Meru Foundation eTORUS(tm)
Newsletter
Number 18 – 30 November 2003
Copyright 2003 Meru Foundation
Edited by Cynthia Tenen
NEWS
Two of Stan Tenen's philosophical essays have been published in a new
magazine, The Fool (so named
by editor David Gregson, for "One who subverts convention or orthodoxy
in order to reveal spiritual or moral truth.") An updated version of On Immortality appears in The Fool's first issue, and the
second issue continues with The
Three Pillars of Love. (Both of these essays originally appeared
in conjunction with our eTORUS newsletter, and are available on Meru's
website at <www.meru.org/Newsletter/journalindex.html>.)
The Fool, which Gregson calls
"the unofficial voice of the Findhorn Foundation spiritual community,"
is available both in print and on-line. It's an interesting, eclectic,
and well-produced magazine. You can download the first two issues of
"The Fool" in their entirety from <www.imagine.fm/thefool/>.
For hard copy, contact David Hoyle at the Phoenix shop at Findhorn in
Scotland: <mailorder@phoenixshop.com>,
or tel. +44 (0)1309 690110.
ARTHUR YOUNG's THE REFLEXIVE UNIVERSE NOW
AVAILABLE FROM MERU FOUNDATION
Arthur M. Young (1905-1995), mathematician, inventor, and philosopher,
spent the latter part of his life developing his "theory of process."
His seminal work, The Reflexive
Universe, is the book we most frequently recommend to people who
want a deeper understanding of some of the mathematical philosophy
underlying our work. However, it has sometimes been hard to find. Meru
Foundation is pleased to offer The
Reflexive Universe through our own secure-server site, <www.meetingtent.com>.
Here are Stan's comments on the work of Arthur Young, excerpted from
"Applications of the Theory of Process to the Work of the Meru
Foundation," (c)1996 Stan Tenen.
"It is fair to say that Meru Foundation's re-discoveries of the self-
organizing and universal properties of the western sacred alphabets,
Hebrew, Greek and Arabic, rest primarily on the shoulders of three
giants: the Kabbalah, solid geometry, and the works of Arthur M. Young.
Not only did Arthur's ideas support our work, but most of our
videotaped lectures were held at his "Institute for the Study of
Consciousness" in Berkeley, and on occasions too numerous to mention,
it was Arthur and Ruth Young personally who saw to the survival of our
research effort.
"When viewed in the light of Arthur Young's theory of process,
traditional kabbalistic teachings take on a new, more genuine and more
profound meaning. Instead of legends, we see a true science of
consciousness preserved for us in sacred texts of the western faiths."
(For the rest of Stan's essay, go to <www.meetingtent.com/ArthurYoung.html>.)
HOW DO WE READ
WORDS?
"Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer
in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is
taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a
toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae
the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a
wlohe."
As any reader of English can see, it is possible to read English words
when the middle letters are scrambled. The paragraph above is perfectly
understandable. Is this effect language-dependent? What does it say
about how our brains process the written word? See, for example,
<http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/personal/matt.davis/Cmabrigde/> Not
all languages work -- and one of the exceptions is Hebrew. Here is what
Davis has to say:
Thanks to Samuel Wazana and John Sutton, I now have a Hebrew version of
the original and scrambled text. Samuel suggets that the scrambled text
is "a REAL mess.. you can not understand it at all". This may reflect a
interesting property of the Hebrew writing system. Since vowels are not
written in the text, there is a lot less redundancy in written Hebrew.
It may be that readers are already using some inference processes to
work out what words are written, the extra load added by jumbling
letters creates an additional, excessive level of difficulty. It's also
possible that written words are more confusible in Hebrew - that is,
many more words are like "salt" and "slat" in which letter
transpositions create other words.
Stan adds the following:
Because Hebrew is very difficult, if not impossible, to read when
medial letters are scrambled, we have to consider the reliability of
translations of the Hebrew Bible based _outside_ of the Talmudic
tradition, vs. translations of the Hebrew Bible based on and
supplemented by Oral Torah/Talmud. It seems to me that these findings
make it very difficult for any intellectually honest academic scholar
to trust _any_ translation of the Hebrew Bible, and especially to make
inferences from these translations.
This could be very important. Properly pursued and documented, it might
-- finally -- make a place for the claims of traditional Jewish
learning in the academic world. After all, academic scholarship uses
the documentary hypothesis and the school of higher criticism as their
means of "proving" that the Hebrew Bible is an edited text written by
inspired sages, and not revealed to Moses at Sinai, or as a natural
constant of our universe.
These findings with regard to the unreadability of letter-scrambled
Hebrew words, of course do not prove that the Hebrew Bible consists of
more than historical stories, but they certainly do destroy the
plausibility and credibility of current academic dogma on the subject.
I think we should "stay tuned." <smile>
MATCHING A
CHALLENGE GRANT TO MERU FOUNDATION
Meru Foundation has received a challenge grant of several thousand
dollars. We would like to fulfill this contributor's wishes and match
their gift. If we can do this, it will make a significant difference to
Meru Foundation.
If you have been considering an end-of-year holiday-season gift, now
your gift will have double the value, and go twice as far.
For further information, email Cynthia at <meru@meru.org>, or
call us at 781-784-3462.
BOOK REVIEW:
Sign Language of the Soul: A Handbook
for Healing (c)2003 by Dale H. Schusterman, D.C.
The Writers' Collective, Cranston, RI ISBN 1-932133-05-4
Now Available on <www.meetingtent.com>
Most of the books reviewed so far in eTORUS have been works of
biography, mathematics, or history -- all of which have an objective
approach. In contrast, Sign Language
of the Soul: A Handbook for Healing, by chiropractor Dale
Schusterman, is an example of responsible presentation of subjective
material. Dr. Schusterman presents a method for encouraging healing
developed empirically through years of experience as a practitioner. He
bases this method on hand-gestures developed from his inner practice,
within a structure based on his own understanding of the Tree of Life.
For him and for his patients, this method works, and Dr. Schusterman's
examples drawn from case histories enliven and personalize this book.
Sign Language of the Soul is
written as a working handbook for chiropractors and other hands-on
healers. It is beautifully illustrated; the hand-gestures are clear and
easy to learn. Schusterman's approach is practical, with exercises and
detailed explanations. It is not peer-reviewed research -- Schusterman
himself is clear about this, explaining on his website that "there have
been no blind, randomized control studies performed. These methods are
based on empirical observations, trial, and error performed over many
years."
Because Sign Language of the Soul is so honestly, carefully, and clearly presented, this is the sort of
learning from personal experience that can be valuable and helpful to
others. Dr. Schusterman's empirically-developed "Sign Language of the
Soul" is not the same as the Hebrew alphabet hand-gestures discovered
in Meru Foundation research. But the observation that how we hold and
use our hands is directly related to our feelings, underlies both. In
fact, Dr. Schusterman's chapter on the relationship of hand motion to
brain function relies on many of the same references we also use in our
discussions of language and gesture, such as Dr. Frank Wilson's book, The Hand,(1) or Prof. Ullin Place's
paper, "The Role of the Hand in the Evolution of Language."(2) This is
why we want to refer eTORUS readers to Dr. Schusterman's work.
I am not a healing practitioner, and I'm sure there are aspects of Dr.
Schusterman's presentation that I'm missing. I am interested in hearing
from practitioners who have their own experience to offer, who are also
familiar with the Meru research. If you have comments on this book --
please email me, and I'll pass them along to Dr. Schusterman.
--Cynthia Tenen
(1) The Hand: How its Use Shapes the
Brain, Language, and Human Culture, (c)1998 by Frank R. Wilson,
M.D.,
paper edition published by Vintage Books, ISBN 0-679-74047-3
(2) Place, Ullin T. (2000) "The Role of the Hand in the Evolution of
Language." Psycoloquy: 11(007) Language Gesture (1)
This paper is available at
<http://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/cgi/psyc/newpsy?11.007>
***********************
Stan and I would like to wish all of our readers a happy, peaceful, and
fulfilling winter holiday season. Those of us in the United States have
just celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday, a time when we pause to
remember, and celebrate, the many blessings and gifts we have received
in our lives. It is in this spirit that we hope and pray this coming
year will see the growth of our dreams, the deepening of our awareness
and knowledge, and for all earth's inhabitants, lives of increasing
dignity, safety, and peace.
Yours truly,
Cynthia and Stan Tenen
Meru Foundation
Sharon, Massachusetts, USA
30 November 2003
HELPING MERU FOUNDATION WITH YOUR FEEDBACK
I hope you enjoy this Meru Foundation eTORUS(tm) Newsletter.
We welcome your comments and suggestions, and would like the
opportunity
to speak with you personally.
If you have comments or questions, please send an email to Cynthia
Tenen
at meru@meru.org with your phone
number
and a good time to call -- or, please call us at 781-784-8902 (Boston
area).
I would like to brainstorm with you.
Thank you for your interest in the work of the Meru Foundation.
The Meru Foundation eTORUS(tm) Newsletter is copyright
2003
Meru Foundation. All rights reserved.
Past issues of eTORUS(tm) are archived online on the Meru Foundation
website at
<http://www.meru.org/Newsletter/journalindex.html>.
You may duplicate and pass along this newsletter, in its entirety,
as long
as you include this copyright notice and the contact information below.
Please
send comments and questions to <meru@meru.org>.
Meru Foundation research offices:
Research Director: Stan Tenen
Secretary-Treasurer: Levanah (Cynthia) Tenen
PO Box 503
Sharon, MA 02067 USA
781-784-8902 Voice 253-663-9273 Fax
Email: <meru@meru.org>
Website: <http://www.meru.org>
How to order Meru Foundation Videos and Products:
Visit our secure-server website at <http://www.meetingtent.com>
OR
Fax your order to 1-253-663-9273 OR
Email: <service@meru.org>
with a subject line of "Meru Product Order"
To order by phone:
In the U.S., call toll-free: 1-888-422-MERU
Outside the U.S., call 1-781-784-3462
EUROPEAN AND PAL VIDEO ORDERS:
To order PAL versions of Meru Videotapes:
Email Ron Engert in Germany at <ron@tattva-viveka.de>
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