From: n.h@googlemail.com
To: jh@hotmail.com
Subject: Happy Birthday
Just wanted to say happy birthday. Hopefully you got the gift I sent you, it should definitely be there by now. We have a few more months here, I should be back there around January. I'm looking forward to it -- I really want to start my training.
How's your training going? and your arm is healing right?
Hope things are going well.
Love you,
N
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On 8/27/07, j h
Thank you kindly. No present yet. Sup with that? Papa wants candy! Gotta say I'm looking forward to your return, now that it's nearing the end. It's been long enough. America owes us. But it has served you well, and will do so in the future.
Doing well at the bjj. Little by little. It started to come together a bit around last December, around when I got the blue belt. Stopped sucking quite so much. The arm is getting stronger, so that's good. Still not there, but I'm working out, rehab. Gonna start doing squats again, along with the lighter rehab work -- get the hormones without stressing whatever the injury was. I think it's some nerve damage. I can feel an odd sensation in the armpit now and then, and there is still tingling sometimes. But it's not getting worse. No worries.
Think about some health/fitness/diet degree, for college. You can always minor in business. I think you'd find a career in what you really love to be most rewarding. If you do what you love, you never have to work a day in your life. Like that.
I'm thinking that there's likely to be some very powerful training benefit to the idea of chi -- just breathing and visualization, but if nothing else it manipulates the mind, and that's what performance is. Self-hypnosis, auto-suggestion, psycho-physical enhancement -- why ignore it when it promises to be so powerful. Interesting stuff. Look it up on the internet.
It's hippy dippy, and the yogis are deluded -- they mistake soul, which is just mind, for spirit -- and they think it's a religion, which is actually dangerous ... but the techniques are useful. It shouldn't only be the occultists who have access to mind technologies, of breathing and visualization. It's just a form of psychology.
Anyway, take care.
Love,
Dad
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On 8/28/07, nh wrote:
I checked the tracking for the package I sent:
"Status: Delivered"
I've been thinking about what to do in college. I'm definitely going to pursue a science degree, in something fitness oriented. I still have some thinking to do. I've opted out of the business degree because of the people involved, and how it consumes one's life. Money is not something I want to obsess about, or have my life revolve around. I'm pretty good at investing, and it will be a hobby.
I've been doing a lot of research on the 'other than conscious' mind, and auto-suggestion / hypnosis type stuff. I'm taking a course on my own right now called "photoreading" that uses these techniques. I figure there's no harm in spending some time experimenting with it -- if I have awesome results, then that's good ... if not, oh well, still know how to read. You can do a search online about photoreading. I downloaded the whole course. I want to learn as many techniques as I can for school, I'll use them when I start taking chemistry and calculus classes. I use visualization techniques before all of my hard sets when I lift weights with success, so I think there is some validity. People are closed-minded though, and I keep the stuff I do to myself.
Love
N
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On 8/28/07, j h
Was it a back pillow? I got one, but I'd been ordering books and thought maybe I'd ordered a pillow too, and forgotten. Maybe I did. It was very disorienting to me, not knowing. So was it? I'm using it now. It's helped. Sometimes I think I'm going mad. Sometimes I know I am.
Good to hear about the interest in science. Don't know what's yer specific gripe about the business people, but it doesn't seem like a truly rewarding way to make a living. Necessary, but there's already too many people involved in it.
I'm thinking that a good idea would be to completely westernize yoga. Weed out all the foreign religion BS, test what works with double blind studies and pre-defined definitions, and keep what works. So with chi, maybe it's just a manipulation of biochemical energy. But we can change heartrate with our thoughts, so why not other autonomic processes? Reports have it that burns don't have to blister, under hypnosis. Don't know if it's true, but it's supposed to be. Useful. It puts MMA not on a "spiritual" plain, but on a psycho-physically, manipulatable one. Not mind over matter, but brain over muscle. As I say, useful. But it is wise to keep these ideas to yourself, generally. Not to be judgmental about other people's judgmentalness -- everyone has their limitations.
I've never bothered with any of this, though. A mistake. I'm surprised with myself about having gotten involved in bjj. Better late than never, to coin a cliche. Maybe I'll do these other things too, sometime. Neato.
Anyway, love--
Dad
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I do yoga a couple times a week mainly as a stretching thing. I don't do full routines or anything, mainly just the balance and stretching -- I don't need the extra muscular stimulation. I definitely support all potentially beneficial techniques. Self-hypnosis, chi manipulation. When I'm back, I'm going to look into a more formal yoga training, with as little religion as possible.
I've downloaded a bunch of paraliminals geared toward different things: relaxation, energization, memory, anxiety... I've only done the energy one and it felt like I as on drugs or something. I felt melted into my seat, and really really disoriented. And, I'm not sure, but I thought I may have been energized ... but it could just have been placebo. I'll have to do it more often to see if it really works.
Anyway, I think that lumbar support has the ability to vibrate ... so experiment.
Love
N
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On 8/28/07, j h
Never underestimate the benefit of the placebo effect. Maybe all of these things are placebo. So what? Placebo is just a way to manipulate the mind into doing something good. In that case, it's just another form of chi or yoga or self-hypnosis.
That was my point about yoga and religion. They've just made it into a cult, when it's exercise. It's like making jumping jacks a sacrament. Um ... yeah? They're true believers, though, and you can't argue with faith. Take what works, and don't argue.
Take a look at the "pitfalls" section of this link:
http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Kundalini_Yoga/id/9379
-- talks a bit about the weird side-effects of some of this stuff.
And thanks for the gift. Yes, it vibrates, but that's too exotic for me, and it frightens me. You'll like the book I sent. It's superb.
seeya
Dad
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It's like that woman who accidentally turned off her autonomic system. "I have to consciously breathe!" lol "My quest for a higher consciousness has backfired, and now I think I'm going insane!" I think the mind has so much incredible unharnessed potential, all technique that obtains a little more is a good technique -- as long as you don't suffer in a different area.
That's true, about the placebo being another form. Last night I miscalculated my deadlift weight, and ended up doing 10 lbs heavier and still getting my reps. If I'd known it was 10 lbs heavier, I probably couldn't have done it. Weird how that works. If you think you will fail, you will ... if you know you will succeed, you will.
That's one of the things I've learned in failing important goals. I used to be insecure about failing. Self-doubt and all that. But failing can be one of the best teachers I've ever had ... in failing, I've learned more than I could have by succeeding. Now I know it's ok to fail. It doesn't curse you.
Anyway, it's interesting stuff.
N
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Well it does my heart good to hear that, about your facing fears and overcoming them. That's what courage is. To do what you're not afraid of is nothing special. Anyone who can go back and take a life lesson away from a failure turns it into a success. Like with competitions -- why did someone lose? Poor technique, or poor endurance, or a failure-mentality, or something else. Isolate the problem and train for it. Do rehab on it.
Wisdom, of course, is knowing which answer fits which problem. We need to be flexible even with the lessons that were learned through great pain. It's not "Never trust" -- it's "Don't trust betrayers". That sort of thing. Scars are useful because they remind us of mistakes we will avoid in the future. But scar tissue is weaker and less functional than what it replaces. Wisdom understands the uses, and the limits, of scars, of callouses. They make us tougher, and they make us less sensitive. It's always about balance.
It's easy to talk the talk, though. Not so easy to do it. That's why we need encouragement. People lean on each other. It doesn't make us weak. It makes us strong. Human -- it's what God became. It must be worthwhile, then.
Ah well. Be safe.
Love
J
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