Sunday, June 3, 2007

Damion Easley and Powermind

You have to be pretty impressed with Damion Easley: the guy drifts around from team to team, playing whatever position they tell him to; in the normal course of things he expects nothing more than a pinch hit or two and rare start to give a regular a day off— becoming an everyday player for only as long as Valentin stays injured, with the certain knowledge that as soon as Valentin returns, he’ll be headed back to the bench. Yet Easley adjusts to it all, coming up with clutch hits, for occasional power, and doing it all with that cool, composed demeanor, that the announcers are fond of drawing our attention to. The other day Easley made his first start in left field of his fifteen-year career, and he caught all the balls that were hit at him and didn’t bat an eye-lash.

So how does Easley do it? Does he have a secret? As a matter of fact, yes. Easley, as I learned from this vaguely racist parody site, is a devote of Powermind, a system for building SUPER CONFIDENCE, and is, in fact, their most famous celebrity endorsement. Powermind was developed by Peter Segal, R.H., which I think stands for registered hypnotist, and not Royal Highness.

The first time I went to the Powermind site, all I could find were these really cultish statements about how effective the system was, and no actual information about how it worked or what their ideas were: I was even going to make the thrust of this post about how when people praise their ideas extravagantly, but do not explain them, it is generally an awful sign (if you have ever read any literature from people like Scientologists or Moonies, you will notice that they talk adamantly about is how good their system is, but never actually explain it). Unfortunately, the second time I went there, I was able to read the openings of the chapters from one of the books; or I could have read them, but was unable to do so, since they were so extremely tedious and silly that I couldn’t force myself past chapter four.

The fleeting impression of Powermind that I took away from the experience:
Confidence….it’s a good thing…perhaps if I discuss it repetitiously, with poor analogies that will help you build some… take deep breaths, while clenching your fists, before leaving your house every day.

So, yeah, I’m not all that impressed with Powermind. But if it works for Easley, more ‘power’ to him. I will say, though, that of the quirky performance enhancing methods discussed in this blog, pissing on your hands seems like it might be cheaper and more fun.

1 comment:

nigel fowler said...

Mr Easley reminds me of a Pre-Columbian figurine, which may help to explain his cultish propensities.

This similarity also infers great dignity and nobility, which would surely render peeing on hands impossible.