Dear reader,
I don't know, who came up with those questions originally. If someones can prove it, please leave a comment, I'd be grateful.
In any case, Craig Ferguson once said in a Comedy Central performance, that three questions are important before you speak... even more so before you write something on the internet, where it essencially stays there forever:
1. Does it have to be said?
2. Does it have to be said by me?
3. Does it have to be said by me now?
Here's a video clip of Craig Verguson's performance, or rather a preview of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIdox3zpv-w
Until next blog,
sarah
Showing posts with label communication. Show all posts
Showing posts with label communication. Show all posts
Friday, 17 January 2014
Saturday, 26 October 2013
Freedom Today
Dear reader,
in a time today where half of the world seems to be
on facebook, I see my freedom exactly in not being on facebook. Although I do have a mobile phone (cell phone, for
some of my readers) and even one with a land line number, it's the
only way to contact me all the time, if you wanted. The only four
exceptions are: 1) when I'm taking a shower, 2) I'm out to do some
quick shopping or 3) I don't hear my phone, likely because I'm out
and listening to too loud music on my ipod or 4) I can't reach it in
time.
It's a bit strange that my mobile phone is the best
way to contact me instantly of all possible ways. Because I generally
don't like phoning that much and I prefer writing or talking to
people directly.
Most people, with whom I have communicated or still
am communicating using chat programs, have the decency to write me
when they're leaving when they're on invisible status. Many people I
know, who use that status, have their good reasons for it. I only
feel sorry that they're always the one writing to me and I don't have
the possibility to be the one to contact them first. I don't know if
they're there or not. For all I know, judging by their status, they
could just as well be gone or have turned off their computer all
together, just as their status suggests they're “off”. Luckily
that only happened to me on few occasions.
For me what tops off the invisible status is being
online with (hooray!) smartphones all the time now. That way some
people are (almost) constantly online with chat programs, but with
away status. Considering their status to be true, I don't write to
the very most people in that case. Either they're really not on their
phone or computer or don't want to be disturbed. So I don't write to
them. Which is fine with me. Honestly. It only makes me wonder, why
they're online still.
In the first episode of the 11th Doctor in “Doctor Who” (The Eleventh Hour), aliens darken the sun for the humans on earth and prepare to incinerate the earth. The Doctor stands outside and watches the people, who have nothing better to do than taking pictures of the sun or filming it on their cameraphones. The comment of the Doctor to all of that personally makes me very sad, “Oh and here they come. The human race. The end comes, as it was always going to... down a video phone.”
Call me egoistic, arrogant, old fashioned or whatever negative description you can think of. But I myself do not want to be part of a society, in which I have to be on call online always and all the time and even though I write this blog here online, I do not have to record every single tiny bit of my life online. In the episode “The Bells of Saint John” (season 7, episode 7) in a quiet moment, the Doctor describes the situation so far, the way he understands it as follows, “This whole world swimming in Wi-Fi. We're living in a Wi-Fi soup! Suppose something got inside it. Suppose there was something living in the Wi-Fi, harvesting human minds, extracting them. Imagine that. Human souls trapped like flies in the World Wide Web, stuck for ever, crying out for help.” Clara's comment on that, “Isn't that basically Twitter?”
Everybody vanish in the internet. Everyone, register yourself on facebook and twitter. I won't know what's going on for you then, because I'm not registered on either of that. But what the heck. If communication today gets reduced to facebook and twitter, then this here is my good-bye to you. Maybe we'll see each other again when the world stops existing or maybe already when the third world war broke out. I have a hunch neither of that might happen online exclusively.
Until next blog,
sarah
Monday, 5 August 2013
Good morning!
Dear reader,
how many different meanings can the seemingly simple statement of "Good morning!" have?
When Bilbo Baggins wishes the wizard Gandalf that in "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey", instead of an expected greeting back, he gets a stream of interpretation possibilities.
"What do you mean? Do you wish me a good morning? Or do you mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not? Or perhaps you mean to say that you feel good on this particular morning? Or are you simply stating that this is a morning to be good on?"
Confusion or surprise can be one way to induce a trance. Even moreso because Bilbo didn't expect those questions. Your fault, Bilbo. Precise wording and language is very important and sometimes defining.
Bilbo, smart as he is, answers to the many questions Gandalf has, with what I would think to be the only possible answer that makes sense, "All of them at once, I suppose."
Until next blog,
sarah
how many different meanings can the seemingly simple statement of "Good morning!" have?
When Bilbo Baggins wishes the wizard Gandalf that in "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey", instead of an expected greeting back, he gets a stream of interpretation possibilities.
"What do you mean? Do you wish me a good morning? Or do you mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not? Or perhaps you mean to say that you feel good on this particular morning? Or are you simply stating that this is a morning to be good on?"
Confusion or surprise can be one way to induce a trance. Even moreso because Bilbo didn't expect those questions. Your fault, Bilbo. Precise wording and language is very important and sometimes defining.
Bilbo, smart as he is, answers to the many questions Gandalf has, with what I would think to be the only possible answer that makes sense, "All of them at once, I suppose."
Until next blog,
sarah
Sunday, 2 June 2013
Try Not To Try
Dear reader,
there is one thing that I want to write about as a sort of preparation for the topic that I know, some are waiting to read about already.
Today I want to write about the word "try" or "trying". There is a scene in Star Wars, in which Master Yoda is with young Luke Skywalker. They're in this moorland or whatever you call it. Luke's spaceship has gone under there and Yoda told him to take it out with the help of the force only, through the power of the mind. Luke says he'll try. To which Yoda says the famous words of, "Do or do not. There is no try."
Many people know, how I think about "try". If someone doesn't know and uses the word "try" in my presence, I usually tell Master Yoda says hi. Some don't think this is a bad word. They say, "if you don't know if the thing will work or not, you can well say you're trying." Can you? Either it works or it doesn't. If you try and it works, you made it. If you try and fail, you failed. In both cases this is a clearer position than "trying". I think, Master Yoda is right. Either the thing will work out one way or another: positive or negative. To "try" however is an uncertain position in between those and in fact unnecessary. Say, there's a person, who's uncertain if something will work or not, for whatever reason. Even then this person doesn't need to try. It would be far better, especially because of that uncertainty, to get at it with "I'll do it." If something isn't quite right yet and it will fail because of that, then it will fail anyway. A bit more self-confidence, please! A positive attitude works much to make something to well.
To try something means resistance, that something is difficult. Yes, to dare something new can be difficult. I still stick to it: if you have a positive attitude to go with this thing, you have a better chance of succeeding. And something that is bound to fail, will also fail with the best of positive attitudes. So there is no reason to anticipate failure in any way. Lately I told people of the pink elephant and said to them, "If your thoughts are negative, you'll have the pink elephant in your mind, and you don't want that, do you?" (Tag question, by the way! See my last post.)
I practically deleted "try" of my vocabulary. There would be only one exception, in which I would use that word very consciously and where it would be highly effective. If you want that something doesn't work. I'd especially suggest that in hypnosis. For example if you aim for the arm to be stuck and can't be moved, catalepsy, I might say, "Try in vain to move your arm."
While we're on hypnosis, one more thing about the topic of failure in the context of therapy and generally difficult goals: a therapy means work and relapses. Sometimes it doesn't quite work as the therapist and especially the patient wish. Or good resolutions like being thinner or quitting smoking and similar things seem totally destroyed with the first bigger meal or the first cigarette after some time without one. I personally don't have the qualification to do therapy, so I can't give therapies. But I would urge each therapist to anticipate relapses and talk about that in therapy early on. A paradox? First I write about not using the word "try" and now I suggest explicitly talking about failure or rather relapses in therapy before they happen? Yes! Absolutely! Say, someone is depressed. There can be days on which the person feels bad. This happens to not depressed people, too. If the therapist doesn't talk about the possibility of bad days, the person could feel like a complete failure. It would be better to talk about the bad days explicitly and make them part of the therapy process, "You will feel bad on one or two days." What happens, if the person some day feels bad then? Well, it's okay then. The therapist said, I would feel bad one or two days. No problem. What if the therapy ends and the patient is not depressed anymore and didn't have bad days? Even better! The person can be proud, because s/he is better than even the therapist seemed to have thought, who said there will be one or two bad days. The simple anticipation of bad days gives the whole thing a different, a positive view!
By the way, the irish writer Samuel Beckett said the following about failure, "Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
Until next blog,
sarah
there is one thing that I want to write about as a sort of preparation for the topic that I know, some are waiting to read about already.
Today I want to write about the word "try" or "trying". There is a scene in Star Wars, in which Master Yoda is with young Luke Skywalker. They're in this moorland or whatever you call it. Luke's spaceship has gone under there and Yoda told him to take it out with the help of the force only, through the power of the mind. Luke says he'll try. To which Yoda says the famous words of, "Do or do not. There is no try."
Many people know, how I think about "try". If someone doesn't know and uses the word "try" in my presence, I usually tell Master Yoda says hi. Some don't think this is a bad word. They say, "if you don't know if the thing will work or not, you can well say you're trying." Can you? Either it works or it doesn't. If you try and it works, you made it. If you try and fail, you failed. In both cases this is a clearer position than "trying". I think, Master Yoda is right. Either the thing will work out one way or another: positive or negative. To "try" however is an uncertain position in between those and in fact unnecessary. Say, there's a person, who's uncertain if something will work or not, for whatever reason. Even then this person doesn't need to try. It would be far better, especially because of that uncertainty, to get at it with "I'll do it." If something isn't quite right yet and it will fail because of that, then it will fail anyway. A bit more self-confidence, please! A positive attitude works much to make something to well.
To try something means resistance, that something is difficult. Yes, to dare something new can be difficult. I still stick to it: if you have a positive attitude to go with this thing, you have a better chance of succeeding. And something that is bound to fail, will also fail with the best of positive attitudes. So there is no reason to anticipate failure in any way. Lately I told people of the pink elephant and said to them, "If your thoughts are negative, you'll have the pink elephant in your mind, and you don't want that, do you?" (Tag question, by the way! See my last post.)
I practically deleted "try" of my vocabulary. There would be only one exception, in which I would use that word very consciously and where it would be highly effective. If you want that something doesn't work. I'd especially suggest that in hypnosis. For example if you aim for the arm to be stuck and can't be moved, catalepsy, I might say, "Try in vain to move your arm."
While we're on hypnosis, one more thing about the topic of failure in the context of therapy and generally difficult goals: a therapy means work and relapses. Sometimes it doesn't quite work as the therapist and especially the patient wish. Or good resolutions like being thinner or quitting smoking and similar things seem totally destroyed with the first bigger meal or the first cigarette after some time without one. I personally don't have the qualification to do therapy, so I can't give therapies. But I would urge each therapist to anticipate relapses and talk about that in therapy early on. A paradox? First I write about not using the word "try" and now I suggest explicitly talking about failure or rather relapses in therapy before they happen? Yes! Absolutely! Say, someone is depressed. There can be days on which the person feels bad. This happens to not depressed people, too. If the therapist doesn't talk about the possibility of bad days, the person could feel like a complete failure. It would be better to talk about the bad days explicitly and make them part of the therapy process, "You will feel bad on one or two days." What happens, if the person some day feels bad then? Well, it's okay then. The therapist said, I would feel bad one or two days. No problem. What if the therapy ends and the patient is not depressed anymore and didn't have bad days? Even better! The person can be proud, because s/he is better than even the therapist seemed to have thought, who said there will be one or two bad days. The simple anticipation of bad days gives the whole thing a different, a positive view!
By the way, the irish writer Samuel Beckett said the following about failure, "Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
Until next blog,
sarah
Sunday, 12 May 2013
Cracks In My Laptop
Dear reader,
we live in a short-dated world in which technology of 3 years old is old if not outdated. My not quite 3 years old laptop, which was in repair last year, is broken again. Even one or two weeks I had it back from repair, the top with the screen started to go apart somewhat. But I didn't want to send the laptop back for repair for another 4 weeks again, after it had been there - among other things because the top screen parts were going apart a bit, by the way!!! This weekend I'm at my dad's and I asked him to glue the top. He suggested that to me earlier and on Friday the situation was so scary for me that I, still at my place, saved all the data I could think of that I needed and only then did I go to my dad. He glued the top... and it didn't stick. Instead there were even more cracks.
My last blog entry is from end of April. I spent that time, among other things, watching episodes of the series Doctor Who. The episodes from 2005 on, by the way. Derren Brown had David Tennant, the tenth Doctor, in the second season of his series "Trick or Treat". That got me interested in him. He played the Doctor from 2005 to 2010. Matt Smith then took over from season 5 on. One of the main topics there is the crack in the wall of the room of the girl Amelia Pond. What's a sign of having watched too many episodes of Doctor Who? When you start drawing parallels and seeing them in your own life...
Unlike Amy I don't have a Doctor to help me and repair my crack or cracks. So today I ordered a new laptop at amazon and will go back to my place without this laptop here. I don't even dare closing the top anymore. amazon is usually fast sending things. The date they set was Tuesday toTthursday. And what will I be doing in this time? What did we do all the years before laptops existed, before the internet existed???!!! I know, what I'll do. I'll plant my aloe vera sprouts and maybe dare cutting some of my cacti to grow new ones out of them, too.
Until next blog,
sarah
we live in a short-dated world in which technology of 3 years old is old if not outdated. My not quite 3 years old laptop, which was in repair last year, is broken again. Even one or two weeks I had it back from repair, the top with the screen started to go apart somewhat. But I didn't want to send the laptop back for repair for another 4 weeks again, after it had been there - among other things because the top screen parts were going apart a bit, by the way!!! This weekend I'm at my dad's and I asked him to glue the top. He suggested that to me earlier and on Friday the situation was so scary for me that I, still at my place, saved all the data I could think of that I needed and only then did I go to my dad. He glued the top... and it didn't stick. Instead there were even more cracks.
My last blog entry is from end of April. I spent that time, among other things, watching episodes of the series Doctor Who. The episodes from 2005 on, by the way. Derren Brown had David Tennant, the tenth Doctor, in the second season of his series "Trick or Treat". That got me interested in him. He played the Doctor from 2005 to 2010. Matt Smith then took over from season 5 on. One of the main topics there is the crack in the wall of the room of the girl Amelia Pond. What's a sign of having watched too many episodes of Doctor Who? When you start drawing parallels and seeing them in your own life...
Unlike Amy I don't have a Doctor to help me and repair my crack or cracks. So today I ordered a new laptop at amazon and will go back to my place without this laptop here. I don't even dare closing the top anymore. amazon is usually fast sending things. The date they set was Tuesday toTthursday. And what will I be doing in this time? What did we do all the years before laptops existed, before the internet existed???!!! I know, what I'll do. I'll plant my aloe vera sprouts and maybe dare cutting some of my cacti to grow new ones out of them, too.
Until next blog,
sarah
Sunday, 21 April 2013
My Barnum Effect Test
Dear reader,
well, it's not mine. The experiment is old, of course. The magicians Penn & Teller did their version in their series "Bullshit" (season 7, episode 2: Astrology). Derren Brown shows this experiment as part of an episode of his series "Trick of The Mind" (season 3, episode 1). Which are only two that come to my mind right away, which I've seen myself. Others have done that experiment, too and towards the end of my studies at uni, I did as well.
I talked to the professor of a psychology class. The class was, at least in theory, about doing things and not just teaching and theory. The right course for my experiment, I thought. So I asked the professor if it was okay if I did a little experiment I had thought of doing for a while already. She agreed, so the week before easter holidays, I came in with yellow index cards I told others that over the course of the semester holidays, I had worked on creating a personality test program and would like to test its accuracy with them. I told them to write down: on the left top corner the day of birth, should they know it, also the time. But it wasn't necessary for me to have the time. On the right top corner they were to write a code of any combination of numbers and letters. Just so they knew theirs. In the middle they should write one short sentence that described them. (I should give Penn & Teller credit for that one. In their Bullsh!t episode on astrology, they let a psychology professor do exactly that. Since I couldn't come up with anything else as a basis for information.)
Then the easter holidays came and then the first day after the holidays came and the seminar was later that afternoon. So plenty of times for fellow students to approach me and ask about the test. Well, two came up to me right after the first seminar that day. One saying that she changed courses, but should I have the results, she'd like to know hers. I gave her her index card. The "result" I had stuck on the back of it with a paper-clip. I told her the truth right away that the twist to this wasn't so much the text, nor the test, but how they reacted. Another girl approached me saying she had an appointment at the doctor's. She'd try to change it, but couldn't. I desperately hoped the wouldn't tell the others about my text!
Anyway, I came into the room where the seminar would be held. One girl came to me and asked me about three times, "Are you going to tell us now?" She was really eager.
A short break time during the seminar was my time. I said, "Last time I asked you to fill out index cards for me for a personality test. I've got the results now. Please, pick your card and read it quietly for yourself. Don't share it with others. I want to ask you for quick judgment about how well it fits you." They went and read their card. I asked, "On a scale from 1 to 5, 1 meaning doesn't fit and 5 means it fits, how many think it sucked? 1?" No one. "How many say: a bit? 2?" Still no one. "How many say: so and so? Kind of half half? 3?" Two or three raised their hands. "How many say 4?" I didn't count, a good deal of people. "5?" The rest of them. One half joked, "Mine's like 4.5." That got a laugh. I said, "Of those, who say it's 5, would any of you care to read like the first two or three sentences for us? Just to show how a well done one would have looked like?" One started reading hers. The others started smiling and looking at each other. The reader asked me, if she should go on. I thanked her and said, it was enough and that the reason why the others smiled was, because they had the same text.
"You all have the same text", I said. "And here's another truth: that program I told you about doesn't exist." I could feel the relief that spread in the room. "I didn't even write the text. The text is from the wikipedia entry to 'Barnum effect', which is what happened here: if you have a bunch of information, you pick the things you think fit and make them fit to yourself. Barnum was a circus director, who had that motto of: a little bit for everyone." I went a bit on and then told them about, also that fortune tellers and the like use this technique.
I told them that my mom had told me about an aunt, who had went to a fortune-teller. She told that aunt that she was about to die in a car within the next 1 to 3 months. I said, "She lived longer than 3 months. But can you imagine - and we're right into the topic of this seminar here - the mental stress she would be in, every time she had to go into a car? This could be the one, she'd die in." I said, "So maybe you say: well, that's fortune-telling. I don't believe in that anyway. But you did believe me."
I was about to leave it at that, but one girl raised her hand and asked me something I don't remember anymore. It got us into a quite relaxed, but interested and interesting discussion (probably for 10 to 15 minutes, in any case longer than the teacher intended for that break) about fortune tellers, cold reading and the like. I felt good. It's one thing watching videos of Derren Brown or others doing it or reading about it. It's another to be able to feel that they believe you and knowing you cheated on them. I knew they wouldn't like strangle me or something. But I was quite nervous as to how they would react. I was very pleased how they reacted. Even surprised to find that they actually had questions and were really interested in knowing and discussing more!
Until next blog,
sarah
well, it's not mine. The experiment is old, of course. The magicians Penn & Teller did their version in their series "Bullshit" (season 7, episode 2: Astrology). Derren Brown shows this experiment as part of an episode of his series "Trick of The Mind" (season 3, episode 1). Which are only two that come to my mind right away, which I've seen myself. Others have done that experiment, too and towards the end of my studies at uni, I did as well.
I talked to the professor of a psychology class. The class was, at least in theory, about doing things and not just teaching and theory. The right course for my experiment, I thought. So I asked the professor if it was okay if I did a little experiment I had thought of doing for a while already. She agreed, so the week before easter holidays, I came in with yellow index cards I told others that over the course of the semester holidays, I had worked on creating a personality test program and would like to test its accuracy with them. I told them to write down: on the left top corner the day of birth, should they know it, also the time. But it wasn't necessary for me to have the time. On the right top corner they were to write a code of any combination of numbers and letters. Just so they knew theirs. In the middle they should write one short sentence that described them. (I should give Penn & Teller credit for that one. In their Bullsh!t episode on astrology, they let a psychology professor do exactly that. Since I couldn't come up with anything else as a basis for information.)
Then the easter holidays came and then the first day after the holidays came and the seminar was later that afternoon. So plenty of times for fellow students to approach me and ask about the test. Well, two came up to me right after the first seminar that day. One saying that she changed courses, but should I have the results, she'd like to know hers. I gave her her index card. The "result" I had stuck on the back of it with a paper-clip. I told her the truth right away that the twist to this wasn't so much the text, nor the test, but how they reacted. Another girl approached me saying she had an appointment at the doctor's. She'd try to change it, but couldn't. I desperately hoped the wouldn't tell the others about my text!
Anyway, I came into the room where the seminar would be held. One girl came to me and asked me about three times, "Are you going to tell us now?" She was really eager.
A short break time during the seminar was my time. I said, "Last time I asked you to fill out index cards for me for a personality test. I've got the results now. Please, pick your card and read it quietly for yourself. Don't share it with others. I want to ask you for quick judgment about how well it fits you." They went and read their card. I asked, "On a scale from 1 to 5, 1 meaning doesn't fit and 5 means it fits, how many think it sucked? 1?" No one. "How many say: a bit? 2?" Still no one. "How many say: so and so? Kind of half half? 3?" Two or three raised their hands. "How many say 4?" I didn't count, a good deal of people. "5?" The rest of them. One half joked, "Mine's like 4.5." That got a laugh. I said, "Of those, who say it's 5, would any of you care to read like the first two or three sentences for us? Just to show how a well done one would have looked like?" One started reading hers. The others started smiling and looking at each other. The reader asked me, if she should go on. I thanked her and said, it was enough and that the reason why the others smiled was, because they had the same text.
"You all have the same text", I said. "And here's another truth: that program I told you about doesn't exist." I could feel the relief that spread in the room. "I didn't even write the text. The text is from the wikipedia entry to 'Barnum effect', which is what happened here: if you have a bunch of information, you pick the things you think fit and make them fit to yourself. Barnum was a circus director, who had that motto of: a little bit for everyone." I went a bit on and then told them about, also that fortune tellers and the like use this technique.
I told them that my mom had told me about an aunt, who had went to a fortune-teller. She told that aunt that she was about to die in a car within the next 1 to 3 months. I said, "She lived longer than 3 months. But can you imagine - and we're right into the topic of this seminar here - the mental stress she would be in, every time she had to go into a car? This could be the one, she'd die in." I said, "So maybe you say: well, that's fortune-telling. I don't believe in that anyway. But you did believe me."
I was about to leave it at that, but one girl raised her hand and asked me something I don't remember anymore. It got us into a quite relaxed, but interested and interesting discussion (probably for 10 to 15 minutes, in any case longer than the teacher intended for that break) about fortune tellers, cold reading and the like. I felt good. It's one thing watching videos of Derren Brown or others doing it or reading about it. It's another to be able to feel that they believe you and knowing you cheated on them. I knew they wouldn't like strangle me or something. But I was quite nervous as to how they would react. I was very pleased how they reacted. Even surprised to find that they actually had questions and were really interested in knowing and discussing more!
Until next blog,
sarah
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
K-PAX or why i write names and places and such all in small letters alot
Dear reader,
this blog post is a special one today. Usually I post something on my german blog and then translate to post it here. Today I thought it's time to explain to my english reading readers about my way of writing and spelling things. As you may have noticed, I sign each post with "sarah", all in small letters. Also in this paragraph alone I wrote "english reading readers" and not "English reading readers". Today I'll explain why. I write differently in german, because the whole grammar and spelling words with a capital letter or not is different in german. In english, apart from "I" and names of places, people and such - and the beginning of a sentence, everything is spelled in small letters anyway. I thought it's time today to explain my writing style. Especially since some people already pointed out to me that it should read, for example "American", instead of "american". English is not my native language and although I may make some more or less obvious mistakes that are unnoticed and unwanted, "american", "english" and "german" are very deliberately written the way they are. Here is why:
Years ago a friend of my mom's suggested to me to watch the movie "K-PAX". So that's what I did.
"K-PAX" is about a man (played by Kevin Spacey and he should have won an oscar for that one!), who is found bending over a lady. She's been mugged seconds before. The police question him and his answers seem rather strange, so they take him away and he's eventually brought to a psychiatric hospital. One of the chief of staff there is Dr. Mark Powell (played by the great Jeff Bridges). We find out that prot, as the man calls himself, believes to come from the planet K-PAX. Of course the way prot would write or spell things and names and places isn't a topic in the movie. But it is in the book written by Gene Brewer, which was the model for the movie script. The book is written from the doctor's point of view and in his way to show his respect for prot, he adopts his way of writing. According to prot names of persons or places are not important in the big picture of the universe. So they don't deserve to be written with capital letters, thus: prot. Planets however do play an important part, so prot spells them everything in capital letters, thus: K-PAX. Or he'd also write: EARTH and WORLD. Some time ago, I would write "Earth" instead of "earth", which makes more sense to me than "EARTH". But I don't do that anymore now. No particular reason. I find "EARTH" a bit irritating, but I somewhat adopt prot's way of writing, as I imagine you already saw from my previous blogs. So I write "english" and "german" instead of "English" or "German" and also often I sign e-mails and this blog with all small letters reading: sarah.
So what is it with prot? Really from another planet or just delusional? Examinations show that he can see ultra violet light, which is impossible for humans to see. Also in one point in the story he seems to be just gone. Other patients tell the staff of the hospital not to worry, that prot is only away for a bit to see the few other places on Earth he didn't see yet. But in his research the psychiatrist also finds out about a man, who was believed to have drowned after loosing his wife and daughter over a murderous rapist. At the end of the movie or book that's for you to decide. Both the book and the movie give clues to both a very human, earthly tragedy and some unearthly, inexplicable things happening, too. I have my ideas, but I'm not going to discuss them here in my blog. If you like to share your thoughts with me or want to know what I think is going on, drop me a message.
Because of his work, my dad (he's a psychiatrist and psychotherapist) is always very critical about "psychiatry movies". And often he gets bored and says a movie could have been shorter. But he very much enjoyed "K-PAX". He said, he especially liked the two possibilities of the human tragedy as well as the possible alien explanation. So take it from him: this movie is well worth watching!
One last thing about the book: the author is a certain Gene Brewer, as I mentioned above. In the book the psychiatrist is also called Gene Brewer, but is purely fictional. The author doesn't have a degree in psychiatry, nor is the story in "K-PAX" in any way related to some real life case. Not that I'm aware of anyway. I just wanted to point that out to you here right away, since this is often talked about and people seem to believe that the author is or was in fact a psychiatrist actually writing about true events. As far as I know this is not the case.
Until next blog,
sarah
this blog post is a special one today. Usually I post something on my german blog and then translate to post it here. Today I thought it's time to explain to my english reading readers about my way of writing and spelling things. As you may have noticed, I sign each post with "sarah", all in small letters. Also in this paragraph alone I wrote "english reading readers" and not "English reading readers". Today I'll explain why. I write differently in german, because the whole grammar and spelling words with a capital letter or not is different in german. In english, apart from "I" and names of places, people and such - and the beginning of a sentence, everything is spelled in small letters anyway. I thought it's time today to explain my writing style. Especially since some people already pointed out to me that it should read, for example "American", instead of "american". English is not my native language and although I may make some more or less obvious mistakes that are unnoticed and unwanted, "american", "english" and "german" are very deliberately written the way they are. Here is why:
Years ago a friend of my mom's suggested to me to watch the movie "K-PAX". So that's what I did.
"K-PAX" is about a man (played by Kevin Spacey and he should have won an oscar for that one!), who is found bending over a lady. She's been mugged seconds before. The police question him and his answers seem rather strange, so they take him away and he's eventually brought to a psychiatric hospital. One of the chief of staff there is Dr. Mark Powell (played by the great Jeff Bridges). We find out that prot, as the man calls himself, believes to come from the planet K-PAX. Of course the way prot would write or spell things and names and places isn't a topic in the movie. But it is in the book written by Gene Brewer, which was the model for the movie script. The book is written from the doctor's point of view and in his way to show his respect for prot, he adopts his way of writing. According to prot names of persons or places are not important in the big picture of the universe. So they don't deserve to be written with capital letters, thus: prot. Planets however do play an important part, so prot spells them everything in capital letters, thus: K-PAX. Or he'd also write: EARTH and WORLD. Some time ago, I would write "Earth" instead of "earth", which makes more sense to me than "EARTH". But I don't do that anymore now. No particular reason. I find "EARTH" a bit irritating, but I somewhat adopt prot's way of writing, as I imagine you already saw from my previous blogs. So I write "english" and "german" instead of "English" or "German" and also often I sign e-mails and this blog with all small letters reading: sarah.
So what is it with prot? Really from another planet or just delusional? Examinations show that he can see ultra violet light, which is impossible for humans to see. Also in one point in the story he seems to be just gone. Other patients tell the staff of the hospital not to worry, that prot is only away for a bit to see the few other places on Earth he didn't see yet. But in his research the psychiatrist also finds out about a man, who was believed to have drowned after loosing his wife and daughter over a murderous rapist. At the end of the movie or book that's for you to decide. Both the book and the movie give clues to both a very human, earthly tragedy and some unearthly, inexplicable things happening, too. I have my ideas, but I'm not going to discuss them here in my blog. If you like to share your thoughts with me or want to know what I think is going on, drop me a message.
Because of his work, my dad (he's a psychiatrist and psychotherapist) is always very critical about "psychiatry movies". And often he gets bored and says a movie could have been shorter. But he very much enjoyed "K-PAX". He said, he especially liked the two possibilities of the human tragedy as well as the possible alien explanation. So take it from him: this movie is well worth watching!
One last thing about the book: the author is a certain Gene Brewer, as I mentioned above. In the book the psychiatrist is also called Gene Brewer, but is purely fictional. The author doesn't have a degree in psychiatry, nor is the story in "K-PAX" in any way related to some real life case. Not that I'm aware of anyway. I just wanted to point that out to you here right away, since this is often talked about and people seem to believe that the author is or was in fact a psychiatrist actually writing about true events. As far as I know this is not the case.
Until next blog,
sarah
Wednesday, 5 December 2012
The purple wizard of the desert
Dear reader,
today is a big day. I fulfill my promise to write about Milton Erickson. He was born december, 5 1901 in Aurum, Nevada. His birthday seemed more appropriate to me to write about him than his day of death: march, 25 1980 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Erickson was born into a farmer family with 7 sisters and only 1 brother. Erickson took his time when he started to speak as a child. His mom was fine with that though. She simply said, "When the time arrives, then he will talk." He was 4 years old when he started talking. He had a rough time at school first. He'd start reading a dictionary not at least going through it starting with the first letter of the word he was looking up, but started reading with at the letter "a", until he finally came to the letter and word he actually wanted to look up. Hence his nickname "Dictionary". He was dyslexic.
In 1919 he graduated from high school, but everyone thought this would be the end for him. Erickson got a polio infection (his first) and was completely paralysed when he overheard the doctor in the next room telling his mom that "The boy will be dead by morning." Erickson found out through much, much practice that he could control one of his eyes and make it move the way he wanted and he spent many hours getting his mom's attention and he was able to communicate to her to move the chest in his room some way. What he couldn't tell her was that the chest was blocking his view from the window and he wanted to see the sunset, before he died. Well, he only saw part of it He was unconscious for 3 days.
He needed to learn everything again. His youngest sister was just about that age where she'd start to learn how to walk, so Erickson was able to look and learn from her. This time consciously. Erickson himself said the polio infection gave him a "terrific advantage" over others. Even when he was sick in bed, unable to move, he studied his family and other people in the house. He found out that his siblings could say "yes", but mean "no" or say "no", but mean "yes". So he learned the basics of careful observation, phrasing and body language. When he was reasonably able to walk again, Erickson and one of his friends decided to go on a canoe tour. Luckily his family wasn't present at the actual time of departure, because on short notice his friend cancled the tour. I think his family wouldn't have let him go alone. When Erickson had to move the canoe, he needed help. He made an experiment out of that for the tour to never ask for help directly, but always create a situation in which others would ask him or offer help. That's how more often than not people would find him sitting learning german vocabularies for his medical studies, until someone would come along.
Even as a student he was interested in hypnosis and worked in hospitals, in psychiatric hospitals first. His boss once told him that the walking cane he needed to walk, was helpful and made him likeable for both patients and colleagues. The female patients wouldn't feel threatened by a man with a walking cane and male colleagues wouldn't see him as serious competition. In 1947 he had an unfortunate accident on his bike and although he didn't like to get vaccinations, he decided to get a tetanus vaccination this time. He got an anaphylactic shock, which he was lucky to survive and which gave him pollen allergies for the rest of his life. That was the reason for him to stop working in hospitals and move to Phoenix, where the desert climate was nicer for him with the allergies.
In 1953 he got a post-polio syndrome on top of the discomfort he already had to deal with. He worked closely with many well known therapists, among them Jay Haley, Gregory Bateson, Margaret Mead. John Grinder and Richard Bandler, who created neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and analysed and used Erickson's hypnotic language patterns for that. My friend John is one of those methods, as I explained in earlier posts already.
As maybe you could tell from my, this post here already, there are many stories around Erickson. Even if I spend the next posts to tell some of those, it would take some time. Erickson was a genius story teller. But he didn't just tell stories for entertainment, but to help and heal in an indirect way.
Many people then and now know Erickson from his older days when he was half paralysed in a wheel-chair, hard of hearing, had double vision and suffered from chronic pain. It's impressive to see him even in short youtube videos. Even in those you can sense he was full of lust for life and energy of life although (or maybe because?) he suffered so much. I think, his obvious physical problems made him more believeable for his patients. Who would you believe more readily, when he tells you that pain control is possible: a seemingly young, healthy, energetic doctor, or a sickly elderly man in a wheel-chair? ;-)
These are only a very few aspects of Erickson's life and work. Many stories and aspects I know and thought of as I wrote this, I left out. One single post isn't enough by far.
If you're interested in learning more about Erickson, I can warmly recommend to read Sidney Rosen's collection of Erickson stories My Voice Will Go with You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson. If you want to get a glimps of what Erickson was like with his students, I recommend his 5-days-seminar, which his student Jeffrey Zeig recorded. The written version of that is published under the title A Teaching Seminar With Milton H. Erickson. If you have further questions or want more suggestions, just write to me. For now this will be it about Erickson. But I'm sure this won't be the last post, where I'll mention him.
Until next blog,
sarah
today is a big day. I fulfill my promise to write about Milton Erickson. He was born december, 5 1901 in Aurum, Nevada. His birthday seemed more appropriate to me to write about him than his day of death: march, 25 1980 in Phoenix, Arizona.
Erickson was born into a farmer family with 7 sisters and only 1 brother. Erickson took his time when he started to speak as a child. His mom was fine with that though. She simply said, "When the time arrives, then he will talk." He was 4 years old when he started talking. He had a rough time at school first. He'd start reading a dictionary not at least going through it starting with the first letter of the word he was looking up, but started reading with at the letter "a", until he finally came to the letter and word he actually wanted to look up. Hence his nickname "Dictionary". He was dyslexic.
In 1919 he graduated from high school, but everyone thought this would be the end for him. Erickson got a polio infection (his first) and was completely paralysed when he overheard the doctor in the next room telling his mom that "The boy will be dead by morning." Erickson found out through much, much practice that he could control one of his eyes and make it move the way he wanted and he spent many hours getting his mom's attention and he was able to communicate to her to move the chest in his room some way. What he couldn't tell her was that the chest was blocking his view from the window and he wanted to see the sunset, before he died. Well, he only saw part of it He was unconscious for 3 days.
He needed to learn everything again. His youngest sister was just about that age where she'd start to learn how to walk, so Erickson was able to look and learn from her. This time consciously. Erickson himself said the polio infection gave him a "terrific advantage" over others. Even when he was sick in bed, unable to move, he studied his family and other people in the house. He found out that his siblings could say "yes", but mean "no" or say "no", but mean "yes". So he learned the basics of careful observation, phrasing and body language. When he was reasonably able to walk again, Erickson and one of his friends decided to go on a canoe tour. Luckily his family wasn't present at the actual time of departure, because on short notice his friend cancled the tour. I think his family wouldn't have let him go alone. When Erickson had to move the canoe, he needed help. He made an experiment out of that for the tour to never ask for help directly, but always create a situation in which others would ask him or offer help. That's how more often than not people would find him sitting learning german vocabularies for his medical studies, until someone would come along.
Even as a student he was interested in hypnosis and worked in hospitals, in psychiatric hospitals first. His boss once told him that the walking cane he needed to walk, was helpful and made him likeable for both patients and colleagues. The female patients wouldn't feel threatened by a man with a walking cane and male colleagues wouldn't see him as serious competition. In 1947 he had an unfortunate accident on his bike and although he didn't like to get vaccinations, he decided to get a tetanus vaccination this time. He got an anaphylactic shock, which he was lucky to survive and which gave him pollen allergies for the rest of his life. That was the reason for him to stop working in hospitals and move to Phoenix, where the desert climate was nicer for him with the allergies.
In 1953 he got a post-polio syndrome on top of the discomfort he already had to deal with. He worked closely with many well known therapists, among them Jay Haley, Gregory Bateson, Margaret Mead. John Grinder and Richard Bandler, who created neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and analysed and used Erickson's hypnotic language patterns for that. My friend John is one of those methods, as I explained in earlier posts already.
As maybe you could tell from my, this post here already, there are many stories around Erickson. Even if I spend the next posts to tell some of those, it would take some time. Erickson was a genius story teller. But he didn't just tell stories for entertainment, but to help and heal in an indirect way.
Many people then and now know Erickson from his older days when he was half paralysed in a wheel-chair, hard of hearing, had double vision and suffered from chronic pain. It's impressive to see him even in short youtube videos. Even in those you can sense he was full of lust for life and energy of life although (or maybe because?) he suffered so much. I think, his obvious physical problems made him more believeable for his patients. Who would you believe more readily, when he tells you that pain control is possible: a seemingly young, healthy, energetic doctor, or a sickly elderly man in a wheel-chair? ;-)
These are only a very few aspects of Erickson's life and work. Many stories and aspects I know and thought of as I wrote this, I left out. One single post isn't enough by far.
If you're interested in learning more about Erickson, I can warmly recommend to read Sidney Rosen's collection of Erickson stories My Voice Will Go with You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson. If you want to get a glimps of what Erickson was like with his students, I recommend his 5-days-seminar, which his student Jeffrey Zeig recorded. The written version of that is published under the title A Teaching Seminar With Milton H. Erickson. If you have further questions or want more suggestions, just write to me. For now this will be it about Erickson. But I'm sure this won't be the last post, where I'll mention him.
Until next blog,
sarah
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
My friend Tim (Part 2)
Dear reader,
I forgot something yesterday. So today has a new post. Not only can I say things you don't necessarily want to read through my friend John or Tim. If my friend Tim wants to use a bunch of curse words and wants that to be well received, before he does it, he simply says he has a poem he wants to recite and pretends he has tourette syndrom or something like that. Then everything is just fine. Like in his poem "Angry (Feet)":
Watch a video of it here
Here are the lyrics:
Sometimes I get a bit angry
But you couldn't tell, no you couldn't tell
Unless you looked real closely
Sometimes I get a bit angry
But it's alright, yes it's alright
Cause I keep it out of sight
Inside, deep inside
I breast fed 'til I was nine
Which my QUACK... doctor says is fine
And he also says I'd deal with anger better
If I wrote about myself in a poem or a letter
My mother was a STUPID BITCH... caring lady
She taught me all I know
Although I was a little slow, she never gave up
She never let me Slut down
Although she spent a lot of time at the neighbour's house
When my dad was out of town
I didn't walk 'til I was seven, or talk 'til I was ten
But neither did Napoleon, according to my QUACK fucking doctor
Who has certificates in frames
To substantiate his Dodgy Fucking... claims
My father left my mother for the love of a PANTANG... nother
And I have a Bastard brother who I've never really known
Because me dad moved up to Queensland
And he doesn't have a Bullshit You Fat Cunt... telephone
In primary school I had trouble making ASHTRAYS... friends
An issue which has become somewhat of a trend
The origin of which I can not pretend does not perplex me
Although my Quack Fucking doctor says it's cool
And that loads of "Fat Prick!" "SHUT UP I'm NOT FAT"... kids at school
Have problems with communication
And that of course some medication would be wise
And combined with more honest self expression
Could help me with my issues with emotional repression
And at a hundred and eighty bucks a session
I think I'll take the Theiving Wank BASTARD chap's advice
I quite like Porn... photography
And books on GUNS... history
And I'd like to be a POLITICIAN... vet
And I feel as I get older
I'm more in control of my violent tendencies
And when I die KILL... and when I die
I'll have no regrets
And I feel that all this writing
Is really Poofy exciting
And my Quack... Quack doctor would be proud
Because I feel a lot less angry
And I'm saying stuff out loud
And I'm letting anger out
Like today in our last session
When I taught the Quack a lesson
'Cause he said I'm not progressing
Said I wasn't moving forward
So I said, "Let's see how you move without your fucking legs."
And I tied him to his chair
And I pulled out my machete
And I listened to him beg
And then I cut his fucking feet off
And while he laid there bleeding
I used his feet to kick him in the head...
Until next blog,
sarah
I forgot something yesterday. So today has a new post. Not only can I say things you don't necessarily want to read through my friend John or Tim. If my friend Tim wants to use a bunch of curse words and wants that to be well received, before he does it, he simply says he has a poem he wants to recite and pretends he has tourette syndrom or something like that. Then everything is just fine. Like in his poem "Angry (Feet)":
Watch a video of it here
Here are the lyrics:
Sometimes I get a bit angry
But you couldn't tell, no you couldn't tell
Unless you looked real closely
Sometimes I get a bit angry
But it's alright, yes it's alright
Cause I keep it out of sight
Inside, deep inside
I breast fed 'til I was nine
Which my QUACK... doctor says is fine
And he also says I'd deal with anger better
If I wrote about myself in a poem or a letter
My mother was a STUPID BITCH... caring lady
She taught me all I know
Although I was a little slow, she never gave up
She never let me Slut down
Although she spent a lot of time at the neighbour's house
When my dad was out of town
I didn't walk 'til I was seven, or talk 'til I was ten
But neither did Napoleon, according to my QUACK fucking doctor
Who has certificates in frames
To substantiate his Dodgy Fucking... claims
My father left my mother for the love of a PANTANG... nother
And I have a Bastard brother who I've never really known
Because me dad moved up to Queensland
And he doesn't have a Bullshit You Fat Cunt... telephone
In primary school I had trouble making ASHTRAYS... friends
An issue which has become somewhat of a trend
The origin of which I can not pretend does not perplex me
Although my Quack Fucking doctor says it's cool
And that loads of "Fat Prick!" "SHUT UP I'm NOT FAT"... kids at school
Have problems with communication
And that of course some medication would be wise
And combined with more honest self expression
Could help me with my issues with emotional repression
And at a hundred and eighty bucks a session
I think I'll take the Theiving Wank BASTARD chap's advice
I quite like Porn... photography
And books on GUNS... history
And I'd like to be a POLITICIAN... vet
And I feel as I get older
I'm more in control of my violent tendencies
And when I die KILL... and when I die
I'll have no regrets
And I feel that all this writing
Is really Poofy exciting
And my Quack... Quack doctor would be proud
Because I feel a lot less angry
And I'm saying stuff out loud
And I'm letting anger out
Like today in our last session
When I taught the Quack a lesson
'Cause he said I'm not progressing
Said I wasn't moving forward
So I said, "Let's see how you move without your fucking legs."
And I tied him to his chair
And I pulled out my machete
And I listened to him beg
And then I cut his fucking feet off
And while he laid there bleeding
I used his feet to kick him in the head...
Until next blog,
sarah
Monday, 19 November 2012
It wasn't me! (My friend Tim)
Dear reader,
in one of my first posts I already mentioned the my friend John method. You kind of put the blame on somebody else and can say what you want to say anyway. You won't be in trouble for what you said, because you didn't say it, but "my friend John" did.
Having said that due to recent events here a gig with Tim Minchin:
(Video link) Peace Anthem for Palestine
Here are the lyrics:
We don't eat pigs
You don't eat pigs
It seems it's been that way forever
So if you don't eat pigs
And we don't eat pigs
Why not, not eat pigs together?
Until next blog,
sarah
in one of my first posts I already mentioned the my friend John method. You kind of put the blame on somebody else and can say what you want to say anyway. You won't be in trouble for what you said, because you didn't say it, but "my friend John" did.
Having said that due to recent events here a gig with Tim Minchin:
(Video link) Peace Anthem for Palestine
Here are the lyrics:
We don't eat pigs
You don't eat pigs
It seems it's been that way forever
So if you don't eat pigs
And we don't eat pigs
Why not, not eat pigs together?
Until next blog,
sarah
Monday, 12 November 2012
My Earworm Theory
Dear reader,
I'm very certain that earworms, that's songs we have stuck in our head for some time and don't get rid of easily, do have a meaning. They're not just songs or parts of songs in the head. Usually they're lyrics and not (just) melodies, we have in our head. Pay attention once to the lyrics, you have in your head then. I believe, our unconscious wants to say something to us with those lyrics and wants to make it conscious through this unnerving loop (or worm in our ear).
Honestly I had one song in my head for one and half a year. I was able to listen to other songs and it was okay. But as soon as I didn't hear anything and something was in my head, for one and half a year it was actually only one song. I better don't tell which one it was. It was a very famous one and can fast be the earworm for many other people. But I'm going to tell you some songs I had in my head from time to time recently. They weren't earworms in a real sense for me, because they weren't totally unnerving, but they were still some lines or some words of songs in the head.
As I was in the process of moving to my own flat, every now and then I had "Settle Down" by No Doubt. The lines "Get get get in line, and settle down / Get in line, and settle down" made sense for moving to another place really. "Settle down" as in "calm down", but also as in "finding a place to live". I was finding a place to live, settling down.
Thanks to a friend of mine (you know who you are), I discovered Tim Minchin the other day. I could have "known" him earlier in fact than only a couple of weeks back. Because one or two years back another friend of mine showed me a with Axes of Awesome, a video of a gig they did at which they did their 4 Chord Song. This is a nice, funny mix of many songs, which all have the same 4 chords (or one of them anyway) and all of them are hits. Particularly this video had all interprets and songs listed in the video. Tim Minchin was also among them towards the end. If I had bothered to listen to the less known or actually unknown interprets "back then", I could have known him way earlier. In any case I know him now and spent the past several days now to watch him and listen to every thing I could get. Obviously this is dangerous for me. Some days back I woke up with one of Tim Minchin's songs in my head and it stayed there for the better part of the day. On friday I was at work and drinking chai latte ginger. It didn't surprise me the least that I had Tim Minchin's "Ginger Song" (earlier versions entitled "Taboo", now it's generally known as "Prejudices") in my head for the whole time and it was impossible for me to get it out until I was finished with the chai latte ginger. Thank you very much. This wasn't funny at all, especially since the song isn't about the plant ginger. It took me a bit of time to realise what it was about. It really wasn't funny. Saturday wasn't any much better, except that the song was different. We were all shopping together and even on the way there a melody and then the text of Tim Minchin's "Canvas Bags" started take shape in my head. And yes, we did have canvas bags with us! Which was what I told myself repeatedly, to get the song out of my head.
Friday was simply unnerving and saturday was at least a better song. I still didn't really bother much to get the songs out of my head on both days. Even though both were unnerving. If I want to get rid of a song, it helps to have another fast song in your head. Sometimes I even whisper the lyrics or hum the melody at a low volume, if the earworm is really unnerving and sticky. What helps me is "Halloween Town" from the movie "Nightmare Before Christmas". Often what I do is I start with the la-la-la-bit towards the end of it and from time to time in my head the chorus starts at one point and then some time later both Halloween Town and the earworm are out of my head. This song, especially my starting point, is fast and fast requires a certain amount of concentration. That usually helps against earworms, to find something where you need to concentrate. I think it also helps, to respect and accept the hints from our unconscious and follow them, as much as it's and if possible.
At the beginning of this year I had to go to a sort of seminar. I didn't feel like it and also was very nervous, even though I had been there the day before. So I knew where I had to go and also knew the people there more or less. I woke up with a sailer's song in my head. I don't remember anymore which it was. The text was something along the lines of "don't be afraid, my love, it'll all be well soon". After a while I would have liked to have another song in my head for a change. But still it was somewhat calming me down - and it was right. As I was there soon it was all well. So earworms are not just something unnerving and above all not meaningless.
Until next blog,
sarah
I'm very certain that earworms, that's songs we have stuck in our head for some time and don't get rid of easily, do have a meaning. They're not just songs or parts of songs in the head. Usually they're lyrics and not (just) melodies, we have in our head. Pay attention once to the lyrics, you have in your head then. I believe, our unconscious wants to say something to us with those lyrics and wants to make it conscious through this unnerving loop (or worm in our ear).
Honestly I had one song in my head for one and half a year. I was able to listen to other songs and it was okay. But as soon as I didn't hear anything and something was in my head, for one and half a year it was actually only one song. I better don't tell which one it was. It was a very famous one and can fast be the earworm for many other people. But I'm going to tell you some songs I had in my head from time to time recently. They weren't earworms in a real sense for me, because they weren't totally unnerving, but they were still some lines or some words of songs in the head.
As I was in the process of moving to my own flat, every now and then I had "Settle Down" by No Doubt. The lines "Get get get in line, and settle down / Get in line, and settle down" made sense for moving to another place really. "Settle down" as in "calm down", but also as in "finding a place to live". I was finding a place to live, settling down.
Thanks to a friend of mine (you know who you are), I discovered Tim Minchin the other day. I could have "known" him earlier in fact than only a couple of weeks back. Because one or two years back another friend of mine showed me a with Axes of Awesome, a video of a gig they did at which they did their 4 Chord Song. This is a nice, funny mix of many songs, which all have the same 4 chords (or one of them anyway) and all of them are hits. Particularly this video had all interprets and songs listed in the video. Tim Minchin was also among them towards the end. If I had bothered to listen to the less known or actually unknown interprets "back then", I could have known him way earlier. In any case I know him now and spent the past several days now to watch him and listen to every thing I could get. Obviously this is dangerous for me. Some days back I woke up with one of Tim Minchin's songs in my head and it stayed there for the better part of the day. On friday I was at work and drinking chai latte ginger. It didn't surprise me the least that I had Tim Minchin's "Ginger Song" (earlier versions entitled "Taboo", now it's generally known as "Prejudices") in my head for the whole time and it was impossible for me to get it out until I was finished with the chai latte ginger. Thank you very much. This wasn't funny at all, especially since the song isn't about the plant ginger. It took me a bit of time to realise what it was about. It really wasn't funny. Saturday wasn't any much better, except that the song was different. We were all shopping together and even on the way there a melody and then the text of Tim Minchin's "Canvas Bags" started take shape in my head. And yes, we did have canvas bags with us! Which was what I told myself repeatedly, to get the song out of my head.
Friday was simply unnerving and saturday was at least a better song. I still didn't really bother much to get the songs out of my head on both days. Even though both were unnerving. If I want to get rid of a song, it helps to have another fast song in your head. Sometimes I even whisper the lyrics or hum the melody at a low volume, if the earworm is really unnerving and sticky. What helps me is "Halloween Town" from the movie "Nightmare Before Christmas". Often what I do is I start with the la-la-la-bit towards the end of it and from time to time in my head the chorus starts at one point and then some time later both Halloween Town and the earworm are out of my head. This song, especially my starting point, is fast and fast requires a certain amount of concentration. That usually helps against earworms, to find something where you need to concentrate. I think it also helps, to respect and accept the hints from our unconscious and follow them, as much as it's and if possible.
At the beginning of this year I had to go to a sort of seminar. I didn't feel like it and also was very nervous, even though I had been there the day before. So I knew where I had to go and also knew the people there more or less. I woke up with a sailer's song in my head. I don't remember anymore which it was. The text was something along the lines of "don't be afraid, my love, it'll all be well soon". After a while I would have liked to have another song in my head for a change. But still it was somewhat calming me down - and it was right. As I was there soon it was all well. So earworms are not just something unnerving and above all not meaningless.
Until next blog,
sarah
Wednesday, 31 October 2012
The magician, who unleashed the world
Dear reader,
on Halloween 86 years ago, october, 31 1926, the magician and escapologist Harry Houdini died. Many people know little or nothing about that name today. Although he achieved quite big things actually, not only in the field of entertainment as a magician and escapologist. I want to take the opportunity today to write a bit about him.
What many people don't know is that Harry Houdini wasn't his real name. He was born in Budapest in 1874 as Erik Weisz. His family moved to america when he was still young, they ended up living in New York. The family changed their name to "Weiss" and Erik called himself "Ehrich". When he was 17, he started doing magic shows and used the name Harry Houdini for himself. There are different theories why it was "Harry" as a first name. On the english wikipedia-page you can read that friends already called him "Harry". On the german wikipedia-page it reads that the magician Harry Kellar was is idol and he took the first name of him because of that. The name "Houdini" came from another magician-idol: Eugène Robert-Houdin. A friend of Houdini's told him that in french when you add an "i" at the end of "Houdin", it would mean "like Houdin". That's actually not the case, but makes a nice story about how he came to the name, I think.
He worked in a circus and traveled not only in america, but also europe, including germany and also russia. He's certainly most known for his escapology. Among other things he let himself be tied up and put under water in rivers. He also once was locked up (as part of the trick, not because he had done something wrong) and tied up in the Tower of London and was able to free himself. But he also did magic in different ways and for example he wrote a book on paper magic. He describes techniques to fold things out of paper. (Essentially how to do something like origami.) I heard he was quite good and skilled with card magic, too. He's known today for his escapology though. In a documentary on Harry Houdini that I saw, they said that he did his escapology at a time when the people in america felt captivated/imprisoned. To see that he unleashed himself was more than a mere entertainment act then. It was a symbol of freedom for themselves.
Harry Houdini was a mama's boy and when she died, he was very sad. At that time there were many people, who claimed they could get contact with the dead. But Harry Houdini with his own knowledge about magic, was smart and saw through the tricks of those people. Since he knew about the pain of this loss through the death of his own mother, he spent the rest of his life debunking charlatans and to safe moaning people from con artists. Because you can very well make pretty good money that way, if you're "skilled" enough and know how to do it. But I have absolutely no respect for those people. My point of view is that they really use this pain and make money from that. It's one thing if a funeral parlour wants money for the coffin, the memorial and funeral and all that. But to say that one can talk to the dead and in reality it's all just an act, that's clearly crossing a line for me. Maybe some of those people believe, that they truly can talk to the dead. But I believe that most of them know very well that this isn't reality and that what they do is simply a disrespectful tall tale.
The american magic duo Penn & Teller have a tv series where they investigate things we take for granted and let experts talk about that. The series is called "Bullshit" and the first episode was on talking to the dead. At the beginning Penn is standing in front of a grave stone with Harry Houdini's name and dates on it and talking to him. That even after so many years and his attempts people still talk to the dead. Then he turns to the camera saying, "See? Anyone can talk to the dead. Getting an answer, that's the hard part."
Harry Houdini's death is pretty mysterious. They say this is what happened: He had some blind gut or belly problem prior to october, 31. A student came to see him october, 22 to test Houdini. He had claimed that by contracting the muscles, he could be hit by someone and feel fine and be unhurt. So this man came and hit him in the belly. It's said that Houdini later claimed the belly problems came from the hitting and he, Houdini, didn't have enough time to prepare for the hitting. The belly problems got worse after that. A doctor diagnosed him with appendicitis. Houdini did his final show october, 24, went to the hospital after that and died there october, 31, aged 52.
Houdini and his wife thought up a code word. After one of them was dead, that person would try to make contact with the one still living. That word would be the proof that the connection was genuine. The code word was "Rosabelle believe". Up until 10 years after Houdini had died, his wife held an annual séance, to get in contact with her husband. This never happened at any time though. After the final try, she commented, "ten years is long enough to wait for any man."
Until next blog,
sarah
on Halloween 86 years ago, october, 31 1926, the magician and escapologist Harry Houdini died. Many people know little or nothing about that name today. Although he achieved quite big things actually, not only in the field of entertainment as a magician and escapologist. I want to take the opportunity today to write a bit about him.
What many people don't know is that Harry Houdini wasn't his real name. He was born in Budapest in 1874 as Erik Weisz. His family moved to america when he was still young, they ended up living in New York. The family changed their name to "Weiss" and Erik called himself "Ehrich". When he was 17, he started doing magic shows and used the name Harry Houdini for himself. There are different theories why it was "Harry" as a first name. On the english wikipedia-page you can read that friends already called him "Harry". On the german wikipedia-page it reads that the magician Harry Kellar was is idol and he took the first name of him because of that. The name "Houdini" came from another magician-idol: Eugène Robert-Houdin. A friend of Houdini's told him that in french when you add an "i" at the end of "Houdin", it would mean "like Houdin". That's actually not the case, but makes a nice story about how he came to the name, I think.
He worked in a circus and traveled not only in america, but also europe, including germany and also russia. He's certainly most known for his escapology. Among other things he let himself be tied up and put under water in rivers. He also once was locked up (as part of the trick, not because he had done something wrong) and tied up in the Tower of London and was able to free himself. But he also did magic in different ways and for example he wrote a book on paper magic. He describes techniques to fold things out of paper. (Essentially how to do something like origami.) I heard he was quite good and skilled with card magic, too. He's known today for his escapology though. In a documentary on Harry Houdini that I saw, they said that he did his escapology at a time when the people in america felt captivated/imprisoned. To see that he unleashed himself was more than a mere entertainment act then. It was a symbol of freedom for themselves.
Harry Houdini was a mama's boy and when she died, he was very sad. At that time there were many people, who claimed they could get contact with the dead. But Harry Houdini with his own knowledge about magic, was smart and saw through the tricks of those people. Since he knew about the pain of this loss through the death of his own mother, he spent the rest of his life debunking charlatans and to safe moaning people from con artists. Because you can very well make pretty good money that way, if you're "skilled" enough and know how to do it. But I have absolutely no respect for those people. My point of view is that they really use this pain and make money from that. It's one thing if a funeral parlour wants money for the coffin, the memorial and funeral and all that. But to say that one can talk to the dead and in reality it's all just an act, that's clearly crossing a line for me. Maybe some of those people believe, that they truly can talk to the dead. But I believe that most of them know very well that this isn't reality and that what they do is simply a disrespectful tall tale.
The american magic duo Penn & Teller have a tv series where they investigate things we take for granted and let experts talk about that. The series is called "Bullshit" and the first episode was on talking to the dead. At the beginning Penn is standing in front of a grave stone with Harry Houdini's name and dates on it and talking to him. That even after so many years and his attempts people still talk to the dead. Then he turns to the camera saying, "See? Anyone can talk to the dead. Getting an answer, that's the hard part."
Harry Houdini's death is pretty mysterious. They say this is what happened: He had some blind gut or belly problem prior to october, 31. A student came to see him october, 22 to test Houdini. He had claimed that by contracting the muscles, he could be hit by someone and feel fine and be unhurt. So this man came and hit him in the belly. It's said that Houdini later claimed the belly problems came from the hitting and he, Houdini, didn't have enough time to prepare for the hitting. The belly problems got worse after that. A doctor diagnosed him with appendicitis. Houdini did his final show october, 24, went to the hospital after that and died there october, 31, aged 52.
Houdini and his wife thought up a code word. After one of them was dead, that person would try to make contact with the one still living. That word would be the proof that the connection was genuine. The code word was "Rosabelle believe". Up until 10 years after Houdini had died, his wife held an annual séance, to get in contact with her husband. This never happened at any time though. After the final try, she commented, "ten years is long enough to wait for any man."
Until next blog,
sarah
Sunday, 7 October 2012
Darn mirror neurons!
Dear reader,
my mom will die. We went to the doctor on tuesday and got the MRI results and to make a long story short: my mom is bleeding deep in the brain on many places. Since thursday she also has fever. The doctor already told us on tuesday that an infect is about to come. There is no more hope. At least we know what's coming now and there's somewhat of an end in sight to her suffering, the suffering of all of us.
For several weeks now I've had headaches on and off. My dad told me the other day that, he too, has headaches sometimes. I think the places change for me. I don't pay much attention to it. For my dad the headache is where my mom was hit on the head. Responsible for this phenomena is what's called mirror neurons. Mirror neurons are neurons (nerves) in primates' brains, which are activated when we watch others do things. What's so special about them is that the same neurons are active both when we are (passive) watching someone and (active) actually doing something. So for the brain it doesn't matter whether we watch someone or do the activity ourselves. In both cases the same area, the same neurons are active. There's much debate going on about mirror neurons. The way I understand it, they are making us smile when we see others smile. They say when I was little and a certain friend started crying, I cried, too.
Something else is related to this, too, I think: ideomotor movents. I don't know, if this is actually true, but for me the words are made of "idea" and "motoric". The idea, which is the thought of a movement, leads to real movement. They are tiny, sort of micro-movements, but still movements. They're muscle movements then, or muscle tension, something like that and not actual visible movements. You can make "movements you thought of" visible though. Take a piece of string. Anything works. Something thin, long. On one end you put some weight on it. It doesn't have to be very heavy actually, just enough to serve as a pendulum. (Alternatively you can actually use a pendulum, too. I like to take a necklace I have with a stone hanging on it.) The pendulum needs hang in the air like that. Ideally take the string between your thumb and index finger only. You can support the elbow somewhere, but the wrist and upper arm have to be unsupported in any way. The elbow might rest on the arm of a chair and the string hanging next to the chair or use a table or something. Then concentrate on the end of the pendulum that's in the air. For starters just imagine it moving in no particular way at all, just moving. Then start playing with it: side to side, left to right, back and forth, or circle. If you want to and the pendulum is moving nicely, you can take a look at your hand now. The hand is making the movement. The string is only serving to make movement longer and more visible and the weight at the end of it, makes the movement even more visible. Many people may know the pendulum as a tool for witches, to (supposedly) communicate with spirits. In fact however there's nothing but micro-movements we thought of made visible through the pendulum. Some may be outraged or others still skeptical, but the so-called Ouija board, works the same way. (That's a board with the letters of the alphabet and you've got an arrow on which one or more people place their fingers and the arrow moves to the letters creating words as answers to questions asked). Flying tables or other objects are done with another trick, but what's called moving tables or moving glasses is done with ideomotor movements. The Ouija board only works if at least one of the persons involved knows the right answer. Derren Brown in his book "Tricks of the Mind" writes about one time when he was with friends and they wanted to communicate with one of his dead relatives. He knew about ideomotor movements at that time and deliberately didn't want to touch the arrow of the Ouija board. After the group asked for the name of the dead relative, they got a name all right, but it was not the real name of the relative and later one of the group said he had the name in his head. That's why that name came up.
Does that mean the pendulum is nothing but a cheap toy to play with ideomotor movements made visible? No. You can really communicate using a pendulum. Communicate with your unconscious. You can for example use it, if you're unsure making a decision. Either set up a movement for yes and no. (Be careful! Don't use left for yes and right for no. Make it distinct movements such as left and right for yes and circle for no.) Or you wish for any which movement may come up for yes and then ask for another movement for no. And then you can ask all kinds of questions and see what your unconscious thinks about them and shows you through movement. You could work with more than yes and no only, but I wouldn't make it more complicated than necessary. You could use diagonal for "maybe", too, or back and forth for "not sure". Something like that. You can also take a piece of paper and write a word in each corner (for example: yes, no, maybe, not sure) use the middle of the paper as a "starting point" and start swinging. The answers will be defined depending on which of the corners you end up.
The great escapologist Harry Houdini was a real mommy's boy. He was deeply hurt when his mom had died. He would have loved to be able to communicate with her. But he saw through the methods the so-called mediums used to supposedly communicate with the dead and spend much time debunking charlatan. I don't know, if it's possible to talk to the dead or not. What I do know however and wanted to describe here is that things like the pendulum or the Ouija board work entirely without "an invisible hand". And still this effect and the possibilities to really use it, fascinate me.
I once heard that our muscles already do ideomotor movements, before we do the real movements. So our body knows how we want to move next, before we actually do it. What good is our conscious then?
Until next blog,
sarah
my mom will die. We went to the doctor on tuesday and got the MRI results and to make a long story short: my mom is bleeding deep in the brain on many places. Since thursday she also has fever. The doctor already told us on tuesday that an infect is about to come. There is no more hope. At least we know what's coming now and there's somewhat of an end in sight to her suffering, the suffering of all of us.
For several weeks now I've had headaches on and off. My dad told me the other day that, he too, has headaches sometimes. I think the places change for me. I don't pay much attention to it. For my dad the headache is where my mom was hit on the head. Responsible for this phenomena is what's called mirror neurons. Mirror neurons are neurons (nerves) in primates' brains, which are activated when we watch others do things. What's so special about them is that the same neurons are active both when we are (passive) watching someone and (active) actually doing something. So for the brain it doesn't matter whether we watch someone or do the activity ourselves. In both cases the same area, the same neurons are active. There's much debate going on about mirror neurons. The way I understand it, they are making us smile when we see others smile. They say when I was little and a certain friend started crying, I cried, too.
Something else is related to this, too, I think: ideomotor movents. I don't know, if this is actually true, but for me the words are made of "idea" and "motoric". The idea, which is the thought of a movement, leads to real movement. They are tiny, sort of micro-movements, but still movements. They're muscle movements then, or muscle tension, something like that and not actual visible movements. You can make "movements you thought of" visible though. Take a piece of string. Anything works. Something thin, long. On one end you put some weight on it. It doesn't have to be very heavy actually, just enough to serve as a pendulum. (Alternatively you can actually use a pendulum, too. I like to take a necklace I have with a stone hanging on it.) The pendulum needs hang in the air like that. Ideally take the string between your thumb and index finger only. You can support the elbow somewhere, but the wrist and upper arm have to be unsupported in any way. The elbow might rest on the arm of a chair and the string hanging next to the chair or use a table or something. Then concentrate on the end of the pendulum that's in the air. For starters just imagine it moving in no particular way at all, just moving. Then start playing with it: side to side, left to right, back and forth, or circle. If you want to and the pendulum is moving nicely, you can take a look at your hand now. The hand is making the movement. The string is only serving to make movement longer and more visible and the weight at the end of it, makes the movement even more visible. Many people may know the pendulum as a tool for witches, to (supposedly) communicate with spirits. In fact however there's nothing but micro-movements we thought of made visible through the pendulum. Some may be outraged or others still skeptical, but the so-called Ouija board, works the same way. (That's a board with the letters of the alphabet and you've got an arrow on which one or more people place their fingers and the arrow moves to the letters creating words as answers to questions asked). Flying tables or other objects are done with another trick, but what's called moving tables or moving glasses is done with ideomotor movements. The Ouija board only works if at least one of the persons involved knows the right answer. Derren Brown in his book "Tricks of the Mind" writes about one time when he was with friends and they wanted to communicate with one of his dead relatives. He knew about ideomotor movements at that time and deliberately didn't want to touch the arrow of the Ouija board. After the group asked for the name of the dead relative, they got a name all right, but it was not the real name of the relative and later one of the group said he had the name in his head. That's why that name came up.
Does that mean the pendulum is nothing but a cheap toy to play with ideomotor movements made visible? No. You can really communicate using a pendulum. Communicate with your unconscious. You can for example use it, if you're unsure making a decision. Either set up a movement for yes and no. (Be careful! Don't use left for yes and right for no. Make it distinct movements such as left and right for yes and circle for no.) Or you wish for any which movement may come up for yes and then ask for another movement for no. And then you can ask all kinds of questions and see what your unconscious thinks about them and shows you through movement. You could work with more than yes and no only, but I wouldn't make it more complicated than necessary. You could use diagonal for "maybe", too, or back and forth for "not sure". Something like that. You can also take a piece of paper and write a word in each corner (for example: yes, no, maybe, not sure) use the middle of the paper as a "starting point" and start swinging. The answers will be defined depending on which of the corners you end up.
The great escapologist Harry Houdini was a real mommy's boy. He was deeply hurt when his mom had died. He would have loved to be able to communicate with her. But he saw through the methods the so-called mediums used to supposedly communicate with the dead and spend much time debunking charlatan. I don't know, if it's possible to talk to the dead or not. What I do know however and wanted to describe here is that things like the pendulum or the Ouija board work entirely without "an invisible hand". And still this effect and the possibilities to really use it, fascinate me.
I once heard that our muscles already do ideomotor movements, before we do the real movements. So our body knows how we want to move next, before we actually do it. What good is our conscious then?
Until next blog,
sarah
Tuesday, 2 October 2012
Turtle
Dear reader,
it's difficult not being able to do anything but wait. It's not quite like that. We brought my mom an mp3 player yesterday with music. I wish we could do more. Others tell us repeatedly to call them, if there's anything they can do. But the biggest work my mom has to do herself now.
Today had a documentary on tv. The Top 10 of oldest animals on the earth. I first thought we'd watch that together. But then friends of my parents' wanted to come. So I didn't watch it. But I immediately thought of turtles. I heard once that the reason for them to reach such an old age is that they do everything slowly. Hectic pace, always fast and rushing damages the body.
Today and yesterday my dad seemed extremely down. Maybe my sister and I see the situation more positive than it is. Or my dad is too pessimistic, because he understands all the medical stuff and sees more of the negative because of that. Probably we'll meet somewhere in the middle of it.
Anyway, before my dad went to bed, I told him that turtles live to be so old, because they do everything slowly. I told him, "Give her time. Give yourself time." Then he went to the bathroom and I went to my room. I knew I have a soft turtle here. Someone had bought it some time ago and as I was looking for a hand puppet a while back, I found it and brought it to my room. I found it and went into the hall way. I hesitated. On the bed or on the desk? I decided on the desk in the hall way and went back into my room. Some minutes later, my dad stuck his head in and said with a very tired look, "I'll take it into bed with me." That's what I had hoped for anyway. :-)
Until next blog,
sarah
it's difficult not being able to do anything but wait. It's not quite like that. We brought my mom an mp3 player yesterday with music. I wish we could do more. Others tell us repeatedly to call them, if there's anything they can do. But the biggest work my mom has to do herself now.
Today had a documentary on tv. The Top 10 of oldest animals on the earth. I first thought we'd watch that together. But then friends of my parents' wanted to come. So I didn't watch it. But I immediately thought of turtles. I heard once that the reason for them to reach such an old age is that they do everything slowly. Hectic pace, always fast and rushing damages the body.
Today and yesterday my dad seemed extremely down. Maybe my sister and I see the situation more positive than it is. Or my dad is too pessimistic, because he understands all the medical stuff and sees more of the negative because of that. Probably we'll meet somewhere in the middle of it.
Anyway, before my dad went to bed, I told him that turtles live to be so old, because they do everything slowly. I told him, "Give her time. Give yourself time." Then he went to the bathroom and I went to my room. I knew I have a soft turtle here. Someone had bought it some time ago and as I was looking for a hand puppet a while back, I found it and brought it to my room. I found it and went into the hall way. I hesitated. On the bed or on the desk? I decided on the desk in the hall way and went back into my room. Some minutes later, my dad stuck his head in and said with a very tired look, "I'll take it into bed with me." That's what I had hoped for anyway. :-)
Until next blog,
sarah
Thursday, 27 September 2012
The Test(?)
Dear reader,
three days after my birthday, September, 9 my mom had a bad bike accident. She and my dad and friends were out and she fell. At the moment she's still in an induced coma, which is normal after heavy head injuries and the usual way to go, putting her in an induced coma. I can't say much more at this moment and I also don't want to write about this at this moment now. Not because it would be bad, but to spare me the continued updating with details about her condition.
I think, in bad situations, crisis, people try to make sense of it, so that the bad situation isn't totally "senseless". The situation with my mom brought me back to hypnosis and trance. That's why the condition of my mom is worth mentioning for me here and now. Because I think that a coma is in some ways similar to a trance. (Although "trance" and "hypnosis" aren't the same, some of you may understand better if I wrote about "hypnosis" rather than "trance". I'll soon write about my favourite therapist Milton Erickson and explain more about trance, hypnosis and other related things then.) Trance and coma are in any case an altered state of consciousness. Both are states in which we filter less of what others tell us and accept it more easily than we would in a waking state.
It took some time for me to think those things that way. At first she was in france anyway, because they were doing their tour there and she only got back here to germany in a neighbour town on the night of the 17/18th. So there was hardly anything I could have done, even if I wanted to. And even now I can't quite help her the way I want to yet. I've got a cold now. Since my mom is still at the intensive care unit in the hospital, I don't want to risk infecting her.
Here is my thought: a coma is a special state of consciousness, at least in some parts similar to a trance state. Also it's very possible that doctors, nurses and now also visitors like my family and friends, may talk directly to my mom or talk among themselves in her present and use words that don't help her in the healing process. For example someone might mention the possibility of her being paralysed or something. Yes, the possibility of that is real. But in her state it's dangerous to hear something like that. Even if she doesn't sense the things around her on a conscious level, I do believe she senses them somehow in some way unconsciously still.
Therefore I'd like to tell her something I'd tell other people, who want to work with me with hypnosis and tell her something like this, "Some people say that you can't her. But you have two ears, which work well and you hear many things other people say. Either they're talking to you or among themselves in here. I want you to only keep in mind those things you think are important and true and which help you now. All the other things you can easily ignore and forget."
I think it's important to say something like that before starting to do hypnosis with someone. Because it gives the other person the opportunity, the legitimation(!), that not everything I tell that person has to be accepted. It may well happen that I unconsciously or unknowingly tell things the person doesn't like. With those few lines the person can ignore just those selected things and feel good about it, and without disregarding everything else that follows, just because a part of it didn't fit in their values and way of thinking. I therefore think it's an important protection for my mom now. Especially now. Even if she's not consciously aware of it and I may have to repeat something like that several times, as long as she's in the coma.
I don't believe in (a) god. But the thoughts I thought about those things I described here over the past days. Maybe they're some way of nudging me back to hypnosis. After I wanted to make two friends hypnotically drunk and it didn't work on one of them and only a bit on the other, I sort of gave up hypnotising other people. Even though I know this was nobody's "fault" that the experiment didn't work out well. It still made me feel bad and I unfairly blame myself and thinking many too many negative thoughts about it. Now is my new chance with my mom and to truly help her.
Until next blog,
sarah
three days after my birthday, September, 9 my mom had a bad bike accident. She and my dad and friends were out and she fell. At the moment she's still in an induced coma, which is normal after heavy head injuries and the usual way to go, putting her in an induced coma. I can't say much more at this moment and I also don't want to write about this at this moment now. Not because it would be bad, but to spare me the continued updating with details about her condition.
I think, in bad situations, crisis, people try to make sense of it, so that the bad situation isn't totally "senseless". The situation with my mom brought me back to hypnosis and trance. That's why the condition of my mom is worth mentioning for me here and now. Because I think that a coma is in some ways similar to a trance. (Although "trance" and "hypnosis" aren't the same, some of you may understand better if I wrote about "hypnosis" rather than "trance". I'll soon write about my favourite therapist Milton Erickson and explain more about trance, hypnosis and other related things then.) Trance and coma are in any case an altered state of consciousness. Both are states in which we filter less of what others tell us and accept it more easily than we would in a waking state.
It took some time for me to think those things that way. At first she was in france anyway, because they were doing their tour there and she only got back here to germany in a neighbour town on the night of the 17/18th. So there was hardly anything I could have done, even if I wanted to. And even now I can't quite help her the way I want to yet. I've got a cold now. Since my mom is still at the intensive care unit in the hospital, I don't want to risk infecting her.
Here is my thought: a coma is a special state of consciousness, at least in some parts similar to a trance state. Also it's very possible that doctors, nurses and now also visitors like my family and friends, may talk directly to my mom or talk among themselves in her present and use words that don't help her in the healing process. For example someone might mention the possibility of her being paralysed or something. Yes, the possibility of that is real. But in her state it's dangerous to hear something like that. Even if she doesn't sense the things around her on a conscious level, I do believe she senses them somehow in some way unconsciously still.
Therefore I'd like to tell her something I'd tell other people, who want to work with me with hypnosis and tell her something like this, "Some people say that you can't her. But you have two ears, which work well and you hear many things other people say. Either they're talking to you or among themselves in here. I want you to only keep in mind those things you think are important and true and which help you now. All the other things you can easily ignore and forget."
I think it's important to say something like that before starting to do hypnosis with someone. Because it gives the other person the opportunity, the legitimation(!), that not everything I tell that person has to be accepted. It may well happen that I unconsciously or unknowingly tell things the person doesn't like. With those few lines the person can ignore just those selected things and feel good about it, and without disregarding everything else that follows, just because a part of it didn't fit in their values and way of thinking. I therefore think it's an important protection for my mom now. Especially now. Even if she's not consciously aware of it and I may have to repeat something like that several times, as long as she's in the coma.
I don't believe in (a) god. But the thoughts I thought about those things I described here over the past days. Maybe they're some way of nudging me back to hypnosis. After I wanted to make two friends hypnotically drunk and it didn't work on one of them and only a bit on the other, I sort of gave up hypnotising other people. Even though I know this was nobody's "fault" that the experiment didn't work out well. It still made me feel bad and I unfairly blame myself and thinking many too many negative thoughts about it. Now is my new chance with my mom and to truly help her.
Until next blog,
sarah
Saturday, 4 August 2012
The missing link
Dear reader,
my laptop is away for repair. I am writing a few thoughts on paper for the blog for later and limit my time on my parents' computer to the necessary: reading mails, checking Jay Johnson's blog for new entries (great, I just read that he, too, had a computer problem. After 4 hours of talking on the service phone his problem was solved. My laptop will be back in 3-4 weeks the sales woman said.) Then I also check Bob's Vlog, if there's anything new there. That's it.
Of course I could do more. But I don't want to do that on another computer, even though my parents would let me. I could, for example, typewriting the blog entries and publish them. Would be too much time on another computer for me though. But I don't mind that really. I can write on paper as well.
What I really miss above all else is listening to Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarhty on their radio show. That's right. I don't miss chatting the most, not even the internet in whichever form, but an old radio show. I do have the files on my external hard drive and I could plug it to my t.v. That should work. Wouldn't be as nice as with my laptop though. I've got a few short pieces on my ipod, too. But that's getting boring with just 6 tracks of each about 5 minutes length. The shows are 30-60 minutes and I hadn't listened to half of them when I gave away my laptop for repair.
So my "missing link" is an old radio show.
Until next blog,
sarah
my laptop is away for repair. I am writing a few thoughts on paper for the blog for later and limit my time on my parents' computer to the necessary: reading mails, checking Jay Johnson's blog for new entries (great, I just read that he, too, had a computer problem. After 4 hours of talking on the service phone his problem was solved. My laptop will be back in 3-4 weeks the sales woman said.) Then I also check Bob's Vlog, if there's anything new there. That's it.
Of course I could do more. But I don't want to do that on another computer, even though my parents would let me. I could, for example, typewriting the blog entries and publish them. Would be too much time on another computer for me though. But I don't mind that really. I can write on paper as well.
What I really miss above all else is listening to Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarhty on their radio show. That's right. I don't miss chatting the most, not even the internet in whichever form, but an old radio show. I do have the files on my external hard drive and I could plug it to my t.v. That should work. Wouldn't be as nice as with my laptop though. I've got a few short pieces on my ipod, too. But that's getting boring with just 6 tracks of each about 5 minutes length. The shows are 30-60 minutes and I hadn't listened to half of them when I gave away my laptop for repair.
So my "missing link" is an old radio show.
Until next blog,
sarah
Tuesday, 31 July 2012
I'm not we!
Dear reader,
with the olympic games, just like with the world series, a corporate feeling comes up again, even if it's only the corporate wish for the team your own country to win. Not "a team" needs to win, but "we" need to win. I didn't even watch the opening ceremony of the olympic games and didn't see any of the games at all. Simply because I'm not interested. But I couldn't help but notice that the german's weren't doing that good so far. (I wonder how the bad games so far will have a negative effect on those, who still have to go for it.)
The other day on the news the reporter commented on the men fencing. He said something along the lines of, "We need to get better for the women fencing." I looked at my dad, who was watching the news with me and said, "We need to be better at fencing? I cannot do fencing at all. Can you?" He said nothing to that. It wasn't necessary anyway.
Who are they speaking of, especially politicians and other people in power, when they say "the germans" or "the americans", "the..."?
When my dad is ranting about the americans, I keep telling him, "One of your best friends is an american!" But that's something else entirely. Or is it?
Until next blog,
sarah
with the olympic games, just like with the world series, a corporate feeling comes up again, even if it's only the corporate wish for the team your own country to win. Not "a team" needs to win, but "we" need to win. I didn't even watch the opening ceremony of the olympic games and didn't see any of the games at all. Simply because I'm not interested. But I couldn't help but notice that the german's weren't doing that good so far. (I wonder how the bad games so far will have a negative effect on those, who still have to go for it.)
The other day on the news the reporter commented on the men fencing. He said something along the lines of, "We need to get better for the women fencing." I looked at my dad, who was watching the news with me and said, "We need to be better at fencing? I cannot do fencing at all. Can you?" He said nothing to that. It wasn't necessary anyway.
Who are they speaking of, especially politicians and other people in power, when they say "the germans" or "the americans", "the..."?
When my dad is ranting about the americans, I keep telling him, "One of your best friends is an american!" But that's something else entirely. Or is it?
Until next blog,
sarah
Sunday, 1 July 2012
Dehumanise your pets
Dear reader,
I never said this blog will be about ventriloquism only. More "on a gut level". So today I want to write something "non-ventriloquial". Although it's not that far away from ventriloquism. But more on that connection to ventriloquism later.
The other day I watched a live program "Dog - German, German - Dog" with the german "dog whisperer" Martin Rütter. He's quite well known over here. This week a magazine had him on the title page even. He's the guy you call, if you need help with your dogs.
In his live program he mentions a phenomena: we talk to our dogs as we would with other humans: in full sentences. I don't know how you talk to your pets in english, because I'm used to hear it in german all the time. So I can't exactly give you examples here. Also the english way of talking to pets may be different than german as a whole just from the language itself. But what Rütter says certainly is true for german speaking people talking with pets.
I never had dogs myself. But just the other day I realised I sat with my guinea pigs and realised I said something to them - yes, in full sentences - as if they were able to understand me. Then I thought of the humanisation and said nothing.
One of the guinea pigs has cysts on her ovaries. It means hormonal fluctuation and especial: jumping on the other female guinea pig! Of course the best time to do it is in the middle of the night... At first Nelly was quite shy. By now she became braver. Sadly so, I almost dare writing. Because the first couple of times she was quiet after I banged my hand on the frame of the bed. Shoutings like "Be quiet now!" or something like that I don't say anymore. I noticed the other day that this again would be humanisation... and it wouldn't help with her anyway. First off it's not her fault she has those hormonal fluctuations, secondly she's brave enough now that my shoutings, no matter what I'd shout, wouldn't keep her away from the other one. Parts of this wrongdoing we all do with dogs, we also do with other animals. And maybe even with animals, which couldn't react to what we say the way a dog could act to what we tell him to do. What worked quite effectively for me lately was to go to the cage and maybe nudge Nelly with one finger or at least get my hand near her. Not in a threatening way, just sticking my hand in the cage. She's not that brave to be close to Bibi then. This helps at least for a moment. (The hormone injections help, too.)
What's all of this got to do with ventriloquism now? Sometimes I have Gaston, my bat, with me in our groups at work. Just the other day I had Gaston on my hand when I opened the door for a daughter, who came to take her mother back home. As she saw Gaston she reacted with, "Oh what a cutie he is!" Others went further asking, as if it really was an animal, "What's his name?" Maybe even followed by a quick, "It's a 'he', isn't it?" No! It's an "it" and a hand puppet! Of course I never said that to any of those, who asked me. The questions about his name are more difficult. The catalogue sold him as "Gaston", my colleague at work called him "Gomes" from the start and most of the time he's not addressed by name at all. So basically he's a kind of half nameless Gaston.
This humanisation and personification also with (hand) puppets is what vents use. It's this fact that helps creating the illusion... and the misdirection of the vent, should his or her lips move a bit although the figure is "speaking". I don't quite remember where I read it, I think it was in Edgar Bergen's book, but others certainly point it out as well: if a vent is not very good at saying a certain letter or a word without moving his or her lips, you can let the figure make a distinct movement of some sorts. If the audience isn't looking at the figure already, the distinct movement of the figure will bring the whole attention away from you and to the figure.
There's an interview with Rasheda Ali and Ronn Lucas on youtube. At first he's alone, but when he has brought Buffalo Billy out of the trunk, asking questions is suddenly more difficult. Should she ask Billy directly or talk with Ronn Lucas about Billy? "Who am I talking to?", she asks at one moment. Ronn Lucas, who is used to that, takes it with humour, "That's the problem with ventriloquists."
Jay Johnson as well as Paul Winchell can tell stories about being part of a tv production acting as a ventriloquist and the sound of the puppet talking didn't record well, although the sound of the other actors recorded well. For both of them it was pure luck that they eventually found out the guy holding the mic to record the sound of the dialogue turned the mic to the puppet any time it had a line to say, instead of pointing the mic to Jay Johnson respectively Paul Winchell. This is how real an illusion can get and a vent can not hope for more, after all this illusion of bringing a inanimate figure to life is what makes a good vent. Maybe the vent should talk to the "mic guy" before filming, where he should keep his mic when the figure is "speaking". but that's what the anecdotes of Paul Winchell and Jay Johnson are for, to warn budding film and tv ventriloquist stars about possible "sound problems"... ;-)
Our pets however may be better off if we dehumanised them more. Aren't you, Nelly? Bibi?
Until next blog,
sarah
I never said this blog will be about ventriloquism only. More "on a gut level". So today I want to write something "non-ventriloquial". Although it's not that far away from ventriloquism. But more on that connection to ventriloquism later.
The other day I watched a live program "Dog - German, German - Dog" with the german "dog whisperer" Martin Rütter. He's quite well known over here. This week a magazine had him on the title page even. He's the guy you call, if you need help with your dogs.
In his live program he mentions a phenomena: we talk to our dogs as we would with other humans: in full sentences. I don't know how you talk to your pets in english, because I'm used to hear it in german all the time. So I can't exactly give you examples here. Also the english way of talking to pets may be different than german as a whole just from the language itself. But what Rütter says certainly is true for german speaking people talking with pets.
I never had dogs myself. But just the other day I realised I sat with my guinea pigs and realised I said something to them - yes, in full sentences - as if they were able to understand me. Then I thought of the humanisation and said nothing.
One of the guinea pigs has cysts on her ovaries. It means hormonal fluctuation and especial: jumping on the other female guinea pig! Of course the best time to do it is in the middle of the night... At first Nelly was quite shy. By now she became braver. Sadly so, I almost dare writing. Because the first couple of times she was quiet after I banged my hand on the frame of the bed. Shoutings like "Be quiet now!" or something like that I don't say anymore. I noticed the other day that this again would be humanisation... and it wouldn't help with her anyway. First off it's not her fault she has those hormonal fluctuations, secondly she's brave enough now that my shoutings, no matter what I'd shout, wouldn't keep her away from the other one. Parts of this wrongdoing we all do with dogs, we also do with other animals. And maybe even with animals, which couldn't react to what we say the way a dog could act to what we tell him to do. What worked quite effectively for me lately was to go to the cage and maybe nudge Nelly with one finger or at least get my hand near her. Not in a threatening way, just sticking my hand in the cage. She's not that brave to be close to Bibi then. This helps at least for a moment. (The hormone injections help, too.)
What's all of this got to do with ventriloquism now? Sometimes I have Gaston, my bat, with me in our groups at work. Just the other day I had Gaston on my hand when I opened the door for a daughter, who came to take her mother back home. As she saw Gaston she reacted with, "Oh what a cutie he is!" Others went further asking, as if it really was an animal, "What's his name?" Maybe even followed by a quick, "It's a 'he', isn't it?" No! It's an "it" and a hand puppet! Of course I never said that to any of those, who asked me. The questions about his name are more difficult. The catalogue sold him as "Gaston", my colleague at work called him "Gomes" from the start and most of the time he's not addressed by name at all. So basically he's a kind of half nameless Gaston.
This humanisation and personification also with (hand) puppets is what vents use. It's this fact that helps creating the illusion... and the misdirection of the vent, should his or her lips move a bit although the figure is "speaking". I don't quite remember where I read it, I think it was in Edgar Bergen's book, but others certainly point it out as well: if a vent is not very good at saying a certain letter or a word without moving his or her lips, you can let the figure make a distinct movement of some sorts. If the audience isn't looking at the figure already, the distinct movement of the figure will bring the whole attention away from you and to the figure.
There's an interview with Rasheda Ali and Ronn Lucas on youtube. At first he's alone, but when he has brought Buffalo Billy out of the trunk, asking questions is suddenly more difficult. Should she ask Billy directly or talk with Ronn Lucas about Billy? "Who am I talking to?", she asks at one moment. Ronn Lucas, who is used to that, takes it with humour, "That's the problem with ventriloquists."
Jay Johnson as well as Paul Winchell can tell stories about being part of a tv production acting as a ventriloquist and the sound of the puppet talking didn't record well, although the sound of the other actors recorded well. For both of them it was pure luck that they eventually found out the guy holding the mic to record the sound of the dialogue turned the mic to the puppet any time it had a line to say, instead of pointing the mic to Jay Johnson respectively Paul Winchell. This is how real an illusion can get and a vent can not hope for more, after all this illusion of bringing a inanimate figure to life is what makes a good vent. Maybe the vent should talk to the "mic guy" before filming, where he should keep his mic when the figure is "speaking". but that's what the anecdotes of Paul Winchell and Jay Johnson are for, to warn budding film and tv ventriloquist stars about possible "sound problems"... ;-)
Our pets however may be better off if we dehumanised them more. Aren't you, Nelly? Bibi?
Until next blog,
sarah
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