I was sad to hear of his death today but a little surprised at my reaction.

I liked some of his music but was not a fan.I thought a little further about my reaction, why should I be more sad about his death that for anyone else.

I think there were lots of anchors over the years to his music.

Hearing Ben as a kid and thinking what a sad song it was.

Selling loads of his records when I worked in a record shop as my Saturday job at school.

Working as a DJ at university and knowing that I could always fill the dance floor with one of his records.

Getting MTV for the first time and seeing Thriller all the time.

When a figure linked to things in our lives dies then part of those memories die. Perhaps I am feeling slightly sad for myself. I guess it seems a bit selfish but understanding where our feelings come from is what NLP means to me.

My partner had a similar reaction to Farrah Fawcett yesterday, bringing back the memories of childhood TV and then realising that it was no longer.

He certainly touched a lot of people. He'll live on in their memories.

That's a classic Chris Morris post.

RIP Michael

I too feel very sad today. I think the life Michael Jackon was born in to is the closest thing we will see to a real life version of Jim Careys character in The Truman Show. Try, if you dare, to see the terrain of the world from him map, it is an unpleasant place to be.

I had some of later albums bought for me as birthday and Christmas presents as a kid and then purchased digital copies of them just a few years ago. Like Nick said earlier, think of the joy he has given you and then thinks how much you gave back, I have given up about £20 and sang, danced and partied for hours, if not days on the back of his creativity.

I hope history treats him better respect and honesty than he was treated when he was alive and I hope the parasites like Martin Bashir feel a little lump in their consciences today which will hopefully cause them the same pain they have caused other people.

I quite often spend time on YouTube watching and listening to music and I love to watch aritists when they are at that peak of their careers, it can be 1 song they sang on one night which defines their career and for me it is Billy Jean performed live. Before you watch the clip below I'd like you to spend a minute and forget you have every seen Michael Jackson dance before, appreciate his that he is not copying anyone and that he is not dancing like Michael Jackson nor indeed imitating anyone else, he is Michael Jackson!

Now remember how you feel when you dance, remember how you feel when you are talking or performing in front of people, now think of what it would take for you to invent your own style of dancing and then perform it on a stage in front of billions of people.

For Nick it was the performance of Ben, for me it is Billy Jean,

Thanks for the memories I have of your work, and for all the memories that will be created by generations of people who will be born after you have gone, you can finally rest in peace.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txYn5eVab5w]YouTube - Michael Jackson - Billie/Billy Jean (Live)[/ame]

He was a symbol of a man who could of benefited from nlp.
He died. RIP

If Michael Jackson effected soooo many people in his lifetime,
What if someone who KNEW how to utilize "self-help", in themselves and in their music, came in and effected as many people Michael Jackson did?

How would society be different?

chris_morris wrote:

He certainly touched a lot of people. He'll live on in their memories.

That was never proved!

Designeddestiny wrote:

He was a symbol of a man who could of benefited from nlp.

Tony robbins said on twitter
"I met michael J. after he listened to my programs in working on Bad Tour- he was an extraordinary talent and troubled soul "

I guess there was the opportunity to start learning there.


(Do I get a prize for combining the MJ and TR threads?)

We get into the vexed area of whether happier artists are better artists. John Cleese has certainly lost his flair for the funnies since getting involved in the world of therapy, and I struggle to imagine what a sorted-out Kurt Cobain would sound like.

Part of the deal being that people tend not to question happiness (why interrogate something that's fun?) whereas the so-called negative moods bear investigation if only because it creates some dissociation from them for a while. I am very sceptical of NLP types who profess only to experience unalloyed joy.

adrian r wrote:

We get into the vexed area of whether happier artists are better artists. John Cleese has certainly lost his flair for the funnies since getting involved in the world of therapy, and I struggle to imagine what a sorted-out Kurt Cobain would sound like.

Part of the deal being that people tend not to question happiness (why interrogate something that's fun?) whereas the so-called negative moods bear investigation if only because it creates some dissociation from them for a while. I am very sceptical of NLP types who profess only to experience unalloyed joy.

Beauty is not related to happiness/unhappy/problems/no problems in any way. A sad song can be as beautiful as a happy one.

Beauty is about discovering the harmony within a group of perceptions so as to know the centre from which there is no longer any conflict between them. It doesn't matter whether those perceptions are pleasant or unpleasant ones. You can take something normally horrific and find that from a certain angle and frame there is harmony. Salgado the photographer was a master of this in visual medium. The same goes for sound and movement but its just much easier to explain visually because of the obvious frame and angle of a single moment.

http://reinfriedmarass.com/photographers/sebastiao-salgado

The old addage about "tortured" artists losing the knack when they get happy is a bit misleading. I think its more like this.. you can also be disturbed and unable to distinguish the centre from where there is harmony just as easily by a pleasant/happy illusion as an unpleasant/unhappy one - both are still illusion. I suspect that when an artist is unhappy there is simply more pressure and urgency to look for it. Happiness can knock your balance as easily as unhappiness. As therapy is mainly about substituting unpleasant illusions with more pleasant ones I guess it could also have this side effect sometimes.

Just my take on "tortured" artists!

PS Happiness is over rated!

Michael Jackson did not die, he was murdered.

By every person who ever took a single interest in anything thing he did that was not connected to his music.

John

That a joke?

hypnoben wrote:

That a joke?

Absolutely not.

John

I think it is so sad that the rich and famous get surrounded by an "entourage" -- a group of sycophants who are only hanging around to get something from the famous person.

The hangers on don't care what happens to that person. They just use him (or her) up until there's nothing left.

Then they move on to greener pastures.

It's just so sad.

Venus

An entourage can only develop when the person at the centre of it wishes for one. Mariah Carey and the like are surrounded by courtiers on payroll, often with ridiculous duties like checking room temperature, ensuring that a glass of the star's preferred tipple is on hand at all times, etc.

It's easy to dismiss such sycophants if you're of sound mind. Pity then, that so many operating in the celebrosphere lack that quality: but there are examples of those who function just fine without a ring of room-meat protecting them from ornery citizens.

z8000783 wrote:

Michael Jackson did not die, he was murdered.

By every person who ever took a single interest in anything thing he did that was not connected to his music.

Murdered by his children then?

"Murdered by his children then?"

Maybe he was.

Probably self defence.

While I totally get John's point, it's also true that MJ had a huge publicity machine which he willingly fed for his own purposes. Part of his tragedy may be his naivete in expecting that the media would always be on his side, in not recognizing that the media is a powerful friend and possibly an even more powerful enemy. If there's an afterlife, let's hope he's dancing away up there with some of his own heroes.