My New Favorite Quote

This is a statement made by one of Carl Jung's closest associates Marie Von Franz. It is a calling cry for the importance of inner fitness.

Jung often maintained that if one had in himself only 3% of all the evil one sees in the other fellow, or projects onto him, and the other fellow possessed in fact the other 97%, it would still be wiser to look one's own 3% in the eye, because as is well known, it is only in oneself that one can change anything, almost never in others."

Science and Inner Fitness

Trained scientists like Amherst Professor Dr. Arthur Zajonc, and many others are advocating the benefits of a contemplative practice to our daily lives. Here is an article from the LA Times that provides additional evidence of the reality of "inner fitness."


http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-meditation-mind-wandering-20111122,0,3160695.story

Death and TV

Death and TV

I wonder, if we could go into the future 100 years, we would discover that prolonged TV viewing had been proven to be bad for ones health and had become as taboo as smoking cigarettes? It appears that scientific evidence is emerging to support a resounding “yes”.

The story of cigarettes is well documented. The Surgeon General’s 1964 report Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General shocked the nation with its dire statistics. The report held cigarette smoking responsible for a 70 percent increase in the mortality rate of smokers over non-smokers. The report estimated that average smokers had a nine- to ten-fold risk of developing lung cancer compared to non-smokers: heavy smokers had at least a twenty-fold risk. The risk rose with the duration of smoking and diminished with the cessation of smoking. The report also named smoking as the most important cause of chronic bronchitis and pointed to a correlation between smoking and emphysema, and smoking and coronary heart disease.

Now 47 years later, our society has assimilated those facts, and changed dramatically. Simply watch one episode of AMC’s Madmen to recall how in the 1960’s smoking had been integrated into the daily routine of most families. That is not the case today. Modern families have replaced the smoking habit with the bad habit making the TV the center of their lives. TV viewing has established itself in the daily life of most Americans and according to the research of Frank Hu and Anders Grontved of the Harvard School of Public Health the average American watches 5 hours of TV daily. Their study Television Viewing and the Risk of Type-2 Diabetes, Cardiovascular Disease and All Cause Mortality, a Meta-Analysis, was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in the June 15, 2011 edition.

Study results indicate more than 2 hours of daily TV viewing increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. More than 3 hours increased risk of premature death. Each additional 2 hours of daily TV viewing raised type 2 diabetes risk by 20%, cardiovascular risk by 15% and premature death by 13%. “The message is simple. Cutting back on TV watching can significantly reduce risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and premature mortality,” said Hu. “We should not only promote increasing physical activity levels but also reduce sedentary behaviors, especially prolonged TV watching.”

Well said! Thank you Dr. Hu.

A Description of Good Parents.

Jacques Lusseyran, the French author and anti-Nazi activist in his autobiography And There was Light, described his childhood years as the “clear water of childhood.” Lusseyran wrote, “My parents were ideal.” He describes his father, a chemical engineer, as “intelligent and kind.” His mother, “who had studied physics and biology herself, was completely devoted and understanding. Both of them were generous and attentive.

Lusseyran continues on with his description of his ideal parents. “My parents were protection, confidence, warmth. When I think of my childhood I still feel the sense of warmth above me, behind and around me, that marvelous sense of living not yet on one’s own, but leaning body and soul on others who accept the charge.”

“My parents carried me along and that, I am sure, is the reason why through all my childhood I never touched ground. I could go away and come back. Objects had no weight and I never became entangled in the web of things. I passed between dangers and fears as light passes through a mirror. That was the joy of my childhood, the magic armor which, once put on, protects for a lifetime.”[1]

Jacques Lusseyran was a man who was blinded when he hit his head a school desk at age eight. At sixteen, during the Nazi occupation of France, he organized an underground resistance movement, which beginning with 52 boys, all less than 21 years old, within a year had grown to 600. In the summer of 1943 he was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to the concentration camp in Buchenwald. When the United States Third Army liberated the camp in April 1945, Lusseyran was one of 30 survivors of the group of 2000 that had been shipped there at the same time.

So with these life circumstances, what was this “magic armor” that protected him for a lifetime? Obviously, good parenting was an essential factor. His parents loved him unconditionally. The family, through warmth, understanding, and attentiveness, had a strong rapport, a resonant bond. As Lusseyran writes,” You know I had good parents, not just parents who wished me well, but ones whose hearts and intelligence were open to spiritual things, for whom the world was not composed exclusively of objects that were useful, and useful always in the same fashion; for whom, above all, it was not necessary a curse to be different from other people. Finally, mine were parents willing to admit their way of looking at things, the usual way, was perhaps not the only possible one, and to like my way and encourage it. “ [2]

Lusseyran’s blindness led him to spiritual insight. “It was a great surprise to me to find myself blind, and being blind was not at all as I imagined it. Nor was it as the people around me seemed to think it. They told me that to be blind meant not to see. Yet how was I to believe them when I saw? Not at once, I admit. Not in the days immediately after the operation. For at that time I still wanted to use my eyes. I followed their usual path. I looked in the direction where I was in the habit of seeing before the accident, and there was anguish, a lack, something like a void which filled me with what grownups call despair.”

“Finally, one day, and it was not long in coming, I realized that I was looking in the wrong way. It was as simple as that. I was making something very like the mistake people make who change their glasses without adjusting themselves. I was looking too far off, and too much on the surface of things. This was more than a simple discovery, it was a revelation.”

“I was aware of a radiance emanating from a place I knew nothing about, a place which might as well have been outside as within. But radiance was there or to put it more precisely, light. It was a fact, for light was there.” [3]Lusseyran eventually learned that his attitudes would influence the qualities of the light. “Still there were times when the light faded, almost to the point of disappearing. It happened every time I was afraid. If, instead of letting myself be carried along by confidence and throwing myself into things, I hesitated, calculated, thought about the wall, the half-open door, the key in the lock; if I said to myself that all these things were hostile and about to strike or scratch, then without exception I hit or wounded myself. What the loss of my eyes had not accomplished was brought about by fear. It made me blind.” [4]

Parenting in 2011 requires tremendous courage. Yet, don’t we all want our children to be surrounded by the “magic armor” that brings light to life’s darkest moments? Jacque Lusseyran points to the virtues of patient understanding, warmth and attentiveness. Children benefit from parents who are open minded and walking a soul/spiritual path that separates them from the crowd. Parents who understand why the phrase “fear not” appears so often in the books of the sacred traditions.

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[1] (Lusseyran, 1998, p. 5-6)

[2] (Lusseyran, 1998, p. 30)

[3] (Lusseyran, 1998, p. 15-16)

[4] (Lusseyran, 1998, p. 19-20)

Fast Tracking Children? Letter to the New York Times

I wrote this letter to the Times in response to an article from Sunday, May 15. Here is a link to the original article. Photo from NY Times by James Estrin.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/fashion/with-kumon-fast-tracking-to-kindergarten.html?scp=1&sq=fast%20tracking&st=cse

The article, Fast Track to Kindergarten (5/15/11) was concerning, at best. I once attended a lecture on Embryology by Dr. Otto Wolff, M.D. One perspective of measurement of this science is to observe an organism from conception to adult maturity. When one looks at the world of living things through this lens, it becomes obvious that simple organisms go from conception to adulthood very quickly. Conversely, the more complex the creature, the longer it takes for full development. An insect goes from conception to maturity in hours, days or weeks. Human beings take 18-21 years to reach adulthood. This perspective seems to be lost to “the sooner the better crowd.” Fast tracking of development is not congruent with what natural science teaches us about higher mammals. We are raising human beings not insects.

The other troubling quality of this fast tracking trend is that we are asked to trust the interests of CFO's who are in charge of rapidly developing franchise systems. Is it possible that they are exploiting parental fears for profit? Professor Gopnik’s statement regarding the benefit of these systems, “The best you can say is that they are useless,” should raise red flags for parents and educators. As a teacher of elementary children for 20 years, and now as a psychologist, I urge parents to reflect on the image of the tottering elk with overgrown antlers that is unable to walk. This may represent the best result you can expect from these fast track programs. I suggest we allow our children to have an old fashioned childhood. It contradicts our fast culture, yet it seems to be nature's way.

Lee D. Stevens, M.A. Depth Psychology

Mr. Stevens is a doctoral candidate in Depth Psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California.

From the website of the Aspen Waldorf School

Here is a child in a Waldorf School Early Childhood Program (3-5)

"dishwashing" - a more appropriate activity for a 3-year old.