Exactly
one year ago, a fledgling political party first gained attention in Austin when it ran an ad
encouraging people to “Find Out about the Natural Law Party… Yogic Flying To
Be Demonstrated.” The ad pictured two smiling men sitting in the lotus position
hovering in mid–air.
“This is really far-out,” says Sandra BonSell, the Texas Natural Law Party
(NLP) chair and candidate for U.S. Representative, who was at the demonstration
last October. “I wish they hadn’t done that. It’s flashy.”
So, did they actually fly? Do they really levitate? “Well,” BonSell responds
a bit reluctantly, “it’s more like watching them hop.”
Are we talking about the latest fitness fad or spiritual movement? No, this is
politics in the Nineties. The NLP is on the ballot this November in 48 states.
Party members see themselves as common-sense empiricists, backing what their
presidential candidate, quantum physicist John Hagelin, calls “the most
up-to-date solutions…to elevate government above the realm of…speculation.”
But the general public might just see them as weird.
Behind the Natural Law movement is the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, pioneer of
transcendental meditation, but probably some of the 700 national NLP candidates
and a good many of the 1 million petition-signers don’t know that. In 1992 the
Maharishi inspired the party’s birth in Great Britain and, like the
international Green Party movement, the Natural Law idea has spread all over
the globe. The U.S. party’s platform addresses a daunting array of issues,
almost all of which boil down the party’s cure-all focus — eliminating
unnecessary stress from daily life. Focusing on the physical and mental health
of the nation, the NLP proposes a variety of prevention-oriented programs to
tackle America’s problems in the twenty-first century.
Some voters will be excited about a political party which supports alternative
energy and sustainable agriculture, touts education as the “solution to all our
national problems,” and doesn’t accept PAC money. The NLP even supports many
existing government programs such as Head Start, Medicare/Medicaid, NAFTA and
GATT. But it is the non-political element of their platform which will turn
many away from the new group. “The whole purpose of Natural Law is to
reintroduce the human element into politics,” says Hagelin, “because America’s
problems are human problems.” And the primary solution to these problems,
according to the NLP, is better health and higher consciousness as individuals
and as a nation. Through transcendental meditation, improved diet and exercise,
and “boosting national creativity,” it seems, virtually all the nation’s
problems, from crime to health care, can be solved. The idea that all our
troubles would be eliminated if we just lived by the party’s basic tenets —
breathing clean air, drinking clean water, and eating right — sounds
idealistic, even na�ve. But the NLP candidates confidently back up their
proposals with scientific documentation. They say they feel right at home in
their third-party role.
Natural Law candidate Ed Fasonella, an educator who lives in Austin, says that
his whole purpose in running for U.S. Representative this year is to “infect
the public debate with these ideas,” and adds that “I will win either way.” One
of the party’s main efforts is toward conflict-free politics. Several
candidates have even met with their opponents to sell them on the NLP’s ideas.
“I don’t wish to term it `running against'” says BonSell, “I am running
beside.”
Hagelin was approached in 1992 while on staff at the Maharishi International
University, by what he calls the “meditating businessmen” who founded the U.S.
party in Fairfield, Iowa. Like him, most NLP candidates do not come from
political backgrounds. At a series of informal meetings across Texas earlier
this year, candidates simply raised their hands and volunteered to run. In
fact, many still plan to vote Democrat and Republican. However, State Board of
Education candidate Catherine Randolph, who admits to being a yellow-dog
Democrat, quips, “I certainly intend to vote for myself.”
Most of them are not even campaigning for their offices, but are running
simply to give the NLP a presence on the November ballot. Candidates are no
less supportive of Natural Law ideas because of their lackadaisical campaign
efforts, however. Steve Klayman, a chiropractor who is running for Lloyd
Doggett’s senate seat, paints the party’s message as a “breath of fresh air in
a field of death.” NLP candidates hope to effect the political climate in the
way that third-party movements such as Women’s Suffrage and Perot’s Reform
Party have throughout this century. “If it seems weird [now], 20 years ago
talking about stress seemed weird. And [20 years ago] it was cool to smoke,”
points out Klayman.
It would certainly be a mistake to write off the Natural Law Party simply
because their ideas are kooky or new. The party clearly intends to be taken
seriously and is already planning for the 2000 campaign. In fact some of this
year’s races may have unexpected outcomes. “I may not be such an underdog as
initially perceived,” asserts BonSell, who has no Republican challenger in her
race against Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos. Hagelin confirmed that in a handful of
races across the nation, NLP candidates are expected to win office. The party’s
website, www.natural-law.org, receives 10,000 hits per day and Hagelin
estimates that the NLP may receive 2.5 million votes nationwide this November.
He expects that those numbers will cause Republicans and Democrats to “scramble
to get on the prevention bandwagon.” No doubt Hagelin and his fellow candidates
are busy meditating on victory right now. n
This article appears in October 25 • 1996 and October 25 • 1996 (Cover).