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Santa Barbara Some Recent Words by Area Authors
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ur city scribes and processors of words have been very busy. Here is a Whitman’s Sampler of wisdom and wit from a town where literati such as Kenneth Rexroth, Ross Macdonald, and T.C. Boyle hail. The Ides of August, by David M. Brainard. (Lulu.com. $15.) Brainard, one of the city’s finest actors, not only
survived a heart transplant last year but also kicked around these mean streets since the early 1960s and actually looks like the hero of a neo-noir yarn. In Ides (the first of a planned series), the protagonist begins in a courthouse in Santa Maria, smokes a joint on the Pass, and then ends driving off in the rain, adding more evidence to the case of Santa Barbara as coolest of crime scenes. Surfing about Music, by Timothy J. Cooley. (University of California Press.) Surf music seems about as dis-
tant a topic from academic inquiry as Leadbetter Beach is from Hawai‘i. Cooley, a UCSB ethnomusicologist, begins with the slightly exaggerated premise that tunes from Dick Dale to Donavon Frankenreiter represent a surf tribe’s concerns; then he traces the history of the original new wave of music to its contemporary uses. Hehehe! Wipe out!
Wiley Hall, by Kenneth A. Pettit. (Trafford Publishing.) Another prominent Santa Barbarian, namely Ken
Pettit, former registrar of voters for the last eon or so, sat down and wrote what appears to be a memoir in short story form of growing up in an orphanage. Pettit claims there is no more lonesome world.
Farewell My Country, by A.J. Harris. (Murder Mystery Press, $16.95.) Mystery writer Harris penned this
thriller as a “fictional biography” of his brother, Jack Harris, unfairly persecuted as a communist in the midst of the witch-hunt post-WWII years.
The Great Beyond
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Dr. Raymond Moody Talks Near-Death Experience
here is no doubt that Dr. Raymond Moody has changed the way many people look at dying. In his 1975 best-selling book Life After Life, Moody introduced the concept of the near-death experience (NDE), which has become a common phenomenon with the advances of medical resuscitation. The ongoing debate about the possibility of an afterlife has gained momentum since his 2010 book, Glimpses of Eternity, in which he describes the “shared death experience,” where those sitting with the dying person also experience outof-body sensations. The son of a harshly cynical surgeon, military officer, and medic in WWII, Moody himself is a medical doctor, a doctor of philosophy, a counselor, and a prison psychologist, as well as the best-selling author of 12 books. He is the ultimate rationalist, and conversations with him inevitably veer back to his favorite subjects: the philosophy of language, the reasoning of ancient Greek philosopher Democritus and Plato’s The Republic, and his family, which includes his older children, a grandson, and two teens (13 and 15) still at home with him and his wife in rural Alabama.
When Life After Life was published, had you any idea you were opening a national conversation on death and dying? No, I did not! The book’s first printing was 19,000,
— D.J. Palladino
Would you agree there’s a revolution going on to restore death with dignity? Most definitely. We still talk
about death with euphemisms, but there’s a big shift going on.
Is the debate over yet regarding the dismissal of NDEs as hallucinations or a product of “the compromised brain”? The debate has changed surprisingly little. The
Dr. Moody will speak on The Shared Death Experience: Profound Evidence of the Afterlife on Wednesday, March 19, 6:30-8 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church. Prior, there will be An Intimate Conversation with Dr. Moody moderated by William Peters, founder of the Shared Crossing Project, 5-6 p.m. For more information and tickets, visit sharedcrossing.com.
are still people who are holdouts to ideology. People into hard sciences, neurophysiology, often ignore a core philosophical question: “What is the relationship between our unique inner experience of conscious awareness and material substance?” The answer is: “We don’t know,” and some people are so terrified to say, “I don’t know.”
framework is still primarily threefold: the parapsychologists
PAUL WELLMAN
Songs I Live, by Alan Hurst. (Publishing info and price unavailable.) Hurst, who wrote a story for The
A Year in the Wilderness, wrote this extreme thriller about a virologist who secretly infects a third of Earth’s population to help even our lopsided overwhelming of Mother Earth. Somehow you get the distinct sense that the author is rooting for the viruses. This from the man who gave us a Lucidity Talk simply titled We’re Fucked.
who claim that science can solve the riddle of the afterlife; the pseudo-skeptics who believe the brain is just acting up from a lack of oxygen; and the “fundaChristians” who say they saw the light and it’s the devil in disguise.
Has the resistance to these ideas from skeptics, scientists, and clergymen changed in 40 years since? There
zine articles that promise to help you test your way to a compatibility quotient, don’t you think? Natasha Burton, who writes for People, Maxim, and Glamour has compiled a pile of those reality pop-quiz questions ranging from favorite first lies to favorite first ladies to find out for sure if he or she is right or wrong for you.
The Culling, by Robert P. Johnson. (The Permanent Press. $29.95.) Johnson, author of Thirteen Moons:
AFTER LIFE: Dr. Raymond Moody comes to town to talk about the “shared death experience.”
How do you see the future of hospices in the U.S.? The baby-boom generation is waking up to their own mortality as they face their parents’ deaths. Look at how common hospice is now versus 40 years ago. Interestingly, the common DNR (do not resuscitate) order in hospitals has changed its language to “allow natural death,” and with this shift, 25 percent more patients and families reportedly signed up.
and I just hoped some would sell and get into the hands of some medical doctors and psychologists. [The book has since been translated into a dozen foreign languages and sold more than 14 million copies.]
101 Quizzes for Couples, by Natasha Burton. (Adams Media. $12.99.) Lovers just love to pick up those maga-
Indy about his mother’s amazing Westfalia VW van (the chapter is included in the book), chronicles his own life backward, helpfully including a song he penned at the end of every chapter. It’s a memoir with a beat. Eco, Ego, Eros, by Tam Hunt. (Aramis Press.) Essentially a compilation of Hunt’s meditative column written for The Indy proposing a panpsychistic universe (go ahead, look it up), the book proceeds to investigate all kinds of philosophical issues, including interviews with like-minded thinkers Giulio Tononi and the neuroscientist Christof Koch.
living cont’d
S.B. Yoga Center KEY HOLDERS: Jivana Heyman (left) and Barbara Hirsch are the proud new owners of S.B. Yoga Center.
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SOLD
here are fresh faces at one of the oldest yoga studios in town. The Santa Barbara Yoga Center — located in the grand, yellow church building at East Micheltorena Street — has been open for 20 years, and, after considerable talk that change was coming, the business officially has new owners. In the yoga world, it was no secret that the business had been struggling for some time. Last fall, a group of folks had plans to turn the business into a cooperative after the previous owner Lais De Silva decided to sell. “The principle was so great, but it practically just wasn’t going to work in the time frame that we
— Victoria Woodard Harvey
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Business had,” explained Barbara Hirsch, who was part of that group. So Hirsch and business partner Jivana Heyman decided the best solution was to buy the place themselves (before a corporate chain had the chance). “We were determined to make the business thrive again as quickly as possible,” she said. The pair signed the papers last week, but classes have seamlessly continued over the past two months. “She’s got the local, and I’ve got the yoga,” said Heyman, who recently moved here from the Bay Area and specializes in using yoga to treat people with disabilities and chronic illnesses. He has managed the San Francisco Integral Yoga Institute for 15 years, practiced for 25, and taught yoga for 18. His goal is to start Yoga Therapy in Santa Barbara and to treat folks with mental and physical disabilities. “Our dream is to make yoga accessible to everyone,” Heyman said, explaining the center will maintain its classical style. Currently, the center has 25 teachers, and word of mouth has already brought in hundreds of prospective yogis. “The more, the merrier,” Hirsch said, who came to Santa Barbara over 40 years ago to study music at UCSB and founded the classical recording studio OPUS . Hirsch said she initially resisted yoga; grouporiented chanting practices were not her cup of tea. But the practice, humility, and sense of community quickly resonated with her, and now she’s been on the mat for 10 years. The center will also keep the same staff. Director Sarah Tuttle called Hirsch and Heyman a “dynamic pair” who have already brought a “vital transition to the beloved center.” Hirsch quit her day job four years ago — she still runs OPUS — and has enjoyed the added free time but said she’s eager to take on the new challenge. “It’s not something I was planning on doing for — Kelsey Brugger the rest of my life.” march 13, 2014
THE INDEPENDENt
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