Getting sick with Lyme disease definitely altered my perception, leading to a deluge of story ideas. Kind of killed my ability to focus on the page though.
Also, Chuck's story reminds me of the Chinese proverb that goes: bad luck, good luck, who knows
I've done plenty of antibiotics including doxy. They help but once Lyme has gone untreated for a few years it becomes systemic and is hard to get rid of. Re: hippy stuff, herbals have been incredibly helpful, similar to antibiotics but generally safer and less expensive
Absolutely agree. Hit by a car in 2004 and hit the left side of my head on the side panel. Caved in the side panel. No lasting damage beyond a mild concussion and now daily headaches, but my writing definitely went darker at that point. I was in my first year of my English and Creative Degree so remember the shift vividly.
At a certain point this line of reasoning almost becomes advocation for self inflicted blunt force trauma to the head. Someone should write an instructional essay on how to do so without putting oneself in a coma -- or worse.
Any takers?
That truck incident in 2014 -- didn’t that also provide a building block for ‘The Invention of Sound’?
Chuck, you know, every time you talk about this head-injury as a pathway to creative genius, you make me want to charge into a brick wall like a linebacker. And if I do and just get paralyzed from the neck down, I'm going on Oprah and being interviewed. I'll weep through my tragic story and call you out by name and say "Chuck did this to me!" Millions will tune in. And because of the exposure, all your books will soar to the top of the best-seller rankings. But then I'll sue you for all the swag boxes your worth. You know, for emotional damage.
I'm kidding! It's all jokes. I will earn the swag box honestly and ethically. And without any brain damage like a normie.
As far as the moment to moment vs snapshot way of writing, currently I fall into the moment to moment category. Maybe by default. It's what I'm used to. When I think about the snapshot way, I wonder if people will be able to follow. But again, I have no experience with it to speak on.
Also, you know how you've been breaking down your stories? I wanna see you break down a story before your attack. I know it'll never happen, I'm just putting it out there.
Roughly nine years ago I was hit by a car. I was in the crosswalk, they were making a left turn. Never stopped. Never caught.
Anyhow, the impact of the vehicle strike threw me toward the sidewalk. The side of my head connected with the curb. Lights out. Concussed. I have no memory of the impact, but I do have a little scar right at my orbital bone.
I wonder if it's somehow changed me. It was my right side, though. 🤔
I had this experience...not to sound weird but after I sobered up and started taking the anti depressant Mirtzapine my thinking completely warped...into awesomeness. I read the side effects and one of them was "Prone to thinking unusually big ideas."
I have had several traumatic hits to the head, all on my left side. I was so painfully shy as a child people often assumed I was non-verbal. Now I tell rooms full of strangers my most intimate and disturbing thoughts, anatomical abnormalities and talk about dicks too much. We should start a union or at the very least a secret society.
It may be that near death experiences have that effect or maybe it is bio-chemical.
In his book "Breaking Open The Head" Daniel Pinchbeck talks about the most extreme form of Biwiti initiation in Gabon in which the initiant's head is shaved, his tongue is pierced and then after being fed iboga, he is hit in the head 3 times with a hammer to "Break open the head" helping him enter the spirit world.
I heard Daniel Pinchbeck talk about this live while at Burning Man one year and he explained that the beating of the head may help the pineal gland (“seat of the soul” or the “third eye,”) release DMT. That is only a hypothesis though and the pineal gland is still a bit of a mystery to science...
Wow! When I friend of mine went to work for the Dalai Lama, upon their first meeting he smacked her hard across the face. She was stunned, but he explained that the injury was meant "to wake you up to the reality of existence."
That's why the Bishop strikes adolescents during Confirmation, to wake them to the reality of adulthood.
I totally forgot about that, Jay. “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” is full of those anecdotes.
Recently I’ve noticed that if have one too many drinks, the following day my senses are kind of amplified. An energy detector. Like a reverse hangover. Crossing paths with people in the tube, or the airport, wherever, I suddenly know how they’re feeling, what day they’re having.
Or at least I think I do. Never dared to stop them and ask about it. There are good chances that it’s just hangovers hitting me badly as I grow older.
I've been beaten up two times. Once by a gang who hit my head repeatedly with broken bottles (not ashamed to say that I did experience the 'life before your eyes' cliche but a bit embarrassed to say that I also experienced the less stylish 'involuntarily shitting yourself' cliche) and another when a man headbutted me and broke my nose, knocking me out.
I'm honestly not sure either of these events helped at all with creativity, but perhaps altered my concepts and ideas on certain things, which is perhaps what is really going on, rather than some physical or chemical reaction?
Highlight of being beaten so badly? I was wearing a white shirt, kept it, and wore it as a Halloween outfit. Telling people the blood all over my shirt was real, as was the state of my head/face made for some interesting reactions. Happy times.
"In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried" hands down, my favorite Amy Hempel story. That ending line ties it all together with so much heartbreak. Chef's kiss, smack.
What about those of us who haven't been concussed? I'll just go with that I'm weird enough without head trauma. Uhh I mean my world view so different, yeah different.
I will say how heartbreaking it was to run into a female sailor that I knew years later. She had a crush on me when I was on the boat. When she left the Frank Cable, her next boat was the Boxer. During an UNREP she was an safety observer and the other ship mistakenly did a break away. Of all the metal lines that snapped the one closest to her came back and hit her and the ship. It caused her enough brain damage that the Navy medically retired her. Through all the brain damage and the scars she recognized me. It took me a moment to figure out who she happened to be in a crowded hospital hallway. I took her to my office and she told me all about her life since we last saw each other.
The fact she had all that brain damage and she still remembered everything about our time together made me regret the decisions I had made.
What moves me about the Hempel stories is that she can articulate her perception so perfectly that even people who aren't her can have the experience she depicts.
So perception can change, but it requires a skill to communicate that new perception to others. There's some science about how artists poisoned by lead paint shaped art trends. Hey whatever works.
Getting sick with Lyme disease definitely altered my perception, leading to a deluge of story ideas. Kind of killed my ability to focus on the page though.
Also, Chuck's story reminds me of the Chinese proverb that goes: bad luck, good luck, who knows
Ive read that you can best it with lots of rounds of doxycycline. Also heard that crazy hippies cure it with colloidal silver and oil pulling.
I've done plenty of antibiotics including doxy. They help but once Lyme has gone untreated for a few years it becomes systemic and is hard to get rid of. Re: hippy stuff, herbals have been incredibly helpful, similar to antibiotics but generally safer and less expensive
Absolutely agree. Hit by a car in 2004 and hit the left side of my head on the side panel. Caved in the side panel. No lasting damage beyond a mild concussion and now daily headaches, but my writing definitely went darker at that point. I was in my first year of my English and Creative Degree so remember the shift vividly.
At a certain point this line of reasoning almost becomes advocation for self inflicted blunt force trauma to the head. Someone should write an instructional essay on how to do so without putting oneself in a coma -- or worse.
Any takers?
That truck incident in 2014 -- didn’t that also provide a building block for ‘The Invention of Sound’?
Rogan made this observation, then cautioned against it. He's seen far more people damaged by head injuries than enhanced by them.
But what if he’s gatekeeping the gifts offered by blunt force head trauma?
Are you talking about the incident near 6th and Alder you wrote about in Fugitives and Refugees?
Yes, sadly. I'd just left the gym and was going to an ATM, a dark, rainy evening.
I'm sorry that happened to you, but what an interesting theory that it may have jump started something different in you.
Fascinating. I wonder if, when young David Bowie's friend hit him, he left him with more than a permanently dilated left pupil.
Chuck, you know, every time you talk about this head-injury as a pathway to creative genius, you make me want to charge into a brick wall like a linebacker. And if I do and just get paralyzed from the neck down, I'm going on Oprah and being interviewed. I'll weep through my tragic story and call you out by name and say "Chuck did this to me!" Millions will tune in. And because of the exposure, all your books will soar to the top of the best-seller rankings. But then I'll sue you for all the swag boxes your worth. You know, for emotional damage.
Yeah.
But, but... I'd introduced your Comment -- already screen captured -- as proof of your intention.
All of this makes me wonder how many people see the world in little frames as opposed to an illusion of motion.
I'm kidding! It's all jokes. I will earn the swag box honestly and ethically. And without any brain damage like a normie.
As far as the moment to moment vs snapshot way of writing, currently I fall into the moment to moment category. Maybe by default. It's what I'm used to. When I think about the snapshot way, I wonder if people will be able to follow. But again, I have no experience with it to speak on.
Also, you know how you've been breaking down your stories? I wanna see you break down a story before your attack. I know it'll never happen, I'm just putting it out there.
I am Joe's Itching Nerves.
I’ve been indirectly struck by lightning twice. Every time you talk about this phenomenon I wonder if I should hope for a third.
Wear a lightning rod, but only on the left side of your head.
Maybe just get someone to rollerskate across carpet and tap me on that temple.
Roughly nine years ago I was hit by a car. I was in the crosswalk, they were making a left turn. Never stopped. Never caught.
Anyhow, the impact of the vehicle strike threw me toward the sidewalk. The side of my head connected with the curb. Lights out. Concussed. I have no memory of the impact, but I do have a little scar right at my orbital bone.
I wonder if it's somehow changed me. It was my right side, though. 🤔
I had this experience...not to sound weird but after I sobered up and started taking the anti depressant Mirtzapine my thinking completely warped...into awesomeness. I read the side effects and one of them was "Prone to thinking unusually big ideas."
I have a killer premise that starts with a traumatic brain injury, but my first attempt is not good. Definitely going to attempt this idea again.
"Go getcher bell rung. Its good for your writing!" -Chuck
I have had several traumatic hits to the head, all on my left side. I was so painfully shy as a child people often assumed I was non-verbal. Now I tell rooms full of strangers my most intimate and disturbing thoughts, anatomical abnormalities and talk about dicks too much. We should start a union or at the very least a secret society.
That's exactly how Rogan described Roseann Barr before and after.
Wait...you mean to tell me if I injury my head, I start telling people my intrusive thoughts? Dear god...
You need to take Ambien, too.
It may be that near death experiences have that effect or maybe it is bio-chemical.
In his book "Breaking Open The Head" Daniel Pinchbeck talks about the most extreme form of Biwiti initiation in Gabon in which the initiant's head is shaved, his tongue is pierced and then after being fed iboga, he is hit in the head 3 times with a hammer to "Break open the head" helping him enter the spirit world.
I heard Daniel Pinchbeck talk about this live while at Burning Man one year and he explained that the beating of the head may help the pineal gland (“seat of the soul” or the “third eye,”) release DMT. That is only a hypothesis though and the pineal gland is still a bit of a mystery to science...
Wow! When I friend of mine went to work for the Dalai Lama, upon their first meeting he smacked her hard across the face. She was stunned, but he explained that the injury was meant "to wake you up to the reality of existence."
That's why the Bishop strikes adolescents during Confirmation, to wake them to the reality of adulthood.
Chuck: " When he hit you, you find yourself looking sideways and tasting blood."
Tom Bilyeu: "Woah!"
So interesting. This stopped me mid blintz: What if the brain, or matter, limits consciousness, instead of producing it? (From the mullet story)
Right? What if the brain is a limiting valve or filter to protect us or inhibit us.
I totally forgot about that, Jay. “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat” is full of those anecdotes.
Recently I’ve noticed that if have one too many drinks, the following day my senses are kind of amplified. An energy detector. Like a reverse hangover. Crossing paths with people in the tube, or the airport, wherever, I suddenly know how they’re feeling, what day they’re having.
Or at least I think I do. Never dared to stop them and ask about it. There are good chances that it’s just hangovers hitting me badly as I grow older.
Yeah, always trust your gut. That never deceived me.
I've been beaten up two times. Once by a gang who hit my head repeatedly with broken bottles (not ashamed to say that I did experience the 'life before your eyes' cliche but a bit embarrassed to say that I also experienced the less stylish 'involuntarily shitting yourself' cliche) and another when a man headbutted me and broke my nose, knocking me out.
I'm honestly not sure either of these events helped at all with creativity, but perhaps altered my concepts and ideas on certain things, which is perhaps what is really going on, rather than some physical or chemical reaction?
Highlight of being beaten so badly? I was wearing a white shirt, kept it, and wore it as a Halloween outfit. Telling people the blood all over my shirt was real, as was the state of my head/face made for some interesting reactions. Happy times.
Ouch.
"In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried" hands down, my favorite Amy Hempel story. That ending line ties it all together with so much heartbreak. Chef's kiss, smack.
What about those of us who haven't been concussed? I'll just go with that I'm weird enough without head trauma. Uhh I mean my world view so different, yeah different.
I will say how heartbreaking it was to run into a female sailor that I knew years later. She had a crush on me when I was on the boat. When she left the Frank Cable, her next boat was the Boxer. During an UNREP she was an safety observer and the other ship mistakenly did a break away. Of all the metal lines that snapped the one closest to her came back and hit her and the ship. It caused her enough brain damage that the Navy medically retired her. Through all the brain damage and the scars she recognized me. It took me a moment to figure out who she happened to be in a crowded hospital hallway. I took her to my office and she told me all about her life since we last saw each other.
The fact she had all that brain damage and she still remembered everything about our time together made me regret the decisions I had made.
What moves me about the Hempel stories is that she can articulate her perception so perfectly that even people who aren't her can have the experience she depicts.
So perception can change, but it requires a skill to communicate that new perception to others. There's some science about how artists poisoned by lead paint shaped art trends. Hey whatever works.