42. Look at this world and tell me what you see
Television is an ‘eye upon the world’. When I turn my set on, I see war, famine, terrorism, bad politics, children’s forced labor, people being hurt, tortured, coerced, discriminated… You know, the usual stuff in-between commercials. No, I make no joke about this. I see it each day again and it’s terrible each day again. Read the full article…
41. Emptiness!
Dear reader, let me take you on a journey to Emptiness. No, I have not suddenly become a fan of nothingness or nihilism. Neither did I invent/discover the concept of Emptiness. I’m too late for that. It was already invented/discovered some 1800 years ago by an Indian guy called Nagaryuna. Thanks to him, it became Read the full article…
40. In search of the button that says ‘change’
If only people were robots… there would be buttons at their backs, reading ‘change’. Push the button and there you go. Brave new world! ◊◊◊ But it’s not this world, for the time being. Still, there is a general idea that change really is as simple as that. The idea is not backed up by Read the full article…
39. Addicted to superficiality
I have long thought about why people en masse become addicted to something like cigarette smoking and why it is so difficult for many to get rid of it. I found an important part of the answer in the insight that behind such an addiction lies an even much stronger addiction. This is not an Read the full article…
38. Strengthen your total self, not your ego
For decades, people have been driven to strengthen their egos, irrespective of who they are furthermore. This used to be called ‘assertivity training’. Actually it still is this way. I use the past tense because I would like to see it gone… ◊◊◊ So there it was. And it was a great business, perfectly in Read the full article…
37. Religion explained
Scientists keep looking for God in the minds of people. In this endeavor, experiments have been done whereby certain centers of the brain are stimulated by an electromagnetic field. Especially in conditions of sensory deprivation, people can thereby start having hallucinations with a very religious undertone. Something like ‘seeing the light and this light is Read the full article…
36. Mind is a whirlpool
In 1977, a compatriot of mine, named Ilya Prigogine, received the Nobel prize for his theories about ‘dissipative structures’. Aren’t we all proud of him! ◊◊◊ The core of ‘dissipative structures’ is easily explained with an example. Mainly, when one puts enough ‘energy’ into a system, then in certain circumstances a new structure may arise Read the full article…
35. Fear of flying? Let the sky not be thy limit.
The world is becoming smaller and smaller. Airplanes are getting bigger and bigger. Only fear of flying remains the same. This means that more and more people are in a position that they need to fly, or would like to fly, but are afraid to. The airport is their closed door. ◊◊◊ I have good Read the full article…
34. How to turn a square into a circle
I don’t like the basic principle of behavioral therapy. Of course it’s a diverse field and every practitioner has his or her own way to bring it. Still, the basic principle of hard-core behavioral therapy puts all emphasis on appearances while disregarding or even disdaining what happens underneath. ◊◊◊ There are 2 ways to turn Read the full article…
33. Are you going to San Francisco?
Flower power has been. People of my generation were born just too late to be its children at that time. That’s not fair, is it? So maybe it’s time for a new ‘flower power’ to hit this planet. Why not? And in order to accommodate me and my generation, and in fact any generation, let’s Read the full article…
32. Can the placebo lie ever be a ‘benign lie’?
‘The truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.’ ◊◊◊ The existence, indeed almost omnipresence of placebo has weird consequences. One of them is that serious people are now asking whether the above saying is valid or not for medicine in the broadest sense, as it is in jurisdiction. ◊◊◊ Indeed, the issue Read the full article…
31. Long live desire!
People are no steam engines. That seems to be clear. ◊◊◊ Yet in a profound way the prevailing (although mostly underlying) idea in Western culture about human desires in general comes down to precisely this: a desire as something that, if not gratified, builds up and … yes … puts steam on the kettle. This Read the full article…
30. Meditation is NOT a therapy
Laughing as therapy. Crying as therapy. Moving as therapy. Not moving as therapy. It seems as if people are looking for ‘therapy’ everywhere. We live in a therapy-based society. Probably because society itself makes therapy so much needed. ◊◊◊ Many people in the West look at meditation as a therapy. This is not quite right. Read the full article…
29. PTSD: a groovy kind of stress
In a traumatic situation, people are more vulnerable to ‘suggestion’ (that is: to be touched in one’s deeper self by the meaning of things) for two reasons. First, the very deep meaning of what happens, has in itself as a matter of fact a huge impact. Second, the power of the trauma shakes and cuts Read the full article…
28. Do miracle cures happen?
What is certain to me, is that miracle cures do not happen in a mechanical way. You cannot simply ‘ask’ something from ‘Above’ and expect to receive it. ◊◊◊ Something very special is needed. You have to transcend mechanical thinking. This can only be done by transcending your conscious thinking, since this is trapped as Read the full article…
27. Medicine of war. Medicine of peace.
Present-day Western medicine is based on the philosophy of war. Diseases are the enemy that has to be attacked as effectively as possible. The weapons to do so are medication, surgical procedures, etc. Behavioral therapy in its pure form is the psychological ally in this continuous battle. The goal is to get rid of the Read the full article…
26. ‘My pain is real! It’s not mental!’
The outcry in the title is the result of a way of thinking that, sadly enough, still pervades our culture very much. It is as if what is mental cannot be real at the same time. This seems to be very deeply ingrained, so deep that many people don’t even question it at any time Read the full article…