STORY #1 FROM A STUDENT IN INSTRUMENT FLIGHT SCHOOL
Dear Neo (New Equations class of 2006),
For the last 12 days I have been in Kingman, Arizona, working on getting my "instrument certificate" which will allow me to fly during bad weather and through the clouds if an airport is clouded over. I got my pilot's license in 1979, but have been a Visual Flight Rules pilot only, which means I can only fly when the weather is clear and I can see, in other words, NO CLOUDS!
This was, without doubt, the most difficult experience I have ever been through. Imagine, if you will, wearing a device that blacks out everything except a small portion of the instrument panel. You cannot see outside, and to see your flight instructor, you have to move your head 45 degrees to the right. Imagine doing this in an airplane going 100 miles per hour at 6000 feet.
Your head is telling you that you are banked one way or another, and your eyes are telling you that the instruments say you are straight and level. In the beginning my hands believed my head and not my eyes, and I kept putting the airplane into a death spiral. Add on top of this the terrible nausea and dizziness that goes with the spatial disorientation—and, it is, suffice it to say, very very stressful.
The first three days were the worst days of my life. I couldn't control the airplane, my turns were uncoordinated, I kept climbing, then descending (in instrument flying you must maintain your altitude +/- 100 feet, and must stay on your course within 1 mile either direction). Nothing worked, and on top of it, I was extremely sick to my stomach. After I landed on the third day, I called my office and told them I would need an additional 4 days of training and went to the hotel and extended my stay.
On the fourth day a miracle happened. As I was climbing out to the altitude my flight instructor had given me, something inside said, "use your function words." I let go and sank (I know the 4s will understand) and started saying my function words, and all of a sudden everything started happening exactly the way it was supposed to. I was able to maintain my headings and altitudes, and all of the nausea and dizziness went away. The training went extremely well from that point, and I got my instrument ticket and multi-engine instrument ticket a day earlier than I was scheduled to get it. And, I had fun doing it.
There is a reason the word "function" begins with "f-u-n!"
God Bless you Alan and Barbara.
With much love and gratitude,
Allan
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STORY #2 FROM A TEENAGE ATHLETE
A teenage Soultype 2 athlete describes below her experience of "being in the zone". At 17 years, she won her country's timed trial biking championship using her body in a way that optimized her movement from her solar plexus (movement center for Soultype 2). She will now compete in the European Championship 2008.
In autumn 2007, after the cycling season, I was "typed" by Morten Nygård and associates. After that, I've learned, felt, and experienced, a whole lot. To begin with, I thought it was really strange, and I could also feel how my body responded to it. In just a few months my posture started to improve, the workouts got better...the perspective on what I wanted and what to do became entirely different. And when I finally act, I do it very consciously!
There have been a lot of workouts during my "career" that I've gone through just because it said so on my schedule. Since I was "typed" I've had a lot less of those [since I enjoy working out so much now]. Of course there are still some I do not enjoy, but I think I can count those on one hand. If there was a day I really should have been running intervals, and I felt insecure about my body, I've sat down and really felt whether or not I'd do that session.
If I'm to describe or say a little about what I feel and how it is when I'm in my zone, I would just say that it feels really good, plain and simple. For me it's like I'm either on and doing great, or I'm off and just suck. When I'm on and doing great, everything works. My head is there, my legs are there, my back is there and my solar plexus is with me onwards...I have the same look on my face, and you can see I'm not straining. When I'm in this flow, I feel like its moving so easily and I have this huge stockpile of power.
From my racing experience, now that I know about how to use my solar plexus, I feel how my body is, how the run is going to turn out, and whether I'm "on or off" even in the car on my way to the race. Those days when I'm "on", I wake up with my head straight, my body feels good, and I'm all focused on the race and how I'll do it. My back is straight and I move with my point forwards. When I get to where the race is, I don't think about what the others are doing in their warm-ups or in what shape they are. But when I'm off, I do the complete opposite.
Since I've been "typed", I feel like I'm sort of a whole new person. I'm very happy I had the chance to be a part of this :)
