TODD WHEATLEY __ DR-KNOW : IQ-2k ; Dallas TX

During the spring of 2022 the power of genetics brought a momentus change to my long held identity and added a whole new chapter of life's weirdness. Hopefully my book, "Dirty Nasty Hell...", will be published so I can add more detail. For now my blog series, "What are the odds", contains some of that weirdness. At any rate the Ancestery.com genetics test brought the unusual circumstances of my birth and subsequent adoption by the Wheatley's into full view. Since it's obvious that you don't get to choose your parents, my early choices had profound consequences. In fact, as I put it together now, every lucky break and every nasty turn pushed me closer to my destiny ... such as it is. I've put in an extreme amount of work yet from the very beginning it seems I was destined to become DR-KNOW (doctor know).

Basic genetics obviously played its role. After that, science tells us that the general environment activates a person's genes to help create physiological responses.On top of that the nurture provided by my adoptive parents and extended family brings the final touches. Even still the number of unusual circumstances, chance encounters, and behinds the scenes events create a compelling arguement of FATE vs. FREE WILL. Clearly I was free to make my choices. Though how free are they with so much outside influence. Eastern cultures refer to those human contacts and various breaks (good & bad) as karma. Presumably I have some control over my karma. Although what accounting has been given to one's birth and early childhood. So whether you call it karma, kismet, fate, or destiny, the early formative effects cannot be denied. Otherwise I would have been an enlisted airman, an air force pilot, a civil engineer, a software designer ... law clerk, real estate broker, or a bum. However in 1988 I found my passion and direction in life by becoming an INFORMATION SPECIALIST. My subsequent trademark and nom de guerre: DR-KNOW.

Again, I have to wonder if it was fate was involved since I felt the force of the "universe" by the age of five. People of faith would have no problem making this connection. My limited forray into Christian religion did nothing to explain or guide my interactions with the "universe" at an early age. I was mostly alone to navigate the world and the vagaries of the universe. Fortunately the guidance of neighboring parents and school teachers helped fill the void that adoption had placed within me. Whether discounted or not the aide of the "village" plays a role in everyones life. Though I'm certain that adopted children with unknown backgrounds have the same void that I felt and seek some means to fill it. By junior high I found intellectual stimulation wonderfully pleasing and some school teachers fostered my development. Most notably Andy Zapata, my 7th & 8th grade math teacher and slide rule coach. He was there through junior high and all the way through to high school graduation. He even help me compete in slide rule after we moved to another school district.

Next were the parents of Vince Richardson. They took in all neighboring kids and built the only tennis court outside of the school grounds. Just a bit more culture to our rural Texas town. Finally, peewee football, boy scouts, and other activities allowed me to make friends and become part of a larger community. So despite a disadvantaged birth I still got a quick start on life. in fact all the pieces had been put together by the time I reached the 8th grade. That's when my uncle took me flying for the first time. Due to the weather his efforts didn't go smoothly and that extra time was just the catalyst that helped captured my soul. The first time we tried to go it was too windy to fly the TSA pilots pulled out the beer and reel-to-reel travelogues. We watched several that day including one that featured the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA). I wasn't a fan of the "thermal juice" (beer) and would not have partaken if offered. At that time it was somewhat common for younger people to be offered a single indulgence. After all, the drinking age was 18. Needless to say it was a different timeand a different place. During the mid-70s the Texas Soaring Association had a number of colorful charaters including Hans, a German Luftwaffe colonel from World War II. I never got to see him fly, but he gave me the greatest gift of all .... a course catelog of the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) .... I was hooked.

I must have flipped through the USAFA catelog a thousand times and imagined being there. Thinking about it now, my real desire was just to attend and experience the "fun". So just before 8th grade (1975 - age 13) I submitted a request for admission. It was a simple letter, as I recall, to "get the ball rolling". As much for myself as those in receipt. The amusing response outlined an admissions process that begins as a junior in high school ; NOT junior high. Regardless of my amusement it was both official and polite. It wasn't a rebuke to my youth .... It was a confirmation .... acknowledgement of a long-term goal that inspired perseverance and a thirst for adventure. From that point it became a single-minded quest to shape a personal profile worthy to attend a U.S. military academy. Five years later it would be a dream come true and would start the trek of fate. By the start of my third summer I had risen to the top; Group Staff and then Wing Staff. Again, a dream come true. There had been some major hiccups including being "dumped" by two girls. Still, what was once disadvantaged and akward had shifted. Which brings up a great movie quote:

Broadcast News (1987) ___________ William Hurt, "What do you do when your real life exceeds your dreams?!" Albert Brooks, "You keep it to yourself."

Losing that dream would exact a heavy price. Not only in my long-term finances, but also my psychological well being. It would be an psychic tsunami that would last to this very day. I had had a very dismal semester. Ironically I would have another one five years later, but only because I neglected to file for incompletes. In 1983 I "booted" three years into the program. On the surface I knew what had happened and why. Yet deeper it was a shock to the brain that took more than two decades to understand .... PTSD. Nothing as severe as my former comrades in arms would experience after Iraq and Afghanistan. Fortunately my initial pain was dampened by a window of opportunity .... a two-year window to graduate from UTA and become an air force pilot. On paper my "academic disenrollment" (official USAFA terminology) would be just another hiccup. All was not lost, but the psychological damage was done. Nearly every night for two years the same dream haunted my sleep .... every night I would be readmitted to USAFA only to flunk out ... again and again ... and again. Thirty-seven years later some hybridized version occasionally finds a way to disturb my slumber. In December 1989 I started keeping a journal of my dreams partly in response to the trauma they were causing. Many of the hand written log have transcribed and shown on this website.

By 1989 the twists and turns of fate had landed me squarely into a passion that has yet to provide a profit and one that defines my personal IDENTITY .... ultimately that identity would morph into the DR-KNOW persona. Though initially I was simply an INFORMATION BROKER (sep.1987). Today you might think of Google as the model I started .... ALL KNOWLEDGE. Today it's been more than 36 years and I'm still working on it. The issue of fate, however, colored much of my early work. The dream log, for example, was a response to the extensive research performed for my first client. Initially she wanted to start a holistic health clinic with aroma therapy, crystals, and the whole nine yards. The information I researched also included sleep studies. So my dream research was a natural extension. Her idea proved cost prohibitive so I followed her excursion into the psychic arts and included the research as a part of ALL KNOWLEDGE. Over time I became good at tarot reading, palm reading, and some astrology. The DREAM LOG was a more personal project. My initial line of inquiry would not be diffinitively answered for more than twenty-five years: IS PRECOGNITION POSSIBLE WITHIN DREAMS?! .... IT IS! Though I have not found a way to control it.

During my youth I could sense mystical forces at work in my life, but I had no real proof besides a number of amazing coincidences. Now, at the age of 27, the chance to have documented evidence prompted the creation of the dream journal (1989-to-pres). It now contains over 2100 entries. It's strange to think that an odd business relationship coupled with a highly recurring dream would lead to thirty plus years of documented effort. Ultimately I would find that PRECOGNITION in dreams does exist. I have documented several minor incidences and at least two irrefutable cases of PRECOGNITION. I haven't found anything exceptionally profound to the public at large (sg. terrorist plot, virus outbreak, lottery numbers). In fact each hand written dream involving PRECOGNITION was connected to my personal life. However, the fact that it exists is profound in its own right and suggests that FATE may also exist.

My final reference to dreams in this text comes from the opposite end of the spectrum _ DAY DREAMS. As I recount in my first book, "The Information eQuation", the convoluted creation of DR-KNOW sprang from a highly developed day-dream about Mars colonization. If you are curious, it is available on this website: Chapter 1 "The Information eQuation". Click on the link from my home page. That account tells of a long winding path and a passion that became greater than flying, greater than the military, and greater than anything I imagined. Though this passion also carried a heavy price. So it seems appropriate to go back and start with the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) in the summer of 1980 .... It was strange, wonderful, and full of MAGIC with the odd coincidences I noticed from my youth. It started from the first day of basic training. The night before I had "encountered" Jim Raggio. The next day I would find out he was my assigned roommate. Of all the people in our class it was a curious quirk of FATE to put a pair of like minded characters together. We were at the top of every trouble list with him mostly skating through and me suffering the consequences. Yet I would not have missed the fun for anything.

The three years that followed were filled with wonderful adventures. The scenery was unparalleled and then there was the smell. I've since been drawn to the fresh smell of cedar and afternoon thunderstorms that seem regular as clock work. As one of three freshman with a pilot's license I was put in the glider program and slated to train other cadets after getting an instructor certificate. That too did not end well. I did manage to have several glider flights, a cross-country trip in a single-engine plane, two flights in a T-37 jet, and a great deal more including an ill-fated trip to West Point. Never mind all the trouble that followed. I achieved rank and authority by the end of my second year (1982). Unfortunately this is where the story begins to turn because becoming an air force pilot meant that I had to take many classes that didn't interest me in the least. Ironically one of the was aerodynamics. I didn't know it at the time, but in 1983 I started forging ideas that would define my personality. I began considering the benefits of using a software approach to information input (ie. learning). My studies faltered as my mind wandered. Prior to 1983 my life was becoming the ultimate success story. I had "magically" became Cadet in Charge of Command Post during the summer of 1982. There were no instruction and no time to prepare. Just good luck and make it work! As the next fall semester started my command post "job" changed from Group Staff to Wing Staff .... the elite of the school. I was part of a small group (including Jim Raggio) that rotated in the night watch. For a short time I had everything except "the girl". Then by the end of the semester I failed rocket science (advanced differential equations). That in itself wasn't so bad, but I also performed very poorly in other classes and then there was my demerit issue .... centurion first class. All-in-all, bad enough that I got the "boot".

Again, while not totally kicked to curb, I was given a two-year window of opportunity. A chance to regain a shattered identity. Unfortunately everything moved so quickly there was no time to think. I simply accepted the crazy path I was offered and ran on autopilot. All I had to do was finish my degree in two years and a pilot's slot was mine. The first adjustment was "full-ride" to fend for yourself. So I worked full-time to pay the bills and carried a full load of classes to finish on time. Not so bad as it would seem at first, but then came the thing that no one mentioned ... several classes did not transfer into my degree program. Who cares that I made an "A" in Pascal programming at the USAFA ... UTA required FORTRAN, a dinosaur language on PUNCH CARDS (punched fucking cards!!!). Then the stupidity multiplied .... International Affairs was no good ... you have to take Texas Politics ... and on ... and on. I was so totally screwed it's no wonder my grades went downhill again. More importantly, time was growing short. Oddly, there was a mixture of angst and relief as the window closed. What would happen didn't matter anymore I was stuck in automatic and going at full speed. By then I was flying in my spare time even though I knew I would never fly for the air force. I had never considered flying for the airlines and wasn't persuing a flying career. Instead there was nothing left to do. Just follow the plan, check the boxes, and become a civil engineer after I finished my degree. Yet what about FATE?!

About a year into starting this new path I had been working as a draftsman working on architectural plans for a hydraulic elevator company. That led to a drafting job for a civil engineering firm. A couple of years later I passed the engineer-in- training exam and became a civil engineer racking up job experience towards becoming a licensed professional. All I needed to do was graduate. By now I had more than six years invested having started college before graduating high school. Nevertheless the college experience is riddled with traps. I had strayed OFF PLAN and the "Adjustment Bureau" worked overtime. The strange coincidences flowed like water. BUT WHAT WAS THE PLAN?? From a very early age "magic" and happenstance pushed me forward. By 1985 my successes had advanced me from a draftsman to a civil engineer without the college degree. Sadly my arrogance provided the final kick. I quit my job in the middle of a recession. Ultimately I would not become a civil engineer. I would not have the comfortable life that a bachelor's of science degree would provide. Long-story short, I found direction. Even more than that I found a drive as strong and clear as the one that got me into the USAFA. All it took to become an INFORMATION BROKER (sept.1987) was 9 years of college education, a tremendous amount of heartbreak, and a boatload of hard work. In time my chosen moniker would transition into INFORMATION SPECIALIST and then DR-KNOW. One could argue that it was a "natural" evolution. A combination of all my interests. I would run a storehouse of information and have answers for every question .... ALL KNOWLEDGE .... which raises an interesting existential question: was it predestined? FATE?

END-of-PART-1

COLLEGE EXPERIENCE
UTA - Univ. of Texas as Arlington
USAFA
Texas Tech
Weatherford College
-------------------
250+ semester hrs.

Fields of study>
CIVIL ENGINEERING, PRE-LAW, BUSINESS MARKETING,
real estate & military leadership

Bachelor's degree --UTA (2009)
INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES

note>
Avg.# semester hrs.
Bachelor's degree = 125

Avg.# semester hrs.
Master's degree = 180

Avg.# semester hrs.
PhD = 250