[Freddy]

Shadow People

[Art]

Interesting article. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men....The Shadow knows!

In tune with the old Beatles song, "I saw her standing there" I think....

Shadow Company

The Shadow of Your Smiles

Me and My Shadow strolling down the avenue

--------------------------------------------

But seriously...

The article implies that there is a certain type of learned behavior that seems to be passed
along each generation.

How does a mother know to nurture her young?

How does a seagull know to fly high with a clam shell then drop it to the beach hoping that
it breaks open to eat?

When you smile at a young baby why does it smile back? Imitation or learned from instinct?

There are a lot of examples and little real explanation.

The brain is still one of man's largest untapped resources. The more we learn about it, the more
we might know why we do the things we do.

I've seen real psychics help police solve crimes, sometimes looking through the eyes of the
criminal and sometime through the eyes of the victim. How can they accomplish these tasks?
Is this another example of a learned behavior, a taught behavior or the result of an accidental
blow to the head / brain, stimulating an area that the rest of us are unable to access?

Much to learn...little time....

[dan]

I heard years ago and it made me think about this learning ability, that when people crossed the Bering Strait in to the Americas it was only a few generations and they had entered South America.  Which means each generation had to learn survival in all of the possible environments along the way.  Fishing, hunting, etc. through mountains, deserts, rain forests.  Which really indicates how fluid, changeable, and adaptable the human brain can be.  The lifespan then was probably only into the twenties which makes it even more remarkable.

[Freddy]

It makes me wonder how sceince got such a share hold in defining the world when spiritualists knew about this kind of thing already.

That's the trouble with science sometimes it almost seems like you can have a sign post telling you the way to Timbuktoo, and that'll be enough, science (if applied) wants to know where the paint came from that wrote the sign.

By the time that's been worked out, Timbuktoo isn't there any more.

Seems like the road goes a few ways though and you have to decide on one or maybe go for a chance on somewhere in between.

If spiritual understanding is your goal choose the path into experience and the unknown, for science stay at the signpost, debate and write it in a book until enough people agree on it to stay there and believe it for a while..

I hate (hmm maybe more like a bitter-sweet thing) that part of science though, the bit where once something mysterious gets explained it just ain't mysterious anymore...sometimes I wish they would leave things alone so there's some entertainment.

[GamerThom]

Ahhh! The obstrusive nature of meta-physics, trying to bridge the gap
between mankinds spiritual nature and scientific curiousity.   :azn

[Freddy]

Arrgh, sorry me hearty I changed my ramblings, but board my ship, cos it is true that the out of body experience aforementioned as the muse did appear - whilst I was thoughtful of her aquaintance - is something that the doubtful would want to fade from view.

Whilst in the quiet nook the others knew all the truths about it, tis only now the humble scientist does raise an eyebrow and exclaim from chemicals and burning potions that something does hide within the shadow.

To quote (cough..ahem) hmm...ahhhgh..."better get used to ghost stories...you're in one!"

[Art]

It's similar to a magician's trick or illusion.

The first time you see it, you're mystified, entertained, baffled....
If the magician should show you the same trick a second time,
you're now looking for the modus operandi...the method...how!

First time's entertaining, second time's educating.

Poof, the mystery and evtertainment is gone and you see how
a thin filament caused the card to "float" instead of there being
any magic involved. Did we want to believe in magical powers or
did we just want to be entertained? By showing or revealing how
the trick was done, did the magician lose credibility or did he provide
an enhanced level of respect for being clever?

Humans like to be entertained whether it be through magic, sports,
scary movies or chatbots...it's like an exercise for the mind that
many of us enjoy.

Just some more fodder for the cannons....

[FuzzieDice]

I personally believe that nature "recycles" itself. So do we. I believe we never "die" or anything but as one ceases to live as one person, their consciousness gets ingrained into another. What you knew in a past light you may not remember vividly, but it sticks with you and you unconsciously use this.

They say that the unconscious mind is a better "thinker" that the conscious. Studies I've read about say that there was a test of students who took tests after studying before sleeping and they did better because their unconscious mind thought the problems through while the conscious mind was busy dreaming (or "shut down" to let the unconscious mind work). I've also read where we solve and work out our life's problems in our dreams and that if you remember your dream you can analyze what it meant.

Our "consciousness" is really in our unconscious mind. Our "conscious" mind is more akin to the physical mind. So I believe a gifted child is gifted not because they have more brain power or their brains are developed differently (it may be only part of the reason), but because they have a talent or ability (maybe because of the way their brain is formed) to think MORE with the unconscious mind than with their conscious mind, and thus drawing on past life experiences.

Ever have Deja Vu?

Ever take a test and go through it without really thinking directly about what you learned? But just answered the questions on the fly and end up getting them mostly all right?

Good a trivia?

Ever hear, read or see something and struggle to think "where did I hear/read/see that before?" and can't recall any time in your present life that you knew about it, but yet it's so very familiar?

These are some examples of what I'm saying.

Then there's being in tune with the fabric of time and space, to explain ESP and such... but that goes more off topic.

Quantum reality is another (yet somewhat off topic yet on topic) thing to think about.

It is, nonetheless, fascinating!

[Bill DeWitt]

Ever have Deja Vu?

I have always thought that the neurologists explanation of this is as interesting and as wonderful as the Metaphysicist's.

It is explained as the brain accidentally sending the sensation to the memory before sending it to the consciousness.

So if you walk into a room, you remember the room, then see the room. Since it is in your memory, you naturally assume that it is a memory from another time, rather than a 40th of a second ago.

Probably not the only explanation, but to me, facinating to think of the brain creating such a marvelous illusion.

[FuzzieDice]

Wow. Talk about being back to the future - quite literally!

Makes one wonder if time itself is just a human perception sometimes...?

[Bill DeWitt]

Makes one wonder if time itself is just a human perception sometimes...?

I was just reading a paper on exactly that earlier tonight, let me see if I can find it...

http://www.imprint.co.uk/pdf/smythies.pdf

Stannard (1987):
Physics itself recognizes no special moment called ?now??the moment that acts as the focus of ?becoming? and divides the ?past? from the ?future?. In four-dimensional space-time nothing changes, there is no flow of time, everything simply is . . . It is only in consciousness that we come across the particular time known as ?now? . . . It is only in the context of mental time that it makes sense to say that all of physical space-time is. One might even go so far as to say that it is unfortunate that such dissimilar entities as physical time and mental time should carry the same name!

[FuzzieDice]

Amazing, especially when one thinks of the first attempts to measure "time" as it were. These are measured depending on the earth's rotation around the sun. So, our sense of time may have been different if we were on another planet. In fact, even on the Earth, there are several "time zones" which differ from one region to the next.

People use time to keep track of files on computers, appointments, when to see people, when to work and when to sleep. I think time might be a measurable frequency or cycle of a sorts. People do need sleep at regular cycles, for instance. The earth turns at a certain interval so that the sun is not seen in some areas and seen in others.

But, these are merely natural physical occurrances. We measure them by using the sun's rotation around the earth as a guide.

I've read somewhere where the earliest people were sun-worshippers and some were moon-worshippers. And that the sun-worshippers became more popular and also it's how our current calendar system was adapted. Along with the hours of the day, ie. the measurement of time.

To be quite honest, if it weren't for the daylight/night time and the clocks and calenders we have, I wouldn't even know what day it was! LOL! In fact, if I don't check a clock, I wouldn't know what time of day it was, other than by the showing of the sun. Except when it's cloudy/stormy, then it's even harder to tell.

[Bill DeWitt]

Some say our actual awareness of the passage of time is based upon a ~40hz cycle in our brains, which is partly shown by the way we hear sound. If a note gets too far below the 40hz range ( less than 20 or so), we hear it as clicks. This is not because the sound wave shape changes, but because our brain decides that they are separate events rather than a constant signal. We can sample a moment between wave crests, so we hear it as clicks.

That has nothing to do with how we measure time, of course, but perhaps it should.

Swatch time based on Brain Time?