47. Are alternative medicines ‘alternative’?
In this age of rationalism and self-declared enlightenment, ‘alternative medicines’ (AMs) are seen by most adepts of ‘non-alternative medicine’ (NAM) as those kinds of medicine that are not based upon precious science, in contrast to NAM. And that is indeed very true. If something from an AM or even a complete AM can be scientifically Read the full article…
46. Is there life beyond conceptual thinking?
Here’s the picture. On the one hand, we think with or by way of concepts. A concept can be anything like <tree>, <grandmother>, <character>. It is not ‘this tree’ but <tree>. The concept of <tree> can be filled in by any specific tree (called then an ‘instance’ of the concept). The concept of ‘tree’ has Read the full article…
45. We all heal of cancer on a daily basis
In a simplistic view upon cancer, everything is very straightforward: there is a cell in your body that degenerates into a cancer cell and starts to multiply very quickly. Indeed, much more quickly than all its healthy sister cells. At first, this passes unnoticed of course but in due time, the growth is discernible and Read the full article…
44. Puberty: the time for respect
Children in their puberty ask (in many cases very loudly) for respect, although they can have a huge difficulty in giving it themselves. The voice of protest is never far away… and I think they are essentially right. I also think that to become a grown-up in a profound way means to keep one’s own Read the full article…
43. Why people cry
People cry because they are sad. People also cry because they are happy, sometimes. Do you know this first-hand? I do. Actually, I haven’t cried out of sadness for many years. But I do cry sometimes out of happiness. Am I therefore just a very lucky fellow, or just a very weirdo? I don’t know Read the full article…
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…