Allan G. Hunter's Blog, page 95
August 1, 2009
New videos for you….
I'll be loading the latest video interview I did with Lilou Mace yesterday, within the next few minutes, and I'll put it on my 'YouTube' page here if you care to take a look. It's already on YouTube itself and on Facebook, so I felt putting it here in my blog might seem like overload for my beloved readers….
I do feel it's an important interview, though, for a number of reasons. The largest of these is that we discuss the nature of Art and Creativity, and we follow the notion that art is not abo
July 25, 2009
Veterans
Today Harry Patch, the last surviving British "Tommy" to fight in World War One, died at age 111. He'd been a machine-gunner in 1917. A week earlier the previous oldest survivor died, at 113.
This has special poignancy for me because today is St James' Day, the day on which 68 years earlier my father had a rather frightening encounter with a German battleship. The unequal struggle smashed his aircraft into the sea, killing one crew member, but only wounding my father. His life then took an alto
July 24, 2009
The Magician Archetype
As I continue to investigate the Magician archetype it seems as if there may be several levels of Magician. Some people seem to start life with so much more than the rest of us. More opportunity, more contacts, more genius… it's humbling. And truly there are some people, very able and wonderful, who started out superbly well equipped to live large lives meaningfully in this world. Churchill had superb connections that helped his genius to shine, for example, and despite his unpromising early y
July 21, 2009
Video Updates
Baptist de Pape has produced a couple of rather fun videos in which we talk about the Magician and the way of the open heart. You can see them on Youtube or by going to the Youtube page right here - much simpler, I think you'll agree.
In many ways they take the ideas of The Six Archetypes of Love and spell them out in a slightly different way - asking, how do we get to Magician stage? The answers are in some ways very simple. Most things in life are, at least in theory. For we can all reach Ma
July 17, 2009
And end to war?
Human beings like war. We must do, because we're always doing it.
So let's ask the obvious question: what is it we like about it. Like a dangerous drug, if we can discover exactly why people use it we can sort out a way to encourage them to stop using it.
I think I may have an answer. Many people, when in a place of danger or excitement (read; fear) actually feel themselves to be more alive, more 'in the moment' than during the rest of their lives. Ask anyone who's ever been in any sort of figh
July 16, 2009
As tasks unfold
Have you ever had the experience of starting a project, completing it, and then realizing that all the time there was another sub-text that was at work that you hadn't recognized? Now, if you have time and opportunity, that can be delightful. You go back and do the task again, refreshing it, so to speak, with the new knowledge.
And sometimes there's no time and no opportunity.
This happens to me fairly frequently. I write something and three weeks later I see that what I thought of as a complet
July 15, 2009
What to do when the heart is closed
Lately Baptist de Pape, Han Koorneefe, Lilou Mace and others have been corresponding with me about this particular topic. It's been fascinating! The same questions sometimes come back to us, though. Here's one: If one of our life-tasks is to try and keep an open heart (and I have every reason to believe this is the case. If you disagree then I'd respectfully refer you to 'The Six Archetypes of Love'. It may change your mind.) then how do we deal with those whose hearts have become closed?
Som
July 12, 2009
Video Interviews, and Soul Work
I've been doing some video interviews with Baptist de Pape today, as he moves into the next stage of producing his movie, 'The Powerful Wisdom of the Heart'. I'm honored to be included, and I'm also so very delighted to talk with Baptist about things that are very dear to my, well, Heart.
Baptist is a wise and gentle soul; one of the finest. He asks wonderful penetrating questions, too.
It seems to me that whenever people get together and talk about the heart in this way, and about how to open it
July 10, 2009
Date Movies
The Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk) - one of the better British newspapers - had a recent column on 'the Date Movie', and what people thought about the idea. Since we're talking about England, here, some of the responses and anecdotes were hilarious, in a dry, understated way….
The point was a good one, though: there seems to be a genre of 'Date Movie' which is specifically designed to be romantic, gentle, predictable, and to offend no one at all. No explicit sex, no troubling issues, etc. etc. Th
July 8, 2009
Do Try This at Home
One of the things I do when I work with groups is I ask people to try out a few writing exercises, just to see where they may take them. Here's one that may prove interesting.
Take a moment and recall all the times you caused your parents trouble. There must have been a few. Whether it was catching measles and chickenpox consecutively, or the time you banged up the family car, or the other mistakes that led to them digging a little deeper in their wallets, I'm sure you can recall a few. That
