The monthly reading list for Oct 06

Attractor Factor and Life's Missing Instruction Manual, by Joe Vitale - both "positive psychology" books with a wealth of practical and useful insight. Both'll be worth re-reading.

Loving What Is by Byron Katie - Katie is the creator of a therapy called "The Work" that consists of approaching any situation, trouble or trauma with four questions - "Is that true?", "Can you absolutely know that it's true?", "How do you react when you think that thought?", and "Who would you be without that thought?"

At it's core is the idea that I've read over and over in various forms, from Zen to Dan Millman to existentialism to NLP to Robert Anton Wilson ["Who is the mystic who makes the grass green?"] and the crux of it all is this - we don't experience the world... what we experience are our ideas and stories about the world. From the book - "...the whole world is simply my story, projected back to me on the screen of my own perception."

The book was very, very good. But occasionally disconcerting. It had what felt to me to be a very feminine feel to it, though I couldn't exactly say why... or why it felt... strange... to me. It was pretty interesting to read experiences of how she applied the four questions in helping victims of abuse and rape deal with their experiences.

The points I want to take from the book are these - there are no "should"'s, your happiness is your own responsibility [as is your pain], let it go, victimization is a choice and "it's hopeless to try to control someone else's awareness or behavior."

There's also this bit in her work called the turnaround, where you [caution - vast oversimplification ahead] take whatever hurts or pains or insecurities you feel that others have caused you and "turn it around" to see how you've actually done those things to them, or to yourself. For me, and fair warning, navel gazing occurs... now... I've always had this sense of seeking approval and friendship and connection from others, be it family or friends, of craving this sense of validation of who I am or what I do... but playing around with the Work, it seems a lot more likely that the truth of that feels more like what I really want, is not that sense of approval from others, but from myself.

Work in progress.

Working with your Three Selves by Bella Karish - modern day Huna, a complex arrangement of traditional Hawaiian religious ideas with 19th century spiritualism [or ancient wisdoms, take your pick] postulates "three selves" - the basic self, the middle self and the higher self. There is some crossover with psychology's id, ego and superego, but it's vastly different in other ways. This wasn't a bad read, but it didn't quite gel with me. I think the Christian overtones made it a little difficult for me, even though it was a fair stretch from "traditional" Christianity. And the writing style didn't exactly click with me either. Still... good information. But I'd recommend first Millman's Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior or Fundamentals of Hawaiian Mysticism by Berney as they resonated quite a bit more with me with the same material.

Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner - pretty well known little book. I remember it getting quite a bit of press on the morning shows back when I lived in VA, and was forced to watch the Today Show every AM at the Security Console. But I digress... the book was a birthday present from the ever thoughtful fellow ALT Kathy, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable read. My fave chapter was the one "discovering cheating as applied to teachers and sumo wrestlers." The summary for that, via Wikipedia -

One striking example of the authors' creative use of economic theory involves demonstrating the existence of cheating among Sumo wrestlers. In a Sumo tournament, all wrestlers compete in fifteen matches to stay in the top leagues. The Sumo community is also very close-knit, and all of the wrestlers at the top levels tend to know each other well. The authors looked at the final match, and considered the case of a 7-7 wrestler (i.e. a wrestler with seven wins and seven losses, and one fight to go) fighting against an 8-6 wrestler. Statistically, the 7-7 wrestler should have a slightly below even chance, since the 8-6 wrestler is slightly better. However, the 7-7 wrestler actually wins around 80% of the time. Levitt concludes that those who already have 8-6 collude with those who are 7-7 and let them win, since they have already secured their place in the league.

...my father in law would be disappointed.

The idea that all human behavior could be reduced to math [if only we could account for all the variables!] strikes me as false, but it was a fun and interesting read. Thanks for the book Kathy!

What Remains by Ry Beville - draft of a fiction novel written by a friend of mine currently living in Tokyo. A journey of "self-discovery" about a man from Virginia who travels to Japan to inter his mother's ashes. Not my normal reading, and a draft, so it needs some editing, but I found it was really well written and he consistently drew me into the story. Clever, occasionally insightful, with interesting and well thought out characters. He's gotten some interest from literary agents and I'd say it's definitely worth checking out if it gets printed. He's also done some translations of Japanese poetry that've been published, see Nakahara Chuya, and has his own Flickr account where he posts entirely too many pictures of himself surfing and drinking. I kid. Some really nice photos there. The Foamy Green's photos

IronMind by Randall Strossen - sports psychology as it applies to weight training. Good book, though I think I was expecting something more along the lines of Dinosaur Training... once again, the curse of expectations makes life difficult. Excellent read though.

DC Universe: Helltown by Dennis "Denny" O'Neil - back in the late 1980's, there was a comic book called The Question, written by Denny O'Neil with art by Denys Cowan. It was probably my first real introduction to eastern philosophy and along with Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore's Watchmen, showed me what the medium of comics was capable of. So, 20 years later, Denny writes a novel that condenses, plays with and reinterprets about three years of the comic book series.

"Newly arrived in crime-plagued Hub City, Vic Sage doesn't plan to be a hero. He wants only to uncover his own mysterious past. Working as a reporter for a local radio station, Vic gets too close to a deadly story and is nearly murdered-when he's rescued by mercurial assassin Lady Shiva, trained by martial arts master Richard Dragon, and given a new identity by Batman. Now reborn as The Question, Vic Sage vows to destroy a vast, corrupt conspiracy involving Hub City's most powerful men. But as he seeks the elusive truth, Vic will find that the answers may prove fatal…"

It. Was. Awesome.

Ecotopia Emerging by Ernest Callenbach - the sequel/prequel to Ecotopia, which I read earlier about how sections of the northwest USA secede into its own "green" country called Ecotopia. Lots of great ideas, even if the prose is occasionally slightly heavy handed. But the ideas within and the clarity with which they point out the insanities of the structures of modern America are worth the read. Reading the bits about wars for oil in the Mideast and American dependence on limited energy resources - surely not unthought of when the book was written in the late 70's - seems all the more appropriate now.

Re-read - An Unlikely Prophet by Alvin Schwartz. I read this years ago, and think I passed on that copy to Johnny. It's [non-fiction? kinda? maybe?] about a writer of Superman and Batman comics from the 50's who writes about his experiences with a Tibetan tulpa, and the tulpa of Superman. For those who might not know what the big deal of that is... well... tulpas are

in Tibetan mysticism, a being or object which is created through sheer willpower alone. In other words, it is a materialized thought that has taken physical form (a thoughtform).

[Thanks Wikipedia] So... Tibetan mysticism, quantum physics and comic books.

Yep, that about sums me up I guess.