Category English

The Whistle of the Condor

  Rondador (panpipe) is one of the oldest instruments played in Latin America. It is a wind instrument made of condor feathers, bamboo and cotton string. When played, its pure sound echoes across the Andean mountain peaks where the condors fly. A well-known folk song played with this instrument is “El Condor Pasa”.  In the original lyrics, an allegory is made to the condor flying high above in the sky as the symbol of freedom and dignity. As flying, he looks at the Andean miners…

Hypnos, the God of Sleep and his Powers

The story of how Hypnos, the god of sleep made Zeus fall asleep and how the Greeks went across the Aegean and won the  Trojan war. The Greek god Hypnos was represented as a gentle and calm young man, with wings attached to his temples. His voice had enormous power over the mortals and immortals including Zeus, the god of the gods. The word hypnosis derived from his name is used today as a psychological method to put someone into a deeper state of consciousness…

Echoes in the Heart

Lyrics: Overhead the albatross hangs motionless upon the air And deep beneath the rolling waves in labyrinths of coral caves The echo of a distant tide Comes willowing across the sand And everything is green and submarine And no one showed us to the land And no one knows the whereas or whys But something stirs and something tries And starts to climb towards the light Strangers passing in the street By chance two separate glances meet And I am you and what I see…

Inner Dialogue

  One wonders only when he is alone and seeks the truth. – Einstein “Inner dialogue with oneself is an essential human condition ” states psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961). Murmuring, out loud, intuitive, singing, contemplating…in whatever mode, the conversation made with oneself is the characteristic of all human beings. From an early age on, one speaks to himself without any external trigger, relentlessly accommodates and comforts himself … in the form of talking aloud either through objects or directly with oneself. It allows us…

Unfolding the Unconscious

The most difficult thing is to know yourself.  – Thales The impact of our perceptual patterns on the way we navigate the “self” has always been a cornerstone in understanding human behavior. Long before neuroscience started thought experiments on the nature of reality, William James (1842-1910), the pioneer American psychologist put forward “ our view of the world is truly shaped by what we decide to perceive ” and that, in effect, shapes the world around us.  Carl G. Jung (1875-1961), founder of the analytical…

Helen Keller on Knowledge and Optimism

  “ The world is sown with good but unless I turn my glad thoughts into practical living and till my own field, I cannot reap a kernel of the good. The desire and will to work is optimism itself. ”   Helen Keller (1880– 1968), the outstanding woman who grew up without sight or hearing, in her quest for knowing she not only became learned in philosophy, history, math, science and world matters, but also became an intellectual activist, a “doer” for the good…

Your Brain on Improvisation

Dr. Charles Limb, a surgeon, neuroscientist, hearing specialist and musician sets forth, “ music is the most complicated sound the brain can process. ” Improvisation flows in spontaneous creative modes. The musician prepares to execute unplanned ideas in a spontaneous context as if they are projected fast forward on a screen somewhere out there and the musician simultaneously processes them in a feed-forward fashion and brings them to play up on his instrument. A true miracle of inspiration !    

How One Gains Resilience

  “Resilience across writing is a good way to get out of the fog and light up your life” says Boris Cyrulnik, neuropsychiatrist and writer, having lost both his parents at the age of five, is a living model of how one develops resilience and can overcome the major dramas of life. When the word “resilience” was first used in physics it referred to a body’s ability to absorb an impact. Transformed to the human psyche, it is the capacity to transcend from traumatic experiences.…

The Fox and The Grapes

A most wonderful example of cognitive dissonance theory of psychology, written in such a delightful fable by La Fontaine. Rosy and ripe, and ready to box, The grapes hang high o’er the hungry Fox He pricks up his ears, and his eye he cocks. Ripe and rosy, yet so high! He gazes at them with a greedy eye, And he knows he must eat and drink or die. When the jump proves to be beyond his power “Pooh!” says the Fox. “Let the pigs devour…