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| date | 2000-12-28:18:05 |
| fallacies | See "Reading". |
| wildlife |
I visited the Perky-Pet website (www.perky-pet.com) to look for hummingbird nectar for my feeder. Many hummingbirds overwinter here, and they expect their flower diet to be liberally supplemented by their human servants. But a combination of rigidity, stupidity, corporate mentality, and ignorant marketing executives see to it that hummer food disappears from the shelves of Southern California stores when the hummer "season" ends, which is August--in Milwaukee. Meanwhile I've got angry birds buzzing me in the garden and sliding irate suggestions under my door. I looked desperately at the last pack of food in the box, and found the url, much to my relief. The hummingbirds barely disguised their contempt as they watched me log on. The Perky Pet site is a mystical experience, and not simply because of the navigation. For reasons I cannot comprehend, they aren't allowed to give prices for anything, and they aren't allowed to list whole feeders. They can list all the _parts_ for the feeders, though; you might think that you can just build a feeder from the parts, but it isn't clear whether you're ordering one ant mote or 50. Regarding nectar, it is not clear whether one is ordering a one pound box of mix, or a case of one pound boxes. I filled in the form with information about a small feeder, but without a credit card number, to see if I would get a total upon submitting the form. Instead, I got a message saying the order would be sent to me shortly. At this point I was picturing myself using a case of feeders as gifts to landscape consultation clients, but I wasn't sure I wanted to buy $200 worth of feeders and pay for it COD. So I sent email to tell them to cancel the order and let me start over with a credit card number once they sent me some more information on a single feeder and some food. A single, complete feeder arrived in the mail today, with a bill--no COD charge, though, and no food. A strange company. Maybe they just need a web programmer who loves hummingbirds. The hummingbirds continue to grow increasingly disgruntled. |
| reading |
Instant Emotional Healing: Acupressure for the Emotions, by Peter Lambrou and George Pratt.(Note: This is the full text of a letter I just sent to a small mailing list owned by Branden). The Dear who sent me the book is Tom Radcliffe. I've just finished the first reading of chapter 4, "Energy Alignment: Correcting Polarity Reversals". I've tried the exercises there a couple of times but don't have any comments to make about that yet. I have some highly critical (critical, not skeptical) remarks I'd like to share. _________________________________________________ The introduction and chapter one are all about talking the skeptic into having an open mind about the technique. There are lots of stories. I don't believe them. Here's why: While the traumas and neuroses are somewhat described, they all end the same way: "And they lived happily ever after." This fails to convince me simply because there's so little to it. Maybe that's really true, but then that tells me that something _other_ than these stories is what they need to be giving me. I was fairly excited about learning about this stuff. I've gotten enthusiastic endorsements from devotees, and I've heard from people that I respect intellectually that they thought there might be something to it. The book was purchased for me because I forwarded Nathaniel's note about it to a friend who'd heard a testimonial, and because I love techniques and methods and because I want instant emotional healing. Given that buildup, I was rather embarrassed by the Non-Stop Hype of the intro and chapter one. I am still trying to decide whether I should be seriously displeased and call them up (they're in La Jolla, my fair city) and ask them wuzzup, or whether I should start my own Best Seller Instantly! I'm not as impressed by who they are as they might suppose. I have little evidence that psychologists and medical practitioners are particularly good researchers or particularly clear thinkers. It strikes me that these two are in need of some logic classes. I'll get to that later in my vicious rant. Hint for those who can't wait: "Studies by Larry Dossey, M.D., have shown that prayer can be a healing agent, even prayers over very long distances, directed to people unknown to those praying" (p. 43). No, they haven't. ________________________________________________ Ah, good, now on to chapter 2. I've studied Thomas Kuhn in some detail, and I know about paradigm shifts and resistance thereto. Basic idea: theory-ladenness of perception and understanding and research, meaning that we very often see only that for which we are prepared. I was fairly surprised that they wanted to stretch this out into an entire chapter, when they know very well I'm chomping at the bit to get healed but am too scholarly for my own good and am afraid I will miss an important bit. Unfortunately, this chapter is worse than hype; it is fallacious from beginning to end. By 'fallacious' I mean 'offering what looks like arguments, but which are actually sets of statements irrelevant to the conclusion'. The conclusion is "Tapping isn't all that kooky." The alleged argument is "Look at all the things that people thought were kooky and turned out not to be!" Ok, I looked at those. How about god? That turned out to be kooky. What about water sprites? Psychic prediction? Horror-scopes? Santa Claus, leprachauns, spontaneous generation of rats from old newspaper? The Loch Ness Monster, ether, the homonculous. I guess I can stop now. What they're trying to do here is argue that their technique isn't bogus. The reason that they're giving is *that people are saying that it is bogus*. Let me write that in standard form: Some ideas that people at first thought were bogus, turned out to be right. People think our idea is bogus. _________ Therefore, our idea will turn out to be right. Of course, they're not coming out and saying the conclusion. They are offering an elliptical argument, and enthymeme, which leaves the drawing of the conclusion to the audience. Because the audience has to exert the mental effort of drawing the conclusion on its own, it is more powerful. But it's still wrong. I am definitely now becoming seriously displeased. It would be one thing if the authors bored me by citing lists of statistics or giving me extended lessons in psychology; at least I could say, It's boring but it's true. Instead, they are hyping for all they're worth, wasting my precious time with FALSE things. At this point, it does not bode well for the theory, that they refuse to offer an argument, some data, some stats, some history, ANYTHING to actually support their theory. It makes me worry that they don't believe it either, or they believe it for very, very bad reasons. And all this build-up? Placebo, for one; and suspension of thought, for another. I'm not entirely opposed to placeboes, as some people seem to be. If my mind is powerful enough to cure my broken leg just by sheer force of belief, I am all for it. Talk me into it. But I was under the impression that there is more to this particular technique, and I'd prefer to get that first. I have therefore been skimming each example of how similar their current plight in the scientific arena is to Columbus, Reichenbach, Wright, etc. I am interested enough in having this technique work for me, that I'd be willing to go through the hype again on the off chance that therein lies instant emotional healing. But I seriously suspect that the point of the hype and the fallacies is to lull me into a non-critical state of mind. Maybe they really do know something, but they think I'm too stupid or too repressed to hear the message unless I suspend critical thought first and just accept the theory on the basis of arguments that have mass appeal. Or maybe they realize that they got nuthin but they'd like to have lots of clients and sell lots of books--and if it helps the more gullible people via placebo effect, that's really good marketing too. It is not my natural inclination to be stubbornly skeptical. I like to try all kinds of new things, a la Pollyanna, who tries to find something to be glad about in everything. I am working tremendously hard to find something to be glad about in these first three sections, and I did actually find something, but it ain't the meridian tapping. Rather, I am slowly and somewhat painfully coming to the realization that I will soon be a millionaire--and I haven't even tapped on anything yet! This is how it's done. This is how the psychics do it, this is how L. Ron Hubbard did it. Is this what I must do? Is there some way to make this OK? Or do I just get the money and worry about my integrity later? __________________________________________________ Here I am at chapter 3. So far, they haven't actually said anything; it's all been overature and courtship dances. I'm politely overlooking the clumsy insults to my intelligence because I really want to like this suitor and I can overlook some pretty monstrous vices without half trying. I'm going to reread this chapter and the next. I'd like some words defined. What is 'energy'? What is an energy field? What is thought energy? What is a thought field? Questions: What does a nurse touching a patient's body have to do with people praying for the patient at a distance? Were there controlled studies done? What were those like? Did the patient have any beliefs about people praying for him or her? About god and healing? Did the nurses and candystripers chat about god's goodness and how their aunts were praying for the sick people and most especially you? What does the fact that thought is beyond our current ability to measure, have to do with action at a distance? What is thought polarity? If it is, as I currently gather, inconsistent thoughts or resistance to certain ideas that I hold, then what has that to do with magnetite in my pituitary gland and in those of geese? If I've got blockages in my meridians, what has that got to do with crossing my left wrist over my right, and my right ankle over my left, but always opposite? The meridians can flow through one hand to the other? What if I get my hands wrapped around for the Balanced Breathing Exercise, but I lay my hands on my left shoulder and lay my head on my hands--is that OK, or will I disrupt the polarity of my thoughts? Is the language of energy meridians and thought fields really necessary, or can we say the same thing by acknowledging that we live in our whole bodies, that our nervous system includes brain and all nerves which are everywhere? Could I just say "the nerve running down my left arm" instead of "thought field"? Is the Polarity Reversal (PR) Exercise really about polarity, or about getting past contradictory sets of beliefs to make self-acceptance possible? Why do I need to know all this _psychology_ to get the tapping to work? I hope to find answers to these questions as I read. I am trying all the exercises as I go, as is my wont. I think I might have noticed effects from the Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing exercise. I found that both times I tried it, I focused on a disturbing incident that bothers me perennially. Usually when I think about such things, or just brood or feel pissed off, I think about only that one thing--that's part of the problem! I found that each time, other memories came to me and seemed importantly related and better integrated. This is interesting to me because what I _thought_ was supposed to happen was that I'd just feel better about the incidents; I can't say yet whether I feel better, but they seem to have more context and make more sense now. I'd like to document things like this as I go along through the book because I'm afraid I'll forget what it was like when I started, and then I'd like to compare them with other people's experiences. I'll be publishing my study of the book in my online journal and probably formalizing it for the Enlightenment web site, but I thought I'd give you all a preview since it's assigned reading for the next meeting. I probably won't be there, so I am flinging my thought energy at you from a distance; I thought it might help if I also flung my email at you, given how resistent you all have been to my recent psychic communiques. Ciao! Carolyn |
| LaJolla |
Reason Number Ten to Live in La Jolla It's drier than usual now, and I'm careful to drink extra water. The plants, too, which haven't needed much water all fall, have to be hosed down almost every day to contend with the sunshine and dry breeze and the powdery mildew spores that will land and take root if they find a dry leaf. Temperature drops rapidly in the evening--must have been all the way down to 55 at midnight when I took out the garbage last night. But after a chilly night I open my windows and doors. Warm air fills the house and the scent of dry wood and cistus waft up from the patio. My version of forced air heat. Solar power kicks in at about 1:30 as the sun sweeps by my south-west bedroom/conservatory window. |