Tuesday, November 15, 2011

When a Song is Sung

Are You Singing Your Song?

Whenever people actually find their own song to sing, their deep-seated sense of self-doubt begins to be released, leaving a space for creativity to fill. The song turns out to be beautiful; people find that they can sing it without being punished and even earn a living being themselves.

In every case, the song is socially positive and acceptable. Beneath the fear of being unique, each of us has a powerful craving for as much uniqueness and specialness as possible.

Why is it that at first the prospect of being ourselves is so horrifying? Deep down, as much as we might deny it, all of us have been hurt by having our childhood wishes trampled on, but we accepted it “for our own good.”

A child needs and demands to be respected as a unique person, but being small and helplessly attached to his parent’s approval, he will sacrifice his own feelings to win the reward of their love.

For most of us, our parents fed us their own concept of “being good,” and we conformed to that even if it rankled our still-selfish childhood egos. We were all taught to be good before we wanted to be good. This may sound like a fine distinction, but in later life it makes all the difference between freedom and slavery.

A gap was created between true and false emotions, between what I should feel and what I actually feel. The process is subtle but treacherous. If it goes on long enough, one forgets what it is like simply to be, to let happiness and sadness come when they will, to give or keep as the moment dictates.

Adapted from Unconditional Life: Discovering the Power to Fulfill Your Dreams, by Deepak Chopra (A Bantam Book, 1991).



And so... as it prevails...


Rose Marie Raccioppi

A child's song is sung with delight. It is heard in the scamper of joyful steps. It is felt in the knowing smile. It is the light shuffle of skipping, dancing, jumping, hopping. It is the colors upon paper, the words shared, the questions asked, the wonder experienced, the world perceived. And so here shared is the special song of a seven year old...

Blue Jay Angel

A flower
A bird
An angel of heart
With magical beauty
A creation has its start
Wings of feathers
And touched with love
By all of God’s grace
Here and above.

Grace Page Boyle
7 years of age



Image, Blue Jay Angel, Pen and Ink, ©Grace Page Boyle, 2010-2011.

an added word
Grace loves, flowers, birds and angels.
She created Blue Jay Angel
to express her love for these beautiful gifts of Creation.


Thank You Grace for sharing your love.
Your song is sung
Your song is heard.



Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Cause and Effect ~ Judge confirms Prozac caused teen to murder

Peter R. Breggin, MD

Peter R. Breggin, MD

Judge confirms Prozac caused teen to murder based on Peter Breggin M.D.'s court report and testimony to the Provincial Court of Manitoba, Canada. Boy sentenced and to be released in 10 months

Quote start"This is a landmark legal confirmation of the scientific fact that the newer antidepressants like Prozac, including the SSRI and SNRI antidepressants, can cause violence and even murder." ~ Peter R. Breggin MDQuote end

(PRWEB) November 08, 2011

Final sentencing for the teenager who inexplicably murdered his friend while on Prozac occurred November 4, 2011. The case involved a Winnipeg, Canada teenage high school student with no prior history of violence who, while chatting in his home with two friends, abruptly stabbed one of them to death with a single wound to the chest according to court documents. Provincial Court Judge Robert Heinrichs based his decision upon psychiatrist Peter R. Breggin, M.D.'s report and formal testimony to the court according to the Judge's Opinion.

In the case of “Her Majesty the Queen and C.J.P” (Citation #2011 MBPC 62), in the Provincial Court of Manitoba, Canada, Judge Robert Heinrichs gave the boy a three-year sentence, less time already served, so that he has only 10 months remaining in jail. The judge additionally required community supervision for four years.

Psychiatrist and expert witness for the defense Peter R. Breggin, M.D. said, "This is a landmark legal confirmation of the scientific fact that the newer antidepressants like Prozac, including the SSRI and SNRI antidepressants, can cause violence and even murder."

Dr. Breggin testified that the boy’s primary care physician and his parents alerted the prescribing psychiatric clinic to his deteriorating condition, which included agitation, anger and mood swings. But the clinic continued the Prozac and then doubled it. Seventeen days later, the teen knifed his friend to death, according to court documents.

Provincial court judge Robert Heinrichs read Dr. Breggin’s report and listened to his expert testimony in court. In his written opinion, Judge Heinrichs found “Dr. Breggin's explanation of the effect Prozac was having on C.J.P.'s behaviour both before that day and in committing an impulsive, inexplicable violent act that day corresponds with the evidence; as Dr. Breggin states in his report, there was no significant deliberation or organization by C.J.P. that afternoon.”

Earlier in the year on September 16, 2011 Judge Hendrichs issued his opinion that the sixteen-year-old should be tried as a youth instead of an adult. The judge found that “his mental deterioration and resulting violence would not have taken place without exposure to Prozac." Also confirming Dr. Breggin’s lengthy report and testimony, the judge found , "He has none of the characteristics of a perpetrator of violence. The prospects for rehabilitation are good."

In his report and testimony, Dr. Breggin found that the boy's symptoms were consistent with a Prozac (fluoxetine) Induced Mood Disorder with Manic Features and that he would not have committed the violence if he had not been given the antidepressant. He also testified that the teen had improved dramatically when removed from the Prozac after a few months in jail and that he was no longer a danger to himself or others. He brought numerous independent scientific studies to court confirming that a large percentage of youth exposed to the newer antidepressants will develop these hazardous adverse drug reactions. He also noted that the observations and even the wording of his own earlier scientific publications had been included into the information now found in the official FDA-approved labels. Dr. Breggin’s scientific articles concerning antidepressants can be found on his website at: http://breggin.com.

The defense attorney in the case was Greg Brodsky of Manitoba.

Peter R. Breggin, MD is a psychiatrist in private practice in Ithaca, New York, and the author of dozens of scientific articles and more than twenty scientific and popular books. His two most recent books deal with medication induced violence: Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry, Second Edition, and Medication Madness: the Role of Psychiatric Drugs in Cases of Violence, Suicide and Crime. Dr. Breggin's home website is http://www.breggin.com where many of his scientific reports on antidepressants and other subjects can be retrieved. On April 13-15, 2012 in Syracuse, New York, the annual conference of Dr. Breggin's 501c3 nonprofit international organization,the Center for the Study of Empathic Therapy, will be held. The conference will include a panel of lawyers, experts, survivors and families concerning antidepressant-induced violence, suicide, and crime.


And here an added word

Living Cause and Effect

Rose Marie Raccioppi

Behavior must be looked at from varied and integrated perspectives. All that a child experiences weaves his/her cloak of response. Each thread, be it genetic, environmental, physical, emotional, cognitive, chemical, energetic, cultural, spiritual, perceptual, contributes to the nature and weave of this fabric of BEING. To understand behavior is to understand the interplay of cause and effect. The APOGEE Learning™ paradigm has and continues to support children, teens and adults across the age span by creatively exploring this interplay of cause and effect to determine a course of action and supports that address each identified need. Programs are tailored to each individual and may include, nutritional guidance, exercise, specific academic supports, study skills, sport activities, music, art, dance, creative writing, and the special talents and/or interests of the student. When one, at any age, understands what may trigger a positive or negative response, one moves toward becoming an empowered self.


and so the intent and goal of

The APOGEE Achiever™ Program...

With autonomy, mastery, and purpose
creative, caring, free thinkers
and doers are developed.

All inquiries are welcomed. All posts will receive a response.
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Learning styles honored and supported
Readiness experiences provided
Task analysis applied
Student interests as motivators
The Whole Brain approach to study and mastery

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For information on Qualifications and Experience:
Rose Marie Raccioppi | LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/rose-marie-raccioppi/20/509/293

To listen to a recent interview by the Progressive Radio Network of
Rose Marie Raccioppi
go to: Pure Imagination - 08/31/11 - Pure Imagination

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/pure-imagination/2011/8/31/pure-imagination-083111.html

Monday, November 7, 2011

The Genius of Jobs


The Genius of Jobs

By WALTER ISAACSON
The New York Times
Sunday Review
The Opinion Pages
Published: October 29, 2011

What is the difference between intelligence and genius?
Steve Jobs’s biographer has an idea.

ONE of the questions I wrestled with when writing about Steve Jobs was how smart he was. On the surface, this should not have been much of an issue. You’d assume the obvious answer was: he was really, really smart. Maybe even worth three or four reallys. After all, he was the most innovative and successful business leader of our era and embodied the Silicon Valley dream writ large: he created a start-up in his parents’ garage and built it into the world’s most valuable company.

But I remember having dinner with him a few months ago around his kitchen table, as he did almost every evening with his wife and kids. Someone brought up one of those brainteasers involving a monkey’s having to carry a load of bananas across a desert, with a set of restrictions about how far and how many he could carry at one time, and you were supposed to figure out how long it would take. Mr. Jobs tossed out a few intuitive guesses but showed no interest in grappling with the problem rigorously. I thought about how Bill Gates would have gone click-click-click and logically nailed the answer in 15 seconds, and also how Mr. Gates devoured science books as a vacation pleasure. But then something else occurred to me: Mr. Gates never made the iPod. Instead, he made the Zune.

So was Mr. Jobs smart? Not conventionally. Instead, he was a genius. That may seem like a silly word game, but in fact his success dramatizes an interesting distinction between intelligence and genius. His imaginative leaps were instinctive, unexpected, and at times magical. They were sparked by intuition, not analytic rigor. Trained in Zen Buddhism, Mr. Jobs came to value experiential wisdom over empirical analysis. He didn’t study data or crunch numbers but like a pathfinder, he could sniff the winds and sense what lay ahead.

He told me he began to appreciate the power of intuition, in contrast to what he called “Western rational thought,” when he wandered around India after dropping out of college. “The people in the Indian countryside don’t use their intellect like we do,” he said. “They use their intuition instead ... Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That’s had a big impact on my work.”

Mr. Jobs’s intuition was based not on conventional learning but on experiential wisdom. He also had a lot of imagination and knew how to apply it. As Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Einstein is, of course, the true exemplar of genius. He had contemporaries who could probably match him in pure intellectual firepower when it came to mathematical and analytic processing. Henri PoincarĂ©, for example, first came up with some of the components of special relativity, and David Hilbert was able to grind out equations for general relativity around the same time Einstein did. But neither had the imaginative genius to make the full creative leap at the core of their theories, namely that there is no such thing as absolute time and that gravity is a warping of the fabric of space-time. (O.K., it’s not that simple, but that’s why he was Einstein and we’re not.)

Einstein had the elusive qualities of genius, which included that intuition and imagination that allowed him to think differently (or, as Mr. Jobs’s ads said, to Think Different.) Although he was not particularly religious, Einstein described this intuitive genius as the ability to read the mind of God. When assessing a theory, he would ask himself, Is this the way that God would design the universe? And he expressed his discomfort with quantum mechanics, which is based on the idea that probability plays a governing role in the universe by declaring that he could not believe God would play dice. (At one physics conference, Niels Bohr was prompted to urge Einstein to quit telling God what to do.)

Both Einstein and Mr. Jobs were very visual thinkers. The road to relativity began when the teenage Einstein kept trying to picture what it would be like to ride alongside a light beam. Mr. Jobs spent time almost every afternoon walking around the studio of his brilliant design chief Jony Ive and fingering foam models of the products they were developing.

Mr. Jobs’s genius wasn’t, as even his fanboys admit, in the same quantum orbit as Einstein’s. So it’s probably best to ratchet the rhetoric down a notch and call it ingenuity. Bill Gates is super-smart, but Steve Jobs was super-ingenious. The primary distinction, I think, is the ability to apply creativity and aesthetic sensibilities to a challenge.
In the world of invention and innovation, that means combining an appreciation of the humanities with an understanding of science — connecting artistry to technology, poetry to processors. This was Mr. Jobs’s specialty. “I always thought of myself as a humanities person as a kid, but I liked electronics,” he said. “Then I read something that one of my heroes, Edwin Land of Polaroid, said about the importance of people who could stand at the intersection of humanities and sciences, and I decided that’s what I wanted to do.”

The ability to merge creativity with technology depends on one’s ability to be emotionally attuned to others. Mr. Jobs could be petulant and unkind in dealing with other people, which caused some to think he lacked basic emotional awareness. In fact, it was the opposite. He could size people up, understand their inner thoughts, cajole them, intimidate them, target their deepest vulnerabilities, and delight them at will. He knew, intuitively, how to create products that pleased, interfaces that were friendly, and marketing messages that were enticing.

In the annals of ingenuity, new ideas are only part of the equation. Genius requires execution. When others produced boxy computers with intimidating interfaces that confronted users with unfriendly green prompts that said things like “C:\>,” Mr. Jobs saw there was a market for an interface like a sunny playroom. Hence, the Macintosh. Sure, Xerox came up with the graphical desktop metaphor, but the personal computer it built was a flop and it did not spark the home computer revolution. Between conception and creation, T. S. Eliot observed, there falls the shadow.

In some ways, Mr. Jobs’s ingenuity reminds me of that of Benjamin Franklin, one of my other biography subjects. Among the founders, Franklin was not the most profound thinker — that distinction goes to Jefferson or Madison or Hamilton. But he was ingenious.

This depended, in part, on his ability to intuit the relationships between different things. When he invented the battery, he experimented with it to produce sparks that he and his friends used to kill a turkey for their end of season feast. In his journal, he recorded all the similarities between such sparks and lightning during a thunderstorm, then declared “Let the experiment be made.” So he flew a kite in the rain, drew electricity from the heavens, and ended up inventing the lightning rod. Like Mr. Jobs, Franklin enjoyed the concept of applied creativity — taking clever ideas and smart designs and applying them to useful devices.

China and India are likely to produce many rigorous analytical thinkers and knowledgeable technologists. But smart and educated people don’t always spawn innovation. America’s advantage, if it continues to have one, will be that it can produce people who are also more creative and imaginative, those who know how to stand at the intersection of the humanities and the sciences. That is the formula for true innovation, as Steve Jobs’s career showed.

Walter Isaacson is the author of “Steve Jobs.”

~

...and so an added word...

Thank You Steve Jobs


by
Rose Marie Raccioppi

The creative, risk taking, visionary is not always the ideal school student. The student who questions the status quo and looks to innovation may not find an alluring enough attraction to 'book learning' that has little relevance to particular goals and aspirations. Hundreds of students that have availed themselves of the understanding and the supports inherent in the offerings of APOGEE Learning,™ have been empowered to understand and work with their learning style, their particular way to brain storm, plan and act, move to resolve and/or completion in ways that did not always follow the 'customary' study approaches taught in his/her school of attendance. Steve Jobs exemplified a unified, integrated approach to inquiry, exploration, experimentation, execution and completion. Form and function have been consistently inclusive of a pleasing aesthetic. I have had the pleasure of my first APPLE in 1979 and have enjoyed the benefits of change in each subsequent model. Yes, the mind of a scientist, the temperment of an innovator, the heart of a humanist, the soul of a missionary, defined a journey and we the recipients of his genius have been gifted with a technology that has been life changing.