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Newsletter of Project Renaissance and Win Wenger
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 2005 (Best viewed with
fixed-width font)
IN THIS ISSUE:
* Quote of the
Month
* Announcements,
News Items
* Events,
Workshops
* FEATURE ARTICLE:
Observation
and the Principle of Description, by Win Wenger
* Comments,
Feedback
Ambient
Electrostatic Charge - Win Wenger
Building
Left-Brain Skills - Lothar Jost
Registry of
Image-Streamers - Win Wenger
* Organizational
Notes
* Links
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
"Things happen the day you decide you're going to
make them happen."
- Pam
Lontos
........................................................................
ANNOUNCEMENTS
~~~
WELCOME to all new members who have joined us this month.
We hope to
hear from you and to give you much food for thought. Back
issues are
available upon request. Just add the month to the subject
line:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=BackIssues
Or see the online archives: http://www.winwenger.com/strmlist.htm
~~~
Our issues for January through April are appearing out of
sequence
till we catch up. Don't miss any of the feature articles
in the back
issues. They are always of current interest.
~~~
An article in the Washington Post, January 3, 2005, by
Marc Kaufman,
reports that "Meditation Gives Brain a Charge, Study
Finds":
"Brain research is beginning to produce concrete
evidence for something
that Buddhist practitioners of meditation have maintained
for centuries:
Mental discipline and meditative practice can change the
workings of the
brain and allow people to achieve different levels of
awareness."
"'What we
found is that the longtime practitioners showed brain
activation on a
scale we have never seen before,' said Richard
Davidson, a
neuroscientist at the university's new $10 million W. M.
Keck Laboratory
for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior. 'Their
mental practice
is having an effect on the brain in the same way
golf or tennis
practice will enhance performance.' It demonstrates,
he said, that
the brain is capable of being trained and physically
modified in
ways few people can imagine."
They certainly
imply that the practice over time may be improving
important brain
functions, and they're planning further studies.
In the
meantime, this is just more evidence suggesting that the
practice of
some techniques can permanently alter brain function.
Read the whole
article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43006-2005Jan2.html
~~~
SCROLLING TIP: The
discussion board on Project Renaissance's website
lets you post messages. When you click the link, the
message form will
open directly. To read other messages and see the entire
message index,
just scroll up the page. This tip is included here for
those who might
not notice that the real action is above the message
form. Enjoy!
http://bbs.cartserver.com/bbs/b/7733/#PostMessage
~~~
........................................................................
EVENTS
~~~
Beyond-Einstein/Socratic Training (B.E.S.T.)
The full, basic-skills workshop
May 20-22, 2005
Pasadena, Maryland, U.S.A.
Tuition: $495, including all 3 days
Complete details about Beyond-Einstein/Socratic Training
2005 -
www.winwenger.com/may05best.htm
Registration Form (printable) -
www.winwenger.com/may05reg.htm
Online Registration -
www.winwenger.com/may05best.htm#Register
Travel Directions and Lodging -
www.winwenger.com/travel.htm
Register online or use the printable Registration Form to
send $495 by
check or credit card number to Project Renaissance, P.O.
Box 332,
Gaithersburg, MD 20884-0332 USA.
You may inquire to Win Wenger by phone (301-948-1122) or
email
( wwenger101@aol.com?subject=MayDiscount ) about
discounts for spouse,
teachers, students, and corporate associate(s).
~~~
Upcoming High Thinktank Session - May 19, 2005 - 7:30 pm
Quince Orchard Public Library, Room "A"
15831 Quince Orchard Rd.
Gaithersburg, Maryland 20878
(240-777-0200)
Directions:
From Route 270, take Quince Orchard Road to just beyond
the intersection with Route 28, about four miles or so.
Or take Route 28
West about five miles, just barely to Quince Orchard Road
left. Either
way, the Library is on your left. Just feet beyond the
intersection,
look for the nameless little spur of a road off Quince
Orchard which
leads into the Library parking lot. Or go to
www.MapQuest.com , type in
your own address including zip code, and type in the Quince
Orchard
Library's address, and get directions (and map) from
there.
For anyone who has any experience at all in some of our
techniques, this
"further reaches" session is a must to attend.
~~~
UPCOMING PRESENTATIONS - Capitol Creativity Network
The Capitol Creativity Network
(www.capitolcreativitynetwork.com ) meets
on the second Thursday of every month. Time: 7:00-9:30pm.
Fee: $10 at
the door. Location: Social Room of Van Ness East apartment
complex;
2939 Van Ness St., NW; Washington, DC.
We explore and experience different facets of creativity
- from corporate
to expressive to scientific, etc. Each meeting is interactive, and
designed to have the participants experience their own
creativity in real
time. CCN's got a
little something for every kind of Creator in 2005:
~ May 12:
"Embracing the Dark: Violence, Creativity, and Compassion in
America" by Dr. Juliet Bruce, Founder and Director
of the Institute for
Transformation through the Arts
~ June 9:
"Creativity in Business: Techniques for thinking 'outside the
box' to bring new creative energy to your business
endeavors" by Joey
Coleman, Creative Principal of Blue J Marketing &
Design.
~ July 14:
"Empathic Nature Writing: The Power of Empathic Connections"
by Karen Rugg, President of Karlynne Communications
~ August 11:
"Creating Ourselves by Performing Who We are Not" by Joe
Mancini, Jr., Ph.D., Gestalt Therapist, Hypnotherapist
and Creator of
RoundTable Theatre and Liz Birney, Ph.D., business
consultant and co-
facilitator of RoundTable Theatre.
~ September 8:
"Creative Thinking Techniques"
by Dr. Win Wenger,
Founder and Director of Project Renaissance; author
"The Einstein
Factor" and over 40 other books.
~ October 13:
"New Working Models: Using storytelling, improv and visual
techniques to extract relevant data and design functional
working models"
by Michelle James, Principal of The Center for Creative
Emergence;
business creativity catalyst.
~ November 10:
"Visual Mapping" by Nusa Maal, President of SenseSmart.
~ December 8:
"The Courage of Your Yearning: Using the principles of
creativity to create a life lived from your deepest
gladness" by Juanita
Weaver, creativity consultant.
Michelle James
The Center for Creative Emergence,
www.creativeemergence.com
Consciously Creating What's Next
McLean, VA USA
703.760.9009
michelle@creativeemergence.com
mjames7770@aol.com
~~~
Upcoming CREATIVITY WORKSHOPS in Europe
Creativity Workshop Studios
245 East 40th St. 25th floor
New York, New York 10016
Tel: (212) 922-1555
Contact: Vivian
Glusman
Shelley Berc and Alejandro Fogel, directors
Early Registration Promotion: With just a $50 deposit you can get $100
off on Summer Creativity Workshops in Europe. Offer
expires: January 15,
2005. See their informational website, Road to Creation.
Join Creativity Workshops this summer in Europe in their
12th year of
workshops! A wonderful way to learn and travel. Choose
one of their
workshops (from June through August 2005) in Crete,
Florence, Provence,
Barcelona, Prague, or Dublin.
SUMMER 2005
Island of Crete — June 19-28, 2005
From $1,750 including tuition and accommodations.
Provence — June 29-July 8, 2005
From $2,150 including tuition and accommodations.
Florence — July 9-18, 2005
From $1,750 including tuition and accommodations.
Barcelona — July 19-28, 2005
From $2,300 including tuition and accommodations.
Prague — July 28-August 6, 2005
From $2,300 including tuition and accommodations.
Dublin — August 6-15, 2005
From $1,850 including tuition and accommodations.
----------------
More details on their website,
http://www.creativityworkshop.com .
~~~
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Feature Article:
OBSERVATION AND THE PRINCIPLE OF DESCRIPTION
A grandfather's reflections
by Win Wenger
It was a strange holiday season, juxtaposing a wonderful
round of family
affairs with grandsons and the tsunami devastation in
South Asia, as we
begin to come out of the unusual geophysical and climatic
quiet of the
past few centuries. I'm not dwelling on the latter at
this point, except
to note that we have some serious work ahead of us and, I
believe, a
meaningful contribution to make. Now I'd like to debrief
some of the
family affairs as a way of sorting out my own thoughts
and perceptions
to expand on the good things happening.
Today was totally invested in taking our older grandson
to the AeroSpace
Museum down at the Smithsonian. A great enough time was
had by all so
that we will do it again soon but at Natural History.
Young Jimmy was
sufficiently wowed by an Imax film on the international
space station,
and a nice "Infinity Express" showing at the
planetarium. Much of the
day was spent running from interactive exhibit to
interactive exhibit.
Seven years old, Jimmy was treating these as playthings,
as well he
should, and I was happy to let him run around forming
impressions rather
than to try to formalize any concepts or understandings.
However, I did
find occasion, 5-6 times, to ask him, "What do you
think they are trying
to show you here?"
I did not expect, nor did I receive, any formal or
well-conceptualized
answers; several times the question was ignored as he
eagerly ran to yet
another exhibit. That may well be the case the next
museum visit as well,
maybe several over the next half year or year. But it is
a question I'm
planning to continue asking, and encourage both Susan,
his grandmother,
and daughter Erika, his mother, to also ask, without pressing
and without
expecting formal answers. Somewhere along there I expect
him to think to
himself, "What ARE they trying to show me here in
this exhibit?" I
believe this will ignite a new and deeper level of
cognition.
That in turn is but one step away from a truly wonderful
configuration
in which one can be looking at ANY phenomenon and asking,
what are the
things it is trying to teach me, and/or what are things I
can learn or
discover from this. For some of the significance of this,
please see the
appendix in Beyond O.K. (
http://www.winwenger.com/beyondok.htm ) titled,
"What is the Message?" which addresses an
information-theory model of
the universe and everything within it. My belief is that
if I'm utterly
patient and support the free child in him, he may have by
age 11-12 the
bases not only for building a good intellect (he is
already quite
bright), but a great sense of wonder.
In anticipation of today's trip, I had bought two (and
brought along one)
pocket recorders, and while driving down to the
Smithsonian, I just a bit
modeled the process of recording incidental observations
into the
recorder. I did so only lightly, didn't make a major
point of it for this
round. But my plan is eventually, when things are ripe,
to "hire" Jimmy
to record a bunch of observations - something that
catches his eye, what
there is about it that interested him, why that is
interesting or what
further notion that triggers. Example:
a tree in the mini-park next to
where I live is protected by trees and buildings on three
sides. On the
exposed side, from the roots up the trunk is a swollen
stripe of extra
trunk very like a muscle sinew, curves and all. Not too
hard to imagine
Jimmy, if given the chance to relate to that tree, seeing
the tree in
terms of having developed an extra "muscle" on
the exposed side to
support it against stormwinds.
I believe if I can induce him to make a few dozen such
observations over
several weeks, he will get much closer to his senses than
most people
ever get, and will reflexively notice more and experience
richly more of
most of what he finds around him in life. At least that
is my tentative
plan, one which in no apparent way comes at the expense
of his being the
wonderful and enjoyable child that he is.
My pretext for so hiring him is that I'm a writer and
researcher, and
want to capture a child's perspective. In fact, I might
eventually be
able to do something useful with such observations as
accumulate. I'm
hoping also to find a more general form of this
procedure, as I get
further into it, that anyone can use with his own child
or grandchild,
one which won't require this particular pretext.
Why am I involving you-all with this?
1) I'm sorting out
my own perceptions thereby; I want to be the best
grandfather I
can be for several very special and wonderful human
beings.
2) This kind of
work is very much part of the work which I think we are
trying to do or
should be trying to do.
3) This is a
unique opportunity for me to learn more.
4) I wanted you to
know why I've not gotten the next two Quickbooks
(Borrowed
Genius and the new work with Sidebands) fully drafted over
the holiday
season.
What did I get out of writing you this information? One
thing is some
sense and rationalization of this grandfathering thing
helping me in
what I'm trying to do in Project Renaissance; also a
reminder to me that
it's human beings that all of this is in service of -
that the system we
are building is the means and not the end.
And on that note, let me conclude by wishing you the
warmest, happiest,
most productive and most human 2005 possible.
- Win Wenger ( wwenger101@aol.com )
------------------------------------
To send feedback privately to Win Wenger, email him at:
mailto:wwenger101@aol.com?subject=Observation
To send your comments about this article to The Stream,
write to:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=Observation
To post your feedback or promote a discussion of this
topic:
http://bbs.cartserver.com/bbs/b/7733/#PostMessage
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COMMENTS and FEEDBACK
~~~
Ambient Electrostatic Charge - Win Wenger (
wwenger101@aol.com )
As you've known from your very first contact with either
chemistry or
biochemistry, physics or electronics: Chemistry and
electricity are
almost the same thing, involving the transfer of
electrons in the making
and breaking down of chemical compounds. That electronic
process HAS to
be affected by a major variable which everyone seems to
have ignored:
ambient electrostatic charge.
Complex and delicate chemical processes have to be
affected at least a
little by whether the air is full of positive ions or
negative ones. At
the very least, I would think that this ambient
electrostatic charge can
be manipulated to produce compounds with a longer shelf
life, or to
create entirely new compounds altogether.
If people are physically (and psychologically) affected
when a wind blows
off the desert with positive ions - if in so many
instances biochemistry
and psychochemistry are affected by ambient electrostatic
charge in vivo,
then it's plausible that some such effects might be
detectable in vitro.
You've experienced differences in feeling before and
after a good
rainstorm, and that's a function of a change to negative
ionization. If
such differences can be made or found in vitro, some of
those differences
could be useful. This might become the basis for an
entire new chemical
industry.
If it does, don't be too surprised that something that
obvious has been
lying around for so long overlooked by everyone. Practically every
field I have looked into has oversights that large, that
obvious. People
follow someone else's findings and leads and fail to look
for themselves
at matters right before them. It is not for nothing that
one of my
favorite books is titled "Discovering The
Obvious" -
http://www.winwenger.com/dto.htm .
So far as I know - and I am not a chemist or chemical
researcher, so I
might have missed something - absolutely no one has
bothered to look,
as yet, at how ambient electrostatic charge might
influence chemical
process and product. It should not be difficult for
anyone involved with
chemistry to test whether varying the electrostatic
charge in the air
will vary in some way the course of a chemical or
biochemical reaction
or otherwise affect the product of that reaction. If varying the one
varies the other, SOMEone is looking at the basis for an
entire new and
profitable industry. Good hunting!
- Win Wenger ( wwenger101@aol.com )
~~~
Building Left-Brain Skills - Lothar Jost (
barakaya@yahoo.de )
I think it's a good idea to use mathematicss in building
left brain
skills, especially in the context of Image-Streaming.
When you are
learning to interpret images, math problems are great
because they
REALLY put the images you receive and your ability of
interpretation
to the test. Also, math concepts are great to improve
your ability to
increase your neurological contact with the material you
learn.
Something I included only recently in my math (and other)
studies is
High Thinktank/Hidden Questions (
http://www.winwenger.com/htt.htm ).
One way of applying HQ is to write numbers and letters on
the cards,
instead of questions. Then you read through the list of
exercises at
the end of a section in a book and make a mental
connection between the
numbers/letters on your cards and the exercises/problems.
Then you pick
a card and Image-Stream or use inductive reference or
your preferred
method without looking at the card. Your Image-Streamed
insight is
related to the exercise with the number which is found on
the card.
That saves much writing work and seems to be consistent
with the theory.
I'm curious to learn about anyone's results using this method.
- Lothar Jost ( barakaya@yahoo.de )
~~~
Registry of Image-Streamers - Win Wenger (
wwenger101@aol.com )
Referencing the article cited above on the Keck
Laboratory's findings
that meditation gives brains a charge, scientists used to
believe the
opposite - that connections between brain nerve cells
were fixed early
in life and did not change in adulthood. But that
assumption was
disproved over the past decade with the help of advances in brain
imaging and other techniques, and in its place scientists
have embraced
the concept of ongoing brain development and
'neuroplasticity.'"
It's quite remarkable how casually that statement is
tossed off, after
the unbelievable amount and degree of abuse heaped on
those of us who
had been making that very point for three and four
decades. - And the
schools generally continue to block as absurd the
research studies most
likely to confront that very issue...
The article also suggests that, by now, the effects of
Pole-Bridging as
we know it are not utterly and entirely unknown to
researchers:
"....associated with knitting together disparate
brain circuits, and so
are connected to higher mental activity and heightened
awareness..."
I don't know if I or anyone can talk our way in, to Keck
or to anywhere
else, to get modern brain scanning and imaging techniques
used to study
the brain effects of Image-Streaming, High Thinktanking,
PhotoReading
and related phenomena; but if we can, science of enormous
consequence is
likely. I am renewing and redoubling my efforts to bring
this about. And
here is where YOU come in -
Starting right now, we need to develop a private registry
of people with
twenty hours or more of accumulated Image-Streaming
experience. Even of
ten hours - that also will be helpful. If the opportunity
comes for such
a study, we will need to call upon many people who have
accumulated
enough time at Image-Streaming for their brain to reflect
the resultant
changes. I don't know how many people are needed
statistically - and yes,
the initial science will be somewhat limited because the
participants
will be self-reported (but their results should pave the
way for more
controlled studies under contained and directed
conditions). It should
be a neat opportunity for participants to see inside one
of these
pioneering laboratories, aside from whatever benefits
result from the
Image-Streaming.
Basic data we need in the registry:
(1) Number of
hours accumulated,
(a) as of when, and since when
(b) How distributed (in what time segments of
practice, how often)
(c) Which activity or activities
(Image-Streaming, High Thinktank,
PhotoReading, Remote Viewing (by which method), etc.) and how
much time
on each
(2) Your name,
address, phone number and email address (will not be
used for
commercial purposes; this is strictly in support of
research)
(3) Any relevant
anecdotal data from your experiences which you deem
appropriate to
pass along.
I don't know how soon, or even for sure if, we will have
opportunity to
participate in the proposed study, but I'd like us to get
ready for it.
If you don't have your accumulated time already, may I
request that you
begin logging it as quickly as you comfortably and
reasonably can, and
as soon as you can do so, get in this preliminary data to
me at
wwenger101@aol.com
Thank you.
- Win Wenger ( wwenger101@aol.com )
------------------------------------------------------------------~~~~~~
To send your comments to The Stream for possible
publication here, write
to: mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=Comments
........................................................................
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ORGANIZATIONAL NOTES
~~~
TOPICAL INTEREST GROUPS:
Our membership is large and diverse, and many of you have
expressed an
interest in communicating with other members who share
your topic of
concern or research interest. If you'd like us to share
your email
address with other interested members, and to supply
theirs to you,
please email your name, email address and subject/topic
to:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=InterestGroups
Your communications will be private. If you'd like to
take a topic
public, just post your discussions on Project
Renaissance's board:
http://bbs.cartserver.com/bbs/b/7733/#PostMessage
~~~
ADDRESS CHANGE?
If your email address changes or your email box is full
or your spam
filter blocks us, we can't get The Stream to you. Please,
before that
happens, make sure you notify us of any change and put
winwenger.com on
your safe senders list. Write to:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=AddressChange
~~~
SUBSCRIBER OR MEMBER?
If you currently only subscribe to The Stream, you can
upgrade your
participation in Project Renaissance to full membership,
free.
Membership in Project Renaissance entitles members to
additional
benefits. If you're not yet a member, please register
now, here:
http://www.winwenger.com/regmem.htm
or from link on the homepage, http://www.winwenger.com .
~~~
DUPLICATE MAILING?
If you received two (or more?) copies of this issue of
The Stream,
please let us know by replying to:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=duplicate
~~~
HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE...
* You can post messages to Project Renaissance's
discussion board about
any Project
Renaissance topic and join any ongoing discussions. No
log-in required.
Please visit our homepage at http://www.winwenger.com
and click the
Discussion Board link. To post a message right now,
click here: http://bbs.cartserver.com/bbs/b/7733/#PostMessage
Then scroll up
the page for the full message index.
* The long-established, popular Image-Streaming egroup is
here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/imagestream - requires Yahoo sign-in.
* Submit articles, comments or questions for possible
inclusion in
The Stream:
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=TotheEditor
........................................................................
LINKS
* Back issues of
THE STREAM by email upon request from
mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=BackIssues
* Index of feature
articles in The Stream archives:
http://www.winwenger.com/strmlist.htm
* Archived copies
of Capital Ideasmiths are here:
http://www.winwenger.com/Capitalidea/capidea1.htm
* Project
Renaissance homepage:
http://www.winwenger.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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