Saturday, April 30, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



STANLEY, VA--Several popular TV shows are taking up the topic of honesty. FOX has explored the implications of Radical Honesty in "Lie to Me", "House", and most recently on this week's episode of "Bones". Though most of the issues are dealt with superficially, at least the conversation is ongoing. Julian Assange of Wikileaks has contributed in that conversation too, by refusing to be intimidated by government and corporate pressure to keep secrets.

The author M. Hirsh Goldberg created National Honesty Day in the early 1990s after writing "The Book of Lies" (Morrow). Goldberg wanted April to end on a higher moral note, since it begins with a day known for lying (April Fools Day).

However, Dr. Brad Blanton, President of The Center for Radical Honesty, says that moral righteousness is often the very opposite of honesty. The reasons he advocates radical honesty are more about psychological healing and growth than about moral uprightness.

This confusion about the importance of honesty (the practical vs the moral), describes the whole span of our human proclivities to manipulate an experience of love which can't be had through manipulation.

"In over 40 years of experience as a Clinical Psychologist, author and seminar leader in Washington D.C., (the lying capital of the world), I have learned that lying is the primary cause of conflict, depression, loneliness, anxiety, stress and alienation. Radical Honesty is the antidote to those troubles, even as it is the source of another kind of trouble. The troubles that come from honesty are very minor compared to the troubles that come from dishonesty."

The real benefits of honesty are found in daily practice. These benefits include emotional healing, mental freedom, greater clarity of attention and the creation of a life with purpose. When we live out loud and stop acting, pretending and withholding, we get a chance to create our lives as artists instead of reacting from our judgmental minds.