The first time a mother called me about her first-grade child being required to lie down on the floor of the classroom to eliminate “stress,” I thought I was dealing with an overreacting parent who had misunderstood something. Then a second mother said the school had told her first-grade child that he has a “person living inside him” and “no one else is to know; it’s a secret.”
A third mother said her third-grade child reported that his class had been taken on a trip to “Aquatron,” but they were not to tell their parents. A Colorado newspaper published the picture of a pathetic third-grade boy forced to simulate stress in the classroom. Children are told that stress occurs “when parents get into the picture.”
This strange course inflicted on children is usually called “Q.R.,” which stands for Quieting Reflex. That’s a very deceptive label. Q.R. is something very different from the “peace and quiet” that most parents would appreciate.
Q.R. is experimental psychological treatment (that is, using children for guinea-piggism) which, variously, (1) takes little children on a guided imagery “trip” into a fantasy world, (2) subjects them to the early stages of self-hypnotism, or (3) takes them into Transcendental Meditation (TM), Eastern mysticism, Yoga, suggestology, or the occult.
In Q.R., children are programmed to escape from the real world into an imaginary fantasy world, where they go for advice to the “wise man” living inside their body (instead of to their parents or to God). No wonder parents complain that Q.R. victims don’t want to pray to God anymore; He’s been replaced.
Here are some samples of the Q.R. lessons used in the classroom on children in a captive classroom setting. Q.R. has been used in some areas without parental knowledge or consent, and some schools have even refused to stop it when parents object.
“Pretend you are soaring through space. Pretend you are on a soft, fluffy cotton cloud. Stretch out your wings and fly back to earth.” (One can only hope that the child doesn’t get confused and do this near an open window.)
“Breathe slowly through imaginary holes in your feet.” (This seems to be a Q.R. favorite and is an effective technique to induce self-hypnosis.)
“Put your head down on your desk, close your eyes, imagine a candle floating in a dark room, changing colors, dropping in a bucket of water.” “Visualize an eight-legged teacher, picture a purple elephant sitting on a mountain smoking a cigar.” “You are a pilot of a spacecraft and ready for lift-off. Hear the sounds, lift-off, let go.”
“Place yourself on a Calm-Upset Scale. Are you a ONE lying on your waterbed, or a shocked SEVEN? Use this page to keep track of things that bother and upset you.”
Q.R. tells children to record their feelings in a log. They are instructed, “This log is private. You don’t have to show it to anyone. Q.R. is something you learn to do on your own whenever and wherever you choose to. It’s private and it feels good.” (In other words, don’t let your parents join you in this private, fantasy world.)
“Kiddie Q.R.” was developed by Dr. Charles Stroebel and his associates in Hartford, CT. He admits that about 10% of people who learn Q.R. develop negative patterns of behavior, may become depressed or “become compulsively concerned about practicing Q.R.” He warns against its use on those who have epilepsy, low thyroid function, asthma, high blood pressure, or diabetes that requires insulin injections.
The bibliography listed in the Q.R. manuals and materials proves that Q.R. has identifiable links with Eastern religions, mysticism, parapsychology, biofeedback, hypnosis, occultism, Yoga, and Transcendental Meditation (which, along with the Science of Creative Intelligence, was judged to be a form of religion in a 1977 U.S. District Court decision). To deny this would be as ridiculous as trying to argue that prayer in the public schools has nothing to do with God.
The Alabama law, which was recently declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, called for a period of silence “for meditation or voluntary prayer.” The law said nothing about God or religion, but it was self-evident that “prayer” would be directed to God.
It is likewise obvious that Q.R. is the linkage between the real world and Eastern religions, hypnotism, and the occult. As a combination of unconstitutional religion and unlicensed psychiatry, Q.R. has no place in the public school classroom.
