Even as so many around the globe feel a sense of powerlessness as they watch
on and hear of the events in Haiti, we were able to accomplish the impossible.
Since January 17, through our established reputation and direct link to
storeowners, we were able to secure enough food on credit to give to more than
600 people who have lost their homes and are presently living in the outdoors.
Depending on food availability and donations received, we will be able to feed
and provide basic necessities to ensure these people – and others in surrounding
areas – will be fed until further help can come. Because of this, suffering will
be mitigated and many lives will be saved. Please encourage your friends to
donate. Here are the options: Make a tax-deductable donation online at: www.HealthThroughCommunications.org.
Send a check addressed to: Health Through Communications Foundation
Earthquake Relief Funds P.O. Box 2348 La Mesa, CA 91943-2348 Ensured through our
local presence long established throughout Haiti, all donations are PRESENTLY
going directly to aid the earthquake victims, especially in remote areas.
With love, Dr. Carolle
Dr.
Carolle Jean-Murat, MD Angels for Haiti Earthquake Disaster Fundraising
Coordinator for Bizoton & La Vallee de Jacmel, Haiti Donate @ http://www.HealthThroughCommunications.org/
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Dr. Carolle Wellness & Retreat Center for
Women of San Diego offers: · Intuitive Medical, Gynecological, Surgical Second
Opinions (by Telephone & In Person) · “Life Transition Decisions with
Clarity” Consultations (by Telephone & In Person) · Healing Seminars &
Customized Retreats for Women “I work with women who are ready to heal and want
a healthy path for a quality life.” Visit www.DrCarolle.com
Scenes of devastation and misery in earthquake-torn Haiti predominate And yet you can also see a young woman’s courage and strength. Imagine how you would respond if you were in Haiti, an earthquake hit, and you got trapped inside your home. And imagine you lost part of your leg.
How’s your mindset?
Would you bounce back adn feel grateful to be alive like Christa Belsford? She’s a college student from Alaska who was in Haiti teaching literacy.
She could easily have decided to tell herself the story that she has seen so much pain and suffering and that she has lost her leg. Instead, she chooses to tell herself a much different story.
Storytelling empowers you to make sense of t your life and put a meaning to what happens. Christa chooses to see that what she lost is so little compared to many survivors of the Haiti earthquake.
She inspires me. So many people whine and complain about every little th ing, and she wears a huge smile through her road of trials. I would love to talk with her about her mindset, because she has so much to share. She’s right. It’s not all that difficult to get around wihtout a foot compared with what might have happened.
The story of your life is yours to tell, and you get to choose. Will you see the triumph in the midst of tragedy? Can you feel gratitude and joy for what you have even in the midst of a loss?
Christa Belsford spoke about how fortunate she feels to have good healthcare, which so many people lack.
When I had frozen piples last week because of the bitter cold snap, my friend Scott asked if I were angry. Angry? No, that had never occurred to me. I felt so grateful that I have a home and heat. That was such a minor inconvenience. It could have been much worse. After all, I did not lose everything in an earthquake.
I am grateful for the Today Show for sharing Christa Belsford with me so I can share her story of strength wiht you. What perspective does her story bring to your life? Are you revising your story – updating your mindset?
Get Your Attitude Adjusted
Need a little help finding your bounce? I have a couple of recommendations for you. Yes they are affiliate links and yes I stand behind the products.
The free Extreme Thought Makeover program will walk you through a simple daily activity that empowers you. I especially love the “Avalanche of Appreciation.” What you do is start naming things for which you feel appreciation. Get into the feeling as well, and soon you’ll find so many things going RIGHT in your life.
And my favorite program is one that will bring sanity to your life. It is Mark Joyner’s free Simpleology daily program. You’ll take charge of your time, money and energy and thus change your expectation and mindset.
Be careful the stories you tell. Be aware of the stories you repeat – and guard yourself against the dark side of storytelling.
I have never once posted anything like what I am sharing today. I speak of profitable storytelling and how to lift people up and connect with people through the power of storytelling. But today, events cause me to feel compelled to teach you about the dark side of storytelling and how it can be used for covert persuasion with less than honorable intent.
Indeed, storytelling is a powerful force that can be used as I teach you, to build up people and transform the world for good. However, storytelling can also be used to cause fear, twist reality to a political agenda, spread malicious lies or to invent a tale that makes the facts of a situation suit someone’s religious, political or racial ardor.
No doubt you are very much aware of the 7.0 earthquake that has taken thousands of lives thus far in Haiti. It is truly wonderful that so many people in the USA and other parts of the world are doing what we can to bring relief and aid. This is a painful situation. Unfortunately, there are some storytellers who are using this tragedy to further their own agendas.
I was sitting on my couch with both cats on me and my dog Molly at my feet watching news coverage and commentary about the earthquake. When I heard what Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh said about the earthquake, I quite literally wept.Because in the midst of this difficult time in a poor nation, these two men have chosen to participate in the dark side of storytelling.
Religion is a human construct. Please note that I did not say that faith or divinity is a human device, but religion is a human attempt to wrap our minds around divinity/God/that which is greater than ourselves. My first example of the dark side of storytelling is of a religious leader who has the ear (and the wallets) of thousands upon thousands of viewers who will most likely believe anything he says simply because he said it.
Brainwashing? Cult conditioning? I leave that to your determination. But watch and listen to what he said and notice that his sidekick nods and agrees with him. He is about to tell a story linking the current natural disaster (something that happens from time to time on our planet) with a supposed pact with the devil that happened a couple centuries ago.
This is the story Pat Robertson told about the past people of Haiti making a pact with the devil to free themselves from oppression. I want you to keep in mind that this is the same person who said AIDS is a punishment by god for bad behavior, and the same man who said the people of New Orleans were sent hurricane Katrina because they had sinned too much. The first example is a sickness and the second, another natural disaster. Watch him talk about the earthquake in Haiti.
Here’s the text of what he said in this segment:
“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it.”They were under the heel of the French … and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’”
So Pat, let me ask you …how do you know? Were you there? Are you a witness of the pact happening? If so, one is left to wonder about your humanity, since the lifespan of a man rarely exceeds 100 years.
It deeply disturbs me that he also said haiti is a poor nation and their neighbor the Dominican Republic prospers because of this supposed pact. Though he does not explicitly state that Haitians are being punished by god because their ancestors danced with the devil, the implication is there, hanging in the air like a silent but deadly gas (simile example).
Consider your own life and imagine how you would be forever changed by the ground shuddering and undulating beneath you while the world crumbles and falls on top of you.
It is all too human to attribute earthly events to the moods of a higher power or the decisions of long-dead ancestors. Perhaps it seems easier to have some sort of scapegoat or use divinity to make sense of human experience. But what if an earthquake is just an earthquake? I say an earthquake is simply part of our natural world, and it has devastating consequences at times such as this.
There is a subtle tactic he uses. The woman beside him is nodding and voicing her agreement with everything he says. This is a covert persuasion tactic to get the viewer also to agree. “True story,” he says, and she agrees without hesitation or questioning. Viewers who are easily persuaded and gullible are likely to believe his story about Haiti simply because he said it and because he added, “true story.”
What Pat Robertson said demonstrates the dark side of storytelling because he used dark persuasion and a religious message in an attempt to sway people to his belief. There are other instances when storytelling can be used for dark purposes.
Rush Limbaugh also used the fine art of storytelling to twist the truth about a natural disaster that has already taken fifty thousand lives in order to make his own political commentary. Watch and listen to this…
“This will play right into Obama’s hands. He’s humanitarian, compassionate. They’ll use this to burnish their, shall we say, “credibility” with the black community — in the both light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country. It’s made-to-order for them. That’s why he couldn’t wait to get out there, could not wait to get out there.
“Now, I want you to remember, it took him three days to respond to the Christmas Day Fruit of Kaboom Bomber, three days. And when he came out after those three days, he was clearly irritated that he had to do it. He didn’t want to do it. He comes out here in less than 24 hours to speak about Haiti.”
This, my friends, is the dark side of storytelling. Comparing the earthquake to the failed airplane bombing is comparing apples to bicycles (metaphor example). But again, he tells a story that twists a natural disaster into a tool of racism. His followers are not likely to question his logic or wonder what one event has to do with the other. He tells his story as truth. Though he does not use the phrase “true story,” the implication is there.
The statements of both men are absolutely sick.
In the midst of death and destruction from the earthquake in Haiti, when people are unifying our efforts to provide aid, be very much aware of the stories people tell you. Remember, the devastation is so bad that bulldozers are being used to push bodies into mass graves. The morgue is full. Cemeteries are full. There are too many dead.
Whatever you believe about the devil or the president, I ask pat Robertson, Rush Limbaugh and others who would twist this story to their agendas one question.
Is this the time or place for such behavior?
There is much work to do and a nation to mend.
How sick and twisted can Robertson and Limbaugh get? Evidently, there are no limits.
My dear reader, keep your wits about you at all times and shield your mind, heart and spirit from the dark side of storytelling. Do not believe something just because a religious leader or a popular commentator said it. Strengthen your mind. Ask questions. Seek the truth.
No human being is perfect. Not President Obama, not Pat Robertson, Not Rush Limbaugh, Not Keith Olbermann, not your parents, not your friends, you, and not me. Call it what it is. make up your own mind.
Like religion, stories have been used to rouse hatred and start wars as much as they have been used to keep cultural taditions alive and unite people. Understand that storytelling, like any tool, has a bright side and a dark side.
If you have a knife, you can use it to cut your food or your neighbor.
If you have eloquence, you can wield words for war, warning or warmth.
If someone’s work is all about division, hatred or casting blame, be careful how much attention you give them. Seek always to be around influences – people, media, books, movies and all other experiences – that build you up and build up humanity.
Develop a questioning mind that does not take someone else’s word just because they are influential.
I will start reviewing books on persuasion and sharing teachings to help you become a better storyteller and to help you strengthen your mind. Authors I recommend on the subject are Dave Lakhani, Kevin Hogan and robert Cialdini.
The study of persuasion is an important one for any entrepreneur, visionary or storyteller, because you will become aware of subversive persuasion tactics designed to lead you astray.
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