I Change Reality

I remember reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, in high school. I wondered at the time if Ken Kesey was thinking that he made Randal P. Mc Murphy Christ like? McMurphy seemed to be a type of messiah to me. McMurphy wanted people that were unconscious to wake up and thirst for life. The subsequent destruction of McMurphy from lobotomy by the hands of the unconscious psychiatrists, gave me a renewed appreciation of the rare and wonderful opportunity we have to really be alive. When Chief Bromden saw what happened to McMurphy and threw the marble water base thru the window to escape, I realized I wanted to break out and feel more alive as well.

I knew the gift of being alive was precious and that there were people that were robbing us of our aliveness. I remember thinking at the time that I hoped the consciousness raising dreams we had in the 60’s and 70’s would amount to something, I hoped there would be less cruelty, more caring and I also hoped there would be a definitive way for everyone to do something to have more clarity and become more alive. There were lots of things that could hit us and knock us down, and very few things that did much at all to help us become more alive, more ourselves, or enlightened. Lobotomy was something very common at the time. One man stood against this wrong and has never been given thanks, his name is Dr. Robert Grimm. Dr. Grimm “changed reality” when he wrote and made a bill into law in the 1960’s, that made lobotomy illegal in Oregon. It was the first law of its kind and this made it possible for others to do the same in other states as well.

How Dr. Grimm Inspired This Project

I met Dr. Grimm and asked his advice about the work I was doing, he was essential in helping me create a website that would give people more clarity, aliveness and enlightenment, a reality. Dr. Robert Grimm inspired me by telling me how important what I was doing was, he told me that helping people become themselves again was wonderful, he wanted me to make the work focus on enlightenment, because it was better for people to reach towards improvement than to focus on problems. Dr. Grimm told me to make it understandable and available to everyone.

Dr. Grimm is someone I look up to and admire because he is the most loving and gentle man and yet he fought to make the world a better place. When I spoke to Dr. Grimm, he told me he felt that both lobotomies and electro-shock therapy were being used to make the jobs of people working in mental health easier, not for the best interest of the patient. He said it was only natural that someone would say they felt better after being tortured, so they would not have to endure the experience again. Dr. Grimm is someone I personally admire as a man of intellect, compassion and courage. He is the most gentle person and yet he fought a courageous battle to make the lives of everyone better. Freedom of thought and emotion is something we all benefited from because of Dr. Grimm. Our culture is not just shaped by how we treat the privileged but by how we treat those that are suffering. Dr. Grimm told me he felt it was less than human to remove the personality of a person by doing damage to them. “We are complex beings and we sometimes require time, understanding and compassion to heal.” Dr. Grimm told me that when discussing lobotomies with people that used them, he asked them if they were a specific treatment for something? He said he would tell the person doing lobotomies, with as much care and love he could, that removing a persons personality in order to remove their problem, could not be a specific treatment for anything. Dr Grimm said, “We all start wanting to make a difference and help, a human being’s mind is complex, helping them requires work and patience. To heal someone we must first have empathy, it may be hard or frustrating but most of all we have to remember not to do harm.”

Dr. Robert Grimm has had many wonderful accomplishments during his life. Dr. Grimm did research on how vehicular accidents were doing soft tissue damage to a person’s inner ear. The inner ear damage, sometimes made a person use their eyes and thinking mind to keep their balance. This made a person have difficulty thinking as clearly after an accident.

Dr. Grimm was afflicted with Polio from a very young age. He told me he thought one of his best tools was the scooter he needed to use. “I see people that have suffered a great deal, in my practice. I am able to feel compassion and work to help them but I think my disability has given them hope, that they may also have productive lives after what has happened to them.” Dr. Grimm is a humble man, he is a genius, a family man, a healer, a bird lover and a true hero.

Recently Dr. Grimm partially retired. One day when I was at his home discussing my work, I told Dr. Grimm how much his input and caring meant to the work. I told Dr. Grimm I felt that without him the work would not be possible. I asked him if it would be alright if I gave him credit for the work as well. Dr. Grimm was very excited and said he was honored. I came to him when the website was almost finished and made a video of him talking about ending lobotomies. Dr. Grimm said he would love to look at how I presented the work on the website and added he would only accept credit if he could see how he could be helpful by perhaps writing something on the website. That day his computer was working very slowly. Dr. Grimm said he would be glad to look at the website later and he went on to say how much it meant to him. I was so moved to have him want to share in this. I called Dr. Grimm the next afternoon to see if I could bring by some bird feeders I picked up for him, he said he was leaving in the morning to go to Eastern Washington, bird watching, I told him I would make sure he would be able to see what the website looked like when he got back. My friend and mentor, the man I have admired most in my life, Dr. Robert Grimm, passed on the trip.

I would like to say thank you to Dr. Grimm for making the ichangereality site possible. Dr. Robert Grimm fought to lift life’s height to a finer fire.

Five-Minute Excersizes to increase Clarity and Remove Negative Conditioning

The exercises are five minutes long and each one will help us to first recognize an erroneous affect that automatically alters the way we prepare for something, in a way that would give us a bad experience. The next step is a five minute exercise to rewrite the affect or conditioning that is erroneous for us. The exercises that rewrite affect and conditioning work on the non-verbal part of our mind, our limbic system or what I call our “operating system” because it prepares us automatically and gives value and meaning to our perceptions. This work is something entirely new, fresh and original and it gives us clarity, it does not add anything. The work will make us more ourselves, not like someone else.

Dr. Robert Grimm—and all of you that fight for our freedom—thank you.

Bob Milstein