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Apologies for the pseudonym. My regular email account name would instantly give away my skeptical nature and I find it only serves to stifle debate before it begins. I wished to determine whether your claim on the flyer was intentional or an unfortunate mistake before I proceeded.
Let me start by countering some common reactions to the following comments so that you can read what I have to say knowing the context in which it is said. If pressed, I would have no problem identifying myself as Buddhist. I have never been religious: even to my very young mind religion did not have satisfactory answers to my questions. My learning has been in History and Philosophy, including philosophy of cognitive science. It is through these influences that I determined a world view which I realised was inherently Buddhist in it's philosophy, acknowledging as it did our connected nature (through memetics (culture), or at a more fundamental level the smallest denominator of energy, perhaps strings, perhaps not) and the rejection of a distinct entity of 'self', or 'soul'. I am also an avid follower of science and yet I am the first to point to it's flaws and the effects that political/corporate power is having on some sectors of research. I marvel at the wonders of western medicine whilst also bemoaning the lack of humanity that allows for such a contrast in juxtaposition with the placebo effect of alternative medicine. I am of the opinion that it should simply be re-labelled the compassion effect, a more apt title and one that would allow alternative medicine to continue without the need for false claims.
With this in mind, I regret to say I have to express my utmost objection to your advertisement. Your reply indicated to me the conceptual flaw under-pinning everything you claim. Whilst the software can have a mitigating or aggravating effect on illness and disease (in some cases, it is true, being the cause as well, opening up the opportunity for it to also be the cure), this is simply not the case for disease!
What about germs? What about immune systems? The software resides in the Brain. What about the rest of the body? The gangrene in one's arm is not a product of the mind, it's causes are well understood. What about HIV/AIDS? How is that a software problem? It is a biological entity.
The only way disease could be a software problem is if there existed a grand conspiracy of hundreds of thousands of physicians, stretching thousands of years back, simply making stuff up and hiding 'the truth'. This is clearly not the case. The body is hardware and disease is a hardware problem.
You simply cannot advertise that meditation can cure all illness. You are potentially appealing to the most vulnerable subset of society, those desperate for anything that might claim to help. Having looked at your website, I am in no doubt that you believe what you say. Buddhism should teach you that we are products of our environment, products of cause and effect. Looking at our world and it's history, it is clear that more people have truely believed in falsehoods than have been lucky enough to experience objective truth. I believe firmly in our capacity to be good to one another, but key to that transition is in recognising our own flaws and biases and inherent susceptibility to logical fallacy. I hope you take this in the spirit it was intended, as a concerned fellow human, and not as an ignorant witch-hunt. Unfortunately, it does not change the fact that it is morally reprehensible that you advertise this claim.
I know of no Buddhist teaching, certainly not from his holiness the Dalai Lama, who would claim such a thing. Why do Buddhist monks still get illness and die of disease? Your claims would have been denounced as heretical in times gone by for blaspheme, such are the divine implications! The Dalai Lama is a fierce advocate of science, revelling in it's capacity to teach us about our universe. Your false claims are counter to the very tradition (meditation) that you use in its application.
I am sorry to have had to say all this.
Yours sincerely (this time..)
Ben
Let me start by countering some common reactions to the following comments so that you can read what I have to say knowing the context in which it is said. If pressed, I would have no problem identifying myself as Buddhist. I have never been religious: even to my very young mind religion did not have satisfactory answers to my questions. My learning has been in History and Philosophy, including philosophy of cognitive science. It is through these influences that I determined a world view which I realised was inherently Buddhist in it's philosophy, acknowledging as it did our connected nature (through memetics (culture), or at a more fundamental level the smallest denominator of energy, perhaps strings, perhaps not) and the rejection of a distinct entity of 'self', or 'soul'. I am also an avid follower of science and yet I am the first to point to it's flaws and the effects that political/corporate power is having on some sectors of research. I marvel at the wonders of western medicine whilst also bemoaning the lack of humanity that allows for such a contrast in juxtaposition with the placebo effect of alternative medicine. I am of the opinion that it should simply be re-labelled the compassion effect, a more apt title and one that would allow alternative medicine to continue without the need for false claims.
With this in mind, I regret to say I have to express my utmost objection to your advertisement. Your reply indicated to me the conceptual flaw under-pinning everything you claim. Whilst the software can have a mitigating or aggravating effect on illness and disease (in some cases, it is true, being the cause as well, opening up the opportunity for it to also be the cure), this is simply not the case for disease!
What about germs? What about immune systems? The software resides in the Brain. What about the rest of the body? The gangrene in one's arm is not a product of the mind, it's causes are well understood. What about HIV/AIDS? How is that a software problem? It is a biological entity.
The only way disease could be a software problem is if there existed a grand conspiracy of hundreds of thousands of physicians, stretching thousands of years back, simply making stuff up and hiding 'the truth'. This is clearly not the case. The body is hardware and disease is a hardware problem.
You simply cannot advertise that meditation can cure all illness. You are potentially appealing to the most vulnerable subset of society, those desperate for anything that might claim to help. Having looked at your website, I am in no doubt that you believe what you say. Buddhism should teach you that we are products of our environment, products of cause and effect. Looking at our world and it's history, it is clear that more people have truely believed in falsehoods than have been lucky enough to experience objective truth. I believe firmly in our capacity to be good to one another, but key to that transition is in recognising our own flaws and biases and inherent susceptibility to logical fallacy. I hope you take this in the spirit it was intended, as a concerned fellow human, and not as an ignorant witch-hunt. Unfortunately, it does not change the fact that it is morally reprehensible that you advertise this claim.
I know of no Buddhist teaching, certainly not from his holiness the Dalai Lama, who would claim such a thing. Why do Buddhist monks still get illness and die of disease? Your claims would have been denounced as heretical in times gone by for blaspheme, such are the divine implications! The Dalai Lama is a fierce advocate of science, revelling in it's capacity to teach us about our universe. Your false claims are counter to the very tradition (meditation) that you use in its application.
I am sorry to have had to say all this.
Yours sincerely (this time..)
Ben
P.S with regard to the anecdotal evidence you mentioned, there are many accounts in literature of psychological disablement. In one notable study, someone who had been fed all their lives by someone else was left in a room with the food just out of her reach. As she got hungrier, she reached out for the food when her mind wandered. It was an instinctive reaction bypassing the part of the brain required for intentionality. She wasn't faking, but it showed that it wasn't a hardware problem. With this knowledge, they managed to regain her motor-function skills.
Doctors are not unaware of the mind. People like Ramachandran (look him up on youtube, delightful voice) are working wonders in understanding its hold and influence on the body. Yet anecdotal evidence is dismissed for a reason. There are 6 billion people on this planet. The numbers alone dictate that many crazy things will happen to a whole lot of people. Our knowledge is nowhere near complete enough to understand the multitude of strange cases that are bound, by laws of statistics, to show up. It is a logical fallacy that we are all to susceptible too.
| show details Feb 2 (11 days ago) |
Dear Ben Thanks for this. Do you have a question? Yours John
| show details Feb 2 (11 days ago) |
I asked a few questions in the previous email. The more pertinent question though is do you intend to continue advertising this claim of being able to cure any disease?
Yours,
Ben
| show details Feb 7 (6 days ago) |
I want you to know that I have no personal gripe regarding this matter. It is simply a matter of fact. I put a lot of thought into that email out of respect and would greatly appreciate a reply of equal thought and respect.
Yours,
Ben
| show details Feb 7 (6 days ago) |
Dear Ben Yes Yours John
So, complete failure to engage, seemingly willfull childishness and evasiveness. What can I do? It is so frustrating that people can profit from false hopes and no-one seems to stand up to them. It is like a religious taboo, not being able to criticise their 'beliefs'. Im sorry, I don't agree with that.
John, if you read this, I am still waiting for a grown-up correspondence regarding the matter.
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