WHAT HAS BEEN SAID ABOUT Sitting in the Flames?

Posted on January 21, 2016

As reviewed by New York Times best-selling author Ellen Tanner Marsh…
Much has been written about the Vietnam War. We’re all familiar with the brutal carnage, the heroics of soldiers under pressure and the endlessly heartbreaking entries in our history books. Is there a way to extract some good from the tragic war, and if so, how can we put a human face on it?
Author Dr. John Edwin DeVore has written a grippingly personal story of his experiences in Vietnam, an astonishing revelation of how those experiences led him on a spiritual search that transformed his life for the better. Like many veterans, DeVore was forever changed by his time in Vietnam. Overwhelmed with dark memories for 40 years, he struggled to find and create something from the pain. His intense, spiritual journey is the basis of Sitting in the Flames: Uncovering Fearlessness to Help Others, a shining and ambitious addition to the genre.
In clear, heartfelt prose, DeVore describes a brave and unflinching confrontation with his past, made necessary in order for him to have a more meaningful future. War, he realized, isn’t just one man’s experience—it’s the sum total experience of an entire country. To stop wars, he argues, we must understand them and why we seem to need them.
Beautifully told, DeVore’s book is an important and unforgettable addition to the literature of Vietnam-important in helping to erase the still troubled conscience of America and unforgettable for its moving confirmation of the belief that human beings can emerge from the most shattering experiences with their spirit still intact. Above all, this is a finely rendered and heartfelt account of one man’s inner journey to peace.

STATINS BEGONE

Posted on January 4, 2016

For several years, the plethora of literature about the damaging effects of statins on the human cellular system has generated a lingering desire to abandon what today is 30 plus years taking prescribed statin drugs…Mevacor, Zocor, Crestor and Lipitor…for control of inherited high cholesterol. Just yesterday, it felt really good to deliver a “statins be-gone” game plan to a personal physician. For the first time in 30 years I am looking forward to feeling what normal really feels like! Read More

EVOLUTION…Creative Visualization

Posted on December 4, 2015

Having committed the past few months to becoming more aware, understanding, practicing and playing golf using the art and science of creative visualization, intuition is offering that imaging is quite simply another body-mind mastery skill that we need to learn, practice, experience and commit to trust when making shots on the golf course. Working with creative visualization reminds of a memorable experience while in Gangtok, Sikkim India in during the Fall of 2003. Read More

OPTIMUM CELLULAR WELLNESS

Posted on November 14, 2015

Life is a precious gift; and we each need to accept 100% responsibility for the care of the remarkable human systems that need optimum cellular health and wellness for a good quality of life. As Bruce Lipton offers, “Inherent in our essence is the power to create an inner environment that is not susceptible to disease and illness.” The purpose of this blog is to offer a learned prescription for optimum cellular health and wellness. At the outset, it is important to offer that I am not a medical doctor and my perspective is drawn from background, interest and experience. Read More

TWO SHANKS FROM INSANITY

Posted on October 22, 2015

As Fred Shoemaker suggests, a purpose of games is to help us learn about life and our relationship to this exceptionally wonderful gift. However, an on-going experience is that a really tough challenge is to be “awake” for the multitude of messages these games, including golf and the occasional two shanks in a row, have to offer us. The purpose of this blog is to share a recent on-the-course experience and the subsequent re-awakening.
Sunday’s round of golf was total chaos, buried irritation and unrecognized physical tension! As a diehard perfectionist-reformer and dinosaur of our American culture and the culture of golfers, it would be easy to blame the playing partners for the distractions. However, as Michael Brown eloquently reminds, Read More

PACE-OF-PLAY & CREATIVE VISUALIZATION

Posted on October 7, 2015

A frequent question wrestled with on-the-course has been what impact the use of creative visualization has on pace-of-play. A recent personal experience has been that concern with maintaining pace-of-play can be a major distraction when attempting to use imagery during the pre-shot routine. When pace-of-play is of concern, my choice has been not to take the time to either be the ball or be the golfer. My experience has been that it is much easier to forgo the visualization process; go through my normal pre-shot motions; and just hit, pitch, chip or putt the ball.
As discussed in Golfer’s Palette, slow play is the most perplexing problem in golf today. A slow player can ruin the day for all players. In the interest of all, players have an obligation to play at a reasonable pace. An added variable in the pace-of-play equation is the number one revenue producing item on the golf course: green fees. Course management has an obligation to its board to fill as many available tee times with foursomes as possible. From this perspective, pace-of-play becomes a team effort between golfers and course management. Read More

VISUALIZATION & BALL FLIGHT LAWS

Posted on September 27, 2015

As discussed in Golfer’s Palette: Preparing for Peak Performance, there are five ball flight laws that golfers dance with on every shot. These laws have been proven to be invariable under given conditions; and they are absolute in influencing the flight of a golf ball. Three of these laws influence distance: clubhead speed; centeredness of contact of club with the ball; and angle of approach. Two of these laws influence direction: path of swing and clubface position. The purpose of this blog is to share how the practice of creative visualization has enabled this golfer to move knowledge of these fundamental ball flight laws into the bank of useful experience on the golf course.
To review, the practice of visualization your author is using has evolved to be three-fold: during pre-shot routine, make an estimate of the situation; creatively visualize being the ball; and visualize being the golfer. The learning experience surrounding the five ball flight laws has occurred during practice of being the ball. This part of the pre-shot routine has involved sensually “being the ball” from where the ball is to its final resting point at the end of the shot. The six-point, mental menu, amended in this blog with some of the recently experienced ball flight laws, is as follows: Read More

GOLF-PIANO CONNECTION

Posted on September 15, 2015

Could there possibly be a golf-piano connection? In Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven, John Eliot Gardiner remarks, “…the more clearly you scrutinize the music from the outside as listener, and the more deeply you get to know it from the inside as a performer, the better are your chances of uncovering the wonders it has to offer…” Read More

CREATIVE VISUALIZATION

Posted on August 21, 2015

Increased awareness, understanding and commitment to the skill of creative visualization have inspired anxiousness to move the new learning to the course. The purpose of this blog is to share some of the learning and practicing experiences with a view toward keeping you posted about results on the field of friendly strife.
What is creative visualization? Visualization, or imagery, is experiencing performance in the mind and is the equivalent of playing movies in your head. As Macy & Wilding-White suggest, this video needs to be vivid, controllable and positive; and it requires engaging the senses to really see, hear, smell, feel and taste the experience. With learning and practice, this mental rehearsal skill has the potential to increase confidence, sharpen concentration, control nerves and strengthen motivation. This technique of using the imagination to create what you want and to create a clear image, idea or feeling of something you wish to manifest can be quite inspiring. As Bubba Watson remarks, “My golf game is all about imagination turned into something real.” Read More

LOVE PUTTING & THE SHORT GAME

Posted on June 25, 2015

As offered in Golfer’s Palette: Preparing for Peak Performance, if our goal is to save strokes on-the-course, it demands that we learn to love putting and the short game: chip, sand and pitch shots. Why? Because putting and the short game account for 60-65% of the strokes we take during a conventional round of 18 holes of golf. Speaking of data, read a couple days ago that the PGA Tour average from 30 yards to the hole is 2.5 stokes. This probably puts an average golfer about 3.5 to 5.5 strokes from 30 yards to the hole; and certainly suggests that if we have limited practice time, the short game needs to be at the top of the practice list. Just yesterday, my putting and short game accounted for six lost strokes: two missed, 3’ putts; and a pitch shot and three chip shots that stopped more than 6’ from the cup. Let’s take a peek at some putting and short game practice guidelines: Read More