The Refresh Orlando Heirs

Now that the Christmas season is here, decorating is a top priority. Department 56 collectors of lighted ceramic houses are no exception. Many wait all year to get their Dept 56 houses and accessories unboxed and displayed.

But why is collecting and displaying them so enjoyable (and important)? Why do Dept 56 collectors go to such lengths to make displays that are beautiful, whimsical and memorable?

Here are five reasons why collecting Dept 56 houses (and other collectibles for that matter) is so enjoyable.

• Dept 56 Collections are Simply Beautiful and Interesting to Show

The Dept 56 collection of houses and accessories are beautifully designed and always interesting. These artists obviously put a great amount of time and thought into designing the pieces and never miss adding that unique touch of character to each of them. The finished products leave no doubt about their efforts.

The Dept 56 pieces are simply gorgeous whenever, or wherever, they are displayed, whether it be individually, in a vignette, or in a large display. Since the pieces are so unique and beautiful, it’s really hard to go wrong displaying them.

Within a short amount of time, you can take these intricate houses and accessories and make them into an absolutely stunning display.

• Dept 56 Collections are an Investment

It’s commonly known that you usually “get what you pay for.”

Accordingly, since so much detail and thought goes into the production of these pieces, it is only natural that they will not be cheap.

Consequently, collecting Dept 56 pieces can be an investment that might easily add up. As with other worthwhile investments, it comes naturally to show off these pieces.

Therefore some thought and effort should go into your displays so that the collection looks as incredible as possible.

• Dept 56 Collections are Fantastic for Creative Expression

Dept 56 collections particularly lend themselves to those who have a taste for creativity. Making arrangements of any kind is an exercise in creativity, but combining artistic expression with ‘city planning’ is always enjoyable. After all, no one wants a boring display.

With all the accessories that come with the Dept 56 collections, innumerable productions of displays can be made quite easily. From the simple to the complex, from the serious to the whimsical, the varieties are endless.

Just about everything is available to make the task simple. Of course, the most necessary accessory is careful thought, which, when combined with a little planning, can turn your displays into something really beautiful as opposed to the impersonal, drab displays seen in many stores.

• Dept 56 Collections Allow you to Express your Imagination

We all like to dream and imagine what would be if…..

With your Dept 56 collections you can bring some of that imagination to life. For instance, what would you have been doing if you could have lived back in the wintery times of Dickens? Which shops would you have liked to visit (or own)? Where would you have liked to live?

Or how about if you lived in New England. What would you have liked to do there? Fish, watch the sea, skate,???

Your collections allow you to display some of your dreams and desires.

• Dept 56 Collections can Create many Wonderful Memories and Traditions

How invaluable are your family traditions? We all have them and enjoy them (hopefully). Of course, your Dept 56 displays can be a lasting tradition and memory for yourselves, your kids and your friends. I don’t know about you, but in our house we usually get our houses out for Christmas. Then we go to great lengths to make them interesting, exciting and original!

For young children, this yearly tradition can be exciting. They can remember the fun of previous years and eagerly wait to see how this year’s display will be different. After doing this for a number of years the traditions and memories set in. Of course, they might soon want to have their own Dept 56 displays!

For whatever reason, we can all agree that a memorable display takes time, thought and patience, but is there any question that the effort is enjoyable and worthwhile?

Elizabeth Dinger has been collecting and displaying Dept 56 houses for over 15 years. For more information and tips on Dept 56 displays, please visit http://www.dept56tips.com

Before Gertrude Ederle began her historic swim off of Cape Griz-Nez, France, she
underwent extensive training for endurance and technique—even though she was
already an accomplished record-breaking swimmer with Olympic medals to her
name. Outsourcing IT may not garner the same attention as being the first woman
to swim the English Channel, but it is no less important to gather as much
experience and knowledge as possible on a small scale before diving in for the big
swim.

The trend toward IT outsourcing is increasing dramatically. According to a report by
Foote Partners, as much as 45% of North American IT work will be outsourced by
2005. And there are good reasons behind this trend. Bruce Caldwell, principal
Gartner analyst believes companies can generate 20-30% savings through
outsourcing. This substantial savings potential isn’t easily overlooked, yet it isn’t the
number one reason companies are choosing to outsource right now. In a recent
survey by The Outsourcing Institute, the primary reason behind outsourcing is to
improve company focus. Other motives include freeing up internal resources,
accessing top-notch capabilities, and accelerating time to market. The survey also
indicated that 55% of firms who outsource do so within IT—more than any other
area.

As more companies begin outsourcing some or all of their IT function, it becomes
difficult to ignore the competitive pressure. With competitors achieving their IT
needs at 20-30% less cost, and getting ahead in the market because of increased
focus within the company, those who ignore the outsourcing trend could potentially
lose ground very quickly.

At the same time, outsourcing horror stories abound. According to Gartner research
firm, half of the current outsourcing projects will not meet the company’s
expectations and will be considered failures. While the vast majority of these failures
are only minor disappointments where the company decides to outsource to another
vendor, certainly a few are major catastrophes. An anonymous case study in IT
Metrics Strategies discusses a CIO who chose to outsource to beat competitors to
market. The outsourcer had promised to meet a deadline his staff had said was
impossible. When the outsourcer failed, the CIO couldn’t rebuild his team fast
enough to finish the job. In the end, the product never got to market at all.

So how do you secure all the benefits of this outsourcing wave without getting
dragged into the undertow? The key is strategic, selective outsourcing. According to
Corey Ferengul, VP of the IT research firm META Group, an increasing number of
companies are choosing to outsource non-core IT tasks. Common responsibilities
going to third-party providers include Web hosting, call centers, data storage, and
database administration.

“There’s a learning curve and a life cycle to outsourcing,” said Caldwell, “and it can
be expensive finding the right vendor, as well as going through the transitions of
taking your operations to that vendor.” Stable, yet customizable IT functions provide
an excellent training ground for outsourcing. Any function with known benchmarks
for performance and results, as well as available, reliable outsourcing partners is a
good place to start.

Ultimately you may want to outsource your entire IT department, but first you need
to get a handle on managing an outsourced process. Some companies may discover
they don’t need to incur the risks and organizational chaos of switching to total IT
outsourcing. By nimbly carving out and outsourcing small pieces of the IT function
that deliver the most cost and quality benefit, companies may find they are already
receiving maximum savings at minimal risk. However, they will have done some
carefully planned and executed experimentation before making that decision.

Gertrude Ederle once said of the sea “I never feel alone when I’m out there.” The
channel became her ally as she swam her way to England in record time. By starting
on a small, strategic scale, you’ll turn IT outsourcing into your ally rather than a
cold, tumultuous, foreboding sea.

Jenne Wason
Jenne works for The Pythian Group, a leading database management firm.

In order to find the best spyware blocker for your computer you first need to be aware of what a good spyware blocker should do. There are lists of features that you should look out for when buying anti-spyware software and listed below we have these features detailed.

A good spyware detection tool will provide the user with an easy to use, complete solution to removing spyware. This spyware detection tool should also come with frequent updates and have various monitoring options available.

The Features To Look For

When it comes to purchasing a spyware blocker there are some features that you should ensure are included with the anti-spyware software you choose. The first thing you will need to check is that the anti-spyware software will give you detailed listed of the detected spyware that is found on your computer so that you can decide whether to keep them or not. Is there are range of tools included with the spyware blocker that will make the detection of spyware even easier.

Another feature that is vital is real time protection. By this we mean that the spyware blocker you choose should also be able to prevent spyware from installing on your computer. The spyware blocker should be easy to use and the time it takes to perform a scan of your computer should also be taken into consideration. Some spyware detection software can take up to 30 minutes to scan your computer.

Another important feature to consider is the ease of set up and installation of the spyware blocker. If you intend to spend money on removing spyware then it should be easy to install and use. Help and support should also be available and their availability should also be considered and looked into before you purchase your spyware blocker.

By following these few tips, you are guaranteed to purchase the best spyware blocker for your computer.

We have made the most comprehensive research on anti spyware programs. Find the results only on the Anti spyware research . All about spyware and adware on LeanderNet - www.leandernet.com

If you would like to cut costs or are no longer satisfied with their current web host provider maybe it is time to think about changing web host providers. Take time to plan your transfer so that you won’t lose any files and data.

Web Hosting Change Checklist:

- Domain name:where is your domain registered?
- How do you login and change nameservers?
- Your current IP address________ and your new IP address____________
- Your login username and password for old web host__________ and new control panel or shell access via SSH username and password __________________
- Make a list of email addresses including usernames and passwords
- Make a list of databases, usernames and passwords
- make a list of installed software

Checkout your new web host control panel, get familiar with how things work at your new host and to try everything out, including sending test emails and uploading files.

Change Your Domain Record

Login to your domain registrar and change your name servers. This usually occurs within 72 hours, often much sooner. Dome domain registrars can transfer a domain within 2 hours, so check the new IP address often and upload files as soon as possible to avoid website “downtime”.

Transferring the Site to the New Web Hosting Provider:

Download files: Open your FTP program and enter the FTP address at your old web host (e.g. ftp.yoursite.com). Once logged onto the server, right click on your main folder (normally public_html or www) and choose download.

Choose a local folder on your own computer to store the files, Click OK, and watch all your files being downloaded onto your computer. You will still have all your files on the server too. Please downloads can take a quite abit of time depending on the number and size of files.

Download databases: Login to your old web hosts Control Panel Go to databases ( usually My SQl), and use either phpmyadmin (usually located towards bottom of page) or a similar program . Choose the databases you want to download and click on “export”. You will then come to a screen information about the database. towards the bottom of the page look for; “Normal or None”, “GZip”, or “Zip”. chose one and press download or submit. Save this file to a folder on your computer. Repeat for each databases.

Upload files to the new host: Using your FTP program connect to your new web host. Right click on the folder (e.g. public_html or www — or if not present no folder maybe required- ask your web hosting provider if you are unsure) and choose upload. When asked where to upload these files from, choose the folders and files to upload.

Upload databases: login to the control panel at your new web hosting provider, go to Mysql, and use phpmyadmin or a similar program. Choose the insert or upload option and select the location of the database file you downloaded before that is stored on your computer. Click “ok or submit”. During the import you will see some database commands, but towards the bottom it will tell you if it failed or was successful. Be patient, don’t interrupt this process, wait for the final statement telling you if the import was successful. Repeat this process for all of your Mysql databases.

Final Steps

Set up email address using your new control panel. Use the “help” if needed to learn how to do this at the new web host.

- check that all your software on your new web host site is working properly.

- you might have to change config files if Mysql databases, username or password are different from your old web host.

- If something doesn’t work check the permission rights of your scripts.

- Make sure that all links work.

Reccomended Web Hosting: http://www.site-webhosting.com . Excellent Customer Service Plans for all size websites $5-$20/month

About the Author

Geraldine Jensen is the owner of several ecommerce websites. She is the publisher and editor of http;//www.familiesonlinemagazine.com,
which was chosen as Hotsite by USA Today in October 2004 due to it diverse opinions and good content. She was Webmaster for a nonprofit organization for 10 years. Her newest project is Today’s Family Forum. she has personal experience transferring websites to http://www.site-webhosting.com

Wake up! If you haven’t been “taken for a ride” by one or more, less than honest, business web sites yet, while you are trying to make your own web site, you’re lucky! You better learn how to recognize them. For those of us who have already had such an experience, the only hope is that we are smarter than before, and might be alerted sooner by the telltale signs we previously experienced.

The tragedy is that some Internet entrepreneurs building a business web site seem to be scammed over and over again. They trust too much in the integrity of another Internet business web site promotion offering to help them.

Trustworthy web sites don’t have the characteristics you are about to learn. It’s easier to avoid dangerous web sites than to try and get your money back!

Memorize these obvious features of trouble coming down the road!

1. Cold calls and spam e-mails: Either of these should be a loud warning to you. If you answer either, you are setting yourself up for wolverine (an animal that never gives up and will take on a foe that is 5 times his size) attack.

2. Scant credentials: No “about us” page – Can’t find detailed information about the site. If you ask them for more information and you receive only promotional materials—run!

3. Availability Lacking: You have great difficulty getting someone to the phone/e-mail. No call backs, or they come many days later, and put on hold and dropped off the line frequently should worry you.

4. Lousy HTML editor programs: Find that the program malfunctions repeatedly. Expecting you to work with an old and outdated business web site set of tools speaks to the quality of service you will continue to get.

5. Mentoring sucks: Mentor forgets appointments, can’t remember prior work done with you. Mentoring that requires you to adjust to them, especially when you are paying them, is never acceptable. If they are only there to answer your questions and not to teach you, it ranks at the top of the list of reasons to “get out of town.”

6. Dumb tech help: Find you know more then they do concerning web site glitches. When the tech repeatedly has to ask the other person for answers to your questions, while you are on hold, sends a loud message to your wallet.

7. Demonstrated incompetence: Answers to your questions repeatedly miss the point. If the only responses you get back is for you to do your own looking for the solutions, or when they ask a question about your question (that really burns me), head for the hills!

8. Personnel problems: Never contacted by the same person twice. Fast turnover of their personnel should tell you something is not right in their business. You can easily come up with all the reasons for that.

9. Executive hiding: Can’t ever reach the top person in the business. If you do have a good reason to contact the “top gun”in their business, and you are quickly shuffled to the assistant, then to another assistant, or your e-mail to the CEO is never answered, start packing your bags.

10. Work hours unusual: During the day usually get a “voice mail”– and rarely get a response to your message. If you have paid to use their business tools, and you find out that you can never get to them after 5 PM, or on the weekend, you are being shortchanged.

These are the most blatant reasons to get on your horse and ride away—quickly too!
If you don’t have a horse, have your wife drive you. She has no doubt been waiting for this exact moment to finally dig you out of that money hole you are in.

I suspicion that the ladies who are in that money hole, already have the escape plan in mind.

Summary:

Someday, hopefully it will be legal to publish a list of those Internet web site businesses that cheat you out of your hard earned money. Then every Internet entrepreneur starting a business web site will know who they are. As of now we can only fall back on our careful attention to how we are treated right from the start.

Don’t be too trusting of those business web sites that try to push their web site promotion down your throat. The courage it takes to make your own web site and start your own ebusiness is to be respected.

“The life span of a thought is determined by the extent of attention we put to it.”

(Rev. Fred Price)

The author, Curtis Graham, M.D., is CEO of L & C Internet Enterprises, Inc. For over 38 years in medical practice he has written articles, medical information products for his patients, a book on infertility, and marketing information for his practice. He has been published in Modern Physician, an elite magazine for physician executives, and is credited as an “Expert Author” by Ezine Publishers.

Retirement from medicine now permits expansion of his passion to continue helping people by writing pertinent, practical, and detailed articles about many topics. Check out the website that he and his wife share with a passion: Helping entrepreneurs make their Internet Businesses a success => http://www.EBusinessHelpFirm.com

Please feel free to copy, send, distribute, or make this article available to others that might be interested. In doing so you agree to leave the author’s bio and article intact.

Copyright 2005, Curtis Graham, MD, L & C Internet Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Farang men (’farang’ in Thai language = foreigner/westerner)
often fall madly in love with the first Thai girl they meet -
even if she’s a rough street prostitute who doesn’t speak
English.

Love-sick farang men are queuing up at the altar to tie the knot
with their dubious Thai mail-order brides but why don’t farang
girls stir their passions in the same way?

Thai girls and farang girls could hardly be more different. Put
simply, Thai girls are family-orientated and farang girls are
increasingly career-orientated. In America, 44% of women aged 15
to 44 have chosen to remain childless and the trend is gathering
pace. It’s easy to understand their point of view because, as
men, we’ve always pursued our ambitions.

Farang girls enjoy opportunities that their Thai sisters can
only dream about. In many ways, life in the West has never been
better but it doesn’t seem to have translated into greater human
happiness. We are witnessing an epidemic of relationship
breakdown.

Western men and women seem increasingly ill-matched and unhappy.
Statistics reveal that dissatisfied western wives are divorcing
their husbands in ever-increasing numbers and they can’t seem to
find suitable replacements either. Does this mean that we farang
fellas are all useless?

No, of course it doesn’t and I’m going to explain why. Despite
the far-reaching changes in western society, the underlying
attitudes of men and women remain broadly the same.

Men still have a provider mentality and women still have an
entitlement mentality. Men have always been attracted by youth
and beauty and women have always been attracted by wealth and
status. Inevitably, the mismatch between our utopian aspirations
and the situation on the ground has created problems.

For the sake of his self-esteem, a man needs to be the
breadwinner. Taking on the domestic role makes him feel like a
failure. Women, on the other hand, feel uncomfortable in the
role of provider.

A woman would quickly lose respect for any man who appeared to
be living off her. Women still feel entitled to a partner more
successful than themselves. Consequently, the more successful a
woman becomes, the harder it is to find someone suitable.

On the face of it, men are more easily satisfied. All a man
needs is a girl who is cute and kind-hearted. Career status is
unimportant - it’s her personal qualities that count.

He needs to be her protector and hero. A brash career-orientated
woman will never excite a man’s passion. If she’s pretty, he
might humour her for long enough to get into her pants but a
long-term relationship is unlikely to succeed.

Women who don’t touch a guy’s heart but who have soaring
expectations are never going to find husbands. Men seeking
unconditional love and respect from aggressive ladettes are
never going to find wives. As a result, more people than ever
are living lonely single lives between brief affairs.

Throughout the western world, we are seeing explosive growth in
the number of single person households.

In the UK, for example, census data reveals that the number of
single person households grew by 14% between 1991 and 2001. An
unhappy world of selfish people living alone is now becoming
reality.

Returning to the original question, I think that many farang men
fall madly in love with a random Thai bar girl because they’ve
never met a truly feminine woman before.

Men feel a deep need to care for these needy fallen angels and
to receive affection in return. Even when the affection is
insincere, the compulsion is so great that few farang guys can
resist. Thai girls play the role perfectly.

They wield a power over men that their farang sisters have
forgotten how to use.

Do you want to know more about Thai women or about Asian Girls ?

Thousands of Asian Women are looking for real love online. Have
a look at some examples.

Click here to visit my favourite pages :

Asian-Girls-Dating
Homepage

Asian
Adult Dating

Thai Girls : 1 2
3
4
5 > 6 7
8
9
10 a> 11 > 12 > 13 a> 14
15
16
17 18

Japanese Girls : 1
2
3
4 5<
/a> 6 7<
/a>
8 9 a> 10 11
12 13 a> 14<
/a> 15 16<
/a> 17 a> 18 19 20 21 a> 22 > 23 a> 24

Chinese Girls : 1
2 3 > 4 5 6
7
8
9<
/a>

Web and video conferencing technology is becoming more
sophisticated with each passing day. A few years ago it was a
novelty just to talk with someone online, and view his or her
image at the same time. Today web conferences bring together
entire companies in complex interaction that rivals live
face-to-face meetings. How you might benefit from the latest
developments in web conferencing depends on your particular
needs. Here are a few points that you should consider.

1. Do you need to make a Powerpoint or other presentation during
your conference?

If you answered “yes” to this question, then you will be glad to
know that current web and video conferencing services allow the
host of a conference to present a slide show or power point
demonstration that will be visible on the screens of all the
participants of a conference. Similarly, hosts can also open and
show other document formats to their attendees. If you need this
kind of capability, make sure that your conference provider can
give this to you.

2. Do you require telephone conferencing integrated with your
web/video conference?

Many organizations have found telephone conferencing to be an
effective way to get work done. If you are already connecting
with your members and staff via telephone conferences you can
expand on this by choosing a web conferencing system that
integrates telephone conferencing along with the online
conference. The combined service will give you the ease of phone
conferencing along with the enhanced visual and presentation
features of online conferencing.

Some services allow the host to pay the long distance bill of
all the participants (toll free conferencing), while others
require each participant to cover their long distance fees.

3. Do all of your conference participants use the same type of
computer?

If your participants are going to be using a variety of
computers (PC, Mac, Linux) then you will benefit most by
choosing a web conferencing system that works on any platform.
While earlier conferencing systems required the downloading of
complex software that would work only on specified operating
systems, newer conferencing formats are delivered online and are
browser based. They work on any operating system and if yours in
an eclectic audience, then you will get best results with this
type of conferencing.

4. Will it be necessary for one of your technicians to
“take-over” and operate the computers of any of your
participants?

If you wish to use conferencing as a service tool and want to
avoid having to send out your service team on physical visits to
clients, you can save a lot of travel time and cost by selecting
a web and video conferencing system that allows the host of the
conference to go online and actually take control of the
computer of the client or conference participant. If you are
looking at web conferencing as an after-sales service tool, then
this particular feature will probably give you one of the most
important benefits that you could wish for.

5. Do you want to conduct an online poll or survey during the
conference?

If you have a large organization and want to make a quick and
accurate poll of opinion or vote on a particular issue then the
new polling capabilities of the most advanced web conferencing
services will be an important feature for you.

Similarly, if you need to gather demographic information about
your meeting participants, obtain valuable input, or quiz and
test your participants, then the new online survey capabilities
of current web conferencing systems will be an important feature
to look for when choosing your conference format. Data from
these types of online “surveys” can typically be saved and used
for future use.

6. Do you want to brainstorm online, using a “whiteboard”?

Brainstorming is a great way to tap the ideas of a group and to
come up with and select new ideas. If this is what you like to
do when holding physical meetings, then you will probably want
to be able to do the same thing in your virtual meetings as
well. This is now possible in some of the more advanced web
conferencing systems by using a “group notepad” that enables
meeting participants to utilize a shared workspace. The results
of these brainstorming sessions can typically be saved in a
storage area.

Which of these features will benefit you the most? It all
depends on your particular needs. However, one thing is sure:
once you experience the convenience of online meetings, you will
not want to go back to the era when every meeting required you
to pack up your bags and get on an airplane.

Carly’s quest in finding a suitable partner for marriage seemed impossible. She found the singles scene at clubs to be uncomfortable and her social circle seemed to consist of more married friends with a shrinking amount of singles.

Although she had heard of internet dating and saw the ads, she had hesitated to take what she imagined was a rather drastic step. What would her experiences be like? How would she find someone online? What were the risks?

If you are in this situation then quite likely you’ve considered venturing into online dating to meet someone.

Our lives are increasingly dependant on technology as opposed to face-to-face contact. It is not at all surprising that millions have already ventured into online dating as a way to find a relationship rather than waiting for a chance meeting.

But what are some of the findings as researchers spend more time analyzing the behavior of online daters?

In a study reported on CBS News, 15% of Americans with internet access have visited an internet dating site. 27% of them were 18-29 years old. Obviously online dating is a popular pastime.

The same study showed that 33% of unmarried internet users thought that dating online was a safe way to meet people although 34% acknowledged knowing someone who had a bad experience.

In another study reported by BBC News, online dating was seen as a way for women to feel empowered in relationships. The conventional inhibitions that they had in face-to-face relationships were replaced by a more upfront and in-control attitude when given the anonymity of the internet. Could this improve their chances at finding a perfect relationship?

Professor Helen Petrie was quoted in the BBC interview as stating “There are people who lack interpersonal social skills and would find it very difficult to meet people in bars. They may find it easy to meet in an internet room, but they still have the problem of meeting them face to face and if they have gone too far with the internet relationship, they may find that traumatic.”

The truth is, many individuals find the anonymity of online dating encourages a certain amount of exaggeration or lying. While some claim that we always hide things at the beginning of a relationship, trying to put our best foot forward, the internet makes it easier to hide such things as facial expressions, income, marital status and even criminal records.

So while you may find, like Carly, that finding a relationship in the ‘real’ world is difficult - if you are still considering online dating it is wise to use caution and common sense. Be careful what you say about yourself and try to verify as much information as possible before meeting or personally contacting anyone you’ve met online and never meet them alone.

Mike is an advisor for Online Dating. He has been tagged as an “Expert” in the topic of Online Dating for the past few years for his extraordinary advice. http://online-dating.eclicksoft.com/

Please feel free to distribute and reprint, including the bio line.

Intuition is an EQ competency, that is it’s considered something necessary to successful living, and something to be respected and valued. In recent years it has emerged from obscurity, even suspicion. What exactly is intuition?
Main Entry: in·tu·i·tion
1 : quick and ready insight
2 a : immediate apprehension or cognition
b : knowledge or conviction gained by intuition
c : the power or faculty of attaining to direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference(www.m-w.com)
According to Intuition magazine online, “intuition is increasingly recognized as a natural mental faculty, a key element in the creative process, a means of discovery, problem solving, and decision making. Once considered the province of a gifted few, it is now recognized as an innate capacity available to everyone–not a rare, accidental talent, but a natural skill anyone can cultivate.” Remember those math problems you got the correct answer for, but you didn’t get full credit because you couldn’t show your work? Intuition, Intuition magazine says, “is a key ingredient in what we call genius, and it is also an important tool when applied to everyday life.”

That having been said, from where does this almost mystical ability come?

In their amazing book, “A General Theory of Love”, authors Lewis, Amini and Lannon, all doctors, agree that all of us acquire wonderfully complicated knowledge that we cannot describe, explain, or recognize.

They cite researchers Knowlton, Mangels and Squire, who devised an interesting experiment – they gave subjects the task of predicting the weather in a simple computer model. They designed the experiment so that as unhelpful as the cues looked, they did relate lawfully to the outcomes, but the relationship between cues and effects was deliberately such a complex and probabilistic function that even the smartest person couldn’t figure it out. It was way too difficult for logic to unravel; that is, subjects would have to approach this task without the use of the neocortex.

The researchers were right. No one figured it out, but that didn’t stop them from getting better at the system they couldn’t understand or describe! After just 50 trials, the average subject was right 70% of the time, which means, of course, that some were doing far better than that. What they were doing was gradually developing a feel for the situation and intuitively grasping the essence of what was going on.

We tend to believe that success can only come from understanding (via the neocortex), but in reality our marvelous brains, when presented with repetitive experiences, are able to extract unconsciously the rules that underlie them. “Such knowledge,” say Lewis, Amini, and Lannon, “develops with languorous ease and inevitability, stubbornly inexpressibly, never destined for translation into words.” Words being a neocortical ability.

Things we can’t describe, but we “know,” come from our implicit memory. Our implicit memory ensures that “camouflaged learning” permeates out lives. Spoken language, for instance, is a confusing assortment of phonological and grammatical rules that we couldn’t possibly describe, yet we all learn to speak our native tongue. In fact, children are able to learn it without any formal instruction at all. Similarly, in learning foreign languages, it’s generally considered that “immersion” is the best way to attain fluency – spending your days with native speakers and just absorbing it. Consider the extent to which we intuit. In his book, “Language Instinct,” Steven Pinker observes that we all ‘know’ that “thole, plast and flitch are not English words but they could be, whereas vlas, ptak, and nyip cannot be English.” Why? Well, just because, but wouldn’t you agree?

The advantages of intuition? It’s much quicker – and also surer – to use your intuition. You have a greater grasp on reality, as it were, when you don’t confuse things by bringing in the neocortex. “Reason,” said Pascal, “is the slow and tortuous method by which those who do not know the truth discover it.”

“There is guidance available to us at all times,” says Penny Peirce, “just belowI> the surface of our logic, just after we stop pushing and striving, just before we jump to conclusions. By cultivating the ability to pause and be comfortable with silence, and then by focusing steadily and listening for the first sounds or feelings, for the first impressions, you can help your intuition wake up suddenly and enthusiastically, as if from a long winter’s nap.”

How do you develop your intuition? One way is to learn to still your self-talk, what I refer to as “the Talking Head” – that constant yammering that goes on inside your head. Get centered. Quiet your thinking mind. Slow down and focus on one thing at a time. Listen. Practice.

“Although intuition is a natural resource,” says Nancy Rosanoff, an intuition trainer, “it functions best when developed and exercised. Like a muscle, intuition becomes strong, reliable, and precise when trained and put to use.”

So what’s the buzz about intuition? It’s coming into its own. It’s getting legitimate. Corporations are even hiring intuitionists to make decisions. I say it’s about time, because it’s a much surer way to make a decision than are logic and reason; an important decision that is. How much data would be too much to know about the woman you’re going to be leaving your baby with all day? About the man you’re considering marrying? At some point the data ends, and you make a decision based on your feelings. Do you doubt this? Oliver Wendell Holmes, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, said that 90% of the decisions at his level were emotional. He just rationalized them afterwards. As we all have done.

“In small matters, use the head,” said Freud, “and in large matters, the heart.” And that’s intuition!

About the Author

Susan Dunn is a personal and professional development coach specializing in emotional intelligence. You can visit her on the web at http://www.susandunn.cc.