THE DEITY SYNDROME
BY:
MASTER HARVEY HASTINGS

 

 

  FOREWORD:

  The article below was written for this site by Master Harvey Hastings. After reading my previous article, Master Hastings sent me a few thoughts. I asked him if he would like to write them down and put a few more thoughts with them.

  Master Hastings is a martial arts legend having participated in amateur boxing, professional boxing, Bando, Isshin-ryu and was a pioneer of full contact kick boxing. He was also a trainer and coach to some of the foremost kick boxers in the country.  He is a warrior’s warrior in every respect. In addition to his fighting and teaching skills, he has been an author for many martial arts magazines, as well as his own books. You would have to look well beyond just the confines of martial arts, to find a man of more qualities and more qualified. He was also inducted into the Isshin-ryu Hall of Fame last year (2009).

A full biography of his accomplishments is listed on The Bohan Isshin-ryu family web site, under; “Warriors of the Month”.

You can contact Master Hastings by email;  MtnManharv@aol.com

 

 

THE DIETY SYNDROME

by Harvey Hastings

       

 
 To Denny Shaffer,   

As per your request, my explanation of the subject matter may find itself somewhere between the cracks of subjectivity and objectivity for some of your students. The principle proposed here is a simple one by nature but complicated by design and implementation.

            Suppose yourself to be an aging karate instructor who has been very good at his art in the past but is now beginning to lose some of his or her technical ability, or even worse, never was as good as he or she was thought to be. Would it not be natural for that individual to look and seek opportunities to shore up their egos by artificial means? Do you think it unreasonable to assume that many would?

            The artificial means of which I’m referring to, centers around the fact that many times the instructor may tend to set him or herself up as the sole authority on the subject they are teaching. As long as they are able to back it up with superior technique, both in the form of physical or mental knowledge, they are secure.  However, this is always short-lived due to the natural progression of life.

            Why would one do that, you ask yourself. Simple…the students do it to them as much as they do it unto themselves. If the teacher has set himself up as being the sole teacher with all the knowledge, it’s only natural the students would look to them as being the Deity on that particular teaching. With the teacher, however, it’s the unfulfilled ego.

     If you treat a person as a God long enough, he or she will start believing it.

            Over a period of time, this situation can become dangerous, in that the more the teacher falls behind in knowledge and or technique, the more they will depend on artificial shoring up.  For example, the bowing to a teacher at the beginning of a class can easily be misconstrued by the threatened mind into thinking that it’s a salute to them rather than merely the traditional way to begin a class. A contrary example is when a teacher punishes a student in forcing them to show him or her respect. 

            After awhile, the conscious mind will begin playing tricks on the threatened teacher, perhaps fooling them into thinking they are, in fact, a deity…of course…of a lesser nature.  Consciousness constitutes the reflected or correlated grade of mind, and the grade of mind may give the appearance of an event which is consciously feared by the teacher as being contrary to his or her own security. 

            As for the ego, it is not only a means of formal identity, but is also one of the important steps in its alteration. Consciousness is different because the subject of consciousness is thinking. The primary object of this article is to motivate us to think about some of the pitfalls we can encounter.  

Let me now say, the deity syndrome is not solely the product of the martial arts.  There are many other professions that are equally subject to the problem, such as the clergy, doctors, and teachers, particularly liberal college professors.

            In closing, the ego is the denizen of the woodpile, and it comes in many forms.  Therefore, we must be vigilant in our attempts to sequester it, but if we all make a conscious effort to think about it we can overcome its pitfalls. 

 

Harvey Hastings………Hachidan /Sayagyi