The scientist who says he rose up against crime

Prof John Hagelin‘s decision not to run against Mitt Romney and Barack Obama left this year’s US presidential race without a major candidate who is a scientist and who acknowledges – publicly – his ability to both counteract gravity and prevent crime.

Two decades ago, Hagelin and a team of fellow scientists performed a bold experiment. Their aim was to drastically reduce the amount of violent crime in Washington DC – a metropolis then noted for its high incidence of murder, rape and robbery. The Hagelin method was to systematically blanket the city with mental emanations from transcendental meditation and yogic flying.

Hagelin is, by his own admission, a remarkable man. A professor of physics and director of the Institute of Science, Technology and Public Policy at the Maharishi University of Management, in Fairfield, Iowa, he is a practised expert in quantum physics, transcendental meditation and yogic flying…

So begins this week’s Improbable Research column in The Guardian.