Chapter End Notes

Chapter 2 Ruminations of a Third-Party Operative

1. The Media Monopoly by Ben Bagdikian Boston: Beacon Press; 1998.

2. Transcendental Meditation by Robert Roth New York: Donald I. Fine; 1994.

3. The Natural Law Party was founded in 1992 by a dozen TM meditators-medical doctors, business executives, and lawyers. They started the party out of frustration with government leaders who, either due to a lack of information or for reasons of political expediency, were ignoring the effectiveness of the TM technique in health care, rehabilitation, and education. They were also frustrated that government was ignoring the effectiveness of many other crucial programs that could be of enormous benefit to society, such as natural medicine, renewable energy technologies, organic agriculture, etc. Thus the Natural Law Party was founded with a broadbased platform that has since attracted widespread support-whether or not voters are personally interested in meditation-and the party has now become the fastest growing political party in America. In fact, John Hagelin estimates that just a small fraction-much less than one percent-of party voters practice the TM technique. The founding of the party by TM meditators naturally led members of the press to ask for more knowledge about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the TM technique. For more than 40 years, Maharishi has worked to develop programs that harness nature's intelligence to solve critical problems in health care, crime, education, etc., and thereby raise the quality of life in society. The Natural Law Party supports these programs because they have been shown by independent scientific research to work-just as it supports all the other programs in its platform which have been similarly proven to work. Maharishi himself has no role in the running or building of the Natural Law Party, and the party has never received any financial contributions from the non-profit TM organization.

Chapter 5"The Best Kept Secret in America"

1. Beyond Einstein: the Cosmic Quest for the Theory of the Universe by Michio Kaku and Jennfier Thompson; Anchor; 1995; and Superstrings and the Search for the Theory of Everything by F. David Peat; Chicago, IL; Contemporary Books; 1988.

Chapter 7 Genetically Engineered Foods-The Hazards of Tinkering with Natural Law

1. Exploding the Gene Myth by Ruth Hubbard and Elijah Wald Boston: Beacon Press; 1997.

2. New England Journal of Medicine, March 14, 1996; 334(11): 726-728.

3. Trends in Biotechnology, 1994; 12: 346-352.

Chapter 8 Putting Health Back into Our Disease Care System

1. For example, a recent study showed that deaths from medication errors increased 156% between 1983 and 1993. The study was published in The Lancet, Feb. 28, 1998; 351: 643-4.

2. Health Affairs, 1997; 16(6): 163-171. Health Affairs, 1994; 13(4): 100-112.

3. "Beyond Health Promotion: Reducing Need and Demand for Medical Care: Health Care Reforms to Improve Health while Reducing Costs" by James Fries, Everett Koop, et al. Health Affairs, 1998; 17(2): 70-84

4. New England Journal of Medicine, 1993, Vol. 328: 246-52.

5. Journal of the American Medical Association, 1996; 276: 1473-1479.

6. Journal of the American Medical Association, July 5, 1995; 274: 29-34.

7. Journal of the American Medical Association, July 5, 1995; 274: 29-34. Journal of the American Medical Association, 1994; 272: 1851-1857.

8. The Lancet, 1998; 351: 643-644.

9. Journal of Clinic Epidemiology, 1997; 50(12): 1319-1326. Quality Review Bulletin 1993; 19:144-149.

10. More than 18% of people who stayed in a hospital had at least one serious adverse event (medical mistake); the likelihood of having an adverse event increased 6% for each day spent in a hospital. The Lancet 1997; 349(9048): 309-313.

11. Science, 1998; 279: 1153-4. Scientific American, 1998; 278(3): 46-53.

12. Because so many bacteria have become resistant or immune to antibiotics, infectious diseases are rapidly increasing in the United States and worldwide. In fact, infectious diseases are the leading cause of death worldwide. Des Moines Register, July 20, 1997.

13. Harvard Reports on Cancer Prevention, Cancer Causes and Control, 1996; 7: S3-S59.

14. New England Journal of Medicine, 1997; 336: 1569-74.

15. Based on Vedic medicine, the world's oldest and most complete system of natural health care, reformulated in a scientific, systematic framework by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, along with leading medical doctors and Vedic physicians-and now known as Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health.

16. Freedom from Disease by Hari Sharma, M.D. Twin Lakes, WI; Lotus Press; 1997. Awakening Nature's Healing Intelligence by Hari Sharma, M.D. Twin Lakes, WI; Lotus Press; 1997.

17. New England Journal of Medicine, 1997; 337(21): 1524.

18. Journal of the American Medical Association, 1997; 278(23): 2111-2112.

Chapter 9 Going Organic

1. Pimental D., McLaughlin L., Zepp A. Environmental and economic effects of reducing pesticide use. Bioscience 1991; 41(6): 402-409.

2. Pimental D., McLaughlin L., Zepp A. Environmental and economic costs of pesticide use. Bioscience 1992; 42(10): 750-760.

3. Cahow K. The cancer conundrum. Environmental Health Perspectives 1995; 103(11): 998-1004.

4. Colborn T., Dumanoski D., Myers J.P. Our Stolen Future: Are we threatening our fertility, intelligence, and survival? New York, NY: Penguin Books; 1996.

5. Davis D.L., Bradlow H.L. Can environmental estrogens cause breast cancer? Scientific American 1995; October: 166-172.

6. The federal government does not screen farm chemicals for safety before they are marketed. The chemical manufacturers are given the responsibility for determining whether their own products pose a health or environmental risks. Fagin D., Lavelle M. Toxic Deception: How the Chemical Industry Manipulates Science, Bends the Law, and Endangers Your Health. Secaucus, N.J.: Birch Lane Press; 1996.

Chapter 10 America's Energy Future-A Solid Basis for Optimism

1. Powering the Midwest by Brower, Tennis, Denzler, and Kaplan. Union of Concerned Scientists: 1993; 2-3.

2. The Lancet, November 7, 1997.

3. Climate Change, 1995, Contribution of Working Group I to the Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press; 1995.

4. Science News, January 17, 1998.

5. Climate Change, 1995, Impacts, Adaptations and Mitigations of Climate Change: Scientific Technical Analyses. Cambridge University Press; 1995, Part I and II.

6. Rising Sun, Gathering Winds: Policies to Stablize the Climate and Strengthen Economies by Christorpher Flavin and Seth Dunn; World Watch Paper 138; November 1997.

7. Proceedings of the American Wind Energy Association, 1997.

8. Powering the Midwest by Brower, Tennis, Denzler, and Kaplan. Union of Concerned Scientists: 1993; A 19.

9. Rising Sun, Gathering Winds: Policies to Stablize the Climate and Strengthen Economies by Christorpher Flavin and Seth Dunn; World Watch Paper 138; November 1997.

10. Wind Energy Weekly, December 22, 1997.

11. Scientific American, May 1997.

Chapter 11 The Roots of Natural Law in American History

1. The Eighteenth Century Background: Studies on the Idea of Nature in the Thought of the Period, by Basil Willey, New York: Columbia University Press; 1969 gives a rich feeling for the intellectual character of the century and the key role played by natural law ideas in its thought.

2. Quoted in Miracle at Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention, May to September 1787, by Catherine Drinker Bowen, Boston: Little, Brown; 1966.

3. In The Works of John Adams, edited by Charles Francis Adams, Norwalk: The Easton Press; 1992.

4. Quoted in The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, edited by Max Ferrand, New Haven: Yale University Press; 1966.

5. Of the preSocratic philosophers, Heraclitus of Ephesus is among the best known, particularly for his exposition of the 'logos'. See Heraclitus: The Cosmic Fragments, edited by G. S. Kirk, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1954. The literal meaning of 'logos' is something akin to 'word'. Western readers are familiar with this translation of 'logos' from its use in the first verse of the Gospel According to Saint John. A parallel description from the system of knowledge of ancient India is found in 'Veda', which denotes the eternal, primordial sounds of nature-the natural law-at the unmanifest basis of creation.

6. A review of the central tradition of natural law philosophy in Western thought, from Plato and Aristotle to the European philosophers of the 18th century, is provided in Plato's Modern Enemies and the Theory of Natural Law by John Wild, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press; 1953.

7. In De Republica, the statesman, orator, and essayist Marcus Tullius Cicero summed up what natural law was for the Romans: "True law is right reason conformable to nature, universal, unchangeable, eternal, whose commands urge us to duty, and whose prohibitions restrain us from evil. This law cannot be contradicted by any other law, and is not liable either to derogation or abrogation. Neither the senate nor the people can give us any dispensation for not obeying this universal law of justice. It needs no other expositor and interpreter than our own conscience. It is not one thing at Rome and another at Athens; one thing today and another tomorrow; but in all times and nations this universal law must forever reign, eternal and imperishable. It is the sovereign master and emperor of all beings. God himself is its author, its promulgator, its enforcer." The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, reigning at the peak of the 'Pax Romana' in the 2nd century AD, was also, for the following centuries, one of the best-known exponents of natural law. See De Republica, De Legibus by Marcus Tullius Cicero, Cambridge: Harvard University Press; 1928, and The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, edited by A. S. L. Farquharson, Oxford: Clarendon Press; 1944.

8. Ernest Barker gives a brief overview of the concept of 'a Law of Nature' at the basis of the Western tradition of law in his introduction to Otto Gierke's definitive Natural Law and the Theory of Society, 1500 to 1800, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; 1934.

9. In the writings of several of the Fathers of the early Christian church, notably Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine of Hippo, scholars have noted an implied distinction between the eternal natural law of God and a more relative natural law of man. Writing nearly a millennium later, Saint Thomas Aquinas, in Questions 90-97 of his Summa Theologica, distinguished four kinds of law: the lex eterna, the eternal law, "the rational governance of everything on the part of God as ruler of the universe;" the lex naturalis, the natural law, "the participation in the eternal law by rational creatures;" the lex divina, the divine law, God's commandments to man; and the lex humana, the human law, the positive or man-made laws of societies. Aquinas maintained that if the human law disagrees with the natural law "it is no longer a law, but a corruption of law." See Thomas Aquinas, Treatise on Law, edited by Stanley Parry, South Bend; Regnery/Gateway; 1979.

10. Two primary works carried the influence of Roman law throughout the Christianity-dominated Middle Ages: the Corpus Juris of Justinian, the Code, or body of statute law; and the Digest, or body of case law. The Christian jurist Gratian, in his famous Decretum Gratiani or Concordia Discordantium Canonum, which was the major source book for canon law in the 12th and 13th centuries, borrowed from the introductory passages of the Digest in stating, "Natural law is the law that is common to all nations."

11. The modern period of natural law thinking began in the late 16th and early 17th centuries with the so-called Late Scholastics, who included the Jesuit scholars Saint Robert Bellarmine in Italy and Francisco Suarez in Spain and Portugal. The theory of the modern state took further shape with political philosophers Jean Bodin in France and Thomas Hobbes in England, with the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius, considered a principal founder of international law theory, and with the German professors Johannes Althusius, who elaborated the compact theory of the state, and Samuel Pufendorf, who developed the theory of federalism. American clergymen throughout the 17th and 18th centuries adapted the work of the European thinkers to the American case, notably Thomas Hooker in Connecticut, Roger Williams in Rhode Island, and John Wise in Massachusetts. English political activists John Milton and Algernon Sidney had a significant influence on the American colonists, as did the English Utopian thinker James Harrington and the English philosopher John Locke. In the 18th century, writings by the French jurist the Baron de Montesquieu and the Swiss jurists Emmerich de Vattel and Jean Jacques Burlamaqui and the American pamphleteer Thomas Paine all helped rationalize the American revolution and the new American state. For a history of American democracy from the perspective of constitutional law, see The American Constitution, Its Origin and Development, by Alfred H. Kelly and Winfred A. Harbison, New York: W. W. Norton; 1948.

12. James Madison succinctly argued for the efficacy of these new features of democratic government in perhaps the most famous of the Federalist papers, number 10. See the original McLean edition of these classic essays by Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, reprinted in The Federalist, edited by Henry Cabot Lodge, New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons; 1904.

Chapter 12 Science, Consciousness, and Public Policy

1. Maharishi University of Management, formerly known as Maharishi International University, was founded in 1971 "to make education complete-to combine academic excellence with systematic programs to develop consciousness and creativity," according to the University's president, Dr. Bevan Morris. The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, the oldest and largest accrediting body in the U.S., awarded the University's bachelor's and master's accreditation in 1980 and doctoral accreditation in 1982. Today, the University offers 29 degree programs, including doctoral programs in physics, neuroscience, physiology, and management, and master's programs in mathematics, business administration, computer science, education, and English.

2. Among John Hagelin's more than 60 scientific publications, the following are considered especially important because they set new directions of research in the fields of elementary particle theory and cosmology.

• Weak Symmetry Breaking by Radiative Corrections in Broken Supergravity, Physics Letters 125B (1993) 225, with J. Ellis, D.V. Nanopoulos and K. Tamvakis.
  Written up in Current Comments as a "core paper" and as "one of the most cited references in the physical sciences" for 1983, this paper solves the problem of the origin of mass and dimension in the universe. Specifically, it shows how quantum effects (in the form of strong radiative corrections) trigger weak symmetry breaking and generate particle masses from a theory that is otherwise fundamentally massless and dimensionless, and to generate these masses at a realistic scale that is exponentially smaller than the Planck scale.
  
  
• Supersymmetric Relics from the Big Bang, Nuclear Physics B238 (1984) 453, with J. Ellis, D.V. Nanopoulos, K. Olive, and M. Srednicki.
  Written up in Current Comments as a "core paper" and as "one of the most cited references in the physical sciences" for 1984, this paper establishes that supersymmetric particles are natural candidates for the missing dark matter that, according to many theorists, forms the dominant matter content of the universe. This work extends previous theoretical work by Steven Weinberg (which pertained to Dirac particles) to majorana fermions characteristic of today's supersymmetic theories. It sets forth the essential phenomenological features of a viable dark matter candidate, and identifies the lightest supersymmetric particle (e.g., the photino), which is typically stable, invisible, and of naturally suitable cosmological abundance, as a likely dark matter candidate. Since publication, supersymmetric dark matter has achieved mainstream attention both within the professional particle physics/astrophysics community and in the popular press.
  
  
• Flipped SU(5)xU(1) Revitalized, Physics Letters 194B (1987) 231, with I. Antoniadis, J. Ellis and D.V. Nanopoulos.
  This paper established a new Grand Unified Theory of the fundamental forces of nature. The paper shows a previously all-but-overlooked symmetry group, SU(5)xU(1), is by far the most viable unifying symmetry principle needed to link the fundamental forces. The resulting theory, known as Flipped SU(5), solved severe technical problems of previous Grand Unified Theories (GUTs), including the so called "gauge hierarchy problem", and sparked a renaissance of GUT model building and new experimental searches, some of which are still under way.
  
  
• The Effects of Dark Matter on Standard Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, Nuclear Physics B329 (1984) 464, with R. Parker.
  This paper introduced the concept of "eternal annihilations," that dark matter inevitably modifies the cosmological abundances of the primordial elements (Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, etc.) through its continual annihilations-annihilations which persist throughout the nucleosynthesis era, long after such annihilations had previously been neglected. This realization places stringent constraints on the nature and abundance of dark matter candidates, such as neutrinos, photinos, etc.
  
  
• "COBE and Susy", (published under the title "Supersymmetry Mechanism for Naturally Small Density Perturbations"), Physical Review Letters 71 (1993) 4291, with A. Deans and L. Connors.
  This paper explains the small primordial density fluctuations of matter in the universe long anticipated by cosmologists and ultimately observed by the COBE (Cosmic Background Explorer) satellite. Specifically, it shows that all realistic supersymmetric theories (i.e., those containing an electron) naturally generate small density fluctuations of order 10-5 due to the presence of a small quartic coupling constant proportional the square of the electron Yukawa coupling. Prior to this article, attempts to explain the small primordial cosmic asymmetry required ad-hoc assumptions and technically unnatural potentials.

3. John Hagelin describes the laws governing the dynamics of the unified field which underlie and give rise to the diversified laws of nature governing every level of the physical universe as the Constitution of the Universe.

4. The unified field, according to ancient Vedic science-the complete science of consciousness-is described as the togetherness (samhita) of the knower (rishi), process of knowing (devata), and the known (chhandas). Vedic Knowledge for Everyone by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi; Vlodrop, Holland: Maharishi Vedic University Press; 1995.

5. For a detailed mathematical analysis of the parallel structures of the unified field of physics and the field of consciousness, see Manual for a Perfect Government: How to Harness the Laws of Nature to Bring Maximum Success to Governmental Administration by John Hagelin.

Chapter 13 Quiet Time at the Fletcher-Johnson School

1. A study of another inner-city children (not at the Fletcher Johnson School) found that through their regular practice of the TM technique, students increased in analytic intelligence, self concept, and general intellectual ability. Presented at the 98th annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, D.C., August 1990. Other findings include improved learning skills ( Education 107: 49-54, 1986) and increased intelligence (Personality and Individual Differences 12: 1105-1116, 1991).

Chapter 14 Sentence to Meditate

1. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly 11(1/2) (1994) 13-87.

2. Journal of Crime and Justice 15: 211-230, 1987; International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice 11(1) (1987) 111-132; and Dissertation Abstracts International 43 (1982) 539B.

Chapter 15 The Forgotten Victims of Inner-City Stress

1. Hypertension. 1995; 26(5);820-827.

2. Hypertension. 1996; 28(2); 228-237.

Chapter 16 Creating a New Peacekeeping Force

1. "Russia Is Top Arms Seller to Developing Nations." New York Times August 20, 1996.

2. H.R. 2159, The Foreign Operations Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 1998.

3. "Weapons Bazaar," U.S. News and World Report December 9, 1996, pages 26-38.

4. Peter Schweitzer "Myths of Dollar Diplomacy" American Legion Magazine November 1997, p. 34.

5. "President Clinton, more than any of his predecessors, is helping private companies sell military weapons overseas, Top cabinent officials regularly tour the world to hawk American arms," according to Jennifer Washburn in her article "Lobbyist-in-Chief" that appeared in The Progressive in December 1997.

6. Alleviating political violence through enhancing coherence in collective consciousness: impact assessment analyses of the Lebanon war. Summary of paper presented at the 85th Annual Meeting of the American Political Sciencer Association, September 1989.

7. There has been extensive discussion in the literature concerning the possible physical mechanisms that underlie the society-wide influence of Transcendental Meditation. For short-range applications, auditory, visual, and even olfactory cues (e.g., pheromones) provide viable mechanisms for the spreading of social coherence. For intermediate and long-range applications, more fundamental physical mechanisms must be considered, including the possible role of long-range physical forces. Of the four known forces of nature, only two-electromagnetism and gravity-are potentially capable of long-range interactions. Of these, the force of gravity is orders of magnitude too weak to provide a viable mechanism for social interaction. And although electromagnetism is under investigation as a possible source of EEG entrainment among humans in close physical proximity, most neuroscientists believe that electromagnetism will prove unable to account for the experimental data on the effects of meditation across large geographical distances. Scientists in the field have thus been led to consider more fundamental mechanisms for correlations among individuals at the quantum-mechanical, quantum-field-theoretic levels. For a detailed analysis, see Manual for a Perfect Government: How to Harness the Laws of Nature to Bring Maximum Success to Governmental Administration by John Hagelin, and references therein.

8. International Journal of Neuroscience 38: 427-434, 1988. International Journal of Neuroscience 54: 1-12, 1990. Psychosomatic Medicine 45(1): 41-46, 1983 Journal of Behavioral Medicine 15(4): 327-341, 1992. Journal of Moral Education 12(3): 166-173, 1983.

9. "A Vedic Approach to Military Defense: Reducing Collective Stress through the Field Effects of Consciousness," doctoral thesis, The Union Institute Graduate School, Cincinnati, Ohio, by David Robert Leffler.

Appendix 2: Natural Law Party Platform

Government Supported by Natural Law

1. E.g., Bennett, W., The Book of Virtues, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993.

2. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Maharishi's Absolute Theory of Government: Automation in Administration, Vlodrop, Holland: Maharishi Vedic University Press, 1993.

3. Hagelin, J., Manual for a Perfect Government: How to Harness the Laws of Nature to Bring Maximum Success to Governmental Administration.

4. Peterson, M., The Atlantic Monthly, December 1994, 114; Mayo, B. (ed.), Jefferson Himself, Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 1942, 291.

5. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Life Supported by Natural Law, Fairfield, IA: MIU Press, 1986.

6. Sapolsky, R., Stress, the Aging Brain, and the Mechanisms of Neuron Death, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992; Weiner, H. Perturbing the Organism: The Biology of Stressful Experience, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.

7. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly 11:89-117, 1994; Archives of General Psychiatry 49:429-435, 436-441, 1992; Life Sciences 33:2609-2614, 1983.

8. For a summary of research, see Scientific Research on Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Program: Collected Papers, vols. 1-5 (Fairfield, IA: MIU Press), 1990. Studies on specific benefits listed include: (intelligence) Personality and Individual Differences 12:1105-1116, 1991; (creativity) Journal of Creative Behavior 13:169-180, 1979; (post-traumatic stress syndrome) Journal of Counseling and Development 64:212-215, 1985; (anxiety) Journal of Clinical Psychology 45:957-974, 1989; (hostility) Criminal Justice and Behavior 5:3-20, 1978; (aggression) Dissertation Abstracts International 43:539b, 1982; (mental health) Journal of Psychology 124: 177-197, 1990; (physical health) Psychosomatic Medicine 49:493-507, 1987.

9. Psychosomatic Medicine 49:493-507, 1987.

10. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly 11(1/2), 1994.

11. Dissertation Abstracts International 43:539b, 1982.

12. Dissertation Abstracts International 51:5048, 1991.

13. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Creating an Ideal Society, Age of Enlightenment Press, 1976, 91, 105.

14. Perceptual and Motor Skills 6: 731-738, 1986.

15. Journal of Clinical Psychology 42:161-164, 1986.

16. Psychosomatic Medicine 45(1): 41-46, 1983; Journal of Behavioral Medicine 15(4):327-341, 1992.

17. Nidich, S.I., and Orme-Johnson, D.W., Proceedings of the International Symposium on Moral Education, Fribourg, Switzerland, 3 September 1982.

18. International Journal of Neuroscience 54:1-12, 1990.

19. Much of this research is summarized in The Maharishi Effect: Results of Scientific Research 1974-1990, Fairfield, IA: MIU Press, 1990; see also The Journal of Mind and Behavior 9:457-486, 1988. Some specific examples include the following:

• A day-by-day study of a two-month coherence-creating assembly in Israel in 1983 showed that, on days when the number of participants in the assembly was high, war deaths in neighboring Lebanon dropped by 76%. During these two months, crime, traffic accidents, and fires all declined in Israel. Other possible causes (weekends, holidays, weather, etc.) were statistically controlled for (Journal of Conflict Resolution 32:776-812, 1988.)
  
  
• A 2-1/4 year follow-up study examined the effects of seven successive coherence-creating assemblies on the Middle East war. During the seven assemblies, there were marked reductions in war deaths (p<10-10), war-related injuries (p<10-6), and levels of conflict (p<10-6), and a significant acceleration of the peace process (p<10-8) (Dissertation Abstracts International 49:2381A, 1988).
  
  
• Coherence-creating assemblies in Manila, New Delhi, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C., all corresponded with statistically significant declines in violent crime. In these studies, alternative explanations were explored and could not account for the findings (Journal of Mind and Behavior 8:67-104, 1987).
  
  
• The most recent study, a National Demonstration Project conducted in Washington, D.C., from June 7 to July 30, 1993, tested the efficacy of groups of experts in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program for reducing crime and social stress and improving the effectiveness of government. In this carefully controlled experiment, a coherence-creating group increased from 800 to 4,000 over the two-month period. Although violent crime had been steadily increasing during the first five months of the year, soon after the start of the study, violent crime (measured by FBI Uniform Crime Statistics) began decreasing and continued to drop until the end of the experiment (maximum decrease 20%, p<.0001), after which it began to rise again. The effects of the group could not be attributed to other possible causes, including temperature, precipitation, weekends, and police and community anticrime activities. (See Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy, Fairfield, Iowa, Technical Report ITR-94:1, 1994.)
  
  A growing number of scientists support this research, in recognition of its rigor, scope, and statistical significance. According to D.V. Edwards, a member of the independent Project Review Board that monitored the 1993 Washington study, "the claim can be made plausibly that the promised practical societal impact of this research significantly exceeds that of any other ongoing social-psychological research program" (ibid., addendum).

Economy

1. In its January 1996 report, the Kemp commission provides specifics about the enormous cost of tax compliance (Unleashing America's Potential: A Pro-Growth, Pro-Family Tax System for the 21st Century, The National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform, January 1996, p. 7):

In 1991, the Tax Foundation reported that small corporations spent a minimum of $382 in compliance costs for every $100 they paid in income taxes. According to 1995 I.R.S. estimates, businesses will spend about 3.4 billion hours and individuals will spend about 1.7 billion hours embroiled in tax-related paperwork. That means nearly three million people-more people than serve in the U.S. armed forces-work full time all year just to comply with tax laws, at a cost of about $200 billion a year, according to the Tax Foundation.

2. Ibid., p. 5.

3. "The Dropout Problem: Can Schools Meet the Challenge?" NASSP Bulletin 78 (565): 74-80, 1994.

4. The Natural Law Party's flat tax proposal maintains charitable deductions but does not maintain the mortgage deduction. A mortgage deduction increases the tax on all Americans by at least 2% and unfairly penalizes those who use their earnings for other purposes-for example, to send their children to college. The mortgage deduction, pushed by the housing industry, amounts to a form of corporate welfare for that industry. The Natural Law Party believes that taxes should be used to finance government, not to shape social and economic agendas by favoring some businesses over others.

Our flat tax proposal would maintain charitable deductions to promote an increase in charitable giving. Local philanthropic activities are more effective, more rewarding, and less wasteful than federally administered, socialized charity. The Natural Law Party would therefore like to see a shift in the responsibility for charitable giving from the government back to the individual. More Americans will be inspired to give once they have more wealth as a result of lower taxes and our pro-growth economic policies.

Capital gains (indexed for inflation) and interest will be taxed as normal income under the Natural Law Party's proposal, but double taxation (e.g., a tax on dividend income) will be avoided.

The Natural Law Party proposes a tax floor of $25,500 for a family of four, below which Americans would pay no taxes. While this floor is lower than that proposed by some others, the Natural Law Party believes that most citizens should contribute something to society-to our schools, our roads, and our national security. Most important, however, with our low 10% tax rate, all Americans will pay significantly less tax than they do today.

5. Unleashing America's Potential, op. cit., pp. 11-14.

6. A program designed by Dr. Dean Ornish and used in a number of American hospitals has consistently shown that systematic use of diet, exercise, and meditation, in combination, can clear clogged arteries-promising large savings over the average $20,000-$50,000 cost of angioplasty and bypass surgery (see Journal of the American Medical Association 274:894-901, 1995; Lancet 336:129-133, 1990; and American Journal of Cardiology 69: 845-853, 1992).

In addition, a five-year study of health insurance statistics on over 2,000 persons practicing the Transcendental Meditation program found that their doctor visits and hospitalizations were less than half that of other groups of comparable age, sex, and profession. Improvements were observed in all disease categories, including an 87% drop in cardiovascular illness (Psychosomatic Medicine 49:493, 1987). A study on hypertension in elderly African-Americans found that TM was twice as effective in reducing high blood pressure as progressive muscle relaxation and was comparable to medication (Hypertension 26 (5):820-827, 1995). An 11-year study of 693 subjects over age 45 who utilized TM and other aspects of Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health showed overall hospitalization rates 91% below those of norms and 88% below those of matched subjects (American Journal of Managed Care 3(1): 135-144, 1997).

7. Drug and alcohol abuse cost America an estimated $166 billion a year. Stress has a negative impact on personal and corporate productivity, and costs U.S. business $150-$200 billion each year. See "Healthy Mind; Healthy Organization-A Pro-active Approach to Occupational Stress," Human Relations 47 (4):455-471, 1994; and United Nations International Labor Organization, "Stress at Work," World Labor Report 6, Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations International Labor Office, 1993.

8. A recent study found a sizable reduction in Okun's Misery Index-defined as the sum of the inflation rate and the unemployment rate-from implementation of the national coherence-creating program proposed by the Natural Law Party (American Statistical Association, Business and Economics Statistics Section, 1987, 799; 1988, 491; 1989, 565).

Health

1. The "miracles" of modern medicine have been much less effective in producing health than most Americans have assumed, according to mortality and morbidity rates in the United States. Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimates that 40% of the U.S. population-over 100 million people-suffer from at least one chronic disease. Despite a vast array of advanced medical technologies and medications, modern medicine has no cure for these chronic diseases, only palliation (Journal of the American Medical Association 1996; 276: 1473-1479).

2. Spiraling medical expenses are an urgent governmental concern. Cost-containment strategies, including managed care, have not been entirely successful in stopping medical cost growth. In 1998, the United States will spend approximately $1 trillion on medical treatment, more than any other nation. Yet surprisingly, the U.S. has among the worst health outcomes of all industrial nations. Despite our high-tech medical treatments, Americans have comparatively poor life expectancies at birth: the U.S. ranks 20th for males and 18th for females among the 23 OECD nations and has the fifth highest infant mortality rate (Health Affairs 1997; 16(6): 163-171; Health Affairs. 1994; 3(4): 100-112).

3. See Journal of the American Medical Association 270: 2207-2212, 1993; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Healthy People 2000: National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives, DHHS Publication No. (PHS) 91-50212, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1991; and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Healthy People 2000: Midcourse Review and 1995 Revisions, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1995.

4. Nearly 47% of premature deaths among Americans could have been avoided by changes in individual behaviors and another 17% by reducing environmental risks, according to a 1994 assessment by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In contrast, the study suggested that only 11% of premature deaths could have been prevented by improved access to medical treatment. (See CDC, Ten Leading Causes of Death in the United States, Update, Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1994).

5. Only 1% of our health sector budget is used to avoid disease, while 99% is spent to treat illness after it occurs. Astonishingly, the Federal Government also subsidizes unhealthy influences on our nation. For example, even though tobacco use is known to cause 400,000 deaths per year, including 3,000 from passive smoking, the U.S. Government subsidizes the tobacco industry. Our government also provides funding for genetic engineering and supports the nonlabeling of genetically engineered foods-despite the potentially serious health risks of such foods and the absence of research on long-term environmental effects (see our Agriculture section). Furthermore, the current Congress cut funding for the Environmental Protection Agency by 27% in 1995, despite the link between industrial pollution and disease suggested by the rising high incidence of cancer in America and other industrialized nations.

6. This health care option would be available to Medicare and Medicaid subscribers under a voucher system. Medical savings accounts establish an annual sum to cover subscriber health care costs; any unused portion of the account is paid directly to the subscriber each year. These accounts thus encourage savings and discourage unnecessary use of the health care system. However, this health care option also provides for catastrophic coverage at rates similar to traditional insurance plans in order to protect subscribers facing unexpected health care costs.

7. New England Journal of Medicine 328:246-252, 1993. See also The Future of the Body, New York: GP Putnam & Sons, 1992.

8. Real preventive health care averts disease before it arises-and recent studies indicate that specific programs of behavioral prevention produce large cost savings.

• A 10-year study by the University of Michigan at Steelcase Corporation reported that systematic programs of diet, exercise, and stress reduction, when targeted for subjects in high-health-risk categories, reduce total health care costs by 46% (see Medical Tribune 14, February 10, 1994).
  
  
• A program designed by Dr. Dean Ornish and used in a number of American hospitals has consistently shown that systematic use of diet, exercise, and meditation in combination can clear clogged arteries-promising large savings over the average $20,000-$50,000 cost of angioplasty and bypass surgery (see Journal of the American Medical Association 274:894-901, 1995; Lancet 336:129-133, 1990; and American Journal of Cardiology 69: 845-853, 1992).
  
  
• A retrospective study of Blue Cross/Blue Shield health insurance data for 693 faculty, staff, and dependents at an Iowa university who used components of the Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health showed that the group had 92% fewer hospital admissions for cardiovascular disease compared with statewide norms. Subjects over 45 years old had 91% fewer days in the hospital for all diseases and 88% fewer days than matched controls; total medical expenditures per person were 59% lower than norms and 57% lower than controls (American Journal of Managed Care 1997; 3(1): 135-144).
  
  
• Research on the Transcendental Meditation program has consistently demonstrated both cross-sectional and longitudinal health benefits. A five-year study of 2,000 subjects has shown that people who practice TM have health care utilization more than 50% lower than matched control groups. The reductions were greatest in the oldest age group (averaging 67% lower) and in high-cost areas (the TM group needed 76% less surgery and suffered 87% less heart disease) (Psychosomatic Medicine 49: 493-505, 1987).
  
  
• A study on hypertension in elderly African-Americans found that TM technique was twice as effective in reducing high blood pressure as progressive muscle relaxation and about equally as effective as medication, but without harmful side effects (Hypertension 26 (5):820-827, 1995). A further study found that Transcendental Meditation was more cost-effective in the treatment of hypertension than any of five classes of hypertensive drugs studied (American Journal of Managed Care 2(4): 427-437, 1996).

9. The AMA spent $8.5 million from January to June 1997 lobbying the Federal Government to influence national medical policymaking (Chicago Tribune, March 7, 1998, Section 1, p. 7). The American Medical Association political action committee, known as AMPAC, is one of the largest medical PACs. For a discussion of the insidious influence of such expenditures on legislation, see Starr, P., The Social Transformation of American Medicine: The Rise of a Sovereign Profession and the Making of a Vast Industry, New York: Basic Books, 1984 (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction); Wolinksy, H., and Brune, T., The Serpent on the Staff: The Unhealthy Politics of the American Medical Association, New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1994; and Harmer, R.M., American Medical Avarice, New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1975.

Education

1. The U.S. spends over $270 billion per year on public and elementary education, and expenditures per pupil, adjusted for inflation, have increased more than 25% over the past ten years. Yet America is falling behind in the knowledge race. Recent National Educational Goals Panel statistics (see U.S News and World Report, April 1, 1996) included the following:

• Among U.S. high school seniors, 60% could not meet suggested national educational standards; 76% spend less than five hours per week on homework, compared with 35% of seniors in Japan
  
  
• U.S. high school students spend less than half as much class time studying math, history, and science as do students in Japan, France, and Germany
  
  
• Only 4.4% of U.S. students pass advanced placement exams, compared to 33% in France, Germany, Israel, and Japan
  
  
• A comparison of Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Israel, Scotland, Canada, and the U.S. found that the U.S. has the shortest school year-62 days shorter than Japan's
  
  
• Results from the recent Third International Mathematics and Science Study showed that in 21 countries giving 12th-grade tests, U.S. high school seniors ranked 16th in general science knowledge, 19th in math, and last in physics (see The Wall Street Journal, February 25, 1998, p. A22; and U.S. News and World Report, March 9, 1998, p.14.).

2. American Journal of Public Health 1998; 88:413-418.

3. A 1996 survey found that at least one third of all school children have used an illicit drug other than marijuana or alcohol before graduation from high school. Furthermore, it is estimated that one out of four American high school students has a serious drinking problem.

4. According to the National Center for Juvenile Justice, murder arrests among 10- to 17-year-olds have doubled since 1983, and the actual murder rate among 14- to 17-year-olds has risen 165% since 1984. Crimes in and around American public schools have increased significantly; well over 100,000 students now carry a gun to school. A recent U.S. Justice Department report found that juvenile arrests for gun charges have doubled since 1985, and gunshot wounds have become the second leading cause of death among high school students.

5. Developmental psychologists have outlined specific, natural stages of psychological growth in children. The final stage, termed "formal operations" by Piaget, is associated with adolescence and represents the level of mental functioning in which abstract thinking becomes stabilized. Due to the inadequacies of our educational system, the majority of our students never achieve this stage of normal adolescent mental development across cognitive domains-let alone their full potential. (For a more comprehensive treatment of this topic, see Alexander, Charles N., and Langer, Ellen J. (eds.), Higher Stages of Human Development: Perspectives on Adult Growth, New York: Oxford, 1990.)

6. A series of recent studies has found a correlation between nutrition and academic performance (Personality and Individual Differences 4:343 & 361, 1991). These studies found that in several hundred schools in New York, there was a 16% gain in academic performance resulting from improved nutrition. The study suggested that many students experience malnutrition, too slight for clinical signs, but which nevertheless affects their intelligence and academic performance. This impairment can be corrected through improved nutrition.

7. These prevention-oriented health care programs include Maharishi Vedic Approach to Health-a natural system of health care that promotes balance in mind, body, and behavior and that has been shown to significantly reduce medical utilization by producing better health in its practitioners. These programs strengthen mind and body and reduce anxiety, thereby enhancing receptivity and the capacity for learning.

8. Extensive scientific research on one such program endorsed by the Natural Law Party-the Transcendental Meditation program-has consistently demonstrated its capacity to unfold student potential and thereby fulfill the highest goals of education. For decades, IQ was thought to be static, a measured quantity that was fixed after a certain age. However, research indicates that the practice of Transcendental Meditation significantly increases IQ (Educational Technology 19:7, 1979; Personality and Individual Differences 12:1105, 1991; College Student Journal 15:140, 1981; Perceptual and Motor Skills 62:731, 1986). Other scientific studies have shown that practice of Transcendental Meditation increases learning ability, improves memory, and enhances orderliness of brain functioning (Memory and Cognition 10:205, 1982; International Journal of Neuroscience 14:147, 1981; Psychosomatic Medicine 46 (3):267, 1984); reduces stress and exam anxiety (Journal of Clinical Psychology 45:957, 1989); stimulates ego development, motivation, and moral reasoning (Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 6:189, 1991; Journal of Moral Education 12:166, 1983); and results in significant improvements in analytic intelligence, self-concept, and general school performance among inner-city youths ("Effects of the Transcendental Meditation Program with Low-Income Inner-City Children," presented at the 98th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Boston, Massachusetts, August 1990).

9. Educational Technology 19:7, 1979; Personality and Individual Differences 12:1105, 1991; College Student Journal 15:140, 1981; Perceptual and Motor Skills 62:731, 1986); Memory and Cognition 10:205, 1982; International Journal of Neuroscience 14:147, 1981; Psychosomatic Medicine 46 (3):267, 1984); Journal of Clinical Psychology 45:957, 1989); Journal of Social Behavior and Personality 6:189, 1991; Journal of Moral Education 12:166, 1983); and results in significant improvements in analytic intelligence, self-concept, and general school performance among inner-city youths ("Effects of the Transcendental Meditation Program with Low-Income Inner-City Children," presented at the 98th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Boston, Massachusetts, August 1990).

10. In the U.S., model institutions incorporating educational programs endorsed by the Natural Law Party include Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, and its award-winning laboratory school from preschool to 12th grade.

Crime and Rehabilitation

1. See Victim Costs and Consequences: A New Look, a comprehensive survey published in 1996 by the National Institute of Justice (the research branch of the Justice Department).

2. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States 1996, Uniform Crime Reports, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, 1997.

3. According to the National Center for Juvenile Justice (1995), the murder rate among 14- to 17-year-olds increased 165% during the last ten years, and the number of arrests for violent crime among 10- to 17-year-olds doubled. In addition, according to USA Today (November 13, 1995, p. 1A), the number of teenage arrests on weapons charges has doubled since 1985.

4. America leads the industrialized world in murders-almost four times the annual U.S. casualty rate during the Vietnam War (see Wilson, J., Commentary, September 1994, p. 25). The 1996 FBI annual crime statistics for the U.S. reported 19,650 murders, 95,770 rapes, 537,050 robberies, 1,029,810 aggravated assaults, and 2,501,500 burglaries. (See Federal Bureau of Investigation, op. cit.)

5. See S. R. Donziger (ed.), The Real War on Crime, New York: HarperCollins, 1996.

6. See U.S. News and World Report, March 23, 1997, p.33. U.S. Department of Justice figures (press release, August 27, 1995) indicate that 5.1 million Americans are under some form of correctional supervision-prison, jail, parole, or probation.

7. See Petersilia, J., "Crime and Punishment in California: Full Cells, Empty Pockets, and Questionable Benefits," CPS Brief, Berkeley, CA: California Policy Seminars, May 1993.

8. Petersilia, op. cit., p. 10; Sampson, R., and Laub, C., Crime in the Making, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993, p. 255.

9. The Newark Foot Patrol Experiment, 1981; The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment: A Summary Report, Washington, DC: Police Foundation, 1974. See also Wilson, James Q., "What to Do About Crime," Commentary, 1994, pp. 215-234.

10. Social Problems 41(3):448-472, 1994. See also R.A. Mendel, Prevention or Pork? A Hard-Headed Look at Youth-Oriented Anti-Crime Programs, Washington, D.C.: Youth Policy Forums, 1995.

11. Sapolsky, R., Stress, the Aging Brain, and the Mechanisms of Neuron Death, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992.

12. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly 11:89-117, 1994.

13. Archives of General Psychiatry 49:429-435, 436-441, 1992; Life Sciences 33:2609-2614, 1983.

14. Journal of Clinical Psychology 45: 957-974, 1989; Society of Neuroscience Abstracts 18:1541, 1992; Journal of Neural Transmission 39:257-267, 1976; Criminal Justice and Behavior 5:3-20, 1978; Dissertation Abstracts International, 51:5048, 1991.

15. The most recent study, a National Demonstration Project conducted in Washington, D.C., from June 7 to July 30, 1993, tested the efficacy of groups of experts in the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi program for reducing crime and social stress and improving the effectiveness of government. In this carefully controlled experiment, a coherence-creating group increased from 800 to 4,000 over the two-month period. Although violent crime had been steadily increasing during the first five months of the year, soon after the start of the study, violent crime (measured by FBI Uniform Crime Statistics) began decreasing and continued to drop until the end of the experiment (maximum decrease 20%, p<.0001), after which it began to rise again. The effects of the group could not be attributed to other possible causes, including temperature, precipitation, weekends, and police and community anticrime activities. (See Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy, Fairfield, Iowa, Technical Report ITR-94:1, 1994.)

16. Dissertation Abstracts International 43:539b, 1982.

17. The Transcendental Meditation technique has been successfully used in 28 rehabilitation programs in 15 U.S. states. Studies have shown that the Transcendental Meditation technique is highly effective in reducing recidivism (Journal of Criminal Justice 15:211, 1987; International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice 11:111, 1987; Dissertation Abstracts International 43:539b, 1982). In 1987-1988, the

African nation of Senegal applied this rehabilitation strategy nationwide. Over 11,000 Senegalese prisoners and over 900 prison officers were instructed in the TM technique. Recidivism dropped dramatically, the prison population halved, prison violence declined, and several prisons closed while many others operated at well below capacity. See New Horizons in Criminology and Penitentiary Science: The Maharishi Unified Field Based Integrated System of Rehabilitation in Senagalese Prisons, Dacca: 12-13 February 1988.

18. For a fuller discussion of this approach to rehabilitation and crime prevention, see Marcus, Jay B., The Crime Vaccine, Baton Rouge, LA: Claitor's Books, 1996.

19. Horowitz, C., "The Suddenly Safer City," New York magazine, August 14, 1995.

20. See Califano, Joseph A., Substance Abuse in Urban America: Its Impact on an American City, New York, Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, Cornell University, February 1996.

21. A recent meta-analysis of programs used in the treatment of substance abuse found that those endorsed by the Natural Law Party were highly effective in decreasing the use of alcohol, cigarettes, and a wide variety of nonprescribed drugs (Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly 11(1/2): 13-87, 1994).

Energy and Environment

1. Allen, Scott, "Study: Air Pollution Killing Thousands," Des Moines Register, May 9, 1996, p. 1.

2. According to a 1995 report from the Department of Health and Human Services, environmental toxins are responsible for 14% of annual deaths in America.

3. If the real costs associated with the use of polluting fuels were appropriately distributed-for example, if the environmental costs of gasoline were included in its cost at the pump-the free-market system would have eliminated fossil fuels long ago. In essence, the government is blocking free enterprise and free-market competition by subsidizing fossil fuels and not their nonpolluting competitors.

4. See Environmental Health Perspectives 103 (Suppl 8): 301-306, 1995; and Journal of the American Medical Association 270 (18): 2207-2212, 1993. Individuals with high body burdens of PCBs, DDT, and other such compounds have higher levels of cancer, liver damage, reproductive disorders, immune-system suppression, and neurological problems (see Annual Review of Public Health 18: 211-244, 1997; and Environmental Health Perspectives 100: 259-268, 1992). Since such contaminants degrade very slowly in the environment, governmental attempts to control sources of exposure may not solve the problem.

5. According to a study by the Electric Power Research Institute, the introduction of energy conservation practices could reduce electricity use in the U.S. by as much as 55% (Romm, "The Economic Benefits of Combatting Global Warming," 1992).

Further research shows that existing energy-conservation technologies can cut the use of fossil fuels in half, eliminating dependence on foreign oil-the largest component of our trade deficit. One study, entitled America's Energy Choices, published by the Union of Concerned Scientists, concludes that the U.S. can dramatically reduce energy use and air pollution, and increase the use of renewable technologies at a significant cost savings to the nation.

The cost of energy to our nation is a substantial proportion of our gross national product. We spent 15% of our GNP on energy in 1990, or a total of $847 billion. According to the schedule proposed by the Natural Law Party, we would spend only 10.2% by the year 2005, cutting hundreds of billions of dollars from the nation's energy bill.

Agriculture

1. "Grain Prices Head Higher," Business Week, November 20, 1995, p. 38.

2. "Another Crisis in World's Future?" Des Moines Register, November 12, 1995, p. 1J.

3. Heffernan, W., cited in "U.S. Ag Called Feudal System," Des Moines Register, November 27, 1994.

4. One is Dr. John Fagan, discussed in "Biologist Returns US Grants to Protest Genetic Research," The Boston Globe, November 16, 1994.

5. Northwest Area Foundation, A Better Row to Hoe: The Economic, Environmental, and Social Impact of Sustainable Agriculture (Dec. 1994), 1; see also USDA/ERS, 18.

6. Scandinavian Journal of Work and Environmental Health 18:209-215, 1992; Journal of the American Medical Association 256(9):1141-1147, 1986; Zahm, S.H., et al., Annual Meeting of the Society for Epidemiological Research, Vancouver, Canada, June 15-17, 1988.

7. National Research Council, Board on Agriculture, Alternative Agriculture (1989); Northwest Area Foundation, 2.

8. Paying the Farm Bill: U.S. Agricultural Policy and the Transition to Sustainable Agriculture, World Resources Institute, 1991.

9. "Health Effects and Prevalence of Vegetarianism," The Western Journal of Medicine, 160: 465-471, 1994.

10. See Government Supported by Natural Law section.

Strenghening Democracy

1. U.S. Supreme Court, Sweezy v. New Hampshire, 1957.

2. In 1996 the number of signatures required to get a presidential candidate on the ballot in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia was 25,500 for Democrats, 49,250 for Republicans, and 729,245 for a new party. In addition, to run a full slate of candidates in 1998, a new party would have had to gather 5.1 million signatures. Such discriminatory practices create an enormous financial obstacle for third parties trying to participate in our democratic process.

3. See the 1990 Document of Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference of Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE).

4. Getting elected to public office has never been more expensive. Total expenditures for the 1996 campaign was $2.1 billion. The average winning campaign for the House of Representatives cost over $673,000 in 1996. That's a 30 percent increase from just two years earlier, when the average seat cost $516,000. Ninety-four candidates for the House spent more than a million dollars to get elected. Six of them spent $2 million or more, and the most expensive campaign of all was the reelection effort of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, which cost nearly $5.6 million. In the Senate, the average seat in 1996 cost $4.7 million-only slightly more than it's been in recent years. Averages mean less in the Senate, though, since there are comparatively few races (only a third of Senate seats are up in any given election year) and since the costs in any one year depend heavily on which states are having elections. In 1996, neither California nor New York had Senate races. In 1998, both do, and those races will likely be expensive enough to push the averages up again. The race for the presidency is in a league by itself. Bill Clinton and Bob Dole each spent more than $100 million in their campaigns, but their respective parties poured in millions more to help them indirectly. Under federal campaign rules, funding for the fall presidential campaigns is supposed to come entirely from federal funds supplied by taxpayers who divert $3 of their taxes into the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. In reality, the general election campaign period is the most frenzied fundraising season of all-with both parties acting as surrogates for their slate of candidates and raising as much money as they possibly can.

5. An editorial in the March 24, 1998, edition of USA Today reported on findings from the Center for Responsive Politics on how big money buys big favors. The editorial included the following:

• "Big Tobacco gave at least $4.2 million last year alone, and it wasn't even an election year. That helped get tobacco a 25% reduction in the size of the proposed tax increase. Tobacco lobbyists also were able to dictate a backdoor addition to the 1997 budget deal that was worth $50 billion to the industry. Fortunately, it was spotted after the fact and repealed by suddenly embarrassed lawmakers.
  
  
• "Cable TV and local telephone companies have given $22.8 million in political contributions since 1991, much of it to the members of the Commerce committees that write telecommunications legislation. Guess what? The 1996 deregulation law that was touted as making telecommunications more competitive and responsive to consumers instead seems to have spurred a wave of profitable consolidation and little of the proposed competition.
  
  
• "Brand-name drug makers have given more than $18.6 million over the same period. Congress responded by letting them hold on to their exclusive drug patents up to two years longer. The payoff: $6.2 billion in higher drug charges over the next 17 years, according to a University of Minnesota study."

Foreign Policy

1. Journal of Conflict Resolution 32:776-812, 1988. Dissertation Abstracts International 49:2381A, 1988. Journal of Mind and Behavior 8:67-104, 1987.

Defense

1. G-2, December 1994, Military 11(7):3.

2. For example, Congress has apportioned $13.4 billion for additional B-2 bombers that the Pentagon doesn't want; legislators have funded the construction of four GS cruisers, although the Navy only requested two; and the costly Seawolf project is currently funded for $700 million, even though the Navy doesn't want it at all.

3. Air Force Times, May 27, 1996, 10.

4. U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, July 1995, 73; American Journal of Public Health 81(7):865-869, 1991; American Journal of Preventive Health 11(4): 245-250, 1995.

5. See U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, January 1996, p. 64. Environmental dangers cited include inhalation of sand and other airborne particles, heavy metals, depleted uranium, chemical and biological agents, pollution from hydrocarbons, and genetic and cancer risks.

6. Journal of Conflict Resolution 32:776-812, 1988. Dissertation Abstracts International 49:2381A, 1988. Journal of Mind and Behavior 8:67-104, 1987.

7. See our Health, Crime, and Education sections, and references therein. For research on posttraumatic stress syndrome, see Journal of Counseling and Development 64:212, 1985. this time. However, we believe that a smaller, more flexible force coupled with greater economic and security cooperation will serve the nation's security interests and provide the basis for a more stable world. We therefore emphasize human rather than material resources.