Hello. Welcome.

I'm Dr. Irving David Shapiro, Founder and President of the Mens Sana Foundation.

Welcome to the only web site that I believe can free you from the tyranny of words. Which means keeping words from using you, while you continue to use them. Which further means that you control words; words don't control you. And which in the ultimate means that youcan regain control of your life — mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

But first a brief caveat This site is for scuba divers only, looking to explore the depths. It's not for surfers looking to skim the water's surface. You see, scuba divers can be taught; surfers can only be entertained. And I am a teacher, not someone whose mission in life is to amuse others, although I'm told I can be very funny at times.

But please know that this site will do more for you in the long run than will most “cool” (in quotation marks because I haven't the foggiest notion what that word means except in the context of temperature) sites.

In this regard, my philosophy is much like President Reagan's when he made the observation that if you feed someone by giving him or her a fish to eat, you'll have to give that someone a fish every day. But if you teach that someone how to fish, then he or she will be able to feed him or herself from then on without help from anyone.

I can teach you how to (1) correctly analyze and digest information, (2) think clearly and innovatively using that information, and (3) effectively communicate the results of that thinking to others. If you learn these skills — and you can, believe me, if you want to — not only will you be able to feed yourself every day, but you'll be able to put on a banquet at the same time and feed others as well until they, too, learn how to “fish.”

You have my word.

Now to continue.

Words, words, words It doesn't matter what your age is. Or your gender. Or what you do for a living. Or anything else. You’re always dealing with words. And no one has ever invented a better way to manipulate people than with words. Perhaps Allen Ginsberg said it best: “Whoever controls the language, the images, controls the race.” Which means that if you don’t understand how words work, you let people manipulate you. And so you wind up doing what they want you to do, not what you want to do. And what they want you to do is not likely to be in your best interest.

But there’s more.

Language, thinking, and communication Language, thinking, and communication are inextricably linked to one another — you can’t think or communicate without using a language of some kind as a medium.Clearly then, the better you understand what language is — not a language, such as English, French, or German, or the language of mathematics, statistics, music, whatever, but language in general — and how it works, the better your thinking ability and the better you’re able to communicate. But there's still more.

Information We are bombarded with a torrent of information every day. And much of it is meaningless, untrue (or just not credible), irrelevant, and useless. The stuff is like a jigsaw puzzle that's blank on both sides — the words fit together perfectly, but they say nothing. I submit to you that if all the time and money that people spend every day trying to make sense of such gibberish were clumped together into a visible ball (an obvious impossibility but useful to contemplate), the sphere thus created would make the planet Jupiter look like a BB by comparison.

And now the bottom line.

Quality of life The better your thinking ability, the better you are at differentiating between valid information and garbage, and the better you’re able to communicate with others, the more successful you'll be in every aspect of your life — business and personal, physical and mental. Because together these skills, or attributes, can:

• Substantially reduce any tendency you might have to be fearful of life.
• Change an habitual negative outlook to one that is positive.
• Get you into the habit of turning inward for solutions to problems, where they always are, rather than outward, where they never are.
• Bring to you the realization that you, and you alone, are responsible for what happens in your life.
• Prevent verbal sickness and improve your health in general by changing your outlook.
• Reorder your priorities for the better.
• Rearrange your hierarchy of values for the better.
• Give you the ability to focus on the important things in life while ignoring the unimportant ones.
• Make you more selective in choosing which ideas to admit into your mind and which to deny passage to.
• Improve the belief system through which you screen all entering ideas.
• Keep you from wasting time entertaining false ideas.
• Reduce the likelihood that others will be able to further their own best interests at your expense.
• Reduce or even eliminate any tendency you might have to feel guilt.
• Make it extremely difficult for others to kill your dreams.
• Make it extremely difficult for others to intimidate you through words alone.
• Make you more self-reliant.
• Increase your self-confidence.
• Give you a better understanding of people.
• Purge your mind of the accumulated garbage dumped on you by others.
• Free you from bondage to bits and pieces of what is nothing more than pure mythology.
• In short, they can transform you by "the renewing of your mind." OK.

  Where do we go from here?

  What our site is all about Because we’re a nonprofit,tax-exempt, public-benefit corporation — which means that we’re in the people-helping business — virtually every document you’ll find on our site is intended to help you better understand what language is and how it works, how to correctly process information, and how to be a superior communicator.

  What I'm all about On my last day as a talk show host on KORL inHonolulu — the station had been sold and the new owner had changed the broadcast format from Talk Radio to Top 40 Rock, and I had decided to leave, as did all the other on-air people rather than stay on as disc jockeys — as I was saying good-bye to my listeners, I got a call that I've never forgotten because it defined me better than anything that happened before or anything that's happened since.

  It was from a woman, and the conversation went something like this:

  Listener: David, I've listened to you ever since you started on KORL [about 3 years before]. I don't think that I've agreed with you more than one time in a hundred. As a matter of fact, my husband from time-to-time had to physically restrain me from getting in the car, driving to the station, and wringing your neck. But there's one thing you did for us that no other talk show host on KORL had ever done before.

  Me: Really, (not being sure that I even wanted to hear any more), and what was that?

  Listener: You made us think.

  I'm not ashamed to tell you that I just about cried. You see, that's all I ever really wanted to do as a talk show host — make people think. Not ridicule them. Not overwhelm them. Not manipulate them into agreeing with me. Not dazzle them with the size of my vocabulary and the smoothness of my powers of articulation. Not outshout them. Not anything like that. I just wanted to get people to think.

  And that's all I'm trying to do on this web site. Get you to think. Especially about what language is and how it works. You see, if I can do that, then I can help you free yourself from what Stuart Chase called the "tyranny of words." Once that happens, then it's you who will run your life. But until it happens, it's anyone and everyone except you.

  Contents I've provided you with two ways to navigate to each page on our site from this page — (1) by clicking on a specific link in the following Table of Contents, which lists page titles only, and (2) by clicking on the link that you will find at the end of each Page Summary in the series of Page Summaries that follows the Table of Contents. You can also click on a specific link in the Table of Contents, which will take to the related Page Summary, where you will learn in detail what's on that page, and from there to the related page by clicking on the link at the end of the summary. Table of Contents 1 The parables of The Castaways, The Caveman and Dr. Smith, and The Incarcerated Serf

  2 Ratioverbalistics

  3 You Must Not Let Them Con You! There's Too Much at Stake

  4 12 ways to protect yourself from being deceived through words

  5 18 rules of effective communication

  6 InfoTest

  7 The Mens Sana Foundation Socratic Discourse on Thinking and Communication

  8 The con of political correctness

  9 The essence of it all

  10 A review of a review

  11 Something to Think About, Volume 1

  12 Something to Think About, Volume 2

  13 Something to Think About, Volume 3

  14 Something to Think About, Volume 4

  15 E-mail Potpourri

  16 a fresh
  look . . .

  17 Dr. Shapiro and his work

  18 How to reach us

  1 The parables of The Castaways, the Caveman and Dr. Smith, and The Incarcerated Serf There appears to be a widespread belief that words have meaning. And that word-meanings can be found in a dictionary. Not true. Meaning lies within people, not within words. And dictionaries are not repositories of meaning, but rather of the ways in which the so-called literati use words. To help people see the truth of this, I’ve devised several parables.

  The parable of The Castaways and of The Caveman and Dr. Smith make clear how words come into being and their limitations.

  The parable of The Incarcerated Serf relates primarily to the notion that in many ways we are our own jailer.

  2 Ratioverbalistics Ratioverbalistics is the study of the relationship between words and (1) the correct processing of verbal information, (2) clear, innovative thinking, and (3) superior communication). This page encompasses only a brief treatment of the subject. My two books on thinking and communication — You Must Not Let Them Con You! There's Too Much at Stake and the Seminal Guidebook for the Mens Sana Foundation Socratic Discourse on Thinking and Communication — both treat the subject in greater detail.

  3 You Must Not Let Them Con You! There's Too Much at Stake In an interview conducted in 1954 and later published in the August, 1965, edition of the Atlantic Monthly, Ernest Hemingway was asked what qualities were essential for a writer. His response: “. . . a built-in, automatic, crap detector . . . with a manual drill and a crank handle in case the machine breaks down.” In a later interview with George Plimpton in the Paris Review, he called it “a built-in, shockproof, shit detector.” As the great writer well knew, people control other people through words — in conversation, on paper, in the media, and everywhere else. So-called experts and authorities do it; lawyers and judges do it; statisticians, economists, political scientists, psychologists, and historians do it; reporters, newscasters, and politicians do it; columnists and college professors do it.

  We are bombarded with thousands of messages every day, and much of it is just plain crap. They are like jigsaw puzzles that are blank on both sides — the words fit together perfectly, but they say nothing. The key to clear thinking is the ability to filter out the crap and avoid the intellectual equivalent of garbage-in, garbage-out.

  Starting in 1985, I spent eight years of research and intense thought designing the mental crap detector that Ernest Hemingway described, and published its blueprint in a book entitled You Must Not Let Them Con You! There's Too Much at Stake.

  Here's what some readers of the book have had to say about it:

  Fair warning! Dr. Shapiro, a truly original thinker, will challenge you, instruct you, and entertain you in this one-of-a-kind book. At times he'll make you uncomfortable. But above all, he'll make you think. A good and profitable read. Dr. Shapiro, obviously a first-rate teacher, has written an exciting and much-needed book. If I could, I'd make it compulsory reading for all adults. I now find myself continually arguing with my TV set and listening to everything with new ears. Next to the Bible, it is the most valuable text for living I know. We live in a world of words, a realm in which the untutored are preyed upon by the unscrupulous. Without a map to guide us through this mine field of verbal pitfalls and traps, we cannot distinguish between the genuine and the counterfeit. We now have such a guide in Dr. Shapiro's new book. With an ever-increasing verbal torrent from the media, it is a work whose time has come. Your book is the most stimulating (and challenging) work that I've come across in a long time. I'm having a hard time putting it down. Each day I rush home from work to get back to it . . . Some of the best thinking on the relationship between mind-brain-language that I've seen. Impressive! More importantly, useful! . . . All in all: I am loving it. Few things have been as thought-provoking . . .Thanks for the book. It really means a lot . . .

  I consider . . . [your book] . . . my bible on clear thinking . . . reading your work stimulated me in entirely new directions . . . what a masterful mind you have!

  Dr. Shapiro has his finger on the pulse of what people are most in need of in this hour of proliferating verbal garbage. His material is a must to restore the balance that has been lost between edifying presentations and what has become little more than intellectual-sounding wind . . . Better than a course on "How To Listen"; it's instruction that removes the most common obstacles to hearing, reading, and seeing whatever input comes our way, in a non-biased, sensible, and useful manner . . . The wisdom of King Solomon is famous even today; and if he were our current reigning monarch, it's certain that Dr. Shapiro would be one of his advisors.

  What you say to open chapter 13 is VERY true!! We CAN'T be deceived by another unless we are first deceiving ourselves in some way. The less we deceive ourselves, the more the deceivers stand out by contrast. . .The issue is so critically important that I can't stress it strongly enough or well enough.

  Other comments have been: “impressive,” “it stretched my mind,” “fascinating,” “great,” “should be taught to all children at an early age,” “the greatest self-help book I've ever read,” “it has something in it for everyone,” “it has the capacity to touch people at any level of need,” “the most intelligent book I've ever read,” and “it introduces the reader to him- or herself.” Also, Alan Caruba had this to say about it in BOOKVIEWS:

  “You ever wonder if you'll ever figure out what people are really saying? Well, then pick up You Must Not Let Them Con You! There's Too Much at Stake, which will teach you how to be alert to folks using language in a slippery way to put one over on you for whatever reason. It's quite provocative.” Perhaps the best recommendation of the book was made in a phone call to the Foundation. The caller was an on-again, off-again homeless man, who had picked up a copy of You Must Not Let Them Con You! There's Too Much at Stake at a San Francisco bookstore. He paid $32.42 for it, including sales tax. Considering his severely limited financial resources, what the book cost him constituted a small fortune. But he had browsed through it, and had decided that he had to have it whatever the price. The reason for the call, he said, was mainly to thank me for writing the book. As he put it, for the first time in eighteen years he felt liberated, although he had read only the first four chapters. Because of that, he added, the book was worth every penny he had paid for it. Which struck home with me, because it's been wisely (and widely) observed that if the reader of a book gets just one good idea out of it, just one insight, just one piece of wisdom that will enhance the quality of his or her life, then that volume was worth every penny he or she paid for it. You Must Not Let Them Con You! There's Too Much at Stake has dozens upon dozens of such ideas, insights, and wisdom.

  'Nuff said. If you're interested in what you just read, why don't you sample the book by taking a look at its Table of Contents, Introduction, Chapter 7, and Chapter 8. They're all on this page.

  4 12 ways to protect yourself from being deceived through words During your waking hours you live in two worlds at essentially the same time. You live in the real world, the world you experience, the world you see, hear, touch, taste, and smell.

  And you also live in your own personal, unique world of words, a world of thoughts and feelings induced by words. Words you hear. And words you read.

  It’s an imagined world, a world that exists in your head only. You can’t be deceived in that first world. But you’re continually being deceived in the second — while reading newspapers or magazines, while listening to talk shows, while reading or listening to political speeches, while reading or hearing political ads, while hearing the evening news, while attending lectures.

  And you’re being deceived by so-called experts and authorities; by lawyers and judges; by statisticians, economists, political scientists, psychologists, and historians; by reporters, newscasters, and politicians; by columnists and college professors; and by friends and relatives. They’re bombarding you with hundreds or even thousands of messages every day, most of them untrue, misleading, invalid, or just plain nonsense.

  5 18 rules of effective communication Most people seem to believe that if two or more people are speaking the same language — English, French, German, whatever — then they're communicating. Not true. You see, to communicate means to convey to another exactly what’s in (or on) your mind. Strictly speaking, then, communication per se is impossible. But you can get close. Here are some rules for helping you do that.

  6 InfoTest In Robert Manning's 1954 interview of Ernest Hemingway, published in the August 1965 edition of the Atlantic Monthly, the famous author said, “Every man should have a built-in, automatic crap detector operating inside him. It also should have a manual drill and a crank handle in case the machine breaks down.” Indicative of how strongly Hemingway felt about this, in a later interview conducted by George Plimpton and published in the Paris Review, he repeated it, this time referring to the machine as a built-in, shockproof shit detector. Some 2500 years before that, Confucius had made a similar observation when he said, “It's a great art to know how to sell wind.” But it's even a greater art to know how to recognize wind when you hear it or read it,

  And so as a public service, we undertook to provide you with just such a “device.” We call it InfoTest.

  But a caveat, if you please. It may take more time than you're used to to access this page. The reason is not because it has large graphics files or sound or animation or any other multimedia features. It's because the page is full of and rich with content.

  So please wait. It'll be worth it, I promise you. As Harry Golden might have said, “Enjoy! Enjoy!”

  7 The Mens Sana Foundation Socratic Discourse on Thinking and Communication This page focuses on the Mens Sana Foundation Socratic Discourse on Thinking and Communication. What it is, how it works, how much it costs, etc. Basically, it's a weekend, 2-full-day-session discourse custom-designed to benefit any group of people for whom thoughtful cooperation and communication are necessary to ensure the ultimate success of a specific venture. This would include businesses, nonprofit entities, levels of governments, military units, religious organizations, and so forth.

  8 The con of political correctness The most powerful defense against what Stuart Chase called the “tyranny of words,” and the bondage to others that inevitably follows, is the mental process that Dr. Percy W. Bridgman described and advocated in his book The Logic of Modern Physics. It’s called operational thinking. When one thinks operationally, he or she focuses on the process underlying a word or a word-string, rather than on the words themselves.

  As Dr. Bridgman put it, “The true meaning of a term is to be found by observing what a man does with it, not what he says about it.” In other words, don’t tell me what a word means; explain to me how it works.

  Take the words “political correctness” and “censorship,” for example.

  According to Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition, “political correctness” means conformance to a belief that languages and practices which could offend political sensibilities, as in matters of sex or race, should be eliminated. While “censorship” means the institution, system, or practice of examining in order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable.

  Clearly, then, the processes underlying the terms “political correctness” and “censorship” are the same — telling people what they may not say. Ergo, the terms “political correctness” and “censorship,” stripped of all emotional content and convoluted reasoning, both have the same meaning.

  9 The essence of it all There's a saying among metaphysiciansthat Truth can be stated in two ways: negatively and positively, as a denial or as an affirmation. Among the more secular minded, the same idea appears as the do’s and don‘ts of living. Here's a collection of such things. Most come from my knowledge of ratioverbalistics. The rest from decades of experiencing life.

  In case you're interested in their source, they were abstracted from the textbook that I wrote and use when I give the Mens Sana Foundation Socratic Discourse on Thinking and Communication.

  10 A review of a review In 1994, the editor of an Internet publication transmitted his review of my book You Must Not Let Them Con You! There’s Too Much at Stake to the Mens Sana Foundation, which had published it. This page contains a review of that review. For your edification and enjoyment. I hope. I selected it for inclusion in our web site for two reasons: (1) it’s an excellent example of what I wrote about in the book itself, especially the tendency of many people to string words together producing something analogous to a jigsaw puzzle whose pieces are blank on both sides — the words (pieces) fit together perfectly but there's no message — and (2) it’s also an outstanding example of just, plain, ol' muddleheaded thinking.

  11, 12, 13, and 14 Something to Think About, Volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4 For a number of years I did daily radio commentaryon KUOP-FM in Stockton, California. The pieces were reflections on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, that wonderful trinity so prominently covered in that extraordinary, unprecedented document known as the Declaration of Independence. Sadly, however, it's a trinity that has thus far proven to be so elusive to most people, primarily, I believe, because most people don't know how to live, aren't free, and haven't a clue as to just how happiness is pursued. My commentary was intended to help them in all these areas. The pieces were well received, and many listeners called the station to ask for copies of various scripts. After a while, I started adding graphics to the pieces so that they would be a feast for the eyes as well as for the ears.

  These pages contain the table of contents of each of four volumes, as well as a link to every piece in the related volume.

  As you read them, you'll find something beginning to stir within you. It could be the beginning of your freedom from the tyranny of words.

  So, as Harry Golden said, “Enjoy! Enjoy!”

  if you want to go to volume 1

  if you want to go to volume 2

  if you want to go to volume 3

  if you want to go to volume 4

  15 E-Mail Potpourri From time to time, someone sends me an e-mail messagecontaining funny stuff — a collection of funny bumper stickers, one of real epitaphs, a joke. Sometimes it's a poignant piece.

  Sometimes it's something uplifting, inspirational.

  But funny or poignant or uplifting or inspirational, they have one thing in common — they all look like hell.

  So I started reformatting them. Picking typefaces. Adding graphics. Laying them out in a visually interesting way. When I was done, I would send them to friends in their new form. And then people started asking me for copies.

  Weeeell, it got to be expensive after a while. Getting stuff printed usually is. So I hit upon the idea of putting the stuff on the Internet. Now, if someone wants a copy, I give him/her the related URL instead. He/she can then take a look at it, and print it out if he/she wishes.

  Now, what you will see on-screen is more or less the same as the original in some cases. Not in others. I won't get into why. It's not important. Only the content is.

  Sooooo, here are a few of them. Enjoy! Enjoy!

  16 a fresh look . . . a monthly electronic magazine on language, thinking, and communication Niels Bohr once observed that there is no hope for any idea that does not appear bizarre at first. We promise that many of the ideas in a fresh look . . . , our new monthly electronic magazine on language, thinking, and communication, will do just that. But because of that bizarre appearance, you’re probably going to resist them initially. So perhaps a re-phrasing and enlargement of a well-known Biblical promise will make what we just said a bit more clear:

  You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. But first it’ll irritate you. Make you uncomfortable and fearful. Even angry at times. However, we promise that if you keep your mind open, if you follow our reasoning as dispassionately as you can, and if you ponder those ideas for a while, they will make you a clearer, more innovative thinker and a superior communicator. Guaranteed.

  17 Dr. Shapiro and his work This page contains my bio (a very brief one), a little bit about the books I wrote (other than the one on NFL running backs), and the discourse I give to help you become a clear, innovative thinker and a superior communicator. It also teaches you how to correctly process words.

  18 How to reach us. Addresses (US Mail and e-mail)and telephone numbers (voice and fax) of the Mens Sana Foundation.

  Is freedom from the tyranny of words, which means regaining control of your life, worth the price of a good dinner? If you believe that it is, click on the image to the left. (Don't worry, doing so isn't going to lock you into anything.) If you don't believe that it is, then I can't help you. No one can. But remember, you only get one shot at life. And if that one shot is spent in unhappiness, frustration, under continual stress, in poor health, and so on, well, it's your own bloody fault for not doing anything about it.

  Your comments are welcome.