The Semmelweis reflex, the opposite and another possibility

The Semmelweis reflex is a metaphor for the reflex-like rejection in most of us of new ideas or possibilities because it contradicts entrenched norms, beliefs, tradition, cultures or paradigms.

It refers to Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian physician, who discovered by 1847 that the incidence of puerperal fever could be drastically cut by the use of hand disinfection in obstetrical clinics. Puerperal fever (or childbed fever) was common in that time hospitals and killed 10%–35% of women giving birth.

Despite various publications of results where hand-washing reduced mortality below 1%, Semmelweis's suggestions were rejected by his contemporaries and were largely ignored, rejected or ridiculed. He was dismissed from the hospital for political reasons and harassed by the medical community in Vienna.

The opposite to the Semmelweis reflex also exists. We could call it "the believe all reflex", in which one believes almost everything, the more strange the better.....

Would it be possible to live without beliefs? would it be possible to see the limitations of a concept of a belief? would it be possible to see how our mind works almost constantly through patterns of ideas?...and to see this not just intelectually (which would be another belief)?

.....by the way.....what is a belief?

old age

For the past months I see many old men (80-90 year old) in my work. Last night I took care of a quite famous ex-cyclist (85 years old). He tried to tell me he had been a famous cyclist. But his world has already dissapeared, the races, the recognitions, the congratulations, the friends. He was there, breathing with difficulty, still trying to be....
In the shower after the shift, I was thinking about it, and an idea came to my mind (from where?): old age should be a time to be with the "other", with the "Ground", to be in contact with it, to be in "it". Otherwise it would be a meaningless time at the end of a meaningless life.
....and why not do it before old age, also?.......

brain and mind

J. Krishnamurti, second dialogue with David Bohm at Brockwood Park 20 June 1983:

JK: Should we first distinguish between the brain and the mind?

DB: Yes, well that distinction has been made and it is not clear. Now of course, there are several views. One view is to say that the mind is just a function of the brain – that is the materialistic view. There is another view which says that the mind and brain are two different things.

JK: Yes, I think they are two different things.

DB: But there must be…..

JK: ….a contact between the two

…….......

JK: and it (the brain) is conditioned.

BD: Yes

JK: Conditioned by past generations, by society, by the newspapers, by the magazines, by all the activities and pressures from the outside (in another part of the dialogue: conditioned by time and evolution). It is conditioned.

……....

JK: I think the mind is separate from the brain.

DB: Well what does it mean separate? That it is in contact?

JK: Separate in the sense the brain is conditioned and the mind is not.

………..

JK: So as long s the brain is conditioned its relationship with the mind is limited.

…….

DB: Yes. Now we say the mind is free in some sense, not subject to the conditioning of the brain.

JK: Yes

DB: Now one could ask a question: what is the nature of the mind?

----------------------

What are the limits of the brain? and what is the essence of the mind?

(picture taken from the spaceship Cassini of Saturn, august 2009)

to cling to.....

I was observing my mind today and how it works, and I saw how easy is for it to cling to things.....and how difficult to let go....

To cling to ideas, to hurts, to guilt feelings, to images (about others and about oneself), to habits, to memories....

To let go, to move on, to pass page.....

And to observe all this....how we cling to the idea of modifying, of changing what we think is hurtful...it is like a reflex......

Reflexes......very old automatic mechanisms in the mind.......is clinging a reflex?....like breathing faster when moving more?.......

......and the old question.....is it possible to even attempt to modify all this....or the only possibility is to observe it?.........

obituary of a good person

Miep Gies (15 February 1909 – 11 January 2010) was one of the people who hid Anne Frank and her family from the nazis during world war II. She brought them food and support during the time they were hiding away (from July 1942 to 4 August 1944). She discovered and preserved Anne Frank's diary after the Franks were arrested. After the war she had Otto Frank, the only survivor, live in her house for several years.

Miep Gies states in her autobiography, and on her own website: "I stand at the end of the long, long line of good Dutch people who did what I did or more – much more - during those dark and terrible times years ago"

There are people who feel and act in the direction of goodness. And they do it in a natural way. It is not that they think " I should act in a good way", they just do it, it flows out of them....
Where does this goodness stem from?
Is it that there are good and bad people?, or is it that this goodness is a part of all of us?...
The only way to really know is to find if this is true for oneself......

dynamic Nature !!!

Impressive distances: The Arctic tern (Sterna paradisaea) is a medium-sized seabird known to make the longest annual migration in the animal kingdom. It flies every year a roundtrip from Greenland/Iceland to the Weddell Sea (Antarctica) and back again, a trip aproximately 70,900 km.

As Arctic terns can live for over 30 years, the total distance flown in a tern’s lifetime may exceed 2.4 million km, that’s equivalent to around 3 return journeys to the Moon!. Not bad for a bird 100 grams in weight.....

Simplified figure showing the yearly migration pattern of the Arctic tern. The southbound migration is shown by a yellow line. In spring, the northbound migration (white line) is conducted in a gigantic “S” shaped pattern through the Atlantic Ocean.

How dynamic and creative Nature, existence, is.......

(information from http://www.arctictern.info/ and the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

living on a tight rope....

On August 7, 1974, shortly after 7:15 a.m., a young man stepped off the South Tower and onto a steel cable between the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center. He walked the wire for 45 minutes, making eight crossings between the towers, a quarter mile above the sidewalks of Manhattan. In addition to walking, he sat on the wire, gave knee salutes and, while lying on the wire, spoke with a gull circling above his head.

The video above is clipped from the 2008 film "Man on wire" , that chronicles Philippe Petit's high-wire walk between both Towers, and the dialogue below is a reflection at the end of this film:

"To me, it's so simple, that life should be lived on the edge....
You have to exercise rebellion,
to refuse to tape yourself to rules,
to refuse your own success,
to refuse to repeat yourself,
to see every day, every year, every idea,
as a true challenge
and then you are ready to live your life on a tight rope"

The human spirit......What depths are possible in our human spirit?, what are our boundaries?......or in other words, what is our real nature?........

Tara mantra

.....And in the hardship of the path, there is also kindness, symbolized here as "Tara"...

(This beautiful Tara mantra is in the film "Himalaya" (1999), directed by Eric Valli and shot in Nepal)

A Christmas present

This is the dilogue between father and son, in the film "Himalaya":

- "Why did you come with me?"
- "When you left the monastery...
I remembered what one of my masters said....
When two paths open up before you, always choose the hardest one"
- The hardest one....
The hardest one.......

A beautiful Christmas present....

(dedicated to Hugo)