Moi, I SO prefer primary sources.
You just can't beat 'em.
It was written as a critique of a scary front-page story in the New York Times about teaching mindfulness to children in schools. The NY Times piece mentioned that mindfulness training had a good effect on children's behaviors.
But this response points out all the horrid horrors of teaching mindfulness. So, you know, watch out!
First you teach them mindfulness, next thing you know, they'll die from pyelonephritis!
This post was written by Nancy Reyes on 17 June, 2007
In the good old days, we started the school day by having the kids
settle down and then saying a prayer and then a bible reading. [I remember those days--and in public schools. Whatever happened to the separation of church and state? Why were they making me do that?]
Such acts of piety allow one to settle their mind into context,
which is why books on organizing one’s life starts with taking a half
hour of reading a great book or listening to music before you decide
what is important and what is not important in making your daily
schedule. From Buddha under the tree to Elijah in the cave to Marcus
Aurelius to Mother Teresa’s sisters spending an hour meditation each
day, thoughtful people knew that quiet time was needed if you were to
stay balanced in life.
Yet in our secular world, where even a “moment of silence” is forbidden, why are we lauding the teaching of Buddhist meditation techniques to students under the guise of medicine/therapy?
If I were a strict Christian, I’d sue them in court. [If I were a strict Buddhist, I'd lampoon you. Oh right, hey, that's just what I'm doing.]
But as a more secularized Catholic, I have fewer theological
problems with the technique (which resembles the ancient Jesus prayer or
the five minutes of silence and calming we learned in parochial school
prior to the prayer that started class) than with the philosophical
underpinnings that go along with it. [Pray, lady, to be saved from horrid Buddhist philosophical underpinnings.]
“Meditation” is similar to mild hypnosis [asserts the author without any proof, knowing ZERO about meditation, and never having any experience of it herself, and no education on this subject]. Ninety percent of people
can be hypnotized or be taught relaxation technique, but there are
different levels for different people. And ten percent of people [says who?] are
prone to go into a very deep hypnotic state when they practice that
technique [What technique? Which technique? What misguided arrogance -- hm, well, arrogance generally misguides, does it not?]
The technique is to get the mind into the deep concentration that most
of us have when absorbed in work or when we make art or music [Says who?]. This
deep concentration allows us to think or process our feelings at a
deeper level, and produce good things. It is also (alas) similar [asserts the author minus any proof] to the
deep concentration of a video game or movie . . .which is why some experts
worry about kids learning the wrong lessons from video games.
So although the “gift” of creativity often goes along with the
ability to go deeply into a trance state, the flip side is that this
ability also correlates with the ability to be influenced by others to
the extent that you start believing in all sorts of eccentric and
sometime dangerous ideas . . .
And, as you practice self hypnosis, you can sometimes go into these deeper hypnotic states without realizing it.
When we doctors use the trance state, we don’t try to get them to
believe in flying saucers or angels or that if they think correctly,
they will become rich. Our use is more limited: To stop smoking, or to
learn to relax, or more commonly to control pain without drugs.
But even then, we have to worry about the small percentage of the
population that has a strict ego that keeps the bad inside . . . by “opening”
it up, you can lead to a psychotic break [paranoid much?]. Psychologists, doctors, and
even trainers in Transcendental meditation are taught to watch out for
this rare but dangerous state. But what if it happens at a school, with
a semi- trained teacher?
Summary: It’s good and bad. Like all of life. [Aha -- writer discovers samsara?]
But my final question about it’s use in schools can be found in this statement:
“If we can help children slow down and think,” Dr. Haick said, “they have the answers within themselves.”
Ummm…doctor, I thought that school was about having children find
answers in books . . .and about learning about facts and logic, not about
“finding the answers within themselves”. [Oh? I thought schools were to educate children so they could grow up to be thoughtful, reasonable adults.]
You see, this is magical thinking: I don’t have to learn, I just meditate and the answers just magically come to me. Poof.
But where do the answers come from? If you never learn facts, and you
never learn logic, the problem might be that your subconscious id is
making up the answers [uh, if you're going to use Freudian terms, and God knows why you would, why not check your, uh, facts before you make up a term that does not exist, like "subconscious id" ]. And the subconscious, although the source of
creativity and beauty, is also the source of delusions and lies.
So encouraging children to “find their answers within” might sound good
for postmoderns who believe reality is a “construct” , but a small
percentage of these children might end up with the delusion of magical
thinking: The idea that if I think this way it will happen.”
Think I am going overboard with this worry?
Well, the popularity of such magical thinking, from “The Secret” to prosperity theology is becoming more popular. Wish and you get it, think and it is so. Reality is what you make it.
As a result, I see patients who don’t “believe” they need vaccines
because they “know” something from a book (but never saw a child die of
polio or tetanus, or blind from measles), or when they refuse
antibiotics for their child with an acute kidney infection and 105
fever (and never saw a woman die at age twenty from untreated
pyelonephritis). [Take that, Mary Baker Eddy!]
And, of course, this magical thinking won’t really do them much good
if a local volcano blows up, a typhoon hits, or terrorists nuke their
city.
Reality tends to put an end to such fairy tales."
.
.
It's just so awful.
Mindfulness = hypnosis = death by volcano.
Clear as day.
.
(Check out "Don't Bite the Hook: Teaching Mindfulness Training to Kids," a response to the NYTimes article at Abu Shri, here.)
I'm not making 
Well, that's what happened to the first Hindu praying at the Senate.
Really, one hardly knows where to begin!!
This book exposes how the
enemy is using human reasoning, deception in the media, ideas in pop
culture, and lack of knowledge of God’s Word to keep God’s people bound
to a worldly mindset.
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