Natural Law Party

From dKosopedia

Category: Political parties

Founded in 1992 by followers of New Age Hindu religious leader Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Natural Law Party is a third party advocating the widespread promotion of transcendental meditation (TM) as a solution to vexing public policy problems. The party advocates government funding for TM programs. It's stated goal is to bring "the light of science to politics". The Natural Law Party claimed that "proven solutions held up by the scientific method and verifiable in nature can be applied to public policy just as well as in any other field", by which they meant that they believe the widespread promotion and practice of transcendental meditation would naturally reduce crime, increase job productivity and prosperity, eliminate the national debt, etc. Their membership consists mainly of academics, but it has also accepted into its organization what might be called "extreme populists".

The party ran Dr. John Hagelin as their candidate in 1992, 1996, and 2000. Hagelin is a quantum physicist and promotional speaker who got his PhD at Harvard University and now runs a think tank in Iowa. In 2000, Hagelin also sought the nomination of the Reform Party and emerged as the main competitor to Patrick Buchanan for the nomination.

Despite some success gaining access on national and local ballots, the Natural Law party failed to recieve the votes or national recognition of most of the other major third parties in America.

An interesting and strange fact about The Natural Law Party is it's close relationship with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement. Many believe that this party is actually run by the movement. The movement operates the Maharishi University of Management in Iowa.

However, in 2004, the national Natural Law Party officially dissolved, hopwever state Natural Law Parties continue to operate in some states. In 2004 the national party leadership held a conference and voted to close up shop. They had been holding out hope that Dennis Kucinich would be their presidential candidate and when it became apparent that this would not happen, they decided not to go forward. In their notice on their website, it states that individual state parties of the NLP can continue to use the name and field candidates under the party platform.

External links

• Official Web Site
• Natural Law Party of Ohio
• Consciousness And the Natural Law Party article by John Hegelin in Yes! Magazine