DOING TIME, DOING VIPASSANA
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: DOING TIME, DOING VIPASSANA is an intriguing, but ultimately unconvincing, documentary about an experiment to teach Vipassana transcendental meditation to prisoners at what had been India's most notorious prison. The results appear to be impressive, with many of the prisoners being reformed and gaining a much better world-view in just ten days. But the film left me wanting to see more coverage of long-term results for the prisoners. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4) or 6/10
In 2000 there was a serious bid by Presidency by candidate Dr. John Hagelin of the Natural Law Party. Part of his platform was that prisons should have a mandatory program to teach Transcendental Meditation to prisoners. It was an unorthodox approach and one that made Hagelin look like a kook too much of the public. In fact, his ideas may well have been based on the experiments at Tihar Prison in New Delhi, India. Indian prison reformer Dr. Kiran Bedi, the Inspector General of prisons for India, had come to Tihar Prison, one of the most notorious prisons in India. Inside, the administration was losing the battle for control of the prisoners. Actual gunfights would break out between prisoners, and drugs were easily available. Rather than being reformed, inmates would come out with an education in crime. Dr. Bedi had a history of instituting prison reform (as well has being a former all-India and all-Asian tennis champion).
Dr. Bedi came to the prison in May 1993. She was faced with the problem of what to do about conditions that were bad for the prisoners, bad for the jailers, and bad for society after the prisoners were released. She took a suggestion of one of the guards to try to teach Vipassana to the inmates and staff. What is Vipassana? It is the oldest form of Buddhist meditation, and it is always taught the same way with a ten-day course of silence, meditation exercises, and self-contemplation. DOING TIME, DOING VIPASSANA is an Indian Israeli film directed by Eilona Ariel and Ayelet Menahemi. It is a 52-minute documentary telling the story of the experiment and some of the results. The effects of the training were so successful that the classes were offered more and more frequently and to larger groups. Part of the prison became an ashram. Eventually the prison had at least one class of 1000 prisoners, all meditating in unison.
The film gives a few tantalizing impressions of what the regimen actually is and how students come to meditate and look within themselves. They begin by concentrating on their breathing and the feeling of the air passing the patch of skin under the nostrils. (One wonders if mouth-breathers have a problem with this part.) They try, unsuccessfully at first, to block out all other thoughts. They then concentrate on how all things, including pain and pleasure, come and go. After ten days they are reputedly much more mindful of their place in society and much more willing to function within society's rules. The filmmakers might have been spent more effort in distinguishing this experience from brainwashing. It is impossible for them to simulate the experience, though they do try a few camera tricks to convey some of the feeling. In the end the filmmakers cannot recreate or communicate the experience and can only document it.
It is a little hard to tell if the result is as successful as the film wants us to believe. Certainly it is impressive to see formerly hardened criminals coming out of their tenth day weeping and hugging their jailers. What is difficult to tell is the long-term effect. A ten-day session of nothing but meditation may have this effect on the human mind. It is hard to distinguish the mental state of the trainees who had just completed the program from one that could have been induced by a drug. But a drug would wear off and the claim is that the training does not. Where the film breaks down is in not doing studies of the results months and years later for the prisoners who took the course. Certainly more than a decade has passed since the initial students took the course and there should be statistics as to how permanent their reform has been. Presumably the results have been convincing since reportedly several American prisons are trying the same approach.
This is an appealing approach to the problem of criminal reform, though DOING TIME, DOING VIPASSANA could have made a more convincing argument for its efficacy by doing more follow-up study. I rate the film a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Copyright 2005 Mark R. Leeper