CHESMAYNE
Knowledge
In Jain philosophy
there are five types of knowledge…
01A Simple. 01B Reflective. 01C Time-knowledge.
01D Mind-reading. 01E Pure absolute
knowledge.
02 The Imperial Encyclopaedia (
03 Nechtan (Irish): the well of
knowledge, over which nine hazel trees dropped their nuts was forbidden to any but he and his
cup-bearers.
04 Odin (Norse): all-wise, all-seeing,
immutable. His desire for knowledge was
endless, so that he even gave up one of his eyes for a draught from the fountain
of Mimir, which conveyed all wisdom. He
sat on his throne with two ravens, Hugin (Thought) and Munin (Memory) on either shoulder. He was
concerned with the nature of mankind, which he found at times both strange and
laughable.
05 Semias (Irish): master of wisdom who
gave the cauldron of knowledge and satiety to the Dagda.
06 Conscience: literally, ‘joint
knowledge.’
07 ‘Never send to know for whom
the bell tolls’. It tolls for
thee.
08 RILKO. Organization for the recovery of lost knowledge.
09 Knowledge cannot be acquired
without experience.
10 An idea that is understood
immediately is often not worth understanding (Multatuli).
11 Apple: symbol of spiritual
knowledge. Red apple: love. Symbol of the earth (tempations of this
world - a fall from grace). The
imperial orb, symbol of our globe: world domination, Nike (victory),
sometimes topped with a cross.
12
13 Gazelle: symbol of
penetrating spiritual knowledge.
14 Jewelry: symbol of power,
distinction and esoteric knowledge.
15 Linga: lingam (plural). The female counterpart is the ‘Yoni’. Symbolizes the power of knowledge, awakening
and the union of form with matter.
16 Trivium: grammar, rhetoric, logic (the three
parts of learning) along with the Quadrivium (7 liberal arts).
17 They know enough who know how
to learn.
18 All men naturally desire to know.
19 Knowledge may give weight, but accomplishments
give luster, and many more people see than weigh.
20 Apart from the known and the unknown, what else
is there?
As
mentioned earlier, negative vibes cannot be expressed in heaven. As we enter into heaven, these negative vibes
are removed by God. This creates a level
of happiness that cannot be imagined on earth.
Heaven truly becomes a spiritual state of living as who we really
are. In heaven, we remember our real
identity. In heaven, only the best in
each person survives. It is a joyous
condition and a state of expanded awareness.
There is a perfect freedom of spirit and no one gets tired. It is a new lease on life. It is a lively hilarious place and our true
home.
We
then begin to realize how we were merely visitors on earth and heaven is our
real home. We begin to realize that we have been here in heaven before. Knowledge beyond our deepest dreams exists all around us
like the heavenly all-pervading music that can be heard. God’s presence is so obvious here that it
cannot be denied. The love of God in
heaven is like the air we breathe. The
Golden Rule is the only law in heaven.
The beauty of the environment in heaven is beyond words and they reflect
the spiritual nature of those who dwell there.
Multi-colored cities of crystal light created by God can be seen. There exists exquisite heavenly structures
such as spires, domes, amphitheaters, Grecian looking buildings, libraries of
wisdom, halls of spiritual learning, temples, and communities. Waterfalls, mountains, valleys, lakes and
other realms of recreation exists in a way that makes their earthly equivalents
merely a empty shadow.
Chess in
Education Research Summary
Compiled by Dr. Robert Ferguson
This summary has drawn freely from several sources
including Dr. Tim Redman’s Chess as
Education: Character Assassination or Life of the Mind and Robert
Ferguson’s doctoral dissertation. The following studies will be reviewed
briefly.
John Artise in Chess and Education states: “Visual
stimuli tend to improve memory more than any other stimuli; . . . chess is
definitely an excellent memory exerciser the effects of which are transferable
to other subjects where memory is necessary”.
The following studies offer some hard evidence to support the claims of
Artise and others.
The Zaire study, Chess and Aptitudes, lead by Dr. Albert Frank at the Uni
Protestant School (now Lisanga School) in Kisangani, Zaire, was conducted
during the 1973-74 school year.
Frank wanted to find out whether the ability to learn
chess is a function of a) spatial aptitude, b) perceptive speed, c) reasoning,
d) creativity, or e) general intelligence. Secondly, Frank wondered whether
learning chess could influence the development of abilities in one or more of
the above five types. To what extent
does chess playing contribute to the development of certain abilities? If it can be proven that it does, then the
introduction of chess into the programs of secondary schools would be
recommended.
The first hypothesis was confirmed. There was a
significant correlation between the ability to play chess well, and spatial,
numerical, administrative-directional, and paper work abilities. Other correlations obtained were all
positive, but only the above were significantly so. This finding tends to show that ability in
chess is not due to the presence in an individual of only one or two abilities
but that a large number of aptitudes all work together in chess. Chess utilizes
all the abilities of an individual.
The second hypothesis was confirmed for two
aptitudes. It was found that learning
chess had a positive influence on the development of both numerical and verbal
aptitudes.
Chess and Cognitive Development was directed by Johan
Christiaen. The research was conducted during the 1974-76 school years at the
The trial group consisted of 40 fifth grade students
(average age 10.6 years), who were divided randomly into two groups,
experimental and control, of 20 students each.
All students were given a battery of tests that included Piaget’s tests
for cognitive development and the PMS
tests. The tests were administered to
all of the students at the end of fifth grade and again at the end of sixth
grade. The experimental group received 42 one-hour chess lessons using Jeugdschaak
(Chess for Youths) as a textbook.
A first analysis of the investigation results compared
the trial and control groups using ANOVA.
The results showed significant differences between the two groups in
favor of the chess players. The academic
results at the end of fifth grade were significant at the .01 level. The
results at the end of sixth grade were significant at the .05 level.
Dr. Gerard Dullea (1982) states that Dr. Christiaen’s
study needs support, extension, and confirmation. In regard to the research, he also maintains:
“. . . we have scientific support for what we have known all along--chess makes
kids smarter!” (Chess Life, November,
p. 16).
Ferguson’s first study, Developing Critical and Creative Thinking through Chess, expanded
the support Dullea referenced. Dr. Ferguson’s ESEA Title IV-C
federally funded research project was approved for three years (1979-82). It was extended for one school year (82-83)
at local expense for a combined total of four years. The primary goal of the study was to provide
challenging experiences that would stimulate the development of critical and
creative thinking.
The project was an investigation of students identified
as mentally gifted. All participants
were students in the
The first aspect assessed in this study is that of
critical thinking. The average annual
increase for the chess group was 17.3% as measured by the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal. The second aspect tested is that of creative
thinking. While the entire chess group made superior gains over the other
groups in all areas of creativity, the dimension that demonstrated the most
significant growth was originality. Several
researchers have found that gains in originality are usual for those receiving
creativity training, whereas gains in fluency are often slight or nonexistent.
The fact that the chess group’s gains in fluency were significant beyond the
0.05 level when compared to the national norms is an important discovery.
The
Both males and females showed an increase of
intelligence quotient (IQ) after less than a year of studying chess in the
systematic way adopted. Most students
showed a significant gain after a minimum of 4.5 months. The general conclusion is that chess
methodologically taught is an incentive system sufficient to accelerate the
increase of IQ in elementary age children of both sexes at all socio-economic
levels. It appears that this study also
includes very interesting results regarding transfer of chess thinking to other
areas of study. (FIDE Report, 1984, p. 74).
B.F. Skinner, an influential contemporary psychologist,
wrote: “There is no doubt that this project in its total form will be
considered as one of the greatest social experiments of this century” (Tudela,
1987). Because of the success of the
study, the chess program was greatly expanded.
Starting with the 1988-89 school year, chess lessons were conducted in
all of
Dianne Horgan has conducted several studies using chess
as the independent variable. In “Chess as a Way to Teach Thinking,”
Horgan (1987) used a sample of 24 elementary children (grades 1 through 6) and
35 junior high and high school students. Grade and skill rating were correlated
(r=.48). She found elementary players
were among the top ranked players and concluded that children could perform a
highly complex cognitive task as well as most adults.
Horgan found that while adults progress to expertise
from a focus on details to a more global focus, children seem to begin with a
more global, intuitive emphasis. She
deduced: “This may be a more efficient route to expertise as evidenced by the
ability of preformal operational children to learn chess well enough to compete
successfully with adults” (Horgan, p. 10).
She notes that young children can be taught to think clearly and that
learning these skills early in life can greatly benefit later intellectual
development. Former U.S. Secretary of
Education Terrell Bell agrees. In his
book Your Child’s Intellect,
During the 1987-88 Development of Reasoning and Memory through Chess, all students in
a sixth grade self-contained classroom at M.J. Ryan School were required to
participate in chess lessons and play games.
None of the pupils had previously played chess. This experiment was more
intensified than
The dependent variables were the gains on the Test of Cognitive Skills (TCS) Memory subtest (p<0.001) and the Verbal Reasoning
subtest (p<0.002) from the
Margulies’ (1991) The Effect of Chess on Reading Scores: District Nine Chess Program Second
Year Report evaluates the reading performance of 53 elementary pupils
who participated in the chess program and compares their results to 1118
non-participants.
Dr. Margulies concluded that chess participation
enhances reading performance. The
results of the paired t-test were significant beyond the 0.01 level. The
results of the
Margulies’ study conclusively proved that pupils who
learned chess enjoyed a significant increase in their reading skills. Inside
Chess (February 21, 1994, p. 3) states: “The Margulies Study is one of
the strongest arguments to finally prove what hundreds of teachers knew all
along--chess is a learning tool”.
Étude Comparative sur les Apprentissages en
Mathématiques 5e Année by Louise Gaudreau (30 June 1992) has recently been translated and
offers some of the most exciting news yet about chess in education. The study took place in the province of
Three groups totaling 437 fifth graders were tested in
this research. The control group (Group A) received the traditional math course
throughout the study. Group B received a traditional math curriculum in first
grade and thereafter an enriched program with chess and problem solving
instruction. The third group (Group C)
received the chess enriched math curriculum beginning in the first grade.
There were no significant differences among the groups
as far as basic calculations on the standardized test; however, there were
statistically significant differences for Group B and C in the problem solving
portion of the test (21.46% difference in
favor of Group C over the Control Group) and on the comprehension
section (12.02%
difference in favor of Group C over the Control Group). In addition, Group C’s
problem solving scores increased from an average 62% to 81.2%!
Playing Chess: A Study of Problem-Solving Skills
in Students with Average and Above Average Intelligence by Philip Rifner was
conducted during the 1991-1992 school term.
The study sought to determine whether middle school students who learned
general problem solving skills in one domain could apply them in a different
domain. The training task involved learning to play chess, and the transfer
task required poetic analysis. The study was conducted in two parts.
Results of the quasi-experiment indicated treatment
effects only for the transfer task.
Results of the quantitative-descriptive study indicated treatment effects
for all variables among gifted subjects but only on the number of methods used
for students of average ability. Data
indicated that inter-domain transfer can be achieved if teaching for transfer
is an instructional goal and that transfer occurs more readily and to a greater
extent among students with above average ability.
Why does chess have this impact?
Why did chess players score higher on the
Additional
chess research sources