Jan R. Markle, M.A., C.B.T. Missed the conference luncheon this year? You missed an astounding demonstration. It started out with the usual: eating, chatting and listening to business reports amid chocolate cake guilt. But these mundane aspects were soon eclipsed by the appearance of Mitsumasa Kawakami, billed as a Japanese Swami. With an interpreter, Kawakami entertainingly described how he went from a body builder, “Mr. Japan” in 1972, to a Yogic Master with over 30 years of practice. Looking younger than his reported 62 years, Kawakami then stepped onto a stage, which was covered with Indian print cloth. He closed his eyes a few moments and then his assistant handed him what looked like a BBQ skewer. Holding the skewer near his neck, it appeared he paused, and then slowly, the point of the skewer emerged from the skin of his throat. Just when you’re thinking, “that’s gotta’ hurt” (some in the audience were visibly distressed), he opened his mouth and placed another skewer beneath his tongue. The mind recoiled, but sure enough, the skewer slowly began to appear from the top of his tongue. Showing no signs of pain, he then calmly pushed a second one through a different spot. With his eyes still closed, he gestured to now allow people to flash their cameras and record what the mind was surely having trouble comprehending: a man pierced with sharp steel but showing no signs of pain. As he withdrew the skewers, his assistant took each one, wiped it and held up the gauze to show there was no blood. No pain, no blood. Someone in the audience asked, “How do you do it?” His answer was, “I become one with the metal and ask my cells to move aside.” Erik Peper, Ph.D., professor at SF State University and Director, Institute for Holistic Healing Studies has studied Kawakami during the last four years. Although Kawakami’s piercing was not monitored, Dr. Peper has recorded similar displays and found a complete lack of physiological arousal. “He’s aware of it but he doesn’t respond to it,” Dr. Peper reports. “At best he feels a cool sensation. He somehow has learned that they’re just stimuli ... so it doesn’t activate pain, fear or arousal...and yet he has perfect pain threshold, so if you touch him with a pin ... he’s normal.” The next day, according to Dr. Peper, there were no holes in the tongue and, even though the skewers were not sterilized, the tissues were completely healed. “To believe” is to hold an opinion. “To know” is to perceive or experience directly. For the onlookers, as the skewers entered, belief in voluntary control shifted to knowing. The city-limit sign designating “what is possible” was flattened by a fast-moving experience, a vehicle driven by a swami, speeding towards a new horizon. As for next year’s luncheon? Be there. Who knows which belief we’ll be transforming next? INSIDE
5 EMERGING PD TECHNOLOGIES Like every other industry, professional development (PD) is going through a lot of changes as technology continues to advance. Based on two years of research on teacher PD, Education Development Center (EDC, www.edc.org) has identified technologies that are poised for more widespread adoption for teacher learning around the world. Here are the top five, presented in reverse order of likelihood of widespread adoption.
Ear to the Ground features voices from various corners of the mathematics education world.
