Please read this link:  A Note (to all brains) about 'Lame Brains"
Also click this link for more information on the International University of Religion, Empathy and Science

UPDATED ON 4/25/17

The following are letters I have written and published in the Times-Standard and the HSU Lumberjack dating from 2003.  I took a 6 year break from writing letters in the T-S from 1998 to 2004.  Before 2004 the T-S published around 60 letters or more that I wrote between 1992 and 1998.  And between 1982 and 1990 the Del Norte Triplicate published over 100 letters I wrote when I lived there. 


“FISHER” DOESN’T GIVE ALL SIDES TO STORY

Anyone (student or professor) who has completed their general education requirements in critical thinking and the social sciences should be able to see through the flaws of the film “Antwone Fisher” which is a glorious success story about a survivor of child abuse and his therapist.

As a survivor of child abuse I feel compelled to write about the other side of the story when it comes to therapists and survivors. I have a high IQ and I was an honor student in both high school and college (Pi Gamma Mu). This may sound shocking, but I discovered that therapists in general are biased, they lack critical thinking skills, and they are non-supportive of critical thinking skills in survivors.

I found that in therapy, clients are not supposed to think critically about the schools of thought which therapists believe in. You are supposed to accept whatever your therapist tells you without thinking critically about where their thoughts come from and the scientific validity or invalidity of their theories. Instead of being encouraged to think critically, I was put down for thinking critically.

There can be a dark side to therapists which the public should know about; they can be blind, arrogant, anti-supportive and condescending. However, I did not give up on psychology as a science, especially when I discovered the difference between research psychology and therapeutic psychology. And that difference is a world of difference when it comes to critical thinking, honesty, intelligence and discovery.

Orion Palomar
Published in the Humboldt State University Lumberjack 1/22/03

ABUSE SURVIVOR SPEAKS

The month of April was designated “Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month” sometime in the 1980s. Awareness implies knowledge, and knowledge implies education. But as a survivor of child abuse I have to say there is not much awareness in the academic world when it comes to awareness of what a “survivor” is and what survives in survivors. There are plenty of theories. However, I realized upon going back to college that nobody in the academic world, on any level, could have understood me as a “survivor” because there is more to understanding and communication than theories. And I am not a theory. Nor am I a scientific model, or a mental image.

What survived in me was elementally human. But what is elementally human is beyond cultures, beyond art and music, beyond philosophy, beyond organized religion and beyond contemporary cutting-edge theories in the social and psychological sciences.

On this month’s cover of “National Geographic” a mother gazes into the eyes of a child who gazes into her eyes. Do we know what is elementally human? My parents and siblings couldn’t see it or reflect it. For that very reason, I became abused.

What is a survivor? What survives? I think of an important scene in the film “A Beautiful Mind” when Alicia Nash decides to stay with her brilliant, but schizophrenic husband. She holds his hand in her hand while touching his face and says: “This, is real.” She was referring to something which is elementally human. And that is something which transcends culture and cultures. And it transcends war and anti-war. It is an awareness of what survives.

But, who can see it? Who can reflect it? Those are inescapable questions for survivors who enter or re-enter college in America or in any culture. They are questions which still haunt me.

Orion Palomar
Published in the Humboldt State University Lumberjack
4/30/03

FOLLOW-UP LETTER

I am writing this letter as a follow-up to two letters (Jan 22 and April 30) which I wrote last Spring semester pertaining to child abuse and the academic and professional worlds of the social and psychological sciences. The reason why I wrote those letters is because I plan to give two presentations at HSU during this academic year. The letters were for the purpose of gaining the attention and interest of Lumberjack readers about these presentations.

The first presentation will be near the end of this semester and it will be titled “How I Became a Semantic Wild Child and a Victim Without a Culture.” The other presentation will be near the end of next semester and called “Survivor Myth, Survivor Image, Survivor Reality: seeking the truth about victims and survivors of child abuse.”

A year from now I expect to be on the major television news journals, CBS “60 Minutes”; NBC “Dateline,” and ABC “20/20.” The reason why I expect this is because I am going to launch a media news story: “Survivor of child abuse claims to be 50 years ahead of cutting-edge social and psychological sciences in understanding the effects of child abuse.” I will announce that it is going to take a Nobel prize-winning type effort to understand the enigmatic effects of child abuse, and why this effort is needed. I will explain that no such organized effort currently exists, and I will share my detailed plans for organizing and funding such an effort.

Usually in the sciences, when someone claims to be 50 years or more ahead of their time, they are expected to publish lengthy articles in major scientific journals to substantiate their claims. And then the rest of the scientific and academic communities wait for such articles to be published in periodicals which appear in university libraries. But I have no intention of taking that route. If journals want to publish what I have to say in my presentations, then that is fine. But, I expect to be on national television long before they get around to realizing that I am 50 years ahead of academics who publish and read those journals.

I don’t need publication in any major journals to show that I am 50 years ahead of the cutting-edges in the social and psychological sciences. All I need is 400 words in my next Lumberjack letter 30 days from now.

Orion Palomar
Published in the Humboldt State University Lumberjack
8/27/03

LOCAL MAN 50 YEARS AHEAD OF MODERN SCIENCE

As an enigmatic survivor of child abuse I had no choice but to become 50 or more years ahead of cutting-edge social and psychological sciences.

First it took me years to realize that I was an enigmatic survivor. My needs and problems as a survivor were enigmatic in the sense that present-day scientists could not understand how child abuse had affected me. I had to learn the cutting-edges of the social and psychological sciences in order to make that discovery. And I felt confident in teaching myself such material, considering that I graduated from my high school (Santana) as the most honored student in mathematics and science; and before I entered college I taught myself the first year of calculus, in three weeks, so successfully that my college math professor said I was the most brilliant student she ever had.

But over 30 years ago I dropped out of college for reasons which nobody could understand. It took me years to discover how it was all related to early child abuse; and it took me decades to heal the damage.

My most important discovery was that the social and psychological sciences were not advanced enough (to this day) to understand how child abuse had affected me with an enigmatic dissociation. This dissociation was a necessary part of a natural healing process which I observed and carefully recorded for over 20 years; I call it "Meta-Semantic Death, Meta-Semantic Numbness, Meta-Semantic Recovery." I had no choice but to discover the enigmatic nature of both the dissociation and the recovery process.

Progress is part of science. Progress means there are always phenomena in the present which scientists won’t be able to understand until sometime in the future. Otherwise, there would be no need for research. An honest science vigorously pursues enigmatic phenomena. But first the science has to acknowledge its existence.

There was a point in my life when I had to acknowledge that child abuse affected me in a way which modern scientists couldn’t understand. I had no choice but to pursue the unknown and make a discovery. I had to accept possibilities, and be open; that is what scientists and critical thinkers are supposed to do.

I lived a shattered life. But I discovered order and beauty in the fragments. And I saw beauty in science once again; and that beauty is sacred. No culture can claim it!

Orion Palomar
Published in the Humboldt State University Lumberjack
10/22/03

"SEMANTIC WILD CHILD" WILL UNLEASH KNOWLEDGE ON MEDIA

It’s me again, the “semantic wild child.” I wrote four letters last year pertaining to the effects of child abuse. I am writing this final letter to inform the Lumberjack readers of my website at www.humboldt1.com/~opalomar.

The website is about two presentations which I hope to give this semester: “How I Became a Semantic Wild Child and a Victim Without a Culture” in March and “Survivor Myth, Survivor Image, Survivor Reality” in April. In the second presentation I will make what will be arguably the three important announcements ever made to the world media pertaining to this subject matter.

Information about these presentations are on my webpage. My email address is opalomar@humboldt1.com. I need as many readers as possible to contact me so I can make arrangements with HSU to reserve a hall on campus for these presentations.

Please think about the following:

If social and psychological scientists want to know how child abuse affects people they are going to have to communicate with victims and survivors of child abuse rather than “communicate” with just the victims and survivors who fit the theories, images and models projected by their disciplines and schools of thought. Enigmatic victims and survivors are those victims who don’t fit the models, theories and images, and they don’t get any support because scientists are biased and they support only the victims and survivors who fit their preconceived theories, models and images.

If nobody shows the real beauty of science to them, then they will always think that science and scientists are ugly. And scientists will never be able to communicate with them in order to find out how child abuse affected them in ways which present-day science cannot understand. And if scientists cannot communicate with them, then there cannot be any progress. And without progress, science cannot exist because progress is a part of science.

Orion Palomar
Published in the Humboldt State University Lumberjack
2/11/04

GENTLENESS IS WHAT CAN HEAL THE WORLD
<>    I share my thoughts on the Times-Standard “Aftermath of Childhood Abuse” article on March 6th. The aftermath of my abuse has left me with the following insights and revelations.
    At a very young age I had to defend the good inside myself, the good inside my soul, before I had any kind of cultural identity or ethnic identity.
    There will always be this child in me, this person who needed (and needs) to have others to see the good in me, and needs to have others I can see the good in. I will always have this need forever.
    And this need is what makes me a human being. It isn’t culture or ethnicity which makes me a human being. Nor is it a religious affiliation which makes me a human being. Instead it is this need which makes me a human being, a person with a soul. And that need will never change.
    After writing over a hundred letters on child abuse published in the Times-Standard and the Del Norte Triplicate over the past twenty years, I realized that people in the world are generally not evolved enough to understand this need which is elementally human.
    The need has to be experienced, not theorized.
    I hope someday everyone in the world can view child abuse survivors as mirrors of themselves; our needs reflect what is elementally human.
    Be gentle with survivors.
    And learn gentleness through survivors.
    Gentleness is what heals the world and helps the world evolve.

    Orion Palomar
    Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 3/31/04


FIGHTING CHILD ABUSE WILL TAKE SOME GUTS

    Lots of deep thoughts went through my mind after I saw the large 8/22 Times-Standard announcement for the regional Native American conference on child abuse hosted by Two Feathers in McKinleyville.  My most important thought is a question which should be on the minds of people in all cultures and races throughout the world.  And that question is: "What can a civilized society do for the victims of child abuse?" 
    The first thing people should know is that it hasn't happened yet!  What a civilized society can do for child abuse victims hasn't been done yet by any society. 
    A civilized society would show great care and concern for the victims of child abuse who have needs and problems which modern scientists presently cannot understand. 
    In a civilized society, counselors and therapists would stress the importance of further research to help them understand the victims and survivors whom they cannot understand.  Civilized counselors and therapists would make public their failures and limitations. 
    A civilized society would put together a Nobel prize-winning type effort to understand the effects of child abuse.  And scientists in a civilized society would inform the people that such an effort is required, and funds are needed. 
    Communities in a civilized world would respond with an international research and fundraising organization similar to the American Cancer Society. 
    None of this has happened yet.  But it can happen.  And Redwood Country could become world headquarters for a newly civilized world. 
    It requires only inspiration, and guts. 

    Orion Palomar
    Published in the Times-Standard 9/22/04

HUMBOLDT COULD LEAD IN UNDERSTANDING ABUSE

    This is a reminder of my Sept 22 Times-Standard letter about a Nobel prize-winning type effort to understand the effects of child abuse. 
    I said that communities can be part of that effort the same way that the American Cancer Society raises funds for awareness and research about cancer. 
    I said that world headquarters for such an organization could be in Humboldt County and all it takes is guts and inspiration. 
    We will have a science committee and a religious committee. 
    The first agreement in our religious committee is that the question "What can a civilized world do for the victims of child abuse?" is a question that comes from the highest place. 
    The first agreement in our science committee is that regardless of where the question comes from, we agree that the answer is a Nobel prize-winning type effort to understand the effects of child abuse.  And we know that such an organized and focused effort currently does not exist. 
    These are simple agreements; not arguments.
    We will establish the brightest shining light in the world when it comes to scientific knowledge and research pertaining to child development and life span development.  And we will keep the light shining through world fundraising.  We will establish international headquarters and a beacon of knowledge. 
    More information will come in the new year, including a website. 
    We value and celebrate wisdom, science and critical thinking. 
    The future is ours to make and celebrate.  Make something beautiful.  Believe it! 

    Orion Palomar
    Published in the Times-Standard 1/9/05

GUTS, INSPIRATION ARE SADLY LACKING

    I have written some recent letters about a Nobel prize-winning type effort to understand the effects of child abuse and creating an organization to raise funds for such an effort.  In those letters I used the words "guts and inspiration." 
    Whenever something is perceived as a challenge, guts and inspiration follow.  But first it has to be perceived as a challenge. 
    But what if it isn't perceived as a challenge?  Or what if some people perceive the challenge as a challenge for other people?  But then what if those "other people" can't perceive the challenge because they are too afraid to admit that there are unknown scientific aspects about child development and life span development that they don't understand and nobody yet understands?  
    What I have just described is a situation in which nobody has guts and inspiration, because people are either too afraid to acknowledge the challenge, or people naively believe that other people are acknowledging the challenge. 
    I wrote about guts and inspiration because I discovered that the real world didn't yet have guts and inspiration. 
    But once people perceive the challenge and accept the challenge, there will be guts, inspiration and a Nobel prize-winning type effort, naturally.  And there will be a bright shining light of new knowledge.  
    But we must celebrate now!  The celebration of wisdom, science and critical thinking takes us to where we are going.  We are poetry in motion, regardless of when and where world headquarters is established. 

    Orion Palomar
    Published in the Times-Standard 2/14/05

LEAD THE WAY TO A CIVILIZED WORLD

    Due to recent world disasters involving earthquakes, tsunamis and terrorist acts, we are all familiar with the importance of communities and cities sending in search and rescue parties to search for victims still trapped in collapsed buildings.  It is the civilized thing to do.  And any community which failed to search for trapped victims would be called "uncivilized." 
     As a survivor of child abuse I must make an important analogy pertaining to the above. 
    I discovered that nobody in the world, in any country or community, is searching for the victims of child abuse who have been affected in ways which modern science has yet to understand.  There is no "search and rescue party" to find them and discover why science cannot understand how they have been affected. 
    Of course, science is about progress.  And that means there will always be phenomena in the present which science will not understand until sometime in the future. 
    But science is not about ignorance or neglect.  Science is about challenge and discovery! 
    My definition of "a search and rescue party" begins with my plans to create a nationally televised primetime panel discussion of leading scientists to discuss the question: "The Truth About Researching the Effects of Child Abuse." 
    A civilized world can respond with an international organization similar to the American Cancer Society.  World headquarters can be here in Humboldt County. 
    We can celebrate the beauty of discovery, and we can lead the way to our becoming a more civilized world. 

    Orion Palomar
    Published in the Times-Standard 3/29/05

IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO HEAL CHILD ABUSE

    Anyone who says there are no unknown scientific aspects to child development and lifespan development is not a scientist. 
    Science is about challenge! 
    Take physics for example, anyone who said there are no unknown aspects of the cosmos for physicists to discover would not be a scientist; and anyone who did not support moving forward by researching the unknown aspects (challenges) of the physical universe would not be a cosmologist, either. 
    There are unknown aspects to the effects of child abuse, and many of those aspects are related to the unknown scientific aspects of child development and lifespan development. 
    If anyone wants to support science moving forward, then I suggest they vigorously support the creation of a nationally televised panel discussion of scientists to discuss the challenges that lie ahead in "The Truth About Researching the Effects of Child Abuse." 
    There should be vigorous support in every community because there are enigmatic child abuse victims in every community. 
    And if enigmatic victims knew there was such vigorous support, perhaps they would eventually surface and begin communication with people who really want to get acquainted with them, if they sincerely want to get acquainted with them. 
    This should happen in every community.  And communities can set examples for each other throughout the world. 
    "It takes a village to raise a child."  And it takes "villages" to heal child abuse. 
    But this person is not ready to surface and communicate beyond writing these letters. 
    First I need support and sincerity. 

    Orion Palomar
    Published in the Times-Standard 6/6/05

DON'T FORGET THE VICTIMS

     There is no rule in God's universe that says anyone has to get acquainted with enigmatic victims of child abuse.  I am referring to victims who have needs and problems which scientists don't presently understand, but someday they will understand, clearly. 
    There is no rule that says anyone has to get acquainted with us. 
    However, I don't believe that it is possible in God's universe for anyone to get acquainted with children and the world of children without also getting acquainted with child abuse victims.  And I don't believe it is right for anyone to talk about child abuse victims without getting acquainted with enigmatic victims and survivors. 
    There are actually people in this world who think they can know children and the world of children without ever knowing the world of child abuse and child abuse victims and survivors. 
    And there are people who think they can know the world of child abuse victims and survivors without ever knowing or getting acquainted with the most enigmatic victims. 
    But those people are naive!  And such naive people are likely to call themselves and think of themselves as "grownups." 
    I pity such people because they don't know both the real world of children and the true world of elders.  They don't know God's universe and Mother Nature.  And they don't really understand the beautiful world of critical thinking and science. 
    I believe this is an important message between worlds. 
    They are the worlds mentioned above. 

    Orion Palomar
    Published in the Times-Standard 9/5/05

WHO DARES TO DEFINE HUMANITY?

    "Whose culture is it anyway?"  That was the question on the cover of the Sunday October 9th Times-Standard. 
    That is an important question for everyone in every culture, and for every generation in every culture.  It is a good question.  But it doesn't just apply to Native Americans and their own past, present and future.
    What about the rest of us? 
    Who are we?  What are our mirrors? 
    Whose mirror is it, anyway? 
    I am reminded of one of the most important books of the 20th century, "The Meaning of Meaning" written by Ogden and Richards (1923).  They discuss semantics and meaning, and they mention the "proper meaning superstition" which is about how words are not absolutes.  Words don't have absolute meaning.  Instead, words have subjective meanings constructed by subjective minds.  And that surely includes words for cultures. 
    What defines a culture are the people who agree to its definition.  And people should definitely have the opportunity to agree or disagree to a culture's definition and sort out the integral parts of the definition for clarity. 
    This even applies to academics.  Take for instance the word "psychology."  There are dozens of schools of thought in psychology.  And they all have different definitions of "human nature."  If they didn't have different definitions of human nature then there would be just one psychology and one science called "psychology." 
    So, whenever we come upon the word "psychology" we should ask: "Whose 'psychology' is it, anyway?" 
    Who dares to define human nature?  

    Orion Palomar
    Published in the Times-Standard 12/2/05

CHILDREN REACH FOR TRUE WISDOM

    During the week of September 26th through the 29th PBS televised documentaries on the 1960s, including four hours on Bob Dylan. 
    But the only two important events that stand out for me during that decade was a spectacular comet with a long tail that rose in the darkness before dawn. 
    The other important event was a television show that began by announcing: "You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to the outer limits." 
    I was in high school during the mid-sixties, and I was trying to get over months of depression which followed a suicide attempt.  It wasn't until the late 70s that I discovered that my depression and suicide attempt were connected to my repressed childhood of abuse and extreme terror. 
    When I woke up from the repression, my inner mind reawakened to a terrorized child reaching out for something.  And the energy released upon reawakening was so radical and intense that it obliterated and disintegrated my cultural identity as an adult who had once lived through the 1960s. 
    Do scientists know what terrorized children reach out for, like the terrorized Afghanistan girl on the world famous cover of National Geographic magazine? 
    The answer lies outside the outer limits of present scientific knowledge.  But science will inevitably understand it. 
    Science will understand that we reach out for something that is beyond cultures and historical eras. 
    What lies beyond terror is timeless wisdom. 
    Children reach for it! 
    Hope it reaches Earth! 

    Orion Palomar
     Published in the Times-Standard 1/19/06

MANY MYSTERIES TO SOLVE

    "Science loves a mystery."  Those words were highlighted in bold in the January 19th Times-Standard article on Dark Matter. 
    Those words are more important than most people realize, because if anyone really wants to know the heart and soul of science and scientists, one has to know that science loves mysteries and scientists love mysteries. 
    Unfortunately, most people don't love mysteries the way scientists love mysteries.  Some people love mysteries, but they don't realize that real scientists love mysteries, too.  And some sciences that are called "science" don't love mysteries at all! 
    My journey in science began in high school with "The Queen of Science."  Mathematics! 
    The quote is from Gauss, who nearly didn't become a mathematician because his passions were evenly balanced and divided between mathematics and philology, the science of literary linguistics. 
    My journey in science, math and physics was severely interrupted in my early 20s because of enigmatic personal complications.  Years later I began to study the social and psychological "sciences."  I know enough about those sciences now to know that most people in those fields don't love mysteries at all!  They dread mysteries because they dread the likely probability that there is more to human nature than they already know.  Real scientists love challenge, exploration and discovery. 
    And what about religious people?  Do we love mysteries?  I hope so! 
    I hope I live in a world inspired by the mysteries of science and everyday life, including the mysteries of Mother Nature and human nature. 

    Orion Palomar
    Published in the Times-Standard 4/1/06

ARE THEY SCIENTISTS OR JUST LAMEBRAINS? 

    Can you imagine how absurd it would be if someone said they had a plan to land humans on Mars and the entire project would cost only a thousand dollars?  Imagine if someone said they had a plan for eradicating AIDS and creating a vaccine and the whole project would require only a thousand dollars?  Any sane person would look at such people as being lamebrains. 
    Years ago I graduated from my high school as the most honored student in science and mathematics.  My first college math professor said that I was the most brilliant student she ever had.  But then my life became complicated because I started feeling the hidden effects of child abuse which came to haunt me and my mind, my nervous system, my spirit, my soul, my emotions.  I had to drop out of college and uncover the mystery. 
    Unfortunately I had to find out that the vast majority of academics and professionals in the social and psychological sciences are lamebrains when it comes to understanding the effects of child abuse because they seem to think that it is not going to take billions of dollars of research to understand the effects, and that it is not going to take a major fundraising effort to raise such funds (an effort similar to the American Cancer Society effort). 
    Many of the lamebrains think that research funding isn't necessary at all because they think they already understand child development and lifespan development.  
    Mistakenly, they call themselves "scientists!" 

    Orion Palomar
    Published in the Times-Standard 6/13/06

LAMEBRAINS WON'T UNDERSTAND ABUSE

    When I went back to college I read Thomas Kuhn's world famous book "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions."  He points out, very clearly, the differences between sciences and schools of thought.  That was when I realized that psychology and sociology are not sciences as much as they are schools of thought; and neither discipline was able to understand how child abuse had affected me. 
    In fact, in order to understand how child abuse had affected me I had to research the disciplines of communication theory and verbal and nonverbal meaning acquisition and communication acquisition.  It was those stages of development which had been affected, and which continue to affect me.  And there are still decades of research ahead for science to understand normal meaning acquisition and communication acquisition, plus how those acquisitions are connected with normal emotional acquisition, cultural acquisition, socialization, a sense of self, a sense of community, etc. 
    It is stupid and lame-brained for anyone to think they can understand child development and lifespan development without researching verbal and nonverbal communication acquisition and meaning acquisition. 
    Unfortunately, I had to find out that there are lots of lamebrains in this world.  But that is what the lamebrains don't want society to know, the media to know, and people who read newspapers to know! 
    Well, now you know! 
    It is going to take a scientific revolution (not lamebrains) to understand the effects of child abuse. 
    You know it! 
    Angels know it! 
    All good people should know it. 

    Orion Palomar
    Published in the Times-Standard 8/31/06

UNCOVER THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUTH

    Recently on PBS “NOVA” was the documentary “Mystery of the Megavolcano.”  One of the scientists stated: “Volcanology is a young science and there is still much that we really don’t know.” 
    It is disappointingly unfortunate that social and psychological scientists don’t have the same intelligence to make a similar statement about human nature and what they really don’t know about child development and lifespan development.  All they have are different models constructed from different schools of thought. 
    The philosopher John Stuart Mill once stated: “Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to exactly do the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.” 
    Like many other child abuse victims I was treated as a mere machine by my parents and siblings.  And then I tried to get “help” from people with degrees in the social and psychological sciences, only to be treated as a mere machine again!  Others have been treated similarly, and the media and society needs to know the truth. 
    Science is good, but more research is needed on the inward forces which make human beings human, including communication and an innate sense of the sacred. 
    Here under the tallest and oldest living trees in the world is the right place to headquarter a world research and fundraising organization to uncover the truth about youth and human nature. 

    Orion Palomar
    Published in the Times-Standard  11/17/06

GIVE THE GIFT OF ILLUMINATION
(this letter was written with the intention of it being published before Christmas 2006)
     I am a child abuse victim!  
    Winter and solstice is the time of year I think most about light and the dark.  
    There is illumination related to discovery and knowledge; but there is the darkness of illusion.  
    My parents believed in the illusion that they understood children and life.  I was brutalized because of their illusion.  After years of repression I sought help from people with degrees in the social and psychological “sciences,” only to find out that they were living in illusions, too.  They have the illusion that they understand child development and lifespan development because they mistake schools of thought for science.  
    And then in America, April is designated "Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month," but it fools people into the dark illusion that significant progress is being made, when the truth is that the "system" has failed countless enigmatic victims like myself.  And nobody cares to discover why!  
    But here under the tallest and oldest living trees, we can create a research and fundraising organization, our gift of light and illumination for the children of the past, the present and the future.  People who believe in scientists, and people who believe in angels, can cooperate around the world and help to raise billions of dollars for research.  It will be our gift under the redwood trees, our headquarters for this world organization, our gift to children.  
    We can give the gift of illumination, and we can dispel the darkness of many illusions.  
    Believe it!

    Orion Palomar
    Published in the Times-Standard 1/3/07

REAL WORLD OF CHILD ABUSE
    "In a world..."  What?  What world?  Whose world?      This is a letter about "coming attractions."  No!  Not Hollywood!  
    This letter is about the coming attraction (a preview) of the real world of child abuse victims and survivors according to us victims and survivors, and not according to the way our world is previewed by academics who think they know about our world just because they have been to college and have earned college degrees and think they can preview our world for the media and for the public with their designation of "April, Child Abuse Awareness Month."  You don't speak for us, and nobody in our world of victims and survivors gave you the permission to represent us!  If we had given you permission, we would have gotten together and voted on whether or not you are qualified to know us.   
    Unfortunately, we survivors have not yet formed a democracy! 
    In a world that doesn't have a democracy, and no true representation of truth, we are going to create a world of democracy.
    This letter is a preview of that world; it will be an international World Honor Society for Adult and Adolescent Victims and Survivors of Child Abuse.  We are also going to have a "Survivor's World Declaration of Independence" to declare independence from anybody and everybody who falsely represents us and our needs and problems. 
    We aren't in movies, in newspapers, or on television.    But we are here! 
    We are shining stars! 
    Stay tuned for more information! 
   
Orion Palomar
Published in the Times-Standard 4/11/07

REALIZATION OF MENTAL, EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS TAKES MATURITY
    I thoroughly enjoyed reading your excellent series of investigative reporting on the condition of mental health care in Humboldt County and America. 
    I have written letters about the effects of child abuse in northcoast newspapers for over twenty years, and I am patiently getting closer and closer to forming a world honor society for adult and adolescent victims of child abuse, and also a non-profit sister organization to raise millions of dollars of funds to research the mental, emotional and neural effects of child abuse. 
    Unfortunately, I tried to get help, support and understanding from professionals in the mental health professions, but it didn't work for me, and I'm sure it doesn't work for many others who have enigmatic problems which can only be understood in terms of future research rather than past research. 
    It takes a lot of maturity for a person to admit to themselves that they have mental and emotional problems.  And it also takes an incredible maturity and courage to discover and realize that one's needs and problems are beyond the current cutting edges of science and therapy.  Without that level of faith, courage and maturity, enigmatic victims like myself cannot survive mentally or emotionally.  We have no choice!  Modern therapists don't understand how mature we are, nor how serious we are. 
    Science is about challenge, exploration and discovery.  But I have to say that I respect journalists more as scientists than the people who work in the mental health system, because they don't pursue challenge, exploration and discovery as much so as journalists and writers.  The exception are the social and psychological scientists who are at the very cutting edges of research; they respect the complexity and mystery of human nature. 
    Furthermore, I think America itself lacks maturity.  We think we are a religious nation of spiritually mature people.  But we are not spiritually mature enough to treat fellow human beings (the mentally ill) like brothers and sisters. 
    Honor and respect is something that every person needs.  It is a spiritual challenge to directly experience and explore that need, and discover where it takes you. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Reporter 5/31/07

RESEARCH EFFECTS OF CHILD ABUSE
       In light of the recent news about the $660 Million settlement the Catholic Church made with victims of child abuse, I would like to remind readers that someday the north coast is going to become world headquarters for a world honor society for adult and adolescent survivors of child abuse.  It will also be world headquarters for a sister organization to raise funds to research the effects of child abuse. 
    Each organization will have a religious committee and a science committee.  And people of all religions all over the world are invited to join in helping to raise awareness, and to raise billions of dollars of funds for research.  And the beauty, the goodness and the light of what we will be doing is going to far outshine any and all darkness, ignorance and evil in this world pertaining to child abuse and pertaining to any ignorance of its effects. 
    These organizations are going to take time and patience to create.  Chances are that I am far more patient than anyone who reads my letters.  And I need time to heal. 
    For now I want to say that the primary agreement in the religious committees is that the question "What can a civilized world do for the victims of child abuse?" is a question that comes from the highest place.  All members agree! 
    And once we establish world headquarters then the north coast will evolve into a world spiritual center more significant to humanity than the Vatican. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Times-Standard 7/27/07

PROFESSORS DON'T WANT TO LEARN
    This is the time of year ("back-to-school") when I think most about all of the academics I have met in my life who pretend to value the learning process.  Many of them suffer from a unique form of dissociation.  They want to believe that they value learning, and they become educators because they want to teach.  But they themselves don't want to learn.  They only "learn" for the purpose of becoming educators.  But when it comes to learning new things, they are resistant, and they are not aware of their own resistance.  And that unawareness is why they are actually dissociated.  Part of them values learning; part of them doesn't want to learn.  Or maybe it is just a simple matter of fear; they fear the unknown.  And that is why some academics become researchers while other become teachers at universities. 
    Three to four years ago I wrote several letters in The Lumberjack inviting the students and professors at HSU to learn things about victims of child abuse and how they (we) have been affected by abuse.  I offered to do two presentations.  One was titled "Survivor Myth, Survivor Image, Survivor Reality: Seeking the Truth About Victims and Survivors of Child Abuse" and the other was titled "How I Became a Semantic Wild Child and a Victim Without a Culture."  I provided my e-mail address in the letters.  But not a single student or professor responded. 
    I have to wonder what Dr. Bruce Perry would say about this lack of response from university students and professors who claim to value science and learning.  This past year he published a cutting-edge book with the long title "The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog, And Other Stories From A Child Psychiatrist's Notebook: What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love and Healing."  I wouldn't be surprised if he supported my theory of academics suffering from a form of dissociation. 
    Surely, there is a reason why Perry used the words "what traumatized children can teach us" in his subtitle. 
    Every good scientist knows that science is about challenge, exploration and discovery.  But unfortunately, the students and professors at HSU have the belief that there is no challenge, there is no need to explore, and there is nothing new to discover about the effects of child abuse; and there is nothing that child abuse victims can teach them.  So I guess that makes all of you professors and students at HSU smarter than Dr. Perry. 
    I suggest that the students and professors in the social and psychological sciences at HSU write Dr. Perry a letter and tell him that all of you are a lot smarter than he is, even though none of you have done the research that he has done, and even though there is still decades of research that remain in the future; it is research that is totally dependent on communication between survivors of child abuse and scientists who want to listen and learn. 
    Actually, I should thank you students and professors in the social and psychological sciences at HSU for helping me to think of a title for one of my books.  It will be titled "Modern Society's Fatal Assumptions about Care and Child Abuse Victims."  You most likely don't even care to learn what those assumptions are, which is probably why you didn't care to hear the presentations I offered to give at HSU.      Thanks for helping me to gather material for a chapter on the subject of ignorance and apathy. 
    If you are a reader who cares about science and progress, and would like to comment on ignorance, apathy and fatal assumptions, please e-mail me at opalomar@humboldt1.com.  I would really like to find out if there is anybody at HSU who cares about science and progress and who understands science and progress.  I wrote those letters a few years ago because I assumed there were people at HSU who cared about science and progress.  But I was shocked to discover that my assumption was a false assumption. 
    A month from now I will write a letter in The Lumberjack about the e-mail responses I receive, and whether or not my assumption was really a false assumption. 
    I would appreciate it if students share this column with their professors and department chairs.  Show your support for science, research and communication by being part of the process of challenge, exploration and discovery.  Challenge your professors with this article, and discover what happens. 

Orion Palomar
Guest Editorial in Humboldt State University Lumberjack News 9/5/07

INCREDIBLE CHALLENGE
    What can a civilized world do for the victims of child abuse? 
    People in a civilized world can acknowledge the wisdom in that question. 
    People in a civilized world can be empathetic to enigmatic victims who feel that they are not living in a civilized world because their world has not responded yet with care and wisdom to their enigmatic needs and problems. 
    Citizens in a civilized world can intelligently investigate the possible need to build retreat-sanctuaries for adult and adolescent survivors of child abuse. 
    Citizens in a civilized world can be aware of what lies at the cutting edges of research, such as Bruce Perry's book "The Boy Who Was Raised As a Dog; And Other Stories From A Child Psychiatrist's Notebook: What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love and Healing." 
    People in a civilized world can be mindful of science and how science is about progress, which means that there will always be phenomena in the present that won't be understood about human nature until sometime in the future (which explains why Perry's book was not written 20 years ago, and why 20 years from now Perry and other researchers  will write new books with new information gained through communication with enigmatic survivors like myself). 
    People in a civilized world can be respectful of the incredible challenge it is to have needs and problems that science does not yet comprehend; and respect and honor the enigmatic victims whose minds are burdened with that inconceivable challenge. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Times-Standard 9/6/07

SOCIETY MUST OPEN EYES TO CHILD ABUSE
    This is the time of year when Nobel prizes are being awarded.  And with that in mind I would like to remind readers that over these past few years I have mentioned in letters that it is going to take a Nobel prize-winning type effort to understand the effects of child abuse.  And I believe all civilized people should know. 
    It is going to take a Nobel prize-winning type effort to establish the fact that countless victims of child abuse are struggling with effects that modern science does not yet understand because modern science is not yet advanced enough to understand the dynamics of the mind and the emotions during child development and lifespan development.  And this puts an inconceivable burden on the minds of many victims who are struggling with effects that modern social and psychological scientists are not willing to admit to the public that they don't understand.  Such an admission would threaten their credibility as scientists, therapists, etc.  They would rather have child abuse victims suffer than to have their own egos suffer.  As a result, both child abuse victims and scientific progress suffer, just because of some people's dark egos. 
    There are victims whom I call "the three-times neglected."  They get neglected and abused by their family, and then they get neglected by the health care system and therapists, and then they get neglected by society because society is ignorant. 
    But society cannot stay ignorant forever. 
    Wake up, everybody!  See the light!  

Orion Palomar
Published in the Times-Standard 11/7/07

WORDS OFTEN DEFINE OUR EXISTENCE
    The Times-Standard editor had the right idea for suggesting that readers write in messages of thanks for Thanksgiving Day. I think of the song "Don't it always seem to show that you don't know what you've got till it's gone...they paved Paradise and put in a parking lot." 
    What if all the welcome mats were gone?  What if the word "welcome" was gone from dictionaries in all languages? 
    What if dictionaries were gone?  We wouldn't be able to look up the word "paradise."  There wouldn't be other words to look up like "male" and "female."  And we wouldn't know that we were in "California." 
    Without dictionaries we would all lose our minds.  But then we wouldn't know that we lost our minds because dictionaries wouldn't be able to tell us that we were "crazy." 
    And just think, without Greek dictionaries we wouldn't even know what "Eureka" means. 
    What about the Sheraton Inn commercials?  What if they were gone?  The commercials showed happy people from all over the world welcoming each other, and voices singing in the background: "We belong, we belong, we belong..."  I'm thankful for those advertisements. 
    As a survivor of child abuse I wish people would think about what it would be like to have your parents tell you that you don't belong in your body and you don't belong in this world.  And this happens while you are trying to learn words and meaning. 
    Blessed be!  We survivors belong to the definition of the word "miracle." 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Times-Standard 12/18/07

VALENTINE'S DAY AND CHILDREN
    It's been ten years since I wrote a letter about having a moment of silence each Valentine's Day to think about the question "What happens to children who aren't really loved?"  And I wrote about how that question was both a scientific question and a spiritual question. 
    I have been writing letters about child abuse in newspapers because people don't know the answer to the question.  The answer is that the question is indeed both a spiritual question and a scientific question, and it is going to take a Nobel prize-winning type effort, and billions of dollars of research funds to answer the question. 
    But most of all it takes an effort that has love and passion behind it: love for children, love for science, passion for discovery, and love for the truth. 
    But love is not a lie, love is not an illusion; and deception and illusions are not a part of love. 
    As a journalist I am dedicated to truth; not fiction and not illusion.  That means that I am going to continue to write about the truth, in newspapers and in books, about how we child abuse survivors have to survive in a world that doesn't know what love is, what passion is, and what empathy is.  If the world had any of those, then people would have done much more for the victims long ago, rather than cling to stupid and harmful illusions. 
    On Valentine's Day I feel shame for this world.  But that can change.   

Orion Palomar
Published in the Times-Standard 2/15/08

LET GOOD SCIENCE FLOW FORWARD
    Futurist Arthur C. Clarke, author of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” died recently and had the following words inscribed on his tombstone: "Here lies Arthur C. Clarke.  He never grew up and never stopped growing." 
    I have to wonder how many teachers, professors and preachers don't comprehend the meaning of those words.  I especially think of academics and professionals in the social and psychological sciences who have the illusion of being “grown up.”
    Child abuse victims know things about pain and being human that they don't know.  Will the future world be ready to learn and understand more about children, souls, and laws of nature and healing? 
    Clarke once said: "When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right.  When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."  Four years ago I tried to share that very quote with academics at HSU, but apparently none of them thought it was possible for there to be enigmatic victims of child abuse such as a "semantic wild child" who became a "victim without a culture." 
    I hope the rest of the north coast doesn't feel that way, for the only way I can ever feel properly welcomed is to be welcomed for what I am, and to be understood, accepted and healed for what I am. 
    Remember, science is about challenge, exploration and discovery.   And science is dedicated to discovering the mysteries and laws of nature and healing.  Let good science flow forward. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Times-Standard 4/3/08

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DALAI LAMA
    Happy Birthday Dalai Lama. 
    The other day I went into Moonrise Herbs for a salad.  I saw a little round table with Dalai Lama books on it and an envelope with the words "Happy Birthday Dalai Lama, July 6th." 
    Just a month ago I read my first Dalai Lama book: "The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality." 
    I didn't know his birthday was so close to July 4th, the birthday of a nation.  I find it more natural to celebrate people's birthdays than to celebrate nations' birthdays. 
    On this Dalai Lama birthday I would like to make an important announcement to Buddhists and other "pagans." 
    Sometime in the next twenty years the North Coast is going to become world headquarters for two international organizations related to child abuse research.  One is a world honor society for adult and adolescent victims and survivors, and the other is a research and fundraising organization to support good science flowing forward. 
    We will have a religious committee, a science committee and communication committee (journalism and media).  All religious people will be invited as long as they don’t bash other people's religions. 
    We will converge our energies to heal violence, rather than support violence. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Times-Standard 7/17/08

SMALL POTATOES
I recently had the words "Small Potatoes" printed on the front of a t-shirt. 

Those words are the title to one of the chapters of a book I am writing about meaning acquisition and communication during child development and throughout lifespan development (what we learn about meaning and communication never ends). 

And since what I say on the opening page of the chapter “Small Potatoes” is going to be read by people all over the world, I figure that it should be readable to readers of the Times-Standard, and maybe perhaps they can respond with comments on the T-S website.  And Halloween turns out to be the best time of year to share this because Halloween is related to fear, death and culture. 

My father used to call me “little squirt” many times, and my mother would often say “bless your little heart” when I was about three years old.  But that was after I inadvertently terrified them because I was gifted as a child and said things and did things that they didn’t understand.  And those were things that their own cultural background interpreted as being “evil.”  So, they ended up literally trying to beat the “Devil” out of me. 

Considering how some cultures look upon Americans as being “Satanists” I think that my story is relevant and that people should not take for granted how culturally constructed meaning has affected people, communication and world history. 

Fear causes people to condemn and belittle the very objects of their fears. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Times-Standard 10/30/08

WORTH IT
    In the April 9th Times-Standard there was a story about the astrophysicist Martin Rees winning the $1.6 Million Templeton Prize for religion. 
    Rees once stated that "The main aim of science is to take steps toward answering the big questions." 
    As a survivor of mental, emotional and verbal child abuse I have to believe that someday someone, or a group of people, are going to win the Templeton Prize and the Nobel Prize for addressing the question "What does the mind do to heal itself?" 
    Can you imagine a society or culture that never even bothered to think about what the mind does to heal itself and think about the scientific and spiritual significance of that question? 
    I would rather not think about how dark a world that would be.  Instead, I have decided to live in a bright world, rather than a dark world.  And I will be asking people all over the world to make that decision with me when I become founder of a world honor society for adult and adolescent victims and survivors of child abuse. 
    And we will ask all good people throughout the world to help us build an internationally funded university to research what the mind does to heal itself.  And those will be the people who can think in terms of Templeton Prizes and Nobel Prizes, and making the world a saner and more caring place. 
    Naturally it's going to take time; maybe lifetimes. 
    But minds, emotions and lifetimes are worth it. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Times-Standard 7/2/11

ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE
    Can you imagine a new university on the North Coast?  Anything is possible in the minds of creative, enlightened people. 
    The university I have in mind would be funded internationally and would be titled "The International University of Religion, Empathy and Science."  And it would deal with any and all subjects that are related to any two of the topics, or all three topics that make up the title of the university. 
    There would be various schools or colleges located on campus.  For example, there would be a "College of Native Peoples and Cultures," a "College of Eastern Religions," a "College of Western Religions," and there would even be a college and/or club for atheists.  Of course, there will be a "College of Philosophy, Science and Critical Thinking." 
    And when it comes to the social and psychological sciences, the university will view the discipline of communication (which includes semantics and other related topics) as the master discipline of those sciences.  One of the many diverse goals of the university would be to lead the world in research on child development and lifespan development.  We also hope to lead the world in research pertaining to what the mind does to heal itself. 
    Presently I am writing a book about semantic acquisition during child development and throughout lifespan development.  It will be one of the many topics researched at the university. 
    I hope to write about this university someday in my book titled "I Can Think About Meaning, Therefore I Am." 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Times-Standard 9/16/11

MUSIC DOESN'T MAKE A HOME A HOME
    This is an open letter to Madonna and all other musicians, including Grammy winners. 
    Madonna ended her Superbowl halftime show singing the words "feels like home."  I hope that all musicians someday realize that the word "home" has nothing to do with music. 
    I am a child abuse survivor who grew up in a musical family, and I am writing a book titled "I Can Think About Meaning, Therefore I Am" and I know from experience that music doesn't make a home. 
    Music didn't make a home a home when my father played his gypsy violin, and music didn't make a home a home when my mother lip-synced Rosemary Clooney singing "Come on to my house, to my house, I'm a gonna give you everything." 
    Music didn't make a home a home when I lived in a house on Idlewild Way in San Diego and my oldest brother was the leader of a band named the Ramblers and held band practice in our house with a new band member named Frank Zappa. 
    Popularity doesn't make a home, either.  Nor does money. 
    I think of the song "Country Roads" by John Denver: "I hear her voice...the radio reminds me of my home far away." 
    For child abuse victims who were abused in musical families, the radio only reminds us of growing up in an environment where there was music and no love.   
    When musicians read my book, they won't feel like making music and dancing.  They'll feel like crying, instead. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Times-Standard 2/15/12

CHILDREN UNDER THE SUN
(this letter makes a reference to the annular solar eclipse over the North Coast on 5/20/12)

    On May 20th I saw something in newsprint that was just as interesting as what I saw that day up in the sky on the other side of the clouds. 
    It was the words in print: "Creating and Enjoying Welcoming Spaces."  It was a Times-Standard article about children's books at our county library related to creating welcoming spaces for nature and critters outside and around children's homes. 
    However, I couldn't help but think of creating welcoming spaces for children inside their homes.  Can you imagine someone trying to teach a child about creating and enjoying welcoming spaces for nature and critters outside the home if the child was never welcomed and enjoyed inside the home? 
    Not very many people can imagine it.  And the only people who can really talk about it (as difficult as it may be) are the children who have experienced it. 
    And if it weren't for the children and survivors who talk about it, people wouldn't really know about all of the dark things that can happen under the sun. 
    Lots of books have been written about dark things happening to children.  I myself, am in the process of writing such a book titled "I Can Think About Meaning, Therefore I Am." 
    This year a new book was published titled "Childism: Confronting Prejudice Against Children" by Elisabeth Young-Bruehl. 
    People who read her book will be closer to being ready to reading my book about the darkest things that can happen to the children under the sun. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Times-Standard  6/5/12

ART THAT SHOULD BE IN TEMPLES

    First I saw it on the worldwide web, then in the 7/15 Times-Standard and then I saw it on PBS "History Detectives."  It was the big story of Bob Dylan's electric guitar. 
    So, what's so big and important about Bob Dylan's electric guitar? 
    What's so great about guitars, music and fame? 
    My two older brothers played guitars.  One of them played with Frank Zappa.      I remember being 10 years old when I heard "Johnny B. Goode" on the radio: "He could play the guitar just like a ringin' a bell." 
    But what do grownups know about children ringing bells? 
    I wrote a letter recently (6/5) that mentioned the book "Childism: Confronting Prejudice Against Children."  I was just a dumb little 10 year old who could only ring bells while my two big brothers wanted to be like Johnny B. Goode: "someday you will be a man and you will be the leader of a big old band...your name will be in lights..." 
    I never grew "up" the way they did!   
    And now I have two little bells that I ring every morning.  One I found at Tailwaggers Thrift Shop: it’s a copper bell with the Seattle Space Needle as the handle.  The other is a brass bell I purchased at the Clarke Museum; its handle is made of local giant redwoods. 
    I also have a temple bell, for my "Temple of Survivor Art" for art made by survivors of child abuse. 
    Our art is priceless and should be in temples. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Times-Standard 7/25/12

GRANDMOTHERS OF THE LIGHT

    Thanks to Tim Martin in his My Word column on November 11th for reminding us, especially this time of year, to praise mature women. 
    On Thanksgiving Day I have always been thankful for the mature women that I have either met or read about, including Native American women, Buddhist women, and women who practice the Wiccan religion. 
    I also want to give praise to President Jimmy Carter's wife, Rosalynn Carter, for writing the book on American mental health titled "Within Our Reach: Ending the Mental Health Crisis" which begins with the chapter "Stigma, Prejudice and Discrimination."  And later in the book she mentions cultural differences, and she mentions people in Cambodia and how normal it is for them to talk to their dead ancestors every day. 
    Her comment about the Cambodians also makes me think of the book titled "Grandmothers of the Light: A Medicine Woman's Source Book" written by Native American Paula Gunn Allen. 
    But you don't have to be a Native American to talk to the grandmothers of the light because the grandmothers of the light are way above and beyond cultural differences. 
    I'm thankful that there is somebody "out there" who is above and beyond cultural differences.  And I'm glad that I can talk to them anytime I like. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Times-Standard 11/15/12

SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL, SOMETHING BRIGHT

    I am celebrating the Winter Solstice and the dawning of a new era by creating a new university that will bring a lot of light to this world. 
    The university will be titled The International University of Religion, Empathy and Science and it will have separately funded and separately founded colleges on campus including a College of Eastern Religions, a College of Western Religions, a College of Philosophy, Science and Critical Thinking, a College of Native Peoples and Cultures, and a College of Atheism and Agnosticism. 
    I wrote about this university in a letter to the Times-Standard on September 16, 2011. A copy of the letter can be read at http://pages.suddenlink.net/opalomar/letters.html. 
    We will be searching for the most intelligent people in the world, including the most intelligent philanthropists in the world, to help us build this university here on the North Coast and change the economy of the North Coast forever. 
    I will give out further information only to the people who have the guts and inspiration that it takes to build the most beautiful and intelligent university in the world by creating and maintaining a website that seeks out the most intelligent people in the world. 
    If you have the guts and the inspiration, and want to be part of something beautiful and something bright, then please write me at PO Box 6301, Eureka 95502. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Times-Standard 12/30/12

HOPE, SPRING AND SHOWERS

    I pray and meditate in private.  I especially like to pray and meditate when I'm taking a shower.  And where my prayers and meditations take me, while under a shower, is to a place far beyond city governments, state governments and national governments.  It also takes me beyond cultures and beyond culturally constructed calendars and holidays.
    Of course, there’s no law that says everyone has to pray in showers!  Can you imagine a government that says everyone has to pray when under showers? 
    But I think atheists should give it some thought.  I don't necessarily mean prayer!  I mean being in showers and thinking about deep things like beauty and how beauty transcends all governments and cultures.  And that includes the beauty of science, which studies Mother Nature.   
    I am the founder of the future International University of Religion, Empathy and Science. 
    Think of beautiful indoor showers and outdoor fountains located on an international campus that invites both atheists and religious people to research and apply empathy to every social issue confronting humanity. 
    Famous scientists and billions of religious people around the world will love us.  And millions of international tourists will want to visit the campus of the most intelligent and beautiful university on Earth, because it represents the beauty and intelligence of empathy.   
    Our university will be a hope that springs eternal, and the most refreshing news around. 
    And this hope will inevitably begin anytime, anyplace, anywhere people want to nurture hope.  
    Enlightened people will make it happen. 

Orion Palomar
Sent to Eureka Timss-Standard on 3/17/13.  Sent again about 6 weeks later.  Never published. 

WILDER THAN ROCK 'N' ROLL
This letter was published in the North Coast Journal in response to two articles that Barry Evans wrote about pertaining to the new "Psychiatric Bible" (the DSM V Diagnostical Statistical Manual 5) and appeared under "Brain Busters" in the letters of The Journal on 7/4/13

    I have been psychologically diagnosed by other-worldly beings, and they have diagnosed me as fitting into the WTRNR category.  That means "Wilder Than Rock 'N' Roll."  Treatment and "recovery" are out of the question! 
    I was born wilder than rock 'n' roll.  And my older siblings tried to make me "normal" by listening to rock 'n' roll, but it never worked. 
    I wasn't born normal.  And I never became normal by the time I was 15 years old, when I saw "The Outer Limits" episode "The Galaxy Being" on television in 1963.  I was beyond reach of psychiatrists after that! 
    Someday after I publish my book titled "I Can Think About Meaning, Therefore I Am" I will be adopted by native tribes around the world.  And they will nickname me "Chief Wilder Than Rock 'n' Roll."  And all the natives are going to laugh every time they hear my name.  They'll be laughing at all the people who want to be "normal" and be part of "the civilized world." 
    I hope to form a world honor society for adult and adolescent victims and survivors of child abuse.  Many of us have needs and problems that require future research to understand.  Past and present diagnostical statistical manuals are profoundly limited. 
    When the time is right I’ll invite people to help us create, organize and publicize this world honor society.  Think of Pulitzer prizes, Nobel prizes and Templeton prizes.  And honor, respect and protect what is mysterious and wild in everyone! 

Orion Palomar
The North Coast Journal 7/4/13

SOME THOUGHTS ON BREAKFAST

    When I want breakfast, I'm not interested in anyone's prayer breakfast meeting.  I just get on my bicycle and ride down to The Pantry and order. 
    "I'll have a full stack, please." 
    But I have to be careful when the waitress brings my pancakes because when I ask for jelly they sometimes think I say "chili" instead of "jelly" and they look at me like I'm some kind of wild, crazy person! 
    Of course, we both end up laughing. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 8/16/13

GRAY MATTER

    I can appreciate computer metaphors for the brain as mentioned by Barry Evans in "Rogue Neurons" (Field Notes, August 8th), but I also value non-computer metaphors, too. 
    I have a special appreciation for computer metaphors because I still experience the effects of PTSD from early childhood abuse.  And I have learned from experience that there is a neural process very similar to the "System Restore" application in Windows operating system. 
    It took me a long, long time for me to understand why I would have relapses.  But when System Restore first came out in Windows XP, I realized that my brain and nervous system needed to go all the way back to my very early childhood and start everything all over again, including verbal and non-verbal communication, meaning acquisition, touching and being touching, hugging and being hugged, etc.  Perhaps in some ways, that system restore process parallels the theory of rogue neurons. 
    But on the other hand, I can also appreciate non-mechanical and non-computer metaphors for the brain such as "the brain as a temple." 
    For some brains, "the brain as a temple" might sound unscientific.  But in other brains, it doesn't sound "unscientific" because inside some brains, traditional and modern science are viewed as sacred. 
    During my healing process (the "system restore") I restored the part of my brain that could think in metaphors, and also the parts of my brain that could construct meaning.  I even restored the part of my brain related to acquisition of a sense of self (as in the book "Self Comes to Mind" by neuroscientist Antonio Damasio). 
    And when I restored the meaning of the word "science," I realized that I never had to see science as something other than sacred. 
    My brain is a sacred place ("temple") to be in. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the North Coast Journal 8/22/13

READER'S PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCES

    When it comes to allegiances (Tim Martin's "Pledge allegiance to a foreign-made flag?  Kids deserve better" Sunday October 27 Times-Standard), my allegiances are revealed by some of the books and magazines that I have on top of my wooden desk. 
    One book is titled "Secret Spaces of Childhood" by Elizabeth Goodenough. 
    I pledge allegiance to secret spaces of childhood. 
    I always have at least the last six or more issues of National Geographic Magazine on my desktop.  I am a member of the National Geographic Society and I pledge allegiance to the spirit of the National Geographic Society, to their flag (for which it stands), and to their gold-frame logo known all over the world. 
    I also have the photo book "Sacred Places of a Lifetime" (too big for my desktop)  published by National Geographic. 
     I pledge alliance to sacred places of a lifetime. 
    Also among my stack of books and magazines on my desk is Carl Sagan's book "The Demon-Haunted World; Science as a Candle in the Dark." 
    I pledge allegiance to all candles in the dark. 
    And I pledge allegiance with all people who have their own private desks with their own personal arrangements of books, magazines, candles and other treasured and magical items on their desktops. 
    I pledge allegiance to everyone who wants to make this world a better place for people of all ages to live in. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 11/7/13

TRULY, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE ON KEET

    I am writing to comment on both David Blodgett's Times-Standard My Word "Is Christian religious bigotry alive and well in Humboldt County?" December 4th and John Chiv’s My Word "Christian-bashing doesn't help anyone" on December 5th. 
    I'm not so sure if the people who run the Eureka Rescue Mission are actually religious bigots, and I'm not so sure if Blodgett was actually bashing Christians in his My Word.  But what I am sure about is that anyone who is a religious bigot or anyone who bashes Christians should watch the documentary "The Asian and Abrahamic Religions; A Divine Encounter in America" that KEET televised on KEET2 the very same days of the My Words by Blodgett and Chiv. 
    Wow!  And that was just Part 1. 
   
Orion Palomar
Published in Eureka Times-Standard 12/7/13

REFLECTIONS ON EUREKA'S MEANING

    I have always been fascinated with the word "Eureka."  
    When I was ten years old I read a book titled "Science in Everyday Things" (William C. Vergara).  In the section on ships and buoyancy he mentioned the Greek mathematician and physicist Archimedes running naked through the streets of his village shouting "Eureka" after he realized how to test the king's crown to see if it was pure gold, or not.  His realization came (as the legend goes) when he submerged his own body in water. 
    I'm glad I found that book.  Perhaps it had some influence on me when I became interested in mathematics and found that I had an exceptional gift for the subject. 
    Of course, there is more to everyday things than mathematics.  At the age of ten I didn't know that my brain and nervous system had been affected by something that is unfortunately a part of everyday things called "child abuse."  I suffered PTSD and long-term repression and dissociation.  And it took me decades to realize that my verbal and nonverbal communication skills had been radically damaged by child abuse, after having also been born gifted in those skills. 
    Eventually I left mathematics and studied cognitive semantics and cognitive linguistics; and healing began. 
    Now I see words and place names differently, such as the sacred, hidden place where I first read the book "Science in Everyday Things" near Mission Bay and Crown Point in San Diego, and not far from Crystal Pier. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 2/5/14

OF DAYS PAST AND FUTURE

    The recent story of the Wiyot World Renewal Ceremony is much more than just about a culture renewing itself and its own identity.  It's also about how human beings heal. 
    Their story is part of an ongoing, unfolding and continuous story of how human beings heal.  It is a story that everybody is still learning about, including the most advanced neuroscientists, and the most advanced social and psychological scientists on the planet. 
    And the question of how human beings heal is also part of the continuous open question of what makes all of us human.  And the more we learn about what is elementally human, the better human beings will be able to understand each other and empathize with each other, which in turn will lead to less antagonism and misunderstanding in our world. 
    I believe that the very future of the social and psychological sciences is going to gain tremendously from understanding our collective past when we were all natives, and before modern "intellectuals" tried to define the word "civilized" for "all" of us. 
    The truth is that we just might all become more civilized by better understanding our common origins and our collective past, and understanding more about how we got from "Point A" to "Point B." 
    High school students and college students take note.  Nobel Prizes and Templeton Prizes are going to be awarded in the future to those who do a totally unbiased study of how human beings heal their minds, their emotions and their spirit. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 5/15/14

A COSMOS WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND

    I have a major complaint against the recent FOX television series "Cosmos." 
    Why did it have to end? 
    Is that it?  The end?  Aren't we always learning?  Shouldn't "Cosmos" be the one television series that never ends?  It should be on every week until there is literally heaven on earth. 
    Furthermore, the series "Cosmos" should expand itself to cover more than just the physical cosmos that we live in.  It should include the cosmos of the human emotions and the cosmos of the mind and brain.  It should include the social and psychological sciences. 
    We should live in a world of people who think critically not just about the physical and natural sciences, but also about the social and psychological sciences. 
    Years ago I majored in mathematics and science in college because I was born adept in understanding the nature of science.  But I had to drop out because of the complications of C-PTSD (complex PTSD; see Wikipedia).  Years later I tried to go back to college and major in the social and psychological sciences, but I ended up perplexed and shocked by the lack of organized critical thinking in those fields. 
    In the recent "Cosmos" series they mentioned the motto "Nullius in verba" (take no one's word for it; find out for yourself). 
    So, what about understanding child development, lifespan development and human nature?    

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 8/29/14

THE DARKSIDE OF SPANKINGS, AND SOMETHING POSITIVE

    Some people say that being spanked as a child has made them into a "better person."  Here's my side of the story. 
    There is the light.  And there is the dark.  
    I remember when my parents threatened to "beat the living daylights" out of me.  But it turned out that my parents and my older siblings (who had also received spankings) never really shared the daylights (sunlight) or the nightlights (moonlight and starlight) with me. 
    And the more I grew up, the more I realized that they had never really learned how to share the living daylights and the living nightlights with anybody; not even with each other! 
    I disinherited them and legally changed my name to something positive. 
    I had a really dark childhood in San Diego County.  When I left that area I tried to think of the most positive experience I had there.  And that was all of the different people from all over the world, young and old, male and female, religious and atheist, taking the journey up to Mt. Palomar to see what was then the most powerful telescope in the world. 
    Now I live in a place where people have taken the journey to see and cherish the tallest living things in the world. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 10/2/14

A GOOD HOST DOESN'T SAY "LEAVE THE ROOM"

    Here are my thoughts about the two letters in the Times-Standard (November 11 and 12) regarding "If you don't like prayer, leave the room." 
    I live in a small studio cottage, and I am a very private person.  I won't even let people into my private studio.  I let them into the kitchen only and keep the door to my studio closed, so that nobody can look inside my private little temple. 
    However, if I were rich (and famous) and had an estate, I would have a huge mansion with lots of rooms, some private, some public.  And I would have a special large room that I would invite people into.  But I would never ever invite a lot of people into that one room and then ask some of them to leave for awhile and then come back. 
    What kind of host would I be if I did that?  Certainly not a good one! 
    Can you imagine being in a public place like a public library, or a public business like a restaurant, a barbershop, a beauty salon, toy store, thrift store, a grocery store, a movie theater, a newspaper office, or a museum like the Clarke Museum or the Discovery Museum, and some people walk in and start praying and ask others to leave while they pray? 
    Years ago I was campground host at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.  Can you imagine the host asking some campers to leave the campground while he and others pray? 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 11/16/14

THE NIGHT AT THE HAUNTED LIGHTHOUSE MUSEUM

    Forget invocations and benedictions at pancake breakfasts and city council meetings.  I can think of way better things. 
    It happened in 1982.  That was the year of "Poltergeist," "E.T.", "The Dark Crystal," "Blade Runner," "Gandhi" and "Timerider."  But this took place in the redwoods, not Hollywood.   
    It was advertised in the Del Norte Triplicate newspaper: "Haunted Lighthouse Museum, Halloween night!"  The Del Norte Historical Society invited the community to dress up in their Halloween costumes and cross the isthmus to Battery Point Island at low tide to tour the "haunted lighthouse."  The island was known for being haunted. 
    So, I went there and crossed the little isthmus as the full moon rose at sunset.  The main attraction that everyone was curious about was at the top of the spiral staircase that led to the lighthouse lens.  But only one person could walk up there at a time. 
    And that was when it happened!  It was a blessing that cannot compare with any other; and I've never needed any other blessings since then. 
    That was it!  That was everything!  And I didn't have to eat any pancakes, or hear any "special" words. 
    That Halloween night with the vast sea, the cool wind, the full moon at sunset, people crossing a dark isthmus with flashlights, and a witch at the top of a spiral staircase, was timeless! 
    I was blessed and honored by ancient and mysterious spirits haunting a Redwood Coast island and lighthouse. 
    That chilly autumn night was way beyond Hollywood!  

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 1/2/15

LOVE, HONOR AND EMPATHY FOR CHILD ABUSE VICTIMS

    During February I always think about what it means to love child abuse victims and survivors for I am writing a book titled "I Can Think About Meaning, Therefore I Am" which will also be the book that will launch a world honor society for adult and adolescent victims and survivors.  Our motto will be "Honor and protect the natural healing process." 
    There is love as in care and healing.  The people who really love us are those who care to discover, through observation and research, what the natural healing process is.  They are also the people who will listen to survivors when they chronicle their stories about what heals them and what fails.  
    But there are some people who aren't interested in discovering anything about what heals and what fails, because they think they already know everything, including everything about child development, lifespan development, and human nature. 
    What is there to discover when you already know everything? 
    Nothing! 
    So, when it comes to what it means to love child abuse victims,  we in the world honor society want the world to know that the people who really love us are the people who accept the learning process of discovery and research, and people who support discovery and scientific research, and who honor the victims as they share their life stories about what heals them and what fails. 
    Love is in our motto.  And love works through our motto, for us and humanity. 
    Love, honor and empathy, for us!

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 2/10/15

AN ETERNAL SPRINGTIME FOR CHILD ABUSE VICTIMS

    Someday in the future an announcement will be made to the world about the birth of a world honor society for adult and adolescent victims and survivors of child abuse. 
    We will have a science and critical thinking committee, a religious committee, and other committees. 
    The science and critical thinking committee will be making friends with cutting-edge scientists all over the world, including cognitive scientists and neuroscientists,  because our purpose is to remind the world that there are victims of child abuse whose needs and problems require future research to understand, rather than past research, and that future research is also needed to understand normal child development and lifespan development. 
    Our religious committee will give birth to the International Interworld Temple of Survivor Art and Convalescence, which includes all of the private and personal spaces and dwellings of survivors (their personal temples), as well as main temples in communities.  Our temples will cause everyone, including atheists, to think about the semantics of the word "sacred." 
    Plus, we will have a committee for atheists because our world honor society honors all victims of child abuse, including those who have found healing and sanity in atheism. 
    The day our organization is born will be "day one" of our eternal springtime; from out of the darkness (ignorance) and into the light (knowledge).  And what science discovers through our endeavor will empower everyone, including religious people, with a better understanding of child development, lifespan development, mind, emotions, meaning acquisition, cognition, empathy and human nature. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 3/19/15

WHO IS TO SAY THAT ANYONE'S MORE SACRED?

    I enjoyed reading Tim Martin's column (Times-Standard April 19th) about Sunday assemblies for atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, secular humanists and "apatheists." 
    I think it all comes down to semantics, including the word "sacred."  Who is to say that atheists, agnostics, freethinkers and others aren't just as sacred as anybody else when they gather at assemblies?  Who's making up the rules for word definitions? 
    A few years back I read a North Coast Journal article ("A Klamath Reunion" August 19, 2010) that was about Yurok artifacts, and it mentioned how a wild ginger root was used to talk to the Creator.  The ancient Pythagoreans believed that the five regular solids were sacred, including the dodecahedron which represented the cosmos. 
    A couple of years ago I purchased a small quartz crystal dodecahedron at the Lost Coast Gem and Mineral show.  The woman who sold it to me suggested that I attach it to the top of my walking staff that I had at the time.  I did that for awhile, but then I didn't need the staff anymore.  So, I put it in a little black velvet pouch that I attached to my belt; nobody can see it. 
    I can walk into any kind of assembly of people and nobody can see my dodecahedron: atheist assemblies, Christian assemblies, Buddhist assemblies, Hindu assemblies, Wiccan assemblies, native tribal assemblies, math and science assemblies, feminist rallies, Eureka city council meetings, etc.   

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 4/24/15

WHAT DOES A CELIBATE ON A BICYCLE LOOK LIKE? 

    Everybody knows what Caitlyn Jenner looks like.  But that doesn't mean they would be able to recognize a celibate riding a bicycle. 
    Everybody knows what bicycles look like.  But not everybody knows what celibates look like. 
    My bicycle gets more attention than me!  But I'm not jealous.  I can understand all of the attention my bicycle gets when I ride on the boardwalk, through Halverson Park, down the Hikshari trail, through Old Town, Sequoia Park and the backstreets of Eureka. 
    The very shape of my bicycle is what gets people's attention at first.  I have to admit, it really is beautiful.  It is like poetry in motion.  It has this long sleek look that makes you think of moving forward; that's because it is a recumbent bike that is longer than most bikes.  And then there are the "Easy Rider" type handlebars. 
    What also gets attention is the rear end. 
    Just behind my body and above the rear tire is a tall flagpole with an orange flag at the top with a children's toy pinwheel underneath; and below the pinwheel are 5 different colored Tibetan flags that almost everybody has seen in photos of mountain climbing base camps on Mt. Everest. 
    But people don't see a celibate on a bicycle. 
    I bet it's because people don't know what celibates look like! 
    I totally support Caitlyn and the LGBT  community.  But when it comes to visibility, what do I have? 
    Just my bicycle, friends, just my bicycle. 
    And, poetry in motion! 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 6/10/15

WRITER SEES TEMPLES IN EVERY NEIGHBORHOOD

    I am writing up plans and organizational strategy for creating a world honor society for adult and adolescent survivors of child abuse.  We are going to have lots of committees, including a religious committee which will give birth to the International Interworld Temple of Survivor Art and Convalescence that will be comprised of personal individual temples (residences, including homeless tents) where survivors are convalescing and healing; and also community temples throughout the world. 
    Even atheists are going to join us, because our world honor society has an atheist committee and also a religious abuse committee for victims of oppressive abuse and neglect by various “religious” people. 
    Many members consider science and critical thinking to be part of the definition of the word "sacred."  And members, including atheists, are naturally entitled to their own perspectives on word definitions. 
    Some of our other committees will be a mass media and communication committee to discuss fundraising strategy and to inform the world about needed research; a genius committee for geniuses abused as children and misunderstood by cultures; an outreach committee for the psychologically homeless people who feel homeless even when living in houses and communities; a LGBTQ committee; a celibacy support group committee; a Senior committee for seniors who never healed from the effects of child abuse; and an angel committee for survivors who believe that angels or other higher intelligences are helping them. 
    We're going to have cutting-edge scientists, angels and geniuses helping us. 
    And intelligent and enlightened philanthropists will support us. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 8/11/15

NORTH COAST: HALLOWEEN CAPITAL OF THE WORLD?

    After the Pope visited the nation's capital last month I wondered if there will ever be a pope who will visit the Halloween capital of the world. 
    And where would that be? 
    Here on the North Coast, of course! 
    No, this is no joke!  I'm just spreading the news and giving information about what could develop here on the north coast behind the redwood curtain. 
    Listen up, you doubters! 
    During the past years I have written some serious letters here in the Times-Standard about creating and founding an International University of Religion, Empathy and Science. 
    In time it could really happen and enlighten the world, and be critical for our planet's spiritual and scientific evolution. 
    The university would have separately funded and separately founded colleges on campus including a College of Eastern Religions, a College of Western Religions, a College of Philosophy, Science and Critical Thinking, a College of Native Peoples and Cultures, and a College of Atheism and Agnosticism. 
    The university could also have a College of Traditional and Modern Wiccan Studies.  And that particular college would obviously have a very special Halloween festival every year, which in turn would give that college, and the North Coast, the reputation of "Halloween Capital of the World." 
    No, I don't consider myself to be a witch!  I'm just a friendly person; and, only friendly people will be at our university. 
    And we will naturally invite religious leaders, scientists and atheists to visit and give blessings to our whole, friendly university. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 10/6/15

AN INTERNATIONAL DAY WHEN A REAL FORCE AWAKENS

    I’m not going to see the new Star Wars movie.  I haven't been to cinemas in several years.  I didn't watch "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." 
    Star Wars and Harry Potter are just fiction.  And, I and others like me already know about the real “dark sides” and  "deathly hallows" because we know about the darkness of the effects of child abuse in ways that religious leaders and leading scientists don't understand yet. 
    But religious leaders and leading scientists can be part of the day when a real force awakens.  It will be the very same day that the World Honor Society for Adult and Adolescent Survivors of Child Abuse will be born.  
    It will be the "The International Day of Apologies and Pledges."  And we are going to request that the world observe the day of our birth. 
    We will request that religious leaders, scientists and people all over the world apologize to child abuse victims everywhere for grossly underestimating the mental, emotional and neural effects of child abuse, and grossly underestimating the difficulty of recovery.  And we will request an apology from authorities and laypeople for thinking that they understand all there is to understand about child development and lifespan development; and pledge to move forward with vigorous research instead of ignorance and assumptions. 
    We want these apologies and pledges to be made on all national major television networks all over the world on the day of our birth; an international day of truth and awakening for everyone. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 12/22/15

PSYCHOLOGICAL HOMELESSNESS IS REAL

    I am determined to place a new, but ancient, psychological disorder on the Diagnostical Statistical Manual used by the American Psychiatric Association.  I call it "psychological homelessness" or simply "PH." 
    I define PH as existing in people who still feel homeless even when living in houses and communities.  My theory is that the condition stems from unresolved C-PTSD suffered in early childhood followed with repression and complex dissociation between cognition and emotion. 
    Furthermore, because of dissociation and numbness related to complex PTSD, the victims suffering from PH are not aware of it.  Dissociation blocks out their feelings of PH.  For example, when they hear the song "God Bless America" they block out the fact that they never had a "home, sweet home." 
    I also think of other song lyrics that have the word "home," such as "Home on the Range," "Motherless Child," "Like a Rolling Stone," "Homeward Bound," "Golden Slumbers" (Beatles), "Country Roads," and "Swing Low Sweet Chariot." 
    When you look out your window, you may be seeing houses and apartments where individuals suffering from PH reside.
    I would not be surprised if the renowned PTSD pioneer researcher Dr. Robert Jay Lifton agreed with me that psychological homelessness is real.  He authored the science book "The Broken Connection." 
    My guess is that most people doubt that psychological homelessness is real. 
    But I wonder what those doubters see and feel every time they encounter the world famous June 1985 photo of the Afghanistan girl from the cover of National Geographic Magazine. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 1/26/16

THERAPISTS HAVE RESPONSIBILITY IN PTSD RESEARCH

    I am writing in response to Sherae O'Shaughnessy's March 26th Times-Standard column "Feeling the PTSD?  You're not alone -- and there is help." 
    PTSD is not a single ailment with a single feeling ("feeling the PTSD"). 
    "Post-traumatic stress disorder" is a term used to describe a spectrum of ailments just like the word "virus" is a term to describe a spectrum of ailments ranging from the common cold to Ebola and AIDS.  And medical researchers are continuing to do research on the different forms of viruses and their medical treatments. 
    But imagine if doctors during the past 40 years never reported to medical researchers and to the public and media that they had patients who suffered flu-type ailments that didn't respond to treatments used for other viruses.  AIDS would have never been discovered, nor would the new mosquito born virus, Zika, have been discovered. 
    I believe that therapists have a medical and moral responsibility to report to PTSD researchers, to the media, and to the public, the occurrence of PTSD clients who don’t respond well to their therapies and treatments. 
    And I believe that the media and the public has a responsibility to be well-informed about the nature of PTSD research, just as the media and the public has a responsibility to be well-informed about research on diseases such as AIDS and cancer. 
    It is similar to society making sure that search and rescue parties have searched for all victims trapped in buildings collapsed by tsunamis, tornadoes, explosions and earthquakes. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 4/6/16

AREA READER OFFERS LOCAL TIP ON TRANSIT EXPERIENCE

    Forget the Beatles!  The local Redwood Transit System bus ride between Eureka and Garberville is way better than "The Magical Mystery Tour." 
    It's the Avenue of the Giants, dummy! 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 6/23/16

"BUT YOU CAN'T TAKE A PICTURE OF THE MAGIC"

    I think I know why the Tolowa Nation doesn't want people taking photos of their dancing in the redwoods ("Honoring in Dance" page A2, Times-Standard July 12). 
    Decades ago when I was autumn-winter campground host at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park I walked on Walker Road and I hiked on Wellman Trail high up above the river and the Hiouchi Bridge on moonlit nights. 
    There was magic in the trees, magic in the river, magic in the moon, magic on the road, magic along the trail, and certainly magic in the old metal bridge before it was replaced in 1991.     
    The magic moves with you and it moves through you whether you are walking, dancing, standing still, or riding a bicycle. 
    I biked to the old bridge when I later moved next to Lake Earl. Highway 199 was closed to vehicle traffic (but open to bicycles) along a 4 mile stretch through old-growth redwoods leading to the broken bridge while it was being torn down. 
    One day I grabbed a heavy piece of scrap iron from the old bridge and biked back with it to forever remind me that there is good magic in old trees, old bridges and moonlit nights.
    But you can’t take a picture of The Magic. 
    When I was campground host I was mentally homeless and I wasn't interested in taking pictures.  I was more interested in rediscovering and reasserting myself as a beloved part of Mother Nature, her timeless magic and eternal patience. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 8/4/16

READER VOLUNTEERS "NEXT STEP IN EVOLUTION"

    There has been a lot of news recently regarding the San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick and his decision to not stand during the American national anthem. 
    But if Kaepernick ever decided to go back to college he might consider making out an application to the International University of Religion, Empathy and Science, which will inevitably be built someday in the next ten years and will host thousands of students and professors from all over the world.  
    At this future university he would not have to stand for the US national anthem because no national anthems will be played at the university.  This university won't represent any nation.  And everyone who attends the university will generally have the same opinion that our international university represents something far superior to any nation on Earth. 
    Furthermore, we don't see any scientific connections between learning empathy, teaching empathy and playing national anthems and saluting flags.  And the founders of the university believe that the university will represent the next step in human evolution toward higher consciousness and higher intelligence, and that this "next step" is a necessary and critical step in human progress and global survival, especially in the dangerous nuclear age that we live in. 
    In other words, the founders believe that we either take this next step, or we die! 
    And if we all die then there won't be any more national anthems and no more football games, baseball games, Olympics or any sports at all, because we would all be dead! 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 9/9/16

IN THIS WORLD WE ARE JUST BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND THE MIRACLE OF LIVING

    Forget the results of this past American presidential election and forget being in America, and think about a place where heaven actually meets Earth and Earth actually meets heaven!  And all you have to do is go on the internet to be there. 
    Remember the phrase "Be Here Now?"  It may not be now, but it will be!  It is in the making, if you want to make it!  You can make it now.  You can make it anytime.  It depends on who wants to make it and who understands what it is they are making. 
    I am referring to a project that many people all over world will consider to be a true heaven-on-earth project, including some of the world's richest philanthropists.  And even the world's richest atheists will contribute to this project. 
    I am referring to a project that I have written about in previous letters to the editor.  It is The International University of Religion, Empathy and Science. 
    The university will have a physical campus and it will also have a cyberspace campus.  We will even have a 3-D virtual reality campus for people to walk through.  But you can walk on the physical campus, and you won't have to go far to get there, if the university is built on the North Coast. 
    How could anybody (like myself) not want to share the plans for this project with others? 
    Write me at PO Box 6301, Eureka 95502. 
    Forget America!  Wake up to heaven on Earth! 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 11/13/16

WE WILL HAVE A WHOLE WEEK OF CELEBRATION AND FESTIVAL

    In the future there will be an International University of Religion, Empathy and Science.  The whole university will be dedicated to the very inquiry about the nature of empathy and to discovery and research about empathy.  
    And this time of year will be the most important time of year for us because we will celebrate the birthday of our university during the week of winter solstice since everyone among the different colleges on campus agrees that it would be a dark and cold world without the light and warmth of empathy, and it would be a dark and cold world if too many people believed there was nothing for them to learn about empathy because they mistakenly believed they already knew everything about it. 
    Winter solstice marks the time of year when the light and warmth returns to the world.  Yes, it's a metaphor.  But in some minds good metaphors can transcend cultural, historical and linguistic "differences." 
    We will have a whole week of celebration and festival.  And all of the separately funded and separately founded colleges on campus will have open houses: The College of Eastern Religions; College of Western Religions; College of Science, Philosophy and Critical Thinking; College of Native Peoples and Cultures; College of Atheism and Agnosticism; and the College of Modern and Traditional Wiccan Studies. 
    It will also be open house for the multitude of diverse clubs on campus. 
    And a joyful winter celebration will be live-streamed all over the world from this beloved international university.  

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 12/13/16

READER TOUTS BENEFITS OF "GOING BACK IN TIME"

    When I think of 2016 I don't think of what happened on November 8th.  Instead, I think of what happened on October 5th.  That was the day the U.S. Postal Service released the Diwali "forever" stamp nationwide. 
    I added the stamp to my stamp collection.  Never underestimate the healing power of stamp collections! 
    And never underestimate the timeless power, magic and importance of childhood.  I was 10 years old when I began an international stamp collection. 
    Sometimes, for some people, it's important to go "back in time." 
    Go on Wikipedia and look up "system restore."  You can restore your computer to an earlier date if your computer is malfunctioning.  It's a good metaphor for what some people suffering from C-PTSD have to do. 
    However, science doesn't fully understand yet the complex parts and the whole of the mind, brain, feelings, memory and nervous system, and how the parts fit together to create a sense of consciousness, continuity, self and time. 
    Nor does science understand yet what the mind does to heal itself when injured.  But science will inevitably gain enormous knowledge by studying people with C-PTSD.  However, such studies must be done completely without bias, and without any kind of interference. 
    There is a major critical difference between observing what the mind does to heal itself, and interfering with a natural process. 
    Impatience often leads to interference.  And some people lack patience because they are impatient to apply their “knowledge” to everything, when science hasn't yet observed and discovered everything. 

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 1/15/17

READER USES EASTER WEEK TO OFFER UP REFLECTIONS

    Easter week is a time of year when people all over the world think about religion and religions, while others think about atheism and agnosticism. 
    Hence, this is a good time of year to mention how we are going to have both a religious committee and an atheist committee in our world honor society for adult and adolescent victims and survivors of child abuse. 
    Our philosophy is to be unbiased, and to welcome all who are healing, and all (including friends and supporters of our organization) who support research and who support our motto: "honor and protect the natural healing process." 
    But I have to say that there are going to be many people who will consider the words of our motto to be words that come from a higher place, like a heaven with angels.  And that the words of our motto is a message and warning from heaven to earth. 
    On the other hand, there will be (hopefully) many survivors in the atheist committee who will simply believe that our motto is 100 percent a creation and product of reasoning and critical thinking.  And I can surely empathize with that perspective, even though I consider myself religious. 
    Furthermore, we are going to have a science and critical thinking committee devoted to both research and educating the public about the need for future research. 
    Plus we will have a committee for victims of religious child maltreatment, as reported by journalist Janet Heimlich in her  book "Breaking Their Will."

Orion Palomar
Published in the Eureka Times-Standard 4/18/17

UNTITLED NEW POSSIBLE LETTER FOR MID-MAY

    Despite the recent marches for women and for science in America and Humboldt County, I have legitimate reasons to personally doubt that people in Humboldt County and in America understand women or understand and support science. 
    Last November I wrote a letter about founding an International University of Religion, Empathy and Science and gave my PO Box for people to write in, but not a single person responded. 
    In 2004, after writing 5 letters to the HSU Lumberjack I offered to give a presentation titled "Survivor Myth, Survivor Image, Survivor Reality: seeking the truth about child abuse victims."  And not a single student or professor responded, male of female.  And nobody responded from the Women's Studies Department.  In other words, I didn't receive any empathy from anybody in the Women's Studies Department.  I thought that women had something to do with empathy, and empathy had something to do with women. 
    In 2007 I wrote a guest editorial to the Lumberjack and again offered to do the same presentation.  Still, nobody responded. 
    I've been working on writing a book titled "I Can Think About Meaning Therefore I Am" which would include detailed plans and fundraising strategy for the International University of Religion, Empathy and Science (plans I wanted to share in Humboldt before my book was published).  
    Now I'm seriously considering having my book published in Asia first, before being published in America, unless somebody convinces me otherwise. 
    And what will my readers in Asia think about America and Humboldt County? 

Orion Palomar


please read this link:  A Note (to all brains) about "Lame Brains"
Click this link for more information on the International University of Religion, Empathy and Science