Why Cable Access Television is Waking Up to Wyatt Ehrenfels

The hour interview with Wyatt Ehrenfels aired at 5:30 PM and again at 11:30 P.M. on September 20, 21, and 22, and will air once more on the 23rd. In promoting the appearances, Wyatt Ehrenfels has dispatched local evangelists to disperse thousands of color fliers and address residents at bookstores, malls, universities, and transportation hubs. The author himself worked his way into classrooms where psychology courses were regularly scheduled, posting fliers on the walls.

"I was thrilled to be granted this audience," remarked Ehrenfels. "I want to extend my gratitude to George Mason University undergraduates, who received me warmly over the course of the week. I enjoyed many stimulating conversations with students interested in my programs of research and in what the future of Psychology may hold for them." One student in particular reported her intention to raise the work of the social psychologist as a topic for discussion in her Social Psychology class. "And there's nothing more satisfying than walking through the halls to occasionally find students examining the flier." In one instance, one student was seen browsing the web site on one of the PCs directly beneath a flier in the David King building hallway. "This was my first opportunity to witness firsthand the effects of my promotion in a live college setting... A few students from George Mason University had been trying to persuade me to visit the area, and while one student's efforts to arrange an on-campus speaking engagement were obstructed by concerned faculty, there was nothing to prevent me from making a few 'timely but impromptu' visits to this campus to speak with students and stump for my program. The students, who are quite proud of their home city, relish the idea of being the nation's most avid readers and consumers of books. After spending some time in their metro system, where it seems everyone is reading and where publishers pay to advertise the works of their authors -- and after spending a number of hours with Mason students, I wouldn't doubt it for a minute."

The interviews debuted over the months of May and June for the benefit of three densely populated Northern New Jersey counties in OKTV's viewing area. The program, titled Alternatives, also boasts such nationally reputable guests as Presidential candidates Ralph Nader and John Hagelin, actress Rita Moreno, and researcher Robert Cohen. Wyatt Ehrenfels expressed enthusiasm for the new venues, citing the viewing areas as ideal battlegrounds for his effort to reform policies and procedures at the heart of institutionalized Psychology. "This is it. This is what we've been waiting for," he proclaimed.

PATV, Iowa City

Wyatt Ehrenfels's interviews with OKTV are currently being broadcast by PATV serving the Iowa City-Coralville viewing area. Listed as 'Alternatives' in the PATV program guide, the interview have been airing regularly over the summer, most recently July 30, July 31, and August 1. Future program dates include:

August 3, 12:30 PM (I)
August 3, 07:30 PM (II)
August 5, 01:00 PM (I)
August 8, 11:00 AM (II)
September 9, 6:00 PM (I & II)

The schedule may include as-yet-unannounced broadcasts. Wyatt Ehrenfels is looking forward to promoting the September 9 broadcast for the benefit of psychology majors at the University of Iowa and wishes to thank PATV programmer Emily Ashenfelter for reserving the extended September time slot.

Re-capping the OKTV Experience

PART I of Wyatt's interview with Al DiGiacomo, which aired twice weekly in May for three densely populated Northern New Jersey counties, addressed his dream research with cancer patients, adverse impact for dream researchers, and Wyatt's criticisms of Psychology's 'para-skeptical' neglect and distortion of this phenomenon. PART II, which aired twice weekly in June, addressed Wyatt's critique of Psychology and the recently released expose, Fireflies in the Shadow of the Sun (Click here to order), drawing from real dreams, dream research, and real political drama ripped from the diary of the author and others in an effort to depict the relationship between dreaming and waking experience and the real life struggle of four graduate students to pursue the truth about dreaming in an academic culture inhospitable to the study of dreams. Topics covered by the interview included Wyatt's wildly popular "Shadow DSM" (in which he turns the DSM back on the psychological community to diagnose the diagnosticians), his critique of Psychology research and education policy and procedures, the managed neglect and distortion of psychologistic phenomena by psych professors, adverse impact for dream researchers, and efforts by psychology department faculty in Northern Virginia to scuttle efforts by students to arrange for university-approved venues for Ehrenfels to address students on campus (e.g., George Mason University).

OKTV has given consent for other public access channels to share the interviews with its viewing audiences. A public access channel serving the borough of Manhattan expressed interest in broadcasting the interviews. Wyatt had this to say about the event: "It was exhilarating. The opportunity. The pressure. Expectations were high. You know, you spend years wordsmithing and windowdressing that package of messages for your web site, and you'd like to reproduce those statements verbally, and you want to do it with clarity and impact, and I accomplished that today. Over Al (DiGiacomo)'s shoulder I could see my wife and the program's director Elsebeth throwing their whole bodies their mutual thumbs' up, both smiling heartily and shaking their heads as if to say 'yes,' and I knew I was not alone in feeling like I brought my best stuff that day. There's no greater feeling than that. Sure, for every idea I delivered, there were five or six supporting ideas or anecdotes I did not have time for, and that sort of nagged me throughout, but there's only so much you can do in two 24-minute segments. So you say what you can and refer the viewing audience to your book and web site. Like I told Elsebeth, there's enough here for a college course, and she drew from her extensive experience as program director to help put me in a more focused mindset before taping began. OKTV has played host to some spirited political debates and notable guests have included consumer advocate and Green Party Presidential candidate Ralph Nader, Natural Law candidate John Hagelin, actress Rita Moreno, and researcher Robert Cohen. I am honored and grateful that they wanted to make me a part of Alternative's intellectual tradition. But basically, there was a choice I knew I would have to make well ahead of the taping and didn't end up making until a minute into the icrebreaker segment on my dream research. A choice between presentational styles. On the one hand, I wanted to appear cool, conversational, and anecdotal, but I ultimately opted to forgo that demeanor in favor of looking like I had too much to say for the time alotted. Like controlled bursts of semiautomatic weapon fire, my speech was rapid and dense in places, but always cogent and always coherent. I knew this tape would eventually make the rounds on public access channels, and it was generous of Al to suggest I distribute this tape. A representative of a public access channel serving the Borough of Manhattan already phoned me to express her interest in adding the interview to their Summer or Autumn schedule. Al also mentioned he would recommend to local libraries that they carry Fireflies in the Shadow of the Sun. It was exhilarating. This program will open doors. Thanks."

fireflySun.com On Why Cable Television Is Coming Around to Wyatt Ehrenfels

"Cable access is beginning to come around and should come around," proclaims a source from within the Ehrenfels camp. "Wyatt talks to a lot of people in his community. He introduces himself daily to D.C. metro riders, residents of highly trafficked D.C. streets, students at local colleges, tourists at the National Mall. He's overwhelmed by the appetite many of these people have for the work he's doing and claims to derive enjoyment from the personal contact. "This is where it's at," remarked Ehrenfels. "This is why I became an author. I enjoy the indepth discussions with those individuals interested in my work or in my campaign." When he is done pitching his book and handing out his flier, he is often detained for questions about dreaming and about the opposition of psych profs to students and colleagues who want to make a living studying dreams in a university setting, where dream research is grossly under-represented. "D.C. metropolitan residents [which include residents of Southern Maryland and Northern Virginia] are the most discerning people in the world. Understanding what I mean when I say that Psychology policies and procedures behave like prejudices, they want to know more, and I mean they don't want to wait to read the web site. I have enjoyed many supportive and edifying conversations on my daily journey across the Metro system's Orange, Blue, and Red lines."

While many people find what he has to say both fascinating and disquieting, Wyatt Ehrenfels is delighted to meet the occasional Metro rider finishing his own sentences. And when Wyatt encounters a rider who does not take a personal interest in the book or campaign, he is often met with the statement beginning, "I know someone who...". "Many D.C. residents know someone who is either in the field or who has some grievance with the field. In the latter cases, we're usually talking about residents acquainted with people who were either surprised they could not find work with a B.A. in Psychology, who were disappointed with the education, or who know someone in Psychology -- a roommate or neighbor -- they do not like very much."

Although he's still an obscure author, Wyatt was surprised to learn a few people he met on the D.C. streets claimed to be familiar with his book title. "They never seem to be able to recount exactly where they learned of the book, but they insist nevertheless they know that title." And you know, Wyatt brings something else to the table. When cable access producers invest in Ehrenfels, they get promotion. Wyatt finds odious the idea that no one will watch the program he worked so hard to prepare for, and so he finds a way to reach people in that community through the Internet and advertise the program, as he did with OKTV. For his OKTV show, he e-mailed -- and is e-mailing -- students of Montclair State University and William Paterson University and faculty at Ramapo College and Fairleigh Dickinson University, which is actually where he got started in Psychology at the age of 13."

For a number of psychology professionals, students, and non-degree holding supplicants, word of Wyatt Ehrenfels's two-episode agreement with OKTV, serving three counties widely regarded as the metropolitan suburbs of New York, brought sheer dismay. Just as the residents of Psychology Nation fashioned a new strategy for coping with Wyatt's diversifying media portfolio (which includes 4-page article solicited by the editors of New Therapist Magazine), which amounts to isolating OKTV as an example of substandard community programming, the author and expatriated social psychologist reported renewed hope in his quest to expand media outlets. A source close to Wyatt Ehrenfels dislosed that the Ehrenfels camp only recently implemented a broad outreach strategy. "After this initial period in which our [OKTV] announcement appeared to have broken the backs of our opposition, some of our detractors began pointing out that OKTV is and will remain the only outlet for our campaign to reform Psychology education and research policies and procedures. But OKTV was one of two cable access stations to respond favorably to a pitch that we submitted to only 6 stations in the local area." According to the unnamed source, the reason for the restricted search was strategic. "We needed a local station, some place Wyatt could get to with minimum expenditure and which could produce a tape that we could then mail out to any station that responded favorably to a second and unrestricted round of mailings. OKTV was a big win for us if you see the tapes, and we now have exactly the instrument we need in these tapes to go national. And OKTV is nothing to sneeze at. They bring a level of professionalism to cutting edge people and issues. Some stations want to be handmaidens of local institutions, which in our opinion, upsets the balance of power in society by denying citizens a voice. Some stations will not entertain your pitch without a local sponsor. Ehrenfels, who brings what we like to call his unique brand of anti-establishmentarian iconoclasm, may not be able to make inroads with producers who televise flea markets and puppet shows, but I don't tune in to public access to watch some guy cast his lure into the local fishing hole. And if a station has ever televised a college professor or member of the APA, [it] should responsibly televise Wyatt Ehrenfels even though he does not represent an institution. Because in a way, he does. And he does it better than those in whose charge we have placed these institutions."

Wyatt Ehrenfels Visits American University. Plans Fall Blitz of Local Campuses

Wyatt Ehrenfels kicked off his university tour with a visit to The American University in the nation's capital. The author (Fireflies in the Shadow of the Sun) and social psychologist went to "plan B" after efforts to arrange for university-sponsored speeches failed. "I contacted a number of campus officials by phone at a number of schools in university-rich Washington D.C., but they found creative ways of denying me a speaking engagement on campus, even when I posed as a career counselor with information vital to students' professional development, the labor market, and life after the bacceleaureate. I even tried personally posting some rather benign fliers in places widely recognized as campus bulletin boards which, in some cases, drew e-mails from school officials threatening to fine me. But I was not to be denied. I wish I could have chalked my new game-winning strategy up to an epiphany (the kind that hits you during your morning shower), but I owe the idea to an American University student. She seemed to think that if students were anything like her, they'd be pleased to help out an author who approached them on campus to discuss his work. And she was right! The American University students welcomed me into their community. I found them interested in discussing my work and willing, if not eager, to post my fliers in their residence halls. In so doing, these students allowed me to better manage my time and resources and to gain access to restricted areas that receive heavy student traffic."

Ehrenfels has learned that many of his primary points of contact (PPCs), the students to whom he personally introduced himself on campus, follow-up by e-mail to inform him that that they found the web site a stimulating source of vital career information as well as interesting ideas for reform of Psychology education and research policies and procedures. By all indications, the web site spurs PPCs to broach the subject of Wyatt Ehrenfels with other students (e.g., "Check out this web site. I met the author on campus today").

"I owe a lot to these students and particularly to the student who told me how to 'get it done.' I think this unstructured and personal approach will prove more effective than the contained speeches scheduled and approved by university officials, many of whom are denying their students by denying me an opportunity to address them. This is most egregious when the idea or effort to arrange a speaking engagement is initiated by the students themselves, many of whom lobby for my appearance after reading my posts and reviewing my web site, as was the case at George Mason University, where at least one psychology professor rebuked a graduate student for her efforts to schedule me for a weekly brown-bag luncheon. As a student leader within the psychology department, she discussed the arrangements as if they were routine. However, despite her initial enthusiasm, communications broke down after an e-mail in which the dismayed student alluded to the reproach, and it remains unclear whether she was instructed not to respond to my e-mails beyond that disclosure. One visitor to my web site asked me what I would say to the GMU faculty, a question I had not entertained, but to which I answer, "I don't have anything to say to them personally, but if you happen to cross paths with a GMU professor, tell him (or her) I'm coming."