Statement by Jeffrey Carduner, Aesthetic Realism Consultant

I've studied and taught Aesthetic Realism for over 30 years, and I've seen it to be true.   It's had a tremendously good effect on so many, many lives, including my own.   The attack on it by a few people is completely unrepresentative of the many people who respect Aesthetic Realism and Eli Siegel, whether they're studying Aesthetic Realism directly or not.    The attack is on an education which stands for, and makes for, real kindness between people.

1. The cause of youth violence

I wrote an article about what I learned from Aesthetic Realism about the cause of youth violence, which was published in several American newspapers. I urge you to read that article; it appears on the website of myself and my wife, Devorah Tarrow: at http://www.tarrow-carduner.net.

I have seen that this principle of Aesthetic Realism explains the cause of all cruelty--including in young people--and needs to be studied if cruelty is to end: "The greatest danger or temptation of man is to get a false importance or glory through the lessening of things not himself; which lessening is Contempt." In the article I quote something central I learned from Eli Siegel about contempt and myself. When I was a young man in my early 20s, I said in a class in answer to a question: "If I see the world as against me, I feel I can do anything I want." I am thankful that I was met with firm and beautiful logic as Mr. Siegel said: 

According to Aesthetic Realism, the one sin in the world is to use oneself to lessen what other things mean. Once you do that, you can get into embezzling, you can get into mugging, all the horrors.

2. The necessity for Aesthetic Realism consultations:

I also urge you to read, on that website, my paper about boredom in young men, including the section titled "What a Young Man Is Learning about Boredom." The parents of the young person I tell of in it wrote to his consultation trio, grateful for the changes that occurred in their son's life as he studied in Aesthetic Realism consultations.

If a young person learns that he is really expressed through seeing meaning in the world and in people, and wants to see the world and objects and people accurately, he won't be bored; he'll be authentically kinder; and he'll like himself honestly. That is what happens through Aesthetic Realism consultations. Along with my colleagues, I have seen this steadily in teaching Aesthetic Realism for over 30 years!

3. As to the family

I want to comment on the lies being told in relation to family. Through knowing Aesthetic Realism, people are kinder as to their families, whether a relative studies Aesthetic Realism or not.

For instance, my father and I, who often had been very angry with each other, were able to work together closely in the same business for 25 years. This would never have been possible had it not been for my study of Aesthetic Realism, which encouraged me to try to know my father and to have good will for him, to see him with all his depth and complexity. My father did not study Aesthetic Realism. However, he was present at one class, in which Eli Siegel spoke to us about how we could see each other more deeply. Near the conclusion, my father said to Mr. Siegel that he, Eli Siegel, was kind.

In the last months of my father's life, as he was ill, I went often to Florida, where he was living. He was very grateful I was there and said so; and I was with him at the hospital and on the night he passed away.

Through my knowing Aesthetic Realism, my mother and I have a new relation.   She has told me how distressed she was before I studied Aesthetic Realism, because I was so uncommunicative and cold.   Now, I've come to want to know what she feels and to encourage her life, and this never would have happened without Aesthetic Realism. She often tells me how much she enjoys talking to me and my wife, and that I have a good effect on her and her husband, my stepfather. They don't study Aesthetic Realism.

I have taught many men Aesthetic Realism over the years; they have become kinder and deeper in relation to their families. And they have written to their consultation trios about this fact.

There are families all over America that are broken up, or can't even talk to each other without screaming. They long to know what we've learned and teach.