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WE ARE IN A RACE WITH OURSELVES
Will we be able to educate
people quickly enough to understand the complexity of the modern world?
Will we be able to learn to control nuclear weapons before it is too
late?
Will the human population continue to increase faster than we can control
it?
Will we ever be able to feed ourselves?
ISHK began with these questions over three decades ago.
The twentieth century saw major advances in our knowledge of human nature.
Scientists in many disciplines unraveled mysteries of the human brain.
Research in psychology confirmed observations of classical thinkers
such as Plato, Rumi, and El Ghazzali on conditioning, attention, and
perception; the link between mind and health was well established; new
discoveries in the past 60 years have revealed more about the origins
of Christianity than perhaps in any other period. Though vital to humanity
and the world today, even in the twenty-first century, this new knowledge
has been slow to reach the general public and public policy makers.
In the mid-1960s, ISHK's founders envisioned approaches toward solving
some of the complex social, political, economic, biological and environmental
issues facing humankind. They established ISHK in 1969 as an educational
organization to begin the task of closing the knowledge gap in these
areas.
A brochure entitled "We
Are in a Race With Ourselves" in the 1970s laid out some of the
problems and issues facing the world today. Are the solutions to these
problem issues within our grasp, or are we still in a race with ourselves?
Read More...
* * *
The race is still on...To
read a little more about the history of ISHK, continue with the following
chronological account.
2000 - 2011...
"...a main focus of ISHK's work since our founding
in 1969 has been to disseminate information and insights from psychology
and other disciplines about who we are and how our minds work, so that
we may be more conscious in shaping the future. Today...getting this
kind of information and insight into the wider culture is more important
than ever." -- Robert Ornstein
Hoopoe Books Share Literacy
Program™
In the past four decades, ISHK took note of the great need for books
and educational materials by at-risk kids throughout the country. In
early 2000, ISHK began its children's literacy project called Hoopoe
Books Share Literacy™ program under the directorship of Sally
Mallam. Through generous support from donors, grants from organizations
such as The Will J. Reid Foundation, eBay, H.E.B. Texas, Kaiser Permanente,
and others, Share Literacy has been able to work with established programs
designed to promote thinking and reading skills in young children and
to contribute books, CDs and newsletters to over 350,000
families, many of whom had no books in the home before. As an adjunct
to this project, with the help of professional educators and researchers,
in 2004-2005, ISHK developed and piloted early education curricula for
teachers and developed free parent-teacher manuals for all the Hoopoe
books offering home and school activities to help instill the love of
reading in children. In 2006, ISHK began pilot programs for training
teachers on the use of the Hoopoe books in a program called "Teaching-Stories:
Learning That Lasts." Since that time, Hoopoe Books Curriculum and Training
programs have been used successfully used and critically acclaimed by
educators all around the country.
September 11 and Beyond
ISHK responded to the tragedies of September
11 by offering information that stresses the need for educating
ourselves about brainwashing and conversion, as well as the rich cultures
and contributions to human history from the regions of Afghanistan,
the Middle East, and Central Asia.
The Human Journey
In 2005-2006, ISHK embarked on developing a new website to follow humanity
from our origins in Eastern Africa and the Middle East to the present
day, with an eye to what comes next. The
Human Journey website publishes important essays written by foremost
researchers and experts which should help overlay the significant stages
of this journey with what we know of how we adapted physically and culturally
to conditions along the way. ISHK hopes that an examination of these
determinants will reveal a better understanding of who we are as humans
and why we do what we do.
As part of the Human Journey, in April 2006, ISHK sponsored
a one-day symposium in Cambridge, MA, entitled The
Core of Early Christian Spirituality: Its Relevance to the World Today
bringing together leading researchers speaking on some of the latest
discoveries and their implications for contemporary spirituality. In
the past 60 years, more has been revealed about the origins of Christianity
than perhaps in any other period in history. "At a point when religions
are seen by many to be in conflict, when some call for an end to faith,
others for a split between spirituality and religion, we are bringing
together leading thinkers on the new, radical evidence about early Christianity
and what it means for us today," says moderator Robert Ornstein in a
pre-conference interview.
All About Me
Work is in progress on the fourth title in a series of books and teaching
materials on human nature for kids ages 12 - 18 (All
About Me). The first three books focused on our memory, our feelings,
and how our behavior is influenced by others. Under the editorial direction
of Denise
Nessel, Ph.D., Publications Director of the National Alliance for
Effective Education, and of Robert Ornstein, Ph.D., as advising psychologist,
the series will present the latest information from various branches
of psychology in an engaging, relevant and practical way for children
of this age group.
* * *
1990s...
A FABLE:
Once upon a time, in a land not very far away, was a community located
along the banks of a river. The citizens were distressed because so
many people were drowning in the river. So they developed ambulance
speedboats, impressive resuscitation procedures, and intensive care
units. Sometimes the rescues worked, but often they did not. Either
way, their heroic medical efforts fully occupied their time, attention,
and resources. Then one day someone asked, "Why don't these people learn
to swim?"
Continuing
Education at Home for Psychologists
ISHK's CE@Home Program for Psychologists,
founded in 1979 under the direction of Charles Swencionis of the Albert
Einstein College of Medicine, began as a direct extension of the Brain,
Mind and Psychology seminars of the 1970s and 1980s. ISHK is approved
by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education.
ISHK set up a structure to insure compliance with the APA's Ethical
Principles of Psychologists and, today, there are over 300 courses
offered to psychologists in states that require CE accreditation in
such fields as Clinical Psychology, Ethics, Cognitive Psychology, Gender
Studies, Psychology of Consciousness, and many others.
The Mind/Body Health Newsletter
Because of the explosion of knowledge about the role of mental and social
factors in health and longevity,from 1992-2000, under the direction
of David Sobel, M.D., Director of Preventative Medicine at Kaiser Permanente,
ISHK began publishing The
Mind/Body Health Newsletter, the first newsletter dedicated
to bridging the gaps between mind and body, research and practice, in
the fast-moving new fields of behavioral medicine, psychoneuroimmunology
and health psychology. For nearly a decade, ISHK's Mind/Body Health
Newsletter (originally Mental Medicine Update) was an important
resource for more than 35,000 readers — lay persons and practitioners.
The fundamental health information from the newsletter is now available
in the Healthy Mind
Healthy Body Handbook edited by David Sobel and Robert Ornstein.
Malor Books
As part of ISHK's mission is to make available important works in the
fields of health, psychology, education, cross-cultural studies, and
spirituality, in 1995 ISHK founded Malor
Books to publish new or reprints of significant and thought-provoking
works. The first publication brought back the important work of Gordon
Claridge, The Origins
of Mental Illness, and subsequent printings included works by
Denise Nessel, Paul Ekman, Robert Ornstein and many others. ISHK has
made the Malor publication New
World New Mind by Robert Ornstein and Paul Ehrlich available
in a free downloadable version on our website, and ISHK plans to offer
more downloads for future works.
Hoopoe Books
In 1998 ISHK's Hoopoe
Books, under the editorship of Sally Mallam, began publishing an
award-winning series of large-format, illustrated children's books by
Afghan author Idries Shah featuring traditional teaching tales. In part,
this endeavor was to enhance the scientific research initiated in the
Mind, Brain and Health seminars over two decades earlier that supported
the evidence that these traditional Teaching-Stories enhance the learning
process in children and adults alike. There are now 11 children's books
by Idries Shah, ranging from ages 3 & up, many of them printed in bilingual
Spanish-English or Spanish languages and most with audio CDs available
in multiple languages. Since its inception, Hoopoe books continue to
garner praise from major educational reviewers, including the School
Library Journal, NEA Today, Children's Bookwatch,
and featured on NPR News in "All Things Considered." In 2009, Hoopoe
Books expanded its offering to include the All About Me series of books
for ages 12-18, and other important works for children.
1980s...
"On the positive side, the brain possesses highly
refined mechanisms to maintain and restore health. We are not helpless
and defenseless in the face of the stresses of everyday life." -- Robert
Ornstein, in The Healing Brain
The Healing Brain Seminars
From the Mind & Body, Health and Psychology series of seminars in the
1970s, ISHK developed the popular Healing
Brain Seminars, under the direction of Dr. David Sobel (Director
of Preventative Medicine, Kaiser Permanente). The seminars were established
to give a much-needed forum to pioneering researchers in mind/body health,
and much of what we now know about mind-body relationships come from
this important series. The seminars were attended by over 20,000 health
professionals, and they helped bring psycho-social factors such as stress,
depression, optimism, and social support to the forefront of health
care. The work by Robert Ornstein and David Sobel entitled The
Healing Brain touches on much of the material from these seminars.
(See also The Healing
Brain: A Scientific Reader, edited by Robert Ornstein and Charles
Swencionis, in the ISHK CE at Home
program.) Read More...
The Road to the Future
In 1989, ISHK's Road to the Future
symposia convened a distinguished panel of thinkers to address pressing
issues of our time: cross-cultural communication, the environment, and
effects of technological progress. Participants included historian James
Burke, anthropologist Edward T. Hall, novelist Doris Lessing, and ecologist
Paul Ehrlich.
1970s...
The educational system, both past and present,
has specialized in verbal analysis and the teaching of reading, writing
and arithmetic. What it has neglected, perhaps, is the development of
relationships between ideas, between people, and the perception of whole
systems—the development of the whole person. -- Paul
Brandwein, Ph.D., from "Educating Both Halves of the Brain" seminar
Brain, Mind and Health Seminars
Because of the growing understanding among scientists and educators
on the complex, yet subtle relationships between the body and the mind,
ISHK began the groundbreaking seminars
on mind and body health. New scientific discoveries on the brain
and consciousness were emerging, and there was a growing recognition
of the differences between people and of the need for new and better
techniques for educating the whole person. ISHK's intention was
to present a new synthesis and a new understanding of the brain, the
duality of the mind, and the implications of the newer knowledge of
split-brain and normal brain research for the purposes and processes
of education. A long list of eminent faculty in these early seminars,
including Idries Shah, Rene Dubos,
Linus Pauling, Robert
Ornstein, and others, presented scientific evidence that tools such
as the Teaching-Story, meditation, biofeedback enhance our understanding
of ourselves. The information developed and taught in ISHK's early Mind
& Body seminars was, indeed, part of the foundation upon which current
successful practices in education, medicine, and psychology are based.
Read More...
Psychologies East and West
Seminars
Much of ISHK's work through the 1970s evolved to the development and
initiation of continuing education programs in partnership with major
academic and professional institutions, such as the Universities of
California, The New School, Boston University, Albert Einstein College
of Medicine, Stanford University, and others. In 1972, ISHK became one
of the first organizations approved by the American Psychological
Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists.
Because psychology overlaps many professional fields of study and covers
a broad range of populations and service settings, ISHK began with seminars
on psychological advancements in biofeedback, meditation and self-regulatory
therapies and, in the 1990s, developed course work that covered
fundamental skills that are essential for competent functioning as a
clinical psychologist within the areas of health and mental health.
(See CE at Home for Psychologists program.)
Read More...
The Book Service
During the 1970s, ISHK began to see a need in the U.S. for books and
collections on ancient and new ways of thinking, so in 1972, the ISHK
Book Service was formed as a central source for important contemporary
and traditional literature. ISHK became the sole US distributor of the
works of Idries Shah published
by Octagon Press
LTD. Libraries, universities, trade booksellers, and the general
reading public began to find out about this wealth of knowledge. In
the past three decades, more than 2 million books have
been distributed through the Book Service.
* * *
Beyond Today...
GROWING MY FIELD
Someone observed Nasrudin digging earth from his field and piling
it into a mound. "What are you doing, Mulla?" he asked. "I am collecting
this earth so that I can scatter it and make my field grow bigger."
-- From The World of Nasrudin
by Idries Shah, Octagon Press, 2003
We hope to continue the expansion of our programs as
much as possible in the next few years. Our literacy and education programs
will further develop to meet the most current standards in American
education. Our Continuing Education directors are working on plans to
include not only psychologists, but physicians in our course offerings.
We will continue to research and disseminate information on the latest
in health, psychology, education, human nature, and much more.
In the past ten years alone, ISHK's programs have grown
enormously thanks to the generous support from grants and donations.
ISHK runs all our programs with an administrative staff of 6, plus the
support of approximately 200 volunteers who provide hundreds of thousands
of dollars worth of services per year. If you wish to help us with any
of our programs, please volunteer
your services, or consider a donation.
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