A few more observations on self-employment as I finish up the second week since my 'Liberation'.
In the last two weeks, I have spent most of my time with my nose buried in my laptop. Most of that has been involved in rewriting my website: www.craigrlang.com (which just went live, by the way). I have spent several days in a row, hardly leaving my house, and it sometimes leaves me with a rather strange, somewhat isolated feeling. I am assuming one adjusts to the change in routine, hopefully pretty quickly. But after the second week, it's finally starting to sink in - my world has fundamentally changed.
Now, much of my website change is done. There are lots more things to do, most of them on-line, and in all of this, I am surprised how little I see other people out there. When working at home, it is easy to become isolated from the rest of humanity - and yet, it is that humanity that ultimately is my link to reality. It is where clients come from, where social life is and, for a mildly extroverted person like myself, where sanity lies.
When spending the whole day with my nose in my laptop, it becomes necessary to consciously remember to stay active, to get out and socialize, to vary the scenery. In short, I need to get my keester of the house, just as much as I needed to get out of my cubicle a few weeks before. I guess that in some ways, the more things change, the more they stay the same.
I'm sure there are lots more lessons to come as I have only begun the road into the world of self-employment. In the timeline of post-liberation, this is only the second week.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Late night thoughts during History Channel's Armageddon Week
The last couple of days before 2012 begins, and this has been Armageddon week on the History Channel. Most of the shows have been repeats of things in previous years, but they still get me to thinking. What is actually around the corner.
This little stretch of time, especially, with so much happening in my own life and in the lives of those around me, seems to just drive home the point. Something really big is happening, and it's not at all clear what that thing is. Big, earthshaking and ambiguous, all at once.
I've often heard the saying, as above, so below, as within, so without. To me, that couldn't be more true. The turmoil I see in the lives of so many people around me seems both personal and global at the same time. I just got word this evening that a family member is quite ill. No details yet, at least nothing that I want to share on a blog. But lots more will be happening in the next few days, I'm afraid.
And then, there's the ubiquitous job changes. I've heard several people close to me telling me of the same thing I just experienced - that they think their jobs are in jeopardy. In spite of the propaganda I have been hearing about how the economy is picking up, and about how companies are hiring, etc., I still hear people saying they are worried about being laid off from their own jobs. So we're still not out of the woods - not by a long-shot.
So, where is this all going? That's the question I've been asking for years, now. Is some fundamental catastrophe going to occur on 12/21/2012? Or is it simply another day in the quickening pace of change? At the moment, my bet is that it will be a combination of things - and the winter solstice, galactic alignment, and all that other stuff, will be simply a mile marker in the ongoing progression of increasingly momentous current events. But those events will be mostly human-made.
The biggest of these is the change of climate. My own bet is that this will hit the fan in the next year or so. The sudden cascade of events seems too far along to reverse now. This has never been more apparent than it was this evening as we took the dogs for a walk. Last year at this time, we had a couple feet of snow. This year, we almost didn't need a coat on. It's above freezing outside. In fact, I talked with a couple of neighbors who were working on their car, wearing shirtsleeves (I didn't think it was that warm, but still...).
It reminds me of the calm before the storm - such as in Whitley Strieber's Global Superstorm scenario. Is the prediction of the key-master in his narrative actually going to come about? Will we then have a sudden "Younger Dryas" episode in which the ice age suddenly resurges? I guess we can really only wait and see. It will be the ultimate experiment in climate physics, with the fate of civilization hanging on the outcome.
Still, while I could well be wrong, I doubt events will be that dramatic. My own bet is that Christmas of 2012 will come and go with no great global disaster. Yet at the same time, the world will have fundamentally changed - perhaps without us really being aware of its magnitude. And I suspect that once again, people like me will spend another evening, perhaps tuning into something on late night TV. Who knows, maybe it will even be another rerun of Armageddon Week on the History Channel.
This little stretch of time, especially, with so much happening in my own life and in the lives of those around me, seems to just drive home the point. Something really big is happening, and it's not at all clear what that thing is. Big, earthshaking and ambiguous, all at once.
I've often heard the saying, as above, so below, as within, so without. To me, that couldn't be more true. The turmoil I see in the lives of so many people around me seems both personal and global at the same time. I just got word this evening that a family member is quite ill. No details yet, at least nothing that I want to share on a blog. But lots more will be happening in the next few days, I'm afraid.
And then, there's the ubiquitous job changes. I've heard several people close to me telling me of the same thing I just experienced - that they think their jobs are in jeopardy. In spite of the propaganda I have been hearing about how the economy is picking up, and about how companies are hiring, etc., I still hear people saying they are worried about being laid off from their own jobs. So we're still not out of the woods - not by a long-shot.
So, where is this all going? That's the question I've been asking for years, now. Is some fundamental catastrophe going to occur on 12/21/2012? Or is it simply another day in the quickening pace of change? At the moment, my bet is that it will be a combination of things - and the winter solstice, galactic alignment, and all that other stuff, will be simply a mile marker in the ongoing progression of increasingly momentous current events. But those events will be mostly human-made.
The biggest of these is the change of climate. My own bet is that this will hit the fan in the next year or so. The sudden cascade of events seems too far along to reverse now. This has never been more apparent than it was this evening as we took the dogs for a walk. Last year at this time, we had a couple feet of snow. This year, we almost didn't need a coat on. It's above freezing outside. In fact, I talked with a couple of neighbors who were working on their car, wearing shirtsleeves (I didn't think it was that warm, but still...).
It reminds me of the calm before the storm - such as in Whitley Strieber's Global Superstorm scenario. Is the prediction of the key-master in his narrative actually going to come about? Will we then have a sudden "Younger Dryas" episode in which the ice age suddenly resurges? I guess we can really only wait and see. It will be the ultimate experiment in climate physics, with the fate of civilization hanging on the outcome.
Still, while I could well be wrong, I doubt events will be that dramatic. My own bet is that Christmas of 2012 will come and go with no great global disaster. Yet at the same time, the world will have fundamentally changed - perhaps without us really being aware of its magnitude. And I suspect that once again, people like me will spend another evening, perhaps tuning into something on late night TV. Who knows, maybe it will even be another rerun of Armageddon Week on the History Channel.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
No such thing as overtime
I have heard people comment about how leisurely it is to not have to go to work in the morning. I've heard descriptions of the leisure age, etc... Well, those people have not started a business upon leaving the day job. Let me tell you - the hours spent working on stuff for the business can easily outstrip any amount of overtime put in on the day job.
Since being 'liberated' from my day job last week, I think I have probably been putting in about a 12 to 14 hour day. Most of this has been spent working on my website, bringing it up to snuff again. This is not to mention various marketing, writing, etc., projects.
I remember one of the leaders in the National Guild of Hypnotists talking about how everything you do during your work should be toward either producing for a client, or marketing your services to obtain new clients and work. In that light, when just getting started, it takes probably that long just to get the fundamentals in place.
Will it settle down after a while? Probably - it will probably settle back to "only" 60 hours a week. :-) So ultimately, doing anything like this has to be a labor of love. I couldn't imagine doing something like this unless I cared deeply for what I am doing.
I have heard the statement that when you do what you love, there is no difference between work and play. And when playing, there is no such thing as overtime.
Since being 'liberated' from my day job last week, I think I have probably been putting in about a 12 to 14 hour day. Most of this has been spent working on my website, bringing it up to snuff again. This is not to mention various marketing, writing, etc., projects.
I remember one of the leaders in the National Guild of Hypnotists talking about how everything you do during your work should be toward either producing for a client, or marketing your services to obtain new clients and work. In that light, when just getting started, it takes probably that long just to get the fundamentals in place.
Will it settle down after a while? Probably - it will probably settle back to "only" 60 hours a week. :-) So ultimately, doing anything like this has to be a labor of love. I couldn't imagine doing something like this unless I cared deeply for what I am doing.
I have heard the statement that when you do what you love, there is no difference between work and play. And when playing, there is no such thing as overtime.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Seven days of contiuous change makes one weak
The end of a week - and oh what a week it has been.
The full impact hasn't really set in but the bottom line is that I feel like life in the seven days has been a kaleidoscope, a fast-moving, ever-changing swirl. In seven days, I went from being a comfortable (sort of) denizen of CubeWorld to a new resident in the world of the self employed. The way I heard that put is that seven days of continuous change makes one weak. :-)
I have heard the difference between the corporate employee and the self-employed freelancer as being analogous to the difference between the house pet and the wild animal. As an wild animal, one has to hunt and forage for food. In the human (business) world, that's called marketing.
So, in the next week, it will be time to take stock, make plans and start taking the next steps toward launching the business. A few things come to mind:
The full impact hasn't really set in but the bottom line is that I feel like life in the seven days has been a kaleidoscope, a fast-moving, ever-changing swirl. In seven days, I went from being a comfortable (sort of) denizen of CubeWorld to a new resident in the world of the self employed. The way I heard that put is that seven days of continuous change makes one weak. :-)
I have heard the difference between the corporate employee and the self-employed freelancer as being analogous to the difference between the house pet and the wild animal. As an wild animal, one has to hunt and forage for food. In the human (business) world, that's called marketing.
So, in the next week, it will be time to take stock, make plans and start taking the next steps toward launching the business. A few things come to mind:
- Look at marketing opportunities. I had ignored most of that while I was working 50+ hours per week in CubeWorld. No time to deliver, much less market my business, when I was spending every waking moment at the day job. Now, that's over. Time to hit the ground running.
- Get my website updated - meaning find new web software to replace MS FrontPage (see earlier article on this).
- Start on the next book after The Cosmic Bridge. I've been wanting to get that going, and now it's high time to quit procrastinating.
Come Monday, it will have been seven days since the week of change began. The initial wave is over. The impact has only begun to settle in but I know that this week, the reality of this new path will begin to take shape.
The seven days have passed and now as I put distance between myself and the events of last week, the perspective takes shape. Now, I begin to see that seven days of change really do make one week.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
A frightened abductee or a pretty good actor.
Late last night, as I was sitting on the couch in my studio and reading a novel, the phone suddenly rang. This was somewhat after 11:30 PM CST - nearly midnight. Who the hell would be calling at this hour? The only things I could think of were family emergency, a UFO sighting occurring in real time, a prankster, or a frightened, freaked-out experiencer. I picked up the phone and answered. Apparently, it one of the was the latter two possibilities.
I won't use any names, but the person indentified himself, slowly, fearfully, haltingly. I finally coaxed his first name out of him, and asked him what had happened. He said his name was 'Ted' (a pseudonym), and he had just experienced an alien abduction, only a few hours before.
I asked him to describe it - I won't give the exact details here, but will say enough to convey the emotional torment that Ted was portraying to me. In short, from his speech, the tone of his voice, etc. it was plain to me that this incident- whatever it was - had scared the tar out of him.
I asked him where he was. He gave me the name of a town, a little town that I had never heard of, somewhere in a southwestern state. I asked him for his phone number and he asked me why. Didn't I have caller ID? I explained that the number wasn't visible to me at the moment but he hedged on giving me the number anyway.
My intent was to see if the number he gave me matched the number I would later look up on my caller ID. Still, sympathetic to his fear, I said OK. I could get it from my Caller ID, later.
I asked him to describe what had happened and he proceeded to begin his story.
He had been walking out of the plant where he worked, sometime in the wee hours (he wasn't sure of the exact time, but it is clearly well after Midnight). Preoccupied with his own concerns, he suddenly found himself interrupted as, a hundred or so feet away, an alien-looking - device/craft appeared barely in front of him. Two beings appeared from the object and escorted him to the craft. His next memory was of lying in the dirt, apparently about two hours later.
His voice cracked as he was speaking, describing in slow, painful steps, what had happened. I again asked him his phone number and again he refused to tell me - making me suspicious. I said OK, I understand, and left it at that. I could, indeed, look it up on caller ID., but I wanted to see what his reply would be. It was revealing indeed - again, it made me suspicious.
I gave him the name of the MUFON state director for his area. He thanked me and we ended the conversation. As I hung up the phone, I was still uncertain of the veracity of the case. Was this man really frightened, or was he just a really good actor? I suspected the latter.
I looked up his phone number and name on caler ID. To my surprise, it displayed a name, which I will describe as "Jim Smith." The name appeared to have nothing to do with anyone living in his area, and/or with his name he had given me. Furthermore, when I did a reverse phone lookup on-line, I found that the phone was registered to someone in southern California (I'll say San Diego). The location, just like the name, had nothing to do with the phone number and name of the person who had called me.
Passing it off as a prank, I ignored the event as just one of those annoying events that dot the picture of life. Like rain during a picnic, a fly on the wall, etc., it was ultimately of no real consequence. Still, I wonder. If the guy was making all of this up, he was passing up a great career as an actor. This guy had sounded really scared, scatterbrained and generally distressed. Hoaxing that was certainly possible, but for what reason? Why waste his talent on something like giving me a rough time?
People do things for a variety of reasons, and like all other aspects of the phenomenon, these are a mystery to me. But whoever he was, I wish him well - either as a close encounter experiencer, or as a pretty decent actor.
I won't use any names, but the person indentified himself, slowly, fearfully, haltingly. I finally coaxed his first name out of him, and asked him what had happened. He said his name was 'Ted' (a pseudonym), and he had just experienced an alien abduction, only a few hours before.
I asked him to describe it - I won't give the exact details here, but will say enough to convey the emotional torment that Ted was portraying to me. In short, from his speech, the tone of his voice, etc. it was plain to me that this incident- whatever it was - had scared the tar out of him.
I asked him where he was. He gave me the name of a town, a little town that I had never heard of, somewhere in a southwestern state. I asked him for his phone number and he asked me why. Didn't I have caller ID? I explained that the number wasn't visible to me at the moment but he hedged on giving me the number anyway.
My intent was to see if the number he gave me matched the number I would later look up on my caller ID. Still, sympathetic to his fear, I said OK. I could get it from my Caller ID, later.
I asked him to describe what had happened and he proceeded to begin his story.
He had been walking out of the plant where he worked, sometime in the wee hours (he wasn't sure of the exact time, but it is clearly well after Midnight). Preoccupied with his own concerns, he suddenly found himself interrupted as, a hundred or so feet away, an alien-looking - device/craft appeared barely in front of him. Two beings appeared from the object and escorted him to the craft. His next memory was of lying in the dirt, apparently about two hours later.
His voice cracked as he was speaking, describing in slow, painful steps, what had happened. I again asked him his phone number and again he refused to tell me - making me suspicious. I said OK, I understand, and left it at that. I could, indeed, look it up on caller ID., but I wanted to see what his reply would be. It was revealing indeed - again, it made me suspicious.
I gave him the name of the MUFON state director for his area. He thanked me and we ended the conversation. As I hung up the phone, I was still uncertain of the veracity of the case. Was this man really frightened, or was he just a really good actor? I suspected the latter.
I looked up his phone number and name on caler ID. To my surprise, it displayed a name, which I will describe as "Jim Smith." The name appeared to have nothing to do with anyone living in his area, and/or with his name he had given me. Furthermore, when I did a reverse phone lookup on-line, I found that the phone was registered to someone in southern California (I'll say San Diego). The location, just like the name, had nothing to do with the phone number and name of the person who had called me.
Passing it off as a prank, I ignored the event as just one of those annoying events that dot the picture of life. Like rain during a picnic, a fly on the wall, etc., it was ultimately of no real consequence. Still, I wonder. If the guy was making all of this up, he was passing up a great career as an actor. This guy had sounded really scared, scatterbrained and generally distressed. Hoaxing that was certainly possible, but for what reason? Why waste his talent on something like giving me a rough time?
People do things for a variety of reasons, and like all other aspects of the phenomenon, these are a mystery to me. But whoever he was, I wish him well - either as a close encounter experiencer, or as a pretty decent actor.
Wait - Stop - you don't do that anymore
This evening, we were driving home from Saint Paul to Minneapolis, traveling West/North, passing through Minneapolis. On I94, we passed close to the Skyscraper Forest that is downtown Minneapolis and, before getting to the Lowry Tunnel, I got a good really look at the city skyline.
One very pretty feature of the skyline is the beacon on the top of the Target building. It is a light array, a continuous wall of light that displays continually changing designs. The designs continuously display and shift according to some chaos-based algorithm such that the same design never appears twice (at least to the perspective of the viewer).
This holiday season, they had placed up there a new design, with holiday colors; red, green, white, etc. It looks really pretty and as I was driving past, I thought about the change in the display. What had it taken to change the display software? How was it done? Was there a process behind it?
One thought usually leads to another. For a moment, I thought about a programmer, somewhere - probably a team of them - updating the algorithm, changing the lighting sequence. I wondered whether someone had written a change request, updated the code, reviewed the modifications, checked the changes into the build, ran the regression tests to verify the change and...
WAIT!!! STOP!!!!
Stopping the flow of thought dead in its tracks, I reminded myself - Craig, you don't do that any more. You just left your job as a computer programmer and software engineer. You are a hypnotist and a writer now - Remember?
Oh yeah, I forgot... :-)
Laughing about this internal/imaginary dialog, I told Gwyn, sitting on the passenger side, about it. Like me, she got a good laugh. Then, saying no more, we continued on, the highway taking us into the tunnel. The light show passed from view - and just like my job up until this week, it disappeared into history.
One very pretty feature of the skyline is the beacon on the top of the Target building. It is a light array, a continuous wall of light that displays continually changing designs. The designs continuously display and shift according to some chaos-based algorithm such that the same design never appears twice (at least to the perspective of the viewer).
This holiday season, they had placed up there a new design, with holiday colors; red, green, white, etc. It looks really pretty and as I was driving past, I thought about the change in the display. What had it taken to change the display software? How was it done? Was there a process behind it?
One thought usually leads to another. For a moment, I thought about a programmer, somewhere - probably a team of them - updating the algorithm, changing the lighting sequence. I wondered whether someone had written a change request, updated the code, reviewed the modifications, checked the changes into the build, ran the regression tests to verify the change and...
WAIT!!! STOP!!!!
Stopping the flow of thought dead in its tracks, I reminded myself - Craig, you don't do that any more. You just left your job as a computer programmer and software engineer. You are a hypnotist and a writer now - Remember?
Oh yeah, I forgot... :-)
Laughing about this internal/imaginary dialog, I told Gwyn, sitting on the passenger side, about it. Like me, she got a good laugh. Then, saying no more, we continued on, the highway taking us into the tunnel. The light show passed from view - and just like my job up until this week, it disappeared into history.
Friday, December 16, 2011
A wealth of possibilities - in website software, that is
Wow, two blog posts in one day - and that after not having updated my blog for nearly a year. I guess things change when you free up fifty hours of your week... :-)
One primary task since my 'liberation moment ' a couple of days ago is to get my website back up to par. There have been a lot of changes in the WWW world, resulting in a number of broken links, outdated servcices, etc. And, what is the major stumbling block, Microsoft FrontPage, the website editor program I had on my old laptop (a 32 bit machine),doesn't work worth diddly on my new laptop (a 64 bit machine) . So my first step before I can do much of anything with my website is to get a new web editor program.
I had been having problems with FrontPage for a long time, anyway. So this just forced the issue. But now, it has gotten really bad. I had a link bar at the top of the each page of my site. Unfortunately, after a few edits, FrontPage corrupts the page, leaving the page containing nothing but the link bar - displayed about five times, and nothing else. I finally had to go under the covers, as it were, and manually fix the HTML code after each cycle to remove the redundant link bar - one of those times where it helps to be a software engineer as well as a hypnotherapist.
A few years ago, when I thought about replacing FrontPage, I did a web search and didn't find a whole lot out there. Now, I find a really big array of options. A few of these are free, and the rest cost money - but to my surprise, not all that much money.
I found that the basic version of the Microsoft Expression Studio - apparently the son of FrontPage, seems reasonably priced, somewhere around $150 (order of magnitude price est). Others seem to cost anywhere from $50 to $200 for a pretty good array of features. So I'm open to any suggestions. I wonder who out there has found the best web editor for WYSIWYG editing but with the ability to go in and tweak the HTML code (I'm still a software engineer, remember). I also will need to add a real storefront, a guestbook and a few other Web 2.0 features. In short, I need a real website...
Feel free to leave a comment here if you would like to share your own experiences with this little twist in the information highway.
Thanks,
- Craig R. Lang
www.craigrlang.com
www.thecosmicbridge.com
One primary task since my 'liberation moment ' a couple of days ago is to get my website back up to par. There have been a lot of changes in the WWW world, resulting in a number of broken links, outdated servcices, etc. And, what is the major stumbling block, Microsoft FrontPage, the website editor program I had on my old laptop (a 32 bit machine),doesn't work worth diddly on my new laptop (a 64 bit machine) . So my first step before I can do much of anything with my website is to get a new web editor program.
I had been having problems with FrontPage for a long time, anyway. So this just forced the issue. But now, it has gotten really bad. I had a link bar at the top of the each page of my site. Unfortunately, after a few edits, FrontPage corrupts the page, leaving the page containing nothing but the link bar - displayed about five times, and nothing else. I finally had to go under the covers, as it were, and manually fix the HTML code after each cycle to remove the redundant link bar - one of those times where it helps to be a software engineer as well as a hypnotherapist.
A few years ago, when I thought about replacing FrontPage, I did a web search and didn't find a whole lot out there. Now, I find a really big array of options. A few of these are free, and the rest cost money - but to my surprise, not all that much money.
I found that the basic version of the Microsoft Expression Studio - apparently the son of FrontPage, seems reasonably priced, somewhere around $150 (order of magnitude price est). Others seem to cost anywhere from $50 to $200 for a pretty good array of features. So I'm open to any suggestions. I wonder who out there has found the best web editor for WYSIWYG editing but with the ability to go in and tweak the HTML code (I'm still a software engineer, remember). I also will need to add a real storefront, a guestbook and a few other Web 2.0 features. In short, I need a real website...
Feel free to leave a comment here if you would like to share your own experiences with this little twist in the information highway.
Thanks,
- Craig R. Lang
www.craigrlang.com
www.thecosmicbridge.com
Transitions
Well, it finally happened.
For a long time, I have been talking about changing careers, leaving the day job, etc. Finally, it looks like God took me up on my request. It truly gives new meaning to the expression, be careful what you wish for. In short, the bottom line, I got laid off from my day job, just at the right time to begin building my business.
This was something whose time had come. The company was having big problems and so, I suspect that big cutbacks were inevitable. My heart goes out to the ones who are left, they will have a lot of work to do and only about half the staff left to do it. Meanwhile, for me, it's onward to other things.
Every morning so far (in the last two days) since I got 'liberated,' I have awakened thinking about one programming problem or another that I was working on at the day job. Old habits die hard - but they DO die.
My first post-liberation question was, do I want to go get another job in engineering? For thirty-plus years, that has been my bread and butter. I spent eighteen years at Medtronic, one and a half at LSI Logic and nearly ten at Guidant/Boston Scientific.
I love programming and I love engineering. I also love developing healing technology. One of my best experiences in life was at Medtronic Neuro, when a patient wearing one of our pain control devices came in for a tour of the development labs. She, her doctor, her husband, her sister and the care nurse who had been with her for years, all visited the company, speaking at the annual Christmas program. This is the annual observance where they have (had?) patients and their doctors speak on their use of the company's devices. - how they boosted their quality of life, etc.
That day, the woman wearing one of the first of the new pain-control device I had worked on (I had been the software lead engineer and architect), along with her sister, husband and care attendant, all took a tour through our development labs - including seeing the rat's nest of a prototype of that device I still had spread out across the lab bench. I will never forget the look on her face when she saw the birthplace of the device that allowed her - finally - to walk again. Regardless of whatever I might say, grousing about the politics of CubeWorld or the foibles and politics of corporate America, that one moment made it all worthwhile.
Seeing the tears of joy in her eyes literally brought tears of joy to mine. It was probably the high point of my biomedical/software engineering career. But it is also part of the past. Now, the future calls.
My personal mantra -mission statement, if you will - has long been To Explore, To Understand, To serve. And now, it is time to put those words into action.
My first change - and I think I had long ago started the first steps down this road - is to become an independent business person - self-employed as a hypnotherapist, anomaly researcher, writer and public speaker on topics such as close encounters and healing work.
One of the biggest things I have wanted to do is push the envelope of what we currently know - To Explore. To that end, I hope to do an increasing amount of work with MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network. To date, this has been, to say the least, a mind-boggling adventure. Earlier blog posts (a lot earlier, as I have not been very good at keeping up my blog), describe fascinating things in the UFO and Close Encounter world. I don't need to go into that here. Also, there's a lot more on my two sites: www.craigrlang.com and www.thecosmicbridge.com.
The second point - To Understand: What is the truth behind the array of phenomena we encounter just over the horizon, UFOlogical, parapsychological, esoteric, and much more. I don't know exactly where this will lead but it is very much the center lane of the road ahead. What I do know it that it will most likely involve a whole lot more writing.
First step (after I finish this blog post, that is), is to get my novel published, The Fifth Key. It is a story about two UFO abduction experiencers, caught in the conflict between two civilizations vying for control of Earth (OK, I know you are asking why 'controlled.' Our sovereignty over our world is another whole issue; exopolitics is rapidly becoming a fascinating topic in itself) and our region of the cosmos. After The Fifth Key (which I am now trying to get published), the second book will be Children of the Stars, the continuing story of the two main characters in The Fifth Key.
Somewhere in there, I hope to finish (and hopefully get published) a follow-on to The Cosmic Bridge. this will be a second edition to Bridge and/or an entirely new book, which I tentatively plan to call the Close Encounter Survival Guide. All of this will take me years (hopefully not too many) to get done and out the door. Lots of stuff to keep me off the streets.
The third point - To Serve. This is probably where the small business road will lead - continuing down the road of the healer. It's what I loved most about work in the engineering world and it takes me back full circle, to the pain patient visiting our lab so many years before.
No doubt, it will be centered around my hypnotherapy practice - I plan to focus on fear management, helping people resolve the unexplained and helping people to come to terms with post-traumatic issues. Lots more on this as I develop this further. But for now, let's just say it is the left lane - the fast lane - of the road ahead.
Meanwhile, the transition has been interesting. For the last several days now, instead of getting in my car to go to work, I have stepped through the door into my studio. Once there, I am at work. The first tasks are, update my website, get my book ready to be published and get it sent out to agents, etc. Then it will be to find an office, focus on marketing my hypnotherapy practice, etc. etc. etc. etc. Life is never dull.
They say that being freelance is wonderful - you get to choose your own hours, as long as they total up to 168 in a week (24 X 7). I guess we will see how that works. For now, it is a tremendously fascinating experience to transition from the regularly-ordered world of the corporate cubicle to the completly unstructured world of the self-employed. I expect there will be a lot of lessons in the near future, a lot of joys and a few tears.
Well, enough for now. My office staff (my two shelty-poo pups, Libby and Stormy) need to go outside for a few moments.
For a long time, I have been talking about changing careers, leaving the day job, etc. Finally, it looks like God took me up on my request. It truly gives new meaning to the expression, be careful what you wish for. In short, the bottom line, I got laid off from my day job, just at the right time to begin building my business.
This was something whose time had come. The company was having big problems and so, I suspect that big cutbacks were inevitable. My heart goes out to the ones who are left, they will have a lot of work to do and only about half the staff left to do it. Meanwhile, for me, it's onward to other things.
Every morning so far (in the last two days) since I got 'liberated,' I have awakened thinking about one programming problem or another that I was working on at the day job. Old habits die hard - but they DO die.
My first post-liberation question was, do I want to go get another job in engineering? For thirty-plus years, that has been my bread and butter. I spent eighteen years at Medtronic, one and a half at LSI Logic and nearly ten at Guidant/Boston Scientific.
I love programming and I love engineering. I also love developing healing technology. One of my best experiences in life was at Medtronic Neuro, when a patient wearing one of our pain control devices came in for a tour of the development labs. She, her doctor, her husband, her sister and the care nurse who had been with her for years, all visited the company, speaking at the annual Christmas program. This is the annual observance where they have (had?) patients and their doctors speak on their use of the company's devices. - how they boosted their quality of life, etc.
That day, the woman wearing one of the first of the new pain-control device I had worked on (I had been the software lead engineer and architect), along with her sister, husband and care attendant, all took a tour through our development labs - including seeing the rat's nest of a prototype of that device I still had spread out across the lab bench. I will never forget the look on her face when she saw the birthplace of the device that allowed her - finally - to walk again. Regardless of whatever I might say, grousing about the politics of CubeWorld or the foibles and politics of corporate America, that one moment made it all worthwhile.
Seeing the tears of joy in her eyes literally brought tears of joy to mine. It was probably the high point of my biomedical/software engineering career. But it is also part of the past. Now, the future calls.
My personal mantra -mission statement, if you will - has long been To Explore, To Understand, To serve. And now, it is time to put those words into action.
My first change - and I think I had long ago started the first steps down this road - is to become an independent business person - self-employed as a hypnotherapist, anomaly researcher, writer and public speaker on topics such as close encounters and healing work.
One of the biggest things I have wanted to do is push the envelope of what we currently know - To Explore. To that end, I hope to do an increasing amount of work with MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network. To date, this has been, to say the least, a mind-boggling adventure. Earlier blog posts (a lot earlier, as I have not been very good at keeping up my blog), describe fascinating things in the UFO and Close Encounter world. I don't need to go into that here. Also, there's a lot more on my two sites: www.craigrlang.com and www.thecosmicbridge.com.
The second point - To Understand: What is the truth behind the array of phenomena we encounter just over the horizon, UFOlogical, parapsychological, esoteric, and much more. I don't know exactly where this will lead but it is very much the center lane of the road ahead. What I do know it that it will most likely involve a whole lot more writing.
First step (after I finish this blog post, that is), is to get my novel published, The Fifth Key. It is a story about two UFO abduction experiencers, caught in the conflict between two civilizations vying for control of Earth (OK, I know you are asking why 'controlled.' Our sovereignty over our world is another whole issue; exopolitics is rapidly becoming a fascinating topic in itself) and our region of the cosmos. After The Fifth Key (which I am now trying to get published), the second book will be Children of the Stars, the continuing story of the two main characters in The Fifth Key.
Somewhere in there, I hope to finish (and hopefully get published) a follow-on to The Cosmic Bridge. this will be a second edition to Bridge and/or an entirely new book, which I tentatively plan to call the Close Encounter Survival Guide. All of this will take me years (hopefully not too many) to get done and out the door. Lots of stuff to keep me off the streets.
The third point - To Serve. This is probably where the small business road will lead - continuing down the road of the healer. It's what I loved most about work in the engineering world and it takes me back full circle, to the pain patient visiting our lab so many years before.
No doubt, it will be centered around my hypnotherapy practice - I plan to focus on fear management, helping people resolve the unexplained and helping people to come to terms with post-traumatic issues. Lots more on this as I develop this further. But for now, let's just say it is the left lane - the fast lane - of the road ahead.
Meanwhile, the transition has been interesting. For the last several days now, instead of getting in my car to go to work, I have stepped through the door into my studio. Once there, I am at work. The first tasks are, update my website, get my book ready to be published and get it sent out to agents, etc. Then it will be to find an office, focus on marketing my hypnotherapy practice, etc. etc. etc. etc. Life is never dull.
They say that being freelance is wonderful - you get to choose your own hours, as long as they total up to 168 in a week (24 X 7). I guess we will see how that works. For now, it is a tremendously fascinating experience to transition from the regularly-ordered world of the corporate cubicle to the completly unstructured world of the self-employed. I expect there will be a lot of lessons in the near future, a lot of joys and a few tears.
Well, enough for now. My office staff (my two shelty-poo pups, Libby and Stormy) need to go outside for a few moments.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
What is Hypnosis?
This is the scratchpad for the next article in my column and newsletter: The CE4 Corner
==============================
This morning, I attended a class at our church on understanding Islam. The class was excellent; the instructor was one of the kindest, most open-minded individuals I have met in a long time.
Afterwards, I asked him for his card, and gave him mine, which read, Craig R. Lang, Certified Hypnotherapist.
His response was curious, at best. I could tell there was something not quite right about his reaction. As we were walking out to the parking lot, we got to talking about the topic and I asked him what the issue had been. I have had clients of nearly every religion, including Baha'i, conservative Christian, Mormon, and ultra-rationalist. But I have never had a Muslim client. I asked him why this might be and his response was short and to the point. The practice of magic is forbidden to Muslims.
I asked him more about what he meant by that. He told me that Muslims viewed hypnosis just as they viewed mind altering drugs, sorcery, divination, etc. I asked him if he knew what hypnosis really was and he said no. So I explained it to him. In doing so, I saw his eyes light up in a way I have not seen in a long time. Granted, he was extremely open-minded. Yet he was able to see (and presumably correct) the misconception. Are others so open?
I asked him if he had ever found himself deeply buried in a good book, movie, television show, or other such medium. He said yes - often, in fact. I told him that at that moment, he had been hypnotized.
Had he ever daydreamed? Yes. - Good. At that moment he had been hypnotized.
Had he ever been deeply devoted to contemplative prayer, such that time seemed to stand still? Yes. At that moment he had been hypnotized.
Had he ever daydreamed? Yes. At that moment he had been hypnotized as well.
In short, there is nothing magical about hypnosis.
We spend a moderate percentage of our waking day in a hypnotic state. Any time you get a creative thought, ponder a question, consider an idea or deeply concentrate on a problem, you are in a form of hypnosis. So just exactly what is hypnosis?
Hypnosis is merely the state of selective focus along with the suspension of disbelief - the same thing that occurs when you read and enjoy a good novel. No magic; it is merely a gift of the human mind. If you have a religious perspective, you can think of it as a gift from God, a property of the human mind that allows us to apply the resources of our subconscious to the needs of the moment - as when you get into the groove in an athletic endeavor.
Every time I attend a classical concert at Orchestra Hall, I watch the faces and body language of the musicians. As they play, they become deeply entranced, becoming one with the music they are playing. Watching several of them during a recent concert, I could see the expressions on their faces - deep concentration and thus, deep hypnosis. They were bringing the talents within their subconscious, in this case the gift of music, to their work in the world. It is the gift from God called hypnosis.
In addition, hypnosis allows us to bring healing directly into the subconscious, where it can be most effective. With a trusted hypnotherapist, one can suspend disbelief for a time (though I've seen that such disbelief is never far away), focusing concentration directly on whatever needs to be healed. It is this use of hypnosis that is referred to as hypnotherapy - utilizing the gift that is hypnosis to bring positive change to the mind of the person.
I have had this discussion many a time. Sometimes, people have been open enough to see the misconception. Other times, my argument has been rebuffed. One fundamentalist Christian even said that since I was an evil hypnotist, anything I said must be deception and thus it would be a sin for her to listen to me. What can I say? One has to be at least open minded enough to consider the question - even if you don't necessarily agree with the other person's answer.
In the spirit of open mindedness, I have tried to understand the reason that many with deeply religious (usually conservative) backgrounds have come to believe that hypnosis is magic - usually evil magic. And it appears that the answer is startling, indeed.
Most of what people know of hypnosis comes from shows like CSI, where in one episode a hypnotist was making people jump off of tall buildings, or the like. Another is in science fiction or fantasy movies, where the evil wizard, the malevolent alien, the monster or other such antagonist, entrances the victim, thus gaining power over them. Fortunately, such portrayals are not accurate. But unfortunately, they appear believable. While fun and interesting entertainment, such portrayals end up doing people a disservice, frightening them away from what would otherwise be a wonderful healing medium.
Ultimately, one can only open a dialog and provide the truth about hypnosis. There is no magic involved. It is neither good nor evil, merely a gift. But it brings us a tool allowing humans to perform beyond what would otherwise be possible. It also allows us to bring healing to parts of the mind and body that would otherwise remain unhealed.
Each of us experiences hypnosis each day, a natural property of the human mind. Selective focus and the willful temporary suspension of disbelief - that, my friends, is all there is to hypnosis.
==============================
This morning, I attended a class at our church on understanding Islam. The class was excellent; the instructor was one of the kindest, most open-minded individuals I have met in a long time.
Afterwards, I asked him for his card, and gave him mine, which read, Craig R. Lang, Certified Hypnotherapist.
His response was curious, at best. I could tell there was something not quite right about his reaction. As we were walking out to the parking lot, we got to talking about the topic and I asked him what the issue had been. I have had clients of nearly every religion, including Baha'i, conservative Christian, Mormon, and ultra-rationalist. But I have never had a Muslim client. I asked him why this might be and his response was short and to the point. The practice of magic is forbidden to Muslims.
I asked him more about what he meant by that. He told me that Muslims viewed hypnosis just as they viewed mind altering drugs, sorcery, divination, etc. I asked him if he knew what hypnosis really was and he said no. So I explained it to him. In doing so, I saw his eyes light up in a way I have not seen in a long time. Granted, he was extremely open-minded. Yet he was able to see (and presumably correct) the misconception. Are others so open?
I asked him if he had ever found himself deeply buried in a good book, movie, television show, or other such medium. He said yes - often, in fact. I told him that at that moment, he had been hypnotized.
Had he ever daydreamed? Yes. - Good. At that moment he had been hypnotized.
Had he ever been deeply devoted to contemplative prayer, such that time seemed to stand still? Yes. At that moment he had been hypnotized.
Had he ever daydreamed? Yes. At that moment he had been hypnotized as well.
In short, there is nothing magical about hypnosis.
We spend a moderate percentage of our waking day in a hypnotic state. Any time you get a creative thought, ponder a question, consider an idea or deeply concentrate on a problem, you are in a form of hypnosis. So just exactly what is hypnosis?
Hypnosis is merely the state of selective focus along with the suspension of disbelief - the same thing that occurs when you read and enjoy a good novel. No magic; it is merely a gift of the human mind. If you have a religious perspective, you can think of it as a gift from God, a property of the human mind that allows us to apply the resources of our subconscious to the needs of the moment - as when you get into the groove in an athletic endeavor.
Every time I attend a classical concert at Orchestra Hall, I watch the faces and body language of the musicians. As they play, they become deeply entranced, becoming one with the music they are playing. Watching several of them during a recent concert, I could see the expressions on their faces - deep concentration and thus, deep hypnosis. They were bringing the talents within their subconscious, in this case the gift of music, to their work in the world. It is the gift from God called hypnosis.
In addition, hypnosis allows us to bring healing directly into the subconscious, where it can be most effective. With a trusted hypnotherapist, one can suspend disbelief for a time (though I've seen that such disbelief is never far away), focusing concentration directly on whatever needs to be healed. It is this use of hypnosis that is referred to as hypnotherapy - utilizing the gift that is hypnosis to bring positive change to the mind of the person.
I have had this discussion many a time. Sometimes, people have been open enough to see the misconception. Other times, my argument has been rebuffed. One fundamentalist Christian even said that since I was an evil hypnotist, anything I said must be deception and thus it would be a sin for her to listen to me. What can I say? One has to be at least open minded enough to consider the question - even if you don't necessarily agree with the other person's answer.
In the spirit of open mindedness, I have tried to understand the reason that many with deeply religious (usually conservative) backgrounds have come to believe that hypnosis is magic - usually evil magic. And it appears that the answer is startling, indeed.
Most of what people know of hypnosis comes from shows like CSI, where in one episode a hypnotist was making people jump off of tall buildings, or the like. Another is in science fiction or fantasy movies, where the evil wizard, the malevolent alien, the monster or other such antagonist, entrances the victim, thus gaining power over them. Fortunately, such portrayals are not accurate. But unfortunately, they appear believable. While fun and interesting entertainment, such portrayals end up doing people a disservice, frightening them away from what would otherwise be a wonderful healing medium.
Ultimately, one can only open a dialog and provide the truth about hypnosis. There is no magic involved. It is neither good nor evil, merely a gift. But it brings us a tool allowing humans to perform beyond what would otherwise be possible. It also allows us to bring healing to parts of the mind and body that would otherwise remain unhealed.
Each of us experiences hypnosis each day, a natural property of the human mind. Selective focus and the willful temporary suspension of disbelief - that, my friends, is all there is to hypnosis.
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