I woke up today thinking about my father. Like so many other people, he spent way too much of his life suffering because he was unable to break his deeply ingrained habit of unconsciously repressing his emotions. As a psychologist, and someone who had discovered Dr. Sarno's book "The Mind Body Prescription" in the early 80's, he understood the...
On Nov 12th we started a kickstarter campaign to fund our film about mind body medicine. If you like this piece please consider clicking through to see more. I recently saw a news article about Glenn Beck. In it he talks about having hidden an intense struggle with pain and auto immune disorders for the past five years. For anyone familiar...
For a number of reasons, last week was extremely difficult for me. Various stresses, both conscious and unconscious, began to affect my body in a negative way, and by Wednesday night my left foot was bothering me worse than it had in months. For the past 10 years that’s where my stress has gone, down my left leg and...
Last year when I talked with Dr. Mate I brought up the story of my father. He struggled his whole life with different psychosomatic issues. After he retired he began to have symptoms of both rheumatoid arthritis and ALS. Dr. Mate writes a great deal about the connection between the repression of emotions and auto-immune diseases. In the clip I mentioned that...
I have been told that blog posts should be short and to the point. Unfortunately, not all of my ideas fit that paradigm. I do understand that focused pieces often make more sense, but sometimes the writing itself sparks connections that explode off the page. This is particularly true for me right now because I’ve been doing a lot of...
For the past year I have been taking stock of my 25 years of making art, trying to get some perspective on what makes the work tick. When I was a kid my mom encouraged me to be creative all the time. I drew, I wrote, and I started to take pictures. By the time I got out...
I went to the dentist today and it was not such a pleasant experience. I'm in a program at the dental school at the University of North Carolina where I'm seen by seen by a student, and the one who takes care of me is really great. The program at the university is well run, and I appreciate it not...
Eric Sherman Fear from rumur on Vimeo. Dr. Eric Sherman discusses the role that fear plays in pain syndromes I interviewed Ram Dass the other day for "All The Rage". He told me that when he had a stroke, he was resting in the hospital room surrounded by people who were worried, thinking "the stroke was a bad thing". He cleared...
Last week I posted an article that raised questions about the validity of the data being used to promote the flu shot. This post led to a great deal of interesting debate. It quickly became clear that the article in question had been largely discredited. However, the response on both sides of the issue points to different issues at play. I...
On some level, at its heart, our new film "All the Rage" is largely about ideas related to belief. Modern science uses the word placebo to describe the effect of one's belief on the efficacy of a treatment. When drugs, or procedures, are tested they are only deemed effective if they work better than a sham drug or procedure. The...
The above picture is a leaf growing on a big plant in my living room. The plant was there before I was born and it continues to live today. However, it was a bit sickly until recently. My wife and I re-potted it into a container that was twice the previous size. We also started to pay attention to it....
Half-Cocked - Guiloteens scene from rumur on Vimeo. The modern world is fast paced and full of deadlines. Media Makers are often expected to create work immediately, and to communicate information ever more succinctly. People want their news fast and clear. Unfortunately, things are never as simple as we want them to be. As filmmakers, we often face difficulties because the...