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...with misfortune if those consequences come so late that you can no longer make the relation.

But if you're a buddhist, you are even in a worse situation, because you ought to know that your deeds shall have consequences. And if you're a buddhist teacher, worse still.

I agree. I am glad Brad has addressed the issue of Big Mind. That he has done something to keep the finger pointed towards it, amidst the distractions and confusions of a single human being's very private, very public problems.

The practices and discourses that help us shine a light on our own 'misfortune', our tendencies to blind ourselves to what 'relation' are gardens that need tending - lest too many of us stroll by, oblivious, into another 'too late'.

Western liberalism and capitalism (to dust off a few more weather-worn words) to my mind go hand in hand: reshaping, renewing, reifying (ouch) the 'buddhisms' we may be fortunate or unfortunate to encounter, or that the worst or the best of ourselves (mis?)target on our way.

The western 'individual' (which, yes, is a fiction here, factional) has seen the potential of Zen, hones a sophisticated stupidity, a new stagnancy, fresh hysterical responses to the plates left unwashed; nurtures the intellect under the guise of emptiness, re-translates grief into the play-pen of no-fault, and so on and so on.

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on earth do you do a double-blind trial of any form of talking therapy/activity?
3:54 AM

Anonymous said...
"How on earth do you do a double-blind trial of any form of talking therapy/activity?''

You do it something like this:

First, that research study on ILP has to be supervised by people who have no vested interest in proving that ILP works. It should not be funded by anyone associated with Ken or Genpo, either.

Two, the researchers should not, at any point whatsoever, know which subjects were assigned to the 4 groups. Its done at random.

And the subjects don’t know to which group they’ve been assigned. This is why they call it a double blind study. The researchers don’t know, and the subjects don’t know.

Get a sample of participating subjects. If this is being done at an HMO in the outpatient psych department, we can arrange for all subjects, at the beginning of the study, to fill out a variety of assessment forms such as the written tests used to measure one’s levels of self reported depression, anxiety, what time you go to sleep, what time you get up in the morning.

Have subjects take this test. To be really thorough, if subjects live with someone, you have really zero in by having their roommate or partner rate how depressed or anxious the person is at the start of the study.

Lets imagine this is a six month long study. Administer these tests each month. Note how much psych medication people are taking

Assign them at random to one of four groups:

A non talk therapy group (control)where you hang out and just yak about what happened last week. This is the placebo group.

Group 2) which consists of ILP

Group 3)which consists of instruction in something that has already been of proven worth such as cognitive behavioral therapy and

Group 4) a Zen sitting meditation group, teaching just that--no additional bells or whistles. Sit down and shut up and follow your breath.

Again, at NO time should the subjects know what group they’ve been assigned to, nor the researchers.

Administer the tests each month.

At the end, see if there are noteworthy differences in whether people could reduce dosages of their medication to a greater degree in any of the groups. Was there much of a difference between Group One (Control Group) vs the other two groups?

Was there that much of a difference in self reported depression, anxiety and medication intake in the CBT group vs the Zen Group and the ILP group?

If the ILP group isnt any different from the control group, it has no effect and should be ditched from the curriculum. Its medically inert.

If the Zen group doesn’t show much difference in result from the control group, it should be scrapped from the outpatient education curriculum. And..that is OK. ZEN IS NOT ABOUT WANTING OR GETTING RESULTS, ANWAY.

But if ILP turns out to be inert and no different from a control group, dump the ILP from the outpatient curriculum at the HMO. ILP is all about promised results, so if it doesn’t give measurable results in a double blind test, its not delivering on its promotion—especially grave, given how expensive it is.

If ILP is as a effective as CBT, then it should be any more expensive than CBT and there is no reason for Genpo to charge those high fees—and he really should go get himself licensed to practice medicine or psychotherapy anyway—and carry malpractice insurance. If ILP has an impact, that also means its powerful enough that not everyone should take it—just as any effective medication will have a list of indications and counter indications.

So…that is how one does a double blind study.
7:23 AM


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