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Support Lines
Volume 2, Number 1 - January 7, 2004
"I must
create a system, or be enslaved by another man's." -William
Blake
Today is Wednesday, January 7th, the
7th. day of 2004.
After today, God willing, there will be 349 Days left in the
year.
Today is . . . . Some special day somewhere and someone who
believes they are important to the world was born on this
date.
Did someone forward you this newsletter? Would you like to
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your feedback and suggestions. Please send a message with your
comments to
jp@pabia.org
What you cannot enforce, do not
command. -Sophocles
In This Edition
In a
society safe and worthy to be free, teaching which produces a
willingness to lead, as well as a willingness to follow, must
be given to all. -William F. Russell
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A leader has two important
characteristics; first, he is going somewhere; second, he is
able to persuade other people to go with him. -Maximilien
Francois Robespierre
Hello Folks,
Greetings and welcome to the New Year, and the current issue
of the PABIA newsletter. As you can see, some changes have
been made. Your feedback is and will continue to be much
appreciated.
I would like to welcome all the new subscribers and friends to
the PABIA family. Thank you so much to all of you who have
also passed on the newsletter to your family, friends, work
colleagues and associates. Please continue to do so.
New Year celebrations give us reason to believe we are able to
start fresh, turn over a new leaf, and cut free from our past.
This is a magical time, when we feel as if the possibilities
are endless. We resolve to make changes in our lives that
closer reflect who we consciously think we want to be or that
we believe mirror who we are.
Unfortunately, for many people, resolutions go out with the
wind along with the stale air as soon as we open a window. Are
we weak or is it that we are unfamiliar with accepting our
authority position in our lives? Do we really want to make the
positive changes that we ritualistically create resolutions
for? Or is it a societal make believe game that carries over
from childhood? Did we watch and learn this behavior from our
peers, parents, siblings and teachers?
Without a concrete set of guidelines and memories to fill in
the blanks, I cannot answer these questions for you. Resolve
to understand your motivations this year.
Thank you for devoting some of your most precious resource to
the reading of this publication. Indeed, the thing that we
call time is the only thing of real, true value that any of us
possess, and I am truly thankful that you share some of yours
with me.
I pray that God bless each of you in the dash between
2003-2004. Please remember to breathe during the dash and make
time for relaxing a priority. May each of you be enriched by
the bits and pieces we provide here for your reading pleasure.
And may you find that you are the ruler in your mind, even if
by default.
John Pistorius
You will never be a leader
unless you first learn to follow and be led. -Tiorio
New Funding Source
for Brain Injury Rehabilitation,CommCare Waiver
 Dr.
Mason Scott, Executive Director, Keystone Nuero-Rehab and Amy
Dana, Accreditation Coordinator provided the twenty-five
meeting attendees with accurate, up to date information
regarding the PA Dept. of Welfare CommCare Waiver funding for
Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation.
The audience participated
in a lively question and answer session and interacted with
the presenters throughout their presentation. Ms. Dana
outlined the eligibility criteria for the CommCare Waiver.
Currently, thirty more people can be accepted for services
this fiscal year. Next year an additional seventy people can
be added to the program.
COMMCARE provides funding
for individualized, person oriented, functional need based
services. The money follows the person. If the recipient
decides to change service providers, they are free to do so,
as their choice directs where the money is spent. The goal is
to equip people to live in the community as independently as
their potential will allow, instead of placing them in a
nursing home.
To be eligible for
COMMCARE, a person must:
-
be age 21 or older,
-
have a diagnosis of
Traumatic Brain Injury which occurred as a sudden insult or
damage to the brain or its coverings, not of a degenerative,
congenital, or post-operative nature, which is expected to
last for an indefinite period.
-
have a physician sign a
completed MA 51 form.
-
have functional
limitations in at least three (3) of the following major
life areas: mobility, self-care, self-direction, independent
living, communication, behavior, cognitive capacity
(judgment, reasoning, memory).
-
Not be ventilator
dependent.
-
have resources at or
below $8,000, excluding house, vehicle, or burial plots.
The Three Rivers
Center for Independent Living (TRCIL) is the Service
Coordination agency for the Pittsburgh Area. To access these
services, contact Nichelle Smith at TRCIL by calling (412)
371-7700, ext. 145. Ms. Smith
will ask for some basic information and then have an
enrollment specialist contact you to schedule a meeting.
After the referral
information is taken, the Enrollment Specialist at TRCIL will
meet with the person and direct them and/or their family
caregiver through the process of obtaining eligibility.
Remember, only thirty
people can be enrolled in this Waiver Program through July,
2004. CALL NOW.
(source:
information sheets passed out by Dr. Scott & Amy Dana,
Keystone Nuero-Rehab.)
Those who
can command themselves command others. -William
Haszlitt
by Malin
Lowenadler-Shadel
 Think
back to life during a ‘slower’ time, where spaghetti sauce
was made from sunrise to dinnertime, and one waited
with full sense of anticipation for the phone call from a
loved one, by the single telephone of a house. I wonder
why, in today’s world, the jarred sauce is bought instead,
and your loved ones not only have your home telephone
number, but at least one mobile telephone number too? The
issue may be, in fact, time; what is it that we obtain, if
you will, with the rushing? Are we racing against the
‘Jones’ of modern day’s economical accomplishments, or is
it just the basic element of waiting that has gone to the
wayside? What’s wrong with getting what we want, when we
want it? Technology leads us toward a ‘better’ future, but
at a cost that, too quickly, may be overlooked with the
frequency of mobile telephone usage.
Research studies over the past
eleven years indicate that time, apparently, is our
‘friend’, with respect to our continuous use of mobile
telephones. Not only is wireless communication technology
ever changing, it has also not been around long enough for
sound research evidence to be established. As K R Foster & J
E Moulder of IEEE Spectrum 8/2002 state, identifying links
between cancer and environmental exposure of any kind is
surprisingly difficult because of the absence of a single
cause of cancer. Even if mobile telephones had no connection
to cancer, thousands of users would develop brain cancer
every year, given the hundreds of millions of mobile
telephone users around the world and given so-called
background rates of brain cancer (in the United States, it
strikes about six in 100,000 people per year). Identifying
an effect of cell telephones against this back-ground of the
disease requires carefully designed studies.
According to the FDA and others,
the research to date does not show that mobile phone radio
frequency emissions have adverse health effects but there is
not enough information at this point to conclude that these
products are without risk; provided information from the
United States General Accounting Office as a Report to
Congressional Requesters: Telecommunications, Research and
Regulatory Efforts on Mobile Phone Health Issue.
There is no evidence from
laboratory or epidemiological studies, that exposure to RF
energy (radio waves) at levels below recommended limits has
any health significance for humans, again according to KR
Foster & JE Moulder of IEEE Spectrum 8/2002. The conclusion
is that the available scientific data does not indicate an
adverse effect on cognitive abilities, even in people who
make frequent use of mobile telephones, as written by the
Health Council of the Netherlands in 01/02.
There we have it, in a small
package of basically up-to-date researched information. As
one friend put it, "Why not utilize that which technology
has to offer, while it is here to make our lives more
‘convenient’, since we'll probably not be alive to find out
what kind of adverse effects these mobile telephones might
actually have on us!" If you'll excuse me while I phone home
to make sure that the spaghetti sauce is warming because I
want to eat NOW!
The Master has no mind of her own. She
works with the mind of the people.
-Lao-tzu
Soldiers and Gardens
-by John Pistorius
As I wrestle with this writing project, I question my
authority in this matter. I mean really, who am I to attempt
to explain the idea of overcoming cognitive dissonance?
Many of my friends, associates and acquaintances are much more
educated in the field of psychology. Some have high degrees
from prestigious universities. This self-doubt causes
disharmony in my thinking.
How can I know with any certainty that my choice to continue
writing about this subject is valid? In this case, I am using
feedback from trusted people to assist me in making the
decision to continue. They have reminded me that I am sharing
my opinions, ideas and understandings of the matter. Their
supportive approval inspires me to continue. Telling me that
they believe my experiences and knowledge can be useful to
others, helps me to overcome the negative thoughts that arise.
I’m grateful to these people for their honest words of
encouragement. So I continue to slay the thought soldiers that
might otherwise halt my progression. Four Powerful
Battalions of Thought Soldiers
- Our mental approval or acceptance of
the truth or actuality of something
- opinions/prejudices/biases
- Our absolute certainty, conviction or
surety in anything
- Doubtfulness, skepticism, distrust
These four concepts stand like soldiers at the gate of our
thought garden to defend themselves and the deeper convictions
they represent when challenged. Sometimes they represent
opposite positions, forcing us to choose between them.
I use the analogy of a garden to give us a mental image to
assist in the cleansing process. We must uproot the
underlying, embedded, erroneous ideas and thoughts. We must
also be willing and able to automatically and immediately
prune thoughts that surface in support of the belief or
unwanted opinion from our garden of thought. It is our garden,
and we are the gardeners.
These thought defending troopers’ mission is to protect the
opinions, beliefs and prejudices that are sown in our mind and
keep us safe from contrary evidence that could cut down or
uproot the planted material. They work within certain
boundaries to keep us in check. When confronted with new
evidence which is contrary to the position they defend, these
fighters immediately rise up in our mind launching powerful,
convincing objections. One weapon in their arsenal consists of
thoughts of evidence which supports the position in which they
are entrenched. Often, we are not even aware of the battle
until we ‘feel’ uneasy because we do not pay attention to our
internal dialog.
Cognitive Dissonance occurs as every protest, challenge,
objection and opposing thought are fired from the depths of
our mind to defend the opinion or belief and shoot down new
evidence. We have established an arsenal of well rooted,
supporting grounds for believing the opinion, prejudice,
conviction, and biased thought or idea. Battalions of thought
soldiers will be brought to the front line to defend their
ground. Usually, they will engage in combat automatically,
without our conscious application of energy, to refute the new
idea, thought or evidence. Too often, we simply surrender to
their attack without a fight.
Sometimes an idea is so deeply seated in our mind that it
does not supply supporting evidence. Like a mother who
replies, ‘It just is’ to the child who asks, ‘Why?,’ the
belief, biased idea, prejudice or opinion offers nothing but
absolute conviction.
As I’m writing, I’m reminded of a precious friend and
lover. In spite of compelling evidence to the contrary, I
believed that she was faithful and defended my belief with
conscious and unconscious energy. In the end, objective
reality won. She was unfaithful. My belief in her faithfulness
was in error. My mind automatically fought in her defense
against the unmistakable information that I received contrary
to my established position.
How can that be? The visible grounds for believing the
existence of something else was clear. Yet, my mind
automatically refuted the evidence with an arsenal of contrary
ideas. Eventually, I was able to confront the new evidence
honestly and thereby resolve the pained state of mind that
resulted from the conflict. The resolution did nothing to
resolve my emotional turmoil, but at least my mind was at
ease. This experience was one of many that taught me how to
overcome cognitive dissonance.
I’ve learned that we have the power to consciously erase
old information and replace it with new, accurate, improved,
or revised versions.
I’ve spent many years overcoming biased thoughts, beliefs
and opinions which were planted in me by other people and
experiences. The process continues. All of us have been
conditioned by people in our lives who were conditioned by
still other people. Each person has been influenced by others
since the beginning of time. Their influence becomes an
intrinsic part of our thought processes. It is not always
detrimental. However, when it is, can we go to them for help?
Not usually. We may not even recall the connection between the
belief we hold dear and the person or persons responsible for
planting the seeds that grew into our belief or opinion. Even
if we could, they probably would not understand themselves
enough to help us. Many times, our closest beliefs and
opinions are formed over an extended period by many feelings,
emotions, experiences, education and people that we might not
even recall.
Changing our internal beliefs can be difficult. I’ve been
told that it is impossible to automatically change
positions, however, my personal experience has positively
influenced my understanding of the exact opposite. I can
change anything about my thinking, beliefs, opinions and any
prejudgment tendencies planted in me. In fact, I’ve taught
myself to do it automatically, immediately and without effort.
However, sometimes the process can be painful. The Marines
have a slogan that challenges their men, ‘Pain is weakness
leaving the body.’ When applied to cognitive dissonance, I
would replace ‘body’ with ‘mind.’
We run from pain, yet pain does not need to equal
suffering. Experiencing and/or avoiding pain is a core,
objective reality of the human condition. To conquer the
pained state of mental disharmony called cognitive dissonance,
we must first be willing to triumph over the soldiers
of thought which are stationed in our garden.
So, I ask myself, "Am I willing to overcome mental
disharmony?"
Sometimes, it can be easy to make the choice between
current beliefs and new evidence. As in my weather forecast
example from the first part in this series, we can simply make
a conscious choice to either accept or reject the new
information which contradicts our belief or opinion. Then,
according to our selection, we face the consequences. Other
times, vanquishing cognitive dissonance requires careful
consideration and deliberate, commanding action.
Anyone who has tended a garden understands the insidious
intrusion of the roots of undesirable species. Sometimes the
roots are slyly powerful and can be nearly impossible to
eliminate completely. When tending the garden of thought in
our mind, we must keep alert, lest we be caught unaware, for
the soldiers will come and take captive the master if we
sleep.
Ask yourself this: , "If it is my mind and I own it, am
I permitting myself to have absolute control over it?"
By default, we give our power over to others and the ideas
they have planted. Nevertheless, we have the right to command
and overrule the soldiers who guard our garden of thought
because we are supreme to them.
How many times have you told yourself, "I can’t, because .
. .?" Regardless of the objection, I would replace the
statement with, "I can, if I . . ."
During my personal battle with the thought defending
soldiers that I had stationed to protect my beliefs and
opinions, I have had to fight long and hard. These troops were
professionals. I was only beginning to gain knowledge of
battling them. I had to learn to identify thought soldiers as
either friend or foe. Many were ideas that had just settled in
and became occupants by my nonperformance of what ought to
have been done. I believe the distractions of life were
sufficient to keep me from tending to the housekeeping chores
that would have otherwise eliminated the clutter and
accumulation of unproductive, undesirable material. Maybe I
didn’t care to keep the garden clean because I was not taught.
In any case, as I realized the need, I began forming mental
images of the cleaning process. I imagined myself unrestricted
by physical bounds, uprooting and raking away the debris.
While visualizing the cleaning process, I caught glimpses
of hidden areas and barriers around which I could not see. I
realized that these were particularly difficult areas to
clean. They would require a dismantling of the barrier or some
other strategy. Some have required professional cleansing
assistance.
It is my mind, why would I want to let all of this
unproductive, weed-like, debilitating, junk-thought material
to continue to obstruct my harmonious, equitable distribution
of the elements of my life?
Like so many people, I found myself to be a few pounds
overweight. Cutting out a few calories and increasing the
metabolism of calories proved to be difficult. The defending
troops argued, "It runs in my family." All kinds of defensive
soldiers stood up and fought for the cause. However, I was
determined to fight them off. The most insidious of these
soldiers were able to fatten me up with silky lies like:
- having desert would not hurt
- extra helpings were Ok
- I needed the nutrition
- I’d burn off extra calories and
- tons of other supporting lies.
We live with the harvest from our thought garden. As we
have sown, so do we reap. Upon my satisfactory dismantling of
these thought barriers, and dropping the extra pounds, I
realized that I was the commander in charge. But then other
people told me that I would gain the weight back and more.
This was a moment of cognitive dissonance that required
deliberate action.
I realized my ownership of the mind in question. I accepted
ownership of it. I agreed that if it was mine and I owned it
that I had the power to use it to benefit me instead of
permitting it to be filled with others’ ideas. Then I had to
figure out what that meant. The first thing was to reject the
other people’s notions that were contrary to mine about
regaining weight.
Then, indeed, what did it mean to reach a point of
understanding that my thoughts are really under my authority?
It caused a great deal of uproar and additional dissonance in
my mind. Now I had to deliberately work to overcome the
soldiers that came to the front line in defense of my core
beliefs in relationship to ownership and control of my mind.
At first I questioned how I learned to give away my power.
Realizing the futility of that, I chose to eradicate that
mistaken belief system.
If you are still interested in vanquishing Cognitive
Dissonance, read on in Pt. IV, Digging in, Planting,
Fertilizing and Watering Your Garden.
I must
follow the people. Am I not their leader? -Benjamin
Disraeli
 Exquisitely
done!! My friend, John, you never fail to surprise me with
your limitless energy, expressed in the correct directions
to delight me and others!! As always, your friend, Dr.
Francis Bruce Marion
The right of
commanding is no longer an advantage transmitted by nature;
like an inheritance, it is the fruit of labors, the price of
courage. -Voltaire
JR Minkel
 Daniel
Schacter, a cognitive neuroscientist at Harvard University,
distinguishes seven fundamental categories of memory
imperfections or errors in his 2001 book The Seven Sins
of Memory.
SA: What are the seven
sins of memory?
DS: Three of them have to do with
forgetting. The first is called transience, which refers to
the fact that all other things being equal, memories tend to
become less accessible over time. This is the standard type
of forgetting we all tend to experience. The second sin I
call absent-mindedness. That results from a failure at the
interface between attention and memory. Because of a lapse
of attention, one may never encode the memory sufficiently.
Or it hasn't faded out of memory but you become preoccupied
with other things and don't retrieve the memory at the time
you need to. Say on the way home you're supposed to pick up
milk and eggs, and on the way you drive right past the
store. Then as soon as you get home your wife reminds you
and you remember it. The third kind of forgetting I call
blocking. That's when a memory is available but you can't
get at it, the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.
To read the remainder of this article
click here:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000064E9-8F6F-1FE3-8F6F83414B7F0103
(source: Scientific American.com,
12/23/03)
Natural
ability without education has more often attained to glory and
virtue than education without natural ability. -Cicero
Upcoming Local Meeting
Notices
Next
Pittsburgh meeting date: Tuesday, February 3, 2004
 TIME:
7:00 P.M.
TOPIC:
Mend The Mind, Mind The Body, Meet the Soul, with Dr.
Frances Bruce Marion.
PLACE:
1323 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh Near Mercy Hospital and AJ
Palumbo Center
ADMISSION: Free
PARKING: Free Parking Lot adjacent to the
building.
Contact: Ed Crinnion at 412.761.9870 or John
Pistorius at 412.481.5482.
Refreshments provided.
The next
Monroeville meeting date: Thursday, January 8, 2004
 TIME:
7:00 P.M.
PLACE: Cross Roads
Presbyterian Church, 2310 Haymaker Road, Monroeville, Pa.
TOPIC: Peer Support
Discussion with brief Video Presentation.
ADMISSION: Free
PARKING: Free parking lot
adjacent to the building.
Refreshments provided.
The next Indiana Twp. meeting date:
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
 Time:
7:00 P.M.
Place: the McLaughlin
Education Center of HealthSouth, Harmarville.
Admission: Free
TOPIC: Peer Support
Parking: Free Parking in
the HealthSouth Parking Garage
Contact Tom Byrnes at 412-531-0343 or Ann
Ciotoli at 412-828-1300
Refreshments provided.
I know of no more
encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to
elevate his life by conscious endeavor.
-Henry David Thoreau
 Thank
you Jim Sproat and Realty Counseling Co., Inc. for
your support of the PABIA-NEWS, electronic newsletter and
for the use of your digital camera. We greatly appreciate
your help. Anyone interested in contacting Jim to thank him
personally, can reach him at Realty Counseling Co., Inc.,
1012 East Carson Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15203, by telephone
at 412.381.1166 or visit the Realty Counseling Co. website
at
http://www.realtycounseling.com.
Realty Counseling Co., Inc. is a full service real estate
company, serving the Pittsburgh area for more than
twenty-five years.
Thank you-Dr.
Mason Scott, Executive Director Keystone Neuro-Rehab and
Amy Dana, Accreditation Coordinator, for your
presentation, "New Funding Sources For Brain Injury
Rehabilitation Services" at the January 6, 2004 PABIA
meeting.
A special Thank You to
Anita Delghani, for your contributions of resources for this
publication.
An Ongoing Thank You to
Ed Crinnion for: his untiring efforts, his videotaping of
meetings to give us a 'memory,' his continued financial
support of this organization and his sponsoring of our
website. Ed is one of a kind-to be sure!
Some will
never learn anything because they understand everything too
soon. -Thomas Blount
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We live, and
we learn, as much by unconscious absorption and imitation as
by systematic effort. -Luella B. Cook
"PABIA-NEWS" may be copied and
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the portion of "PABIA-NEWS" that is used:
Copyright ©
2004 John Pistorius
Reprinted with permission.
Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
-Samuel Johnson
till next time-Seek to be and remain
Barrier-Free.
“Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful
old people are works of art”
-Eleanor Roosevelt
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