Sant Thakar Singh - Infant Blindfolding
Ralph Steinhaus
Thakar Singh has purchased property in the United States (Umpqua, Oregon)
through his organization Know Thyself as Soul Foundation to set up a radical
"Lighthouse School" for children. Thakar Singh proposes to literally take
new born children and apply blindfolds and coverings to their eyes on a 22
hour a day 7 day a week basis for the first 5 years of life. His intention
is to improve the spiritual condition of the children by
forcing their attention inward by denying them outward visual stimulus. By
turning the children inward Thakar Singh hopes to accelerate their spiritual
development. Thakar Singh proposes additional educational training for
students beyond 5 years of age that consists of long hours of sensory
deprivation (meditation on nothing while sitting in darkness) for long spans
of time (4 to 8+ hours a day - the more the better). I believe that this
radical educational program is likely to cause serious harm and suffering to
American children and should not be permitted. I believe that the practice
of full time blindfolding of very young children during the critical first
formative years of their young lives may constitute criminal child
endangerment (I am currently trying to get confirmation of this point
through attorneys and experts in child law) and be prosecutable under law. I
do not believe Thakar Singh should be permitted to organize in the United
States and set up a school following such a program. I would ask that you
write to the
US Consulate Gerneral - New Delhi
U.S. Embassy - New Delhi
Shanti Path
Chanakyapuri 110021
India
and act to protect innocent American children and deny Thakar Singh a
visitor
visa to recruit new practitioner families and children for his "Lighthouse
School" while in the United States (I understand his travel plans involve
entering the United States mid July 2002 and organizing for several weeks).
Evidence to support the claim that Thakar Singh advocates permanent
blindfolding of small children as a component of his Lighthouse school
educational program.
The evidence that I have to support the claim that Thakar Singh has
repeatedly called for the long term blindfolding of new born and very small
children is mostly in the form of published materials and tapes obtained
from his national organization (Know Thyself as Soul Foundation/Kirpal Light
Satsang) of public talks made by Thakar Singh calling for child blindfolding
as part of his educational program at his Lighthouse schools. I will try to
provide pertinent excerpts of his talks and circular letters bearing on the
subject in this and following communications. I will try to provide the
excerpts in expanded form so the statements can be fairly seen in their full
context. Unfortunately some of the context surrounding the material directly
related to child blindfolding is somewhat difficult to understand as the
words are used by Thakar Singh in a technical way to describe spiritual
objects and concepts.
The following are direct verbatim recording of Thakar Singh's words
regarding Guidance for Expectant Mothers taken from the official publication
of his American national organization Kirpal Light Satsang Newsletter Volume
3, Issue 1, starting page 4. This publication was distributed to all
American initiates by mail and was considered official guidance by the
officers of the organization.
"Guidance for Expectant Mothers"
"I do not tell you to resign from your jobs, but we are not to raise our
children to serve the negative power.
We are to raise our children in God. I have just distributed a circular
letter to expectant mothers explaining when the child is born only the
mother should be available to the child. The child is to see the sun, moon,
stars, sky -- not the things of this world. If the child is to see anything
of the world it should be only nature -- trees, plant, plants, flowers,
fruit -- nothing man made. Except for one or two hours each day, the child's
eyes should be covered with a soft cloth. The mother should put her finger
on the forehead of the child, keep Simran. and keep meditating. If children
are brought to me I will initiate them internally -- not with a mantra or
plugging the ears -- the soul will be brought up here (third eye). The
mother may plug the right ear of the child so it enjoys the inner Sound. At
the same time, when the mother keeps Simran the child's soul will enjoy over
there and will grow inside. After six months or a year you will see the
child will not want to open its eyes, and will only want to enjoy all the
wonderful inner blessings of God.
Total Perfection At The Age Of Five Years!
This process should be carried on until the child is five years old, when
generally children begin school to learn something of this world. Until that
time children will be fully connected with God. All knowledge and wisdom
required will be automatically available. We will not need schools but at
central places there will be people who will teach the three R's, the
scriptures and other religious theories. This will be the local school, no
higher education will be needed. What you call higher education is just the
opposite -- it puts you deep into materialism -- this is negative education.
The child will grow as God, will be one with God with no effort, no
struggle -- "Be ye perfect even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect."
He will be complete at the age of five years, he may meditate or not
meditate further. The child's first five years are controlled by the mother
with the help of the community. The mother does not have to be the caretaker
who has to always be there; any spiritual well-connected woman or man can
also take care of the child. Since they all will be radiating God without
negativity in them, they will be able to serve and help the child with the
inner connection. The inner connection will be most important to the life of
the child. Progress is not possible after the age of five or six, for
children have accumulated everything from the negative power."
Unfortunately the above quotation is not an isolated pronouncement made
offhand without consideration but was offered repeatedly publicly at talks
by Thakar Singh and published world wide through Thakar Singh's world wide
organizations as official policy. This pronouncement was published at
considerable expense and sent to every member of his American organization
as an official communication/pronouncement.
A humane society must work to protect its weakest and most vulnerable
members. Please consider writting to the US Consulate General in New Delhi
and request him to deny a visitor visa to Thakar Singh to visit and organize
in the United States. The following information helps identify Thakar Singh
Identification of Thakar Singh (Indian Citizen)
Name: Thakar Singh
Birth date: March 26th, 1929
Father: Manjal Singh
jody
[snip]
> Thakar Singh proposes to literally take new born children and apply
> blindfolds and coverings to their eyes on a 22 hour a day 7 day a
> week basis for the first 5 years of life.
If this is indeed true about Singh it exposes a profound ignorance
of human developmental dynamics and calls into question whatever
spiritual understanding he may have.
Dan Tian
"jody" <jo...@kaliflower.org> wrote in message
news:B8904501.4D3D%jo...@kaliflower.org...
If it is true, he'd be locked up before he could deprive any children of
their senses.
Nothing like that could happen on a large scale in America.
(But yeah, it does expose a profound ignorance.)
Sant_Mat_Gnosis
Thanks for your post.
Here's a link to a
website which presents
some video clips and
other info on cultic
abuse. Perhaps you've
already seen these but
no doubt others have
not. It's sad to hear
about such things:
http://vclass.mtsac.edu:930/phil/gurufile.htm
James
"Ralph Steinhaus" <stein...@earthlink.net> wrote in message news:<OLAa8.6069$P21.5...@newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net>...
Michael Martin
<snipped long article>
God has given children the five senses (with some karmic exceptions)
to use on this physical plane. We have our Pralahbd Karmas (destiny)
to go through. I think we should let the parents raise the children
in a normal fashion. When the child gets old enough, if he has the
destiny to meet the Master, and follow him,then all is well. If not,
then that could be God's will, also. Anyway, I'm of the opinion, that
we should let children grow up, and make their own decisions upon
reaching adulthood.
Michael
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/michaelmartinwesternsatguru
http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/radhasoamisatsangbeas
Michael Basso
infancy, when the brain forms connections based partially on sensory
experiences wit a heavy emphais on the visual systme and assoaicted
interconnecitons with other systems. Subsequently, pairing occurs and
extraneous neurons etc are eliminated. This is among the reasons that
kittens, puppies ...and human infants seek to sense anything and everything
when they are very young. It is like programming a generic computer with an
custom made operating system.
Environmental enrichment in childhood has also been shown to help prevent
later neurodegeneration such as alzheimer's disease.
In ways, sensory deprivation in infancy may be like reverting the human
nervous system into that of a chimp.
jody <jo...@kaliflower.org> wrote in message
news:B8904501.4D3D%jo...@kaliflower.org...