segunda-feira, outubro 11, 2004

Dr. John Hagelin is on the cover of October 2004 issue of the magazine, Healthy Wealthy nWise.
To view the cover and see the article, go to: www.healthywealthynwise.com

There is also a companion article about Consciousness Based Education which highlights the incredible outcomes enjoyed by students at Maharishi Univesity of Management and Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment. You can read this article at: http://www.healthywealthynwise.com/article.asp?Article=408

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John Hagelin: Founder of the US Peace Government, Quantum Physicist, Real Life Legend


By: Chris Attwood


This month we?re speaking with a man who is a legend in the field of Quantum Physics, and in the area of public policy. Doctor John Hagelin is a world-renowned quantum physicist, educator, author and science and public policy expert. He has conducted research at CERN, the European Center for Particle Physics; and SLAC, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.

As director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy, a progressive policy think tank, Dr. Hagelin has successfully headed a nationwide effort to identify, scientifically verify and promote cost-effective solutions to critical social problems in the fields of crime, health care, education, economy, energy and the environment.

In addition, Dr. Hagelin has spent much of the past quarter century leading a scientific investigation into the foundations of human consciousness. In his book, Manual for a Perfect Government, Dr. Hagelin shows how, through educational programs that develop human consciousness, and through policies and programs that effectively harness the laws of nature, it is possible to solve acute social problems and enhance governmental effectiveness.

In recognition of his outstanding achievements, Dr. Hagelin was named winner of the prestigious Kilby Award, which recognizes scientists who have made major contributions to society through their applied research in the fields of science and technology. The award recognized Dr. Hagelin as a scientist in the tradition of Einstein, Genes, Boer, and Edington.

As the 2000 presidential candidate of the Natural Law Party, America?s fastest-growing grass roots party, Dr. Hagelin, along with hundreds of NLP candidates in all 50 states, drew millions of votes for his scientifically proven, forward-looking, sustainable solutions to America?s pressing social, economic and environmental problems. He has recently founded the US Peace Government, a complementary government, dedicated to prevention-oriented administration.

Dr. Hagelin has appeared many times on ABC?s ?Nightline? and ?Politically Incorrect,? NBC?s ?Meet the Press,? CNN?s ?Larry King Live? and ?Inside Politics,? CNBC?s ?Hardball with Chris Matthews,? C-SPAN?s ?Washington Journal,? and others. He?s featured in the five time award-winning film ?What the #@%$ (Bleep) Do We Know? that?s in theatres now, and he has been regularly featured in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and now, Healthy Wealthy nWise.

So now, hang on to your chairs and get ready for just an amazingly profound interview with Dr. John Hagelin.

Chris: John as a Legend in the field of quantum physics as well as politics, we asked you if you would write down at least ten things that, if you had them completely fulfilled, would make your life ideal.

Would you share those with us?

Dr. Hagelin: Yes, the most important key to success and happiness in my life is experiencing unbounded awareness, the field of pure spirituality within, and identifying my awareness with the unified field?the universal intelligence that governs the universe. This brings immediate expansion, joy, pure creativity, and total support of nature for health and success and happiness in life.

If I had to give number two, I would say more of the above. I?m really blessed with a program that brings immediate expansion, immediate bliss, and immediate contact with the infinite. I?m fortunate to be a teacher of Transcendental Meditation® as taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, which is the world?s most widely practiced, widely researched and broadly prescribed technology for the full development of human potential.

Three, I need purposeful activity that brings evolution to humankind, activity that alleviates global problems and suffering and that promotes peace in the world, and I need to see tangible results, tangible success in this and all my projects. I?m passionate about peace, about ending this terrible legacy of human cruelty and warfare, as well as the deep ignorance that permits such life-afflicting behavior.

I?m passionate about education, especially education for enlightenment, a new paradigm of education that involves full human potential that develops the total brain. Modern education is really a travesty in that it develops a mere sliver of one?s brain potential, and as a result, it deprives a human being of his or her natural capability of living enlightenment.

I am a born teacher and I need to teach. Karmically, the teacher always gains more than he gives. The way to understand anything most profoundly is to explain it to someone else, and that?s the experience of every teacher.

I teach graduate courses in unified quantum field theories. The way to really own the material is to impart that understanding to someone else, and somehow, magically almost, the material organizes itself more clearly and profoundly for the teacher.

I love being with people who are evolving, who share this natural joy of life, and especially those who are enlightened, established in higher states of consciousness. The activities of such people are naturally evolutionary, life-giving, bliss-bestowing.

I love speaking to large audiences, and the medium of live television, probably because it leverages one?s impact and ability to reach large numbers of people and thus make a difference. I love art and music and being surrounded by inspiration and beauty.

I love living in a dwelling built in accord with natural law, a dwelling designed for maximum, life-supporting, life-nourishing influence. Maharishi?s Sthapatya Vedic architecture, which is more ancient and more complete than Feng Shui, is a tremendous blessing and a formula for success in itself.

Chris: John, what roles have the things that you?re passionate about played in your life? If you would, please speak to the early years in your history, your pursuit of physics, as well as your pursuit of the presidential nomination in the U.S. and your other activities.

Dr. Hagelin: Well, I think for me to address the question, we have to spend a little bit of time understanding what passion is. For me, to understand what passion is gets to the core nature of life, the very purpose of life, which is to progress and to evolve and grow toward fulfillment.

If we?re progressing and evolving, then we experience joy, energy, vitality, health. Those activities through which we grow ? through which we expand in knowledge, expand in power, expand in fulfillment--it?s that type of activity that brings us joy?joy born of expansion, born of progress, born of evolution.

If I?m passionate about something or you?re passionate about something, it?s because that something brings joy to us, nourishment to us?because that activity is a path of evolution and expansion for us -- expansion of knowledge, influence, power and happiness.

If you?re not passionate about an activity, it means that that activity isn?t providing you with growth, satisfaction, joy and expansion. Passion and success are inseparable to me. PASSION IS BORN OF SUCCESS?and the progress that comes with success.

Chris: Do you think that people have innate passions, that even before they?re successful at something, they have things that they?re just drawn irresistibly to?

Dr. Hagelin: They?re drawn to them because when they tasted them, when they sampled that activity, they immediately experienced growth and progress in that direction. Typically, it?s where their talent lies. It?s a natural channel of creativity for them.

Chris: What role has that played in your life?

Dr. Hagelin: Passion has been absolutely key to me and, I would predict, key to everybody. Passions are the core of everyone?s life. You are drawn to do things?to follow your passions--because that activity brings you expansion and joy and evolution.

Chris: In your own life, how has pursuing those things that you?re passionate about affected your health, wealth and spirituality? As you know, this magazine is called Healthy, Wealthy nWise, so those are the areas that we?re particularly interested in.

Dr. Hagelin: The pursuit of my passions nourishes and sustains my life. By its very nature, it brings joy and success and health and happiness. I don?t, and most people don?t, continue to do things that don?t bring success and achievement and progress and happiness. Perhaps I?m a little more alert to this principle and choose, therefore, those activities that are bearing fruit - fruit in terms of progress towards achievement, which brings happiness and sustains life.

Pursuit of passion is so basic to life, so intimate to life, that if you?re not pursuing your passions, you?re not going to be happy for long. You?re not going to be able to sustain that direction for very long. Yet one does have control, to some extent, over what constitutes one?s passion.

What you put your attention grows stronger in your life. You can culture an interest for something. You can develop a talent in an area, which then allows you to succeed in that area, and thus enjoy progress and success and evolution through that channel. That area will become more and more of a passion for you when your activity in that area rewards you with joy, progress, expansion and evolution.

People do have freedom?and it?s probably the greatest human freedom?over what they give their attention to. And that area will become more central, more important in their life. I would recommend that everyone exercise that freedom?to put their attention on projects that are truly worthy, with the potential to bring maximum happiness and evolution to their life and to society as a whole. The more global and far-reaching the project, the more happiness and evolution that project could potentially bring.

We have control over what might become a passion for us, and that?s an important freedom that we exercise. But there are obviously constraints on what could ever become our passion, based upon our core predispositions and genetic make up.

Probably, although I enjoy art, painting will never become a passion for me: I am so utterly lacking in talent in that area that an effort in that direction would almost certainly meet with more frustration than joy. If I had some talent, if I were even moderately talented, I could nurture that talent, enjoy initial spurts of progress, and that could ultimately grow into a passion for me.

So we have some control, but there are constraints based upon our own, individual natures. Not everyone is going to be a great teacher. Not everyone is going to be a great politician.

In my life, I have made choices to develop new areas, new passions that weren?t, frankly, that natural to me - talents I wasn?t born with. I was not born a quantum physicist: I was born an engineer.

Chris: And yet, some have called you one of the greatest quantum physicists of our age.

Dr. Hagelin: Yes, some have, and that did not come easily. I was born an engineer. When it came to classical physics, the laws of mechanics, I didn?t have to study them. I knew them, they were in my bones, they were part of my genetic make up. But when it came to quantum mechanics, I had entered a strange new realm that was absolutely non-intuitive to me.

I should say, in fairness, quantum mechanics is counter-intuitive to most people. You have to rely solely on your mathematical abilities to delve into these abstract realms for which our intuition provides no guidance. And I wasn?t a born mathematician. I had to really develop those skills over a period of years before I gained a natural fluency with the quantum world, and began to tackle problems in that world with increasing ease?and finally I gained some spark of fulfillment. It took time to develop that new channel of creative intelligence, that new channel of progress and satisfaction. It took time to build that new passion.

Chris: What?s interesting, John, in your life, is that you have gone from what some people would consider one extreme to the other--from the rarified areas of theoretical quantum physics as one of the very top physicists in the world, to running for the position of President of the United States.

Dr. Hagelin: That?s the second example of creating a new passion, of developing myself in an area where I wasn?t endowed with God-given talent, for the sake of the higher calling of service to humanity.

Public policy didn?t light my fire prior before I undertook this calling to evolve better principles and policies to govern our country and the world. I dove into the area of public policy, health care reform, et cetera, and relatively quickly, in comparison to quantum physics, found myself in a position of being able to make important, original contributions to these fields.

It?s not rocket science, you could say. It?s not quantum physics. It didn?t take that long to expose the fallacies of our current policies in such areas as defense, which is based on offense, or health care, which is based on disease care, and so forth?and to construct more life-supporting policies that are in harmony with natural law and that make more efficient and compassionate use of our precious resources.

So this is another example of how my deepest sense of responsibility caused me to actually nurture and build a whole new passion, which then became the driving force of my life for quite a few years.

Chris: Much of your professional life has dealt with the relationship between human consciousness and the deepest understandings and expressions of physics. Could you, for our readers? benefit, talk a little bit about your understanding of consciousness, its relationship to the physical, material world, and why it has been such a key and important element in your life and your work?

Dr. Hagelin: As a young seeker of knowledge, I always strove to understand the core reality of life, the truths of existence. What I came to learn after 15 years of higher education is that the material universe is built upon the non-material quantum-mechanical world of abstract intelligence that underlies it. The exploration of deeper levels of natural law at the atomic and nuclear and sub-nuclear levels was probing deeper levels of intelligence in nature that were far beyond the realm of material existence.

Ultimately, the discovery of the unified field, or heterotic superstring, was a discovery of a field of pure intelligence whose nature was not material, but pure, self-interacting consciousness. So physics, in effect, had discovered consciousness at the foundation of material existence.

I wanted to know the nature of that consciousness, and it was really through Maharishi?s programs, through his techniques for the development of consciousness, that I experienced the reality of what that field of consciousness is. I discovered for myself that human intelligence, at its core foundation, is universal intelligence, and at that level, you and I and everyone and everything in the universe is one.

We are united at our core, and that truth, that ultimate truth of the unity of life, is the most precious and crucially important understanding to emerge in this scientific age. This is the same reality that has been celebrated since time immemorial in all the great spiritual traditions of the world. But now this same truth is open to objective verification through the empirical approach of modern physics, and open to personal verification through the experiential approach of consciousness, and specifically for me, through the very universal and powerful technologies of Maharishi?s Vedic science, including Transcendental Meditation®.

Chris: One question that we always ask in the Healthy, Wealthy nWise interviews is that the magazine believes strongly in the power of intention to manifest outcomes. What would you say is your current most important project, and what intention would you like us at Healthy, Wealthy nWise, as well as our readers, to hold for the fulfillment of that?

Dr. Hagelin: Firstly, I should say I strongly support your belief in the power of intention based upon both science and direct experience. My most ardent desire today is to see an end to the senseless violence and continual legacy of war that has confronted humankind for so many, countless generations, and to bring lasting peace to the world on the basis of the emerging global understanding of the essential unity of life.

If all of us could own that vision, if all of us here could deeply understand and experience the unity of life, that unity will be far more easily understood and assimilated by the billions of citizens of our global family.

We are almost at the point where these words, where the ultimate reality of the unity of life, is resonating with people, beginning to make sense to people. We?re not quite there, and it?s important that we nucleate the transition, that we precipitate the transformation by bringing this core understanding and experience to as many people as possible, and from that understanding and experience of unity, real, lasting peace will inevitably dawn in the world today.

Chris: Your responses have been very profound and have taken us to some of the deepest considerations of human life. I?m going to ask you to come up to a much more superficial level, just for a moment. You will be on the cover of the magazine in October, right before the Presidential election, and since you have been so actively involved in Presidential politics in the past, would you take a moment to comment on your perspective on the Presidential election and your advice to readers and voters as they go to the polls in the beginning of November?

Dr. Hagelin: I?m going to speak to this question as a citizen of the United States of America, not as the Director of a non-profit educational institution. I think it?s vitally important for the security of our country and the welfare of the world that we have a marked, immediate change in the administration and direction of the country, away from war as a means to peace, to a more inclusive and holistic approach that can truly unite the world in peace.

I hope that every potential voter throws off any possible rationale or inertia that could prevent them from going to the polls and voting their conscience. I urge them to use whatever influence they have to create the greatest possible turnout, and bring a change in the destructive direction our country has taken in the last few years.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, in a democracy, we get the government that we deserve?the government we elect. So to some extent, Bush?s actions reflect the will of a great many citizens of this nation. But I think and hope we?ve outgrown George W. Bush, who, in my opinion, is lagging behind the evolving consciousness of our country. I believe it is therefore time for a new leader who is more representative of the great potential of our nation than the current administration.

I left the field of electoral politics to dedicate my time to raising the collective consciousness of the people?through education and by organizing large, sustained collective meditations. My hope is that by doing so, and in joining forces with so many others who are similarly engaged in raising the consciousness of our nation, the reward will be a more awakened electorate that won?t allow a repeat of the electoral outcome of four years ago.

Chris: What is the single most important idea that you?d like to leave our readers with that we haven?t yet discussed?

Dr. Hagelin: We?ve touched on it, but I think it?s important to say. There?s really no limit to human potential and there?s no limit to what we can effortlessly achieve. The secret is to align human intelligence with the vast, organizing intelligence of nature that governs the universe and that upholds millions of species here on earth and trillions throughout the universe.

By aligning our desires with the natural evolutionary flow of universal intelligence, virtually any impulse of thought can meet with tremendous success. Aligning individual intelligence with nature?s intelligence is what is called ?enlightenment.?

Developing the total brain and rising to higher states of consciousness is absolutely key to achieving individual fulfillment, and the key to contributing maximum to the evolution of society towards an enlightened society - a unified field-based civilization of peace, prosperity and harmony in the family of nations.

Chris: Wonderful. Thank you so much for taking this time.

Dr. Hagelin: Wonderful! Thank you, and good luck.

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What Are Your Kids Really Getting From Their Education?


By: Chris Attwood


Development of consciousness is key to learning

Remember when you were sitting in school taking chemistry, or physics, or English lit, or some other class, and wondering, what does this have to do with me?

Kids take classes because we tell them to. After all, education is a good thing, right? So, they go to school, are told how important it is to get good grades, go to college, and get a good job.

If they?re good at analytical learning, good at taking tests, good at following ?the rules,? then they get good grades, get accepted to college and may or may not get a good job. Or they may go on to graduate school where their studies require they become increasingly specialized. They discover themselves knowing more and more about less and less.

If they?re brilliant at synthetic learning (the artists) or are primarily a kinesthetic learner (learning through experience), they probably get really poor grades in school, feel terrible about themselves, and find that they just ?don?t fit in.?

Whatever the situation, these kids at some point begin wondering, what am I doing all this for?

Traditionally, education has focused primarily on what students study. Reading, writing, arithmetic, and then as the students get older, chemistry, physics, algebra, geography, social studies. The focus is always outward. Education has focused on teaching students about something which is outside of them, with little or no attention on the student themselves.

Reinventing Education

In the past, education has failed to even consider how to develop the student?s capacity to learn, their inner awareness of themselves and their relationship to the world around them.

Yet it is the quality of a student?s consciousness, or awareness, that determines their degree of intelligence, creativity, confidence, inner calm, and motivation? all fundamental to their ability to comprehend and absorb knowledge.

It?s been said that most of us use only 10% of our full mental capacity. Could that have something to do with the nature of the education we received? Of course it could.

Research has shown that electrical activity of the brain in most adults does not activate the entire brain. Such activity is incoherent and non-synchronous between different parts of the brain.

On the other hand, increased coherence and synchrony between different parts of the brain has been correlated with increased intelligence, creativity and reasoning ability. The question is: How can education effectively develop whole brain functioning in children so they are able to use 100% of their mental capacity?

The Relationship of Brain Development to Education

A large body of research reveals that the development and ongoing state of brain functioning is shaped by the nature of the individual?s experience.

Research on brain development shows that specific types of experience are necessary for the brain to develop properly.

For example, in the early stages of life, sensory experiences are critical for the development of the corresponding sensory structures of the brain. It has also been found that enriched sensory and motor environments in infancy contribute to significantly enhanced development of the brain.

Brain development is thus intimately connected with experience. From this perspective, the purpose of education, including early education in the family, is to provide the appropriate experiences, at every stage of growth, that develop the full potential of mind and body, based on fully developing the brain.

Analyzing the process of human brain development is useful in understanding the type of educational experiences that are especially important at different stages of growth.

Educational Experiences Should Promote Brain Development

Even if educators in the past have not attended to the process of brain development in childhood, they have selected learning experiences that suit the state of sensory, motor, and cognitive development of school children. In so doing, they have been selecting experiences most suitable for the student?s current state of brain development.

Unfortunately, education has not included a systematic means to directly promote integrated brain functioning. Rather, from middle school onwards, education primarily exercises the individual?s logical reasoning ability in relation to specific bodies of knowledge.

Limiting the educational experiences of students only to the continued exercise of their reasoning skills is not sufficient to develop the brain?s potential, and to unfold higher integration of brain functioning.

As a result, secondary and higher education have failed to systematically develop the higher brain functioning that is associated with higher cognitive development.

So, what is the solution?

Consciousness-Based Education

Education which focuses on development of the student?s capacity to learn, development of the student?s own inner awareness has been called ?Consciousness-based Education.? This approach to education has been pioneered by Maharishi University of Management (MUM) and Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment (MSAE) in Iowa.

Consciousness-based education focuses first on development of holistic brain functioning by training students in methods which have been scientifically proven to allow students to experience the full potential of their own consciousness.

The foundation of consciousness-based education is the natural and effortless Transcendental Meditation? (TM) program which develops students? inner potential. Extensive research on the TM program has shown that this program strengthens the cognitive, physiological, and affective foundations of learning, while promoting healthier life-style choices and positive behavior.

At the same time, regular practice of the technique significantly reduces the stress and tension that many students and teachers experience daily, and creates a happy, harmonious, focused learning environment.

Of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. How do students who have had the benefits of consciousness-based education fare in the world?

The Results of Consciousness-Based Education

Founded in 1974, Maharishi University of Management (http://www.mum.edu) students have impressive results. Providing fully accredited programs through the Ph.D. level, the University has been a center for research in the field of human consciousness for over 30 years.




The best measure of a university?s success is the success of its graduates. The University?s graduates have been employed by many top corporations, including Motorola, Rockwell, IBM, Merrill Lynch, Microsoft, Apple Computer, Bank of America, Citibank, Mayo Clinic, and many others.

However, the most telling description of the benefits of consciousness-based education is a study which compared MUM graduates to graduates of other colleges.

A widely used measure of overall self-development was given to Maharishi University students and to students at three other colleges. Ten years later, well into their careers, these same students were given the test again.

People who score at the top two levels of this test are considered self-actualized. Normally only 1% score this high ? and scores typically do not change after about age 15.

On both the pre-test and the post-test, only 1% of the students from other schools scored at these levels ? just what one would expect.

Among Maharishi University students, 9% scored at the top two levels on the pre-test (they had been practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique an average of four years at the time). Ten years later, at the post-test, 38% of the same students scored this high ? an unprecedented result.

Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment (http://www.maharishischooliowa.org) was founded in 1979 and has been fully accredited since 1986. Over the past decade Maharishi School students have won more than seventy state, national and international titles in such diverse areas as science, speech, drama, writing, poetry, spelling, art, photography, history, mathematics, chess, Destination ImagiNation, tennis, golf, and track. In addition, they have demonstrated their desire to help others in society, for example by founding the student organization End School Violence Now and the Students Creating Peace Network.

With an open enrollment policy and a student body from a broad socioeconomic background, grades 9-12 consistently score in the 99th percentile on standardized tests year after year, and over the past five years the school has averaged about ten times the national average for National Merit Scholar Finalists. About 95% of the school?s graduates are accepted at four-year colleges and universities.

A New Paradigm in Education ? Education for Enlightenment

It seems pretty clear from these results that the theory behind consciousness-based education is sound. Perhaps this word ?enlightenment? we?ve heard so much about is really a description of an individual who is using their total brain.

If consciousness-based education develops whole brain functioning, and according to the research whole brain functioning results in:

* Increased intelligence and creativity
* Higher levels of moral reasoning
* Increased use of latent reserves of the brain
* Orientation towards more positive values
* Improved academic performance
* Improved emotional well-being
* Increased resistance to stress
* Increased tolerance
* Reduced aggression and hostility
* Increased problem-solving ability
* Reduced anxiety; reduced depression
* Increased self-esteem

Then, maybe we now have a practical definition of this term ?enlightenment? and the technology to give our kids an education which allows them to live a life of fulfillment in that fully developed state.

Consciousness-Based education is offered at Maharishi University of Management, where all students culture higher consciousness by practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique.

The University is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees in the arts, sciences, humanities, and business. Students take one course at a time, eliminating the stress of homework and exams in several subjects at once. All aspects of campus life nourish the body and mind, including organic vegetarian meals served fresh daily. Visitors Weekends are held throughout the year. For further information, see www.mum.edu

sábado, outubro 09, 2004

Small Iowa Town Has Global Mission: News of Maharishi University of Management: Consciousness-Based education: "Voice of America Worldwide Broadcast
Small Iowa Town Has Global Mission

Listen to Gayane Torosyan's report (RealAudio Player required) or read the excerpts below

Fairfield would look just like any other small town in Iowa if it wasn't for the twin golden domes shining on its skyline. They mark Fairfield as the home of Maharishi University of Management, which offers what it calls 'Consciousness-Based Education.' But the principles of the science of consciousness come to life more fully just north of town, in Vedic City.

The true uniqueness of the city can be seen in its architecture. Mr. Boyum says the design of the homes here promotes health and happiness. 'There are a number of principles in what is called Stapatya Ved, which is the Vedic portion of design of building, and the principles that are most obvious are that all the houses face East; so they are making use of the enlivening and the warming value of the Sun when it rises in the dawn, and the texts says facing East is the most auspicious or most beneficial to the people who live in those buildings,' he says.

In addition, the construction of the buildings makes them energy efficient according to U-S Department of Energy standards. In keeping with the movement's emphasis on living in harmony with nature, Vedic City bans the sale of non-organic produce. But agriculture is an important part of the local economy.

Not far from the residential area, Ken Chawkin shows off Vedic City's huge organic greenhouse. 'They have a huge crop of cucumbers in there; they have tomatoes there, peppers various types, yellow, orange, green, to be sold to make a profit! That's the automatic adjustment according to the temperature and humidity, the valves will open and close for the circulation of air, maintaining an ambient temperature,' he says.

More nutritious foods lead to a healthier population, and Vedic City prides itself on being perhaps the healthiest city in America. It supports the practice of holistic medicine, and attracts visitors interested in natural therapies.

Vedic City was founded with an ambitious goal to bring health and harmony to everyone"