[Posting for "Bert"] David Susskind and Aesthetic Realism

[debe...@yale-comix.uucp]

I was watching the David Susskind program and there was a segment
on Aesthetic Realism founded by Eli Segal (sp?). There were about
four ex-gays as guests who said that the study of Aesthetic
Realism had turned around their negative thinking and also
turned their sexual orientation to heterosexual. They all
thought a reversal of sexual orientation would never happen.

Passing over the question of changing sexual orientation,
it appeared to me that improving a negative outlook to a
more positive one would be generally desirable. Does anybody
know anything about this stuff? In particular, the Aesthetic
Realism Foundation in NYC?

"Bert"

[Robert DeBenedictis]

[Randy Haskins]

This is a recent topic that has come up here. I felt it shouldn't
go by before I make the observation that people who address themselves
to "making happy straights out of unhappy gays" are abstract disciples
of Jerry Falwell.
--
Randwulf (Randy Haskins); Path= genrad!mit-eddie!rh

[Steve Dyer]

I don't know a whole lot about Aesthetic Realism (would like to know
more)--all I can see are its external signs, such as full-page ads in the
New York Times and the reported Susskind show. Apparently, it has
something to do with the recognition of the essential nature of the
"Universe" as being the conjunction of opposites; you know, Yin/Yang,
Men/Women (did you know they were "opposites"?), Good/Evil, foo/fum. When
one views life as consisting of such dualities, well, life gets real good,
or something like that. Sounds to me like the old Gnostic heresies of 2000
years ago! Anyone who knows more about this, please correct or add
to my comments.

Strange, however, that their "face" to the world consists mainly of the
cured homosexual line. They claim that same-sex relationships lack this
aesthetic element of the coupling of opposites, since men are Male and women
are Female. Even if we allow for their ludicrous reduction of individuals
to Aesthetic Icons, and their imposition of a single polarity on top of
multi-faceted relationships, I fail to see how "thinking right" has ever
changed anything. Sounds a bit like Christian Science to me. This is the
same line that organized religion has fed to gay people for the past few
hundred years, pray to be changed and you'll be changed. Prayer (or
application of Aesthetic Realism) might be able to help people suppress
homosexual acts, if that is what they wish, but I have never met anyone
who has changed sexual preference. Bisexuals, perhaps, who wish a bit
of simplicity in their sex lives, but never people who identify themselves
as gay.

So, I wish these converts to Aesthetic Realism good luck--they'll need it.
We can only wait to see if their change is permanent. Count me as one
of the skeptics.
--
/Steve Dyer
{decvax,linus,ima}!bbncca!sdyer
sd...@bbncca.ARPA

[John Crane]

I would hasten to add that NOBODY, BUT NOBODY can make you happy or
unhappy. You do that yourself. I don't want to sound too preachy, but
rich and poor; straight and gay; happy and sad and everything in between;
are three different scales. they are MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE.

Take any combination of the above and you can find examples in real life:
rich well-adjusted straight people, rich well-adjusted gay people, poor
well-adjusted straight people, poor well-adjusted gay people. etc. etc.

If anybody out there is worried because they think they might be gay, my
advice would be to quite worrying, find out who you are, and they BE who
you are, whatever that is.

That's not to say that everybody who questions his/her sexuality eventually
turns out to be gay. I knew a friend in Seattle who thought he was gay for
about 5 years. He actually lived a gay lifestyle. Then one day he started
looking into his past and found that the only reason he was attracted to
other men was because he had a very bad experience with a couple of women.
He got his problems cleared up and is now married to a woman.

There is no single cause as to why people ACT gay or ARE gay. This being
true there is no single "cure". It is possible to cure the flu or
pneumonia or a broken leg or even a poor mental attitude. But how do you
"cure" having type O blood or an ability to play the piano or blue eyes or
having six fingers or being smart or creative or having an insatiable lust
for women?

Yes, I think Jerry Falwell or anybody else who claims they can make a
person happy is SICK. But I think even SICKER is a person who listens to
them. Don't let anybody else decide for YOU whether you are happy or not.
Everybody, I think, creates their own brand of happiness or misery.

I think I'll decide to be happy today. However, watch out for me tomorrow,
because I may decide to be a stinker!

How about you?