Navigation Safety in the 21st Century: Suggestopedia for Communicative Skills and Leadership Culture

This article was published in Bulletin of the State Maritime University ‘Admiral Ushakov’, No. 3 (16), 2016. It was sent to us for publication by Iliya Peev, Doctor of Psychological Science.

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POSSIBILITIES FOR THE APPLICATION OF SUGGESTOPEDIA
FOR FORMING AND DEVELOPING COMMUNICATIVE SKILLS AND LEADERSHIP CULTURE
IN THE SENIOR NAVAL STAFF
AS A FACTOR FOR THE NAVIGATION SAFETY IN THE 21st CENTURY
(INNOVATIONS IN THE SEA EDUCATION OF THE FUTURE)

Professor, Doctor of Psychological Science Iliya Petrov Peev, Captain Naval Reserve Officer, Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy (NVNA), Varna, Bulgaria

Vanina Stoyanova Bodurova, М.A., Suggestopedic School “Science and Art Together”, Sliven

Dessislava Georgieva Todorova-Hlavacik, M.A., Prof. Dr. Georgi Lozanov & Prof. Dr. Evelina Gateva” Foundation

Abstract: The International Maritime Organization and the European Commission for Navigation Safety place the stress on the safety culture of navigation as part of the value system of the seamen. A priority, which has been gaining more and more impetus since the Manila amendments of the Convention  STCW ‘1978/1995/2010.

The possibilities which have so far been unused in the sphere of the preparation of the senior naval staff can be found in Suggestopedia, developed in the scientific work of Dr Georgi Lozanov. It is an effective communicative method at the level of the hidden reserves of the human mind and human abilities. Suggestopedia (Reservopedia) is a theory and practice of the liberating-stimulating communicative pedagogy at the level of the hidden reserves of the human mind.

The purpose of the report is to present a vision about the possibilities and effectiveness of the desuggestive system of learning and teaching (Suggestopedia) of the Senior naval staff in order to form and develop their communicative skills and leadership culture as a factor for the navigation safety of the 21 century.

As a result of the research three suggestions have been made:

1) To conduct a fundamental research in the Naval Academy on the possibilities of Suggestopedia for the formation and development of communicative skills and leadership culture of the Sea officers from the Merchant Marine and the Navy Force.

2) To develop a suggestopedic methodology for the preparation of the senior naval staff in the Navy Force and Merchant Marine

3) To elaborate a long term strategic project at the N. Y. Vaptsarov Naval Academy: a critical analysis and possibilities for a creative application of the experience gained at the Centre of Suggestology and Development of personality at the Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski, the International Centre of Desuggestology in Vienna and the Teacher Training Centre in Viktorsberg, Voralberg, Austria, all of them founded  and directed by Prof.  Dr. Georgi Lozanov.

Key words: Suggestology, Suggestopedia, Senior Naval Staff, Communicative Skills, Leadership Culture, Navigation Safety

Goodness – main purpose of the education:

To teach a free man to be good is more than to free up the slaves.

Omar Khayyám (1048-1123), Persian scientist,  teacher, poet – author of about thousand quatrains (rubaiyaas), mathematician, philosopher, physician, astrologer, astronomer, who created a map of the starry sky and observatory

Show kindness to others!

Major General Konstantin Kirkov (31.08.1869 – 01.09.1920), Notes on military pedagogy, 1900

Bulgaria needs a refinement in peoples’ behavior, especially of a specific group of people such as pedagogues and physicists. The first step in education is the smile. In medicine there is a word for that – placebo.

The smile is the basis for everything. It even softens the bad person. We Bulgarians are a bit distrustful but the smile oes a long way. Why are we to use swords and yataghans when we could be peaceable?

There can not be Suggestopedia if there is no Love! Without Love there is no Suggestopedia!

Use your brain and follow your heart!

This is Suggestolpedia!

Prof. Dr Georgi Lozanov,MD , PhD (22.07.1926-06.05.2012), scientist, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, brain hysiologist, pedagogue, founder of Suggesology and Sugestopedia- Reservopedia science.

1. 1. Introduction:

The Naval pedagogy, the teaching of psychology and the scientific psychological analysis at the N. Y. Vaptsarov Naval Academy in the nineties and the first decade of the twenty-first century are dealing with numerous challenges due to the changed paradigm for training the command staff in the Bulgarian Army, Navy Force, Civil Fleet and the Marine Industry.  An uneasy transition is made from ‘Subject- Objective’ method to ‘Subject-Subjective’ method. That requires alteration in the way of thinking, the attitude, human relationships and behavior, motivation, initiative, creativity, discipline, responsibility, self-dependence, leadership model and the psychological endurance of the naval staff. The modification of the standards and criteria for the naval staff imposes a new vision for the methodology, didactics, methods, theory of education, leadership style and the management of the Naval Academies.

During the last 15-20 years a change in the war concepts and the training of the army for asymmetric and hi-tech net centralized wars is carried out. There are new military strategies and doctrines in the NATO system. They put the intellectual abilities of the members of the armed forces at the center of the intelligent defense. That requires a totally new approach to the creativity of the officers’ staff, the development of the human potential and new models of thinking.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) stress on the safety navigation culture as part of the value system of the seamen, which is becoming already a question of present interest with the implementation of the Three maritime safety Packages (Erika I, II, III) and the Manila amendments to the International Convention STCW ‘1978/1995/2010.

The system of psychotherapeutic methods and psychological training which are applied in the N. Y. Vaptsarov Naval Academy assist in building up the authority of the Naval Academy as a leading academic institution using interactive methods of education and training of the command officers of the Navy Force and Merchant Marine.

All above listed reasons made the Psychology a curriculum more attractive and creative. It took a valuable place in the professional training of the naval staff on the three levels: management, operation, performance.

There have been unused means for the training of the naval command staff up till now. They can be found in Prof. Dr. Georgi Lozanov’s scientific work – Suggestopedia – an effective communicative method at the level of the hidden reserves of the human mind and human abilities. Suggestopedia (Reservopedia) is a theory and practice of the liberating-stimulating communi­cative pedagogy at the level of the hidden reserves of the human mind.

The purpose of the report is to present a vision about the possibilities and ef­fectiveness of the desuggestive system of learning and teaching ( Suggestopedia) of the senior naval staff in order to form and develop their communicative skills and leadership culture as a factor for the navigation safety of the 21 century.

Dimensions / Limitations:  Studies have been made only on the psychological and pedagogical aspects of the training (education) at the N. Y. Vaptsarov Navel Academy.

2. Expose
3. Naval Academy’s contribution to the application and development of the interactive pedagogical and psychological technologies in the training of the naval officer staff.
4. Y. Vaptsarov Naval Academy established on the 9^th of January 1881 till the present time testifies that its development is founded as much on the solid educational traditions also on the innovative intuition of the academic committee to constantly enrich psycho-pedagogical practice with new methods in unison with the ever-changing time and growing standards and requirements for the officers staff.

If we choose to believe the proverb “The day is known by the morning”, we would see that at its very dawn the naval education in Bulgaria stands on firm foundation and moves onward by the use of the most innovative psychological and pedagogical concepts. We find a great spiritual charge in the first Bulgarian textbook on military psychology and pedagogy, called “Notes on military pedagogy” [4], published in 1900, with a quarter of a century ahead from analogical American and European publications. The author of “Notes on military pedagogy” is an enthusiastic artillery captain Konstantin Hristov Kirkov, who has studied in the Artillery Engineering Academy in Torino, Italy. Captain Kirkov’s textbook on military psychology is renowned on a national and international basis and is used in Russian and West-European military schools. In the end of the 19-th and the beginning of the 20-th century he sees the military education as an interaction and harmony in between three basic components:

1) Spiritual (psychic), cognitive component – MIND, center of the moral nature of the human being:

2)Psycho-somatic and affective component – EMOTIONS AND FEELINGS;

3) Volitional (of the will) component – WILL, as conscious and unconscious  fact.

As early as 1900 Konstsntin Kirkov deals with problems of crucial importance about the soldiers’ moral and comradeship, the cohesion, the teamwork of the command officers, faith – in all its dimensional varieties – faith in one’s own strength, faith in the weapon and the safety means, faith in the commanding staff and fellow-soldiers. The key word here is solidarity: solidarity and trust in the weapon, solidarity and trust in the fellow-soldiers, solidarity and trust in the commanding staff.

Konstanin Kirkov’s ethical thought on war, War is evil but with such evil the good is protected, and his ideas about the main moral ideals of the soldier and officer – faith and homeland, are internationally highly acclaimed.

In 1912 and 1913 Konstantin Kirkov’s textbook is published twice by the Military-scientific Society of Russia ‘Society of the Military Knowledge Keepers’:

– Kirkov K. Notes on military pedagogy (psychology, training and education) – SPb.:  Printed in co-operation of the society of keepers of the military knowledge, 1913. – pg.386.

– Kirkov K. Notes on military pedagogy. SPb., 1913. – pg.214

– Kirkov K. Notes on military pedagogy. Part. III.  [SPb., 1912], pg.172

We can judge the value of Konstantin Kirkov’s Military pedagogy by the fact that his books are still part of the educational programs of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in 21-st century.

In the First World War, Konstantin Kirkov is a commander-in-chief of the Bulgarian Navy (Aegean Sea Fleet, Black Sea Fleet and Danube Fleet), in the period 18.01. 1914 – 12.05.1919. The integrative character of the naval education and training of the officers for Merchant Marine and the Navy Force based on an identical methodological program is an idea given by General Konstantin Kirkov. Due to that the N. Y. Vaptsarov Naval Academy develops as unique Naval Academy.

To prove the productivity and appliance of General Konstantin Kirkov’s Notes on military pedagogy in the field of the sea education there is one more distinctive fact: in 1938 Captain Lieutenant Todor D. Tzitzelkov publishes Notes on military pedagogy for the third special class of the school [14], in the core of his work are the pedagogical notes of Konstantin Kirkov. The author – Captain Lieutenant Todor D. Tzitzelkov states clearly that he has made use of the military pedagogy of Prof. Dr. P. Tzonev from 1934, Military ethics and military pedagogy of Lieutenant Colonel Kotzev from 1933 and Military education of Colonel Kirkov from 1917.

Captain Lieutenant Todor D. Tzitzelkov is Commander (Rector) of the Naval Academy for seven months in 1935. Later on he was assigned for the educational department of the school. He teaches Military Psychology and other subjects from 1937 to 1939. At that time the school is situated in Sozopol.

General Konstantin Kirkov and Capt. Lieutenant Todor D. Tzitzelkov stared a tradition by giving their personal example in the development of the marine psychology and pedagogy. This tradition is carried out till the present day in the new history of the Naval Academy. In 1969 the Commander of N. Y. Vaptsarov Naval Academy – Admiral Dicho Uzunov in co-operation with Capt. Doc. Dr. Ivan Uromov (03.04.1934 – 07.03.2003) who is a head of the Social Sciences’ department, publish an article – Psychological basis of the military discipline [13] in The Works of the Academy. This article is still used in the training of the students.

In the eighties, invited by Admiral Dicho Uzunov and Capt. Doc. Dr. Ivan Uromov, the Russian scientist from the Naval Military University – General Prof. DPedSc. Aleksandar Vasilievich Barabashtikov and Colonel Prof. DPsychSc. Nikolai Fiodorovich Fedenko are guests of the Academy. Their textbooks and treatises (some translated in Bulgarian) are well received by the cadets at the Academy.

The development of the military psychology and pedagogy at N. Y. Vaptsarov Navel Academy during the last decade of the 20-th century and the first decade of the 21-th century is characterized by two main processes which are simultaneous:

1) The first process: Long forgotten Bulgarian scientific concepts about the military education and training experience a peculiar Renaissance. The unique textbook by Prof. Dr. Spiridon Kazandzhiev on Military psychology (Psychology of the Soldier) including the article “The Power and the Crises of the Human Spirit in the Military Psychology by Spiridon Kazandzhiev” [3] from 1943 and the textbook “The Army and its Psychology” [7], by Colonel Hristo Giulmezov from 1905 which includes up to date  analysis about the author and the Bulgarian traditions in the Military psychology and pedagogy are republished.

2) The second process: The pedagogical practice adds new ideas about man and his family system, the human relations and the working environment in order to improve the mental abilities of men in the new millennium.

In December 1992, the German scientist Doc. Dr. Arno Remmers is invited by Prof. DPsychSc. Illiya Peev to N. Y. Vaptsarov Naval Academy, where he expresses his affirmative opinion on the positive psychotherapy as psychological method. Doc. Remmers is a student of Nosrat Peseshkian, DMedSc.  (18.06.1933 – 27.04.2010) who is founder of the method – Positive psychotherapy and president of the German Academy of Positive psychotherapy and trans-cultural psychiatry.

The method of Positive psychotherapy is a positive psychodynamic method with centers and institutes in more than 20 countries all over the world. The new psychological tendency which integrates the eastern and the western cultures and combines humanistic, trans-cultural, psychodynamic and interactive methods, are openly received by the innovation-loving naval audience.

A treatise on positive psychology with the same name is published in 2002[10], ten years after the implementation of professor’s Nosrat Peseshkian’s method in the naval education.

During the last two decades, new subjects in the modern psychological and pedagogical practice at N. Y. Vaptsarov Naval Academy are introduced – “Psychology and Safety of Navigation”, “Organizational Behavior”, “Psychology of Crew Management”, “Psychology of the Extreme Behavior”. It should be stressed, with a sense of lawful pride, that at N. Y. Vaptsarov Naval   Academy we treat the traditions left to us by Prof. PhD. Georgi Yolov Todorov (1927-1998), who in Bulgaria lays down the foundation of the Psychology of the extreme behavior, the seaman’s personality and the seaman’s family etc. with admiration and gratitude [1, 2].

For his contribution in the field of development of the extreme psychology and many other services to science and pedagogy,  Prof. Georgi Yolov is awarded posthumously with the academic rank “An Honorary Professor of the Philosophical Faculty”. That decision is made by the Philosophic Faculty with Record No.7 from 28.06.2010 at the St. Cyril and St. Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo.

More than 20 years the leadership education of the students, cadets and officers takes place and advances at the N. Y. Vaptsarov Naval Academy. The first textbook on military leadership in Bulgaria has two editions. The textbook “Military Leadership (Psychological Close-up)” in its second revised and enlarged edition wins the Scientific Varna Award in 2007 [8].

The N. Y. Vaptsarov Naval   Academy contributes to the world’s naval and civil education by the application of psychological methods of training [9] and the expenditure of the didactic complex of the interactive methods of education.  The implementation of this System of educational training methods is well received by all students at the Academy.

The psychological training in the education of the cadets and officers of the Naval Force has more than 20years of successful experience. In 2012 a suggestion made by a first year students studying “The Management of the Water Transport” led to the world’s first publication of a practical work – “Water Transport Psychological Training “[11]. The Manila amendments of the Convention STCW “1978/1995/2010” set an uneasy task of implementation of the psychological training in all civil faculties at the Naval Academy. There are even more tempting discoveries based on longtime experience and experimental work. These discoveries are made by Prof. Dr. Georgi Lozanov M.D. – the sciences of Suggestology and Suggestopedia- Reservopedia , in other words – Desuggestive education.

1. The role of Suggestopedia as suggestology of the pedagogical practice for uncovering the mental reserves and expanding of the reserve abilities of the personality and the power of unconsciousness.

From the dawn of human civilization till the present day the major enigma for man were and still are the human brain and his mental abilities (Latin mentalis – mental; psychic, spiritual; mens, mentis – mind, reason, thought). The mankind continues to search for ways to expand his intellectual potential as well as to find physical and spiritual cure for difficult personal and social problems, and also to manipulate the human behavior. This is the reason why the knowledge and experiments on the human brain and behavior remained a hidden secret and priority only for an exclusive group of medics, prophets, apostles, messiahs, disciples, mediums, oracles, magi, shamans, psychics, men from the special services and conspiracies, secret societies, sects and religious communities, etc. The human intellect is viewed in connection with the mysticism, parapsychology, esotericism, occultism, divination, magic, prophesies, clairvoyancy and others.

In different cultures there are varieties of techniques to effect the human brain and his intellectual abilities: shaman rituals and séances, ceremonies, believes and myths, omens and legends, vows, spells and oaths (Hippocratic oath, military oath, oath of allegiance etc.), cult practices and rites, incantations and fortune-tells. They are all known for the usage of grate number of alternative rhymes, prayer, contemplation, illumination, meditation, mantras, autogenous training and relaxation, hypnosis, trans, ecstasy, yoga, psycho-techniques, trans-personal states, time travelling, system for psych-physiological self-regulation etc . The impacts on the psychic through the above given techniques occurs when there are chosen specifically suggestive attributes: music, rhythm, fire, spells, pictures, icons, games, amulets, dances, rituals, affirmation and suggestive formulas, hypnosis formulas words etc.

Suggestion has its central position in between these numerous psycho-techniques and is expressed as a whole in the modern science of Suggestology.

Suggestologia (Latin,  Suggestio – suggestion and Greek Logos – science, teaching) is defined as part of Psychological science in which the aspects of suggestion are developed[12, 15].

The suggestion (Latin,  Suggestio – suggestion ) is a psychological term for the purposeful psychic influence on individuals or a group, perceived passively, without resistance or critical valuation. In other words it is based on trust. There is immense amount of psychic energy in the suggestion respectfully in the self-suggestion (auto-suggestion) which can both play a positive or negative role in the human’ behavior. It is the premise of the up-bringing and the psychological training, for the personal development and self-actualization [12, 15]. The final form of suggestion is the hypnosis.

There are different types of suggestion in psychotherapeutic practice and science [12]: verbal suggestion – by the effect of words; visual suggestion; contextual suggestion; indirect suggestion; motivated suggestion; paradoxical (negative) suggestion; suggestion in the states of sleep or in semi-awake state; direct suggestion; post-hypnotic suggestion etc.

Suggestions are powerful positive means of the art of healing but on the other hand they can be very dangerous for the health, behavior and personal development. If used incautiously, non-critically, irresponsibly and with lack of competence, they can lead to fatal distortion in the human behavior and personal derangements, serious malady, including aggression, auto-aggression and suicide.

We should be proud  of the fact that the Bulgarian scientist, psychotherapist and psychiatrist Prof. Georgi Lozanov M.D. begins (from the 1950s) his search for safety ways to uncover the reserves of the human brain (mind) through suggestion and hypnosis as its final form and initiates the science of Suggestology. The Research Institute of Suggestology is founded by the Ministry of Education and the Bulgarian Science Academy in 1966. Doctor Lozanov is its director in the course of 20 years (1966-1985). He founds and directs the Center of Suggestology and Personal Development at the University of Sofia, an International Center of Desuggestology in Vienna, International Center for training and specialization of teachers in Viktorsberg, Vorarlberg, Austria.

http://dr-lozanov.com/

http://dr-lozanov.com/bg/bg1.htm

http://dr-lozanov.com/en/en1.htm

http://suggestology.org/suggestopedia/

http://www.suggestopedia-bg.info/bg/suggestopedia/georgi-lozanov.html

In 1966, along with the founding of the Institute of Suggestology, Dr. Lozanov announces for the first time the category suggestopedia, in the article ‘Suggestology – a way to the hypermnesia in the educational process. The method of the Suggestopedy’ published in ‘Narodna Prosveta’ (translated ‘National Enlightenment’) magazine, No.6. A year later on the International Week of Psychosomatic Medicine in Rom, doctor Lozanov uses the same term in English – suggestopedia. In ‘Suggestopedy- Desuggestive education. Communicative method of the reserves hidden in us’ [5] published in 2005 , doctor Lozanov clarifies:’ I used this term for a first time in English in 1967 (Suggestopedia and memory, Proceedings of the International Psychosomatic Week, Rome, 1967, 535-539). With the publication of this new term I’ve created unwillingly some difficulties for myself because there was no traditionally stable definition and I had to explain it permanently. After the main scientific publications I did not have the chance till this present moment to describe more clearly for the understanding of all what it is actually about. Now in the following pages of this unpretentious book I will try to fill up this missing gab.’ [5, с. 11].

The founder of Suggestology and Suggestopedia, Prof. Dr. Georgi Lozanov transforms his scientific quest into the dream of his life (http://www.suggestology.eu):

“I had a dream. And this dream persistently whispered, talked, shouted at me: There is a method, there is a form of communication for “locked up gods” and “hypnotized souls” who have believed in their own unworthiness. There is one! There is one!”

This method, this form of communication will change things. If this happens, we will all learn and develop much faster and in a more creative way … and with joy. Then talents will not be strange for us. We will understand and accept them and maybe some of us will also be seen as gifted people themselves.”

Lead by this powerful dream, the young physician Dr. Georgi Lozanov begins an active practical work for the application of the psychotherapeutic methods in the medical practice with a special attention on the suggestion. In 1963 doctor Lozanov takes part in the publication of ‘Textbook on psychotherapy’, by writing the second chapter ‘Suggestion’ [15, с. 47-91]. He is proud justifiably of that because he shows many cases from his therapeutic practice where he uses suggestion. The book is published with the guidance of Prof. Emil Sharankov M.D. (1903-1997).

Even then the Providence makes a mark on the young author of the theory and practice of suggestion. Hardy has any of colleagues of the Psychotherapeutic Direction [15] guessed that only in three years time there will be un event of such great importance in the Bulgarian psychotherapeutic science that will make the Scientific committee of the Pedagogical Institute “Todor Samodumov” stand up. There and then in 1966, the 40-year-old doctor Georgi Lozanov introduces his Suggestopidic Method for Foreign Language Education. After this impressive presentation of Dr. Lozanov, the well-known Prof. Emil Sharankov M.D. exclaims for-telling the future: “Colleagues, stand up, there is something grand for Bulgaria happening here. The new pedagogy is coming!”

Note:

This occasion is reported in an interview with Prof. Georgi Lozanov MD in “24 chasa” (translated “24 hours”) newspaper from 10-th January 2012. It is also published in the memoirs Rumena Shindler-Kolarova – a member of the Union of Switzerland’s Writers and the Writers Union in Geneva. She was a student in a group studying Italian language 47 years ago. All the participants, who have not studied the language beforehand, begin to speak Italian after one month training. She learns about Prof. Lozanov from her mother Ivanka Dimitrova, who is a teacher in French Philology faculty at Kliment Ohridski Sofia University. She is the teacher-instructor in an experiment conducted by Prof. Georgi Lozanov M.D. The group that takes part in the experiment is of 15 people of different age and occupation. They had to memorize 1000 French words within one day. The success is 98%! That marks the beginning of the Institute of Suggestology at the Bulgarian Academy of Science, the Suggestology as a science about suggestion and Suggestopedia as its practical application in pedagogy.

http://www.public-republic.com/maga­zine/2012/06/92442.php

http://www.roumena.net/

http://www.24chasa.bg/Article.asp?ArticleId=1180613

The Suggestopedic Method in foreign language education is quickly acknowledged all over the world as a unique Bulgarian achievement, national and world’s treasure in the field of the world’s pedagogy, practiced at Oxford and Sorbonne.

The dream of the explorer – Dr. Lozanove is the reason why he chooses for a main theme of his dissertation Suggestology and Suggestopedia. The defense of the dissertation was on the 12-th of January 1971 at a Session of the therapeutic committee at the Kharkov Medical Institute of Neurology and Psychiatry in the Ukraine. The dissertation is officially opposed by three scientists:

1. Prof. Ilia Zaharovich Velvovskii M.D (1899-1981);
2. Prof. Honoured Scientist Nina Pavlova Tatarenko M.D;
3. Prof. A. I. Zilbershtein;

Reference:

Lozanov, G. K. Suggestology and Suggestopedy. “Psychiatry” (14.767). Synopsis of the Thesis for Acquiring Medical Degree: Subject 14.766 / Lozanov, G. K. Kharkov Medical Institute. – Sofia: 1970. – p. 64.: Bibliography: p. 62-64.

Right after the successful defense of his dissertation and as a result of a long-lasting, monumental and thorough experimental work in Institute of Suggestology and many Bulgarian Schools, in 1971 doctor Lozanov is the first in the world to publish “Suggestology”[6]. It is his monograph and is planed to be the first part of fundamental scientific research.

The monograph – “Suggestology” is one of the most unique scientific works in Bulgaria and the world. We would like with your permission briefly to survey its creation and content. The introduction of the monograph is written by Sava Tzolov Ganovski (1897-1993) who is  a competent scientist – pedagogue and philosopher known worldwide, member of the Presidium of the Bulgarian National Academy, Director of the Pedagogical Institute and the Institute for Philosophy, President of the International Federation of the Philosophic Societies, Chairman of the 5-th National Assembly (March,11-th,1966- June, 26-th, 1971).

Academician Sava Ganovski starts the introduction with the fact that this monographic work of doctor Lozanov is “the first book in the world’s literature on the suggestopedic tendency developed in Bulgaria” [6, pg. 15]. The monograph is the outcome of experiments in the field of suggestology and suggestopedia from the last two decades. In that period the author makes the successful transition from the medical practice to the practice of suggestopedia in pedagogy. Academician Sava Ganovski stresses that suggestopedia is suggestologic tendency of pedagogy. At first the author develops suggestopedy on the basis of the discoveries made by him about the suggestive reserves of the memory and subsequently on the personality as a whole in the process of education.

This monograph marks the beginning of Suggestology as a science in Bulgaria and the world. It is the result of many scientific experiments and theoretical studies. In 1978, UNESCO sends to Bulgaria a group of 25 experts from different countries, which are to make a study and evaluate the method of Dr. Lozanov – Suggestopedy. As a result, UNESCO admits and recommends the educational system of suggestopedia to be disseminated throughout the world. That is a major recognition for the Bulgarian Science and for the talent of Dr. Lozanov.

The method is based on the idea that human brain has unused reserves for obtaining information. The uncovering of these reserves helps us at a manifold rate to learn faster and more efficiently in comparison with the traditional pedagogy. We learn in a positive and spontaneous way – without stress, tension or weariness through brain-relaxation and unstrained concentration with the means of art.

The content of suggestology is presented in seven chapters in the monograph in 520 pages.

Prof. Georgi Lozanov deals with suggestology in its many layers of worldly manifestation. With his first experiments he studies in depth: the suggestive hypermnesia – suggested hypermnesia, the experiment for memorization of 100 foreign words in one séance.

(The record of Dr. Georgi Lozanov’s  method is the memorizing of 1000 new French words in one day); the psychoanalytical concepts of Sigmund Freud; sociometry and the psychodramatic paradigm of Jacob Levy Moreno etc. More than 1000 references are used by the author in his research of the complicated nature of suggestion and suggestibility, including the doctrine of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (Nobel Prize laureate for medicine and physiology in 1904) about the high nerve activity, physiological and dissociation theories, idea-motor and condition-reflex mechanism, primal, secondary and teritiary suggestibility, hypnosis etc.

Doctor Lozanov pays special attention to the conscious and unconscious psychic activity, the conditions for the suggestion in practice, the anti-suggestive barriers and the psychic resistance.

Substantial place in the monograph is given to the questions of suggestopedia as an experimental method of suggestology and suggestopedic tendency in the pedagogical practice. The very same questions are the basis of the new monograph published in 2005: “Suggestopedia –Desuggestive Teaching. Communicative Method of Our Hidden Reserves”[5]. The idea of that book originates back in 1971 as second part of Suggestology. There are many vicissitudes of life after Prof. Lozanov’s acclamation and recognition in Bulgaria.  In the following decades he has to live and work abroad which delays this publication with more then 30 years. But this would be the theme of another research.

“Suggestopedia – Desuggestive Teaching. Communicative Method of Our Hidden Reserves”[5].

Desuggestopedia is art – ceaselessly vibrating adaptive art.[5].

Suggestopaedia – Desuggestive Teaching. Communicative Method. On the Level of the Hidden Reserves of the Human Mind [16].

The second monograph of Dr. Lozanov from 2005, “Suggestopedia –Desuggestive Teaching”[5] answers the question: “What is Suggestopedia?”, defining it as a science about the hidden reserved abilities of the mind and the mainly learning potential unused by the brain, which proves that the human personality has much more higher abilities then the mass accepted in the society norm.

Prof. Georgi Lozanov finds out the specifics of the suggestopedic reserve complex which is freed by the Suggestive – desuggestive teaching [5, с. 35]:

1. Memory reserves, the reserve abilities for intellectual work, the creativity reserves and the reserves of the personality as a whole open. If we do not free the multiple reserved potential we can not talk of suggestopedia.
2. There is always an effect of relaxation or at least there is no tiredness. If during class the students are tired, we can not talk of suggestopedia.
3. The suggestopedic education is always a pleasant experience.
4. It always has a positive educational effect, by softening the aggressive tendency in the students and helps them to adapt to society.
5. In cases of functional disorder or functional elements of organic diseases there is a significant psycho-prophylactic and psychotherapeutic effect.

What is used in suggestopedia? On the basis of suggestopedic reserve complex, which is freed by the Suggestive-desuggestive teaching in the process of education there are definite factors that are activated and influence the educational process [5, с. 201-202]:

1. Classical Art.
2. Placebo.
3. Paraconsciousness.
4. Relaxation in a form of calming down.
5. Peripheral perceptions.
6. The credibility (prestige and reliability) of the source of information.
7. Dual plane in the providing of the information.
8. Intonation and rhythm of speech.
9. Infantilization in the sense of increased trust and receptivity.
10. Pseudopassivity.
11. Prestige.
12. Multiple personality.
13. Vibrating relaxing methodology.
14. New names and professions.
15. Songs.
16. Laughter.
17. Specific globalization.
18. Golden proportion.
19. Leaded non-manipulative communication.

All sited factors are important of course but there are some other factors.

What is the essential and without it there is no suggestopedia? Of main importance also is the training of the teacher, for without it there could not be [5, с. 202-203]:

1. Manifold increase of the input volume.
2. The study material should be structured on a global-partial basis.
3. Both as specialist and as a personality the teacher should have a very high prestige (to inspire reliability and trustworthiness).
4. The teacher should be one hundred-percent sure of the positive outcome of the desuggestive education and not to imitate it.
5. To love his/her students (certainly not in a sentimental way but as human beings) and to teach them with personal participation in the system of games, songs, classical type of arts and joy.

Suggestopedy (with its desuggestive application) is a method of opening of the reserves of the mind by love to the human beings. All other means described above are in connection to the orchestration but the needed orchestration.

Suggestopedy (desuggestive education) Reservopedia is build upon seven laws (Conditio Sine Qua Non), which are discovered, systemized and described by professor Georgi Lozanov MD and can be found on his web site:

http://dr-lozanov.com/bg/7_zakona.htm

1) Love

It is well known that no fine accomplishments have been made in this world without love. Love is also an essential condition for accessing the reserves of mind. Love creates serenity, trust and contributes to the prestige of the teacher in the eyes of the students and thus opens the ways of tapping the reserves in the personality`s paraconsciousness. Love cannot be played as the students will feel that. But it should not be understood as some sentimental, soft mood, since this attitude brings about negative reactions. Love should be experienced as genuine love for the human being. We do not advise any teacher to start working at the level of the reserves if they do not possess sincere, humanistic love. They should better wait until they reconsider the teaching process of communication as an expression of love.

In Reservopedia, the teacher`s love to the learners can be best illustrated by means of the metaphor of a mother or father teaching their children how to ride a bicycle without the child being able to tell at each moment whether the parent is holding the bicycle from behind or not.

In the same way, reservopedic learners are mostly unaware of their teacher`s support. For example, during all productive stages in the reservopedic cycle in foreign language acquisition, i.e. the stages at which learners produce speech, namely the introduction, the elaboration and the last stage of performance when learners express themselves more freely and creatively, the teacher provides subdued and unobtrusive guidance, modelling and implicit, tactful correction of the learners output without their, most often, realizing that they are being corrected. The teacher provides the correct version of the learners’ utterances in such a tenderly suggestive way that the learners do not even feel that they have committed an error. Errors are never analysed on the spot and teachers never suggest that learners should try harder.

This metaphor illustrates the quality of the psychological relationship between teacher and learner which is much like the relationship of mother to child. The example of the bicycle is used here to emphasize the aspect of LOVE, the caring and loving support of the teacher to the learners, to whom it is most welcome just because it is tenderly offered and not imposed upon them. Thus they are feeling secure.

Love, together with the other laws, creates the necessary cheerful, genuine and highly stimulating concentrative relaxation. This presupposes mental relaxation and non-strained concentration. It calls for calmness, steadiness, inner confidence and trust. Under these conditions of positive emotions, creative mental activity and the global learning process are characterized by an absence of fatigue. The principle of joy and concentrative calmness is realized through the system of games and humour, and, through visual materials which are not illustrative, but rather stimulating in character, as well as through the overall teaching communicative interaction.

2) Freedom

When there is Love, there is Freedom. Freedom empowers the teacher to exercise his / her judgement and personal decisions within the main reservopedic framework of the lesson to adapt it to the traits of each group. It also allows the students to choose whether to take part in some activities such as a game, a song, etc. that might not be in harmony with their disposition. They are also absolutely free at any moment to go out of the classroom without, of course, disturbing the work of the group. The principle of freedom is one of the most basic elements which distinguish Reservopedia from hypnosis. In hypnosis, the hypnotized subject is unable to choose, to act freely, spontaneously, to interrupt the process or do anything unless the hypnotizer has ordered so.

Freedom gives the opportunity to the student to listen to their inner voice and to choose their way to the reserves of mind at different moments of the process of instruction. Freedom is not being dictated by the teacher, it is a spontaneous feeling in the student that they do not obey the methodology but are free to enjoy it and give personal expression in accordance with their personal traits, i.e. Reservopedia is not an imposition; on the contrary, it is opening the door to personal expression.

3) Conviction of the Teacher that Something Unusual is Taking Place

The state of conviction that something extraordinary, different from the social suggestive norm, is taking place with no fail, leads to the state of inspiration of the teacher. This inner jubilation is reflected in the peripheral perceptions of the teacher and perceived by and created in the students. What is particularly important is that this set-up is spontaneously created by the teacher’s state of mind and the students happily resonate with it, most often paraconsciously. This is how the so called suggestive relationship is created at the level of the reserve complex. The teacher’s mastery is in facilitating this teaching-learning communication process of resonance. Naturally, certain suggestive influences are unavoidable in any communicative process. With Reservopedia, however, even the faintest pressure or insistence on part of the teacher, is a hindrance to this process. He/she simply communicates at the edge of the unused reserves of the brain and mind in keeping with the seven laws of Reservopedia. Thus, the students have the feeling that they achieve everything on their own; the help of the teacher is just the extended hand of a friend. Needless to say, such communication is a matter of training and experience.

At present, students are able to assimilate the study material from a minimum of two to three times and up to five to ten times faster and better, with favourable effects upon health, than the results of traditional methodologies. And, in the future, this rate of learning may be augmented much further. The teacher using Reservopedia must be well informed about the results of all the other contemporary methods in order to be able to judge objectively.

The teacher`s expectations are both about his/her own ability to activate the reserve capacities of the learners as well as about the learner’s ability to learn at the level of the reserves. These expectations can be felt by the learners through the peripheral perceptions and unconscious signals arising from the teacher`s voice, facial expression and their overall non verbal behaviour. Due to the genuineness of these signals and the impossibility for these to be simulated by the teacher, the students perceive them without hesitation. This automatically leads to the tapping of the reserves. It is a mutual process of teacher`s expectations affecting the expectations of the learners, i.e. expectations create expectations, and this happens naturally, spontaneously, without any force.

4) Manifold Increase of Input Volume

In Reservopedia, the study material presented to students in a specific time frame, must be, as a minimum, at least 2 to 3 times (times, not percent) larger in volume than the existing established norm by the other methodologies. For example, the study material in a one month course of foreign language teaching must always be at least two times more voluminous than a typical similar language course. In fact, such a suggestopedic course for beginners will comprise 2000 to 2500 lexical units, surely going much beyond the minimal requirement of study material volume. This proportion holds good for the other subjects too. If the traditional norm changes with time, in a few years or generations, the reservopedic course must also be modified for the constant stimulation of the evolution. Taking into consideration that a number of national and international expert commissions have confirmed that the methodology has a psychotherapeutic, psycho-hygienic, educational effect, it is more than sure that we should not let the big volume of study material be decreased. If, in the reservopedic framework, the study material is kept within the traditional boundaries, it will only confirm and reinforce the suggestive social norm about the limited capacity of the human being. Thus evolution will be delayed.

5) Global-Partial, Partial-Global; Partial through Global

In all subjects, when the new study material is taught, there must not be a separation between the element and its whole. They must never be taught and learned in an isolated mode. For example, the words, grammar, etc., do not exist separately from the language; they are part of the discourse. Each global is part of a bigger global and thus it goes to infinity.

On the one hand, this concept is based on some investigations on brain functioning where the parts of the brain contain information about the whole brain. In addition, in exposing the brain/mind functions of Reservology, it is said that the human being reacts as a whole and that the stimuli are accepted in a complex way. This again shows that the elements do not exist apart but always as parts of the whole. On the other hand, from a philosophical point of view, there is the great theory that the whole is in the part and that the part is in the whole; they are indivisible. There are no isolated entities. That is why when learning, the element is to be learned together with the whole. The global gives additional nuances to the element. The atom reflects the laws of the Universe and the Universe is in the atom.

When this condition is respected in pedagogy, the results are better. There is no attempt to isolate the element with force. All theoretical conclusions have their experimental corroboration. The condition global – partial, partial – global, partial through global where the global is leading is one of the main factors contributing to the harmonising of the teaching process. The mastery of the teacher lies in the decision he/she has to make about what will be accepted as global.

6) The Golden Proportion

The Golden Proportion reveals a law of harmony in the universe to which the reservopedic teaching and learning process of all subjects must be submitted. Harmony inspires harmony and overcomes the psychic chaos often provoked by traditional pedagogy. Harmony is essential in the process of teaching and learning such a big volume of study material in a short period of time. The relations among the parts and the whole are in a golden proportion in the reservopedic process of communication. Learning capacity is enhanced when the teaching process artfully finds the proper balance with respect to rhythms, intonations, emotional stimulus, etc.

7) Use of Classical Art and Aesthetics

Classical art and aesthetics are used in Reservopedia as especially effective mediators of non-manipulative communicative suggestion because of their capacity to emit an indefinite number of non-specific stimuli which nourish the abundance of peripheral perceptions unnoticeable to the senses functioning through conscious awareness.

Suggestopidic/Reservopedic art creates conditions for optimal psycho-relaxation and harmonious states which help create a spontaneously increased acquisition state and enhance the capacity to tap the reserves of mind in a pleasant atmosphere. It aids reaching the state of inspiration and declines the attention from the “ill place” where there is fear associated with learning. Classical art is introduced through specially selected works in classical music, through songs and arias, literary selections, reproductions of masterpieces, etc.

III. Innovations in the sea education of the future – possibilities for the application of suggestopedia for forming and developing communicative skills and leadership culture in the senior naval staff as a factor for the navigation safety in the 21 century.

The new mission of psychology in the 21 century is to catalyze the contest of ideas and technologies, and the personal change, to expand the boundary of humans’ abilities, to confirm the positive thinking and the prevention of psychological health. All these harmonize absolutely with the essence and the impact of suggestology and suggestopedia on the personality, which is the reason for the following hypothesis: The new mission of the psychology in the system of the sea education and water transport will be realized through the wider application of the interactive methods of training of the senior naval staff, including the usage of means of suggestology and suggestopedia.

Proceeding from the integrated education of officer staff of the Navy Force and Merchant Marine at the N. Y. Vaptsarov Naval Academy, we see two main groups of challenges for us to consider, which compel us intensively to implement innovations into the sea education of the future:

1) The first group of challenges are connected with the human factor in water transport. In the naval society it is known as a fact that 90% of the marine accidents and casualties are caused by “Human factor” which is a real threat for the navigation safety. This delicate problem results from the clash between the work conditions at sea and men’s psycho-physiological abilities!

For such a conflict to be solved it is a necessity the potential of the man on board to be optimized through education and creating conditions for safe exploitation of the ships by means of standard procedures and the building up a high safety culture in the navy companies. The final results of the sea education are the practical habits and the appropriate sea practice acquired at the navy academies.

The Manila amendments of the Convention STCW ‘1978/1995/2010 (International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers) and the ILO’s Maritime Labour Convention – MLC ‘2006) gives strict new requirements for the three levels of crew sailors and sets new challenges for the sea education.

The new criteria for the junior navy officers stated in the above documents chiefly concern their leadership qualities and managerial skills. New types of training for the command staff are introduced including: leadership habits, team work, mastering and managing the crew in extreme situations at sea and at sea-ports, evaluation of the risk, making a decision, crew command skills, work style etc.

The International Maritime Organization expects that by the improvement of the psycho-physical sailors’ qualities and their competence the averages caused by the human factor will drop to 40-70%.

2) The second group of challenges concerns the character of the contemporary wars, distinguished by asymmetry, lack of linearity, interactivity which demands new officers’ qualities. There is an appeal for new concept for Intelligent Defence and the change of the models of thinking and methods for finding and implementing of more productive strategic principals, modernization in the education and training of the navy specialists.

Complex set of qualities is expected of the officers, in which main role has[9]:

– Expanse, broadness, depth, dimension and creativity of thinking;

– Inventiveness, creative work, enlightenment, illumination;

– Developed intuition, ability for sensible estimation of the situation and adequate reaction to unpredictable and unsymmetrical threats;

– Innovative thinking, speed of thought and action;

– Communicativeness and interaction;

– Team work ability and group decision making;

– Combination of the hierarchical and non- hierarchical approach;

– High managerial culture and ability for work in international surrounding, trans-cultural approach;

– Ability for integration and synergy, ability to co-ordinate the processes of command, planning and implementation through the integral systems.

The implementation of suggestology and suggestopedia in sea education would accelerate the education and training of senior naval staff towards the new goals. The need for thorough research of the interactive methods in the sea education and their enlargement through the suggestopidic method is ripe.

3. Conclusions and recommendations:

The research made gives us the right to make the following conclusions and recommendations:

1) A fundamental study on the means of suggestopedy for the formation and development of the communicative skills and managerial culture of the sea officers from the Merchant Marine and the Navy Force at the N. Y. Vaptsarov Naval Academy to be carried out.

2) A Suggestopedic method for the purposes and needs of the naval officers’ staff to be developed as a natural continuation of the System of psychotherapeutic methods and psychological trainings used at the N. Y. Vaptsarov Naval Academy, which contribute for the prestige of the Navy Academy as leading academic institution for implementation of interactive methods of education and training of the officers’ staff of the Navy Force and Merchant Marine.

3) A long-term strategic project to be designed at the N. Y. Vaptsarov Naval Academy on the theme: ”Critical evaluation and possibilities for creative application in the sea education of the trials of the Center of Suggestology and Personal Development at the Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia,  the International Center of Desugestology in Vienna and the International Center for Teachers’ Training in Viktorsberg, Vorarlberg, Austria founded and managed by Prof. Georgi Lozanov, MD, PhD.

While working on the project the evaluations made by the UNESCO international expert group of 25 members in 1978 about the effects of the suggestopedic method on the health state of the students and their results and made UNESCO Recommendations about the implementation of Suggestopedia as superior teaching method in comparison with the traditional methods to be considered.

The UNESCO working expert group includes 19 experts from Canada, USA, France, Hungary, Poland, Germany and Romania and 6 experts from Bulgaria who during the period from 11-th to 16-th December 1978  in Sofia research  and confirm the high effectiveness of Suggestology/Suggestopedia in the Bulgarian education. Reference: Journal of Suggestive Accelerative Learning and Teaching, Volume 3, Number 3, Fall 1978.

As partners in the project, at the Naval Academy “N. Y. Vaptsarov “to be invited:

– The International Maritime Organization (IMO);

– European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA);

– International Association of Maritime Universities (IAMU);

– World Maritime University – Malmö, Sweden;

The project should have an open character – other maritime institutions and universities with interest in the subject might take part.

On the basis of the evaluation and the experience throughout the years a SHOT-analysis of the navy staff’ training should be conducted by practical steps toward the creation of International Methodology Center of Interactive Technologies, Suggestology and Desuggestive Education at the N. Y. Vaptsarov Naval Academy adapted to the demands and standards of the compulsory marine education.

Knowledge is always in service to the future! The applied innovations and projects are for the marine education of the future!

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