The WELL: inkwell.vue.138: Nina L. Diamond - Voices of Truth: Conversations with Scientists, Thinkers, and Healers

#73: Linda Castellani (castle) Mon 11 Feb 02 16:00

Mon, 11 Feb 2002 16:00:00 PST

Thank you Francesca and Nina! [Read entire topic]

#72: Bob 'rab' Bickford (rab) Mon 11 Feb 02 12:27

Mon, 11 Feb 2002 12:27:00 PST

Thanks for your wonderful insights and opinions, Nina.

I gotta add, I *really* strongly agree with you (and others here) about the notion that many or most people are afraid of decisions and of thinking for themselves, and that's why they so easily slip into being followers. This comes up in politics as much as or more than it does in spirituality, and is a major source of frustration to me and many other people. (I'm gradually learning to just let it be, since otherwise it will just make me crazy to no purpose.)

Thanks again, Nina. [Read entire topic]

#71: Nina L. Diamond (nina-diamond) Mon 11 Feb 02 06:09

Mon, 11 Feb 2002 06:09:00 PST

Francesca, There's an old saying that I'm sure you're familiar with: "Man plans and God laughs". Of course you could also say: "Woman plans and Goddess laughs". So, whenever I talk about what I'm working on and what I have planned for down the road, I always try to keep that in mind. A rather chilling example of that: For a number of months I had a trip planned in which I was going to interview Christopher Reeve in New York, meet with my agent, have dinner with someone whose work I've been editing, visit with some friends, then after those three days in New York I was going to spend the weekend with family in Connecticut. I was supposed to be on the 8 a.m. flight from Miami to New York on Wednesday, September 12th. So, you can imagine my shock on Tuesday, September 11th when I was watching CNN at 9 a.m. and saw the second plane fly into the World Trade Center. Beyond the shock I felt for all the usual reasons, I also couldn't help thinking about what would have happened if this tragedy had occurred one day later. I would have been one hour into my roughly 2 1/2 hour flight. Who knows where they would have diverted the plane and where I would have been stranded, and for how many days. And, who the hell would want to get back on a plane and fly home after that. I did end up doing the Reeve interview, but, obviously not as originally planned. so, what are my plans? Well, right now I'm doing interviews for magazines that will eventually end up in another interview book. A sequel to Voices of Truth, but it will have very different kinds of people and cover different topics than Voices of Truth. I'm doing book reviews, humor pieces, and some book editing. I am so glad that you were able to conduct this 2 week long interview despite your poor, aching back, and I'm so grateful for your continued support of my writing and Voices of Truth in particular. It means so much to me that you "get" what I was trying to accomplish by writing the book. This on-going interview has been a blast, and I'd love to do it again. By the way, I was thinking this afternoon (Eastern time while all you Californians were probably still snoozing) about our discussions about the self-help leaders, and I wanted to add something that we hadn't covered. As much as these leaders want to help, and as much as people are seeking their help, something else plays into the equation: society has come to view nearly every kind of information as a form of self-help. Even the nightly news has become part self-help, how-to lesson on various topics. I'm a journalist and a writer, yet when I've done talks and book signings for Voices of Truth, some book store managers expect that I'm going to conduct these things as self-help workshops. they're disappointed when I remind them that I'm not a self-help expert or a self-help author. They seem to think that everyone who writes a book is a self-help guru! Perhaps that's because there are so many self-help books out there and publishers insist that many authors create a self-help aspect to books that have nothing to do with self-help. One author I know wrote a memoir and because it had to do with spirituality, her publisher insisted that she put a how-to section at the end of the book to teach readers. She didn't want to do it, but complied just to get her book published. This is ridiculous, but it happens a lot. Readers have been trained, in a way, to expect a self-help angle from just about everything in publishing and the media. I think we live in a society that so desperately needs guidance that they look for it everywhere, even in places it shouldn't be expected to come from. This takes us back to our discussion of last week regarding our society expecting athletes and entertainers to also be role models and counselors of a sort. I think that people are afraid of self reliance and that's why thery're hooked on this guidance thing. Also, they've come to believe (Erroneously, of course) that a celebrity or an author must know something they don't, so they put these people on pedestals and expect them to be role models and experts, and to tell them "how-to-this" and "how-to-that". I don't know the answer to this chicken and egg thing: which came first, a need for guidance, or was that need artificially created by a media, publishing and entertainment industry that figured it could sell people answers, thus creating self-help junkies? I think it's probably a little bit of both. We live in complex times and that can be pretty scary, so people look for help all over the place (and I'm talking about pre-September 11th society, so since then it's gotten even worse). I know I've brought something up that could launch us into two more weeks of discussion. Oops! Francesca, I hope your back in still in one piece--many pieces is not good. Rip, Bob, and everyone else, thanks for asking me to vent, ramble and rant--three of my favorite pasttimes. [Read entire topic]

#70: Nina L. Diamond (nina-diamond) Mon 11 Feb 02 05:26

Mon, 11 Feb 2002 05:26:00 PST

Rip, since these are our last postings, first let me say that I've enjoyed "talking" with you during these last two weeks. Your comments and questions have been insightful, thought-provoking, and have given me the opportunity to explore many areas that I had strong feelings about. That was fun since I seem to have opinions about pretty much everything you could come up with! By the way, I really hate liver and lima beans. Just thought I'd throw that in. You made an interesting point that some people become followers simply because they're unable to focus or feel overwhelmed by everything out there. You ask what to do about focus when dealing with time constraints. That's pretty simple: it all comes down to making choices. Perhaps that's the problem that followers face--they're not comfortable making choices, so they just simply follow someone or something and let that person or doctrine make choices for them, tell thenm what to do, what to think. It takes a certain amount of courage to make choices, and it takes a very strong sense of self, sense of identity, and drive. To some of us, that all comes very naturally. To others, it does not. More on that in my response to Francesca. [Read entire topic]

#69: Francesca De Grandis (zthirdrd) Sun 10 Feb 02 21:10

Sun, 10 Feb 2002 21:10:00 PST

Well, everyone, today's the last day of the topic. It is *Happy Trails to You* time, as Roy Rogers and Dale Evans ride off into the sunset and this sleepy interviewer goes to bed. It is time to say *so long. Sigh, much as I hate the fact, the interview is at its end,* though maybe someone else will post something yet since there are three more hours til midnight here in California. So party on without me if you want, but for me, here*s my exit line -->

Nina, Linda, Cynthia, Rip, Rab, and everyone else who participated in this, including those of you who did not post -- you non-posters give silent witness, a silence that creates the universe anew every time you kindly listen to what others are saying -- thank you all for an interesting, enlightening and dynamic two weeks.

Its been an honor to do this with you, Nina.

Now this sleepy <yawn> gal, whose eyes the sandman has kindly touched with his magic sand, says *good night, <yawn>, Goddess bless.*

Be well, be strong, be yourself,

Francesca De Grandis [Read entire topic]

#68: Francesca De Grandis (zthirdrd) Sun 10 Feb 02 10:42

Sun, 10 Feb 2002 10:42:00 PST

ooh, Rip, love your question. And I want to answer it myself so badly (just call me Madame-Francesca-Knows-All-Sees-All,) but I*ll leave it to Nina.

As to your comment about posting bringing out people*s sense of responsibility: maybe your posts have an added value as a non-interviewer, in that folks can see someone who is not *official* jumping in and trusting his/her authority. Great role model.

Nina, re your jokes about genius: I think you and I are are lucky in that we have strong egos. I*ve always known that I had something important to say and that I was a genius!

But not everyone feels that way; that is a tragedy so I try in my classes, counseling, and books to help folks trust their own unique genius. Everyone has genius of some sort! Well, imagine my delight when I met Cathryn Michon and she talked about her book *The Grrl Genius Guide to Life*; she writes that it is important for women to declare their own genius and that of other women. She's very funny about it, explaining that a man will declare *I am a genus, I can make an omelet* but women won*t declare their genius after a major accomplishment. So my gal friend Phoebe Wray and I are always telling each other, usually in a joking manner, *You*re a genius.* And it has actually been good for us, believe it or not.

Anyway, as Castle knows, I*ve done this interview despite being badly laid up with a herniated disc; I can type very little and most of my typing for two weeks has gone into this interview. Since I am a writer by trade, that means other writing did not happen. I made that choice because I believe in Nina*s work, and therefore it was important for me to support it by interviewing her. You who have not read *Voices of Truth*: It is an important book that could change your life. Get it!

My last question: What*s your current and next projects, Nina? [Read entire topic]

#67: Rip Van Winkle (keta) Sun 10 Feb 02 09:18

Sun, 10 Feb 2002 09:18:00 PST

Well thanks Nina, Francesca for the compliment. Although I do also experience my share of times here on the WELL where I will make a comment and the topic just goes silent (imagining people all over going "huh?")

To me, the most fascinating thing about internet discussion ties right in to Nina's point that the people in the book aren't really somewhere that needs catching up to, but actually surrounded by a whole range of others who just aren't being so visible about it. Although posting in this mode is a classically individual act, it starts to bring out in people a great intuitive sense of (and responsibility to) the collective. Imagining, and honoring the existence of, all those folks nodding, "me too" and all those also shaking their head, "nope!" becomes a more exercised part of one's nature here.

On the hard news vs. feature distinction, what I'd like to add is that it seems to me that there are angles of perspective that focus that Who What Where When How Why attitude on the "feature" material. I imagine a shaman's WWWWHW. Or the perspective that a system such as astrology or ecology implies - pushing you to see interpenetrating scales of, well, not "causality," but pertinant significance. Whole Earth once put out a book of material collected from the magazine titled "News that Stayed News."

One last question before I rush off today: about focus. It seem to me that even passion plus discipline don't fully answer the question as to what one is to do. The doctor gets too many patients, the lawyer too many cases, the writer too many ideas. Maybe one reason why becoming a follower is so enticing is that it contributes to settling that question of focus. So the question is, what are the other ingredients that go into "downshifting" all that passion, curiosity, and discipline into the constraints of time? [Read entire topic]

#66: Nina L. Diamond (nina-diamond) Sat 9 Feb 02 17:16

Sat, 09 Feb 2002 17:16:00 PST

Francesca, How nice of you to notice I'm a genius (she said modestly). Actually, I think we have discussed my genius as well as your genius numerous times in the past, but I really appreciate you letting everyone else in on this. OK, now on to the issues. I agree with your take on that fine line between teaching people and running their lives for them. A number of the people in Voices of Truth expressed the same concern that you have. The one who put it most strongly was Caroline Myss, best selling author and medical intuitive. She adores teaching, coaching, inspiring people, but absolutely refuses to be anyone's guru, to have anything even remotely resembling "followers" and, in fact, she looks at those who feel the need to have someone to follow as perhaps in more need of help than others. Someone who wants to be a follower, though, needs a special kind of help, since that desire is a problem in and of itself, apart from whatever other issues that person may be exploring. James Redfield also expressed a very strong desire not to be anyone's guru or leader, and in all of his work his main theme draws upon the premise that everyone needs to be in charge of their own spiritual and personal development. I'm looking forward to any final comments or questions on Sunday, our last day talking together. This has been great, and I'm going to miss checking in every day to hear what everyone has to say. [Read entire topic]

#65: Francesca De Grandis (zthirdrd) Sat 9 Feb 02 13:39

Sat, 09 Feb 2002 13:39:00 PST

Rip, I*m with Nina about you becoming an interviewer and I had been thinking the same myself. When I was interviewed in this same venue -- folks, I came to be interviewed and somehow remained as an interviewer; if you want to see the ahem fab interview with me it is *Francesca De Grandis; Goddess Initiation* -- your participation added a remarkable amount to the conversation. I think Inkwell.vue has a closet interviewer in you!

Or maybe you function best if someone else gets the ball rolling and then you perhaps have the easygoing space to do your remarkable thing? Who knows? In any case, you*re an asset to inkwell.vue!

Nina, yes yes yes, what you said about everyone having their truth and needing to share it with others no matter the size of their *audience.* And, as Nina and anyone who read my*last book knows, this is also a soapbox of mine. And of course when anyone says anything I believe in like Nina has just now, I think they*re a genius! :-)

Your comments also hearken back to our discussion about rip off self-help leaders. A true guru is not someone whom others mindlessly follow but someone who has the gift for helping others discover and trust their *own* unique wisdom.

Unfortunately, as a self-help teacher and national religious leader, I find people sometimes want me to give them the answers instead of helping them do the work themselves. Though I am excellent at helping them find their *own* paths I hate it when others want the answers from me. Did you find this an issue with other self-help or religious leaders you interviewed, that pressure to be the dictator of morals et al?

Well, Nina, everyone, this has been a learning experience! And tomorrow*s the last day, so this may be my last question. [Read entire topic]

#64: Nina L. Diamond (nina-diamond) Sat 9 Feb 02 12:54

Sat, 09 Feb 2002 12:54:00 PST

Well, Francesca, and any other women out there who may be interested, I'm sorry to have to tell you that Charles Jaco is very happily married to a terrific television producer, Melissa, who is bright, talented, warm, and funny. Charles is exactly as he appears to be in the interview: he is looking for truth in the name of justice, and he's always been on the true reporter's mission. He knew that danger and injury were possibilities on many of the stories he has pursued, but that "came with the territory", as the old saying goes. He's now doing a radio interview show out of St. Louis, on KMOX. It's called "Newsmakers", and it's on Monday-Friday, from 2-4 p.m. Central. He's also written a couple of novels and he's now working on a non-fiction book. You can find him on the Internet. In addition to the radio station's site, he has his own website. [Read entire topic]