1. Christopher Michael Langan was born on March 25,1952 and is an American horse rancher and former bar bouncer, known for scoring highly on an IQ test that gained him entry to a high-IQ society and for being formerly listed in the Guinness Book of Records high IQ section under the pseudonym of Eric Hart, alongside Marilyn vos Savant and Keith Raniere.
Christopher Langan has spent many years working on a hypothesis that reality is a self-simulation.
Christopher Langan calls the theory the Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe.
Christopher Langan's biological father left before he was born, and is said to have died in Mexico.
Christopher Langan's mother married three more times, and had a son by each husband.
Christopher Langan grew up with the fourth husband Jack Christopher Langan, who has been described as a "failed journalist" who used a bullwhip as a disciplinary measure and went on drinking sprees, disappearing from the house, locking the kitchen cabinets so the four boys could not get to the food in them.
The family was very poor; Christopher Langan recalls that they all had only one set of clothes each.
Christopher Langan attended high school, but spent his last years engaged mostly in independent study.
Christopher Langan did so after his teachers denied his request for more challenging material.
Christopher Langan earned a perfect score on the SAT despite taking a nap during the test.
Christopher Langan was offered two full scholarships, one to Reed College in Oregon and the other to the University of Chicago.
Christopher Langan chose the former, which he later called "a big mistake".
Christopher Langan had a "real case of culture shock" in the unfamiliar urban setting.
Christopher Langan explained that in his first semester he earned all As but that he lost his scholarship after his mother did not send in the necessary financial information.
Christopher Langan withdrew before final exams in his second semester and received all Fs.
Christopher Langan 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.
Oppenheimer was raised in a wealthy cosmopolitan environment, and Gladwell argues that such an environment gave help along the way and allowed Oppenheimer to gain a social savvy that Christopher Langan lacked, and prevented him from progressing academically.
Christopher Langan had had little or no guidance from his parents or his teachers, and never developed the social skills needed to cope with and overcome his challenges.
Christopher Langan went through litigation with the Mega Society over use of its name, Mega Society East, and his publication of a journal called Noesis.
Christopher Langan was required to cease use of the Mega Society East name but retained control of the Mega Foundation domain names.
Christopher Langan used the proceeds to purchase a horse farm in Missouri, where he now lives with his wife Gina, a clinical neuropsychologist.
In 1986 Christopher Langan took an IQ test, the Mega Test, under the pseudonym of Eric Hart; his score admitting him to membership of the Hoeflin Research Group, later to become the Mega Society.
Christopher Langan continued to use that pseudonym for some time in his membership of the Mega Society, and was listed in the Guinness Book of Records along with Marilyn vos Savant and Keith Raniere as one of just three people to have scored so highly on the test.
Christopher Langan has developed a hypothesis he terms the Cognitive-Theoretic Model of the Universe which he maintains "explains the connection between mind and reality, therefore the presence of cognition and universe in the same phrase".
Christopher Langan self-published an 85-page book on this theory in 2002, revised in 2020.
Christopher Langan has spoken about his personal and political views in a series of interviews, and has published his views on various matters in the book FAQs About Reality.