In this week’s spotlight I wish to discuss semantic distortions, how word meanings are distorted by our beliefs and emotions. Our world, to use the words of Alfred Korzybski, has now become, perhaps more often than any sane person would like to admit, false to fact and therefore necessarily distorted. It is precisely the mechanism of semantic distortions that underlies thinking processes that are or become neurotic or psychotic. It is also this same mechanism that gives rise to self-sabotaging behavior and self-limiting beliefs. This very same mechanism—and mechanism is ... Read More
In this week’s spotlight we shine a light on a really big question. I was recently asked to explain what I meant by God. Now that’s a good task for anyone including those of the highest clerical rank in any religion. I might have quipped with something like, well God to me is the Grand Organizing Designer, but that somehow is totally unsatisfactory. Indeed, it simply replaces one name with another. That said, definitions such as omnipotent and omniscient find their way into contradictions like, “Well if God is all ... Read More
fMRI studies have shown that not only does the subconscious feed our thoughts and choices, but a technician watching the brain live-time making a decision will know what we are going to decide several seconds before we do. Read More
We can be very interesting creatures at times—us homo sapien sapiens. We hear of the church choir that did not show up for rehearsal the night the church was struck by lightening and burnt to the ground. We listen intently as we learn that of the eight people who never missed a practice in years, all eight for different pressing reasons unknown to each other, failed to be inside that burning church where they most certainly would have perished if they had attended the scheduled practice like always. It was ... Read More
This week I wish to bring your attention to those seemingly small miracles that we often miss in our lives. Let me begin with a story. One night as I drifted off to sleep, I reflected on unexplained events in my life and wondered, What does that mean? The next morning as I dressed, I heard someone on the television in the next room saying, “It’s amazing. The window washer fell 500 feet, and he lived. That story and more, next.” I asked myself, What does that mean? What does ... Read More
