During an historic press conference on July 2, 2003, in Washington, D.C., Dr. John Hagelin, renowned quantum physicist and Natural Law Party 2000 presidential candidate, launched his new U.S. Peace Government to bring prevention-oriented, problem-free administration to America.
Following Dr. Hagelin’s presentation, several of America’s top leaders, including retired corporate president Robert Brown, real estate developer Robert LoPinto, successful entrepreneur Lincoln Norton, and award-winning film director David Lynch, revealed plans now under way in cities across the country to raise from top foundations and billionaires the $1 billion endowment needed to create permanent world peace. Mr. LoPinto also announced that he is contributing $1 million towards the construction of a Peace Palace in Long Island, New York.
Dr. Hagelin responded by e-mail to questions by The EDGE about this new undertaking.
If each of us intrinsically knew and felt a connection to the entire universe, how different would our collective reality be today on Earth?
Dr. John Hagelin: Our collective reality would be completely different, because it would be based on the experience of the deepest level of life that underlies and connects us all — the Unified Field of all the laws of nature. According to modem science, the Unified Field is a universal field of intelligence that pervades and governs the vast universe with perfect order. And every individual has direct experiential access to this field in the deepest, most settled state of his or her awareness — in the fourth state of human consciousness, physiologically distinct from waking, dreaming and sleeping. The human brain is hardwired to have this fundamental experience of universal consciousness, which is available to anyone from any culture, of any age, any religion, and without any philosophical predisposition. When individuals are established in universal consciousness, they live the scientific reality of the unity of life spontaneously in accord with all the laws of nature. This experience alone will transform our collective reality — our human civilization — to one of unity, peace, and harmony.
Is human consciousness evolving toward a collective understanding of its connection to All? Why or why not?
Hagelin: A great unification is now taking place between science and spirituality. The most advanced discoveries of modern science are rising to reaffirm the timeless wisdom of the great religious and spiritual traditions of every culture. And this transformation is more than just intellectual or theoretical. It is based on the growing experience of higher states of human consciousness by millions of people throughout the world. And this transformation is essential for our survival individually and collectively, because time is demanding a more unified and harmonious experience of our common humanity to prevent the ongoing violence, environmental devastation, and warfare in our world. Now is the time to more widely apply ancient technologies of consciousness — meditation techniques — to develop higher states of consciousness and awaken that common basis of human life in each of us to create a peaceful, unified world.
For example, I have spent a quarter of a century researching technologies of consciousness that work on this fundamental level. These technologies have recently been validated by modem science, but have been described and utilized since time immemorial by the Vedic science of ancient India. This science of consciousness has been revitalized in this scientific age in a systematic manner by His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the world’s foremost scientist of consciousness and foremost Vedic scholar. These ancient but now modem technologies of consciousness include Transcendental Meditation to take human awareness powerfully within to experience deeper levels of mind and deeper levels of thought, culminating in the experience of the source of thought — the field of Transcendental Consciousness, the Unified Field in the most silent, settled state of human awareness.
In regard to integrating the national consciousness of America, you have helped to create what is called the U.S. Peace Government. Why did you do this and what is the long-range goal of this coalition?
Hagelin: The U.S. Peace Government, a complementary government, was founded on July 4, 2003, to prevent social violence, terrorism and war, and to promote peace and harmony throughout the world. It was established, in part, to replace our corrupt, money-driven system – where elected leaders’ primary expertise is raising special interest money from corporate sponsors – with the principle of rule by the competent. But its primary purpose is to bring support of the deepest level of Natural Law and raise man-made government to be on a par with the government of nature, which administers the ever-expanding universe with perfect order.
You call this a complementary government. What does that mean, and can it be viewed in the same way that complementary medicine exists alongside the established medical system?
Hagelin: Yes, the U.S. Peace Government will exist alongside and support existing governments. The U.S. Peace Government is a complementary government because it does not compete with existing governments, which are largely concerned with crisis management. Instead, it will silently prevent problems from arising by raising the collective consciousness of the country and dissolving the acute stress that is responsible for so much life-afflicting behavior, health-afflicting behavior, domestic violence, crime, terrorism, even war. In this way, the U.S. Peace Government will actually rule the country at the fundamental level of consciousness.
How will the U.S. Peace Government interact with average people across the country, and vice-versa? How can the average person assist the goals of the U.S. Peace Government?
Hagelin: The U.S. Peace Government will offer to the public and to government scientifically proven programs to effectively prevent problems. These programs will be offered and administered through 100-200 Peace Palaces that will bring relief to our nation’s stress-ridden cities. These will be centers for prevention-oriented health education and natural medicine; for consciousness-based education; for sustainable, organic agriculture; and for other prevention-oriented programs. In addition, through groups of peace-creating experts associated with each Peace Palace, the U.S. Peace Government will help defuse the acute societal stress at the root of violent behavior, thereby raising the collective consciousness of the people and bringing national life into accord with Natural Law.
In what phase of development is the U.S. Peace Government, and what is it currently doing?
Hagelin: The U.S. Peace Government is growing very rapidly. It is composed of hundreds of the nation’s foremost scientists, educators, medical doctors, medical researchers, pol icymakers, organic farmers – people who are knowledgeable about the application of Natural Law. These experts have demonstrated a strong commitment to the public good and possess the deep knowledge and practical competence to lead society in a peaceful and evolutionary direction. The U.S. Peace Government also involves in excess of 15,000 volunteer activists across the United States dedicated to this new, peaceful approach.
On the organizational level, the U.S. Peace Government will mirror the structure of conventional government, with governing bodies at the local, state, and national levels, and we already have a president, three regional vice presidents, and governors for every state. However, on a deeper level, the Peace Governments will be rooted in the eternal structure of Natural Law — the Unified Field of all the laws of nature.
On the city level, the Mayor of the U.S. Peace Government in every city will preside over a local Assembly composed of peace-creating experts of that city, as well as publicly attended City Peace Parliaments, which will present and discuss prevention-oriented solutions based on total Natural Law. The Mayor’s responsibility will be primarily to ensure that the city is fully governed by Natural Law — and permanently upheld in peace — by ensuring that peace-promoting Vedic technologies of consciousness are fully utilized by the city. These technologies include group practice of the Transcendental Meditation program and its advanced programs, including Yogic Flying, and specialized Vedic performances that maintain harmony, coherence, and peace throughout society.
On the state level, the Governor of the U.S. Peace Government in every state will preside over a State Assembly composed of all the state’s Peace Mayors. Each Assembly, along with publicly attended State Peace Parliaments, will be held in a new “Constitution Hall” — a glorious state capital building of the U.S. Peace Government. These spacious, grand, columned buildings, with their beautiful Peace Gardens, will be built directly adjacent to, or within easy sight of, the existing capital buildings of the conventional state governments.
Visitors to the state capital will see these two capital buildings and be reminded for all times that there are two governments – one active government dedicated to problems and crisis management, and one Peace Government that administers the country through Natural Law, and silently prevents problems from arising.
On the national level, the President of the U.S. Peace Government will preside over a National Assembly composed of the 50 State Governors of the U.S. Peace Government. A search for a suitable property on which to build our grand, national capital of the U.S. Peace Government Constitution Hall – is already under way.
You clearly are connected with the efforts of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in promoting world peace. What will it take to achieve world peace and what will world peace took like?
Hagelin: It will take peaceful individuals to create world peace. There is no other way. The approach that we’re using will be the group practice of a very powerful, extensively researched, stress-reduction program – this is one way we can define it a program that is the most widely researched, widely prescribed, and widely used methodology to reduce individual stress. This is the Transcendental Meditation program, introduced 50 years ago by His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who identified stress as a causative factor in most disease. It took the medical community decades to recognize that stress is indeed a causative factor in most disease, and today the Transcendental Meditation program is the most widely used and prescribed and extensively researched means to reduce individual stress. In addition, 25 years ago, Maharishi also said that collective stress is the primary causative factor behind so much of our social disease. And now it is widely recognized, at last, that stress is a primary causative factor for most of our social disease, as the cover of the New York Times Magazine recently proclaimed. This cover story also stated that government today has no approach to reduce societal stress and tension.
But in fact, scientific research has revealed that there is a solution. More than 50 studies published in leading, peer-reviewed journals have shown that Transcendental Meditation can also be used to defuse acute societal stress, as measured by reduced crime, terrorism, and conflict. So, to create peace on a global scale, large groups of trained meditation experts are being established to radiate a measurable influence of calm and coherence throughout society. The first step is to establish a permanent group of 8,000 peace-creating advanced meditators in the U.S., which research shows will be sufficient to create permanent world peace. For this reason, several hundred peace-loving business leaders in America are currently working together to raise a $1 billion endowment fund to build a University of World Peace and provide scholarships for 8,000 peace-creating students. For more information, visit our website at www.PermanentPeace.org.
If there is world peace, does that mean the shadow side of our collective experience will no longer be needed to show us the degree of disharmony that exists within us?
Hagelin: Just as darkness is born of the absence of light, the shadow side of our collective experience is born of ignorance of the underlying truth of the unity of life. Transcendental Meditation and other Vedic technologies of consciousness allow any individual to have experiential access to his or her unified core at the source of thought, where the truth of life is revealed and where we all are profoundly connected. With the growth of this experience, enlightenment dawns and partial understandings of life disappear. And fortunately, research shows that just a few thousand enlightened people will radiate enlightenment to the whole society.
How will the U.S. Peace Government interact with the established U.S. Government, arid have you had any reaction from the government in response to the formation of the U.S. Peace Government?
Hagelin: On the superficial level, the U.S. Peace Government will provide government with the prevention-oriented programs that can solve national problems in education, health care, the economy, administrative, defense, agriculture, and urban life. But on a deeper and more profound level, the U.S. Peace Government – and Peace Governments in every other country — will create coherence and harmony in national consciousness. This alone can be the basis of a peaceful and progressive world family. The reaction to this approach from individual government leaders has been very positive; however, government bureaucracy moves far too slowly, and we can’t wait for peace. That is why private citizens are establishing the Endowment Fund for World Peace. And we welcome the support of all peace-loving Americans to contribute whatever they can.
For millennia, there has been speculation about human interaction with beings from other dimensions and solar systems. It’s perhaps not a question of “if’ it will happen, but “when.” Is the establishment of the U.S. Peace Government a step in that direction? Why or why not?
Hagelin: The Unified Field creates, maintains, and evolves all life throughout the infinite diversity of the ever-expanding universe. The U.S. Peace Government provides programs to enliven the Unified Field and promote unity in every area of life, both individual and cosmic. This experience will enrich and bring fulfillment to the natural aspiration of life everywhere — to rise to enlightenment.
For more information, visit www.uspeacegovernment.org
