Barry Michels and Phil Stutz are two of the most sought-after psychotherapists in Los Angeles, particularly by creative professionals. They are also the authors of The Tools, a book that teaches you the techniques they use in their practice to help unlock creativity, decrease anxiety and to correct the negative patterns that interfere with your life.
In this podcast, we discuss the relationship between the Shadow (Carl Jung's term for a subconscious part of your mind that contains your inner shame and other unconscious material) and creativity, plus the three immutable rules of dealing with a perpetually changing world. We also talk about their next book, dealing with Part X, or the inner enemy that tries to sabotage your growth and development.
“But the worst enemy you can meet will always be yourself; you lie
in wait for yourself in caverns and forests. Lonely one, you are going
the way to yourself! And your way goes past yourself, and past your
seven devils! You will be a heretic to yourself and witch and soothsayer
and fool and doubter and unholy one and villain. You must be ready to
burn yourself in your own flame: how could you become new, if you had
not first become ashes?”
(b. Cambridge,
August 14, 1935 - d. Boston, November 16, 2015)
The visionary artist and luminary, Paul Laffoley, has died
today after a long battle with congestive heart failure. He had an extraordinary
grasp of multiple fields of knowledge compulsively pursing interests that often
lead him into uncharted territory. His complex theoretical constructs were
uniquely presented in highly detailed mandala-like canvases largely scaled to
Fibonacci's golden ratio. While an active participant in numerous speculative
organizations including his own Boston Visionary Cell since the early 70s, his
work began to attract an increasing following in his late career with shows at
the Palais de Tokyo (2009), Hamburger Bahnhoff (2011), Hayward Gallery, London,
Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (2013). The
first book on Laffoley's oeuvre was The Phenomenology of
Revelation published by Kent Fine Art in 1989, followed by several
subsequent publications beginning with his first retrospective organized by the
Austin Museum of Art (1999). Forthcoming in March of 2016, the University of
Chicago Press will be releasing the long awaited book entitled The
Essential Paul Laffoley. He was a kind and generous giant, and
he will be sorely missed by all of us.
If you have built castles in
the air, your work need not be lost;
Thony Christie, historian of science and proprietor of the
Renaissance Mathematicus and Whewell's Ghost stops by to talk about
Galileo, Newton, the Copernican controversy, and why it was smart to
believe that the Earth didn't move.
The
story of how we came to understand that the Earth was not the center of
the Universe is one of the most fascinating stories in the whole of the
history of science. The debate over Copernicus' heliocentric model
lasted for centuries, and was carried out by mathematicians,
theologians, philosophers and scientists. Observational evidence
initially favored a geocentric model, and definitive proof did not
appear until long after the first precise data (captured by Tycho Brahe
and compiled by Kepler) had persuaded most scientists of their truth.
Independent scholar Thony Christie takes us through the debate on this episode of Startup Geometry.
Show Notes, Links and Outline:
[0.0.16] How did you get into the study of the History of Science? Eric Temple Bell Men of Mathematics. History of Mathematics and Logic: Church’s list of formal logicians, Boole, Jevons, and others.
[0.6.30]
What was a “mathematicus”? Fields of study: astrology, astronomy,
mathematics, cartography, design of engines of war, (sun)dialing,
volumetrics.
[0.14.46]
Christoff Clavius. The Galileo Affair. Heliocentricity. Cardinal
Barberini. Who can interpret the Bible? Cardinal Bellarmine. The
difference between proof and speculation.
[0.27.00] Giordano Bruno. Miguel Serveto (Servetus).
[0.28.14] Newton. Newton & alchemy. Newton & religion. Kepler. Prisca Theologia.
[0.35.44]
Interpreting Early Modern systems of thought. Lawrence Principe and
William R Newman’s modern alchemical experiments. Phlogiston. Problems
with turning lead into gold. (Not a problem for us, but requires a huge
particle accelerator.) Roger Bacon.
[0.44.23] Newton
predicted the end of the world (not before 2060). Other predictions of
the end of the world. Jehovah’s Witnesses. Millerites.
[0.47.47] Discussion of the
various Renaissance world systems or models of the universe. Why it’s
obvious that the Earth doesn’t move. Tycho Brahe. Johannes Kepler.
Gilbert, On the Magnet. How it was finally proved that the Earth does move. Chris Graney on star sizes, Setting Aside All Authority. Torricelli.
[1.00.00] The Rudolphine Tables.
Not proof, but Kepler’s system fits the data, so Kepler’s model is
probably right. Heliometers and elliptical orbits. Bradley, 1725, finds
elliptical movement of stars due to Earth’s movement. Christiaan
Huygens. The Earth bulges at the Equator and is flattened at the poles.
Later confirmed by stellar parallax, Bessel, 1838.
