Epstein

Edward Epstein

Edward Epstein, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, December 29, 1995

Last fall the Natural Law Party accomplished the impressive feat
of qualifying for California’s 1996 ballot by registering more than
89,000 voters as party members.

But it is unclear how much, if anything, many of the
tens of thousands of voters who registered as members of the Natural
Law Party knew about the extent of the group’s links to Transcendental
Meditation or to its founder, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

In registering voters for a party, California law
does not require canvassers to disclose anything about the party
or its backers.

And leaders of the Natural Law Party deny that their
effort is formally connected with the Transcendental Meditation
movement.

“There is no connection organizationally or financially
between organizations that teach TM and the Natural Law Party,”
the party’s presidential candidate, John Hagelin, told a reporter
at a recent press conference, at which he appeared with many of
the party’s 90 or so

California candidates via conference call.

But there are a wealth of at least informal ties.
The Natural Law Party was founded in 1992 on the campus of Maharishi
International University in Fairfield, Iowa, and is still based
in that town.

Hagelin is a particle physicist and longtime TM leader
who is on a leave of absence from his teaching post at the Iowa
school.

And virtually all of the dozens of candidates for
Congress and the state Legislature in California that the party
is fielding are practitioners of Transcendental Meditation.

“The party is very closely linked with the TM movement,”
said John Knapp, who was part of the movement for 20 years before
quitting in 1990. “Almost everyone high up in the party is a TM-er.”

Hagelin said he does not know how many of the party’s
candidates in California are TM practitioners. But when a reporter
asked the eight candidates gathered in San Francisco if they were
involved in the movement, all raised their hands.

Later, a party spokeswoman said three or four of the
candidates in the state are not involved with Transcendental Meditation.

Bob Roth, a spokesman at the Natural Law Party headquarters
in Iowa, said it has been no secret that the party is connected
with the TM movement. “There has been extensive coverage about TM
and the party. It’s no secret this is the TM party.”

Hagelin added in an interview yesterday, “TM is a
key platform plank. But we’ve worked really hard to ensure there’s
no organizational crossover. I make sure of that.”

The Transcendental Meditation movement was founded
in 1955 by the Maharishi, a Hindu guru from India. Practitioners
say their philosophy can teach devotees a state of deep rest that
can produce powerful positive effects on individuals and society.

Although the idea of teaching meditation as a relaxation
or stress-management technique might seem innocuous, the Maharishi
has gone much further over the years in his claims about what TM
can do.

TM has claimed that advanced practitioners can levitate.
But video of the practice actually shows that they are bouncing
up and down off mats while sitting cross- legged.

“I was a levitator,” said Knapp, who now lives in
Sonoma, where he has started Trancenet, a World Wide Web site critical
of TM.

“But actually you jump up and down on your butt,”
said Knapp, who said the practice has left him with arthritis in
his knees and lower-back problems.

The Maharishi has also claimed that advanced practitioners
can develop powers of invisibility, mind-reading, perfect health
and immortality.

Copyright San Francisco Chronicle, Friday December
29, 1995