Almost Lost: The True Story of an Anonymous Teenager's Life on the Streets by Beatrice Sparks
“I just called to wish you a happy Thanksgiving. I hope you know how thankful I am to you for getting me back on the right track.”
“Thank yourself! I couldn’t have gotten you on track if you hadn’t wanted to do it.”
“I know you’re busy…”
“Never too busy for you. I’m just sitting here eating my sack lunch. What’s happening in your life?”
“It’s beyond stratospheric. Well, most of the time. You know how family and school things are.”
“How are you doing with your mind games?”
Sammy’s voice became soft and confidential. “It’s like something beyond magic has happened to me since I’ve truly accepted the fact that, like you said, MY MIND CONTROLS MY BODY, AND I CONTROL MY MIND! It’s almost supernatural or something when I do the hypnotherapy exercises and play the mind games. I feel…empowered. I control the wonderful and amazing force that is my brain, the power that helps me control not only my thoughts and actions and feelings but helps me influence the thoughts and feelings and actions of others, both positively and negatively. It’s a humongous responsibility.”
“I’m grateful you now realize your responsibility in life, Sammy. I wonder how long it will be before mankind is able to conceptualize a large portion of the brain-actuated control we will eventually have, once we learn more about homing in on it.”
“Like what do you mean?”
“Like, what do you know about biofeedback?”
“Well, they hook wires up to your brain and heart and stuff with lots of little pads, to find out what triggers stress and anger and stuff inside you. In time, if you know what thoughts switch on the good energy and what thoughts switch on the bad energy, you can control those mind and body powers.
“Sort of like you can see what’s going on inside of you, when you’re happy or sad, or mad or glad. Right?”
“I love the panel of little colored lights in front of you that switch on and off so you can see your reactions and how little or big those reactions are.”
“I think that’s as good and as simple an explanation of biofeedback as I’ve ever heard. How did you get so smart?”
“Mom showed me a bunch of charts and stuff and the biofeedback machine at the hospital one day when I was there. It’s pretty far-out science fiction sort of stuff.”
“Yes, biofeedback can work wonders for people who will work with it. The amazing machine can even tell your future.”
“You’re kidding.”
“In a sense it can. For instance, if a person allows his/her temper, depression, frustration, or whatever, to raise his/her heart rate and shoot adrenaline into the bloodstream, etcetera, his/her life is in jeopardy of being both physically and mentally compromised or shortened. The machine clearly shows that, doesn’t it?”
“Yep! I think everyone should have a biofeedback machine at home. Then we could all solve our problems before we have the problems, keep our little helpless pains and fears from becoming dangerous big ANGERS and HATES.”
“Sammy, what I’m going to tell you now really does sound like science fiction. In laboratories around the world, scientists are experimenting with brain-actuated control even as we speak. People have, with brain-actuated control, successfully turned TV and light switches on and off, moved computer cursors and other things, all without touching them. At the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, people are using their own brain waves to control flight simulators. They can keep their ‘plane’ on an even keel or dip it from side to side. In a way it is like a video game except that it is done completely with the mind.
“The methodology behind the technology is simple and straightforward. Electrodes, similar to those in biofeedback, are attached to the head. They are keyed in to specific brain waves and monitored for voltage changes, which are then interpreted as simple computer commands. For instance, if you wanted to turn on a light, electrodes would be attached to your head in a certain place. At the same time your electroencephalogram (EGG) would graphically show you the voltage of the particular brain wave being monitored. You would think of something that would cause the voltage to increase—some victory, or some fantastic experience that would heighten your senses. That would cause the voltage in the specific brain waves being monitored to rise. When they reach a certain level, the computer would take that as a command to turn on the light and…presto…the light would turn on.”
“Wow!”
“There is still much research to do in these areas because of the immense complexity of the human brain. Imagine tens of trillions of neurons firing away at any given instant, neurons which are allowing you to weigh options, process concepts, form opinions, learn things, retain information, release it, and telling you when to do what and how to do it. Your brain is sparkling with chemical and electrical activity as well as different types of noises.”
“How many places are working in this area?”
“Many. Grant McMillan, head of the Alternative Control Technology Laboratory works in connection with the rehabilitation of disabled people. Researchers at the New York State Department of Health’s Wadsworth Center for Laboratories and Research are concentrating on particular brain patterns known as ‘mu rhythms.’ They are having success rates ranging from eighty to ninety-five percent.
“Gert Pfurtscheller of the Graz University of Technology in Austria reports that people who have participated in their brain-actuated control studies are totally dumbfounded when they watch their brain waves take control of a computer.”
“I would be too! Tell me…”
I looked at my watch. “Sorry, friend Sammy. It’s almost time for my next client friend.”
“Do you think you can help him…”
“Her.”
“…her as much as you helped me?’
“I can if…”
Sammy finished for me. “I know!…If she’ll let you! Good luck.”
I needed that. Beautiful little fourteen-year-old Laurie had been abused by her family, then abandoned. The foster parents she had been placed with had also abused her. She deserves to learn about the good things out there that can replace all the bad things that have been shoveled in at her in her past few short years. Just thinking of Sammy will help me help her! Maybe sometime I’ll tell her about Sammy and his single lighted candle that lights up so many worlds, including mine.
EPILOGUE
Almost Lost does not deal with:
Chemical imbalance problems
Deep chronic depression
Bi-polar conditions
Schizophrenia
Hard-core environmentally imposed circumstances
Chronic long-term self-conditioned, internal as well as external, hostility, etc.
Such (usually longer-term cases) are referred to trusted colleagues who specialize in those specific areas. Many of the above conditions call for prescribed medications.
Other Books Edited by
Beatrice Sparks, Ph.D.
ANNIE’S BABY:
THE DIARY OF ANONYMOUS, A PREGNANT TEENAGER
IT HAPPENED TO NANCY:
A TRUE STORY FROM THE DIARY OF A TEENAGER
Copyright
This is a work of nonfiction based on the actual counseling sessions between Dr. Sparks and a suicidal teenager. Names and places have been changed at the request of “Sammy’s” parents.
ALMOST LOST. Copyright © 1996 by Beatrice M. Sparks. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 96-2457
Library of
Almost lost : the true story of an anonymous teenager’s life on the streets / edited by Beatrice Sparks.
p. cm.
1. Depression in adolescence—Treatment—Case studies—Juvenile literature. 2. Adolescent psychotherapy—Case studies—Juvenile literature. 3. Family psychotherapy—Case studies—Juvenile literature. I. Sparks, Beatrice.
RJ506.D4A46 1996 96-2457
616.85'2706'0835—dc20 CIP
AC
First Avon Flare Printing: June 1996
EPub Edition © April 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-201265-4
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Beatrice Sparks, Almost Lost: The True Story of an Anonymous Teenager's Life on the Streets
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