Soundings, May 2001

It had to happen; spirituality has become a management tool. Last year, the business school of the University of Massachusetts co-sponsored a program on "Going Public with Spirituality in Work and Higher Education." But that is the sober side of the trend.

"If the Spirit Moves You," a story by Jill Rosenfeld in the May 2001 issue of Fast Company, reports on the sixth annual International Conference on Business and Consciousness, held at the Acapulco Princess. (Cost: $1,095; airfare, hotel, and meals not included.) At one session, "Arjuna Nick Ardagh, founder of the Living Essence Foundation, puts the following question to the audience"

"'Who are you, really, beyond concepts and ideas?'

"'Stillness and movement!' someone calls out.

"'Right!' Ardagh crows. 'What does it look like? How big is it?'

"'It's huge. Always expanding!'

"(This crowd is full of good guessers.)

"'That's right! There's a world guru who must be surrendered and prostrated to. Who is it?'

"'Me!' Cries a woman in a paisley dress.

"'Her!' Ardagh says. 'If you want to meet the enlightened ones, look around you.'" . . .

Later, "Harvard-trained quantum-physicist John Hagelin—who in the past has argued that transcendental meditation can boost the gross national product and bring peace to the Balkans—displays complex diagrams to illustrate his theory of 'global brain-wave coherence' and 'unified consciousness.'

"'It's a scientific fact,' Hagelin asserts. 'You and I are one.'

At the end of the day, "the group stands in a circle and offers prayers.

"'I pray for economic justice and for the indigenous people of this land,' says one person.

"'I give thanks for each breath I take, knowing that we are, each of us, a divine emanation of God,' says another.

"'I pray for the enlightenment of all those who work on Wall Street.'"

In memory of Dr. Samuel Johnson's famous attempt to refute George Berkeley's philosophy of idealism, Navigator presents a large, kickable stone to Brad Hooker for his attempted refutation of egoism. In an article called "Thinking of Number One" (Times Literary Supplement, April 27, 2001), Hooker wrote: "Rational egoism insists that any sacrifice for the good of others is irrational, even if the sacrifice to the agent is small and the benefit to the recipient enormous. This implication of rational egoism serves as a refutation of it."

"As early as 1986, the journal Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, published an article titled 'Premeditated Murder: Let's Bump Off Killer Ball,' which denounced sports of elimination. And in 1992, Neil F. Williams, now a physical education professor at Eastern Connecticut State University, placed dodgeball in the Physical Education Hall of Shame, a list of gym activities that he suggested could damage children emotionally. The list included duck-duck-goose and musical chairs." ("Increasingly, Schools Move to Restrict Dodgeball," New York Times, May 6, 2001.) Well, life is not a zero-sum game, to be sure, but if children must be shielded from the trauma of musical chairs, will society and government have to shield adults from rejection by colleges, pink slips, and spurned offers of marriage?

The word is out! A person cannot build self-esteem just by telling himself how wonderful he is. No, what he really needs is—other people telling him how wonderful he is. And why is being a second-hander the only route to pride? The answer is obvious: a person with low self-esteem does not value his own opinion.

According to an article in "Psychology Today Online," self-help books say: "Write affirmations on paper and put them in places you will see them—on the bathroom mirror, next to your bed, on the car dashboard" (Life 101, Prelude Press, 1991). But researchers say: "The only way to change the final product—your self-esteem—is to change what goes into making it: feedback from other people." (http://www.psychologytoday.com/features3.html)

“In the top half [of the income levels], there has been a realignment of white, well-educated professionals (layers, doctors, scientists, academics), now one of the most reliably Democratic constituencies. . . . In 2000, the voters in 17 out of 25 of the nation’s most affluent counties—all with high percentages of people with advanced degrees—cast majorities for Al Gore, sometimes by more than 70 percent. . . . According to a study by the National Committee for an Effective Congress, . . . of the 46 [congressional] seats that went from Republican to Democrat [between 1994 and 2000] 29 were districts that had higher than average incomes.” Thomas Edsall, “Voter Values Determine Political Affiliation,” Washington Post, March 26, 2001.