John Hagelin

John Hagelin
Born John Samuel Hagelin
(1954-06-09) June 9, 1954
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Residence Fairfield, Iowa
Education Ph.D. Harvard University, 1981
Alma mater Dartmouth College, Harvard University
Occupation Professor
Employer Maharishi University of Management, US Peace Government
Known for Three-time candidate for U.S. President, physicist, and administrator
Title Raja of Invincible America, president of the US Peace Government, and others
Political party Natural Law Party
Spouse(s) Kara Anastasio (2010)[1]
Awards Kilby, Ig Nobel
Website http://www.hagelin.org

John Samuel Hagelin (born June 9, 1954) is an American particle physicist, three-time candidate of the Natural Law Party for President of the United States (1992, 1996, and 2000), and director of the Transcendental Meditation movement for the United States.[2]

As a researcher at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) (1981–1982) and the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) (1982–1983), Hagelin made contributions to the development of unified field theory. He is now president of Maharishi University of Management (MUM).[3] Hagelin believes that his extended version of unified field theory is identified with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's "unified field of consciousness", a view that is rejected by "virtually every theoretical physicist in the world".[4]

Non-academic positions Hagelin holds include an appointment by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as raja of Invincible America, president of the David Lynch Foundation and honorary chairman of the Board of Trustees of Maharishi University of Management.[5][6]

Personal life

Hagelin was born June 9, 1954, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Mary Lee (Stephenson), a school teacher, and Carl William Hagelin, a businessman.[7][8][9] He won a scholarship to Taft School for boys, and while a student there he was involved in a motorcycle crash that led to hospitalization and a full body cast. During this time he was introduced to quantum mechanics and the Transcendental Meditation technique (TM), both of which had a major impact on his life.[10][11]

Hagelin attended Dartmouth College; after his freshman year, a continued interest in Transcendental Meditation led him to Vittel, France, where he became a teacher of the TM technique.[10][12]

Previously divorced,[13][14] Hagelin married Kara Anastasio, the former vice-chair of the Natural Law Party of Ohio, in 2010. The couple live in Fairfield, Iowa.[15][16]

Career

Hagelin completed an undergraduate degree in physics with highest honors (summa cum laude) from Dartmouth. He studied physics at Harvard under Howard Georgi, earning a master's degree in 1976 and a Ph.D. in 1981.[10][12] By the time Hagelin had received his Ph.D. from Harvard, he had published "several serious papers" on particle theory.[17] In 1981, Hagelin became a postdoctoral researcher at the European Center for Particle Physics (CERN) in Switzerland, and in 1982 he moved to the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC).[10]

In 1983 he left the SLAC reportedly due to personal problems.[18][19] A year later in 1984 he joined Maharishi International University (MIU) as chairman of its physics department, where he continued his research.[18][19] Hagelin collaborators Dmitri Nanopolous and John Ellis were uncomfortable with Hagelin's move from Stanford to MIU but continued to work with him.[20] While at MIU, he received funding from the National Science Foundation.[10]

Hagelin is now president of Maharishi University of Management (formerly MIU).[21] He was also to be the president of Maharishi Central University, which was under construction in Smith Center, Kansas 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.[22]

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.[17] In the years 1979–96, Hagelin published more than 70 papers about particle physics, electroweak unification, grand unification, supersymmetry and cosmology, most of them in academic scientific journals.[17] His work on the "flipped SU(5), heterotic superstring theory," is considered one of the more successful unified field theories or "theories of everything"[23] and was once highlighted in a cover story in Discover magazine.[24]

Hagelin co-authored a 1983 paper entitled "Weak symmetry breaking by radiative corrections in broken supergravity,"[25] which is included in a list of the 103 most-cited articles in the physical sciences in 1983 and 1984.[26] By 2007, "Supersymmetric relics from the big bang," a study Hagelin published in 1984, had been cited more than 500 times.[27] In a 2012 interview in Science Watch, coauthor Keith Olive said that the work he had done on this 1984 study was among that which had given him the greatest sense of accomplishment.[28]

Hagelin believes that his extended version of unified field theory is identified with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's "unified field of consciousness", a view that is rejected by "virtually every theoretical physicist in the world".[4] Science writer Chris Anderson, Dallas Observer political reporter Jonathan Fox and physicist Peter Woit have written critically about Hagelin's views and publications in this area.[17][19][23]

In a 1992 news article for Nature about Hagelin's first presidential campaign, Anderson wrote that Hagelin, was "by all accounts a gifted researcher well known and respected by his colleagues" but that his effort to link grand unified theories of physics to Transcendental Meditation "infuriates his former collaborators."[23] He cited physicist John Ellis' fear that "people might regard [Hagelin's assertions] as rather flaky, and that might rub off on the theory or on us."[23] Fox observed that, while "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."[19] In his book, Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and The Search for Unity In Physical Law, Woit acknowledged that Hagelin had published papers in prestigious journals that would eventually be cited in over a hundred other papers, but that identification of a unified field of consciousness with a unified field of superstring theory was wishful thinking and that other physicists thought Hagelin's views on this topic were nonsense.[17]

Hagelin's linkage of quantum mechanics and unified field theory with consciousness was also critiqued by University of Iowa philosophy and sociology professors Evan Fales and Barry Markovsky in 1997, in the journal Social Forces. They wrote that the connection relied on similarity between properties of quantum mechanical fields and consciousness, but that the parallels Hagelin highlighted between unified field theories and the Vedas rested on ambiguity, obscurity and vague analogy supported by the construction of arbitrary similarities.[29]

Hagelin was featured in the movies What the Bleep Do We Know!?,[30] and The Secret.[31] What the Bleep Do We Know? was described by Michael Shermer, writing in Scientific American, as being filled with "New Age scientists whose jargon-laden sound bites amount to little more than what California Institute of Technology physicist and Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann once described as 'quantum flapdoodle.'"[32]

Maharishi Effect

In the summer of 1993, Hagelin directed a project aimed at demonstrating a force that TM practitioners call the Maharishi Effect; critics deny it exists.[18] Approximately 4,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C. As a group, they practiced TM-Sidhi techniques twice daily for several weeks. Using data obtained from the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department for 1993 and the preceding five years (1988–92), Hagelin and collaborators followed the changes in crime rates for the area – before, during and after the six weeks of the gathering.[33] Hagelin said that while the number of murders had increased, the number of brutal murders had decreased.[34] According to Hagelin the analysis was examined by an "independent review board", though all members of the board were TM practitioners.[35] Robert L. Park, research professor and former chair of the Physics Department at the University of Maryland, called the study a "clinic in data distortion".[35]

In 1994 a science satire magazine, Annals of Improbable Research, "awarded" Hagelin the Ig Nobel Prize for Peace, for the 1993 project.[36]

Politics, public policy and government

Natural Law Party

The Natural Law Party (NLP) was founded in 1992 by Hagelin and 12 others who felt that governmental problems could be solved more effectively by following "Natural Laws."[13][37] 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 with no tax for families earning less than $34,000 a year.[38] 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."[39] In a letter to presidential candidate Bill Clinton, Hagelin accepted Clinton's offer to debate "any serious candidate" and informed Clinton and Bush that the "Natural Law Party does not participate in negative campaigning."[40]

The party chose Hagelin and Mike Tompkins as its presidential and vice-presidential candidates in 1992 and 1996.[40] In 1996, Hagelin was on the ballot in 44 states as a presidential candidate.[41] Hagelin ran for president again in the 2000 Presidential election, nominated both by the NLP and by the Perot wing of the Reform Party, which disputed the nomination of Pat Buchanan.[42] Hagelin's running mate in the 2000 election was Nat Goldhaber.[43] 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 eligible to receive federal election funds.[38][43] As part of the ruling, the Reform Party convention that nominated Hagelin was declared invalid.[44] In spite of the ruling, Hagelin remained on several state ballots as the Reform Party nominee because of the independent nature of some state affiliates. He was also the national nominee of the Natural Law Party, and in New York was the Independence Party nominee.[43] During his campaigns, Hagelin appeared on ABC's Nightline (2000),[45] Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher,[46] NBC's Meet the Press,[47] CNN's Larry King Live,[48] the PBS NewsHour,[49] Inside Politics[50] and C-SPAN's Washington Journal.[50][51] In the middle of the 2000 campaign, Hagelin said that if his party's principles reached the "marketplace of ideas" and were co-opted by the Democrats and Republicans, it would be a victory.[14] During the 2004 primary elections, Hagelin and the Natural Law Party endorsed Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich[52][53] and dissolved the NLP as a national organization.[54] As a presidential candidate, Hagelin received 39,212 votes from 32 states in 1992,[55] 113,659 votes from 43 states in 1996[55] and 83,714 votes from 39 states in 2000.[56]

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.[57][58] According to the institute's website, he has met with members of Congress and officials at the Department of State and the Department of Defense about terrorism.[59][60] Hagelin helped draft a paragraph in Hillary Rodham Clinton's 10,000-page health proposal. According to Hagelin it was the only paragraph in the document that addressed preventive health care.[14]

In 1998, Hagelin testified about germ line technologies before the DNA Advisory Committee of National Institutes of Health, saying that "recombinant DNA technology is inherently risky because of the high probability of unexpected side-effects."[61][62] Hagelin moderated a panel on stress at a June 3, 1999, Congressional Prevention Coalition caucus.[6][51][63][64][65]

Other organizations

Hagelin established the US Peace Government (USPG) on July 4, 2003,[66] as an affiliate of the Global Country of World Peace. According to USPG's website, the US Peace Government and the Global Country of World Peace were created to promote evidence-based, sustainable problem-solving and governance policies that align with Natural Law.[66] As president of USPG,[66] Hagelin presides over a national assembly of USPG state representatives or governors, who in turn preside over US Peace Government assemblies and capitals in their respective states.[66] USPG announced plans to build a national capital in Washington Township, Smith County, Kansas, near the geographic center of America's contiguous states.[67] The offices for the U.S. Peace Government are located in Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa;[68] in 2004 the office of the President was at The Jefferson Hotel in Washington, D.C.[69]

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi appointed Hagelin the "Raja of Invincible America" on November 19, 2007. As Raja, Hagelin organized the Invincible America Assembly in Fairfield, Iowa, in July 2006. The assembly comprises individuals practicing Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi techniques twice daily. In a press release, Hagelin predicted that as the group's size increased "towards 3500, the world press will have more and more good news to report from America."[70] Hagelin and his Institute for Science Technology and Public Policy website predicted that when the number of assembly participants reached 2,500, America would have a major drop in crime and a major reduction in social and political woes.[71] In July 2007,[72] 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.[72][73]

Hagelin is also president of the Global Union of Scientists for Peace, an organization of scientists opposed to nuclear proliferation and war.[74][75]

Enlightened Audio Designs Corporation

In 1990, Hagelin founded Enlightened Audio Designs Corporation (EAD) with electronics engineer Alastair Roxburgh.[76] As President and Director of Research for EAD, Hagelin designed and manufactured high-end digital-to-analog (D-to-A) converters, which were critically acclaimed.[77] In 1995, 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.[76] In 2001, EAD Corporation was sold to the Oregon-based company, Alpha Digital Technologies.[76][78]

Kilby award

In 1992, Hagelin received a Kilby International Award from the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce. He was nominated by a fellow TM practitioner who served on the Kilby selection committee.[23][79] The award honored his work in particle physics leading to the development of supersymmetric grand unified field theories.[80] Chris Anderson, in his 1992 Nature article about Hagelin's first presidential campaign, questioned the value of the award.[23]

Books and articles

References

  1. ↑ Source 2010, p. F4.
  2. ↑ Woo 2012.
  3. ↑ Hallman, Andy (June 20, 2016). "Lynch addresses M.U.M. graduates". The Fairfield Ledger. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
  4. 1 2 Woit 2006, p. 206.
  5. ↑ DLF directors 2012.
  6. 1 2 MUM trustees 2012.
  7. ↑ Hagelin release 2012.
  8. ↑ https://www.gwu.edu/~action/hage.html
  9. ↑ http://darrel-betty-hagberg.com/genealogy/mclaughlin/d0002/g0000026.html#I1002
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 Dickie 1992, pp. 10–13.
  11. ↑ Poltilove 2000.
  12. 1 2 Hagelin site 2012.
  13. 1 2 PBS Hagelin 2000.
  14. 1 2 3 Janofsky/Times 2000.
  15. ↑ Jones 2001, p. Z.4.1.
  16. ↑ Marriage 2010, p. F4.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 Woit 2006, pp. 205–206.
  18. 1 2 3 Park 2000, p. 29.
  19. 1 2 3 4 Fox 2005.
  20. ↑ Freeman 1991.
  21. ↑ MUM Hagelin 2012.
  22. ↑ Draper 2008.
  23. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Anderson 1992, p. 97.
  24. ↑ Freedman, David, "The new theory of everything", August, 1991, Discover. pp. 54–61.
  25. ↑ Hagelin-Nanopolous 1983, pp. 275–281.
  26. ↑ Cited papers 1985.
  27. ↑ Ellis et al. 1984, pp. 453–476.
  28. ↑ Taubes 2012.
  29. ↑ Fales & Markovsky 1997, pp. 511–525.
  30. ↑ Boggle 2005.
  31. ↑ Secret cast 2011.
  32. ↑ Shermer 2005, p. 234.
  33. ↑ Webcite 2011.
  34. ↑ Park 2000, p. 30.
  35. 1 2 Park 2000.
  36. ↑ Ig Noble 2012.
  37. ↑ Roth 1998, p. 285.
  38. 1 2 ABC profile 2000.
  39. ↑ Daily News debate 1992, pp. 1,3.
  40. 1 2 Farley & McKissack 1996, p. 70.
  41. ↑ Schmitt 1996.
  42. ↑ Corrado et al. 2005, p. 194.
  43. 1 2 3 Herrnson & Green 2002, p. 111.
  44. ↑ Hagelin and Reform Party 2000, p. 10.
  45. ↑ Hagelin Nightline 2000.
  46. ↑ Maher 2000.
  47. ↑ Meet the Press 2000.
  48. ↑ Larry King 1992.
  49. ↑ PBS NewsHour 2000.
  50. 1 2 Star Tribune 1996.
  51. 1 2 On the issues 2000.
  52. ↑ Lee/Times 2003, p. A21.
  53. ↑ Byksofsky 2004, p. 30.
  54. ↑ Reason to vote 2012.
  55. 1 2 Profile 1994.
  56. ↑ Commission 2001.
  57. ↑ Hagelin site 2011.
  58. ↑ OurCampaigns 2011.
  59. ↑ Bio 2012.
  60. ↑ Strategy 2001.
  61. ↑ DNA 1998, pp. 15–16.
  62. ↑ enews 1998.
  63. ↑ DLF bios 2011.
  64. ↑ Coalition 2012.
  65. ↑ Hardin 1998.
  66. 1 2 3 4 USPG 2011.
  67. ↑ USPG Structure 2011.
  68. ↑ contact 2011.
  69. ↑ Pandit 2004.
  70. ↑ Fly 2007.
  71. ↑ Invincible 2008.
  72. 1 2 Rascoe 2007.
  73. ↑ Litterick 2007.
  74. ↑ "Global Union of Scientists for Peace".
  75. ↑ "GUSP Directors".
  76. 1 2 3 Soo 2005.
  77. ↑ Audio 1998.
  78. ↑ TriCell 2012.
  79. ↑ Lewis, edited by Jim R.; Hammer, Olav (2010). Handbook of religion and the authority of science. Leiden: Brill. pp. 361, 362. ISBN 9789004187917.
  80. ↑ Kilby 2011.

Bibliography

Books

Journals

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Magazines

Broadcast media

Online sources

Further reading

Party political offices
Preceded by
None		 Natural Law Party presidential candidate
1992, 1996, 2000 		Succeeded by
No one (Party dissolved)
Dennis Kucinich (endorsement)
Walt Brown (California only)
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