Life of Brian

Inspiring Creativity in the Classroom

On 26 December 2008, I presented a workshop on "Inspiring Creativity in the Classroom" to senior studetns in an elite English program at Taipei First Girls High School, the top girls high school in Taiwan.

The program is an adaptation of one I have presented elsewhere to teachers and is comprised of improvisational language structures (which I have adapted from improvisational theatre games), guided imagery, and a demonstration of hypnosis for stress reduction and study skills enhancement (the students had signed parental consent forms for the hypnosis demonstration - the teacher tells me that every single student received parental permission, most enthusastically).

The three-hour workshop was a resounding success.  The teacher (a former university student of mine) tells me the kids got a LOT out of it and couldn't stop talking about the experience for days.

Here's a short video clip:

And . . . some photos . . .

More photos can be found here.

For other educators in Taiwan, I am happy to present this or similar programs by special arrangement for your students or events.  See http://www.briandavidphillips.com for contact details and more information.  If you don't see a specific program that fits your needs, email me and we will design something perfect for you.

All the best,
Brian

Sign Up NOW!:TAROT TRANCE
Taipei, Taiwan (25 May 2008)
METAPHYSICAL HYPNOSIS
Taipei, Taiwan (21-22 June 2008)
SPEED HYPNOSIS TECHNIQUES
India (August 30-31, Sept. 3-4, 6-7 2008):Hypnosis Shows, Sessions, Training . . . and MORE!
See http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com for details!

Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [brian@briandavidphillips.com]
Certified Hypnotherapist
President, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com

When Facists Control More of Your Life Than Is Their Business

This sucks . . . When Young Teachers Go Wild on the Web . . . what a teacher does in their private page or elsewhere is their own damned business. It has nothing to do with their job performance but young teachers are being fired because of their Facebook or Myspace pages. Sucks much.

Social Psychology, Influence, Perception . . .. . . and More Videos

A number of folks enjoyed the Test Your Awareness video which is an example of selective attention and bypassing the critical factor of the conscious mind. That is an intriguing advert which hedges its bets on ensuring that folks do not notice the dancing bear through color and motion masquing.

However, it is still a very clear demonstration of the effect.  Actually, I found it to be a wonderful demonstration as the concentration on the "white" players is definately enhanced.  This is not the original variation of the test and there are other variations out there.

So . . . in the interest of having more fun with perception . . . here are some more videos of various social psychology and other experiments as well as a few that have been adapted into popular entertainment.  The principles demonstrated are very powerful and extremely influential.

Visual Selective Attention Experiment
Becklen and Cervone (1983)

Selective Awareness
Dancing Bear

Selective Attention
Kids Version

Change Blindness
Harvard Experiment

Change Blindness: Person Swap
Derren Brown

Change Blindness
Young People Person Swap

Social Psychology Experiment
Students of University of Westminster (London)

Social Psychology Experiment
Crowds and Helping those in Distress

Conformity
S. Asche

Milgram Obedience Experiment
1963

Milgram Obedience Experiment
Derren Brown

Stanford Prison Experiment

Human Perception of Time
David Eagelman

Heightened Sensory Perception
Lee

Extra Sensory Perception
Adam Wasdin

As a number of the courses I teach at the university are in regard to critical thinking and communication with a very heavy component on influence, I often have my own students design their own experiments to test social influence principles (such as the "laws of influence" described in Robert Cialdini's book Influence: Science and Practice and more - yes, you can get that book and others related to social influence at the bookstore) as I find that when students are able to demonstrate through personal direct experience they understand the principles so much more powerfully than simply reading about them in a text.

Since I believe in experiential critical thinking, once in awhile, I will ask students to test bogus theories or controversial ones in addition to more accepted rules of social influence or behavior.  On a few occassions I have presented such material in class as if it were true and then asked them to test the theory to encourage original thought and a sense of relying upon empirical data rather than simply accepting uncritically material presented by a so-called authority figure a la Milton Rokeach's model of the mind or Cialdini's so-called law of power (albeit, I do occassionally warn my students that sometimes I lie in class so they need to be careful and watchful of the material).

All the best,
Brian

Sign Up NOW!SPEED HYPNOSIS
Taipei, Taiwan (12-13 April 2008)EXPERIENTIAL HYPNOSIS
Los Angeles, California (14-18 July 2008)METAPHYSICAL HYPNOSIS
Los Angeles, California (26-27 July 2008)TRANCE-ACTING
Los Angeles, California (2 August 2008)Hypnosis Shows, Sessions, Training . . . and MORE!
See http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com for details!

Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [phillips@nccu.edu.tw]
Certified Hypnotherapist
President, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com

Myth and Legend into Film . . .. . . Literature and Film Projects

These are a short film projects in which students were asked to adapt a literary work into a short film. This project was completed by students in my Literature and Film class at National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan, as part of a classroom project.

The Girl Who Changed Her Fate

Candy House

Cupid and Psyche

Little Sparkler Girl

MomoTaro-San

Three Genjias

Three Sons of Fortune

Troy

And now for something completely different . . . not by my students but very kool anyway . . .

Batman Dead End

That's what I've got so far . . . a couple groups still haven't handed in their assignments . . . hopefully they will get them in before the Jan. 16 deadline. After that, have a great Winter Vacation and Happy Chinese New Year!

All the best
Dr. Phillips

Bookstore Now Online

We've added a bookstore to our webpages.  You can go directly there via the pages at http://astore.amazon.com/shakespeareeclec or just click on the bookstore link in the sidebars here or at our main pages at http://www.briandavidphillips.com for convenient access.

Not a lot there right now, but we will be adding new products and categories over time (I probably will just have the one bookstore for all of my interests instead of several small stores for different sites and just expand the categories).

It will be easier to keep everything under one roof that way.

If there's something you feel I really must list that's available from Amazon, the let me know and I'll consider adding it).  I will likely material sent to us for a reveiwer here in a category here and in the bookstore as well so it's easier for folks to access.

All the best,
Brian

Sign Up NOW!HYPNOTICON
http://www.hypnoticon.org
WALKABOUT TRANCE BEACH RESORT GETAWAY
http://walkabouttrancebeachresortgetaway.blogspot.comHypnosis Shows, Sessions, Training . . . and MORE!
See http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com for details!

Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [phillips@nccu.edu.tw]
Certified Hypnotherapist
President, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com

Dan Gilbert and The (misguided) Pursuit of Happiness

Dan Gilbert presents a delightful short lecture on happiness and synthetic happiness.

In this memorable talk, Dan Gilbert demonstrates just how poor we humans are at predicting (or understanding) what will make us happy.

Gilbert is a psychology professor at Harvard University where he does all sorts of nifty stuff in the study of happiness (hedonic psychology).  His webpage is here (Hedonic Psychology Laboratory) and you can read his blog here.  He is the author of Stumbling on Happiness.  The video was recorded in February 2004 at Monterey, California, and is part of the TEDtalks programs (see http://www.ted.com for more TEDtalks).

Yes, synthetic happiness is pretty much as valid as real happiness.  Just as experiential trance experience can be as valid and as powerful an experience as genuine actual experience.  Yes, it's true . . . it's all in your head.  I've been bathing in Tim Leary and Robert Anton Wilson of late and have been revisiting the old HEAD Revolution materials . . . Hedonic Evolution And Development as well as the old SMI2LE materials (Smpice Migration + Increased Intelligence + Life Extention) and the old RICH Economy manifesto (Rising Income through Cypbernetic Homeostasis) and the hedonic engineering aspect of the psychedelic psychology movement has always drawn me to it.

In any case, Gilbert's lecture is delightful, thought-provoking, and well worth the twenty minutes and more.

All the best,
Brian

Sign Up NOW!Hypnosis Shows, Sessions, Training . . . and MORE!See http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com for details!

Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [phillips@nccu.edu.tw]
Certified Hypnotherapist
President, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com

NLP and Language Learning

For those of you in Taiwan . . . on Thursday, March 15, I will be presenting on "Neurolinguistic Programming Techniques for Language Learners: Interdisciplinary Strategies for Affective Links in Learning" at the 2007 International Conference and Workshop on TEFL and Applied Linguistics hosted by Ming Chuan University (at the Taoyuan campus).

My session is in the afternoon from four to five. This is a university sponsored academic international conference.

Conference details should be found at http://www.ae.mcu.edu.tw (bilingual pages).

All the best,
Brian

Friday the Thirteenth
Comedy HYPNOSIS Show
The Living Room, Taipei - April 13,2007 Hypnosis Shows, Training . . . and MORE!See http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com for details!

Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [phillips@nccu.edu.tw]
Certified Hypnotherapist
President, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com

UCLA Underwear Run . . .

The joys of higher education . . . relieving the stress of examinations . . . UCLA Undie Run Photo Essay . . . how come none of the schools I attended or have taught at have this tradition? We really need this, perhaps it should become a mandatory part of higher education . . . or, perhaps not.

Outsourcing Homework . . .

Timely . . . At $9.95 a Page, You Expected Poetry? . . . the English Department at National Chengchi University where I am an Associate Professor just increased formal penalties for students caught plagiarizing. This New York Times article compares the quality of some of the wretched internet buy a term paper resources, finding them well below the A standards they proclaim . . . but they are recognizing that it is easier for teachers to discover plagiarism. Many of these places now sell "original" term papers that are guaranteed to be unplagiarized . . . albeit the quality is often worse than what their customers could have written on their own.

Half the people you meet driving on the road have an IQ under 100 . . .

Just for fun . . . snarfed from prismfire.