RIP Wayne Dyer

I was sadden to hear of the recent death (at 75) of another personal hero of mine, Wayne Dyer.  Wayne grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and had a fairly rough go of it.  His mother made a couple of bad choices in husbands and her children suffered from it.  Wayne’s father just kind of disappeared.  Wayne found his grave years later in Mississippi.  The second husband was an alcoholic and this led to divorce.  These were not good times and Wayne’s mother was not in good financial condition so her children wound up in several foster homes.  Wayne managed to take all of this in stride.  She was eventually able to reunite the family.

After graduating from high school, Wayne did a stint in the Navy.  He then decided to go to college at Wayne State University in Detroit.  He had a bit of trouble getting in because of his previous academic performance.  He was admitted under special circumstances and came through with flying colors eventually receiving a doctorate from Wayne State.  He worked as a counselor and then became a professor at St. John’s University in NYC.  His first book Your Erroneous Zones was about how we defeat ourselves in life and how to overcome our self-limiting ideas. So he became a self-help guru with many books, TV programs on PBS, tapes, DVDs, seminars etc. to his credit.

His books have been a great help to me at certain low points in my life and I still read them and listen to his audios.  He got into more mystical things as he aged and I get some people criticized him for that.

I consider him another friend and teacher that I have never met.

Some resources.

• Wayne’s Website: http://www.drwaynedyer.com/ 
• Podcast Series:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/dr.-wayne-w.-dyer-podcast/id988177838?mt=2

RIP Wayne

RIP Oliver Sacks

I had just finished reading the latest Oliver Sacks book, On The Move, when I learned of his death.   I was sadden to hear this since I consider it a great loss to humanity.  He was 82 so he had a long and very interesting life.  On the move is really an autobiography so it is different from his other writing which mainly focuses on neurology.  He was an excellent writer and his work humanized the cases he talked about in his books.  He was a very humane and kind man.

I  first learned about him from the movie Awakenings.  This was inspired by his book Awakenings.  He was truly a wonderful science writer as well as being a practicing neurologist.  Awakenings is about his use of L-Dopa to try to relieve patents who suffered from the long-term effects of Encephalitis lethargica.  This was called sleeping sickness but is totally different from the protozoan sleeping sickness transmitted by the tsetse fly.  The cause of this disease is still unknown.  There was a breakout of it between 1915 and 1926.  Some of the people suffering from this developed a long-term situation where their bodies were sort of frozen.  Dr. Sacks wondered if this was related somehow to the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and gave the patients L-Dopa.  The book and movie describe what happened.  It is an excellent book and made an excellent movie.  Dr. Sacks consulted on the movie.

I have read several of his other books including the well-known The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.  After hearing of his death, I plan to read his other books that I have not yet read.  I also watched the movie again.  Stars Robin Williams and Robert Di Nero.  I consider Oliver a friend I never met in person.

Some interesting links:

• A Tribute to Oliver Sacks on Science Friday.  http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/09/04/2015/a-tribute-to-oliver-sacks.html.  He was a frequent guest on this show.
• Science Friday episodes with Dr. Sacks.  http://www.sciencefriday.com/search/index.html#page/full-width-list/1
• Fresh Air. Oliver Sacks: A Neurologist At The 'Intersection Of Fact And Fable'  http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/08/31/436289763/oliver-sacks-a-neurologist-at-the-intersection-of-fact-and-fable.
• His official website. http://www.oliversacks.com/.
  
  

RIP Oliver