Page 28 - NAMAH-Oct-2018

Namah Vol. 26, Issue 3, 15th October 2018

to lead a divine life. and feelings wrongly. The mind cannot even
regulate our own behaviour. We listen to
There are some positive shifts in society. Gross our desires, the demands of others on us, the
National Happiness may replace Gross Domestic environment, the situation, a host of other
Product. Leaders are taking compassionate things, and then commit an action. Only later
leadership training. Medical curricula have now do we justify them. Thus, it is said that man is
a course on treating patients empathetically. not a rational being but a rationalising one. In
School counsellors dealing with troubled students this session we learn about the many pitfalls of
send their parents to socially intelligent parenting our human nature. We will discuss examples
classes. Neighbourhoods are coming together to of each and look at clippings on them.
do projects such as helping a family in trouble,
childcare, gardening. Healers gather to provide 1. Fundamental attribution error: linking
healing to each other. Nurses have meetings someone’s actions to his disposition rather
discussing challenges they face at work. All than to the situation.
these person-to-person interactions enhance 2. Self-serving bias: we rate ourselves higher
the quality of our lives and increase our social than what is true and set unrealistic goals
safety-net. for ourselves. The notion of ‘our self’
extends to our children and can be a bigger
Interpersonal relations have been studied group too.
from various angles. Neurologists talk about 3. Implicit bias: our unconscious bias against
mirror neurons. When we see an emotion people of different regions, languages, age-
being expressed, we feel just like the person groups, religions, class, or gender, etc. We
experiencing it. Those who study energies will explore ‘free association’ and the
and the aura explain it in terms of energetics ‘implicit project’.
of interaction. Telepathy, or praakaamya and 4. Explicit bias: our prejudices and discrim-
vyapti are Tantric terms for it. We enjoy a inations. We look down upon some, do not
game vicariously, we cry with the actors in a give them a second chance, or we try to
film. A person may trigger memories which mask our prejudice by being patronising
alter our mood. Mirror neurons have been towards them.
used to cure Obsessive Compulsive Disorders 5. Poor in reading micro-expressions: these
of washing hands and phantom limb pains. are fleeting expressions that even seasoned
We will hear a talk which makes us sad. We maskers cannot hide. Sometimes we
will see a picture of a sad face. Then we will simply intuit them. Intuition here means
see a clipping of a sad scene. We will compare subliminal sensing, not the function that
how we mirrored the feelings when it came is higher than the mind. Sometimes this
to us from different sense organs. We will snap-judgement centre in our brain makes
compare how we mirror different emotions. the right decision. The rationalising part
that inhibits impulses is the pre-frontal
Topic 4: why we misread people cortex, just behind the forehead, nature’s
addition on homo sapiens.
Our mind is not an instrument of holistic
knowledge. Thus we read people’s thoughts 6. The male and female brains have major

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