This is a report of Dr. Hagelin’s Phone call at the Ohio NLP Statewide meeting March 24, 2007

The phone call from Dr. John Hagelin was a marvelous moment for The Natural Law Party of Ohio. The call came to the home of Billie and Richard Eastman in Yellowsprings, Ohio on March 24, 2007. 1:30 pm- 2:45. For those who understand Dr. Hagelin’s intensely busy schedule and multitude of projects, this hour and fifteen minutes was more than generous. It was an enormous gift of knowledge and vision. Here are some highlights of his message. These are compiled from notes from Scott Welbaum, Terri Zins and myself.

Dr. Hagelin began by describing current research on the human brain function in terms of the pre-frontal cortex. The pre-frontal is like the CEO of the brain or higher brain. The pre-frontal cortex is responsible for moral reasoning, rational thought, and planning. It also processes the impact of one’s actions on others, and conscious thought.

Under stressful conditions, the pre-frontal cortex shuts down and the person responds in a survival mode for safety. In humans, the prefrontal cortex takes about 25 years to fully develop. That is why a child is less able to see the results of his/her actions than mature adults. In conditions of chronic stress such as brought on by lack of sleep, improper rest, poor diet, war and fear, the pre-frontal cortex of children can shut down all together resulting in incomplete development of full mental potential.

Dr. Hagelin commented about the present state of education. He recognizes that the learning environment in our schools is not conducive to full development of the pre-frontal lobes. We pile on more and more coursework for students with excessive reading and assignments. This adds to the, stress load and in effect, debilitates higher-level thinking, and impedes full brain development. This is just the opposite of the purpose of education. Nothing in education today involves the whole brain. It involves only learning. Instead, education needs to give students a more holistic experience for full brain development by methods of dissolving the stresses. What is necessary in education is to introduce meditation as a necessary way to clear out the stresses and allow for the full brain functioning.

The neurons, without this development, do not fire in some areas, according to brain scans. The brain has holes, non-functional holes, especially in the pre-frontal cortex. It looks like Swiss cheese holes. (see attached image of normal and violent brain functon) This is seen in cases of long-term drug users and alcoholics. In these cases, the brain of the person is unable to perform moral reasoning, or unable to understand the impact of their action.

Dr. Hagelin was recently featured in the film “The Secret”. The main idea in the film is that our thoughts function according to the ‘Law of Attraction’ and our thoughts are more powerful than previously understood. It offers techniques to release that power. In addition to this concept, Dr. Hagelin described how scientists describes the Universe in ever-subtler levels of existence (as only Dr. Hagelin can do adequately), and that the fully developed human mind is capable of functioning at these ever-more-subtle levels. The producer of The Secret edited out this part of the interview in the final release in which Dr. Hagelin described why the power of thought works for some people and not so well for others. He explained that there are 4 levels of our thinking process. At the more subtle levels there is greater influence and at the more surface level, there is very little influence.

Dr. Hagelin conveyed the great wisdom that thought is the basis of action. When our thought is clear, our action is clear. When there is fatigue and thoughts are unclear, the action is not as effective. All that is needed in education is to clear the thought and action will be effective. To do this we take the mind to subtler and subtler levels. The first level of thought is concrete thinking, filled with words and sounds. The second level of thought is quiet abstract mind, which is subtler and is pre-linguistic. This is the realm of the artist. The third level of thinking is like the color of thoughts. Beyond this, the 4^th level of thinking, is the ocean of pure being, transcendental being. In his words “Existence is an ocean of being. An ocean of pure consciousness. The individual mind becomes universal mind. Everything in the world is a precipitated crystal of Universal Ocean.”

“To the extent which we are at the level, the Universe is our thought. This is how to command the Laws of Nature. The deeper you go, the more powerful nature becomes. It is the same with human thought. That is what was not mentioned in the Secret.”

Often our power of concentration is weak because it is still on the loud thinking level. The analogy is that our brain is like an orchestra. All the musicians are coming in, tuning up: we hear a multitude of sounds, none of which are in harmony with each other. It is a cacophony of noise. Then the conductor comes to the podium, the noise stops, and harmonious music pours forth. Our surface thought is fragmented like an orchestra tuning up. When our brain quiets down, we let go of the words and stress. Then emotional intelligence and moral reasoning rise and are the result of more orderly thought. When there is stressed thought, the parts of the brain are not talking to each other. The thoughts are weak and unfocused and there is no coordination. When the whole brain is firing together, there is increased IQ, EQ (Emotional intelligence), moral reasoning, learning ability and EEG coherence. That’s what meditation does for brain functioning. For the power of thought to work as described in “The Secret”, the full brain must function on all the levels. “Development of brain is crucial for the secret to work” Without developed brain, there is social unrest, crime, and war. What is needed is the use of a technique, since this does not happen by itself. What is needed is to develop the power of thought, soft thought … soft desire…”

He says this is not only theoretically good science, it has been proven on 53 peer-reviewed published studies. Furthermore, the studies demonstrate that there is an effect of group dynamics of consciousness. Groups of people with brain wave coherence have far-reaching influence.

As an example of this power of subtle thought as small groups of people gather for meditation. The correlated brain performance has been shown to turn off war. It has been proven in 53 studies and is now being done in Fairfield, Iowa with the Invincible America Course. (www.invincibleamerica.org).

Dr Hagelin then took questions from the group.

He was asked if now was a good time for political action on the Department of Peace and non-violence bill (HR 808), as presented by Congressman Dennis Kucinich.

He said it is more favorable now than ever. Further, he said that the Democratic Party could be bolder with its initiatives.

The Department of Peace bill has a component to set up Universities of Peace that include the use and exportation of techniques that reduce the tensions of war because they address the individual stress.

To understand how these mental techniques can be so effective in stopping war, he said “Nothing is more subtle than consciousness, when the brain has high serotonin levels, associated with alertness and calmness. This deep level is 10 million, million, million times more powerful than the nuclear force. Our mind transcends to this level which the Quantum Uncertainty Principle operates, it reaches out like a pebble form ripples in pond, little waves.” When groups of people practice this coherent brain functioning “it becomes like tidal waves of peace.” “It neutralizes negativity, even neighbors become friendly. We don’t have to eliminate the enemy, we just ameliorate the enemy.”

As was shown in the Washington DC study done during the Clinton Administration where there was a dissolving of divisive partisanship (see more details on this study by going to http://www.istpp.org/crime_prevention/index.html. , the government is only a reflection of the collective consciousness of the nation.

We get the government that we desire and demand. To make the government better we must improve consciousness. In context of political action, he said picture a hand writing on paper, it is not the hand that is creating the thoughts that are being written. Really it is the mind thinking what the hand then writes. Like that, it is not the government running the country. It is the consciousness of the sum of the individuals of the nation and the government is just an expression of the people.

With regards to political change, he gave the analogy that “ it is like playing Mozart to a buffalo.” We can talk and demonstrate the change without the proper hearing (awake consciousness), there will be no change. To change war to peace or crime into harmonious living, what is needed is a different physiology of consciousness.

When asked about the course in Fairfield, Iowa, Dr. Hagelin modestly described his role in bringing about the necessary square root of one percent of the US population together to create the coherent, life supporting effect on the United States. Results were predicted ahead of time and the details of this course can be viewed on the website (www.invincibleamerica.org). He explained that human consciousness could even influence weather patterns. Group practice of creating collective consciousness amplifies the effect, suggesting that the large group in Fairfield had the effect of the U.S having no hurricanes last year despite the prediction of leading Climatologists of a heavy hurricane season. Dr. Hagelin was confident that the numbers of people meditating together in Fairfield would continue to climb to 2000 in the next few months. He said, “When we reach 2000, this will be a very different Country”.

Another question from the group was raised: What is the connection between war and mental illness? Dr. Hagelin referred to Einstein’s definition of “madness” as continuing to do the same behaviors that have not worked in the past.

When asked about us putting our attention on Congressman Kucinich request for impeachment proceedings of the President, and whether this is placing attention on a negative approach, Dr. Hagelin explicitly gave the Natural Law Party of Ohio complete autonomy. He, himself is placing his energy elsewhere, stating that this lame duck president has only a year and a half left in office. He then reminded us that we in the Natural Law Party have deep knowledge that allows us very powerful action and we can be selective about where we put our attention.

He then went on to speak very highly of Congressman Kucinich saying it is “utterly refreshing to have someone in public office who speaks his mind.” And that he gives all of his respect to Kucinich and supports presidential campaign.