the document that concerned health and preventive care.
In 1998, Hagelin gave testimony to the National Institutes of Health, DNA Advisory Committee on germ-line technologies, stating that recombinant DNA technology is inherently risky because of the high probability of unexpected side-effects.
Hagelin moderated a panel on stress at a June 3, 1999 Congressional Prevention Coalition caucus.
. The US Peace Government and the Global Country of World Peace were created to promote evidence-based and sustainable solutions as well as policies of governance that are aligned with Natural Law. As president of the USPG, Hagelin presides over a national assembly of USPG state representatives or governors, who in turn preside over US Peace Government assemblies and capital buildings in their respective states. The USPG announced plans to build a national capital in Washington Township, Smith County, Kansas, near the geographic center of America
. The offices for the U.S. Peace Government are located in Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa, and the office of the President was at The Jefferson hotel, Washington, D.C. in 2004.
Hagelin is the founder and International Director of the Global Union of Scientists for Peace, an international organization of prominent scientists opposed to nuclear proliferation and war.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi appointed Hagelin as the "Raja of Invincible America" on November 19, 2007. Hagelin organized the Invincible America Assembly in Fairfield, Iowa which began in July 2006. The assembly consists of a group of individuals practicing the Transcendental Meditation and the TM-Sidhi techniques in a group, twice daily. Hagelin stated in a press release announcing the project that "for the United States, with a population of just over 300 million, the required number of peace-creating experts is 1,730". According to the Global Good News website "on 28 November 2006, the United States achieved invincibility and is stabilizing the number of Yogic Flyers—rising from 1,600 to 1,730—assembled at the Invincible America Assembly in Fairfield, Iowa". In addition, Hagelin's Institute for Science Technology and Public Policy web site says that the Invincible America Assembly in Iowa "is rising quickly toward its target of 2,500".
In July, 2007, Hagelin predicted that when the number of assembly participants reached 2,500, which he said would happen within a year, America would have a major drop in crime, and see the virtual elimination of all major social and political woes in the United States. Hagelin said that the Assembly was responsible for the Dow Jones Industrial Average
reaching a record high of 14,022 earlier that month, and predicted that the Dow would top 17,000 within a year.
which "recognizes scientists who have made major contributions to society through their applied research in the fields of science and technology". The award was given for his work in particle physics leading to the development of supersymmetric grand unified field theories, for his innovative applications of advanced principles from control systems theory and optimization theory to digital sound reproduction, and for his research on human consciousness
. Chris Anderson questioned the value of the award in an article about Hagelin published in Nature
.
In 1994, Hagelin received the Ig Nobel Prize
for Peace, an annual parody award presented at Harvard University which "honor[s] achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think". The Master of ceremony and award's founder Mark Abrahams called it the world's most "(un)coveted award for achievements that cannot or should not be reproduced" which are given to "honor the world's largely overlooked scientists and other contributors to modern culture, who bring smiles and guffaws to others, whether intentional or not." Hagelin received the prize for his "experimental conclusion that 4,000 trained meditators caused an 18 percent decrease in violent crime in Washington, D.C."
Particle physics
Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the existence and interactions of particles that are the constituents of what is usually referred to as matter or radiation. In current understanding, particles are excitations of quantum fields and interact following their dynamics...
, three-time candidate of the Natural Law Party
Natural Law Party
The Natural Law Party was a transnational party based on the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It was active in up to 74 countries, and ran candidates in at least ten. Founded in 1992, it was mostly disbanded in 2004 but continues in India and in some U.S. states.The NLP viewed "natural law" as...
for President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
(1992, 1996, and 2000), and the director of the Transcendental Meditation movement
Transcendental Meditation movement
The Transcendental Meditation movement is a world-wide organization, sometimes characterised as a neo-Hindu new religious movement, founded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the 1950s...
for the US.
Hagelin was a researcher at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research , known as CERN , is an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world's largest particle physics laboratory, which is situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border...
) and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the U.S...
), and is now Professor of Physics and Director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy at Maharishi University of Management
Maharishi University of Management
Maharishi University of Management , formerly known as Maharishi International University, is a non-profit, American university, located in Fairfield, Iowa. It was founded in 1973 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and features a "consciousness-based education" system that includes the practice of the...
. He has conducted research into unified field theory
Unified field theory
In physics, a unified field theory, occasionally referred to as a uniform field theory, is a type of field theory that allows all that is usually thought of as fundamental forces and elementary particles to be written in terms of a single field. There is no accepted unified field theory, and thus...
and the Maharishi Effect.
Hagelin was appointed Raja of Invincible America by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi , born Mahesh Prasad Varma , developed the Transcendental Meditation technique and was the leader and guru of the TM movement, characterised as a new religious movement and also as non-religious...
and is also President of the US Peace Government. He is Executive Director of the International Center for Invincible Defense, Executive Director of the Global Financial Capital of New York, Executive Director of the Center for Leadership Performance, Director of the Board of Advisors for the David Lynch Foundation
David Lynch Foundation
The David Lynch Foundation For Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace is a global charitable foundation based in Fairfield, Iowa. It was founded by film director and Transcendental Meditation practitioner David Lynch in 2005....
, Honorary Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Maharishi University of Management, and International Director of the Global Union of Scientists for Peace.
Early life and education
John Samuel Hagelin was born June 9, 1954, in Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
. During childhood, he played soccer, hockey and the piano. Hagelin won a scholarship to Taft School for boys, where he received a perfect score of 165 on a school-administered IQ test and, according to Neil Dickie of The Iowa Source, "(...) was also a dare-devil". In 1970, while at Taft, he was involved in a motorcycle crash that led to hospitalization and a full body cast. During this time, one of his teachers introduced him to quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the atomic and subatomic...
, and he also learned the Transcendental Meditation technique
Transcendental Meditation technique
The Transcendental Meditation technique is a specific form of mantra meditation often referred to as Transcendental Meditation. It was introduced in India in 1955 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi...
, both of which had major impacts on his life.
Hagelin later graduated from Taft and attended Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
on a scholarship. After his freshman year, a continued interest in Transcendental Meditation led him to Vittel
Vittel
Vittel is a commune in the Vosges department in Lorraine in northeastern France.Mineral water is bottled and sold here by Nestlé Waters France, under the Vittel brand.-History:...
, France, where he completed the studies necessary to become a qualified teacher of the Transcendental Meditation technique. While at Dartmouth, he earned an undergraduate degree in physics in three years with highest honors (summa cum laude). He also co-authored and published papers in physics research and won a fellowship to study physics at Harvard. While at Harvard, Hagelin worked under the noted physicists Howard Georgi
Howard Georgi
Howard Mason Georgi III, born January 6, 1947 in San Bernardino, California, is Harvard College Professor and Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics at Harvard University...
and Sheldon Glashow, best known for their work in Grand Unification theory (GUT). He received a Master's degree from Harvard in 1976, and a Ph.D. in 1981.
Scientist and academic
By the time Hagelin had received his Ph.D. from Harvard, he had already published "several serious papers" on particle theory. In 1981, Hagelin won a postdoctoral research appointment at CERNCERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research , known as CERN , is an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world's largest particle physics laboratory, which is situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border...
(the European Center for Particle Physics) in Switzerland, and in 1983 was recruited by SLAC (the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center), CERN's North American counterpart.
In 1984, Hagelin shifted his appointment from SLAC to Maharishi International University (MIU), where he continued his research in physics, pursued a long-time interest in brain and cognitive science research, and established an accredited doctoral program in theoretical physics. Hagelin's move to MIU in 1984 surprised and puzzled his colleagues. Howard Georgi
Howard Georgi
Howard Mason Georgi III, born January 6, 1947 in San Bernardino, California, is Harvard College Professor and Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics at Harvard University...
and John Ellis
John Ellis (physicist)
Jonathan Richard Ellis FRS is a British theoretical physicist who is currently Clerk Maxwell Professor of Theoretical Physics at King's College London. After completing his secondary education at Highgate School, he attended Cambridge University, earning his Ph.D. in theoretical particle physics...
tried to talk him out of it. But, according to Georgi, Hagelin "continued to do good physics anyway." Nobel Laureate, Sheldon Glashow was quoted in a 1992 article as saying, "His papers are outstanding. We read them before he went to MIU and we read them now." Hagelin remained in contact with colleagues from Harvard, Stanford, and CERN, and continued to collaborate with them. While at MIU, his contributions to the field of theoretical physics were supported by funding from the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
.
Hagelin is a Professor of Physics at Maharishi University of Management (formerly MIU). Hagelin is also identified as the Founding President of Maharishi Central University, which was announced in 2007. Central University was under construction in Smith Center, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
at the site of a previously-announced Peace Palace until early 2008, when, according to Hagelin, the project was put on hold while the TM organization dealt with the death of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi , born Mahesh Prasad Varma , developed the Transcendental Meditation technique and was the leader and guru of the TM movement, characterised as a new religious movement and also as non-religious...
.
Theoretical physics research
During his time at CERN, SLAC and Maharishi University of Management (MUM), Hagelin worked on supersymmetric extensions of the standard model and grand unification theories. In the years 1979-1996, Hagelin collaborated with many leading figures and published more than 70 papers in the fields of particle physicsParticle physics
Particle physics is a branch of physics that studies the existence and interactions of particles that are the constituents of what is usually referred to as matter or radiation. In current understanding, particles are excitations of quantum fields and interact following their dynamics...
, electroweak unification
Electroweak interaction
In particle physics, the electroweak interaction is the unified description of two of the four known fundamental interactions of nature: electromagnetism and the weak interaction. Although these two forces appear very different at everyday low energies, the theory models them as two different...
, grand unification, supersymmetry
Supersymmetry
In particle physics, supersymmetry is a symmetry that relates elementary particles of one spin to other particles that differ by half a unit of spin and are known as superpartners...
, and cosmology
Cosmology
Cosmology is the discipline that deals with the nature of the Universe as a whole. Cosmologists seek to understand the origin, evolution, structure, and ultimate fate of the Universe at large, as well as the natural laws that keep it in order...
, most of them in prestigious scientific journals. Several were described as "core papers" that were among the 20 most cited references in physics in their respective years, according to Current Contents
Current Contents
Current Contents is a rapid alerting service database from the Institute for Scientific Information, now part of Thomson Reuters, that is published online and in several different printed subject sections.-History:...
magazine. This includes his work on the "flipped SU(5)
Flipped SU(5)
The Flipped SU model is a Grand Unified Theory theory first contemplated by Stephen Barr in 1982, and by Dimitri Nanopoulos and others in 1984...
, heterotic superstring theory" that is considered one of the more successful unified field theories or "theories of everything" and was highlighted in a cover story in Discover
Discover (magazine)
Discover is an American science magazine that publishes articles about science for a general audience. The monthly magazine was launched in October 1980 by Time Inc. It was sold to Family Media, the owners of Health, in 1987. Walt Disney Company bought the magazine when Family Media went out of...
magazine.
Hagelin co-authored a 1983 paper entitled "Weak symmetry breaking by radiative corrections in broken supergravity", which is included in a list of the 103 articles in the physical sciences that were cited the most times during the years 1983 and 1984. A 1984 study titled "Supersymmetric relics from the big bang", had been cited over 500 times as of 2007.
Critics of Hagelin have included physicist Peter Woit
Peter Woit
Peter Woit is a Departmental Computer Administrator and Senior Lecturer in Discipline at Columbia University, known for his criticisms of string theory in his book Not Even Wrong, and his blog of the same name.-Career:...
and journalist Christopher Andersen. Peter Woit in his book, Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and The Search for Unity In Physical Law, precedes his critical remarks by acknowledging Hagelin as having published papers in prestigious journals that would eventually be cited in over a hundred other papers. Christopher Anderson wrote in a 1992 news article in Nature that Hagelin, co-developer of one of the "better-accepted" unified field theories known as the Flipped SU(5)
Flipped SU(5)
The Flipped SU model is a Grand Unified Theory theory first contemplated by Stephen Barr in 1982, and by Dimitri Nanopoulos and others in 1984...
model, "is by all accounts a gifted researcher well known and respected by his colleagues".
Research on consciousness and the unified field
In 1987 and 1989, Hagelin published two papers in the Maharishi University of ManagementMaharishi University of Management
Maharishi University of Management , formerly known as Maharishi International University, is a non-profit, American university, located in Fairfield, Iowa. It was founded in 1973 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and features a "consciousness-based education" system that includes the practice of the...
's Journal of Modern Science and Vedic Science on the relationship between physics and consciousness. These papers discuss the Vedic
Vedic science
Vedic science may refer to a number of disciplines: ancient and modern, scientific and unscientific, religious, metaphysical, Hindu, occultist, New Age, proto-scientific, or pseudoscientific found in or based on the Vedas.Vedic period...
understanding of consciousness as a field and compares it with theories of the unified field derived by modern physics. Hagelin argues that these two fields have almost identical properties and quantitative structure, and he presents other theoretical and empirical arguments that the two fields are actually one and the same — specifically, that the experience of unity at the basis of the mind achieved during the meditative state is the subjective experience of the very same fundamental unity of existence revealed by unified field theories.
Research on the Maharishi Effect
As evidence for this explanation, Hagelin points to the body of research supporting the positive effects created by Transcendental Meditation and the more advanced TM-Sidhi programTM-Sidhi program
The TM-Sidhi program is a form of meditation introduced by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1975. It is based on, and described as a natural extension of the Transcendental Meditation technique...
(which includes a practice called "Yogic Flying") which are said to have measurable effects on social trend parameters. This phenomenon is called the "Maharishi Effect". Hagelin cites numerous studies of such effects, and in the summer of 1993, he conducted a large scale study of the same type. Approximately 4,000 TM-Sidhi program practitioners gathered in Washington, D.C., where they practiced the TM-Sidhi techniques twice daily in a group for several weeks. Using data obtained from the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department for 1993 and the preceding five years (1988–1992), Hagelin and collaborators followed the changes in crime rates for the area before, during, and after the 6 weeks when the group was gathered in Washington, D.C. In 1999, the study, which controlled for effects of temperature changes and showed a highly statistically significant drop in crime, was published in Social Indicators Research. During the eight weeks of the study, the overall level of violent crime (homicides, rapes, and assaults) decreased by 23%, with rapes declining by 58%. Homicides averaged 10 a week during the study—the same as in the weeks preceding and following the study. For most of the eight weeks of the study the homicide rate declined, but gang fighting resulted in ten murders in a 36 hour period. Robert L. Park
Robert L. Park
Robert Lee Park , also known as Bob Park, is an emeritus professor of physics at the University of Maryland, College Park and a former Director of Public Information at the Washington office of the American Physical Society...
, research professor and former chair of the Physics Department at the University of Maryland and well known skeptic of paranormal claims, dismissed the study as a "clinic in data manipulation" and accused Hagelin and his team of scientific misconduct. Maxwell Rainforth, Assistant Professor of Physiology and Health and Statistics at Maharishi University of Management and a coauthor of the Washington, D.C. study, characterized Park's criticisms of the study as "superficial, highly polemical" and "willfully misleading".
Reception of Hagelin's connection of unified field of physics to the Maharishi Effect
Hagelin's interest in the connection between quantum physics and the Maharishi Effect has been discussed by both colleagues and critics. Hagelin was invited to be a plenary speaker at the 2007 Quantum Mind conference in SalzburgSalzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
, Austria, organized by Stuart Hameroff
Stuart Hameroff
Stuart Hameroff is an anesthesiologist and professor at the University of Arizona known for his scientific studies of consciousness.-Career:...
(University of Arizona) and Gustav Bernroider (University of Salzburg). Hagelin was a featured scientist in the popular movies, What the Bleep Do We Know!?
What the Bleep Do We Know!?
What the Bleep Do We Know!? is a 2004 film that combines documentary-style interviews, computer-animated graphics, and a narrative that describes the spiritual connection between quantum physics and consciousness...
, What the Bleep? Down the Rabbit Hole (2006) and The Secret, which renewed interest in the quantum mind
Quantum mind
The quantum mind or quantum consciousness hypothesis proposes that classical mechanics cannot explain consciousness, while quantum mechanical phenomena, such as quantum entanglement and superposition, may play an important part in the brain's function, and could form the basis of an explanation of...
paradigm. Science writer Simon Singh
Simon Singh
Simon Lehna Singh, MBE is a British author who has specialised in writing about mathematical and scientific topics in an accessible manner....
questioned the credibility and motives of the interviewees in the film, and advised against seeing What the Bleep Do We Know!? as it would leave viewers misinformed.
Both Woit and Anderson have commented critically on Hagelin's interest in and publications on consciousness research. Woit says identifying a unified field of consciousness with a unified field of superstring theory is wishful thinking. He also asserts that most physicists think Hagelin's views are nonsense. Anderson says Hagelin's investigations into how the extension of grand unified theories of physics to human consciousness could explain the way Transcendental Meditation is said to influence world events "disturbs many researchers" and "infuriates his former collaborators." Dallas Observer
Dallas Observer
The Dallas Observer is a free alternative weekly newspaper distributed around the Dallas, Texas . At its inception, it was conceived as a weekly local arts and cinema review publication, with the credo "Advocate for Excellence in the Arts" on the cover. For a time during the early years, the paper...
political reporter Jonathan Fox wrote that "Once considered a top scientist, Hagelin's former academic peers ostracized him after the candidate attempted to shoehorn Eastern metaphysical musings into the realm of quantum physics." According to Woit, Hagelin began connecting consciousness and the unified field in the late 1970s as a Ph.D. student at Harvard. Hagelin's collaborative work in particle physics continued until 1994. Anderson says that John Ellis
John Ellis (physicist)
Jonathan Richard Ellis FRS is a British theoretical physicist who is currently Clerk Maxwell Professor of Theoretical Physics at King's College London. After completing his secondary education at Highgate School, he attended Cambridge University, earning his Ph.D. in theoretical particle physics...
, director of CERN, was worried about guilt by association. Anderson quotes Ellis as saying "I was afraid that people might regard [Hagelin's assertions] as rather flaky, and that might rub off on the theory or on us."
Hagelin's linkage of quantum mechanics and unified field theory with consciousness was critiqued by University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
philosophy and sociology professors Evan Fales and Barry Markovsky in the journal Social Forces
Social Forces
Social Forces is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal of social science published by the University of North Carolina Press...
. They wrote that Hagelin's equating consciousness with the unified field relies on a similarity between quantum mechanical properties of fields and consciousness, and that his arguments rely on ambiguity and obscurity in characterizing these properties. They dismiss Hagelin's parallels between the Vedas and contemporary unified field theories as a reliance on ambiguity and vague analogy supported by constructing arbitrary similarities. David Orme-Johnson
David Orme-Johnson
David W. Orme-Johnson is a former professor of psychology at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa. He is the author of over 100 papers investigating the effects of the Transcendental Meditation technique....
and Robert Oates, retired colleagues of Hagelin from MUM, replied to this critique in the Journal of Scientific Exploration
Journal of Scientific Exploration
The Journal of Scientific Exploration is a quarterly scientific journal of fringe science published by the Society for Scientific Exploration that was established in 1987...
and said, in part, that Fales' and Markovsky's accusation of "vagueness" and "ambiguity" on Hagelin's part are in themselves vague and ambiguous and that there is no standard against which they can be evaluated.
Entrepreneur
In 1990, Hagelin founded Enlightened Audio Designs Corporation (EAD) with electronics engineer Alastair Roxburgh. As President and Director of Research of EAD, Hagelin designed and manufactured high-end digital-to-analog (D-to-A) converters that were critically acclaimed. In 1996, EAD was the first company in the world to develop and commercialize home theater surround-sound processors incorporating multi-channel digital surround-sound technologies, such as Dolby Digital and DTS. In 2001, EAD Corporation was sold to the Oregon-based company Alpha Digital Technologies.Natural Law Party
The Natural Law PartyNatural Law Party
The Natural Law Party was a transnational party based on the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It was active in up to 74 countries, and ran candidates in at least ten. Founded in 1992, it was mostly disbanded in 2004 but continues in India and in some U.S. states.The NLP viewed "natural law" as...
(NLP) was founded in 1992 in Fairfield, Iowa
Fairfield, Iowa
Fairfield is a city and the county seat of Jefferson County, Iowa, United States. The population was 9,464 in the 2010 census, a decline from 9,509 in the 2000 census. - History :...
by Hagelin and a group of 12 educators, scientists, business leaders, and other professionals who desired a more scientific approach to national administration that would promote field-tested solutions to the nation's problems. The party platform included preventive health care, sustainable agriculture and renewable energy technologies. During his campaigns, Hagelin favored abortion rights without public financing, campaign-finance law reform and improved gun control. He proposed a flat tax and no tax for families earning less than $34,000 a year. Hagelin also campaigned to eradicate PACs
Political action committee
In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...
and soft money campaign contributions and advocated safety locks on guns. He endorsed school vouchers and efforts to prevent war in the Middle East by reducing "people's tension".
The party chose Hagelin and Michael Tompkins
Mike Tompkins
Mike Tompkins is a U.S. politician who was the Natural Law Party vice presidential candidate during the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections.-Education and career:...
as its presidential and vice-presidential candidates in 1992 and 1996.
Hagelin ran for President again in the 2000 Presidential election, being nominated both by the NLP and by the Perot
Ross Perot
Henry Ross Perot is a U.S. businessman best known for running for President of the United States in 1992 and 1996. Perot founded Electronic Data Systems in 1962, sold the company to General Motors in 1984, and founded Perot Systems in 1988...
wing of the Reform Party, which disputed the nomination of Pat Buchanan
Pat Buchanan
Patrick Joseph "Pat" Buchanan is an American paleoconservative political commentator, author, syndicated columnist, politician and broadcaster. Buchanan was a senior adviser to American Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, and was an original host on CNN's Crossfire. He sought...
. Hagelin's running mate in the 2000 election was Nat Goldhaber
Nat Goldhaber
A. Nathaniel Goldhaber is an American venture capitalist, computer entrepreneur and politician. He was the 2000 U.S. Vice President candidate for the Natural Law Party.-Education:...
, an entrepreneur who, like Hagelin and Tompkins, was a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation.
A dispute over the Reform Party's nomination generated "legal action" between the Hagelin and Buchanan campaigns. In September 2000, the Federal Election Commission
Federal Election Commission
The Federal Election Commission is an independent regulatory agency that was founded in 1975 by the United States Congress to regulate the campaign finance legislation in the United States. It was created in a provision of the 1975 amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act...
ruled that Buchanan was the official candidate of the Reform Party, and hence, was eligible to receive federal election funds. As part of the ruling, the Reform Party convention that nominated Hagelin was declared invalid. In spite of the ruling, Hagelin remained on several state ballots as the Reform Party nominee, due to the independent nature of various state affiliates. He also was the national nominee of the Natural Law Party, and in New York was the Independence Party
Independence Party of New York
The Independence Party is an affiliate in the U.S. state of New York of the Independence Party of America. The party was founded in 1991 by Dr. Gordon Black, Tom Golisano, and Laureen Oliver from Rochester, New York, and acquired ballot status in 1994...
nominee.
During his 2000 campaign, Hagelin appeared on ABC's Nightline (2000) and Politically Incorrect
Politically Incorrect
Politically Incorrect is a late-night, half-hour political talk show hosted by Bill Maher that ran from 1993 to 2002. It premiered on Comedy Central from 1993 to 1997, and later on ABC in 1997, which cancelled it in 2002....
(2000), NBC's Meet the Press
Meet the Press
Meet the Press is a weekly American television news/interview program produced by NBC. It is the longest-running television series in American broadcasting history, despite bearing little resemblance to the original format of the program seen in its television debut on November 6, 1947. It has been...
(2000), CNN's Larry King Live
Larry King Live
Larry King Live is an American talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was CNN's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly....
, PBS's News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Inside Politics, CNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews
Hardball with Chris Matthews
Hardball with Chris Matthews is a talk show on MSNBC, broadcast weekdays at 5 and 7 PM hosted by Chris Matthews. It originally aired on now-defunct America's Talking and later CNBC. The current title was derived from a book Matthews wrote in 1988, Hardball: How Politics Is Played Told by One Who...
, and C-SPAN's Washington Journal
Washington Journal
Washington Journal is an American television series on the C-SPAN network in the format of a political call-in and interview program. The program features elected officials, government administrators and journalists as guests, answering questions from the hosts and from members of the general...
.
Hagelin's Presidential electoral results:
- 1992 - Ballot status in 32 states - 39,212 votes
- 1996 - Ballot status in 43 states - 113,659 votes
- 2000 - Ballot status in 39 states - 83,714 votes
In the middle of the 2000 campaign, Hagelin said that having the party's principles reach the "marketplace of ideas" and be co-opted by the Democrats and Republicans would be a victory.
In April 2004, the U.S. Natural Law Party officially disbanded its national organization, although a few state parties may still be active.
In the 2004 primary elections, Hagelin and the Natural Law Party endorsed Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich
Dennis Kucinich
Dennis John Kucinich is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1997. He was furthermore a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections....
.
In 2010, Hagelin married Kara Anastasio
Kara Anastasio
Kara Anastasio is an American politician who was the 2004 nominee of the Democratic party to challenge the re-election bid of Republican U.S. Rep. David L. Hobson. She lost. She had previously run as member of the Natural Law Party and was vice-chair of the Natural Law Party of Ohio.She was married...
, the former vice-chair of the Natural Law Party of Ohio.
Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy
Hagelin is the Director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy, a think tank at Maharishi University of Management. According to their website, he has met with members of Congress and officials at the Department of State, and the Department of Defense on the issue of terrorism.Hagelin helped to write a paragraph in Hillary Rodham Clinton's 10,000-page health proposal. He says that it was the only paragraph in the document that concerned health and preventive care.
In 1998, Hagelin gave testimony to the National Institutes of Health, DNA Advisory Committee on germ-line technologies, stating that recombinant DNA technology is inherently risky because of the high probability of unexpected side-effects.
Hagelin moderated a panel on stress at a June 3, 1999 Congressional Prevention Coalition caucus.
US Peace Government and Invincible America
Hagelin established the US Peace Government (USPG) on July 4, 2003, as an affiliate of the Global Country of World PeaceGlobal Country of World Peace
The Global Country of World Peace was declared by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder and guru of the Transcendental Meditation movement, on Vijayadashami , October 7, 2000. He described it as "a country without borders for peace loving people everywhere"...
. The US Peace Government and the Global Country of World Peace were created to promote evidence-based and sustainable solutions as well as policies of governance that are aligned with Natural Law. As president of the USPG, Hagelin presides over a national assembly of USPG state representatives or governors, who in turn preside over US Peace Government assemblies and capital buildings in their respective states. The USPG announced plans to build a national capital in Washington Township, Smith County, Kansas, near the geographic center of America
Geographic Center of the Contiguous United States
One of the locations claimed to be the Geographic Center of the Contiguous United States is pinpointed by a historical marker that is located within a small park near the town of Lebanon, Kansas. It is located at the intersection of AA Road and K-191, accessible by a turn-off from U.S...
. The offices for the U.S. Peace Government are located in Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa, and the office of the President was at The Jefferson hotel, Washington, D.C. in 2004.
Hagelin is the founder and International Director of the Global Union of Scientists for Peace, an international organization of prominent scientists opposed to nuclear proliferation and war.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi appointed Hagelin as the "Raja of Invincible America" on November 19, 2007. Hagelin organized the Invincible America Assembly in Fairfield, Iowa which began in July 2006. The assembly consists of a group of individuals practicing the Transcendental Meditation and the TM-Sidhi techniques in a group, twice daily. Hagelin stated in a press release announcing the project that "for the United States, with a population of just over 300 million, the required number of peace-creating experts is 1,730". According to the Global Good News website "on 28 November 2006, the United States achieved invincibility and is stabilizing the number of Yogic Flyers—rising from 1,600 to 1,730—assembled at the Invincible America Assembly in Fairfield, Iowa". In addition, Hagelin's Institute for Science Technology and Public Policy web site says that the Invincible America Assembly in Iowa "is rising quickly toward its target of 2,500".
In July, 2007, Hagelin predicted that when the number of assembly participants reached 2,500, which he said would happen within a year, America would have a major drop in crime, and see the virtual elimination of all major social and political woes in the United States. Hagelin said that the Assembly was responsible for the Dow Jones Industrial Average
Dow Jones Industrial Average
The Dow Jones Industrial Average , also called the Industrial Average, the Dow Jones, the Dow 30, or simply the Dow, is a stock market index, and one of several indices created by Wall Street Journal editor and Dow Jones & Company co-founder Charles Dow...
reaching a record high of 14,022 earlier that month, and predicted that the Dow would top 17,000 within a year.
Awards
In 1992, Hagelin was honored with a Kilby International AwardKilby International Awards
The Kilby International Awards was an award created by the High Tech Committee of the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce, in 1990 to boost interest in the area. It was named after inventor Jack Kilby...
which "recognizes scientists who have made major contributions to society through their applied research in the fields of science and technology". The award was given for his work in particle physics leading to the development of supersymmetric grand unified field theories, for his innovative applications of advanced principles from control systems theory and optimization theory to digital sound reproduction, and for his research on human consciousness
Consciousness
Consciousness is a term that refers to the relationship between the mind and the world with which it interacts. It has been defined as: subjectivity, awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind...
. Chris Anderson questioned the value of the award in an article about Hagelin published in Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
.
In 1994, Hagelin received the Ig Nobel Prize
Ig Nobel Prize
The Ig Nobel Prizes are an American parody of the Nobel Prizes and are given each year in early October for ten unusual or trivial achievements in scientific research. The stated aim of the prizes is to "first make people laugh, and then make them think"...
for Peace, an annual parody award presented at Harvard University which "honor[s] achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think". The Master of ceremony and award's founder Mark Abrahams called it the world's most "(un)coveted award for achievements that cannot or should not be reproduced" which are given to "honor the world's largely overlooked scientists and other contributors to modern culture, who bring smiles and guffaws to others, whether intentional or not." Hagelin received the prize for his "experimental conclusion that 4,000 trained meditators caused an 18 percent decrease in violent crime in Washington, D.C."
Further reading
- Hagelin, J.S. Manual for a Perfect Government: How to Harness the Laws of Nature to Bring Maximum Success to Governmental Administration. Maharishi University of Management Press, 1998.
- Freedman, David H: The new theory of everything. Discover, 1991, pp 54–61.
- Hagelin, J: Is consciousness the unified field? A field theorist's perspective. Modern Science and Vedic Science 1, 1987, pp 29–87.
- Hagelin, JS: Restructuring physics from its foundation in light of Maharishi's Vedic Science. Modern Science and Vedic Science 3, 1989, pp 3–72.