Dr. Om Prakash

I recently attended a presentation by Dr. Prakash in North Dallas. He was born in Delhi, India and worked with Ghandi in the mid-20th century. His main theme is meditation and the benefits that regular practice can give to anyone disciplined enough to practice it. He has been a practicing psychologist most of his life, and at 85 still works 11 hours a day. He attributes his longevity and productivity in large part to his disciplined meditation practice.

Much of his presentation provided scientific, medical and metaphysical explanations and support for the benefits of meditation. One point he made is that we tend to over-use our left brain, which is heavily required for functioning in our busy, technological lives. We are constantly using logic and language to get through the day. Meditation relaxes the left brain and helps the right brain, the creative brain, to wake up and take up more of the load. This shift occurs almost immediately when you begin meditation but shows the most long term and daily benefit if meditation is adopted as a daily practice at regular times.

Prakash meditates in 20 minute sessions, 3 times a day. His reasoning is that our days are divided into three parts: work, leisure, sleep. So he meditates before starting each different section of the day. In the morning, the best time to meditate is right after a morning shower. This allows the mind to be fully awake and alert rather than groggy from sleep. After work, when we tend to be stressed and off-center, a session can relax our mind before we begin our leisure activities. One last session can be done just before bedtime to ensure a good night's sleep.

3 times a day for 20 minutes might be too much for a beginner. It takes practice to allow ourselves to slow down and actually relax. Starting with twice a day for 10 minutes each might be a good way to begin. The first time you meditate, 10 minutes might seem like a long time. Also, some instruction in a particular technique can help.

Prakash recommends a breath control technique. In this you close your eyes, focus on the front of your forehead just above your eyebrows in the center. Breath in slowly, wait a second or two, then exhale. Clear your mind, focus on your breathing and continue keeping your mind clear of anything else. Relaxing music can also help.

It was inspiring to see someone of his age so engaged and energetic.

Three Themes from Social Artistry

I mentioned that I attended a Jean Houston lecture. Most of that entry was a summary of her background and the experience. I did not say much about the content of the evening. Here I will pick three of the main themes and summarize. These themes and more are elaborated in detail in an online interview.

• We are in a time when something big is trying to happen


• We have lost touch with our senses, both externally and internally


• We have the potential to push through the current transition but we have to learn to fire on more burners

These are three of the themes that have been a part of her work over many years. They are elaborated even more in this interview. Much of her social artistry work is intended to help people find ways to add and express personas in order to get more in touch with the multiple dimensions that help us grow into change.

One way to move consciousness and being forward and upward is to remove negative patterns of thought, which in turn remove negative patterns of behavior. Houston agrees this is a valid approach, but prefers something that Jung also preferred that can be called "active imagination". In this approach, positive thoughts become personas and are added as dimensions to our being. As new things are added, old patterns wither and die due to lack of fertilization.

We are in a time window in the last quarter century that is the beginning of a momentous change in human history. Sadly, our brains, educational systems and culture is much better suited for the world as it was 150 years ago. The increase in speed of information transfer, cultural change and financial-political upheaval are building toward a new paradigm that has not been adequately articulated with a story that can carry the weight of the change.

We have become too uni-dimensional as humans. We allow our technology to run us rather than the other way around. We lose things that are valueable that have a much higher sensory value and is replaced by more cerebrally-focused activities to the exclusion of the senses. We do not have the inclination or the power to go within and explore an expansion of inner sensory experience that can grow us in the external world.

All of this is involved in "firing on more burners". As mentioned before expanding our awareness into new areas including artistic, scientific, physical, technological and emotional realms feeds new thought patterns and personas that turn on more and more existential burners. As thought produces action, the world is changed and created by opening the tap of infinite thought to express itself to the quantity and degree of open lines to each burner. Stopping up a burner produces a weak flame. Open the tap wide and the fire will blaze.

I am not a Jean Houston fan, follower or disciple but I have come to respect many of her ideas. Being able to have the live experience certainly added extra color and dimension to my concepts of human potential and expression that I can further synthesize into my continued search for truth.

Bringing New Mind to Bear on Social Change

I was fortunate to attend a lecture by Jean Houston tonight. It was a very inspiring and productive experience. She is an awesome speaker and has an incredible biography of accomplishment and purpose. She has trained, worked with and known a who's who of great people from the 20th century including Albert Einstein, Margaret Mead, Linus Pauling, Bill Clinton, Jonas Salk, Dalai Llama, Tielhard de Chardin and many others. She had numerous stories about many of these people and others. But that was not the focus of the communication.

She has created and works in a medium known as social artistry. This is essentially the use of ritual to enhance knowing in individuals in order that they might a more creative participant in the world. She impels us to claim the joys and responsibilities of being full world citizens as we live through the intense changes unfolding on the planet today. She uses and develops these techniques in training the very top leaders in industry, government, education, health and spirituality in numerous countries and cultures.

One of her current projects is training leaders at the United Nations. She has counseled and taught leadership to presidents and other world leaders. She believes that we are in a period of profound change unlike anything humanity has ever experienced and we need the tools of higher consciousness and creativity to move forward through the changes to co-create the future.

I was also fortunate enough to help her out. At one point before starting the experiential portion of the program, she asked if anyone in the audience could play piano. Several folks raised their hands. Then she asked how many could play spontaneously. All hands went down except mine. So, I volunteered myself to improvise accompaniment to two of the exercises she did with the attendees. It was a blast as I had not done anything like that in a long time. Plus, it was great to participate with a person of her enlightenment and caliber.

Great fun on a stormy night....