John Hagelin

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John Hagelin (June 9, 1954) is a theoretical physicist specializing in superstring theory, a practitioner and teacher of Transcendental Meditation and yogic flying, an electronic designer of high-end audio equipment and was a candidate for President of the United States three times. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

He is a follower of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Hagelin was a co-founder of the Natural Law Party, an entity created by the Maharishi's followers. Hagelin was its Presidential candidate in 1992, 1996 and 2000. In the 2000 Presidential election, Hagelin was also nominated by the Perot faction of the Reform Party, which disputed the nomination of Pat Buchanan. After a legal battle with the supporters of Buchanan, the Federal Election Commission ruled that Buchanan was the official candidate of the Reform Party in September 2000 and hence eligible for federal election funds. As part of the ruling, the Reform convention that nominated Hagelin was declared invalid and he lost the Reform spot on state ballots to Buchanan. He remained on several state ballots, however, as the Natural Law Party nominee.

Hagelin's Presidential electoral results:
1992 - Ballot status in 32 states - 39,000 votes - 0.04%.
1996 - Ballot status in 44 states - 110,000 votes - 0.1%.
2000 - Ballot status in 39 states - 83,000 votes - 0.08%.

Hagelin's Vice Presidential runningmate in 1992 and 1996 was Dr. Michael Tompkins, a co-founder of the US Natural Law Party. His Vice Presidential runningmate in 2000 was Nat Goldhaber, a wealthy businessman and longtime associate of the Maharishi.

In the 2004 primary elections, Hagelin endorsed Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich. When the Maharishi directed his followers to close all of the world-wide Natural Law Parties, the US NLP shut down in April 2004. Hagelin then joined the Maharishi's new movement: the United States Peace Government.

Hagelin received a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College in 1975 and a Masters of Arts (1976) and Ph.D. (1981) in physics from Harvard University where he studied under Howard Georgi, and was a researcher at CERN (the European Center for Particle Physics) in Switzerland and SLAC (the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center). He is currently Professor of Physics and Director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy at Maharishi University of Management, and Minister of Science and Technology of the Global Country of World Peace.

In 1994 Hagelin was the recipient of an Ig Nobel Prize, which is for "achievements" that "cannot, or should not, be reproduced", i.e., for pseudoscience. In his case the prize was awarded for his experimental conclusion that 4,000 meditators at the Maharishi University of Management caused an 18 percent decrease in crime in Washington, DC. Before Hagelin started with his works on TM, he was given the Kilby Award in 1992, for scientists who have made "major contributions to society through their applied research in the fields of science and technology". The award states it is for "a scientist in the tradition of Einstein, Jeans, Bohr and Eddington".

Hagelin has published a number of peer-reviewed papers in particle physics dealing with supersymmetry and grand unification theory. His groundbreaking work with Dimitri Nanopoulos was particularly influential. After that he tried to link particle physics to Transcendental Meditation and failed to publish a single paper in an established journal. His last accepted contribution to physics is from 1994. His former co-authors nowadays distance themselves from him.

Hagelin has a keen ear and derives much enjoyment from high end audio equipment. He had various insights on how to improve the sound quality of digital to audio (D-to-A) conversion from compact disc playback. Working with Age of Enlightenment audio he co-designed a high end D-to-A system that has been commercially marketed.

Hagelin was married to Margaret Cohig of Vancouver Canada in the 1980s and was then divorced. The couple had no children. He is now single.

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Best performances

Hagelin performed exceptionally well in Jefferson County, Iowa, which contains Fairfield, the closest town to the area where Hagelin lives. He received 23.94% in 1992, 22.82% in 1996, and 16.31% in 2000.

In 2000, Hagelin received over 30 percent of the vote in the precinct that serves northern and eastern Ketchum, Idaho. However, Hagelin received 1.07% of the vote or less in all other precincts.

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