Jim's inspirations

[mupcollector1]

I sort of wanted to bring this up for awhile. One of the things that I find fascinating to people who inspire me is to learn about their inspirations. I'm not sure if Disney was one of Jim Henson's influences but I remember hearing that Pogo was one of his top influences in his work. Does anyone know if there was any other? I'm sure that possibly Monty Python's Flying Circus influenced The Muppet Show quite a bit in the later episodes because that's when the show got sillier and funnier.

But I didn't want to just ask about Jim's art influences but also his unique positive thinking as well as well as this business marketing sense. Does anyone know of any kind of books he read? I heard he really liked the Seth series which I guess is like an inner voice spirituality kind of thing. I would love to read it.

Also I wonder if the theory of "The Law of Attraction" influenced him as well. Because there was a quote from Jim which I didn't get for a long long time "During adolescence, people start to believe that the world is after then either it's their teachers doing it to them or even their parents. But at some point they need to realize that it's them doing it to themselves and sometimes it's as simple as turning on a light switch or a slow realization." I remember thinking, WHA? Because I lived my life in depression and loneliness, and verbal abuse and was bullied most of my life. But I just recently read about The Law of Attraction and it's changed my thinking to the positive and now that quote makes sense to me. So I'm not sure if Jim knew about this theory or not.

And it's hard to say if Christian Science was still a part of Jim's life as an adult (and I won't get too much into that because I don't want to violate the rules on the forum). However it's true that Jim was very very spiritual. According to "It's Not Easy Being Green And Other Things To Conciser" Jim has quoted that he meditates every morning and tries to thank people who he felt negative towards, among other quotes.

Anyway I love the book, I find it very inspiring. And it's so rare to see a person like Jim who was very calm and pationt while lots of Hollywood film industry folk are yelling and screaming and acting like angry children. I think Jim proved that you can accomplish anything if you believe in yourself and can forum your own lives without the need of yelling and scaring people with anger.

That's amazing And I admire that a lot. So I figure I start this forum to see if anyone knows of Jim influences in his art work, business and his unique positive thinking

 

[Hubert]

Regarding the people who inspired Jim: I sorta think I read that Walt Disney was a main one, and I also know that Edgar Bergen was someone who he really admired. I think George Burns may have been, too. (It's interesting how he eventually got to work with both.)

I'm not sure if he did know about the theory...honestly, it wouldn't have surprise me if he didn't. It just seems that somehow he had some inspirational sense that he came up with these things...many without any sort of research behind it.

Regarding Christian Science: I do know that Jane Henson had said sometime after his death that though he didn't practice the religion, his upbringing in it really influenced and shaped his thoughts, that a lot of his thinking actually had been evolved from that religion.

And yeah...I really do agree about that last part. It amazes me how Jim never seemed to get angry...it's something I try to follow, and believe me, it's tough. He really did prove that you can accomplish anything...and he was sure to give that message to us. We have a hefty job, carrying on the legacy of Jim.