The Home of Steven Barnes
Author, Teacher, Screenwriter


Friday, January 14, 2005

The purpose of this blog

When I was about 5 years old, my mom introduced me to Yoga, and Psycho-Cybernetics.  Ever since then, I've been fascinated by the body-mind link, and searched continuously (with varied levels of success) for a "Grand Unified Field" theory of the whole magilla.  About fifteen years ago, I started teaching "Lifewriting," the approach of applying Joseph Campbell's model of the Hero's Journey to both life and writing.  I knew that I'd come across something important, but it wasn't the whole thing--it lacked an anchor in the physical body.
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Over the last decade I've watched my friends dying.  The fannish community, of which I happily consider myself a part, has a disproportionate percentage of obese folks within it, people who, for emotional reasons, are disconnected from their bodies.  And now they're dying.  Every time I turn around, I hear about another one, and it's breaking my heart.
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About two years ago I met Scott Sonnon, and his "Perpetual Exercise" concept fell into place with the other things I've been studying with a huge "clunk".  The ""Body Flow" work, with its ability to remove "Fear Reactivity" wa another "clunk."  And for the first time, in combination with the previous 45 years of research and study and blood and sweat, I began to understand.
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This blog isn't always neat (I rarely spell-check), because my intent is to get the information out there as fast as possible. I'll "neaten it up" later.  It is an attempt to knit together a bunch of different core concepts which, in combination, create an holistic view of the human body-mind unlike anything I have seen, anywhere.  In no particular order, they are:
1) The Hero's Journey
2) The Yogic Chakras
3) the Flow-State performance spiral
4) Perpetual Exercise
5) Body-Flow/Fear Reactivity
6) Energetics and Behavioral modification
7) Core Transformation
8) I.D.E.A. (Instinctive Designation of Energy and Attention)
9) The Beauty/Power Axis of human relationships
10) "Mind Reading"
11) Time-Line Therapy
12)Diamond/Triangle/Goal setting

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there are more, but by the time you understand these ten, some of which are original to me (through synthesizing other work) and others borrowed from sublime sources, you should begin to grasp the way it all fits together.  My guess is that there is no simple, comprehensible way to fit it all tgether--it exceeds the capacity of the conscious mind.  But I DO think we can grasp the 360 degree sphere of this reality subconsciously and, more imortantly, behaviorally.  It is my honest goal to lay it all out for you to criticize.
I NEED YOUR FEEDBACK.  I believe in my bones that I'm onto something here, but need you guys to experiment with the concepts, and tell me what you find.  ONLY by building a community of people attempting to live  their daily lives in balance and, over months and years recording and sharing what they find, can this move forward.  From the bottom of my heart, I thank all of you who have participated, and ask that you continue.

Steve

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