New business photo

Book publishing by Dave Henderson

Thanks to my son David of Myebook.co.za for the great business photographs. Those of you considering self-publishing should contact him. The SA exchange rate makes self-publishing your book through a South African company so much more affordable. 

The essence of LOVE

The essence of love 

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better."- Albert Einstein.

LOVE is one of those things that are difficult to explain unless we can ‘connect the dots’ between a number of earlier thoughts and ideas. In other words, we must allow our minds to drift freely and delve deeply into different dimensions of meaning and perspectives in order to arrive at some idea of the true essence of LOVE.  

Romantics will sniggar at this and say “Oh you fool, this is so simple. Can’t you see that LOVE is a natural feeling, an intense attraction or emotional connection between people?” That is true, but is this the only true origin of LOVE, an evolutionary drive based on physical attraction? This takes us part of the way but still leaves a lot of questions unanswered.

For instance, what about other feelings such as empathy, caring, brotherly LOVE and ‘agape’, the pure, selfless, unconditional form of LOVE? Are these all just old DNA imprints inherited from past generations? Is there not some other principle that can explain the origin of this powerful emotion?

But what tools can we use to trace the origins of LOVE even further and reach a set of undeniable facts? Words have a magical quality in that they are symbols of our thoughts. Words and their meaning also form ideas and if done correctly, one idea can be linked logically to another. Logical reasoning has a valid mathematical basis and so I believe that we can use a critical approach, and by examining the relationships between words and concepts, find a path through the entangled thoughts in our minds regarding LOVE and arrive at an idea of its true factual origin.

So let us begin our journey into the magical world of words and concepts with Theology and see what ancient teachings say about LOVE.

One of the most well-known religious statements is ‘God is LOVE’. Although this sounds very tantalising, it does not really take us anywhere, as it means that in order to know what LOVE is, we would have to know what God is, and I don’t think there is anyone who can stand up and say for sure that he (or she) knows the true nature of God. So we are back to square one. 

Let us now enter the nebulous field of philosophy. Some thinkers may argue that the essence of LOVE is linked to moral principles and specifically the idea of ‘The good’. In other words, LOVE simply means one person treating another in a ‘good’ or selfless way. But if LOVE just means being ‘good’ to someone, we again end up in a situation in which LOVE is the moral ‘good’ and the moral ‘good’ is LOVE. This does not take us deeper into its more basic principles. We just can’t seem to get past these words and concepts to enter the realm of facts. 

So let us jump directly into the world of science and see what it has to say about LOVE. If we look at commonality, we can see that both LOVE and physics point to the idea of attraction. In science, attraction is the affinity between positive and negative polarities, whereas in the human sciences, it is the attraction between people. Let us use this idea of attraction as a starting point and search for more similarities.

As a general rule we could also say that LOVE, as well as the entire physical universe, finds form and expression in relationships. Let me explain. In physics dual potentials attract and form coupled relationships (sub-atomic bonds), which, when brought together, create physical things.

We also see attraction between people as LOVE and relationships (bonds of LOVE) as an ideal outcome. These bonds underlie the forming of families and societies. So in this case we would be quite justified in saying that two principles, namely ‘attraction’ and ‘relationships’ seem to be common to both human LOVE as well as the natural laws of physics. 

Let us now take this one step further. In science the source of this attraction and sub-atomic relationships is the principle of duality, in which positive and negative polarities are formed in nature and attract one another.

We normally explain polarity in human relationships as male and female, but in some cases, attraction and LOVE can occur between persons of the same sex. So we have to move beyond male and female and examine the concept of duality itself.

In order to do this we will have to again engage with philosophy and specifically the role of symbolism in metaphysical philosophy. Symbols also stand in for words or ideas, so there is no reason why we cannot use them. In this case we have powerful symbolism in the form of the apex of a triangle (representing unity) giving rise to two lower points or angles (representing duality). According to this symbolism, it is suggested that a unitary principle (ONE) can separate to form TWO opposing principles, thus giving rise to duality (the tip of a triangle extending downwards to the two base angles). In other words, in metaphysical philosophy, duality (principles of positive and negative), would be said to originate from a singularity which initially contains both in a perfect balance and unity until something causes them to separate.

In the triangle this separation is explained by the notion of extension, in that the triangle extends downwards to form the two separate points. In other words, in order to express itself fully, the first principle (unity) in extending or expressing itself, becomes duality, giving further rise to two distinct principles and subsequently leading to a dynamic interplay and bonding of energies which we could call creation.

However, this is not the end of the story. It is important to note that according to science, when the two polarities are formed, there is a powerful natural tendency for them to return to their original oneness (unity). This we call attraction. The question is now whether we can apply this tendency to return to unity (union) as an analogy to explain the energy or power underlying the notion of LOVE.

So we leave science behind and back we go to the realm of Theology. Here we find the idea of One Source of creation (God) and the question now arises if we can compare the metaphysical principle of the unity of ONE to the Unity and perfection within ONE Supreme Being (God). On the surface this seems a reasonable supposition, especially if we rephrase the scientific principles and apply them to Theology. This would imply that the First Source (God as Unity and perfection), in a similar process of extension and expression, creates the universe in a manner which involves the introduction of duality and the subsequent power of attraction. All that remains is to apply this to the notion of LOVE.  

Conclusions

So if we again pose the question ‘What is the essence of LOVE?, in terms of our long and winding path through the world of connected thoughts and ideas, we could say that LOVE is linked to the idea of an original UNITY within a First Source of creation, whether we choose to call this source ‘Nature’ or ‘God’, and that LOVE can be defined as the powerful urge to return to this unity (union). 

In scientific terms, this would be seen as the natural tendency towards reintegration and order by achieving balance and the UNITY of opposites.

Psychologically speaking, LOVE would arise in daily social situations whenever duality presents itself, whether as male or female or simply the attraction of personalities, and leading to the forming of relationships. 

Morally, this innate drive towards re-unification suggests an underlying brotherhood of man. This feeling of brotherhood, although not always known openly, would explain emotions such as empathy, caring and brotherly love.

Finally, in religious terms, LOVE would represent the soul’s desire to return to union with God as the source of LOVE, explaining the higher and more pure form (‘agape’) of LOVE.

I do hope you have found this discourse interesting. 

Life after death?

            

   

The question of life after death

   Dr. Jimmy Henderson

So what is consciousness? Our human consciousness could be seen as a conscious state which allows us to realise that we are alive and to think, reason and see what we experience as reality. However, it can also give us a clue to answering the important question of whether there is life after death.

We know that our level of consciousness or ‘awake-ness’ can be measured as electrical brain impulses on an E.E.G., so it is not too far-fetched to see it as  an electrically or energy-based phenomenon, and we can use this as part of an analogy.

Science tells us that the electrical current in a circuit will not flow unless the circuit is complete, and if we accept that our present self-awareness is the result of an (energy) ‘circuit’ of  consciousness, any break in this circuit (such as after death) would rule out the possibility of our ever being self-conscious or self-aware at this time. In other words, our present self-consciousness would simply never have happened unless our “consciousness circuit” was complete before we were born.

Let me put it another way, in order to have become self–conscious at this time, we would have to be permanently connected to a circuit of consciousness beyond this life and the circuit would have to be closed.

This means that our present experience of being alive (consciousness) is part of a continuous cycle of consciousness, and it is only the form which changes when we die. However, exactly what we will experience when we pass on is another discussion altogether.  

Reprogram yourself for success

       

         Reprogram yourself for success

                                 Dr. Jimmy Henderson

Many of us do things that we regret, often without thinking, and wonder later why we made such a silly decision, acted in such an unpleasant way or avoided something that we should have done to achieve success in our lives. This kind of behaviour is often the result of ‘programs’ which we have installed in our brains over the years, based on old doubts and fears, or what I can simply call, ‘ego conversations’. The problem is that our fears and ego conversations create short but powerful word-strings of ‘self-talk’ which are often subliminal, meaning that we are not even consciously aware of them. Self-talk points to underlying programs and are often negative or confrontational depending on whether they are linked to our doubts, fears or simply our egos. 

You can recognise these programs by words such as ‘I can’t’, ‘I ought’ or ‘I have to’.

For example:

 ‘I can’t do this’

This statement is based on feelings of doubt, fear or low self-esteem resulting from earlier failures. What we need to understand is that failure is a necessary part of life, and they happen frequently when we are young and inexperienced. The problem is that we generalise these failures to become a ‘program’ in our minds, one which is disempowering. As you can imagine, unconsciously heeding the self-talk associated with this program sabotages your initiative and consequently your business or career.

‘People will judge me’

This is a program kept by a person who bases his or her self-image and success on the opinions of others. This is not a good place to be, as critics will always be there, and they can be off-putting for their own reasons which have nothing to do with you.  

‘I have to take control of this situation’

This word-string points to a program in which one feels out of control but has a strong ego which wants to assert itself. The problem with this program is that it can make you behave in such a way that it affects your work and home relationships, as no-one wants to be ‘controlled’ by others. It could also make you irritated and angry if the other persons involved, or the situation itself, are not going your way. 

'I am a man and no-one talks to me like this'  

This is unfortunately a culturally conditioned program in which you have been led to believe over the years that a ‘real man’ does not take any nonsense. As before, this self-talk is likely to lead to confrontation in your home and working relationships, both of which will affect your chances of success.  

How to reprogram self-talk 

This type of negative self-talk puts limits on you and can become self-destructive, sabotaging your home life as well as your career. Unhelpful programs which give rise to this type of self-talk will have to be removed and replaced with new more positive ones if you are achieve success, and this has to be done at their source, which is your subconscious mind.

The first step is to identify the negative program

This is difficult as we are not always aware of them, so we have to fool our subconscious mind into thinking that we are actually in a situation which will normally ‘cue’ our self-talk.

We have all woken up with feelings of fear during a bad dream or a nightmare, which shows that our subconscious minds cannot really tell the difference between a real-life situation and an imaginary one. So we will have to make use of this ‘loophole’ in its workings to get what we want.  

The easiest way is to conjure up an imaginary scene which will fool our subconscious minds into activating our subliminal programs so that we can examine them. We all have the power to create images in our minds, this is called visualisation, and if we are successful, our subconscious minds will respond to a visualised scene as if it were real. At that time our subconscious programs will kick in, and we can write down the words of our self-talk before our subconscious minds realise what is happening.

You will have to be in a very relaxed state of mind for this to happen. Do some relaxation exercises and try to clear your mind of all thoughts. Now imagine yourself in an argument or a crisis either at home or at work, depending on where you are having the most problems. See yourself clearly in the imagined scene and try to actually feel the emotions such as anger, doubt or fear.

Now stop and ask yourself what are the first words that come into your mind while you are in this state. Write them down. This will be your self-talk from the hidden programs in your subconscious mind which normally affect how you deal with crises or situations in your home or working life.

Now stop the visualisation and examine what you have written down. You should immediately see that the self-talk is negative and possibly confrontational and will not be helpful for success in your relationships at home or at work. Nor will they be motivational in any way.

You now have to consider and weigh up the costs to your home and social life or career of keeping these unhelpful programmes and see if you are ready to make a decision to change them.

Once you have made the decision, write down new word-strings (self-talk) that counter the earlier self-talk and that you believe will be more helpful to bring about success. Once again, we will have to use subliminal mind-techniques to change these deep-seated programs and combat any feelings of low self-esteem, doubt, fear or conceit.

Arrange your new word-strings in the form of positive affirmations. Keep them short, to the point and in the first person. Affirmations are statements about yourself that are positive and uplifting, and if repeated often over a period of weeks with sincerity and emotion, are eventually accepted into your subconscious mind.

Using the earlier examples I provided, the following would be suitable affirmations:

‘I am capable and can do anything I set my mind to’  

‘People love and respect me’

‘I allow others to be what they can be’

‘I am confident enough to allow for the opinion of others’

These are only a few examples and you should make your own affirmations which are more suited to your self-talk: 

Repeat your new affirmations at least three times a day while looking in the mirror. Do this for at least 3 weeks. Keep reinforcing these affirmations until you feel a change in your attitude towards people or challenging situations. 

Remember that positive thoughts lead to positive actions and this will increase your chances of success.

Website

Readers are invited to visit my website www.discoveringyourself.co.za  which contains information on my books

What to know when writing a book

What to know when writing a book

Jimmy Henderson (PH.D)

So you want to write a book? If this is the case the first thing you have to consider is your reason for doing so.

If you want money and fame I have bad news for you. Only the top 5% of all authors become rich and famous. Perhaps you just want a second source of income? This is more realistic as there is no doubt that with hard work you can achieve at least a measure of success.

Another reason may be that you want to improve your credibility in whatever field you are in, be it academics or business, and being a published author can certainly give you a certain standing.

However, I would like to believe that most of us have good personal reasons for wanting to write. For instance, we may have certain life-experience that we wish to share with the world, something that needs to be told, either to teach or to help others. Writing is also an excellent way of dealing with personal trauma, as sharing and expressing your feelings and thoughts can be very therapeutic.

Having a passion for writing may simply have come naturally. You may have a good imagination and these stories keep coming and you are able to shape them in the form of novels. Whatever your reason, know that there is possibly a long and difficult road ahead, and you will need that passion to keep you going during the bad times.

I would also suggest joining a writing group to receive feedback on the quality of your writing and your style, and you may need to consider coaching if you find that it is not up to standard. In this regard I would suggest the SA Writers Circle (sawriters.org.za) or some other writers groups on Meetup.com.

So what are the problems you are likely to face as a first-time author?

If you follow the traditional publishing route, you will first need to understand that publishers need to know that they will make a profit from the sale of your book and this leads them to be very selective. In other words, they will first evaluate your ‘saleability’ before committing to any book deal. It certainly helps if you are a well-known personality, famous sportsman or celebrity, but for most of us, this is not the case, so I will try to highlight the challenges using my own early experiences as a first-time author. 

Getting published was even more difficult back then in the early 80’s, as there were no computers or internet in South Africa and everything had to be typed and processed by hand. And there was also no data-base of publishers. So I began by writing down the postal addresses of suitable publishing houses by looking at books in my genre on the shelves of different bookshops. After a few weeks, I had not found a suitable South African publisher and therefore decided to send my first hand-typed manuscript overseas via registered post, which was costly even in those days. You must remember that before computers manuscripts had to be hand-typed on a typewriter and could be very bulky. In my case, it weighed two kilograms. 

A waiting game 

Over a period of a few years I sent the manuscript to a number of different overseas publishers and waited for a written reply by post. Following up on these submissions was difficult, as the phone details of the publishers were not listed on the printed books, only postal addresses, and in any case, overseas telephone calls were also hugely expensive. The turn-around time for these submissions was about 3 months, if and when they did reply, and in most cases I had to send follow-up letters to get an answer. So my initial efforts at finding a publisher were unsuccessful and I received a variety of rejection letters. ‘Sorry, not applicable for our lists’ ‘We have decided to remain with our current authors’ One MS was even returned unopened with the message; ‘After careful consideration it is not suitable’. There was also no guidance, feedback on the quality of the manuscript or encouragement from any of these publishers. It was only twenty years later with the help of the internet that I managed to find a publisher in Cape Town who accepted my manuscripts and I became a published author.

The situation today

It is a lot easier today. The internet has made publishers more accessible as they now have websites with details on how to correctly submit manuscripts. But there are still many challenges in getting your book accepted by a traditional publisher and achieving sales success.

Genre

For instance, you need to find a publisher who specialises in your genre, which may not be that saleable and your target readership market may be small. Not many people read books today and certain genres are more popular than others. For example, fiction novels are quite popular, but my non-fiction self-help books need time and effort to process and many people are reluctant to give up this amount of time. The following website (may help you to find a suitable publisher: Publisher’s Assoc. Of South Africa (PASA)
http://www.publishsa.co.za/members/category?all=all

Quality 

You also need to make sure that your book is well-written, edited, and sent exactly as each publisher wants it. Even if your manuscript is accepted there is still a lot of work to be done. 

Building a recognisable public profile 

Your public profile is most important. Even if you do find a publisher, if you are not an established name, bookshops are reluctant to order your book. Your name either sells or it doesn’t. Publishers do not market you or create your profile. You as the author have to create a public profile using social media, book launches, public talks, blog articles and appearances etc. Public appearances in the form of talks to book groups or other organisations help to improve your profile and also provide a ‘captured’ audience for the sale of your books. The problem is that you can only draw the crowds once you are well-known, which means that your public appearances will initially not be well-attended and you have to accept this. 

Unsympathetic bookshops 

My dealings with bookshops have led me to believe that many are only concerned with sales and profits and not really interested in supporting local authors. Some are still reluctant to arrange book launches unless you are already well-established and they can be sure that it will be successful. I also find that they generally tend to openly display the most popular novels by famous writers and offer very little in the way of display space to local authors. They will often return your books to your publisher if they are not sold within 6 months and orders for your book (s) soon dwindle.

Try to create a demand for your books by using social media and informing those who attend your workshops and talks to specifically order your book at the bookshops.

Royalties 

The royalties given to you by a traditional publisher are also very small, usually only about 5% to 10% of the final sale cost of the book. This means that you have to sell large volumes in order to cover your investment costs. The communication between the publisher and yourself with regard to royalties is often poor and you may have to wait many months or even a year to find out what is the pittance you have earned. 

The dangers of ‘vanity’ publishing 

Some overseas publishers target writers who desperately want to gain acceptance as a published author by offering ‘author packages’ which include editing and printing and promise sales and marketing opportunities. These ‘packages’ are very expensive, as they usually have to be bought in dollars or other strong currencies. Unfortunately, there is no way in which you can monitor the efforts of these companies and if they are actually delivering on their promises, and some South African writers I know have had little success with these costly ventures. 

So what other options are there?

The self-publishing model 

Self-publishing means you have to do everything yourself, from typing the manuscript to finding an editor and arranging the cover, printing and marketing of your book. Many famous authors have started out by self-publishing (Stephen King and even Mark Twain).

In the early days self-publishing was costly as it had to be done on printing presses and printers did not want to print less than 1000 copies. This made it very expensive. Now with desktop publishing being freely available, smaller publishers have emerged who will print only a few copies using computerized systems. This is called print-on-demand. 

If you are successful with the self-publishing and marketing of your book, you may eventually attract the attention of a large publishing house which will be prepared to take over the printing, sale and distribution of your book. 

There are a number of advantages to self-publishing 

• Your royalties are higher as there is no publisher involved 

• You have more control over your book and its design than an ‘author package’ you may have bought

• You can print only as much as you need

• Your books are your property (copyright) 

However, there are also a number of drawbacks when it comes to self-publishing:  

• You will have to pay for your own editing, printing and design work (covers) 

• You have to sell to bookshops ‘on consignment’, which is when they keep the books on the shelves but only pay you a percentage if and when the book is sold

• It is often not easy to convince individual bookshops to take your books, as you still need to build a public profile and do the advertising and marketing of your own books

• Many bookshops are not really interested in self-published books, claiming that the quality and content is substandard. You will therefore have to make sure that your book is well-written and presentable

Royalties

• Bookshops also take much of the profits from the sale of the self-published books, usually between 35-45 %, leaving you as the author with all the costs of printing and marketing and very little in the way of royalties 

Stocks and postage 

• Another problem is that you will have to keep stocks of your own books, go door to door to the different bookshops and attend a variety of shows and festivals to display and try to sell them 

• If you take online orders, you will have additional costs with packaging, postage and transport 

A new online publishing model (e-books) 

With the advent of Kindle and other digital book readers, online publishing of your book as an e-book has become a real option. In this case your manuscript is published in the form of an e-book on world-wide platforms and sold internationally through sales portals such as Amazon. Buyers can then order a hard copy on print-on demand from Amazon if they so wish

There are a number of benefits of this model: 

• Cost effective The e-book option is extremely cost-effective, as, although there are initial costs with editing, design, conversion and uploading, these are far less than the packages offered by overseas ‘vanity’ publishers 

• Ease of marketing and sales 

• Obviously, efforts to market yourself, such as public talks and appearances have to continue, but this can now be combined with online marketing and the use of social media, as the process has now been simplified with potential buyers only having to log onto your website to get sales links to your e-books

• Your book is also instantly available internationally

• Print-on demand

There are also no packaging or postage costs, as the buyer pays for the delivery of hard-copies done by the sales platform in their own country. These print-on-demand copies can now be delivered internationally, including to South Africa. 

• Ease of monitoring The online sales portals provide facilities for you to monitor all your sales and income and generate your own reports

• Higher income from royalties 

• E-books and print-on-demand pay much higher royalties, as there are no middle-men such as bookshops or other overheads involved. Royalties from Amazon can be as high as 70%. 

• No need for storage You do not need space for storing e-books and there is no chance of damage or loss due to flooding or theft. 

To conclude, all I can say is that if we had had online publishing and print-to-order 30 years ago, I might not have had so much grey hair as I now have. Becoming an author has really become easier and income from my e-books now exceeds that of my hard-copy sales following the traditional route. If you are interested in this e-book option, I recommend that you contact the team at www.myebook.co.za 

Best wishes for your writing career!
Jimmy Henderson (Ph.D) (psychology)