Fueling Your Body

Weed, California, April 25, 2007: You got to provide your body with fuel.

Not just any old stuff. Not low-grade fuel. You want the good fuel.

If you choose to drive an old junker, sure, maybe you give it any old gas. But winners at the Indy 500 don't put any old gas in their racecars. Because to get the best from the racecar, after tuning it up, they give it the very best fuel.

We're not trying to become racecars. But here's an "Obnosis."

Main Entry: ob·no·sis
Pronunciation: "awb-'nO-s&s
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin, from Greek AbboGnosis, from aggaraOskein to distinguish, from obbo- + gignOskein to know what is known
1 the art or act of observing that which is readily and obviously true
2 observing the obvious

The obnosis (observing the obvious) is that if we fuel our bodies with the best fuel, we will have more energy, and less diseases. And yet, most of the time, most of us do not actually spend any energy attempting to fuel our bodies with the best fuel.

Why is that?

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How I Discovered the Three-Minute Gym

Weed, California, May 2007: The other day I learned that the discovery of Bubble Gum was by accident.

A fellow, who worked at the gum factory, was trying some different formulas and discovered quite by accident that his formula (a) allowed bubbles to be blown, and (b) when they burst, they were dry on your face and didn't leave a mess.

The first version was clear colored. Boring. So he decided to add some food coloring to it, and the only color he had on hand was pink. Voila! Double Bubble brand bubble gum was born. And to this day, bubble gum is traditionally pink.

ACCIDENT BECOMES SOMETHING NEW

There is a saying that "It Steam-Engines at Steam-Engine Time." Meaning that a thing appears when its time has come. That when conditions are right, the new idea emerges. And we see examples of this throughout history. Marconi and Tesla were both busy inventing the radio at the same time on opposite sides of the globe.

Maybe the time was right, but I stumbled onto the Three Minute Gym quite by accident.

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The Year 2011 ... Coming up!

January 8, 2011, Weed, California -- Time to take stock.

My counseling business grows, slowly. I've completed certification as a hypnotherapist, and I'm a certified Tantra Yoga educator now. Still working toward certification in EFT and Focusing.

EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) comprises a large part of my practice these days, because it works so well, but I'm also learning the basics of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and find it easy to use and effective, once I understand it.

I've been giving monthly classes in Mount Shasta for four months now, on the subjects of dating and mind stuff. It's also growing slowly in attendance. This Thursday we had a new record high, with 15 people attending. Cool Beans!

The Megatar touchstyle guitar business dimished for a while when the squabbling heads on television were screaming that the sky was falling, but now has been recovering just fine.

It looked somewhat grim at the time, but I felt in my heart that it was somehow a good thing, and so it was, for during that time I had time to establish my counseling business, and we created an entirely new construction method for two-hand tapping guitars made of metal and composite. A great sound and wonderful price point. Onward and upward with creating more music on this planet!

During the next three months I intend to become proficient at setting up (and doing) radio guest interviews for myself and a few friends who have digital download products for sale. It appears that I happen to have previously learned pretty much everything needed for such an operation including all the internet backend and email follow up. So I'm quite curious to see how it goes.

I'm now the coordinator for the Source School of Tantra events in Ashland Oregon, so if any current reader would like to explore a spiritual practice that generates tremendous intimacy at will, and a totally different approach to sexuality -- best I've ever experienced in this lifetime, quite life-transforming -- then contact me and I'll get a reservation made for you in the March weekend class, or explain more about it, or both! :)

My health has drastically improved.

About nine months ago, I changed to a vegan diet and mild exercise and some mental things, and dropped 70 pounds, only 22 more to go, and I'll be back at my weight at age 25. Cool beans.

I have more energy and feel better than for the last 20 years, and am again looking for the love of my life. I feel that she is drawing near.

Today and this weekend I have a lot of clean-up to do, clearing my desks, updating bookkeeping, planning the campaign for the Ashland Beginners Tantra Yoga Weekend Workshop, and generally making my plan for 2011.

My general resolutions for this year are --

1. More money and working easier, more security and fun in my life
2. To create a happy childhood
3. Love in my life, in every direction

My friend, what is *your* plan?

How to Wake Up

Weed, California, November 16, 2010 -- Last night I was reading "Use Your Brain for a Change: by Richard Bandler, and he was describing how people motivate themselves to do things ... such as how we wake up in the morning.

One fellow described using anxiety (how he'd be late, etc) to get himself up, but then this woman described how she thought about the pleasant things she would be doing. And when there were no pleasant things she liked doing, she thought about how pleasant it would be to have them *done*.

So this morning, I tried to think of things I'd enjoy doing today, but found little joy in the doingness of most items on today's priority list: the Jackson Wellsprings booking followup, writing up listings to place ZenTappers on EBay, and some administrative things.

Rats! I didn't really want to do them! Oh, what to do?

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Cookies

Summer Camp, Somewhere, Sometime: [Author Unknown] --

A small boy at summer camp received a large package of cookies in the mail from his mother. He ate a few, then placed the remainder under his bed. The next day, after lunch, he went to his tent to get a cookie.

The box was gone.

That afternoon a camp counselor, who had been told of the theft, saw another boy sitting behind a tree eating the stolen cookies. "That young man," he said to himself, "must be taught not to steal."

He returned to the group and sought out the boy whose cookies had been stolen. "Billy," he said, "I know who stole your cookies. Will you help me teach him a lesson?"

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A Hot Bath in the Cold Rain

Ben Lomond, CA in the Santa Cruz mountains, November 7, 2010 -- So I was scheduled to assist at a Tantra Yoga Beginner's Weekend Workshop with the SourceTantra folks, and therefore on the day after my "How to Feel Good Fast" event, I packed, kissed my dogs good bye, and drove down to the Santa Cruz mountains.

But then, as it turned out, the person with whom I'd volunteered to assist hadn't passed on the info to the person who passed on the info to the person who coordinates that event, and so ... they didn't need me to assist at all.

But since I'd already blocked off the time in my appointment book, and didn't want to have wasted the time I spent writing it down and all ...

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Why Can't I Own a Canadian?

Weed, California, on my computer, September 1, 2010: Today I received that led me to a website with the following. This helped me to understand and gain clarity about homosexuality and religion, and I hope that some of my readers will find it equally entertaining- Oops, I mean useful ...

Dr. Laura Schlessinger is a radio personality who dispenses advice to people who call in to her radio show. Recently, she said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22 and cannot be condoned under any circumstance. The following is an open letter to Dr. Laura penned by a east coast resident, which was posted online recently ...

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination ... End of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them.

1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of Menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

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It's In the Cards

Santa Cruz Mountains, August 20 2010: Back at the Tantra Certified Educator's training, I have been wrecked upon the shoals of Scylla and Charybdis, and as Martha Stewart so often says ... that's a good thing.

Scylla and Charybdis, for inquiring minds that want to know, were the two navigation hazards for Greek ships, at least according to the stories. Charybdis was a female goddess, but also a sea monster with a huge mouth that swallowed vast amounts of water; in other words, a whirlpool. Across from Charybdis was another hazard, a huge rock (Scylla). Thus when a ship had to pass between them, it was "between a rock and a hard place," as we said in Texas, where as everyone knows, navigating ancient sea vessels is a topic of constant discussion among the town folk.

So what does this have to do with the teacher's training course in Tantra Yoga?

It's that I've discovered that so much of what I thought I knew about how to learn things .. just doesn't work here. Bummer. It's like this ..

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Enter Tantra Yoga

Boulder Creek California (Santa Cruz Mountains), June 25, 2010: For months I've been fascinated, excited, and terrified.

It happened like this --

For three years after Adrienne and I parted, I've wanted no woman in my life.

And then came a day ... that I did.

Well, I know what to do (http://sweetheartreport.com), and so I began the process.

I'm seeking the Love of my Life, my Beloved, my dearest lover and best friend, yet again. I've had a few hundred lovers in my life, and been deeply and completely in love three times. I'd like to make it four. I'm ready.

Back in San Francisco days, in addition to picking up women in the supermarket, on the bus, in classes, at a funeral, and on the street, I'd learned to use classified ads. That was the big thing, back then. And twenty-some years later, it's online dating sites.

I tested two sites, one against the other. (Match.com wins. SeniorPeopleMeet.com works and provides plenty of prospects, but it seems to hand me more women who are being "old people." While I know how to act my age, I also want the freedom and fun of acting like a kid, and Match.com seems to hand me more creative and vibrant women.)

One of my first dates was a small, delicate, and enthusiastic young lady of about my own age, with an endearing sweet smile, wild auburn hair, and a body that seemed both refined and indecent. And thirty minutes into the conversation she said a particular word.

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Being Happy Today

Mt. Shasta, CA, June 2010 -- For several months now I've been engineering a secret project.

(Shhh. It's a secret- Uh, no, wait. It's not a secret any more. Never mind that hush-hush stuff. You can blab this all over, if you want to, OK?)


Years ago, back in San Francisco, and even earlier than that, I did some counseling. I didn't stick with it, because other things caught my interest. (Mainly women, I can admit it.)

The type of counseling I did was kind of unusual. It uses a very sensitive biofeedback meter. This thing is so sensitive that it reads on your thoughts.

And that's why it's so useful. If we're in a counseling session, I can ask you questions, and then when a resulting thought occurs, no matter how quick it goes by, I can steer you to that thought again. It's kind of like a compass and a steering wheel right inside the mind. Oh, it's not perfect. But it's pretty darn good.

And if that thought that just flashed by just happens to be the answer to why you feel stuck in your job for example, why you feel frustrated and can't seem to get ahead ... well, that's a pretty handy thought to be able to track down.


And I'm going to let you in on a little secret.

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You Got to Trust Yourself

Holiday Inn, Denton Texas, September 1965. James Cato was a cajun from Lake Charles, Louisiana. He had a wooden leg from his youth. He and a friend were drinking beer in the street outside a bar, when a speeding car lost control. James pushed his friend out of the way, but his leg was crushed between a parked car and the speeding car. So he was crippled for life.

He'd played guitar at the Grand Old Opry in Nashville, once upon a time, when Elvis was there. James was certain that Elvis was a tee-totaller. "I've got my first time," he said, "to see him take a drink."

At the Holiday Inn, a guy named Fred Kahler had been brought in as manager from the Lake Charles Holiday Inn, owned by the same folks as built the one in Denton Texas. Fred Kahler brought in James Cato from Lake Charles to be the night auditor in the Denton Holiday Inn. One day I asked James about how he added everything up, and he told me about it. I puzzled.

"How do you know you're right?" I asked. He gaped at me.

"You *got* to trust yourself," he said.

Now as it happened, one day James Cato told the manager and Ron the Assistant Manager, that he was going to go back to Lake Charles, in three weeks. They did nothing. He told them again. They did nothing. He told them again. They did nothing.

So in three weeks he left, and they ran about in circles, waving their arms, wailing what where they going to do?

I stood up. "I can do it," I said.

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Law 23 of Paradox

This is a simple law of nature, but one which is very handy:

Paradox is an Illusion, caused by the Limitations of our Perception

That's it.

Early in the morning on March 4th in 2004, Adrienne and I were smoozing over coffee, and she said she was re-reading a book on "enneagrams", a scheme presented by Gurdjieff that classifies humans into nine personality types. She said she was a Two (the Giver) and that I was a Nine (the Boss).

Well, while I like to think of myself as a warm and wonderful person, and although I have learned not to have any employees, perhaps she is right.

But that's not the point.

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Thanksgiving and Good-Bye to an Old Friend ...

Network Answering Service, San Francisco, 1984: Way back in the day, many years ago, my wife Lori and I ran an answering service on Geary Boulevard in San Francisco, with hundreds of musicians, actors, small businesses and the like for our clients.

And one day, a young woman came to San Francisco from the East Coast, to make her fortune. Her name was Andrea Lewis.

She showed up, and we gave her work, and the in-house communication training we did, and she became more and more self-confident and took on more and more. At one point, when I was off on some dumb adventure, the whole place was run by three women: my wife, Andrea Lewis, and our manager Mara Kimmel. That round-the-clock staff of 30+ was just humming.

It was sometimes tough times. And it was some really good times.

A VOICE

Andrea Lewis had a voice. A helluva voice.

She got a lot of encouragement from us, and began to sing in gigs, and found a spot on the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. They won four grammies, and performed in Carnegie Hall.

POLITICAL

Alway political as all get out, sometimes she thought I was a warm and kind fellow, and other times she opined that I was a sexist, honky, capitalist pig.

And she'd tell me about it.

I liked her.

A VOICE ON THE AIR

Not long after the end of Network Answering Service, Andrea found her true home, as a co-host on popular San Francisco radio station KPFA, and she's been a favorite voice on the air ever since.

On November 15, 2009, Andrea Lewis, age 52, died at home of a heart attack.

And I wish, from the bottom of my heart, that she was still on this planet to give me grief like back in those days gone by.

A MEMORIAL

Her parents came in to the San Francisco Bay Area from Florida, because KPFA arranged a memorial service in Oakland.

Some of the old crew from Network Answering Service, including me, went to attend, to remember her and to think back on those days.

THINKING BACK

This woman who had come to San Francisco from Detroit many years ago, and found a home in the community that had arisen around our answering service company on Geary Boulevard in San Francisco.

With us and our gang she got employment, friends, communication training and lots of encouragement.

She went on to become a much-loved radio talk show host on popular radio station KPFA, along with achieving some great results with her music.

WE DIDN'T KNOW

When Andrea died last week, suddenly and unexpected, we were all shocked to hear the news. You see, she seldom said much about herself and we didn't know she was seriously ill, even though for others, she used her gift at interviewing them, both making them feel at home and also getting them to open up on some of the tough questions.

Here is what her friends at KPFA Radio had to say.

A MEMORIAL

The memorial service was amazing: Attending was the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, the local congresswoman, Barbara Lee of Oakland, made arrangements to read Andrea's name into the Congressional Record, and notable speakers remembering her included a Poet Laureate of California, along with professors from Stanford and University of California praising her journalism and mourning her as a friend.

They played recordings of Andrea singing, blues and jazz. Her former jazz band played, and there was even a performance of dancing girls with huge drums. It was a heck of a send-off. The only one who would have enjoyed it even more, Andrea herself, was unable to attend. Or maybe she did.

On the huge wall above the stage in this large church, bigger than life, they showed a montage of photographs, including several dozen from our Network Answering Service days together. Eight of us Network folk had come, some for hundreds of miles, to be there. To say good bye and remember her.

The large church was so packed that many had to sit on the floor, along the walls, and stand in the lobby outside.

THANKSGIVING

And what does this tell us?

It tells us to cherish our friends.

It tells us .. not to let them slip away.

November celebrates Thanksgiving in the U.S., but there's no reason it can't be day of "thanks" everywhere in the world.

So I wanted to say "thank you" to all of you who have been a part of my life and times I've seen, down through all the years.

I just wanted to let you know I'm grateful.

Thank you for being here, on this planet, in these times.

James Bond on the Eigenharp?

November 12, 2009, Weed, CA: It's not a Chapman Stick on Steroids? It's not a sweet-voiced Mobius Megatar. Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's .. an Eigenharp!

Check out this amazing instrument, and then click the Link beneath the Video to pass it on to your friends!


Chapman Stick? Megatar? Nope. Eigenharp.

Twenty Second Tune-Up Makes You Feel Good

Weed, California, Easter Sunday 2009: Here is an Easter gift for you ... a super-quick little thing you can do in about twenty seconds, and it makes you feel really good. Most likely this is very good for your body and mind as well, though I can't prove it!

I call it 'Traktor's Twenty Second Tune-Up', and it's both startlingly effective and super-easy ...

A) Get an index card, or something similar, about 3" x 5".

B) Write on the card the following seven questions --

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