Altering the Mind

Media Mind Alterations

By John Taylor; 2007 June 16

I want to tee off with today with an article called "Mind-altering media" appeared in the 19 April 2007 edition of Science News. Its thesis is that the effects of television violence are known to be far worse than most imagine. They compare the public awareness of the harmfulness of exposure to violent media to that of global warming a few years ago. Then, people falsely imagined that scientists were in a state of doubt about whether the earth was heating up. Now we all know, or should, that there is virtually no reasonable doubt that climatically we are in deep trouble; the mass of evidence is overwhelmingly one-sided and nobody is debating anything other than what to do about it. Similarly the average person thinks that there must be some controversy about the influence of violent television shows and video games, but as the article points out, the science on this is if anything more overwhelmingly weighted on the positive side that, yes, media violence is extremely harmful.

"...plenty of surveys and studies have linked poor media habits with rising violence, childhood depression, attention deficit disorders and declining educational standards."

In spite of the solidity of the case against it, there is no serious consideration of the possibility that we could just leave it off, even actively discourage, or dare I say it?, outlaw, these media. It is clearly in the general interest that we do so, but even this article, in spite of the strong case it makes for the harm that the media do, offers only powder puff coping strategies, for example that parents try to keep computers, video games and televisions out of children’s bedrooms. The general interest is always trumped by the corporatocracy's narrow interests, and none dare consider anything but their total hegemony.

Based only on my own anecdotal experience, I cannot disagree with the science. On Friday night Thomas came with his mother to join me at the youth center where I always play chess and table tennis. He spent his time playing with the Lego pieces but towards the end he noticed what the older kids were doing on the computer terminals. He did nothing more than look over the teens' shoulders while they played a violent "first person shooter" online video game. Then, all the way home, instead of his usual races, games and fantasies, suddenly he was obsessed with the size and power of the weapons he was carrying, all the better to shoot me with. The effect was marked, but I hope temporary. Certainly the next day he seemed back to normal. The article continues,

"One thing researchers agree on is that any technology we use will change the brain. There's nothing surprising or sinister about this, says Martin Westwell at the University of Oxford's Institute for the Future of the Mind. `You are who you are largely because of the way the brain cells wire up in response to the environment and the things you do,' he says. `If you change the wiring you will change how we think.'"

Perhaps as a result of reading that article, I have been making an effort over past weeks to increase my exposure to Baha'i audio and video material. Before, I had felt a strange sense of embarrassment when I watched or listened to Baha'i stuff, preferring to keep my spiritual life separate from my media life. I now know that I was mistaken. Now that the level is increased to a level that will be impossible to maintain (I have already run through all of the Baha'i videos that I have access to), I feel a strangely pleasant sense of well-being. It is the opposite of Thomas's violence high, a sort of peace-obsession that is highly pleasant, even addictive. I have always given my tired and sick moments to the television, and now I wonder what I would be, how good I would feel, if all these years I had been watching more edifying, spiritual fare. This media high, pleasant as it is, gives me a desire for a taste of the lifestyle that the Master must have led in that age before television and radio. I long for what He had ...

One way to wash and purify the spirit is to expose ourselves systematically to natural beauty, to break ourselves off and spend time away from the artificial data stream. This washes away anger and depression, both after-effects of media exposure. It is a good in itself, and makes you realize two apparently contradictory truths: that we are both puny and insignificant and at the same time central in the great scheme of things.

"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained; What is man, that you think of him? The son of man, that you care for him? For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor." (Ps 8:3-5, WEB)

Viewing a natural panorama, as opposed to media pap, encourages a passive state, but one that is also reflective, receptive, creative and re-creative. Maybe, I begin to think, it is not just time that media rob us of, but also this exposure saps our natural, passive, reflective leaning, designed for higher things than anything the human level, even professional media corporations, can dole out.

Here are some of Abdu'l-Baha's instructions on how to establish a prayerful lifestyle, along with an interesting point: even for Him it was at times impossible to establish the kind of devotional life that He desired and needed.

"Prayer and supplication are two wings whereby man soars toward the heavenly mansion of the True One. However, verbal repetition of prayer does not suffice. One must live in a perennial attitude of prayer. Then man is spiritually free, his mind becomes the altar and his heart the sanctuary of prayer. Then the meaning of the verse `We will lift up from before his eyes the veil' will become fulfilled in him.

"In prayer one must turn his face towards the sanctified Reality of His Holiness Baha'u'llah -- that Reality which surrounds all the phenomena. During the time of prayer His Holiness Baha'u'llah must be singly and alone the center towards whom all the faces are turned.

"Whenever I wanted to go to the Palace of Bahjee to meet the Blessed Perfection, I walked alone and on foot, in order to be in an attitude of prayer. In the Mosque of Acca for many years I had a simple room all to myself to which no one had any access. Now and then I would go there and stay one whole day, passing the time in quiet contemplation and prayer. But later on the affairs of the Cause became manifold, and I had to give practically all my time to their dispatch and management. Thus I could no longer enjoy those peaceful hours of spiritual reflection. How I would love to be able to arrange now so that I might go away alone and live in entire seclusion! For this reason I went to Tiberias, but it was not much of a seclusion." (Diary of Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, July 30, 1914, in Star of the West, Vol. 9, p. 117)

So, for those who go on pilgrimage to Akka, do not leave out taking at least a glance at the local Mosque, for the Master worshipped and, as we see here, reflected in seclusion in that structure every Friday to the end of His days on earth. Only with His passing did the Guardian make a completely clean break with old ways, such as adopting Western dress and worshipping only at Baha'i Holy Places.

I was interested in the passage that the Master is reported as quoting here, `We will lift up from before his eyes the veil.' I could not find it in the Qu'ran or Hadith literature, so He may have had in mind the following passage from the Writings of the Bab,

"Fear ye God and breathe not a word concerning His Most Great Remembrance other than what hath been ordained by God, inasmuch as We have established a separate covenant regarding Him with every Prophet and His followers. Indeed, We have not sent any Messenger without this binding covenant and We do not, of a truth, pass judgement upon anything except after the covenant of Him Who is the Supreme Gate hath been established. Ere long the veil shall be lifted from your eyes at the appointed time. Ye shall then behold the sublime Remembrance of God, unclouded and vivid." (Qayyumu'l-Asma, Ch. V, Selections, 46)

I do not know what it would do to our brain cells to have them exposed constantly to a direct vision of the "sublime Remembrance of God, unclouded and vivid," but I am betting that whatever happens, it would be pleasant and beneficial for both us and the world, as would ejection and banning of anything that distracts us from getting at it regularly.