Books I read & recommend
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“…the dead are not powerless. Dead, did I say? There is no death, only a change of worlds.”
— Attributed to a speech given by Chief Seattle in January 1854
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from the Introduction to Chapter IX of the book PAN – GOD OF THE WOODS, by Lawrence R. Spencer
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Edward Louis Bernays ( November 22, 1891 − March 9, 1995) was an Austrian-American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, referred to in his obituary as “the father of public relations.” Bernays was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life. He was the subject of a full length biography by Larry Tye called The Father of Spin (1999) and later an award-winning 2002 documentary for the BBC by Adam Curtis called The Century of the Self.
His best-known campaigns include a 1929 effort to promote female smoking by branding cigarettes as feminist “Torches of Freedom“, and his work for the United Fruit Company in the 1950s, connected with the CIA-orchestrated overthrow of the democratically elected Guatemalan government in 1954. He worked for dozens of major American corporations including Procter & Gamble and General Electric, and for government agencies, politicians, and non-profit organizations.
Edward Bernays was born to a Jewish family, the son of Ely Bernays and Anna (Freud) Bernays. His great-grandfather was Isaac Bernays, chief rabbi of Hamburg. Bernays was a “double nephew” of Viennese psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud—by virtue of his mother, Freud’s sister, and of his father’s sister, Martha Bernays Freud, who married Sigmund.
Of his many books, Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923) and Propaganda (1928) gained special attention as early efforts to define and theorize the field of public relations. Citing works of writers such as Gustave Le Bon, Wilfred Trotter, Walter Lippmann, and Sigmund Freud (his own double uncle), he described the masses as irrational and subject to herd instinct—and outlined how skilled practitioners could use crowd psychology and psychoanalysis to control them in desirable ways.
READ MORE ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays
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“Much like Leonardo da Vinci, I worked intermittently on this single painting over a period of many years, never satisfied that it was finished, and continually improving upon the original. This painting is my personal Mona Lisa, my daughter, Maria.
We had a live-in servant for many years, named Tanneke Everpoel, hired and paid by Maria Thins. She did all of the “heavy labor”, as it were: cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, carrying water, tending fires, and a myriad other chores, including helping with the children. However, the expense of paying her wage and room did not include standing for endless hours, day after day, while I painted this portrait! My daughter, Maria, was lovelier and much more readily accessible for the task of standing for this portrait.
It is argued, convincingly, that the immortal painting by Leonard was his own self-portrait as his own, feminine reflection. What man, or woman, regardless of sexual preference in a given lifetime, has not inhabited the flesh of ten thousand bodies, some human, many not, through a nearly infinite cascade of galaxies, stars and planets come and gone. Is not survival a nearly infinite game, in which we interchange ourselves as the players of many parts?
Leonard kept his portrait with him all his life. He never considered that it was complete or perfect. Nor did he ever intend to sell it. How could one sell a most cherished reflection of himself? It is more meaningful than one’s own body, which only disguises the inner self, the essence of spirit that animates the fragile flesh.
In fact, a body hides the reflection of the soul! How can any substance, especially that as rude and fragile as meat, reveal the inherent qualities an immortal nothingness? Indeed, it is the fundamental challenge and the most formidable task of an artist to reveal it!
The name given to this painting by others, “The Milkmaid”, is a sacrilege! It rivals the incomprehension others have for Leonardo’s personal masterpiece. Yet, how can anyone truly understand that a painting is meant to reflect the essence of an immortal being, seen through the eyes of another?
She is painted with angelic colors: blue, gold and white, in contrast to the menial nature of her station in life. From her issues, for me, the Milk and Bread of Life. Life is embodied in her and through her. Women, are the source of children, the source of energy, the source of care. There is no more vital responsibility for any being who plays the game of life, than to confront dreary daily tasks. To humbly make the daily loaf. To soak that bread, mix and soften it with milk, make it warm and feed it to a teething child. Survival is made of such things.
In those days I viewed life as idyllic. My dreams were more real than reality. All things were a possibility. Tragedy could not find me. Until it did, of course. Even when we lost a child, which we did with several, my wife, Catharina, remained resolute in her Faith. God guided us. He did what was best. We knew not why and need not question His purpose for us.
I have no such faith in predetermination. A loaf of grain, clean water and a bed was my fare. Time and a place to paint, uninterrupted, were necessities. My love, shared with wife and family, was the staple diet of my life. I assumed, as a Fool who knows not his own mortality, that they would endure, even when I was gone.”
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Excerpt from the book VERMEER: PORTRAITS OF A LIFETIME, by Lawrence R. Spencer
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EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK:
“1001 THINGS TO DO WHILE YOU’RE DEAD: A Dead Person’s Guide to Living” by Lawrence R. Spencer
AVOID YOUR FUNERAL.
If you are squeamish about autopsies, embalming, funeral piers, cremation incinerators, worms, bugs or bacteria you may want to stay away until all that messy, bad smelling business is over and done.
However, funeral directors have become quite masterful, over the past 5,000 years, at making a dead body look as good, or better, than it looked when it was alive. A little formaldehyde, a few strategic injections, a little stuffing, nice clothes, cosmetics, a wig and a comfy, silk-lined coffin, your used body can look better than ever!
This is a good reason to stay away as you may be enticed to start thinking about going back. Obviously, it’s too late. Factually, you never were a body and you definitely are not a body now. So stay focused. The future is where the rest of your life will be lived!
PRACTICE BEING CUTE.
If you attended your own funeral you are probably suffering from the loss of having a body. More important, you may be thinking that you don’t really have any identity or personality without having a body. How will anyone recognize you without your body?
Fortunately, bodies are a nickel a million. Five babies are born every second. So, should you succumb to the ungodly urge to get a new baby body in order to feel a sense of personal identity, you will need to practice being cute.
The only reason people have babies – and keep them – is because they think babies are cute. The same principle applies to all living creatures. So, brush up on looking cute, making cute sounds, doing cute mannerisms, cute smiles, cute laughs, etc.. You’ll need to have your cute skills in top form when and if you get a new body.
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For more practical tips about things to do while you’re dead, click here: 