“Whatever you do, do it with all your might. Work at it, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well now.” -P. T. Barnum
Welcome to July’s “Mysteries of the Mind” monthly newsletter!
Fantasy Books, Shuttles and an Apple.
Fantasy Books: I began reading Harry Potter in 1998 – the year that I started University. I was 19. Now at 32 with the final movie viewed in IMAX 3-D and having already visited the Wizarding World in Florida, the journey has ended.
So, rather then morn, I asked 5,000 of my friends and contacts “What’s next?” And here for your reading pleasure are some of their best suggestions for fans (like me) of magic, mystery and fantasy …
Game of Thrones, The Hunger Games, The Necroscope series, The Thief, Dark Materials trilogy, the Strain trilogy, The Dresden Files, Discworld, sword of truth series and books by authors Tad Williams , Patrick Rothfuss, Nelson Demille, and Neal Stephenson.
Please reply to this newsletter and share some of YOUR favorite books for this summers reading list!
Shuttle: As a child, one of my fondest memories was being in charge of Mission Control in the simulations at the NASA Space Station while attending Space Camp. I always dreamed of going into space or working with the brave and brilliant men and women who did. I am sad to see the end of the NASA Shuttle program but have enjoyed watching it and the international space station fly overhead. Enjoy the link below and watch the skies.
An Apple: Though I didn’t work with NASA engineers this month, I did get pretty close! In July I was honored to be asked to lead workshops and 1 on 1 trainings at:1 Infinite Loop Cupertino, California: The corporate headquarters of Apple Inc.
Working with the minds of high level Engineers and software designers was a whole new challenge for me. They think and experience the world in a very unique way that separates them from the rest of us.
As the joke was told to me: Optimists say that the glass is half full, pessimists say that it is half empty. Engineers, however, say that the vessel is twice as big as necessary to retain the contents.
In one segment of my presentation I teach the audience how to develop a super memory. In this piece I ask individuals to throw out words for me to remember. The average audience offers words like: Harmonica, salisbury steak and Paris. However, after my first show for Apple employees and their families, my new words for the month include: “anatiferous” and “zygodactyl” . Yes, I had to look them up!
“Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.” – Neil Armstrong
Wonderful free app on iPhone called GoAtlantis, which lets us follow the final American NASA shuttle and the international space station. It will also let us set up an alarm to remind us when to go outside and look in the sky (and where to look) to see the light reflect off of these marvels of science and engineering. 🙂 Get app
If you don’t have an I phone, you can track the mission here
Thank you to Andrew Norstrum in Montana for sharing this link with me.
Paul to appear this summer on National T.V. show on Oxygen and I hear that they are running re runs of my episodes of House Hunters on HGTV.
But until then:
LEVEL UP: A short film that my team made for this years 48 Hour Film Fest! Everything was written, cast, shot, edited and turned in, in under 48 hours! Great job Kati Paul, Taylor Glenn, Justin Carter, Jaron Briggs, Michelle Egli Zumbrunnen, Shawn Zumbrunnen, Bob Frendt, Adam Hamblin and Seretta Gail Hart. Watch now
Requirements: Genre: Fantasy Character: Miles Madigan, a magician Prop: Toilet Paper Line of Dialog: “What were you thinking”
“Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.” – Benjamin Disraeli, former British Prime Minister
Welcome to May’s “Mysteries of the Mind” monthly newsletter!
If you were to look around and realize that most of the people you hang out with on a daily basis were clowns, magicians, geeks, freaks, circus acts, hypnotists, performance artists, singers, costumed characters, animal trainers, jugglers, poker players, models, impersonators and dancers – would you think that something had gone terribly wrong or terribly right in your life?
I think that something has gone terribly right! (for me)
My friend Christina recently asked how I have so many wonderful and exotic experiences. After thinking about it for some time, I summarized the following 4 steps used to help govern my days:
Be in the right place at the right time. (Always be in right places.)
Look for opportunities that are available.
Be open & kind to everyone.
Ask for what I want in a way that helps others reach their goals.
By following these rules, my life is (and yours could instantly be) far more exciting. In realizing the above steps, one may seize so many wonderful opportunities. Below are just a few of my Facebook status updates from the last 2 weeks created through these 4 steps:
“I am moments away from taking a private 1 man behind the scenes tour of the San Diego wild animal Safari Park. I’ll be helping feed the parks giraffes and rhinos!.”
[Cuddling Giraffes]
[Petting Rhinos]
“About to perform for the drummer from Incubus and Dane Cook’s personal manager at the Magic Castle.”
“Backstage with Steve Martin after his show at the Mirage in Las Vegas. Steve put on a wonderful Bluegrass Banjo show.”
[Paul Draper with Steve Martin]
“If money was no object, what would you spend your time doing?”
In the next few weeks I will start releasing some instructional web seminars discussing the tools that I use to find and enjoy the opportunities that are all around us. Please let me know if you have any questions that you would like me to answer.
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” – George Bernard Shaw
Paul to appear this summer on National T.V. show
I just finished shooting a show in Hollywood for the Oxygen Network. It will be out this summer.
If one of your personal dreams is to be a Hollywood or Broadway actor, TV host or performer, the best selection of books on the business can be found at Samuel French Inc.
Celebrating its 187th year, Samuel French, Inc. is the world’s premiere theatrical publishing and licensing company. Samuel French, Inc. currently offers over 5,000 plays and musicals. Samuel French
It is also a great place to pick up the industry magazine Backstage: The Actor’s Resource, which will help you find auditions, agents, managers and industry news.
Mind Reading: Technology Turns Thought Into Action
“This is both very exciting and somewhat frightening at the same time,” says Gerwin Schalk, a researcher who studies ECoG at the New York State Department of Health’s Wadsworth Center in Albany. “It really goes pretty close to what people used to call mind reading.”
So perhaps it’s not surprising that Schalk’s research is funded by both the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Army.
The key to all of the new uses for ECoG is software, designed in part by Schalk, that helps scientists decode the electrical signals coming from the brain.
The brain uses those signals every time we wiggle a toe or form a thought. But the signals also provide a real-time broadcast of precisely what the brain is doing, and Schalk’s software allows scientists to eavesdrop on this broadcast.
March Hare:Then you should say what you mean. Alice: I do; at least–at least I mean what I say–that’s the same thing, you know. Hatter: Not the same thing a bit! Why, you might just as well say that, “I see what I eat’ is the same as ‘I eat what I see!” March Hare: You might just as well say, that “I like what I get” is the same thing as “I get what I like!” The Doormouse: You might just as well say, that “I breathe when I sleep” is the same thing as “I sleep when I breathe!” – Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Welcome to March’s “Mysteries of the Mind” monthly newsletter
According to the Georgian calendar, March is the third month of the year. According to the early Roman calendar however, it was the first month and was called Martius. Its name honors Mars, the Roman God of War. The Romans later made January 1 the beginning of the year, and March was shifted to its current position as the third month.
The idea that one can be as “mad as a March hare” playfully presented in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland tea party above originated in literature far before Carroll put pen to paper. It dates back to at least the 1500s , in the poem “Blowbol’s Test,” where the poet wrote:
Then they begin to swerve and to stare, And be as brainless as a March hare.
Why did the early Europeans call the March hare mad? Because hares during this season behave strangely and excitedly, as it is their breeding season. This odd behavior includes: boxing at other hares with their front paws, jumping vertically for apparently no reason and generally displaying wild behavior.
In March we wear green and drink to Saint Patrick, give vices up for lent, celebrate on Fat Tuesday, dine on cookies and dress in costume for Purim. Spring is upon us and we want to stretch our wild side.
March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.
The lion’s bite of winter starts to fade away as March begins and by the end of March the soft lamb like spring should be clearly upon us. The animals will be coming out of hibernation, the sap will be flowing again in the forest, the robins will return and the buds on trees and flowers will begin to bloom.
It is very clear why the early Roman’s made this time their new year. Step outside on a sun filled moment this month, take a deep breath and restart your mind. Life is returning to the world, the hard winter is over. Time to jump vertically for no good reason and release your inner March hare.
Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful. – Mark Victor Hansen
DISNEY’S FAMILYFUN MAGAZINE
Grab your current issue of Disney’s FamilyFun magazine. I appear this month talking about my study about how learning magic can help shy children break out of their shell and gain confidence.
Think you can’t pull confidence out of a hat? Read on. A recent study at the University of Hertfordshire in England revealed that learning how to perform magic tricks had an almost, well, magical effect on kids’ self-esteem. Researcher Richard Wiseman attributes the effect to the emotional rewards that come from mastering a trick and performing it successfully in front of others–both of which require practice and self-discipline.
Another benefit: “Performing tricks encourages kids to interact with family and friends, which hones social skills,” says Paul Draper, a cultural anthropologist and professional magician in Las Vegas, Nevada. To help your kids master some tricks of their own, turn to page 82 -86. Magic Boosts Kids’ Confidence
THE ARMY’S TOTALLY SERIOUS MIND-CONTROL PROJECT
Soldiers barking orders at each other is so 20th Century. That’s why the U.S. Army has just awarded a $4 million contract to begin developing “thought helmets” that would harness silent brain waves for secure communication among troops. Ultimately, the Army hopes the project will “lead to direct mental control of military systems by thought alone.”
If this sounds insane, it would have been as recently as a few years ago, but improvements in computing power and a better understanding of how the brain works have scientists busy hunting for the distinctive neural fingerprints that flash through a brain when a person is talking to himself. The Army’s initial goal is to capture those brain waves with incredibly sophisticated software that then translates the waves into audible radio messages for other troops in the field.
