Five Minute Miracle and Evolution

Coach Sonnon very kindly congratulated me on the application of his theories to my morning "Golden Hour."  I wanted to draw a clearer picture of how this brilliant man's work has influenced my own thinking on these matters, and what I see coming...
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1) The Perpetual Exercise principle says that rather than "exercise" the body, you re-educate the entire body-mind dynamic, such that every breath  and every step you take relates to air pressure and gravity differently.  This calls for a quality of attention that increases consciousness, and in effect turns a physical exercise into a mental/emotional/spiritual one.
2) Neuro-Synaptic facilitation "greasing the groove" is the idea of multiple short exercise sessions being better for developing skill and strength (and strength, after all, is just a skill!) than single longer sessions.  I took these first two ideas and created "The Five Minute Miracle."
3)  Self-Directed Human Evolution.  The constant quest to more perfectly fit our life niche.  There are both practical and esoteric aspects to this, and ultimately, we are asking metaphysical questions about consciousness, spirituality, and the Soul.  Evolutionary theory is a set of descriptions and predictions about how a process manifests...not a description of the process itself, or the "Primary Cause" itself.  This is what I find so frustrating about anti-Evolutionists who think Evolution denies the existence of God.  Within the limited scope of human consciousness, we can attempt to understand what the proper use of our energies is, and remove blockages.  The Chakras, one of Mankind's oldest model of human psychology, suggests that when lower needs are exquisitely satisfied, we automatically seek higher goals.  From this, and from long conversations with Coach Sonnon, I devised the I.D.E.A. idea--Instinctive Designation of Energy and Attention, the appropriate matching of output and modulation to demand of specific activity.  In other words--don't waste energy.  Don't use too much or too little. this is the door to Mastery of intuition--the ability to do, in an unthinking heartbeat, that thing you would do if you sat and thought about it.  It is gaining Unconscious Competance at the inner, hidden world--which, I believe, can be approached by gaining Unconscious Competance in the physical, intellectual, and emotional realms. That inner knowledge will generalize to the spiritual--or perhaps phrased more precisely, it is impossible to gain such Unconscious Competance in all three arenas without making contact with the Soul itself.  It is a sneaky way of praying by paying conscious attention to the work of life itself.
4) The field of athletic endeavor can provide instant feedback--faster than that of relationship, spirituality, or intellect.  I see few arenas where you can get feedback, in an instant, whether or not you have other human beings to interact with.  Once you gain the ability to generalize from athletics to other arenas, you can use your body to teach you about your emotions and your intellect.  but this must be approached properly.  the Five Minute Miracle, integrated into an overall fitness program, creates this link whether you are consciously aware of it or not!
5) Scott's "Prasara" program is, I believe, the missing link between traditional hatha Yoga and athleticism.  Hatha has  long considered to be (by me, anyway) the world's most powerful means of forging the body-mind link and integrating it into a spiritual path.  The body of literature supporting this s incredibly vast: billions of man-years of experimentation, more than any other body-mind discipline in the world.  Tap into that, and you have touched the path of mastery.  You don't need teachers, gurus, or therapists--although they can be useful allies.
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This is another description of what I've referred to as the "mastery process" or technique.  I can't quite put it into words.  Hopefully, you guys are learning to read between the lines. The resources are out there, and the FIVE MINUTE MIRACLE is a damned fine one, if I do say so myself.  And when Coach Sonnon's Prasara program is released...well, he may have just made one of those critical contributions to human development.  I'm proud to call him brother.

Steve

A plague on both houses

Well, the respective grades for Kerry and Bush were compared today. Months after the election Kerry finally gave permission for his Yale records to be released, and it is now obvious why he didn't want them out.  The grades are virtually identical.  While the Left simply could not stop presenting Bush as an idiot, I remember begging with my friends to stop making that mistake--they were gravely underestimating this man.  and none of them would listen.  If I'd been on the Right, I would have been begging my friends stop painting hte Left as a bunch of immoral traitors.  And, of course, they wouldn't have listend either
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I am so desperately  sick of sanctimonious, pompous, egotistical, we-have-all-the-answers thinking.  the Left, which probably had more of social ideas I agree with, completely jumped the shark when it came to seeing what Americans wanted.  They wouldn't formulate their ideas in a simple, easy to understand and evaluate package.  Bush said "follow me."  That's what people under stress want to hear.  The more complex message gets lost in the panic.  And you know something?  If the Left can't do better than that next time, they deserve to lose again.  Bush at least knew what people wanted, and was capable of getting them moving.  And since there tend to be good ideas on both sides of the aisle, movement at least gives you feedback as to the results you're getting.  I do not like  the apparent erosion of our freedoms, the hypocritical collection of power in the Federal branch if the particular "States Rights" issue (say...Medical Marijuana, or Gay marriage) doesn't match what the Right's grass roots (pun intentional) supports.  And other thigns as well.  But clearly, when it comes to the game of politics, the Left is in disarray.  And when it comes to global influence, that is partially a gam of politics. And if you can't play, stay off the field. 
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For the sake of America's future, I pray that the next generation of Progressive leaders will keep their heads out of their asses and that the Left in general will decide to stop patting themselves on the back about how smart they are, and start realizing they're in a dogfight with dogs just as clever as they are.  If not, we're screwed, a ship that lists chronically to the Right and can no longer sail straight ahead.  And the Liberal Left gave it to them giftwrapped.  And a plague on both their houses.

Year Long Writing program Contest...

I'm soliciting comments for my next project: a year-long writing course to be sold over the internet.  A great comment from a friend...

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Dear Steve

The bit that strikes me first in your description is the certificate
for one free short story evaluation.  That excites me.  But then I take
myself to the writing section of an imaginary bookstore and think "if
anything I could imagine is here what would I buy?".  That free eval
would get your product to my cart but not necessarily to the cashier.
It's after all only a one time deal.

I want a product that could help me better evaluate myself.  How do I
know if I'm an absolute beginner or a seasoned amateur or... whatever
the rungs in this particular ladder are?  While practice (writing a
short story every week) is bound to improve my strengths, how do I know
whether or not I'm repeating the same weakness story after story?  Can
you give me a tool to honestly evaluate myself- where I am as a writer,
how I'm progressing?  I want to identify and correct my own weaknesses
not repeat them ad nauseam.  Friends will tell me I'm brilliant,
editors will tell me I'm not what they're looking for at this time,
neither is very constructive.

Please be explicit.  Don't give me subjective measures like "enough".
Tell me I should write for x amount of time, or x amount of words daily
or weekly or... whatever the instruction give me detail.  Show me a day
in the life if you care to.  I know my day won't be exactly the same,
but your details are still educational.  I like specific resources too,
but that's a tricky one, it dates the source.  If you're going to tell
me to read short fiction I'd love a list of anthologies or periodicals
where I can read good short fiction.  That sort of thing.

I'm also a huge fan of a well-written index.  I have no idea who writes
indexes but it is an under-appreciated gift to be sure.  All hail the
index Gods!  Okay maybe that was taking it a bit far, but this is a
reference material and I hate holding reference books in my hand
knowing that the last time I saw a certain piece of knowledge it was in
there, but now I have no idea where precisely in those hundreds of
pages it's buried.  I like summaries in reference materials too.  It's
tricky too, 'cause some people will take that to be equal to the long
version, but once I've read the long version I like to look back at the
short version from time to time just to jog the memory.  I haven't
taken a college course in ages, but I'm about to start highlighting
everything like I used to in those old textbooks.  My brain is simply
too full to try to remember what section it was in anymore and I don't
want to skim every page optimistically.

I prefer cross-references to repetition.  I generally read books cover
to cover and my short-term memory just isn't that bad.  I prefer to be
told to see ch.8 for more information rather than have half of ch.10
recap it.  If I feel like I've been there done that I get tempted to
skip ahead to something new but then I'm always afraid I'll miss the
prize in the box if I do.  Give me a resource that doesn't tempt me to
skip to the new information.

You are the insider, use that.  You've taught writing, but you aren't
just a teacher expounding theory.  You've written in multiple venues.
I suspect each has had it's own customs and culture to learn.  Give me
a travel guide that tells me the etiquette before I commit the faux
pas.  Give me that boost by building on the wisdom of your successes.

Give me the benefit of your knowledge of failure too.  Share your own
stumbling blocks if appropriate.  If not, you know countless frustrated
writer's who swear they want it more than anything, but they aren't
there, not even close.  Examples of hurdles I can easily think of- "I
like to write, but I don't want to write professionally (except that I
do, I'm just too afraid of failure and saying that I don't want it is
easier than saying I might not be good enough)"/ "I want to write
professionally, but I want to skip all the beginning level stuff and
start with my masterpiece"/ "I want commercial success but I will only
write about Iroquois, transgender, dwarf, seismic-geologist
protagonists because that's who I relate to and the truth I feel
compelled to speak"- et cetera.   Can you take these hurdles present
them clearly enough for your customer to recognize themselves and then
show us the way to overcome them?

That's all I can think of for now.  I'll let you know if more comes to
mind later.  Hope it's helpful.

Thank you,
Crystal
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Excellent, Crix!

Note--the best feedback is editorial feedback.   The sincerest complement is a check that clears the bank.   Count that the first twenty stories you send to an editor will merely get the "not what we're looking for" comment.  Keep sending them.  Eventually, they'll start remembering your name, and begin to give you more personalized responses.  When you get them, apply the ideas to your NEXT story, rather than just re-writing the previous one.  when I started my career, I set a numerical goal: I would write and have circulating 100 stories before I even began to evaluate my chances of making it.  As a result, I didn't have a lot invested in any particular story, and rejection slips didn't hurt.  I created a list of every short story market I could find, sorted them for appropriateness, sorted again with the highest-paying first, and started sending out.  When a story came back from one market, I immediately sent it to the next on the list.  By the time I got to about 10 stories, I was getting personalized feedback.  By the time I got to about 25 I was selling.

Steve

Sample Golden Hour workout

A good one this morning.  I listened to a Teaching Company CD on "Intelligence and the Bell Curve" (good stuff, which actually bolstered Tananarive's position in a recent argument.  I like to play fair, so I pointed this out to her)
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I started with Warrior Wellness joint rotations (thanks, Scott!), followed by Djuru Sepok practise, not going too deep into silos (a twisting motion) because my knee tendons still weren't warmed up enough.  Then I did 15 sets of two double C&J with the 1.5 pood (54 pound) kettlebells, starting the sets 2 minutes apart.  In between, I walked on the treadmill at a speed of 2 MPH and a slight inclination.  Afterward, I did one rep of Scott's dynamite new Prasara Yoga/body flow (it will be on the market in a few weeks--look for it!) specifically, the "Flock of Pigeons" technique.  I'm telling you, this is brilliant, and an extraordinarily complex, challenging, and kinesthetically satisfying series of motions, a kind of "Yoga Tai Chi" that creates a link between health, performance, and combative motion.  Combative?  Well, let me tell you something.  Two weeks ago I was in Portland for the yearly Silat family gathering.  Stevan Plinck (a true master of combat motion if I've ever met one) had us performing various silat preparatory calesthenics, extracted from Serak and Chimande. And I'll be damned if they didn't remind me of what Scott is creating, intuitively, in Prasara.  This man is, in my opinion, a genuine creative genius in the field of the ecstatic athlete.
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Anyway, the total workout was about 50 minutes.  Worked everything top to bottom, including health, fitness, and skill, plus a 30 minute Psychology lecture.  Damned good morning!

Meditation report

Difficulties in meditation these last few days.  Basically, I wake up after about 6 1/2 hours sleep, feeling heavy and tired.  If I lay there for another hour, allowing myself to stay in a half-dream state, the fatigue drains away...this suggests to me that I need more low-level cardio work, or I might be slightly overtrained.  Another interpretation is that the stress of the last few months is making itself known, so that I can process it.  We'll see.  I sit up, holding my spine erect, and with closed eyes search for my heartbeat.  It feels much like entering a cave filled with bats--my thoughts wheel around out of control for the first five minutes. Another sign of stress.  Concentrating on my heartbeat, but keeping slight tension on the anal sphincter, I can get a slight sense of "black water swirling down the drain", as if the anal lock is lifting a plug in a tub of polluted water.  Interesting.  If I keep this up, I get a glimpse of the inner light I'm looking for.  Just a glimpse.  Right now, it takes about 25 minutes before the light really turns on. 
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I suspect, as said before, that this is a result of moving to the "next level."  I'm dealing with deeply encrusted, old, old fears, doubts, negative issues and beliefs that I've never been focussed enough to deal with before.  Man oh man, the work never stops!  It's like you clean and polish one chamber to a mirror-finish...and your reward is that you get to pop through into another dirty chamber.  Wow.  Of course, the furniture is much nicer here...
The problem is the illusion that as some point the work will stop.  Hah!  Get over it, Steve...

Genius is a frustrating thing

You know, it can be frustrating to deal with that odd human capacity called genius.  We all have glimpses of it from time to time, and most of us know people who seem to live in that space--they take seven-league-boot leaps where most of us trot along, and perhaps, get there eventually. They can be erratic, unpredictable, forgetful...that's just the way it is.  Those of you who've followed my writings for a while know that I think most human beings have the same approximate amount of "stuff" in their system.  Some folks just lump all that "stuff" or "potential" into one corner or another, and it makes a cracking big lump, very impressive.  Wow!  (we say) that person sure is talented...it isn't until we look at the rest of their lives that it becomes obvious that they have simply put everything they have into one "corner", and neglected the rest.  Still, we try to work with the substance we were given, and make something graceful out of it.  In general, there are only a few approaches to the "genius" personality that I have seen.
1)  first (and most rare) is the person who simply seems to have "more" of this precious quality.  They are healthy and happy, and just extraordinary in all basic aspects.  This is rare, rare, rare.
2) Second, people who are healthy and happy, and extraordinary in some single aspect.  For instance, a superb athlete of normal intelligence and a perfectly fine family life.  Or a superb mathmetician with normal fitness and a fine family life.
3) Third (and most common) is the person who is superb in one arena, and below average in one of the other two.  The successful businessman working on his fourth marriage, of average fitness, for instance.
4) Fourth (and most notorious) is the person superb in one arena, and a nightmare in others.  The phenomenal artist who is an alcoholic womanizer is a perfect cultural myth.  It is this image that makes many, many artists afraid that if they became "healthy" they would lose their creativity.  This is the ego pretending it is you. 
5)Fifth, and that which society desires to create, is the average person who, through proper education and social example, can be crafted into a maximal expression of self--a moral, intelligent, hard-working, healthy member of the social order.  While "genius" in the other forms can't be predicted, this last state has been theorized about and promoted for thousands of years.
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What YOU need to do to unleash whatever potential exists within you is to begin on the bedrock of your true identity--not your ego shell.  This is where the value of meditation comes in, to sweep away the illusions, to sink your foundations deep, so that your castle can rise high.
Personally, since I broke through to this next, higher level in my career I've discovered another ocean of doubt and darkness, stuff that it will take months to process.  I find it a joy.  This is the life I've waited for all my days.  I just wanted to see if I could play at this level.  Now I'll find out.  If I can't, well, no harm no foul--I've had a wonderful time regardless.  But it will be hard, and challenging, and fearful, and joyous.  I just need to get into deeper, truer touch with that genius spark within me, and fan it to the fullest flame I can, and then encourage it to grow in balance.
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And then see how much light I can produce.

Steve

Year-Long Writing Program: 6-1-05. CONTEST!

Here we are at the half-point in the year, and I'm having fun.  GREAT SKY WOMAN is going well, we're in the middle of our Hollywood pitches, and I'm having lunch with both of our agents in two hours to talk about the future.  Life is good!
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meanwhile, I spent last weekend in Baltimore around nice, fun, smart people at Balticon, having a lot of opportunities to talk writing.  And I mentioned that I'm getting ready to create my ultimate writing package.  Over the years, I've created seminars, tapes, videos, and websites--some free, and some for a price.  But none of that is anything like what I'm about to do.  It will be a 50-lesson workbook that will take people hand-in-hand through the process, with exercises galore, and 50 movies analyzed LIFEWRITING style for you to enjoy.  Just sit on your can on the weekend, and soak it all in, letting your subconscious do the work!
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But I'd like to hear from you guys about what would be the most useful things to put into the course, what would make it the absolutely most valuable.  And I'm willing to give away FIVE FREE COPIES to the folks who make the best suggestions.  I'll be the final judge on this, of course, but I REALLY want to make this the most valuable thing I've ever done, and I want to thank all of you for helping me sort through the b.s.
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So:  I want this to be
1) Good for beginners and advanced.
2) For all genres and media
3)  With both linear and non-linear approaches.
4) Cross-cultural.  Inter-gender. 
5) High-energy, healing, productive.
6) Both commercial and creative
7) Integrative life models--your work expresses your essence.
8) Equally powerful for those with no professional aspirations.
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This will include a workbook, DVD, CD's, and a certificate good for one FREE short story evaluation.  We'e formulating the project now, so PLEASE--tell me what you want.  Again, the FIVE people who make the most, best suggestions will get FREE copies when the whole thing is put together...don't miss this opportunity.  I don't know what we'll sell it for, but I PROMISE it will be worth thousands of dollars, with information available nowhere else.  But I need to know what you want!

Steve

World's Oldest Married Couple

I just saw a note on CNN that the Arrowsmiths, the world's longest-married couple (80 years!) just celebrated their anniversary.  Their advice: never go to bed angry with each other.  End each day with a kiss and by holding hands in bed. 

Happy Anniversary!

5MM and weight loss

The Five Minute Miracle, designed to strengthen the all-important body-mind connection, can be used specifically to lose weight.  Here's how:
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In terms of physics, weight loss is simple, and everyone knows it: you take in fewer calories than you burn up.  But in terms of physiology, or biochemistry, or nutrition, this can be difficult: slow metabolisms, hidden calories, blood sugar crashes, and high-fat foods are a reality.  Add in the mental factors: lack of nutrition knowledge, not eating at the right times, reliance on fad diets and exercise programs.  Now on top of that, add the very worst problem: the emotions. 
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And that is the bitch-kitty.  The huge problem, the one that people have horrific difficulty addressing, is their emotional need to keep that weight on.  Either due to comfort, fear, power issues, sexual issues, revenge, or devastated self-image, if you are carrying more than about twenty pounds of excess weight, you are safer to assume that some of that is emotional.  If you have over fifty pounds, brothers and sisters, you are almost certainly lying to yourself if you think you can just whip it off by switching your cheesy poofs to celery sticks. 
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The FIVE MINUTE MIRACLE can help on both sides of the equation: Exercise, and Diet.  And by the way--if you aren't controlling BOTH sides, you are lying to yourself about wanting to lose that weight.  What you're doing is "trying" to lose weight.  We know that game, don't we?
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EXERCISE:  Walking is probably your best choice.  Walking hills is even better.  Once you've learned the BE BREATHED technique in the Five Minute Miracle, use it while walking.  Make every step a tiny exhalation, and a tiny abdominal contraction.  Walk from your hips, tucking your butt under, squeezing your tummy a bit with every step.  Do this for at least 30 minutes, 3 times a week.  More serious?  Do it for 40 minutes, four times a week.  The first twenty minutes, you are burning sugar.  Only after that do you begin to burn fat.  So every minute over 20, you are actually normalizing your weight...assuming you don't increase calories.  Want to jack up your metabolism even faster?  Take SHORT sprints UP the hill.  Then slow to a walk, until you've caught your breath.  Repeat.  Do NOT run down hill--it will tear the hell out of your knees.
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DIET.  Stress eating is a real problem.  Actually, the problem is when stress becomes strain, when you respond to life or emotional stress with a non-optimal reaction like junk food.  If you don't think you are going to hit massive pockets of fear and stress as you begin the weight-loss effort, you're lying to yourself again.  So...what you need is a way to dump stress.  Lots of it.  The HEARTBEAT MEDITATION is a dynamic way of processing stress.  If you're not ready for it yet, just sitting quietly and practising BE BREATHED works wonders.  Walking in the park, slowly enough to concentrate on your inner signals, is great.  Stopping five times a day for your sixty-second stress busting BE BREATHED cycle will put you way ahead of the game. Check in on your posture, muscle tension, and breathing patterns.  If any of the three are non-optimal, breathe.  Before you eat those cheesy-poofs, take a sixty second breathing break.  Still want them?  Go ahead.  You'll probably find you eat fewer.
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Clarity is a great thing.  To KNOW when you are eating for stress, and when you are eating for nutrition, and NEVER confuse the two is being honest with yourself.  And honesty is one of the most important values in your search for excellence.  the FIVE MINUTE MIRACLE can help clear the fog away, can make it safer to be honest about what is going on.  And ultimately, can set you free.  It's your life.  Own it.

Steve

Star Wars and Lucas' Storytelling

A damned good post:

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Steve,

I will grant you the staggering dimension of Lucas' achievement in shepherding this six film cycle to completion. I'll also with agree everything you had to say in your Lifewriting tapes about the near perfection (at least in mythological terms) of the original Star Wars (a.k.a. A New Hope). But while I don't necessarily want to dismiss the magnitude of the achievement, having sat through Menace, Clones, and now Sith, I do find myself cringing a bit at the idea of considering Lucas 'one of the most phenomenal storytellers in human history'.

George Lucas as Bill Gates: The original Star Wars/New Hope was indeed a work of master story telling. It rightfully made Lucas a rich man. However, these riches put Lucas in much the same position as Bill Gates at the dawn of the age of the personal computer. That is to say, their subsequent successes were less a virtue of the quality of their products than an expression of their ability as business people, and an expression of the power of oligarchy. Much as the success of DOS and Windows had more to do with the business savvy of the team at Microsoft than with any fundamental superiority of the MS OS over its competitors, so too does the continued success of the Star Wars franchise have to do more with the existence of the earlier (and better) films than it does with any phenomenal storytelling exercised in the new trilogy. Thought exercise - had Phantom Menace actually been the first film, would the series have survived to see the second and third episodes, not to mention the subsequent Hope/Empire/Jedi trio? And would it have had anything like the effect on our culture that 'A New Hope' had?

In my mind, Lucas' primary achievement has been in maintaining control of the franchise. In doing so, he has avoided the primary pitfall that destroyed every other example that I can think of, dilution by committee. You have noted that subsequent sequels of good movies often suck. I would suggest this usually occurs when the creative force behind the original concept departs the franchise, leaving for greener fields and newer projects. This leaves things in the hand of a corporation, which means that any new outings will be controlled by committees whose idea of creative control is story by checkbox - fulfilling the demands of target audience demographics rather than the needs of story. Lucas' genius in this regard has been his continued control of the original concepts. This is, however, a two-edged sword. As you observe, the quality of the Star Wars story seems to peak when Lucas is answerable to someone, and wane the more complete control he has.

But it does seem to me that these achievements are more a matter of canny business ability than in any consideration of what it is that makes a good story, or indeed a good storyteller. In my mind, the high points of the franchise have been when Lucas was forced to be answerable to others, or in some way was sharing the responsibilities of implementation of the concept. The more complete his control, the more the storytelling has seemed to suffer. Maybe I'm just being a fanboy, disappointed that my experience with the last three movies has fallen short of the bar set in my mind by the original film when I was fifteen, but it seems to me that business acumen, however incredible, is only peripherally important to what makes a storyteller great. And given the great gaping plotholes and fuzzy thinking evidenced in the latest trilogy, I just have trouble thinking of Lucas' storytelling as being anything better than 'fair'.
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My answer:
I disagree. While Lucas is a canny businessman, there is no evidence that promotion alone can create a blockbuster. A blockbuster opening weekend, sure--but then word gets around. And Lucas' supposed "blockbuster" machinery hasn't helped his other movies. Howard the Duck, anyone? If he was primarily a businessman, why did he direct these last movies himself, when everyone knows that the ones directed by others were considered the best? He is absolutely in love with this world dude. As to his business sense, well, sure. As to whether the movies were deeply flawed, yep. But I didn't say he was a great writer. I said "storyteller" and that includes the method of communication. In a tribal storyteller that would be voice, pantomime, pacing, facial expressions, dance, even music. And you have to factor in these factors with Lucas. Anyone who can organize resources to create what he has done is hiring people who can externalize his vision. Like I said, I don't even know who I'd compare him to. Six movies over 30 years is a staggering achievement. A final test: if I were to ask the question: "who is better", the only names ANYONE would come up with would be the names of other giants. He walks with the great. And that defines him.

And another thing: one measure (not the only one) of greatness in storytelling is the number of people who love something. Another is the ease with which a story translates across cultures. Another is longevity. another might be the critical response. Another is the number of different media the story can successfully be mounted in. Dude, there is NO storyteller, Shakespeare included, who does not have detractors. But if I merely say "it's great because I like it," then "Gone with the Wind" is lousy because I HATE that movie. But I have to admit it communicates, and to many millions of intelligent, filmically educated people. Lucas has earned his right to walk with the movie gods, dude. and I suspect that people two hundred years from now will agree. How would the story have played out if told in order? Irrelevant. How would "Pulp Fiction" have played out in order? Temporal linearity isn't the only way to tell a story. And choice of order is as valid a sign of skill as choice of words or images.

Being a Hero

The proper use of the Lifewriting system depends on being able to see yourself as a character in a story you are creating--your life. Yes, there are elements out of our control. But there are many, many aspects that are controlled by our actions and thoughts. And those actions and thoughts impact our families, friends, communities. So...I ask you seriously: what is your definition of a hero?
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A long time ago, in exploring these questions, I was asked if there was another, more "feminine" aspect of this, perhaps a "Siren's Journey." I have to say that I don't know. Perhaps so. But every man and woman I've ever met has experienced life paths that correspond to the steps of the HJ as laid out for thousands of years: that is, to accept challenges in spite of fear. To begin the slow process of accomplishment. To gather allies, teachers and associates, and to refine skills. To face the spectre of failure, and defeat it with faith (and hard work!) and to accept the need to teach others what we have learned. So, without denigrating any other way of organizing our reality, this one works just fine for most goals that can be expressed in language.
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There are, of course, spiritual goals that are more difficult to express. How do you quantify "achieve oneness with nature"? While one of the most valuable goals I can imagine, I have also known too many people who wandered into hallucination, lost for years or decades, swearing they were becoming incredibly spiritual people...while their earthly relationships suffered, they suffered poverty (and the important word here is "suffered." If one accepts poverty joyously, that's rather different, isn't it?) And their bodies balooned to grotesque proportion. Then, years later, they confessed to lying about the amount of fear and pain they were in at the time. Sad. So those outer goals are valuable.
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The most intractable problems will do the most to convince you you need not address them. If you are, say, 100 pounds overweight, you can lose and re-gain, say, 20 of those pounds and never come close to the key issues. But wow! When you're losing them, you get to crow and expect people to congratulate you on the huge change. What if you have a dreadful relationship history? You can tell people you've decided to concentrate on career and physical health...while secretly negotiating the waters of yet another emotional disaster. And don't even get me started on the people who lurch from financial failure to financial failure, always planning some huge project, when they can't even balance their checkbooks.
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In every case, they've let fear defeat them, distract them. They have failed to accept the responsibility for being a hero. Without goals, without micro-goals that can be assessed on a weekly or daily basis, you can wander for months, years, and decades with no real feedback as to your progress. I beg you not to make that mistake. Take that first step. Take responsibility, perhaps for the first time in your life, for these three arenas. Look at your history and take responsibility for where you are--stop blaming others. Be the hero in the adventure of your lifetime.

I did not have sexual relations with that woman...

In researching the recent "Downing Street Memo" flap I came across another reason why I felt compelled to give the benifit of the doubt to the word "Fix."  The reason is that language is so damned fluid and subjective.  During the Clinton impeachment hearings, much has been made of the fact that he lied about having sex with Monica.  I'm not so sure he did.  For all my life, I'd heard that in much of Southern society, oral sex was not considered "sexual relations", a term which was applied exclusively to penetrative, vaginal intercourse.  That being a widely-held opinion, it is entirely plausible that, if someone had had the clarity to ask Bill: "was your penis ever in Monica's mouth?" he would have answered "yes."  Now, this clearly implies that he wasn't trying to cooperate, but neither was he exactly lying.  I'm afraid that I have to give the same flexibility of language to both sides, guys.

Crash (2005)

I've complained about a lot of films that deal with race, so I'm delighted to wholeheartedly reccomend one.  Paul Haggis' CRASH deals with one 24-hour period in Los Angeles, with people of many ethnicities colliding in an "impersonal" city, yearning for some kind of contact.  And contact they make.  Alternately they are humiliated, ennobled, embarassed, terrified, threatened, and in one case, killed.  The acting, even by rapper "Ludicris", is uniformly excellent.  Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, Jennifer Esposito, Brendan Fraser, Thandie Newton...not a star turn in the bunch, and in some cases (for instance Matt Dillon) the work is devastating.  No easy answers here...except perhaps to notice how much of the human damage is motivated by fear disguised as anger, or how often simple courtesy might have changed the outcome of terrible events.  Compare this to 1991's GRAND CANYON, a similarly themed, well-intentioned but far more 2-dimensional film.  Have we really learned so much so quickly?  I hope so, for it bodes well.  I give this one a solid "A"

You Can't change Who You Are

Just spent a couple of days out of town, during which time I had the chance to visit with an old friend.  We spoke on a variety of topics, but one that came up had to do with an opinion, held by his wife, that we can't change our essential natures.  He expected me to disagree--after all, I seem to actively promote the concept that we can change.  Somewhat to his surprise, though, I agreed.  We can't change our essential natures.  There's a trick, though...
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That trick is that we don't know who we really are.  We can only see our "presenting natures", our manefesting behaviors, our apparent personalities.  All of that stuff is ephemeral, all of it can change.  The true nature, the essential self that cannott change is not available to the ordinary mind.   It is very similar to saying that matter and energy can't be created or destroyed, only changed in form.  What we ordinarily do is identify with our outer shells, our circumstances, our actions.  Then we say that these things are "us" and that they cannot change.  How wrong, how tragically wrong we are.  However difficult it can sometimes be to make shifts, those shifts can be made, and must be made, if we are to live our true lives.
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What stops us from changing?  Fear.  That is the simplest answer. Fear.  We are afraid to die, to change, to lose. And by identifying with the very behaviors and circumstances that keep us in chains, we sacrifice the potential of an infinite, joyous life for the false safety of a limiting ego prison.  "this is me" we say.  No, it isn't .  It is merely all that you have allowed yourself to know of you.
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The road out is a daily practise that takes us closer to our true selves.  The twin arms of meditation (inner) and I.D.E.A. (outer.  The practise of setting balanced, measurable goals in a balance of body, career, and relationship) will begin to reveal our true selves.  This will trigger massive stress as we approach a true change point, a jump across quantum personality levels.  The stress coping mechanisms must be in place BEFORE we get to these spots.  The Five Minute Miracle is such a stress coping mechanism.  There are others, but in all honesty, the specific breathing exercise revealed within is the best I've found in forty years of searching.  Better, once  you've learned it, you can combine it with running, weight training, kettlebells, or clubbells or body-weight calisthenics.  By doing so, you increase your stress-coping ability MASSIVELY.  Stay on the balanced path, continue to meditate (dredging up you old "crap" that keeps  you from seeing yourself clearly!) and you will change.  Massively.
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Do yourself a huge favor.  Set balanced goals.  Take responsibility for your results.  Meditate or keep a dream diary.  And get the Five Minute Miracle.  And once you've got it, for goodness sake use it.  It will do you no good sitting on the shelf.

Your future is in your hands.

steve

Intensifying the Five Minute Miracle

Here's advice to take the "Five Minute Miracle" technique to a new level.  Practise this for five minutes every other day, and your unconscious competance with the "Miracle" will skyrocket!  Versions of this exercise can be found in Chito-Ryu karate and yoga. A version of it is being sold on the web for about fifty dollars! Here it is for free...


1.) Stand Erect with your feet shoulder-width apart and
your toes pointed directly forward
2.) Relax your shoulders.  Let your your arms hang at your
sides. Inhale through your nose, while touching your tongue to the  roof of your mouth.
3.) Inhale as deeply as you can, filling your lungs.  As you do, hold your abdominal muscles tight--don't let them expand.
4)  When you have filled yoru lungs, close your mouth and tighten your throat.  Force the air out, making a "hissing sound"  Contract the stomach muscles tightly, driving that air out with all the strength you've got.  Clinch your fists and exert more power.
5)  You can make this more martial-arts specific by making a "pulling" motion with your arms on the inhale, and a "pushing" motion with the exhale.
6) Perform this exercise for five minutes.  You may feel dizzy the first time you try it...it is a bear!
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The "Five Minute Miracle" is just that--a stress-busting, stomach-flattening, energizing powerhouse of a technique that can change your life.  We've only scratched the surface of what you can do, once you begin the habit of "checking in" with your body five times a day.   Believe in miracles.  Believe in YOURSELF.  Do yourself the biggest favor you ever have--order the Five Minute Miracle today!

Downing Street Memo

by now, some of you may have heard of the "Downing Street Memo," a document written before the invasion of Iraq that many (on both sides of the aisle) find disturbing politically.  The text can be found here:

http://www.tomjoad.org/downingstreetmemo.htm

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I am hoping that this will be investigated to the limits.  A friend believed that the American press' apparent reluctance to jump on this with both feet is a symptom of them being administration "lapdogs" (so much for hte liberal press!) but I think there are valid reasons to be cautious.  I'm no fan of the Bush administration, but the press has taken some whacking recently, and I can understand why they'd want to proceed carefully.
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Much of the bruhaha comes from the comment that "But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy" of military action as the only way.  The interpretation is that the word "fixed" is synonomous with "fabricated." Let's be careful here.  I can see where the temptation would be high, but that MAY be an American euphemism, not in common usage in British speech, especially in official documents.  Looking at the dictionary, "Fixed" also means "to put in place" or "to repair."  In other words, it is possible that the sentence means that (to paraphrase) "Because the Bush administration believes military action is justified and inevitable, they are building their intelligence case to support this alternative."
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Later in the memo, it mentions Saddam's use of WMDs in a way that clearly indicates that the British believed he had them.  CLEARLY.  If they believed he had them, then they would hardly think America was "fabricating" evidence.  There would be no need.
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Having said that, the document is still disturbing, indicating that America was NOT doing all it could to avoid military confrontation, rather they were doing all they could to get to military confrontation as quickly as possible.  Quite possibly, they believed themselves justified.  But the American public was misled about how hard they were trying to avoid war.  As about all we've gotten when the WMD's didn't materialize was an "oops!  Well, we had other good reasons..." I think it reasonable to press this point.  WMDs were what was used to sell this to our public, and our allies.  They weren't there.  And I don't think enough heads have rolled for this.  I'm not suggesting jail time, but THOUSANDS of people have died for this mistake, and this memo, while not absolutely damning, is disturbing as hell.  I'd like to see it investigated and interpreted by cool, calm heads--not discounted, or used to inflame either Left or Right.

Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Just wanted to finish up on my thoughts about the Star Wars cycle.  I've already praised it: yes, I loved SITH.  Now let's take a look at how it could have been better.  Understand that I'm not saying I can think of another filmmaker who could have done a better job.  Much has been made (and justifiably so) about Peter Jackon and LOTR.  (I mean--who could have watched MEET THE FEEBLES or DEAD ALIVE and seen THAT coming?).  But you have to factor in the reality that Jackson didn't create the story. He adapted probably the most popular fantasy ever, but in that sense, he has to be compared to other adaptations, NOT original work like Star Wars.  Also, Lucas sustained his efforts over 30 years and six films.  That has to be entered in as well.  Wow.
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So...complaints, given that I loved it.  SOME LIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD.
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1)  Weak female characters.  My sister noticed this.  Padme is sidelined for much of the film, being seriously preggers and all.  The introduction of a female character for the girls in the audience to identify with would have been nice.  She is almost completely reactive.
2)  the feminine "energy" of the movie is out of balance.  It is almost all bang, bang, bang.  We visit several planets and really don't get to know the aliens at all.  Even the vaunted Wookie planet depends on our preexisting affection for Chewbacca.  They would have had a stronger effect by slowing down, letting us know these folks better, and then hitting us with killer action.  Even the frantic (and in my mind, inferior) Return of the Jedi let us know the Ewoks a bit before the action clicked in.
3)  A single line of dialogue explaining that the Emperor's mental powers drive people a bit bonkers would be nice.  Some were confused about whether Anakin's decisions were motivated by logic or emotion.  I believe that he THOUGHT they were logical, that the emperor was seductive as hell.
4) There are certain questions about Anakin's origins that aren't answered directly.  I felt this was a cheat, as we'll never have another film to answer them.
5)  Anakin slaughters the "younglings."  Well, o.k.--but I would have liked it better if he'd killed a couple of other Jedi first, to get warmed up.  That seemed like quite a leap.  But as nastiness goes, I liked it.
6) The rescue of the Emperor.  You know, in the early part of the film Anakin and Obi-Wan rescue the Emperor.  And the emotions just aren't there--partially because we don't like the Emperor, and partially because the actor is playing it so cold.  The same sequences would have been SO much more exciting if there had been a character there we gave a damn about, and who might have been at risk. In fact, this was exactly the type of scene where a female character would have pumped up the juice.  Where was Princess Leia when we needed her?  If we could conceivably have had a pregnant Padme also at risk...WOW!  And if she had done something brilliant and brave and good here in addition?  DOUBLE WOW!
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That's all for now.  And I'm sure there's other stuff.  Some of the dialogue is still wooden, some of the performances still stiff.  Lucas was definitely keeping to a Saturday Morning Serial tone, and it grates a bit.  But overall, Well Done George.  May the Force Be With You.  Now, go out and make little, intimate films.  Grow up and get on with your life.  If there are any more Star Wars movies to be made, let someone else make 'em.  You, and we, deserve a rest.

Revenge of the Sith (2005)

It's late.  I have to get up early, and I'll be gone all weekend. But I wanted to get my basic thoughts down now.  My thought is this: George Lucas is one of the most phenomenal storytellers in human history.  Yes, the films are often stilted in dialogue, and there seems an adolescent aura around his character's sexuality, and an over-enthusiasm for pretty visuals at the expense of genuine character development.  Offhand, know a dozen writers who could have done a better job with the script, especially if Lucas had handed them an outline to work from.  But you know what?  None of that matters.  I don't know of another human being who could have done what he did.  Peter Jackson, making the superior "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, did not produce an equivilent creative act--he did not create the story. This act of creativity, carried out over almost 30 years, is almost unprecedented, and I think people should chill out and realize that this guy didn't create, say, six novels over thirty years--he also directed, produced, and created a special effects studio that could bring the images to life.  For anyone who has worked even tangentially in the industry, to understand the amount of work, the wide variety of skills, the ability to organize people, to manage a multi-billion dollar empire that was necessary to, in essence, make these the largest independant films ever made, to direct four of them himself (it is easily arguable that the best of all of them was directed and written by someone else, yes) but exactly who in film history do you compare him to?  And what original dramatic and visual composition do you compare it to?  This was the great original myth cycle of the last half of the 20th century.   It opened the door to entirely new ways to conceptualize entertainment...not always to the positive, to be sure.  It might have been the first truly international myth, embracing more human archtypes than any other single myth I can think of.  For all of its flaws, Revenge of the Sith links all of this together.  Lucas, and Star Wars, have my respect.  A perfect movie?  Hell, no.  Was it as good as it might have been?  Probably not--if Lucas had let other writers and directors in there to do their stuff.  But people, let me tell you--the mind that can create something like this would have a very hard time letting go.  This man is the real deal.  Don't for a second think he created this out of greed.  No one can sustain greed as a motivation over this period of time.  Lotsa people have tried to use the Star Wars "formula".   They have all disappeared.  This was a labor of love in the very realest sense.  Lucas is an extraordinarily impressive human being, and we need to acknowledge that. 
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When I get back, maybe I'll criticize some stuff, or at least look at it more closely.  Right now I'm grinning.  Imperfect, yes, but still a B+, (I'd give PHANTOM MENACE a C, and ATTACK OF THE CLONES a B-) but I'd give the six STAR WARS films, as a whole, a resounding A.  We won't see something like this again in our lifetimes.  Thirty years.  Damn.

Male Hubris

In discussing  images of sexuality in film, a very familiar comment arose about the white male tendency to present females of other groups as welcoming the domination, and the white male urge to impregnate the other.  My comment was that this is (relatively) universal, but that, in our time, white males have just been more successful.  The following comment was posted:
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no , what i'm referring to goes deeper than just impregnating or conquering sexually the women of other tribes.

it includes turning those women into female "gunga dins" where said female would kill her own people ,or give her own life to save her white man.

for example , there was an old charleston heston , brian keith movie called "the mountain men" , i think .

heston's character "turns" an indian woman to the point where she kills the "bad indian" who was leading the other indians in trying to stop the white settlers from encroaching upon their tribal lands.

the "bad indian" had finally gotten the best of mountain man heston in hand to hand combat and was about to finish him off when "BAM"-- a rifle shot rings out and dead falls the bad indian --shot dead by someone who had literally been his own wife--and of course after that , the "uprising " was just as dead as the bad indian ---resulting in another territory made safe for the trappers ,wagon trains , ranchers and farmers waiting impatiently to pour in and grab the "land that is there for the taking"--there for the taking minus a few minor "inconveniences"--like the people already living there.

in flicks like that one , it's not just impregnation --its an image of indoctrination and complete sell out that movies like these presented .
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MY THOUGHTS:
I don't think that this is something different--just an elaboration of the same theme.  It is a quirk of human psychology that we can't do "wrong" to someone without thinking of ourselves as "better" than them.  That male urge to dominate and control and impregnate is wedded to the belief in superiority.  My guess is that every dominant culture, be it Ghengis Khan, Chaka Zulu, or Cortez, considered themselves "better than" and therefore fantasized that raping and controlling the women of the other tribe was doing them a favor--and that they would recognize the favor done.  The problem with slavery wasn't just the institution, it was the mythologies put in place to justify it.  Those mythologies outlived the institution they were designed to protect. 
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Each "side" in a war considers themselves justified: how else could they live with the slaughter?  But breeding another group out of existence is a kind of "slow war" and our brains come up with the same solution: our penises are sacred, our sperm a sacrament, we're doing the women a favor by improving the gene pool.  And if this is true, of course,  they will respond with loyalty and love.  However...
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Don't for a moment think that this is purely male fantasy.  Any time a conquerer dominates another people, SOME OF the women of that conquered people will respond favorably and with genuine sexual heat.  Biologically, it makes perfect sense--their children will carry the protective coloration, and improve their chance for survival.  Your men were defeated, so let's get some new blood in there!  And if a soldier or representative of the conquerer is, as an individual, a decent, kind man, WOW!  The response can be off the charts.  Note the "War bride" phenomenon after any military engagement.  Note the deep resentment Japanese men had toward American soldiers as their women went gah-gah for them post WW2.  I've seen similar comments about the women of virtually every conquered people, regardless of the conquerer.  This stuff is hard-wired into us.
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Frankly, I think that some of the stress between Black men and women boils down to this, as well.  On a subconscious level, I think a piece of the Black female psyche looks at Black men and says:  "assholes. If you guys had had your shit together, we wouldn't be IN this mess!" And there's some truth to that, too.   It wasn't Europe's responsibility to be nice and peaceful and fair.  It was the rest of the world's responsibility to kill every European who landed on their soil.  And that didn't happen, did it?  And unless one accepts a thesis like "Guns, Germs, and Steel", in all likelihood the only answers you can come up with for why one group dominated another is either Non-white superiority (the designated group was too spiritual and peaceful to master war in such a manner.  Yeah, right)..  Or white superiority (just plain smarter and better.)  Both are pretty poisonous.
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We're dealing with basic, basic human stuff.  It's my understanding that more marriages break up over money than infidelity.  Why?  Someone else shtupping your sweetie, absent V.D. or pregnancy, is a pair-bond insult, an ego interrupt.  But when the money runs out, that is frigging REAL.  Your children starve.  There is no where to live.  And every guy reading this knows (perhaps intimately) someone whose "good" relationship fell apart when he fell on hard times financially.  I've lost count of the number of times that a relationship died when the man lost his job, the woman worked, and she became attracted to the men ranked higher than her at her employment.  It is an utter cliche, and the "balancing" cliche is the man who loses attraction for an obese wife and starts flirting with the secretary.
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All of this stuff is being talked about not to point fingers at black or white, or men or women, but to cut through the b.s. so that we can organize our resources to satisfy our most basic needs.  Only when our basic needs are satisfied do we have the chance to evolve to the position where these basic, dualistic principles hold less sway. 

Fear and love

So, then, let's take a look at our basic ideas.  From time to time, it's a good idea to go back to the foundation...and because the basic ideas behind LIFEWRITING, the FIVE MINUTE MIRACLE, and THE MASTERY TECHNIQUE are very very simple, we have to look at them from every angle, and see how they apply in every situation.  You may by now grasp that I'm trying to build a four-dimensional model that can lurk about in your subconscious, giving you greater and greater access to your intuitive intelligence and personal energy.
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Again, I am fully aware that this is an oversimplification.  All models are.   Please grasp what I'm saying "between the lines" and forgive me for being so dualistic.  Life has one aspect, two aspects, three, four, seven, all the way up to infinite.  Each way of looking at the universe produces different results, and has different disadvantages and advantages.  That said, here we go again...
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  Are you clear on your fear reactions, and how they manefest appropriately and inappropriately?  The questions of life and death plague us all, and I've met very few human beings without some kind of an ab-reaction here.  They over or under react, carry fear from things that happened in childhood, react to power or relationship issues as if they were mortal concerns.  We have two basic nervous systems: sympathetic and parasympathetic.  The sympathetic nervous system, which responds to the "Fight or Flight" drive, might be said to be powered by Fear.  The parasympathetic nervous system "cools you down" and is what most forms of meditation seek to trigger.  It might be said to be powered by Love.  The following oversimplifications might help to clarify how these aspects can be visualized or conceptualized:

Sympathetic-Parasympathetic
Ida-Pingala (yogic energy)
Male-Female
Right Brain-Left Brain
Conservative - Liberal
Yang-Yin
Management- Art
Warrior-Healer
Adult-Child

Pick your own metaphor.  They all work, as long as you don't mistake them for the reality of existence, or attach scalar values to one or the other.  Note how often each "side" considers itself "correct" and tries to norm its values to the exclusion of the other.  But in the yogic model (ida and pingala) these two energetic "channels" wind up the spine, and only by balancing them does the kundalini energy rise up "shusumna" and produce an evolutionary effect.  It is in the willingness to explore the concept of balance--WITHOUT getting locked into the "this and not that" box, that we confront one of the prime paradoxes of existence, and in resolving the paradox, move on  to the next phase in our lives. 
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This is similar to studying anatomy (individual organ systems) one day, and physiology (the interaction of organ systems) the next.  We move back and forth between over-isolation and over-generalization, because the actual balance point is so delicate as to be almost invisible.  Play with these concepts.  Where does your own fear manefest?  In relationships?  Career?  Your body?  Are you equally comfortable in artistic and management modes?  Can you enter flow state while you balance your checkbook?  think of the horrible arguments between artists and the book companies or movie studios they work for.  Villains!  they shriek.  And yet, if artists or writers start publishing companies or studios, the artists who come to work for them will complain in the exact same way.  What happens here? 

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there are different life roles, different positions from which we look at the same mountain.  To understand this is to embrace all of the myriad aspects of the human experience, and seek communication rather than blame.  There are monsters on both sides.  And great, loving folk on both sides.  And when those men and women...or liberals and conservatives...or artists and managers...or adults and children...reach out to each other to understand, the world gets a little brighter.  Fear and Love join together to create an energy for which we have no effective label.  It is the pure white energy, like pure light before it strikes the prism of experience.  One has to go beyond words.  It can be experienced.  The path to it can be pointed to.  But it can't quite be spoken of...unless you too have seen it.