My meeting with The Scary Guy. Part 3 (and last so far!)

Hi all:

I hope you’ve been following my series sharing my meeting and interview with The Scary Guy. Today we get to the last part, where Scary talks about what he feels is his main message, about his personal experiences, his concept of family and how he’s come to be who he was meant to be.

Scary welcomes us to the last part of the interview

I asked Scary about his core message: He told me he wants to show enough people how to make world peace in their life time. He is convinced that it can happen; the problem is how to show it to all individuals in the world in that particular moment. Part of the reason he believes this is a challenge is because people are essentially reactionary; they react to whatever is happening around them instantly.

He described that sharing his belief, message and teaching is like trying to swim up a waterfall (like the Niagara). He described himself as a “little speck of sand, screaming loudly”. With his tattoos he is screaming to tell people that it can be done and that it is very simple. Some people get it and “when they get it is as if they got a key. “With my teaching, they see that they can work on their own world peace. That is where their power lives” “Creation is not static, not inanimate. You have to keep working at it; you have to keep moving, breathing, changing creation. World peace is a process, not a matter of wood, or a gun, or a war. It’s the process of how to learn to create world peace.  People will say that we would achieve world peace “if we only stop fighting…or if we only make this or that happen, and we end up labelling it as racism or gay prejudice as the problem …” For Scary that is not the root problem, that is a manifestation, it is a symptom, a scar of an underlying problem. Neither racism, nor sexism, nor religious hatred are the problems and even if one of those problems were solved that would not result in world peace.

He noted that he would meet people who would be at pains to tell him straight away, I’m gay, or I belong to this or that religious group. And he wonders why they think that is so important. He knows they want to be accepted, the same as everybody, but he will tell them: “You tell me because you want to be accepted. I love you because you’re you.” It is not a matter of loving somebody for some specific reason, but rather as a whole person.

Both the film and the book also discuss Scary’s concept of creating your own family. He told me that like all of his teachings they come from personal experiences. He told me that his biological father was an afraid and angry man who lived through the period of World War II and was a child of that time. Scary’s father believed that children should be heard and not seen.

Scary needed acceptance from his father and wanted his father to tell him that he loved him as a son but his father did not have the training to do that. Scary’s father’s father had left the family when Scary’s father was 13 (in the 1930s or 40s). He never spoke about this. He had been taught that men had to shut up and be tough. Following this pattern, Scary’s father did not interact with his children. When he divorced, when Scary was 18, he left the house and the family and created a new family in Florida. He married a woman with six children, already grown-up and he was a father to his wife’s children but never again had any interaction with his three biological sons. Scary’s youngest brother tracked their father down and sent him a Christmas present but he returned it.

Scary sees looking back that his father never approved of anything he did and he felt as if he was always walking on eggshells, trying to prevent his father from getting angry, whilst at the same time feeling shameful and guilty. Scary told me he calls these kinds of experiences that everybody has to a certain extent “life” although a therapist might call it “baggage”. One day he looked at himself in the mirror and he realised it was not his problem, it was his father’s. He decided he wanted to find a father that would give him the recognition and guidance his own father had never given him and he chose a guy Honest John. The full story of this is in Scary’s book. Honest John was a tough old guy that Scary saw as a great role model for him. He showed him it was possible to be tough, still be a man and still be loving at the same time.

Scary told me everybody has the ability to choose any family figure, it could be a father or a mother, somebody one feels an emotional connection to. He told me this was a very important message he gives kids through his training, especially kids from difficult backgrounds, where their parents would have had what he described as “bad training”. They might have been addicted to drugs, or be abusive, or have other difficulties. He tells them they have nothing to lose by choosing somebody new and once they try they’ll see if the can do it or not, but they will never be in a worse position than they already are.

He says, “Don’t live in your victimhood.” He told me that he gets many letters on that subject; thousands of letters, and he has at least 20 people or more in Germany who see him as their father, both women and men. We noted that people usually say: “You choose your friends but you cannot choose your family” but Scary feels that is not necessarily so. Why not create your own family? Who wrote the rules? The rules can be re-written. “YOU CREATE YOU.” He believes that you create your own emotional being and you must be responsible for your own life.

St Mary’s Church in Hay after the renovation

Scary told me that he has discussed this concept with religious leaders who oppose his thinking because they say God (whoever their God might be) is the only one who can create people. Scary believes human-beings are God-like and they have free-will to create themselves.

Scary told me that equally, many religious people also applaud what he is teaching, and believe he is God’s work. He has been called a “Prophet of Peace” among many other such names and one person insists he is the “Second Coming of Jesus of Nazareth”. He told me that like all comments he gets, he does not pass judgement on what they choose to believe, he thanks the person and lets them live with their beliefs as it is not harmful to anybody and helps them to live their lives with a sense of purpose.

Although we could probably had carried on talking for hours, it was a Thursday, market day and I had to go to work and needed time to digest all the information. So we left it there for the time being.

I leave you links to the previous posts:

http://wp.me/p2OC9i-1iN

http://wp.me/p2OC9i-1iZ

Scary’s books in Hay-on-Wye, Addyman Books.

And here the links to get to know more about Scary and follow his work. You might be lucky and he might be coming to a place near you soon!

Scary’s Website:

www.thescaryguy.com

Join Scary on his Facebook Fan Page

(https://www.facebook.com/thescaryguyfanpage)

Scary’s Biography: 7 Days & 7 Nights

(http://thescaryguy.com/product/7-days-and-7-nights/)

Thanks Scary and Cathryn for your kindness and for visiting my blog, thanks to all of you for reading, and you know you can like, share, comment and CLICK!

 

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Mi reunión con Scary Guy (El tío que asusta) 2.

Como recordaréis hace un par de semanas os presenté a Scary Guy y compartí la primera parte de nuestra entrevista. Hoy os traigo la segunda parte, donde hablamos de su cambio de nombre, del destino, de qué tipo de trabajo prefiere y de los medios de comunicación, entre otras cosas.

Scary Guy Portrait

 

Le pregunté a Scary sobre su cambio de nombre legal a Scary Guy. Me dijo que sucedió el 22 de Febrero de 1998 en Tucson, Arizona, en el juzgado. Los reporteros, la televisión y otros medios de comunicación estaban esperando fuera y la sala estaba llena. La juez le preguntó algunas cosas y él respondió. Ella comentó que era el cambio de nombre más extraño que había juzgado pero que sus razones eran coherentes. Le pregunté si echaba de menos el nombre que le habían dado al nacer y me dijo que era el nombre que le había dado su madre pero que por dentro seguía siendo él. Su madre le dio su nombre en honor de su propio padre (su abuelo materno). La familia de su padre venía del Reino Unido. Su madre también se interesaba por la genealogía y había trazado su árbol genealógico hasta el 1610. Había encontrado 17 Thomas Buckinghams, y trece de ellos habían sido reverendos. Y ahora (irónicamente) vive frente a una iglesia. A él le parece que todo está conectado.

En el libro hay reflexiones sobre el destino y le pregunté si pensaba que él estaba destinado a ser quien es y a hacer lo que hace ahora. Scary me contestó: “Soy un propósito. Esto no es un trabajo. Esto es mi vida. La tarea de mi vida. No hay mucha gente que viva su trabajo.” Me dijo que solo cuando duerme, quizás, no está trabajando y que a algunas personas puede que les parezca que es una obsesión pero que así son las cosas. “Esto es lo que soy.”

Lo describió como un viaje y me dijo que cuando fue a una tienda de tatuajes y decidió hacerse un tatuaje en la cara (que me aclaró fue un proceso y llevó 7 u 8 años) fue una forma de decir “jódete sociedad” (‘Fuck you society’) porque no le gustaba la sociedad en la que vivía. Una vez empezó ese proceso no había marcha atrás. “Éste es mi aspecto final. Ésta es mi vida. Este es el sitio en el que me he colocado. Acepto la responsabilidad por todas mis decisiones. Así es como debe ser.”  Me comentó que no puede ser ninguna otra cosa a menos que se cubra la cabeza con una bolsa de papel, pero eso llamaría la atención aún más. (En la película y en el libro Scary explica que al principio tenía muchos tatuajes en el cuerpo pero los llevaba cubiertos con la ropa cuando iba a trabajar en una firma de informática, y al final decidió hacerse un tatuaje en el cuello y dejó ese tipo de trabajo, a sabiendas de que jamás podría volver a ese tipo de empleos.)

Seguimos hablando del destino y me comentó que mucha gente de diversas religiones le ha dicho que su papel en la vida, su función, es fruto de un poder superior. Él me dijo que siempre aceptaba las creencias de los demás y jamás les contradice y los respeta. Me dijo que quizás la muerte sea solo otro nacimiento, y que le resulta difícil de creer que una vez nos muramos, es simplemente como si no hubiéramos existido jamás, que es difícil creer que todo fue para nada, a menos que creamos que es todo solo para procrearnos y para la supervivencia de la especie. Mencionó que su vecino, Roy, había muerto hacía poco, un hombre con el que se sentía unido y eso le había hecho pensar más en la muerte y en el significado de la vida.

Scary me dijo que cree que todo lo que hace todo el mundo es residual y que ninguna persona es más poderosa que otra. Las acciones de todos tienen impacto y poder; ayudan a que se formen otras personas, a hacer cambios. Aunque todo el mundo tiene el mismo poder algunas personas son más conocidas que otras.

En el video y en el libro observé que trabaja con una gran variedad de personas y le pregunté qué tipo de trabajo le da más satisfacciones (aunque los trabajos aparecen en el momento oportuno) y me dijo que va a ir a los Estados Unidos en Agosto para trabajar en Andrews Air Force cerca de Washington DC. Me dijo que el Teniente Coronel James Armstrong le había pedido que vaya y les proporcione dos días de formación porque creen que el mensaje de Scary les será de ayuda. Me dijo que éste era un tipo de trabajo muy especializado y que siente que es un honor que le inviten a que se una a su comunidad y les ayude. Es una cosa muy importante, porque como Scary dijo, no es el tipo de persona en que tales instituciones pensarían en esas circunstancias. “Eh tú, tío tatuado ven aquí.” No, ese no es el tipo de persona al que se supone que deberían recurrir. Él no encaja con la imagen que la mayoría de gente tendría de a quién llamarían.

Le pregunté a Scary si había experimentado mucha oposición/criticismo de fuentes oficiales u otros lugares a su trabajo. Me dijo que la CNN se había dedicado a hacer lo que a él le pareció un descarado ataque de su carácter (“character assasination”). Me dijo que cuando se pusieron en contacto con él para hacer un programa de 20 minutos sobre él y su trabajo sospechó que probablemente intentarían presentarle de la peor forma posible, pero no le importó. Me dijo que de su programa de formación completo que dura 5 días (eso haría que alguien llegara a tener un buen conocimiento de las fundamentos básicos) los de la CNN estuvieron filmando durante tres días con dos cámaras, unas 60 horas de film y luego lo editaron y cortaron escenas, todo fuera de contexto. Ellos mostrando algunos sketches, historias y técnicas que él utiliza imitando comportamientos problemáticos de la gente. En el programa eso permite que la gente reflexione sobre sus comportamientos. Sin embargo sacado fuera de contexto como hizo la CNN, minimizan el contenido, significado y mensaje, probablemente porque no creen que deba trabajar con niños, basando su juicio en su aspecto físico.

Scary me dijo que aunque mucha gente aún cree que los medios de comunicación son “neutrales” y se limitan a informar sobre hechos, eso no es el caso en el día de hoy y es dudoso que pasase alguna vez. Siempre son reaccionarios y tienen su propia agenda. Me dijo que a pesar de eso lo hizo porque no existe la publicidad negativa y que de los millones de personas que llegaron a ver el programa, incluso si solamente 10000 se dieron cuenta del prejuicio de ese tipo de reportaje y se sintieron lo suficientemente curiosos como para buscar más información eso justificaba de sobras el esfuerzo. Me dijo que cuando habla con los medios de comunicación les dice: “Vosotros os creéis que me vais a usar a mí pero yo os voy a usar a vosotros” y que es un toma y daca. Me explicó que hacía unos años le había dicho al Manchester Evening News de Inglaterra que si querían vender muchos diarios bastaba con que pusieran su foto poniendo cara de asustar y en la primera página el título: Asesinatos, Crímenes, Suicidio, Muertes y en letra pequeña: lean la historia en la página 3. Y funcionó! Porque la prensa siempre busca noticias negativas para poner en primera plana y las malas noticias venden. Los medios de comunicación puede que quieran que la gente se asuste de él pero una vez leen la historia el mensaje que reciben es distinto.

Dentro de poco os traeré la última parte de la entrevista (de momento).

Aquí os dejo el enlace a la primer parte:

https://olganm.wordpress.com/2014/07/15/mi-reunion-con-the-scary-guy-el-tio-que-asusta-hay-on-wye-3rd-july-2014-parte-1/

Y los enlaces para que descubráis más cosas sobre Scary:

La página de Scary:

www.thescaryguy.com

Sigue a  Scary en su Facebook Fan Page

(https://www.facebook.com/thescaryguyfanpage)

La biografía de Scary : 7 Days & 7 Nights

(http://thescaryguy.com/product/7-days-and-7-nights/

Message of Scary to school children

(No puedo seguir viviendo mi vida fuera de mí mismo, echándole la culpa a los demás por mis acciones. Si voy a comprometerme con quien soy, también tendré que comprometerme con mis palabras y acciones. Son los que definen quién soy.)

Gracias a Scary y a Cathryn por su amabilidad, a vosotros por leer, y ya sabéis, is os ha interesado, dadle al me gusta, comentad, compartid y haced CLIC!

 

My meeting with The Scary Guy 2.

Hi all:

As you will remember a couple of weeks ago I brought you the first part of my interview with The Scary Guy, that I hope you enjoyed. Today I bring you the second one, where we talk about media, fate, changing names, and work…

Scary Guy Portrait

I asked Scary about changing his legal name to The Scary Guy. He told me it was on the 22^nd February 1998, in Tucson, Arizona in court. News, TV and other media were outside and it was quite full. The judge asked him some questions and he replied. She noted this was the strangest name change she’d presided over but the reasons were sound. I asked him if he missed his given name and he told me that his mother had chosen it but inside he was still him. His mother named him after her own father. On his father’s side they were descended from the UK. His mother was also interested in genealogy and had traced her tree back to 1610. She had found 17 ancestors called Thomas Buckingham, and thirteen of them were reverends. And again, ironically, Scary now lives across a church. He felt there was a sense of connection.

In the book there are reflections about fate and I asked him if he thought he was meant to be who he is and to do what he does now. Scary replied: “I am a purpose. This is not a job. This is my life, my life’s work. Not many people live their life’s work.” He told me that only when he is asleep, maybe then, he’s not at work and some people might feel that’s an obsession but that’s how things are. “This is who I am.”

He described it as a journey and he said that when he went to a tattoo artist and decided to have a tattoo on his face (which he clarified the whole process took several years, 7 or 8) he said it was because at the time, it was his way of saying “fuck you society” because he didn’t like the society he lived in. Once the process started there was no going back. “This is how I ended up looking. This is my life. This is the place where I put myself. I take responsibility for all my actions. It is meant to be this way.” He noted there is no way to live as anything else other than maybe covering his head with a paper bag, but that could call even more attention to himself! (In the film and the book Scary discussed how at first he had many tattoos on his body but these would be covered over when he went to work for an IT firm by his shirt and tie, until eventually he decided to have a tattoo on his neck and this was when he left that kind of job, knowing there was no way back to that kind of corporate employment.)

In further discussion of the issue of fate he told me that many people from different religious beliefs had told him his role in life is the fruit of a higher power. He said he always accepted their beliefs and would never try to contradict them and he recognised these were their belief systems. He commented that perhaps death is but another birth, and that he found it difficult to believe that once we die, it is simply as if we had never been, difficult to believe that it was all for nothing, unless we believe we’re only here for the reproduction of the species. He mentioned how his neighbour Roy had died recently, a man he felt close to and it had made him think even more about the subject of death and the purpose of life.

Scary told me he believes everything everybody does is residual, and nobody is more powerful than anybody else. Everybody’s actions have impact and power; it helps to form other people, to make a shift. Although everybody has the same power some people are better known than others.

I had seen in the video and read in the book about the variety of people he works with and asked him what kind of job give him more satisfactions (although they will come at the right time) and he told me he is due to go to the United States in August to work at the Andrews Air Force Base near Washington DC. He told me Lieutenant Colonel James Armstrong had asked him to go and provide training there for two days because they felt Scary’s message could help. He told me this is a very highly specialised work and he feels it is an honour to be invited to come into their community and help. It is a huge thing, because as Scary noted, he is not the kind of person the institution might think of in such circumstances. “Hey, bring in a tattooed man.” No, that’s not the kind of people they are supposed to defer to for help. He doesn’t fit in with the image most people would have of who they would call for help.

I asked Scary if he had had much opposition/criticism from any official sources or other quarters to his work. He told me that the CNN had engaged in what appeared to him to be blatant “character assassination”. He told me when they contacted him to do a 20 minutes feature of him, he suspected they might be planning to present him in a bad a light, but he did not mind. He told me of his 5 days full training program (the amount of training required that would get somebody conversant enough with the basics of what he teaches) CNN attended and filmed three full days with two cameras; nearly 60 hours of film and then edited it and cut it completely out of context.  They focused on some of the sketches, stories and techniques where he role-plays some of the common negative behaviours that people produce. In the show, this allows people to reflect on their own behaviour. However, taken out of context as CNN did, they minimised the content, meaning and message – probably because they did not feel he should work with children, all based in judgement of how he looks.

Scary said that although many people think the media are “neutral” and just report on facts, that is not the case now and it is doubtful it has ever been the case. They are always reactionary and they have their own agenda. He said that despite knowing all of this, that he still went ahead because there is no such thing as bad publicity and of the millions of people who might have seen the programme, even if as little as 10000 people saw through that kind of reporting and felt curious enough to do more research, that would have more than justified the effort. He told me he tells the media: “You think you’re going to use me, but I’m going to use you” and it is a trade-off. He explained how he told the Manchester Evening News in the UK that if they wanted to sell many newspapers they just needed to put a picture of him making a scary face in the front page with the headline: Murder, Killing, Suicide, Death and in very small letters: see the story on page 3. And it worked! Papers always look for negative information to put on the front page because bad news sells. The media might want people to be scared of him but when they read the story; they are going to get a different message.

This is the link to the previous post:

http://wp.me/p2OC9i-1iN

And links to get to know Scary better:

Scary’s Website:

www.thescaryguy.com

Join Scary on his Facebook Fan Page

(https://www.facebook.com/thescaryguyfanpage)

Scary’s Biography: 7 Days & 7 Nights

(http://thescaryguy.com/product/7-days-and-7-nights/)

Message of Scary to school children

Thank you very much for reading, thank you to Scary and Cathryn for their kindness, and help, and if you’ve enjoyed it,  you know what to do: like, share, comment, and of course CLICK!

My Meeting with The Scary Guy (Hay-on-Wye 3rd July 2014). Part 1.

Most of you will probably think I’m talking metaphorically here, and The Scary Guy is some spiritual thing I’m going through, a fear I have that I decided to confront,  I don’t know, writers’ block, therapy…But no, I’m not talking metaphorically. The Scary Guy is a real guy. I met him here in Hay-on-Wye. We were introduced by Anne, co-owner of Addyman Books, in the second week of my stay in Hay-on-Wye (at Tomatitos, the renowned Tapas Bar) and after having a general chat, Anne lent me his book and he gave me his card. As soon as I got home I checked his website as I was intrigued by the conversation and the work he had been telling us about. I was impressed by his ability to touch so many people and to make his message reach such wide variety of public, from school children to army personnel. It’s not easy to summarise briefly what he does (and as you see he puts it much better than me during the interview) but if I had to try and give you some idea before you go and explore his website and all the materials available, I’d say he talks to people about how to deal with prejudice, making sure that they understand that the best way to deal with the negative energy thrown at them is not to add their own negative energy. You cannot fight bad energy with more bad energy. The prejudice never is and should never become the problem of the victim of the prejudice. Scary uses his very personal style, his appearance, his personal experiences and his special way of connecting with people to deliver his message of love that appears incongruous at first sight. Defying conventions and challenging expectations is what the Scary Guy is about, and he’s tremendously successful at it.

The Scary Guy

We exchanged e-mails and he kindly offered to lend me a copy of the film made about him. I watched the film and I told him I’d like to talk about him in my blog but I was happy to share or post any materials he already had. He offered to do an interview instead. The more I read of the book and the more I thought about the movie the more I knew this would be an interesting conversation, even though I found it difficult to formulate specific questions. With just a few jotted down I went to meet Scary (and Cathryn Woodhall his wife, business partner, collaborator and as much a part of the project as he is). Scary and Cathryn live in a lovely cottage across a beautiful church (St Mary’s Church of England, recently refurbished and looking as good as new).

I must admit to not having much of an order set in my head and any jumping from item to item is up to me not Scary.

I told Scary I was reading the book written about him 7 Days and 7 Nights. An Official Biography of “The Scary Guy” by Mark David Hatwood. He noted that he has not written any books as reading and writing has never been one of his better skills and he learns in other ways. He told me that Cathryn is working on several books about him and what he does, because she’s “smart”. When we talked about the concept of smart he told me the considered himself rather than smart “different”. He talked about meeting young people and how they did not like to be considered “normal” and they didn’t like to be labelled normal. “Normal” has become a concept that does not work for much of the youth these days. He went on to expand and say that everybody is unique and it is improper to try and define somebody with a single word, as there are many variables that contribute to defining who we are: our behaviour, what we learn, how we learn, how we perceive things. Our minds are different and our bodies are different. He observed that there might be people who smoked all their lives and die of old age never having developed cancer, whilst somebody  else might die  young with fewer (on non) exposure. It is not only environmental; it is also down to one’s genes. We talked about research onto the possible effect of Nicotine in brain receptors, and how it is possible to find research stating the negatives of smoking but there are also studies looking at developing medication to act on Nicotine receptors positively. (Scary told me he smokes cigars only, maybe one a day when he is not on tour and he finds it relaxing and enjoys the ritual of it. It reminds him of the ‘old ways’ of human life, where men in the 50’s would go to the barber shop and share stories). Not that I’m encouraging smoking, I’m a doctor after all, although the comments are correct.

We discussed the nature of some of the current health and food research and how there is plenty of emphasis on the negative impact of a variety of things (sugar, fat, etc.). He told me he feels his Mother’s advice was the best, as she always advocated using common sense, and not have too much of one thing all the time to the exclusion of everything else, that the best is balance and not excess (as of course there are well known risks like diabetes, heart disease…from unhealthy diets), as the body needs variety. He showed me a box with chocolates and he told me it had been like that (full) for several weeks, and he might have two or three but would not eat them to excess.

I asked Scary who he looked up to. He told me his mother. He described her as a “closet genius”. Scary told me he didn’t find out how smart she was until she died. He told me he always felt she was different and they had a somewhat disconnected relationship with her when he was an adult. She was intelligent and humble, very private and quiet. She was also ahead of her time, in the way she thought about food, behaviour, religion…

Scary told me that he only discovered after she died that his mother had been interested in Astrology and had become an expert, that nobody knew and they found that she had done astrological charts on a lot of people. He felt he only discovered how his mother really was after her death and maybe he never really knew her before. His mother would never say anything negative about anybody. He noted that, ironically, he was now living just across a church (Church of England) and recalled how his mother would never make any negative comments about any religion. Scary’s mother was born and bred a Baptist. His mother took him and his brother (they were 6 and 5 years old) to the Baptist Church three or four times and never again. “She quit.” When he asked her years later why she had stopped going and taking them she told him that she did not like what they were telling her to do with her kids. He didn’t ask for an explanation at the time but in reflection he thought she referred to the way they did not encourage them to do things or to take responsibility for their behaviour.

St Mary’s Church in Hay-on-Wye, still undergoing renovations

To illustrate his mother’s character Scary told me that when they would go out he would “egg her on”, encourage her to make fun at people or make comments about them (if they were fat, or looked peculiar…) but she would always tell him: “Stop it. Stop being crass.” He never managed to influence her to behave in such a negative way. He never had a chance to ask how she had come to be like that. Scary told me that his challenge was to see if he could do the same, to stop being negative about people. His mother died March 16^th 1993, 21 years ago.

I asked him what he found most difficult when trying to change his behaviour. He told me he found quite difficult to stop judging people. He said he finds that kind of behaviour in others too all the time. As an example he told me he had walked into Hay’s chemist, where he knows the people working there quite well and there were two female customers at the counter talking and when they saw him they laugh out loud. Sarah, from the shop, didn’t laugh and said, quite loudly: “That wasn’t me. And it wasn’t any of the others who work here either.” Scary commented to the two female customers who had laughed, how of the 7 billion people in the world at least 6 billion would laugh at him, and the 6 billion who laugh would also be the ones to end up hiring him to get over their stuff! Scary observed that his comment might be initially lost on them!

Scary said that he used to be always quick to judge and make decisions and at the time he would have thought of himself as “good at categorising and stereotyping.” He would put people in neat boxes so he believed he would know how to deal with them and on many occasions he’d be wrong. Now he does not do that and he observed such behaviour might cloud people’s perception and interaction (putting as an example what he might have thought I’d be like based on the information he had about me).

Scary is a man with many tattoos as you will have noticed in his pictures and the story of how his tattoos came to being is well detailed in the book and movie. I wanted to ask him if there was a particular plan or an overall design he had been working towards at the time of his tattoos (although it did not seem that way, at least at the beginning). He told me he enjoys tattoos and that is one of the reasons why in the past he had 3 tattoo parlours, because he didn’t have space left for more tattoos so to carry on enjoying them he decided to tattoo other people. He told me there was no specific design he had worked towards, and he would decide in the moment, depending on what felt good at the time. He told me that due to his problems with reading and writing he did not learn by reading books, and he would mostly learn by observation in an experiential form. He would do whatever felt appropriate in real time at the moment, based on his perception. He gave me as an example a tattoo in his wrist; a barcode. He told me that a long time ago, as long as 20 or 30 years ago, he went to the supermarket and as he was queuing to pay he noted the woman at the till passing a tin over the glass register panel and as she did the register would speak: tin of bins so many cents. He was fascinated and asked her how it did that and she explained that the reader read the code and it could retrieve lots of information. He was fascinated by that idea and designed his bar code tatoo based on a Campbell Soup Tin, but he added the lettering ‘Generic Brand’ in reverse that he could only read if he looked it up to a mirror.

Scary and his LOVE tattoo

Scary talked about how fascinated he had been at the time with the possibilities of such a system of codifying information and how he could see microchips being used for all kinds of things, including on humans. This topic got us talking about government controls, IDs, etc. He told me he accepted that the government, any government, would have to have access to certain data and observed that due to the kind of work he did he had had to send his data to the FBI to check that he had no criminal records. He acknowledged the importance of background checks. He said that he is not pro control for control’s sake but there is also the fact that some people are criminal and psychopaths and can cause plenty of harm to others and so having background checks can at least minimise such instances. We briefly discussed the latest controversy about Facebook and their experiments controlling people’s moods and interactions and he observed that it goes to prove, as he believes, that people are mostly reactive to the environment.

Scary and I were talking for quite a while so we decided we’d bring you the interview in several parts. But, if you want to find out more about him, you don’t need to wait until the next installment here. I leave you links so you can explore by yourselves.

Scary’s Website:

www.thescaryguy.com

Join Scary on his Facebook Fan Page

(https://www.facebook.com/thescaryguyfanpage)

Scary’s Biography: 7 Days & 7 Nights

(http://thescaryguy.com/product/7-days-and-7-nights/)

Thank you very much for reading, thank you to Scary and Cathryn for their kindness, and help, and if you’ve enjoyed it,  you know what to do: like, share, comment, and of course CLICK!