Comments on: Meditation, self hypnosis and the flight from rationality

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 11:29:11 +0000

I found your blog via Google while searching for hypnosis stories and your post regarding looks very interesting for me

By: Buddhist Jihad

Buddhist Jihad — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 02:09:42 +0000

That was a remarkably stupid commentary.

Did you think it would only be read by people who also know nothing of what you apparently know nothing about?

For shame.

By: robin

robin — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 10:47:36 +0000

I think what he meant by “answers within themselves” was a reference to sorting out inner turmoil, not magically gaining knowledge, that part you seem to have arrived at yourself. Meditation has been proven to improve health and concentration in scientific tests, so you cant just blanket all of it under new agey, mumbo jumbo

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:55:15 +0000

Perhaps what Dr. Haick was referring to with “finding the answers within” was how one should handle situations emotionally. Actually, that seems likely, doesn’t it? Surely he didn’t mean for children to begin meditating for answers when teacher asks them what 7X3 equals.

I think the child who chooses to meditate for “21″ will be the exception to the rule, so I think your worries really are unfounded — it’s not up to you, or science, or anyone else, to decide the “correct” way for everyone to think. If one kid out of 1,000,000 wants to meditate for the answers to math equations, it is his right to explore that avenue of possibility. Who knows — he/she might have a knack for it.

I find it disheartening when people who love books and education seek to diminish the value of introspection. There is far more to it than meets the eye, as anyone who has explored it can tell you. For some of us it is, in particular, a way of life which we find joy in, just as you, perhaps, enjoy filling your mind with much information. But you must realize that it requires temperance and virtue every bit as much as it requires algebra in order for us to achieve our potential as a civilization, and those are things that one can’t learn simply by reading a book.

By: chrsitian

chrsitian — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:44:24 +0000

You would do well to study some psychology too before condemning things. Learn about them and criticise what is wrong rather than blanket condemnations..

By: chrsitian

chrsitian — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 16:42:45 +0000

I’;m a christian but it doesn’t mean all meditiation is wrong.
Clearly you condemn lectio divina since it is based on meditation.

I think there is nothing wrong with self-hypnosis either as even the church finds merit in hypnosis as therapy. When we sleep we hypnotise ourselves every day. If hypnosis is wrong, do not blink and fall asleep or your soul is at risk! Sorry but I don’t like to read people who are misinformed. Inform yourself first and then speak.

By: Jan Epplin

Jan Epplin — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:37:55 +0000

New age mind control, not good, but young people just don;t care…

By: John

John — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:05:21 +0000

Thank you Nancy for your interesting article which is overall well-written. I have to comment that you seem to be very over-critical of the approach commented on by Dr. Haick. Now I don’t know Dr. Haick but from the quote you published “If we can help children slow down and think, they have the answers within themselves” I can gather no more than the Socratic method of education is being promoted. Rather than being force-fed information on scale it is a very powerful teaching method for teachers to develop the critical thinking skills of children and allow them to use deductive and inductive reasoning to make sense of the information they are learning. There is a huge difference between remembering and functually learning something and this has proven to a great difficulty with teaching methods in the past. I can understand how you might be frustrated by the use of overly-abstract wishful thinking in the face of serious problems, but lets be clear that this is a very different thing than creative development of children’s own problem-solving abilities.

By: Len Davies

Len Davies — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 05:00:05 +0000

Meditation certainly can be compared to a hypnotic state but it isn’t exactly the same thing. Meditation can reveal all manner of truths and can have many mental and physical health benefits.
I speak as a regular meditator.
Clearly it’s a good idea to learn facts, logic, languages and medicine too!