Manageable Schizophrenia

By Bob Sherrod

It has taken me over two years to deliver this. Part is fear of coming out of a closet you probably know nothing about; another part is while Unitarians work with groups and institutions, my presentation focuses solely on the individual, Change one person and you change the world.

This talk on manageable schizophrenia isn't about understanding mental illness, or coping with or even curing mental illness, It is about using mental illness in much the same way John Nash used it in A Beautiful Mind, only in this case the individual draws out his extraordinary powers thru his conscious mind rather than his subconscious. I have used this strategy in my Peachtree Road Race completions. Now I realize to finish next year I must become an entirely new person instantaneously the ole "Clark-Kent-in-the-phone-booth trick" as Maxwell Smart might say.

Manageable schizophrenia what a contrast in terms! On the one side: order, super structure, corporate ladder, benefits galore. But on the downside: rigidity, stagnation, memos for everything, weekly quotas, boring meetings, tyrannical bosses, Schizophrenia on the other hand means personality splits, going off on tangents, scattered behavior, thinking you are Napoleon; but the downside means, strait jackets, padded cells and Electric shock, terminal insanity However if you incorporate manageability with schizophrenia in just the right way, you no longer have insanity but the far country.

Most people see the far country Biblically as a geographical trip wallowing with swine, carousing with and loose women. I see it as an excursion into the dimensions of your own psyche, a dream you can climb into, an LSD trip, and quality time in a remembered coma. Many, who yearn for this far country, take the express train to get there: drugs, alcohol, and oxygen jag.

Most of these thrill seekers make it back to sanity, with a little less money and a hangover. Others on the express train get mired in a bad trip from which they never return.

There are those who make this trip to the far country do so diligently it to gain special powers to better serve their fellow man. Then there are those who do nothing and end up in the far country thru being at the right place and the right time, Many of these turn up during extraordinary times where the air is soaked in spirit like the Pentecost or when our founding fathers split from England or during the Renaissance or when Christ was crucified, I read about a nun so caught up in this spirit she would levitate whether she wanted to or not. She considered it a nuisance but then suddenly "Up, Up and away." There she goes. I bet she made sure she wore panties everyday.

Today, however we have people who definitely chose to make that trip to the far country. Mostly these are third world people using the right side of the brain and boring repetition. They are a million miles from modern technology and there implements and sounds seem quite crude. There one technique is thru dance. They keep on twirling about over and over until reaching the trance state. This technique is used in India and the Himalayas and the term for it is Dervishes. If you do this spinning around motion it is supposed to make you young. It is not just the movement that gives you power, but the rhythm. I have used this technique in the Peachtree Road Race, but more thru rhyme than anything else. I call it rhyming hypnosis: "I thank you foot, I thank you ankle, I thank you calf, I thank you knee I think you thigh. I thank you hip I thank you for your harmony." I do this verbally up and down the bottom half of my body.

The drum beat works on the same principle. In third world countries the shaman (medicine men) go into altered states listening to the slow methodical beat of an animal skinned drum. They do this for hours and this puts them in a trance state where they get special powers like mental telepathy and healing. Sometimes these shaman healers reach this state either thru a blow in battle or it is self- induced. They call themselves "Wounded healers."

I can identify with these shamans on numerous planes. First of all I had a head injury just before my stroke. (It might have been when I fell out of my car 10 years previously.) Second I went into a two week coma after my stroke in 1977 and there I saw these voodoo cats with hooded eyes and petulant lips who looked almost identical to pictures of the shaman.

I picked up the drum idea listening to a rock song over the radio. "Give me the beat boys to save my soul I want to get lost in your rock and roll." I found my feet tapping automatically to the beat. I soon created my own drum beat simply with the sound of my voice. I would start out my Peachtree practice runs saying with every step: "My feet to the beat, my feet to the beat on Peachtree Street, and then I would conclude the run to the beat of the drum; I run to the beat with Miracle feet, I run to the beat of the drum."

My lips definitely made a drumming sound, particularly on that last "m". Sure enough out of that my imagination created a real drummer who accompanied me on three races. My best race all I did was follow the beat.

Most of these unique ideas only last a few years because my disease mind (subconscious) works 100% against them. It has to be shocked into a new method and then I have my Sports Miracle. My next technique I got from yet another shaman, this one from the Philippines. He channeled medical doctors and they operated from the ethereal plane.

All I did was lay on his couch while he sat in his chair "contacting". The next morning I felt like I had been under the knife. I had to skip appointments. I could barely move. A few months later I got my formula for my next few road races in a dream. "The time release capsule for the psychic plane. Program an entirely new body and win.

This idea worked awhile but my subconscious mind soon. I have always been fascinated with kundalini yoga because of its emphasis on rapid breathing and movement and also the surge of mystic power that comes from contacting this part of your spine. I had been unable to get response from the Kundalini disciplines despite numerous attempts. But then year I decided to include the word itself it in my running mantra. Every time my foot struck the ground I would say: "Thank you gene Kundalini, thank you gene bliss divine, thank you for your mystic power shooting up my spine."

No I didn't levitate or break out into a run, but thru my foot strike I contacted the chief Kundaini man in much the same way I contacted my drummer with my miracle feet on Peachtree Street.

I have not run the Peachtree in three years and my body seems worse than ever. I don't need to retire or brag about past performances. I need to come up with a new idea; I need to come up with an entirely new body. Rather than go to the mechanic; I need to go to the dealership and trade in my stroke-crooked body for a new model at least for the duration of the race.

I have been born again so much you'd fill a few filing cabinets with birth certificates. I see in the multiple personalities my best chance. When they switch personalities they switch diseases New idea, new person.. Eve White might have cancer but as Eve Black it is heart troubles.

So what makes the switch? Apparently they recall a traumatic episode from child hood and to escape from it manifest an entirely a new personality instantly. This new mode is temporary but long enough to go from a .213 replacement player of minor league caliber to a .326 hitter of major league caliber major league caliber for at least one good game I believe I could pave the way for this switch thru next year's Peachtree Road Race.

My qualifications: First of all am I schizophrenia and more important can I manage this disease. Quite often my imagination runs away with me and I can't curb it. In grammar school I became obsessed with an all dog football team with bulldogs at guard, great Danes at tackle Air Dales at end , Dobermans at linebacker and greyhounds at running back They would have to recruit a chimpanzee for quarterback and a mule to kick field goals copy this mode but I couldn't from my childhood. My formative years were during World War II and my father off to dangerous battles. Leaving me with a mother who friends said might be losing her mind.

I don't care to be going into the past and I don't really need to. I can go into the future the subconscious mind doesn't distinguish anyway. The catalyst in either case is fear. I believe the right dose of terror can make anybody change. Have your hair turn white, your heart jump out of your throat, any number of things.

I believe what changes these negative changes from positive ones are programming. I am really talking about soaking your subconscious with repetition and triggering it with drama. I did this back in 1976 while driving a cab in the city of Atlanta I am now further from that than ever before to combat the high salaries in pro sports. I have been working on this project for over 25 years and believe me most normal routes don't work. I have been up against some extremely sick systems where the Big Lie, PhD Slander and other CIA tricks have run rampant. All of these ploys come from The Info-Nympho, a strategy or flooding with more and more facts. I've also found that the most dangerous man or woman alive is a well one loyal to a sick system.

Every single strategy in this little game between pitting the owners against the players and their union has been a detriment to the environment and ultimately survival of planet earth. Both sides seem totally dependence on technology and the consumption of fossil fuel to win over the fans: more night games, computer scouting, score board's lighting up like a Christmas tree, more instant replay than play.

The owners have not focused enough on the one element that can bring down these salaries and save major league baseball and that is training and recruiting replacement players. They don't necessarily have to come up thru the minor league system. It could be done by paid tryout ball. Have an escalating registration fee with bonus bucks according to stats: games won, mph fast ball, batting average, era and most improved in all categories.

That's how management of old broke up the unions: scabs – in this case super scabs! How do you get blood from a turnip? How do you turn a bogus baby into a Babe Ruth? The answer has to be Higher Unlearning and one particular strategy there is manageable schizophrenia.

Manageable Schizophrenia

Manageable schizophrenia' What conflict in terms? One part speaks of consistency, of order, the ability to manage with great wisdom like a horse back rider loosely holding the reins, and gently kicking to control speed. The other part means out of control, not only in direction but also wholeness, shifting with the