>Date: Fri, 21 Jul 95 17:08:48 -0700
>From: mcpherso (John McPherson)
>Subject: [GS] McPherson auto-biography


                        My g.s. auto-biography
                            John McPherson

  Thank you for this opportunity to present my auto-biography.  I've been
contemplating this for years, and suddenly I find a golden opportunity to
sit down and write the thing!  This explains why this post is so lengthy,
but substantial portions of it do relate to general semantics (including a
note on how this mailing list got started ... way down near the end) and
since my other activities have varied widely, perhaps there's something
here of interest for almost everybody.  I'm also sending a copy of this
to my family who've always suspected I was crazy, and now they'll have a
confirmation of that suspicion :-).

  The earliest event in my history that I can remember so far was of being
held by nice warm beautiful soothing mommy, and then being confronted
suddenly with a by-contrast ugly and rather different object looming into
my field of view ... which I eventually came to know as "daddy" [No offense,
Dad, but you really scared the hell out of me!  I've since grown to enjoy
your face.].  I guess he hadn't shaved yet :-)  Other early memories involve
laying on my back in the crib, looking at an array of hanging baubles
floating just out of reach, witnessing the incredible spectacle of changing
light and shadow as someone walked through the hall and into my room, etc.
I place these events in my first year.  Two other "clear" memories were from
my third year: walking with my towering grandma and looking at a dark blue
car going away which apparently was carrying my rather pregnant mother to
the hospital, and a separate memory of the first time I encountered my 
"sister" alone lying in her crib ... an absolutely incredible, wondrous,
and unique experience (and yet so utterly simple ...).

  Early in my childhood I developed a fascination with science and math,
which I maintained throughout high-school and at least the first years of
college.  I even won a couple of awards as a result of my obsession with them!
My interest in science was bolstered by extensional experience with a decent
chemistry set (especially with such fascinating compounds as gunpowder and
rapid oxidizing agents :-), electricity (I only melted one screwdriver), and
matches (during one experiment I accidently set my bed on fire!).  As a rule,
I hated anything having to do with the "Humanities" (I even took pride in
consciously flunking one of those classes when I found I didn't need it to
graduate!), but I made a minor exception to that rule with my lifelong
interest in science fiction.  I nourished that interest with regular viewing
of Star Trek and _any_ science fiction movies I could find on TV (my all-time
favorite was "The War of the Worlds").  Among the authors I've read:
H. G. Wells, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov ("Foundation" series), Frank Herbert
("Dune" series), Larry Niven, and many short stories.  The only "English" class
I ever did well in during that period was, of course, a class on Science
Fiction, though I was enchanted with the idea of sentence diagramming and
enjoyed the part of another class dealing with mythology (these did fit my
pattern, didn't they? ;-)

  The "Other World" began creeping into my life throughout my adolescence and
especially during my college years, but not in the form of classical Western
Humanities.  My fascination with "mysticism" involved exploring a host of
alternatives: Transcendental Meditation, Yoga, Tai Chi, the books of Carlos
Casteneda, recreational chemicals, fasting, etc., and I accumulated quite a
bit of extensional non-verbal experience through these practices.  My
impression is that many of the effects and experiences resulting from them
are quite simple and natural, but the old traditional maps of this unusual
territory tend to be misleading, outmoded, and insufficient with respect to
the knowledge we've gained in the last century.  We just need better maps
for what may be called "expanded awareness", "visionary ecstacy", "merging
into the Universe", "clarity", "enlightenment", etc.

  Meanwhile, I noticed that my progress in the "material world" had basically
come to a halt, and I thought I'd better do something about that.  So I
dropped back in to college and went back to science and math, and went
through the motions of "getting a degree" - that holy grail that I'd always
been told was a Good Thing to have.

  I did quite well, but found it wasn't enough ... so I began exploring again.
Through my mother I discovered the Creative Problem Solving Institute and
their annual programs, and a most remarkable fellow named Win Wenger. 
Dr. Wenger is interested, aside from creativity and invention, in all kinds
of things such as increasing human intelligence, fostering genius, visual
thinking and healing, the theory of civilizations and general systems, etc.,
and I found myself spending quite a bit of time being involved with his ideas.
At one point I even took 3 weeks to engage in a "brain-building marathon"
(see his _How to Increase Your Intelligence_), which produced in me a number
of effects such as: a noticable boost in my level of awareness (both inner
and outer) which lasted to some degree for about 6 months, and a marked
hunger for reading and the stamina to match it.  It was natural for me at
that time to ask Dr. Wenger about his suggestions for reading, and prominent
in his list was ... TA DA!  none other than _Science and Sanity_ by Alfred
Korzybski.  (You were probably wondering if I was ever going to get to
general semantics, weren't you? ;).  In line with the bottom-up theories of
'mental' development delineated in Wenger's book, I asked him for a book
with information coded at a more basic, visual/perceptual level, and he
recommended ... TA DA #2!  A.E. Van Vogt's books on the world of Null-A
(which ties in nicely with my early interest in science fiction ... I'll
bet you were wondering how I was going to link that in :-).  So, I jammed
through those books and hit _Science and Sanity_ at full speed and plowed
straight through without coming up for air ... and my linguistic world was
forever transformed.

  Even so, I couldn't help but feel that something was missing (perhaps it
was related to the 50 years which had transpired since his magnificent
magnum opus was written), and I went on with my explorations ... but always
keeping the lessons of g.s. in the forefront of my mind.  I went on to study
"genius" and "intelligence", learned of Buckminster Fuller and the visionary
architecture of Paolo Soleri (I participated in a 6 week workshop at
Arcosanti in the Arizona desert), joined Mensa and Intertel, read enough
systems theory to change my major to Systems Science, and I also kept my
foot in the door to the Other World through experiences in floatation /
isolation tanks, New Age music (thank god for the weekly program of "Music
>from the Hearts of Space"!), and I also became involved in Kung Fu for a
time because I was attracted by its holistic / non-elementalistic approach
to life (though I later became disgusted with its dogged adherence to ancient/
outmoded maps of the territory).

  Then another interesting thing happened: somehow I learned that not only
was general semantics alive and well, but that nothing less than a full
international GS convention was coming to San Diego!  This was almost beyond
belief, but it became quite real to me when I showed up for the opening
reception and met such interesting folks as Milton Dawes, Bob Pula, Sanford
Berman (who later gave a demonstration on hypnosis), etc.  Of course, I
learned about IGS and the summer seminar-workshop, ISGS and their publication
_Etc._, and overall I was amazed at the number of people involved in the
conference.  Of course "all good things must come to an end", and so it was
with the conference, and the participants scattered in the four directions.
Meanwhile, back at school, I began searching for links to g.s., and I
audited many courses (e.g., logic, linguistic reference, philosophy of
science, neuroscience, psychology, math, physics), and tried to fit as many
as I could into my minor in "Human Communication" (mostly psychology classes).
To my dismay, I found very little of clear relevance to general semantics,
and _none_ of the professors of any of these courses had heard of Korzybski
or general semantics ... though after a brief outline I gave of it one
professor (Don Norman) was convinced I was "really" talking about semiotics :-/

  Perhaps my dismay and disappointment helped set me up for a new and
perhaps ill-advised phase of my life.  I became a little wreckless in my
pursuit of "self-improvement", and I involved myself with an organization
that can perhaps be best described as a black hole for time and money (Summit-
perhaps describable as a combination of est and the Dale Carnegie course). 
During this period I positively splurged on workshops in general, among them
the Creative Problem Solving Institute annual conference in Buffalo NY (where
I met Dr. Wenger again), and ... the IGS summer seminar-workshop.  In the
larger context of my life, however, I found that the GS workshop mostly went
over material I was quite familiar with, and I found the experiential parts
of it relatively "low-key" in comparison with my other experiences.  I did
find a number of surprises, however, such as: it had never occurred to me
before that one might consciously abstract different beat-patterns out of a
complex drum session, and I wasn't quite prepared for the extensional
experience of hugging people on a regular basis (surprise!  I'll bet you
didn't consider that that might be part of your non-Aristotelian training! :-).

  At this time I found myself substantially in debt, disappointed with
college, somewhat "let down" with the summer seminar and the other workshops,
and faced with the problems of "real life".  Gads, what a situation!  So I
decided to "get serious" and went about the business of gaining steady
employment, paying off my debts, graduating from college, etc., and I kept
my foot in the door of the g.s. movement through my subscription to Etc.
and occasionally some g.s.-related reading ... and of course I also became
a little bored with the course of my life.

  About this time I of course began looking around for alternatives again,
mostly in the thriving holistic movement here in California ... I even dated
a woman who was heavily into shamanism and I went with her to a sweatlodge
ceremony led by an old native american medicine man.  I enjoyed a brief
psychedelic renaissance inspired by Timothy Leary and Robert Anton Wilson,
and gained deep previously unsuspected experiential insights into "Taoism"
and "Buddhism" and the nature of psycho-logical freedom and activity.  In
pursuit of deeper "experience", I also practiced kundalini yoga and chi gung,
and rediscovered New Age music, which has since become my favorite genre
(though my musical tastes vary _quite_ a bit more widely than that).  During
this period I also learned about the libertarian alternative and I gradually
fell in love with the philosophy, the free market idea, and the general idea
of social relationships based on peace and mutual consent.  Naturally I
learned about Ayn Rand and I zoomed through her books "The Fountainhead"
and "Atlas Shrugged", and ended up buying almost all of the rest of her
works.  It may sound strange to you that I should have become so enamored
of an overtly Aristotelian philosopher, but since I have been innoculated
so thoroughly with g.s., I find it easy to ignore her epistemological errors
and to get to the rather substantial portions of her work which are of great
value.  Through her work, I became genuinely interested in other works of
philosophy, especially epistemology and ethics, all the while keeping in
mind the lessons of g.s., and, at last, some of the great classic "Western
Humanities" literature that I went out of my way to avoid as a teen.

  Also around this time, I became aware of a whole other range of
possibilities that I'd never dreamed about: I learned about email, USENET,
and the Internet in general.  Through my explorations, I found an
unexpected and pleasant surprise: the Extropians list.  As a result, I
developed an interest in the idea of "peaceful anarchism" as expressed in
fiction and philosophy, intelligent technology and "artificial intelligence",
life extension (eg, Walford's program of a nutrient-rich low calorie diet,
and the possibility of cryonic suspension), the vast potential of
nanotechnology, etc.  And ... guess what?  The topic of general semantics
popped up on the list!  It turned out that Extropian founder Max More was
quite familiar with g.s. and regarded it highly.  Enough others were
familiar with it that the idea emerged that the conversation could be
carried one step further ... so, Craig Presson and I got inspired and
we founded this mailing list.  We started getting the word out, others
joined, and the list grew slowly in number.  I contacted the folks at
ISGS and IGS and told them about the new list, and representatives from
each organization joined and they started telling others about it, etc.
I then learned how to set up my computer as an ftp and World Wide Web
site, so I complemented Craig's original GS home page ... and we now find
that the vehicle of "general semantics" has turned onto the Information
Superhighway and seems to be picking up speed.

  My current activities are pretty simple: working, playing on the Net,
reading all kinds of things, listening to new age (and other) music, going
to my weekly libertarian toastmasters meetings, watching the pretty girls
in their summer dresses, cooking weekly batches of Walford diet entres,
writing lengthy essays such as my auto-biography, etc. :-)

--
John McPherson (mcpherso@lumina.ucsd.edu)
  * Host, General Semantics mailing list
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"General semantics ... an idea whose time was bound (to come ;-)."