| Using Meditation in a Innovative Way |
| Written by Thomas Fraser | |
| Wednesday, 25 March 2009 | |
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New developments in our understanding of human thought processing are leading to a new take on the ancient art of meditation. Cognitive Enlightenment Therapy is founded on a syllogism: if the end product of meditation is a state of enlightenment, and enlightenment is, at least in part, the realization of an interrelationship between individual consciousness and external reality, then learning about these interrelationships can produce the same result as meditation.
New developments in our understanding of human thought processing are leading to a new take on the ancient art of meditation. Cognitive Enlightenment Therapy is founded on a syllogism: if the end product of meditation is a state of enlightenment, and enlightenment is, at least in part, the realization of an interrelationship between individual consciousness and external reality, then learning about these interrelationships can produce the same result as meditation. Where Bandler and Grinder introduced transformational grammar to psychotherapy to come up with techniques for self-directed reprogramming that are much embraced by motivational speakers everywhere, CET uses what the founder (inventor?) of Cognitive Enlightenment Therapy calls 'transformational ideas.' CET is not for everybody. The process replaces NLP's transformational grammar with transformational ideas. If you are not a good student and critical thinker, you will find CET frustrating in the extreme. You will be asked to meditate on connections between some apparently unrelated fields. At present the CET reading list includes readings on media, gender, quantum mechanics, neuro-linguistic programming, neurology, cognitive dissonance theory, cosmology, classical physics, cognitive science and logic. Readings are done in a specific order and are interspersed with meditation periods. The meditations use relationships between the readings in the same way traditional meditation uses koans, chants, breathing, and others, to focus the thinking mind. The founder of Cognitive Enlightenment Therapy is an anonymous, but clearly well read blogger known only El Be. His/her most controversial reading - meditation lesson is on the relationship between gender, which is defined as "cultural sexuality" in the Gender Readings section, and Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance. After completing the readings one is supposed to spend no less than thirty minutes meditating on, "Gender is a cognitive schema evolved to resolve the dissonance inherent in biological sexuality." The growing Cognitive Enlightenment Therapy online community is discussing when and where this promised new blog will appear. A number of posters to forum discussions quote from the original blog, but there is argument over the authenticity of many of the quotes. The most widely discussed issues from the original blog are the link between dissonance resolution theory and gender, and the request by El Be that users not discuss their experiences using CET. "It is that recommendation that I find most disturbing," says linguistic professor Dr. Elizabeth Silverstein, who is studying CDT but not practicing it. "Isolating practitioners from each other is a fine way to prevent criticism. You have to wonder if this El Be person is attempting a form of remote brainwashing." Many of the posters to the Cognitive Enlightenment Theory forum believe Dr. Silverstein is way off track. As one poster puts it, "I've been following the original reading - meditation couplets for over a year now, and frankly, I understand the nature of reality better now than I did after three post-graduate degrees. El Be's insistence that mass doesn't warp space, it is warped space, has totally revolutionized my view of General Relativity, and I teach the subject. If El Be starts a cult, sign me up. The Article Author: When it comes down to meditation a slew of good results can be expected. Starting a program is simple, as discovering how to meditate is the key to a successful and happy future. |
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