Mid brain activation gets change of name as right brain activation!

Mid brain activation gets change of name as right brain activation!

Mangaluru: A week ago it had come to our attention that one enterprise with the names smart and brainy was conducting special classes to make geniuses of the children who are trained by them (for a fee of course) we had put out a press note which was carried by a section of the press. While most of the claims made on their brochure could be called mildly as unsubstantiated their magnitude could as well merit the title of a scam. Because here was a technique by which an investment of 10 K would make your child the best in the world! Of course the techniques by which this would be accomplished are secret- no parent is allowed to watch the process of his/her child being converted into a super genius! When one of those people who had informed about his process happening in their home town and to whom I had referred went to their premises to check on it he was told the process would not be shown to any one and he had to return disappointed.

Well to take make this sound true they had a tangible, visible proof. It was also claimed that their children could anything with their eyes blind folded. While this sounded suspiciously like what was called as mid brain activation a couple of years ago- a scam which we had exposed then, a call from a woman claiming to be from that organization said otherwise! She said their technique was different – it was right brain activation while I did not understand whether what she meant was the anatomical right brain or it was an adjective! I took the impression that she must be certainly somebody highly qualified to speak about such topics – a neurologist or a psychiatrist or a psychologist at the least. But, she assured that she was none of the above, but only a postgraduate in English before I could whether the degree was from a regular university or a correspondence one, she came down heavily upon me saying that I should have had the courtesy of ascertaining what she had to say about the matter. For that I assured her that I was only an activist and not a reporter, I also mentioned that when one makes an extraordinary claim that children (only children not adults) could see without light falling on the retina it was those making the claim to prove that. This of course is old stuff for us. One Vinoj Surendran had made such a claim in Kerala more than two years ago and the sequence of events arising there from assured that this racket was closed down in that state soon after.

Our exposures in Karnataka had affected them pretty much but now they have started marketing the old wine in a new bottle -from mid brain activation to right brain activation! She also challenged me to check upon them and dared me to expose them. Well such exposures are not easy stuff. First of all one has to define the claims that one makes! From what I have seen the claim is that the children can seen when blind folded that is without light falling on the retina from the object to be viewed. We do have means and ways of doing it with proper blind folds which will block all light from falling on the retina. We also have ways by which a fool proof trial can be ensured.

They also collect a cool ten thousand rupees for converting children into liars who say that they cannot see through blind fold while what they are doing is peeking through the gaps between the eyes and the nose! We have trained hundreds of people to do that- any one can do it with a bit of training! I had exposed one such girl called as Ranjana Agarwal in 2010 on a TV channel She even had a certificate from the department of science and technology of the govt. of India to prove her extraordinary abilities to ‘see when blind folded’. At that time it was not called by any fancy name just a supernatural ability! Now with the advent of names like Makoto Shichida a fraud with a bogus doctorate, Bronnikov from Russia whose students claim to see through cloth etc., the fancy names and extraordinary claims have come up. One need not be a Ranjana Agarwal to ‘see blind folded’ any pinky, Rinky, Ashwin or Kartik can do that and also an Abdulla, Razia or Maria and Peter!

I have been told now that this scam is going to be repeated in all taluks of Dakshina Kannada with frachisees all over. So, within the next few months we could witness a slew of geniuses around! As a counter to this we too are going to start a series of workshops for teachers to sensitise them about teaching children to lie, making claims without evidence, the modus operandi of such and yes of course how to read with eyes blind folded the way the scamsters to it- free of cost! The first of the series is going to happen on the 8th of September at Puttur. This workshop is for invitees only.