Monday, March 07, 2005

I read in "Venture Inward".......

In the Jan/Feb issue of "Venture Inward" magazine (published by the Association for Research and Enlightenment), I read an interesting article about new research into "False Memories". According to research conducted by Elizabeth Loftus at the University of California at Irvine and published in the journal Social Cognition, false memories are easily implanted, especially those having to do with food. They collected actual memories from students, recorded them in a list and inserted a false memory. They waited a week and had the person read their list of memories. When asked about the false memory, most tended to recall it, as if it were true. The fake memories (in this case) all had to do with food likes and dislikes.

I was reminded of this article when reading Pratie Place (http://pratie.blogspot.com) this afternoon, in regards to teachers getting poor reviews from their students. It seems that some teachers are so afraid of getting a bad review that they go to extreme lengths to be liked - or at least not to be disliked. Perhaps they could practice implanting false memories into their students, making them believe that their teacher is the best they've ever had. As Judy Tenuta would say, "It could happen".

Also in the same magazine, there is mention of a new book titled "The Essential Edgar Cayce", by Mark Thurston, Ph.D. It lists the twelve key themes in Cayce's philosophy. They are:
1. Everything is connected; all is one.
2. Life is purposeful.
3. Approach life as an adventure.
4. Be noncompetitive; show compassion.
5. Take responsibility for yourself.
6. Look ahead rather than back.
7. Changing anything starts with an ideal.
8. All time is one time.
9. Success cannot be measured by material standards.
10. Courage is essential to any spiritual growth.
11. Evil is real and comes in many forms.
12. Learn to stand up for yourself; learn to say no when it's needed.

In an article by Raye Mathis, I found this: "To paraphrase the Cayce reading's philosophy on good and evil - man was put into the flesh in order to learn how to decide between good and evil. Evil is a necessity to understand good. The comparison of the two leads to the right choice. And making the choice is the exercise of Will. Without the awareness of all we are capable of, we miss the opportunity to strengthen the Will. As individuals, we sometimes say, 'I just don't know what came over me', when we have acted out of character. If we slough it off as an aberation, not really a part of who we are, then you can be sure it will take control again at some unsuspecting moment. To exercise our Will we must have before us clear choices: right and wrong. "

Okay class.........discuss and report back tomorrow (and you will remember me as a great teacher, won't you?)

2 comments:

melinama said...

Hey, this very idea of implanting ideas in the student was the basis of the http://learningcurves.blogspot.com/2005/03/jedi-mind-trick.html
Jedi Mind Trick I mentioned: "He will say, in class, things like: 'I'm explaining this very clearly.'"

Scarlett said...

Fascinating post, thanks for posting. I constanly struggle to find the meaning of why we are all here on Earth.