Solving
the Puzzle of Health and Creative Energy:
Healing Stories, Arts, and
Therapeutic Metaphors
Welcome to Whitlarks.com
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Solving
the Puzzle of Health and Creative Energy: |
How is it that we came to have an academic journal devoted to the study of Human Threshold Systems; a site devoted to Energy Healing (Reiki, Qigong, Kiatsu, traditional therapeutic metaphors etc.) AND a retail online toy store? One reason explains all these -- the internet is where people go.
More and more, people sit with their computers on their desk, their dining room table,
their coffee table, or their lap -- searching for answers to questions, hard-to-find
gifts, useful information, and contact with people they would never otherwise meet.
The computer -- which began as the most expensive abacus/calculator ever conceived
-- has become the campfire we all gather 'round for news of the global village. It
is the reference library we go to when we are teaching ourselves and filling in those
missing nuggets of invaluable data. It is the corner market that makes the corner
of Broadway and 42nd Street in New York-USA as close as the corner of Nymphenburgerstrasse
and Dachauerstrasse in Munich, Deutschland. It is the electronic campfire around
which we gather for tall tales, fairy tales, folk tales and healing tales. It is
where we find our tribe.
Over the last 40 years, the academic community has put growing emphasis on the publications
of its members. University professors are increasingly required to "publish
or perish" -- a trend which began with mercantile idea of supply and demand.
That is, if a member of academia is doing something worthwhile (thinking, inventing,
discovering...) the world will beat a path to his/her door and pay for the privelege.
Academics with good, valuable, worthwhile ideas can be separated from the flock of
would-be's and hangers-on based on who is willing to pay for those ideas -- publishers
being chief among the payers.
And in the beginning, this may have been a legitimate test. Unpublished "thinkers"
were therefore unread, un-valued, un-agreed-with, and unknown. The high-dollar thinkers
were in demand by universities and think-tanks everywhere. A thought not worth buying
was not worth thinking -- and its thinker -- not worth employing.
There are, however, two problems with this method of thinning the herd (at least
two....)
1. It implies that the most important responsibility of a university teacher is something other than the students.
2. It implies that supply and demand is an adequate judge and jury of what is and what is not a valuable idea.
It is also important to note that in the world which created the "publish or perish" monster, nobody was thinking about the numbers of trees required to publish all these dusty books (many of which would be checked out of a university library less than once every five years), or the money required for even a limited run of a few thousand copies. It requires publishers to invest in books which have no hope of selling to the wide mass audience. It requires that publishers exist solely for the purpose of publishing books which will only be read by a handfull of specialists.
As computers have moved into their role as the primary research tool for students,
libraries have grown more quiet by the day. Desperate state funding and targeted
endowments have forced librarians to discontinue the once common practice of ordering
EVERY book that is published, instead becoming discriminating customers who order
only those books that will be widely used and read. As a result, many of the academic
presses have gone belly-up. With the increase in college and university attendance,
there must be more teachers to helm the classrooms; more professors need to publish
in order to meet the demands of their employers; and yet there are fewer presses
willing to publish narrow academic works.
Any book which is not imprinted on fiber-pulp is not considered a respectable publication
as is therefore counted as the bastard child by the "publish or perish"
mavens.
It becomes necessary then, to step back from the worry and wastefulness of the mercantile academia and restate the obvious:
Therefore -- Journal of Human Threshold Systems is a site devoted to making useful ideas within its purview available. To anyone. To everyone. We will publish only those essays and articles which provide insite, information, new considerations, and well constructed ideas. (Submission guidelines)
Similarly, the Energy Healing Stories site is dedicated to helping
gather the new and the old narratives, uses, and methods of using story for growth
and healing.,
On a larger scale, Journal of Human Threshold Systems, Energy Healing Stories site and Purciful's Magical Toys exist for a common purpose -- to help people understand that all aspects of our lives are related. The toys we and our children play with are extensions of our lifelong learning process. The psychology of choosing a gift, playing with a toy, telling a story, and toying with an idea are related. All four reflect, contribute to, and enhance the Human Threshold Systems in which we exist.
-James & Lynn Whitlark