The Creative Art of Persuasion

How does one persuade another to get up out of the wheelchair, after all the kings doctors and all the kings men told that one, his days were numbered and he won’t be back this way again? I had this very experience the same summer I met Mr. Troy. (See post 2-13-2012) Healing is one of the creative arts of persuasion. 

The director of “Hamlet” that summer was the venerable theatre artist, Allan Fletcher. It was a repertory company and I was part of the “cast of thousands.” I first saw Allan being wheeled into first cast call He was riding  aboard a wheelchair chariot with his aptly named stage manager Ms. Rapier driving, followed by a colorful entourage. This man who would become a friend and mentor was slumped over to one side, a lap blanket and his ever present fleece collared jeans jacket for cover. From this frail stick of a man came the thunderous voice of the old master. The vitality of his resonance was betrayed by the brittle form. He spun the story he would have us collectively tell of a noble prince undone. He himself was to play the ghost of Hamlet’s father. 

At one point during the first few days, I had the chance to meet him face to face. When I took his hand in greeting, it was freezing cold. I instinctively took his other hand and warmed both for a moment. I did not know enough to keep my mouth shut and said, ”I can help you.” Stage manager Rapier’s razor sharp glare guided me back to the chorus; but Allan remembered my four words and after several days, asked what I meant.

In those days, the lexicon of my knowing was limited. I didn’t have words to share. I had deeds. So I showed him. I had collected a wide variety of deeds I came to call tools. “Touch for Health” was one of those systems of tools. The study of rhetoric makes it clear, the art of persuasion extends far beyond words alone. Aristotle insisted that the most effective means of persuasion is the application of all the available means of persuasion. Words represent experience, they are not the experience itself. (See post 12-16-2011) He needed help with what to do, not what to say. 

We met three times a week at first, up to two hours per session. Shorter visits and then fewer visits. By the end of the summer, the breath of life had returned to his limbs. He had gone from a wheelchair to a bicycle and long walks in the course of a couple months. 

The last time I saw Allan was several years later at PCPA Theatrefest in Solvang, CA. We were to see “MacBeth.” Again in the title role, Danny Davis and directed by Allan. Dear Allan met me at the front of the theatre with a heart felt hug. He was still up and walking; however, he was falling ill again and he knew it. I could see it in his face and it was also in his voice. I could see he wanted to allow health and wellbeing to fill him once again. It seemed he had forgotten the pathways to wellness we had traveled years earlier. His rare blood disease had him on the ropes again.

It was a cold night and the coastal fog was hovering over the open air theatre. Just as MacBeth is screaming at God for his fate, a blue/white flash filled the night sky, flashing from behind the audience. Then sounds of an explosion in the same breath as a scream. Black and silence followed, but for a faint glow in the fog overhead. 

Later the power and lights returned and the show went on to its conclusion. The Scottish lord is undone yet again. 

As you perceive it, so it is, to you.

An electrical worker passed over to the other side that night atop an electrical pole, just a block away from the theatre. Due to the excitement of the evening, I was not able to connect with Allan after the show. As it turns out, I never again saw my friend after that night. Allan deeply honored me that summer, by allowing me to persuade him to choose life and wellness. The gifts I received from our time together are treasured. He will live on in my memory as long as I have one.

Our 50 bits/sec of conscious flow can so easily be overwhelmed by our perceptions. The greatest tool in any healing tradition is the creative art of persuasion.

Belief System

Belief System

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“A belief system is a set of mutually supportive beliefs. The beliefs may be religious, philosophical, ideological or a combination of these. Philosopher Jonathan Glover says that beliefs are always a part of a belief system, and that belief systems are difficult to completely revise.[1]”

Belief Systems are the tools we use in making assumptions in our composition of "Now." Bit by bit, we make peace with the universe we live within, both inside and out.

One of the largest productions I’ve ever had the honor to direct was also my first Gilbert & Sullivan, “Gondoliers”. It was huge. Plush production values surrounded and adorned a cast of 60+, supported by a full orchestra conducted by the director of the UC Symphony. I was a year or so past graduate school and working in the greater Sacramento area trying to make a living at theatre. 

After four plus years of study in the healing art modality called "Touch for Health.", I acquired a shiny new “Touch for Health” instructor’s certificate. For those that do not know about TFH, it is a system of healing arts. TFH takes a general systems perspective of the human condition, collect information about a subject and facilitate appropriate change. The subject by asking questions of their body. Applied kinesiology or muscle testing is the tool used. This tool, properly applied, usurps conscious influence by means of the 1/2 delay. (See Post 10-20-2011) The way a muscle test elicits a response, the test is over prior to the subject becoming conscious of the test taking place. That is why it is such an effective test. The subject is not conscious of the test until the test is over. Knowing this is also the trick of performing the test effectively.

These two elements collided in a beautiful way in the person of Dr. Susan Whitehead. Every women I ever dated left me with at least one gift. This was no joke when Dr. Susan Whitehead crossed my path at exactly the right time. She was the footnotes and bibliography I needed to understand and defend applied kinesiology. She was a Welsh post doctoral researcher in muscle behavior. Her special interest was protein facilitation in muscle behavior.

Every morning she would come to work, suited up and as she put it, ”snuff  bunnies.” A pith tool penetrates at the base of the lab rabbit’s skull. She would then take a larger skeletal muscle from said same live non-conscious bunny and insert said muscle into a device that could stimulate the muscle and explore protein behavior on both the stimuli and response side of the behavior in question. This demonstrated in no uncertain terms what was going on in the muscle tissue from stimulus throughout the muscles contraction response.

How did a post-graduate theatre artist get access to this incredible cutting edge muscle research? Dr. Whitehead loved “Gilbert and Sullivan” and she loved Irish theatre directors of “Gilbert & Sullivan.” Susan could not believe the big director noticed the little chorus girl. I could not believe that in all the world, in that setting, I would find proof positive that muscle testing and applied kinesiology was fact and real in 1979. 


Exactly how and why it worked was not yet clear in that day; however, this work made the fact of muscle testing irrefutable. It was not a matter of conscious or non-conscious perception. The neurons and the sarcomeres present in the muscle tissue were installed in the measuring device. One would think this disembodied, brainless muscle tissue would no longer be able to respond to any stimulus. With an artificial startle reflex signal provided by the device, the muscle would contract. She would alter the chemical environment of the muscles fluid suspension. This effected how the muscle worked, but not whether or not it worked.  If the muscle recognized the signal as a startle reflex, contract followed. It was fascinating to see what effected that signal and how the muscle behavior was disrupted.

So what does this have to do with belief systems. Belief systems are an artificial construct of consciousness. Think of this like the analogy of communication trees in a forest of information. (See Post 01/03/12) 

The information held in a belief systems, translated into bits, is a massive volume. The lessons shown in this blog tell us we can only be conscious of 50 bits/sec. 

The stagecraft of the play you write and perform as "Now," consists of the contents within your own personal belief system.

Out of the 10 million bits/sec of information collected by the retina of the human eye, only 20% of that information collected and sent to the thalamus is sent to the visual cortex to determining what said eye is seeing. That 20 percent is just the raw information. The human interpretive processes, over the course of the ½ second delay, may disregard all the information sent by the eye in any given moment. The outside world becomes totally composed of assumptions at that point. This frees 50 bit/sec consciousness for higher priority perceptions; oh like, survival or to close your eyes, be still and listen.

One’s belief system has the ability to believe things that are not true. All storytelling depends on this fact. In theatre this is called, “The Willing Suspension of Disbelief.” This is such a common occurrence in todays world, with constant artificial low bandwidth signals substituting for high bandwidth real life interaction. 

The distance between what one believes and what the universe holds as true can be vastly different. I have known people to believe themselves to death. As you perceive it, so it is; for you. 

There are tools here, I think.