[Diogenes]

http://www.personalsovereignty.org/know.html<br /> <br /> Know Thyself<br /> <br /> Who We Are <br /> <br /> You are born to be the person that you are. What you may not realize is that from the moment of your birth, your environment has conspired to mold you into something else. Only by understanding this basic human truth can you become aware of the life's mission that you must follow. <br /> <br /> This is not a question of fate versus empowerment. You have a choice as to how you live your life. Rather it is a question of whether you live your life to the highest fulfillment possible, or you live a life of compromises "suggested" to you by family, friends, and popular culture. <br /> <br /> Self knowledge seems such an obvious thing. "How can I not know the person I have lived with intimately my whole life?" you might think. Yet many of us have not been as intimate with ourselves as we would like to believe.<br /> <br /> <br /> Can you honestly make the following statements?: <br /> <br /> I am living my life to the fullest. <br /> <br /> The circumstances of my life are not causing me to live life differently than I want to. <br /> <br /> I am truly satisfied with my life. <br /> <br /> If you can agree with each of the statements, without reservation, then you are well on your way toward self actualization. However, if you felt a twinge when considering any of these, then you just might be discovering the barrier(s) in your life to achieving personal happiness. <br /> <br /> Fear of Our Dark Side <br /> <br /> One of the greatest barriers to self-knowledge is fear. Most of us aren't consciously aware of it, but we all have a "dark side," a part of our psyche that we are not proud of, that does not meet the standards that we have set for ourselves in life. Our natural tendency is to suppress this animal within us, to ignore it. Society and religion often reinforce this tendency. Unfortunately, we also harbor a deep seated fear that this dark side will pop up at the most inopportune times, shattering our carefully crafted reputation. We are afraid of this aspect of ourselves, whether we admit it or not. So we become adept at suppressing it. <br /> <br /> You might say that "the road to Heaven leads through downtown Hell." On a personal journey towards self-knowledge, you must be prepared to become intimate with all aspects of yourself, including your dark side. This does not mean that you must surrender control to this person. It does mean that you must have the confidence to release the suppression, and face what comes forth. <br /> <br /> You are at your best when your personality incorporates both your good and bad sides in a healthy, functional way. You must jettison aspects of your personality that have been adopted for "politically correct" reasons, and dare to be exactly who you are. Despite the short-term disadvantages of taking this action, you must have faith that by releasing the whole person, you can achieve your highest potential in life. You must not fear who you are. You must simply be that person, while ensuring that you take charge of your more animalistic qualities, funneling those energies towards productive ends. You may also discover that you cannot realize your creative possibilities until you fully experience your dark side, for therein lies your greatest expressive talent. It is in your unchecked emotions that your great artist lives.<br /> <br /> 3 more>

[Diogenes]

Discover Your Path<br /> <br /> One's path in life is determined by the choices one makes. Yet for all of the possible paths available, there is only one that is meant for you. One that fits the nature of who you are. Once you discover who you are, following your intrinsic nature will help you to be true to your path. <br /> No one else can guide you. You must look to your heart to know your path. <br /> <br /> <br /> We all are guided to a great extent in everyday decisions by life's practical demands. This is unavoidable. Yet we must not let what we might call "pragmatism" to end up guiding our life's direction. It is convenient to take the easy way out of situations, to "go along to get along," to such an extent that others are passively controlling our lives. <br /> <br /> Others of us have the drive to get where we want to be, but have no real clue where that is, nor the courage to ask the question. <br /> <br /> Many of us have been so completely programmed by family tradition, religious doctrine or community bias that we feel compelled to do as we have been trained, to live a life dictated by those who control our "tribe". From the eldest son who feels compelled by guilt and duty to take over the family business, to the suicide bomber who has been trained from youth to hate people that she has never met, people everywhere are living lives controlled by the agendas of others. <br /> <br /> Only when we accept that we are a tribe of one - a Sovereign Individual - can we begin to respect our own judgment of what is the correct path for ourselves in this life. <br /> <br /> A Sovereign does not have complete control over their life. Any armchair philosopher knows that such control is an illusion. However, a Sovereign Individual, like any Sovereign state, simply demands the right to control himself, and expects others to respect that right. A nation does not control everything that goes on within its borders. It does, however, expect its peers to respect its right to claim such control if it so desires. Any other state that does not respect such a claim is effectively at war with that state. <br /> <br /> Any peer of yours who does not respect your right to maintain control over your own affairs is equally at war with you. This can be a difficult concept to acknowledge when that person at war with you claims to act in your interests, and is a close friend or relative, even one, such as a parent, who only recently in your life claimed such control as a matter of right and responsibility. <br /> <br /> This analysis makes clear how difficult it is to be a parent to a teenager. The line between child and adult is a fuzzy one, and varies in chronology from child to child. Yet the demarcation is clear in the sense that we as parents must shift from a role of control to one of respect for the young adult's right of self control. Ancient cultures had elaborate ceremonies to acknowledge this handover of the right to control. In simpler times it was thought that at the age of thirteen or so, a boy became a man and a girl a woman. Today, the popular belief seems to be that eighteen or twenty-one is a more realistic age of ascension. In truth, measuring maturity is not as simple as measuring one's age. Yet, it must be done. It is as important for the child to understand and acknowledge their new status as an adult as it is for the adult and society to acknowledge the same. <br /> <br /> It takes a great deal of courage to follow one's natural path in life, regardless of opposition. Some of us are lucky to have people around us who understand that they can best help us by supporting our journey. Others are not so lucky. <br /> <br /> Discovering your path involves investigating the options available to you. You should pursue this investigation with the passion it deserves.<br /> <br /> 2 more

[Diogenes]

Follow Your Path<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Courage & Your Inner Voice <br /> <br /> Following your path requires having faith in your "inner voice" as the best guide for your life, and requires courage more than any other quality of character. <br /> <br /> The need for courage is generally not the result of the technical difficulty of your path. Your unique path is not likely to be more technically difficult than any other path that you might have chosen. In fact, you will probably find your path to be the easiest that you have ever pursued because it is so personally fulfilling. <br /> <br /> One must exhibit courage in the face of self-doubt. Despite the sincere beliefs of others regarding what is your best path through life, you must follow your heart as your guide. Only your inner voice can possibly know what will ultimately make you happy. Learn to trust it. <br /> <br /> Some find courage in the belief that a higher power guides their inner voice. If you believe in God or a higher power as your life's guide, you must have faith that God takes the most direct path to communicate with you. Why would He do so through a friend, relative or minister when He can touch and guide you directly through your heart? Anyone who claims to be looking out for you or to speak for a higher power but who does not guide you to trust your inner voice is really just imposing his views upon you for his own reasons. Do not trust the advice of such a person. <br /> <br /> Regardless of where you believe your inner voice originates, if you wish to achieve true fulfillment in your life, you have no choice but to follow it. <br /> <br /> Once your have garnered the courage to follow the path laid out in front of you, the rest is just placing "one foot in front of the other."<br /> <br /> 1 more

[Diogenes]

Self Actualization<br /> <br /> Self Actualization is the ultimate goal of Personal Sovereignty. We cannot achieve this ideal human state when we allow others to interfere with the direction our lives must take. <br /> <br /> Specific traits of a mature, self-actualizing person <br /> <br /> If you don't know what healthy adjustment is, how can you ever get there? Self-actualization generally includes being knowledgeable, emotionally aware, self-directed, and at peace with the world (O'Connell & O'Connell, 1974). Several specific traits were consistently found in Maslow's self-actualizing subjects (Jourard, 1974):<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> They see reality, and knowing "the facts are friendly," they accept reality more than most people. They see through phoniness, deception, and "games"--and avoid them. They cope with problems, rather than avoid them. <br /> They accept themselves and others; thus, they can honestly self-disclose and forgive others' shortcomings. <br /> They are spontaneous with their ideas, feelings, and actions, being genuine and confident. <br /> They focus on solving problems but their "problems" tend to be outside themselves. For instance, they often have a "mission" that may be difficult to accomplish but gives excitement, challenge, and purpose to their lives. <br /> They enjoy privacy, withdrawing sometimes to be free to have their own thoughts. Occasionally, they may have mystical experiences in which they become part of all mankind or of nature. <br /> They resist culturally prescribed roles, e.g. masculine or feminine. They resent unfairness caused by social roles and prejudice. They insist on thinking for themselves and completing their mission, even in the face of social criticism. <br /> They enjoy and appreciate the commonplace, the little things in life--a rose, a baby, an idea, a considerate comment, a meal, a loving touch, etc. <br /> They feel a kinship, a closeness, a warmth, a concern for every human being. <br /> They are close to a few people, although not always popular. They can live intimately and love. <br /> They do not judge others on the basis of stereotypes, like sex, age, race, or religion, but rather as individuals. <br /> They have a strong self-generated code of ethics--a sense of right and wrong. Their values may not be conventional but they do guide their lives. <br /> They are creative and do things differently, not in rebellion but for the joy of being original and talented. They are clever, even in their ability to be amused instead of angered by human foibles. <br /> Unfortunately, Maslow assumed, without evidence, that these self-actualizing traits can not be pursued directly via self-help. He thought self-actualization automatically resulted when you met your basic needs and committed yourself to a worthy cause, such as beauty, truth, justice, love, etc. He believed that without a cause--a mission--we stagnate. I think it may be possible to accelerate our self-actualization via self-improvement. We can select our own mature values and goals. We can gain self-control. We can avoid slavishly conforming to social roles and stereotypes. We can develop tolerant attitudes. We can gain self-understanding. We can do these things early in life. <br /> <br /> Shostrom (1983), based on humanistic theories, suggests it would be healthy to learn to express all of our genuine feelings (the full range), not just selected emotions and roles in which we get stuck. <br /> <br /> A. Dominant response B. Response to be strengthened C. Synthesis <br /> anger loving assertiveness <br /> strong bending (adaptation) courage <br /> critical supportive appreciation of differences <br /> controlling dependent interdependence <br /> <br /> If a response in column A is habitual for you, then strengthen the response in B. If the B response is stronger and A is suppressed, strengthen A. To be fully alive, we must experience all our emotions. When the feelings in A are integrated in a wholesome way with B, we experience C. All of us have the potential to experience all kinds of feelings, the self-actualized person is free to express them without denial, faking, or manipulation. This is, I assume, a learnable skill. We don't scientifically know the limits of self-help yet. <br /> <br /> Please note: No one knows for certain what a mature, healthy personality is. Maslow, as a humanist, had his opinion, but what you consider to be an insightful (self-knowing), optimal personality depends on your values and ideals. An authoritarian or a technocrat would pronounce a different kind of person to be "healthy," "mature," or "self-knowing" (Wicklund & Eckert, 1992). <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Sow an act and you reap a habit.<br /> Sow a habit and you reap a character.<br /> Sow a character and you reap a destiny.<br /> <br /> <br /> Self-Insight Can Come In Many Ways <br /> <br /> Get in touch with the inner child <br /> <br /> Within the last 10 years, the phrase "your inner child" has become popular, especially within treatment programs for shame-based compulsives, addicts, and depressives.In a dysfunctional family, the inner child is likely to believe the troubled parents are OK and "normal." Moreover, children often feel "to blame" for Dad getting mad, Mom being drunk, Mom and Dad getting divorced, etc. The child feels shame and thinks, "I must have done something bad" or "I'm a terrible person." Years later when the child becomes an adult, he/she may be unhappy and have problems similar to his/her biological parents--or different problems, e.g. he/she may find it impossible to trust and express emotions, he/she may feel like he/she doesn't fit in, or he/she may constantly take care of others. The shame-based, insatiable child often seeks another addiction rather than the one that ruined his/her parent's life, e.g. eating rather than alcohol. This troubled, needy, inner child can seriously mess up our lives. <br /> <br /> Many therapists and treatment groups attempt to reach this wounded inner child. This isn't easy because re-living the childhood experiences and seeing clearly what really happened to us as a child can be very painful. Also, returning to childhood may make us very mad or scare us because we doubt that the childhood distortions and pain can ever be eliminated. It is a hard choice: continue a miserable adult life or re-live a hurtful childhood. Therapy and self-awareness offer hope if we can accept our inner child and take care of some of its needs (Hancock, 1989; Bradshaw, 1989). <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.<br /> <br /> <br /> Let the parts of your personality speak for themselves <br /> <br /> Another insight approach is interesting. By knowing what parts to look for inside, we can discover more about ourselves. Example: Give several of your parts a name, such as "Baby" for your dependent child, "Toughie" for your aggressive bully, "Spock" for your reasonable adult, "Hunk"/"Beautiful" for your flirty part, etc. Talk to them. Let them talk to each other. Realize that you can control your life by controlling which part is in charge. By reading psychological cases and explanations of dynamics, we can learn about ourselves. By knowing the stages of development that others go through, we understand our growth better. By realizing how certain personality traits and characters develop, we have greater insight into our personality. By recognizing the drives, needs, and scripts that push us in different directions, we may gain better control over where we are going. Recommendations: read a lot of psychology, especially explanations of actual cases. Don't be afraid of your unconscious. These forces can do less harm if we realize unconscious factors may be at work. Indeed, exploring our unconscious can be fascinating and enlightening but seldom easy. <br /> <br /> Self-understanding is a life-long project <br /> <br /> It concerns me that a few people might believe that a few pages about personality types or parts and about basic human motives or needs contain all they need to know. No! No! There is so much inside each of us to try to understand--our growth, our thoughts and feelings, our dreams (last night and in the future), our values and motives, etc. Understanding ourselves and others are endless tasks. Don't fail to get to know yourself. You are fascinating. If you find problems, there are many sources of help. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face... It is one of the few havens remaining where a person's mind can get both provocation and privacy.<br /> -Edward P. Morgan <br /> Suggested additional readings for self-understanding (or just browse in a library) <br /> <br /> Baumeister, R. F. (1993). Escaping the self: Alcoholism, spiritualism, masochism and other flights from the burden of selfhood. New York: Basic Books. Most of the other references are for personal growth, but some people get obsessed with self-growth, perfect bodies, and self-aggrandizement. This book might help. <br /> Cirese, S. (1985). Quest: A search for self. New York: Holt, Rinehart and, Winston. <br /> <br /> Cross, J. & Cross, P. B. (1983). Knowing yourself inside out for self-direction. Berkeley, CA: Crystal Publications. <br /> <br /> Frisch, A. & Frisch, P. (1976). Discovering your hidden self. New York: Signet. <br /> <br /> Gordon, S. & Conant, R. (1975). You. Quadrangle Books. <br /> <br /> Hamachek, D. E. (1987). Encounters with the self. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. <br /> <br /> Harvey, J. C. & Katz, C. (1985). If I'm successful, why do I feel like a fake? New York: Pocket Books. <br /> <br /> Horner, A. (1990). Being & loving. Northvale, NJ: Aronson. <br /> <br /> James, M. & Jongeward, D. (1971). Born to win: Transactional Analysis with Gestalt experiments. Readings, MA: Addison-Wesley. <br /> <br /> Jourard, S. M. (1974). Healthy personality. New York: MacMillan Co. <br /> <br /> Liebert, R. M. (1987). Personality: Strategies and issues. Chicago<img align=absmiddle src='images/smilies/biggrin.gif' alt='Big Grin'>orsey Press. (Or, any other recent personality text.) <br /> <br /> Missildine, W. H. (1974). Your inner conflicts--How to solve them. New <br /> Newman, M. & Berkowitz, B. (1974). How to be your own best friend. New York: Ballantine Books. <br /> <br /> Oldham, J. M. & Morris, L. B. (1990). The personality self-portrait. New York: <br /> <br /> Perls, F. (1971). Gestalt therapy verbatim. New York: Bantam. <br /> <br /> Powell, J. (1976). Fully human, fully alive. Niles, IL: Argus. <br /> <br /> Prather, H. (1976). Notes to myself. New York: Bantam. <br /> <br /> Rogers, C. & Stevens, B. (1971). Person to person. New York: Pocket Books. <br /> <br /> Samples, B. & Wohlford, B. (1975). Opening! A primer for self-actualization. Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley. <br /> <br /> Shapiro, E. (1973). Psychosources: A psychology resources catalog. New York: Bantam Books. <br /> <br /> Singer, J. (1975). Positive self-analysis. New York: Ace. <br /> <br /> Steiner, C. (1975). Scripts people live. New York: Bantam. <br /> <br /> Stricker, G. & Merbaum, M. (1973). Growth of personal awareness: A reader in psychology. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.<br /> <br /> References for Understanding Development and Aging <br /> <br /> Davitz, J. & Davitz, L. (1976). Making it from 40 to 50. New York: Random House. <br /> Eisdorfer, C. & Lawton, M. P. (1973). The psychology of adult development and aging. Washington, D. C.: American Psychological Association. <br /> <br /> Erikson, E. (1964). Childhood and society. New York: W. W. Norton. <br /> <br /> Fries, J. (1989). Aging well. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. A good overall guide to the aging process. <br /> <br /> Gould, R. (Feb., 1975). Adult life stages: Growth toward self-tolerance. Psychology Today. <br /> <br /> Le Shan, E. J. (1973). The wonderful crisis of middle age: Some personal reflections. New York: David McKay Co. <br /> <br /> Le Shan, E. J. (1990). It's better to be over the hill than under it: Thoughts on life over sixty. New York: Newmarket Press. Good advice with wit. <br /> <br /> Levinson, D. J., Darrow, C. M., Klein, E. B., Levinson, M. H., & McKee, B. (1978). The seasons of a man's life. New York: Ballantine Books. A survey of mental health professionals (Santrock, Minnett & Campbell, 1994) rates this book as the best among those dealing with adult development. <br /> <br /> Lowenthal, M. F., Thurnber, M., Chiriboga, D. and associates. (1975). Four stages of life: A comparative study of women and men facing transitions. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass. <br /> <br /> Mace, N. & Rabins, P. (1981). The 36-hour day: A family guide to caring for persons with Alzheimer's Disease, related dementing illness and memory loss in later life. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press. <br /> <br /> McLeich, J. A. B. (1976). The Ulyssean adult: Creativity in the middle and later years. New York: McGraw-Hill. <br /> <br /> New light on adult life cycles. (April 28, 1975). Time, 69. <br /> <br /> Schuckman, T. (1975). Aging is not for sissies. Phil., PA: Westminster Press. <br /> <br /> Sheehy, G. (1976). Passages: The predictable crises of adult life. New York: Patton. Like many books written by journalists, professionals think the mid-life crises are overdramatized. <br /> <br /> Sheehy, G. (1992). The silent passage. New York: Random House. A book about menopause by a journalist who interviews people to get case studies. Researchers, however, have found much fewer problems and less dramatic cases than Sheehy describes. <br /> <br /> Trotter, R. J. (1976). East side, west side: Growing up in Manhattan. Science News, 109, 325. <br /> <br /> Veninga, R. (1991). Your renaissance years. Boston: Little, Brown. A good guide to retirement.<br /> <br /> END

[Diogenes]

http://www.nlpweekly.com/?p=782<br /> How To Break Anyone’s Mind<br /> <br /> <br /> By: Shlomo Vaknin, C.Ht<br /> <br /> Minds - or brains, physically - work perfectly. They can never go wrong. Even when you think it is not in order, it still is. <br /> <br /> Addictions are the perfect example - every time a trigger shows up, the mind initiates the same pattern, within a split of a second. Phobias are another good example. <br /> <br /> The reason we tend to think that our mind does not work properly if it does not serve our needs, is that we over-estimate our emotions. Emotions, therefore, are over-estimated. We consider emotions to be “inner guides”, while all they are is a chemical reaction. <br /> <br /> I know some of you are going to get upset reading these words, but anyway - emotions are real in the chemical sense, not in the “cause - effect” sense. A chemical imbalance can manufacture anxiety. If that anxiety has been created (chemically, randomly, by the body) while there was some action you were involved in, or witnessed, your mind might link the two together. That’s a perfectly working in order brain…<br /> <br /> But the anxiety itself has no meaning. If you separate the non-related event and the feeling - there’s only meaningless anxiety. <br /> <br /> The link between the feeling of anxiety and the out-of-body event, and then the constant activation of the chemical process which is interpreted as the feeling of anxiety - that link is created by your brain, simply because brains love logic. There must be a “reason”… a “cause” for every “effect”. Otherwise, you won’t sleep at night, knowing that the world has tricked you. Without justifying a chemical imbalance in your body, you develop another chemical imbalance process - insecurity. <br /> <br /> What if someone proved that 1 plus 1 equals 4.5 and not 2? You would lose your mind. Almost every single aspect of living on earth has been designed, while the simplest mathematical principle is in order - 1 plus 1 equals 2. <br /> <br /> Could you imagine what would happen to the economy? To NASA? To Windows 2015?<br /> <br /> Illogical as it sounds, some radical happening as this could happen. <br /> <br /> Our insecurities come from exactly the same place - we are deeply and subconsciously afraid that someone will come along and turn the light on. Everyone wants to be enlighten, but not so many reach it - for a good reason. <br /> <br /> Insecurities lead every single person. If you take a closer look at Bill Clinton, a person who seems so secured and self assured that you could build a fortress with his self confidence - look closer, and you would find the cracks. Look at Gandhi (well, he’s dead but try it mentally - don’t dig him out), as great as the person was - you can find plenty of cracks. <br /> <br /> Look at your close friends, that would be easier. Look at the people you don’t like at all. Look at people who have hurt you. Look at your parents, with whom you struggled through so many years. <br /> <br /> But do not look at your self. These insecurities are not something you can fix. Knowing exactly where they are in your case - and there are numerous of them - will only overwhelm you and throw your body into another chemical loop - desperation. So don’t analyze yourself in this area, it does not benefit you at all. <br /> <br /> But there is something to be said about the existence of insecurities. They serve you in many ways. Even though it’s easy to break someone’s mind - simply by indirectly smashing his or her core beliefs - it would be impossible to stay alive if we did not have insecurities. <br /> <br /> Knowing that we’re not perfect - and accepting it - is essential. Knowing that you would never find the perfect mate, the perfect business partner, the perfect employee or the perfect boss, the perfect family to be born in, the perfect country and the perfect government that takes care of all their perfect citizens needs… perfect world, only in perfect books with perfect covers. <br /> <br /> Knowing that perfection is not an option is a key to handling the world. Knowing that doubting yourself is not only natural, but essential for survival, is yet another key. Having to face a challenge with the doubt that you might not pass it - forces you to work harder, to use every bit of your inner resources - if that challenge is important to you - and passing it. Students know it for sure. You have a huge exam tomorrow and you know you’re not ready, and you know there’s no chance in the world you’d make it through 400 pages of text… you use intuition, you use your consciousness to stay awake, you use every skill you can to skim the 400 pages and extract the information you “sense” would be in the exam. <br /> <br /> You go to class in the morning, accepting the possible inevitable - failing - and you still make it, yet again, through another exam. In my case, it happened that the teacher was so fascinated with my expanded knowledge - which I would call luck, since I happened to study only what she eventually asked - that she complemented me while others were doing the exam… and my thoughts, exactly, were - “if you would only knew…”. <br /> <br /> Any thought process and emotional chemical process in us is learnable. Besides the gift of nature - biochemistry of the body and basic skills (taste, hearing, seeing, etc.) - all the rest is ONLY Time Stamp related. <br /> <br /> There is nothing else. Repeat it many times in your head until it makes sense - there is nothing else, nothing more than a bunch of Time Stamps being recalled when needed. You don’t touch a hot stove because you’re “human”, but because you are experienced. There’s a Time Stamp linked to that stimulus - either you touched it in the past, and hopefully got burned (otherwise, you would not learn not to touch) or your mom yelled at you harshly when you went closer to the stove… or you’ve heard a horrifying story about the kid who touched a hot stove and lost his arm… or whatever. There is a set of Time Stamps in there with the stimulus “stove” as its opener. <br /> <br /> If every single person on earth has the exact same stimulus and response - is it hereditary, embedded in our genetics, or a Time Stamp related? Use your brain to think about it. <br /> <br /> Breaking minds… I wonder if I should give you this powerful set of techniques… I’m not convinced yet. <br /> <br /> <br />

[Diogenes]

<br /> <br /> Appropo of the time in which this was sent <br /> <br /> The Map is not the Territory. <br /> <br /> People respond to their own perceptions of reality. <br /> Every person has their own individual map of the world. No individual map of the world is any more "real" or "true" than any other. <br /> The meaning of a communication to another person is the response it elicits in that person, regardless of the intent of the communicator. <br /> The 'wisest' and most 'compassionate' maps are those which make available the widest and richest number of choices, as opposed to being the most "real" or "accurate". <br /> People already have (or potentially have) all of the resources they need to act effectively. <br /> People make the best choices available to them given possibilities and the capabilities that they perceive available to them from their model of the world. Any behavior no matter how evil, crazy or bizarre it seems is the best choice available to the person at that point in time - if given a more appropriate choice (within the context of their model of the world) the person will be more likely to take it. <br /> Change comes from releasing the appropriate resource, or activating the potential resource, for a particular context by enriching a person's map of the world. <br />

[MrPrax]

[QUOTE]"One can free children from warts by "purchasing" them. In practice this is achieved by giving the child a coin for, and thus laying claim to, his wart."<br /> [/QUOTE]<br /> <br /> or teeth? <br /> <br /> The origin of the tooth fairy?<br /> <br /> <br />

[Diogenes]

Thanks for the comment Mr.Prax. It lead here<br /> http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4ADBF_enCA250CA250&q=Nlp+%2bthe+Tooth+fairy

[Diogenes]

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/<br /> GET IT!!!

[Diogenes]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 1991429040

[Diogenes]

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/206.html<br /> <br /> I keep asking myself 'What will it take to wake people from their stupor?"<br /> The question is wrong, therefore there can be no right answer.<br /> <br /> within the question is the persupposition that 'people will wake' due to one or a string of events so horrific that ignorance will magicaly dissapear. Well that aina gonna happen,is it?<br /> <br /> Not the atomic bombing of Japan, or any other near eqal event has or will have the general populations eye snap wide open with the unarguable insight that we are being lied to on all fronts, will it?<br /> <br /> <br />

[Diogenes]

from<br /> http://www.gnosticliberationfront.com/why_johnny_really_can.htm <br /> <br /> We have all heard of the Austrian doctor and drug addict Sigmund Freud, who, at the turn of the century, was developing psychoanalysis as an individualized application of the fledgling (pseudo)science of Psychology. At the same time Wilhelm Wundt, a Professor at the University of Leipzig in Germany, was working up a version for controlling masses of people called, today, Social Psychology.<br /> <br /> In Wundt's theories I believe the Rockefellers saw a solution to their problem of, what could be called, effective slave control. Wundt's opinion was that man was just a hunk of meat: that there was no such thing as a "soul." According to Wundt (and his successors), the "psyche" (Greek for "soul") that psychology was supposed to be studying ("-ology" for "study of") did not exist (kinda blows their reason for existing, as psyche-ologists anyway, doesn't it?).<br /> <br /> Wundt believed that all human actions could be defined in terms of reactions; i.e., you are not aware, you just think you are, and everything you do is a preprogrammed reaction to the environment controlled by various factors known only to science (e.g. blood/brain chemistry, educational conditioning, etc.). Pavlov with his famous dogs was working in that same field. Today this field is called Behavior Modification, or BehavMod, and is dominated by the late B. F. Skinner and his followers.<br /> <br /> Wundt applied these principles to society as a whole, developing techniques for controlling whole populations. A belief that people are merely stimulus-response robots allows you to do just about anything you want to them. The Nazi death camp psychological experimenters and today's Industrial Psychologists hold this same view of people.<br /> <br /> One of Wundt's most famous students was John Dewey. Dewey had a number of impressive accomplishments in his lifetime. He was a Socialist and a card-carrying Founding Member of the American Communist Party. He was the senior editor of the first modern English language translation of the Holy Bible (!). And, as the prophet of Progressive Education, founded the Model School at Columbia University in 1902 with Rockefeller money.<br /> <br /> The Model School's purpose was to demonstrate application of Wundt's theories of social psychology, via Dewey's Progressive Education concept, in a school setting. Since that time, nearly every American educator has either been trained at the Model School, or has been trained by someone who was. Additionally, the Rockefeller Foundation became a primary supplier of school texts. By 1950 it was nearly impossible to find a schoolbook in America that had not been published by the Foundation, a subsidiary of the Foundation, or written by someone trained and/or funded by the Foundation.<br /> <br /> Johnny's inability to read was no accident. American students are being taught not to read. At the time of the founding of the Model School Americans were among the most literate people in the history of the world. Literate not just in the sense of being able to read, but literate in actually having read, and thought about, and discussed important ideas. In 1902 an awful lot of Americans could actually think. Thinking slaves are dangerous slaves. The Rockefellers, in the guise of a charitable organization, together with the Carnegies, as we shall see in a moment, took care of that problem.<br /> <br /> How were we taught not to read? Here's one way: words have precise meanings. If I were to say to you, "Hand me the thing-a-ma-bob," unless I were pointing at it, you would have no idea what I was talking about. How about this one: "During the crepuscule the children were less active..." What the heck does that mean, you ask? Now, if I were to add "...than they had been earlier, before sunset," you might try to figure out what "crepuscule" meant from context, as you were taught to do in school. Except... you would never actually know that "crepuscule" means twilight, you would never be able to use the word. It would have become just another "thing-a-ma-bob" bumping around in your head. My point is: teaching children not to look up words in a dictionary, but to try to guess what they might mean from context, is not just lazy, it's criminal. It makes you stupid. It fills your mind with a lot of wrong definitions, vague ideas and mysteries.<br /> <br /> Another technique for fouling children's minds is embodied in the Dick and Jane readers. Once upon a time phonics was the only reading method taught in schools. That was because it worked. Then came our aristocratically funded school reformers. They instituted a new way to learn reading, by learning to recognize individual words, called "sight reading" or "whole word." All those "See Spot. See Spot run." books were from this crew. The trouble is, "whole word" doesn't work with a language based on an alphabet (it's fine for languages composed of ideograms, like Chinese or Japanese, though). It is a great deal easier to learn the few dozen sounds in the English language than it is to learn to recognize the several hundred thousand (common) words! Why would we teach a technique for reading Chinese to students learning English? The end result of this sort of "education" is the creation of non-readers. Just what this "conspiracy" wants! And none of the teachers lose their jobs, as it at least looks like they're working.<br /> <br /> In George Orwell's 1984 one of EngSoc's three "truths" was "Ignorance Is Strength." Have you ever noticed how ignorant people have a great deal of strength in their convictions? Not being able to think is, at least subconsciously, terrifying. Unable to arrive at ideas and understandings on one's own, every idea must be held onto like a life preserver in the sea beside a sinking ship. Every idea is as important as every other idea because there is no mechanism to judge between them.<br /> <br /> "Authority" (the Church-School-State Establishment) is strengthened by ignorance as well. The ignorant must rely on Authority for opinions. This keeps Authority on top. The "conspiracy" has a vested interest in maintaining this druggie-like dependence on Authority. It is a very short "hokey-pokey" little step from authoritarianism to totalitarianism.<br /> <br /> The program to reduce mental competency is accelerating. In the last few decades new educational ideas have been sweeping the country under the lofty sounding names of "Goals 2000" and "outcome based education." I warn you, you will be shocked if you examine them. "Whole word," for example, has been replaced by "whole language." In phonics a child is taught to recognize letters and sounds as the basic building blocks of language; in "whole word" children are drilled in recognizing whole words (leaving them unable to "sound out" words that are new to them). In "whole language" this nonsense has been taken to its illogical conclusion and paragraphs are taught as if they were letters in phonics! This is totally insane. I wish I were making this up; they really are trying to get school systems to switch over to "whole language" education. And you think Johnny has trouble now!<br /> <br /> These new educational methodologies high-end on social programming (becoming good little "politically correct" worker-robots) and involves precious little real learning. They have abandoned grading, for example, saying it puts too much pressure on the children; so there is no way to determine if the kids are learning anything (this, I think, is really a way to "hide the bodies").<br /> <br /> They actually discourage some basic learning; for example, the children are deliberately being "taught" to misspell words! These new "outcome based" educators say misspelling is a form of creativity! Yes, this "education" is "outcome based" all right, but the outcome is one chosen by the social engineers in the employ of the conspiracy.<br /> Paolo Lionni wrote: "Wundt established the new psychology as a study of the brain and the central nervous system. From Wundt's work, it was only a short step to the later redefining of the meaning of education. Originally, education meant the drawing out of a person's innate talents and abilities by imparting the knowledge of languages, scientific reasoning, history, literature, rhetoric, etc. - the channels through which those abilities would flourish and serve. To the experimental psychologist, however, education became the process of exposing the student to "meaningful" experiences so as to ensure desired reactions:<br /> ' ...Learning is the result of modifiability in the paths of neural conduction... The situation-response formula is adequate to cover learning of any sort, and the really influential factors in learning are readiness of the neurons, sequence in time, belongingness, and satisfying consequences.'<br /> <br /> "If one assumes (as did Wundt) that there is nothing there to begin with but a body, a brain, and a nervous system, then one must try to educate by inducing sensations in that nervous system. Through these experiences, the individual will learn to respond to any given stimulus, with the "correct" response."<br /> "Wundt's thesis laid the philosophical basis for the principles of conditioning later developed by Pavlov (who studied physiology in Leipzig, in 1884, five years after Wundt had inaugurated his laboratory there) and American behavioral psychologists such as Watson and Skinner; for lobotomies and electro-convulsive therapy; for schools more oriented toward the socialization of the child than toward the development of intellect; and for the emergence of a society more and more blatantly devoted to the gratification of sensory desires at the expense of responsibility and achievement."<br /> This conspiratorial relationship between psychology and philanthropy may be a case of the tail wagging the dog. I cannot honestly say for sure whose plan it was. Perhaps the conspiracy hired the BehavMod folks to do their dirty work, or perhaps the psychs evolved a brilliant strategy to use the elite to further their own purposes -- or more likely, it's a bit of both. Either way, my research conclusively shows (at least for me) that the destruction of our educational system can be laid squarely in the lap of the psychs and the foundations that fund them.<br /> This is where we segue into another major, and slightly earlier, book on this subject: Educating for the New World Order, by B. K. Eakman (published by Halcyon House, a division of Educational Research Associates, Portland, Oregon; ISBN: 0894202782 (June 1991)).<br /> <br /> I want you to read Mrs. Eakman's book, so I don't want to give too much of it away here. Briefly, what she discovered is that the Wundtian BehavMod folks are working several fronts against us: through government at federal, state and local levels, as well as through charitable institutions and academia.<br /> <br /> Apparently, the practitioners of Behavior Modification Psychology believe themselves to be the sole repository of an understanding of what sanity really is. It would seem that they believe that this society, its parents and institutions, are not sane; and that they consider themselves alone to be capable of shouldering the heavy burden of bringing sanity to future generations. Since we, the parents, are crazy, in their estimation, we cannot be trusted with the rearing or education of our young -- only (the alleged science of) Behavior Modification can be entrusted to do that. The BehavMod freaks know that if we found out what they were doing, we would string 'em up, so they have evolved a clandestine plan for "saving" the human race (from itself).<br /> <br /> By federal law, the federal government cannot set curriculum for local schools (yet, that is; they're working on it). However, that has not, in practice, prevented them from doing it. The mechanism is federal funding. For a local school district to get (badly wanted, even if not badly needed) federal funds the schools have to be accredited.<br /> <br /> Accreditation is a process whereby a federal board examines the curricula of a school to see if it meets certain federal guidelines. If it does then the feds release the funds. The trouble is, education experts, largely the BehavMods who have come to dominate the field, write the federal guidelines after testimony. Further, the members of this accreditation board are themselves BehavMod psychs or fellow travelers. The accreditation board, perhaps not unnaturally, accredits only schools that implement curriculums written by their pals, also BehavMods.<br /> <br /> This "approved" curricular material is supplied to the nation's schools from a very few sources, primarily from ones funded by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (CFAT), which is, you guessed it, up to its eyeballs in BehavMods. CFAT has created and continues to fund a vast complex of organizations, boards, commissions, lobbies, and much more that affect most aspects of education in America. Those experts who testify before Congress, as well as the educators who sit on the plethora of municipal, state, and federal boards and commissions are almost exclusively provided by CFAT and/or organizations under its umbrella.<br /> <br /> The organizations that create, administer, evaluate and database the nation's major academic tests (such as the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the National Teacher's Examination) were also created and funded by CFAT and its BehavMod psychs. These tests do not measure what a child has actually learned; instead, they are used to determine the progress of the behavior modification program. Results are used to fine tune future curricular releases. They are not "educating" children; they are "socializing" them. This explains why so many "educators" have endorsed a recently floated plan to drop scholastic achievement tests (that actually measure what a student has learned) for college entrance exams and replace them with these murky aptitude tests that measure the degree the "socializing" program has succeeded with that student).<br /> <br /> This direct and indirect control of American education via CFAT dominated organizations effectively puts the Carnegie and Rockefeller funded BehavMods in control of a very neat, self-perpetuating circle where every key base is covered by a behavior modification psychologist, from Capitol Hill to the classroom.<br /> <br /> I say that there is a conspiracy here, in our educational system turning out, not thinkers and artists, but ignorant dolts and robotized workers, but maybe there isn't. Maybe it's just a random series of unrelated events, an embarrassing coincidence that the Rockefellers and the Carnegies accidentally funded theories that destroyed American education and several generations of children. Rotten luck. It just worked out that way... Yeah, right.<br /> <br /> -- 30 --<br /> <br /> Jerry E. Smith is a thirty-year veteran free-lance writer and poet. His most recent book is HAARP: The Ultimate Weapon of the Conspiracy (Adventures Unlimited Press, 1998), an expose of the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Project (HAARP) a military science program with frightening potential. Visit his website at: www.blazing-trails.com/jesmith <br />

[Diogenes]

<br /> 1 http://nord.twu.net/acl/dialectic.html <br /> <br /> 2 http://nord.twu.net/acl/dialectic.html#two <br /> <br /> 3 http://www.marxists.org/reference/archi ... _index.htm <br />

[Diogenes]

The case of Kelly Marie Richard has caught my attention and sent me on a hunt of aspects of law that rightly is of interest of all, the following more than qualifies/ <br /> It is our ignorance of law that bites us in the ass, that and out (misplaced) trust in the syystem of laws we live <i><i><b>under</b></i></i><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> http://www.duhaime.org/LegalResources/TortPersonalInjury/tabid/348/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/72/Tort-Law-in-Canada--An-Introduction.aspx<br /> <br /> Tort is derived from the Latin word tortus which meant wrong. In French, "tort" also means a "wrong". Tort refers to that body of the law which will allow an injured person to obtain compensation from the person who caused the injury.<br /> <br /> Every person is expected to conduct themselves without injuring others.<br /> <br /> "And as you would that men should do to you, do you also to them likewise“ (Luke 6:31, King James Version).<br /> <br /> When they do cause injury to others, either intentionally or by negligence, they can be required by a court to pay money to the injured party (damages) so that, ultimately, they will suffer the pain caused by their action. Compensation is probably the most important social role of tort law.<br /> <br /> Tort also serves as a deterrent by holding persons responsible for their actions and to educate the community as to what is unacceptable conduct. Another moral lesson of tort law - that wrongdoers pay for their actions - is a pinnacle of modern society and, indeed, of many religious beliefs.<br /> <br /> Two major distinctions have to be added to the above attempt at defining tort law:<br /> <br /> Tort law is the wrong place to turn for compensation for an ill-performed duty owed to you as a result of a private agreement between you and another. This latter situation would be governed under the law of contract, and not tort law, and a whole different set of rules. <br /> Tort law is not the same as criminal law. A crime often leads to two very different branches of the law, one being tort law, the other being criminal law. Say I punched you in the nose. This would be a crime and punishable in court. The state would prosecute me on behalf of society and not on behalf of the victim. Any fine handed out against me as a sentence would not go to the victim but would go to the government. That same punch would also give rise to an action under tort law, where you would sue me for causing you injury and your suit would ask the court to order me to compensate you, asking for an amount which, as best as can be done, the pain and inconvenience a broken nose is worth. Any compensation the court would order me to pay would go to you. <br /> But crime and tort entail very different legal processes. Criminal proceedings requires proof beyond reasonable doubt whereas the tort action only requires proof based on a preponderance of evidence. A criminal conviction is by no means an automatic entitlement to compensation under tort law (although some states have criminal victims compensation laws which somewhat dilute this principle). In fact, there is an odd reluctance on the parts of judges to accept a criminal court's finding that there has been a wrongful act, an injury and a direct link between the wrongful act and the injury while considering a tort lawsuit based on the same incident. This is unfortunate and many legal experts are calling on courts to drop their resistance in this regard.<br /> <i>

[h.f. wolff]

Dio, thanks for your post on Tort law.<br /> <br /> It is good reading your refresher on this topic.... Its been decades since the formal lectures on this.<br /> <br /> Would you happen to know, or could you point me in the direction to find out, if the federal government and its departments are subject to this same law?<br /> <br /> Thanks,<br /> <br /> H.F. Wolff