The following is part of an EEO Class Action Complaint regarding Motivational Training at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard (PSNS) in the 1980s
12. Conclusions
a. Psychology is an extremely diverse field. Some psychologists try to stay with the scientific, the objective. Others are willing to crawl “out on a Limb” into the areas of the metaphysical that are every bit as religious as the Yogis, Gurus, Ascendant Masters, and the Shamans.
b. We cannot be so naive as to assume anything labeled “psychology” is neutral, objective, secular, scientific, medical … or safe.
c. We must distinguish and discriminate among “psychological” disciplines as to what is appropriate for government to endorse or promote.
d. Regardless of who is “pushing” it now and for what alleged reasons, Meditation and guided visualization originated in Eastern Religious Mysticism. And just because a Carl Jung or a Carl Rogers as psychologists, tell us to “look within to our higher self” should not automatically cloak it with secular credibility.
e. If man has a spirit, what effects does meditation and guided visualization have on it? If the answer is unknown, how can government risk using it?
f. If the answer is: “man has no spirit”; then that is, in itself, a religious statement that government has no business making.
g. Even if there are benefits of stress reduction, government has no right to meddle in areas that, at the very least, touch on the area of man’s spiritual condition and religious belief systems; and at the worst constitutes mind control through altered states of consciousness with a possible eventual shift in world view and belief system.
h. The area of stress inevitably deals with relationships; how one deals with the cares of this world, these are areas that at least overlap with religious beliefs. The government has no business “playing church” in its employees lives. To avoid excessive entanglement with religion, government should leave these areas to be resolved by its employees through avenues in their private lives.
j. The first clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution reads: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
k. In 1963 the U.S. Supreme Court declared Bible reading and classroom prayer in the public schools unconstitutional.
l. In 1969 the U.S. Supreme Court in Toracaso vs. Watkins stated that government cannot “aid those religions based on a belief in the existence of God as against religions founded on different beliefs. Among religions that do not teach what would generally be considered a belief in the existence of God are Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism and others.
m. In the 1963 decision the court also held that the state may not establish a “religion of secularism.”
n. In 1979 a final decision reached in the Third District Court of Appeals, Malmak vs. Yogi (592 F 2D 197), the court held that Transcendental Meditation (T.M.) is a religion, (even though the T.M. people insist it is purely scientific).
o. “In 1985 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to affirm a federal appellate ruling striking down an Alabama law that authorized a daily one-minute period of silence in public schools for “meditation or voluntary prayer.” According to the high court, the law was unconstitutional because it endorsed religion as a “favored practice.” (1986 World Almanac).
p. I support the right of individual Americans to believe whatever they want. I support the right of private corporations to endorse or promote, but not force religion on their employees. I oppose the government’s endorsing or promoting religion even if their employees can opt out.
q. The danger we face is the establishment of a state religion of “Human Potential” ideology beyond the wildest dreams of the New Agers.
13. Items that should be investigated and monitored for New Age/Eastern Mysticism/Human Potential/Occult:
a. What OPM director, Constance Horner plans to do to help federal employee’s “High Touch needs.”
b. All PSNS contractor organizations that have or are training PSNS employees.
c. The entire list of After Hours and during hours courses.
d. The PSNS Apprentice program courses.
e. All off station courses, seminars, conferences, conventions that are attended by PSNS managers.
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