51 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
consciousness-based politics, March 2, 2000
This review is from: Manual for a Perfect Government (Paperback)
Dr Hagelin is a courageous and original thinker. This book grows out of his monographs in the 1980s considering a possible connection between consciousness and the unified field of quantum field theory (his expertise), and out of his foray into public policy during his 1992 and 1996 Presidential bids.
What he's conceived is a unifying theory of politics, one based on the premise that government is itself governed by the collective consciousness of the people. Toward that end, he proposes establishing coherence creating groups of experts in Transcendental Meditation® as a foundation for positive social/political progress, and he presents the empirical basis of this novel approach. Then, he gives a summary of the latest field tested, proven knowledge in a variety of policy areas.
These issues include sustainable agriculture, preventive health care and natural medicine, effective crime prevention and rehabilitation, educational programs that keep children in school and develop their potential, renewable energy, and so on.
The key to this book is that it avoids fluff. It's not a New Age "feel good" tract, but rather a scientific and informed assessment of the latest thinking that can get our country and others working for the good of everyone. I'm not familiar with anything quite like it.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Birth of a New Era, August 14, 2005
This review is from: Manual for a Perfect Government (Paperback)
This book by one of the top scientists in the country is truly remarkable. Although Dr. John Hagelin's expertise and accomplishments are in quantum physics the knowledge of this work will change the discipline of social science forever. In fact in almost all cases academia and governments have been ineffective and impotent before the great problems of war, terrorism, and crime. [as well as poor health and a polluted environment] Manual for A Perfect Government reveals a startling solution for eliminating violence and damage at its core. This is no ivory tower theory- the data and practical research put forth here is impeccable.
Dr. Hagelin simplifies the myriad of problems we all face as humans. In a nutshell, he emphasises it is the violation of natural law that is creating the deterioration of our world. Purifying collective consciousness and harnessing the laws of nature through the use of the technology of the unified field is an idea whose time has come. As Dr. Hagelin points out the unified field which Einstein dreamed of finding [and whose existence was proved in subsequent years by scientists] is millions of times more powerful than the nuclear field; and it can only be used for peaceful purposes, there are no side effects. This field had its origins in the ancient Vedic culture. Now this field of pure consciousness discovered and utilized by Vedic scientists thousands of years ago is substantiated and verified by modern science. Dr. Hagelin in his book systematically and concretely maps out how we can markedly turn the tide on the most pressing problems of our times and transform the world into a higher quality of life for all.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Much better than I expected, with one exception., May 22, 2009
This review is from: Manual for a Perfect Government (Paperback)
John Hagelin, Manual for a Perfect Government (Maharishi University of Management Press, 1998)
I find it interesting that whenever a presidential election rolls around, there's always one dark-horse candidate who's written a fascinating book that doesn't get a single mention in the press. (As opposed to, say, Barack Obama's million-selling tomes.) Back in the 2000 election, it was Natural Law Party candidate John Hagelin and his book Manual for a Perfect Government, which was actually bloody hard to find, not only during the election, but afterwards; it actually took me eight years to track a copy down.
What the press focused on with Hagelin, when they deigned to notice him at all, was his assertion that the vast majority of our problems, as a society, could be fixed if we all did transcendental meditation. Which, as it turns out, is something of a distortion of Hagelin's actual message here, but I'm not sure the real thing will be any more comforting--the idea is that some of us have to do TM, and the rest of us will benefit. (Depending on the problem, the number seems to be between one and five percent of the global populace.) The thing is, Hagelin then goes on to back this all up with experiential studies. Who knew there were large-scale, seemingly peer-reviewed, studies on the external effects of TM? Not me. I have to admit I did get a bit skeptical about some of them, mostly because Hagelin notes that there were control factors involved, but doesn't really go into detail on what most of them were (did TM really increase Clinton's approval rating in the early weeks of his second term?). There's also a highly unfortunate chapter, and resulting dependence on it, about the now-discounted Superstring hypothesis, which Hagelin connects to human chi as a way of showing how TM can have external effects.
All that said, for be it from me, a guy whose head for science quit back in introductory bio, with a PhD in physics. I know you can toss the Superstring stuff out the window, but the rest of it? To my lizard-brain, it all sounds relatively plausible, and when it comes right down to it, as a governmental policy, it does pass one of my favorite tests--what harm can it do if it doesn't work? Hagelin puts forth some very interesting ideas here that, if they end up not working, will have caused no lasting harm whatsoever, will use very few resources (especially when you compare them to the current administration's policies; I doubt Hagelin's ideas, implemented wholesale, would cost half as much as the latest bailout), and have not done any irreparable damage to the careers of those involved (he suggests using a number of Army battalions as seed groups for TM practices; it's not like, if it doesn't work, they can't go back to maneuvers. And it's certainly a better use of their time than the last government's idea for using them--manufacture conflicts so they won't be sitting around mired in bureaucracy).
Tough to track down, but if you're interested in alternative (or comparative) political theory, it's a must. *** ½
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