Brain Chemicals, Not Will Alone We don’t know the qualified diagnoses of Nidal Hasan. But it may have markers of a serious chemicological and brain disturbance. The subject about how the brain chemicals in the body can go haywire, wrongly signaling a person about events and stimulii around them, causing interpretations and behavior that are either too much or too little– is a subject so large that it would take several libraries to trace what has been researched and written about these...

This GUEST VOICE piece is by Rafael Jesús González from California, on Veterans’ Day 2009. It is a perspective on ’supporting the troops’ …or not. I brought it here to give a small x-ray into how one family’s three generations of soldiers is evolving nearly ninety years after what was supposed to have been ‘the war to end all wars, World War One’ …GUEST VOICE by Rafael Jesús González I am leery of being asked to honor veterans of almost any war,...

Fourteen were killed at Fort Hood, not thirteen as reported all week long. Which official is correcting the death toll? I am. On the authority of being a mother who is multi-paragravida, meaning one who has given birth more than once, and on the authority of being a grandmother of five souls, I can, I think, count straight about this particular tragedy. Francheska Velez was a 21-year-old woman, shot to death by Major Nidal Hssan at Fort Hood Army Base. Thirteen others were slain also. Nine weeks...

Miss Kimberly Munley, the mother of a three-year-old daughter, and a civie policewoman, is in stable condition, with injuries to the upper leg and thigh. General Cone said her fearless response to gunman at Fort Hood, had saved countless lives. Trained in active-response tactics, she rushed into the building where Major Nidal Malik Hasan began firing on comrades as they prepared to deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq. Officials confirmed that she had continued firing even after being hit. You can read...

The subject of veteran suicides rises every so often, like a dark island that floats off shore, but lays submerged under the water most all the time. Only small boats with intrepid rowers that are strong enough to go out past the riptides can see the sleeping dead under the water. But every so often the ocean heaves and there it is again: the landmass rises and you see that it has been weighted down by huge blocks of granite inscribed with names of senators and doctors who didn’t ask and...

A koan is a short, often paradoxical idea, meant to tell the truth, or cause the ego to give up, or cause enlightenment, or all three. Old well known koans: What is the sound of one hand clapping? What is the sound of a tree falling in the forest, if there is no one there to hear it? I try my hand at koans. I’m no good at it, but I try. Why it is so easy for ‘the base’ of any side to fall so easily into a Pavlovian rage by telling them half-truths which are purposely meant...

I live walking distance to Fort Logan National Cemetary. Every day, every every day come the black hearses, and color guard, the rifle squads and the often old VFW bugler. I can hear taps sometimes when the wind is just right. Military wife here (USAF 21 years of service by my DH). Working in post trauma recovery at VA over decades now, the men who volunteer to be escorts see it as silent duty, dont brag about it, most often have deep reactions and grim woundings from helping to carry the body of...

It’s now nearing three weeks since three people died and 21 were injured and hospitalized in a “sweatlodge” “wealth-making” five-day event at a ranch near Sedona, Arizona. The joint was run by James Ray who teaches people how to become wealthy. It appears that a huge ‘lodge’ was constructed at the event, many times the capacity of a real sweat lodge. By some reports from those who say they were participants at the event, it appears that people were told...

James Ray who has a mega-spirituality business that revolves around ‘wealth getting,’ held a retreat in Arizona two weeks ago. For reasons not clear, he allegedly built an ungodly large 20×20 “sweatlodge,” and purported to be copying Native American sacred practices. He crammed 50 people into that skeletal structure covered by plastic tarps, and then, with the rocks smoking hot hot steam, seemingly would not allow anyone to leave, even though they complained they were...

The Samaritans were a despised and denigrated tribal group in ancient times. Yet, who was it who had the eyes to see, the heart to act when all others avoided the battered and ran away? It was a Samaritan. As the ancient story is told… a poor soul lay by the side of the road, beaten to a bloody pulp. Men of the priestly classes crossed to the other side of the road to avoid helping the bleeding man. Other travelers merely stepped over the dying man. Yet, one, an old man Samaritan, took up...

Just talking myself through the news of the day. Again. the way one does in a trauma/ triage situ. Most minds dont follow a straight path when learning the news. They veer into old memories. They look for patterns. They try to understand, so they can see, what can be done to help. Today, I’m saying to myself… Don’t go numb like it’s the farm report, pork bellies up, oats and soy down. Don’t go numb over this latest dispatch from Baghdad, I say to myself. I think we...

Two men, 38 and 40 years old, died, a third person, a 49 year old woman, passed away this past week… All three died after participating in a sweat lodge … which is meant to be deep prayer over all gathered in nakedness there; no clothing to mark status, everyone as they were when they came hot and steaming from their mothers long ago. The three died, and two dozen are ill, after, it seems, inhaling toxic fumes and/or becoming overheated in a sweat lodge put together and led, not apparently,...

Hello there, Dr. Estés here. UPDATE to the story continuing to unfold in Texas between Governor Perry and a Commission looking into facts, or lack of… surrounding a man condemned to death in Texas. A mystery within a mystery as some facts/motives surfaced by usual means, but some recently appeared from ‘invisible hands.’ To give clarity? Or to purposely muddy the waters? Correspondent here is our TMV GUEST VOICE, Mr. Elijah Sweete. Update: Did Perry’s Office Pressure Commission Chair...

Hello there, Dr. Estés here w/ a tale of being mix-mastered in the house of mirrors passing for health insurance– or not. The cadeusus w/ sword and serpent once meant instinctive balance of mind/spirit, (serpent considered helping messenger between heaven & earth) w/strong dose of protectiveness toward body via symbol of flaming sword, to fight afflictions. Nowadays, seems more like poke in eye with a sharp stick– no wise snake in sight. But let famed storyteller Ron Beasley, TMV...

MSM often plays the same chord way too often: the dischord. There are far more stories each day that unfold with regard, and often enough, authentic fondness. A colleague from Texas A&M forwarded me a copy of this letter today, from the former President Bush speaking about welcoming President Obama to a special event on Aggie turf. You’ll probably note a couple pointed words indicating President Bush’s stance on Obama being President. To My Fellow Members of the Texas A&M Family: Howdy!...

Sounds True is the superlative audio company that has produced my audio books for the last twenty years… my works like The Radiant Coat, Stories about the Crossings Between Life and Death… a work used by many professionals in health, healing and hospices. Other of my works: Theatre of the Imagination: Thirteen weeks of live performances of myths and stories revolving around dark and difficult life themes… broadcast over many NPR and public radio stations in US and Canada. There...

Hello Readers, Dr. Estés here, bringing you another GUEST VOICE by Mr. Elijah Sweete who tells us that Texas Gov. Perry has now replaced a fourth member of the commission investigating death row inmate, C.T. Willingham’s, potential innocence. The Governor has now in the last month, removed four persons from the investigative commission, raising the dark question about whether a sitting Governor is attempting to silence a report from an independent group regarding execution, evidences and...

SIGHT Land can look deep purple, cobalt blue from far away… but up close, it is surprise green, with browns, and slashes of clay red and hansa yellow. Sometimes souls are like that too: long view, short view, so different in color and tone… yet exact same soul. How war-ready the mind can become, when demanding only one true view, insisting all ground be immoveable, and sky always poised overhead. This way! Only this way, I tell you! But, the kite says otherwise. Clouds are under her...

Many men in service and their sons were exposed to poisoned water at Camp LeJeune between 1960s and 1980s, and more than 20 of the men now have male breast cancer. Many of those sick, are denied VA benefits. Completed their mission, but what is owed to them in honor… is withheld. “Among the chemicals later identified in the drinking water were trichloroethylene, a degreaser; benzene; and the dry cleaning solvent perchloroethylene. Two independent studies have found no link between water...

I’m bringing you the second GUEST VOICE at TMV by Mr. Elijah Sweete. To give perspective to his article below, of the 1,175 people put to death nationwide since 1977 when executions resumed in the USA, 441 have been in Texas. There have been 39 executions in the USA so far this year 2009, 18 of them in Texas. Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés TEXAS GOV. PERRY THROWS WRENCH INTO INNOCENT EXECUTION INVESTIGATION by Elijah Sweete Five years ago the state of Texas executed Cameron Todd Willingham for...

Wait! Dont jump off the roof because the bestseller lists have turned into books from the Right screaming at books from the Left, and visa versa. Here are some of the silly, interesting, wondrous books, and also a couple Left/ Right books forthcoming yet this year 2009, and in 2010 and one (#21), oddly but probably precipitously planned for 2011 ‘just in time’ for the 2012 elections. These are ones that recently caught my eye, offered to to you as ‘thought gifts’ for the...

If you’re my friend and I know you regard me, you can call me ‘broad’ in jest, you can call me ‘a girl,’ you can call me ‘lady,’ and …you can call me by my rightful title, “Queen of the Known Universe” or my other title: “Grandmother to the World.” …. I hope you are laughing with me. On a deadly serious note: during my missions in Federal penitentiaries teaching souls imprisoned there to write and read… there, the...

Henry Gibson, who was born James Bateman in Germantown, PA, served in the USAF and later took Henry Gibson as his stage name… a play on the name of the great playright Henrik Ibsen, who wrote amongst others, the play Hedda Gabler, which you may remember was about a willful soul who raced her father’s horses while standing on the seat of the coach, yet married a dry academic who dried her soul to dust. Henry Gibson wrote himself into the play of life certainly kin to Hedda Gabler, willful,...

It was a time, it was a time… hard rain’s gonna fall,.. but don’t think twice it’s alright, it’s all gonna be alright babe… Mary Travers, has passed the bar at age 72 from leukemia after a bone marrow transplant gave her three more years. The long blonde-haired original was the female contralto voice in the American folk group, Peter, Paul and Mary which rose to prominence in the civil rights decade, the 1960s. Miss Travers sistered her ‘brothers by another...

Where is the public place for loss of personal control? Where is the place for ‘fight club?’ The gridiron, the clay court, the roped ring, and other similar, are where that all belongs… there are many many venues for men (and women and children) who ‘cant bear the burden’ one moment longer, to vent their particular pique or outrage. Long ago I knew Chained Lightning Johnson, an old battered boxer who’d won his share. He was a disciplined fighter-philosopher....