#i have an instinctual need to make peoples phones lag or something so i make big ass gifs soz

[ultramantr1gger]

mega monster battle ultra galaxy we love making gifs

[absoloutenonsense]

When you see this, post a snippet of your WIP.

Hades Harry and Persephone Louis are coming back to me. Welcome to my Underworld fic!

***

Harry peers over his book and tries not to make it obvious that he isn’t a student. 

Louis has just walked into the cafe and up to the counter, looking as gorgeous as ever. Fringe swept across his forehead, blue and black polo and some more relaxed jeans than Harry has seen in the past. He smiles at the girl behind the counter, and Harry lets the book slip a little through his fingers; he catches it just before it can topple over on the table. 

Harry adjusts his snapback and sinks a little lower in his seat. 

“Hi,” he hears from his right. He looks up at a pretty girl with auburn hair in low pigtails. She smiles at him and takes a sip of her iced coffee through the straw. “Could I sit here? All the other tables are taken and I was hoping to revise.”

Harry nods and smiles a little back at her, trying not to make it obvious when his eyes dart to Louis again. He’s handing over a fiver to pay for his drink, and drops his change in the tip jar. 

“Haven’t seen you here before,” the girl says, making no move to get books or a pen or even her phone out. 

He just nods and watches Louis laugh at something the barista tells him. His heart bursts and aches in the same moment. He’s desperate to make Louis laugh like that. 

“What’re you studying?”

“Insurance,” he says automatically. 

The girl furrows her brows. “I don’t think we have that as a course.”

Harry finally really looks at her. “What?”

“I said I don’t think that’s a course here. Did you mean business?”

And Harry doesn’t know. “Uh, I’m not really sure. I just got here.”

“Oh! You’re a transfer?”

“Yes,” he says, because that seems the right thing to say. 

“Where were you before?”

And it was the wrong thing to say. “Oh, you know. Here and there.”

“You don’t know where you were before this?”

“Uh…”

“Harold,” someone interrupts. And for a moment --a split second-- Harry is over the moon to have Louis’ eye on him. They’re just as blue as he remembers. But then he sees the hard edge to them, despite his forced smile. Harry can’t help but flicker his gaze down to his lips. 

“Louis,” Harry says. Well, says is generous, considering what comes out is barely more than a breath. 

The girl is looking back and forth between them. “Sorry, did I take your seat Louis?”

“No, love, wasn’t expecting to see Harold here today.”

“Is this your boyfriend?” she asks. 

Yes! Harry thinks. 

“No,” Louis says. “Harold here is free as a bird, aren’t you Harold?” But before Harry can speak up, Louis continues. “Wouldn’t mind him much, though, for you Kim. Seems like there’s a bit of chemistry here. I’ll leave you to it.” And he’s walking away. 

Harry just gapes after him before remembering he has two working legs. 

“Excuse me,” he says to the girl --Kim-- before turning around. 

“You forgot your book!” she calls after him. 

“Keep it!” he says over his shoulder, and then he’s nearly running to catch up to Louis. 

Louis isn’t running, but he might as well be at the speed he’s going. Harry can practically see steam coming out of his ears. When he catches up, Harry jogs for a moment before he can adequately pace himself to speed walk next to Louis. 

“Leave me alone, Harry.” 

“Louis--”

“Wow, ignoring what I ask for. What a shocker.”

“Louis please listen--”

“Wow, ignoring my blatant sarcasm in favor of pissing me off more. Who’d have thought.”

“You weren’t supposed to see me, I just wanted to check in,” Harry blurts out. And when Louis doesn’t immediately cut in again, he adds, “I’ve been worried about you.”

Louis stops so abruptly that Harry actually has gone too far and needs to turn around to face him. “Worried? Have you been worried? Well great. You’ve seen me. No need to be worried any longer.” And he’s off again, walking somehow even faster. How do mortals walk so fast?

Harry rushes to keep up, lagging behind Louis. He would prefer not to admit that it’s a struggle. “I get that I fucked up, I do. And I want to make it right.”

“It’s Spring, Harry, I don’t have to talk to you for another five months at least,” and he stops and turns again. Harry just about crashes into him. Louis has to put his hands up to Harry’s chest in order to keep them both from falling over. “How long have you been spying on me?”

Harry flushes. He can feel the warmth of Louis’ hands through his white band t-shirt, wants to pull him onto the grass and pin him so he has no choice but to be still and look at Harry. There are other reasons to pin Louis to the ground, but now isn’t the time to think about those. Part of Harry’s mind can’t help it. 

Louis pushes against his chest and asks, “How. Long.”

Harry mourns the loss of Louis’ fingertips on his body. But only briefly because Louis has fire in his eyes. “This is only the third time.”

“The third time.” Louis says it loud. Loud enough that a few people look their way as they walk past. He grabs him by the end of his shirt and pulls him in the direction of the nearest building. 

He turns around to spit out, “When.” It’s not a question, it’s a demand that Harry has no choice but to obey. 

“New Years Eve, when you were down the pub with your mates.”

“Where were you.” 

“Outside the pub, I just walked by the window.”

They get to a door. The smell of chlorine hits Harry in full force as it swings open and Louis pulls him inside. They’re in a little hallway with two doors on either side of them. Louis drops his hold on the edge of Harry’s t-shirt, but his fist-print remains through the wrinkled threads. 

“And,” Louis spits out. 

“And then in March. You were grocery shopping.”

Louis’ face screws up a bit as he presumably tries to pin-point the day. 

“Where were you.”

“Across the street, in the bakery.”

Louis shuts his eyes tightly and rubs his hands along his face a few times. “That’s not even--” he lets out a frustrated noise. “Why-- I don’t--” another noise. “What’s the point of that?”

Harry doesn’t hide his confusion. “I wanted to see you.”

“For two fucking seconds?”

Harry thinks maybe he gets what Louis is trying to stay. “I was worried if I stayed longer you’d see me.”

“Then why be so far away?”

“I got the feeling that you’d be able to sense me.”

“I did,” Louis says. 

“What?”

“Today. I sensed you. As soon as I walked into The Hideaway I could feel you looking at me. I got so pissed off, I thought you were looking at me through your seeing thing.”

“All Seer,” Harry corrects softly. And then tries to catch Louis’ eyes, which have been mostly hidden behind his hands. When he does --and Harry realized it’s the first time they’ve locked eyes this entire interaction-- he tells him earnestly, “I wouldn’t break your trust like that, Louis, not again.”

And just like that Louis is pressed so tightly to Harry’s body, mouth hot and wet against his. And fuck. His hands go instinctually to Louis’ waist, one resting just above his ass, but his mouth is still and his eyes wide open in shock. 

Louis pulls back to lock onto his eyes again, scowl and grit out, “Kiss me back you absolute fucking arsehole.” And he’s back on him in a flash, moving his hands up Harry’s neck in order to grab fistfuls of his hair. His hat falls off his head, and just as it hits the ground, Harry kisses back with a fury, deftly lifts Louis by the back of the thighs and flips them so he’s got Louis pinned against the wall. 

It smells overwhelmingly of pool water chemicals, but Harry couldn’t care less because mixed in is the smell of Louis, which he’s been deprived of for nearly four months. He groans at that and pushed Louis back harder into the wall. Louis lets out this little gasp against Harry’s mouth, which seems to make them both hungrier for more. 

Louis is still grabbing the roots of Harry’s hair with his left hand while his right untangles itself in order to press against Harry’s arse, pulling him even closer. 

And… maybe this isn’t the best idea. Or at the very least the best place. “Louis,” Harry murmurs against his lips. But he can’t bring himself to loosen his grip or even open his eyes. 

Louis answers by biting Harry’s bottom lip ferociously. He whimpers at it and involuntarily grinds against Louis’ hips, where he finds they’re both starting to get hard. 

Harry tries again with, “Maybe this isn’t--” 

But before he can get a full sentence out, the door to his left opens. Harry doesn’t much care about that, but it seems to pull Louis out of...whatever this is... enough to scramble out of Harry’s hold, pushing him away with hands to his chest. His eyes look wild and his lips look swollen from their makeout. And Harry has the feeling that he should be feeling embarrassed but all he can feel is satisfaction at the way Louis looks. 

“Alright, Lou,” someone says, a bit of humor in his voice. The nickname is the only reason Harry looks up. Walking towards them is a man, dressed in jeans and a green t-shirt, hair wet, presumably from the pool. He’s smirking at them. 

“Alright, Luke,” Louis answers, straightening his shirt and running a hand over his hair to get it back in order. Harry doesn’t move. Well, aside from puffing his chest out a little, which causes Louis to grimace. 

“We still on for the footie game, mate?” Luke says. 

“Yeah, I’ll be there.”

“See you,” he says, and then gives a wry nod to Harry. 

Louis must still be a little out of it, because Luke is through the door and it’s almost completely shut before he says, “See you.”

Harry tries to not sound completely jealous when he says, “Who’s that?”

“Luke from Econ. He organizes pickup games from time to time.”

Harry wants to push. Wants to ask how well they know each other. Is dying to know what that smirk directed at Harry meant. Feels his blood run hot at the idea of them hooking up. 

But before Harry can ask any more questions, Louis is pulling open the door and stepping outside. 

“Wait,” Harry opens the door and shouts after him. “We need to talk.”

Louis is just shaking his head but doesn’t rush off like he seemed hell-bent on doing before. 

“Lou, what just happened. Do you-- do you maybe want--”

“I just got caught up,” Louis interrupts. “I wasn’t thinking clearly. I haven’t gotten laid in a while and you’re just --fuck-- you know I’m attracted to you. And I just got a little worked up. But I’m fine. Now. I’m okay now, it’s passed.”

There are so many things Harry wants to address, but he goes with the one that will tear him apart inside if he doesn’t know. 

“Have you slept with anyone since you’ve come back?”

“That is absolutely none of your business, Harry.”

Harry wants to scream that it is. That the last couple of weeks Louis was in the Underworld it was like they were really headed somewhere, that the last fews days it almost felt like-- like they were--

But then a rush of guilt washes over Harry. Because no matter what it felt like, and no matter how long it felt like that for, Harry was the one to ruin it. 

So instead of fighting that and instead of pushing Louis up against the tree trunk they’re passing as they walk, Harry says, “Okay.” He starts to slow his pace a bit, ready for Louis to continue on without him. 

When Louis notices Harry has fallen back, he slows his pace and turns around a bit. His face is now a mix between the dazed look from their makeout and the intense hardness from their fighting. He looks tired. With a sunken feeling in his chest, Harry realizes he caused that, too. 

Louis stops and waits for Harry to make it the last few steps to him. They are an arms-length distance apart from each other and Harry has never felt a distance so great. 

Louis sighs and waits for Harry to make eye contact before saying, “I need more time.”

Harry just nods. 

Louis nods back at him before turning on his heels and walking away. 

The only thing that saves him from going home and baiting Cerberus to eat him is that Louis looks over his shoulder just before he disappears from sight. He does this little half wave with just his fingers. It’s not what Harry wanted, but it’s something. 

[chelseawolfemusic]

Chelsea Wolfe on not being afraid to take risks // The Creative Independent

Prelude:

Chelsea Wolfe is an American singer-songwriter and musician who incorporates folk, goth rock, and doom metal into her sound. Her most recent album, Hiss Spun, is her fifth. Wolfe co-produced the collection with longtime collaborator Ben Chisholm. It was recorded by Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou and features contributions from Troy Van Leeuwen of Queens of the Stone Age and Aaron Turner of the post-metal band Isis. Her music has been featured in Game of Thrones, Fear the Walking Dead and How to Get Away with Murder. Here she discusses her songwriting process, explains why it's worth shaking up your approach, gives tips for surviving in the music industry, and talks about the importance of old books.

Full Article Via The Creative Independent 

Conversation:

How do you deal with creative blocks?

If I start to feel stagnant, going to see a good show always helps. Watching a great band makes me want to play music. Like, when we opened for Queens of the Stone Age a few years back. I was unsure where I wanted to go next musically, and had a feeling, like maybe I should do another acoustic album… I was starting to put some invisible pressure on myself instead of letting my instincts lead. But after a couple nights of watching Queens play these rock ‘n’ roll songs that have been my favorites for years, it was like, “No, fuck that, I want to play heavy music and let some aggression out,” so then I started working on Abyss.

You did change your sound on your Abyss. It was clearly you, but it was heavier. The album that came after it, Hiss Spun, is darker and even heavier. As an artist, is it important to take risks?

Yes, and it’s important to follow your intuition. That’s what I was doing then. I did that tour opening up for QOTSA, and immediately after did a tour opening for The Eels, switching from a rock set to acoustic set with literally one day between. I wasn’t ready to be up there playing this quiet music, and cried through the soundcheck of the first show. I was so uncomfortable. That’s how I knew I didn’t want to make another acoustic album just yet, and went full-force with the heavy. There was something I needed to let out first, like an exorcism.

Can you talk us through your songwriting process?

I keep endless notes and recordings of lyrics and production ideas that pop into my head in the middle of the night, when I’m driving, when I’m reading a book, whenever…Then when I get a musical idea or have the time to sit down and work on new songs, I have this store of ideas to pull from. I’ll treat it like a collage at times—scanning over pages of words and seeing what stands out, conceptually or visually, and I’ll start from there, sometimes culling other things from those pages that relate, or sometimes just writing all new things based on the one thing that stands out at that time.

There are also instances where I write a complete song in one go. Those are the more exhilarating, revelatory times. Sometimes it comes out of nowhere when something hits me emotionally or instinctually, and sometimes it comes from writing sessions where I’ll set up my gear around me, get ready to record, and then take mushrooms, allowing myself to open up in a new way. It’s not always easy. Sometimes it can be daunting or physically taxing, but I can be so closed-off at times—protecting myself from the energies of the world—that I have to pry myself back open when I’m ready to start writing again.

Do you stick to any kind of regular regimen as far as writing music? What’s your daily schedule like?

My only real regimen is not to ignore any ideas. Inspiration can sometimes come at the most inconvenient moments, like when I’ve finally just started to fall asleep, but I force myself up and follow it through. My family inspires me a lot, so I’ve warned them that if I have to stop and do something in my phone while we’re in the middle of a conversation, I’m just quickly taking note of an old-fashioned phrase they said that I thought was beautiful, or something they mentioned that I want to look into later. When I get to a point where I’ve written a few songs that start to feel related, like the beginning of an album, that’s the most exciting time. At that point I’ll hone in, researching certain subjects, and I start to well up with musical ideas and melodies.

I have a small writing studio that’s right next to my bedroom where I work on lyrics and record demo vocals, and then downstairs is another studio room where the band and I will jam and work parts out together. I live in the middle of nowhere, but I’m lucky enough that my bandmates come stay with me and work on songs for chunks of time. It’s not so bad here—there’s lots of trees and lakes, and a dive bar with a jukebox and karaoke.

I’ve learned over time that keeping most of my thoughts, experiences, and ideas to myself and my close friends as they happen, instead of sharing them with the internet constantly—that helps them remain special. We’re in such a zeitgeist now that I also find it important to find inspiration sources that have nothing to do with the internet. Of course it’s going to seep in here and there. I mean, I still start my day with the news, usually via CNN, Vice, or Reuters, but for years I’ve been collecting books, and old books especially are an invaluable resource.

For me, going to an antique store or used bookstore is almost equivalent to going to a museum. I love to think about the stories those items hold. While I was writing songs for Hiss Spun, I experimented with getting up really early and writing with a fresh mind. Steve Von Till told me he does that, so I gave it a try. It worked well for me, but then as soon as I go on tour my sleep schedule goes back to late nights and late mornings! When I come back from Europe the jet lag brings me back to the early mornings so I try to take advantage of those times.

Is it ever okay to abandon something you’ve started?

I’m not afraid to let go of songs that aren’t working. I mean, I threw 100s of copies of CDs of the first album I did in my early 20’s into a dumpster behind my old apartment back in Sacramento. I wasn’t happy with it. I knew I wanted to make music, but wasn’t able to execute my vision yet. It was just practice, really.

How do you come back from a bad review?

I think because I’m so hard on myself, and constantly critiquing what I’m doing, it’s not weird for me to see a review with something negative about me… I’ll even agree. Like there was a show in Vancouver once with a review that said my voice was “much raspier than the recorded version,” and I was like, “Yeah, I was exhausted that night and the monitors were shit.” No big deal, I still gave it all I had.

That’s not to say it doesn’t affect me. I had to stop looking at comments because that can be a bit much, hearing everyone’s opinion on you all the time. But you kind of expect reviewers to be looking for something to pick out to counteract anything positive they have to say, because I think a lot of people read negativity as authenticity. I don’t, but I do try to see the balance in all things. To me, it’s worse when an artist spends their energy tearing another artist down. If you’re spending a lot of time and energy seething against another band, it probably says more about how you feel about the work you’re making.

Do you see social media as a useful tool?

It can be an insight into someone’s life who may otherwise be a private person, like myself, but I’m also careful about what I share. I rarely post photos of my closest friends, family, or who I date. Then every once in a while I’ll surprise you with something exhibitionistic or personal. I mostly just use Instagram, and I don’t plan out my posts… I just put things up when the mood hits.

Like the other night I drank a bit too much and was hyperventilating in bed at my friend’s house. I started almost speaking in tongues and then was repeating my album title Hiss Spun in a strange way. I took video of it (well just audio, the room was dark) and posted it because it felt very real and related to the feeling of the album. But then I’ll see someone like St. Vincent having these nice, well thought-out videos to introduce her new album and I feel like a total loser, but at this point in my life I’m just more spur-of-the-moment, I suppose. Anyway, social media is useful in the sense that you can let a group of people who are interested in your work know what you’re up to or have coming up, like a new album or tour.

What does success look like to you? Failure?

I have my own weird definition of perfection that I hold my music to, so sometimes the recording process can be grueling, but at the same time it’s the only way I feel like I’m successful at all—if I’m proud of the music I’m putting out, I’m successful. Failure would be to make music just to keep up with trends, or to give someone else control over your music because you’re not feeling up to it. If you’re drained of drive and ideas, it’s time to take a break, live life, and through that, find reinvigoration.

The music industry can be a weird place. What are your survival techniques?

It was like navigating through an apocalyptic wasteland for many years, dealing with human vampires and exclusion, but I’ve also held truly good and grounding people close along the way. Playing with musicians who aren’t sexist or controlling, but are instead supportive and willing to listen, combined with having a powerful woman as a manager have helped me maintain a certain kind of balance and sanity. I’ve always had a strong vision, but haven’t always had the strength to put myself out there into the world, so it took me a long time to get to where I am. I recognize that I have a long way to go, but I’m almost 10 years deep into this so I’m much more confident and enthusiastic about pushing forward with my ideas and perspective than I was at the beginning. I’ve also learned to say “No!”


[inb4vaughn]

Awaken Your Inner Golfer

As far as Jerry Brown is concerned, there’s a great inner golfer inside every able-bodied human on earth. All we have to do is get out the way and let him or her through, smiling and relaxed and ready to enjoy the game without giving all those pesky swing mechanics and repetitive drills and Trackman numbers a second thought. Or even a first thought.

A soft-spoken New York native and former insurance agent who now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Brown could be called the “anti-teacher.” His new self-published book, Awaken Your Inner Golfer: Finding Your Flow (available at www.keepitsimplegolf.com), includes 40 “exercises” that open the door to self-learning: To tapping into one’s innate athletic ability via kineshetics — the oft-referenced but less-understood “mind-body connection.”

“I want to make golf more joyful for people,” he said during a phone interview from his home in the high desert. “That’s one of the big incentives for me.”

A glance at some of his exercises show what Brown is getting at. After spending the first part of his brief and easy-to-read book in a more traditional teaching realm — making sure readers have their all-important grip and posture fundamentals down — he gets down to the blissful business of relying on instinct and creativity, on the right brain, to find one’s “flow.” In one exercise he asks you to imagine tossing a bag of trash into a dumpster; in another he directs you to move the hips in a figure-eight motion, “allowing your body to respond to the movement.”

It’s freeing, fun stuff, the result of five decades of golf exploration on Brown’s part.

His bio states that he “grew up hitting golf balls on a narrow strip of land in his grandmother’s yard on Long Island, New York, with trees on one side and a road on the other. By age ten he had learned how to hit a ball straight and solidly through feel rather than strength.”

Brown was what one would call a natural athlete, but at age twelve he broke a leg while skiing and was soon was diagnosed with other health issues. But he wasn’t about to give up golf.

Qualifying for his college golf team as a senior, he played among a group of highly ranked Division II athletes, including a future PGA Tour winner. For the next 30 years he played competitive golf in the New York metropolitan area until the late 1980s, while facing yet other serious medical challenges, from partial loss of hearing to vision problems. He refined a series of exercises to maintain his golf game.

In 2012, he moved to New Mexico, where he combined his practice of golf with a growing interest in Eastern philosophy and spiritual lessons, incorporating an “inner” approach to developing a pure golf swing. His love of coaching led him to his, which he hopes will improve golfers’ games and inspire them in all walks of life.

GT: Most golfers play their best when they’re not thinking. What was light bulb moment for you as a golfer to take a path toward instinctual play?

Brown: Physically I couldn’t play golf the way I used to in my 20s and early 30s. I developed these exercises for more play and fun. I invited a friend to explore them. He said, “I never felt like that hitting a golf ball … you’re onto something.” A few times I would fool around the putting green. I’d ask people to look at the hole while they chipped. The first two times they chipped in. I decided, “Yes, I am onto something.”

GT: So it worked for your friends, leading you to look into the instinctual side of learning, into Eastern philosophy.

Brown: You’re right on. My journey in health, turning to holistic wellness instead of medicine, had a lot to do with it. Wellness has an approach to empower the individual to get in touch with their innate healing abilities rather than medicine tending to treat symptoms. I felt a lot golf instruction treats symptoms rather than stimulating one’s instinctual abilities. So my journey through health led to my present approach to awakening instinct.

GT: You talk a lot about grip and posture in your book. The grip is the only connection between the person and the club, while posture is the only connection between a person and the space around them. How did those figure so prominently in your approach?

Brown: I’ve been a student of golf for over 50 years, and I’ve seen so many people exerting effort trying to swing the golf club, rather than using it as it’s designed, to swing the weight of the golf club. I can see from a distance that they have the grip in the palm of their [left] hand, which doesn’t allow them to leverage the weight of the club — letting the wrist and hands to function as they are anatomically designed. So many people think it’s their swing, but it’s their grip. They don’t have a chance without an effective grip.

A lot golf instruction treats symptoms rather than stimulating one’s instinctual abilities.

GT: So assuming they fix the grip, why does the game remain such a struggle for most of us? Even the highest level pros, when they get under stressful situations, you can see them fighting their swings, fighting the left side of their brains, trying to analyze their way out of an issue.

Brown: Society teaches us to be analytical, left brain-oriented. To minimize the right brain, creativity, the arts. It’s in our education system, which teaches us to pass tests rather than expressing intrinsic knowledge.

I have a quote by Einstein: “Learning is experience, everything else is just information.” You learn by doing things. That’s how children learn to walk. It’s actually playful for them to fall down and adapt. That can be a big part of people improving and enjoying their golf game.

I’m just rereading a book by Stuart Brown called Play. He calls play a biological need, how we develop our brains. It’s intriguing to me, and has had some influence, along with many other books that support this same approach to learning by experience. Our education system focuses primarily on the brain, but how we learn is how we move our bodies — the body-mind connection.

GT: What is it about golf that lends itself to this type of exploration? It’s an individual pursuit. Why do people become so obsessed with it?

Brown: A big part of it is, in golf we’re starting in a static position. That unfortunately stimulates our analytical way of thinking, but our motor skills are generated by our subconscious. Most every other sport, except for maybe archery, is a reactive sport, so you’re reacting from a subconscious instinct. In golf, the static start leads people to start trying to direct their muscles to perform the golf swing. As long as they start with the basics, grip and posture, they have the instinctual ability to make pure impact, if they can trust it. That’s a big part of what my exercises are about — to facilitate people trusting their innate instinctive kinesthetic intelligence.

GT: Describe a couple of the exercises from the book that might lead people to believe, “This has nothing to do with golf.”

I’ve seen so many people exerting effort trying to swing the golf club, rather than using it as it’s designed, to swing the weight of the golf club.

Brown: Most are for shots of 50 to 100 yards, because when we try to change motor movements at full speed, our brains don’t have time to process it. But with a shorter shot, the brain does. One that is always effective is what I call the crossover exercise. Start with a closed stance and the ball opposite the left foot —So with this exercise, after impact, allow your right leg to swing and step over the target line. It encourages a natural rotation of the body without “trying” to rotate.

Another one is a pre-swing exercise: Visualize you’re carrying a small bag of garbage behind your right hand, your right buttocks, and imagine you are swinging the bag around to toss it into the dumpster. Nothing to do with a golf swing, but everything to do with it. Your instincts take over: you know how to rotate through the golf ball — it’s like tossing the trash.

Another one that I love: Have a paint brush in your right hand, and imagine there’s a wall floor to ceiling about six feet to your right, as you’re addressing an imaginary ball. Dip the brush in paint and splatter the wall to your right, ceiling to floor, in one motion, and repeat a few times. Nothing to do with a swing, but actually that’s your forward swing. It encourages “lag” without trying to implement it. It engages your instincts.

GT: You can’t consciously engage in lag.

Brown: Exactly.

GT: Are you seeing in “traditional” instruction, any of these ideas come through? For instance, in one video Jason Dufner, he institutes something similar to your crossover exercise to get that feeling of hitting the inner quadrant of the ball, how the club just naturally gets on the right path in the downswing.

Brown: The only place I have seen a somewhat similar approach is in pre-swing activities. I noticed one teacher on the Golf Channel demonstrating not exactly the same things in my book, but something similar. He’s awakening instinct, similar to my approach. That’s the only place I’ve seen something.

Traditional instruction, because of technology, computers and cameras and lasers, they all bring a focus more to positions and mechanics, and we forget about our instincts. They are playing to what society teaches us — try to get the body to do this or that. It appeals to left-brain oriented people.

GT: Some old school teachers get their students out on the course, playing the game rather than doing drills on the range.

Brown: I was out with a friend yesterday, chipping and putting, and I said, “let’s see if this feeling of pure impact on these short shots, you can carry over to the longer shots. He was able to do it several times, but not all of the time, because I could see he was in his analytical brain. So I said, “You know what, next time let’s just go out and play and see what happens.” That’s how you learn.

The Zone is getting past your limitations, which are often conditioned by society — mostly unconsciously.

GT: So there’s the oft-used phrase “The Zone.” How does your theory, the principles in your book, how do they relate to what people think of as The Zone?

Brown: The exercises help quiet the mind and engage the body. The only focus through your swing is to feel the palm of your right hand turn toward the ground after impact. Bingo — you’ll never slice again if you can feel that. So my focus is on feeling parts of the body; it quiets the mind. When we are in our subconscious, it encourages what I call the “flow,” or zone. That’s when the new, the possible, the potential can express itself, rather than the left brain, the conscious brain, taking over. When we can access the subconscious, we can get in the flow. Even in basketball or football — when Joe Namath won the Super Bowl, he said he didn’t feel like he was playing the game. “The game was playing me. I wasn’t trying to do anything, I just responded instinctively.”

GT: You can tell when someone is at their best, playing in that state. Nobody was better at it than Jack Nicklaus. Tiger would get there at his best, especially on the putting green. He and Jack were the two great visualizers in the game.

Brown: I picture all those putts Tiger made at Bay Hill, and during the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines. He’s so deep into his instinct, it’s like he’s controlling the ball with his subconscious mind.

I don’t know if the public is ready for this, but tiger makes me think about it: When you get deep in your subconscious, are you connecting with an energy, an intelligence, that is beyond our humanness?

GT: That could carry over to just about any artistic endeavor you can think of. Ask any musical composer, any poet, from Bob Dylan right on down the line. They have no idea where this stuff comes from.

Brown: That’s similar to responses I’ve gotten from people doing these exercises. “What was that? What did that exercise do?” My standard answer is, “It awakens instinct. You’re just tapping into your potential; you have the ability. The Zone is getting past your limitations, which are often conditioned by society — mostly unconsciously.

GT: You have said there are further books you want to write. What will be the gist of those?

Brown: One thing I think would be popular and productive and rewarding, is I have a lot of slice fix drills. Like the palm of the right hand turning toward the ground. I have a bunch that develop instinctually. The crossover exercise is anti-slice. I have one in the book about how to have a split grip, with both thumbs wrapped on the sides of the grip. Hit some 50 or 100-yard shots. It’s amazing. That’s what it feels like to release the club through impact. If someone can embody that, they’ll never slice again. An anti-slice book would be effective, because that’s what most people do.

GT: It could even help people with certain physical limitations that keep them from making a complete shoulder turn, help them get around that.

Brown: I like to call them exercises rather than drills, because drills gives the indication of forcing something in, while exercising is manifesting something you already have. Drills play to “trying,” while exercises allow your genius to express itself. And learning by experience tends to have more permanence; once you experience something in your body and mind, it tends to become more permanent.

GT: That would be a great title for the next book: Trying vs. Allowing.

Brown: Maybe that’s it! I’ll write that down. One more quote by Aristotle: “What we learn to do, we learn by doing.” I can’t do any better than that.

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