'World's Most Relaxing Room'

Never mind the part about evolution - I would skip a day of school to spend thirty minutes (okay, maybe one hour) in this room!

Crisis, what crisis? Ten minutes in Richard Wiseman's room and you’ll wonder what all the fuss is about

Times Online
October 21, 2008
Will Pavia


Never mind that winter is almost upon us, that we may already be in recession and that we are all fractious, glum and late for our trains. Today, for all of us, salvation is at hand.

A British psychologist has developed a panacea to lighten the darkening mood. In a campus on the edge of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Richard Wiseman claims to have created the most relaxing room in the world.

The space brings together the lessons of many years of scientific research on how to relax a human being: there is soft matting, the scent of lavender, diffuse green light and gentle music. Every evening this week frazzled bankers, pension fund managers and all those beaten down by the worries of the world can visit this magical room and find peace.

Professor Wiseman will measure their responses, make modifications according to their demands, and show-case his room as a must-have facility for businesses and schools.

Yesterday the professor held a preview, for students at the University of Hertfordshire and various jumpy members of the media. As I arrived, Professor Wiseman was putting the finishing touches to his room. “I have never been so stressed in my life,” he said.

Half an hour later he stood at the entrance to his room, backlit by its green and blue light, the sound of a woman’s voice rising and falling gently behind him, accompanied by a string ensemble and a Tibetan singing bowl. “The music is continuous, there are no sudden changes - from an evolutionary perspective, change is associated with danger,” he said.

The scent of lavender would stimulate beta-waves, relaxing our brains. “People have looked into all these different elements before,” he said. “But no one has put them all together. We are looking to see if, all together, they will make you super-relaxed.”

Six of us took our places on mats on the floor. Suki Thiara, 22, a marketing student, was worrying about finding a job next year. Tobi Alli-Usman, 21, was worrying about his events management business and his degree. I was worrying about the global financial crisis, and whether I had bought the wrong kind of screws for some shelves I was hoping to put up.

The music was euphoric, the green light soothing. A smoke machine periodically blew white clouds above our heads. It felt as if I were lying inside an advert for green tea.

“Am I relaxed?” I wondered. My heart was throbbing at 86 beats a minute, but after a few moments staring into the blue it dropped to 74. I even considered loosening my tie.

Ms Thiara said: “I feel like we are sinking away from everything. I am floating away like an angel.” Mr Alli-Usman put his thoughts in order. “Now I can pick out the things to focus on and it doesn’t seem as if there is so much to do,” he said.

I was unconvinced at first. Later I realised that I had not once thought about the global financial crisis, nor the crisis surrounding my shelving unit. I left, wondering where I might get a nice cup of green tea.

For November 1



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Reading about Suffering

"When one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every translation, and His hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another...So this bell calls us all; but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness."

"I can read my affliction as a correction, or as a mercy, and I confess I know not how to read it. How should I understand this illness? I cannot conclude, though death conclude me. If it is a correction indeed, let me translate it and read it as a mercy; for though it may appear to be a correction, I can have no greater proof of Your mercy than to die in Thee and by that death be united to Him who died for me."

John Donne (1572-1631), Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions in Philip Yancey, Where is God When It Hurts?

Desiring God

O God, You are my God; earnestly I seek You;
my soul thirsts for You;
my flesh faints for You,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon You in the sanctuary,
beholding Your power and glory.

Because Your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise You.
So I will bless You as long as I live;
in Your name I will lift up my hands.

My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
for You have been my help,
and in the shadow of Your wings I will sing for joy.
My soul clings to You;
Your right hand upholds me.

Psalm 63:1-9

Yet another persecution

Hindu Threat to Christians: Convert or Flee
The New York Times
October 12, 2008

BOREPANGA, India — The family of Solomon Digal was summoned by neighbors to what serves as a public square in front of the village tea shop.

They were ordered to get on their knees and bow before the portrait of a Hindu preacher. They were told to turn over their Bibles, hymnals and the two brightly colored calendar images of Christ that hung on their wall. Then, Mr. Digal, 45, a Christian since childhood, was forced to watch his Hindu neighbors set the items on fire.

“ ‘Embrace Hinduism, and your house will not be demolished,’ ” Mr. Digal recalled being told on that Wednesday afternoon in September. “ ‘Otherwise, you will be killed, or you will be thrown out of the village.’ ”

India, the world’s most populous democracy and officially a secular nation, is today haunted by a stark assault on one of its fundamental freedoms. Here in eastern Orissa State, riven by six weeks of religious clashes, Christian families like the Digals say they are being forced to abandon their faith in exchange for their safety.

The forced conversions come amid widening attacks on Christians here and in at least five other states across the country, as India prepares for national elections next spring.

The clash of faiths has cut a wide swath of panic and destruction through these once quiet hamlets fed by paddy fields and jackfruit trees. Here in Kandhamal, the district that has seen the greatest violence, more than 30 people have been killed, 3,000 homes burned and over 130 churches destroyed, including the tin-roofed Baptist prayer hall where the Digals worshiped. Today it is a heap of rubble on an empty field, where cows blithely graze.

Across this ghastly terrain lie the singed remains of mud-and-thatch homes. Christian-owned businesses have been systematically attacked. Orange flags (orange is the sacred color of Hinduism) flutter triumphantly above the rooftops of houses and storefronts.

India is no stranger to religious violence between Christians, who make up about 2 percent of the population, and India’s Hindu-majority of 1.1 billion people. But this most recent spasm is the most intense in years.

It was set off, people here say, by the killing on Aug. 23 of a charismatic Hindu preacher known as Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, who for 40 years had rallied the area’s people to choose Hinduism over Christianity.

The police have blamed Maoist guerrillas for the swami’s killing. But Hindu radicals continue to hold Christians responsible.

In recent weeks, they have plastered these villages with gruesome posters of the swami’s hacked corpse. “Who killed him?” the posters ask. “What is the solution?”

Behind the clashes are long-simmering tensions between equally impoverished groups: the Panas and Kandhas. Both original inhabitants of the land, the two groups for ages worshiped the same gods. Over the past several decades, the Panas for the most part became Christian, as Roman Catholic and Baptist missionaries arrived here more than 60 years ago, followed more recently by Pentecostals, who have proselytized more aggressively.

Meanwhile, the Kandhas, in part through the teachings of Swami Laxmanananda, embraced Hinduism. The men tied the sacred Hindu white thread around their torsos; their wives daubed their foreheads with bright red vermilion. Temples sprouted.

Hate has been fed by economic tensions as well, as the government has categorized each group differently and given them different privileges.

The Kandhas accused the Panas of cheating to obtain coveted quotas for government jobs. The Christian Panas, in turn, say their neighbors have become resentful as they have educated themselves and prospered.

Their grievances have erupted in sporadic clashes over the past 15 years, but they have exploded with a fury since the killing of Swami Laxmanananda.

Two nights after his death, a Hindu mob in the village of Nuagaon dragged a Catholic priest and a nun from their residence, tore off much of their clothing and paraded them through the streets.

The nun told the police that she had been raped by four men, a charge the police say was borne out by a medical examination. Yet no one was arrested in the case until five weeks later, after a storm of media coverage. Today, five men are under arrest in connection with inciting the riots. The police say they are trying to find the nun and bring her back here to identify her attackers.

Given a chance to explain the recent violence, Subash Chauhan, the state’s highest-ranking leader of Bajrang Dal, a Hindu radical group, described much of it as “a spontaneous reaction.”

He said in an interview that the nun had not been raped but had had regular consensual sex.

On Sunday evening, as much of Kandhamal remained under curfew, Mr. Chauhan sat in the hall of a Hindu school in the state capital, Bhubaneshwar, beneath a huge portrait of the swami. A state police officer was assigned to protect him round the clock. He cupped a trilling Blackberry in his hand.

Mr. Chauhan denied that his group was responsible for forced conversions and in turn accused Christian missionaries of luring villagers with incentives of schools and social services.

He was asked repeatedly whether Christians in Orissa should be left free to worship the god of their choice. “Why not?” he finally said, but he warned that it was unrealistic to expect the Kandhas to politely let their Pana enemies live among them as followers of Jesus.

“Who am I to give assurance?” he snapped. “Those who have exploited the Kandhas say they want to live together?”

Besides, he said, “they are Hindus by birth.”

Hindu extremists have held ceremonies in the country’s indigenous belt for the past several years intended to purge tribal communities of Christian influence.

It is impossible to know how many have been reconverted here, in the wake of the latest violence, though a three-day journey through the villages of Kandhamal turned up plenty of anecdotal evidence.

A few steps from where the nun had been attacked in Nuagaon, five men, their heads freshly shorn, emerged from a soggy tent in a relief camp for Christians fleeing their homes.

The men had also been summoned to a village meeting in late August, where hundreds of their neighbors stood with machetes in hand and issued a firm order: Get your heads shaved and bow down before our gods, or leave this place.

Trembling with fear, Daud Nayak, 56, submitted to a shaving, a Hindu sign of sacrifice. He drank, as instructed, a tumbler of diluted cow dung, considered to be purifying.

In the eyes of his neighbors, he reckoned, he became a Hindu.

In his heart, he said, he could not bear it.

All five men said they fled the next day with their families. They refuse to return.

In another village, Birachakka, a man named Balkrishna Digal and his son, Saroj, said they had been summoned to a similar meeting and told by Hindu leaders who came from nearby villages that they, too, would have to convert. In their case, the ceremony was deferred because of rumors of Christian-Hindu clashes nearby.

For the time being, the family had placed an orange flag on their mud home. Their Hindu neighbors promised to protect them.

Here in Borepanga, the family of Solomon Digal was not so lucky. Shortly after they recounted their Sept. 10 Hindu conversion story to a reporter in the dark of night, the Digals were again summoned by their neighbors. They were scolded and fined 501 rupees, or about $12, a pinching sum here.

The next morning, calmly clearing his cauliflower field, Lisura Paricha, one of the Hindu men who had summoned the Digals, confirmed that they had been penalized. Their crime, he said, was to talk to outsiders.

Recent occupations

Okay, my lull from work has ended. Thankfully and surprisingly, I think I'm going to enjoy the rest of the workload that I've to complete for this year.

I've one last essay to write (okay, on top of three tests and a play presentation). It's 50% of the grade, yes, but I'm very, very thankful most of my major assignments have been cleared up about three weeks ago. This means I'd have more time to prepare for applications for my semester abroad at the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ. That were some hiccups here and there for my application to U of A, and sometimes they really do seem quite daunting. But as Caleb says, I shouldn't let these matters trouble and make me lose sight of this wonderful opportunity. In other words, thankfulness is what will keep things in perspective - God gives grace through each glitch so that I may come out of it with a heart of gratitude and joy.

Also, I have two more issues of kids' devotionals to complete for this year. On hindsight, this opportunity to serve God outside the music ministry has been refreshing. I remember the first concern my elder had was my age, which can be an indicator of my level of spiritual maturity. So I have been kept a tab on since my first attempt at writing part of the devotional for primary school kids in my church. I'm thankful for humility, to be willing to learn and also, to be corrected for my awkward Mandarin phrases and wrong words (ha). It can get challenging sometimes because of the tension between educating these young minds as much as possible and making the truth accessible to them. I've learnt that the Holy Spirit gives wisdom for discernment, and faith that God will open these minds to richer truths in His time.

Lastly, there's the Advent concert! Preparations are well under way and I'm excited about the music. (Also, this means spending more time to practise during the week). This repertoire includes some of our classic Christmas carols, such as Noel Nouvelet, Have Yourself A Merry Christmas and Mrs Wilson's arrangement of O Come, O Come Emmanuel, alongside new pieces such as Javier Busto's Te Lucis Ante Terminum, Ola Gjeilo's Unto Us A Child Is Born and Gunnar Ericksson's Den blida vår är inne. This concert will be on December 6, 2008 (Sat) at the Singapore Art Museum, but it's by invitation only heh. Excited about singing beautiful music again!


The Anglo-Chinese Junior College Alumni Choir
National Day 2008 at Singapore Art Museum


Lastly, I'm also very excited about my semester abroad! Can't wait!

I live in Singapura

My dear country

 

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