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CHANGING MINDS
George G Clark 18 September 2012 It is self evident that the only constant thing is change. Nothing lasts forever. This is particularly true of your mind with its thoughts and feelings. If you sit quietly for five minutes you can witness the huge amount of mental stuff that passes through your attention centre. Your mind has a mind of its own. But, by taking thought, it can be changed. The same is true of the good and great who are our elders and betters. So there is hope. I used to be an international education consultant. It was my duty to facilitate the process of changing minds. Ideological versions of this process can be sorted on a continuum ranging from training (in what to know) through to enlightenment (in how to know)1. Some ideological variations are captured by the vocabulary see the box. brainwashing education enculturation enlightenment

My experience of formal education in five countries led me to hegemony conclude that, on its own, formal education serves to reproduce liberation, rather than transform the socio-cultural context that it inhabits2. I reprogramming was thus part of the problem rather than being part of the solution to the manifest unfairness and exploitation within and between nations. training It became clear that if I am to be beneficially influential in changing the minds of others (by facilitating their own learning processes) then I had better change my own mind to the extent of being able to take a more holistic view of the dynamics of the development process. From an objective and intellectual point of view this change of mind is captured in the acronym STEEPLES. This covers the main areas that had best be addressed when devising holistic development plans Social, Technical, Environmental, Economic, Political, Legal, Ethical and Spiritual. The ethical and spiritual dimensions are particularly relevant to this short note3. The ethical and spiritual dimensions are increasingly being addressed in academic circles4 and it may not be too long before they have higher visibility in plans for nation building5. They are crucial factors in providing (a) the pattern of beliefs that are operational and (b) the intentionality and energy that drives humanity (and its contextual causes and conditions) towards glorious tomorrows. What Keynes called the animal spirit6. So what is to be done?
See http://www.toonloon.bizland.com/nutshell/trends1.htm#931115c for a polarised list of ideas about learning and teaching. 2 Ref Bourdieu and Passeron http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Reproduction_in_Education_Society_and_Cu.html?id=TPp4o2Ep TK8C&redir_esc=y 3 See https://sites.google.com/site/steeplessrds/ for more details 4 Jonathan Haidt (2012) The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion; Michael Shermer (2011) The Believing Brain: from spiritual faiths to political convictions how we construct beliefs and reinforce them as truths. David Sloan Wilson (2002) Darwins Cathedral; Evolution, Religion and the Nature of Society; 5 See for example the well respected economist Richard Layard (2011) Happiness lessons from a new science 6 See Stephanie Flanders http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01mxpzv/Masters_of_Money_Keynes/
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ONLY WHEN WE HAVE REMOVED THE HARM IN OURSELVES CAN WE BECOME TRULY USEFUL TO OTHERS 7

In brief just sit8. Engage in mindfulness9. Know yourself10. Bear witness to the stuff that passes through the attention centre. Thereby become more able to mindfully (consciously) respond rather than mindlessly (unconsciously) react to what turns up in attention. The miracle of mindfulness11 has been appreciated in various Eastern cultures for 3000 years. It is not in essence so much a religion as a psychology of perception. In the modern West there are now several schools of practice that embrace the psychological essence and to various degrees lay aside the culture specific rituals and embellishments. Prominent amongst the new Western approaches is Jon Kabat Zinns work on Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)12. This has now entered the mainstream of Western medical practice where it often fuses with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)13 to generate (a) successful psychotherapeutic techniques (in hospitals, prisons, the army) and (b) curricula for use in schools14. Different agencies have competed for control of the process of changing minds. The traditional approach was to focus on the subnormal and to help them become normal. Then Abraham Maslow identified a hierarchy of needs15 and focused on peak human experiences. The new approach focused on having normal people become supernormal. This became known as the Human Potential Movement16 and it has spawned positive psychology approaches that focus on generating happiness, flow17 and flourishing18. It is fascinating to note changes to thinking about the mind/body relationship. A London cabby might not be able, by taking thought, to add a cubit to his stature but he can, by study and experience of spatial matters, increase the size of his hippocampus.

There have been several breakthroughs in a range of academic disciplines and these now often work together at the cutting edge of holistic and integrated research. Of particular note are the advances in neurology and in evolutionary psychology19.

http://www.srds.co.uk/begin/ Dogen Zenji 13th Century Zen Master http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C5%8Dgen 9 Henepola Gunaratana (1991) Mindfulness in Plain English 10 Ancient Greeks - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_thyself 11 Thich Nhat Hahn (1975) The Miracle of Mindfulness. [Keeping ones consciousness alive to the present moment] 12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBSR 13 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy 14 Carol Cattley & Jini Lavelle () Mindfulness for Schools; a training course for teachers and teenagers 15 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchy_of_needs 16 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Potential_Movement 17 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (2002) Flow The classic work on how to achieve happiness 18 Martin Seligman (2011) Flourish a new understanding of happiness and well being and how to achieve them 19 When first proposed by E O Wilson the concept was called socio-biology. This however raised political hackles and the notion declined for several years until the paradigm shifted and it is now under its new name flourishing quite nicely.
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The key working hypothesis in neurology is that subjective mental events (perception, thought, feeling, response) are the other side of the coin which is objective electrical and chemical patterns of activity in the nerve cells and networks. Two different faces of the same coin you cannot have one without the other. The key working hypothesis in evolutionary psychology is that the vast range of objective/subjective mental coins have evolved over the course of human (and pre-human) history and that they promote survival of social groups (large and small) as well as of genes, chromosomes and individuals . The objective/subjective mental coins are able to express themselves because of their nature (genes) and nurture (the environment). There are general and specific causes and conditions influencing the activities in consciousness and in the unconscious. Jonathan Haidt20 offers the image of the tiny rider (consciousness) on the back of the giant elephant (the unconscious). He links this to an ancient reflection of the Buddha
IN DAYS GONE BY THIS MIND OF MINE USED TO STRAY WHEREVER SELFISH DESIRE OR LUST OR PLEASURE WOULD LEAD IT. TODAY THIS MIND DOES NOT STRAY AND IS UNDER THE HARMONY OF CONTROL, EVEN AS A WILD ELEPHANT IS CONTROLLED BY THE TRAINER.

During the last few years I have spend a lot of time quietly noticing what I notice and thinking about thinking. Although the mind is often agitated there are often blissful episodes. There is peace in the non-egoic stillness of the present moment. My ongoing practice has created a sheltered haven to which I can retreat and reliably recuperate from the anxiety and stress that comes with worldly interaction. Stay cool. Sometimes, as for example while writing this article, I am lost in thought. I am absent minded. There is a selfless ambience that is outwith space and time. But work gets done. There is peace and high performing functionality. As a writer I have my muse. Musicians can be in the groove. Athletes can be in the zone. It is open to us all to have peak experiences of flow and thus to flourish. Be happy and stay cool. The essence of staying cool is to be in control of the passions driven by ill-considered beliefs that have their causes and conditions in nature, nurture and serendipity. The cool dude can always find a space between stimulus and response where a bigger picture can be invoked and a wiser and context-sensitive set of actions prioritized. S/he appreciates that reality is mind made and it need not thus be taken too seriously in either yourself or in others. There is non attachment to views and a deep suspicion of beliefs. What proportion of the Good and Great subscribe to this line of thought and how might this proportion be increased? Page

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Jonathan Haidt (2006) The Happiness Hypothesis putting ancient wisdom and philosophy to the test of modern science.
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