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News -
April 2012 - Mass killer Andre Breivik reports
that he used meditation to "de-emotionalize"
himself to prepare himself for what he would do on July
22, 2011 in Sweden. He killed a total of 77 people,
including many teenagers. (source)
See also Dehumanization
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I have been very skeptical of meditation for a
long time. I have criticized Dan
Goleman for his participation in a
meditation retreat and his continued suppport of
meditation. In that retreat he worshipped a "monkey
god" according to a friend of his. You can read
about this here.
Here is something I have copied from the Dan
Goleman page
What concerns me about
Goleman's writings on meditation etc. From his early writings, we see that
Goleman endorses the use of meditation and
"altered states of consciousness" to
numb our negative feelings. And from his 1995
best selling book, we see that he also endorses
the use of drugs to medicate moods in his 1995
book.
I disagree with this view.
First, I do not believe either approach truly
heals deep emotional wounds. It might kill or
numb the pain, and it certainly shuts one off
from their painful feelings and environment, but
that is not the same thing as healing the wound.
Also, I believe if we turn to such mind control
methods as meditation we lose several important
things.
First, we lose the
information our negative feelings provide to
us
Second, we lose the
motivation to look for cause-effect
relationships, such as the parent-child
relationship
Third, we lose the
drive to make needed fundamental social
changes
Here is an example of the
kind of thinking that troubles me:
When someone abuses me, I
remember that they are exactly who they are
supposed to be, and that there is no
"me" being abused anyway..
This example came from a "Ram
Dass" website discussion board. Ram Dass
was, or still is, Goleman's good friend. I have
written more about him here. The discussion board link has
since become a dead link, but it was
http://pluto.beseen.com/boardroom/b/53268/View?n=00227
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--
Here is something I found by
someone who went to a meditation retreat
About a monastery in Thailand.
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