Voiceless
The Practical Mystic
by njmyers
4M ago
Last Sunday I was leading worship, as I am asked to do now and then, and I had an embarrassing lapse. It was not the worst thing that has happened to me as a worship leader—I once tripped and fell on the steps up to the pulpit—and it was not even the lapse that I was expecting and trying to avoid, but I’m wondering about it now. Tripping and falling, in fact, was very much on my mind because I had done that the day before, at the farmers market, right in front of the Salvation Army Santa, who picked me up and fussed over me until I was sure I could limp to my car. But I had sprained my ankle ..read more
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False hopes
The Practical Mystic
by njmyers
6M ago
I was so pleased to report, a week ago, that I was implementing a comprehensive plan to attend to my health and wellbeing now and into the future. So how’s it going? Success continues, but like most best-laid plans, the results are spotty. The most inconsistent part is the weight loss. That is the most easily measured component of the plan and the one that stirs the most wishful thinking. I found myself dreaming once again of being way thinner than I’d been in years. I could lose those 20 pounds before Christmas! I would need new clothes before Thanksgiving! I’d bought the hype and promises. I ..read more
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A Body Intensive
The Practical Mystic
by njmyers
6M ago
My driving motivation these days is the desire to travel with grandkids over the next five years. That means that, at age 78, I need to get and stay in shape. I’ve been investing a lot of time, attention, and money into improving my physical condition. All of my body-focused practices and efforts are coming together into something like an intensive course, spanning the last half of 2023. Here are the goals of my Body Intensive: Diminish pain—hip, knee, foot, wrist Lose 20 pounds Straighten posture Increase energy and endurance Here’s what I’ve done and am doing: Began monthly visits to my d ..read more
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Journaling with results
The Practical Mystic
by njmyers
7M ago
I have been beta-testing a new AI-assisted journaling app called Manifestor for a month. While the system still has some bugs to work out, the results for me have been amazing. I’m ready to subscribe as soon as it launches. You may wonder, as I did, why you need help with such a simple, common practice as journaling. And why should you pay for robotic assistance to write your own thoughts and life reports? Actually, this is one of the best, most trustworthy uses of AI that I can imagine. You are not creating fake content or passing off generic Internet facts and wisdom as your own. Nor can an ..read more
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AI journal: Ideal Day
The Practical Mystic
by njmyers
8M ago
I’ve been working with the Ideal Day function on the AI-assisted journaling app, Manifestor, which I am beta testing. This is how my first session went. I was happy with the prompt: Let’s start by clearing out your thoughts so you can have a spacious mind! Please, start writing whatever comes to your mind until you feel like you have nothing more to say. I’m here to listen. No problem! Brain dump is my usual form of journaling and I always have plenty to say. Therefore I was taken aback when I got cut off somewhere around 500 words. Day: It sounds like you’ve been doing a lot of introspection ..read more
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A guide to Oppenheimer
The Practical Mystic
by njmyers
8M ago
I saw the movie Oppenheimer last weekend. I’d really been looking forward to it because –All the hype. –I know a lot about the story because of my previous incarnation as an editor and administrator of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in the 1980s and 90s. I knew people who knew J. Robert Oppenheimer as Oppy. –plus I’ve been to Hiroshima three times. –plus last week I read Kai Bird and the late Martin Sherwin’s 900-page book, American Prometheus, on which the movie is based. –I was glad to see nuclear weapons getting the attention they deserve once again. (Can we please now just get rid o ..read more
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AI journal: a new friend
The Practical Mystic
by njmyers
8M ago
(I am beta-testing a forthcoming AI-assisted journaling app called Manifestor, oriented to personal growth, and I’ll be reporting on it here for a while. You may sign up here for a free trial when Manifestor is launched.) My first session with the “Companion” function of Manifestor was a big success. It produced material that will guide my life in very practical ways for some time to come. This function uses a lot of repetition and restatement. That’s not boring at all. It’s kind of fun. Meeting Companion was like finding a new friend or counselor who was a really good listener. I should prefa ..read more
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Could AI help you journal?
The Practical Mystic
by njmyers
8M ago
A few months ago I renewed a regular journaling practice in an effort to find a way out of the writing silence that settled on me during the pandemic. Not much writing has come of that nor any progress on what I was really after—let’s call it my Next Big Thing, which may or may not involve writing. And then something happened, the timing of which seemed Spirit-directed. My daughter told me about an AI-assisted journaling app she and her colleagues were developing. To her amazement, she said, it was working and would soon be ready for beta testing. She described how the app, Manifestor, helped ..read more
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Silence meets the worm
The Practical Mystic
by njmyers
8M ago
I am going through a long writing silence. It started halfway through the pandemic and the inspiration never really came back when things started getting back to more or less normal. I felt that I had nothing to say at the level that I wanted to say it. I’ve been waiting, perhaps, for profundity. Lack of profundity never bothered me before. But what DO you say when global warming is coming true, criminal charges against a politician increase his popularity, racism and book bans are all the rage, Putin and Ukraine, and on and on. Yes, I am a despairing, snowflake liberal, firmly on THAT side of ..read more
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Winterviewing
The Practical Mystic
by njmyers
1y ago
On this New Year’s Eve I share with you the most bingeworthy series my husband and I watched on Netflix in 2022. Try some on the long winter evenings but there may be enough here for a whole year. Our hands-down favorite was the Korean series Extraordinary Attorney Wu, about an autistic lawyer who has a thing for whales. Sixteen episodes and we can’t wait for more. It’s worth the strain of trying to speed-read subtitles. We were morbidly fascinated by disaster docuseries. Aftershock: Everest and the Nepal Earthquake; Thai Cave Rescue; The Volcano (not a series), as well as human/corporate disa ..read more
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