November 2008 – Mobiusman

A Silly Little Paper Band and A Phenomenon – Part 5

by David

Wrapping it all up

In this the final installment of this series. ( Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4)

I’d like to introduce you to yet another scientist. He’s a recognized pioneer in the field of stress research. In fact the first usage of the term “stress” to describe an effect on humans was first used by him. The idea of the “fight or flight response” to describe a reaction to a stressor comes from his work. He’s a contemporary of Dr. Maxwell Maltz’s.

Let me present: Dr. Hanz Selye.

We’ve been talking all along about a mysterious energy within humans that has shown itself to be a real phenomenon. Again, in Dr. Selye’s work, the concept of a mysterious energy is mentioned. Selye called it “adaptation energy” because “it is that which is consumed during continued adaptive work and to indicate that it is something quite different from the surface or caloric energy derived from the foods we eat“.

The two men seen to agree that this energy plays an important role in healing the body from an injury, adapting to a stress effect, and even that it “touches on the fundamentals of aging.”

I was excited.

A Silly Little Paper Band and A Phenomenon – Part 4

by David

Meet Max

This is Part 4 of a series. ( Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 )

For years he’s been a practicing cosmetic surgeon who spots an unusual trend. He can’t help but notice that, even though he performs hundreds of very successful operations, many of his patients remain depressed as if the physical improvements made to their faces had never happened. He decides to author a book and in it he describes his observations as well as his impressions about such things as self-image. He also details his thoughts about the unseen world of energy within us that he believes somehow directs the healing process.

A Silly Little Paper Band and A Phenomenon – Part 3

by David

Leonardo, Aristotle and the Human Machine

This is part 3 of a series. ( Part 1 / Part 2 /)

In my last post I introduced a quote by Aristotle where he expressed his opinion about the origin of thought in the human body. The re-occurring thing that seems to crop up is a reference to the “gut” as a place where intelligence seems to have some root.

I mentioned the findings in 1996, some 2300 years later, of a “gut brain” in humans by cell biologist Dr. Michael Gershon.

Leonardo as an old man (self-portrait)
Today I’d like to take you back in history once more, about 450 years to be exact, and introduce to you to a guy who also had something radical to say about the human body.

The Human Machine

The year is 1558 and Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci works diligently away in his studio in Milan Italy.

Oh, you’ve heard of him?

Not surprising, since today he is regarded to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived. He explored the fields of science, mathematics, engineering, inventing, and anatomy just to name a few.

Leonardo was a man of conviction and, even though he lived in a time when the church was the real power in society, when he had an opinion he gave it voice. He once declared that the human physiology, the “human machine” as he called it, could be improved. That got him into some serious hot water with the church brass. He was given an order to keep such comments to himself… or else!

He may have toned it down a bit but he moved forward anyway by making a few sketches in an attempt to try a few ideas out. One at least looks remarkably similar to today’s hang glider. Poor Leonardo, although he was right he was wrong. He concentrated on physical add-ons not inner-skills. What seemed to have escaped his enormous genius was simply the nature of the improvement that could potentially be made.

He may have been close about his observation of the physical body as a machine though. Others have since come to reference it in similar ways. In fact, how the modern day computer ‘thinks’ could qualify, however loosely, as another mirror reflection of ourselves as a machine.

But hold on to that thought because, if you can stand it, I’m going to quickly whip you forward again to 1960 and another man skilled in matters of medicine who also had similar impressions about the human body as a machine.

I’ll tell you more about him in my next post.

More power to you my friend.

David Parsons (aka Mobiusman)

A Silly Little Paper Band and A Phenomenon – Part 2

by David

Gut Brain, Gut Feelings, and a Greek Philosopher.

In my last post I talked about the invention of the mobius strip 150 years ago. I described how I was so struck by it when I first saw it that I named my company after it: Mobius Transformations. I briefly mentioned that, to me and to the work that I do, this funny little band of paper with a half-twist in it has an enormous metaphorical meaning.

In this post I’d like to detail some of the more important aspects of that meaning. I’ll detail how they all relate to the building of an amazing mindset enabled by the enervation of the gut brain that, for you and for the sake of your future, will be as solid as a rock.

The Human Mobius

If you look closely at a mobius strip the most astounding thing you’ll discover about it is that, while there was once two sides and two edges on that flat strip of paper, there is now only one. This in essence is the main qualifier for the mobius strip becoming our mascot. It involves this dualness becoming singleness and by extension it suggests the relationship between how the human ‘thinks” and “feels”.

Side Note: In case you may have missed it my main interest is the proper construction of your mindset. My passion is the discovery of a little known phenomenon involving the gut brain that gives your mindset an unusual strength that resists all ongoing negative factors working against your success. I believe this type of strength is an absolute requirement for any entrepreneur today especially given the uncertain times we are now living in.

“I believe that the center for thought lies in the heart and that the brain helps cool the body” -Aristotle 384-322 BC

This quote has always interested me since it seems to go against today’s prevailing tradition that the brain is king above all. If it’s true then we might have to re-think the way we think.

Aristotle, who was personally involved in the training of Alexander the Great, clearly indicated that the duality as it exists in man, is something that he was looking at with great wonderment.

A Silly Little Paper Band and A Phenomenon – Part 1

by David

A Mobius Strip and a Mystery.

I’m willing to bet that the day he dreamed it up 150 years ago he never thought it would come to mean so much as it does today.

He was lucky though. It was a super- elegant design but was so simple that anyone could have thought of it but… no one did. I’m sure he would be pleased to see that so much is being made of his ” little parlor trick”.

That’s what they said about Ferdinand August Mobius’ little invention back in 1858. After all it was just a flat strip of paper with a half-twist in it and joined end to end. No big deal except it had some very cool and unusual properties. Only one surface and one edge!

Ferdinand was a mathematician and an astronomer who had a liking for forms and one-sided objects in particular. By the time he discovered the strip that would bear his name he was becoming a recognized pioneer in the branch field of mathematics known as topology : the study of the properties of objects. He described his creation in typical scientific terms calling it a: “linear fractional transformation”

I didn’t care about all that stuff though.

That’s because when I first laid eyes on the famous strip I was just twelve years old. I had received a subscription that past Christmas to one of those wonderfully produced book series by Time/Life. You know the ones. They had big easy-to-read pages with hard covers. They we’re loaded with lavish diagrams, illustrations, and photographs in full color. This particular one was on Mathematics and, while math was never my long suit, to me that book made a dry subject look absolutely fascinating. I immediately knew that the mobius was something special and unforgettable. When I actually constructed one myself I was hooked.

Years later I would recall that moment. There I’d be sitting in my bedroom looking at that page featuring the Mobius strip. To this day, now 57 years later, I still have one sitting on my desk. As it turned out it truly was unforgettable.

And impressive.

So impressive I even named my website after it: Mobiusman.com. For me it would come to be the perfect metaphor for the phenomenon I had discovered: the effect of two different things becoming one.

The mobius strip would be a perfect symbol of the transformation that takes place when the two most powerful motivational forces that operate all of humanity blend into one homogeneous system. It would demonstrate so elegantly how this phenomenon operates to naturally buffer the negative effects of the stresses of life as they occur in real time. I call it the “Mobius Effect”.

For me, and a few others who experience it, that effect was absolutely profound and life- changing. I’ve since come to understand that it’s what it does for the strength of one’s mindset and how it does it that is the really big story.

I’ll be telling you a lot more about it in upcoming posts in this series so be sure to get back here often.

Part 2 will appear here in a couple of days.

I hope you don’t mind waiting.

I’m sure Ferdinand wouldn’t.

More power to you.