THE
ARMY OF THE GURU
But
wait a minute: who are these guys, and what do they
want? Organized in April 1992, the NLP is the political action
wing of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement, whose
Supreme Leader, the Guru Maharishi Maheesh Yogi, is the founder
of a Vedic-based religious sect that promises its followers
"bubbling
bliss." The Maharishi, known as "the Giggling Guru" for
his obnoxious habit of tittering at his own pronouncements
of divine wisdom, scored a coup in the 1960s when his most
prominent disciples were the Beatles. While the Fab Four grew
disenchanted with TM – when the Maharishi called them
on the carpet and asked why, John Lennon purportedly said,
"Well, if you're so cosmic, then you'll know why" – one
member of the cult who was faithful to the end was Doug
Henning, the famous magician, who died of liver cancer
at the age of 52, so addled
by TM that he rejected his craft, which he had come to
call "fake magic," for the "real magic" of the Maharishi.
In recent years, the vision of the Giggling Guru has taken
on an ominously apocalyptic tone: he believes that we are
headed for a cosmic catastrophe caused by a combination of
bad karma and bad food. Genetically engineered food will be
mankind's downfall, according to the Maharishi:
"The
gene is the intelligence value of the system. If you ingest
the intelligence value of genetically engineered food, it
doesn't fit with your body's intelligence. Those who eat these
foods had better pray for evolution in the next lifetime,
because they will not live to see enlightenment in this lifetime."
SUBSIDIZED
"ENLIGHTENMENT"
Politically,
the advocates of the Transcendental Meditation techniques
of the Guru Maharishi Maheesh Yogi, who believe that their
so-called "yogic
flyers" can actually levitate, are interested in one thing
and one thing only: government subsidies. As John
Knapp, of the Cult Awareness Network, put it:
"In
1992, the Maharishi urged his followers to enter global politics
to avert coming global calamity. At his direction, leaders
of the Transcendental Meditation movement founded the Natural
Law Party and entered political campaigns in the United States,
Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and many other
countries. The thrust of the Natural Law Party's platform
has been securing government funding for teaching Transcendental
Meditation to American citizens and outlawing genetic engineering
and other research they view as environmentally dangerous."
NATO'S
YOGIC FLYERS
The
solution of John Hagelin, the NLP's presidential candidate,
to the Kosovo crisis was to send in a corps of what the TMers
call "yogic flyers" – cult members who are able to levitate
while they meditate – who would spread
bliss and harmony throughout the Balkans. At a press conference
held in Washington, Hagelin proposed that NATO
set up an elite corps of Yogic flyers, whose beneficial
vibes are "proven" to bring "tranquility and bliss." Hagelin
cited the NLP's 1993 "Demonstration to Reduce Violence," when
thousands of TM levitators converged on Washington in order
to prove the efficacy of their meditation techniques –
whereupon the murder rate in the nation's capital surged to
an all-time high. Hagelin "explained" this by claiming that
it would have been even higher but for the intervention of
his army of meditators. As Bob Park trenchantly remarked in
his newsletter, What's New [April 9, 1999]:
"The
press conference ended with 12 trained yogic flyers bouncing
around on mattresses. It was clear to me his plan would work.
Serbian troops viewing 7,000 bouncing yogic flyers would be
rendered helpless by laughter."
ON
THE DOLE
But
the joke is on the rest of us – and the TM leaders will
be laughing all the way to the bank. For the use of public
monies to spread the TM gospel – and enrich thousands
of TM "practitioners" – is the number one item on the
Natural Law Party's agenda. In England, the NLP – given
free television time along with all the other parties –
garnered a bit of publicity by featuring shots of "yogic flyers"
bouncing up and down on mattresses. In Canada, they pulled
the same stunt, but, as one
Canadian observer of the TM movement writes:
"Here
in Canada, they have much bigger plans to pay TMers with tax
money as 'senior Civil Servants' at $70K to $80K/year to devote
all of their time and energy to 'yogic flying." They want
to spend over half a billion of tax money to get a corps of
7,000 mattress humpers off the ground, so to speak. Apparently
this number was derived by taking the square root of 1% of
the worlds population."
A
TRANSCENDENTAL SCAM
What
seems like a bunch of harmless
weirdos is, in reality, a group of very experienced and
wily scamsters: As ex-members put it, "Involvement
in TM is not cheap." While the TMers have nonprofit status
as an educational organization, they are certainly raking
in the cash: the TM movement is valued between $2-3 billion
dollars. Initiation starts at $1000: advanced mantras will
cost you $390, health mantras a hefty $700, instruction in
various psychophysiological techniques costs $700, and you
can stock op on a supply of the Maharishi's sacred herbs for
$1000 per year. Cleansing programs range from $2700 to $6600,
while yagyas (religious ceremonies performed to solicit
the aid of Hindu deities), "Jyotish" (Hindu astrology TM-style),
and Ayur-Veda prescribed gems
will all help drain your bank account. "Enlightenment"
is going to cost you plenty. But these are not just
enterprising entrepreneurs, they are also looking to insinuate
their religious views into the healthcare delivery systems
of countries throughout the world. The predominance of socialized
medicine in the West – with the US the last holdout,
as the left is constantly reminding us – makes this goal
not only achievable but even pretty likely. Can't you just
see Hillary's health plan including coverage for all kinds
of "alternative" nostrums, such as TM and "aromatherapy"?
THE
INTERLOPERS
The
media spin on the battle for the Reform nomination was that
the party split was analogous to a dysfunctional family; their
take was to portray two factions of the same grouping tearing
down the house rather than let their opponents have full title.
But this is completely in error: Hagelin and the NLP are interlopers
who somehow gained entry and are now trying to take over –
or else take off with the family silver. The Natural Law Party
has always been not only separate from the Reform party, since
the NLP's founding in 1992, when Hagelin was on over 20 state
ballots, but also in direct competition with it. When the
Perot movement was at its height, Hagelin ran against Ross:
Hagelin ran again in 1996. With Perot also in the race that
year, the NLP was on the ballot in 43 states plus the District
of Columbia. It wasn't until 1999, however, that Hagelin and
his crew decided to seek the Reform Party nomination –
without, however, abandoning the NLP. The proposed "merger"
of the two parties was overwhelmingly rejected by the Reform
Party National Committee, and the deadly embrace of the Yogic
Flyers has so far been avoided – unless the Federal Election
Commission, a government agency controlled by the two major
parties, gives this shotgun wedding the force of law. . .
.
COWBIRD'S
NEST
Hagelin
and his Yogic Flyers are like those cowbirds
that lay eggs in the nests of other species – their
survival strategy depends on their ability to fool the foster
parents into believing that the resulting baby cowbird is
their own. They are basically interlopers, who were successfully
repelled – managing to garner just about 20 to 25 percent
of the delegate votes at the Long Beach convention. But that
isn't the story we heard coming out of that convention: the
wires, the television reports, the columnists all insisted
that a mass uprising against Pat Buchanan and his dreaded
Buchananites had split the party irrevocably into two roughly
equal parts. In reality, however, the "split" was a bit of
Kabuki theater, enacted for the benefit of the media –
and the courts.
PHONY
"SPLIT"
Everything
about this phony "split" was prearranged, from the rental
of the rival "Reform Party" convention hall across the way
from the Long Beach Convention Center to the carefully-staged
confrontations: the finale came when the Hagelinistas,
having bussed in a couple of hundred vacant-eyed acolytes
from various TM "communes," actually marched on the legitimate
convention hall, demanding entry for each and every one of
their mind-numbed robots as "delegates." They were politely
asked by the cops, and Reform Party officials in charge of
the convention, to turn around and march right back where
they came from – and they meekly complied. Jim Mangia's
gleeful prediction that there would be a "bloody" confrontation
was never even in the cards. It was a ridiculous exercise
that was the anticlimax of an entirely predictable scenario
– and one enacted in an oddly ritualized manner, as if
the actors were merely going through the motions. The media
dutifully recorded this charade, as if the actions of the
Hagelinistas had any political meaning – or legal
standing – and it is against this backdrop that the FEC
is going to make its decision. . . .
HAGELIN'S
GAMBIT
A
parasite is essentially a destructive creature – it lives
off the sustenance of others, and eventually starves its'
host to death, whereupon it moves to the next victim. Hagelin's
gambit, which might rightly be called the invasion of the
party-snatchers, is slated to achieve a similar result as
far as the Reform Party is concerned. The proof of this is
in California, where – as in every other state –
they are challenging the legitimacy of the duly-constituted
Reform Party, while claiming to be the "real" Reformers. While
already on the ballot as the candidate of the Natural
Law Party, Hagelin is also claiming the Reform Party nomination
as his own. The effect of his efforts in California is not
to secure ballot status – which he already has –
but to deny it to Buchanan. Hagelin's ends are purely destructive
– to deprive Buchanan's many supporters in California
from having the opportunity to vote for their man. With the
Maharishi's vast wealth and the considerable resources of
the cult at their disposal, the NLP is waging a persistent
campaign to derail the Reform party and make sure that Buchanan
is off the ballot in as many states as possible – even
in those states when they could both be on. So much
for Hagelin's lofty paeans to "reform," "democracy," and more
"democratic" ballot access laws. These cowbirds are a special
predatory breed: they not only lay eggs in other nests, but
they also try to devour the rightful inhabitants.
THE
BILL JONES FACTOR
The
Republican Secretary of State, Bill Jones, initially put Buchanan
on the ballot, at the instruction of the state chairman of
the party – but then rescinded the designation when dissident
members of the state executive committee protested that this
was against their interpretation of the Reform Party's state
bylaws. It was an unusual intervention by state election officials,
to say the least – but less mysterious in light of George
W. Bush's recent plunge in the polls. With the Republicans'
double-digit lead, which they had enjoyed for months, evaporating
virtually overnight, the GOP is in a panic – and Jones
is their instrument. Gore is currently leading in California,
and Nader's numbers are falling as the race gets tighter.
Buchanan on the ballot in the Golden State could make the
difference by taking votes away from the Republicans. Is the
GOP "moderate" Jones using his power as California's secretary
of state to keep Buchanan off the ballot for purely partisan
reasons? It wouldn't be the first time the "major" parties
used the power of government to their own political advantage,
now would it? And speaking of Republicans . . .
THE
GOP CONNECTION
There
is some fascinating material extent on the GOP-TM connection
– one that, believe it or not, is directly linked to
the Bush family. According to a
fascinating article posted on Mumball,
a site that describes itself as "a critical look at the Natural
Law Party and Maharishi University of Management, published
by Bob Brigante, a satisfied TM customer since 1968," Alfred
Jenkins, a longtime State department official known as "Mr.
China" – an old friend of the Bush family who served
as a trustee of Maharishi University from 1974-79 – was
a longtime TM devotee with links to the Bush family and the
GOP. Jenkins met George H. Bush in 1974, when Bush took over
a diplomatic post in Beijing where Jenkins served as senior
deputy. The article notes that Jenkins mentions his connection
to TM in his memoir, Country,
Conscience and Caviar: A Diplomat's Journey in the Company
of History, and recounts the following:
"Jenkins
still meditates but 'left the movement when it became more
flamboyant, making what charitably can only be viewed as premature
claims, and appearing to be more money-conscious than my taste
could accommodate." (p.300) Jenkins says that he wishes that
his friend Dr. Kissinger would practice TM (p.301), but neglects
to mention that George Bush did take the hint and start TM.
George Bush met Jenkins in 1974 when he took over the Liaison
Office precursor to full diplomatic relations with China)
in Beijing from David Bruce and his senior deputy, Alfred
Jenkins. . . . Bush's initiation into TM (which his sons also
started) inspired TM teacher Mike Love of the Beach Boys to
raise lots of money for Bush when he competed with Reagan
for the Republican presidential nomination. There are limits
on what an individual can give to a politician's campaign,
but there are no limits on what a musician can raise by holding
concerts, so the efforts of Mike Love were especially prized
by Bush and other Republican party officials There does not
appear to be any reason why California surfer-hippie types
like the Beach Boys, who never displayed any interest in politics
before their support of Bush, would support a Maine-Texas
Republican ex-CIA Director like Bush except for the fact that
Bush started TM, a fact which was widely talked about in the
can't-keep-a-secret TM movement back in the 70s."
SOCK
PUPPETS FOR BUSH?
Mike
Love, we are told, now raises money for the Natural Law Party.
The NLP-GOP-Bush family connection is not as far-fetched as
it seems: while the Bush family involvement in TM is just
gossip that has apparently been percolating around movement
circles for years, the connections to TM of people in the
Bush political orbit raises an interesting possibility.
Never mind Dubya's visit to Bob Jones University -- let's
hear what he has to say about his
visit to Maharishi U, where he stumped for his father.
If we ask the question, who benefits from the wrecking
operation in the Reform Party aimed at Buchanan, the obvious
answer is: the GOP, and specifically George W. In light of
this, the possibility of a connection between the Bush family
and the TM movement, either personally or politically, raises
all kinds of disturbing questions, not the least of which
is: John Hagelin and his Yogic Flyers – whose sock
puppets are they?
UNHOLY
ALLIANCE?
The
key fact to remember is that Hagelin and his yogic-flying
scamsters need the help of the Federal Election Commission
to pull it off their scam – and it is frightening to
contemplate the circumstances in which such an unholy alliance
might be consummated. A number of FEC officials, usually speaking
anonymously, have suggested all kinds of possible solutions
to what they uniformly claim is a baffling and unprecedented
conundrum. One proposed that Buchanan and Hagelin divide
the federal matching funds between them, while yet another
suggested that they just might withhold the money entirely.
If either event obtains, then perhaps we can look forward,
in 2004, to Hagelin's campaign for the Republican presidential
nomination – and it isn't hard to imagine the following
scenario:
A
HIGHLY UNLIKELY SCENARIO
After
being defeated at state party conventions and party primaries
from one end of the country to the other, Hagelin and his
Yogic Flyers travel to the GOP national convention with exactly
the same tactical plan they executed in Long Beach. Hire a
hall across the way, bus in as many "delegates" as possible,
recruit a few sympathizers inside the legitimate convention,
and stage a very visible and dramatic "walk-out" – from
a party in which they were never actually members. Then go
across the street, convene your own "rump" convention –
and appeal to the FEC for custody of the GOP's federal matching
funds, since, after all, you and your tiny band of wacko followers
are the "real" Republican party. Think it would work?
UNCHARTED
WATERS
Of
course they'd never pull it off when it comes to one
of the two "major" parties, who enjoy special privileges and
protections not afforded to the parties of the "minor" leagues.
However, the Reform Party is held to a different standard.
Ominously, FEC Chairman Darryl Wold is cited in an Associated
Press story as having said:
"It
is possible that both will be eligible for the money. However,
the federal statute 'doesn't provide any guidance in that
regard, so we don't have any experience to fall back on. Agency
attorneys are now analyzing what should be done in that case.
We'll be in uncharted waters. It doesn't mean we'll be at
sea or adrift, but we would open a new path.'"
THE
PATH TO PERDITION
There
is, unfortunately, nothing new about the "path" the FEC is
in danger of treading. Historically, the two "major" parties
have used ballot access laws and other "legal" means to limit
the electoral possibilities of third party movements. Pat
Buchanan slogged to virtually every Reform Party convention,
in every state but a few, winning the overwhelming majority
of delegates and sewing up the party's presidential nomination
fair and square. Now a cabal of embittered would-be Reform
party bosses and some New Age nutballs are using the courts
– and the power of the federal government – to harass,
drain, and eventually derail his campaign.
THE
FACE OF HATE
As
I put the finishing touches on this column, word has reached
me that Buchanan is being sued by Ravi Batra, an economist
and meditation enthusiast sympathetic to Hagelin, for "plagiarism."
The news release announcing the suit was issued by the phony
"Reform Party" of Russell Verney, who is quoted practically
frothing at the mouth: "Pat Buchanan is not an honorable man,"
he rants. "Pat Buchanan tried to cheat his way to political
fame and $12.6 million in the Reform Party, and now it appears
that he tried to cheat his way to literary success and tens
of thousands of dollars in book royalties." Such naked hatred
is not a pretty sight, but then neither is Verney himself,
an embittered old has-been who has had his fifteen seconds
of fame and is about to drop back into the obscurity he so
richly deserves.
BATRA'S
BULLSHIT
According
to the release, the "plagiarism" consists of duplicated charts
and graphs that supposedly appear in both books – a dubious
charge if ever there was one, since charts and graphs measuring
the same phenomena – such as trade deficits – are
bound to be identical. Are these maniacs going to be
allowed to use the courts to continually harass their political
opponents? As for Batra's own sympathies, they are not too
hard to discern. As an
admiring biographical sketch of the Indian academic puts
it: "When Batra is not pontificating eruditely on the economies
of the world, you may find him relaxing with a game of tennis.
His other favorite: tantric meditation. The value-based tantric
meditation that Batra practices demands that he lead a saintly
life on strict principles of morality with no cheating, lying,
meat eating and a life dedicated to social service and opposing
injustice. It also involves high-powered meditation on the
cosmic entity." Not content to write bestselling economic
potboilers which invariably predict some impending catastrophe
that never
seems to materialize, Dr. Batra has also taken on the
airs of a spiritual guru second only to John Hagelin, or even
the Maharishi himself. To get some idea of his prose style
– and the impossibility of the idea that Buchanan would
have "plagiarized such woozy crap – let me treat you
to a sampling of Batra's crackpot theorizing. According to
the good Doctor, people
"have
needs that cannot possibly be satisfied by material objects.
The human thirst for happiness is infinite, but material things
are all finite; hence they can never quench the human thirst.
Human beings all seek unlimited joy, but material objects,
being limited, can never offer that. The limited cannot yield
the unlimited. Only an infinite entity can satisfy the infinite
human hunger for enjoyment. Spiritual activity is simply a
pursuit of the infinite entity."
No
one in his right mind would possibly plagiarize such a turgid
and unimaginative writer: it would be like shoplifting dollar
trinkets from the five-and-dime. The Batra lawsuit is clearly
harassment, but the Yogic Flyers have plenty of cash
to throw around, and money is no object in pursuit of their
destructive agenda:
MEDITATION
IS WHERE THE MONEY IS
Former
members of the cult attest, and federal tax returns confirm
that between 1985 and 1989, two of the Maharishi's companies
transferred a total of $54-million out of the country to his
secluded
fortress headquarters located at Vlodrop, Netherlands.
With a multi-million dollar income from selling "enlightenment"
to hundreds of thousands of gullible disciples worldwide,
the Transcendental Meditators are pumping lots of cash into
the political arm of their movement – in spite of the
legal prohibitions against religious
organizations engaging in political activities. Since
their chosen target is Buchanan, you can bet that they'll
be far less closely monitored by federal authorities than,
say, the Christian Coalition. Pat Robertson and his flock
were targeted for
putting out a voter's guide for Christians and faced all kinds
of persecution by the federal government, but let an Indian
guru pour millions of his ill-gotten dollars into a political
movement such as the Natural Law Party, with the goal of taking
over and neutralizing the effectiveness of the nation's third-largest
party, and our federal overseers and regulators are conspicuous
by their absence. What's up with that?
FOLLOWING
THE MONEY
In
a recent interview, Hagelin disdained the FEC money, saying
that, if he didn't get it, it wouldn't really matter, and
boasting about his ability to raise virtually unlimited amounts
of money. Oh. really? Where is all this cash coming
from – and to what end? The NLP is but one of a few dozen
Natural Law parties from Canada to Pakistan, which regularly
meet in international conclave and act
in concert. To what extent the finances of the US branch
are subsidized by the international organization is a matter
that would normally be of great interest to federal overseers,
but the only real investigation of the NLP has been over alleged
voter registration fraud in California. With enormous resources
of its own, as well as links to many well-heeled
sympathizers with big corporate connections, the energetic
"get Buchanan" campaign has been well-greased with ready cash
– but where is it coming from? Inquiring minds want to
know. . . .
BUCHANAN
BOUNCING BACK
In
North Carolina, South Carolina, and in state after state,
the Buchanan campaign is beating back attempts by these cowbirds
to torpedo the Reform Party. Buchanan has been hospitalized
twice in the past week for gallstones – a painful if
not life threatening experience, I am told – is
in good spirits, as usual, and cannot wait to get back into
the fray. Those pundits who sniffed at the Reformers' unscripted
convention and pretended that Hagelin was ever a serious candidate
are in for a surprise. If the FEC dares to withhold so much
as a dime from Buchanan, and openly uses its power to knock
the Reform Party out of contention, the outcry will knock
them off their feet with its fury. The Buchanan camp has played
by the rules, but those rules could be changed in the middle
of the game. If so, millions of Americans will be disenfranchised
– and further alienated from a system they already distrust
and often despise.
REPRESSING
THE RIGHT
There
is already a whole school of thought that considers Buchanan's
positions on immigration, affirmative action, and other hot-button
issues to be "hate speech": if uttered by a student on virtually
any college campus in this country, such views could lead
to his or her expulsion. In Canada, Britain, and parts of
Western Europe, "anti-hate" legislation was passed by left-wing
parliaments as an instrument of political repression, to block
the formation of right-wing populist mass parties. While not
yet resorting to such radical legal sanctions, the American
arbiters of political correctness have done everything –
and I do mean everything! – to make sure that
Buchanan never even gets on a ballot, never mind anywhere
near the presidential debates. If the Anti-Buchananites have
their way, this presidential election year, our choices will
be limited to three: the Center (Bush), the Left (Gore), and
the Far Left (Nader). The Right, entirely absent, will be
rendered illegitimate and driven largely underground. Most
importantly, if Buchanan is kicked off the ballot or denied
equal access to the same resources available to the other
parties – as if this were Mexico in the bad old days
of the PRI – it means that foreign policy will not even
be discussed this election year. Buchanan has declared that
foreign policy is going to be the linchpin of his campaign
– and that is the last thing our rulers want at a time
when war clouds are gathering on every horizon, from the Balkans
to the Middle East.
DOING
THEIR WORST
The
invasion of the party-snatchers is but one phase of an extended
campaign to derail and destroy the Buchanan campaign, and
it, too, is failing. But there's more in store for PJB: after
all, the campaign season has hardly begun – and the Anti-Buchanan
Brigades are just warming up. Well, let them do their worst.
I suspect it won't be enough. After smashing the last desperate
maneuvers of the frothy-mouthed Verney and his hate-filled
cabal – and recovering from a painful but necessary series
of operations, – Pat Buchanan is going to come out swinging.
And that is precisely what makes them so afraid.
PREMATURE
BURIAL
The
source of their fear is Buchanan's intellectual and personal
vitality, which keeps bouncing back with renewed vigor each
time his political obituary is written. They said he was finished
as a serious conservative leader when he dared oppose the
Gulf war – and he went on to challenge and nearly unseat
a sitting American president. They said his bold and elegantly-written
book, A
Republic, Not an Empire, would have to mean the ruin
of its author – for no one is allowed to challenge the
sacred mythology of internationalism and live to tell the
tale. When that prediction failed, and Pat's move to make
the Reform Party an instrument of conservative populism succeeded,
the legal assault began – but this, too, shall pass,
and (in a week or so) the FEC will render its decision. .
. .
DOWN
TO THE WIRE
The
Buchanan
campaign has made its application for the federal matching
funds due the Reform Party, and the feds have ten days
to process the request. Let us be clear about what they are
deciding. The question is whether or not peaceful political
reform is possible any longer in a country lapsing into the
final stages of imperial decadence. When all avenues to peaceful
change are closed, either by state repression or the kind
of private pressure that is often even more effective, society
becomes a kind of pressure cooker – one just waiting
to explode.
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