tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-43493903199027948742023-11-15T23:55:42.829-08:00Conscious Evolutioncjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-43806502940161212662015-12-02T21:44:00.000-08:002015-12-02T21:44:05.684-08:00Religious and other Cults<span style="font-size: large;">from <i>Knowing How to Know</i>, by Idries Shah</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> (published posthumously in 1998):</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Sufi Attitudes towards Religious</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>and other Cults:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">1. Sufis are opposed to fanaticism and closed minds, believing</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that these lead to oppression.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">2. Many cults using the name 'Sufi' have arisen over the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">centuries. They have caused harm to their followers, and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">have, at times, given the word Sufi an undesirable flavour.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">3. For the above two reasons, initial Sufi activity has, for</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">centuries, aimed at explaining the nature of real Sufi aims</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and also at clarifying the undesirable effect of what today</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">are called conditioning systems.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">4. It has been observed by scholars and others that the Sufis</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">are almost alone in having assessed and described the two</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">undesirable factors referred to above. In so doing, they may</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">have paved the way for contemporary knowledge on</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">mind-manipulation. While others, for example, were still</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">thinking in terms of 'the Devil is behind cults', the Sufis</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">have pointed out the causes of cults as being purely</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">psychological.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">5. Among the characteristics of a 'false or misguided path',</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the Sufis have noted the following features which help to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">identify it:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">i) The claim that the organisation is the sole repository</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of truth, or is the only 'path';</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">ii) The mistaking of emotional for spiritual states;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">iii) Separation of the followers of the group from the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">populace at large;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">iv) Failure to do one's human duty to everyone,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">regardless of such people's confessional position;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">v) The emphasis upon hope and fear, and upon reward</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and punishment;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">vi) Material richness of the organisation, and especially</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of its leaders;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">vii) The uniqueness of a leader, asserting superhuman or</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">other qualities or responsibility;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">viii) Secretiveness;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">ix) Inability to laugh at things which appear funny to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">people outside the 'path';</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">x) Employment of stereotyped techniques and/or rituals</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and exercises, not adapted according to the principle</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of 'time, place and people';</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">xi) 'Idolatry': which includes investing people, animals</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">or things with a special meaning;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">xii) Teachers' who are themselves ignorant.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">6. Sufis do not actually oppose such cults, since Sufis are</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">tolerant: but they find it essential to describe them, in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">order to show the differences between cults and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Sufism, and to help to prevent people interested in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Sufism from forming or joining such organisations or </span><span style="font-size: large;">groups.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">SUFIS AND CONTEMPORARY</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">PSYCHOLOGY:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The great development in the knowledge of psychology during</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the twentieth century has made it possible for Sufis to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">communicate in these terms to a world audience.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">In earlier days, due to the general backwardness of most</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">cultures, Sufis were obliged to communicate in established</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">terminology, which reduced communication. Today, many of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the contentions of the Sufi teachers of the past, still preserved</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in numerous classics, can be seen as pioneering the understanding</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of spiritual as distinct from sociological groups. Numerous</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">modern observers have noted this contribution, though it is not</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">yet fully disseminated among either the general public or even</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the specialists, though the process is accelerating.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">There are now many references in books, monographs, etc.,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to the above facts.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">One of the most conspicuous contributions of the Sufis has</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">been the assertion that someone's conviction about the truth</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of a doctrine may be engineered, accidentally or deliberately;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and to label that as 'religious faith' or anything similar is no</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">more than a display of ignorance of how the human brain works.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Reluctance to accept the reality of indoctrination as taking place</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in all human systems marks the lower-level thinker.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">INDICATIONS OF AN AUTHENTIC</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">SUFI SCHOOL</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">First, elimination: the school, its teachers and students should</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">be observed for signs of the features (item 5, above) which</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">identify a spurious school. Second, it should be noted that the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">following are among the marks of an authentic Sufi school:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">i) It does not restrict attention to any specific literature</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">or teachings, but expects its students to have a good</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">knowledge of a wide range of literature, while at the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">same time specialising in appropriately measured</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">studies;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">ii) It will be able to explain and interpret past</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">formulations of the Sufi Way, as contained in the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">whole range of Sufi literature;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">iii) It will be able to explain the process of supersession</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of materials;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">iv) It will not be culture- or language-based. That is to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">say, it will not need to bring in, except at times for</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">illustration or analogy, words or practices belonging</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to cultures and/or languages other than those of the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">people among whom the Sufis are working;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">v) It will not use outlandish clothes (robes) or words,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">etc., extraneous to the local culture;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">vi) It will not accept slogans or 'sayings' from past</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">teachers unless they have an illustrative function;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">vii) It does not use intonations, movement, music, etc.,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">as a quasi-religious ceremony or as a spectacle, but</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">has knowledge of such things as parts of a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">comprehensive system of applying stimuli;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">viii) It will neither claim to have a mission to teach</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">everyone, nor will it enrol everyone. It will first make</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">sure that the interested person has enough information</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and experience to come to a decision about Sufis and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Sufism in an appropriate manner;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">ix) It will make clear the nature of the 'instrumental</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">function' of ideas, techniques, etc., rather than</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">regarding them as immutable, sacrosanct, 'traditional'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and so on;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">x) It will deal with everyone according to capacity and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">character, being neither benevolent nor the reverse:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">for kindness and cruelty, while effective and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">understood in ordinary relationships, operate as part</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of a conditioning system within a teaching or group </span><span style="font-size: large;">situation.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">SUFIS AND LITERATURE</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">There are two kinds of literature. The first kind is Sufic: that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">is to say, it is designed for teaching purposes. It is by Sufis, and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">essentially directed towards the people of the time in which it</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">is issued. Subsequent generations have to understand the plan</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">which underlies it, which the school has a duty to make clear.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The second kind is literature from the outside: materials about</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Sufis and Sufism. There is a vast body of this. It is often written</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">by scholars, who do not understand Sufism, as they assess it</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">from the academic and mechanical or emotional standpoints.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">This is useful only in illustrating the nature and pattern of the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">academic mind. It does not teach anything else. The very</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">abundance of this literature has caused many people to imagine</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that they can learn from it. The Sufis, down the centuries, have</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">often commented upon this material as 'trying to send a kiss</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">by messenger', or 'teaching the taste of jam through the written</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">word'. Such, however, is the prestige of the written word that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">even otherwise sensible people often fail to understand that an</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">external assessment can hardly be useful, except of another </span><span style="font-size: large;">external phenomenon.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">--from</span><i><span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="http://www.octagonpress.com/titles/books/knho.htm">Knowing How To Know</a>, </span></i><span style="font-size: large;">p. 333-336</span>cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-53403797467703165692015-06-18T20:47:00.001-07:002015-06-18T20:58:44.645-07:00The Myth of Man, the Mind of Man<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">MYTH & MAN </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"Man is a myth-maker. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Myth, when manipulated by unregenerates, is an even more effective man-maker. </span><span style="font-size: large;">Man (as he imagines himself to be), in general, is a possibility, not a fact. </span><span style="font-size: large;">For most people, the sort of man whom they imagine to exist, or assume themselves to be, does not yet exist." (</span><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.idriesshahfoundation.org/">Idries Shah</a>, 1968)*</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">“Just before he died, while he was ICR's Director of Studies... Idries Shah amassed a vast amount of material about human ideas and ways of thought. This material, provisionally entitled 'the Myth of Man/the Mind of Man' was intended to become the basis for monographs to be published by ICR and a template for ICR activities. He was unable to finish this project. However, after his death, Cultural Research Services, which acts as the executive of ICR, used this material to find speakers for lectures and workshops and to commission monographs."(Saira Shah, 2013)**</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.i-c-r.org.uk/publications/monographarchive.php#M30">ICR MONOGRAPHS 1998-2011:</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 30 </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Role of 'Primitive' People in Identifying and Approaching Human Problems</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This monograph examines the urge to innovate and push out the frontiers of knowledge which has been a characteristic of human thought from man's earliest days. It shows how people -- from the most 'primitive' to the most 'advanced' -- have dealt with human problems in similar ways. This course, set so early in our evolution, has contributed not only to our survival, but to the capacity of the human mind to make startling conceptual leaps. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 31</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Use of Omens, Magic and Sorcery for Power and Hunting</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Early man can, perhaps be called fully human only from the moment he developed his capacity for symbolic and analogical thought. This monograph examines the impact of this breakthrough, focussing on the development of a system of 'magical' thinking, which man has consistently attempted to apply. It discusses the processes behind the remarkably durable and constant 'laws' of magic and it looks at residues of magical thinking which have remained up to the present day. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 32</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Ritual from the Stone Age to the Present Day</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Contributed by Cultural Research Services</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">In the modern world, our lives are imbued with the residues of rituals which would amaze us if we knew the antiquity of their origins. However, the structure of this fundamental pattern of human thought is poorly understood. This monograph examines the origins and role of ritual throughout history and in the foundations underpinning our lives today and uncovers the startling fact that some rituals may predate the origin of modern man himself. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 33</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Problem-solving and the Evolution of Human Culture</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Stephen Mithen</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">paperback, 24 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-25-5</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This paper takes an archaeologist's perspective and traces the role of the adaptation to new problems in the development of human culture. It shows how one major solution-- for instance the rise of agriculture-- in turn created a myriad of new problems to be solved.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 34 </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Cultural Identity: Solution or Problem?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Peter Wade</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">paperback, 24 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-26-2</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Cultures were once seen as stable and unchanging. During the past century anthropologists have gradually moved away from this view to one of cultures as flexible and shifting. Ironically their earlier findings have often been absorbed by the very cultures they studied and used by them in defining their own identity.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Inventions and Inventing: Finding Solutions to Practical Problems</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Kevin Byron</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">paperback, 30 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-27-9</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Dr. Byron traces the history of invention and its landmarks from very early times to the present day with its unprecedented network of innovative interaction. He considers the creative process itself and the circumstances in which it flourishes.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="http://www.i-c-r.org.uk/publications/monographarchive/Monograph35.pdf">DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT OF MONOGRAPH 35</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Problems, Myths and Stories</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Doris Lessing</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">paperback, 20 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-28-6</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the present-day West, stories are often regarded as mere entertainment. In other times and other places we find a different view: stories provide instruction for the young and are part of a general education, often conveying what cannot be conveyed by other means. Here is a huge treasure-house of literature which has helped to make us what we are.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 37 </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Modern Primitives: The Recurrent Ritual of Adornment</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Contributed by Cultural Research Services</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">paperback, 20 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-29-3</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This study sees present-day forms of body adornment-- piercing, tattooing, branding-- as part of an unbroken tradition practised by tribal groupings over centuries and in all parts of the world. It examines what these practices may have signified in the cultures in which they originated and how they are to be understood in modern Western society. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 38 </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Pagan Saviours: Pagan Elements in Christian Ritual and Doctrine</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Contributed by Cultural Research Services</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">paperback, 24 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-30-9</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The development of Christian ritual owed much to the pagan mystery cults (e.g. Mithraism) of ancient Greece and Rome. In this paper many of the extraordinary similarities are identified and the question of how ritual may prove more durable than its original context is discussed. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="http://www.i-c-r.org.uk/publications/monographarchive/Monograph38.pdf">DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT OF MONOGRAPH 38</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 39</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Marketing of Christianity: The Evolution of Early Christian Doctrine</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Contributed by Cultural Research Services</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">paperback, 24 pages, ISBN-13: 978-0-904674-31-6</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The form that Christianity takes today, its doctrines and dogma, owes an untold amount to the personalities and disagreements of the Apostles. In this monograph, we see how in its early days this major religion would have taken quite other directions and how these were gradually marginalised and eventually lost, thanks mainly to the outstanding persuasive skills of one man: St. Paul. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 40 </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Press Gang: The World in Journalese</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Philip Howard</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">paperback, 22 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-32-3</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Many people read and read more in newspapers than in any other print medium. In a witty essay, Philip Howard of The Times draws on years of experience as a journalist to identify and analyse the nature of this almost universal literary style: Journalese.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="http://www.i-c-r.org.uk/publications/monographarchive/Monograph40.pdf"> DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT OF MONOGRAPH 40</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 41 </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Taboos: Structure and Rebellion</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Lynn Holden</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">paperback, 28 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-33-0</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Dr. Holden looks at the origins and variety of taboos in many cultures and traces their persistence and influence in present-day societies.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="http://www.i-c-r.org.uk/publications/monographarchive/Monograph41.pdf"> DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT OF MONOGRAPH 41</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 42 </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Paranormal Perception? A Critical Evaluation</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Christopher C. French</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">paperback, 28 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-34-7</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The author describes different types of paranormal experience and argues that, whether ESP exists or not, we should nonetheless expect it to be widely and often reported.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="http://www.i-c-r.org.uk/publications/monographarchive/Monograph42.pdf">DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT OF MONOGRAPH 42</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 43 </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Unseen World: The Rise of Gods and Spirits</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Contributed by Cultural Research Services</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">paperback, 24 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-35-4</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">This monograph examines ways in which, over thousands of years, human beings have attempted to answer questions about the nature of reality. It considers some of the solutions, religious, magical and other, which they have devised. Many of these solutions, despite having lost their usefulness, survive even into the present day.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 44 </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Godmakers: The First Idols</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Contributed by Cultural Research Services</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">paperback, 24 pages, ISBN 978-0-904674-36-1</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">People have always used images to embody gods and spirits, no doubt in an effort to give form to the intangible and render it more comprehensible. This paper looks at some of the many ways in which human beings have tried to do this and what they have derived from the endeavour. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 45</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Universal Ego</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Alexander King</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">ISSN 0306 1906, ISBN 978-0-904674-37-8</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Published 2005 A5, 20 pages</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Dr King, former Director General for Science, Technology and Education at the OECD, discusses the idea that at some point in time a 'vivifying phenomenona'-- the Universal Ego-- of his title entered the process of evolution to produce the Universe and the World as we now see it. He stresses the importance of developing an awareness of its continuing, and not always beneficial, operation in human life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 46</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Conclusions from Controlled UFO Hoaxes</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">David Simpson</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">ISSN 0306 1906, ISBN 978-0-904674-38-5</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Published 2005 A5, 32 pages</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The 1960s and 70s were a time of keen interest and belief in unidentified flying objects (UFOs). David Simpson, until 2001 on the staff of the National Physical Laboratory, describes how he and some friends were drawn to test these beliefs with a series of hoaxes. He shows how belief can persist even in the face of evidence which completely discredits it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 47</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Jokes and Groups</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Christie Davies</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">ISSN 0306 1906, ISBN 978-0-904674-39-2</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Published 2005 A5, 32 pages</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For many years Professor of Sociology at Reading University, Christie Davies here examines how jokes operate within social groups. Using many examples ranging from disaster jokes to jokes about social and ethnic groups, he suggests that the most significant aspect of jokes is not what they reveal about their tellers, but what they tell us about societies which object to them.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 48 </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Creative Translation</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">David Pendlebury</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">ISSN 0306 1906, ISBN 978-0-904674-40-8</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Published 2005 A5, 24 pages</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The author examines the creative process involved in the translation of poetry, taking his examples from German and from the Persian classical poets. He contends that the difficulty of conveying the full range of meaning in such works in another language should not discourage people from making the attempt, and offers some practical advice to those who feel inspired to do so.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="http://www.i-c-r.org.uk/publications/monographarchive/Monograph48.pdf">DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT OF MONOGRAPH 48</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 49</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Crusades as Connection: Cultural transfer during the Holy Wars</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Contributed by Cultural Research Services</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">ISSN 0306 1906, ISBN 978-0-904674-41-5</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Published 2006 A5, 32 pages</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The time of the Crusades is often depicted as one of unrelenting animosity between Christianity and Islam. This monograph presents another view: in parallel with the savage hostility, there are many recorded instances of warm relationships between Franks and Muslims, as well as an acceptance of each others religious views and practices. Then, as today, the conflict between two cultures, while exposing their differences, offered an opportunity for greater study and understanding. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 50</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Baptised Sultans: The contribution of Frederick II of Sicily in the transfer and adaptation of Oriental ideas to the West</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Contributed by Cultural Research Services</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">ISSN 0306 1906, ISBN 978-0-904674-42-2</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Published 2006 A5, 32 pages</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Born in the last years of the 12th Century, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily, has been called "the first modern man upon a throne". Twice excommunicated, self-crowned King of Jerusalem, he maintained close contacts with the Muslim world in defiance of Papal authority, and provided a channel for bringing Islamic and Greek cultural, philosophical and scientific concepts to Europe. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 51</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Brain Development During Adolescence and Beyond</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Dr. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">ISSN 0306 1906, ISBN 978-0-904674-43-9</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Published 2007 A5, 20 pages</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Until relatively recently, it was widely believed that the brain ceases to develop after childhood. However, recent research has demonstrated that the human brain continues to develop during adolescence and beyond. Dr. Blakemore describes the developmental processes that occur in certain parts of the brain during adolescence, and the implications of this development for teenagers. She also describes recent studies showing that the human brain may retain its 'plasticity' throughout adult life. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 52</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Collective Behaviour and the Physics of Society</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Philip Ball</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">ISSN 0306 1906, ISBN 978-0-904674-44-6</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Published 2007 A5, 32 pages</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In this monograph, Philip Ball suggests that certain kinds of social behaviour are collective phenomena that do not follow in any trivial or easily anticipated way from individual behaviour. They may best be analysed by importing some of the tools and techniques that have been developed in the physical sciences for describing systems composed of many interacting entities. Understanding such forms of collective behaviour may in the future be vital to the creation and maintenance of a stable, just and equitable society. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 53</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Counter-Intuition</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Dr. Kevin Byron</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">ISSN 0306 1906, ISBN 978-0-904674-45-3</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Published 2008 A5, 26 pages</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Dr. Kevin Byron received his doctorate in applied physics from the University of Hull and after graduation spent some 25 years in research in the telecommunication industry. In 2001 he was awarded a research fellowship with The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) in the UK for studies on creativity in education. Kevin is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and a Visiting Senior Fellow to the Physical Sciences branch of the Higher Education Academy at the University of Hull. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 54</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Music, Pleasure and the Brain</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Dr. Harry Witchel</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">ISSN 0306 1906, ISBN 978-0-904674-46-0</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Published 2008 A5, 19 pages</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Dr. Harry Witchel received his PhD in Physiology from the University of California at Berkeley. He continued his wide-ranging research at the Medical School in Bristol (UK). This included work on the effects of emotionally arousing stimuli (e.g.music) on autonomic activity. In 2003 he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Florence, Italy, and in 2004 he received the national honour of being chosen for The Charles Darwin Award Lecture by the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a popular lecturer at science festivals throughout the UK, and has participated in many public programmes for The Royal Society, The Royal Institution, BBC Television, Midweek with Libby Purves on Radio 4, Café Scientifique, the Dana Centre for the Brain, and the University of Bristol. He is at present with the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 55</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Fields of the Mind</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Dr. Rupert Sheldrake</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">ISSN 0306 1906 ISBN 978-0-904674-47-7</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Published 2009 A5, 20 pages</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Dr Rupert Sheldrake is a biologist and author of more than 75 technical papers and several books, the most recent being The Sense of Being Stared at, and Other Aspects of the Extended Mind. He studied natural sciences at Cambridge University and philosophy at Harvard, where he was a Frank Knox Fellow. He took a PhD in biochemistry at Cambridge and was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, where he was Director of Studies in biochemistry and cell biology. As a Research Fellow of the Royal Society, he carried out research at Cambridge in developmental biology. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Noetic Sciences in California, and Director of the Perrott-Warrick Research Project funded by Trinity College, Cambridge. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 56</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Why do we leave it so late?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">David Canter</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">ISSN 0306 1906 ISBN 978-0-904674-48-4</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Published 2009 A5, 28 pages</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We need to understand the social psychological processes that introduce inertia into our reactions to our environment, and limit our ability to reduce environmental threats. These are the same processes that have led to many emergencies in the past getting out of control to become disasters, despite clear early warnings of imminent danger. These ways of relating to each other, and the habits of where we do what, underpin our slowness to respond to the demands of climate change. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">*************</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 57</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Scheherazade and the global mutation of teaching stories</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Robert Irwin</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">ISSN 0306 1906 ISBN 978-0-904674-49-1</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Published 2010 A5, 24 pages</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In this wide-ranging essay, renowned Arabist Robert Irwin outlines the history and purpose of teaching stories, their role in the Islamic mystical tradition and the didactic uses of tales from The Arabian Nights to modern science fiction.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">*************</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 58</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Consciousness, will and responsibility</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Chris Frith</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">ISSN 0306 1906 ISBN 978-0-904674-50-7</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Published 2010 A5, 32 pages</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Recent advances in our ability to observe the human brain in action reveal that most of what our brains do never reaches our awareness. Professor Chris Frith, who has pioneered the use of brain imaging to study mental processes, explores the implications of these findings to our understanding of human cooperation, altruism and social responsibility.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">*************</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Monograph Series No. 59</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Extraordinary Voyages of the Panchatantra</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Ramsay Wood</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">ISSN 0306 1906 ISBN 978-0-904674-52-1</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Published 2011<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>A5, 32 pages</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">What makes the ancient Sanskrit fables of the Panchatantra so durable and well travelled? What role did live storytelling have in their origin and steady migration? What is the function of such stories, if any, beyond entertainment? Why are they so beautiful and hauntingly compelling?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">* Excerpt from <a href="http://www.idriesshahfoundation.org/books/reflections/"><i>Reflections</i>, by Idries Shah (Octagon Press, 1968)</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">**Excerpt from a <a href="http://mystical-faction.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-institute-for-cultural-research-and.html">statement by </a></span><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://mystical-faction.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-institute-for-cultural-research-and.html">Saira Shah, speaking at the ICR AGM, June 2013</a></span></div>
cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-45109769254712934902015-06-15T00:14:00.000-07:002015-06-15T00:14:08.457-07:00Brainwashing<span style="font-size: large;">Excerpt from <i>The Manipulated Mind</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">by Denise Winn</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">(1983):</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">To isolate the components of the so-called brainwashing</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">process, it is necessary to take a detailed look at what went on</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in the Chinese prisoner of war camps in Korea. The</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">American soldiers, repatriated in 1953, who had seemingly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">collaborated with the enemy and adopted a Communist</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">viewpoint albeit briefly, were not the first to focus world</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">attention on the phenomenon of sudden political conversion.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Between 1936 and 1938, Stalin's Moscow Show Trials,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">where top Bolshevik figures publicly confessed to utterly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">fantastic crimes that they couldn't possibly have committed -</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and even seemed to have willingly adopted their prosecutors'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">view of them as scum - caused alarm to ripple far abroad.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">That staunch revolutionaries could suddenly have been</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">transformed into grovelling repentants was unthinkable.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">That some insidious process was at work became a reality for</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the Americans when their own men later succumbed to the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Chinese and made equally fantastic confessions, in some</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">cases, that the Americans had been engaged in biological</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">warfare against the Communists. So the experts were called</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in to try to find explanations.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Their detailed analyses of the characters of the men, the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">stresses they were obliged to undergo and the tactics used by</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the Chinese provide the most comprehensive picture of what</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">has been called brainwashing. In later years, claims made in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">court that individuals such as Patty Hearst or members of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">cults had been brainwashed have all been based on the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">findings arising from Korea.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Different experts have placed differing emphases on the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">events that occurred and have sometimes offered up differing</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">conclusions. It is worth reviewing their evaluations and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">drawing together all the common threads.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Edgar Schein</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Edgar Schein, an MIT psychologist, gathered his data in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">August 1953 at Inchon, Korea, when the repatriates were</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">being processed, and on board the USNS <i>General Black</i>,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">when the men were <i>en route</i> back to the United States during</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the first two weeks of September. In an article called 'The</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Chinese indoctrination program for prisoners of war: a study</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of attempted "brainwashing"', published in <i>Psychiatry</i> in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">1956, he outlined what had happened to the soldiers in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Korea, as told by them to him, and drew his own conclusions.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He claimed, as a result of his investigations, that there</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">was nothing new and terrifying about Chinese brainwashing</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">techniques. They had, in effect, combined a number of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">traditional and well-known ploys to weaken resistance, such</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">as group discussion, self-criticism, interrogation, rewards</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and punishments, forced confessions, exposure to propaganda</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and information control. What was new was not the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">method but the manner of combining, in a systematic</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">fashion, a variety of tried and tested methods.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The following description of events experienced in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Korean POW camps is drawn from Schein's published</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">version.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Chinese attitude to their captives differed even at the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">outset from that of the North Koreans. Whereas the latter</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">were brutal to their prisoners, took their clothing away,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">deprived them of regular and sufficient food and meted out</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">heavy punishment or death if a prisoner tried to resist them,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the Chinese welcomed captives with warmth, even congratulating</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">them for having been 'liberated'.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Over the next weeks and months, however, the soldiers</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">suffered severe physical and psychological pressures and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">implicit in most of what the Chinese said or did was the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">suggestion that these stresses would be removed and life be</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">much happier if they took up a more 'cooperative' attitude to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">their captors.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The men had to undergo long marches, lasting maybe two</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">weeks, en route to the prison camp assigned for them.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">During the march they received little food and, in the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">interests of survival, were forced to compete with each other</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">for what scant food, clothing and shelter was on offer which,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Schein says, made it impossible for them to maintain group</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ties. Throughout, the Chinese raised the men's hopes by</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">promising improvements in conditions (though stays in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">temporary camps along the way were no improvement</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">whatsoever) and then dashed them by 'explaining' that the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">UN was being obstructive or that too many prisoners were</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">being uncooperative and therefore all would have to suffer.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Propaganda leaflets were distributed and the men were</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">forced to sing Communist songs.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Permanent camp, when it was finally reached, however,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">forced the men to suffer physical and psychological stresses</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">far beyond what they had so far endured.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">(Schein does not here detail the physical tortures imposed</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">on the men but Meerloo lists a number that were included in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">official American and British reports. These included:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">1. Standing to attention or sitting with legs outstretched in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">complete silence from 4.30 till 11 pm and constantly being</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">woken during the few hours allowed for sleep.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">2. Enduring solitary confinement in boxes 5 ' x 3 ' x 2 ' . One</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">soldier was known to have spent six months in such a box.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">3. Having liquids withheld for days 'to help self-reflection'.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">4. Being bound with a rope, one end of which was passed</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">over a beam and then around the neck, like a hangman's</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">noose, the other around the ankles. The prisoner was then</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">told that if he slipped or bent his knees, he would be</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">committing suicide.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">5. Being forced to kneel on jagged rocks, with arms</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">stretched up above the head, holding a large boulder.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">6. Being obliged, in one camp, to hold in the mouth a slim</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">piece of wood or metal that a jailer pushed through a hole in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the cell door. Suddenly the jailer would knock the outer</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">end of the wood or metal sideways, usually breaking the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">prisoner's teeth or splitting open his mouth.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">7. Being forced to march barefoot on to a frozen river,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">where water was poured over their feet. Prisoners then had to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">stand for hours, frozen to the ice, reflecting on their</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'crimes'.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">According to Schein's account the prisoners had to get up</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">at dawn, exercise for an hour and then, after cereal or potato</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">soup for breakfast at 8 am, spend the day at assigned duties or</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">undergoing indoctrination. Whether a midday meal was</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">served or not depended on the prisoner's 'attitude'.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Living groups comprised ten to fifteen people and the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Chinese were careful to separate the men by race and rank so</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">as to undermine the established structure of the group,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">particularly by removal of leaders. Bearing out the insistence</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">from the Chinese that rank was irrelevant, they were all of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">one brotherhood now, sometimes very young or bumbling</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">prisoners were put in charge of the rest. If any spontaneous</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">semblance of order arose among the men, the Chinese broke</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">up the group.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Personal affiliations and ties were consistently weakened.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The men were not allowed any religious expression and often</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">their mail from home was withheld, though the Chinese</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">maintained that no one was writing because no one at home</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">cared what happened to the men.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Throughout, the Chinese were attempting to recruit men</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to so-called peace committees. Those that joined then had to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">play a part in the indoctrination by trying to prevent</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">resistance among the other men and to produce propaganda</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">leaflets to aid the cause, but under the guise of camp</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">recreation activities. Awareness that this was going on made</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">such groups as did form among the men weak and unstable</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">because of fears that informers might be in their midst.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Schein divides the Chinese attack on the Americans'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">beliefs, attitudes and values into two kinds: direct and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">indirect.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Direct methods included daily lectures two to three hours</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in length, the content of which was concerned with disparaging</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the United Nations, and the United States in particular,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and praising Communist countries; forcing prisoners to sign</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">peace petitions and confessions; and making radio appeals</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and speeches calling for peace. Schein notes that individual</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">confessions regarding the United States' use of germ warfare</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">were particularly damaging to the men who heard them.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Whereas most found the lectures naive and inaccurate, they</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">were more profoundly impressed by explanations of how</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">these bombs had been used by America, put to them by a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">couple of their own officers who actually travelled from camp</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to camp for this purpose. Men who had formerly believed the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">germ warfare accusations to be pure propaganda found</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">themselves questioning their validity after all.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Indirect methods included interrogation on American</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">military techniques which were heavy on psychological</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">pressure. The interrogations might last for whole weeks,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">with the interrogator actually living with the prisoner and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">being extremely friendly towards the man. During interrogation,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">statements made by a prisoner were reviewed</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">repeatedly, in the demand that the prisoner resolve all</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">inconsistencies between early and later versions. When a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">man refused to answer questions, he might be forced to copy</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">down someone else's answer into a notebook. What might</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">have seemed to the man an ineffectual way of trying to make</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">him change his own opinions to those he was writing was in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">fact used for a very different purpose: his writings were</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">shown to other prisoners to dupe them into believing that he</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">had voluntarily composed them himself.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">All the men were regularly made to 'confess' before each</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">other or to criticise themselves in public if they broke the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">rules of the camp. (There were very many trivial rules.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Prisoners found this particularly humiliating.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Chinese made the most of the effects that the use of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">rewards can bring. Prisoners who cooperated were offered</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">special favours, food, clothing. Others were tantalised to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">cooperate by promises of repatriation. The men were also so</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">starved of contact with their families that they would</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">willingly incorporate propaganda peace appeals into their</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">letters home, as they were an insurance that the letters would</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">be sent. Some made propaganda broadcasts purely as a way</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of letting their relatives know they were alive. Whatever the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">motive, the effect was that other prisoners suspected they</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">had fully cooperated with the enemy and became mistrustful.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">So many who lost the friendship of the group continued</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to cooperate for real.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Schein saw the Chinese tactics as working, in so far as they</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">did, because of the following reasons.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The soldiers first had to contend with immense and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">debilitating physical privations. In this weakened state, they</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">had to cope with the severe psychological pressure of fear</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that they would never be repatriated at all or that they would</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">die or suffer terrible reprisals. They were also in a position</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">where their normal beliefs, values and attitudes were</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">consistently being undermined by their captors, thus preventing</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">their maintaining a strong and constant sense of self.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The confusion induced could in no way be alleviated by</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">validating themselves against their peers, as group ties were</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">systematically destroyed. Each man was alone to question his</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">role in life. Mutual distrust, fostered by the known existence</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of informers and the feared existence of informers where</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">perhaps there were none, could only confirm each man in his</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">isolation. The confusion, if it became insupportable, could</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">be alleviated in one sure way: collaboration with the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Communists. For that was the only 'certainty' on offer.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Chinese, for their part, consolidated their gains by</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">other specific psychological tactics. They used repetition to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">break a man down, making their demands and accusations</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">over and over again until, worn out, prisoners gave in. They</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">operated a careful pacing of demands, starting with trivial</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">requests and gradually working up to the highest demands.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">They forced the prisoner to participate in his own conversion.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Listening quietly to lectures was never enough, the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">man had to make responses, verbally or in writing. Finally,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">by couching their indoctrination in the guise of a plea for</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">peace, the Chinese were able to appeal to the all too worn</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">down and war weary soldier.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Hinkle & Wolff</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Schein's view was that no one stress is entirely responsible</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">or overly responsible for the breakdown that can lead to so-called</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">brainwashing. Drs Lawrence Hinkle Jr and Harold</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Wolff have asserted, however, that the Chinese made a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">concerted effort to produce particular emotions in a particular</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">order, which then led to capitulation and collapse. They listed</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">them in an article in the <i>Bulletin of the New York Academy of</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Medicine</i> in September 1957. The emotions to be aroused</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">were: anxiety; suspense; awareness of being avoided; feelings</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of unfocused guilt; fear and uncertainty; bewilderment;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">increasing depression; fatigue; despair; great need to talk;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">utter dependence on anyone who befriends; great need of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">approval of interrogator; and increased suggestibility. This</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">all culminated in confession, rationalisation of confession and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">final profound relief.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The US Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry in 1956</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">held two symposia on forced indoctrination, to which Dr</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Wolff presented research. He outlined eight of the Communists'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">methods for achieving the above ends. The description</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">here is based on that in Peter Watson's excellent book,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>War on the Mind</i>.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">1. The Chinese enforced trivial demands, such as the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">keeping of insignificant rules or forced writing, to accustom</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the prisoners to being compliant.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">2. They took pains to show the prisoners that they were in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">total control of the latter's fate, pretended to take cooperation</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">for granted and tantalised them with possible favours. From</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">this prisoners learned the uselessness of trying to maintain any</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">semblance of control themselves. They learned helplessness.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">3. Occasionally the Chinese would offer favours when they</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">could least be predicted, rewarded any show of cooperation,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">promised better conditions or demonstrated unexpected</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">kindness, all of which served to give the men motivation to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">comply and to prevent them from adjusting to deprivation.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">4. Threats of torture, death, no return home, isolation,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">interminable interrogation or threats against family and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">friends served to deepen the men's fears, anxiety and despair.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">5. Degradation, such as the prevention of personal hygiene,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">humiliations, punishments, insults, foul living conditions</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and no privacy had the effect of making continued resistance</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">seem pointless and counter-productive. Forced to be concerned</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">only with the most basic of values, it seemed that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">compliance could not but help raise self-esteem.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">6. By forcing the men to be in darkness or bright light, in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">an unstimulating environment without the diversion of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">varied food or books or freedom of movement, the Chinese</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">could force the men to dwell on their captivity, with the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">resultant confusion arising from excessive introspection.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">7. Complete or semi-physical isolation served the same</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ends, as well as depriving the victim of any social support</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">other than that of his jailer, on whom he became increasingly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">dependent.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">8. Physical pressures, such as semi-starvation, induced</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">illness, sleep deprivation, prolonged periods of standing or</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">interrogation and constant tension, all worked on the men</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">until they were mentally too weakened to resist.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In an article published in <i>The Manipulation of Human</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Behaviour</i>, edited by Biderman and Zimmer, Hinkle explained</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">why and how the physical stresses took their</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">particular mental toll.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The brain's 'internal milieu', he wrote, contains a number</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of organic and inorganic substances in solution; disturbances</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in the levels of these can adversely affect the way the brain</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">functions. Not only may the brain itself be directly affected</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">by these fluctuations but it may also be indirectly affected</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">when fluctuations impair other vital organs. The kinds of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">common conditions which may cause disturbances include</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">sweating, water deprivation, salt deficiency, excessive water</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">or salt, vomiting, diarrhoea and burns. Some people when</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">extremely anxious start breathing too rapidly and this can</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">cause chemical changes in the blood which in turn can affect</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the brain.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Because the brain can only use carbohydrates for energy,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">not fat and proteins as can other organs, it is very quickly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">affected by any drop in sugar levels in the blood - sometimes</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">again caused by over-anxiety. A deficiency of B vitamins in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the diet can directly affect the brain. Indirectly, the brain can</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">be harmed by any malfunction of the lungs, liver and heart,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">as the efficient working of the brain is dependent on the swift</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">removal of all metabolic end-products present in the fluid</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">surrounding it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The 'brain syndrome', as it is termed, describes the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">progressive mental deterioration that occurs when the brain</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">is seriously impaired. Initially a patient is restless and overtalkative,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">then gradually he becomes delirious, confused and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">finally loses consciousness. In the early stages, however,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">there is no obvious sign of brain damage. The patient</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">manifests mainly emotionality, depression, irritability,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">jumpiness or tension, all of which could be attributed to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">particular life circumstances. Speech deteriorates slightly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and he gets a little vague and forgetful, but the patient can</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">still perform intellectually, if a little less efficiently than</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">usual. Hinkle says:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">'In this state the subject may have no frank illusions,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">hallucinations or delusions but he overvalues small events,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">misinterprets, blames others and accepts explanations and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">formulations which he might reject as patently absurd</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">under different circumstances. He does not confabulate</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">but he may be willing to state that a report is "clearly true"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">or that an event "actually occurred" when in fact the report</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">merely could be true or the event might have occurred.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">His intellectual functions, his judgement and his insight</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">decline to a similar degree.'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Hinkle suggests that, as the prisoners in Korea were all</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">kept in bad conditions, they might well have suffered these</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">initial stages of the brain syndrome. Also, as the brain needs</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">information of various kinds to process and to keep it active,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">periods of isolation or the repetitive carrying out of only one</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">mental activity as a work duty were likely to tire the brain and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">cause it to deteriorate although, again, the effects would not</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">be immediately obvious.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Despite the fact that such physical tolls on the brain must</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">affect its functioning, Hinkle points out that deterioration</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">does not occur at the same rate in all people. He believes that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the personality of the individual plays a strong part in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">determining who holds out longest.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">'In short, the brain, the organ that deals with information,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">also organises its responses on the basis of information</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">previously fed into it. This information, in the form of a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">personality developed through the experience of a lifetime,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">as well as immediate attitudes and the awareness of the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">immediate situation, conditions the way the brain will react</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to a given situation. There can be no doubt that personality,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">attitudes and the perceptions of the immediate situation</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">seriously influence the ability of a brain to endure the effects</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of isolation, fatiguing tasks and loss of sleep.'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Not only does personality affect when brain syndrome</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">starts, it also affects the form that syndrome will take -</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">determining whether a particular man will become talkative,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">withdrawn, anxious or angry, paranoid or trusting.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He ends by saying, 'Disordered brain function is indeed</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">easily produced in any man. No amount of "will power" can</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">prevent its occurrence.'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Joseph Meerloo</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Psychologist Joost Meerloo draws on psychoanalytic and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">conditioning theory to explain the brainwashing of the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">American soldiers. He coined the term 'menticide' to describe</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">it. Meerloo was a one-time chief of the Netherlands Forces</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">psychology department who became an American citizen in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">1950. He was called as an expert to give evidence to the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">military inquiry on the Colonel Schwable case. (Colonel</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Schwable, an officer of the US Marine Corps, 'confessed' in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Korea that America had been carrying on bacteriological</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">warfare against the enemy, citing supposed missions, meetings</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and strategy conferences as well as naming names.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Meerloo's position is that successful menticide techniques</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">make full use of people's deep underlying guilt feelings and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">their unconscious need to be conditioned by and conform to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">traditional patterns. He believes people fear the freedom and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the conflicts that complete autonomy brings.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He actually claimed that the Chinese capitalised on the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">findings of Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov in regard to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">conditioned behaviour. Pavlov discovered that he could</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">make dogs salivate when they heard a bell. By ringing a bell</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">whenever he gave them food, he led them to associate the two</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">events. He had 'conditioned' an unnatural response. He went</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">on from this discovery to find out much about conditioned</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">behaviour (see Chapter 4) and the circumstances that could</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">facilitate or impede it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">One such finding that Meerloo believes the Communists</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">picked up was the fact that conditioning could most easily be</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">effected if the process was carried out in a quiet environment</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">with few distracting stimuli. Political victims, therefore,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">were more easily conditioned if kept in isolation from each</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">other.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It was Pavlov who first found that some animals learn</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">more quickly if they are rewarded for doing so, by affection</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">or the giving of food, whereas others responded more</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">effectively if they suffered a painful penalty for mistakes.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The differences, Meerloo suggests, are likely to be related to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the nature of earlier conditioning by parents. As, in people,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the effect might be that one person could resist indefinitely in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the face of punishment whereas he could easily be won over</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">by rewards, interrogators could not use rewards and punishments</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">indiscriminately if they wanted results. They knew</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that they had to find out first which category their prisoner</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">belonged to.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The use by the Chinese of boring repetitive routines was</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">based, says Meerloo, on the Pavlovian finding that any kind</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of previous conditioning, no matter how strong, could be</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">rendered ineffective - inhibited - by boredom.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Finally, he suggests that the Chinese developed a suggestion</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">made by Pavlov that weak, secondary stimuli could also</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">have conditioning qualities - the tone in which words are</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">spoken being as effective as the actual words used for shaping</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">behaviour. Pavlov didn't pursue this area of thought far but,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in the 1950s, the role of linguistics in mass indoctrination was</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">studied by other Russian physiologists.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Meerloo is careful to state, however, that it is too simplistic</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to believe that permanent changes can be made to a person's</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">thoughts and behaviour just by straightforward application</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of Pavlovian theories of conditioning. He does believe that it</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">can be a powerful means for capitalising on the deeper</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">emotional insecurities of man, once aroused. For instance, in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">isolation, when a prisoner is closed off from the world and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">deprived of the usual range of stimuli from the senses, his</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">mental activity changes. He starts to dwell on long forgotten</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">anxieties that rise to the surface and his fantasy life grows</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">more real than his real life. In that state he is vulnerable, as he</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">cannot check the validity of his feelings and fantasies against</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ordinary reality.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In fact, far from saying that conditioning of behaviour is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the main thrust of brainwashing techniques, Meerloo emphasises</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that a human being's own basic drives and needs can</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">lead him unwittingly to take a part in the brainwashing</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">process. Need for companionship doesn't disappear when a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">guard or an interrogator is the only person available who</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">could possibly offer it. Few personalities, he says, can resist</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the need to yield if they are suffering overwhelming loneliness.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The first step towards yielding may well be that the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">prisoner, when in isolation and convinced, by the enemy,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that everyone has deserted him, accepts and even welcomes</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the jailer as a substitute friend.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Similarly, the victim may have to 'pay' for his capitulation,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">his (to himself) unforgiveable need to draw comfort and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">friendship from whatever source he can, by becoming even</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">more cruel to himself than the inquisitor could be. This</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">passive attempt at annihilating the enemy adds even more</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">stress to an already intolerable load: the prisoner is fighting</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">himself as well as his captors, leaving himself doubly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">weakened.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Just as successful brainwashing cannot be achieved by the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">cold application of techniques that take no account of the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">prisoner's personality, his fear, insecurities and basic needs,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">so, says Meerloo, training soldiers to withstand physical</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">tortures is for similar reasons ineffective as a method to help</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">them resist being brainwashed by captors. It is not physical</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">torture that is the most effective weapon of brainwashing;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the very teaching of evasive techniques to withstand torture</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">can itself induce psychological reactions in the soldiers so</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">trained that can work against their resistance, not for it. The</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">aroused anxiety and the dread anticipation, knowing what</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">may happen, can lead a prisoner to capitulate all the sooner.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It is only by applying effective mental strategies that anyone</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">can resist and those mental strategies have to be drawn from a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">balanced perspective on life. Without that perspective</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">operating in ordinary daily life, they cannot be pulled out of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the hat ready to apply when or if one suddenly finds oneself</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in a powerful coercive and unnatural milieu. (See Meerloo's</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Mental Seduction and Menticide</i>.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Robert Lifton</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Robert Lifton's study of brainwashing techniques (which</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">he termed thought reform) also relies for its conclusions on</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">psychoanalytic theory. Lifton took part in the examination of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the American POWs on the troopship back to the United</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">States but his real work began when he went to Hong Kong</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and interviewed in depth a number of Western and Chinese</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">civilians who had been living in China at the time of the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Communist takeover in 1948. Subsequently they had escaped</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to Hong Kong. In his book <i>Thought Reform and the</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Psychology of Totalism</i>, he described and assessed the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">experience of fifteen Chinese intellectuals who had undergone</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">reform in universities and revolutionary colleges and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">twenty-five Westerners who were believed by the Chinese to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">be antagonistic to the Communist regime and underwent</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">reform in prisons.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">One of the Westerners was a Frenchman, Dr Charles</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Vincent, who had lived and worked in China for twenty years</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">before his arrest. Accused of being a spy, he was in prison for</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">three and a half years. Of him and another prisoner, Father</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Luca, both of whom were trapped into making extensive</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">confessions of acts never carried out, as well as unfounded</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">denunciations of friends, Lifton said:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">'... Their environment did not permit any side-stepping:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">they were forced to participate, drawn into the forces</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">around them until they themselves began to feel the need</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to confess and reform. This penetration by the psychological</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">forces of the environment into the inner emotions of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the individual person is perhaps the outstanding psychological</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">fact of thought reform.'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Lifton identified the processes at work as follows:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">1. <b>Assault on identity</b>-- Dr Vincent was told that he was</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">not a real doctor, Father Luca that he was not a genuine</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Father. Both as they began to lose their bearings started to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">question what and who they were.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">2. <b>Guilt</b>-- Both men found themselves condemned by an</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">infallible environment. They became so permeated by an</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">atmosphere of guilt that the accusations being levelled at</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">them merged with subjective feelings of sinfulness and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">having done wrong. They knew they were guilty of something,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">they felt very guilty, and gradually grew to believe that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">punishment must be deserved.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">3. <b>Self-betrayal</b>-- The denunciation they were forced to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">make, of friends and colleagues, had a dual effect. It</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">increased their feelings of guilt and shame. But, equally</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">fundamental, by denouncing all those with whom they had</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">associated in their lives, they were effectively denouncing all</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that their lives had been up till that point. They were not so</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">much betraying friends as being forced to betray the vital</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">core of themselves.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">4. <b>Breaking point</b>-- The combined effects of severe guilt,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">shame, and self-betrayal led them to feel alienated from</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">themselves.. They began to fear total annihilation and as</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">everything that happened fanned rather than dispelled that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">fear, they moved inexorably towards breakdown.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">5. <b>Leniency</b>-- The inevitability of total annihilation</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">would suddenly be overturned by a showing of unexpected</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">leniency on the part of their captors. A brief rest from</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">interrogation, a brief encounter in which they were treated</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">momentarily as individuals, summoned for the men a spark</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of renewed identity. Suddenly, annihilation was not the only</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">outcome they could envisage. Annihilation could - and now</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">must - be avoided and there was only one immediate way to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">achieve that. For a man in such a position, said Lifton, 'the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">psychological decompression of his environment serves to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">win him over to the reform camp'. The men virtually became</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">grateful participants in their own reform.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">6. <b>The compulsion to confess</b>-- Confession, in that it</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">offered a way to resolve the overwhelming guilt engendered,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">gradually became more and more attractive. The compulsion</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to end the horrors of confusion and identity loss by</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">owning up to that guilt was finally irresistible.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">7. <b>The channelling of guilt</b>-- The amorphous, formless</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">guilt that had been drawn from within them could be given</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">an understandable form if they adopted the 'people's standpoint'.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Their guilt could be attributed to a life of wrong</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">action created by a wrong ideology.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">8. <b>Re-education: logical dishonouring</b>-- To achieve 'true'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">re-education, the prisoners had to extend their self condemnation</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to every aspect of their former lives - to see their lives</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">as a long series of utterly shameful acts.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">9. <b>Progress and harmony</b>-- The tightness of their new,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">reformed position was reinforced by the many emotional</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">needs that were met as a result of their holding it: they could</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">feel group intimacy in their living and working, they could</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">participate in pursuing a common goal, they could experience</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the relief of solving all problems, resolving all confusion.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Instead of alienation, they could experience themselves</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">as in harmony with their surroundings.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">10. <b>Final confession and rebirth</b>-- In this new spirit of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">harmony, the men were fully ready to supply with conviction</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">statements about what they now were and what they had</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">rejected. They experienced a virtual rebirth.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Lifton claimed that, in all the cases of apparent conversion,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">similar emotional factors seemed to be played on:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">particularly, a strong and readily accessible negative identity,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">an unusually strong susceptibility to guilt, a tendency</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">towards identity confusion (particularly if a cultural outsider)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and an all-or-nothing type of emotional set.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Particularly interesting, however, was Lifton's finding</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that those who appeared to resist reform during their prison</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">experience had similar characteristics. They also had the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">tendency towards needing to go wholeheartedly one way or</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the other and, by their habitual use of denial and repression</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to keep themselves in check, ended up in the situation where</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">those least threatened by the power of the brainwashing</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">techniques actually feared they were in most danger of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">capitulating to them. Although they were seemingly registers,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">they were in a constant struggle against the desire to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">capitulate.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Lifton pinpointed the features which seemed to him to be</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">characteristic of ideological totalism and necessary for the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">maintenance of its hold over individuals: control over all</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">forms of communication; mystical manipulation (totalism as</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">a furtherance of established higher purposes); demands for</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">purity; creation of a cult of confession; stress on 'sacred</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">sciences'; loading of language (what Lifton calls thought-terminating </span><span style="font-size: large;">cliches); putting doctrine above the person; and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the 'dispensing of existence' - deciding those who have a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">right to exist and those who don't.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">William Sargant</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Schein, Hinkle, Wolff, Meerloo and Lifton all agree that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">personality was an important factor in whether an individual</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">capitulated to or resisted Communist influence. All have</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">said, in one form or another, that those with well-integrated,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">stable personalities were the ones least susceptible to psychological</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">pressure. However, Dr. William Sargant, a British</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">psychiatrist, believes that what happened in Korea was just</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">one form of the sudden conversion syndrome, a phenomenon</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">which can be explained by physiology alone. Personality,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in so far as it plays a part in Sargant's thinking, dictates</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">not ability to resist but length of time it takes to collapse.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">People of stable personality may take longer to fall, he says,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">but far from being immune, they are the most likely to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">remain faithful longest to their newly implanted convictions.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">(He believes that had it not been for language difficulty and a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">certain unsubtlety of technique, the Chinese could certainly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">have won over more soldiers.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Sargant offers a package to explain what he sees as the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">inevitability of conversion once the right stresses are imposed</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">on the brain. He explains dramatic religious conversion,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">brainwashing or dramatic political conversion, false</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">confessions and psychoanalytically-induced insights by physiological</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">events to which only certain mentally ill people are</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">immune. He relies for his assertions on the work of Pavlov.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Unlike Meerloo, he doesn't claim that the Chinese achieved</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">what they achieved because they studied Pavlov but he does</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">believe that Pavlov's findings regarding reactions to stress are</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the key to understanding any sudden conversion, political or</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">religious. He says, in <i>Battle for the Mind</i>, where he explains</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">his theory, 'The politico-religious struggle for the mind of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">man may well be won by whoever becomes most conversant</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">with the normal and abnormal functions of the brain and is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">readiest to make use of the knowledge gained.'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Sargant's interest in the work of Pavlov stemmed from his</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">experiences during the Second World War, treating shellshocked</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">soldiers. His reading of Pavlov threw light, for him,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">on why the soldiers recovered from mental breakdown if they</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">could be induced to experience emotional discharge of an</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">intense nature, and led him to posit that the success of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">religious and political conversions was based on the manipulation</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of the same physiological processes.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the course of his work on conditioned learning in dogs</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">(see Chapter 4 for a full explanation of conditioning), Pavlov</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">started to make discoveries about the dogs' reactions to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">stress. He found that his dogs could be divided into four</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">temperament types. The first two he called 'strong excitatory'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and 'lively', the second group being less extreme in their</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">excitability, but both groups likely to respond to stress by</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">showing heightened excitement and aggression. The other</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">two types were more passive in their reaction. One Pavlov</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">termed the 'calm imperturbable' type, the other the 'weak</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">inhibitory' type. This last group tended to react to stress with</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">extreme passivity in order to avoid tension. Strong experimental</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">stresses reduced such dogs to a state of paralysis and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">an inhibition (or blocking) of brain function. However,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Pavlov found, the other three types of dogs, if exposed to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">more stress than they too could stand (the amounts being</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">higher than for the weak inhibitory type), also reached a state</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of brain inhibition. He decided that this inhibition must</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">therefore be a protective mechanism designed to protect the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">brain when the system was pressed beyond all endurance.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Which category a dog fell into was decided, he believed, by</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">environmental stresses to which it had been exposed right</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">from birth and to which it had been conditioned to react in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">particular ways, in accordance with its own temperament.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Lively and calm, imperturbable dogs could withstand much</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">more stress than either strong or weak excitatory types.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The inhibition which occurred when all dogs had passed</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">their limit of endurance (Pavlov called it transmarginal</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">inhibition) had definite stages of build-up, signalled by</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">particular abnormal behaviour patterns. Pavlov found that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">he could induce brain inhibition by imposing four different</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">types of stress and monitor the development of the abnormal</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">behaviour.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">To induce the intolerable stress, he would increase the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">voltage of electric shock applied to the dog's leg as part of its</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">conditioning process. If the shock was too strong for its</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">system to tolerate, the dog started to break down. Another</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">method was to signal the arrival of the dogs' food and then</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">make them wait a long time for it to appear. The dogs reacted</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">very quickly to waiting under stress. Thirdly, he might</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">confuse the dogs by giving them conflicting signals, so that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the dogs became uncertain what to expect. Finally, he might</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">induce stress by physical means, such as overworking them</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">or depriving them of food.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Pavlov found that if he first wore down the dogs in one or</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">more of these ways, new conditioned behaviour patterns —</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">such as responding to a given signal in a given way - were</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">much easier to implant. However, whereas the weak inhibitory</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">type dogs broke down much faster, they were likely to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">forget those new behaviour patterns once they recovered.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The dogs that were harder to break down were more likely to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">hold on to the behaviour patterns for a long time after.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Pavlov presumed that, due to temperament, they held on to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the new patterns as tenaciously as they had once held on to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">their old ones.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">During this whole process, Pavlov isolated three distinct</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">stages that led on to collapse as extreme stresses mounted.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">First came what he termed the 'equivalent' phase of brain</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">activity, when a dog would react in the same way to all</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">stimuli of whatever strength. (Pavlov measured this by saliva</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">production.) One might equate this with the familiar</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">phenomenon of a person reacting no more strongly to an</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">important experience than to a trivial one: the exhausted</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">woman who receives a cup of tea and the news that she has</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">won the football pools with equal mild pleasure.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">When exposed to even stronger sustained pressures, the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">dog would move into what Pavlov called the 'paradoxical'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">phase. Here, the brain would cease to react to strong stimuli</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">at all, as a protective measure, while still capable of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">responding to mild ones. This therefore gave rise to a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">circumstance which, in humans, could be manifested as an</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">inability to cry on hearing of the death of a loved one but to be</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">intensely irritated and upset by the loss of an ear-ring.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The third and final stage of brain inhibition Pavlov called</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'ultra paradoxical'. Now the dog reacted with a positive</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">response where normally it had a negative one and vice versa.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">For instance, it would try to elicit affectionate attention from</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">a laboratory assistant it had previously disliked, and attack</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">one it had previously been fond of.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Once these three stages had been set in train, Pavlov</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">noticed, the dogs often behaved in a hypnoidal fashion.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Sargant remarks that clinical reports of patients under</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">hypnosis often reveal them to act in ways consistent with</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Pavlov's inhibition phases.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">A final unexpected discovery occurred for Pavlov when his</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">dogs were nearly drowned during the Leningrad floods, as</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">they were trapped in their cages. At the last minute a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">laboratory assistant was able to rush in and save them but the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">terror of the experience, a stress beyond all stresses,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">produced yet another brain response. The dogs forgot all</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that they had been taught by conditioning up to that point.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">That is, all the conditioned reflexes that Pavlov had implanted</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in them had vanished and it took months to restore them.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Pavlov believed that the higher centres of the brain in dogs</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and in humans were in a constant state of flux between</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">excitation and inhibition; that when one part was highly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">excited, another area was inhibited as a result. For instance,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">a person undergoing an ecstatic experience may be temporarily</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">oblivious to pain. He also noted that one part of the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">brain cortex which had been over-excited might become</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">fixed, leading to a pattern of repetitious movements or</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">behaviour. He thought this might explain, for example,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">obsessional thinking.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Sargant uses these findings from Pavlov to extrapolate</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">about the mechanisms of recovery from shell-shock, religious</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">conversions, and the eliciting of false confessions. (He</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">maintains that those who believe the exercise of will-power is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">sufficient to beat the brainwashers are sadly mistaken. Active</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">resistance only puts yet more pressure on the brain and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">speeds breakdown.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">After his reading of Pavlov's work, Sargant says he became</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">aware how far the behaviour of shell-shocked soldiers whom</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">he was treating at the time accorded with Pavlov's inhibition</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">stages. Some, for instance, might be suffering severe fright</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">paralysis of the limbs. If they tried to move them, they</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">couldn't. But if they were thinking about something else,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">they were amazed to find that they could move the paralysed</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">limb — an example of the paradoxical stage, says Sargant.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Men who came to the clinic in a state of nervous</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">breakdown and emotional paralysis could be released from</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">their suffering if Sargant induced an abreaction - an intense</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">emotional discharge. This might be achieved by giving them</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">a drug to help lower their defences and then coaxing them to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">talk of the experience they had had and which they had, till</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">now, repressed. If the soldiers could be drawn to the limits of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">their endurance in this way, they experienced a sudden</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">intense outpouring of their feelings and a reliving of the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">events in question, an exhausting experience that led them</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">finally into emotional collapse. When they came out of it,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">they were like different men. They could see what had</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">happened in perspective, they could face up to the horrrors</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and fears they had undergone in the trenches.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The principle of emotional discharge, the release of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">locked-in emotions, is behind most modern psychotherapies.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">However, Sargant makes a significant point. The</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">abreaction could be induced even if the events being reacted</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to were implanted by the doctor and had never happened.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For instance, the doctor might ask the patient to describe</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">himself fighting his way out of a burning tank and the patient</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">would eventually experience emotional collapse, even</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">though the event had never happened. What is vital, to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Sargant, therefore, is not the unblocking of repressed</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">memories and their concomitant emotions but the build-up</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of stress to its extremes, by whatever means, with a view to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">eliciting a freeing emotional discharge.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">After the abreaction was over, the men lost their fright</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">paralysis or whatever compulsive behaviour pattern had</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">been established. All that neurotic behaviour had been</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">knocked out by the collapse. Sargant sees this as akin to what</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">happened with Pavlov's dogs.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In using Pavlov's findings to explain seemingly inexplicable</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">religious and political conversions, Sargant stresses the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">suggestibility state that is engendered as a result of extreme</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">anxiety. He recalls how the terrors of the Blitz enabled large</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">numbers of people to believe unlikely stories, such as the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">rumours following Lord Haw-Haw's broadcasts from Germany.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Sargant relates such occurrences back to Pavlov's</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">finding that, once extreme stress was induced, dogs could be</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">made to give up their old conditioning in order to take on the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">new set of responses conditioned by the laboratory assistants.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">And, if they were of balanced temperament, they would hold</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">on to those new behaviour patterns as firmly as they had</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">resisted losing the old.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Sargant sees this mechanism working in revivalist meetings,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">where extreme emotional stress induced by the preaching,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the atmosphere, the guilt and fear, led to collapse and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">then adoption of the new thinking. Similarly, in Korea, the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Chinese in effect used the same breakdown system to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">implant a new set of beliefs. Pure intellectual indoctrination,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">he says, would be useless.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">A proof that it is stress of any kind that is the key to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">conversion, rather than underlying sympathy with the new</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">views, might be, as Sargant suggests, the fact that those who</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">attended Wesley's evangelistic meetings and were roused to a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">pitch of anger and indignation at what was going on were just</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">as likely to break down under the stress of the negative</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">emotion - and come to, saved. Sargant also cites Arthur</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Koestler's account of the night he made his decision to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">become a Communist (he remained with the party six years).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Koestler himself says that a whole series of 'grotesque events'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">clinched the making of a decision he had been moving</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">towards for some time. The events in question were a heavy</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">hangover, a broken down car, a heavy financial loss at poker</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and a drunken sexual encounter with a person he disliked.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">None of the stresses were connected with or threw light on</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">his position as regards Communism but they precipitated his</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">sudden decision to join the party.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Any extreme experience of emotion can make a person</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">highly suggestible and either reverse his conditioned behaviour</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">patterns or else wipe them out altogether, according to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Sargant. The degree of stress and the individual's level of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ability to withstand stress will determine the actual outcome.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Sargant does not claim that every single person can be</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">brainwashed. He excludes certain categories of the mentally</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ill whose emotions are so impossible to arouse or who are so</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">disconnected from their feelings that they cannot be brought</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to collapse. Such people cannot be made to abreact in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">hospitals, for instance.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">However, he does say, in connection with brainwashing:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">'Granted that the right pressure is applied in the right way</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and for long enough, ordinary prisoners have little chance of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">staving off collapse; only the exceptional or mentally ill</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">person is likely to resist over very long periods. Ordinary</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">people . . . are the way they are simply because they are</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">sensitive to and influenced by what is going on around</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">them; it is the lunatic who can be so impervious to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">suggestion'.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Psychological factors in the brainwashing process are not</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ignored by Sargant. He considers the guilt, isolation,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">physical weakening, etc., are all a vital part of the build up</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to intolerance level. But the conversion experience itself he</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">sees as due to the physiological events happening in the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">brain, an inevitability of our physical make up. He therefore</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">offers different explanations for actions which others</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">see as based in our emotional drives and needs as human</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">personalities.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He suggests» for instance, that 'one of the more horrible</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">consequences' of interrogations where the victims suddenly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">start to feel great affection for an interrogator who has been</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">treating them ruthlessly, is a warning sign that the ultraparadoxical</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">stage of abnormal brain activity may have been</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">reached. The victim likes instead of hates his persecutor.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Others, already mentioned, tend to put such seemingly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">contradictory behaviour down to the fact that human beings</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">need warmth and attention from at least someone and if the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">interrogator is the only one around to provide it, then his</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">will have to do. Ian McKenzie, writing on hostage-captor</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">relationships in the <i>Bulletin of the British Psychological</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Society</i>, thinks that Aronson's gain-loss theory may also</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">have some bearing: the theory suggests that increases in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">positive, rewarding behaviour from another person have</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">more impact on someone than consistent, unvarying approval.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Respect or liking has to be won, it can't be taken for</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">granted. Therefore, when it is given in any little way, it</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">means more, or has more immediate effect, than liking that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">exists regardless.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Sargant has been much attacked from many quarters for</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">his firm adherence to a physiological explanation for brainwashing</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and sudden conversion and the kind of examples of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">behaviour that he uses to support it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Psychologist T. H. Pear, in <i>The Moulding of Modern</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Man </i>makes a lyrical objection. He doesn't mention Sargant</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">by name but his approach is clearly covered by the criticism</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and <i>Battle for the Mind</i> is listed in the Bibliography. Pears</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">said:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">'The inventor of the term "brainwashing" deserves no</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">thanks from anyone trying to understand the techniques,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">some ham-handed, some astute but sporadic and others</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">cleverly integrated, which are given that name. The word,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">misleadingly descriptive, attracts those who believe that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the only way to unravel the mind's workings is to grasp the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">activities of the brain; presumably, to explain the physical</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">events occurring when a gramophone record is played may</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">lay bare the whole story of <i>Verdi's Requiem</i>, including his</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">temperament and the religion which inspired him, not to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">mention the mental processes of the singers and the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">conductor.'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Dr James A. C. Brown, a British psychiatrist who died in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">1964, also thought that Sargant was rather short on acknowledgement</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that there is a man behind the brain cells.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">His own starting point, in his <i>Techniques of Persuasion</i>, is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the belief that people's attitudes in life are not all of the same</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">strength and permanency, by their very nature. Only some</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">attitudes can be changed by other people, others never. The</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">deep attitudes are those which develop from an early age and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">create a perspective on life which rarely alters; the less</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">entrenched attitudes are those that might more correctly be</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">called opinions and which are much more amenable to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">alteration. Furthermore, what may seem to be radical</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">changes in a person's beliefs are in fact most likely in keeping</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">with their basic character anyway. Brown says:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'Opinions are but briefly held and likely to reflect current</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">public feeling; in many cases they reflect rather what the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">individual thinks he should feel than what, in fact, he does</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">feel. They are readily changed and may be susceptible</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">either to propaganda or to reasoned argument. Attitudes,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">on the other hand, are likely to be long-lived and do not</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">necessarily reflect the feelings of the general public</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">although they tend to reflect those of some group with</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">which the individual has become associated. Ordinarily</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">they are rooted in character traits which cause the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">individual to select from the flood of stimuli constantly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">impinging upon his senses only those which are consonant</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">with his own deep-rooted beliefs. Although they are</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">capable of changes which are quite real in the social sense,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">these changes are apt to be more apparent than profound.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">'Thus the change from Communism to Fascism or, in the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">field of religion, to Roman Catholicism, is quite real</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">socially in that these bodies proclaim vastly different</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">doctrines which result in entirely divergent behaviour, but</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">emotionally and from the standpoint of character all are on</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the same level on the authoritarian-democratic scale</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">because all share the same attitude toward authority.'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Therefore, when he talks specifically about brainwashing</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">he says, 'Despite their great doctrinal differences, all forms</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of totalism are brothers under the skin and appeal to the same</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">type of person and those "converted" by brainwashing in any</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">final sense are converted not in spite of, but because of,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">themselves.'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Brown, while acknowledging the value of Pavlov's</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">findings about stress behaviour, rejects the interpretation</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">put on them by those keen to show that brainwashing</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">techniques can literally reverse human behaviour. He finds</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">even Pavlov's assertions suspect in this area: for instance, is it</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">such an inexplicable and sudden reversal of behaviour for a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">dog which liked a laboratory assistant and then gets tormented</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">by him in experiments to turn against him afterwards?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Similarly he finds suspect cases cited by Pavlovian disciples</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to prove the 'same' things happen in humans: a woman who</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">suddenly wants to kill the child she loves doesn't manifest</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">such feelings out of the blue; they were there in some form all</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">along and were kept repressed until they overflowed into</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">consciousness, he says.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Reverend Ian Ramage is upset by what he sees as</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Sargant's somewhat over-generous application of Pavlovian</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">findings to events in the ordinary world. He finds large</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">structural flaws in Sargant's reasoning — particularly as regards</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Sargant's claim that the religious conversion syndrome</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">is all due to goings-on in the brain cortex. Of course it is his</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">particular interest to disprove such a connection but his</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">reasoning is clear and worth consideration: in his <i>Battle for the</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Free Mind</i> he makes a distinction between breakdown and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">emotional abreaction, whereas Sargant appears to link them:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">'In the traumatic experiences which lead to battle neurosis</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and the terrors deliberately imposed in brainwashing,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">we may well have processes roughly parallel to the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">experimental stress situations imposed on Pavlov's dogs,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">resulting in various stages of abnormal behaviour and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">culminating in terminal exhaustion and collapse. However,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">it must be pointed out that nowhere in these experiments</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">with dogs, as described either by Dr Sargant or by Pavlov</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">himself, do we see anything that even looks like emotional</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">abreaction. The abnormal behaviour of Pavlov's dogs was</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">always the direct result of imposed stresses - not of the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">release or acting out of pent up emotion. To restore them</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">after breakdown, Pavlov's dogs were never treated abreactively</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">but were given simple sedation. The fact is that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">emotional abreaction simply will not fit in at all into the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Pavlovian formula of breakdown under stress because it is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">psychologically and dynamically the exact opposite of such</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">a process - it is the <i>recovery </i>from breakdown.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">'... When we inquire what are the common features of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">both breakdown and recovery which lead Dr Sargant to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">see both processes as amenable to similar explanations, we</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">find that both involve something which can be described</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">as "collapse"; and both involve striking changes in behaviour.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">However, an examination of Dr Sargant's own</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">evidence will show very clearly that the changes in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">behaviour involved in the two processes are exactly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">opposite; that in the respective contexts of breakdown and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">abreactive recovery, the word "collapse" means two</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">entirely different things . . . The collapse which super-</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">venes as a result of intolerable strain is a condition which</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">endures for some time and is manifest in breakdown,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">restriction of personality, debilitating symptoms and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">patterns of abnormal behaviour... The collapse that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">supervenes at the end of emotional abreaction is a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">comparatively short-lived physical exhaustion resulting</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">from violent emotional discharge. It soon passes quite</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">spontaneously to be followed at once by healing, liberation</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of personality and the disappearance of neurotic symptoms</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and abnormal behaviour patterns.'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Ramage is referring, in the last sentences above, to the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">experience of the shell-shocked soldiers. He comments on</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the fact that Sargant seems to link the violent emotional</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">experience of Pavlov's dogs in the flood serving to wipe out</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">all their carefully conditioned reflexes to the emotional</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">discharge of the soldiers which wiped out all their previous</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">neurotic symptoms, such as limb paralysis or tics. This,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Ramage says, implies that in Sargant's mind-conditioned</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">reflexes and neurotic symptoms are essentially the same.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The soldiers' neurotic symptoms were developed as a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">defence against facing up to what had happened to them in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">their war experience. Once the experience had been brought</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to the surface and the associated feelings expressed, the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">neurotic defence system was no longer necessary. Pavlov's</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">dogs did not develop of their own free will the tendency to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">salivate at the sound of a bell or to associate the sight of an</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ellipse with a reward; they were taught to do so. The</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">conditioned behaviour was not a defence.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Ramage does not deny Sargant's thesis altogether. He</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">accepts that the imposition of intolerable stress can have the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">effects he describes and can therefore be applied to the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">brainwashing phenomenon. But cathartic emotional discharge</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">leading to healing is something else - and that is what</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">is going on, he says, in therapeutic abreaction and religious</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">conversion experiences.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Not even Sargant has maintained that brainwashing or</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">sudden conversions necessarily last forever. He said:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'It is one thing to make the mind of a normal person break</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">down under intolerable stress, eradicate old ideas and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">behaviour patterns and plant new ones in the vacant soil; it is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">quite another to make these new ideas take firm root.' </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The </span><span style="font-size: large;">only way to do so, he says, is to consolidate the gains made.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">So Wesley, for instance, after winning converts at his</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">emotional hell-fire sermons, quickly divided his new flock</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">into groups which met at least once a week. Other preachers</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of his ilk who thought their work was done once conversion</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">was achieved soon lost most of those they had so dramatically</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">won for God.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">An effective method of consolidating the ground won by</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">political or religious conversion techniques is to maintain</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">controlled fear and tension, says Sargant, and cites the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Chinese Communist doctrine that wrong thought is as evil as</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">wrong action. Such a doctrine would have the highly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">desirable outcome that most would not dare to question the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">rightness of what they have come to believe as that would</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">clearly be wrong thought - and punishable, should the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">wrong thought slip out unintentionally in conversation or</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">even in one's sleep.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Quite clearly brainwashing does not last forever - if it</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">actually occurred in the first place - once the brainwashed</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">individual ceases to be in the environment where the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">inculcated ideas are current. The American POWs who</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">returned home did not retain Communist ideals: many, of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">course, may not have believed them in the first place but only</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">collaborated to make life easier.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Lifton's subjects, once they reached Hong Kong, did not</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">stay 'reformed' either but the psychological effects of the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">whole process were long-lasting. Most couldn't instantly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">adapt to Western life. It was as if, Lifton says, they had some</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">psychological business to attend to, to re-enact what had</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">happened and master it. Of course they also felt alienated in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">their new country as most of the Westerners had lived in China</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">for very many years.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Years later, however, they were still grappling with</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">powerful emotions and ideas implanted by the Communists,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">although hotly anti-Communist. Many still had fears of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">annihilation. But some claimed that they felt strengthened</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">because they had had the experience of testing out their</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">emotional limits in a way few of us are ever called on to do -</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and they survived.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Hinkle and Wolff say that even the most thorough</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">brainwashing can wear off in a short period. Even those</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">indoctrinated for five years could revert in a few months,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">once away from the environment.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">As environment and the prevailing current of opinion have</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">such bearing on whether brainwashing effects last, Brown</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">comes to the conclusion that, as a technique for changing</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">beliefs and behaviour, it isn't even necessary. Social forces</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">alone will do the work.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">'... The individual will accept a substitute belief <i>either</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">because it is capable of performing the same function as</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the old one - for example in satisfying the need for a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">totalist creed which provides certainty and controls his</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"bad" impulses - <i>or</i> because the belief has become</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">orthodox and it is "natural" to conform, unless he is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">prepared to become a social outcast. Thus in a Communist</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">community brainwashing is likely to work but is hardly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">necessary, since in the long run people tend to conform</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">because they are social; but when applied to non-totalist</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">individuals who are returning to a non-Communist</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">society, it will not work at all.'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He does not, however, in this comforting dismissal, take</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">account of so-called brainwashing techniques which may be</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">applied within a society that allows the expression of various</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ideologies. Individuals who join cults are prepared to be</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">social outcasts from the rest of society while conformists</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">within their own group. Being a conformist and being a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">social outcast are therefore not mutually exclusive.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">To dismiss brainwashing as ineffectual in the long term is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to ignore the fact, as so far shown, that the social and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">psychological factors and unconscious conditioning which</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">combine to create it may each be powerful influencing forces</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">on their own. In all the foregoing accounts of the Korean</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">brainwashing experience, all the ingredients are seen as</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">roughly the same, only explanations differ,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">1. The soldiers were forced to question beliefs they had</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">never questioned. Their certainty was undermined.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">2. Their behaviour was shaped by the use of rewards</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and other conditioning processes.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">3. They were led to believe that no one at home cared</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">what happened to them. They felt out of control and learned</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">helplessness.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">4. Degrading conditions and public humiliations served</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to undermine their egos.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">5. They were forced to participate in their own indoctrination</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">process by writing statements or organising camp</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">activities.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">6. Removal of their leaders left them without a clearly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">defined authority structure, and weakened group cohesion.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">7. The Chinese, by pacing their demands and only</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">making large requests after being granted small ones, imperceptibly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">won their commitment,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">8. Need for friendship and approval led them to comply</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">with their jailers.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">9. Induced anxiety, guilt, fear and insecurity led to suggestibility</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and a need to confess,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">10. The unpredictability of their captors' behaviour</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">confused their expectations and assumptions. Without a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">'norm' to which they could adapt, they felt even less in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">control.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">None of these stressors is situation-specific. Although the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">effects were heightened by severe physical duress in Korea,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">each can be seen in operation in more ordinary everyday</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">contexts- The next four chapters attempt to show how circumstances,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">conditioned responses, physical and emotional</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">reactions can all act to weaken that which we choose to regard</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">as the unassailable self. Rather than the prey of victimising</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">external forces, we may, if anything, be victims of our own</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">false conceptions of what constitutes individual integrity...</span><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>-- </i>from<i> <a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/books/MAMI2.html">The Manipulated Mind</a> </i></span><span style="font-size: large;">by Denise Winn </span><span style="font-size: large;">(Octagon Press, 1983)</span>cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-14315009785297144972015-05-12T01:01:00.001-07:002015-06-14T01:43:45.180-07:00The Need for Attention<span style="font-size: large;">Mummy, She Thinks I'm Real</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The underestimated craving for attention. </i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">By Pat Williams (1976)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Have you ever craved attention and then felt guilty about needing it? The answer is probably yes, because for some strange reason the need for attention is something we hate to admit.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Yet the need is as basic as hunger. Without it we starve in a psychic desert. And all over the country there are people starving in this way.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Extreme cases end up in the courts or on psychiatrist’s couches. Many more are quietly dying of psychic neglect among the endless acres of middle class suburban houses – housewives locked into their isolated rocket-ships, making lonely journeys with everything to sustain life on a material level but suffering from attention starvation and wondering what is wrong.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">CHILLING.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">One of the saddest cases recently was that of a a 19 year old housewife who cut herself with a razor , slashed off her hair, and pounded herself with a hammer, inflicting injuries which required hospital treatment. She wasted nearly three hundred hours of police time claiming a man and a woman had assaulted her.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">She was put on probation and if she sees her probation officer more than once a week (which in some areas they are now trying to do) then she may have achieved exactly what she needed. Someone will be paying her attention.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For one of the most chilling and revealing stories I ever heard was of a little girl in a restaurant with her mother. The waitress gave the child a menu and asked her what she wanted to eat. The child’s eyes widened, she tugged her mother’s sleeve and said. Did you hear that Mummy ? She thinks I’m real.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The child’s response provides the clue. If we don’t get attention we begin to feel invisible .So we make bids, initially small ones ,to become validated by someone else.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">A housewife who feels her husband is ignoring her may buy a sexy nightie or cook him an astonishingly good meal. If her attempts to get him to notice her are still ignored the dinner may land on the husband’s face and the nightie be tried out on a new man.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Attention need knows no age. . We’ve surely all been that child walking a step behind our mother feigning a limp. As adults we’ve all loved being the centre of attention at a party. And a G.P. tells me that elderly patients turn up so often that it’s more than chance saying..It’s such a nice day Doctor that I thought I’d come and take a look at you.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">if these attempts are ignored they can change gear and become bids for a wider limelight, entering the t dangerous realm of fantasy acted out. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">HUNGER.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The housewife suffering from chronic attention hunger, who feels that he husband and family NEVER see her for herself may become the shoplifter, the one who cries rape or makes a fake suicide attempt. The man who feels himself a ‘nobody’ may confess to a crime he didn’t commit.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">IF THE NEED FOR ATTENTION IS SO VITAL WHY DO SO MANY OF US SUFFER FROM THE LACK OF IT? ONE REASIN IS THAT WE DON’T HAVE A RESPECTBLE LABEL FOR IT.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Without this label (which we need as a matter of FACT not judgement) we indulge in all kinds of bizarre subterfuges to conceal our need from ourselves. Sometimes we weld it on to something different and confuse it with love or an interest in politcs, or concern for the welfare of others.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">CONFUSING.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Without the label too, you get the kind of confusing situations described by probation officer Jean Barrett. In one case a man grabbed a whole rail of dresses in Marks and Spencer and charged into the street with it shouting Arrest me! Arrest me!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In another, a girl in her twenties who had cut herself off from her family and was living in London without friends ran up thousands of pounds of credit card debts staying in fancy hotels and buying clothes. She was buying attention in fact, from hotel staff and the admiration of strangers; she got attention of another kind form the welfare officers and the courts.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Idries Shah who has pointed out the importance of attention to our culture in his books, says that although the principle of attention is little –understood here in the West ‘there are so many jokes about it in the east that I’m almost surprised it’s so unknown here, relatively unknown.’</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">He says: ‘Many of the people who write to me are asking, at least partly, for attention- even if they think they are asking for something else.’</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">‘If a letter isn’t answered a person may often try another tack, and write asking for different information. it ‘s very easy to illustrate attention desire if one is doesn’t feel flattered by the attention of the other person.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">SIMILARLY ONE CAN EXPERIMENT ONESELF; If you feel something is wrong ,ask yourself if it’s attention you need. If you think it is, there are several things you can do.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">First you can BUY it. For attention is actually a substance: the more you pay the more you get. Notice how the rich are treated in expensive shops and hotels.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Second you can COMMAND it—by making yourself so interesting so pretty so unusual or so famous that you simply find it coming towards you. Fame, it has been said is stored attention.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">AWARE.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">And third you can GIVE it... thereby probably getting it back again. Generating attention towards others seems to mean that the substance has been put in the air, and some of it will surely come back to you.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Aware of our need, we survive. Unaware we can be destroyed by our invisibility, though surrounded by millions of people. A precept in one of Shah’s books says it all:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">'MAN: </span><span style="font-size: large;">Kick him- he’ll forgive you. Flatter him – he may or may not see through you. But ignore him and he’ll hate you even if he conceals it until the day he dies.'</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">--from <i>The Daily Mail</i>, July, 1976.</span>cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-33809821326125875072015-05-07T16:36:00.000-07:002015-05-07T16:38:49.694-07:00Attention Theory<span style="font-size: large;">We're All Attention Seekers </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">By Pat Williams</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Condensed from <i>Psychology Today</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">February 1979 </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
<i>There is nothing wrong with seeking attention. It is a psychological nutrition. What is counterproductive, however, is to allow the need to masquerade as something else, or not to acknowledge the need at all. Pat Williams asks, have you recognized how much attention you really need and the forms in which you get it?</i> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
<br />
There is a pitiful little story about an eight-year-old girl who went to a restaurant with her mother. The waitress came up to them, gave each a menu, and returned a bit later, saying to the child: "What would you like, dear?" The child pulled at her mother's sleeve. "Did you hear that, Mummy?" She asked. "She thinks I'm <i>real</i>!"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
There was a young woman recently who repeated a pattern that is all too familiar to social workers. She stole a banker's card, bought herself beautiful clothes and jewelry, and patronized the best hotels and restaurants at which, because of her style and apparent money, she was treated like a storybook princess – until the police caught up with her. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
There was a man who went into a London Marks and Spencers, grabbed a rail of jackets, wheeled them out of the door, and ran down the street pushing them, shouting: "Arrest me! Arrest me!"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
Probation and police officers are full of similar tales. And there are many men and women, young or old, who seem to be wedded to a cause – say that of the underdog, or patriotism, or militant politics, or some form of religion – who would be less interested in these matters, if at all, if a concealed psychological need – the need for attention – we're being satisfied. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
In all these stories what everyone was really seeking, in either an extreme, criminal way or, as in the last paragraph, in a more submerged and socially acceptable way, was… attention. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
Human beings, and animals too, seek attention, much as a plant seeks light – because it is a basic need, as much as hunger or thirst. A child can be deprived of attention to the point where it begins to feel unreal and invisible. A young woman will go to self-destructive lengths, playing an unreal role, to command attention. A man will invite arrest if he can find attention in no other fashion. Human beings may espouse causes, do 'good' or do 'bad', set themselves up as devoted servants or imperious masters, declare themselves deeply in love, all in order to get a feed of sufficient attention. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
Public generosity, for example, is often more a matter of attention-getting than generosity only. It is possible, after all, (and recommended in our own traditions, possibly for this among other reasons) to "do good by stealth". </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
There is nothing wrong with seeking attention. We need it as we need our daily bread. It is a psychological nutrition. What is counterproductive, however, is to allow the need to masquerade as something else. Or not to acknowledge the need at all. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
The idea of attention being something we all want in our lives is conceded, rather dismissively, by most of us. But until recently we had little idea how comprehensively this matter of attention was affecting our lives. It is becoming increasingly clear that it is worth putting a great deal of the right kind of attention on the subject. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
The getting and giving of attention, and the various kinds of attention that exist, have not been considered much by Western psychologists, although it is a phenomenon well-known and better understood in the East. In recent years, however, it has been brought to the notice of the West by Idries Shah, who in his writings and university lectures has formulated an extremely valuable theory of attention. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
It seems to me best to quote Shah on the subject immediately, and extensively, for his statements are more informed and succinct than my interpretation of them could be. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><b>"Study the attracting, extending and reception as, as well as the interchange of attention"</b>, writes Shah, in <i>Learning How to Learn</i> (Octagon Press 1978). </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
<b>"One of the keys to human behavior is the attention factor. </b></span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
"Anyone can verify that many instances, generally supposed to be important or useful human transactions on any subject (social, commercial, etc.), are in fact disguised attention- situations. </span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
"It is contended that if a person does not know what he is doing (in this case that he is basically demanding, extending or exchanging attention) and as a consequence thinks that he is doing something else (contributing to human knowledge, learning, buying, selling, informing, etc.), he will (a) be more inefficient at both the overt and the covert activity; (b) have less capacity of planning his behavior and will make mistakes of emotion and intellect because he considers attention to be other than it is.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
"If this is true, it is most important that individuals realize: </span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b>
<b>1. That this attention factor is operating in virtually all trend transactions; </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b>
<b>2. That the apparent motivation of transactions may be other than it really is. And that it often is generated by the need or desire for attention-activity (giving, receiving or exchanging). </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b>
<b>3 That attention activity, like any other demand for food, warmth, etc. when placed under volitional control, must result in increased scope for the human being who would not then be at the mercy of random sources of attention, or even more confused than usual if things do not pan out as they expect."</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
He then enunciates 21 principles. I have space to quote and consider briefly only the first few in this article. But I have a strong hunch that if we could absorb and understand, <i>really</i> understand, even these (rather than having an intellectual or emotional response to them), we would be able to remove a great deal of tangle and clutter from our minds, leaving space to see something more useful and interesting. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
The first of these principles is that <i>"too much attention can be bad (inefficient)"</i>. The second, that <i>"too little attention can be bad."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
I imagine that those of us who are interested in psychology are vaguely aware of this, but I wonder whether we have thought even the superficial implications of this right through, or examined the workings of it in the behavior of ourselves and those we know....</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
****************</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />... an important man or woman in church or local affairs, may often be doing so primarily to fulfill attention need. The scientist or doctor who has made some important breakthrough may work on quietly – or, if he needs attention, may revel in the limelight. Everyone, in fact, unless they are aware of their attention needs and when they are satisfying them, is saying to a fairly indifferent world: "Look at <i>me</i>. I am here too, I count."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
As Shah has pointed out elsewhere (<i>Caravan of Dreams</i>, Octagon Press, reprinted 1979):</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
"MAN: Kick him – he'll forgive you. Flatter him — he may or may not see through you. But ignore him, and he'll hate you, even if he conceals it until he dies."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
It's fascinating to try and dissect the element of attention-demand in the behavior of others. And the detective work becomes even more interesting and rewarding when one applies it back to oneself. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
In what ways do I, personally, get attention? Am I confusing an attention demand for something else? If there is an element of attention-exchange in all human encounters, can I recognize it each time? Am I getting enough? If not, can I face the fact that this is really what I am needing, even if I may be calling it, for example, something "higher"? Am I getting too much, thus making me inefficient? Can I, by making my intake less random and more conscious, cut down my intake? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
Shah says that if we seek attention more consciously, we will be more efficient in our lives. By his analogy, a tribe that is short of food is inefficient because it is hungry. But a tribe which has more than enough food is equally inefficient if it spends all day gathering it at random, chewing the berries, so to speak, where they find them. They are spending too much time on it – throwing away the chance of learning to do or be anything else in their lives. It would free them for a further range of possibilities if they could learn how to accumulate and store the food, and eat only at regular intervals.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
If we can concede, first, that it <i>is</i> possible to have too much or too little attention, we need then to think further, to identify in what guises attention may be given, gotten, or exchanged. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
Some further principles of Shah's may help us here:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-size: large;"> * Attention may be `hostile' or `friendly' and still fulfil the </span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">appetite for attention. This is confused by the moral aspect.</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b>
<b> * When people need a great deal of attention they are vulner- </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>able to the message which too often accompanies the exercise of </b><b>attention towards them. E.g., someone wanting attention might </b><b>be able to get it only from some person or organisation which </b><b>might thereafter exercise (as `its price') an undue influence upon </b><b>the attention-starved individual's mind.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b>
<b> * Present beliefs have often been inculcated at a time and under </b><b>circumstances connected with attention-demand, and not arrived at </b><b>by the method attributed to them.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b>
<b> * Many paradoxical reversals of opinion, or of associates and </b></span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">commitments may be seen as due to the change in a source of </span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">attention.</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b>
<b> * People are almost always stimulated by an offer of attention, </b></span><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">since most people are frequently attention-deprived. This is one </span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;">reason why new friends, or circumstances, for instance, may be preferred to old ones.</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b>
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<span style="font-size: large;">
These statements seem to carry with them the possibility of liberation from the thrall in which our tendency to mistake attention-seeking for something else holds our minds and consequent behavior. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
Have you never been brainwashed by someone whose attention (you may have called it "respect ", "friendship "or "company ") you wanted? Never professed a sudden interest in, say boxing or etymology, because you want attention from someone who <i>is</i> interested in them? I have. The price has simply been loss of my own independent-mindedness in this area – though pride has made me loathe to admit it. This, of course, is relatively harmless: acceptable if one knows what one is doing. But we have all seen this kind of behavior writ large in groups, sects, cults, political associations, gangs of hoodlums, even children at school. Have <i>you</i> never changed your mind at the slightest pressure of someone you want to "like "or "like you"? And how often have you watched others do the same? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
Attention theory seems to me a Theseus' thread to unravel some of the confusion in the mind – because it goes all over the place. Its great value is that it breaks down categories of thought previously labeled and boxed as separate things, and enables us to see certain elements they have in common. It is a real step forward. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
As Shah himself says: "One of the advantages of this theory is that it allows the human mind to link in a coherent and easily-understood way many things which it has always (wrongly) been taught are very different, not susceptible to comparison, etc. This incorrect training has, of course, impaired the possible efficiency in functioning of the brain, though only culturally, not permanently".</span>cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-56312219677292788842014-07-13T03:20:00.000-07:002014-07-13T03:20:49.692-07:00Life On This Earth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="text-align: start;">From </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/idriesshah999/about" style="text-align: start;">The Estate of Idries Shah:</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Idries Shah, on Technology, Ecology & Global Problems</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">for the full discussion see: </span></div>
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<a href="http://youtu.be/zd4C7XmCpY8"><span style="font-size: large;">Technology: The Two-Edged Sword. Club of Rome discussion with Alexander King, Dennis Gabor, Jorge Sabato, Idries Shah. Released on Seminar Cassettes, 1973. </span></a></h1>
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<br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dy-38--O-7AyE3hW2L2deNt5wl3DXqJLGr787SAykYSMt6m7sHqjBUVji8J4ClJdN-FbhCn-lx1Zdwx7wD0Gg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">for the full discussion see:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://youtu.be/w_8FGfcf9N4">"The World and Men", a Club of Rome discussion with Alexander King, Aurelio Peccei, Idries Shah. Originally released on Seminar Cassettes, 1973.</a></span><br />
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cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-53087265728617238882014-06-09T19:48:00.003-07:002014-06-28T10:20:56.078-07:00The Sufi Tradition (II)<h1 class="title">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large; font-style: italic;">An interview with Idries Shah b</span><span style="font-size: large;"><i>y Elizabeth Hall, published in Psychology Today, July, 1975, reprinted in Robert Ornstein's </i>The Psychology of Consciousness<i>, revised edition, 1985. Part 2 of 2</i></span><span style="font-size: large; font-style: italic;">: </span></span></h1>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: Many of the great Sufi teachers seem to regard the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ecstatic experience as only a way station.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: Oh, yes. The ecstatic experience is absolutely the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">lowest form of advanced knowledge. Western biographers</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of the saints have made it very difficult for us by assuming</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that Joan of Arc and Theresa of Avila, who have had such</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">experiences, have reached God. I am sure that this is only a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">misunderstanding based on faulty stories and faulty</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">retrieval of information.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: Sufis also seem to take extra-sensory perception as a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">matter of course and as not very interesting.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: Not interesting at all. It is no more than a by-product.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Let me give you a banal analogy. If I were training to be a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">runner and went out every day to run, I would get faster</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and faster and be able to run farther and farther with less</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">fatigue. Now, I also find that I have a better complexion,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">my blood supply is better, and my digestion has improved.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">These things don't interest me; they are only by-products of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">my running. I have another objective. When people I am</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">associated with become overwhelmed by ESP phenomena,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I always insist that they stop it, because their objective is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">elsewhere.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: They are supposed to be developing their potential;</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">not attempting to read minds or move objects around. Do</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">you think that researchers will one day explain the physical</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">basis of ESP or do you think it will always elude them?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: If I say it will elude the scientists, it will annoy the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">people who are able to get enormous grants for research</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">into ESP. But I think, yes, a great deal more can be</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">discovered providing the scientists are prepared to be good</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">scientists. And by that I mean that they are prepared to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">structure their experiments successively in accordance with</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">their discoveries. They must be ready to follow and not</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">hew doggedly to their original working hypothesis. And</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">they will certainly have to give up their concept of the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">observer being outside of the experiment, which has been</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">their dearest pet for many years.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">And another thing, as we find constantly in metaphysics,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">people who are likely to be able to understand and develop</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">capacities for ESP are more likely to be found among</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">people who are not interested in the subject.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: Is that because disinterest is necessary to approach the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">subject properly?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: Something like that. Being disinterested, you can</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">approach ESP more coolly and calmly. The Sufis say: "You</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">will be able to exercise these supernatural powers when</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">you can put out your hand and get a wild dove to land on</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">it." But the other reason why the people who are fascinated</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">by ESP or metaphysics or magic are the last who should</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">study it is that they are interested in it for the wrong</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">reasons. It may be compensation. They are not equipped to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">study ESP. </span><span style="font-size: large;">They are equipped for something else: fear, greed, hate, or </span><span style="font-size: large;">love of humanity.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: Often they have a desperate wish to prove that ESP is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">either true or false.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: Yes that's what I call heroism. But it's not</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">professionalism and that's what the job calls for.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: You've also written a couple of books on magic:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Oriental Magic</i> and <i>The Secret Lore of Magic</i>, an</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">investigation of Western magic. Today there's an upsurge</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of interest in astrology and witchcraft and magic. You must</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">have speculated somewhat about magic in those books.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: Very little. The main purpose of my books on magic</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">was to make this material available to the general reader.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">For too long people believed that there were secret books,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">hidden places, and amazing things. They held onto this</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">information as something to frighten themselves with. So</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the first purpose was information. This is the magic of East</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and West. That's all. There is no more. The second purpose</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of those books was to show that there do seem to be forces,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">some of which are either rationalized by this magic or may</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">be developed from it, which do not come within customary</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">physics or within the experience of ordinary people. I think</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">this should be studied, that we should gather the data and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">analyze the phenomena. We need to separate the chemistry</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of magic from the alchemy, as it were.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: That's not exactly what the contemporary devotees of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">witchcraft and magic are up to.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: No. My work has no relevance to the current interest</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">whatever. Oh, it makes my books sell, but they were</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">written for cool-headed people and there aren't many of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">those around.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: Most of the people who get interested in magic seem</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to be enthusiasts.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: Yes, it's just as with ESP. There's no reason why they</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">shouldn't be enthusiasts, but having encouraged themwhich</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I couldn't help-I must now avoid them. They would</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">only be disappointed in what I have to say.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">You know, Rumi said that people counterfeit gold because</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">there is such a thing as real gold, and I think that's the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">situation we are in with Sufi studies at the moment. It is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">much easier to write a book on Sufism than it is to study it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">It is much easier to start a group and tell people what to do</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">than it is to learn first.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The problem is that the spurious, the unreal, the untrue is so</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">much easier to find that it is in danger of becoming the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">norm. Until recently, for example, if you didn't use drugs in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">spiritual pursuits, you were not considered genuine. If you</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">said, "look, drugs are irrelevant to spiritual matters," you</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">were considered a square.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Their attitude is not at all a search for truth.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: Many people seem to use drugs as an attempt to get</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">instant enlightenment.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: People want to be healed or cured or saved, but they</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">want it now. It's astonishing. When people come here to see</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">me, they want to get something, and if I can't give them</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">higher consciousness, they will take my bedspreads or my</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ashtrays or whatever else they can pick up around the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">house.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: They want something to carry away.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: They are thinking in terms of lose property, almost</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">physical. They are savages in the best sense of the word.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">They are not what they think they are at all. I am invited to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">believe that they take bedspreads and ashtrays by accident.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But it never works the other way; they never leave their</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">wallets behind by mistake. One thing I learned from my</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">father very early: Don't take any notice of what people say,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">just watch what they do.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: Let's get back to your main work. What is the best</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">way of introducing the Sufi way of thinking to the West?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: I am sure that the best way is not to start a cult, but to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">introduce a body of literary material that should interest</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">people enough to establish the Sufi phenomenon as viable.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">We don't plan to form an organization with somebody at</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the top and others at the bottom collecting money or</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">wearing funny clothes or converting people to Sufism. We</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">view Sufism not as an ideology that moulds people to the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">right way of belief or action, but as an art or science that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">can exert a beneficial influence on individuals or societies,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in accordance with the needs of those individuals and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">societies.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: Does Western society need this infusion of Sufi</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">thought?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: It needs it for the same reason that any society needs</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">it, because it gives one something one cannot get</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">elsewhere. For example, Sufi thought makes a person more</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">efficient. A watchmaker becomes a better watchmaker. A</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">housewife becomes a better housewife. When somebody</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">said as much in California last year, 120 hippies got up and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">left the hall. They didn't wait to hear that they weren't going</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to be forced to be more efficient.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: But there must be more than efficiency to it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: Of course. I wouldn't try to sell Sufism purely as a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">means to efficiency, even though it does make one more</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">effective in all sorts of ways. I think Sufism is important</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">because it enables one to detach from life and see it as near</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to its reality as one can possibly get.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Sufi experience tends to produce the kind of person who is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">calm, not because he can't get excited, but because he</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">knows that getting excited about an event or problem is not</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">going to have any lasting effect.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: Would you say that it might give a person an outlook</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">on the problems of this time similar to the outlook he might</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">presently have on the problems of the 16th century?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: Very much so. And such an outlook takes the heat</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">out of almost every contention. Instead of becoming the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">classical Oriental philosopher who says, "All reality is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">imagination. Why should I care about the world," you</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">begin to see alternative ways of acting.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">For example, some of the finest people in this country</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">spend a great deal of their time jumping up and down</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">waving banners that condemn the various dirty beasts of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the world. Such behaviour makes the dirty beasts delighted</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">at the thought that they are so important and the jumpers</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">are so impotent. If the Trafalgar square jumpers had an</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">objective view of their behaviour, they would abandon it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">First, they would see that they are only giving aid and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">comfort to the enemy, and second, they would be able to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">see how to do something about the dirty beasts - and if it</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">were necessary to do anything about them.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: In other words, Sufism might help us solve some of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the enormous social, political and environmental problems</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that face us.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: People talk about Sufism as if it were the acquisition</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of powers. Sufi metaphysics has even got a magical</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">reputation. The truth is that Sufi study and development</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">give one capacities that one did not have before. One would</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">not kill merely because killing is bad.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Instead, one would know that killing is unnecessary and, in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">addition, what one would have to do in order to make</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">humanity happier and able to realize better objectives.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">That's what knowledge is for.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: When I read your books, the message came through</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">very clearly that you are not interested in rational,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">sequential thought - in what Bob Ornstein calls left-hemisphere</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">activity.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Shah: To say that I'm not interested in sequential thinking</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">is not to say that I can live without it. I have it up to a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">certain point, and I expect the people I meet to be able to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">use it. We need information in order to approach a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">problem, but we also need to be able to see the thing whole.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: When you speak of seeing the thing whole, you're</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">talking about intuitive thought, where you don't reason the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">problem out but know the answer without knowing how</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">you got it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: Yes. You know the answer and can verify that it is an</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">answer. That is the difference between romantic imagining</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and something that belongs to this world.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: Ornstein, who seems to have been profoundly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">influenced by Sufi thought, has suggested that most people</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">today tend to rely on logical, rational, linear thought and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that we tend to use very little of the intuitive, non-linear</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">thought of the brain's right hemisphere.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Would you say that Sufism can teach one to tap righthemisphere</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">thought?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: Yes, I would. Sufism has never been over-impressed</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">by the products of left-hemisphere activity, although it's</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">often used them.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">For instance, Sufis have written virtually all the great</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">poetry of Persia, and while the inspiration for a poem may</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">come from the right hemisphere, one must use the left</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">hemisphere to put the poem down in the proper form. I</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">think that the behaviour and products of Sufism are among</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the few things we have that encourage a holistic view of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">things. I don't want to discuss Sufism in Ornsteinian terms,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">however, because I'm not qualified to do so. I can only say</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that insofar as there is any advantage in these two</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">hemispheres acting alternately or complementing one</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">another, then Sufi material undoubtedly is among the very</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">little available material that can help this process along.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: Why are the traditional Western methods of study</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">inappropriate for the study of Sufism?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: They are inappropriate only up to a point. Both the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Western and Middle Eastern methods of study come from</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the common heritage of the Middle Ages, when one was</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">regarded as wise if he had a better memory than someone</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">else. But some of the teaching methods that Sufis use seem</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">rather odd to the Westerner. If I were to say to you that my</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">favourite method of teaching is to bore the audience to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">death, you would be shocked. But I have just results of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">some tests, which show that English schoolchildren, when</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">shown a group of films, remembered only the ones that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">bored them. Now this is consistent with our experience, but</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">it is not consistent with Western beliefs.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Another favourite Sufi teaching method is to be rude to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">people, sometimes shouting them down or shooing them</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">away, a technique that is not customary in cultivated</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">circles. By experience we know that by giving a certain</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">kind of shock to a person, we can - for a short period -</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">increase his perception. Until recently I wouldn't have</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">dared speak about this, but I now have a clipping indicating</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that when a person endures a shock he produces Theta</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">rhythms. Some people have associated these brain rhythms</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">with various forms of ESP. No connection has been made</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">yet, but I think we may be beginning to understand it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: Recent studies of memory indicate that unless</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">adrenaline is present, no learning takes place, and shock</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">causes adrenaline to flow. We also know from experience</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that when you find yourself in a situation of grave danger,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">you tend to notice some very small detail with great clarity.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: Exactly. Concentration comes in on a strange level</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and in an unaccustomed way. But using this knowledge has</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">traditionally given Sufi teachers a reputation for having bad</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">manners. The most polite thing they can say about us is that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">we are irascible and out of control. Some people say that a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">spiritual teacher should have no emotions or be totally</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">balanced. We say that a spiritual teacher must be a person</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">who can be totally balanced, not one who cannot help but</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">be balanced.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: People in the United States seem to be looking for</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">leaders, whether spiritual or political, and they keep</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">complaining because there are no leaders to follow.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: People are always looking for leaders; that does not</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">mean that this is the time for a leader. The problems that a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">leader would be able to resolve have not been identified.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Nor does the clamour mean that those who cry out are</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">suitable followers. Most of the people who demand a leader</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">seem to have some baby's idea of what a leader should do.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The idea that a leader will walk in and we will all recognize</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">him and follow him and everybody will be happy strikes</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">me as a strangely immature atavism. Most of these people,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I believe, want not a leader but excitement. I doubt that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">those who cry the loudest would obey a leader if there was</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">one. Talk is cheap, and a lot of the talk comes from</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">millions of old washerwomen.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: If so, the washerwomen are spread throughout the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">culture.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: They're not called washerwomen, but if we test them,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">they react like washerwomen. For example, if you are</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">selling books and you send a professor of philosophy</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">something written in philosophical language, he will throw</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">it away. But if you send him a spiel written for a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">washerwoman, he will buy the book. At heart he is a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">washerwomen. Intellectuals don't understand this, but</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">business people do because their profits depend upon it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">You can learn much more about human nature on Madison</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Avenue than you will from experts on human nature,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">because on Madison Avenue on stands or falls by the sales.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Professors in their ivory towers can say anything because</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">there's no penalty attached. Go to where there is a penalty</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">attached and there you will find wisdom.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: That's a tough statement. You sound as if you are</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">down on all academics.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: Well, in the past few years I have given quite a few</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">seminars and lectures at universities, and I have become</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">terrified by the low level of ability. It is as if people just</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">aren't trying. They don't read the books in their fields, don't</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">know the workings of them, use inadequate approaches to a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">subject, ask ridiculous questions that a moment's thought</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">would have enabled them to answer.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">If these are the cream, what is the milk like?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: Are you talking about undergraduates, graduate</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">students, or professors?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: The whole lot. Recently I've been appalled at the low</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">levels of articles in learned journals and literary weeklies.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The punctuation gone to hell, full of non-sequiturs, an</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">obvious lack of background knowledge, and so on. I went</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to a newspaper and looked up the equivalent articles from</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the 1930's. A great change has taken place. Forty years ago</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">there were two kinds of articles: very, very good and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">terribly bad. There seemed nothing in-between. Now</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">everything is slapdash and mediocre. Why are so many</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">famous persons in hallowed institutions now so mediocre?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: Critics like Dwight Macdonald have said for years</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that as education becomes widespread and people become</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">semiliterate, the culture at the top is inevitably pulled</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">down. But you're not really hostile to all academics, are</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">you?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: No, some of my best friends are academics.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Hall: That is no way to get out of it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: Of course, I'm not hostile to all academics. There are</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">some great thinkers. But I do not believe that it is necessary</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">for us to have 80% blithering idiots in order to get 20%</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">marvellous academics. This ratio depresses me. I think that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the good people are unbelievably noble in denying that the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">rest of them are such hopeless idiots. Privately they agree</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">with you, but they won't rock the boat.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">For the sake of humanity, somebody has got to rock the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">boat.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Hall: For the sake of humanity, what would you like to see</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">happen?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Shah: What I really want, in case anybody is listening, is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">for the products of the last 50 years of psychological</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">research to be studied by the public, by everybody, so that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the findings become part of their way of thinking. At the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">moment, people have adopted only a few. They talk glibly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">about making Freudian slips and they have accepted the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">idea of inferiority complexes. But they have this great body</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of psychological information and refuse to use it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">There is a Sufi story about a man who went into a shop and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">asked the shopkeeper,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"Do you have leather?"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"Yes," said the shopkeeper.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"Nails?"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"Yes."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"Thread?"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"Yes."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"Needle?"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"Yes"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"Then why don't you make yourself a pair of boots?"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">That story is intended to pinpoint this failure to use</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">available knowledge. People in this civilization are starving</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in the middle of plenty. This is a civilization that is going</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">down, not because it hasn't got the knowledge that would</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">save it, but because nobody will use the knowledge.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-31258251078627851812014-06-09T19:48:00.001-07:002014-06-28T10:20:56.057-07:00The Sufi Tradition (I)<h1 class="title">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>An interview with Idries Shah by Elizabeth Hall, published in </i>Psychology Today<i>, July, 1975, reprinted in Robert Ornstein's The </i>Psychology of Consciousness<i>, revised edition, 1985. Part 1 of 2:</i></span></span></h1>
<div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Sufi Tradition</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i>"Some gurus are frankly phoneys, and they don't try to hide</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>it from me. They think I am one too."-- Idries Shah</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: Idries Shah, you are the West's leading exponent of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Sufism, that rich religious tradition growing out of the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Middle East. Why, at a time when new cults are springing</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">up, do you refuse to be a guru? You could easily become</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">one.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: There are a lot of reasons. But if we are talking about</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the teacher who has disciples, it's because I feel no need for</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">an admiring audience to tell me how wonderful I am or to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">do what I say. I believe that the guru needs his disciples. If</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">he had a sufficient outlet for his desire to be a big shot or</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">his feeling of holiness or his wish to have others dependent</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">on him, he wouldn't be a guru.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">I got all that out of my system very early and, consistent</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">with Sufi tradition, I believe that those who don't want to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">teach are the ones who can and should. The West still has a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">vocation hang-up and has not yet discovered this. Here, the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">only recognized achiever is an obsessive. In the East we</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">believe that a person who can't help doing a thing isn't</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">necessarily the best one to do it. A compulsive cookie</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">baker may bake very bad cookies.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: Are you saying that a person who feels that he must</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">engage in a certain profession is doing it because of some</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">emotional need?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: I think this is very often the case, and it doesn't</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">necessarily produce the best professional. Show an</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ordinary person an obsessive and he will believe you have</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">shown him a dedicated and wonderful person - provided he</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">share his beliefs. If he doesn't, of course, he regards the one</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">obsessed as evil. Sufism regards this as a facile and untrue</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">posture. And if there is one consistency in the Sufi</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">tradition, it is that man must be in the world but not of the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">world. There is no role for a priest-king or guru.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: Then you have a negative opinion of all gurus.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: Not of all. Their followers need the guru as much as the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">guru needs his followers. I just don't regard it as a religious</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">operation. I take a guru to be a sort of psychotherapist. At</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the very best, he keeps people quiet and polarized around</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">him and gives some sort of meaning to their lives.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: Librium might do the same thing.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: Yes, but that's no reason to be against it. Why shouldn't</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">there be room for what we might call "neighbourhood</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">psychotherapy" - the community looking after its own?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">However, why it should be called a spiritual activity rather</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">baffles me.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: One can't help getting the feeling that not all gurus are</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">trying to serve their fellowman.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: Some are frankly phoneys, and they don't try to hide it</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">from me. They think that I am one, too, so when we meet</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">they begin the most disturbing conversations. They want to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">know how I get money, how I control people, and so on.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: They want to swap secrets.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: That's going a little too far. But they feel safety in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">numbers. They actually feel there is something wrong with</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">what they are doing, and they feel better if they talk to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">somebody else who is doing it. I always tell them that I</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">think it would be much better if they gave up the guru role</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in their own minds and realize that they are providing a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">perfectly good social service.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: How do they take to that advice?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: Sometimes they laugh and sometimes they cry. The</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">general impression is that one of us is wrong. Because I</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">don't make the same kind of noises that they do, they seem</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to believe that either I am a lunatic or that I am starting</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">some new kind of con. Perhaps I have found a new racket.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: I am surprised that these gurus tell you all their secrets</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">as freely as they do.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: I must tell you that I have not renounced the Eastern</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">technique of pretending to be interested in what another</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">person is saying, even pretending to be on his side.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Therefore, I am able to draw out gurus and get them to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">commit themselves to an extent that a Westerner, because</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of his conscience, could not do. The Westerner would not</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">allow certain things to go unchallenged and would not</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">trick, as it were, another person. So he doesn't find out the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">truth.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Look here, it's time that somebody took the lid off the guru</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">racket. Since I have nothing to lose, it might as well be me.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">With many of these gurus it comes down to an "us and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">them" sort of thing between the East and the West. Gurus</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">from India used to stop by on their way to California and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">their attitude was generally, let's take the Westerners to the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">cleaners; they colonized us, now we will get money out of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">them. I heard this sort of thing even from people who had</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">impeccable spiritual reputations back home in India.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: It is an understandable human reaction to centuries of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Western exploitation.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: It's understandable, but I deny that it's a spiritual</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">activity. What I want to say is, "Brother, you are in the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">revenge business, and that's a different kind of business</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">from me." There are always groups that are willing to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">negotiate with me and want to use my name. On one</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">occasion a chap in a black shirt and white tie told me, "You</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">take Britain, but don't touch the United States, because</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that's ours." I had a terrible vision of Al Capone. The</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">difference was that the guru's disciples kissed his feet.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">**********</span> <span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i>See What I Mean?</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Nasrudin was throwing handfuls of crumbs around his</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>house.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"What are you doing?" someone asked him. "Keeping</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>the tigers away."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"But there are no tigers in these parts."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"That's right. Effective, isn't it?"</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-size: large;">**********</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: Gurus keep proliferating in the United States, always</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">with massive followings. A 15-year-old Perfect Master can</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">fill the Astrodome.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: Getting the masses is the easy part. A guru can attract a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">crowd of a million in India, but few in a crowd take him</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">seriously. You see, India has had gurus for thousands of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">years, so they are generally sophisticated about them; they</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">take in the attitude with their mothers' milk. This culture</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">just hasn't been inoculated against the guru. Let's turn it</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">around. If I were fresh off a plane from India and told you</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that I was going to Detroit to become a wonderful</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">automobile millionaire, you would smile at me. You know</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">perfectly well the obstacles, the taxes, the ulcers that I face.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Well, the Indian is in the same position with the automobile</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">industry as the American with the guru. I'm not impressed</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">by naive American reactions to gurus; if you can show me</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">a guru who can pull off that racket in the East, then I will</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">be surprised.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: Before we go any farther, we'd better get down to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">basics and ask the obvious question. What is Sufism?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: The most obvious question of all is for us the most</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">difficult question. But I'll try to answer. Sufism is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">experience of life through a method of dealing with life and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">human relations. This method is based on an understanding</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of man, which places at one's disposal the means to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">organize one's relationships and one's learning systems. So</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">instead of saying that Sufism is a body of thought in which</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">you believe certain things and don't believe other things,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">we say that the Sufi experience has to be provoked in a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">person. Once provoked, it becomes his own property, rather</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">as a person masters an art.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: So ideally, for four million readers, you would have</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">four million different explanations.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: In fact, it wouldn't work out like that. We progress by</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">means of NASHR, an Arabic word than means scatter</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">technique. For example, I've published quite a number of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">miscellaneous books, articles, tapes and so on, which</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">scatter many forms of this Sufi material. These 2,000</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">different stories cover many different tendencies in many</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">people, and they are able to attach themselves to some</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">aspect of it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: I noticed as I read that the same point would be made</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">over and over again in a different way in a different story.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In all my reading, I think the story that made the most</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">profound impression on me was "The Water of Paradise."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Afterward, I found the same point in other stories, but had I</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">not read "The Water of Paradise" first, I might not have</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">picked it up.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: That is the way the process tends to work. Suppose we</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">get a group of 20 people past the stage where they no</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">longer expect us to give them miracles and stimulation and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">attention. We sit them down in a room and give them 20 or</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">30 stories, asking them to tell us what they see in the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">stories, what they like, and what the don't like. The stories</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">first operate as a sorting out process. They sort out both the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">very clever people who need psychotherapy and who have</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">come only to put you down, and the people who have come</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to worship.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">**********</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i>If A Pot Can Multiply</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i>One day Nasrudin lent his cooking pots to a neighbour,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>who was giving a feast. The neighbour returned them,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>together with one extra one - a very tiny pot.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"What is this?" asked Nasrudin.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"According to law, I have given you the offspring of your</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>property which was born when the pots were in my care,"</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>said the joker.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Shortly afterwards Nasrudin borrowed his neighbour's</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>pots, but did not return them. The man came round to get</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>them back.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"Alas!" said Nasrudin, "they are dead. We have</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>established, have we not, that pots are mortal?"</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-size: large;">**********</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: In responsible Sufi circles, no one attempts to handle</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">either the sneerers or the worshippers, and they are very</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">politely detached from the others.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: They are not fertile ground?</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">IS: They have something else to do first. And what they</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">need is offered abundantly elsewhere.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">**********</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i>I Know Her Best</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i>People ran to tell the Mulla that his mother-in-law had</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>fallen into the river.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"She will be swept out to sea, for the torrent is very fast</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>here," they cried.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Without a moment's hesitation Nasrudin dived into the</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>river and started to swim upstream.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"No!" they cried, "DOWNSTREAM! That is the only</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>way a person can be carried away from here."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"Listen!" panted the Mulla, "I know my wife's mother. If</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>everyone else is swept downstream, the place to look for</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>her is upstream."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-size: large;">**********</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: There's no reason for them to bother us. Next we begin</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to work with people who are left. In order to do this, we</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">must cool it. We must not have any spooky atmosphere,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">any strange robes or gongs or intonations. The new</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">students generally react to the stories either as they think</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">you would like them to react or as their background tells</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">them they should react. Once they realize that no prizes are</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">being given for correct answers, they begin to see that their</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">previous conditioning determines the way they are seeing</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the material in the stories.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">So, the second use of the stories is to provide a protected</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">situation in which people can realize the extent of the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">conditionings in their ordinary lives. The third use comes</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">later, rather like when you get the oil to the surface of a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">well after you burn of the gases. After we have burnt off</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the conditioning, we start getting completely new</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">interpretations and reactions to stories. At last, as the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">student becomes less emotional, we can begin to deal with</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the real person, not the artefact that society has made him.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: Is this a very long process?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: You can't predict it at all. With some people it is an</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">instant process; with others, it takes weeks or months. Still</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">others get fed up and quit because, like good children of the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">consumer society, they crave something to consume and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">we're not giving it to them.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: You say that conditioning gets in the way of responses</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to Sufi material. But everyone is conditioned from birth, so</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">how does one ever escape from his conditioning?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: We can't live in the world without being conditioned.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Even the control of one's bladder is conditioned. It is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">absurd to talk, as some do, of deconditioned or</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">nonconditioned people. But it is possible to see why</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">conditioning has taken place and why a person's beliefs</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">become oversimplified.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Nobody is trying to abolish conditioning, merely to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">describe it, to make it possible to change it, and also to see</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">where it needs to operate, and where it does not. Some sort</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of secondary personality, which we call the "commanding</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">self" takes over man when his mentation is not correctly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">balanced. This self, which he takes for his real one, is in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">fact a mixture of emotional impulses and various pieces of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">conditioning. As a consequence of Sufi experience, people</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">- instead of seeing things through a filter of conditioning</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">plus emotional reactions, a filter which constantly discards</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">certain stimuli - can see things through some part of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">themselves that can only be described as not conditioned.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: Are you saying that when one comes to an awareness</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that he is conditioned, that he can operate aside from it? He</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">can say, "Why do I believe this? Well, perhaps it is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">because..."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: Exactly. Then he is halfway toward being liberated</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">from his conditioning - or at least toward keeping it under</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">control. People who say that we must smash conditioning</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">are themselves oversimplifying things.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: A number of years ago an American psychologist</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">carried out an interesting experiment. He had a device that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">supplied two images, one to each eye. One image was a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">baseball player, the other was a matador. He had a group of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">American and Mexican schoolteachers look through this</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">device. Most of the Americans saw a baseball player and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">most of the Mexicans saw the matador. From what you</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">have said, I gather that Sufism might enable an American</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to see the matador and a Mexican to see the baseball</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">player.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: That is what many of the Sufi stories try to do. As a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">reader, you tend to identify with one of the people in the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">story. When he behaves unexpectedly, it gives you a bit of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">a jolt and forces you to see him with different eyes.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: When one reads about Sufism, one comes upon</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">conflicting explanations. Some people say that Sufism is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">pantheistic; others that it is related to theosophy. Certainly</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">there are strains in Sufism that you can find in any of the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">major world religions.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: There are many ways to talk about the religious aspects</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of Sufism. I'll just choose one and see where it leads. The</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Sufis themselves say that their religion has no history,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">because it is not culture bound. Although Sufism has been</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">productive in Islam, according to Sufi tradition and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">scripture, Sufis existed in pre-Islamic times. The Sufis say</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that all religion is evolution, otherwise it wouldn't survive.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">They also say that all religion is capable of development up</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to the same point. In historical times, Sufis have worked</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">with all recognized religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Vedanta, Buddhism and so on. Sufis are in religion but not</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">**********</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Early To Rise</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i>"Nasrudin, my son, get up early in the mornings."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"Why father?"</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"It is a good habit. Why, once I rose at dawn and went for</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>a walk. I found on the road a sack of gold."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"How did you know it was not lost the previous night?"</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"That is not the point. In any case, it had not been there</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>the night before. I noticed that."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"Then it isn't lucky for everyone to get up early. The man</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>who lost the gold must have been up earlier than you."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-size: large;">**********</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: What is the Sufi attitude toward mysticism and the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ecstatic experience?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: Sufis are extraordinarily cautious about this. They don't</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">allow a person to do spiritual exercises unless they are</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">convinced that he can undergo such exercises without harm</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and appreciate them without distraction.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">**********</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Moment In Time</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i>"What is fate?" Nasrudin was asked by a scholar.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"An endless succession of intertwined events, each</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>influencing the other."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"That is hardly a satisfactory answer. I believe in cause</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>and effect."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"Very well," said the Mulla, "look at that."</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>He pointed to a procession passing in the street.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>"That man is being taken to be hanged. Is that because</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>someone gave him a silver piece and enabled him to buy</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>the knife with which he committed the murder; or</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>because somebody saw him do it; or because nobody</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>stopped him?"</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-size: large;">**********</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">IS: Spiritual exercises are allowed only at a certain time</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and a certain place and with certain people. When the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ecstatic exercises are taken out of context, they become a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">circus at best and unhinge minds at worst.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">EH: So the ecstatic experience has its place but only at a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">certain time at a certain stage of development?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">IS: Yes, and with certain training. The ecstatic experience</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">is certainly not required. It is merely a way of helping man</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to realize his potential.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-8370380171276393402014-06-01T12:57:00.001-07:002014-06-28T10:20:56.082-07:00Conscious Evolution<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Conscious evolution: our challenge for survival</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There is now a wealth of physiological and psychological data on the mechanics of consciousness, such as our sensory selection system and linear experience of time. Scientists know how these mechanics evolved for survival and how they limit and distort our perception, contributing to the seemingly intractable problems in the modern world: misdirection of effort in medicine and education; ecological shortsightedness; propensity to brainwashing; the constant failure to understand people from different parts of the world.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In our highly secularized world, we are prone to identify these mechanics as the sum total of our human nature. But we know they are not. Modern research also points to more “advanced” capacities in our nature — capacities often associated with the brain's right hemisphere such as context formation, intuition, or “whole-patterned” thought. Though latent or less developed, these capacities are in evidence at the very heart of human creativity. They are reflected in our art, literature, music, scientific inspiration — even in the gravity-defying moves of a skilled basketball player.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Recognizing the pitfalls in our automatic “default” mindset and the need to train more advanced capacities are not new themes in human history. We find them in myths and stories that recur in all times and cultures, in the core insights of the world's great religions, in the writings of great thinkers such as Plato and El Ghazzali.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The gift of modern science has been an expanded framework for taking charge of our own evolution — for creative, focused application of new and traditional insights to education, health care, communication, resource planning, and international relations. What we do with this gift may well be the key to our continued survival.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Further reading on conscious evolution:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>By Robert Ornstein:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Psychology of Consciousness</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Evolution of Consciousness</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Right Mind</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>New World New Mind (with Paul Ehrlich)</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Sufis by Idries Shah</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.ishk.net/brain_mind_consciousness.html">http://www.ishk.net/brain_mind_consciousness.html</a></span>cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-52943928305859277602014-06-01T12:50:00.000-07:002014-06-28T10:20:56.066-07:00Traditional Psychology<b><span style="font-size: large;">Traditional psychology: key insights as old as humanity</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">AFFECTION AND REGARD</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">“It is possible to have great affection and regard for individuals and groups of people without in any way reducing one's awareness of their currently poor capacity for understanding and preserving their heritage.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"The present state of ignorance about distant and former cultures is not unique to this time. Unfortunately, though, the people of our time are not employing their superior resources to retrieve and develop the remnants of wider knowledge possessed elsewhere and also at other times.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">“This is because, while the tools and the general freedom are there for the first time, desire, resolution and breadth of vision are absent, also for the first time.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">“The endowment is therefore at risk. For the first time.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>--Idries Shah, Reflections</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We think of psychology as a modern science, rooted in late nineteenth-/early twentieth-century work of Western scholars such as William James, Wilhelm Wundt, Ivan Pavlov, Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. But the most important insights about human thought, behavior and motivation — including some of the “new” ideas put forward by these thinkers — are much older....</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In fact, the insights and methods we most urgently need to move beyond the limits of our error-prone nature and conditioning, to forge a conscious phase of human evolution, are available to us today, but outside the reach of scientific inquiry or modern psychological practices alone.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">As Jung himself wrote in <i>Modern Man in Search of a Soul</i>, “Psychoanalysis itself and the lines of thought to which it gives rise — surely a distinctly Western development — are only a beginner's attempt compared to what is an immemorial art in the East.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Though most often associated with the East, these “ways” are transmitted through all ages and cultures, as evidenced in the core teachings of the world's great religions; in the world's greatest poetry, literature, art and architecture; in universal myths, stories and traditions.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Uncovering these traditional psychologies, seeing how and where they intersect with modern research on the mind and brain, and finding ways to apply this important part of the human legacy to solving the most urgent needs of our contemporary culture, is a major focus of ISHK's work.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Further reading on the human legacy:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">A remarkable presentation of this great human legacy can be found in Idries Shah's seminal book, <i>The Sufis</i>.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://ishk.net/human_legacy.html">http://ishk.net/human_legacy.html</a></span>cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-13424223422882612302014-06-01T12:44:00.000-07:002014-06-28T10:20:56.052-07:00Nasrudin<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The following exploration of </i>Mulla Nasrudin<i>, the legendary teaching figure dating from at least the thirteenth century, is extracted from </i>The Sufis<i>, by </i>Idries Shah<i>:</i> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Mulla (Master) Nasrudin is the classical figure devised by the dervishes partly for the purpose of halting for a moment situations in which certain states of mind are made clear…Superficially, most of the Nasrudin stories may be used as jokes…But it is inherent in the Nasrudin story that it may be understood at any one of many depths …it bridges the gap between mundane life and a transmutation of consciousness in a manner which no other literary form yet produced has been able to attain…</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Humor cannot be prevented from spreading; it has a way of slipping through the patterns of thought which are imposed upon mankind by habit and design. As a complete system of thought, Nasrudin exists at so many depths that he cannot be killed…</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Nobody really knows who Nasrudin was, where he lived, or when. This is truly in character, for the whole intention is to provide a figure who cannot really be characterized, and who is timeless.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">If we look at some of the classical Nasrudin stories in as detached a way as possible, we soon find that the wholly scholastic approach is the last one that the Sufi will allow:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Nasrudin, ferrying a pedant across a piece of rough water, said something ungrammatical to him. “Have you never studied grammar?” asked the scholar.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">“No.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">“Then half of your life has been wasted.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">A few minutes later Nasrudin turned to the passenger. “Have you ever learned how to swim?”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">“No. Why?” </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">“Then all your life is wasted—we are sinking!”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Because the average person thinks in patterns and cannot accommodate himself to a really different point of view, he loses a great deal of the meaning of life. He may live, even progress, but he cannot understand all that is going on. The story of the smuggler makes this very clear:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Nasrudin used to take his donkey across a frontier every day, with the panniers loaded with straw. Since he admitted to being a smuggler when he trudged home every night, the frontier guards searched him again and again. They searched his person, sifted the straw, steeped it in water, even burned it from time to time. Meanwhile he was becoming visibly more and more prosperous.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Then he retired and went to live in another country. Here one of the customs offices met him, years later.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">“You can tell me now, Nasrudin,” he said. “Whatever was it that you were smuggling, when we could never catch you out?”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">“Donkeys,” said Nasrudin.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">…In another story, himself adopting the role of fool … Nasrudin illustrates, in extreme form, ordinary human thinking:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Someone asked Nasrudin to guess what he had in his hand.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">“Give me a clue,” said the Mulla.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">“I'll give you several,” said the wag. “It is shaped like an egg, egg-sized, looks, tastes and smells like an egg. Inside it is yellow and white. It is liquid within before you cook it, coalesces with heat. It was, moreover, laid by a hen…”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">“I know!” interrupted the Mulla. “It is some sort of cake.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">…the trigger habit, depending on associations, cannot be used in the same way in perceptive activities. The mistake is in carrying over one form of thinking — however admirable in its proper place—into another context, and trying to use it there.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">…we tend to look at events one-sidedly. We also assume, without any justification, that an event happens as it were in a vacuum. In actual fact, all events are associated with all other events. … If you look at any action which you do, or which anyone else does, you will find that it was prompted by one of many possible stimuli; and also that it is never an isolated action—it has consequences, many of them ones which you would never expect, certainly which you could not have planned.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Another Nasrudin “joke” underlies this essential circularity of reality, and generally invisible interactions which occur:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">One day Nasrudin was walking along a deserted road Night was falling as he spied a troop of horsemen coming toward him. His imagination began to work, and he feared that they might rob him, or impress him into the army. So strong did this fear become that he leaped over a wall and found himself in a graveyard. The other travelers, innocent of any such motive as had been assumed by Nasrudin, became curious and pursued him.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">When they came upon him lying motionless, one said, “Can we help you — why are you here in this position?”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Nasrudin, realizing his mistake, said, “It is more complicated than you assume. You see, I am here because of you; and you, you are here because of me.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">To someone whose perception is sharpened, more than one dimension of this and other stories becomes apparent. The net effect of experiencing a tale at several different levels at once is to awaken the innate capacity for understanding on a comprehensive, more objective manner than is possible to the ordinary, painstaking and inefficient way of thinking…</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Sometimes Nasrudin stories are arranged in the form of aphorisms, of which the following are examples:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It is not in fact so.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Truth is something which I never speak.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I do not answer all the questions; only those which the know-alls secretly ask themselves.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">If your donkey allows someone to steal your coat — steal his saddle.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">A sample is a sample. Yet nobody would buy my house when I showed them a brick from it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">People clamor to taste my vintage vinegar. But it would not be forty years old if I let them, would it?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">To save money, I made my donkey go without food. Unfortunately the experiment was interrupted by its death. It died before it got used to having no food at all.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">People sell talking parrots for huge sums. They never pause to compare the possible value of a thinking parrot...</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Further reading on Mulla Nasrudin:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Books by Idries Shah:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Pleasantries of the Incredible Mulla Nasrudin</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin and The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin (two volumes in one paperback)</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The Sufis</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The World of Nasrudin</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://ishk.net/mulla_nasrudin.html">http://ishk.net/mulla_nasrudin.html</a></span>cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-62305661975537309002014-03-05T19:35:00.001-08:002015-08-01T18:54:22.558-07:00Examining Eastern Systems<div id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1393372680437_1637">
<span style="font-size: large;">excerpt from <i>Changing Human Behavior</i> by John Mann (1965):</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1393372680437_1637">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1393372680437_1637">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1393372680437_1637">
<span style="font-size: large;">Some Techniques of Eastern Religions </span></div>
<div id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1393372680437_1637">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Certain preliminary generalizations can... be made before examining any particular system of Eastern religion. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">First, to achieve any substantial development, a tremendous amount of work is necessary. There is apparently no shortcut to paradise. The story of the great 12th century Tibetan saint, Milarepa, is typical. He was told by his teacher to build a house. After many months he was finished. His teacher then told him to take it down. When that was done, he was told to build it up again. This cycle was repeated several times. In this way, his teacher tested the firmness of his resolution and brought his work to a pitch of intensity that enabled him to attain the growth that he desired. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Second, work by oneself without the guidance of a person who has in fact himself extended his faculties is not productive. A teacher is necessary. It is not only the ignorance of the aspirant that will prevent his success when working alone, though certain kinds of knowledge are viewed as essential. Of even greater importance is the need for guidance from an impartial but benevolent source who can detect just those areas and issues that the individual would avoid. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Third, the nature of the work, whatever its specific content, is difficult and painful in the sense that it goes against natural tendencies of the person. The individual grows by opposing himself. The teacher functions in part to create the right kind of obstacles or to show how the ones that already exist can be attacked. </span><br />
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<div id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1393372680437_1637">
<span style="font-size: large;">Fourth, at some point complete surrender of individual effort is required. He must recognize his own helplessness and ask for guidance from his teacher or from some great spiritual source. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Fifth, the process of work is gradual, though the rate of development at different times may vary greatly. After successive stages are past, new methods may be required: what is useful during one stage may be harmful at another. </span><br />
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<div id="yui_3_13_0_ym1_1_1393372680437_1637">
<span style="font-size: large;">These five principles are sharply reminiscent of many of the psychological processes with with which we have dealt. Certain modern insight psychotherapies stress the need for difficult work under the guidance of a healer who helps the person to face those situations and aspects of his self he seeks to avoid. It is not surprising that the same principles seem to hold in very general form, since the process of growth must have certain common denominators regardless of the point from which one starts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">-- from <i>Changing Human Behavior</i>, p. 149-150.</span></div>
cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-12712481961804853932014-01-22T11:48:00.000-08:002014-06-28T10:22:08.341-07:00ISHK<div align="center" class="storyhead">
<a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/ishk_history.html"><span style="font-size: large;">Fro</span><span style="font-size: large;">m th</span><span style="font-size: large;">e </span><span style="font-size: large;">Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="storyhead">
<span style="font-size: large;">ISHK History</span></div>
<div align="center" class="storyhead">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="c16ptsubheadred">
<span style="font-size: large;">WE ARE IN A RACE WITH OURSELVES <br />
</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="bodytext"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Will we be able to educate
people quickly enough to understand the complexity of the modern world? <br />Will
we be able to learn to control nuclear weapons before it is too late? <br />Will
the human population continue to increase faster than we can control it?
<br />Will we ever be able to feed ourselves?</span></strong></span></div>
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<span class="bodytext"><strong><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></strong></span></div>
<br />
<!-- InstanceEndEditable --><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="EditRegionParagraph" -->
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/ishk_history_race.html"><img align="right" src="http://www.ishkbooks.com/images/ishk_history_race_sml.jpg" hspace="20" vspace="20" /></a>
</span><br />
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;">ISHK began with these questions over three decades ago. The
twentieth century saw major advances in our knowledge of human nature.
Scientists in many disciplines unraveled mysteries of the human brain. Research
in psychology confirmed observations of classical thinkers such as Plato, Rumi,
and El Ghazzali on conditioning, attention, and perception; the link between
mind and health was well established; new discoveries in the past 60 years have
revealed more about the origins of Christianity than perhaps in any other
period. Though vital to humanity and the world today, even in the twenty-first
century, this new knowledge has been slow to reach the general public and public
policy makers. In the mid-1960s, ISHK's founders envisioned approaches toward
solving some of the complex social, political, economic, biological and
environmental issues facing humankind. They established ISHK in 1969 as an
educational organization to begin the task of closing the knowledge gap in these
areas.</span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;">A brochure entitled <a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/ishk_history_race.html">"We Are
in a Race With Ourselves"</a> in the 1970s laid out some of the problems and
issues facing the world today. Are the solutions to these problem issues within
our grasp, or are we still in a race with ourselves? <a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/ishk_history_race.html">Read More...</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">* * *</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="c16ptsubheadred">The race is still on...</span>To
read a little more about the history of ISHK, continue with the following
chronological account.</span></div>
<div class="c16ptsubheadred">
<span style="font-size: large;">2000 - 2011...</span></div>
<div class="c16ptsubheadred">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="subred">
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">"...a main focus of ISHK's work since our founding in
1969 has been to disseminate information and insights from psychology and other
disciplines about who we are and how our minds work, so that we may be more
conscious in shaping the future. Today...getting this kind of information and
insight into the wider culture is more important than ever." -- <i>Robert
Ornstein</i></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></strong></div>
<div class="subred">
<strong><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></strong></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="c16ptsubheadred">Hoopoe Books Share Literacy
Program™</span> </span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />In the past four decades, ISHK took note of the great need
for books and educational materials by at-risk kids throughout the country. In
early 2000, ISHK began its children's literacy project called <a href="http://www.shareliteracy.org/" target="_blank">Hoopoe Books Share
Literacy™</a> program under the directorship of Sally Mallam. Through generous
support from donors, grants from organizations such as The Will J. Reid
Foundation, eBay, H.E.B. Texas, Kaiser Permanente, and others, Share Literacy
has been able to work with established programs designed to promote thinking and
reading skills in young children and to contribute books, CDs and newsletters to
over <strong>350,000</strong> families, many of whom had no books in the home
before. As an adjunct to this project, with the help of professional educators
and researchers, in 2004-2005, ISHK developed and piloted early education
curricula for teachers and developed free parent-teacher manuals for all the
Hoopoe books offering home and school activities to help instill the love of
reading in children. In 2006, ISHK began pilot programs for training teachers on
the use of the Hoopoe books in a program called "Teaching-Stories: Learning That
Lasts." Since that time, Hoopoe Books Curriculum and Training programs have been
used successfully used and critically acclaimed by educators all around the
country.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="c16ptsubheadred"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="c16ptsubheadred"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="c16ptsubheadred">September 11 and Beyond</span> </span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />ISHK responded to the tragedies of <a href="http://ishk.net/focus_on_911.html">September 11</a> by offering
information that stresses the need for educating ourselves about brainwashing
and conversion, as well as the rich cultures and contributions to human history
from the regions of Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Central Asia.</span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
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<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="c16ptsubheadred">The Human Journey</span> </span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />In
2005-2006, ISHK embarked on developing a new website to follow humanity from our
origins in Eastern Africa and the Middle East to the present day, with an eye to
what comes next. <a href="http://ishk.net/human_nature.html">The Human
Journey</a> website publishes important essays written by foremost researchers
and experts which should help overlay the significant stages of this journey
with what we know of how we adapted physically and culturally to conditions
along the way. ISHK hopes that an examination of these determinants will reveal
a better understanding of who we are as humans and why we do what we do. </span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;">As part of the Human Journey, in April 2006, ISHK sponsored a
one-day symposium in Cambridge, MA, entitled <a href="http://ishk.net/core_symposium.html">The Core of Early Christian
Spirituality: Its Relevance to the World Today</a> bringing together leading
researchers speaking on some of the latest discoveries and their implications
for contemporary spirituality. In the past 60 years, more has been revealed
about the origins of Christianity than perhaps in any other period in history.
"At a point when religions are seen by many to be in conflict, when some call
for an end to faith, others for a split between spirituality and religion, we
are bringing together leading thinkers on the new, radical evidence about early
Christianity and what it means for us today," says moderator Robert Ornstein in
a pre-conference interview.</span></div>
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<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="c16ptsubheadred">All About Me</span> </span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Work is in
progress on the fourth title in a series of books and teaching materials on
human nature for kids ages 12 - 18 (<a href="http://ishk.net/all_about_me.html">All About Me</a>). The first three
books focused on our memory, our feelings, and how our behavior is influenced by
others. Under the editorial direction of <a href="http://www.nuatc.org/people/nessel/index.html" target="_blank">Denise
Nessel, Ph.D.</a>, Publications Director of the National Alliance for Effective
Education, and of Robert Ornstein, Ph.D., as advising psychologist, the series
will present the latest information from various branches of psychology in an
engaging, relevant and practical way for children of this age group.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">* * *</span></div>
<div align="center" class="c16ptsubheadred">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="c16ptsubheadred">
<span style="font-size: large;">1990s...</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="subred">
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">A FABLE: <br />Once upon a time, in a land not very far
away, was a community located along the banks of a river. The citizens were
distressed because so many people were drowning in the river. So they developed
ambulance speedboats, impressive resuscitation procedures, and intensive care
units. Sometimes the rescues worked, but often they did not. Either way, their
heroic medical efforts fully occupied their time, attention, and resources. Then
one day someone asked, "Why don't these people learn to swim?"</span></strong></div>
<div class="subred">
<strong><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<div class="subred">
<strong><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="c16ptsubheadred">Continuing
Education at Home for Psychologists</span> </span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />ISHK's <a href="http://ishk-ce.com/">CE@Home Program for Psychologists</a>, founded in 1979
under the direction of Charles Swencionis of the Albert Einstein College of
Medicine, began as a direct extension of the Brain, Mind and Psychology seminars
of the 1970s and 1980s. ISHK is approved by the American Psychological
Association to sponsor continuing education. ISHK set up a structure to insure
compliance with the APA's <i>Ethical Principles of Psychologists</i> and, today,
there are over 300 courses offered to psychologists in states that require CE
accreditation in such fields as Clinical Psychology, Ethics, Cognitive
Psychology, Gender Studies, Psychology of Consciousness, and many others.</span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="c16ptsubheadred">The Mind/Body Health
Newsletter</span> </span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Because of the explosion of knowledge about the role of
mental and social factors in health and longevity,from 1992-2000, under the
direction of David Sobel, M.D., Director of Preventative Medicine at Kaiser
Permanente, ISHK began publishing <a href="http://www.ishk.net/mbh_newsletter.html"><i>The Mind/Body Health
Newsletter</i></a>, the first newsletter dedicated to bridging the gaps between
mind and body, research and practice, in the fast-moving new fields of
behavioral medicine, psychoneuroimmunology and health psychology. For nearly a
decade, ISHK's <i>Mind/Body Health Newsletter</i> (originally <i>Mental Medicine
Update</i>) was an important resource for more than 35,000 readers — lay persons
and practitioners. The fundamental health information from the newsletter is now
available in the <a href="http://www.ishk.net/books/HEMH2.html"><i>Healthy Mind
Healthy Body Handbook</i></a> edited by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein.</span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="c16ptsubheadred">Malor Books</span> </span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />As part of
ISHK's mission is to make available important works in the fields of health,
psychology, education, cross-cultural studies, and spirituality, in 1995 ISHK
founded <a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/malor/">Malor Books</a> to publish new
or reprints of significant and thought-provoking works. The first publication
brought back the important work of Gordon Claridge, <a href="http://ishk.net/books/ORMI1.html"><i>The Origins of Mental
Illness</i></a>, and subsequent printings included works by Denise Nessel, Paul
Ekman, Robert Ornstein and many others. ISHK has made the Malor publication <a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/books/NEWO3.html"><i>New World New Mind</i></a>
by Robert Ornstein and Paul Ehrlich available in a free downloadable version on
our website, and ISHK plans to offer more downloads for future works.</span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="c16ptsubheadred">Hoopoe Books</span> </span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />In 1998
ISHK's <a href="http://www.hoopoekids.com/" target="_blank">Hoopoe Books</a>, under
the editorship of Sally Mallam, began publishing an award-winning series of
large-format, illustrated children's books by Afghan author Idries Shah
featuring traditional teaching tales. In part, this endeavor was to enhance the
scientific research initiated in the Mind, Brain and Health seminars over two
decades earlier that supported the evidence that these traditional
Teaching-Stories enhance the learning process in children and adults alike.
There are now 11 children's books by Idries Shah, ranging from ages 3 & up,
many of them printed in bilingual Spanish-English or Spanish languages and most
with audio CDs available in multiple languages. Since its inception, Hoopoe
books continue to garner praise from major educational reviewers, including the
<i>School Library Journal</i>, <i>NEA Today</i>, <i>Children's Bookwatch</i>,
and featured on NPR News in "All Things Considered." In 2009, Hoopoe Books
expanded its offering to include the All About Me series of books for ages
12-18, and other important works for children.</span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="c16ptsubheadred">
<span style="font-size: large;">1980s...</span></div>
<div class="c16ptsubheadred">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="subred">
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">"On the positive side, the brain possesses highly
refined mechanisms to maintain and restore health. We are not helpless and
defenseless in the face of the stresses of everyday life." -- <i>Robert
Ornstein, in</i> The Healing Brain</span></strong></div>
<div class="subred">
<strong><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/ishk_history_healing_brain.html"><img align="right" src="http://www.ishkbooks.com/images/ishk_history_healing_brain.jpg" hspace="20" vspace="20" /></a>
</span><br />
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="c16ptsubheadred">The Healing Brain Seminars</span> </span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />From the Mind & Body, Health and Psychology series of seminars in the
1970s, ISHK developed the popular <a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/ishk_history_healing_brain.html">Healing Brain Seminars</a>, under the
direction of Dr. David Sobel (Director of Preventative Medicine, Kaiser
Permanente). The seminars were established to give a much-needed forum to
pioneering researchers in mind/body health, and much of what we now know about
mind-body relationships come from this important series. The seminars were
attended by over 20,000 health professionals, and they helped bring
psycho-social factors such as stress, depression, optimism, and social support
to the forefront of health care. The work by Robert Ornstein and David Sobel
entitled <a href="http://ishk.net/books/HEBR4.html"><i>The Healing Brain</i></a>
touches on much of the material from these seminars. (See also <a href="http://ishk.net/books/HEBS2.html"><i>The Healing Brain: A Scientific
Reader</i></a>, edited by Robert Ornstein and Charles Swencionis, in the <a href="http://ishk-ce.com/">ISHK CE at Home</a> program.) <a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/ishk_history_healing_brain.html">Read More...</a>
</span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<br /></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<br /></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="c16ptsubheadred">The Road to the Future</span> </span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1989, ISHK's <a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/ishk_history_road.html">Road to the Future</a>
symposia convened a distinguished panel of thinkers to address pressing issues
of our time: cross-cultural communication, the environment, and effects of
technological progress. Participants included historian James Burke,
anthropologist Edward T. Hall, novelist Doris Lessing, and ecologist Paul
Ehrlich.</span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="c16ptsubheadred">
<span style="font-size: large;">1970s...</span></div>
<div class="c16ptsubheadred">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="subred">
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>The educational system, both past and present, has
specialized in verbal analysis and the teaching of reading, writing and
arithmetic. What it has neglected, perhaps, is the development of relationships
between ideas, between people, and the perception of whole systems—the
development of <u>the whole person</u>.</strong> -- Paul Brandwein, Ph.D., from
"Educating Both Halves of the Brain" seminar</span></div>
<div class="subred">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="c16ptsubheadred">Brain, Mind and Health
Seminars</span> </span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<br /></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/ishk_history_mind_body.html"><img align="right" src="http://www.ishkbooks.com/images/ishk_history_mind_body.jpg" hspace="20" vspace="20" /></a> Because of
the growing understanding among scientists and educators on the complex, yet
subtle relationships between the body and the mind, ISHK began the
groundbreaking <a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/ishk_history_mind_body.html">seminars on mind and body
health</a>. New scientific discoveries on the brain and consciousness were
emerging, and there was a growing recognition of the differences between people
and of the need for new and better techniques for educating the <i>whole
person</i>. ISHK's intention was to present a new synthesis and a new
understanding of the brain, the duality of the mind, and the implications of the
newer knowledge of split-brain and normal brain research for the purposes and
processes of education. A long list of eminent faculty in these early seminars,
including <a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/ishk_history_shah.html">Idries Shah</a>, Rene Dubos, Linus
Pauling, <a href="http://www.robertornstein.com/" target="_blank">Robert
Ornstein</a>, and others, presented scientific evidence that tools such as the
Teaching-Story, meditation, biofeedback enhance our understanding of ourselves.
The information developed and taught in ISHK's early Mind & Body seminars
was, indeed, part of the foundation upon which current successful practices in
education, medicine, and psychology are based. <a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/ishk_history_mind_body.html">Read More...</a></span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<br /></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/ishk_history_east_west.html"><img align="right" src="http://www.ishkbooks.com/images/ishk_history_east_west.jpg" hspace="20" vspace="20" /></a>
</span><br />
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="c16ptsubheadred">Psychologies East and West
Seminars</span> </span></div>
<div class="bodytext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Much of ISHK's work through the 1970s evolved to the
development and initiation of continuing education programs in partnership with
major academic and professional institutions, such as the Universities of
California, The New School, Boston University, Albert Einstein College of
Medicine, Stanford University, and others. In 1972, ISHK became one of the first
organizations approved by the <strong>American Psychological
Association</strong> to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Because
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became the sole US distributor of the works of <a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/ishk_history_shah.html">Idries Shah</a> published by <a href="http://www.octagonpress.com/" target="_blank">Octagon Press LTD</a>.
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<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>GROWING MY FIELD</strong> <br /><strong>Someone observed
Nasrudin digging earth from his field and piling it into a mound. "What are you
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and make my field grow bigger."</strong> -- From <a href="http://ishk.net/books/WONA1.html">The World of Nasrudin</a> by Idries
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cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-79368373416822782842013-11-17T18:31:00.000-08:002014-06-28T10:22:58.419-07:00Social Change<span style="font-size: large;">excerpt from "Laboratories of Social Change" </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">a lecture delivered by Doris Lessing in 1985.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Sometimes it is hard to see anything good and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">hopeful in a world that seems increasingly horrific.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">To listen to the news is enough to make you think</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">you are living in a lunatic asylum.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But wait . . . we all know the news is presented</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to us for maximum effect, that bad news seems, at</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">least, to be more effective in arousing us than good</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">news—which in itself is an interesting comment on</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the human condition. We are all regularly presented,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">day after day, with bad news, the worst, and I think</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">our minds are more and more set into attitudes of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">foreboding and depression. But is it possible that all</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the bad things going on—and I don't have to list</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">them, for we all know what they are—are a reaction,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">a dragging undertow, to a forward movement in the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">human social evolution that we can't easily see? Perhaps,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">looking back, let's say in a century or two centuries,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">is it possible people will say, "That was a time</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">when extremes battled for supremacy. The human</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">mind was developing very fast in the direction of self-knowledge,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">self-command, and as always happens,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">as always has to happen, this thrust forwards aroused</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">its opposite, the forces of stupidity, brutality, mob</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">thinking"? I think it is possible. I think that this is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">what is happening.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Let us look at something that is extraordinarily</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">encouraging. In the last twenty or so years [1965-1985] quite a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">few countries that were dictatorships, tyrannies,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">have opted to become democracies. Among them are</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Greece, Portugal, Spain, Brazil and Argentina. Some</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of these are precarious—democracy is always precarious,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and must be fought for. But countries that were</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in the grip of single-minded, simple-minded, stulti-</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">fying systems of thought have chosen to attempt the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">more complicated, many-choiced balances of democ-</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">racy.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the balance against this hopeful fact, we must</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">put a sad one, which is that large numbers of young</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">people, when they reach the age of political activity</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">adopt a stance or an attitude that is very much part</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of our times. It is that democracy is only a cheat and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">a sham, only the mask for exploitation, and that they</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">will have none of it. We have almost reached a point</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">where if one values democracy, one is denounced as</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">reactionary. I think that this will be one of the atti-</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">tudes that will be found most fascinating to historians</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of the future. For one thing, the young people who</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">cultivate this attitude towards democracy are usually</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">those who have never experienced its opposite: peo-</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ple who've lived under tyranny value democracy.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It is not that I don't understand it—I understand</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">it only too well, having lived through the process</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">myself. Democracy, liberty, fair play, and so forth</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">these have been stuffed down one's throat, and sud-</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">denly you see the most appalling injustices all around</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">you, and shout: "Hypocrite!" In my case, it was</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Southern Rhodesia, where democracy was for the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">white minority, and the black majority had no rights</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of any kind. But when people are in that state of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">mind, what is forgotten is that a democracy, no matter</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">how imperfect, offers the possibility of reform,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">change. It offers freedom of choice. It is this freedom</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to choose that is the new idea, historically speaking.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I think we tend to forget how new these ideas are,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that an individual should have rights, that a citizen</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">should be able to criticize the government.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">How new is it? When was this concept born into</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the human community for the first time? At this</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">point, there are people who start muttering about</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ancient Greece, forgetting that it was a slave state</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that allowed certain minimal freedoms to a male minority.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">For argument's sake, it would be safe to say</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that our concepts of liberty, of the rights of the individual,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">were born in the English Revolution, in the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">French Revolution, and in the American Revolution.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Very young ideas indeed. Very frail. Very precarious.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">That an individual should be entitled to the rule</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of the law—why, three or four centuries ago, they</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">wouldn't have known what you meant by it. Now it</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">is an idea so powerful that strong and ruthless governments</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">are brought down by it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">An idea seems to have taken root that there is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">such a thing as civilized government, even that there</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">is a general consensus what civilized government is.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">How otherwise could the citizens of Argentina have</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">agreed that they wanted to sue their deposed government</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">for wicked and cruel behaviour? For improper</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">behaviour? This seems to me the most extraordinary</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and encouraging thing—that it could be happening</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">at all, proving to us all that in the world mind there</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">is an idea of what government ought to be. Has there</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ever been an example before, of citizens wanting to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">sue a government for improper behaviour? I am no</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">historian, but it does seem to me that this is a new</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">thing in the world.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Yet I think we may very well see countries that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">take it for granted they are democracies losing sight</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of democracy, for we are living in a time when the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">great over-simplifiers are very powerful—Communism,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">fundamentalist Islam. Poor economies breed</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">tyrannies.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But good ideas don't get lost, though they may</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">be submerged for a time.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">An example. I have been talking about what we</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">call the "soft sciences," social psychology, and social</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">anthropology and the rest, and their contribution in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">understanding ourselves as social animals, and how</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">these young sciences are denigrated, patronized, put</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">down. As everybody knows, public money is getting</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">very short in Britain, university departments are clos-</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ing, all kinds of studies are being cut. This type of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">science has been badly affected, is often the first to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">be cut'—yet I have just read that in various universi-</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ties, departments studying social psychology, social</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">science and so forth have been reprieved, because of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">their usefulness to industry. In other words, they are</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">proving their value where it counts.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There is another hopefulness, not now but for the future.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Because Communism has turned out so</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">badly, proved itself not only one of the bloodiest tyr-</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">annies ever, but also so inefficient that any type of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">regime, no matter how bad, is preferred to it, we</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">forget that Communism was born out of the ancient</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">dream of justice for everybody. It is a very powerful</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">dream, a powerful engine for social change. Because</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Communism is at this present time equated with barbarism,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">inefficiency and tyranny, that doesn't mean</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that the idea of real justice will not be reborn.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Meanwhile there is no country in the world</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">whose structure is not of a privileged class and a poor</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">class. There is always a power elite with the mass of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the people excluded from wealth and from any sort</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of political power.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In my more gloomy moments, I do brood about</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the fact that it took the Communists' Soviet Union</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">only a couple of generations to develop a power elite</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">as rich and as privileged as any in the world. Communist</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">China is reported to be going the same way</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and so are some of the new African states. But if this</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">is some kind of an inevitable process, for this time at</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">least, that all types of society produce privileged</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">elites, then at least we should acknowledge it and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">work for as much flexibility as possible inside the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">structure.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There is no group or party setting itself up against</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">this state of affairs that does not see itself as an elite,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">whether it be the dictatorship of the proletariat,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">headed by the Communist party, or terrorist groups,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">or the political parties of the democracies, which by</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">definition know what is best for everyone else.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Elites, privileged classes, groups better educated</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">than others . . . this seems to be the stage at which</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the world is now, or at least, nothing else seems to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">be visible anywhere.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">There are all kinds of elites, some retrograde and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">useless that only act as brakes on social change, while</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">others, I believe, are productive. If I say that I think</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">elites, privileged groups, are often useful, then that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">makes me reactionary, but it depends on who the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">elite is: as I said before, if you call it the vanguard of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the proletariat, then that changes things, doesn't it?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Or, if I say I think ginger groups, pressure groups,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">are invaluable because they prevent a society from</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">going sleepy and unself-critical, then that is all right</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">too—no, it is the word "elite" that is suspect. Very</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">well, let's discard it: we live in a time when people</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">may murder for the sake of a word, or a phrase. . </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">There is a certain social process that is known and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">very visible, but perhaps not acknowledged as much</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">as it should be. It is that one where a new idea (or an</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">old one in new form) is accepted by a minority, while</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the majority are shouting treason, rubbish, kook,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Communist, capitalist, or whatever is the valued</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">term of abuse in that society. The minority develop</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">this idea, at first probably in secrecy, or semi-secrecy,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and then more and more visibly, with more and more</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">support until . . . guess what? This seditious, impossible,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">wrong-headed idea becomes what is known as</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"received-opinion" and is loved and valued by the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">majority. Meanwhile, of course, a new idea, still seditious</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">etc. and so forth, has been born somewhere</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">else, and is being cultivated and worked out by a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">minority. Suppose we redefine the word "elite," for</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">out present purposes, to mean any group of people</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">who for any reason are in the possession of ideas that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">put them ahead of the majority?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">When you get to my age—I was bound to say</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">this at some point, you'll agree—when you get to my</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">age, watching this process continuously at work in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">society is one of the more entertaining ways of pass</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ing one's time. It is an entertainment on the whole</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">denied to all but a few of the more reflective young,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">because the young are still able to believe more easily</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in permanence. What! That the beautiful ideas they</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">cherish are destined for the dustheap? Of course not!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But suppose we got to the point where at least</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">enough of us could agree that this is a process continually</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">at work—even in societies that outlaw new</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ideas, like the Communist ones—making it inevitable</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that today's treason is tomorrow's orthodoxy.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Would that not make us more efficient than we are</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">now, less punishing and bloody-minded, and ready</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to resist change? I think it would, and that there must</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">come some point when this, like other mechanisms</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in society, will be used, instead of resisted or ignored.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">They can be ignored only by people who do</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">not study history.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Which brings me to another quite remarkable</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">phenomenon of our times. It is that young people are</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">not interested in history. In a recent survey in Britain,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">young people who were asked what they thought</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">were useful subjects of study put history very low:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">only 7 per cent saw any value in it. I think one reason</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">for this is psychological, easy to see and to understand,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">particularly, again, if you've lived through</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that stage yourself. If you are self-consciously</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"young," and by definition progressive, or revolutionary</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">or whatever, but in any case, in the right</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">(young being against the old who are stupid and reactionary),</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">then the last thing you want to do is to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">look at history, where you will learn that this attitude</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">on the part of the young is perennial, part of a permanent</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">social process. You do not want to read any-</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">thing that upsets your view of yourself as a gloriously</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">new and amazing phenomenon, whose ideas are</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">fresh, in fact just minted, and probably by yourself,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">or at least, by your friends, or by the leader you revere,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">an altogether new unsullied creature destined</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to change the world. If I sound mocking, then I am</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">only laughing at my own young self—but that is the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">point.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I think that this attitude, that history is not worth</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">studying, will strike those who come after us as quite</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">amazing.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">After all, what we have seen since the French</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Revolution (some would say since the Utopian and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Socialist groups of Cromwell's time) has amounted</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to a laboratory of experiment in different types of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Socialism, different types of society, from the thirteen-</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">year-long war regime of Hitler, which called</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">itself National Socialism, to the Labour governments</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of Britain, from the Communist states of Russia and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">China, to Cuba, to Ethiopia, to Somalia, and on and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">on. You'd think that people dedicated to production</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of new'types of society would fall on these examples,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of what has actually happened, in order to study and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">learn from them.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I repeat: one way of looking at the last two and a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">half centuries is that they have been laboratories of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">social change. But in order to learn from them one</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">needs a certain distance, detachment; and it is precisely</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">this detachment that makes possible, I believe,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">a step forwards in social consciousness. One learns</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">nothing, about anything, ever, when in a state of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">boiling ferment, or partisan enthusiasm.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I think children should be taught about history</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">not as is usually the case now, that this is the record</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of long past events, which one ought to know about</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">for some reason or other. But that this is a story from</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">which one may learn not only what has happened,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">but what may, and probably will, happen again.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Literature and history, these two great branches</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of human learning, records of human behaviour,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">human thought, are less and less valued by the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">young, and by educators, too. Yet from them one</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">may learn how to be a citizen and a human being.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">We may learn how to look at ourselves and at the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">society we live in, in that calm, cool, critical and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">sceptical way which is the only possible stance for a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">civilized human being, or so have said all the philosophers</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and the sages.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But all the pressures go the other way, towards</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">learning only what is immediately useful, what is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">functional. More and more the demand is for people</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to be educated to function in an almost certainly temporary</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">stage of technology. Educated for the short</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">term.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We have to look at the word "useful" again. In</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the long run what is useful is what survives, revives,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">comes to life in different contexts. It may look now as</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">if people educated to use our newest technologies</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">efficiently are the world's elite, but in the long run I</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">believe that people educated to have, as well, that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">point of view that used to be described as humanistic</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">—the long-term, over-all, contemplative point of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">view—will turn out to be more influential. Simply</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">because they understand more of what is going on in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the world. It is not that I undervalue the new technicians.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">On the contrary. It is only that what they know</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">is by definition a temporary necessity.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">To my mind the whole push and thrust and development of the world is towards the more complex,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the flexible, the open-minded, the ability to entertain</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">many ideas, sometimes contradictory ones, in one's</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">mind at the same time.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We are-seeing now an example of the price a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">society must pay for insisting on orthodox, simpleminded,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">slogan thinking: the Soviet Union is a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">creaking, anachronistic, inefficient, barbaric society,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">because its type of Communism outlaws flexibility of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">thought. "Life itself"—to use the phrase the Communists</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">like using—"life itself" is showing just what</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">happens to societies that allow themselves to ossify</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in dead patterns of thought. (The new ruler Gorbachev</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">is trying to remedy this.) We may observe</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">how the Chinese, always a clever and pragmatic people,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">are allowing themselves to change. We may see</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">how fundamentalist Islam creates societies that will,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">because of their inflexibility, soon be shown up for</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">what they are, while other societies, more flexible,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">more open, race ahead.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the long term, I think the race will go to the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">democracies,, the flexible societies. I know that if one</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">looks around the world at the moment, this may</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">seem a rather over-optimistic view, particularly when</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">we see that the new information about how we work</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and function is used so skilfully and cynically by governments,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">police departments, armies, secret services</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">—all those functions of administration that can be</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">used to diminish and control the individual.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But it is my belief that it is always the individual,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in the long run, who will set the tone, provide the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">real development in a society.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It is not always easy to go on valuing the individual,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">when everywhere individuals are so put down,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">denigrated, swamped by mass thinking, mass movements</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and, on a smaller scale, by the group.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It is particularly hard for young people, faced</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">with what seem like impervious walls of obstacles, to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">have belief in their ability to change things, to keep</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">their personal and individual viewpoints intact. I remember</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">very clearly how it seemed to me in my late</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">teens and early twenties, seeing only what seemed to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">be impregnable systems of thought, of belief—governments</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that seemed unshakeable. But what has</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">happened to those governments like the white government</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in Southern Rhodesia, for instance? To</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">those powerful systems of faith, like the Nazis, or the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Italian Fascists, or to Stalinism? To the British Empire</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">. . . to all the European empires, in fact, so recently</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">powerful? They have all gone, and in such a short</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">time.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Looking back now, I no longer see these enormous</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">blocs, nations, movements, systems, faiths, religions,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">but only individuals, people who when I was</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">young I might have valued, but not with much belief</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in the possibility of their changing anything. Looking</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">back, I see what a great influence an individual may</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">have, even an apparently obscure person, living a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">small, quiet life. It is individuals who change societies,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">give birth to ideas, who, standing out against</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">tides of opinion, change them. This is as true in open</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">societies as it is in oppressive societies, but of course</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the casualty rate in the closed societies is higher.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Everything that has ever happened to me has taught</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">me to value the individual, the person who cultivates</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and preserves her or his own ways of thinking</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">stands out against group thinking, group pressures.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Or who, conforming no more than is necessary to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">group pressures, quietly preserves individual thinking</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and development.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I am not at all talking about eccentrics, about</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">whom such a fuss is made in Britain. I do think that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">only a very rigid and conforming society could have</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">produced the idea of an eccentric in the first place.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Eccentrics tend to be in love with the image of eccentricity,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and once embarked on this path, become</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">more and more picturesque, developing eccentricity</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">for its own sake. No, I am talking about people who</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">think about what is going on in the world, who try to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">assimilate information about our history, about how</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">we behave and function—people who advance hu</span><span style="font-size: large;">manity </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">as a whole.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">It is my belief that an intelligent and forward</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">looking society would do everything possible to produce</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">such individuals, instead of, as happens very</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">often, suppressing them. But if governments, if cultures,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">don't encourage their production, then indi</span><span style="font-size: large;">viduals </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and groups can and should...</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We live in an open society... We are fortunate in that we are able to teach ourselves what we will, if our schools seem to us deficient; and to reach out anywhere at all for ideas that seem to us valuable. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I think that we should make more use of these freedoms than we do....</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">By using our freedoms, I do not mean just joining demonstrations, political parties, and so on and so forth, which is only part of the democratic process, but examining ideas, from whatever source they come, to see how they may usefully contribute to our lives and to societies we live in.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">from <i>Prisons We Choose To Live Inside</i>, by <a href="http://www.ishk.net/ishk_history_road.html">Doris Lessing</a>, </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">pgs. 63-75.</span>cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-63956803106238108832013-09-28T20:01:00.003-07:002014-06-28T10:22:58.414-07:00The Persuaders<div class="page-titlegroup" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(238, 238, 238); border-bottom-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, 'Liberation Sans', FreeSans, sans-serif; line-height: 17.71875px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">A Talk by Vance Packard</span></h2>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">from </span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Beyond 'Eggheads': Vance Packard Pulls Back the Curtain on Advertising, 1958</span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Wednesday, December 05, 2012 - 01:10 PM</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: large;">By <a href="http://www.wnyc.org/people/philip-quarles/" style="border: 0px; color: #0073d5; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Philip Quarles</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #333333;"><img alt="Licensed for use only on NEH-funded Annotations blog." src="http://www.wnyc.org/i/620/372/c/80/1/VANCEPACKARDTESTIFYINGCORBIS.png" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" title="Vance Packard Testifying Before Congress, July 26, 1966" /></span><span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><span class="caption" style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Vance Packard Testifying Before Congress, July 26, 1966</span> <span class="credit" style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(<a class="external-link" href="http://www.corbisimages.com/" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">© Bettmann/CORBIS/Corbis Images</a>)</span></span></span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">At this Books and Authors Luncheon, Vance Packard tries to dispel the idea that his book, <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Hidden Persuaders</em> (1957), is merely about the quirks and absurdities of advertising's use of "motivational research." </span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">Established in the year 2000, the WNYC Archives are the station's physical link to its rich and storied past.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">The sounds of a city and a nation are captured through nearly a century of transformations, tribulations, and triumphs.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">RECOMMENDED LINKS</span></h4>
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<li class="first last" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 4px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.wnyc.org/shows/books-and-authors-luncheon/1958/jan/13/" style="background-position: 0px 50%; border: 0px; margin: 1px 5px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">WNYC Catalog Record of Full Broadcast</span></a></li>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">In fact, what he had in mind when he wrote the book was "a protest against the over-commercialization of American life." Packard feels we are in danger of losing many of our basic rights, citing three areas of specific concern. The first is "the growing boldness in invading the privacy of our minds." This concerns subliminal messages, flashes of popcorn, say, or Coca-Cola, in a movie theater, too rapid to be consciously perceived but resulting in increased concession-stand sales. Second is "the deliberate encouragement of irrational behavior." The shopping list, he claims, is a thing of the past; 70 percent of the items purchased at a supermarket are now bought on impulse. "Psychological obsolescence" now gets people to replace perfectly good appliances, cars, and even houses, because they are no longer in style. Finally, he laments a change in the American character itself. We are the most materialistic nation on earth, he says. Whereas the youth in other countries are "aglow with idealism," young Americans have succumbed to "the pressure to consume."</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">The great question, he concludes, that we must ask ourselves, going forward, is, "How can we work out a spiritually tolerable relationship between our dynamic economy and our free people?" </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">A popularizer before the word itself was popularized, Packard (born in 1914) spent the early part of his career working for newspapers and magazines. In 1952 he began writing books, combining his reportorial skills with a deep-seated conviction that the course of American society had gone awry after the war. <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Hidden Persuaders</em> tapped into a sense of paranoia and loss of control felt by the consuming public. Reviewing its initial reception, <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="external-link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/13/arts/vance-packard-82-challenger-of-consumerism-dies.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">The New York Times</a></em>, in his obituary, recalled:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">Writing in the <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">New York Times Book Review</em>, A.C. Spectorsky called the book ''frightening, entertaining, and thought-stimulating.'' The work remained on <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The New York Times</em> best-seller list for a year. ''Hidden Persuaders'' became all the rage; many readers claimed they were being subjected to subliminal advertising every time they noticed a glitch in their television reception.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">The advertising industry was incensed, denying the sinister motives imputed to it. Even today, <a class="external-link" href="http://adage.com/century/people099.html" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank"><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Advertising Age</em>'s</a> 100 People of the Century grudgingly lists Packard, noting:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">The public bought the book and its premise. Packard explained that ad agencies used psychiatry, motivational research, and related social sciences to create subliminal selling patterns. Ironically, his work contained enough distortions to diminish its value where it might have counted most -- among ad makers.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">Packard went on to write several more best-sellers all stemming from the same premise, that conformity was on the rise and materialism was doing away with the American virtues of independence and simplicity. These included <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Status-Seekers</em> (1959), about social stratification and social-climbing; <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Waste Makers</em> (1960), about manufacturing's need to convince people to buy things they don't need; and <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Naked Society</em> (1964), about the loss of individual privacy. Although none of these books contained much original research or thinking, they did bring together scientific information and personal testimony, aiming at a "middlebrow audience" whose concerns mirrored Packard's own. His findings have been variously characterized as scary, comic, only of interest to "eggheads," as well as the possible basis for a musical. As the website of his alma mater, <a class="external-link" href="http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Packard__Vance_Oakley.html" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">Penn State</a>, summarized:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">Readers and critics quickly associated the…books as playing an important role in the awakening of consumer awareness among Americans. He was once described in <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Publishers Weekly</em> as “our most popular popularizer of sociology.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">Indeed, it was after hearing a lecture by Packard that a young Betty Friedan determined to write a similar type of book about her own concerns, which later became <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Feminine Mystique</em>. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">Packard's clarion call to action, or at least to increased awareness, sounds somewhat muted today. As Mark Greif, in an <a class="external-link" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/books/review/Greif-t.html?pagewanted=all" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">essay</a> marking <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Hidden Persuaders</em>' 50th anniversary, notes:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">What’s surprising is the degree to which we’ve all become sophisticates, engaging in our own Packard-like critiques of consumer culture without changing our habits. We know we buy irrationally; we just don’t care. We imagine that the “manipulators” at J. Walter Thompson or BBDO play only on the fears and hopes of desperate consumers who aren’t as “conscious” as we are (in which case it’s hard not to admire the ingenuity of the advertisers), while we ourselves are smart enough to decide when to give in. On the last page of <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Hidden Persuaders</em>, Packard had to acknowledge the paradox: “When irrational acts are committed knowingly they become a sort of delicious luxury.” We seem to enjoy both knowing that ads are hustling us and choosing to be hustled.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">Packard continued to produce books that showed his uncanny ability to anticipate the concerns of the reading public. His last book, published in 1989, was <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Ultra-Rich: How Much Is Too Much?</em></span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">Packard died in 1996. He was 82.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><br /></span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection.</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">Note: Some poor audio quality due to condition of transcription disc.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #f3f3f3;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;">
GUESTS:</span></span></h4>
<span style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">
<a href="http://www.wnyc.org/people/vance-packard/" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">Vance Packard</a></span></div>
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cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-19744782970238615632013-09-19T18:04:00.003-07:002014-06-28T10:22:58.404-07:00Human Communities<div class="storyhead" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">THE BASIC AND THE UNFAMILIAR HUMAN COMMUNITY</span></div>
<div class="storyhead" style="text-align: center;">
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">By Idries Shah</span></strong></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;">All human societies are based upon, and their continuity and
growth are reinforced by, the use of hope, fear and repetition.</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br />Although
this simple structure is not visible to the overwhelming majority of people,
everyone who is concerned with human groupings uses and approves the application
of hope, fear and repetition.</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br />The structure is employed in every type of
organisation: whether tribal, national, political, religious, recreational,
educational or other.</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br />Two things militate against the recognition of the
structure by the people in it and those operating it:-</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />1. The seeming
diversity of objectives of the societies in question;</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />2. The very simplicity
of the structure. It is so obvious as not to be self-evident in the way in which
people think things are self-evident.</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br />There is also an unspoken, because
unrecognised, consensus in human thought upon this matter: Because everyone is
accustomed to being manipulated by hope and fear, and because everyone assumes
that repetition is necessary, the possible progress in analysing this situation
is virtually at a halt. It is as if one might say: 'We make sounds. Why should
we turn these into words? They suffice us.' — in a pre-verbal condition of
man.</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br />Such a hypothesis (about words not being necessary) would be
adequate only under circumstances in which there was no real need for coherent
speech. In a society, in other words, where there were no dissatisfaction and no
real curiosity leading to investigation which might result in the production of
a useful instrument (that is to say 'speech') and the removal of a source of
tension and annoyance leading to frustration (for instance, superabundant
grunting and chattering!).<br /><br /><br />When such statements as the foregoing are made
clearly enough, experience shows that they tend to elicit two main automatic
reactions. These reactions may be presented as attempts to avoid or resolve the
challenge. In fact they are capable of doing neither.</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br />Summarizing the
first reaction:</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />'Man can learn only by these methods. To abolish them would
be to prevent learning and reduce the chances of human
cohesion.'</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br />Summarizing the second reaction:</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />'This contention does not
prove that there <em>is</em> any other way of learning or organisation, or that
quality and measure in these techniques exists or needs to exist.'</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br />Now,
it is always difficult to deal with prejudices which provide people with
advantages — such as not having to think. It is equally difficult to satisfy
people who inwardly but not admittedly fear that they might be revealed as
shallow; or who fear that the consequences of admitting something unfamiliar
might 'change' them. It is difficult — it is not, however, impossible.</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br />If
it were impossible, the human race would have died out through lack of adaptive
capacity. It is true, though, that those who cannot or will not adapt to
constructive but unfamiliar information are members of the segment of humanity
which does, in the cultural sense, die out. Those individuals, schools of
thought and societies which have <em>not</em> adapted to 'now' (that is,
unfamiliar) information and environmental changes have died out.</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br />The two
main reactions just quoted are less plausible than the contentions which they
oppose. For that alone they could be dealt with merely by ignoring those who
hold them, and regarding the actual fact of holding such opinions as evidence of
the incapacity of the person to adapt to unfamiliar ideas: evidence of his
relatively poor survival ability.<br /><br /><br />But there is a mechanical trap here,
and it is worth observing in passing. People who oppose 'new' or unfamiliar
concepts can be made to accept them if the 'new' conception is sufficiently
energetically projected. That is to say, there would be no real difficulty in
conditioning, by fear, hope and repetition, these objectors to 'believe' that
fear, hope and repetition were undesirable in quantity or quality. The trap is
that you would now have plenty of conditioned people who objected to
conditioning because they had been conditioned to object! They would be useless
to further understanding, almost by definition, certainly by the crudity of
their operational capacity.</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br />So agreement with your original statement, or
'belief' in it, is not what is aimed at. This in itself is a very unfamiliar
concept, since virtually all human societies prize above everything agreement
and belief. What do you seek, they will (and do) ask in bewilderment, if you do
not seek converts, heroes, martyrs, believers, dedicated supporters, disciples,
propagandists, enthusiasts, representatives, common denominators, and so on. </span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br />What you seek, because it is an essential prerequisite to understanding,
is people who can accept the possibilities which follow:-</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;">1. That virtually all human communities are established and
maintained by the reward/punishment and repetition mechanisms;</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />2. That there
might be an alternative;</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />3. That this alternative might not require the
abandonment of membership of one or several of the 'basic' types of grouping;
the basic type is a grouping produced by hope and fear and maintained by
repetition;</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />4. That it might even be necessary for man to remain, for some of
his purposes, formally grounded in one or more 'basic' grouping;</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />5. That it
might be possible to <em>add</em> the unfamiliar form of relationship to one's
range of experience, without disturbing the 'basic' type already
implanted;</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />6. That there may be a value in some form of understanding which
could be prevented by conversion;</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />7. That it might be useful to observe and
recognise the occurrence and operation of the 'basic' structure in all forms of
human association which surround everyone; </span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />8. That it might be advantageous
to absorb this 'new' information rather than to react to it as if it were a key,
panacea or magic wand;</span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />9. That it is being suggested that it could be the
<em>exclusion</em> (not the cultivation) of emotional or intellectual bonds
based on hope and fear and operated by repetition, which could open a door to
knowledge of a kind different from that which is available through the single
system just described. </span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="booktext">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<!-- InstanceEndEditable --><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="EditRegionParagraph" -->
<br />
<blockquote>
<div class="booktext">
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">From <a href="http://ishk.net/books/COSE1.html" target="_blank"><em>The
Commanding Self</em></a>, page 63<br />© 1994, The Estate of Idries Shah </span></strong></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">from <a href="http://ishk.net/basic_and_unfamiliar.html"><i>The Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge</i> </a></span><br />
<br />
<br />cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-73867520551931440812013-09-10T18:14:00.002-07:002014-06-28T10:22:58.416-07:00Political Correctness<div style="line-height: 18pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 18pt;">By </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 18pt;">Doris Lessing (1992)</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt; text-align: left;">
<i style="line-height: 18pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">While we have seen the apparent death of Communism, ways of thinking that were either
born under Communism or strengthened by Communism still govern our lives. Not
all of them are as immediately evident as a legacy of Communism as <i>political
correctness</i>. </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">The
first point: language. It is not a new thought that Communism debased language
and, with language, thought. There is a Communist jargon recognizable after a
single sentence. Few people in Europe have not joked in their time about
“</span><span lang="EN-US">concrete steps”,
“cont</span><span lang="EN-US">radictions”,</span><span lang="EN-US">
“the interpenetration of opposites”,</span><span lang="EN-US"> and the rest. </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">The
first time I saw that mind-deadening slogans had the power to take wing and fly
far from their origins was in the 1950s when I read an article in <i>The Times of
London</i> and saw them in use. </span><span lang="EN-US">“The demo last Saturday was irrefutable proof that the concrete
situation...” </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Words confined to the left as corralled animals had passed into
general use and, with them, ideas. One might read whole articles in the
conservative and liberal press that were M</span><span lang="EN-US">arxist, but the writers did not know it.
But there is an aspect of this heritage that is much harder to see. </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Even
five, six years ago, <i>Izvestia, Pravda</i> and a thousand other Communist papers were
written in a language that seemed designed to fill up as much space as possible
without actually saying anything. Because, of course, it was dangerous to take
up positions that might have to be defended. Now all these newspapers have
rediscovered the use of language. But the heritage of dead and empty language
these days is to be found in academia, and particularly in some areas of
sociology and psychology. </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A
young friend of mine from North Yemen saved up every bit of money he could to
travel to Britain to study that branch of sociology that teaches how to spread
Western expertise to benighted natives. I asked to see his study material and he
showed me a thick tome, written so badly and in such ugly, empty jargon it was
hard to follow. There were several hundred pages, and the ideas in it could
easily have been put in 10 pages. </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">Yes,
I know the obfuscations of academia did not begin with Communism --</span><span lang="EN-US">as Swift, for one, tells us-- but the
pedantries and verbosity of Communism had their roots</span><span lang="EN-US"> in German academia. And now that has
become a kind of mildew blighting the whole world. </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It is
one of the paradoxes of our time that ideas capable of transforming our
societies, full of insights about how the human animal actually behaves and
thinks, are often presented in unreadable language. </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">The
second point is linked with the first. Powerful ideas affecting our behavior can
be visible only in brief sentences, even a phrase </span><span lang="EN-US">– a catch phrase. All writers are asked
this question by interviewers: “Do you think a writer should...?” “Ought writers
to...?” The question always has to do </span><span lang="EN-US">with a political stance, and note that the assumption behind the
words is that all writers should do the same thing, whatever it is. The phrases
</span><span lang="EN-US">“Should a writer...?”
“Ought writers to...?” have a long history that seems unknown to the people who
so casual</span><span lang="EN-US">ly use them.
Another is </span><span lang="EN-US">“commitment”,</span><span lang="EN-US"> so
much in vogue not long ago. Is so and so a committed writer? </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">A
successor to </span><span lang="EN-US">“commitment”
is “raising consciousness.” This is double-edged. The people whose consciousness
is being raised may be given information the</span><span lang="EN-US">y most desperately lack and need, may be
given moral support they need. But the process nearly always means that the
pupil gets only the propaganda the instructor approves of. </span><span lang="EN-US">“Raising consciousness,” like
“commitment,” like “political correctness,” is a c</span><span lang="EN-US">ontinuation of that old bully, the party
line. </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 18pt;">A
very common way of thinking in literary criticism is not seen as a consequence
of Communism, but it is. Every writer has the experience of being told that a
novel, a story, is </span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 18pt;">“about”
something or other. I </span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 18pt;">wrote
a story, </span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 18pt;"><i>The Fifth Child</i>,
which was at once pigeonholed as being about the Palestinian problem, genetic
research, feminism, anti-Semitism and so on.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 18pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 18pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">A
journalist from France walked into my living room and before she had even sat
down said, </span><span lang="EN-US">“Of
cou</span><span lang="EN-US">rse </span><span lang="EN-US"><i>The Fifth Child</i> is about
AIDS.”</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">An
effective conversation stopper, I assure you. But what is interesting is the
habit of mind that has to analyze a literary work like this. If you say,
</span><span lang="EN-US">“Had I wanted to write
about AIDS or the Palestinian problem I w</span><span lang="EN-US">ould have written a
pamphlet,</span><span lang="EN-US">” you tend to get
baffled stares. </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">That a work of the imagination has to be “really” about some
problem is, again, an heir of Socialist Realism. To write a story for the sake
of storytelling is frivolous, not to say reactionary.</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">The
demand that stories must be </span><span lang="EN-US">about something is from Communist thinking and, further back, from
religious thinking, with its desire for self-improvement books as simple-minded
as the messages on samplers.</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">The
phrase </span><span lang="EN-US">political
correctness was born</span><span lang="EN-US"> as
Communism was collapsing. I do not think this was chance. I am not suggesting
that the torch of Communism has been handed on to the political correctors. I am
suggesting that habits of mind have been absorbed, often without knowing it.
</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">There
is obviously something very attractive about telling other people what to do: I
am putting it in this nursery way rather than in more intellectual language
because I see it as nursery behavior. Art </span><span lang="EN-US">-- the arts generally -- are always
unpredictable, mav</span><span lang="EN-US">erick,
and tend to be, at their best, uncomfortable. Literature, in particular, has
always inspired the House committees, the Zhdanovs, the fits of moralizing, but,
at worst, persecution. It troubles me that political correctness does not seem
to know what its exemplars and predecessors are; it troubles me more that it may
know and does not care. </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Does
political correctness have a good side? Yes, it does, for it makes us re-examine
attitudes, and that is always useful. The trouble is that, with all popular
movements, the lunatic fringe so quickly ceases to be a fringe; the tail begins
to wag the dog. For every woman or man who is quietly and sensibly using the
idea to examine our assumptions, there are 20 rabble-rousers whose real motive
is desire for power over others, no less rabble-rousers because they see
themselves as anti-racists or feminists or whatever. </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span lang="EN-US">A
professor friend describes how when students kept walking out of classes on
genetics and boycotting visiting lecturers whose points of view did not coincide
with their ideology, he invited them to his study for discussion and for viewing
a video of the actual facts. Half a dozen youngsters in their uniform of jeans
and T-shirts filed in, sat down, kept silent while he reasoned with them, kept
their eyes down while he ran the video and then, as one person, marched out. A
demonstration </span><span lang="EN-US">-- they might
very well have been shocked to hear -- which was a mirror of Communist behavior,
an acting out, a visual representation of the closed minds of young
Communist</span><span lang="EN-US"> activists.
</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Again
and again in Britain we see in town councils or in school counselors or
headmistresses or headmasters or teachers being hounded by groups and cabals of
witch hunters, using the most dirty and often cruel tactics. They claim their
victims are racist or in some way reactionary. Again and again an appeal to
higher authorities has proved the campaign was unfair. </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I am
sure that millions of people, the rug of Communism pulled out from under them,
are searching frantically, and perhaps not even knowing it, for another dogma. </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">-- </span></span><i style="line-height: 18pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">from the New York Times Op Ed page, June 22, 1992</span></span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<i style="line-height: 18pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Georgia;"><br /></span></div>
cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-47251357945227893652013-09-07T13:30:00.001-07:002016-06-07T00:01:32.731-07:00Transpersonal Psychologies (VI)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">excerpts from "Higher States of Consciousness" in <i>States of Consciousness</i>, by Charles Tart (1975):</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Three systems for value-ordering d-SoCs [discreet states of consciousness] are described below to illustrate that
explicit and detail orderings are possible. Two are from the Buddhist tradition
and one from the Arica traditions. While none of these is scientific, each is
capable of being cast as a scientific theory and tested. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;"> <a href="http://www.psychedelic-library.org/soc17.htm#fig3">Figure 17-3</a> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4349390319902794874" name="backf3"></a>presents an ordering of nine
d-SoCs that are all higher than ordinary consciousness. These are d-SoCs<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4349390319902794874" name="back2"></a><a href="http://www.psychedelic-library.org/soc17.htm#foot2">[2]</a> to be obtained sequentially in seeking
enlightenment through a path of concentrative meditation in Buddhism. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> The underlying value dimension here might be called freedom. The Buddha taught
that the ordinary state is one of suffering and entrapment in the forms and
delusions of our own minds. The root cause of this suffering is attachment, the
(automatized) desire to prolong pleasure and avoid pain. The journey along the
Path of Concentration starts when the meditater tries to focus attention on some
particular object of concentration. As he progresses, his concentration becomes
more subtle and powerful and he eventually moves from formed experiences (all
form has the seeds of illusion in it) to a series of formless states,
culminating in the eighth <i>jhana, </i>where there is neither perception nor
nonperception of anything. </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.psychedelic-library.org/soc17.htm#fig4">Figure 17-4</a> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4349390319902794874" name="backf4"></a>illustrates another succession of higher states within the
Buddhist framework. Here the technique involves not one-pointed, successively
refined concentration, but successively refined states of insight into the
ultimate nature of one's own mind. Starting from either the state of Access
Concentration (where ability to focus is quite high) or the state of Bare
Insight (proficiency in noticing internal experiences), the meditater becomes
increasingly able to observe the phenomena of the mind, and to see their
inherently unsatisfactorily character. The ultimate goal is a state called
<i>nirodh, </i>which is beyond awareness itself. Nirodh is the ultimate
accomplishment in this particular version of Buddhism, higher than the eighth
<i>jhana </i>on the Path of Concentration. The reader interested in more detail
about these Buddhist orderings should consult Daniel Goleman's chapter to
<i>Transpersonal Psychologies </i>{128}. </div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
The third ordering <a href="http://www.psychedelic-library.org/soc17.htm#fig5">(Figure 17-5)</a> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4349390319902794874" name="backf5"></a>is John Lilly's
conceptualization of the system taught by Oscar Ichazo in Arica, Chile. More
background is available in the chapter by John Lilly and Joseph Harts in
<i>Transpersonal Psychologies </i>{128}, as well as in Lilly's <i>Center of the
Cyclone </i>{35}. </div>
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In the Arica ordering the value dimension is one of
freedom and of which psychic center dominates consciousness. The numerical
designation of each state indicates the number of cosmic laws supposedly
governing that state, as expounded by Gurdjieff (see Kathy Riordan's chapter on
Gurdjieff in <i>Transpersonal Psychologies </i>{128} and Ouspensky {48}), with a
plus sign indicating positive valuation of that state. For example, in the +3
state only three laws govern; a person is less free in the +6 state, where six
law govern. A minus sign indicates negative emotions. Thus the ordinary d-SoC,
the-24 state, is a neurotic one of pain, guilt, fear, and other negative
emotions. The-24 state is also under 96 laws, making it less free, as the number
of governing laws doubles at each lower level. </div>
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Lilly notes that this
ordering of highness does not hold for all possible tasks in this scheme. The
+12 state and higher, for instance, involve a progressive loss of contact with
external reality and so become lower states if one has to perform some external
task like driving a car or eating. </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">-- <a href="http://www.psychedelic-library.org/soc17.htm">Charles Tart</a>, 1975 </span></div>
<br />cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-62817424402466935572013-09-06T16:40:00.000-07:002014-06-28T10:24:31.007-07:00The Manipulated Mind<div class="bodytext">
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Brainwashing, conditioning, and how the human mind works</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Ultimately, to eradicate terrorism and the conditions that
spawn it, we must understand the human mind—how it evolved, how it works to
create the crises we face, and what we can do to be more conscious in our
response. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">For example, what happens in the minds of ordinary, well-educated
human beings that they can carry out incomprehensible acts of terror in the name
of a political or religious cause? Is their “conversion” so far beyond the norm
or are the same influences at play in all our lives? What are the inherent
functions of the human brain that lead to dangerous stereotyping and hatred on
all sides? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Scientific research of the past four decades illuminates many aspects
of the nature of both the human mind and the current human predicament, and
points the way to the changes needed. These three books explore some of the
important research:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="catalogbooktitle"><strong>BATTLE FOR THE MIND
</strong></span><br /><br /><span class="bodytext"><strong>William
Sargant</strong></span><br /><br /><span class="catalogbookpublisher"><strong>Malor
Books, 1997</strong></span><br /><br /><span class="cetext">How can an evangelist
convert a hardboiled sophisticate? Why does a prisoner of war sign a confession‚
that he knows is false? How is a criminal pressured into admitting his guilt? Do
the evangelist, the POW's captor, and the policeman use similar methods to gain
their ends?<br /><br />These and other compelling questions are discussed in this
definitive work by William Sargant, who for many years until his death in 1988
was a leading physician in psychological medicine. Sargant spells out and
illustrates the basic technique used by evangelists, psychiatrists, and
brainwashers to disperse the patterns of belief and behavior already established
in the minds of their hearers, and to substitute new patterns for
them.<br /><br />'This mechanism holds the possibility of explaining and
understanding much of how people suddenly change direction in life, and some of
the strangest religious and spiritual behavior ever described among human
beings. Perhaps most important, understanding it can give us insight into the
formation of social bonds, the development of gangs and groups, and allow us to
make more informed choices as individuals, as a society, and as a culture, how
we want our own groups to develop.'<br />--<i>Charles Swencionis, Ph.D., Albert
Einstein College of Medicine, from the Foreword</i></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Ya9iAZghKfL-6_T2XHVbnj5c8_Ld1YDrobvJQRwTHH_Oe930sfiAoo7MFcsMew1bdb0AIEiswlJjeQQhXYJOB3w3Af34rg-N5bHHgjuvsfpfbpzBOLRSRJGr5y5vMstaAoxUdl1BfYzW/s1600/MAMI2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Ya9iAZghKfL-6_T2XHVbnj5c8_Ld1YDrobvJQRwTHH_Oe930sfiAoo7MFcsMew1bdb0AIEiswlJjeQQhXYJOB3w3Af34rg-N5bHHgjuvsfpfbpzBOLRSRJGr5y5vMstaAoxUdl1BfYzW/s1600/MAMI2.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="catalogbooktitle"><strong>THE MANIPULATED MIND <br />Brainwashing,
Conditioning and Indoctrination</strong></span><br /><br /><span class="bodytext"><strong>Denise Winn</strong></span><br /><br /><span class="catalogbookpublisher"><strong>Malor Books,
2000</strong></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span><span class="cetext"><span style="font-size: large;">Most of us cherish our values of
individual freedom of thought. Yet after the Korean War, American POW's fell
greater victim to Chinese brainwashing techniques than those of other
nationalities. Some made bizarre and even impossible confessions.<br /><br /><i>The
Manipulated Mind</i> explores the pioneering research that, sparked by this
issue, developed into one of the most provocative fields of current psychology.
Today brainwashing is no longer seen as merely a special subversive technique,
but rather as the clever manipulation of unrealized influences that are
continually operating in all our lives.<br /><br /><i>The Manipulated Mind</i> helps
us to see how manipulated we really are. And, in doing so, it offers us an
opportunity to become more self-directed.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCZleQHDHgj6_NHnAZ23FWvo5ASS4zqKUK_WzyO-iZSuDg0ujX_64tMBibzpi_Fr_488Gay-QPh9sUpqPuQv7iVUxOhV8F3mLABfshwc1xg321mmJztjKqmtV7FKdZP5wBXtHYZm5JMK81/s1600/NEWO3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCZleQHDHgj6_NHnAZ23FWvo5ASS4zqKUK_WzyO-iZSuDg0ujX_64tMBibzpi_Fr_488Gay-QPh9sUpqPuQv7iVUxOhV8F3mLABfshwc1xg321mmJztjKqmtV7FKdZP5wBXtHYZm5JMK81/s1600/NEWO3.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="catalogbooktitle"><strong>NEW WORLD NEW MIND
</strong></span><br /><br /><span class="bodytext"><strong>Robert Ornstein and Paul
Ehrlich</strong></span><br /><br /><span class="catalogbookpublisher"><strong>Malor
Books, 2000</strong></span><br /></span><span class="cetext"><span style="font-size: large;">There is no longer
sufficient time to rely on the normal pace of cultural evolution to deal with
today's dilemmas...<br /><br />Human beings have always been the most adaptable
creatures on the planet, and they should be able to chart a new course for
themselves. Some of that charting is already being done. The old mind today is
being challenged and changed by many scattered efforts. Can we bring these
efforts together to produce a large-scale program for a rapid 'change-of-mind'?
We know what the problem is. The 'solution' is not simple -- to generate the
social and political will to move a program of conscious evolution to the top of
the human agenda.<br /><br />A <a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/NWNM/TOC.html">free downloadable version</a> is available from ISHK on our
website.<br /><br />It's a rare book that changes people's lives, rarer still a book
that changes the world. In <i>New World New Mind</i>, Robert Ornstein and Paul
Ehrlich not only have the audacity to attempt both things, but they offer just
enough visionary thinking and nuts and bolts research to carry it
off.'<br />--<i>San Francisco Chronicle</i></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">'If we don't act on this
information, our grandchildren may never forgive us.'<br />--Dan Goleman, <i>New
York Times</i></span></span><br />
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<span class="cetext"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>-- </i><a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/books/special_offers911.html">The Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge</a></span><br />
<span class="cetext"><br /></span>cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-19657549850191227752013-09-06T12:47:00.000-07:002014-06-28T10:24:30.977-07:00The Teaching Story<span style="font-size: large;">The Teaching Story: Observations on the Folklore</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of Our “Modern” Thought</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">by Idries Shah (1968)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">There is no nation, no community, without its stories. Children</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">are brought up on fairy tales; cults and religions depend upon them</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">for moral instruction; they are used for entertainment and for</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">training. They are usually catalogued as myths, as humorous tales,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">as semi-historical fact, and so on, in accordance with what people</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">believe to be their origin and function.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">But what a story can be used for is often what it was originally</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">intended to be used for. The fables of all nations provide a really</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">remarkable example of this, because, if you can understand them at</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">a technical level, they provide the most striking evidence of the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">persistence of a consistent teaching, preserved sometimes through</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">mere repetition, yet handed down and prized simply because they</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">give a stimulus to the imagination or entertainment for the people</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">at large.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">There are very few people nowadays who are able to make the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">necessary use of stories. Those who know about the higher level of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">being represented by stories can learn something from them, but</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">very little. Those who can experience this level can teach the use of </span><span style="font-size: large;">stories. But first of all we must allow the working hypothesis that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">there may be such a level operative in stories. We must approach</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">them from the point of view that they may on that level be</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">documents of technical value: an ancient yet still irreplaceable</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">method of arranging and transmitting a knowledge which can not</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">be put in any other way.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">In this sense such stories (because all stories are not technical</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">literature), such stories may be regarded as part of a curriculum,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and as valid a representation of fact as, for instance, any</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">mathematical formula or scientific textbook.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Like any scientific textbook or mathematical formula,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">however, stories depend for their higher power upon someone to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">understand them at the higher level, someone who can establish</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">their validity in a course of study, people who are prepared to study</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and use them, and so on.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">At this point we can see quite easily that our conditioning</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">(which trains us to use stories for amusement purposes) is generally </span><span style="font-size: large;">in itself sufficient to prevent us from making any serious study of </span><span style="font-size: large;">stories as a vehicle for higher teaching. This tendency, the human </span><span style="font-size: large;">tendency to regard anything as of use to man on a lower level than </span><span style="font-size: large;">it could operate, runs through much of our studies, and has to be </span><span style="font-size: large;">marked well.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Yet traditions about stories do in fact linger here and there.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">People say that certain stories, if repeated, will provide some sort</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of “good luck”; or that tales have meanings which have been</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">forgotten, and the like. But what would be called in contemporary</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">speech the “security aspect” of stories is almost complete in the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">case of the genre which we call “teaching-stories” because of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">another factor.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">This factor is the operation of the law that a story, like a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">scientific industrial formula, say, can have its developmental or</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">teaching effect only upon a person correctly prepared for its</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">understanding. This is why we must use stories in a manner which</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">will enable us to harvest their value for us in a given situation.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">There is another problem which has to be appreciated when</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">dealing with stories. Unlike scientific formulae, they have a whole</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">series of developmental effects. In accordance with the degree of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">preparation of an individual and a group, so will the successive</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">“layers” of the story become apparent. Outside of a proper school</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">where the method and content of stories is understood, there is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">almost no chance of an arbitrary study of stories yielding much.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">But we have to go back to an even earlier stage in order to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ground ourselves, prepare ourselves, for the value of the story. This </span><span style="font-size: large;">is the stage at which we can familiarise ourselves with the story </span><span style="font-size: large;">and regard it as a consistent and productive parallel or allegory of </span><span style="font-size: large;">certain states of mind. Its symbols are the characters in the story. </span><span style="font-size: large;">The way in which they move conveys to the mind the way in which </span><span style="font-size: large;">the human mind can work. In grasping this in terms of men and </span><span style="font-size: large;">women, animals and places, movement and manipulation of a tale, </span><span style="font-size: large;">we can put ourselves into a relationship with the higher faculties </span><span style="font-size: large;">possible to the mind, by working on a lower level, the level of </span><span style="font-size: large;">visualisation.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Let us examine a story or two from the foregoing points of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">view. First, take a story of the <i>Elephant in the Dark</i>. A number</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of blind people, or sighted people in a dark house, grope </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and find an elephant. Each touches only a part; each gives</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to his friends outside a different account of what he has</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">experienced. Some think that it was a fan (the ears of the animal);</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">another takes the legs for pillars; a third the tail for a rope, and so</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">on.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"> This has actually been published as a children's book. It appears in the</span><span style="font-size: large;"> books of Rumi and Sanai. We have made it the subject of a commercial </span><span style="font-size: large;">film, </span><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Dermis Probe</span></i><span style="font-size: large;">. This story, on the lowest possible level, </span><span style="font-size: large;">makes fun of the scientists and academics who try to explain things </span><span style="font-size: large;">through the evidence which they can evaluate, and none other. In </span><span style="font-size: large;">another direction, on the same level, it is humorous in as much as it </span><span style="font-size: large;">makes us laugh at the stupidity of people who work on such little </span><span style="font-size: large;">evidence. As a philosophical teaching it says that man is blind and </span><span style="font-size: large;">is trying to assess something too great for assessment by means of </span><span style="font-size: large;">inadequate tools. In the religious field it says that God is </span><span style="font-size: large;">everywhere and everything, and man gives different names to what </span><span style="font-size: large;">seem to him to be separate things, but which are in fact only parts </span><span style="font-size: large;">of some greater whole which he cannot perceive because “he is </span><span style="font-size: large;">blind” or “there is no light.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The interpretations are far and high as anyone can go. Because</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of this, people address themselves to this story in one or more of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">these interpretations. They then accept or reject them. Now they</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">can feel happy; they have arrived at an opinion about the matter.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">According to their conditioning they produce the answer. Now look</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">at their answers. Some will say that this is a fascinating and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">touching allegory of the presence of God. Others will say that it is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">showing people how stupid mankind can be. Some say it is antischolastic.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Others that it is just a tale copied by Rumi from Sanai -</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and so on. Because none of these people can taste an inner content, </span><span style="font-size: large;">none will even begin to imagine that one exists. As I say these </span><span style="font-size: large;">words the ordinary mind will easily be able to dispose of them by </span><span style="font-size: large;">thinking that this is just someone who has provided a sophisticated </span><span style="font-size: large;">explanation for something which cannot be checked.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">But we are not here to justify ourselves. We are here to open</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the door of the mind to the possibility that stories might be</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">technical documents. We are here to say that there is a method of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">making use of these documents. Especially we are here to say that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the most ancient and most important knowledge available to man is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in part contained in these documents. And that this form, however</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">primitive or old-fashioned it may seem, is in fact almost the only</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">form in which certain teachings can be captured, preserved and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">transmitted. And, too, that these stories are conscious works of art,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">devised by people who knew exactly what they were doing, for the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">use of other people who knew exactly what could be done with</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">them.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">It may take a conventional thinker some time to understand</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that if he is looking for truth and a hidden teaching, it may be</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">concealed in a form which would be the last, perhaps, which he</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">would consider to be applicable to his search.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">But, in order to possess himself of this knowledge, he must</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">take it from where it really is, not from where he imagines it might</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">be.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">There is plenty of evidence of the working of this method, that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of the story deliberately concocted and passed down, in all cultures.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">We do not have to confine ourselves to Eastern fables. But it is in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">stories of Eastern origin that we find the most complete and least</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">deteriorated forms of the tradition. We therefore start with them.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">They lead us, naturally, to the significant documents in the Western</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and other branches of the tradition.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">In approaching the study of stories, then, we have to make sure</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that we reclaim the information that stories contain, shall we say, a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">message. In this sense we are like people whose technology has</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">fallen into disuse, rediscovering the devices used by our ancestors</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">as we become fitted for it. Then we have to realise that we have to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">familiarise ourselves with certain stories, so that we can hold them</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">in our minds, like memorizing a formula. In this use, the teaching</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">story resembles the mnemonic or formula which we trot out to help</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">us calculate something: like saying: “one kilo equals 2.2 pounds in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">weight”; or even “thirty days hath September.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Now we have to realise that, since we are dealing with a form</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of knowledge which is specific in as much as ii is planned to act in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">a certain way under certain conditions, those conditions must be</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">present if we are to be able to use the story coherently. By</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">coherently I mean here, if the story is to be the guide whereby we</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">work through the various stages of consciousness open to us.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">This means that we must not only get to know certain tales; we</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">must study them, or even just familiarise ourselves with them, in a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">certain order. This idea tends to find opposition among literate</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">people who are accustomed to doing their own reading, having</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">been led to believe that the more you read the more likely you are</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to know more. But this quantitative approach is absurd when you</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">are dealing with specific material. If you went to the British</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Museum library and decided to read everything in it in order to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">educate yourself, you would not get very far. It is only the ignorant,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">even in the formal sense, who cannot understand the need for</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">particular kinds of specialisation. This is well exemplified by the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">club porter who once said to me, in all seriousness “You are a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">college man, Sir, please explain football pool permutations to me.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">It is in order to get some possibility of right study that I</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">continually say things like “Let us get down out of the trees and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">start to build.”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">So far, however, we have not been saying much more than this:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">1. A special, effective and surpassingly important teaching is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">contained in certain materials. In this case the materials are stories.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">2. We must accept the possibility before we can begin to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">approach the study of this knowledge.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">3. Having accepted, even as a working hypothesis, the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">foregoing contentions, we have to set about the study in an efficient</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">manner. In the case of the tales, the efficient manner means to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">approach the right stories, in the right manner, under the right</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">conditions.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Failure to adhere to these principles will make it impossible for</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">us to function on the high level needed. If, for example, we settle</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">for merely knowing a lot of stories, we may become mere</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">raconteurs or consumers. If we settle for the moral or social</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">teaching of the story, we simply duplicate the activities of people</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">working in that domain. If we compare stories to try to see where</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the higher level is, we will not find it, because we do not know</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">unless guided which are the ones to compare with each other, under </span><span style="font-size: large;">what conditions, what to look for, whether we can perceive the </span><span style="font-size: large;">secret content, in what order to approach the matter.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">So the story remains a tool as much as anything else. Only the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">expert can use the tool, or produce anything worthwhile with it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Having heard and accepted the above assertions, people always</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">feel impatience. They want to get on with the job. But, not knowing</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">that “everything takes a minimum time,” or at any rate not applying</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">this fact, they destroy the possibility of progress in a real sense.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Having established in a certain order the above facts, we have</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to follow through with a curriculum of study which will enable us</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to profit by the existence of this wonderful range of material. If you</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">start to study what you take to be teaching-stories indiscriminately,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">you are more than likely to get only a small result, even with the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">facts already set out. Why is this?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Not only because you do not know the conditions under which</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the study must take place, but because the conditions themselves</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">contain requirements of self-collection which seem to have no</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">relationship to the necessities for familiarising oneself with a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">literary form.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">We must, therefore, work on the mind to enable it to make use</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of the story, as well as presenting it with the story. This “work” on</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">the mind is correctly possible only in the living situation, when</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">certain people are grouped together in a certain manner, and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">develop a certain form of rapport. This, and no other, is the purpose</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">of having meetings at which people are physically present.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">If read hurriedly, or with one or other of the customary biases</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">which are common among intellectuals but not other kinds of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">thinkers, the foregoing two paragraphs will be supposed to contain</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">exclusivistic claims which are not in fact there.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">This is itself one of the interesting - and encouraging -</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">symptoms of the present phase of human intellectual folklore. If a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">tendency can readily be seen manifesting itself, whether in physics,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">scholasticism or metaphysics, one may be approaching its solution.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">What is this tendency?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The tendency is to demand a justification of what are taken to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">be certain claims in the language in which the demand is made. My</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">stressing, for instance, that meetings at which people are present</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">who have been grouped in a certain manner, may easily (and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">incorrectly) be supposed to state that the kind of learning to which I</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">am referring can take place in no other manner. The intention of the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">paragraph, however, was simply to refer to one concrete manner in</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">which what I have called “a living situation” can come about. A</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">meeting of a number of people in a room is the only form of such a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">situation familiar to any extent to an average reader of such</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">materials as this.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">I have used the word “folklore” to refer to a state of mind of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">modern man closely similar to that of less developed communities.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But there is a great difference between the two folklores. In what</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">we regard as ingenuous folklore, the individual may believe that</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">certain objects have magical or special characteristics, and he is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">more or less aware of what these are claimed to be.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">In modern man's folklore, he believes that certain contentions</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">must be absurd, and holds on to other assumptions, without being</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">aware that he is doing so. He is motivated, in fact, by almost</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">completely hidden prejudices.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">To illustrate the working of such preconceptions, it is often</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">necessary to provide a “shock” stimulus.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Such a stimulus occurs both in the present series of contentions</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">about the teaching-story (because, and only because, certain</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">information about it is lost to the community being addressed) and</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">exists equally strongly within the frameworks of such stories</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">themselves, when one can view them in a structural manner.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">This train of thought itself produces an illustration of the</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">relative fragmentation of contemporary minds. Here it is:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Although it is a matter of the everyday experience of almost</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">everyone on this planet, irrespective of his stage of culture or his</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">community, that anyone thing may have a multiplicity of uses,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">functions and meanings, man does not apply this experience to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">cases which - for some occult reason - he regards as insusceptible</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to such attention. In other words, a person may admit that an</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">orange has colour, aroma, food value, shape, texture and so on; and </span><span style="font-size: large;">he will readily concede that an orange may be many different </span><span style="font-size: large;">things according to what function is desired, observed or being </span><span style="font-size: large;">fulfilled. But if you venture to suggest that, say, a story has an </span><span style="font-size: large;">equal range of possible functions, his folkloric evaluating </span><span style="font-size: large;">mechanism will make him say: “No, a story is for entertainment,” </span><span style="font-size: large;">or else something almost as Byzantine: “Yes, of course. Now, are </span><span style="font-size: large;">you talking about the psychological, social, anthropological or </span><span style="font-size: large;">philosophical uses?”</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Nobody has told him that there are, or might be, categories of</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">effective function of a story in ranges which he has not yet</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">experienced, perhaps not yet heard of, perhaps even cannot</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">perceive or even coherently discuss, until a certain basic</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">information process has taken place in his mind.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">And to this kind of statement the answer is pat and hard to</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">combat. It is: “You are trying to be clever.” This, you may recall is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">only the “yaa-boo” reaction of the schoolchild who has come up</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">against something which it cannot, at least at that moment,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">rationalise away or fully understand.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />from <i>Point</i>, Number 4 (Winter 1968-69), pp. 4-9.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">For more on the contemporary study of Teaching-Stories, see: <a href="http://www.idriesshahfoundation.org/">The Idries Shah Foundation.</a></span>cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-28037796117746254222013-09-04T11:40:00.002-07:002014-06-28T10:24:30.983-07:00Psychiatric Report on Mysticism<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" nof="LY" style="width: 543px;"><tbody>
<tr align="left" valign="top"><td class="TextObject" width="536"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"> Review of <i>Mysticism: Spiritual Quest or Psychic Disorder? </i>by the<i> </i>Group<i> </i>for the Advancement of Psychiatry.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="text-align: -webkit-left;">by Arthur J. Deikman, M.D. (1976)</span><sup style="text-align: -webkit-left;"><a href="http://www.deikman.com/gapfn.html#1">1</a></sup></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"> The report by the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry entitled <i>Mysticism: Spiritual Quest or Psychic Disorder? </i>is<i> </i>intended to supply the psychiatric profession with needed information on the phenomena of mysticism, of which most psychiatrists have only a sketchy knowledge. Certain of the sections, especially those on Christian and Hindu mysticism, show an objectivity and scholarship that are quite commendable. As a whole, however, the report displays extreme parochialism, a lack of discrimination, and naive arrogance in its approach to the subject.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> From the point of view of scholarship, the basic error lies in the committee's ignoring the importance of the distinction made by both Western and Eastern mystics between lower level sensory-emotional experiences and those experiences that go beyond concepts, feelings, and sensations. Repeatedly, the mystical literature stresses that sensate experiences are not the goal of mysticism; rather, it is only when these are transcended that one attains the aim of a <i>direct </i>(intuitive)<i> </i>knowledge of fundamental reality. For example, Walter Hilton, an English mystic from the 14th century, is quite explicit about this distinction:</span></div>
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<ul><span style="font-size: large;">. . . visions of revelations by spirits <i>.... </i>do not constitute true contemplation. This applies equally to any other sensible experiences of seemingly spiritual origin, whether of sound, taste, smell or of warmth felt like a glowing fire in the breast . . . anything, indeed, that can be experienced by the physical senses" (<a href="http://www.deikman.com/gapbib.html#7">7</a>, pp. 14, 15).</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> St. John of the Cross, 18th century, states:</span></div>
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<ul><span style="font-size: large;">"That inward wisdom is so simple, so general and so spiritual that it has not entered into the understanding enwrapped or clad in any form or image subject to sense, it follows that sense and imagination (as it has not entered through them nor has taken their form and color) cannot account for it or imagine, so as to say anything concerning it, although the soul be dearly aware that it is experiencing and partaking of that rare and delectable wisdom" (<a href="http://www.deikman.com/gapbib.html#3">3</a>. p. 457).</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> A similar distinction between lower (sensate) and higher (transcendent) contemplative states may be found in Yoga texts:</span></div>
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<ul><span style="font-size: large;">"When all lesser things and ideas are transcended and forgotten, and there remains only a perfect state of imagelessness where Tathagata and Tathata, are merged into perfect Oneness . . . .” (<a href="http://www.deikman.com/gapbib.html#5">5</a>, p. 322).</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Western mysticism, from which the authors derived most of their examples, constitutes only a minor segment of the literature in the field of mysticism, and its basic contemplative tradition actually derives from Eastern sources, as acknowledged in the report. Yet the goal of Eastern (Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist, Sufic) mysticism — "enlightenment" — is not visions of angels or Buddhas but the awakening of an inherent capacity to perceive the true nature of the self and the world. Over and over again, these texts warn that the type of mystical experience on which the GAP report focuses is not the goal of the mystical path. Such visionary experiences are regarded as illusions and, at worst, snares for the poorly prepared or the ill guided. An example from the Zen literature follows:</span></div>
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<ul><span style="font-size: large;">"Other religions and sects place great store by the experiences which involve visions of God or hearing heavenly voices, performing miracles receiving divine messages, or becoming purified through various rites . . . yet from the Zen point of view all are morbid states it devoid of true religious significance and hence only makyo (disturbing illusions)" (<a href="http://www.deikman.com/gapbib.html#8">8</a>, p. 40).</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> In the Sufi literature, we find many explicit statements that Sufism is a science of knowing and is not a religion in the way that term is ordinarily understood.</span></div>
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<ul><span style="font-size: large;">"The Sufis often start from a nonreligious viewpoint. The answer, they say, is within the mind of mankind. It has to be liberated, so that by self-knowledge the intuition become, the guide to human fulfillment" (<a href="http://www.deikman.com/gapbib.html#11">11</a>, p. 25).</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> The Sufis regard most mystical experience as being essentially emotional with little practical importance — except for the harmful effect of causing people to believe they are being "spiritual" when they are not:</span></div>
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<ul><span style="font-size: large;">Sahl Abdullah once went into a state of violent agitation with physical manifestations, during a religious meeting.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Ibn Salim said, "What is this state?"</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Sahl said: "This was not, as you imagine, power entering me. It was, on the contrary, due to my own weakness."</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Others present remarked: "If that was weakness, what is power?"</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">"Power" said Sahl, "is when something like this enters and the mind and body manifests nothing at all" (<a href="http://www.deikman.com/gapbib.html#12">12</a>, p. 182).</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Despite these clear warnings in the mystical literature, the GAP publication emphasizes lurid, visionary phenomena which lend themselves readily to standard psychiatric interpretations. Because of this, the authors have failed to come to grips with the fundamental claim of mystics: that they acquire direct knowledge of reality. Furthermore, the authors follow Freud's lead in defining the mystic perception of unity as a regression, an escape, a projection upon the world of a primitive, infantile state. The fact is, we know practically nothing about the actual experience of the infant, except that whatever it is, it is not that of a small adult. No one who has read carefully the accounts of "enlightenment" can accept this glib equation of mystical = infantile. An infant mind could hardly have had the experience that conveyed the following:</span></div>
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<ul><span style="font-size: large;">"The least act, such as eating or scratching an arm, is not at all simple. It is merely a visible moment in a network of causes and effects reaching forward into Unknowingness and back into an infinity of Silence, where individual consciousness cannot even enter. There is truly nothing to know, nothing that can be known.</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">“"The physical world is an infinity of movement, of Time-Existence. But simultaneously it is an infinity of Silence and Voidness. Each object is thus transparent. Everything has its own special inner character. its own karma or 'life in time,' but at the same time there is no place where there is emptiness, where one object does not flow into another" (<a href="http://www.deikman.com/gapbib.html#8">8</a>, p. 268).</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> To confuse lower level sensory-emotional experiences with the transcendent "Knowledge" that is the goal of mysticism seriously limits the usefulness of the report and tends to perpetuate in the reader the ignorant parochial position that was standard in most psychiatric writings before the GAP publication and now, unfortunately, is likely to be reinforced.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> This naive reductionism is all the more striking in the context of the numerous reports from physicists indicating that the world is actually more like the one that the mystics describe than the one on which psychology and psychoanalysis are based. Contemporary scientists have ample evidence that the world of discrete objects is an illusion, a function of the particular scale of our perception and time sense. For them, it is commonplace that the phenomena of biology and physics point to a continuous world of gradients, not a collection of objects. Percy Bridgman, Nobel Laureate in physics, comments:</span></div>
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<ul><span style="font-size: large;">"It has always been a bewilderment to me to understand how anyone can experience such a commonplace event as an automobile going up the street and seriously maintain that there is identify of structure of this continually flowing, dissolving and reforming thing and the language that attempts to reproduce it with discrete units, tied together by remembered conventions" (<a href="http://www.deikman.com/gapbib.html#1">1</a>, p. 21). </span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> What is missing from the GAP report is any acknowledgment that the mystic who has completed his or her development may have access to an intuitive, immediate knowledge of reality. The authors assume that the known sensate pathways are the only means to acquire knowledge of what is real. In fact, studies of how scientific <i>discoveries were </i>actually made show in almost every instance that this is not the case at all. Another Nobel prize-winning physicist, Eugene Wigner, has remarked:</span></div>
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<ul><span style="font-size: large;">"The discovery of the laws of nature requires first and foremost intuition, conceiving of pictures and a great many subconscious processes. The use and also the confirmation of these laws is another matter . . . logic comes after intuition" (<a href="http://www.deikman.com/gapbib.html#6">6</a>, p. 45).</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "Intuition" can be considered a lower order example of the latent capacity to which mystics refer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> The eclectic ignorance of the authors has led them at one point to lump together Einstein, Jesus, Abraham Lincoln, biofeedback, Vincent Van Gogh, and St. John of the Cross. Interestingly enough, if the authors had pursued the case of Einstein alone, they might have come to the epistemological issue that is the core of mysticism — and paid proper attention to it; for Einstein's modern discoveries, as well as the discoveries of natural philosophers thousands of years earlier, were<i> </i>based on an intuitive perception of the way things are. Such perceptions are the source of our greatest advances in science. Michael Polanyi, at one time Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Manchester, made an extensive and thorough study of the actual process of scientific discovery and found that the revolutionary ideas of geniuses such as Einstein had "come to them" by some form of direct intuition, often presented as imagery (<a href="http://www.deikman.com/gapbib.html#10">10</a>). Polanyi was led by his data to propose a theory of knowledge and human consciousness that is clearly "mystical." Furthermore, at least two books have been published recently documenting the strikingly close correspondence between the scientific conceptions of physicists and the insights of mystics (<a href="http://www.deikman.com/gapbib.html#2">2</a>, <a href="http://www.deikman.com/gapbib.html#9">9</a>).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Thus, it is truly remarkable to have a group of psychiatrists issue a report in 1976, in which the only comment they make on the mystic perception of unity is that it represents a "reunion with parents." Nowhere is the report do we find a discussion of the possibility that the perception of unity occurring in the higher forms of mysticism may be correct and that the ordinary perception of separateness and meaninglessness may be an illusion, as mystics claim. Clearly, mystic perception could be true whether or not a particular mystic might wish, in fantasy, to be reunited with his or her mother.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> The GAP report states:</span></div>
<ul><span style="font-size: large;">"The psychiatrist will find mystical phenomena of interest because they can demonstrate forms of behaviour intermediate between normality and frank psychosis; a form of ego regression in the service of defense against internal or external stress; and a paradox of the return of repressed regression in unconventional expressions of love" (p. 731).</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> How totally provincial our profession has become if this is a summary statement from a group that claims W be devoted to "advancing" psychiatry!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> It is interesting that the only place in which the authors are able to allow themselves to think in positive terms of mysticism is when they discuss the concept of "creativity." Apparently, creativity is OK. In this section of the report, the authors venture to speculate:</span></div>
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<ul><span style="font-size: large;">"At the same time, intense or external perceptions may be heightened, and this sensitivity may open a path to hidden aspects of reality"” (p. 795).</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Unfortunately, that one sentence, like a lonely ray of sunshine, is soon swallowed up by a return of the monotonous clouds of reductionism. The very next chapter, entitled "Case Report," concerns a woman in psychotherapy who reported having had the sort of low level, sensate mystical experience on which the authors focus. The report provides the following conclusion:</span></div>
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<ul><span style="font-size: large;">"Her interests were reinvested in the fantasy universe, representing God, in which such problems do not exist, and she felt herself united with this God-Universe, a substitute for an unavailable or rejecting parent. The mystical union made up for the rejection she feared from her father, now represented by the therapist in another man . . . so, while a psychiatric diagnosis cannot be dismissed, <i>her experience was certainly akin. to those described by great religious mystics </i>(!) (emphasis mine) who have found a new life through them" (p. 806).</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> In the last paragraph it becomes even more presumptuous and confused:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> "The mystical state itself provided the illusion of knowledge. But unlike many mystical states in which the search ends with illusion, it stimulated her to seek further knowledge and led directly to the disappearance of her inhibition to serious reading (!) This continued search is characteristic of those in whom mystical states contribute towards creative activity" (p. 807).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> The authors of this report are intelligent, educated, sincere men. It is hard to believe that they would display such provincialism, carelessness, and bias if they were discussing schizophrenia. Judging by this and other, similar psychiatric discussions, our profession, when it comes to mysticism, does not feel the need to ask serious questions about its own assumptions, nor to take the devil's advocate's position toward its too-easy conclusions. Ironically, the authors are capable of painting out the problem in others. In discussing "the naive Western observers of the Indian scene" they say:</span></div>
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<ul><span style="font-size: large;">“Confronted by such common symbols as that of the representation of the divine activity in sexual form, and bewildered by the profusion of deities in the Hindu pantheon, they could impute to Hinduism a 'decadence' following from its essence, and they fail to apply to that religion the discrimination between enlightened and superstitious observance which they would be sure to demand for their own" (p. 747). </span></ul>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Exactly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> In trying to understand the phenomenon of the GAP report itself, I am led to two principal considerations. First, in order to understand and have some appreciation of "mysticism," it is necessary that psychiatrists participate to some extent in the experience. When it comes to its own discipline, the psychiatric profession is unwavering in its requirement that one must "know" through experience, not just description. Who can really understand "transference" without experiencing it? Actual experience is necessary because the position of the outside observer has its limits, particularly in areas not well adapted to language. I can give an example of the necessity for participation from my own research on meditation and mysticism. In surveying the literature, I had noticed that contemplation and renunciation were the two basic processes specified for mystical development by almost all mystical authors, East and West. I proceeded to study the effects of meditation in the laboratory and, naively, assumed that renunciation meant giving up the things of the world in a literal sense. It was only later, when I both studied and participated in Soto Zen training, that I came to understand that renunciation refers to an attitude, not to asceticism, per se. That understanding enabled me to formulate the hypothesis of "bimodal consciousness," based on motivational considerations (4). The hypothesis, in turn, enabled me to understand a wide variety of unusual states of consciousness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Perhaps by stating that I have, myself, practiced meditation, I will automatically disqualify myself in the eyes of some readers as having any credibility in these matters. I refer those readers to the paper by Charles Tart, wherein he presents a compelling case for the development of "state-specific sciences" — sciences whose mode of investigation is specifically adapted to the area it is investigating (13). Indeed, participation by scientists in these areas of mysticism would result in an understanding that is less exotic and less religious — and would help rid ourselves of the clap-trap associated with mysticism that constitutes a burden to scientist and mystic alike.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Unfortunately, such participation is not likely to occur because of the other basic problem confronting psychiatrists when they approach this field: arrogance — reflecting the arrogance of Western civilization. In this connection, it is interesting that the fundamental requirement for participating in any of the mystical traditions has been, and still is, humility. This is so, not because humility is a virtue, something that earns one credit in a heavenly bank account, but because humility is instrumental — it is the attitude required for learning. Humility is the acceptance of the possibility that someone else or something else has something to teach you which you do not already know. In crucial sections of the GAP report, there is no sign of humility. It seems to me that in our profession we display the arrogance of the legendary British Colonial who lived for 30 years in India without bothering to learn the language of the inhabitants, because he considered them to be inferior. Perhaps medicine's long battle to free itself from religious control, from demonology and "divine authority," has left us with an automatic and costly reaction against anything that bears the outward signs of religion. In point of fact, mystics outside the Western tradition tend to share our suspicion and describe their disciplines as a science of development-not a religion, as ordinarily understood.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> The authors of the GAP report have selectively ignored the central issues of mysticism and have made traditional interpretations of the secondary phenomena. If our profession is to advance, we must recognize our defenses against ideas that would change our assumptions. Mysticism, studied seriously, challenges basic tenets of Western<i> </i>cultures: a) the primacy of reason and intellect; b) the separate, individual nature of man; c) the linear organization of time. Great mystics, like our own great scientists, envision the world as being larger than those tenets, as transcending our traditional views. By not recognizing our defensiveness and by permitting our vision to be narrowed so as to exclude the unfamiliar, we betray our integrity as psychiatrists, showing no more capacity for freedom from prejudice than persons totally ignorant of psychodynamics — perhaps less.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> Psychiatry's aversion to things ecclesiastical should not blind the profession to the possibility that "real gold exists, even though false coin abounds." It is unfortunate that the GAP report carries us little further toward gaining for ourselves that wider base for human fulfillment that we need. The attitude <i>reflected in </i>the report is myopic and unnecessarily fearful of an avenue of human endeavor, aspiration, and discovery thousands of years old-one productive of outstanding achievements in science and literature that we are only now beginning to recognize. Yet, if we learn nothing more from mystics than the need far humility, they will have contributed greatly to Western culture in general and to the profession of psychiatry in particular.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">-- <a href="http://www.deikman.com/index.html">Arthur Deikman</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Bibliography</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><sup><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5741774601999076042" name="1"></a>1 </sup>Bridgman, P.W. <i>The Nature of Physical Theory</i>. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1964.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><sup><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5741774601999076042" name="2"></a>2 </sup>Capra, F. <i>The Tao of Physics</i>. Shambala, Berkeley, 1975.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><sup><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5741774601999076042" name="3"></a>3 </sup><i>The Complete Works of St. John of the Cross</i>, Vol. 1, Newman Press, Westminister, 1953.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><sup><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5741774601999076042" name="4"></a>4</sup>.Deikman, A. Bimodal consciousness. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry, 25: 481-489, 1971.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5741774601999076042" name="5"></a><sup>5</sup> Goddard, D., Ed. <i>A Buddhist Bible</i>.Dwight Goddard, Thetford, Vermont, 1938.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><sup><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5741774601999076042" name="6"></a>6</sup> Greene, M., Ed. <i>Toward a Unity of Knowledge</i>. (Psychol. Issues, 22: 45, 1969.) International Univerfsities Press, New York, 1969.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><sup><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5741774601999076042" name="7"></a>7</sup> Hilton, W. <i>The Scale of Perfection</i>. Burns & Oats, London, 1953.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><sup><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5741774601999076042" name="8"></a>8</sup> Kapleau, P. <i>The Three Pillars of Zen</i>. Beacon Press, Boston, 1967.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><sup><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5741774601999076042" name="9"></a>9</sup> LeShan, L. <i>The Medium, the Mystic and the Physicist</i>. Viking Press, New York, 1974.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5741774601999076042" name="10"></a><sup>10 <span style="font-size: large;">Polanyi, M. <i>Personal Knowledge</i>. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1958.</span></sup></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><sup><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5741774601999076042" name="11"></a>11</sup> Shah, I. <i>The Sufis</i>. Anchor Books (Doubleday & Co., Inc.) Garden City, N.Y., 1971.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><sup><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5741774601999076042" name="12"></a>12</sup> Shah, I. <i>The Way of the Sufi</i>. E.P. Dutton & Co., New York, 1970.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><sup><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5741774601999076042" name="13"></a>13</sup> Tart, C. States of consciousness and state-specific sciences. Science, 176\: 1203-1218, 1972.</span></div>
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cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-48301115488827940252013-09-04T11:38:00.000-07:002014-06-28T10:24:30.999-07:00Wisdom of Humor<div id="main">
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Wisdom of Sufic Humor</span></h1>
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<span style="font-size: large;">by Idries Shah</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: large;">[From "Human Nature" April 1978. ]</span></h5>
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<em><span style="font-size: large;">Prayers, rituals, and religious exercises may not be the best paths to spiritual development. Sufis have found that jokes can assist the traveler.</span></em><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Sufism is a rich mystical tradition that arose in the Middle East, a tradition that promotes an experience of life through dealing with life and human relations. Historically, as much research has shown, the Sufis have profoundly influenced Jewish, Christian, and Hindu literature and attitudes. In so doing, the Sufis have played a unique part, for no other body of thinkers has had an analogous effect on this group of major belief systems.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Instead of presenting a body of thought in which one must believe certain things and reject others, Sufis try to provoke the experience in a person. Why provoke or develop experience instead of teaching dogmatic principles or processes? The Sufis assert that knowledge comes before ritual. Rituals may become outworn, may not function as intended when practiced by communities for which they were not designed. If rituals and practices are, as Sufis believe them to be, specially developed psychological methods, only those who have the knowledge that lies behind them can confirm whether historically notable ones are still functional. Hence priority is given to knowledge and understanding over feeling or belief.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Sufis are often compared with the products of other mystical systems, but there is little inward resemblance. For Sufis, there are many more dimensions, more sides, to the attainment of higher consciousness than are found in other systems. Where Sufis insist that ecstatic experience is a contaminated by-product, a distortion of experience that never happens in an enlightened person, other systems often strive for this ecstasy alone. Where Sufis insist that there are all kinds of emotions and that a certain degree of emotion, whether perceived as religious or not, is harmful to spiritual perceptions, others include many who believe that extreme emotionality, when religiously tinged, must be better than anything less intense. Where the Sufis state that there are stages in mystical appreciation, and that one must not attempt the developments that accompany one stage before completing the preparedness that comes from attaining the one before it, numerous other systems make no such provisos.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Sufis see many traditional prayers and processes, today more familiar than ever to most Westerners, as relics of specific, scripted, and measured formulas designed in the past to help people in the past to attain knowledge of the absolute and of their real selves. The existence of repetitious and automatistic chants, phrases, and dances was often pointed out by the Sufis in the past as being the ignorant perpetuation of formerly effective instruments. Technical knowledge, instead of being applied, tends to become sacroscant and used for a low level of autohypnosis and even ideological and community indoctrination: the very reverse of the original Sufic intention.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Sufis maintain that anyone who says that by prayer and exercise he or she will storm the gates of heaven is someone not prepared to prepare. Such an assault essentially tries to abolish the problem of intricacy by denying that it exists: It is like solving the problem of a missing button by sewing up the buttonhole.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Sufis do not stress the primacy of teaching, exercises, or dressing people in odd clothes. For the Sufis, humanity is already full of misconceptions and unsuitable, counterproductive habit patterns that must be attended to before there is a fair chance of progress toward a more objective understanding. "You must empty out the dirty water before you fill the pitcher with clean" is one of the ways they put it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Since most people's spiritual life is really their emotional-psychological-social life renamed, Sufis start with this aspect when trying to clear up the confusion that is the usual condition of most people's minds.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Their natural allies are modern psychology and sociology, which have pointed out something similar. In the past, Sufis lacked the support of such parallel research and therefore often had to teach in secret. Hysteria was often considered sacred; monomaniacs were sometimes regarded as saints. Only recently have most societies accepted the idea that greed, say, is sure to be greed, even if it is greed for enlightenment; or that emotion, no matter what kind it is, may be harmful.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Sufis traditionally address themselves to the actual social-psychological situation, while those who do not understand the priorities clamor for "spiritual" teachings. Such teachings are useless if floated on top of the psychology of the ordinary individual, however useful that psychology is for limited purposes.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Sanctimoniousness, vanity, and self-will must be set aside in Sufi studies. For this reason, a person's illusions of self-esteem may have to be deflated. Many people cannot endure such an approach, and the result is that some leave and set up synthetic Sufi systems, some turn against the Sufis, and some become servile because they mistake humility for self-abasement. A few, on the other hand, understand what is going on and profit from it. The Sufi has no responsibility to work with people who reject his attitude. In fact, he is incompetent to do so. This rejection is often unconscious, since many would-be learners in reality are seeking social stabilization, comfort, or attention, not knowledge and understanding.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">A few examples, taken from contemporary situations, illustrate how great things depend on small beginnings, and how the base is the foundation of the apex. From such entertaining and cynical stories we can also learn something about the illustrative value of ordinary tales and jokes in spiritual studies.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Two hillbillies are talking. One asks the other how little Jake is getting on at school. "Not so well," says the other, "because they are trying to teach him to spell 'cat' with a C instead of with a K."</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">This story reflects the inaccurate expectations of people who have learned things somewhat askew, as well as the need for context and grounding. In this case, that need is reflected in the fact that it is essential to know the alphabet before rendering a mature judgment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Another tale shows how beliefs and ideas rooted in the mind often function only for certain purposes -- and do not help the person who suffers from them. This miniature parable is also linked with the effects of vanity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">One woman says to another, "Poor Maisie really has suffered for what she believes in."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"And what DOES she believe in?" asks the other.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"She believes that you can wear a size six shoe on a size nine foot."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">For the purposes of Sufism, several elements in the human mind must be aligned before the interference that prevents higher understanding can be stilled. People are always supposing that they can realize their full potential if they can only discover the way, the key, the method, and apply it. But applying the method may involve taking care of all the things within them that are not helping them, such as the habit of applying fashionable though ineffective techniques to a problem. A key works only in a lock.</span><br />
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<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">A friend of mine once went to see the chief of state of a certain country. When they were walking on the grounds of the presidential place, a large and fierce-looking dog tore the loincloth off a Hindu guru who was also present and, barking loudly, cornered him by a wall. Now this guru had the reputation of being able to tame tigers with a glance, but he obviously had no such way with dogs, and he called out to my friend to do something.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The visitor said, "A barking dog does not bite."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"I know that and you know that," the guru shouted back, "but does the dog know that?"</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This replay of an old joke presents the structure of a mental state; unless the three elements in a mind are aligned (the guru, the visitor, and the dog, as they are called in this picture of it), the situation is, to put it mildly, unpromising.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">This "dog" in the mind is what stands in the way of developing the tiny potential that people are always trying to realize.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">The painstaking approach of the sufi may seem tedious, but enlightenment that is too easy is suspect.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Until that potential is strong enough to be realized, it remains latent and so inconsequential that if people were to have their potential removed, the operation would be minor. To increase it would produce not a flourishing plant, but a giant, unviable weed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">In the Sufi system, as in any field of learning, when a person has insufficient information or does not know what questions or actions will yield productive answers or reactions, the situation must be corrected as soon as possible. One quite useful joke incarnates the circumstances that occur when this has been done.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A recruit was asked by a training instructor, "Give me an example of how to fool the enemy."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The recruit answered, "When you are out of ammunition, don't let the enemy know -- keep on firing!"</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">One of the most important aspects of the initial stages of Sufism is that the learner often has to experience higher perceptions so that he can recognize their individual flavor. Once he can do that, he can stabilize his state when these perceptions occur and can avoid imagining that useless, subjective experiences are spiritual ones. He or she can now seek the flavor again and stabilize it. This is the doctrine called "He who tastes, knows," but the value of the taste depends in part on the irreplaceable presence and activity of the spiritual equivalent of taste buds.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">From the Sufis' perspective, derivative or inauthentic spiritual systems are disoriented and they usually have unrecognized problems. Their adherents do not know the parameters or the places to test and perceive because they cannot tell a spiritual from an emotional experience. Neither do they usually realize in what order various experiences have to be stimulated, or even that there is such an order.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The tale about two less-than-brilliant countrymen who hired a boat and went fishing illustrates this situation. The men caught some fine fish. When they were going home, one said to the other, "How are we going to make our way back to that wonderful fishing place again?" The second said, "I thought of that -- I marked the boat with chalk!" "You fool!" said the first. "That's no good. Supposing next time they give us a different boat?"</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">When they hear it spelled out, of course, many people regard the Sufis' seemingly painstaking approach as tedious. But anything that needs careful attention seems tedious if you look at it impatiently. People who offer enlightenment by easier methods have neither the responsibility nor the problems of people who have made enlightenment a science. Remember that if a bald man gets a free comb with a bottle of hair restorer, it does not necessarily follow that he will ever be able to use the comb for its intended purpose.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The subjective self, which is made up of part ordinary human training, part instinct, and part obsession or conditioning may answer well enough for many purposes, but it must be possible to set aside that self in order to get to the real thing. Sufi teaching often has to resort to indirect methods in order to eliminate the destructive effect of those activities that give great pleasure to the individual but actually inhibit his potential -- as well as annoy everyone else around.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Such a situation is described in a contemporary joke: There was once a small boy who banged a drum all day and loved every moment of it. He would not be quiet, no matter what anyone else said or did. Various people who called themselves Sufis, and other well-wishers, were called in by neighbors and asked to do something about the child.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The first so-called Sufi told the boy that he would, if he continued to make so much noise, perforate his eardrums; this reasoning was too advanced for the child, who was neither a scientist nor a scholar. The second told him that drum beating was a sacred activity and should be carried out only on special occasions. The third offered the neighbors plugs for their ears; the fourth gave the boy a book; the fifth gave the neighbors books that described a method of controlling anger through biofeedback; the sixth gave the boy meditation exercises to make him placid and explained that all reality was imagination. Like all placebos, each of these remedies worked for a short while, but none worked for very long.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Eventually, a real Sufi came along. He looked at the situation, handed the boy a hammer and chisel, and said, "I wonder what is INSIDE the drum?"</span></blockquote>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Incidentally, a lot of diversionary activity such as musical assemblies, dressing up, and incantations -- well but erroneously know in the West and among ignorant people in the East as "spiritual" or "esoteric" -- originates in attempts to satisfy the demand for "real mysticism" by unsuitable people (or by suitable people who are thinking wrongly). Sometimes the only shortcoming is that they lack the right information.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">One of the subjective attitudes that effectively keeps one from the possibility of mystic learning is a mind filled with thwarted acquisitive aspirations. People are greedy, but they are told that they should not be. So, all unknowing, they sometimes render avarice in the form of greed for "higher things." There is an excellent Western story that freezes this situation on a lower, illustrative level, allowing us to see the relative absurdity of meanness and also its comparative unproductivity.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">There was once a miserly man from Aberdeen who was learning golf. His teacher suggested that his initials be put on the ball, so that anyone who found it could return the ball to the clubhouse where he might later claim it. The Aberdonian was interested. "Yes,' he said, "please scratch my initials, A.M.T., for Angus McTavish, on the ball. Oh, and if there is room, add M.D., as I am a physician." The instructor did this. Then McTavish scratched his head. "While you are about it," he said, "you might as well add, 'Hours,11:30 to 4' "</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A lot of the stories that seem to be aimed against gurus are not really antiguru. They are only meant to remind us of ways in which real teachers can be distinguished from practitioners who are interested only in gathering tribes of followers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">As an example, there is the one in which two mothers talk about their sons.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">One says, "And how is your boy getting on as a guru?"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"Just fine," replies the second. "He has so many pupils that he can afford to get rid of some of the old ones."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"That's great," says the first. "My son is getting on so well that he can afford NOT to take on everyone who applies to him!"</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">One of the values of such narratives is seeing whether gurus themselves can laugh at these stories; if they cannot, then they should not be considered spiritual teachers at all, because they are so insecure. Paranoid behavior, too, is often seen in the manifestation of hostility towards such tales, when the listener thinks that he or she is being challenged by what sounds like an antiguru story. Would-be disciples who do not enjoy such jokes are often rejected by genuine Sufis.</span><br />
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<h3>
<span style="font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Greed for higher things is as great an obstacle to mystic learning as is greed for money or material possessions.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There is another story that infuriates some second - rate teachers: One guru tells another, "Always say things that cannot be checked." "Why?" asks the second guru. "Because," replies the first guru, "if you say 'Mars is peopled by millions of undiscernible beings, and I have met them,' people will not dispute it. But if you say, 'It is a nice day today,' some fool will always reply, 'But not as nice as it was yesterday'. And if you put up a sign saying WET PAINT, who will take you at your word? You can tell how few by the number of finger marks the doubters leave on it."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Rationalizations whereby people interested in psychological and spiritual things maintain, at the expense of truth, their version of how things are, produce situations in which these people have to be shown up as absurd.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">An old tale told in India has it that, on the evening of a wild-duck shoot, the follower of a guru went to get his blessing. This was no vegetarian guru, but a Tantric type with more than a dash of Kali, the goddess of destruction, in his thoughts. The blessing was given, but no ducks appeared at the shoot.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The disciple went back to the guru the next day. The guru asked him how he had got on: "I expect you shot many ducks?" "No," the disciple answered, "but it was not the shortcoming of my aim, but rather that Mother Kali had decided to be merciful to the birds."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Western psychology will not advance very far in the East while such mental mechanisms as rationalizations continue to be described as recent Western discoveries, for this knowledge has been common in the East for centuries. If we do not admit this, we miss the meaning of many valuable Eastern teachings.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">People often express surprise that Sufis have for at least a thousand years insisted that scientific and scholastic methods are often blind to their own limitations. You may have to take the Sufis' word for this initially, but you can, little by little, taste the disabling subjectivity of many people who are often regarded as objective or scholarly repositories of wisdom.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">One absurdity, advanced by confused thinkers, is that spirituality or mystically minded people cannot think lucidly.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I do not say that they are all like this, or that you will find in life an exact counterpart to the following joke, but it will enable you to identify the tendency when it crops up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The scientist says to the logician, "I have determined statistically that all geniuses are totally vain, even if they oversimplify and don't talk much."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The logician answers, "Nonsense. Geniuses vain and terse? What about me?"</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The absurdity of many assumptions of society often obscures the fact that these assumptions exist only to please those who make them, and are not meant to take anyone or any idea a stage further.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large; font-weight: normal;">Mental mechanisms that are recent discoveries of Western scientists have been known for centuries in the East.</span></h3>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sufis, like others in the field of education, use assumptions either as launching pads or as something to be challenged, not as dogma.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">Look from a different perspective, for a moment, at what people regard as laudable and altruistic acts and thoughts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">One day a Westerner was watching a Chinese gentleman burning bank notes before the tablets of his ancestors. The Westerner said, "How can your ancestors benefit from the smoke of paper money?"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Chinese bowed courteously and said, "In the same way in which your dear departed relatives appreciate the flowers you put on their graves."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Yet similar assumptions drench our spiritual thinking.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">So, the Sufis say, there is nothing wrong or bad in doing something that gives you pleasure. But to think at the same time that the act is doing something else is, at best, irrelevant to human progress. All human progress comes through NOT thinking that one thing is, in fact, another; that is, through right judgment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">You can find lucid people who really can tell one thing from another, and are in fact able to separate the two. But generally when they manifest this ability in the form of behavior, people tend to think that they are either great sages, humorists, or idiots. My three collections of Nasrudin jokes give many such examples, partly to illustrate this characteristic and training, and partly to help you make it, as it were, your own property.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Americans have an excellent home-grown example of lucidity in a tale about the statesman Daniel Webster. He was being sued by a butcher for a debt when he ran into the butcher on the street. Webster immediately asked the butcher why he had not come for any order lately. The butcher said he had thought that Webster would not, under the circumstances, want to deal with him. But Webster, showing this perfectly lucid attitude said, "Tut, tut. Sue all you wish -- but, for Heaven's sake, don't try to starve me to death."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The argument that spiritually or mystically minded people should not think lucidly, a proposition often advanced by confused thinkers, is an absurd misunderstanding. A confused person will, and often does, choose a confused and confusing series of inapplicable techniques to approach higher understanding.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">The wisecrack aspect of jokes is, of course, a degeneration, perhaps due to surfeit -- which is one reason why Sufi masters have actually given and withheld permission to jest from their disciples, as Ghazali reminds us in a major book written almost a thousand years ago.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;">There are affinities among the wisecrack, ignorance, and the stream-of-consciousness approach that I do not yet find clearly understood in the West, though I came across a combination of all three when I last went to Jerusalem.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A man with a curio shop was trying to sell to a female tourist what he described as "a very important embossed-metal picture of the Last Supper." I stood riveted to the spot when I heard her say, "What's so wonderful about the Last Supper, anyway? Now if you had a picture of the First Supper, that might be something. Besides, when is the Next Supper?"</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Rationalizations, association of ideas, and lack of humor often go together and can usually be disentangled.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I was once standing at a corner of the huge market street called the Bhindi Bazaar in Bombay, when a bus stopped and a troop of determined Western seekers-after-truth descended and clustered around an old man who was squatting on the side of the road. They photographed him and chattered excitedly. One of the visitors tried to start a conversation with him, but he only stared back, so she remarked to the guide, "What a sweet old man; he must be a real live saint. Is he a saint?"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Indian, who had a sense of humor as well as an interest in not wanting to tell a lie and a need to please his clients, said, "Madam, saint he may be, but to us he is the neighborhood rapist."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">She immediately replied, "Oh, yes, I've heard of that; it involves their religion. I guess he must be a Tantrist!"</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In Sufi study and understanding, ignorance is crippling, paranoia is ridiculous, right alignment and respect (for materials, for students and teachers) are essential; servility and vanity are harmful. The proper focus is almost everything. A comprehensive understanding is essential. Offering premature "enlightenment" is irresponsible. Paradoxically but inalienably, the fact is that only by wanting to serve each other can the two elements -- the teaching and the learning -- be harmoniously, and therefore correctly, brought together.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br />-- <a href="http://www.idriesshahfoundation.org/">Idries Shah</a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">also see <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/idriesshah999/videos">Idries Shah audio/video</a></span></div>
cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-59270778049904835332013-09-03T12:54:00.000-07:002016-06-05T19:03:05.673-07:00Ways of Healing<div align="center" class="storyhead">
<span style="font-size: large;">Psychologies - East and West (1974)</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Holistic Medicine: <br />Ways of Healing </span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Within the field of medicine a new form is emerging-holistic
medicine-focused more on the prevention of disease and the promotion of health
of the whole person. This development results in part from the synthesis of
ancient and traditional systems of healing such as Chinese medicine, American
Indian medicine, and yogic therapy with the scientific methodology of
contemporary Western medicine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> For instance, the age-old claim of yogis that the
functioning of the internal organs could be brought under voluntary control is
being supported in by research in many laboratories, and biofeedback systems are
being developed to facilitate the learning of this internal self-regulation.
Such research is part of a larger attempt to focus more attention on the health
and educative aspects of medical care and to develop techniques that will enable
individuals to take a more active role in their own health care. Also, the study
of the social and psychotherapeutic benefits of traditional healing ceremonies
is serving to underline the importance of psychological factors in maintaining
health and facilitating healing processes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Psychological Factors in Healing</strong> <br /><br /><br />Since the person is a psychobiological unit, psychic states can
profoundly affect bodily healing. The role of mental states in healing and the
essential features common to healing relationships will be illustrated by
examples drawn from healing in non-industrialized societies, miracle cures,
psychic healing, and the clinical and experimental studies on the placebo effect
and the relation of mood to speed of recovery and recuperative capacity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>American Indian Medicine and Medicine Men</strong>
<br /><br />Medicine men are still active among the people of
several American Indian tribes, and notwithstanding the introduction of modern
medicine, the demand for their services is not diminishing. For the most part,
their methods are complex, subtle and effective, involving a powerful symbolic
drama in which the patient acts out a successful and harmonious adaptation to
conflicting internal and external forces. Conventional Western medicine can
learn much from these medicine men-about ways of being with patients that have
either been forgotten or never developed, and about Indian ways of training
healers that can enrich our own methods of healing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture: Theory, Practice,
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br />There had been a recent surge of
public and professional interest in the ancient practices and theory of
classical Chinese medicine as well as in the current scientific research,
theories, and applications of acupuncture developing in China, Korea, Europe,
the Soviet Union, and the United States. In addition to exploring the
utilization of acupuncture in the relief of pain and the treatment of disease,
the preventive and predisease use of acupuncture will be considered. </span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Biofeedback and the Voluntary Control of Internal
States</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Western science has only recently begun to
explore the possibilities for training the voluntary control of internal
physiological and mental states. Scientific studies of ancient yogic techniques
as well as the development of biofeedback technology that provides objective
readings of bodily activities represent a major breakthrough in the area of
psychosomatic research and mind-body self-regulation.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Traditional Healing Practices</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The exclusive reliance on linear, rational, and analytic
methods has also made translating the concepts and technical terms of
traditional medicine more difficult. As Abraham Maslow once observed, "When the
only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to treat everything as if it were a
nail." </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As an example, there is a Chinese medical term, <i>hsin</i>, which is often
translated in Western texts as "heart." This translation carries with it a
structural and anatomical connotation. When Chinese medical theories are then
viewed with this materialistic bias they appear ludicrous, inaccurate and
anatomically naïve. But if a term such as <i>hsin</i> is more appropriately thought of
in functional rather than structural terms-as a sphere of energetic relations
and processes, more akin to the entire process of circulation-we come closer to
an appreciation of the inner logic of Chinese medical theory. Seen in this
light, such traditional medical theories offer us the opportunity to explore
valuable complementary approaches to healing based upon different but
nonetheless valid principles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">When healing ceremonies from primitive cultures are examined
from a psychological point of view several effective therapeutic elements become
apparent. First, the ceremonies are complex, carefully constructed
dramatizations of successful conflict resolutions in which the patient actively
participates in his own healing. However, the significance, power, and meaning
of the symbols used in the ceremony depend upon an understanding of the
worldview that underlies and is reinforced by the community. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">To the Navajo
patient, for instance, the shrub-covered earth is Changing Woman, one of the
most benevolent gods who grows old and young again with the cycle of the
seasons. The dawning sun is itself a god who with Changing Woman produced a
warrior that rid the earth of most of its evil forces. With such cultural
background the patient is able to identify with powerful symbolic forces-forces
derived from a close relationship with the natural environment-and thereby
obtain meaningful perspective on his illness. The emphasis here is on emotional
catharsis rather than on intellectual insight, and the healing efficacy is in no
small way related to the positive, hopeful state of mind that is invoked and the
new patterns of behavior that are reinforced. To see a shaman extract a stick by
sleight of hand from the abdomen of a patient, and to view this solely as
trickery and charlatanry, is to miss the essential symbolic meaning of this
ritual act from which the healing power derives.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Second, primitive medicine relies upon a social concept of
disease in which the symptoms of an individual are viewed as a sign of social
imbalance. Therefore therapeutic measures are very often applied not only to the
patient but to the entire social group. In a Navajo ceremonial all the
participants take active roles in the purifications, the blessings, the chants.
The sick individual is not isolated but rather is involved in a ritually
constructed social support system. In this sense the ceremonial is a holistic
form of treatment, aimed not only at the relief of symptoms but at social
reintegration and the restoration of harmonious relations with the social and
natural environment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Third, the healing ceremony itself functions as an integrated
whole. It is an intense, time-limited process (usually one, three, seven or nine
days long) in which many techniques are brought to bear in one context. There is
a dramatic change of routine for the patient in which maladaptive behavioral
patterns are interrupted. The patient becomes the focus of positive attention,
is regarded as important, and is given duties and responsibilities with regard
to the conduct of the ceremony. The powerful suggestive elements of the
ceremonial are further intensified by the heightened expectancy of the patient
for a cure, the emotionally charged atmosphere, and the group pressures, as well
as the certainty and self-confidence displayed by the healer. All these factors
work together to mobilize the patient's sense of self-worth and self-mastery and
to strengthen his inherent recuperative capacities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In examining the efficacy of traditional healing practices,
however, an analysis of psychological and sociocultural factors alone may not be
sufficient. Such factors may in fact mask and cause us to overlook other, more
subtle features concurrently at work. In many healing practices, most notably in
healing by the laying on of hands, it is believed that some sort of energy is
passed from healer to patient. Until recently such claims have been generally
ignored by conventional medical practitioners and researchers. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There is,
however, some preliminary experimental evidence derived from controlled,
double-blind studies suggesting that a healer may indeed influence, through some
unexplored means, the healing and growth characteristics of laboratory animals
and plants. Clearly more extensive scientific investigation of this phenomenon
is indicated.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">All of this is not to suggest that we follow a course of
wholesale adoption of traditional healing practices, with ceremonial huts
replacing hospitals and fetishes superseding medical instruments. It should be
remembered that much of traditional healing is culture-bound and depends upon an
appropriate cultural setting and worldview for its efficacy. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">What is being
suggested is that we investigate traditional systems of medicine with an open
mind, with an eye to discerning the essential elements of healing relationships
and practices in general, and that we then adapt these elements in a manner
appropriate to our culture. Such study can serve to complement and extend our
present understanding of medicine as a scientific and humanistic endeavor.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">David S. Sobel <br /><a href="http://www.ishk.net/psychologies-east-and-west-seminar-october-1974/">The Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge</a></span></div>
cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-20333172356646385202013-08-29T02:24:00.001-07:002014-06-28T10:24:30.980-07:00Teaching-Stories<div align="center" class="storyhead">
<span style="font-size: large;">from <a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/teaching_stories.html"><i>The Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge</i></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">...From the beginning of time, stories have filled a universal need for context and meaning. All cultures have their stories, many with universal themes, plots and imagery. Stories are fundamental to the psychological development of children. They help us shape our understanding of the world and make meaningful connections with each other. Stories give us a sense of shared history and destiny and help us see our common foibles and predicaments. They help us confront our fears and formulate our hopes and aspirations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Teaching-Story, a special form of literature most common in Afghanistan, Central Asia and the Middle East, does all this and more. Its real psychological significance and developmental potential is just now being rediscovered, investigated and applied in the West....</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b>A Teaching-Story may “read” like any ordinary fairy or folk tale used to entertain or convey a moral lesson. But as they have been used for millennia in the East, these tales are designed to have a specific effect on the mind.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">In a Teaching-Story, the characters, plots and imagery embody patterns and relationships to nurture a part of the mind not reachable in more direct ways. Studies have shown that reading or hearing a Teaching-Story activates the right side of the brain much more than does reading other stories or material. The right side of the brain provides ‘context,’ the essential function of putting together different components of experience into a meaningful pattern. The left side provides the ‘text,’ or the components such as the words or elements of an illustration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br />Teaching-Stories often contain improbable events that lead our minds into new and unexplored venues. They help us prepare for unexpected connections between events and see new possibilities and alternative ways of doing things. They help us develop more flexibility in how we understand and deal with our complex world. Teaching-Stories have multiple layers of meaning which may be revealed over time, or in response to some other experience or event.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="subheadred"><strong>Read a Teaching-Story:</strong></span><br /><a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/muskil_gusha.html" target="_blank">The Story of Muskil Gusha</a><br /><br /><span class="subheadred"><strong>ISHK projects with teaching-stories:</strong></span><br />• <a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/hoopoe_books.html" target="_blank">Hoopoe Books for Children </a><br />• <a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/childrens_literacy.html" target="_blank">Children's Literacy</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="subheadred"><strong>Further reading on the Teaching-Story:</strong></span><br />All books by Idries Shah, including:<br /><a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/books/TADE1.html" target="_blank"><em>Tales of the Dervishes</em></a><em><br /><a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/books/CADR1.html" target="_blank">Caravan of Dreams</a><br /><a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/books/MAMO1.html" target="_blank">The Magic Monastery</a><br /><a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/books/PESC1.html" target="_blank">A Perfumed Scorpion</a><br /><a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/books/SUFI2.html" target="_blank">The Sufis</a><br /><a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/books/WOTA4.html" target="_blank">World Tales: A collection of stories told in all times and in all places</a><br /><a href="http://www.hoopoekids.com/" target="_blank">Hoopoe Books for Children</a></em></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="subheadred"><strong>Audiobooks with Teaching-Stories:</strong></span><span class="bodytext"><br /><a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/books/TEST1.html" target="_blank"><em>The Teaching-Story</em></a><em><br /><a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/books/ADPE1.html" target="_blank">An Advanced Psychology of the East</a><br /><a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/books/LEST1.html" target="_blank">Learning from Stories</a><br /><a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/books/NASK1.html" target="_blank">On the Nature of Sufi Knowledge</a></em></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="bodytext"><b>Also see <a href="http://www.idriesshahfoundation.org/books/">The Idries Shah Foundation</a></b></span></span>cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4349390319902794874.post-43983008925087165702013-08-28T12:59:00.000-07:002014-06-28T10:24:30.993-07:00Human Ecology<div align="center" class="bodytext">
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">HUMAN ECOLOGY</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><em>from </em>The
Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><b>1977</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Increasingly in recent years, the media have reported the
incidence of new environmental "crises"-- explosive population growth, pollution,
over-consumption of energy, depletion of resources, and the multiple impact of
inappropriate technological intervention. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Yet, few social critics and even fewer
citizens realize that problems which we have come to consider "environmental"
are problems of human choice, action, and understanding. Overcrowding, polluted
waters, urban smog, gas shortages, are created anew each day by our own
decisions. As such, they represent problems of human, not technological,
dimensions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Many contemporary thinkers have noted that the global crisis
in our environment has common roots with current problems in medicine,
psychology, and education. One source of the difficulty is that we are trained
largely for analysis, to divide whole systems in order to study the parts. In so
doing, we have failed to develop the ability to perceive the whole dimensions of
the problems facing humanity and to assess properly the consequences of our
actions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">What is most needed, therefore, is not a set of programs or
even new technological solutions, but a new understanding of our actions and
their effects. This ability to perceive comprehensively can be learned and
developed through psychological methods which are known in Eastern and Western
worlds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">MODES OF HUMAN UNDERSTANDING
I: WESTERN SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><br />Recent
research has indicated that human capacities for understanding are not limited
to the analytic mode. In most people, half of the brain is specialized to link
elements together. The relevance of the development of these two modes to our
current situation will be discussed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">THE WORLD PROBLEMATIQUE</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b>The <i>world</i> <i>problematique</i> presents an overview of the threats to human life from population, energy consumption, and resource allocation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br />In the excitement over the unfolding of his scientific and
technical powers, modern man has built a system of production that ravishes
nature and a type of society that mutilates man. Yet it remains a widespread
assumption that if only there were more and more wealth, everything else would
fall into place. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br />There has never been a society without its sages to
challenge this kind of materialism. Today, however, this message reaches us not
solely from the critics but from the actual course of physical events. It speaks
to us in the language of terrorism, genocide, psycho-social break-down,
pollution, and exhaustion. What is most needed today is the development of a
lifestyle which while utilizing the benefits of wealth for civilization, accords
to material things a secondary place in the order of priorities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">SYMBIOSIS OF EARTH AND
HUMANKIND</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br />... clearly not all human incursions into the environment are
destructive. In many instances, the "natural" environment has been modified to
produce mutual advantages for both man and nature. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">MODES OF HUMAN UNDERSTANDING II: THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE EAST</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Finding solutions to present and future concerns re-quires greater knowledge of how people think, how they have thought in other times and other cultures, and what influences the process of understanding. A study of this kind helps to identify the continuing influence and determining effect of our cultural heritage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">from </span><em style="text-align: -webkit-center;"><a href="http://www.ishkbooks.com/ishk_history_mind_body_7.html"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge</span></b></a></em></div>
cjmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02135478770032563720noreply@blogger.com0