Re: EXTROPIAN CHILD

ard (rbrown@smb.sams.ch)
Sun, 18 May 1997 23:04:18 +0200



> Hmm, critical developmental periods for music? Might be true. My
> suggestion is to avoid playing just Mozart, and play a wide variety
> of music styles so that the child can learn to understand them. I
> have found that it takes some time to truly "get" music one is
> unfamilliar with, and before that it is hard to perceive its beauty.

We agree. Our musical library is considered VERY eclectic. The
information we received, though brief, reported increased results on tests
when children studied with Mozart, or listened to Mozart prior to taking
tests. Which indicates the importance of music in that area. We have
experienced other effects of different styles of music, and have found them
useful for various reasons. Here in Switzerland, Music Therapy is
recognized as useful for a variety of problems, including various learning
disabilities. As an "L.D." (learning disabled or late developer) we are
perhaps more sensitive to such discoveries. We are also more sensitive to
our own mental development.
If children are exposed to all styles of music, they will benefit from
whatever each style has to offer. They cannot help but be enriched by the
experience.
On another note....(we bet we get away with this....changing topics in the
middle of the missive...) we loved the essay Max wrote about EDO. It was
very near a program we presented to a mystical convention and it was
received with overwhelming concurance. As we have pointed out before, the
mystics we have been in contact with are very pro-individual
responsibility, encourage questioning all that you have been "programmed"
with by government agents or religious agents, operate on the meme that one
must know oneself before they can hope to be their own master, one must
make decisions when one is not operating in an emotional state, one needs
to realize that abundance is available to all, it is simply a matter of
focusing ones attention and action to the goal, etc. The point being, we
have noted a bigoted attitude towards myticism on this list and we
understand it. We also know that there are many "mystics" which are full
of shit and are playing their particular game for the bucks....which is a
pretty good yardstick for sincerity. But, the vast majority of mystics we
have encountered have so many of the traits of Extropians that they would
make you blush...if that was possible. Perhaps what we are getting at is
there are more people leaning towards Extro thinking than most Extros know
about. Perhaps it is because there is an attitude amongst some Extros,
much like religious-freaks, that one must believe in the whole package or
be rejected as a heretic. Many people embrace parts of the Extro view and
could embrace more, if they were invited in a non-threatening way.
Certainly they are open to discussion, we have found.
ard