Labyrinth Busker Journal - Brian Robert Pearce
Does
mental illness exist?
Is
Bob Dylan mildly autistic?
Where
is Heaven?
Go to HOMEPAGE
| Search this site or the web powered by FreeFind |
|
|
Plato
and Socrates debate Beauty
Is
the Universe breathing?
Is
this the missing link?
Black
Holes
Zolar
and the Astral Layers
Belief, Heaven,
Zolar
Jesus? Celtic or
Rangers?
THE FACE OF GOD?
From Mead C Whorton Jnr (Louisiana) as
Hurrican Rita prepares to strike:
Brian! This is what God looks like:
Hi Mead! You may be right. Maybe he also
looks like this:
Visit Mark A. Garlick to see
more of his stunning space art
Brian
New Orleans- Farewell!!!
Only yesterday
I walked your streets,
Now you are gone.
Like a shooting star
You brightened my lonely nights.
Your music soothed my nerves.
And your women
A thousand times, they Stole my heart!
New Orleans- I cry tears for you!
Only Yesterday
I walked your streets.
Mead Whorton JR
August 31, 2005
Top of page
Brian,
Do you recall Joan Osborne singing?
If God had a face, what would it look like
And would you want to see
If seeing meant you would have to believe
In things like heaven and in Jesus and the Saints
And all the prophets ...
Yeah, yeah, God is good
Yeah, yeah, God is great
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
...
Does Mental illness exist?
Brian, have you ever read any writings by the German mathematician
Georg
Cantor. He developed the theory of infinite sets and also did
some
philosophical and theological writing. Cantor also suffered from mental
illness. I often wonder if he could have created his theory of infinite
sets if he had been "sane"! And that brings up a good question; What is
normal and what is abnormal. Some of my best friends suffered/suffer
from
so called mental illness. They never seemed that strange to me. Society
can be so judgmental. Michel Foucault, the eminent French writer and
philosopher, contends in his book MADNESS AND CIVILIZATION that French
authorities in the 1600's shut away mentally ill people not for therapy
but to police society. Moreover, Thomas Szaz, professor of psychiatry
at
Syracuse University, New York, USA has written books entitled THE
MYTH OF
MENTAL ILLNESS(1961) and THE MANUFACTURE OF MADNESS (1970). Szasz has
written , " There is no such thing as mental illness!"
What do you think.
Mead
Hi Mead! I think that mental 'illness' can cover such a wide
range of definition that it can not easily be defined. Perhaps the best
example of this occurred in my
journal, when a fellow busker (Everts) came up to me in a bar and said,
"It seems like everyone is acting strange in here tonight."
I replied, "That makes you strange."
That made him laugh, and resulted in his writing of a song where the
chorus ran, "The strangest man on Earth tonight? Is it you?"
The term "Busker" can cover such a wide range of motivations and
diversity. In the end, it results in the negation of the term as a
means to isolate generalisation. It is
possible to say that a busker seeks reward from impromptu and random
audiences, but no other generalisation will fit. Every busker has an
individual motivation.
I think mental illness is a term similar to "Busker". It is possible to
say that a mentally ill person is someone who doesn't behave or think
in a way the mainsream of a
society may class as understandable, but no generalisation will fit.
Every person defined as mentally ill needs to be studied individually.
It is possible to put names
onto behavioual patterns and a patient might ape these patterns quite
well. But that doesn't get any closer to generalising the term "mental
illness". It simply isolates
buskers (analogy) who play the guitar and like to play Bruce
Springsteen songs (example).
The kind of "mental illness" my journal gleefully embraced was the
"derangment of the senses" unveiled by Rimbaud.
What is normal?
A. Something I am not.
What is abnormal?
A. Something I am
Now I shall ask you a question:
If John (imagined person) dies, would he be impressed if his epitaph on
his tombstone read:
"Here lies John. He was normal." ?
Suppose he were a politician. Suppose a fellow politician should stand
before his mourners and say
"I think the greatest tribute I can give John is that he was
extraodinarily normal; and all his works were very normal indeed." ?
As recently as the middle of last century it was possible for parents
to commit their teenage daughter to a mental institute for pre-marital
sex or even for loving a
person considered unsuitable. These victims were sane, but years of
incarceration in the institute led to them becoming institutionalised
and effectively mentally ill.
I'd care to bet that you (as a psychologist) look at each individual
case on its own merit, using guidelines established over the years by
the summary of other similar
cases experienced by yourself or other psychologists. There would be no
point in there being psychologists if there was no hope of curing a
condition, or modifying
it.
It seems that thoughts that are advanced or retarded cause the greatest
confusions. If you were to show this e mail to a seven year old and ask
them (as a friend, not
as an authoratorive adult) what they think about the issue, I'd care to
bet they wouldn't understand a word of it. Because of this, they may
well look at this mail and
then at you and say, "You're mad."
Bringing in one final analogy: anti biotics will kill harmful bacteria,
but they may equally kill good bacteria.
Got the second part of "Heartbreaker" online. Took a bit longer than planned. What do you think of the gender issue it raises?
Cheers Brian
Is Bob Dylan mildly
Autistic?
Brian,
Last night I watched part II of Martin Scorsese's documentary
on Bob
Dylan: No Direction Home. I must say that it was well done. Scorsese
did
an excellent job. Then main point that emerged from the documentary was
that Dylan was/is an artist who simply wanted/wants to write and sing
songs and above all, do it his way. When Dylan went electric, he risked
it
all but emerged larger than life. Moreover, very candid interviews with
the present day Dylan seemed to suggest that he never had a political
agenda. Interviews with Joan Baez corroborated Dylan's apolitical
statements. I would have to say that your busking allows you the same
freedom that Dylan enjoys. Of course, if Dylan had been a lesser talent
and not believed in himself, he would have failed. I was also intrigued
by
Dylan's answer to a question of what his art was all about. He
simply
replied that he is merely trying to find his way home. I guess we are
all
just trying to just find our way home.
Hi Mead! I'll have a think about that light issue. But now, I
have a question for your professional judgement:
Having watched that documentary, do you think Bob Dylan is mildly
autistic?
In essence, I'm chewing on Asperger's Syndrone. My daughter has been
diagnosed as having this (though personally, and privately, I kinda
mistrust these sort of boxes and prefer private personality study). I
suspect, however, that if a box could be laid my way? I may also fall
somewhat into Aspergers.
Looking at that film, I could see Bob was entirely comfortable
communicating via the channel his autism enthused him toward. But he
seemed to embrace messages from the outside world only if he could
apply them to his autistic world. He seemed to understand why the words
were put into his songs and poetry, but he did not see any need to
explain why he put them there.
Beyond the channel of his autism, I do not think he even KNEW why he
put those words there.
I found the way to my daughter's mind was through the toy cars that she
loved. She just loves cars - and sees them as people in a way more real
than people. In fact, the way in which I introduced the outside world
to her was by relating it to the world she and I built with her toy
cars.
If she were ever to become famous as a singer (or whatever) and was
faced by the kind of press meetings (and questions) that Bob
uncomfortably faced, I think she would re-act with the same genuine
confusion over trying to answer questions. Because it seemed Bob could
not make the connection that the issues aroused by the questions had
anything to do with his songs and the playing of music. He wrote a song
and moved on, seeing little need to explain meanings.... possibly
because he couldn't. Everything he had wanted to say was in the song
and belonged harmonically within the channelled world his autism
accepted.
Neither his modern day comments, nor his press and radio responses from
the 60's, seemed contrived in any shape or form. He seemed genuinely
confused by what he was being asked.
The years have given him an improved form of expression outside of his
autistic world.
I share his view on art and creativity, in that spending months trying
to perfect a song and package it neatly is anathema. Could have written
a few songs in that time - and some of these would excite a greater
personal interest. All of the transformations of Bob over the years in
his style, genre and presentation fitted neatly into his own imagined
world. He could not explain how they would fit into other people's
worlds.
He did not see there was a reason to do this anyway.
He looked at the outside world with his art - and took a 'photograph'
of it. But he could not easily explain why there was a bird in the
picture flying in the distance, even though he was aware of it as he
took the photograph. He could see where it fitted in the picture and
the soul within recognised its crucial relevance to the picture as a
whole. For him, that was enough.
He could not articulate the relevance of that bird to those outside his
world - or even (possibly) to those inside his world.
Autism would render him as a loner, an outsider. There will always be
parts of him the world will never see, nor understand.
So, back to the question:
Do you think Bob Dylan is mildly autistic?
Brian,
I finally have time to answer you question on Dylan. First, we
must
examine the criteria for a diagnosis of autism:
1) Impaired reciprocal social interaction relative to developmental level.
2) Impaired verbal and nonverbal communication relative to
developmental
level.
3) Abnormally intense and narrow interests.
These individuals often exhibit little eye contact, usually
have problems
dealing with social situations, and very often exhibit an obsession
with a
certain subject matter like puzzles or numbers. [or writing ten
thousand
page journals-just a joke, Brian]!
Studies indicate that a number of artists and mathematicians
exhibit
symptoms of autism or in some cases they are autistic.
Focusing in on Dylan. Dylan was a master writer of poems/songs
and
apparently interested in little else. Through his gift of verse/song he
was able to create his own abstract world. Which I am sure was very
comforting for him. When you apply the above criteria to Dylan, he
was/is
obviously autistic. Otherwise, he would not have created his beautiful
and
haunting songs. I can imagine a world without Mr. Tambourine Man,
Chimes
Of Freedom, and Like A Rolling Stone but it would be a far less
beautiful
world. Think of all the beauty Dylan and his autistic world has given
us.
My undergraduate degree was in mathematics and I found it to
be very
comforting. Solving a problem or proving a theorem is much
like writing
a haiku or a song. One can have order and beauty in an abstract world
which is not subject to the denigration of reality. Anytime , I
experienced a setback, I could always retreat to the safety of the
world
of mathematics.
I hope that I have answered your question on Dylan. I am
posting the first
two chapters of [Autism : Explaining the Enigma] by Uta Frith, one of
the
world's foremost experts on autism. By the way, she is Professor of
Cognitive Development at The Institute of Neuroscience at University
College, London. If you like her writing, check the book out or buy a
copy. I am also posting a copy of {Autism in Mathematicians} by
Ioan
James from The Mathematical Intelligencer 2003.
"It seems that for success in science or art a dash of autism
is
essential."-Hans Asperger.
Brian
Good news, I believe that
Rita is going to spare New Orleans. Personally, I wish that it would
spin
out into the Gulf and dissipate.
Best Wishes,
Mead
> Hi Mead! Thanks for the copies. Looks like Houston could
be hit hard.
> Katrina hit around the 31st. Looking at my universe
sequence table, 24th
> Sept is
> equivalent to 27th.
> No problem. Re - action and preparation mollify it on day one. But
day
> two
> and three might be a problem. Seems to indicate unexpected
problems.
Cheers
Brian
BLACK HOLES
Hello Brian,
I believe that I previously related to you that on my first enounter with Einstein's Special Theory of relativity that I immediately thought that this was an answer to immortality and God. Maybe God is light and this would explain his omnipresence. Maybe blackholes which suck up light are related to Evil. So many theories!!! Mead
MEAD C. WHORTON, JR
Hi Mead! My personal idea about black holes was formulated
in my journal, when I wrote about time lines. Filling flesh onto those
musings, I suggest that black holes are light travelling in an opposing
direction from us. Given the vast distances in the universe, imagine
shining a torch into it and seeing light streaming from it. If you
switch off the torch, the light previously emited will continue to
travel. Once it progresses beyond the distance of the speed of light it
will no longer be visible to the torch bearer. But the particles of
light will continue their journey. Such an event would make it appear
as though light is being swallowed and can't escape. A black hole could
represent the light from a sun or a galaxy that is moving in an
opposing direction from us. It could be our sun or galaxy.
Unless this retreating light encounters something that could
reflect it back or refract it, the light will continue to appear to us
as a dense mass of powerful blackness.
The possibility that emerges from this is that black holes
could tell us where we are going and where we have been, in context to
the universe as a whole.
As for hell? The word comes from the German and it means
light. Hell is spoken of as a fiery domain. It seems the most
tormenting and destructive position for a soul to be is within the
fusing and turmoil of a sun. It could be purgatory or annihilation - or
a cleansing process in line with higher ascension.
Could black holes be the tunnel described by so many as a
route to Heaven?
Be in touch. Keep in touch.
Brian,
A very interesting piece. I still think that God may be
light. Or maybe
all of us become light when we die and spend our immortal
existence
whizzing around the universe. What a marvelous
experience
that would be.
Mead In America
Top of page