John Hagelin Returns to Washington
To Support Proposal for Permanent World Peace

John Hagelin, Ph.D., the Natural Law Party presidential candidate in 2000, returned to Washington last Friday for the first time since the election to lend his support to a peace plan proposed by Transcendental Meditation founder Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Hagelin spoke at an international news conference announcing the proposal on Friday, September 28, at the National Press Club. The proposal calls for establishing one group of 40,000 experts in stress-reducing advanced Transcendental Meditation techniques in India to “dramatically reduce acute ethnic and religious tensions which underlie terrorism and fuel the current global crisis.” Hagelin chaired the news conference and outlined the theory and research supporting this field-tested, peaceful solution to the problem of terrorism and violence.

Hagelin, a Harvard-trained quantum physicist, had taken a sabbatical from politics to pursue fundamental research into physics and consciousness. But he said the terrible attacks in Washington and New York, and the “very real threat that there could be more attacks—and even worse,” moved him to return to Washington for this conference.

“On the campaign trail I spoke often of Maharishi’s programs to avert war and promote peace through group meditation practices, but few people listened,” Hagelin said. “I think most Americans were convinced that our great military might would save the country from any attack. Now, suddenly, the times have changed. We realize more clearly than ever before that offensive means of defense provide no defense at all. America has a choice now: Do we wage war against an invisible enemy and risk moving the world to the brink of a devastating war? Or do we first try waging peace by eliminating the root cause of all terrorism and violence through time-tested, scientifically proven technologies of peace?”

The Proposal

Maharishi spoke live via satellite from Holland to a packed audience at the National Press Club, with many thousands more connected by teleconference, live webcast, and satellite television.

Maharishi proposed the establishment in India of a group of 40,000 experts trained in proven Vedic technologies of defense, including Transcendental Meditation and related techniques, to neutralize the acute tensions and fears gripping the world today. These experts would generate an indomitable influence of peace and positivity in world consciousness, which will eliminate the enmity and hostility of people everywhere, including terrorists.

“We have the solution to the age-old problem of crime and negativity,” Maharishi said. “Crime has been coming up in every generation, and every government has implemented punishments; but crime and punishment continue.

“Now we want to take recourse to that intelligence of Natural Law which in our scientific age is being realized as the most fundamental level of everyone’s awareness, and thereby all our thoughts and actions will be fully in accordance with the evolutionary direction of Natural Law.”

Maharishi called for the creation of a World Peace Endowment Fund of $1 billion to sustain the 40,000 professional “peace-creators” on a permanent basis. The interest from the fund would pay for housing facilities and living costs at about $200 per expert per month. Maharishi urged government leaders and the most prominent and successful individuals of America to support the implementation of this proven, preventive approach and avert the imminent threat of war.

Maharishi said it was “insane” to pursue a military course of action to root out terrorism. “I am convinced by now that this President is not an educated man—he doesn’t know science. Who is this man who can say, ‘I can stop crime’? He is following the same outmoded system of crime and punishment that has failed to stop crime—that has perpetuated crime—generation after generation.”

“The value of science and technology is to prevent all the mistakes that past generations have been committing,” he said. “Prevention is the answer. Vedic performances can create a very strong level of harmony and integrity in all the countries, and that is the only way the tradition of culprits can be stopped. When these 40,000 people will generate coherence in world consciousness, then that coherent world consciousness will not allow negative tendencies to sprout. It is possible to create very strong coherence in the world, and this I am going to do.”

Hagelin Presents Scientific Validation

Hagelin said Maharishi’s approach has been rigorously tested and scientifically shown, in extensive published research, to prevent violence and terrorism—and even to stop open warfare in war-torn areas, such as the Middle East. The dramatic results have appeared in leading scientific journals, such as Yale’s Journal of Conflict Resolution and Social Indicators Research.

“These technologies of consciousness diffuse social stress and negativity and generate positive waves of harmony and unity in the collective consciousness of the world,” he said. “They access and stimulate the most powerful level of mind and matter, identified by modern science as the Unified Field, the fundamental level of nature’s intelligence that connects us all. We now have available a technology of peace, a truly defensive technology that attacks the problems of violence and negativity at their source.”

Responding to a question about the World Peace Endowment Fund, Hagelin commented, “One billion dollars sounds like a lot, and philanthropically it is. But in the big picture, it’s less than the price of one B-2 bomber—about what the Defense Department spends in one day.”

Hagelin said that a few families in the U.S. and Europe have already contributed $40 million to begin the training of Vedic experts in India, and facilities to house 16,000 experts will be completed in the next few months.

Military Expert in Anti-Terrorism Offers Support

Major General Kulwant Singh, a highly decorated, 35-year military veteran in India and an expert in anti-terrorism, also spoke at the news conference via telephone from India.

“Today the world is looking for a solution to violence and terrorism,” he said. “But bombs will never bring peace. Violence begets violence. I can speak this with the conviction of 35 years experience of fighting terrorism. If you want to bring peace, you must reduce the cause of violence, and that is stress in society.”

“A military response is no response at all,” Singh concluded, “because it does not get at the root cause of terrorism. Terrorism is a human problem, and it requires a human solution. Any retaliation will only make the terrorists harder. We cannot kill terrorism by any means other than prevention.”

Philanthropist Appeals to America’s Wealthy

Philanthropist Jeffrey Abramson, who with his wife Rona has made major contributions to Maharishi’s World Peace Endowment fund, urged America’s business leaders to act.

Recalling his father’s guarantee of the loan that began the building of the U.S. Holocaust Museum, he said, “This is not the time to be passive. It would be naïve to do nothing but the status quo. Terrorism still spreads because we have not used a scientific approach. And if we do not implement this peace proposal, then we will continue to build more memorials.

“Give mankind the greatest gift,” Abramson said. “Give the most far-reaching gift that will reach into every heart and mind—the gift of lasting peace, once and for all.”