The Natural Law Party is a political party based on the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and transcendental meditation. It gained limited success in India and the US, with presidential candidate John Hagelin achieving the most success. The party aims to reduce crime and poverty through meditation and ban genetic engineering.
The Natural Law Party is a political party based on the ideology and philosophy of transcendental meditation. While primarily one of America’s minor political parties, it has representation in dozens of nations around the world. Using the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the Transcendental Meditation movement in the 20th century, the party focuses on the politics of change and some religious values associated with the movement. While this party unsuccessfully waged many political campaigns in the United States, it achieved limited success in Maharishi’s home country of India.
Founded in 1992, the Natural Law Party took root in Fairfield, Iowa. It was initially established separately from the official Transcendental Meditation movement, but quickly gained a reputation for coordinating many believers in the practice and its political ambitions. Through a system of paid and volunteer members, it garnered thousands of signatures nationwide to become a federally recognized political party the same year, qualifying for federal campaign funds. Many early candidates were formerly associated with the Republican Party.
In the United States, the Natural Law Party achieved its greatest success in the late 1990s with presidential candidate John Hagelin. It was able to gain ballot access in 48 states and received 0.12 percent of the vote nationwide in 1996. During the next cycle, it attempted to merge with the Reform Party, another small political party. When that attempt failed, it was essentially disbanded nationwide in 2004.
In other countries, the Natural Law Party has made more progress in the political arena. The party won a single seat in the National Assembly of India in 1998. In the UK, a number of candidates were nominated for the post in the late 1990s. Although none gained membership in Parliament, the Natural Law Party successfully raised millions of pounds in funding. Other nations such as Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, Australia and Canada also had strong political parties during this period but failed to gain government seats as well.
There are many platforms that the Natural Law Party adopts, which they intend to use nationally and perhaps worldwide. Among the most notable is its plan to establish yogic flyers, individuals who are successful in extensive meditation techniques which the party claims will reduce crime and poverty. He also wants to lower taxes and introduce meditation in schools. It also plans to ban the genetic engineering process and move to a biological infrastructure for agriculture and food production.
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