Front Street Weekly; 129

(Sound of typing.) So, in a very real sense, we are, and become, what we think. (Sound of typing.) 1 of the favorite places to pause and just take in the magnificence of the scene was right here. Overlooking the sunken gardens which stretched down towards Guild's Lake. (Sound of typing.) The river isn't going to get any bigger. The rain isn't going to rain any harder. The coal is in Wyoming. The oil is in Saudi Arabia. And here we have this stuff in our backyard. And it's going to do the job for us. (Sound of typing.) Good evening. Many people are beginning to realize what they think is directly responsible for how they feel. Tonight, we'll have a report on people who are taking the advice: Heal Thyself. The 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition was a wonder to behold. Tonight,

we'll have a look at Portland's version of the Disposable Kingdom. And finally tonight, WPPSS. We found someone who knows a great deal about energy needs in the Northwest, and thinks that WPPSS is really a blessing in disguise. We have a $212 billion dollar health care budget in this country, and medical costs are continuing to soar. In our depressed economy, many of us just can't afford to become ill or injured. Tamra Thomasson has a report on what some people are doing to beat the high cost of health care. The people you'll be meeting tonight are taking an unconventional approach toward their own health. They've determined that their minds, and the way in which they manage stress, have a definite influence over the condition of their physical bodies. And that they have the capabilities to literally heal themselves. (Music plays.) Meet Jack Schwartz, a 58 year old father of 6, who never gets ill, sleeps only 2 hours a night, and yet says he's no different from the rest of us. Never

mind the fact that Jack can stick a rusty nail through the flesh of his arm, control the pain and the bleeding, and then watch the wound heal rapidly, without infection. Jack jokingly says he's not bionic, but he's quite serious when he says we all have the capabilities to do what he does. We have to get off this, this, how can I say it, this, ah, admiration, being, ah, looking at the people like myself that we can do something special, because we don't do something special, we are more normal to some extent than the people are not doing it. Because we using our normal capacity. This is..... Trained as a Naturopath in Europe, Jack is the president and founder of the Aletheia Psycho-Physical Foundation in Grants Pass. But he spends most of his time traveling around the country, offering workshops on a variety of topics, including voluntary control and health maintenance, at a cost of anywhere from $75 to $1000 a session.

What good does it do to be a person who can do these things with his body, if you cannot show to other people for their sake to take and learn to do that too, to maintain a better health state and to prevent, prevent diseases to everybody. Hello, Dallas? This is Dr. Oxenhandler calling. Dr. Oxenhandler runs his private practice with a holistic approach in Corvallis. He's never met Jack Schwartz but he's not surprised by the nail demonstration. In fact, Oxon- handler says, an average person can learn to control almost any physiological state in the body. Sometimes people discover by themselves how to control these processes. But, ah, often times, it helps a great deal to go to someone who has some sort of experience in teaching how to deal with these processes. Per-, such a thing, ah, as biofeedback. At the Good Samaritan pain clinic in Portland, Helen Sherman teaches stress management through biofeedback to chronic pain sufferers like Carol Spires. The machines mirror the happenings in Carol's body. As she relaxes, her body temperature rises, and

her muscle tension decreases. The object is for people to learn what it feels like when they are relaxed, tune into that feeling, and then to practice that at home. So that they are learning skills that they can do on their own. Carol is in constant pain, but is able to decrease that pain without drugs by thinking of far away places and simply relaxing. That's an important step for all of us in today's pressure cooker society. Stress is one of the biggest killers and damage doers that I know of. Because stress activates physiological mechanisms in the body which tend to increase the pulse, raise the blood pressure and stimulate the adrenal glands. And, ah, this chronic load, extra load that we carry, gradually breaks the body down.

How many of the patients that you see are suffering from a psychosomatic illness? I would say, roughly between 60 and 90 percent of the people that I see, have a problem whose primary cause is related either directly or indirectly to what goes on in the head or the heart. Let me say psychosomatic diseases, if there is such a thing as psychosomatic disease, then there is such a thing as psychosomatic health, too. If that mind can cause the body to become deceased, the mind should also be able to prevent that body to become- from becoming diseased or even to heal it. Why should we give value to one aspect, and not to the other aspect, and think that it's weird if somebody would have self-healing capacities. Terry Harrison knows what Jack's talking about, because she's had first hand experience. She used to suffer from acute bronchitis, as many as 4 times a year. And she often felt the attacks were stress related.

I had bronchitis before I started smoking and the, and the doctors always would say that it was because I smoked. And I knew it couldn't be just because of that, sure the smoking aggravated it once I got it, but it didn't cause it. And, ah, Jack told me that that was true. But, yeah, ok, it did aggravate it, but it wasn't you know, smoking was not the cause of the bronchitis. And that since I have taken a, a look at what it is I want to do with my life, and really starting myself on a, on a goal oriented pathway, with that respect, and doing some of the things that Jack talks about and using the Silva techniques, I just don't have it anymore. The Silva Techniques Terry is referring to come from the Silva Mind Control Method, a course offered worldwide, with a money back guarantee. In Portland, Silva instructor Alan Sternberg teaches individuals to have better control over their minds and bodies. Sternberg says, the Silva Method and Jack's workshops are quite similar in concept, although the approaches are somewhat different.

We guide people through, ah, learning how to, first of all, be able to deeply relax, and to begin to obtain voluntary control of their alpha brain wave rhythms. At the Oregon Health Science University, I learned that my brain waves were in alpha, shortly after I closed my eyes, which is the time when alpha waves most naturally occur. However, students who practice the Silva method can self induce this relaxed state with their eyes open. When the body is in a relaxed state, it has a tendency towards health and well-being. And I think one of the biggest problems we have is allowing our bodies and our minds to get into that relaxed state, so that the normal tendency of the body towards health and well-being and healing can happen. Along with the relaxation techniques, Silva students learn the tools for creative imagery.

Dr. Oxonhandler says it often works. The very shape of the thoughts is transmitted and transformed into a chemical basis which acts on the body. So that, in a very real sense, we are, and become, what we think. So that if we're dealing with a situation of illness or injury, and we begin to visualize, make pictures of ourselves as whole and well again, this would have a very definite positive influence on the body's healing processes. A little doubt, or a lot of doubt, doesn't stop it from happening, it just slows the process. For instance, 1 of the first steps is to show people the techniques of just being able to stop and remove a tension headache. Now the idea, for instance, of, of dealing with, ah, bleeding. What, me stop my own

bleeding? Is that really possible? There's a high degree of skepticism. However, when they find out that they can stop their headache without taking aspirin, they say, wait a minute, if I can do that, then maybe this other thing that I thought was a little bit incredible, is possible. George Lendaris has a Ph.D. in engineering and teaches at Portland State University. He's an intense guy who used to have intense headaches every night after work. But not anymore. Techniques acquired through Silva courses and a number of Jack's workshops helped Lendaris cure those headaches. But he didn't stop there. He's also cured his own arthritic back, and spastic colon. From when I was a youngster, every once in a while, I would get some very severe pains right here in this part of my abdomen right up in the upper right, and eventually it was diagnosed as a spastic colon. And, um, it's what I'm saying to this, by golly, it would just get as really as tight and tough as a rock, type of thing. Even when they gave me medication, I wasn't always on medication so that

after it started happening, you'd get the medication, but then it's sort of too late, so you had to live through it. Well, ah, basically using, ah, some of the methods there and some of the mind control, I've, ah, excuse the expression, gotten in touch with what that was, and ah, basically have cleansed that out of my system, and I haven't experienced that in the last 7 years. So I have, you know, personal experiences, where I don't have to have anybody else tell me about these things are possible or not. I know they are because I've done them. A few years ago, (?)Zarina (?)Murzeko had a cyst in her breast, which she said disappeared through Silva techniques, prayer, and meditation. But when she tried to cure her own myopia, the results were not so spectacular. And she eventually opted for surgery. I wouldn't like to say, at any moment, that I was cured through Silva, because I would be lying. But I do, I do, I want to point out that Silva helped me in many, many ways to

have a positive attitude, a positive attitude towards my surgery. So perhaps the reason the method didn't work for me at, in that particular myopia case, must have been because I didn't know how to use it. But that doesn't mean that somebody else may learn how to use a better than I. (Music plays.) Sure, anything what we can't understand, we will call quackery, we will call, ah, mysterious, ah, you know, there are all kinds of names for it, whenever we don't have an answer, we are very fast to label, but I think we should look into it. How does your mind hook up to your health? One conventional doctor put it this way: if germs were solely responsible for disease, everyone who sat down at the same office would come down with the same cold at the same time. Fact is, some do, some don't, and those who do, don't always develop it at the same time. Why? Because there must be something else going on,

and that something else could be psychological. Oregon is known as a state with high regard for conservation: recycling, the bottle bill. And yet in Portland in 1905, a glittering kingdom was built, the likes of which haven't been seen since. A few months after being built, the kingdom was torn down. Portland historian Carl Abbott, author of the book "The Great Extravaganza", took us on a tour of a place few people know about: Portland's Disposable Kingdom, the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition. It's hard to believe, but we're standing at the entrance to the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition and Oriental Fair. Here in Northwest Portland, on the edge of the Guiles Lake industrial district, for 4 and a half months in the summer of 1905, Portland put on the biggest show in its history. More than 2 and a half million people passed through to the grand entrance gates, a huge colonnade that was set diagonally across this block here at 26th and Upshur. It was Portland's chance to put itself on the map. If you had been one of the 2 and a half

million visitors to the fair that summer, you'd have been heading to the entrance gate that's now blocked by this new building. Would have been 50 cents for adult, 25 cents if you were a kid. If you were a Portland resident who wanted to come back again and again, you could buy a book of 50 tickets for $12.50. Actually, it's very, very difficult to find anything that's left of the fair, 75 years after the fact. Most visitors to the fair would have headed straight for the sunken gardens, which were the real centerpiece of the design. If you'd been standing right here, from this vantage point, you would have seen the Sunken Gardens with the grand staircase beyond, leading down to the bandstand and the, ah, esplanade along Guild's Lake itself. Over to the right, would have been the exhibit buildings for manufactured goods and agriculture. On the left, would have been the building for European exhibits. Beyond that, the Oriental exhibits building where the

Montgomery Ward store now stands. And beyond that, the site of the forestry building, which was the last survivor of the fair, until it burned in the 1960's. Like most fairs of the turn of the century, the Lewis and Clark Exposition offered beautiful grounds, dazzling white buildings. The landscape design was done by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., who was probably the country's leading landscape architect of the time. One of the favorite places to pause and just take in the magnificence of the scene was right here, overlooking the Sunken Gardens, which stretched down toward Guild's Lake. (Period music playing) Behind me is what's left of the Grand Staircase that came down from the Sunken Gardens to the lake front and the bandstand. Most fair goers probably thought that Portland had built a whole set of marble palaces for them. But, in fact, the magnificent buildings were meant to be torn down. They were simply build of sticks and plaster. (Period music playing.) If this were 1905, I'd be

sitting in one of the gondolas of the Carnival of Venice, in the blue waters of Guild's Lake, which stretched all the way out to the government building, rather than in front of this purchasing office. The Carnival of Venice was the most spectacular of the various amusements along the boardwalk that stretched out to Government Island, but certainly wasn't the only one that people had to choose from. They could try the infant incubators, or the Siberian Railroad. The streets of Cairo, the Haunted House. Probably the most fun of all were the diving elk. Two trained elk would climb up a 40 foot tower and plunge into a huge vat of water. Every World's Fair celebrates the wonders of modern technology. And Portland's was no exception. Visitors here at the U.S. government building could see exhibits that ranged from models of the latest irrigation facilities, to moving pictures. At the end of a long day, they headed back toward the city, they'd see all the

buildings of the fair outlined in electric lights that celebrated the advances and wonders of a new century. Like the 2 and a half million visitors to the fair, we find ourselves leaving the grounds at the main gates. The only building at the fair site that actually survives, wasn't part of the official fair at all. The Evergreen Apartments were built to house visitors to the fair. Ah, furnished with the newest furniture from Meier and Frank. Now 75 years later, after generations of use, the residents here find themselves fighting eviction notices because of fire code violations. Every visitor agreed that the Lewis and Clark Expedition was a great success. So it's ironic that it was built to be torn down. It was Portland's chance to show that it was modern enough, and progressive enough, to build a disposable kingdom. Incidentally, one of the few remaining buildings that was actually part of the fair, is the National Cash

Register building, which was moved years ago to St. John's. It may be soon undergoing restoration to return it to its original condition. Hardly a day goes by when you don't read about another reported WPPSS fiasco. But Front Street reporter Jeff Young spent an afternoon with a man who says in the future, people will come to think of WPPSS as a blessing, rather than a disaster. We talked with Ed Fisher, who recently retired as chairman of the power supplies executive committee. The supply system is not an empire builder, the supply system did not decide to build five plants one right after the other. That was roughly the Bonneville Power Administration. With D,D, DSI, direct-service industries or BPA who need power for theei industry, 114 utilities thread throughout the Pacific Northwest, who said to the supply system, we're going to need this power. You are an entity that's all geared up to do this. One by one, by contract, and by agreement, in and through

Bonneville and otherwise, to build these plants. And the supply system says, we will. These public utilities that, that called for the increased energy. As you say, called for the plants to be built. Now they're going to court. They're saying that WPPSS didn't deliver and they're being (?)stung for something that isn't there. Paying them back. How did that happen? Well, the supply system construction projects are no different than any other construction projects in the world today, which includes airplanes, battleships, sky high rises, and all this sort of thing. Because the strata of our costs have risen, pretty uniformly, and they- rising cost has been almost all due to the same reas-, for the same reasons. Because we have interest rates going up. Supply system has no control over

that. Ah, the supply system has no control over the cost of labor. And the cost of money. So, it became necessary to go into a, a mode of control termination. And all the money that has been lent in the way of tax free revenue bonds, that keeps right on going. Whether they're stalled or not, you see, and so consequently, if you're not genera- if you're not getting a revenue from those plants, and you still have to pay the bondholders, whomever they may be, they still have to get their money. And so, meanwhile, (?)(Clark County PND) and a smallest co-op, or, whatever have you, ah, are going to have to keep paying for that, that's called, what you call hell and high water, we, that's the term that's used. Hell and High Water Contracts. Where the plant produces one nickel worth of power, all of these people signed those contracts with that agreement. It's like saying, OK, we

know what we signed, and we know what we did, but we really didn't mean it. Now when I buy a house or buy a car, and things go sour, and I go to the dealer, I say, well, I really did mean it, here's your car. That's the situation we're in. It doesn't work that way. But, as so often happens, if something goes sour, everybody starts backing out. And that is what's happened. Now, I, I know, in a sort of a backhanded way, I've answered your question, but the good thing that happened was, I would shudder to think what the prospects for electric power in the Pacific Northwest would be, were it not for an entity such as a supply system, to have a plant running all these years, another plant 96 percent complete. Two more plants which are net build- three-

excuse me, 3 more plants which are not built by Bonneville. How lucky can you get? Forecasters, power forecasters, are now saying that the forecast they gave you a few years ago, proved not to be correct, and that our need for power in the coming couple decades will increase by perhaps only a couple percentage points. And yet, you feel that we'll need more than that. There's, there's one school of thought: If we save enough, we won't require any more generation. A terrific idea. But, with people coming on, and with the stores everywhere displaying thousands of different kinds of electric power consuming devices, and they've all got a cord and a plug on it, and every one of these things are going to be sold to someone sooner or later. And when people get them home, they're going to plug 'em in and they're going to use them. The positive things that are growing for the supply system and the people in the

Pacific Northwest, be they customers of private utilities, the aluminum company, or the public utility, is that here are these several plants. Not just somebody's imagination, but actually out there physically, in certain degrees of construction, being ready to go, if and when and how, and that time may come sooner than a lot of people think. If you had had the power to to call the shots, to make the decisions for the power supply system during the last, say, 10 years, what would you have done differently? We did learn some lessons. Ah, we relied maybe 1 or 2 So-called load forecasts, And took those for granted, that those were good and proper and sound.

Other than that, because we acted on the basis of what we had to work with as far as projections were concerned, so I don't think that no one could have made a different kind of decision, because, again, we could not look around or through that brick wall. You didn't have a crystal ball? Didn't have a crystal ball. So, the events of the recent past, having come to pass, ah, are different from what we were looking at. Now, I was asked by a Senator at a public hearing at a meeting in Olympia several years ago on the same question. Mr. Fisher, if you had to do it all over again, what would you have done different? If it was in, within your province of having done that? And I said I would never agree to build two nuclear plants in the state of Washington, west of the mountains. And this has created a real problem for us,

because the people in Grays Harbor County, for example, really did want those plants over there. Well, then the next question was from this lady Senator: Well, what would you have done? I said, we would put them over on the Hanford Reservation where people want 'em. Because the people in the Hanford Reservation area, the Tri-Cities, love nuclear plants, just love them. They've lived with them for 25-30 years. It seems like each week when you pick up the newspaper, there is bad news about WPPSS. Cost overruns, cost of moth balling plants, bureaucratic and political snarls. Now they seem ready to go to court, and yet, you seem to have a fairly positive attitude about what they're doing. How can that be? The good thing is that the supply system was created, it ran into trouble, it will survive, it will emerge as a positive factor for the people in the Pacific Northwest.

You're going to have to live 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 years and then the whole thing will unfold how lucky we are, because we have it. The river isn't going to get any bigger. The rain is going to rain any harder. The coal is in Wyoming. The oil is in Saudi Arabia. And here we have this stuff in our backyard. And it's going to do the job for us. Cheaper than anything else. Though that power may be cheap in the future, the plants WPPSS hopes will generate it aren't. The supply system last week authorized a 680 million dollar bond sale to continue construction of two of its five uncompleted nuclear power plants. Pacific Mountain Network represents public television stations in the 13 western United States. On Wednesday May 19th, at the annual membership meeting of Pacific Mountain Network, held this year in Sacramento, the annual local program

awards were presented by Larry Grossman, president of the Public Broadcasting Service. Front Street Weekly, produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting, received the Program Excellence Award in the Public Affairs category. The awards are made to recognize outstanding local programs. Winners were selected from programs submitted and evaluated earlier by a panel of broadcast professionals. Those of us involved with Front Street, thank you, for your interest, and your program ideas. That's all the time we have tonight. Please be with us next Thursday for another edition of Front Street Weekly. Good night. Good night.