i dreamed . . .

. . . I opened my wallet and found a photograph — my mom as a young girl standing on one leg. And all the children around her are standing on one leg. It’s the start of a one-legged race, it seems, and they’re on their marks, ready to go.

a book is a painting

IT ALWAYS HELPS for me to work out a book project in miniature. Spread out on a table, the tiny pages take the form of a canvas, and I can "see" the whole book all at once. Then, like an impressionist might paint a canvas — a daub of lavender here, now there, now here — I paint the whole of the book, pulling the parts together, but with words instead of shades of lavender.

LIFE Science Library — THE MIND

LIFE magazine — August 21, 1971

TEN BILLION thought cells are helping you to read this page. And, as your mind yields up its mysteries to science, those cells — which manufacture thoughts, dreams, sensations and feelings — have been tracked down. Those which generate damaging emotions and behavior are submitting to chemical control. Those which aid learning are being multiplied in their efficiency. The day of the super-mind may be dawning.

     All the new facts and exciting implications in this field are presented in an extraordinary volume, The Mind, prepared for the general reader by the Editors of the LIFE Science Library.

     In The Mind you'll see revolutionary teaching machines that assail the senses — you'll consider alcoholism as a biochemical deficiency responsive to medication — you'll find intelligence tests to sample and you'll learn how they're constructed — you'll see the world the psychotics inhabit through the medium of their fantastic paintings reproduced in stark color — you'll gain understanding from the brilliant photo-essay on the life and works of Sigmund Freud — you'll learn about "mind changing" drugs and see a witch doctor preparing "magic mushrooms" to induce holy vision — and you'll be amazed at the incredible teamwork of body and spirit required in the making of music.

THIS CONQUEST of inner space, the mind, is even more exciting than our adventures in outer space. In the foreseeable future, we may be able to increase the mind's powers.

     To discover the scope of the findings, why not borrow a copy of The Mind, without obligation? Let this excursion into self knowledge be your introduction to the LIFE Science Library. Prepared with a unique combination of authority, clarity, and visual drama. The Mind is typical of this exciting series designed to simplify, unify, organize and dramatize the whole fascinating world of science. Even if your knowledge of psychology extends scarcely beyond your ability to spell the word, you'll be caught up in a world of wonders.

     In The Mind you'll learn about physical and chemical possibilities which make standard psychiatry seem pale. Brain chemistry is working new miracles every day. It has already largely replaced shock treatment for the disturbed, and has made some forms of brain surgery, such as prefrontal lobotomy, a thing of the past. Minute electrical charges promise the basis for a new therapy. Experiments indicate that altering the current in the thalamus at the base of the brain can effect tremendous personality changes — even to the altering of sex.

     Examine it free. These few words and pictures can't do justice to this achievement. That's why we want you to borrow a copy without obligation for 10 days. Then return it if you wish. Or keep it for less than you'd expect to pay for such a lavish book. In either case be sure your children see the book. This series holds a special fascination for people of all ages.

catahoula elementary scrapbook

TAPED TO THE INSIDE cover of a seafoam-green scrapbook with two pieces of silver duct tape, one across the top, one across the bottom, is a letter dated 25 February, 1987.

for real

A celebrity did a thing and we liked it. Then another celebrity did the same thing, and we liked that too.

the road to devotion in catahoula

THE ROAD TO DEVOTION IN CATAHOULA

by Emerald Forrest

For some, a pilgrimage is a quest to a holy city or a chapel sacred to a particular saint, a turn through a labyrinth or a journey daily lived. For most, it's a conscious reaching to touch the divine. And yet, sometimes, one steps through a pilgrimage unaware.

spelling whiz

WASHINGTON — "Ozostomia" means bad breath, but for spelling wizard Jude Theriot, it had the sweet smell of success Wednesday.