Saturday, December 19, 2009

Monkey business: something to think about

“In a famous experiment of the 70’s, researchers put four monkeys in a cage that contained a ladder leading to a bunch of bananas hanging from the ceiling of the cage. When the first monkey touched the ladder, the researchers hosed all the monkeys with cold water. Soaked and confused, the monkeys tried to reach the bananas again, but whenever one of them touched the ladder, all were “punished.” Soon enough, the monkeys learned the lesson: the ladder was “taboo.” The researchers then exchanged one of the “experienced” monkeys for a new one. As soon as he entered the cage, the new monkey started toward the ladder. Before he could touch it, the other monkeys pulled him down. After a few repetitions, the new monkey abandoned his attempts. The researchers then exchanged another of the experienced monkeys with a new one. Before long, none of the original monkeys remained. Yet the lesson endured: no monkey ever climbed the ladder. (Incidentally, had any of the second-generation monkeys tried, they would have succeeded. Researchers did away with the water hose early in the experiment.)” (Fred Kofman)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi KLIM,

Just wanted to congratulate you in coming up with this courageous blog and helped me clearing many of my doubts.

I was with AOL from 2004-2006 and did every courses possible (Basic I, IIs, Sahaja Samadhi, DSN, ...) and stopped short of TTC. Since the beginning I was not comfortable with canvassing people and wondered how Sri Sri is behind the scenes. I heard him saying that only one time in his life he became angry - and that was when one of the teachers stole money from basic courses - and the only thing he said was "it is so stupid of you to do something like this!".

Anyway, I found the Kriya, Sahaja Samadhi and Padma Sadhana effective for me, but not doing them now a days.

Thanks much and may God bless you!