33. Flash of inspiration

Posted by T. T. and P. R. in November 2019

It has been told many times that Isaac Newton discovered gravity when he saw a falling apple. Whether or not this is true, it might lead to a belief that only a genius can have such a ‘flash of inspiration’. On the contrary, ordinary people may suddenly come up with new ideas, which could be similar to a flash of inspiration from a genius, even though the resulting idea is usually not more than a piece of imagination.

If a flash of inspiration is a common feature of ordinary people, it may not be the nature just of specially gifted people but, instead, an intrinsic nature of any individual human. More than that, it may be possible to assume that animals other than humans can also have such a flash of inspiration as an intrinsic nature.

At this moment, a flash of inspiration suddenly came to me that this reasoning might apply not only in animals having a highly evolved brain, but animals having a primitive brain may also have a nature similar to the ‘flash of inspiration’. This idea was not a result of inductive thinking but was the fruit of imagination unexpectedly emerging in my poor brain!

Such an imagined idea that the flash of inspiration can exist in primitive brains may provide hope that it may also exist at least in mentally disabled persons due to congenital brain defects, developmental disorders, brain damage, and dementia, even though difficulties arise in communication by language. This could mean that all natural brains work in a similar way to  a genius brain but perhaps only at a very basic level.

At present, scientific understanding of the mind is still rudimentary, but it will develop significantly in the hundreds of years ahead, so that people living in the remote future will be able to have a perfect understanding of how the mind works. Then, they could be convinced that the basic nature of the mind, such as the ‘flash of inspiration’ must exist in all minds among all species having a mind. Thus, all of our ancestors and descendants may have the mind in common at the very basic nature.  

We can imagine future people who are looking back at us from a distance, and they are eagerly wishing for signs of a ‘flash of inspiration’ from us, by which the existence of human future can be secured. And at the same time, they earnestly hope for our joyous imagination, that we can surely contribute to the distant future people. If such a scenario becomes a reality, the outcome must be far above the discovery of gravity.

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32. Recovery from addiction

 Posted by T. T. and P. R. in October 2019

Michael de Ridder is a German physician who once worked in the emergency centre of a hospital situated in a district of Berlin where many alcoholics and drug addicts lived. In Germany, even in the 1980s, alcoholics and drug addicts were regarded as unwanted people so that hospitals only focussed on treatment that would  get them to quit their addiction. On one occasion, Dr. de Ridder had an opportunity to visit a hospital in London, and he was seriously impressed by the fact that all of the addicted patients were respected as individual persons.

After he came back from London, he tried to introduce to his own hospital the practice of using a respectful manner when treating drug-addicted patients. Although there were many difficulties, his enthusiastic attitude moved his colleagues and hospital managers, such that the hospital gradually adapted its whole approach to these patients. There was even an arrangement whereby a doctor and a nurse agreed to be bused around the area to treat all patients who, for whatever reason, did not come to the hospital.

One day a young drug addicted patient, Dieter W., was standing at the bus stop with crutches to support him. He was a heavy addict, using heroin, cocaine, and alcohol, and he had been arrested many times by the police for drug trafficking. He got onto the bus, and showed a fist-sized abscess in the inguinal region that had been produced by frequent needling of veins for heroin injections. Dr. de Ridder had tried many times to persuade him to have surgery, and finally managed to bring him to the hospital.

Many years later, Dieter once again came to the emergency room. He showed his injured thumb to Dr. de Ridder. “Doc ... I am Dieter ... I came here not for heroin ... I have been clean like a newborn cat for two years now ... Can you believe it? ... I’m caring for elderly people in the Worker’s Welfare.” After minor surgery of the thumb, Dr. de Ridder brought him to a cafeteria. Dieter talked only a little. “Always ill ... I stole purses from old women for the next drug ... I hated myself ... Doc ... It was harder than the hardest ‘cold turkey’ ... I took methadone for a while but I’ve reduced it. Now I only take seizures!” Dr. de Ridder gave him his card with his phone number.

In our present world, it is almost as if we have what might be considered as ‘pseudo-patients’ who have become addicted to the many culturally-created comforts of daily life, which are similar to the  chemically induced comforts of drugs. The degree of comfort produced by a drug diminishes  progressively when used repeatedly, and thus the amount of drug being taken has to be increased and an addiction is thereby created. Similarly, once addicted to cultural comforts, one cannot quit them, and will do any manner to get more comforts even stealing natural resources from future generations.

It is often said  “Once an addict, always an addict”. But, this is not necessarily true and Dieter W. demonstrated this fact. He recovered from heavy drug addiction largely by himself. Dr. de Ridder did not cure him, but his respectful attitude towards him probably served as a vital factor that was in part responsible for the miraculous return by Dieter from his serious addicted state. Our world is not hopelessly lost, even when all previous efforts to cure the ‘cultural addicts’ appear to have failed. We can still have hope in the mental power and sensibility that definitely exists in people everywhere around the world.

Further information:

• The above story was based on a monograph; Michael de Ridder, Welche Medizin wollen wir?, Deutsche Verlags Anstalt, München, 2015.

 • Special thanks to Prof. Munehiro Shimada, MD and Prof. Wolfgang Roland Ade, for introducing the above monograph and providing cordial help in the translation of the referred parts.

• Cordial thanks to Prof. Michael de Ridder, MD, for permitting the use of the contents in the above monograph in  our piece of writing to be posted to the website entitled “Love Future Neighbours”.

Comments: 29. Tuesday with Morrie

When I read "(4th paragraph): However, present people do not think about how to live in those precious days that remains. What is important is not the length of the period but it's quality.  As Morrie said, we have to learn how to give out love, and how to let it come in", My heart is deeply touched by this statement.  As the humankind, we have much more than we really need, but we humankind only get more greedy than ever.  We need to learn and exercise"give out love".  We only can do our best by ourselves and hope all society can have the senses to do together.

From your student.

Sent from my Huawei phone

Reply: Thank you. You are surely Morrie's student with me. (T. T.)

31. No Title Required

 Posted by T. T. and P. R. in July 2019

In present societies, the holding of titles can benefit each title holder. In a company, the head of a section may carry the title of Section Manager, whilst the  head of the company may have the  title of President, or Chief Executive Officer; clearly elevated above a Manager. Each of these titles can carry the  benefit for the title holder that fulfils the requirements necessary simply to do business. In sports the winner of a title match will be a Champion. In a less prestigious game, perhaps just a local one, some kind of title will be given to the winner. In academic circles, a title is advantageous when seeking promotion or a better job and it also help significantly when competing for large research grants.

When competing with many brilliant title holders, a person having no title is likely to fade away and be forgotten. But, a sensible poet saw that each moment of each person looks brilliant as it is, regardless of whether or not they held some kind of title. A Polish poet, Wisława Szymborska (1923-2012), a Nobel Prize Laureate for Literature, wrote a poem, No Title Required. In that, an insignificant event of sitting under a tree beside a river is depicted as a moment of full of richness and unique existence, so that it is no one else’s.

The last verse of the poem is:

When I see such things I’m no longer sure

that what‘s important

is more important than what’s not.    

(Translated by Clare Cavanagh and Stanisław Barańczak)

At first glance, these three-lines seem logically tricky. However, the embarrassment may be caused by a prejudice that the importance of a person is measurable by a one-dimensional scale. Actually, the importance of a person is not measurable even by a multi-dimensional scale, such as a school report. It is likely that there may be a fatal prejudice in the present culture which may hurt a great many innocent persons.

In our present world, titles are seen as protective walls which benefit persons inside to enjoy a respected life. If all walls created by titles are removed in the remote future, every person can fully enjoy their own respectful life without being guarded by walls. Then, a world where No Title Required will be reality.

30. The Little Match Girl

 Posted by T. T. and P. R. in July 2019

The Little Match Girl is a famous story by Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875). In the evening of the last day of the year, it was terribly cold. A poor little girl had to stand in the street to sell matches, but no one had bought any. She lost her slippers and had to stand there in bare feet. She sat down under the eaves of a house and struck one of the matches. To her surprise, she then saw a stove with hot fire burning. She struck a second match, and saw a roast goose on a table. She lit another match, and saw a Christmas tree with many candles which rose up and became stars in the sky, but one candle fell down. She remembered her grandmother who told her that when a star falls, a soul goes up to heaven. She then lit all of the remaining matches. Then the grandmother appeared. Taking the little girl in her arms, she flew up high in the sky to heaven where there was no cold, no hunger and no sorrow. On the next morning, the first dawn in the New Year, the little girl was found leaning against the side of the house , frozen to death, but with a smile upon her lips.

This is a sad story of a poor little girl. But, many readers may feel compassion for the girl as if it is their own experience. Some readers may also associate with poor and homeless people who must spend bitterly cold days and nights without warmth or food. This should warn us all that the rich nature surrounding us is in danger from human caused destruction and pollution, so that future people will most likely have to live in terribly poor environments. This means that the misery depicted in The Little Match Girl story will have  spread around the world, and will eventually cover the whole of our precious planet.

However, the latter half of the story is a declaration of spiritual victory. The girl’s dead grandmother appeared in her soul and brought her to heaven where there is no misery to hurt her. To make sure that the victory is not imaginary but is reality, the author added the phrase “... with a smile upon her lips”. It means that the little girl actually felt eased with her beloved grandmother. In contrast with the explosive spreading of misery in modern world, the spiritual force tends to shrink in the civilized society where science and technology fully occupy the human mind. If this situation continues into the future, then human survival is vulnerable.

To save our Planet, recognition of spirituality will be required. If all present people try to satisfy their own mind only by materialistic richness, the desire for possession will spread endlessly until our environment becomes in danger. Thus, if the human race can survive till the remote future, they will satisfy their own life with minimal possessions and rich spirituality. To achieve that, the present era may be a pivotal moment of cultural transition in which human progression changes its direction towards a safer and brilliant way. The Little Match Girl would be a prophetic text which guided humans to the right way.

29. Tuesdays with Morrie

Posted by T. T. and P. R. in June 2019

Morie Schwartz (1916-1995) was a Professor of sociology at Brandeis University, Massachusetts. In his seventies, health problems appeared and his illness was finally diagnosed as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The doctor told him that it is terminal and guessed that he had two years left.

With this news, Morrie thought deeply about how to live in the remaining days of his life. He wrote many aphorisms about living near death; for example, “Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others”. He shared them with his friends, and an article about his aphorisms appeared in the Boston Globe newspaper. Then, the host of the  popular TV show “Night-line”, Ted Koppel, visited Morrie’s home for an interview, and Morrie then appeared on this show.

A student of Morrie, Mitch Albom, happened to watch the show. While he didn’t know about Morrie’s fatal illness, he called Morrie, and dashed to his home immediately. Morrie accepted Mitch as his student once again, and suggested that he should come on Tuesday. Thereafter, Mitch visited Morrie on Tuesdays, fourteen times in all,  till just before his death. On every visit, Morrie and Mitch talked about various topics of life. The most important thing in life, Morrie told to Mitch, was to learn how to give out love, and how to let it come in.

At present, our world is almost the same as a patient suffering from a fatal illness. To diagnose the illness correctly and try to cure it is a very urgent matter. It will not be improbable that the time left to our humankind is fairly short. However, present people do not think about how to live in those precious days that remain. What is important is not the length of the period but its quality. As Morrie said, we have to learn how to give out love, and how to let it come in.

Morrie’s story above is taken from a nonfiction publication entitled “Tuesdays with Morrie”, written by Mitch Albom and published by Broadway Books in 1997. The book topped the New York Times Non-Fiction Bestsellers in 2000. If some readers inspired by Morrie’s attitude facing a sentence of death, and then seriously thought about their own attitude facing the end of the existence of humankind, Mitch’s success as a bestselling writer will be a reasonable reward for his contributions to future generations.

28. Happy-to-be-alive Exhibition

Posted by T. T. and P. R. in June 2019

More than 50 years have passed since implantable cardiac pacemakers were introduced to treat heart arrhythmias. Since then, many patients having serious arrhythmias became alive again and recovered their normal life, sustained by an implanted cardiac pacemaker. An Association, whose members were patients having had an implanted cardiac pacemaker, was established in Japan in 1970.

At some time, the President of the Association, Professor Toshio Mitsui, suffered a serious haemorrhage from the intestine. After enduring a critical state for several weeks, he finally recovered, returned to his home, requested raw tuna and beer, enjoyed them both, and felt so happy to be alive.

©Toshio Mitsui (2017)

After this experience, he had the idea to establish a “Happy-to-be-alive Exhibition”. He asked some Association members to give a short talk in the annual general meeting about their own happy-to-be-alive experience. In the event, members presented their own experiences on different occasions, and the audience congratulated  them and shared their experiences. Now, the Happy-to-be-alive Exhibition has become a regular part of the annual meeting, and reports are published regularly in the members’ magazine.

After the current major environmental crisis, which has been of our own making, people living in the future may well feel the reality of being “happy-to-be-alive”, as they remember repeatedly being told of the human history in which their distant ancestors destroyed nature down to the level where the very existence of the human race had been endangered. The following generations had to endure many painful hardships, for several millenniums or even millions of years, merely to ensure the  survival of humankind. Then, once destroyed, nature gradually recovered  and, finally, the richness of the biosphere returned up to the level it was before the Industrial Revolution.

People living in the remote future will surely recognize the virtues and benefits of being alive, surrounded by the profound cultural achievements sustained by advanced science and technology. They will also recognize the importance of providing contributions to the people in the further remote future. Actually, experiencing the happy-to-be-alive feeling is not merely a personal episode for each individual, as it will become a compassion among all generations including the past, present and future through the whole lifetime of humankind.

27. An epoch in the history of humankind

Posted by T. T. and P. R. on May 2019

When humankind possessed strong artificial power sources, the production of materials to meet the needs of living began to increase explosively. This was the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, around 1750, which created an epoch that will be the greatest human-caused global destruction in the whole history of humankind.

Now, in the early 21^st century, we are at the middle of this epoch. During a period of about 250 years from 1750, world population increased by about ten times, which is way beyond the sustainable level of planet earth. It will take around another 200 or 300 years to reduce world population to below the sustainable level. As depicted below, the epoch lasting around 500 years from the Industrial Revolution will be regarded as the period of the greatest human-caused mass destruction. Although nature apparently looks fairly stable now, various kinds of hidden destruction have been progressing to almost the limit of human survival.

When the period of the great destruction has ended, all human activities should hopefully be stabilized to below the sustainable level. However, the whole world would remains in a ruined state. The beautiful nature will have been mostly destroyed, the atmosphere and the oceans would be deeply polluted, and the biosphere will have been shrunken almost to its worst level of that just after the greatest mass extinction in the history of life. While the time required to recover from such destruction will depend on the extent of the destruction and the efforts made to achieve some kind of recovery, it will nevertheless take more than several millenniums or much longer, even a million years.

It will be rather providential if humankind can actually survive after the long period of time needed for an acceptable recovery, having to endure  a great many hardships and with poor quality of life. What is important for us now is to imagine how future people will look back at their history, including the epoch of the great human-caused mass destruction. They will undoubtedly be critical of us and even angry that we  were the cause of  the terrible epoch.  They will accuse us of robbing them of the valuable treasure of nature, despite the fact that we had the benefit of very high level scientific and technological knowledge and  discoveries. However, if they then find that there had been at least some altruistic people who had try to stop the destruction of the natural world on planet earth, to help future people and sacrificing their own pleasure, they might, in turn, try to do the same for the people in further distant future. Compassion over a great many generations could  act as a strong motivation to help each other, love each other, and unite each other into a tight bond.