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INFINITE MEMORY |
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My Ph.D. is in the area of Psychophysiology. I developed a strategy to enable even totally blind people to see color using their fingertips and without touching the object. On superficial level this looks almost impossible. However, history abounds with such instances. During my study I was able to collect evidences from varied fields of study like physics, philosophy, histology, evolution, biology, physiology, synesthesia, parapsychology, etc. Let us look at it from a layperson’s viewpoint. Physics tells us that each color emits different levels of electromagnetic radiation. Is the skin capable of identifying such subtle levels? As human beings, we have two kidneys and two lungs and still the skin continues to do the same function as purifying blood and breathing. Evolution has shown us that unicellular organisms like amoeba use their skin for seeing. Eye has developed as a specialized sense organ only in higher animals. My assumption, which I was able to prove, is that skin has the sensitivity to distinguish colors. Just because we sighted people do not use the skin for seeing does not mean that we should deny it for those who cannot see.
It goes back to my childhood. We used to play with a beggar who had both his eyes removed through surgery. Our game was very simple. We used to ask him the color of our shirt, or the objects that we carried and he used to identify the color always correctly. As a child it only looked as fun but when I was in my ninth standard, I started thinking that if it could happen to one individual then there must be some natural phenomenon working. I decided to do something about it at that age. However, I had to stand against the whole world. None of my teachers, relatives, or friends liked me for taking up arts after my 10th standard. They wanted me to become an engineer instead. I chose psychology instead and I have not regretted my decision.
It is time that we looked for answers to our problems within ourselves. Our body, mind, and spirit have abundant capability to refine the so-called laws of nature. Our ancient texts tell us a lot about our spiritual gain but we are conditioned to buy what we want off the shelf rather than learn to adjust with nature. For instance, we can buy any food that we want but we can never buy hunger. The regulation of hunger has to come from within. I have been trying to work on these lines for the last 20 years and I have obtained answers to several problems.
For example, take psychosomatic disorders. Almost all medicinal systems say that stress is an important factor for causing these disorders like diabetes, blood pressure, bronchial asthma, peptic ulcer, psoriasis, and hundreds of such common disorders. Rather than trying to change our ways of living, we try to make endless trips to doctors, dieticians, fitness centers, etc. who can only help us to reduce the symptoms. The first thing we need to do is to look at ourselves and find out what is wrong in our approach to life. If we could put a stop to negative thinking, unrealistic desires, and materialistic thinking, we can ensure well-being for life.
Let us take students. They continue to do the same mistakes every year and try to increase their workload without ever bothering to imbibe what they learn. We have a superior brain with over 12 billion neurons that are potentially capable of processing information. Our educational system rarely bothers to tap into the existing resources.
I am sorry to say no. It is in childhood that there is tremendous mental growth. We should not only bother about academic development, but also about cognitive, emotional, social, moral, and spiritual development. Traditionally, education was provided within the family. With more and more nuclear families coming into existence and with both the parents keeping themselves busy, there is very little thought that goes into the child’s development. Schools have become factories trying to push knowledge into the brains without bothering about the child’s holistic development. Today’s education system employs teachers on the basis of qualification rather than on the basis of quality of life. When children do not find any guidance from either parents or teachers, their developmental process would naturally be curtailed.
The greatest need is there for us look into the way things are happening. Students have very little interest in studies. They have serious problems of memory and concentration. Our research points out that on an average a student has around 45 common problems to which he or she finds very little help in solving them. More importantly, they don’t even know with whom to talk about regarding these problems. These problems are actually symptoms of a major problem, which is lack of education.
Consider for instance, that I am trying to pour water onto a flat surface. How much ever I try I can exhaust all the water I have but cannot make the surface collect it. Almost the same thing is happening in education. We are trying to pour down an ocean of information without bothering to find out whether the student is ready to receive it. What we need to do is to first teach the student the essence of learning to learn. Mould the students so that their curiosity is aroused. Make them active participants in learning. Consequently, they will have the inclination to know. When we seek information it becomes more meaningful to us than when someone imposes us it on us.
This is a concept I have been trying to propagate. When a student fails no one takes the responsibility but blames the student. This is a very negative approach. It was we, within the system, who put him in that class saying that he is eligible for completing the course. If he does not succeed then there is some mistake on our part, too. As teachers we have to foresee a student’s failure. If we do not take measures after the first test itself we will have failed in our duty.
The actual scene in today’s education is quite different. Majority of the teachers do not know about dyslexia – a neurological condition leading to learning disorders. Not many know that this can be set right. In addition, a teacher has to act as a counselor. Many students have emotional problems that are not even identified in the classroom situation. When teachers and the management of the institution are made accountable, they will at least make an attempt to set these things right.
This is another new concept. We are not talking here about teaching excellence, but about teacher excellence. If the teacher is not a better human being, the students have very little to learn from her. If we go back to our own old days, we had teachers from whom we could learn a lot about life. Such role models are rarely found nowadays, and blaming the students for not respecting elders does not solve the problem.
Teacher Excellence* is a very wide area and the teachers should devote their spare time to build up their knowledge about themselves, their strengths and weaknesses, and about students. They need to reframe their attitudes toward education and holistic growth. They should gear up their professional competence and psychological well-being. The must put concerted individual and collective effort to succeed in their endeavor.
This is a very major point. The answer is yes. Though as laypersons we do not observe the students, their temper tantrums, their maladjustment, their addictions, their depression, and their inclination towards suicide – all these tell a great story of hoarded stress. I have seen very few students, irrespective of their age, being relatively free of stress.
During my practice, I used to tell parents that their children are under severe stress. They rarely believed me. Some even argued that it is good for them to have stress now so that they can get adjusted to it in later life. I was able to design a very simple apparatus to measure stress in terms of skin resistance. With this I was able to show the parents that their children are under greater stress than them.
People talk about stress without knowing much about it. There are basically three types of stress – frustration, conflict, and pressure. We are always under one type of pressure or the other. Parents provide these stressors in plenty but claim that their children are free from stress. Let us take the case of a child in 4th standard. He loves to play cricket but the parents say no. He is frustrated because he is blocked from reaching the goal. He wants to join school trip but the father says that if you abstain from the trip I will buy you a watch. This is conflict. He wants both but he can choose only one. Pressure can come from parents for scoring high marks, from peers, from others, or from within.
My interaction with thousands of students, parents, workers, executives, and others helped me to identify stress as body stress, neurological stress, cognitive stress, emotional stress, and life stress. I was able to devise measures for all these and call it Stress Audit.
No. Actually, stress is necessary for survival. However, when we fail to cope up with stress, we have serious ailments and problems.
Every adult is very free with advice. Let us say I have a headache. Each person I come across tells me to do something that he or she feels is the sure cure. Headache is actually a symptom of an underlying problem and not a problem itself. To actually solve my problem I have to go to a doctor who is the only person who can diagnose why I have the headache.
Similarly, students have several problems to which people suggests lot of remedies. We keep telling our children to do this and not to do this without actually finding out the scientific basis behind it. If the suggestion does not work we blame the students. However, Educational counseling is a systematic approach to help students overcome problems. Rather than superficially dealing with the symptoms, the counselors find out why the problem is there and help the students in learning new skills. For instance, every student studies the textbook several times but still does not remember specific information. During counseling, we teach the student the technique of learning to learn and help him acquire study skills. This will not only solve his present problem but also help him in future.
One of my researches showed that about 40% of the intelligent students fail whereas only 15% of those who score below average in intelligence fail. This made me think. Why should students fail if they are intelligent? Is there some way of predicting the success of a student so that we can do something about it? It was then that I hit upon the idea of study involvement. Study Quotient* measures the study involvement in students in terms of 10 dimensions. These dimensions are necessary for a student’s professional approach to study. Those who score high on study quotient do well in studies and score high marks without stress.
When a school or college approaches me with problems, the first thing I do is to test the study involvement of all the students. This gives me a comprehensive understanding of how many will do well in exams, how many are average, and how many will fail. By knowing this in the beginning of the year it helps us to strategize our training modules. I provide a comprehensive feedback to the students, teachers, and parents so we all stand on a single platform.
Speed Reading Mania* is a training program in memory, concentration, comprehension, and speed-reading. This is in the form of computer software. It starts from the easiest exercise to the most difficult. In recent times, lack of concentration is the greatest complaint among students. Most of the students say that they pick up a textbook and set out to read; but their minds wander and are not able to concentrate on what they are studying. Hence, they do not remember what they studied and they should start the whole process all over again.
The fault lies in their reading speed. We read slower than our brain’s capacity to process information. The more active we are in reading the better is our comprehension. For instance, we jump words when we read comics or storybooks. Still we do not skip the meaning. Speed Reading Mania helps a person to increase visual acuity, speed of eye movements, and power of observation.
The word mania is used in a positive sense just like we have cricket mania and football mania. The faster we read the better it is for us.
Memory problems like headache are only symptoms of an underlying neurological, learning, or emotional disorder. In Memory Clinic we diagnose the problem and suggest remedies. Several of my articles in newspapers have provided a list of what one should do to overcome memory problems.
SCAPE is the short form for Supra Centre for the Advancement of Psychology and Education. It is a non-profit body to offer professional psychological services to individuals, parents, voluntary organizations, schools, colleges, industries, and multinational companies. We have a range of 142 programs that are designed on the basis of systematic action research. Our objective is to offer holistic solutions and ensure psychological well-being. We are more concerned about failed students, child laborers, mentally and physically challenged, manual laborers, workers, emotionally disturbed, and others who need our help. I hope our approach will help in bringing greater happiness to people and makes their lives more meaningful.
