Bite-sized Thoughts on Baha'i and Education
2009 Aug 14, Kamal 14, 166 BE
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Baha's Golden Rule
Marshmallow Test
Nocebos
Cone of Teaching
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By John Taylor; 2009 Aug 15, Kamal 15, 166 BE
Today I will turn away for a little while from the "Cosmopolitan Condition" and "Comenian Comments on Baha'i Principles" essay series that I have been writing this summer, and try to empty out my file of Baha'i-related quotes and ideas, which is getting pretty fat.
Here is an interesting rephrasing of the Golden Rule, which Baha'u'llah addressed to the people of Istanbul, though I expect that He would include you and me too,
"Lay not on any soul a load which ye would not wish to be laid upon you, and desire not for anyone the things ye would not desire for yourselves. This is My best counsel unto you, did ye but observe it." (Summons, Suriy-i-Muluk 5.44, p. 203)
He Himself calls this his "best counsel," so it must be pretty important. This "best counsel" lays the groundwork for dialog with secular non-believers and members of other religions about the basis of ethics and policy. For one thing, this goes beyond the Golden Rule as it is commonly understood. It is not just doing actions unto others that we would not have others do unto us, and it even goes beyond motives. This form of the Golden Rule extends to our imagination and inner thoughts, to our most intimate wishes and desires. Plus, even if Baha'u'llah had not not forbidden swearing, this would surely cover it. Profanity is in essence wishing that a burden be laid on others that we would not 1want on our own shoulders.
Marshmallow Test
Here is an interesting TED video lecture by a Latin American self-help guru by the name of Joachim de Posada called "Don't eat the marshmallow yet." Here is the TED introduction:
"... Joachim de Posada shares a landmark experiment on delayed gratification -- and how it can predict future success. With priceless video of kids trying their hardest not to eat the marshmallow." (http://www.ted.com/talks/joachim_de_posada_says_don_t_eat_the_marshmallow_yet.html)
This guy reports a truly remarkable result, a finding of long term studies that kids almost always succeed in life who can summon up the self-restraint to refrain from eating a marshmallow at very early stage, and that those who cannot stop themselves from eating it, fail. This test surely should be used in early childhood education, especially religious education (which is or should be concerned with virtues). If it is so easy to single out kids at a young age who have a deficit of self-restraint, we should do so. Then we will know to give those who fail the test a great deal of attention and extra training so that they too will succeed in life. Instead of worrying about whether kindergarten pupils can read, write or spell, we should be handing them virtue related training based on tests like this.
Nocebos
A century ago, Abdu'l-Baha was about to embark on His journeys through Europe and America. One of the things He called for most often in the lectures he gave on this momentous tour was the unification of material civilization with spiritual progress. He said,
"Instruments and means of human destruction have enormously multiplied in this era of material civilization. But if material civilization shall become organized in conjunction with divine civilization, if the man of moral integrity and intellectual acumen shall unite for human betterment and uplift with the man of spiritual capacity, the happiness and progress of the human race will be assured. All the nations of the world will then be closely related and companionable, and the religions will merge into one, for the divine reality within them all is one reality." (Abdu'l-Baha, Promulgation, 102)
What the Master is calling for here is a revolution of the mind where we all latch onto the one divine, universal truth born of God. And the point here is that you do not even need to believe it deep down to accept this OCF, one common faith. You just have to accept that it is a useful thing for all of us to latch onto. As it is, material civilization concentrates on the reverse of that, it takes broken up fragments of truth and expects us to reflect them, rather than the sun that illuminates all. One blogger I read regularly pointed to this brief quote from the Master:
"People for the most part delight in superstitions. They regard a single drop of the sea of delusion as preferable to an ocean of certitude." (Baha'u'llah, Tablets, 57)
This is both the product and the cause of the perversion of the media. The news is full of negative events, crimes, disasters, accidents, injustices, and this has a draining effect on our spirit. We should change that.
Related to this, I remain fascinated with the nocebo or voodoo effect. For example, a recent New Scientist feature talked about the negative effect of negativity and nocebos in medicine. Here is their summary,
"If you are taking medication, do you always read the label to learn about the possible side effects? It might seem like a good idea, but beware: there is growing evidence that simply believing something will be bad for you can make it genuinely bad for you. This might sound like voodoo - and indeed it is how voodoo works. But that is no reason to dismiss it as mumbo jumbo. On the contrary, it needs to be taken seriously. While it is a tricky problem to study, what we do know suggests that much needless suffering could be avoided if modern medicine paid more attention to the power of words. Doctors have a duty to inform their patients about side effects, but they should be exploring ways of doing this that minimise the voodoo effect." (New Scientist, "The science of voodoo: When mind attacks body," 13 May 2009 http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227081.100-the-science-of-voodoo-when-mind-attacks-body.html?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=mg20227081.100)
This article contains a fascinating story from the history of medicine that I want to share here:
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"Late one night in a small Alabama cemetery, Vance Vanders had a run-in with the local witch doctor, who wafted a bottle of unpleasant-smelling liquid in front of his face, and told him he was about to die and that no one could save him. Back home, Vanders took to his bed and began to deteriorate. Some weeks later, emaciated and near death, he was admitted to the local hospital, where doctors were unable to find a cause for his symptoms or slow his decline. Only then did his wife tell one of the doctors, Drayton Doherty, of the hex.
"Doherty thought long and hard. The next morning, he called Vanders's family to his bedside. He told them that the previous night he had lured the witch doctor back to the cemetery, where he had choked him against a tree until he explained how the curse worked. The medicine man had, he said, rubbed lizard eggs into Vanders's stomach, which had hatched inside his body. One reptile remained, which was eating Vanders from the inside out.
"Doherty then summoned a nurse who had, by prior arrangement, filled a large syringe with a powerful emetic. With great ceremony, he inspected the instrument and injected its contents into Vanders' arm. A few minutes later, Vanders began to gag and vomit uncontrollably. In the midst of it all, unnoticed by everyone in the room, Doherty produced his piece de resistance - a green lizard he had stashed in his black bag. "Look what has come out of you Vance," he cried. "The voodoo curse is lifted."
"Vanders did a double take, lurched backwards to the head of the bed, then drifted into a deep sleep. When he woke next day he was alert and ravenous. He quickly regained his strength and was discharged a week later. The facts of this case from 80 years ago were corroborated by four medical professionals. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about it is that Vanders survived. There are numerous documented instances from many parts of the globe of people dying after being cursed. With no medical records and no autopsy results, there's no way to be sure exactly how these people met their end. The common thread in these cases, however, is that a respected figure puts a curse on someone, perhaps by chanting or pointing a bone at them. Soon afterwards, the victim dies, apparently of natural causes."
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I like this story so much because it illustrates how the Holy Ones cure mankind using positive love. They lay the opposite of a curse, they lay a blessing on us all. You can see and feel that spirit as you go through the Gospels or the talks of Abdu'l-Baha. The Master in his speech is laying a blessing on us, He radiates positive loving-kindness. Yet at the same time, in His principles He is also offering several mental protectives not unlike what the doctor in this story did as he cleverly cured the cursed man of his hex. This is especially true of the principle of elimination of prejudice, where cures are offered to nationalism, racism, parochialism, and any number of other contagious hexes on our worldviews.
This story also is related to a story that Abdu'l-Baha told of a doctor who comes to a very sick patient and pretends that he has been cured. "Thank God, you are all better!," he cries. Technically, this is a barefaced lie, but the placebo effect kicks in and the patient recovers. I have always puzzled over this story.
Does it mean that doctors and professionals only can lie when they know the odds are good that by saying it it will become true? Does it mean that any lie told out of the best of motives that becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy is closer to the truth than a technical truth? Scientific studies have lately shown that drugs will often not take effect unless the doctor who prescribes them talks them up, praising them and saying how great and powerful a cure they are. I guess it all goes back to the moment where Pilate says, "What is truth?" to the Man who had said, "The truth shall set you free." What really matters is that we are freed spiritually, not whether the body is cured or not.
The Cone of Teaching the Baha'i Faith
There was a popular poster called the "Cone of Learning," which reported the lifetime findings of a researcher in how people learn and remember, who worked in the 1960's. If you Google "cone of learning" you can see the poster, as well as an interesting web site examining it, including a slight distortion on the poster. The writer takes the best of this scientist's findings and writes some suggested ways to use them to learn more effectively, using yoga as an example. Since most of my readers are Baha'is, I have changed what he wrote to the example of teaching the Baha'i Faith, and added some of my own suggestions as well.
The Cone of Learning; How to use the most effective methods to learn
The best methods you could use to learn what the Baha'i Faith is and remember the necessary actions that it requires.
* Give a Lecture. Although receiving a lecture is one of the worst ways to remember what you are told, giving a lecture is one of the most effective. You could go into any college or university (or church or synagogue) and offer to give a lecture on the Baha'i Faith and the many principles that it illuminates.
* Write an Article. If you have a blog or a website you could spend time putting together an article on what being a Baha'i is all about. Additionally, you could create images to be used on the site to help explain the actions involved, such as saying the Greatest Name 95 times, or the obligatory prayers.
* Make a Video. Even if you do not have your own blog or website, there are plenty of video portals such as Youtube and Metacafe that will allow you to upload your own videos for free. This will be effective as you can teach in the lecture format but know that you are instructing to a potentially worldwide audience.
* Discuss with Your Friends. One of the easiest teaching options that you have available to you are the members of your social circle. Wherever appropriate, bring up a topic you would like to discuss and share your wealth of knowledge on it. The more people you can discuss it with the better your ability will be to remember it in the future. Additionally, there are literally hundreds of ways you can discuss it online using the likes of online forums, twitter or even niche social networks.
* Do it Yourself. Its no use trying your best to teach others about the Baha'i Faith if it is something you are not interested in and do not practice yourself. If you teach people the importance of loving God, stifling passions, stopping gossip and praying together, then when you are alone your thoughts will be less likely to stray from love and kindness. Whatever you would teach others, you need to make sure you are implementing yourself.
There are certainly more ways that you could look into teaching others and applying things into your own life. From holding classes in your house to simply creating an audio file of you speaking, see how you can apply teaching about your subject to learn more about a topic.
John Taylor
email: badijet@gmail.com
blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/
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