When I sometimes threaten to write my own book about dreams, it's only because during my life I've had dreams that I've never seen described in any book. Prominent among these are what I call my 'novel' dreams. These are dreams in which a story continues all night long, despite routinely waking 3-4 times during … Continue reading Dreaming a Novel
Paranormal World |Hypnotism
Most people will tell you that hypnotism is not part of the paranormal. It is a real phenomenon, accepted by science. But it has been very neglected by science. Most people don't know that in the great age of hypnotism, the 19th century, it was known to be intimately connected with paranormal phenomena. Are you … Continue reading Paranormal World |Hypnotism
The Ugly Duckling and The Birdcatcher
Someone has said The Birdcatcher is just the story of the Ugly Duckling retold. Well, yes, that's what it is. That fairy tale was written especially for shy solitary people. Human 'ugly ducklings' have been told for a long time, maybe thousands of years, that they should stop being different, that they should behave like everyone … Continue reading The Ugly Duckling and The Birdcatcher
Autism|One Problem, Many Paths
This week I discovered the July 29, 2011 Science News article by Laura Sanders, "One Problem, Many Paths", which described some interesting research on the DNA and associated “neural proteins” in autistic families. The families were studied in groups of approximately 1000 families, including many families where the parents were not autistic. As with … Continue reading Autism|One Problem, Many Paths
Watch out for Narcissists and Sociopaths
(This was a post on my previous blog, Loner's Highway, where I presented narcissists as another type of loner. Because they're such problematic people, especially for shy people, I'm including them here.) According to The Everything Guide to Narcissistic Personality Disorder, by Cynthia Lechan Goodman, MEd, and Barbara Leff, LCSW, someone may have narcissistic personality … Continue reading Watch out for Narcissists and Sociopaths
Paranormal World
Sigmund Freud once said that if he could live his life again, he would devote it to research into paranormal phenomena. His one time professional associate, later professional enemy, Carl Jung, said near the end of his life that he thought the biggest scientific event of the 21st century would be the beginning of serious … Continue reading Paranormal World
The Dairy Farm |A Galactic bailout for Earth?
This little story was written in 1993, but given the financial fiasco that civilization got itself into in 2008, and hasn't really got out of, with the giant problems of global warming, habitat destruction, over-population, and the need for some kind of global government still staring us in the face as we continue to quarrel … Continue reading The Dairy Farm |A Galactic bailout for Earth?
Watch out for Sociopaths
This was originally a post on my previous blog, Loner's Highway, where I was describing the different types of loner. Sociopaths (sometimes called psychopaths, an older term) are a very different kind of loner. Contrary to what most people think, they are not demented haters of humanity. They like the rest of us very much. … Continue reading Watch out for Sociopaths
In Defence of Bullfighting | The Old Matador
Because I eventually want to put a collection of my SF short stories on this site, I'm introducing another one today. During the winter and spring of 1969 I was in Mexico City, working from Monday to Saturday teaching English in a busy school on the Insurgentes. On Sundays, I regularly visited the famous Plaza … Continue reading In Defence of Bullfighting | The Old Matador
Alan Conrad 