Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
Table of Contents:
Autobiographical
My Visions for the Future
I am a visionary. I don’t claim to be all that great at it, but it’s what I do: I envision what could be. In terms of Jung’s theory of temperament, I’m an intuitive type, I naturally think about things in terms of future possible implications. I’ve also been exposes to a bunch of ideas […]
My Way or Thy Way?
Reading a recently published autobiography by Paul Anka, “My Way” (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2013), I was taken by his description of Frank Sinatra, for whom Anka wrote the hit song, “My Way” in 1969. Sinatra had his ups and downs and was both a bigger-than-life character who had indeed lived a life that’s […]
Naming the Everything
Tradition is strong, and the names of certain gods themselves became sacred, as they were called on as local, special protectors. This is a residue of what was called “hinotheism,” and some have noted that early Judaism didn’t so much as deny the existence of other gods as make it obligatory for our tribe—on pain […]
New Revelations
(Or might they just be fantasies?) It has gradually been revealed to me that I am a representative from the World of Almost-Real, a world in which faeries, sprites trolls, hobgolblins, brownies, elves, and other imagined beings reside. They are co-created by a convergence of resonances from human minds (such as you, believing in […]
New Syndromes
1. Making stuff up. One may not know that one is doing this, and the term confabulation has been applied to this. Doing it on purpose should be recognized as a more enlightened and playful form of this. Shall we call it “conscious confabulation”? I like the fabulous word root in that word and if […]
New Website Papers
You might also go to my website papers and browse to see what is new. Longer papers have been written. More recently, I’ve prepared (and posted) papers on the following topics: 1. De-Mystifying Mysticism, a talk I give on October 27 at a conference on Pediatrics and Spirituality in Houston, Texas. 2. Visionaries: […]
Nibbling At the Ineffable
There are Hindu legend that use the word “kalpa,” which refers to the time it takes for a universe to form. So, alluding to this myth, I envision a tiny bird pecking at a granite mountain, getting a few molecules of that mountain. The meta-cosmos is the great universe that includes the 3-D cosmos plus […]
No More Psychiatry for Me
I became a physician because it fascinated me. It was wonder-full—really! Biology is one of the shining sources of wonder for my mind, and I’m privileged to have studied enough to know that what I learned was only the beginning! But I turned 80 recently and I sort of retired 20 years ago—but now I’ve […]
Nostalgia (Mild)
Slight currents of missing this or that, elements of our old home in Sun City, Texas, the singers’ concert, memories of those who we left behind. Nostalgia, slightly. We’re really very happy, but I was reminded of washes of mild emotionality, like lapping waves—noticeable, but not unsettling—of times, places, groups of bygone times. Some were […]
Not Knowing My Own “Strength”
On reflection, I’ve realized that a source of trouble in my life has been that I truly have not realized that I’m so smart that I confuse people. I haven’t meant to do this, but I really didn’t know. I was bewildered by the responses. I remembered the movie, “Of Mice and Men,” in which […]
Not Limited to a ‘Rational’ Philosophy
And now a venture into contemplation—for I am, of course, a “contemplateur.” I have realized that rational philosophy cannot achieve what it seeks. There is too much in living that transcends rationality, that partakes of play, non-rationality, sensuality, poetry, imagery, paradox, feelings that resist articulation. I call this “nibbling at the ineffable,” the word ineffable […]
Not So Hot
Sometimes I’m hot (good), but sometimes, not so much. So here are some further autobiographical notes that acknowledge the frailty of memory, the natural tendency to fill in the gaps, the unconscious forces that make us paint a picture of whatever we deeply emotionally want it to be. Autobiography is to some degree fiction, someone […]
Not-Really-Effortless Writing
It’s true that writing comes easier to me than many people, but it’s not as easy as it seems. What I write is at times flowing, but I have tendencies to digress (in case you hadn’t noticed), and on re-reading from a new reader’s perspective, I think I would lose part of my audience. So […]
Off The Deep End
I have indeed gone off the deep end. To someone in the shallow end, this is insanely nuts. To those who swim well, well, that’s where the swimming is best. One cannot readily say that “higher” consciousness is “better,” because in ignorance there is bliss. No, that’s somewhat elitist. Actually, certain advantages accrue to those […]
On Idiosyncrasies
An idiosyncrasy is a personal and seemingly odd notion, ritual, habit, obsession, etc. How do bright people come up with such a startling variety of notions? Provisional answer: All our powers of reason cannot penetrate the screen of bias, the thick layers of rationalization generated by our “amplifying unconscious.” The powers of rationalized mythmaking are […]
One of Adam Blatner’s Brain Cells
Zordak visited recently and I asked him about those, "you know, probes?" and he said, oh, yeah, so? I said, "well, did you ever, you know, ‘probe’ me?’ and he goes, "Not necessary. You sort of let it hang out.” ‘n I said, "what’s it feel like?" n he said, “Depends on who’s doing it. […]
Opening Frontiers of Knowledge
Consider that we live at the surface of existence, and are learning to partake of increasing “depth” through successive expansions in many directions, including some of the following: During the 15th and 16th century, the Renaissance, Western culture expanded to reconnect with its own pre-medieval past, the classic Graeco-Roman civilization, along with the spiritual traditions […]
Over-Load Eluded
One of the challenges of the postmodern era is that we become aware—no, we are gently assaulted—with a range of interesting and compelling possibilities, and also calls to action from seemingly noble causes. This morning I was reminded of someone who says the Navy’s sonar testing is hurting the whales and inhibiting their own emission […]
Overcoming a Handicap
I has congenital megacolon, also known as Hirshprung’s Disease. (It was also what Elvis Presley had!) I couldn’t pass my bowels and it piled up. Doctors said it felt like a rock. They took me to a doctor when I was one year old (or earlies) and they did a bilateral sympathectomy, because the disorder […]
Passover Reflections
My Jewish heritage comes up at this time of year as people wish me a happy Passover. It’s awkward, because although I’ve enjoyed elements of the culture—jokes, history, some philosophy, cultural sociology—I am not affiliated with the religion per se. I’m more like the philosopher Spinoza (who actually was excommunicated by his congregation in Amsterdam […]
Peace and Quiet
Ahh. In another dimension I’m a sort of hermit. (My wife Allee is too.) In this cartoon, if we were to put on an international hermit’s conference and not tell anyone where and when it was, that’s okay with us. Ha ha!
Peace and Quiet
Ahhh. We have disguised our little withdrawal space as an inoffensive bedroom within a little seemingly ordinary house on a suburban street in a nondescript section of an ordinary town in a quiet and stable region of a relatively peaceful country on an ecologically stable (for now) planet in a solar system in mid-process—neither beginning […]
Peeking Out
The picture above on my new blog post. Cartoon characters I did as fillers for the University of California newspaper, the Daily Cal, starting in my late Freshman year, around 1956. Looking back, this was a continuation of sketches, and the beginnings of a repertoire of characters who gradually accumulated backstories, qualities of who their […]
People’s Lives
I continue to marvel as I become increasingly aware of the sheer complexity of people’s lives. Of course I know all this, perhaps better than most; but the point is that I continue to “get” more deeply the sheer number of stories—threads of becoming—that weave together. I’ve been a little more into the theme of […]
Peter Rabbit: A Critical Analysis
[Explanation: In October, 2009, played the role of “Linus” in a community production of the late 1960s Broadway Musical “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” based on Charles Schulz’ comic strip, “Peanuts.” I played the part of a rather precocious intellectual child who at the same time was caught up in an infatuation with my […]