Fred on the roof

Fred on the roof

Fred was sitting on the roof.

His light blond hair was clearly visible against the brown roof tiles and is light blue eyes were shining. Yes, today, now on the roof was one of the few moments of his young life, where they were shining. They were sparkling like a happy leaf fire in autumn.

But the crowd of people below could not see that. Today was the day the whole neighbourhood was paying attention to him. All those years, the whole damned 14 years he had been in the world, he didn't get that much attention as he did now.

When someone wanted to end their life, “oh“ and “awww“ came from everywhere.

And before that?

Like ants they were scuttling on the street, helpless, small creatures, to serve him.

God wasn't called God anymore. He was called Fred now.

Everyone looked up at him. Everyone obeyed him. Only thought: don't jump down there.

Fred as the puppeteer. Ladies and gentlemen, the time is up. Red or green? Death or life? Jumping or not?

Fred stood up.

“Oh!”, it came from everywhere like an echo. Some screamed “No!” and “Boy, watch out!” or “Boy, don't do that!”

Fred lifted his arms as if to jump.

What would be his last words?

“You're all so stupid!”, he screamed from the top of his lunges, opened the roof window and went back into the house.

I wrote this story in 2001 or 2002 when we were covering short stories in German and some fellow students complained that the stories we talked about were dull. Well, the point of short stories is not to be exciting in the first place anyway. When I came back from school, I remembered a task I had read in a book on writing stories or books. I didn't quite like the task originally. Now somehow I had a story in my head. Imagine a person on the roof of a house, about to jump. What would be his or her last words? What would be his or her last sentence?

I didn't want my person to jump, hence the ending of my story. I wrote it and brought it to school to the next lesson. The teacher agreed to include it into the lesson. Of course I had to read it out aloud myself. I hate reading out aloud.

I changed one sentence a little bit, because it turned out people understood it another way I meant it to. Otherwise the story is without any further changes and the way I wrote it originally.

Horror stories in two sentences

Reddit asked their users in the summer of 2013 what horror story they can come up with in two sentences. Two sentences are not much, but this selection of 20 stories are scary anyway. (The Reddit question and all the answers can be read here: Reddit.com)

1. I woke up to hear knocking on glass. At first, I thought it was the window until I heard it come from the mirror again.
Therealhatman

2. The last thing I saw was my alarm clock flashing 12:07 before she pushed her long rotting nails through my chest, her other hand muffling my screams. I sat bolt upright, relieved it was only a dream, but as I saw my alarm clock read 12:06, I heard my closet door creak open.
Jmperson

3. Growing up with cats and dogs, I got used to the sounds of scratching at my door while I slept. Now that I live alone, it is much more unsettling.
Miami_Metro

4. In all of the time that I’ve lived alone in this house, I swear to God I’ve closed more doors than I’ve opened.
EvilSteveDave

5. A girl heard her mom yell her name from downstairs, so she got up and started to head down. As she got to the stairs, her mom pulled her into her room and said “I heard that, too.
Drrd777

6. She asked why I was breathing so heavily. I wasn’t.
Calamitosity

7. My wife woke me up last night to tell me there was an intruder in our house. She was murdered by an intruder 2 years ago.
The_D_String

8. I awoke to the sound of the baby monitor crackling with a voice comforting my firstborn child. As I adjusted to a new position, my arm brushed against my wife, sleeping next to me.
Doctordevice

9. I always thought my cat had a staring problem – she always seemed fixated on my face. Until one day, when I realized that she was always looking just behind me.
Hangukbrian

10. There’s nothing like the laughter of a baby. Unless it’s 1 a.m. and you’re home alone.
Wartortlesthebestest

11. I was having a pleasant dream when what sounded like hammering woke me. After that, I could barely hear the muffled sound of dirt covering the coffin over my own screams.
Vigridarena

12. “I can’t sleep,” she whispered, crawling into bed with me. I woke up cold, clutching the dress she was buried in
Vaultkid321

13. I begin tucking him into bed and he tells me, “Daddy, check for monsters under my bed.” I look underneath for his amusement and see him, another him, under the bed, staring back at me quivering and whispering, “Daddy, there’s somebody on my bed.”
JustAnotherMuffledVo

14. You get home, tired after a long day’s work and ready for a relaxing night alone. You reach for the light switch, but another hand is already there.
madamimadamimadam

15. I can’t move, breathe, speak or hear and it’s so dark all the time. If I knew it would be this lonely, I would have been cremated instead.
Graboid27

16. She went upstairs to check on her sleeping toddler. The window was open and the bed was empty.
Aerron

17. I never go to sleep. But I keep waking up.
Genetically_witless

18. My daughter won’t stop crying and screaming in the middle of the night. I visit her grave and ask her to stop, but it doesn’t help.
Skuppy

19. After working a hard day, I came home to see my girlfriend cradling our child. I didn’t know which was more frightening, seeing my dead girlfriend and stillborn child, or knowing that someone broke into my apartment to place them there.
Cobaltcollapse

20. There was a picture in my phone of me sleeping. I live alone.
Guztaluz

Pain be gone!

Dear reader,

a couple of years ago I had a contact on the internet. One evening he wrote to me that he has had a headache. I wrote him that I know something with pain that might quite likely help him. He didn't have any pain anymore, but wanted to know anyway what I would have written to him to help. So I told him that I give pain a shape, something spiky and edgy and then turn it into something round and smooth, as I already explained in more detail in my Pain control post. He was very interested and fascinated by that. Then I didn't see him for a longer time. When he was online again after several weeks, he told me that he has had a skin rash. His hands had been red and must have hurt a lot. But he remembered what I have told him before and because of that his hands barely hurt him at all. He was absolutely delighted.


Sidney Rosen has a in his collection of Dr. Milton Erickson stories “My Voice Will Go with You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Ericksona story called “Calluses”, in which Erickson helped a construction worker, who was in much pain and paralysed except for using his arms and in after a heavy accident. Erickson suggested to him to tell his family and friends to bring him comic books and to tell the nurse to get him paste and scissors. He was to create scrapbooks from the comics. And every time a fellow workman would land in hospital, he should send one of those book to him.


When I was little, I knew my aunt on my father's side always with a dog. These days she doesn't have a dog anymore. After the last one died, she decided against a new one, so she could travel a bit more freely. She does takes care of the dogs of neighbours regularly. In the newspaper my parents get there's always a Peanuts comic. I collected the ones with Snoopy and put them together to a thin scrapbook for my aunt for her birthday. An old lady doesn't necessarily read comic. But, as I wrote in a card I included, this wasn't a usual comic book. She called me then to tell me she reads a page or two every day and was very happy about it.


I can only recommend to everyone who wants to make a book like that too, to start collecting very early on. If that book should be finished at a certain date, like for a birthday or christmas. It takes time to have all the “right” comics together, possibly longer than you expect it to take. Even with thin books like I used them. Below you can see a really tiny book I was lucky enough to just have, which I filled with quotes for a friend of mine, also cut from the newspaper. Two pages inside as an example for you and the cover.

Until next blog,

sarah

What a hoot

Dear reader,

after holding forth about Sherlock Holmes, let's go back to Milton Erickson and hypnosis. Erickson liked owls and carved some of them out of wood himself. For some reason there's this cliche that that hypnotist have a pocket watch and use it to wave it in front of their subject's eyes. Well, on the internet I found both: a pocket watch in the shape of an owl. The special thing about this watch is that the wings hide the watch. You have to push the ears together. This way the wings move to the sides and reveal the watch. If you want one yourself, eBay and amazon have them for a cheap price and different colours. Just such for "owl pocket watch".

Several years ago, I found a video with Harlan Kilstein, in which he told an Erickson owl story. In his later years, Erickson was physically very sick. But he had a reputation of being a sharp observer and he still gave lessons in a small room on the grounds where he lived. Once a group of students wanted to test Erickson's ability to observe. In the room where he used to teach, there were many small figures. The plan was to take one of them, lay it down on its side and see, if Erickson noticed and how he'd react. They decided on an owl figure and then waited for Erickson's wife to bring him in in his wheelchair. The figure was positioned in a way that Erickson wouldn't be able to see it from where he was teaching. Erickson came into the room. No reaction. He gave his usual lessons and then let his wife take him back. As she was at the door, he cried, "Stop!" Everybody froze. Erickson said, "That thing that you were wondering, whether I'd notice... well, I don't give a hoot about it." The last part of course is an ambiguity of "I don't care" and a "hoot" being the shout of an owl. Erickson knew very well not only what they had done, but also why, that it has been a test and what kind of test and his comment on it is short, but right to the point and beautiful ambiguity.

Until next blog,

sarah

Perception Is Everything

Dear reader,

in "A Scandal in Bohemia" there's a moment between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, where Watson shows surprise how much Holmes sees all the time. Holmes then asks him how often he walked the stairs to their rooms. Hundreds of times, Watson replies. And how many stairs are there then? Watson has no idea. That's the difference between seeing and observing.

I was probably about 14 years old when I read the Sherlock Holmes books. Naturally we had to visit the Sherlock Holmes museum then when we went on holidays in London. The hat, which we so often connect with Sherlock Holmes, was never mentioned in the books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) by the way. Only once he writes about a "flapped traveling hat. The famous "Sherlock Holmes hat", the deerstalker, derives from the illustrations provided by Sidney Pagets.

The modern Sherlock Holmes of the current BBC series then has every right to roll his eyes about this hat. Which by the way is introduced at a rather late time, namely the 1st episode of season 2 (A Scandal in Belgravia). Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are in a theatre in that one, investigating a murder. It's obvious to them that outside the reporters are likely to be waiting for them. So Holmes grabs a hat for himself and throws another one to Watson. But the reports are not only waiting, but also recognising the two of them. So the inevitable happens: Pictures get taken of Holmes and this way he is forever connected with that hat. So the famous deerstalker gets even more famous and becomes the "Sherlock Holmes hat". Originally it was a hat used for hunters, probably not exclusively for deer hunters. The flap at the front and back exist for practical reasons: at the front it shields like every other hat, too. The flap at the back is against rain, so the rain would not drip down the neck, but further back on the jacket or coat.

Back to Holmes and Watson. Many movies show the two of them together and that's taken for granted. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman, who play Holmes and Watson in the BBC version once stated in an interview that it only occurred to them during the filming what people may think about two men living together. Holmes and Watson get to know each other the first time in the story "A Study in Scarlet". Both are looking for cheap accommodations. Holmes found a flat, but it's too expensive for him alone. Watson is wounded and back from the Afghanistan war and also has not much money. But a friend who knows them both brings them together. The first time they met, a single look reveals to Holmes that Watson is a soldier and was in Afghanistan. Watson is naturally speechless.

It's interesting that in the BBC series Watson is wounded and back from Afghanistan, too, just like in the book. Suddenly the possibility of a story involving an invalid soldier from Afghanistan is very much up to date and real. Holmes and Watson have a landlady, Mrs. Hudson. I almost wrote "housekeeper", but like she keeps telling in the BBC series time and again, "I'm not your housekeeper!" and still she takes care of their flat of the two of them. Mrs. Hudson is played by Una Stubbs. Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Sherlock Holmes, and Una Stubbs know each other in real life. His mother and Stubbs are friends. So the friendly relationship we see in the series also exists in real life. Maybe many fans prefer the British series, because they're closer to the books, with some changings and adaptations to a modern time.

In the American series there's some diversity that has to do with Holmes and Watson: Watson is played by Lucy Liu. Yes, Dr. Joan Watson is a woman! With this there are some exciting new possibilities regarding their relationship. Time will tell what actually happens for both of them. In the American version Holmes is played by Jonny Lee Miller. He and Benedict Cumberbacth are friends. A while ago both played together in a theatre production of Frankenstein. In it both alternated playing the monster and Dr. Frankenstein. On youtube you can watch samples of that. I would have loved to see the two of them together live.

A typical thing with Sherlock Holmes is that he often comes across as a bit snotty and rough. Er sees... sorry... observes... far too much than sometimes is good for him. He analyses everything and constantly, can't turn it off. That's why he sometimes seems unfeeling. Most of all however he needs to work on something all the time. Boredom is like poison for Sherlock Holmes. That's why in the books he sometimes takes drugs. For the BBC version Sherlock Holmes has nicotine patches to help him quit smoking. The more or less known "three pipe problem" from the books turns into a "three patch problem" and Watson finds Holmes with 3 nicotine patches on one arm. The American series goes even further. Because there Watson is his sober companion after a detoxification. This is where Watson comes in. Holmes' mind is so sharp, he often lacks sense for what's socially accepted behaviour and he also doesn't take care of himself and bodily needs and doesn't eat for some time. Watson takes care for both of them then, with the help of Mrs. Hudson. I think that Holmes is a fascinating character, because he sees so much and his mind is so sharp. But in the end, I believe that seeing everything all the time and not being able to turn it off is a curse in the long run and not a blessing. Maybe it's a curse of genius and not just Sherlock Holmes: they are very good at a few limited things and fail at certain daily things, which others take for granted.

Many people, even today, believe that Sherlock Holmes was a real person. It's impressive how Sherlock Holmes worked and dealt with problems. He's a model for investigators at the police even today, rightly so! But the person Sherlock Holmes never existed. Arthur Conan Doyle, a doctor himself, had a model for Sherlock Holmes namely a certain Dr. Joseph Bell. Much like Sherlock Holmes, Bell had a great power of observation. He showed that often by deducing the occupation and recent activities of strangers. This lead to the fact that in court they started to care less about witness statements and instead developed forensic science.

Doyle, by the way, wasn't very happy with Sherlock Holmes. He wanted to put an end to it with the story of "The Final Problem" in 1893 when he killed him. It's the final of a set of several short stories that can be read in "The Memoires of Sherlock Holmes". In it he and his arch-enemy, Professor James Moriarty fall into the Reichenbach falls. Moriarty is the only person, who's intellect equals that of Holmes. Maybe excluding the rather unknown brother of Holmes: Mycroft. Huge protests and an outrage broke out among the readers. In 1901 Doyle heard the story of a mysterious ghost hound. He used that legend and brought Holmes back to life in "The Hound of The Baskervilles". The explanation of how Holmes survived can be read in the story "The Empty House", where Holmes comes back and tells Watson what happened.

Speaking of which: the final episode of season 2 of the BBC series took "The Final Problem" as the model. Which means Holmes dies. In this case he jumps of a house. The final shot has Watson at the grave of his friend and Holmes is standing far away hiding. So he survived. The question is: how? There are many theories on that on the internet. The revelation will certainly come with the next episode of the new season. Which fans are desperate to watch, of course. What interests me personally more though is something, which people seem to agree more on, which is the question of how Holmes and Watson will meet the first time after. In the story Watson faints. But that doesn't make much sense for the BBC Watson. A stream of curse words seems more fitting. At imdb.com you can read already for the 1st episode of season 3 that parts of how Holmes faked his death was already shot during filming the previous episode and can be seen there, too. We'll have to wait... presumably until spring 2014. Until then we can enjoy watching Benedict Cumberbatch as the necromancer and the dragon Smauch and Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins in "The Hobbit."

Until next blog,

sarah

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

What do cooking recipes, troy and the bible have in common?

Dear reader,

today after dinner we sat together for a bit longer and the talk came to cooking and recipes. My dad mentioned that we still have an old recipe book of recipes his mom collected and wrote down over 60 years ago.

My sister said that she had seen recipes, where certain kinds of dough as part of the recipe was mentioned, but without an instruction as how to make the dough. The knowledge of how to make the dough was taken for granted.

My dad then said that he heard once that for a long time, people didn't know where troy was located. There hadn't been old cards or descriptions of that. When troy existed, everybody knew it anyway. My sister first couldn't quite believe, that people of younger times first didn't know, where troy was.

As I heard them talk, I remembered the book on the gospels, which I had given my dad a couple of days ago. One problem, which we face today, when it comes to interpreting the bible texts is, that some of that knowledge was simply known and taken for granted back then. That's why the preachers and prophets didn't have to explain themselves and were able to simply use certain words and everybody understood and knew. I explained that to the others and we agreed that in all three cases, there was knowledge taken for granted and (maybe) in these days, had to be discovered again first. (My sister took care of that by writing down some basic recipes in one of her books.)

Until next blog,

sarah

Ericksonian birthday or christmas presents

Dear reader,

Sidney Rosen has in his book "My Voice Will Go with You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Erickson" one story ("Calluses"), which is about a construction worker, who had fallen and was left totally paralysed and in pain. He asked Erickson, what he could do. Erickson said, that there's not much he could do. Develop calluses on his pain nerves, so he wouldn't feel the pain so much. Erickson suggested to him to collect comics, jokes and funny sayings and make scrapbooks out of them, which he could give to fellow workmen when they were in the hospital. That's just what the man did.

That's just what I did last year for one of my aunts with a strenuously collected collection of comics with Snoopy from the Peanuts. My aunts had a dog for many decades. Not anymore, because it's a bit easier to travel without one. I asked my dad, if he believed she'd enjoy reading comics. He had doubts. After I told him what I had in mind, he believed she'd like it for sure. So I collected and glued a thin notebook full of those comics and wrote her a card saying basically, that my dad had told me she won't read comics. But this one here was a very special one. She called me later to say thank you and that she reads one or two pages every day.

Our daily newspaper has a quote on the front page, which relates to one of the bigger articles on the page. I collected some of them over the past months for another notebook, which I had stumbled upon in our flat some time ago. No one wanted that notebook anymore, but it was small and nice and read. My friend and colleague from work likes read and quotes. The notebook is just big enough for one quote on each page and the pages are perforated, so you could rip them out. So I spent the past days now sorting the quotes fitting in such a way that one on the front the one on the back of a page were in some way or another somewhat related to each other. Yesterday I went through them one final time and cut the quotes straight. I wrote down many of them for myself, so I'd have them, too. I was up until half past two in the morning yesterday. Time passed unnoticed. I had written in german and listened to Derren Brown in english reading his book. It must have been hypnosis. Apart from the fact that time had passed so quickly, I couldn't remember consciously either which quotes I had written down or what I had heard Derren Brown say even a short time later when I was in bed. Amnesia. Trance is a natural phenomena and I don't think about it much, that I hardly can remember consciously the quotes or the audio book. It had been fun and after all the book is finally ready before christmas. That's what's really important.

I want to give the reader a warning: such notebooks, even small thin ones, need time and if you don't already have a big collection of quotes, you should plan long ahead of time for such a present. I have taken my time with those two books for that reason. I had to. The newspaper only came once a day and I couldn't use every comic or quote in it. Planing period: at best months ahead.

Until next blog,

sarah

When there's snow outside, I think...

Dear reader,

it's been snowing for a few days here now and when there's snow outside, I think of two Erickson stories:

One of those stories can be found in Sidney Rosen's book "My Voice Will Go With You: The Teaching Tales of Milton Erickson, M. D." and it's called "Walking on Glare Ice". During the war one day Erickson was on his way to work: the induction board in Detroit. On his way he saw a veteran with an artificial leg, who seemed worried that he needed to walk over glare ice. The man feared he might slip and fall on the ice. Erickson told him to stay there. He'd come over and show him how to walk on glare ice. Erickson came over and the man could see he had a limp. So he wasn't just a babbler. Erickson told the man to close his eyes and Erickson made him walk this way and that way and up and down, until the man was utterly confused. Then Erickson led him to the safe side of the ice and told him to open his eyes again. He was surprised that the ice was behind him and had no idea how he got to that other side.

Erickson told him, "You walked as if the cement was hard. When you try to walk on ice the usual tendency is to tense your muscles, preparing for a fall. You get a mental set. And you slip that way. If you put the weight of your legs down straight, the way you would on dry cement, you wouldn't slip. The slide comes because you don't put down your full weight and because you tense yourself."

The second anecdote is mentioned, among other places, in the book "Hypnotic Realities: The Induction of Clinical Hypnosis and Forms of Indirect Suggestion" by Milton H. Erickson, Ernest L. Rossi and Sheila I. Rossi. As a child Erickson liked to go to school early after it had snowed. On the way he left a crooked path. On the way home he had fun watching other students and passengers not going a straight path, although they knew there had to be a straight path. They all followed Erickson's path crooked path in the snow instead.

Until next blog,

sarah

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