The unconnected Steve Cisler

The unconnected Steve Cisler is a modern zeit geist, an exercise very much exploring the sign of our times.

Some prominent people are concerned that there is a digital divide opeing up between people, societies and cultures. While email and the Internet may be common fare to many of us, the vast majority of the people on this planet are not wired, connected or whatever you want to call it.

So Steve Cisler, who worked at Apple at one point, has disconnected entirely and taken to the road to explore life beyond the digital abyss.

A friend will post notes on his weblog (bookmark the link above). I think I'll track this for awhile. My suspicion is that Steve will find that salvation is unrelated to email or the Internet. These are mere artifacts of our culture. What matters in the end is how we think about ourselves and the world around us and what we do, not what we possess or make use of.

"Do unto others" etc. is still our best bet. You can do unto others with email. You can also do it with carrier pigeons. The underlying principle is the intention, isn't it? (I think so.)

What may come out of this, though, is an interesting insight into what changes are occurring in a society as new technology becomes pervasive. This is not an entirely new, unexplored territory. The Industrial Revolution had a dramatic and permanent effect on the world as a whole. What we're seeing now is a rather dramatic increase in the speed with which far-reaching changes propagate across our world.

Here's a closing thought. Every generation must relearn all lessons learnt by the previous one. While one generation may fall behind in its lifetime, the next one will always start fresh to pickup where any cohort of that generation starts out. In that sense every generation starts out from a common origin of ignorance. Thus, the worst case scenario is that a society falls behind in one generation. Most of history has seen people and cultures around the world one generation behind.

It does not take as long to catch up as we might think. We can leapfrog: we do not have to repeat every mistake of past generations.

Personally, I think we'll end up back with the usual connundrums: how will the less fortunate (if that's how we should think of them) develop their economies and societies? And what should they be aiming for? What ideals are worth pursuing for the human race?

OK, Steve, we're wating. Bring us something pithy...  ⊕

Study confirms sleep essential for creativity

In a recently published study: "German scientists say they have demonstrated for the first time that our sleeping brains continue working on problems that baffle us during the day, and the right answer may come more easily after eight hours of rest. The German study is considered to be the first hard evidence supporting the common sense notion that creativity and problem solving appear to be directly linked to adequate sleep." There are more details in the news story itself.

What this tells me is that science is catching up with things we have known all along. Science can be funny sometimes. In the world of science, nothing exists until proven in an accepted, scientific way.

This leads to some amusing pradoxes. For instance, until Coppernicus, the world was flat. Then all off a sudden it was round. Well, of course it was round all the time.

The way to view science, then, is as a formal system, not truth. It may be truthful, but that's not the point of science. Science is about proof. Proofs change and so does science. It is not clear that anything else changed, though.  ⊕

While we're on the subject of Dalai Lama...

If you're up for a little amusement, here's good passtime. Over at Political Compass you can take a quick self-assessment that plots a version of your political views on a grid. For further amusement, look up their plots of historical figures. Then you can plot in your own score and see who you're close to.

Some clever soul over there plotted in Dalai Lama somehow (I'm sure His Holiness didn't take the assessment himself). I was quite amused to see that I plotted in pretty much right on top of him (i.e., the Dalai Lama, not the pundit who scored him). I had this funny image of me sailing down on him from above startling the heck out of him. Not any miracle he had hoped for, that's for sure.

There's a saying goes something like this in English:

"It's OK to follow in my footsteps, just let me get out of them first!"

Not sure how it goes in Tibetan. Totally sure it's otherwise silly to make too much of a this random conenction between His Holiness and Yours Truly. But it was good for a chuckle on a gray day.  ⊕

Dalai Lama coming to USA and Canada

Times of India has reported: "The Dalai Lama, the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people, will undertake a visit of United States and three Canadian cities from April 12 to May 6, 2004". So which Canadian cities will that be? My first guess: Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Fat chance for Calgary, which is too bad. I would have liked to see him on the assumption that he puts on an evening for the public. I have a lot of respect for him and like his books - at least the ones I have read.  ⊕

We need more technology, not less: Let's turn forward

I am waiting for something to arrive this morning. It is a document that has received a lot of collaboration from an extended, virtual team. It will get to me from across town in the blink of an eye. This is important and many people are waiting.

Technology makes this possible. Not so long ago, the trip would have taken hours, even with a fast courier service. It feels like progress. On the other hand, the speed up also creates stress and begs the question: Just because everything can happen faster, must it?

I think in the end the answer is that we - you and I - decide. It isn't so much the technology itself, but how we decide to use it. Inherent in our (western) society is a bias for urgency and speed. This keeps the pressure up irrespective of the technology. The technology merely determines how we crank up the pressure.

So in this vein, I think it is fair to conclude that technology per se is not the culprit it is made out to be. It is merely an instrument of our very humanness: something we bend, fondle and mutilate to serve our, basically, very selfish needs.

Some technologies are entirely reprehensible. Biological weapons come to mind. Hoewever, if I think about it, most criticism of technology and examples of use and abuse that upset me and others is really a criticism of ourselves and our collective behaviour as a society.

As our numbers grow, we become in effect victims of our own success. We crowd ourselves into tight corners and fill every ecological niche for our species. It is nothing more than evolution played out in all its glory and infamy. What makes this pill hard to swallow is that it's about us; not some cardboard cutout-like characters in a game, cartoon or mindless TV show. No siree. In the words of Pogo (remember him): "We's seen the enemy and they is us!"

So what is the answer? I think it is more technology. Not more: of the same, but more: different.

I am aware that some people have a yearning for a return to a simpler time. A time when we lived closer to nature, earth and all things spiritual. Well, I have to challenge you: When do you stop the rewind? What time do you consider the ideal? In what region? In what culture? In what society? In what social class? My admittedly eclectic forays into history lead me to believe that there is no ideal time. Most of us would cave in very shortly if we had to live as organic farmers, pastoralists or hunter gatherers.

Utopia exists only as a concept because it is in the end only an ideal. Important, yes, but ephemeral all the same. The reality is that the lifestyle and technology of yesteryear no longer suffice to support us as a species. Why do you think we evolved to where we are if there was no need to move on? Quibble about the state of affairs all you want. I still hold that the answer is not and cannot and will not ever be to turn back.

We may - nay, should - turn all right, but not back. We must turn forward. We must move technology and our own attitudes forward. We must leave the inefficient technologies in the dust and find less wasteful and destructive ways to support our species. We need more technology, not less. But more of the right kind: that is the quest.
  ⊕

It has come to this

Found on the Apple news site: A refence to another site that features really funny and startling warning labels of all kinds. What strikes me here is this: What has brought the need for warnings like this? Why are otherwise (presumably) intelligent people creating these warnings in (presumably) all seriousness? Is it respect for customers? I think not, the warnings are just too silly. Is it fear? I think maybe: at least closer to the mark. Litigation is a big industry in the US where most of these originate. A sign of the times - a sign of an unhealthy, fearful environment. And no easy fix in sight, methinks.  ⊕

It is as it was or maybe not?

So did the Pope make the statementIt is as it was or is it the Vatican back-pedaling for political reasons? The context is Mel Gibson's film about the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus. What do you think?   ⊕

Funny story: young Canadian pokes Microsoft in the underbelly

An interesting development reported at Local News - Vancouver - canada.com network. Mike Rowe bought www.mikerowsoft.com. Bill Gates took notice and the sparring has begun. Interestingly, Mike Rowe designed a website for Wholycow.com , a forum concerned with holistic health. I thought that link was a neat surprise because I was reading the story mostly out of idle curiosity.  ⊕

Real Live Preacher - an ispiration in it's raw humanity and respect for life

Real Live Preacher is an inspiration. He exemplifies healing at the grass roots or pavement level (if you prefer an urban metaphor). He doesn't speak in terms of energetic healing, but he does pray a lot. And that's accessing energies big time in my book. His insights into our existence in the here and now are very moving. They inspire hope. He speaks from an authentic self and I like that. It has its own energy that's not easily disrupted. Talk about personal power!  ⊕

David Suzuki touches a raw nerve (again)

In a recent column, David Suzuki News December 19, 2003: Consumer products start and end with nature, David Suzuki touches a raw nerve. Being an environmental pundit, we'd expext him to fend for the environment. But isn't he right on the money: What is it with the barrage of disposable products that's hitting us? Didn't we get past this in the seventies and eighties? Read the column and judge for yourself. Then think about this: How can we heal the planet as long as we persist in using, abusing and throwing our resources in a landfill?  ⊕

Casting off to a new beginning

Hello (Again) World.

After one false start and a considerable hiatus I am back to writing again. This time under a new banner: The Healing Voyage.

Sometimes it takes awhile to find my stride. My first weblog, Matto Grosso, was an interesting experiement that turned out to be unsustainable for me. I found the metaphor somewhat forced - Matto Grosso is Portuguese for Large Forest and the name for a vast region in Brazil. My tagline was "Words from the Bewilderness". Amusing, perhaps, but not that useful as a writing vehicle.

I was also lacking in focus myself. Tried to do too many things. On top of that, I didn't have a good writing and web publishing infrastructure. A bit too awkward to get things posted. But the most insiduous inhibitor, truth be know, was that busy little mayhem between my ears. I did OK as long as I was working locally, but when my day job took me on the road on busy projects, I couldn't keep up: writing and posting became a chore. It's supposed to be fun, isn't it?

So I finally accepted defeat and let it slide. I would look into the log once in awhile and interestingly, my most read - or at least most visited - story had over 800 visits until the whole thing went off the air. I may republish some of the stories here since some of them are relevant to the Healing Voyage.

And what is the Healing Voyage, you ask? Well, the name suggests a focus on healing and that the healing process itself can be viewed as a voyage. Healing often takes time and it often forces us to face change and come to grips with new truths. Or at least to recognize that there are a lot of things out there that we either did not see or did not care to see before.

Personally, the voyaging metaphor works well for me. I have always been interested in sailing and lived on a sail boat with my family for two years. I shall probably refer to that experience now and again.

Healing can be a touchy subject as it conjures up different images for different people. For the record, I am concerning myslef with healing as a complimentary modality to traditional western medicine (TCM for short). I am not a doctor, but come to this from an intensely personal angle: I have seen and felt first hand what healers can accomplish by practices that at an earlier stage in my life I would have found extremely difficult accept as legitimate. It took a serious medical issue in my immediate familiy to open my mind to a world of new possibilities.

I freely admit I was dragged into that realization with some considerable mental reservation every step of the way. But necessity is the mother of great change: in desperation we freely grasp at whatever we can in the hope that something will work. Suddenly we routinely ask for miracles, beg to be saved and make astonishing promises. Some find religion, some lose it. Go figure.

Me, I came away in a general state of amazement. I had always thought that a healer was someone with a very special talent and that so-called Normal People could never do that. Even if it worked, which was a bit of a stretch to believe in the first place. What I now believe to be the case is this:

Anyone can be a healer. It is a skill that can be taught and developed through practice. As with most things, some people will learn more and faster and do more with this than others. Talent may play into it, too. Be that as it may. My personal experience and observations, have convinced me that anyone who so choses can take a much greater responsibility for his or her own healt. We can learn to augment the traditional medical treatments with complimentary practices. Applying complimentary healing techniques can go a long way towards prevention of many common ailments. Yet, it is not a panecea.

I have worked with healers and received treatments myself. I have received training in Reike, Healing Touch, Therapeutic Touch and Qi Gong. Currently, I am working my way through the Healing Touch curriculum and am preparing for my Level 4 (of 5 levels) in the spring of this year.

As part of my own journey to learn more and stay in touch with healing, and particularly energy healing, I will share my thinking in this weblog of my own personal Healing Voyage. You're welcome to come along to wherever this may take us ...  ⊕