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The Forum > Article Comments > The Age of Consciousness > Comments

The Age of Consciousness : Comments

By Caryn Cridland, published 14/9/2011

In the new Age of Consciousness,

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LB Loveday...I think you'll find that most government departments, at least the ones I have worked in, have long ago run out of money to send anybody to conferences, training courses, or anything else for that matter. The fees are extortionate, unreasonable even, the speakers are the same old mediocre consultants, spouting the same of drivel, and we have certainly got better things to do with our money.

You conventiently fail to mention that many of these leadership courses are frequented by the private sector as well. I'm not sure what what anybody gets out of them other than more meaningless jargon to use the next time they go to a conference.
Posted by Phil Matimein, Wednesday, 14 September 2011 5:03:49 PM
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pelican,

Ah pelican, for there to be futility, there would have to be some goal, or ideal or something concrete that matters. Universally. In and of itself.

In my blissful cosy existance of de-facto bliss and todlers, there is not much that really matters. My and their health, and time to enjoy it together.

I suffer from terminal cynicism from long observing the self-deception of others, and the 'meaning' they attempt to attach to their lives, and some search for universal truth, or some 'shared humanity' or shared goal or civil utopia.

Perhaps I have no need to 'find' anything, I see the world as a reality that I have constructed anyway. I have it all. The world is endlessly amusing, and I won the lottery being born in this time and place and country.

All this earnest discussion is very entertaining, especially that I get to be tirelessly contrary and shoot everything down without offering any sort of 'contribution', and that is in itself a metaphor for my thoughts on life in general. I don't feel obligated to make the world a better place, even if I though it within my power. I am what I am, the world is what it is, human is as human does.

Some here seem to celebrate virtuous idealism, but I celebrate the frailties of humans. The world just happens. I am flawed and inconsistent, the world is flawed inconsistent, and I enjoy finding inconsistencies and flaws in others. Pointing them out and laughing is the best part.

Sometimes I think people, instead of arguing about the ethics of who can afford the rollercoaster, whether it is headed for doom, whether it was made in an environmentally sustainable way, more people should just enjoy the wind in their hair, quietly, without expressing it to every tom and dick, and enjoy the ride. And smile. Quitely. The quietly part is important.

BTW: Not much IS new. That's why I laugh at 'new athiests'. You're not the first to think, that everything has been thought before...
Posted by Houellebecq, Wednesday, 14 September 2011 5:10:45 PM
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As a psychologist, and member of the Australian Psychological Society for many years, I have, of late, noticed an increasing number of evidence-based workshops and courses in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness-based practices. These are promoted by the APS for our Continuing Professional Development. There is certainly a shift towards different ways of working with clients.

We get brochures every few months advertising courses in a variety of mindfulness-based practices, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. There is a whole conference dedicated to the latter. The 5th annual conference is about to be held in late September, early October. The conference hosts a variety of speakers that are applying ACT in a variety of ways from promoting highly effective workplaces to assisting with trauma.

http://anzact.com/planned_conference_workshops_and_talks

These are some of the leading psychologist / neuroscientist researchers in the area – they have found evidence for the benefits of meditation and mindfulness on the brain and mental health and well-being:

Dr Barbara Fredrickson: http://www.unc.edu/peplab/barb_fredrickson_page.html

Dr Dan Segal: http://drdansiegel.com/

Dr Richard Davidson http://psyphz.psych.wisc.edu/web/personnel/director.html

A number of my peers now use ACT and mindfulness practices. The APS report (Evidence-Based Psychological Interventions – under professional resources) indicates that evidence has been found that Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy has led to a reduction in depressive symptoms.

Numerous articles have been published in psychological journals describing the benefits of mindfulness, and meditation practices for individuals in a variety of ways.

Johnson, D. P., Penn, D. L., Fredrickson, B. L., Kring, A. M., Meyer, P. S., Catalino, L. I., & Brantley, M. (2011). A pilot study of loving-kindness meditation for the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 129.

Fredrickson, B. L., Cohn, M. A., Coffey, K. A., Pek, J., & Finkel, S. M. (2008). Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Otake, K., Shimai, S., Tanaka-Matsumi, J., Otsui, K., & Fredrickson, B. L. (2006). Happy people become happier through kindness: A counting kindnesses intervention. Journal of Happiness Studies.
Posted by BarbaraS, Wednesday, 14 September 2011 6:03:33 PM
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In this article, as well meaning as it is, I hear the familiar strains of the 60's and 70's counterculture movement which eventually failed due to its naivity about the people and the world. The dawning of a new age, the glorification of mind based psychological therapies which are really seen, not a treatment for emotional distress as much as a way to 'raise consciousness', and the unification of man around a new interpersonal respect have all happened before in the 1960's.

Many famous people of the time eg the Beatles, sought out Transcendental Medititation and Psychologists were into relaxation therapies of various sorts.

The main difference this time is that Politicians don't see these ideas as much of a threat then they did then and now use them to their own ends.

Its not a raising of consciousness though, its the return of a naive Utopian vision of the 1960's.
Posted by Atman, Wednesday, 14 September 2011 8:40:14 PM
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Every discussion we have is a conversation about the "Meaning of Life", we are the meaning of life.
Posted by Jay Of Melbourne, Thursday, 15 September 2011 6:49:56 AM
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I agree with Atman - and any raising of consciousness is a reaction to the stress of industrial society.
Only people who live their lives to the wind-up mechanism of modern consumer society would consider that they have the need for another dimension of consciousness. It's the price we pay for having it so good in a material sense. Somehow, I don't think the average third world subsistence farmer has the need for such a recourse - he's probably fairly centred in his consciousness.

I agree with Houellie too - and I think his singular outlook helps him to enjoy life as it comes to him. It's wonderful "therapy" to simply value what's around you.
Posted by Poirot, Thursday, 15 September 2011 7:39:06 AM
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