(The following idea had been submitted in 2009 for the IIT Bombay's 50 Anniversary celebration's competition: Great Ideas to Change the World in 50 Years)
Title of your Idea:
REBP: A New Way To Learn
Scientific and/or
Technical Area of Your Idea:
Neuro-Cognitive Science, Psychotherapy and Physiology
What is unique and
novel about your idea (50 Words):
The novelty of my idea is that it offers us a way to learn by
observing experiences with our sense of touch.
It is the only effective therapy for drug addiction and
alcoholism.
It is the only simple way to teach children how not to get
angry.
How will this idea
impact the world (50 Words):
This idea will help people control their anger and hatred and
thus prevent conflicts, wars and terrorism.
It will help in bridging the gap between the rich and the
poor.
It will help avert the environmental crisis.
Brief description of
the idea and how it can be realized in practice (1000 Words):
Man has so far been unable to be scientific about his inner
life. Mainly because the apparatuses we had been using to observe it—our eyes
and ears—were inappropriate. My idea is to use the apparatus of our sense of
touch to observe our body to learn from it and understand ourselves. I have
used Vipassana or dhamma, the
scientific teaching of Gautama Buddha, to observe and understand the subtler
realities occurring within ourselves, or our body, by using our sense of touch.
This technique, or Body Awareness Exercise, helps us to overcome emotional
suffering. By observing and understanding our own suffering, we begin to
understand the suffering that others must be going through and start having
compassion for other beings; we become more reasonable and considerate, and
lead a moral life. By diligent practice, this technique even makes it possible
for us to experience the laws of physics, such as the law of relativity, within
our own body. Now that we are in a quandary as to which path to choose to
understand the one universal law or the ‘law of everything’, this technique
might well be our best option.
Conflicts about our personal problems and thoughts about our
anger and hatred distract our awareness when we start to look within ourselves.
This is one of the biggest obstacles in doing the exercise, and why people stop
or give up doing it. In order to overcome this obstacle, I have added a
psychoanalytical process, which involves a simple inventory of our anger and
hatred, in my idea that I have named REBP or the REB Program. The inventory is
a part of the original Alcoholics Anonymous program and is very effective in
removing one’s anger and resentments. By doing the inventory and sharing it
with another person, before starting the Body Awareness Exercise, most of our
anger and hatred get removed and stop distracting us too much, and we are able
to do the awareness exercise regularly and benefit from it. The inventory
sharing also helps us to sort out our problems or come to terms with them and
enables us to make the necessary restitutions to restore our relationships with
others.
In times of stress, and poverty is the greatest stressor, the
brain is overworked in transmitting excessive messages, and neurotransmitters
get depleted. Unless the store of neurotransmitters in the brain is
replenished, we experience anxiety, depression and other emotional problems.
This also is an obstacle in doing the awareness exercise. Neurotransmitters are
produced from the nutrients we consume as food and nutrition supplements.
Misinformation by health care providers has made us believe that the proteins
we eat are nutrients for the cells of the body. They are not. The nutrients for
our body cells are the twenty amino acids that the body extracts from the
proteins we eat by the process of digestion. Different combinations of these
twenty make up practically everything in our body. When any one of the amino
acid is deficient in our diet, the health of the part or system of our body
that requires it for its growth or functioning suffers, and we become prone to
illness and diseases. Taking the particular amino acid as nutritional
supplement can restore out health.
Most of the neurotransmitters in the brain are produced from
amino acids, serotonin from tryptophan, dopamine and epinephrine, as well as
adrenaline and thyroxin, from tyrosine or phenylalanine. GABA, which relieves
anxiety, is itself a neurotransmitter, but also produced from glutamine.
Pfeiffer's Law states, "For every drug that benefits a patient, there is a
natural substance that can achieve the same effect." People need to be
educated about this amino acid aspect of nutrition, for then they would be able
to take care of their physical, as well as emotional, health by taking the
necessary amino acid as nutrientional supplements rather than unnecessarily
poisoning their bodies with drugs, unless absolutely necessary.
So my idea is to educate people about the Body Awareness
Exercise, inventory and nutrition and to tech them how to do the exercise and
the inventory.
To awaken is to see and understand! Once people see this idea
and understand it, we wouldn’t have to do much more to implement the idea. They
would want to practice and implement it themselves. Everybody wants to control
their anger. Everybody wants to overcome their fear and emotional suffering.
But science has failed us. This idea makes it possible. All that this idea
needs to get implemented is for the scientific community to accept the idea as
a scientific idea. Once this is done, it would be implemented worldwide through
the efforts of universities, schools and affiliates. I have written a book
giving a scientific explanation of the processes of both the inventory and the
awareness exercise and detailed instructions on doing the inventory. The
inventory teaches us to take care of our anger, and with it parents and
teachers will now finally have a way to teach children how not to get angry. The
inventory alone would be highly beneficial to the all people. It also makes us
more compassionate and considerate towards our environment and its people.
Along with amino acid supplements to replenish neurotransmitters, it is a
highly effective therapy for drug addiction and alcoholism.
People can learn the simple Body Awareness Exercise from the
book Sadhana by Anthoney de Mello, and practice it at home. Centers for
teaching this exercise along scientific lines would also have to be set up, as
the continuity in its practice is more beneficial. Even young children can
learn this exercise to start taking care of their emotions from an early age
itself.
Vipassana is known to help executives remain calm in times of
stress, increasing their efficiency and productivity. When more executives of
commerce and industry and leaders of nations start doing the awareness exercise
and inventory, it will go a long way in averting the environmental crisis.
Authority rarely brings about a change; change comes only
from within.
Any general comments:
Please note: I will send you a copy of my book and related
material, for more information about my idea, by post.
The inspiration for my idea:
“Over Great areas of the world it still survives; it is possible that in
contact with western science, and inspired by the spirit of history, the
original teaching of Gautama, revived and purified, may yet play a large part
in the direction of human destiny.” - H. G. Wells (The Outline of History)