Psychosomatic Medicine

The head bone is connected to the toe bone. E=MC2, Energy and matter are related. Physicists describe matter as frozen energy. The spiritual world of unseen forces is connected to the physical world. Not so long ago what we know of today as electricity was the domain of cults and religion. Science is not solely about 'physical' phenomena. We can't see atoms. Spiritual-Soma may one day be the term that supplants 'psycho' in psychosomatic. There is a relationship between vapour, liquid and solid. The universe is in movement. Nothing is fixed. The permanent for lack of better word, has been called God, the impermanent, all else.

Cognitive therapy has demonstrated what hypnosis had already proven that our feelings and behavior are connected to our thoughts. Change the thoughts and the feelings follow. All the great religions and the ancients knew this. It's not rocket science. Just as it's not rocket science that caring for others makes one feel better. L'Arche Movement of Jean Vanier has proven the following but so did Florence Nightingale and Albert Schweitzer.

The difficulty with such change is that people 'resist change'. The adolescent sees the flaws in the world but cannot make their own bed. Same with adults. Jesus said 'take the timber out of your eye before you take the sliver our of your neighbour's eye'. So we feel depressed and anxious and have all manner of negative emotions but the fact is we, not anyone else, hold onto these.

Today surgeons have done variations on the old frowned on lobotomies but the fact remains that neurosurgery can make people happy. The latest in this somatic treatment is the brain pacemakers that work. ECT, electroconvulsive therapy, works too. Yet people usually refuse these therapies and prefer to take medications. Medications are a somatic therapy with equal psychological component. Psychiatric medication is a psychosomatic treatment. The pharmaceutical companies advertise excessively and put as much money into marketing and "hype" as they do into basic science. This marketing direct to the public is coupled with marketing to the prescribers. Medications given and recommended by physicians literally double the success rate of the psychiatric prescriptions.

30% is the golden key to research because it's the 'placebo effect" common denominator. Roughly 30% of illness 'spontaneously remits' so that when a therapy is developed the main question is whether it does better than 'placebo'. In research this is the 'sugar pill' in the blind and double blind studies. The 'halo effect' is the people who get better from illness while in a study taking a 'placebo' (they don't know) but believing they're part of new research and are going to get better.

I hypnotized people and did surgery on them. I hypnotized children and their warts disappeared. I later did hypnotherapy but found that while I could cause an illness to remit under hypnotherapy when I stopped the hypnosis the illness spontaneously returned because the person 'needed' it or wasn't yet 'ready to let go of it.'

Freud was the first to articulate this "resistance to change" and concluded that there were two forces at work, Eros, life wish, and 'thanatos' or death wish. Since studies of 'resistance to change' have come under the heading of "non-compliance' , 'non-adherrence to medical regimen' and most recently 'motivational therapy'.

I was forever changed as a clinician by watching a young man die who had not taken a life saving medication prescribed to him by three doctors and who lied to me about this as his family equally feared telling me the truth about his deteriorating condition. No matter what I did I could not save his life and in the end I was slumped in a hospital hallway crying in impotence and asking God 'why'. Later I talked with an older doctor and an older nurse and we grieved our personal limitations and the limitations of medicine.

I chose psychiatry over immunology while doing research on non compliance to medical regimen. "Why don't people do what is good for them." "Why do people suffer when they don't need to." "Why do people resist change". "Why do people like to complain but don't take action to change."

All these were the questions that psychiatry was addressing before it got dumbed down and the only psychiatrist promoted and rewarded were drug detail men and pseudoneurologists therafter. I've often considered I should have done immunology. Immunology studies the 'host' and 'disease' interface as once psychiatry did.

Addiction Psychiatry, however, was where I ended because it went beyond a 'stronger pill'. The play of personality, psychology, sociology, environment, community and choice as well as spirituality are core to Addiction Psychiatry. The back bone of successful treatment for addiction is the group therapy and community. Medication is adjunctive to this process. Individual psychotherapy and drug counseling is adjunctive to the therapeutic community process. Even the use of methadone replacement therapy is used as an aim to moving a person from their toxic community to a therapeutic community.

Emotions Anonymous is the 12 step organization that encourages the chronically depressed and chronically anxious to see their negative emotions as 'addictions'. This variation on cognitive therapy is not surprisingly hugely successful especially where other treatments have failed.

The old term "mental hygiene" is considered the basis of happiness. I know personally that listening to the news can produce in me depression, disillusionment and cynicism if I don't 'titrate' the dosage. Even an hour a day will produce in me a verbal diarrhea called 'tirades' and 'rants'. Yet if I limit my 'news' intake to small dosages of a reputable source I'm fine. My brain doesn't get 'gas'.

Likewise I see daily in my work that patients are addicted to computer activies, pornography, or television or just plain sloth and negative thinking, or in several cases, lying in bed all day and yet they are immensely angry at me and all others for not 'helping' them and 'blame' me and the 'government' and 'God' for their 'ill health' in the same way as 'alcoholics' blamed everyone for their misery. Yet alcohol is a chemical depressant and taken in a dosage of more than 2 to 3 drinks causes mental and physical illness, mood disorder and heart disease. More and more I have also seen that people who claim that they can't get jobs or haven't money are doing the classic 'yes-but' in that they have so many demands and entitlements and want often to be the big boss without ever working in the basement.

Just recently a friend told me that they wanted the government to pay them more for doing what they were doing but didn't think they should have to be accountable for their actions, ie they didn't want to go to work or demonstrate that what they were doing was beneficial to anyone but themselves. They actually said "people should just trust me." Clearly they wanted money for free but couldn't themselves see the grandiosity in this not uncommon desire. And I told them that when they figured out how to do this let me know as I'd be next in line.

Most days I'm thankful I've trained in psychiatry. It's a hard slog addressing the resistance and confronting the anger. Nothing makes a person hate a physician more than that that physician try to encourage them to do healthy activities. I've had dozens of complaints to the college because I told incredibly powerful angry people that their 'depression' was a product of the 26 ounce a day alcohol habit. There is no 'right' way to tell a person to stop drinking. Most people get ahead by not rocking the boat. Any time you tell a person to stop an addiction in any way you are likely to be loathed. Most physicians, and especially government and administration 'enable' and 'deny' and are indeed part of the problem rather than part of the solution.

Thankfully, "motivation therapy' has provided a scale for 'readiness to change' and frankly encourages doctors to let the sickest remain sick given that they will only try to destroy the caregiver if the doctor does anything more than suggest considering change. However, this 'scale' is itself idealistic because working in many populations even 'suggesting' consideration of change can get a physician's head chewed off and complaints to the college and in fact death threats.

I have many 'hypersensitive' patients with tattoos who when I tell them that beating their wives is probably related to their poor sex life, which they think I should fix by telling the old lady to put out more, leads to them literally threatening me with their fists when I suggest the connection between the physical violence and verbal threats and poor sex life. I've become a very ginger and fast moving therapist and often make my best suggestions with a lot of running room.

Not only that I've discussed and trained in length in how to do it and know those who are 'holier than thou' in these regards haven't even stepped into the kitchen. The frontlines make people humble.

Canada's foremost forensic pscyhiatrist a brilliant experienced gentleman of the first order is alive today only because his secretary investigated an unusual noise and found his patient strangling him to death. Beaurocrats have all the answers though and tell everyone how to do their job from the safety and certainty of their desks. Some of them are so burnt out and so out of touch with reality that they're literally dead but no one has told them so for fear they'll poltergeist.

I've admired my colleagues who have ignored the wife battering, alcoholism and sexual abuse of children and all manner of things and said, "take this pill and everything will be better". Naturally I've thought these colleagues either psychotic or clever sociopaths but they've been promoted and now are teaching courses on 'boundaries' saying that psychiatrists shouldn't ask about sex or violence in the home but focus on the medication and limit questions to the side effects of the medication.

I practice psychopharmacology but I did take an oath to 'do no harm'. Ignoring work place bullying, discrimination, child hood abuse, and all manner of things and just giving a pill as if the problem of life is to be solved by a 'magic potion' makes the psychiatrist little better than the street drug pusher who claims that heroin is the answer to life. Psychiatrists are first physicians and just because 'cherry picking' and "putting on blinkers' is highly lucrative and rewarded by colleges and universities, doesn't make it right or even good medicine.

I watch my colleagues in a methadone clinic doing the most basic 'drug therapy' yet always encouraging sobriety, work, asking about relationships and literally doing daily 'unpaid' and much 'maligned' psychotherapy. They're really good and yet they're only paid for the 'prescription' but are 'faulted' if they don't do everything. Doctors today are punished for everything but only rewarded for the least. Psychiatric medications work but they work best if they're prescribed in context wisely and humanly by good physicians. The present pharmaceutical stats only reward the doctors with the most sales and don't really concern themselves with any other measures of well being.

Every time I've exposed the pedophiles , male and female, I've found that there were dozens of professionals who knew but turned a 'blind eye' to the problem. The whole political legal system today hangs on the evil of 'deniability'. Everyone knows of the drunken drivers which judges, who aren't held accountable, have in the past allowed to drive over and over again until they have a child show up on their car grill. Suddenly it's a 'surprise' and a terrible thing and eventually today after countless deaths we have the amazing advance called 'drug court'. I can only assume that there were judges like myself who grew weary of their colleagues and the system that supported lethal drivers.

The history of the tobacco industry with the cooperation of the Ministry of Health and Attorney General's office and all the doctors who at one time said things like 'smoking is good for your health" and 'smoking will make your delivery easier because smokers have smaller babies' should not be quickly forgotten because the same thing goes on today but only in a different arena. Just consider those promoting 'smoking' marijuania while firemen are en mass getting compensation as any smoke is unhealthy. There are no easy answers and I've found the political doctors who are rich and powerful have a habit of saying 'you have to crack a few eggs to make an omelette'.

The fact remains that doing the right thing will be resisted and persecuted because of systemic factors not disimiliar to the very issues at the 'microcosm" of "host and disease". A study of the waste and horror of the 'cold war' and later the 'war on drugs' will enlighten anyone to the insaneity that can rage like hysteria outside the limits of the cranium.

When I specialized in suicide as the most obvious 'resistance' and 'non compliance' issue in psychiatry, I had no 'suicides' on my hospital watch and reduced attempts by two thirds. This would result in medical awards and academic chairs in any other area of medicine. However I achieved this "therapeutic breakthrough" by denying cigarettes to suicidal patients telling them they could only slowly kill themselves if they convinced me they wanted to live in the immediate future. This resulted in suicidal patients desperate for a cigarette devoting their minds to writing reasons to live and telling me all the reasons for living and frankly convincing themselves that living with cigarettes beat dying without cigarettes. Naturally I was told I was cruel and inhumane and soundly abused for stopping these highly suicidal patients from killing themselves.

The highest offices of medicine, the appointees, have declared that only 'politically correct' medicine is allowed and sadly more and more people will die because these people are themselves not accountable. Such ideologues who live furthest from the front lines are usually recognizable by their pompousness.

I found that increasingly 'society' and especially the 'legal' system wasn't interested in 'outcome' but solely "rights' and "appearances" and "technicalities". Increasingly just as obstetricians could make the best money by doing abortions so today the highest paid and most promoted doctors are those now lobbying for euthanasia. The doctors who recommended marijuania when it was illegal were similiarly eulogized while doctors such as myself who encouraged people to stop marijuania as it caused lung disease, poor school performance as well as emotional disorders continue to be vilified.

Today I think the answers to these bigger questions are more often spiritual. I still chop wood and draw water but mostly we know the answers and have the solutions. We don't want to be responsible and we want license more than freedom. The research in psychosomatic medicine is still exciting. However so much of what I learned and was proven 25 years ago I've not been able to practice because it's 'politically incorrect'.

I watched the debate about 'food dispenser' in schools which were little better than 'cigarette dispensers' giving candy, salt and toxins when parents wanted these illness disposing devices banned or improved. There was no shortage of knowledge. Yet it took years for change. If ex President Bush had been involved as a school trustee he would have explained the reason as the forces of the Axis of Evil. I really would have loved to see him organze divisions of good elementary students armed with pea shooters and water guns to storm the lowest of school dispenser potato chip factories. The weapons of mass destruction aren't in Iraq but in the 'fast food' industry. Americans who didn't succomb to McCarthy's communist conspiracies have finally succumbed to obesity. Too late American generals find that they simply can't get the obese Americans to rally to the flag or answer the call of the nation because it takes too much effort to get off the couch.

Yet today I'm as equally delighted to see the salads in MacDonalds and love the new angus burgers. Just when I feel there's no cause for hope I look up and see that everywhere change is occurring and frankly it's amazing. Really. Psychiatry is still exciting. Especially Addiction Psychiatry and Psychomatic Medicine.

The sun is shining today. I'm at the Pemberton Valley Lodge enjoying the utter luxury of a place that sits on the edge of the most amazing wilderness. A lodge with swimming pool and hot tub and Starbuck latte was not to be found north of Whistler. When I came here 25 years ago the only accommodation was a hotel room above a rock and roll band and drunken barroom . I'm an hour and half from Vancouver.

I'm almost an old man (I am but people try to convince me I'm still young – the life expectance of doctors was less than my age when I began in country practice) and my generation didn't think we'd live past 30. Some of us actually thought people over 30 should be killed or at very least locked up to 'save the planet'.

I'm alive today and that is a miracle. It's time to put psychosomatic medicine into effect. So I'm off to exercise, enjoy good food, share good company and have a little recreation that makes work so enjoyable. I feel sorry for people without work because only with work does 'leisure' become 'leisure'. I'm thankful for work if only it makes the weekend so pleasurable. My puppy makes me really appreciate quiet. The person who invented 'squeaky toys' for dogs must have had a death wish.

Beatitudes

Jesus taught the Sermon on the Mount circa 30 AD by the Sea of Gallilee. This was the 'new covenant' of God and Man that fulfilled the Old Covenant of God and Man as given to Moses. The Beatitudes are found in the Sermon on the Mount.

Mathew 5

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven:

• I struggle with the meaning of the "poor in spirit" but remember the woman touching Jesus' garment and his feeling his spirit going out to her. Throughout there is a message of giving to others as in the washing of his disciples feet. I think simply that this message at the first level is that those who give of themselves to others, especially those who have less in health or wealth or life, will be rewarded by entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
  
• The 'kingdom of heaven' phrase is also difficult because it suggests that the afterlife is divided at least into heaven and hell, yet I believe that the 'good news' of the gospel is that God's mercy is greater than his Judgement. So while there is hell just as Jesus descended after crucifixion this message was that even those in hell could make their way to heaven should they choose to follow the light.
  

Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted:

• I believe that Jesus here is saying that those who mourn will be comforted a)because their loved ones will be restored to them in heaven thereby giving them comfort. b) Alternatively Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit as comforting and mourning is an act of respect and a kind of prayer of appreciation for the life of another so that it too will bring comfort. The message again is that the unselfish, those who consider others, those who appreciate the living and the dead, those who remember will indeed in time find peace. In contrast there's naturally those who don't feel kinship with dead and feel that when the body dies the other dies. Jesus clearly states that there is a body and a soul and while the body is temporal our personal souls are spiritual and continue after death of the body.
  

Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth:

• The meek here could be those who lack courage to choose the spiritual path and therefore only get the earth. Alternatively the meek may be the children, the poor, the outsiders, the invalids and they will inherit the earth or become the leaders of the earth as opposed to the 'strongmen' of the day. The 'strongman' of warrior tradition is supplanted by the meek or gentle. This certainly would go along with Jesus' love the children, and care for the sick. But that they would inherit the earth. Just what does this mean? People from Gandhi to Tolstoy have certainly been moved by this one line.
  

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled:

- I can honestly say that I hunger and thirst for righteousness. My tendency is to see the corruption and injustice in the world. I am appalled daily by the news and think it horrible that two and a half million people are imprisoned in the US or that half the people imprisoned in Canada are waiting trial. I daily am encountering abuses by individuals, insurance companies, governments and bullies. Yet I think that the righteousness that Jesus speaks of is more about my own being right. I pray that I make the right decision and pray that I don't make mistakes in my work. I struggle to know what I need to know and to do the best in my daily endeavours. I think righteousness here speaks to that inner world where 'my mistakes' are lessened by my longing for my own wrongs to be righted. Maybe if I am a better person then my community and country can be better.

Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy:

• This speaks to the golden rule of 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you'. It is a recurrent theme for Jesus. He says 'pluck the timber out of your own eye before trying to take a sliver out of your neighbours." In the Lord's Prayer he says, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive the trespasses of others." This is called 'divine retribution' in Christian terms and Karma in the east. It says that the wrongs we do will come back to us and that the good we do will as well. We are not alone. We're all interconnected. It's really fundamentally physics at the spiritual level. And I think it's the new gospel that God is Love and the Mercy of Love is greater than the Judgement of Love.
  

Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God:

• "Pure in heart" is a difficult term. I feel 'impure'. I have made so many mistakes. I have been unkind to my parents and family when young, loved my brother less than he deserved, am thoughtless of my nephews, have been divorced and failed miserably as a husband. I have so often been unloving and unkind to others because I've been so caught up in my own fears and pain and anger and desire to have more. I don't feel particularly 'pure' but I don't think that this refers to the naïve or innoscent. Surely if I'd followed my parents advice I might well be further along the path of civilization than my own rebellious nature took me. I know that the greatest leaders were also the greatest followers but I chose to follow men who were shallow and deceitful and arrogant. I showed little discernment at times in those I choose to admire. My father warned me about this. I certainly had good teachers but too often turned away from the kinder and wiser one for those I found more colourful. I listened to Heavy Metal music when I would have saved my hearing and gained more by listening to more Beethoven. The message of Christianity though is that immersion in the spiritual regardless of where one has been can result in the restoration of our 'purity'. There is the image of the "refiner's fire'. God if we ask him will take the dross of our natures and purify us. Purity of heart isn't necessarily what I'm born with as we all make mistakes but it is indeed an active and voluntary activity not a genetic thing. I think it refers to love and fear and that the more I love and the less I fear the more I see God. It's difficult though because it involves forgiving oneself and all those who have been in one's life as well. It's a life long goal, I think, rather than a select group of people who lucked out and were born with better hearts and eyes. I think there is hope even for me. I might have a pure heart and see God. And I can't help but think seeing God would be worth it.
  

Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons of God:

• Peacemaking is not 'unilateral disarmament'. It's not running away. It's not blind 'pacifism'. It's diplomacy. It's compromise. It's probably even making peace by ending a war. It's martial arts of the defensive kind, I believe. I could not be a Christian if I believed that after turning my cheek 40 x 40 times that I should let the cannibal eat my body without a struggle. I sometimes say Chamberlain caused WWII because he, the English, and the French and Americans gave Hitler and the German people so many chances to stop their war mongering. I would have liked to have had Germany 'smote' when it first broke the rules and began to build it's own army. Yet Chamberlain struggled so hard to make peace with Germany. Probably too long as Churchill would argue. Certainly it's good to 'nip violence in the bud'. Certainly its easier to make peace earlier rather than late. I wasn't a good peace maker in marriage and the 'war of the roses' in my personal life reflects my own inadequacy in this regard. I stood up to downright evil authorities killing and covering up their crass deceit but I did little to make peace afterwards. There has been so much I could have done better but I have such a warrior nature that I rarely consider the bigger picture when I'm caught in the little battles. I have been so cutting and biting with my words that I've been left singing Leonard Cohen's song, Bird on a Wire all alone at the end of the day. The apologies aren't sufficient. After the war the Nuremberg Trials had so many of the Nazi's apologizing. But the judge then said it was too late. I think God's mercy is forever but my job today is to think ahead to the peacemaking even if I enter a war zone. I have to remember that after the war I will have to live next to my neighbor. I think that's what 'peacemaker's' are really about. I am somewhat nauseated by the Pollyanna sort of adolescent peacemaker wagging a finger at everyone else while fighting in their own house. The United Nations had a lot of those sorts, holier than thou but their own houses a mess. I think peacemaking should begin at home. It's not 'easy'. If it seems 'easy' it's probably not 'godly' because being the 'sons of God' isn't very popular because it isn't easy. It's much easier because of our nature to be either overtly or covertly aggressive. We collectively as humans fluctuate between grandiose and paranoid and being a peacemaker is at the centre of the balance. But what do I know really. I'm struggling with this stuff on a daily basis.
  

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven:

• When I think of 2 and ½ million people in American jails and all the people in jails and asylums in Canada , those 1-2% of the population, I begin to wonder if a lot of them won't get to heaven quicker than we who put them there. I have had my share of persecution and while some of it was my own choosing and predictable because of my hot headedness I have nonetheless been persecuted a lot for righteousness. There are always those with 'invested interests' and no matter how wrong people are the 'reformer is the enemy of those who benefit from the status quo.' That said I know I have to be more sensitive to those that I persecute. It's so much easier to recognize one's own persecution than it is to see when one is the persecuter. Emerson the father of American Philosophy wrote, "the redslayer thinks he slays and the slain thinks he is slain, they know not well the ways I keep and turn and toss again". It's not black and white but shades of grey in most cases. The black and white world is child's play. Morality and ethics always get down to Sophie's Choice. For others it's easy to say what is right but for ourselves its more difficult. I talked to a Nazi who fought for the German Army and he told me that his wife and child would have been killed if he hadn't fought. It's a really difficult job being a judge. I'm sure the best struggle as I do with the fear of mistakes made and wondering if they couldn't have done better. I am too often harsh in tone when I'm struggling desperately with clarity of content. I am time pressured and overworked and have far too much to do and fear that I will miss the important thing in the deluge of demands made by government and men and women upon me. I know mistakes happen. I think of the soldier who shoots the child and how sad he feels but the child was carrying a bomb and if he had not shot his buddy might have been killed. It's never easy. The Beatitudes speak to hope though.
  

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

• Christians are being persecuted. The spiritual are persecuted. Those who even mentioned God or Jesus Christ are commonly persecuted. The moral and the ethical are persecuted. If I meet a man without scars I know he must have made a pact with the devil in some way because all those who are good seem to have taken their share of abuse. There may be no 'neutrality' as much as people want to believe that they are not responsible or accountable. I feel personally accountable and responsible for the poverty, disease and dying early that occurs in the third world. That doesn't mean necessarily that I don't enjoy my own priviledge and benefit and blessing. I just know that I can't enjoy my meal being watched by a starving child. I must share and be apart of for authentic happiness and the true experience of joy. We are all in this together and there is no 'me first' in heaven.
  

Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

• Truth telling, peace making, loving, being virtuous have all faced persecution. Even refusing to do drugs gets people persecuted. Even refusing to cover up and lie for management gets people demoted and marginalized. There's a lot of persecution but for doing right we are rewarded in heaven.
  

The clincher that this heaven Jesus speaks of isn't just 'after life' but here and now in the day to day life of everyone. There is a feeling and a sense of goodness and grace that surpasses all understanding when one does the right thing even when it doesn't mean that one is rewarded financially or promoted by the government or management. It is when we are doing right and being good that we are god-like and experience heaven here . There's a capacity for transcendence in the present that is truly miraculous. And this potential occurs in every moment of every day. It's in the wee small things and the wee small voice and the day to day decisions. They add up.

Harley Puppy

It was another of those great puppy milestones. Brass bands and ticker tape parades. I'd been to Trev Deely and bought Gilbert a T Bag Dog Carrier. The only problem was that when I got home Gilbert climbed out of the hole that is only meant for the head.

I have an Outward Hound over the shoulder carrier that lets me take Gilbert into stores. We'd used that for his first ride around the basement parking lot on the Harley. I 'd just seen a big guy on a bicycle carrying his macho Chihuahua on his chest. So I got the same Outward Hound 'legs out pet carrier' in "medium" that fit Gilbert. I think that that guys dog was probably only a 'small'. I'll bet my 9 week old cockapoo, Gilbert, could lick his chihuahua.

Thanks to Wagababa Pet Shop I already had red Doggles eye protection and a new supply of ZiwiPeak Jerky 'good dog' treats.

Gilbert had some misgivings about the whole pooch in pouch thing but those New Zealand meat dog treats took away all apprehension. Next thing I was in leathers and helmet and headed down to the Harley.

What a trooper. Didn't even flinch when the engine roared. Just chugged a few more treats. I was generous and hoped we'd not be pulled over by the police. It was pretty obvious from his goofy looks that he was well over the doggie treat limit.

Next thing we were out of the basement and sitting proud in the back lane. The Gilbert fan club was there to snap a picture.

Eat your heart out Jupiter. Move over Pirsig. Talk about Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Mutt. You aint seen nothing Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman! Gilbert did the Long Way Round the block on the Harley Davidson Motorcycle. He squirmed a bit when the cool wind was rushing by his ears but he loved it.

We parked and I let him down on the lawn and he didn't even puke. He's a real biker hound. Right away he bounded inside to tell Angel, the cat, what a H.O.G. hero he was. She was naturally bored.

I was impressed. That's my dog. Gilbert the biker. He's sitting down at his dog desk right now already "rushed' with applications from biker's gang fraternities. He's not concentrating on pledging. He's not a greek letter sort of hound. All he wants is an ear tattoo and a biker bitch.

Be Happy

Happiness is the flip side of Depression. Happy people don't say "I'm depressed. I'm anxious." So naturally wellness involves a movement from depression to happiness.
Modern psychiatry or some might say post modern psychiatry has increasingly focussed it's attention on the study of wellness in addition to the study of sickness or pathology.
Spirituality and Psychiatry, editted by Cook, Powell and Sims, 2009 http://www.amazon.ca/Spirituality-Psychiatry-Chris-Cook/dp/1904671713 is just one of the recent resources looking at just what it is to be happy. Koenig, Co director of the Duke University Centre for Spirituality, and Health http://www.spiritualityandhealth.duke.edu/about/hkoenig/ has long studied the tautological relationship between psychological terms, psychiatric terms, terms of spirituality and religion.
Joy is a term commonly used in religion, for example C.S. Lewis' , foremost Christian theologian of the 20th Century's classic autobiographical work of well being was titled "Surprised by Joy" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis
Happiness is perhaps the 'lighter' side of the joyful or transcendent equation which has made it also the study of philosophers, a group often known having equal dourness to those described with excessiive 'religiosity'. Happiness hasn't really captured the attention of the obsessively intellectual yet but it still holds it's place in Philosophy as it does in Theology.
Plato,http://www.keithwilson.org.uk/philosophy/essays/Entries/2004/1/25_Platos_Theory_of_Happiness.html and Cicero, "a happy life consists in tranquillity of mind" and Montaigne http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/rmds/portfolio/gordon/literary/montaigne/index.html have all considered its relevance to philosophy. Indeed today Happiness continues to be the study of modern philosophy as evidenced by the title of Prof. Solere's 2005 lecture, Passion, Pleasure and Happiness in Modern Philsophy. http://www2.bc.edu/~solere/docs/Syll_705_passions_sp05.pdf
Indeed happiness, joy, well being, are the subject of study in all the social sciences from anthropology, psychology, sociology to todays functional MRI studies of physiological correlates of positive experience in the Behavioural Scientist laboratory of the likes of Davidson and others, http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/154/7/926
Physicians today indeed know without much controversy what is required for happiness or positive well being. Certainly there's exercise, and food, and a relational world such as family or community, and some form of positive identification with purpose or work.
Years back the World Health Organization did a study of what those living over a 100 had in common. It wasn't very profound but it was extremely telling. They were all 'lean'. No fat people, no gluttons, lived long lives. Yet given the qualitative and quantitative analysis, if on a scale of 1-10, happiness was 10, a hundred years of happiness would be more so than merely a night. I think Timothy Leary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Leary and especially Richard Alpert http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remember_Be_Here_Now_(book)with their LSD experiments of 'instant happiness' put to rest that a single night of 'high' was worth a life time of low. Indeed the 12 step movement originating with Alcoholics Anonymous http://www.aa.org/?Media=PlayFlash the spiritual group following on the work of Dr. Carl Jhttp://www.aabibliography.com/oxfordsteps.htmlung http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Jung and Rev. Frank Buchman emphasized that spirituality and happiness needed to be seen as a "one day at a time" life long experience.
The "Longevity" studies such as Framingham Studyhttp://www.framinghamheartstudy.org/ and Grant Study http://adultdev.bwh.harvard.edu/research-SAD.html have themselves attempted to look at what is happiness and how it applies to well being, physically, psychologically and socially.
To come back to those living over a hundred, the lean people, what was also noted was that they all worked and they all exercised. These three facts were fundamental to the all those studies. The best example as I remember it at the time was of the oldest man in the study, some East European at the ripe old age of 116 or thereabouts. He was the town post man and daily rode to town to sort the mail. What was so endearing was that he'd saddle his horse and ride the one or two miles to town where the post office served the less than a dozen or so members of his community. After that he'd ride home.
Today my father is in his 90's and I feel 'guilty' because I know he feels like he's in God's waiting room to some extent existing as a 'geriatric' in our primitive western culture where happiness is as often as overlooked as spirituality in the societal equations of power and wealth.
Cicero didn't find much happiness in the wealthy and powerful of the Rome of his day. Walden Pond by Thoreau http://thoreau.eserver.org/walden00.html is indeed a study of living well with emphasis on simplicity and indeed frugality. Ironically happiness is as much a product of less as it is more which of course comes as profound shock to a pac man society of consumer mentality.
So what happens when I as a clinician tell someone to Be Happy. Indeed increasingly when I encounter depression and anxiety in my practice I look to the work of Martin Seligman on Positive Psychology http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx
and increasingly like a psychic physiotherapist encourge 'strenghthing the muscles of well being' rather than focussing on the injured muscles of illness. Encouraging Laughter along the lines of the Norman Cousins, Humor Therapy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Cousins is not surprisingly as 'hard" as sell as encouraging walking in the obese or abstinence in the alcoholic.

Pemberton Valley Lodge

I've had another great sleep in this wonderfully comfortable place. I've been coming here ever since it opened. Luke and I came once and used it as a base for hunting. I remember him being impressed with the way 'old guys' hunted. It's a truly luxurious place with beautiful autumn décor, little kitchenettes like you'd find in upscale city apartments. The showers and baths are standard thoughtful hotel. They're definitely a change from the clutter of home. Then there's the pool and hot tub outside. There's an exercise room I've never used.

Gilbert today barked by the bed. It's his dog alarm clock. If you don't walk me now I'll leave a steamy brown pile hidden for you to step on. As I'm stumbling about looking for hoody and sweats, he's already jumping about chewing on shoes and dangling from my pant legs. I was just about ready when he made that rear end squat threat of his. I did the scoop and we were out the door, the dog smile all over his face. They're smarter than we think.

Thanks to him I found this incredible dog walk round the back. It in turn connected to the horse trails. Pemberton is this great riding community and horse trails lace the whole country side. I used to come up here to ride with Wayne Andrews, the World Champion Indian Broncho Rider. He has WD Ranch over in the Mount Currie Reserve by the rodeo grounds.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lil'wat_First_Nation He's the real horse whisperer. Once had me doing Man from Snowy River coming down a mountainside.

Grandad had a ranch and I'd grown up riding western. The principle idea was to stay on for long periods. With my Dad and his cowboy friends I'd ride about the north. It was just what they grew up doing. My cousin Wayne, now logging, raised Appalloosa Ponies after he built his log cabin. He's the first one I knew with a Cockapoo. Rode around the back woods in his truck and the dog went everywhere with him in the front seat.

You've got to like a community that's horsey. Reminded me of England I met Princess Anne one time when she was doing a little backwoods jumping with her friends. She would have loved to ride with Wayne. My ex wife rode dressage. She jumped too. Wayne Andrews and her hit it off just fine since he loves anyone who loves horses. Good memories of fishing together and sitting about his sweat lodge he built on a grizzly bear run. The horse trails the dog and I walked on reminded me of those good times when we all were a whole lot younger. Haven't met up with him since before I went sailing in the Pacific. One of these days I expect to see him riding gallantly through the woods. He's a grandfather umpteen times over now. It's hard to believe it looking at her but I'm staying at the lodge with a grandmother.

The flickers and robins were out in force along the trail. A brochure says Pemberton has become popular for mountain biking and paragliding. I've ridden all over these hills on horses and motorcycles and I forget that the really healthy and fit folk are doing the same on mountain bikes today. I've done my share of backwoods camping along trout streams up in these hills too during hunting season. Regular folk are now taking advantage of all the recreational sites during the summer. I still like to camp along Lake Lillouette so I can get down to the St. Agnes Hot Springs. Along Duffy Lake Road there's always places to get off the motorcycle and set up camp too.

Gilbert thought walking along a cow trailswas the height of excitement. Sometimes he was behind me, then he was dancing past me, then with great courage he was strutting out in front of me. Gilbert on point didn't last very long. Just until he looked back and saw I'd seen what a brave puppy he was then he was back behind me risking his chin on my heels, in very close puppy formation. It's his first cow trail.

I remember the first time my puppy Shinto met a cow that looked dolefully down at him while he barked with much bluff until I walked over and shooed the cow away. He was really impressed that I could get a big beast to move away so easily. Later he'd think it was his bark that did it. He'd probably forget too that his bark had said, "Dad Help" and not "I'm not afraid of you big terrifying cow beast." If he'd had puppies the story might have become a great campfire tail in which he faced the 'dragon cow' and saved his master from sure destruction.

My puppy sort of whimpered at a loud noise in the bush. Probably just a tree falling but his little body was plastered right up against my ankle when we heard that monster coming. A doggie treat settled him down just like popcorn at the horror pictures.

Coming out on pretty farmland nestled between the snow capped mountains I decided to turn back and jog over the area I'd come. His little legs were going double time to keep up then but he's still happiest on the homeward journey rather than the great adventures outwards. I imagine in his mind he's faced a whole lot of windmills already.

The Pemberton Valley Lodge has thoughtfully put out a doggie plastic bag dispenser and Gilbert seeing it took the opportunity for a constitutional. Then we were back in the lobby where they have a Starbuck's Coffee dispenser machine. Automatic Cappucinos charged to the room. I'd thought of picking some purple wild flowers for Laura but could see she better appreciated being woken to Starbucks Cappucino. Gilbert danced about like we'd all not seen each other in weeks.

Now Laura's in the bath. It's only 8 am and I'm going to mozy down to the hot tub for a tough executive work out. I love how it's situated to look up at the snow capped mountain.

The nights that Laura and I've been out there the stars have been spectacular. We've come up on the Harley a few times doing the great Duffy Lake Road to Lillouette loop,back down the Frazer canyon returning to Vancouver through Mission along #7 and the Barnett Highway. Saddle sore from the Sea to Sky Highway ride I've really enjoyed the hot tub. The locked underground parking has kept the Harley safe.

Other times I've come up like now with the truck but having the Honda 230 enduro in the back so I'm off hunting in the backwoods while Laura hangs out at the lodge doing the girly girl stuff. I guess it's age but I just don't long to climb mountains with a back pack and a rifle and tent up in some windy place after a grueling climb using hands and toes. I like now being able to say I did that. Looking up at the mountains around Pemberton brings back those memories.

But really I'd rather enjoy Pemberton from the base camp of Pembeton Valley Lodge. I just have to hike down to the hot tub now. Laura can watch Gilbert while I get a little more exercise climbing down the steep stairs into a glorious hot tub.

http://www.whistlerblackcomb.com/reservations/v_2958/mg_1/Pemberton-Valley-Lodge.detail?campaignid=Google-Global-Vendors-Pemberton-B&s_kwcid=TC9174pemberton%20valley%20lodgeS3715945485

Spud Valley Sporting Goods Inc.

Spud Valley Sporting Co. was our first stop in Pemberton. http://spudvalley.com/ Thanks to the new highway it had been less than 2 hours from Vancouver with a stop in Squamish for MacDonald Angus Burgers and a pee break for Gilbert. Brad and Sheraton were suitably impressed with my new hunting dog.

This trip was partly to introduce Gilbert to gun fire. Here he was in the centre of outdoor world. Even the incredible guys at Reliable Guns http://www.reliablegun.com/Reliable.html in Vancouver knew Brad and Sheraton. Family businesses. All the good guys know each other.

"How's Pemberton Fishfinder's Guiding Business going?"http://pembertonfishfinder.com/ I asked Brad while Laura tried to interest Gilbert in the latest in women's outdoor fashion but Gilbert kept whining to be back with the boys discussing men and dog things. "Just great, People keep calling back, and coming back".

I told him I wanted a .223 rifle. Guys like Ed and Richard have been on me to get out with them target practicing. They're using .223 for competition. The .223 sport load was later developed into the M16. It's attraction for me was that other than my 22 LR shells my other rifle shells were$1 to $3 a piece. No fun target practicing with that cost. The .223 can come even lower but the standard cost is about 75c. a shell from Winchester.

Sure enough Brad had a real deal on a Chinese Model JW-105 caliber. http://www.marstar.ca/gf-norinco/index-lg-cf.shtmAt $350 the price was more than right.

Next thing I knew Brad had a strap on it as well as the ATV Gun Guard hard case I'd been looking for. It's made to mount on ATV's and I'm sure it's going to mount just fine on my Honda 230 enduro motorcycle.

All the while I was also thinking how I was going to carry Gilbert on the motorcycle. At that moment Gilbert was wrestling Laura for fishing line he'd taken an interest in.

Brad's been blogging. Mostly about the hunting and fishing business. "It's really fun writing about that stuff. ", he said. I'm not surprised since he and Sheraton really are living the dream.

He's been reading my blog since last year and even told me after I'd bought another rifle how much he enjoys the things that interest me.

It was too late to get a membership in the Pemberton Wildlife Club. You

need that to use the gun range.

"I figure the folk over there are already settling down for the big hockey game tonight." Brad said. He and Sheraton are big hockey fans too. You can't get more Canadian than these two. The tv was on in the store to catch the opening ceremonies so they wouldn't miss anything before closing the store.

Thanks to them I got pointed in the right direction to a gravel pit where the locals get out shooting. Normally he's pointing me to where the fish or game soa gravel pit for target practice certainly didn't tax him any.

Laura held Gilbert in the truck while I set up some targets and then settled in to sight the .223. What a sweet rifle. Open sites I was getting bullseyes at 30 yards. That's grouse range but I know my friend Dr. Richard Cho would be hitting the target as well at a hundred yards. Bill Mewhort probably spoiled me for target shooting. He got me into shooting deer and moose at over 400 yards. Something about the 'edibility' of a thing brings out the best shot. Cardboard never has done it. As well I'm fairly accurate when being charge by animals, something I'm rather pleased to be alive to say.

Still there's a lot to be said for target practice and thanks to all the can shooting I'd done last year when I tried my Mossberg 30:30 I got a tight group of hits around the bullseye with one dead centre.

Soon Laura had Gilbert out of the truck on the leash walking closer towards me as I popped away at targets. She gave him treats and at no point was he startled or frightened by the guns. A really good start.

After that we did a little 4x4 driving up the mountain. Gilbert got his first sighting of a bear. I had a tag and it was bear hunting season. I certainly had the 30:30 handy. But the bear wasn't much bigger in bear world than Gilbert was in dog world. "I'll tell Luke to come out here hunting in few years." I said. We watched him bound up the hill away into the woods and looked around to see if Mom was near. He looked like he'd maybe been a year on his own. Momma bears can stay with their cubs a season or two.

There was still snow by the road and Gilbert got his first experience of snow. Not surprisingly, since he eats everything at this stage, he ate the snow. He liked that as well as bouncing about on it. Gilbert's first snow.

We turned the Ford 4x4 Ranger about when the road up became covered in snow and lower down we parked.

Laura, Gilbert and I went for a terrific stroll along a canyon to a ridge overlooking the valley. Sunshine, blue sky, fluffy clouds, snow capped mountains all about. It was majestic.

I can understand why Brad and Sheraton can't leave it. Pemberton has really become an outdoors capital with hunting, fishing, hiking and moutain climbing. Whistler and Blackholm are uptown now. This is where the wilderness begins. By the end of the walk Gilbert was strutting out ahead and looking back at us. He certainly likes this pack he belongs to. He also likes all our friends too.

"I sold 5 guns today," Brad told me. "I don't know what it is." Laura wants to get her firearms and and possession rifle. She'd like a .223 with a shorter stock herself. "I like that I can shoot targets, grouse and deer as well with a .223 . I could shoot bear too but I'd prefer a larger calibre." Not surprisingly women have been flocking to some of the Chinese rifles because they have a shorter stock. This one fit me just fine but we got to talking about some of the other Chinese models that suit people without big ape arms.

"I'm planning a moose hunt this year up Fort St. James way in the Omenica with my friend Luke. " I told Brad. "I ate the last of my moose from 2 years ago this last spring." He'd been talking about his wife and family for a bit before we got back on the important topics of hunting and such.

"Alot of moose up past Prince George by Vanderhoof way," Brad said. While I knew that it was reassuring to hear Brad confirm it. I'd shot a couple of moose up that way with Bill Mewhort and one by myself. Tom Kennedy helped with the last two, hauling and butchering. The last one I shot was with Luke and Tom. Luke and I are hoping Tom will be able to join us. You don't want to break up a winning team. Laura's likely to come as camp cook but Luke's not sure he could get his girlfrend out on a 10 day moose hunt. "I don't even know if she'll spend a week end backwoods camping with me, yet."

The weather in Pemberton this weekend was fabulous. Laura and I and Gilbert after playing in the mountains headed back to a night of roughing it at the Pemberton Valley Lodge http://www.pembertonvalleylodge.com/. We'd loaded up with delli chicken and salads and planned a night in luxury watching satellite tv. We like the hot tub and pool as well as the secure underground parking. Coming up on the Harley the underground parking is a really attractive feature. This time it was all about their being really dog friendly.

"Right now, I'd rather go to Pemberton that Europe, " I told Laura. "I've not been to Europe so maybe one day, This year I want to be with Gilbert and enjoy him being a puppy. There's no better place to be outdoors with a dog than here. He makes everything outdoors come alive with newness and interest.

Tomorrow maybe we'll get to one of the natural hotsprings in the area, like Meager Creek, before heading back to the city.

http://www.vancouverisland.com/regions/towns/?townID=3363

Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Riding Puppy

Gilbert is an 8 week old black and white cockapoo. Today was his inauguration to my Harley Davidson. I've been planning it since I got him at 6 weeks but the girlfriend has been saying he's just too young. I've been riding around in the truck with this mewling infant dog beside me watching all the other riders out on the highway enjoying the fine Frazer Valley spring weather. Between the girlfriend coddling of the little fellow and my riding in a cage I was afraid that I'd soon develop a resentment to the dog I'd purchased from Deborah Mitchell on Whidbey Island. Naturally I'd wanted a Bull Mastiff but with the girlfriend already crowding me on the motorcycle I'd had to settle for a little critter. My Harley Owning Bull Mastiff owning friend, Ryan, hasn't taken his Bull Mastiff on his Harley yet and his dog's nearly a grandfather. Ryan's a lot younger and stronger than this old man and his motorcycle is bigger so if he wasn't going to take his Bull Mastiff on a Harley it wasn't likely I would either. Hence the cockapoo.

Now some people might call Gilbert a 'purse dog' but he's really a ferocious guard dog with a startlingly loud puppy bark that wakes me each day at 6 in the morning sharp. He also has sharp little piranha puppy teeth that he pulls my socks off with but could easily take off my toes if I let him. Cocker spaniels and poodles are both great hunting dogs. To see Gilbert with his rooster squeaky toy you'd know he was a terror for all vermin. And he flushes any kind of bird that lands in the backyard already. He's not big enough to take on pheasants yet but the sparrows are already wary.

So I was looking at him while the girlfriend was out of the way luxuriating in a bath and I thought it was a good time to sneak him off to the basement to get him acquainted with the Iron Stallion, my other friend, Harley. Harley was sure glad to see me but didn't know what to make of the furball.

Now knowing how the girls feel about introducing stunt riding to puppy's, she'd said something about his being ready in 3 or 4 months, I figured I'd better take suitable precautions from the start if only for the legal purpose of 'deniability' . It's my dog but given female hormones she's already assumed maternal perogatives. Normally, we'd just 'not tell mother'. But Gilbert's too young to lie convincingly..

He was wearing his orange and black Harley Davidson logo dog collar for the occasion. I'd like him to have one of the studded leather Harley Davidson dog collars but right no his whole body fits through them and they're so heavy he can't stand. I have a triumphant Roman emperor purple coloured harnass for him too. We took a lot of time getting him into that because he thinks it's a game and prefers to chew on clothing than wear it. Dressed finally, I slipped him into the over the shoulder Royal blue "Outward Hound" dog sling I have that has a hook to attached the harness too. He's kind of lost in the sling but it keeps him on the chest and frees my hands for the Harley.

With a pocket full of Ambrosia Bison Liver Bites I snuck quietly out of the apartment. I would have liked to have called a few television studios, maybe CBC, BBC, ABC and NBC but I didn't know how long she'd be in the bath so I was grabbing the window of opportunity. I'm just real sorry I've no pictures too. One day I'll have his dog album and look back and just have a blank page with a Harley Davidson logo and the inscription, "Gilbert's first ride."

It wasn't like he'd not been around Harley's. I'd taken him down to Trev Deely Motorcycles here in Vancouver and out to Barnes Harley on the freeway in Langley. I just put him in that sling and walked about waiting for guys to start their bikes or drive into the parking lot. That way he got use to the sound of motorcycle heaven. The other guys looked at me odd with my purse dog. But a few other guys in leathers and beards had their little dogs with them. So I told Gilbert to just look tough and he was doing really good till the Harley girls fawned all over him while I buying him a Motorcycle squeaky toy.

So now I sat on my black and white HOG with my great dog Gilbert in front of me in the sling resting on tank. I used one hand to insert the key in the ignition while with the other hand I fished for more liver treats from my pocket. With the bike in neutral, I made sure he was chowing down on treats when I turned on the ignition. It started first time. Amazing machine. Somehow knew this was a momentous occasion and a time to impress. Gilbert certainly was impressed. He stood straight up in his blue sling and studied that Harley with tilted head and the keenest interest. Of course I was telling him what a good dog he was and handing him more treats which he was hogging out on.

That was the first and major step. Didn't want to have a dog shied by the noise. So now with him hunting for treats in the sling I slipped the Harley into gear and made a little circle of the basement parking lot. Gilbert's ears were up and his eyes were alive with the rush. He looked back at me and I could tell he was thinking, "Dad, this is the real thing" and I was thinking, "You're right, Gilbert".

I only did one circle and then it was more treats. He seemed naturally awed by the occasion. I felt the same way when I first rode my Harley. One of those sacred moments.

Back in the apartment there was sounds of water draining from the tub and soon we were joined by Mom. Naturally Gilbert's smug look gave us away. He was giving me all that leaning against my ankle adoration of the alpha male and she was looking stern at the two of us. So I just had to tell her.

"Gilbert took his first ride on my Harley Davidson." And "he loved it."

His little tail got wagging at that and we didn't end up in the dog house together after all. She was all over him with treats and affection and now he's telling me telepathically he wants to get out on the open highway.

I'm however working up to that stage. I've got the designer dog gear pictures downloaded from zoomer.com and doggles.com and she's warming up to the idea that maybe when he has a dog helmut and doggles riding on the Harley with us will be just fine. She's a bit overprotective right now. But she didn't see his look when we started moving. I could see right then that he'd rather be a bike dog than one of those poor cage dog's that just gets to dangle it's head stupidly outside a car window. He's ready to ride motorcycles like Eagles. She's just going to take a little more smoozing to come around.

If only Harley made leather chaps and leather jackets for dogs. I think that would help bring her around. For now I'm checking out the cat pages because his head's too small for even the xtra small dog helmets and the strap of the smallest doggles would kind of have to go around his ass if it was to hold on in the windstream.