Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), This week let me bring to your attention an interesting excerpt from this thought provoking & an important work, by Dr. Robert Ornstein & Sally Ornstein. Robert Ornstein was a noted psychologist and a leading expert on the brain. Founder and president of the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge, Ornstein wrote more than 20 books on the brain, mind, and consciousness emphasizing our urgent need and ability to develop perceptions beyond our biological inheritance. Sally M. Ornstein is the editor of \u201cIdeas That Shaped Our Modern World,\u201d a comprehensive overview of the role of religion throughout human history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Teaching Stories<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Certain narratives, legends, parables, myths and fables are intended to establish in the mind not a belief but a pattern, a blueprint that helps it to operate in \u201canother\u201d manner, without resorting to indoctrination, emotional stimulation, intellectual discussion or becoming magnetized around certain ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These special stories exist in every culture, but as with other esoteric psychological techniques, if they are arbitrarily selected, simplified or taken literally, they lose their instrumental function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The effect of \u201cteaching stories,\u201d is not only to provide pleasure or a useful parable, but also to connect \u201cwith a part of the individual which cannot be reached by any other convention, and establish in him or in her, a means of communication with a non-verbalized truth beyond the customary limitations of our familiar dimensions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Teaching stories purposely contain specially chosen patterns of events. The repeated reading and absorption of the stories allows these patterns to become strengthened in the mind of the person reading them. Since many of these events are improbable and unusual, their effort begins to create new constructs in the reader \u2013 new \u201corgans of perception,\u201d so to speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The stories can also serve as reflection points. \u201cReflection\u201d can mean both \u201cto think about\u201d and \u201cto mirror.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some stories can serve as templates for consciousness, patterns frozen so that we can observe ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n GOD 4.0 \u2013 Dr. Robert Ornstein & Sally Ornstein <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This book is a stunning unification of science and tradition. It presents a concept of spirituality to address the challenges of the modern world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It explores how our \u201ceveryday\u201d mind works as a device for selecting just a few parts of the outside reality that are important for our survival. We don\u2019t experience the world as it is, but as a virtual reality \u2013 evolved to keep us safe and to ensure our survival. This system, though essential for getting us safely across a busy street, is insufficient for understanding and solving the challenges of the modern world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can buy your copy from any of the bookstores near you or via any on-line portal selling books or also by clicking the following link: <\/p>\n\n\n\n