Play Outside the Box
Throughout my life as I witnessed the marvels of powerful teachers, shaman and healers, I found myself asking, “How’d they do that?”
“What was Mr. Rogers’ secret?” He seemed so quiet, retiring, passive—and yet events always went his way at the television station where he produced “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.” In his presence, rambunctious kids and novice adult guests always seemed to know what to do and say without a script or rehearsal. Wild animals acted as if they were performing on some invisible cue. At the station, the conservative Board of Directors, reluctant management and stubborn studio crew all miraculously went “against character” to go along with whatever bold, visionary schemes Mr. Rogers put forth. “How did he disarm people’s opposition and bring out the play and adventurousness in rigid parents, teachers, staff and city officials?”
The esteemed American actress Helen Hayes could convey with vivid clarity to her student audience and me seven very diverse characters she was portraying on stage without any discernable difference in the way she dressed, gestured or carried herself. “What were her hidden devices? What keys to successful communication had she mastered?”
My macrobiotic mentor, Michio Kushi, could take a very intellectual, spiritually challenged audience on a profoundly electric journey of personal visions, physical healing and visceral ecstasy. “How did he change lead—stuck points of view—into gold—alive wisdom? What was he doing behind-the-scenes to catalyze such remarkably strong, experiential catharsis in each of the normally unfeeling, unresponsive students?”
I watched in amazement as Medicine Cloud, my Hopi medicine buddy, conjured