Natural Law Party Sings Praises Of Meditation
For 5 cents per citizen per day, group meditation can eliminate crime in a given city within five years, says Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation.
That’s one concept supported in the platform of the Natural Law Party, founded four years ago at the Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa. No city has yet accepted the plan.
“It’s a good example of government ignoring things that work,” says Michael Huddleston, party chairman in Washington state.
But the Natural Law Party is making headway.
This year, 16 Natural Law Party candidates qualified for the Nov. 5 general-election ballot in Washington. Nationally, nearly 1,000 party candidates are on ballots.
If any of the party’s four candidates for Washington statewide offices collects 5 percent of the vote next month, Natural Law will qualify under state law as a major party, like the Democratic and Republican parties.
The party has come a long way since 12 people gathered here in 1992 to help put its presidential candidate - John Hagelin, who teaches quantum physics at Maharishi U - on the state ballot. He’s made the ballot again this year, with running mate Michael Tompkins, also on the faculty.
Paul Sporich, the party nominee in Tacoma’s 27th Legislative District, says its message goes beyond Transcendental Meditation, though that’s the aspect that gets the most attention.
“The TM teaching is part of the program but it’s not all of the program,” he said. “We’re also for sustainable agriculture, but that doesn’t make us the sustainable-agriculture party.”
Huddleston, the nominee in the 6th Congressional District race, has learned to like the connection.
“Four years ago I would have been annoyed by it,” he said. “But then I realized it was the only thing that got us coverage.”
Three years ago under the Maharishi’s direction, 4,000 TM practitioners gathered to meditate for a reduction in the crime rate in Washington, D.C. TM researchers reported a 10 percent crime drop during the American City Project demonstration, though local police said they saw no reduction.
The group also believes that meditation by large groups can produce world peace, better health, more education and reductions in inflation and unemployment.
The money saved from disappearance of the social ills could then be returned to citizens in a tax cut.
“Yeah, it sounds flaky,” Huddleston said in a recent interview. “But take a look at it. It works. If you show me something that works better, we’ll look at it.
Party solutions for reducing inflation and unemployment include gathering a group of 7,000 to 10,000 TM practitioners to meditate.
xxxx PARTY’S PLATFORM A MIXTURE OF OLD, NEW The Natural Law platform is a blend of new-age ideas and mainstream positions: Opposes a ban on abortion, and opposes government funding of abortions. Supports a flat tax and federally backed loans to encourage inner-city investment. Supports private-school vouchers, a longer school year and more required courses in high school. Opposes genetic engineering in food, such as use of bovine growth hormone in dairy cows. Opposes military aid to foreign governments, but supports the export of U.S. know-how to help foreign economies. - Associated Press