I might say that I am not responding to anything in particular, but the journal often brings something to mind, that I would like to share with you. This "blogspot" is a convenient way to leave a note for you - and of course anyone else who might be interested.
Maybe I already sent you this link to an interview with David Ray Griffin. "Redefining The Divine" is from 1990, but seems to be still current.
http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC24/Griffin.htm
I happened across a book on my shelf recently, Where Two Worlds Touch, by Gloria Karpinski. On the cover is written, "learn to embrace change as part of your spiritual homework with this pathfinding guide."
I looked on Amazon and found used copies for only a penny, so it seems people may not be quite ready for this. But a reviewer wrote, "Gloria Karpinski's 'Where Two Worlds Touch' is the type of book that can lay in a corner, unnoticed, until the moment it is relevant, and then becomes a-smack-in-the-head revelation." That how it was for me. All of a sudden I found it on my shelf.
In the book is a story about a golden fountain of grace. Many people came to the fountain and got just a thimbleful of water. Some went away with a cupful. But a little boy came to the fountain, jumped in and played in the water. That reminded me of the words in the Bible that we are to become as little children. (Matthew 18.3)
Not directly related to anomalous phenomena but linked to philosophical discussions of computational theory of mind: this page on Ward's Wiki. http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?AreWeCode
Especially David Barbour's argument about the irrelevance of determinism vs free will for a sufficiently complex (but clearly artificial) robot and how both synthetic emotions and unpredictable behaviour could emerge from purely deterministic goal-seeking.
Mentioned because this sort of discussion and thought experiment is very much where I come from and why I both find the critique of the CTM in Irreducible Mind fascinating (and why I find purely philosophical refutations of strong AI like John Searle's rather tedious and irrelevant). I tend toward pragmatism; can one or can one not build an AI that exhibits human-like features such as emotions? And what then will that machine make of psi and spirituality? Because if we can, we will, and by 9am the next day it will be linked to the Internet and have a blog. If we can't - well that will be a very interesting negative result and the next question will be 'why' and then 'how far can we push the old paradigm before it breaks'.
I have my own rather fuzzy ideas about the limitations of mechanical computation vs inspiration in the operation of intelligence, but it's very interesting to see what happens as the world evolves a sort of shared external mechanical brain via the Internet and especially weblogs, wikis, social networking and knowledge representation techniques like the Semantic Web. If there exist true statements about nonphysical reality such as psi, can they be mechanically represented in any form? We can obviously talk about psi experiences in English and via HTML - why not in some RDF/XML dialect? And then mechanically reason about them? At what point do we get truly 'ineffable', non-representable phenomena?
Possibly not journal-relevant, but interesting post from a sci-fi writer who converted to Christianity from atheism and writes (briefly) about the mystical experience he had.
"Neuroscientists have discovered that long-term memories are not etched in a "clay tablet"-like stable form as once thought. The process is much more dynamic, involving a miniature molecular machine that must run constantly to keep memories going, and jamming this machine briefly can erase long-term memories."
Via Slashdot: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/17/1632223
I enjoyed your sermon to yourself in the current issue. I would like to comment on a phrase from that.
You said, "...To retreat into silent meditation provides no remedy..." But one can certainly enter into the silence, not as a retreat but as a surrender. In the Quaker church, which I am attending now, we often sing a quiet song with the 3 lines
Be still and know that I am God. I am the Lord that healeth thee. In Thee, oh Lord, I put my trust.
Similar ideas are given in an article written by a longtime friend in Denver, Colorado. I have known Kim Pentecost for more than 20 years and she has helped keep me sane through difficult times. You can read her article, Surrender to Love, at the link below. I invite you to also look at the rest of her website.
http://wisdomdance.com/ezine/Ezine_11-6-07.html
You reported that "Materialism has split our culture's universe into material and spiritual, and then denied the spiritual." Well, yes, that has happened. But perhaps, instead of fighting the materialists, our challenge is to live our lives in a spirit of joy, knowing the truth. Maybe it is as simple as Kim suggests in her article, surrendering to love.
Of course the idea is much older than that - Kim quoted Virgil:
...let us too surrender to Love. —Virgil (70 BC - 19 BC), Eclogues
Thank you for your discussion. And also for the opportunity to comment.
i would like to apply to get help from the show concerning the death of my brother , how would i apply??? online details would help or a postal address would equally be as helpful if the details were forwarded to my email address !!! thanxs vicky
It always amazes how xenophobic and small minded people can be.Given how large the universe is; how we know that we only use a small percentage of our brain etc etc why is it that some people are not at least open to the existence of psychic powers. How do you explain savants for example. we have all seen examples on tv of that for eg someone who can pinpoint exactly how many toothpicks have been dropped on the floor when there are more than 100. People who can play complex music pieces they have never heard. What about people who can put chalk to a pavement and without getting up to look at their work from a distance can create 3D masterpieces. we see and hear about such incredible talents every day. Psychic powers are just another gift that a minority have or can tune into, using maybe a 7th sense. just because there are fakes out there doesnt mean there arent genuine psychics out there.
When writing about the psychics and the reading for Judy Yorke, You mention Sue and Kelvin but left out the fact that Deb Webber also did a reading with this family and had a totally different view from Sue and Kelvin.
16 comments:
Hi Michael,
I might say that I am not responding to anything in particular, but the journal often brings something to mind, that I would like to share with you. This "blogspot" is a convenient way to leave a note for you - and of course anyone else who might be interested.
Maybe I already sent you this link to an interview with David Ray Griffin. "Redefining The Divine" is from 1990, but seems to be still current.
http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC24/Griffin.htm
I happened across a book on my shelf recently, Where Two Worlds Touch, by Gloria Karpinski. On the cover is written, "learn to embrace change as part of your spiritual homework with this pathfinding guide."
I looked on Amazon and found used copies for only a penny, so it seems people may not be quite ready for this. But a reviewer wrote, "Gloria Karpinski's 'Where Two Worlds Touch' is the type of book that can lay in a corner, unnoticed, until the moment it is relevant, and then becomes a-smack-in-the-head revelation." That how it was for me. All of a sudden I found it on my shelf.
In the book is a story about a golden fountain of grace. Many people came to the fountain and got just a thimbleful of water. Some went away with a cupful. But a little boy came to the fountain, jumped in and played in the water. That reminded me of the words in the Bible that we are to become as little children. (Matthew 18.3)
Norman Kjome
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=6993 From METGAT on Crop circles
Not directly related to anomalous phenomena but linked to philosophical discussions of computational theory of mind: this page on Ward's Wiki. http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?AreWeCode
Especially David Barbour's argument about the irrelevance of determinism vs free will for a sufficiently complex (but clearly artificial) robot and how both synthetic emotions and unpredictable behaviour could emerge from purely deterministic goal-seeking.
Mentioned because this sort of discussion and thought experiment is very much where I come from and why I both find the critique of the CTM in Irreducible Mind fascinating (and why I find purely philosophical refutations of strong AI like John Searle's rather tedious and irrelevant). I tend toward pragmatism; can one or can one not build an AI that exhibits human-like features such as emotions? And what then will that machine make of psi and spirituality? Because if we can, we will, and by 9am the next day it will be linked to the Internet and have a blog. If we can't - well that will be a very interesting negative result and the next question will be 'why' and then 'how far can we push the old paradigm before it breaks'.
I have my own rather fuzzy ideas about the limitations of mechanical computation vs inspiration in the operation of intelligence, but it's very interesting to see what happens as the world evolves a sort of shared external mechanical brain via the Internet and especially weblogs, wikis, social networking and knowledge representation techniques like the Semantic Web. If there exist true statements about nonphysical reality such as psi, can they be mechanically represented in any form? We can obviously talk about psi experiences in English and via HTML - why not in some RDF/XML dialect? And then mechanically reason about them? At what point do we get truly 'ineffable', non-representable phenomena?
Hi Michael,
An interview of the author of a book, Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion.
In this web article there is a wonderful picture of one of the hot baths - I soaked in that very same pool when I visited Esalen a few years ago.
http://calitreview.com/2007/08/01/jeffrey-j-kripal-author-of-esalen/
Norman
Possibly not journal-relevant, but interesting post from a sci-fi writer who converted to Christianity from atheism and writes (briefly) about the mystical experience he had.
http://johncwright.livejournal.com/59241.html
On the subject of memories:
http://pressesc.com/news/1088/16082007/memories-can-be-erased-scientists-find
"Neuroscientists have discovered that long-term memories are not etched in a "clay tablet"-like stable form as once thought. The process is much more dynamic, involving a miniature molecular machine that must run constantly to keep memories going, and jamming this machine briefly can erase long-term memories."
Via Slashdot:
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/17/1632223
Another interesting thread about the nature of mind on John C Wright's blog.
http://johncwright.livejournal.com/113221.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6960612.stm
Out-of-body experience recreated
Experts have found a way to trigger an out-of-body experience in volunteers.
(Except it doesn't seem to have anything to do with OBEs at all, and is actually about people having a sense of identification with virtual avatars)
An interesting discussion on Slashdot about Strong AI and the Technological Singularity
Hi Michael,
I enjoyed your sermon to yourself in the current issue. I would like to comment on a phrase from that.
You said, "...To retreat into silent meditation provides no remedy..." But one can certainly enter into the silence, not as a retreat but as a surrender. In the Quaker church, which I am attending now, we often sing a quiet song with the 3 lines
Be still and know that I am God.
I am the Lord that healeth thee.
In Thee, oh Lord, I put my trust.
Similar ideas are given in an article written by a longtime friend in Denver, Colorado. I have known Kim Pentecost for more than 20 years and she has helped keep me sane through difficult times. You can read her article, Surrender to Love, at the link below. I invite you to also look at the rest of her website.
http://wisdomdance.com/ezine/Ezine_11-6-07.html
You reported that "Materialism has split our culture's universe into material and spiritual, and then denied the spiritual." Well, yes, that has happened. But perhaps, instead of fighting the materialists, our challenge is to live our lives in a spirit of joy, knowing the truth. Maybe it is as simple as Kim suggests in her article, surrendering to love.
Of course the idea is much older than that - Kim quoted Virgil:
...let us too surrender to Love.
—Virgil (70 BC - 19 BC), Eclogues
Thank you for your discussion. And also for the opportunity to comment.
Norman Kjome
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i would like to apply to get help from the show concerning the death of my brother , how would i apply??? online details would help or a postal address would equally be as helpful if the details were forwarded to my email address !!! thanxs vicky
It always amazes how xenophobic and small minded people can be.Given how large the universe is; how we know that we only use a small percentage of our brain etc etc why is it that some people are not at least open to the existence of psychic powers. How do you explain savants for example. we have all seen examples on tv of that for eg someone who can pinpoint exactly how many toothpicks have been dropped on the floor when there are more than 100. People who can play complex music pieces they have never heard. What about people who can put chalk to a pavement and without getting up to look at their work from a distance can create 3D masterpieces. we see and hear about such incredible talents every day. Psychic powers are just another gift that a minority have or can tune into, using maybe a 7th sense.
just because there are fakes out there doesnt mean there arent genuine psychics out there.
When writing about the psychics and the reading for Judy Yorke, You mention Sue and Kelvin but left out the fact that Deb Webber also did a reading with this family and had a totally different view from Sue and Kelvin.
Can't wait for the next series on NZ tv. Brenda.
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