Christopher Langan

Christopher Michael Langan was born in 1952 in San Francisco, California. His mother, Mary Langan-Hansen (née Chappelle, 1932 – 2014), was the daughter of a wealthy shipping executive but was cut off from her family. Langan's biological father left before he was born, and is said to have died in Mexico. Langan's mother married three more times, and had a son by each husband. Her second husband was murdered, and her third died by suicide. Langan grew up with the fourth husband Jack Langan, who has been described as a "failed journalist" who went on drinking sprees and disappeared from the house, locked the kitchen cabinets so the four boys couldn't get to the food in them and used a bullwhip as a disciplinary measure. The family was very poor; Langan recalls that they all had only one set of clothes each. The family moved around, living for a while in a teepee on an Indian reservation, then later in Virginia City, Nevada. When the children were in grade school, the family moved to Bozeman, Montana, where Langan spent most of his childhood.[7]

During elementary school, Langan repeatedly skipped grades, and was tormented by his peers. Langan reports being brutally beaten by his stepfather, Jack Langan, who denied this.[1][4] At the age of twelve years, Langan began weight training, which he says was motivated by the desire to fight back against bullies,[3][8] eventually ejecting his stepfather from the household.[3][8]

Langan attended high school, but spent his last years engaged mostly in independent study, due to the relative indifference of his teachers in accommodating his pleas concerning his increasing need and capacity to absorb more advanced material. While left to his own studies, he reports to have started teaching himself "advanced math, physics, philosophy, Latin, and Greek".[3] According to Cynthia McFadden from ABC's 20/20, he earned a perfect score on the SAT (pre-1995 scale) despite taking a nap during the test.[1][4][9]

Langan was offered two full scholarships, one to Reed College in Oregon and the other to the University of Chicago, Langan chose the former, which he later said was "a big mistake," causing a "real case of culture shock" in the unfamiliar urban setting. He lost his scholarship because his mother did not send in the necessary financial information, so Langan returned to Bozeman and worked as a forest service firefighter for 18 months before enrolling at Montana State University – Bozeman.[10] Faced with severe financial and transportation problems, however, and believing that he could teach his professors more than they could teach him, he dropped out.[3] He took a string of labor-intensive jobs for some time, and by his mid-40s had been a construction worker, cowboy, Forest Service Ranger, farmhand, and, for over twenty years, a bouncer on Long Island.[3] He also worked for the technology company Virtual Logistix.[6]

Chris Langan

In 1999, Langan and others formed a non-profit corporation named the Mega Foundation for those with IQs of 164 or above.[1][4][6]

Langan has developed a "theory of the relationship between mind and reality" which he calls the "Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe" (CTMU).[3][6][11] Langan says that the CTMU "explains the connection between mind and reality, therefore the presence of cognition and universe in the same phrase".[12] He calls his proposal "a true 'Theory of Everything', a cross between John Archibald Wheeler's 'Participatory Universe' and Stephen Hawking's 'Imaginary Time' theory of cosmology".[3] In conjunction with his ideas, Langan has stated: "You can prove the existence of God, the soul and an afterlife, using mathematics."[1][4]

In comparing the lack of academic and life success of Langan to the successes of Robert Oppenheimer, journalist Malcolm Gladwell, in his 2008 book Outliers, points to the background of the two men. Oppenheimer was raised in a wealthy cosmopolitan neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City, his father was a successful businessman and his mother was an artist, he was educated at the Ethical Culture School and summered in Europe, and he studied at Harvard University, all things that prepared him with the tools and skills he needed to face the challenges which came up in his life. Langan, on the other hand, had a very unsettled family life with an abusive father, which created a resentment of authority, grew up poor, had little or no guidance from his parents or his teachers, and never developed the skills needed to cope with and overcome his challenges.[13]

Langan's support of conspiracy theories, including the 9/11 Truther movement and the white genocide conspiracy theory, and his opposition to interracial relationships, have contributed to his gaining a following among members of the alt-right and others on the far-right. Journalists have described some of Langan's Internet posts as racist, and accused him of veiled antisemitism.[14][15]

In 2004, Langan moved with his wife Gina (née LoSasso), a clinical neuropsychologist, to northern Missouri, where he owns and operates a horse ranch and undertakes activities for his Mega Foundation.[11]

Although his theory implies the existence of God and the afterlife,[4] Langan does not belong to any religious denomination, explaining that he "can't afford to let logical approach to theology be prejudiced by religious dogma".[12]

Notes

Bibliography

• Gladwell, Malcolm (2008) Outliers New York: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-01792-3

• Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe website