Category Archives: out of the box

Wizard

“He was frail and drained of energy;
his eyes were dull, his face contorted with pain.

— and I was, frankly, worried about his health.  Was this drawn and ailing man slumped in a wheelchair the legendary healer I had read about? Had I come west on a wild goose chase? ” [The Voice (Kindle Locations 70-71)]

Yes, he was the legendary psychotherapist.  Wild goose chase? — maybe, actually in retrospect, no ambiguity here.

“Dr. Erickson asked to be excused, and then, about an hour later, I was astonished to see him wheel himself back into his study, fully alert and revitalized, cheerful, eyes twinkling, ready to get to work.”  [The Voice (Kindle Locations 72-73)]

“Each person is a unique individual. Hence, psychotherapy should be formulated to meet the uniqueness of the individual’s needs, rather than tailoring the person to fit the Procrustean bed of a hypothetical theory of human behavior.” – Milton H. Erickson

Brian Alman was Milton Erickson’s last student.  The last student to benefit from the personal experience of The Wizard of the Desert.  Brian had terrible back problems, and Erickson invited him to come to Phoenix, and work with him.  Also called “the Mozart of psychotherapy,” and grandfather of modern hypnosis, Milton Hyland Erickson, MD (1901-1980), pioneered hypnotherapy and brief strategic therapy.  He never promoted himself, so not many individuals know about his life, but …

Now there is a full length documentary about Milton Erickson and his life: The Wizard of the Desert: An Alexander Vesely Film.

Noted for his positive approach to the unconscious mind. A humanitarian, teacher, physician, loving husband, and caring father (to eight children), Dr. Erickson was a colleague and friend to preeminent intellectuals including Gregory Bateson, Aldous Huxley, and Margaret Mead.

The film was long and tough in the making.  This documentary explores the personal life and incredible career work of Milton H. Erickson, M.D., founder of Modern Hypnotherapy. This unsung American genius was a pioneer in psychiatry using radical and unconventional hypnotic techniques to cure not only patients, but to control his own debilitating pain and paralysis.

Milton Erickson is a Counselor Idealist.

Other examples of Counselor Idealists include: Ted SorensenAung San Suu KyiVaclav HavelCarl JungEleanor RooseveltMohandas Gandhi

Leverage

The Human is the tool using animal.

“… Thus it is the lever, above all other tools, that fascinates and preoccupies the Rational to the seemingly infinite possibilities of harnessing energy that can be used to impart thrust to levers.” [Personology]

lever

“…  there are complex mechanisms, such as automobiles, airplanes, and ships, towers and buildings, stairways and bridges, derricks and lifters, drill presses and band saws, milling machines and lathes, as well as cameras, monitors, printers, and even computers, all strategic aligning tools.  … the strategic aligning tools, that are used more efficiently by Rationals than by any of the other characters, this because they are frequently intent upon getting remote pragmatic results by strategic building.” [Personology]

He was fascinated by the leverage of the computer.  As he put it, “the computer is the bicycle for the mind.”

There were some of us that saw it coming.  Note this was 1990, three years before the Web (with Mosaic) actually started to explode.

Many viewed Steve Jobs as arrogant.

But,

“If this is arrogance, then at least it is not vanity, and without question it has driven the design engineers to take the lead in molding the structure of civilization.” — David Keirsey

Old Soldiers Never Die

“The XXI century will be a сentury either of total all-embracing crisis or of moral and spiritual healing that will reinvigorate humankind. It is my conviction that all of us – all reasonable political leaders, all spiritual and ideological movements, all  faiths – must help in this transition to a triumph of humanism and justice, in making the XXI century a century of a new human renaissance.”

He won’t go away.  Still, he tries to help.  He has no political power. And he will fade away.

Those who fail to learn from history, will repeat it.

Slow ideas take longer to work, than fast ideas.

Counterfactuals are hard to do, but we know these atheistic Communists Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse-tung were responsible for well over a hundred million deaths in the 20th century. Current history is also difficult: how many deaths can we lay at the feet of Putin.

So how many lives did this atheistic Communist SAVE?  — Probably millions. We will never know. And he now is virtually ignored by his own countries, and the international community gives him accolades, but more likely they need a famous speaker for their get together.

“For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeteers, musicians and strange animals from conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conquerors rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.”
– Gen. George C. Patton

Mikhail Gorbachev was key in the relatively peaceful break up of the Soviet Union.  He, had been in effect, the Tzar of Russia.

He had the Idealistic Idea that the world, and the Soviet Union, could be a better place.

Continue reading Old Soldiers Never Die

The Other Dream

What a Dream.

The Dream Team of Olympic Basketball:  Michael, Magic, Larry …

dream_team

BUT, THIS is about the OTHER DREAM TEAM.

They couldn’t even imagine their Dream in the beginning, it had been so long ago.

The Dream of Freedom…

FOR ALL

in Lithuania

other_dream_dream

It takes a Nation, with a little luck, grit, and passion.

“Yeah, And it’s a bigger dream.”
Jim Lampley

Continue reading The Other Dream

The Number

1729

I remember once going to see him when he was ill at Putney. I had ridden in taxi cab number 1729 and remarked that the number seemed to me rather a dull one, and that I hoped it was not an unfavorable omen.

No,” he replied, “it is a very interesting number; it is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways”

— G. H. Hardy

Euler Function on the Complex Plane

Yep, it is ALSO the first absolute Euler pseudoprime.  Unique.  Sui Generis.

raman

  Just like The Man Who Knew Infinity:
 Srinivasa Ramanujan:   Sui Generis

Continue reading The Number

Start: Up

“Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.”
–Baruch Spinoza

They started up.  In a new land. Starting up essentially with nothing.

She started up. Again, again, and again.

She is determined.

“The scientists at Emotiv have done the impossible: created a brain-wave-reading headset that lets you conjure entire worlds using nothing but your mind — a breakthrough that could be worth billions. Now comes the hard part.”

“It is a jigsaw puzzle still being put together.”

tan_le_determination

They had seemly started, down.

There were the chants: “Slit eye,” and graffiti of “Asian go home.”

Go home to where?

“Something inside me stiffened.  There was the gathering of resolve, and a small voice said, ‘I will bypass you’.”
Continue reading Start: Up

Extraordinary Ordinary Part II or Be Prepared.

‘I just saw what was going on and did what I could to help.’

Survivor Vera Gissing said:

‘I owe him my life and those of my children and grandchildren. I was lucky to get out when I did and having the chance to thank Nicky was the most precious moment in my life.’

As far as he is concerned, his actions weren’t anything extraordinary.

Continue reading Extraordinary Ordinary Part II or Be Prepared.

The Broken Mirror of Fac-tion

For anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing,
whose end, both at the first and now, was and is to hold,
as twere, the mirror up to nature,
to show virtue her own feature,
scorn her own image,
and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.
Hamlet: Act 3, Scene 2

The Mirror of Fic-tion

He had written a play that won him the Pulitizer Prize in Fiction.

Yet, the broken mirror of reality, bedeviled him and beguiled him.

She had become one of the most famous actresses of the age.

Yet, the broken mirror of reality, bedeviled her and beguiled her.

Make-believe and Playing are simpler than Reality.  And they can serve as a safe haven for the Four Temperaments.

What’s that you say, Mrs. Robinson 
Joltin’ Joe has left and gone away

“She was a whirling light to me then, all paradox and enticing mystery, street-tough one moment, then lifted by a lyrical and poetic sensitivity that few retain past early adolescence.” — Arthur Miller. 

Continue reading The Broken Mirror of Fac-tion

Saturation Dynasty

superman vs batman

Batman vs. Superman filmed it’s first scene in East L.A. this weekend featuring fictional football teams Gotham City University vs. Metropolis State University:

Seventeen-time Emmy award winning HBO series Boardwalk Empire airs S4 E7 tonight and it seems it is still time to continue riding the “good TV show” bandwagon.  The critically acclaimed bootlegging drama picked up five primetime statues this year alone including Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series.

Continue reading Saturation Dynasty

Native Province

homeland 1

Eight-time Emmy award-winning Showtime series Homeland premiered Season 3 this week and it’s just about time to hop on the “good TV show” bandwagon.  This year at the Emmy’s Homeland picked up Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series (Henry Bromell) and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (Claire Danes).  Though last year it took some backlash for exploring controversial Islamophobia and American Foreign Policy related concepts.

http://www.sho.com/sho/homeland/home

Continue reading Native Province