Sezen Aksu sings: I should grow up this girl again / I should walk on core fire. I am aware… I am aware…

We can not know If Aksu, in her song, references to this awareness concept which became a rage these days or if she chose this sentence as she was unaware. However, it is sure that we are in a state of awareness. Popular culture is being pushed with a dense wind of awareness. Let us tell about this awareness concept for the ones who do not know. In the book “Awareness and The Key of a Balanced Life” which was published by Owo Publishing, It is described as:

“I am not giving you a moral lesson. I am not telling you what is right, what is wrong, what is moral and what is not moral. I am only giving you very simple criteria: Awareness. If you do something with awareness, then it should be right, because you can not do anything wrong with awareness.”

Being aware of the moment, so the state of knowing the reason of everything you do. In other words, selecting the moment with conscience. Sentences like these are used on the moment of awareness: “I smoke but I am aware of this. I confirm myself or I accept Ahmet As he is, and I am aware of this.” After these confirmations and awareness, one gives up smoking, accepts Ahmet although he hates him, accept life as it is, loves himself, gets rid of his misbehaviours, and learns to look at the world and himself through rose pink glasses. For sure, this has some exercises; meditations, turning one situation from negative to positive with imagination, doing universal energy Reiki, changing the system of thinking, returning to nature, repeating words etc. You reach awareness, and after this awareness, you reprogram yourself.

In fact, awareness is a side production of a concept which we can put under the title personal development. However, awareness has been one step ahead than personal development. There’s also an awareness school in the USA: Also the teachers of this school wander throughout the world and give seminars. They were here, in Turkey, a short time ago.

Yoga, Far-east philosophy, NLP, Feng Shui, Reiki, Positive Energy, Body Language, Personal Development, Kyron, Ramta …etc. My country is surrounded by all this New Age philosophy. Everybody is in or after this awareness. Be aware of your feelings, relax, expand, think positive, love yourself, love the others, do not hate your enemy, turn your negative energy to positive, smile, make pink bubbles, past karmas, this, that… Chakras are being opened, new cosmic specialists or gurus are coming, common cures, common thoughts…

Seminars, courses worth dollars; this awareness thing is expensive. You can not be aware for free! A new sector is being born; awareness sector.

I, the writer of these lines, am a “spiritualism lover”. I think that most of the thesis claimed is working. But with the words of a writer, “truth is not a thing that can be searched with the others.” There can not be things which are given to people like pills; for example, individual awareness, feeling yourself as a part of God, feeling the unity, understanding the moment to live, popular culture like this. One can not be aware without going through certain levels, but today everybody is “aware”.

RAW MATERIALS FROM THE EAST; MARKETING FROM THE WEST!

Everything started with personal development books. It was so easy for the children of a community which was affected by economic crisis, where the unemployment reached to horrible levels, where disasters or earthquakes can not be stopped, to be pulled away from themselves, to be estranged and to go crazy within this wild capitalism process. And it was really easy… After all these, this New Age trend which had wrapped all around the globe easily found a way to settle down in Turkey.

West is taking wisdom from the east as a raw material and marketing it to us with beautiful packages; the sales are very well…

The personal development trend which had started during 90`s has become a wild rage nowadays. Now, the books about personal development and spiritualism have their own sections in big book stores. Day by day. More and more book publishers are entering this market. `Personal development` is selling out! For example, Sistem Publishing has about 100 books on personal development. Dogan Cuceloglu`s book “Warrior” has sold more than 100 thousand till now.

People who run to personal development are actually after changing their lives easily. They realise their self confidence with NLP in 10 lessons and awareness in five seminars! Each book published about personal development suggests happiness formulas but nobody is totally happy. Will Ferguson’s novel “Happiness” which was published by Agora tells this situation. Book calls this weird situation “the new opium of masses” while it criticises personal developers.

THERE IS LONELINESS IN PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Cem Cobanli from Dharma Publishing who published best-sellers like “The Art of Peace”, “Women Who Think Too Much”, “and Tibet’s Cradle of Youth I-II” tells:

“The approach to life for people who have uncertainty, pessimism, loneliness…etc. has changed. People love each other just to get rid of some spaces and things unlived in their lives, and they live the romance. That’s why hundreds of books with the title “love” are being published, we see books about how to love yourselves, love the others, get rid of fears…etc.

Cobanli says “I wish it was possible to do all these with the help of the methods suggested in these books” and adds “In the concept of personal development you can find loneliness easily. In the old days, people were trying to develop with the others together. Nowadays, everyone tries to develop individually.”

Cobanli, who tells us that they are publishing books on East philosophies and methods, says “Our two books on Australian natives Aborjins have faced a big interest from the people and sold out. Because there’s really a very different world out there, which is very far away from fear and worry but very close to love, hope and peace and which is small but universally large. However, I really do not know how many readers have managed to create the world of Aborjins inside them and woke up in the morning to a brand new world.”

“WE`VE JUST KILLED A GOAT; ARE YOU AWARE OF THAT?”

According To Nil Gun who has been in this personal development and awareness thing, who has founded Kuraldisi Publishing, who is a specialist on Hypnotherapy, Reiki and NLP; this is about who does this. Gun explains the right approach like this:

“The person who has explained this most clearly is Krishnamurti. One day. Krishnamurti and his friends are in a cart ride. Then his friends start a deep philosophic discussion about awareness. Suddenly the cart goes over a bump on the road, but the discussion doesn’t give a break. A little while later, his friends ask Krishnamurti what he thinks about this subject. Krishnamurti says “You’ve been talking about awareness, but we’ve just killed a goat, are you aware of that?” The description of personal development is the increase of awareness. Developed man lives his life with awareness. If we had been living with awareness, we would be more likely to ourselves, more sensitive and more human. The education of personal development is a process which fastens this development and which gives us more free time.”

It sounds nice, doesn’t it? But, is it really this easy? One of the professors in Baskent University, Dr. Dogan Kokdemir who has given a lecture on “Mental Exercises and Personal Awareness on Handball” claims that books on personal development mostly come from the USA:

“First of all the works and studies on personal development are not miracles. It is never possible to have an education during the weekend and to become a totally different person on Monday; although the advertisements of most NLP seminars say the other way round. I wish everything was easy as the marketers of these educations. Even after hundred years of psychological researches, psychologists can not say that there may occur changes like these in a very short period of time.”

Dr. Kokdemir says “Surely. It is possible to create personal awareness on individuals and to let him create reflections on his life with the help of educations about personal development.” and adds “In fact, awareness is a very important process for personal development and it starts with having information about ourselves and think about ourselves.”

Wish it was easy to be aware of oneself, develop, learn… Wish it was possible to solve problems, with proposals like pills for “happiness in 10 lessons”… We started with a song and let’s finish with another one:

I am a chestnut tree in Gulhane Park/Neither you are aware of this, nor the police.”

“THESE APPROACHES DOES NOT SOLVE THE PROBLEM; THEY CREATE NEW ONES”

CEM MUMCU / Psychiatrist

Emotional processes can not be changed with surface studies. World within man is not that stupid. It is very complicated and shaped with the details of our personal, collective history. I believe that all these New Age stuff is very dangerous. Also, nowadays, I also think that even psychiatry should be banned, not only these kind of nonsense.

There are books which try to solve life with self-help methods. Maybe these may help on acute period. In fact, the person thinks so. If I have to give you an example if the patient has appendicitis problem, he’s not given pain killers; because you think that the pain is gone and the appendicitis blows up.

If these kinds of books were the cure, only one of them would be sold 100 millions of copies and there would be no need for the others. There is a big amount of money going around here. It is an area of profit. Actually everything is about being afraid of going deeper in your moral space and in the passion for getting urgently. You read a book, and your life is changed! These kinds of approaches cause other illnesses to be reproduced. These approaches create new self-defence mechanisms and cause new problems. Also, if you are in search of something, why do you go to Far East? In Sufism, these all can be found. Most of these books say love each other, touch the warmth of human, treat your children like this, do this in the office, feel the deep meaning of life, touch the life in your heart, reconsider your relationship, achieve yourself, …etc. With these, you experience behavioural changes for a short period but you can not change your feelings and personal properties.

(First released: Aktuel Magazine)