| Modern Science Discovers Ancient Truth |
|
| |
News Alert! The Los Angeles Times says: “Scientists have found evidence that people can actively suppress disturbing memories by choosing not to think about them.”
The Times also states: “Researchers from the University of Colorado found (research) subjects’ memory circuits slowed when they were instructed to push mental images of photos from their minds.” They quote the author of a study based on that research, Brendan Depue, as saying: “You can train yourself to remember something and you can train yourself to forget it.”
The current issue of the journal Science features a story about this “discovery”. MIT neuroscientist, John Gabrieli called the study “a big step forward.”
Other scientists want to jump on the bandwagon. Craig Stare, an assistant professor of psychology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine is quoted by The Los Angeles Times as saying: “As you prevent yourself from thinking about something, you will keep yourself from reinforcing and consolidating that memory.”
Is this really a “discovery”? Many ancient writings teach us that we can control our thinking, our memory, and our compulsions. 2000 years ago, the New Testament stated that we should be “forgetting those things which are behind” and told us: “Whasoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely . . . think on these things.”
The Philokalia, a 5 volume collection of writings by ancient Orthodox monks, is full of instructions on how to train ourselves to forget bad memories and remember good things. It is an awesome series of books!
The writings of Catholic saints and mystics are overflowing with the same information. The ancient writings of Buddha and his followers reveal the same things. And so do the writings of the early Quakers.
In 1859, Samuel Smiles, a London physician, published a book called Self-Help and began the modern self-help movement. In his book, he says: “We possess the power, to a great extent, of so exercising the will as to direct the thoughts upon objects calculated to yield happiness and improvement rather than their opposites.”
So how can modern scientists call what has been known for thousands of years a “discovery”? And don’t scientists need to be consistent? Shouldn’t they be on the same page, if they are really dealing with scientific facts and not theory?
The American Psychological Association is about to make it their official policy that homosexual thoughts, compulsions, and behavior can’t be changed. Meanwhile, the journal Science publishes an article that says we can train ourself to control our memories and thoughts. What we have here is very unscientific! |
|