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 11 Jan 2008 @ 10:07, by jazzolog. Activism
A man met a lad weeping. "What do you weep for?" he asked.
"I am weeping for my sins," said the lad.
"You must have little to do," said the man.
The next day they met again. Once more the lad was weeping. "Why do you weep now?" asked the man.
"I am weeping because I have nothing to eat," said the lad.
"I thought it would come to that," said the man.
---Robert Louis Stevenson
If you don't find God in the next person you meet, it's a waste of time looking for him further.
---Mohandas K. Gandhi
Drinking his morning tea
the monk is at peace.
Chrysanthemums.
---Basho
The picture is of author Jessica Valenti and her book of last year which was written especially for young women of college age. The image illustrates an interview with her at Salon [link] .
I've been trying to think how I got interested in civil rights. I know it was all the way back in early childhood, even though there was no "movement" to speak of then nor was my normal white family particularly involved in politics or social problems. What I think did it was a Walt Disney movie from 1946, which would have put me in 1st grade. Anything Walt made was OK, even though Mom worried about the scary parts in every one. To this day my worst fears can be traced to Snow White running and lost in the forest, or the disappearance of Bambi's mother, or especially the transformation of Lampwick into a mule in Pinocchio---all done with animated shadows...and sound. Neverthless, as a family we saw everything that came out, and so it was with a film called Song Of The South.
By '46, Disney was experimenting with live action and much less animation interspersed. Song Of The South is about a little boy, played by Bobby Driscoll, who lives on a big plantation in the South, although I don't remember that it was exactly slavery times. At any rate, he wanders one day into the area where his father's black workers live and meets a man known as Uncle Remus, played by James Baskett. The whole situation is a setup for Remus to tell the kid 3 of the stories about Brer Rabbit, collected in the writings of Joel Chandler Harris. Of course we shift to cartoons then, but it's the only animation I remember...except for the bluebirds when Uncle Remus sings the Oscar-winning song from the film Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah.
OK, if you're wincing at some thoughts of stereotype here, you're not alone. In the 1960s, the NAACP protested to Disney about the movie...and it was withdrawn. The song and the Brer Rabbit sequences still can be found here and there, but apparently the full movie only can be purchased in Japan. A friend of mine found a couple of copies of video from there up in Canada, and smuggled them in. As a result, I can report I've seen Song Of The South fairly recently---and had the chance to share it with my kids. What impressed me as a child was the racial interaction in the movie, how Remus and the boy came to love each other, and the social repercussions their relationship eventually produced. But isn't this strange---that the very movie I credit with developing an interest in me in the civil rights of American citizens, and people around the world, is banned as being prejudicial?
Well leaving all that aside, what happened back in first grade is I became open to friendships with people of other races and nationalities. At the same time we were beginning to learn folk songs in music class at school. My uncle, who was essentially a farmer and a United Brethren, got me started in stamp collecting. The whole world and its peoples were opening up to me and I loved it. But I was made aware of problems. A black school friend named Ronnie followed me home one day, and Mom gave me a talk about different people staying and playing with their own "kind." I didn't like that, and so a year or 2 later I went home with another black kid named Morris. When we got to Metallic Avenue, I saw there was no street there at all. In fact, 10 feet in front of the house, which had no door on it by the way, there was a tall wire fence...and 10 feet beyond that were the tracks of our town's major railway, the Erie. I guess I was pretty scared, and I went home. More >
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9 Jan 2008 @ 22:45, by ming. Communication
Somebody asked for permission to use my old graphic here in a training course for field epidemiologists in Kazakhstan. Which is kind of funny. And I don't remember if I ever posted it here, so why not. Below is the article that goes with it. Although I thought it was kind of well hidden on the net, I do get these kinds of requests from time to time. ... And now that I notice it, this is actually the #1 "I feel lucky" entry for "Communication Model" in Google, which I can't complain about.
There is always a sender and a receiver in communication. At least there is an intended receiver. In the diagram above A is the sender, B is the receiver.
A and B have different personal realities. They each have their own world formed by their experiences, their perceptions, their ideas, etc. They will perceive, experience, and interpret things differently. The same event will always be perceived a little different by each of two people.
For the consideration to communicate to appear at all there must be some kind of shared space. The participants must have some kind of concept of each other's location and of a possible channel of communication existing between them. They must agree sufficiently on these to agree that communication is taking place.
The sender will have some kind of meaning she wishes to convey to the receiver. It might not be conscious knowledge, it might be a sub-conscious wish for communication. What is desired to be communicated would be some kind of idea, perception, feeling, or datum. It will be a part of her reality that she wishes to send to somebody else.
Something will be transmitted across a distance in the shared space. We can regard it as an object, a particle, or as a wave, or flow. It might be sound vibrations, rays of light, words, pieces of paper, cannon balls, body language, telepathy, or whatever.
Between humans there will be several layers of the message being sent. There will often be a verbal portion, something that is being expressed in language, spoken or written. And there is also a non-verbal portion, covering everything else, most notably body language. Sometimes the verbal and non-verbal messages don't agree with each other, they are incongruent. If they do agree we say that they are congruent.
Based on what the receiver perceives, and based on her interpretation of the verbal and non-verbal input, she will form a concept in her reality of what the meaning of the message is. It will mean something to her. It might or might not be what was intended by the sender. In successful communication the perceived message will approximate the intended message to the sender's satisfaction. However, the sender will only know that if she receives a message back that is congruent with what she had in mind.
One can never take for granted that the receiver has the same reality as the sender. One can never take for granted that the receiver will interpret the message the same way as the sender intended it.
Communication is not an absolute finite thing. Particularly, communication with language is always vague and misleading to some extent.
If A says a word, like for example "trust", she has a certain meaning attached to it in her reality. She has had certain experiences with the subject matter, she has made certain conclusions about it, and she has certain perceptual filters concerning it. The meaning of the word is all the stuff it is associated with in her reality. However, because words also have nice, finite dictionary definitions it might appear as if the word is something very precise.
What travels across the communication channel is NOT all the associations that A made about the word, and NOT the intentions she had with using it. What crosses the distance is symbols.
When B hears the word or sentence she will interpret it based on her experiences, perceptions, and opinions. She might supplement the verbal information with non-verbal information such as body language. She might also hallucinate what it is supposed to mean. In one way or another she arrives at the meaning she assigns to it.
There is wide agreement, at least within a particular culture, on what common physical objects are. When you say "car" or "refrigerator" most people will have an understanding very close to yours. But if you say words for abstract qualities, like "trust", "love", "right", "wrong", and so forth, then there is wide variance on what people mean.
To have effective communication one needs to take all the factors into consideration. The different realities, the space the communication takes place in, verbal as well as non-verbal messages, the intended meaning versus the perceived meaning. More >
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 9 Jan 2008 @ 08:33, by koravya. Education
About the Day.
The first day back to school, after two weeks away. More >
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6 Jan 2008 @ 15:34, by planeta. Travel
ANNOUNCEMENT
Planeta.com announces that Tourism and Climate Change is one of our spotlight topics for 2008. Participants will share research, personal stories, photos and videos about the environmental impact of transportation, climate change research and the slow travel movement.
Tourism depends on the natural environment and climate changes are making a substantial impact on travel. Likewise, travel contributes to carbon emissions that alter the global environment. The relationships among tourism, climate change, sustainability, biodiversity and economic development are complex and until recently have not been studied in depth.
Tourism and Climate Change http://www.planeta.com/ecotravel/tour/climatechange.html More >
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 4 Jan 2008 @ 15:17, by jerryvest. Medicine, Healthcare
Most people seem convinced that since the body inevitably shows the "ravages" of Time, similar ravages must therefore affect the mind, the spirit. Not true. What is most important is that in our lives we have learned through the mind, the mind that is our spirit, and that is what will remain even when the body breaks down. (_Growing Young_, Ashley Montagu)
This "NY Times" article is a remarkable finding by British researchers that will certainly challenge conventional mental health treatment in this country and others. I suspect that the Big Pharmas are clamoring around to see how they can squelch this research and/or find ways to cover up their own studies that were suppose to be scientific and offer evidence based practice methodologies.
This study should also draw attention to all of the other psychotropic drugs and products created by the pharmaceutical companies. Congress and the FDA should call for investigations of their science, for their marketing practices, for their corporate political behavior and their greed. This is not the first drug that has proven to be of little value, useless and harmful to the consumer. It is especially fraught with corruption and abuse because those persons most vulnerable--mental health patients/clients--are not able to determine what is the best treatment for their pain, anguish and suffering. They depend upon psychiatry, mental health programs, and medicine to give them the treatment that has a scientific basis of validity and reliability and offers best practice interventions.
This "NY Times" series of articles also discuss psychiatry and concerns that the public and others should be aware of: [link]
For those of you who have followed my logs related to "Stop Drugging our Kids" and others describing the Big Pharmas' practices, this is just one more headline that will probably be overlooked while psychiatry continues to drug their patients while Big Pharmas go about their business, passing off their research as scientific evidence and paying off their professional customers and politicians. Hmm, I wonder why I am becoming so cynical in my "old age" when I feel as though I am "growing young" and spirited. "But the routine prescription of the drugs for aggression, they concluded, “should no longer be regarded as a satisfactory form of care.”
Finally, I am adding an additional article introduced in the International Journal of Mental Health Systems that describes the failures of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual(DSM) as a psychiatric system or model used to assess or measure depression and schizophrena. This is another remarkable article that questions the validity and usefulness of a system that is commonly used by mental health professionals. The authors recommend other system approaches that can be more helpful and effective for evaluating and treating patients suffering with depression and schizophrenia. "Classification in Psychiatry: Does it Deliver in Schizophrenia and Depression?"
[link]
************************
Drugs Offer No Benefit in Curbing Aggression, Study Finds
By BENEDICT CAREY, NY Times
Published: January 4, 2008
The drugs most widely used to manage aggressive outbursts in intellectually disabled people are no more effective than placebos for most patients and may be less so, researchers report.
The finding, being published Friday, sharply challenges standard medical practice in mental health clinics and nursing homes in the United States and around the world.
In recent years, many doctors have begun to use the so-called antipsychotic drugs, which were developed to treat schizophrenia, as all-purpose tranquilizers to settle threatening behavior — in children with attention-deficit problems, college students with depression, older people with Alzheimer’s disease and intellectually handicapped people.
The new study tracked 86 adults with low I.Q.’s in community housing in England, Wales and Australia over more than a month of treatment. It found a 79 percent reduction in aggressive behavior among those taking dummy pills, compared with a reduction of 65 percent or less in those taking antipsychotic drugs.
The researchers focused on two drugs, Risperdal by Janssen, and an older drug, Haldol, but said the findings almost certainly applied to all similar medications. Such drugs account for more than $10 billion in annual sales, and research suggests that at least half of all prescriptions are for unapproved “off label” uses — often to treat aggression or irritation.
The authors said the results were quite likely to intensify calls for a government review of British treatment standards for such patients, and perhaps to prompt more careful study of treatment for aggressive behavior in patients with a wide variety of diagnoses.
Other experts said the findings were also almost certain to inflame a continuing debate over the widening use of antipsychotic drugs. Patient advocates and some psychiatrists say the medications are overused.
Previous studies of the drugs’ effect on aggressive outbursts have been mixed, with some showing little benefit and others a strong calming influence. But the drugs have serious side effects, including rapid weight gain and tremors, and doctors have had little rigorous evidence to guide practice.
“This is a very significant finding by some very prominent psychiatrists” — one that directly challenges the status quo, said Johnny L. Matson, a professor of psychology at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, co-author of an editorial with the study in the journal Lancet.
While it is unclear how much the study by itself will alter prescribing habits, “the message to doctors should be, think twice about prescribing, go with lower doses and monitor side effects very carefully,” Dr. Matson continued, adding:
“Or just don’t do it. We know that behavioral treatments can work very well with many patients.”
Other experts disagreed, saying the new study was not in line with previous research or their own experience. Janssen, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, said that Risperdal only promotes approved uses, which in this country include the treatment of irritability associated with autism in children.
In the study, Dr. Peter J. Tyrer, a professor of psychiatry at Imperial College London, led a research team who assigned 86 people from ages 18 to 65 to one of three groups: one that received Risperdal; one that received another antipsychotic, the generic form of Haldol; and one that was given a placebo pill. Caregivers tracked the participants’ behavior. Many people with very low I.Q.’s are quick to anger and lash out at others, bang their heads or fists into the wall in frustration, or singe the air with obscenities when annoyed.
After a month, people in all three groups had settled down, losing their temper less often and causing less damage when they did. Yet unexpectedly, those in the placebo group improved the most, significantly more so than those on medication.
In an interview, Dr. Tyrer said there was no reason to believe that any other antipsychotic drug used for aggression, like Zyprexa from Eli Lilly or Seroquel from AstraZeneca, would be more effective. Being in the study, with all the extra attention it brought, was itself what apparently made the difference, he said.
“These people tend to get so little company normally,” Dr. Tyrer said. “They’re neglected, they tend to be pushed into the background, and this extra attention has a much bigger effect on them that it would on a person of more normal intelligence level.”
The study authors, who included researchers from the University of Wales and the University of Birmingham in Britain and the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, wrote that their results “should not be interpreted as an indication that antipsychotic drugs have no place in the treatment of some aspects of behavior disturbance.”
But the routine prescription of the drugs for aggression, they concluded, “should no longer be regarded as a satisfactory form of care.” [link] More >
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3 Jan 2008 @ 15:50, by craiglang. Spirituality
For years, many including myself have been writing about a coming shift in consciousness - a psychic/spiritual emergence or Awakening. Since this sie is all about the coming New Civilization, I thought I'd pose the question here as to what people here feel that might be like.
I am currently writing a novel series about the transition, the time in which we make the change in consciousness, the apocalypse, the transitioning to the fifth world, or whatever one wants to call it.
There will most likely be a series of books (the first of which is pretty much done and looking for a publisher). The final book will be that in which we make the above-mentioned transition, whatever that might look like. I am currently trying to form a picture to the conclusion in my mind as I write a general backstory for the series.
My questions for the general NCN world are this:
1) How do you think a transition will actually occur (if it does)?
2) Will it be associated with 2012, or some other time? Gradual or sudden? etc...
3) What do you think the world will look like after such a transition?
4) What would life be like in such a world?
5) Will it be Psychic emergence? Some form of enlightenment? Something else? Or will we simply learn (somehow) to live together in a better way?
I have a zillion questions about this, and I've played with some ideas myself. But I'm most interested in the perspective of people in NCN, since this group is about the New Civilization.
Let me know what you think.
Thanx,
-Craig Lang More >
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 2 Jan 2008 @ 16:42, by jhs. Children, Parenting
I overheard the following conversation, shortly before the rabbit escaped from the kitchen... guess who was his little helper...
Little Anthony: Happy New Year, Big Ear, peace and success!
White Rabbit: Crappy New Year to you, Buddhinho, war and lots of failures!
Little Anthony: Huuh?
White Rabbit: aah, I forgot, no pain, no gain! Therefore I'm wishing you lots of suffering as well.. so that may you gain more than just weight...
Little Anthony: well, thank you rabbit. You're so thoughtful today...
White Rabbit: I know, I know, don't mention it... More >
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2 Jan 2008 @ 15:44, by vector8. Spirituality
Last night, my mother mentioned how Christmas passes too quickly. Before you know it, it's over and all the happiness is gone. You're back to feeling the blues.
I believe the happiness is all over very quickly because it wasn't real in the first place. If that happiness was real, it would persist no matter what. More >
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 2 Jan 2008 @ 01:01, by jazzolog. Activism
When you meditate, invite yourself to feel the self-esteem, the dignity, and strong humility of the Buddha that you are.
---Sogyal Rinpoche
The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks.
---Tennessee Williams
This year,
yes, even this year
has drawn to its close.
---Buson
The Opening of the Fifth Seal of the Apocalypse, 1610-14
El Greco
I had a night of foreboding last night. No, it wasn't the champagne. In fact I went to bed very early. I felt it when I awoke around 3 AM, with fragments of a dream still flickering. People were coming up the hill, closing in...and I needed to decide whether or not to shoot. Rather a moot question, since I didn't seem to have any guns.
Maybe the wind, which by then was battering the house, had shaken me up. The cold front had arrived, bringing the snow from further west that's falling now. We expect about an inch, and I've already put down the potash before the relatives arrive for a Hungarian New Year's feast.
It couldn't have been the hospitality I enjoyed yesterday at Kathy's remarkable home. She and her partner Constantine had invited a few people for a delicious lunch of soup, fresh bread, salad, deviled eggs, cheese and some Crumb's special crackers that I brought. The land is high on a hill of natural oak forest, with amazing outcroppings of huge boulders, possibly shoveled there by the glacier which chugged to a stop just north of there.
When Kathy first acquired the land, she found a cave among those rocks and there she lived until she could build a tepee, and eventually more comfortable shelter. What they have now is a model home, for me at least, that is self-sustaining and off-the-grid. You can see it here [link] and go there to find out more if you're close by. There are more and more energy-efficient and alternative houses showing up around here. People move here especially to try their hand at living this way. More >
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1 Jan 2008 @ 22:17, by neva. Networking
Establishing referral network for therapists
I'm looking for personal recommendations for all types of healing facilitators and therapist, by state and by country.
If you know a particularly superior therapist, and are willing to share why you feel this therapist is so good at what they do, I'm looking for your recommendation for my blog at [link]
I want to be able to list therapists that people believe in, because of the personal results they themselves have experienced.
If you are a therapist, you may not recommend yourself. The recommendation can only come from one of your clients who is willing to share their story and their experience of your support in their lives.
I'm looking forward to hearing from anyone who might like to commend someone who has been instrumental in their healing process. Help spread the word about healers that are good at their job!
Here is a really good example of what I'm looking for:
client feedback on colonics therapist
Thanks, Neva
Post your stories at [link]
All comments are monitored before being added so as soon as I read the story and get back to you to confirm what you have submitted, I'll add your therapist to the list.
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