Subject: Natural Law Party (& stuff)
From: [email-masked] (Tim Antonsen)
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 1993 00:12:21 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.meditation.transcendental

Friends --

I've attached an edited [for brevity] selection of posts from a TM-related
thread in another newsgroup.  I'd have just cross-posted, but I can't from
my site.  I invite comments.  Warning: This is pretty lengthy, but fun
anyway.

The people involved have not been posting in a.m.t, so I've trimmed out
identifying information, and just left the names floating without addresses.

My comments are [bracketed] and edits are usually marked [ ... ] (though I
probably sliced out some lines and forgot to mark the deletion.

======================================================
Subject: Natural Law Party
From: Dan Mckinnon   [ A Canadian from, I think, Ontario. ]

   Just heard a plop at my apartment door. Upon investigating, found a
44 page! tabloid newsprint (11" X 15") flyer from the Natural Law Party,
with their platform, etc. The bio on Doug Henning  (candidate in my
riding of Rosedale) constantly refers to him as "Dr.". Upon reading, I
find that "Dr. Henning recieved his doctoral degree in the Science of
Creative Intelligence from Maharishi European Research University,
Switzerland."

    I will be looking at it later, if I can, - it tends to make one's eyes
glaze over. Henning talks of "my dear Canadians and my dear Canada".
"Our national life will be in harmony with Natural Law, and every
Canadian will enjoy peace, happiness, and prosperity" Later on - "The
Natural Law Party is the only party that has proven scientifically its
ability to fulfil this supreme aspiration  and create a government that
functions in accord with Natural Law, which is the will of God."
[ TM is religious? ]

    The thing is full of small print, and here is a part of what I found
when I looked up "The constitution of the universe" (as revealed by modern
science and acient vedic science):  [ hold onto yer hats! --TA ]

     "As with the structure of the Ved, the Lagrangian of the
superstring can be seen in various stages of unfoldment. The most
compact presentation of the string dynamics is provided by the
ten-dimensional formulation of the heterotic string (L<appears to be a
capital lambda-Dan.M.>^10<to the 10th power>). In addition to the purely
bosonic modes associated with the abstract space-time arena in which
the string moves, the mathematics reveals precisely eight fundamental
fermionic degrees of freedom intrinsic to the string itself  - the
unique solution allowed by mathematical and quantum-mechanical
consistency of the theory. These eight fundamental modes of the string
correspond, in Vedic terminology, to the eight Prakritis - the
fundamental qualities of the unified field of consciousness. As in the
structure of the Ved, these eight fundamental nodes admit three
interpretations corresponding to Rishi (Observer quality),
Devatat(dynamism quality), and Cchandas(observed quality), consistent
with the quantum-mechanical structure of the theory: (1) Each of the
fields ( capital Psi with superscript of i=1...8) above defines a
particular perspective in abstract Hilbert space(Rishi), i.e. their
eigenvectors form a basis in Hilbert space which can be used to expand
and interpret any other state. (2) Each of the fields(Psi^i=1...8) is an
operator (Devata) which creates and destroys specific states in Hilbert
space (3) each of the symbols (Psi ^i=1...8) also denotes a particular
vibrational mode or state (Cchandas) in Hilbert space, created or
destroyed by its corresponding operator. With these three
interpretations afforded by the qauantum principle, one obtains the
identical 3 X * = 24-fold structure corresponding to the first richa
(verse) of the Rik Ved."

[ Whew! See Oct. 22 post by Matt Austern (his second followup) for
  an interesting insight into the above ... ]

      Oh, here's something at the bottom of page 8:

      MAXIMUM COHERENCE IN BRAIN FUNCTIONING DURING YOGIC FLYING

       Has a picture of three fliers in mid hop, chart of heart rate  &
EEG showing that there is a peak at the moment of "lift", and some more
bafflegab  underneath such as "Yogic flying demonstrates perfect
mind-body coordination and is correlated with maximum EEG coherence,
indicating maximum orderliness and integration of brain functioning."
Now, get this, in next sentence : " Even in the first stage of Yogic
flying, when the body lifts in a series of short hops, this practice
produces bubbling bliss for the individual and generates choherence,
positivity, and harmony for the environment."

       On opposite page is a photo of a crowd with White House in far
background, captioned "National Demonstration Project for A Group for A
GOvernment - when 4,000 Yogic flyers gathered in Washington, D.C. during
June-July 1993, violent crime decreased by 25 percent below predicted
levels and U.S. governmental achievements improved."

      In section under health care are charts showing reduction of
cholesterol, optimization of brain function, lower blood pressure,
increased intelligence, and improved health through Maharishi Ayur-Ved.

      Under defence: INVINCIBILITY FOR CANADA

      There is a picture of a bar magnet and field lines under MEISSNER
EFFECT, and comparison of ordinary conductor & superconductor. Then a
drawing of Canada protected by the "Maharishi Effect Creating an
invisible armour for the nation"

       Well, there's more about the many areas of government, & a lot
more about "physics", too. I'd say there is text equivalent to over a 100
page paperback in here.

[ ... ]

        dan.mckinnon
======================================================
From: Matt Austern
Subject: Re: Natural Law Party
Date: 21 Oct 1993 00:09:15 GMT

[ ... ]

The funniest thing about the Natural Law Party, you see, is that its
latest Presidential candidate, John Hagelin, is a completely
respectable particle physicist.  His papers on string theory may
well be wrong (that's a danger that every scientist faces when writing
about a speculative subject), but they are by no means nonsense.

Of course, the attempts to link string theory to Transcendental
Meditation are quite another matter...  One of my professors here has
a hysterical poster put out by the Maharishi: on one side is the full
Lagrangian for N=8 supergravity written out [by Dr. Hagelin, of course]
in full, gory detail, and on the other side was a term-by-term
explanation of its spiritual significance.  This particular kinetic
energy term represents universal bliss, this other interaction term 
represents immortality of the soul, and so on.

[ ... from a followup post ... ]

And, unlike most particle theorists (and most Presidential
candidates), he says that he can levitate.  Ask yourself that, the
next time you read some calculation of a two-loop Feynman diagram: is
the author able to levitate?  If not, why should you believe the
results?
--
Matthew Austern                       Maybe we can eventually make language a
                                      complete impediment to understanding.
======================================================

From: F.M. Steinkamp 
Subject: Re: Natural Law Party
Date: 21 Oct 1993 17:16:30 +0100

  In the last General Election in the UK the Natural Law Party did
  quite a big campaign (I don't think many people - if any - had
  heard of them before).  It sounds as if the stuff we had through our
  letterboxes was pretty much the same as yours.  There was also a
  Party Political Broadcast on the TV in which you saw them doing
  the Yogic flying and due to the novelty value it even got a slot
  on the news.

  A friend of mine said she found their tactics quite frightening - to
  her it seemed that a lot of money had suddenly appeared from nowhere
  and the sudden intrusion into her home of their literature and their
  appearance on TV when she'd never heard of them before she found quite
  daunting.  I'm not entirely sure whether it was the tactics she found
  frightening (as she claimed) or the ideas (or both).

  I assume these tactics must have had some success in at least recruiting
  members for them to be (I assume) repeating them in the USA - or have
  you heard of them before?

  Any comments, anybody?

  Fiona.
======================================================

From: Tim Antonsen
Subject: Re: Natural Law Party
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1993 18:26:13 GMT

Ethan T. Vishniac ([email-masked]) wrote:
: I think the Natural Law Party is an American invention.  That is,
: the Mahareshi lives here and Mahareshi Internation University is located
: somewhere in the American Midwest.  They ran a candidate in the last

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi lives in Switzerland, last I heard.  His main US
facility is Maharishi International University, at Fairfield, IA.  

[ Am I right about his current whereabouts? --TA ]

: I am intrigued by the notion that they represent an attempt to export
: America's most flourishing industry, organized insanity.
Actually, TM was imported.  For whatever that's worth.

--Tim
======================================================

Subject: Re: Natural Law Party
From: Dan Mckinnon
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 93 16:05:00 -0400

[ ... ]

The "Langrangian of the Unified Field" takes up 25 lines of formula, then
there is a double column with lines drawn from "qualities" to quotations
from Vedic literature.

  What they may have added is the same thing but with a third column
containing "Examples of Ministries of Governments", and criss-crossing
lines drawn to the "qualities" and "derivation" For example, DEFENCE
connects to FREEDOM, OMNIPOTENCE, INFINITE DYNAMISM, INVINCIBILITY, and
I think a few others - there are so many lines, I can't easily tell
where they all lead!

   There was a copy in every issue of the TORONTO SUN today, too!
The Sun had a small article on the party, here are some excerpts:

  Patrick Ryan, a founder of a group for former TM members, called TM-EX
says there _is_ a direct  connection between TM and the party.

  Neil Paterson head of the party, says his Ph.D. in "The Science of
Creative Thought" is from the Mahareshi Eurpopean University" which he
admits isn't recognized by the Swiss government.  Ryan says it is a
TM-owned hotel!
[ actually, MERU is just a couple of desks in the hotel. --TA ]

  Ryan:  "Several studies, including one by the U.S. government, have
shown that TM is no more effective at relieving stress than sitting
quietly with your eyes closed."

    dan.mckinnon
======================================================
From: [email-masked] (Tim Antonsen)
Subject: Re: Natural Law Party
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 1993 20:34:58 GMT

Ethan T. Vishniac ([email-masked]) wrote:
:                    Does anyone know what the relative numbers of TM
: followers are in the US and other countries?  

I don't know who--besides the TM Movement--would keep such data; moreover, I
don't know who--outside the TM Movement--would trust the Movement's data.

In my experience with the Movement, I think the number they use for a
country is the total number of people who have ever started to practice
TM in that country.  There is a probably-large (but as far as I know,
undetermined) rate of attrition in people who learn TM.  So I'd work with a
formula something like this:
       (Movement-provided number) * (.1) = (Reasonable approximation)
 
 -- Tim
======================================================

From: Matt Austern
Subject: Re: Natural Law Party
Date: 22 Oct 1993 00:48:51 GMT

[ ... ] 
This pamphlet, you see, was drawn up when people thought that N=8
supergravity (SUGRA) was a reasonable candidate for a unified quantum
theory of all gauge forces, including gravity.  Nowadays, though, it
is known that there are some technical difficulties with N=8
supergravity, and the theorists who like to work on this speculative
sort of level have instead turned their attention to strings.

That, you see, is the danger of drawing too many connections between
modern science and whatever religion you happen to adhere to.  It may
seem a good idea at first, when new discoveries "confirm" the beliefs
you've always had, but then what do you do when still newer
discoveries disprove the first ones?  What sort of timeless truth is
it, if it can always be overturned in the next issue of Phys. Rev.
Letters?
--
Matthew Austern                       Maybe we can eventually make language a
                                      complete impediment to understanding.

======================================================
From: Kelly Bert Manning
Subject: Re: Natural Law Party
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 1993 06:03:16 GMT

In a previous article, F.M. Steinkamp Philosophy says:
>  Party Political Broadcast on the TV in which you saw them doing
>  the Yogic flying and due to the novelty value it even got a slot
>  on the news.
They've also got shots of their small corps of matress hoppers in
the new here in Canada, but they have much bigger plans to pay TMers
with tax money as "senior Civil Servants" at $70K to $80K/year to
devote all of their time and energy to "yogic flying". They want to
spend over half a billion of tax money to get a corps of 7,000 mattress
humpers off the ground, so to speak. Apparently this number was derived
by taking the square root of 1% of the worlds population

>  A friend of mine said she found their tactics quite frightening - to
>  her it seemed that a lot of money had suddenly appeared from nowhere
>  and the sudden intrusion into her home of their literature and their
>  appearance on TV when she'd never heard of them before she found quite
>  daunting.  I'm not entirely sure whether it was the tactics she found
>  frightening (as she claimed) or the ideas (or both).

I'm more frightened by their policies. They have big plans to reduce the
deficit by slashing spending on health, since "it is scientifically"
that meditation can cut disease by 50%, and keeping dangerous criminals
in jail, since meditation will turn them around into "creative" and
productive members of society. Sounds like they plan to make TM mandatory
in prisons and the health care system if they ever got in.
======================================================

From: Robert Broughton
Subject: Re: Natural Law Party
Date: 25 Oct 93 03:50:42 GMT

> Kelly Bert Manning writes:
>
> I'm more frightened by their policies. They have big plans to reduce the
> deficit by slashing spending on health, since "it is scientifically"
> that meditation can cut disease by 50%, and keeping dangerous criminals
> in jail, since meditation will turn them around into "creative" and
> productive members of society. Sounds like they plan to make TM mandatory
> in prisons and the health care system if they ever got in.

Their solution to poverty is to teach poor people TM. For this, I nominate
them for this year's Marie Antonette Award. :-(

Robert Broughton

"We calm and reassure. We embrace people with the message that we're
all in it together. That our leaders are infallible and that there is
nothing, absolutely nothing wrong." - Miles Drentell, _thirtysomething_

======================================================

From: Grant Edwards
Subject: Re: Natural Law Party
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1993 17:59:17 GMT

Ethan T. Vishniac ([email-masked]) wrote:
: I think the Natural Law Party is an American invention.  That is,
: the Mahareshi lives here and Mahareshi Internation University is
: located somewhere in the American Midwest.

MIU is in Fairfield, Iowa.  We Iowans are _real_ proud of it (yea,
right).  There was a private college there that was closing, and they
bought the place and opened MIU.  Last I heard, they aren't well liked
by the locals.  Dislike between "townies" and campus types isn't
unusual, but the with MIU it sounds much worse.

I've always wondered if MIU is actually accreditted in any fields.  I'll
have to look into that.

--
Grant Edwards
======================================================

From: Tim Antonsen
Subject: Re: Natural Law Party
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1993 19:44:00 GMT

Grant Edwards ([email-masked]) wrote:
: MIU is in Fairfield, Iowa.  We Iowans are _real_ proud of it (yea,
: right).  There was a private college there that was closing, and they
: bought the place and opened MIU.  Last I heard, they aren't well liked
: by the locals.  Dislike between "townies" and campus types isn't
: unusual, but the with MIU it sounds much worse.
During the summer I was at MIU (wait, don't bash me, it was over a
decade back), I saw a good deal of friction between the TM crowd
and the townspeople.  The local newspaper regularly runs critical 
editorials, and the letters to the editor are frequently less than
complimentary.

The campus facilities are degenerating badly (as of 1990, I had a
friend recently come away from there), as the money taken in by the
University (and the Movement in general) is shipped by the carload
back to India.

Much of the low-level work (building maintenance, groundskeeping, even
accounting) is done by people on their "volunteer" program.  This
program provides people with room and board (substandard), 40+ hrs.
of work per week, mandatory meditation sessions, a token stipend,
and--primarily--"credits" toward classes in TM's advanced techniques
(the levitation business).

: I've always wondered if MIU is actually accredited in any fields.  I'll
: have to look into that.
Unfortunately, MIU is accredited by the regional accreditation board.
My friend was aware of many problems in this area, and wrote to that
board, requesting review. Their response was a less-than-encouraging
"we'll give all due attention" sort of bureaucratese.

Among the problems was MIU's "puffing" up their library to an
acceptable size and quality by counting (including) volumes in MIU
professors' personal libraries.  There were other questionable
practices as well.

One of the cutest:  MIU literature boasts that they have state of the
art facilities for psychophysiological experimentation, including a
SQID (sp?).  They do have a SQID (an extremely sensitive, very expensive,
and very rare piece of equipment that measures infinitesimally faint
electrical activity in the brain), which is the reason my friend went
there for graduate work.  Upon arrival, my friend was informed that
no one there had ever even turned it on; nobody was qualified to
operate the thing.  This magnificient piece of equipment had been donated
by a wealthy alumnus, and left to rot.  And to lend MIU an unwarranted
aura of legitimacy.

--Tim