Summer Reading List

It’s back to H O T which is always a good time to catch up on reading. Or, in this case, enjoy a bit of pictorial history and read again a head-knocking, consciousness expanding tome.

Lost Shreveport : Vanishing Scenes from the Red River Valley is a delightful collection of history and photography compiled by historian Gary Joiner and history collector Ernie Roberson. The easy to read book follows the history of the city on the upper Red River from its founding following the Alamo (hence Texas Street, Crockett Street, Travis Street...) and the herculean efforts of Henry Miller Shreve in untangling the Red River from a hundred-miles long timber “raft.” It ends in the early 20th century with chronicles of visits to the bustling town by Booker T. Washington.

It’s always fun to probe behind the historical curtain and witness the enormous changes that have occurred in the Shreveport-Bossier City area since the “late unpleasantness” artfully told in Joiner’s One Damn Blunder From Beginning to End, noted last year.

Again I’m slowly, oh so slowly, turning the pages of Biocentrism, the masterful and daring excursion into reality that upends just about everything. It's an easy read - I go slowly to savor the ideas.  Robert Lanza, MD, and astronomer Bob Berman posit the simple concept that life creates the universe rather than life being a random consequence of a capricious universe. Let’s put it this way, Chapter One begins with John Haldane’s statement “The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.”

Berman and Lanza move step by step presenting the concept of Biocentrism as a series of Principles. For example:

• What we perceive as reality is a process that involves our consciousness
• Our external and internal perceptions are inextricably intertwined 
• The behavior of subatomic particles – indeed all particles and objects – is inextricably linked to the presence of an observer
• Without consciousness, “matter” dwells in an undetermined state of probability

That's only a few of them, but you get the idea. Or, maybe you don’t. I think I’m getting the idea.

On the shelf:

Thomas Edison

"The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World" by Randall Stross

This is GOOD

"The God Theory: Universes, Zero-Point Fields, and What's Behind It All"  by Bernard Haisch

Some Folks Catch on Sooner

Alas, I’m not one of them, it seems.

I reflect back several decades to a conversation I had with a good friend who was one of those disgustingly cheerful, optimistic people. I recall being shocked, shocked mind you, that my friend appeared to me to abdicat his adult responsibilities. Yes! He didn’t read the local newspaper, didn’t watch television news (this prior to the advent of CNN, FNC, etc.) and didn’t pay attention to the news on the radio when he was listening. How, I wondered, did he expect to be informed to make decisions at election time? Or decide what organizations to support, or what groups to oppose, and so on.

“It’s not my business,” he remarked. “Well, what is your business”, I challenged. “Being happy,” he said with a grin. Groan (thought yours truly.)

It’s taken a while for me to recognize the young adult genius the fellow possessed. He had a focus most people, including self, lacked – he knew what was most important to him.  He could answer that ancient question Why am I alive?  To be happy.

Pondering over the years I came to understand that he wasn’t isolating himself from the state of affairs of others, but keeping himself tuned to those people and circumstances that resonated with him. In other words, if something bothered him, he would change his focus so as not to be bothered.  He didn't complain, gossip,or connive.

My friend knew instinctively that whatever he gave attention, would appear in his experience. Focus on crime and you see more crime. Focus on health, see and experience health. Focus on illness, see and experience less health. Focus on unhappy people and become unhappy. Despite my deliberate efforts to be a good and honorable person, I lacked, at that time, his wisdom on how best to assist others: Be what you would like for others.

It’s totally logical and in sync with great wisdom through the ages – a variation of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Be happy. Isn’t that what you want for others?

Some Like It Hot

They do, they really do.  (But they sure want the water...)

Science Proves Common Sense

The August issue of Popular Science arrived yesterday and it contained good news.  Well, good news that from time to time science (research/study) validates what common sense says.  You'll be pleased to know that the following observations have been confirmed, in one fashion or another, by research:

• Blowing up mountains harms the environment  (Duh!)
• Old folks prefer pleasant memories and don't seem to worry as much  (As a budding "old folk" I know this)
• A mean gym teacher doesn't inspire interest in sports  (You don't mean...)
• People are happier on weekends
• Talking on the cell phone and driving is not a good mix for safety
• Siblings who fight - don't get along!  (Who'd have thought...)
• Gen Y workers want big bucks and lots of time off (Well, so did everyone else, it just wasn't possible at the time)
• FLASH:  Drunk college students are prone to injury!  (How did we go so long and not notice this?)
• Self-Control makes for more manageable students  (Oh, dare we probe deeply into this arena?)
• Enivironmentalists can be smug jerks (Politely stated, I thought)

I suppose the "lesson" here is to stick to your instincts and guidance.  Sooner or later scientific inquiry will validate what is self-evident.

Doom and Gloom

Came across Matt Ridley's muse about doom and gloom and I have to agree.  In fact, I'd take it back a little further to the early memories in the earlier post.  How soon after birth, or at least with memory, are we barraged with messages from the "adults" and authorities about being careful about all the things that could hurt or kill us.  Heck, life has barely begun and the child is already being prepped for danger and death.  I like Ridley's perspective - the end of the earth, no more oil, the sun's going to bake us all, no more food, mass starvation, the plague to end all plagues... - has never come about.  The evolution of humans is always improving and, I have learned, a rising tide lifts all boats.  And the tide of human affairs is always rising.

Memory

The other day I was perusing Neoneocon,, one of my favorite blogs, and she posted a previous muse of earliest memory – the first clear memory from childhood. An interesting subject to be sure, but I was especially taken with a reader’s comment about her own first memory – that of sitting on a training potty in the bathroom and her mom sitting on the edge of the bathtub. That memory is sharp enough, but the reason that memory was retained is that it was the first time the toddler noticed that she and her mom were two different people.


That rang a distant bell within me. Not the potty bit, but hazy recollections of learning the nature of this experience – three dimensions with everyone/everything separated by space. The implication is that the realm from which the infant arrived was connected; a sort of unified whole.

Neoneocon’s commenter noted that the experience was both scary and fascinating. Indeed, someone only a year or so into this life experience would have a lot of adjusting, beginning with “how do I get this body thing to work?” And, the surprises of noticing how the body-thing works.

I’ve pondered the nature of memory on occasion and, like many, have sorted the earliest recollections of actual memory from recall of photographs or oft told tales. The latter can conjure a mental image just as clear as the former.

There is often an element to a memory that hints, I think, of how memories are created and held. A number of years ago I made a casual survey of memory by asking agreeable folk to take a memory, any memory. Once the memory was active I asked about the event/scene. In most cases the person described a location and event, that is, a description of a place, time, and others present. What was curious was the picture of the person in the scene. That is, the “camera” point of view tended to be above and slightly removed from the event, thus capturing the person in the moment.

What garnered my attention about this type of memory was that if memory were a cellular replay of a physical sensory moment, then the point-of-view should be that of the person – the location of the senses. The more omniscient vantage of many actual memories suggests something else in play.

That something else may be linked with the connected realm the infant leaves in the first years following birth. Many people believe that the soul, supreme energy source, that animates the physical body is but a small portion of the more complete and total Self. That Self is conscious of both the physical experience and the other realm while the portion inhabiting the body is (usually) unaware of its total existence. For an infant having a still active knowledge of Self, the first notice of separation (and that Mom or Dad is someone else and not me) can be unsettling. And, exhilarating.

How Not to Solve a Problem

"Significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” Attributed to Albert Einstein.

I'd add that it's a stretch to think that the people who created a mess are the only ones who can clean it up.

(An earlier post I couldn't resist revisiting)

The Case of the Sore Elbow

I’m often amazed (well, not often - always) at how well Louise Hay targeted illness/ailments with dominant thought patterns in her book “Heal Your Body.” For instance yours truly has a very sore elbow, which makes sense considering the amount of happy labor I’ve been doing for several weeks. But the soreness doesn’t seem to fade as quickly as I’d expect. So, time to consult the book. Lo and Behold: Elbow (joint) issues “represent changing directions and accepting new experiences.” Touche! The healing thought pattern can be “I easily flow with new experiences, new directions, and new changes.”

Hmmm. Who officially “retired” yesterday at 4:30 pm? Duh!