H is for Happy

Today I picked up an aitch, that is a capital “H” sitting on the pavement in front of my car. It was a large Styrofoam capital H; smooth to the touch and slightly rounded; one side glitter and one side buff and red all over. I picked it up and took it home. 

H is for happy, heuristic, honest and humorously human.

 I am a heteroclite and therefore “a thing or person that deviates from the common rule or form. “ My life, just between you and me mind you, has been “experimental and exploratory” and in that way heuristic; these however, are hopefully my halcyon days.

However,

H is also for horrendous, histrionic, hideous, hebetudinous and hedonistically hateful.

Hebetudinous is an adjective that is synonymous with dense, dumb, foolish or ugly. It also describes a person who hurts others or damages things and along with horrendous, histrionic, hideous, and hedonistically hateful describe the people who are endlessly trying to attack me.

“H” is like a headland of hope in the alphabetic sea. It defines hype that stands heads above the rest but also begins harmony that heals and helps.  It stands alone and silent in honesty and is humble in its humility.

H leads human history, the house of Hanover and the fall of Hiroshima.  With its no holes barred approach it defines a century as one hundred years and simply that. It does however engender the identity of the many King Henry’s, the beautiful Helen of Troy and the Ancient Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut.  It’s influence is clear in the Greek historian Herodotus and the ancient bard Homer.

“H” stands as the eighth letter in harmony with the other letters of the alphabet whose birth was a harbinger of things to come. Hark the herald angels sing writing is the new born king. 

This has been a homily of homely virtues for the letter H.

H is now living happily with me and has settled in well. We are getting on just fine and I anticipate a long relationship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Limits on Natural Prophecy

 

 Reality is like a tapestry

It is woven from many strands

That form

The past, present and future.

As human beings

We get to see only one strand

And

Never the big picture.

 

 

 

Thinking about Dr Who

I was watching the Heaven & Earth show on you tube, well, a segment at least. Christopher Ecclestone was being interviewed.  He had just completed filming the first of the new Dr Who series.  After a hiatus of some years this iconic sci-fi had been reserrected and revamped.  Ecclestone made a fascinating and wonderful Dr  Who, but so different from previous incarnations of this character. 

Dr who and the reprise of the role was of course discussed.  Ecclestone was not a fan of Dr Who and commented that he didn’t like the authorotative image of the police box, the posh English accents and didn’t feel invited in to the world of Dr Who.  Ecclestone was a northern lad into football and, then I suppose, typical northern pursuits. He was not a Dr Who fan and had no interest in the series. 

My relationship with the series was quite different.  My parents and therefore myself watched the series right from the start.  I can’t remember the early series, I would have only been about three at the time.  Unlike Ecclestone I liked authoriatative images, the police box, the accents and the commanding, superior intellects portraid on the series.  Although from Wales, much of my childhood was spent in Guildford where the accents heard on Dr Who were quite common and so, I didn’t find the world of Dr Who, with their mostly southern England accents at all alienating but, at least accent wise, quite familiar. 

I think I can assume that females, or at least certain females, like, enjoy or look for authoritative figures.  Certainly for me as a child looking up to a strong, reliable authoritative figure was far more desirable than striving to be that figure myself, and in truth  this still applies.  Male authoritative figures being more desirable and believable than the female counterpart.   Although a child of the sixties, a time of sexual revelution, the man still took the lead and wore the pants and I believe still does.  I have recently finished working in a small local museum.  The female authority figures, weren’t very aurthoritative, rather inconstant and unreliable and typically female.  There was however a   young man who was rather large with a speech impediment.  I think his rather large size as well as his knowledge and something of his mannerism made him to my mind an authority figure more than any of the others and that I liked and so therefore liked him, although in reality I am twice as old as him and he young enough to be my son, if every I had had a child. 

I think what endeered me to Dr Who was the fantasy of time travel and the reality, my reality of time travel experience.  Well, seeing the future at least.  As a child and teenager I lived in a world where something very strange was happening, a great secret was being kept that everybody seemed to know about but no one talked about.  Human beings could see into the future and pick up each others thoughts.  These were portraid on many sci-fi adventure programes and other things besides.  But very little if any real information existed about these unexplainable abilities and unbelievable experiences.  My education involved learning about things that would have no relevance to my life, never experience and didn’t need to know.  Maths, history, geography and science taught me about a world that bore little relationship to my everyday life.  I would never see the atom or distant galaxies, the amazon jungle or any of the Queens of Henry VIII.  Where as it was all very interesting, much of the subjects taught had no benefit.  Meanwhile, something that was very relevant to my life on a regular basis and what was to become increasingly relevant, the  nature of psychic ability, was never touched apon.

I looked forward to my weekly adventures with Dr Who and although I knew these were a fantasy, the series itself served to help me connect with society.  I was a psychic and a child that lived in an island of isolation with an ability that was well known to the world but, in my childhood world, remained in the shadows. 

The world was I suppose a scary place for it’s hidden secrets and its bald face lie in the face of the truth.  I wanted consistency, honesty and superiorty from authoriative figures.  I wanted what was relevant in mylife to be explained and understood, until that time I would embrace Dr Who as a shadowy icon of a truth that remained unspoken. 

Well, almost half a century later, I am now almost firty-one, the truth is out and I’m now watching people struggling to deal with it.  They now have become part of my world and my world or at least a certain aspect of it is emerging.  Lets hope this ancient ability will find its rightful place in modern day society.

The Ba, the Ka and the Akh

 

 

In 500 BCE the Greek historian Herodotus travelled extensively through Europe, the Middle East and Africa. On his visit to Egypt he described the people as “the happiest and healthiest of people he had come across.” He attributed this to the metaphysical nature of the Egyptian lifestyle which was extensively expressed in their complex system of beliefs and practices surrounding life and death. He noted that the Egyptians were the most religious people he had ever come across and that no other country had as many monuments and temples as Egypt. 

The Ancient Egyptians believed that the “soul” had three parts, the Ba, the Ka and the Akh.  The Akh was that part more similar to what we now think of as the soul.  It was the part of the person that would go on to live eternally in the heavenly realm known as the “field of reeds” providing they were a good person, otherwise their heart would be consumed by the devourer and their soul destroyed.  The Ka was thought to be a duplicate body, identical to the living body.  After death the Ka would be fed food with the offerings made to the dead and would use the many items left in the tomb.  The Ba was thought to be akin to the personality and would leave the body after death to venture out of the tomb, but would always return to be with the body. 

Today of course we laugh at such primitive and ancient ideas and yet there is some comparison with modern day beliefs and experiences.  Certainly most of the modern day religions, Christianity, Islam, Judaism and the Hindu’s believe the soul like the Akh leaves the body, faces a judgement and if good passes to some form of eternal life in a heavenly realm.  While the modern day description of ghosts is of the appearance of a person acting and looking as they did when they were alive.  This resembles the Egyptian Ka.  The Ba, while not existing in Christian beliefs has a resemblance to the Hindu and Buddhist concept of the Astral body which enables the persons consciousness to leave their body, wander around this and other planes of reality before returning to the body. Near death and out of body experiences also resemble the description of the Ba.  In both experiences people talk of floating or flying above their bodies, which is interesting since the Egyptian Ba is represented as a bird with a human head in Egyptian art.

As to personal experience, I have never seen a ghost but have had a few experiences with a soul. During one of these encounters I experienced a presence of love that resembled the love I had experienced many years before as a young girl when I had a transcendent experience.  I think Christianity would say this soul was in a state of grace.  To my mind it equates with that part of the person that passes on to an eternal state like the Akh.

One of the more puzzling experiences I had was what I can only describe as a very mundane yet peculiar out of body experience.  As a student nurse I was working on the ward one day and went to talk to a patient.  As I was sitting down in the chair next to the bed happily engage in a discussion with the patient I suddenly found myself looking down at the top and back of my head.  I noted that the conversation I was having with the patient continued uninterrupted.  As I watched my body ended the conversation, stood up from the chair and walked across the ward to the nurse’s station. At that point I suddenly found myself back in my body.  I was quite naturally alarmed and confused.  This incident has always puzzled me.  I have heard of out of body experiences and the astral body but had always imagined the body to be asleep or at least motionless when these types of things happened.  However, my experience was that even when I wasn’t in my body, my body seemed quite able to continue with-out me.  Was this, I wonder, the Ba that had left my body?

From Fantasy to Reality: A Daydream to a Premonition

Many years ago, while I suffered from a prolonged, serious illness I had many psychic experiences.  Because I had so many experiences I became familiar with the way I experienced these things.  Although I never learned to focus premonitions so that I could choose to see what I wanted, nor could I intentionally pick up on peoples thoughts, I did learn that I could access the ability by using my imagination.  I found that if I went into a daydream it would very quickly open up to a premonition.

I would agree with anyone who says this sounds extremely suspect.  The idea that daydreaming led to premonitions would suggest that premonitions are daydreams and daydreams are of course fantasies.  The conclusion would therefore be that the premonitions were fantasies and yet this was not the case. 

So, my question is why do premonitions occur during dreams, daydreams and fantasies?

What is a common feature in dreams, daydreams, fantasies and premonitions is that your experiences involve seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling.  You experience them with your senses and yet your eyes and ears and the rest of your bodies sensory system does not pick up this information.   In a dream you may see the long dead face of your mother but your eyes don’t see this image.  In a daydream you may hear one of your favourite songs running through your head but your ears never hear this song. 

The experience of seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling in real life involves a complicated process that begins with specialized nerve endings that pick up information, converts it to electrical impulses which then travel to specific areas in the brain that translate the impulses, co-ordinate the information with other information and then constructs consciousness which is then what you experience. In the example of seeing the retina at the back of your eye is a blanket of specialized nerve endings.  When electric magnetic waves in the form of light hit the retina electrical impulses are generated.  These electrical impulses travel via the Optic nerve all the way to the back of the brain where the occipital lobe is.  The occipital lobe of the brain is the centre for processing visual information.

What is common with all of these experiences is that the brain has to actively do something to create them. The difference between experiencing dreams, daydreams, fantasies and premonitions and real life is that the first group doesn’t come from your senses while the second, real life, does come from the senses. 

I cannot explain how it is possible to see an image or hear a sound in a dream.  I do not know if science knows how the brain creates these fantasy images.  What I do know is that the brain has to do some amount of processing and co-ordinating of information to create the dreamscapes we see and hear while asleep, daydreaming or having premonitions.  Where as it is known that visual or auditory hallucinations can be caused by diseases in the temporal lobe of the brain which processes sound and the occipital lobe which processes vision, I do not think this has anything to do with what you see in a dream or daydream.

Now I come to my own personal speculation about why premonitions can be accessed by dreaming or daydreaming.  It is my guess that there is a specific part of the brain that creates images and sound for dreams and daydreams. This part of the brain is separate from the parts of the brain that process images in real life and is not connected to those parts of the brain.  To create fantasy images the brain does not need any immediate input from the senses and so this area, if it exists has no connection per say with the sensory nerve network in the brain.

How the information received in a premonition gets into your brain and how the brain processes it is unknown.  However, premonitions can be experienced in sound and vision, smell, taste and touch.  But you don’t see images with your eyes or hear sound with your ears; you don’t experience any of the sense with your bodily senses. 

It is my guess that because the information received in premonitions is not carried by the nerve pathways connected with the senses the brain identifies this information as part of a dream or fantasy and so processes it in the same way it would process a dream or fantasy.  I believe it is possible that the same part of the brain that produces fantasy images and sounds for dreams and fantasies also processes information coming from premonitions. 

To put it simply I believe the brain has two systems or areas that deal with experiences of sound and images.  One system is for information coming through the senses.  The other system is for producing sound and images that don’t come through the senses.  The system that processes images and sound that don’t come through the senses would be involved in creating dreams, daydreams and, by default, premonitions. So, if that part of the brain is busily processing information coming from a premonition and you start dreaming or daydreaming it would be reasonable to assume that, information from the premonition would be included in the fantasy. 

As an interesting last note for those that are aware.  While creating a slide show I accidentally and very obviously included information from the future.  I was unaware of what I was doing and was as far as I was concerned drawing on artistic imagination.  So, I assume artistic inspiration has something in common with dreams and fantasies from a neurological perspective. 

Many years ago, while I suffered from a prolonged, serious illness I had many psychic experiences.  Because I had so many experiences I became familiar with the way I experienced these things.  Although I never learned to focus premonitions so that I could choose to see what I wanted, nor could I intentionally pick up on peoples thoughts, I did learn that I could access the ability by using my imagination.  I found that if I went into a daydream it would very quickly open up to a premonition.

I would agree with anyone who says this sounds extremely suspect.  The idea that daydreaming led to premonitions would suggest that premonitions are daydreams and daydreams are of course fantasies.  The conclusion would therefore be that the premonitions were fantasies and yet this was not the case. 

So, my question is why do premonitions occur during dreams, daydreams and fantasies?

What is a common feature in dreams, daydreams, fantasies and premonitions is that your experiences involve seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling.  You experience them with your senses and yet your eyes and ears and the rest of your bodies sensory system does not pick up this information.   In a dream you may see the long dead face of your mother but your eyes don’t see this image.  In a daydream you may hear one of your favourite songs running through your head but your ears never hear this song. 

The experience of seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling in real life involves a complicated process that begins with specialized nerve endings that pick up information, converts it to electrical impulses which then travel to specific areas in the brain that translate the impulses, co-ordinate the information with other information and then constructs consciousness which is then what you experience. In the example of seeing the retina at the back of your eye is a blanket of specialized nerve endings.  When electric magnetic waves in the form of light hit the retina electrical impulses are generated.  These electrical impulses travel via the Optic nerve all the way to the back of the brain where the occipital lobe is.  The occipital lobe of the brain is the centre for processing visual information.

What is common with all of these experiences is that the brain has to actively do something to create them. The difference between experiencing dreams, daydreams, fantasies and premonitions and real life is that the first group doesn’t come from your senses while the second, real life, does come from the senses. 

I cannot explain how it is possible to see an image or hear a sound in a dream.  I do not know if science knows how the brain creates these fantasy images.  What I do know is that the brain has to do some amount of processing and co-ordinating of information to create the dreamscapes we see and hear while asleep, daydreaming or having premonitions.  Where as it is known that visual or auditory hallucinations can be caused by diseases in the temporal lobe of the brain which processes sound and the occipital lobe which processes vision, I do not think this has anything to do with what you see in a dream or daydream.

Now I come to my own personal speculation about why premonitions can be accessed by dreaming or daydreaming.  It is my guess that there is a specific part of the brain that creates images and sound for dreams and daydreams. This part of the brain is separate from the parts of the brain that process images in real life and is not connected to those parts of the brain.  To create fantasy images the brain does not need any immediate input from the senses and so this area, if it exists has no connection per say with the sensory nerve network in the brain.

How the information received in a premonition gets into your brain and how the brain processes it is unknown.  However, premonitions can be experienced in sound and vision, smell, taste and touch.  But you don’t see images with your eyes or hear sound with your ears; you don’t experience any of the sense with your bodily senses. 

It is my guess that because the information received in premonitions is not carried by the nerve pathways connected with the senses the brain identifies this information as part of a dream or fantasy and so processes it in the same way it would process a dream or fantasy.  I believe it is possible that the same part of the brain that produces fantasy images and sounds for dreams and fantasies also processes information coming from premonitions. 

To put it simply I believe the brain has two systems or areas that deal with experiences of sound and images.  One system is for information coming through the senses.  The other system is for producing sound and images that don’t come through the senses.  The system that processes images and sound that don’t come through the senses would be involved in creating dreams, daydreams and, by default, premonitions. So, if that part of the brain is busily processing information coming from a premonition and you start dreaming or daydreaming it would be reasonable to assume that, information from the premonition would be included in the fantasy. 

As an interesting last note for those that are aware.  While creating a slide show I accidentally and very obviously included information from the future.  I was unaware of what I was doing and was as far as I was concerned drawing on artistic imagination.  So, I assume artistic inspiration has something in common with dreams and fantasies from a neurological perspective. 

Many years ago, while I suffered from a prolonged, serious illness I had many psychic experiences.  Because I had so many experiences I became familiar with the way I experienced these things.  Although I never learned to focus premonitions so that I could choose to see what I wanted, nor could I intentionally pick up on peoples thoughts, I did learn that I could access the ability by using my imagination.  I found that if I went into a daydream it would very quickly open up to a premonition.

I would agree with anyone who says this sounds extremely suspect.  The idea that daydreaming led to premonitions would suggest that premonitions are daydreams and daydreams are of course fantasies.  The conclusion would therefore be that the premonitions were fantasies and yet this was not the case. 

So, my question is why do premonitions occur during dreams, daydreams and fantasies?

What is a common feature in dreams, daydreams, fantasies and premonitions is that your experiences involve seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling.  You experience them with your senses and yet your eyes and ears and the rest of your bodies sensory system does not pick up this information.   In a dream you may see the long dead face of your mother but your eyes don’t see this image.  In a daydream you may hear one of your favourite songs running through your head but your ears never hear this song. 

The experience of seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling in real life involves a complicated process that begins with specialized nerve endings that pick up information, converts it to electrical impulses which then travel to specific areas in the brain that translate the impulses, co-ordinate the information with other information and then constructs consciousness which is then what you experience. In the example of seeing the retina at the back of your eye is a blanket of specialized nerve endings.  When electric magnetic waves in the form of light hit the retina electrical impulses are generated.  These electrical impulses travel via the Optic nerve all the way to the back of the brain where the occipital lobe is.  The occipital lobe of the brain is the centre for processing visual information.

What is common with all of these experiences is that the brain has to actively do something to create them. The difference between experiencing dreams, daydreams, fantasies and premonitions and real life is that the first group doesn’t come from your senses while the second, real life, does come from the senses. 

I cannot explain how it is possible to see an image or hear a sound in a dream.  I do not know if science knows how the brain creates these fantasy images.  What I do know is that the brain has to do some amount of processing and co-ordinating of information to create the dreamscapes we see and hear while asleep, daydreaming or having premonitions.  Where as it is known that visual or auditory hallucinations can be caused by diseases in the temporal lobe of the brain which processes sound and the occipital lobe which processes vision, I do not think this has anything to do with what you see in a dream or daydream.

Now I come to my own personal speculation about why premonitions can be accessed by dreaming or daydreaming.  It is my guess that there is a specific part of the brain that creates images and sound for dreams and daydreams. This part of the brain is separate from the parts of the brain that process images in real life and is not connected to those parts of the brain.  To create fantasy images the brain does not need any immediate input from the senses and so this area, if it exists has no connection per say with the sensory nerve network in the brain.

How the information received in a premonition gets into your brain and how the brain processes it is unknown.  However, premonitions can be experienced in sound and vision, smell, taste and touch.  But you don’t see images with your eyes or hear sound with your ears; you don’t experience any of the sense with your bodily senses. 

It is my guess that because the information received in premonitions is not carried by the nerve pathways connected with the senses the brain identifies this information as part of a dream or fantasy and so processes it in the same way it would process a dream or fantasy.  I believe it is possible that the same part of the brain that produces fantasy images and sounds for dreams and fantasies also processes information coming from premonitions. 

To put it simply I believe the brain has two systems or areas that deal with experiences of sound and images.  One system is for information coming through the senses.  The other system is for producing sound and images that don’t come through the senses.  The system that processes images and sound that don’t come through the senses would be involved in creating dreams, daydreams and, by default, premonitions. So, if that part of the brain is busily processing information coming from a premonition and you start dreaming or daydreaming it would be reasonable to assume that, information from the premonition would be included in the fantasy. 

As an interesting last note for those that are aware.  While creating a slide show I accidentally and very obviously included information from the future.  I was unaware of what I was doing and was as far as I was concerned drawing on artistic imagination.  So, I assume artistic inspiration has something in common with dreams and fantasies from a neurological perspective.

The Fate of Mankind

Mind Bending Key

The pictures opposite are of a normal Yale lock key that was the front door key I used when I lived with my parents.  What is so notable about this key that I should blog about it is, as I hope the photos I took demonstrate, the shaft of the key is not only bent but twisted and if you look very carefully you may be able to see that the metal at the base of the shaft is slightly torn!

How did the metal of the key get bent, twisted and torn?  The answer to that is I did it and not with a pair of pliers but with my bare hand.  Before anybody jumps to any conclusions, I am not claiming to be in competition with Yuri Geller.  Although in reality I’m not sure what forces were involved in causing the key to be bent.  It is a normal Yale lock key, was used repeatedly over a number of years, had no apparent defects,  is made of a thick metal and can not be unbent by applying physical force. Admittedly i’ve never attempted to unbend it using a pair of pliers. 

So, what happened.  Well, I had pulled into the drive way as normal.  At the time I had become emotionally worked up about something, although I can’t remember what.  This event would have occurred round about 1997.  I just recently found the key hidden in a box of old jewelry.  Anyway, as usual I got out of the car, got my keys and put the key in the lock and turned it to open the door.  It felt strange as I was turning it and I had some difficulty removing the key from the lock afterwards.  But, much to my surprise, when I looked at the key there it was, bent and twisted. 

I assume that what happened was that I had a sudden adrenalin surge that gave me the extraordinary strength to bend a key like this.   Maybe this is not so surprising.  At the time I had a fluid filled tumour (cyst) of one of my adrenal glands that was very large and had been there for a long time and was gradually growing bigger and bigger.  I had noticed  some years before, as a student nurse, I had at times exhibited unusual strength.   I remember the alarmed look of one of the carers when lifting a patient up in the bed I almost threw him through the wall.    Another time I managed to snap the metal joints on the lid of the sphyganamometer (blood pressure) case, again much to the surprise of the attending carer.  So, I was aware that at times I did seem to have sudden surges of energy and strength.           

At this time I would like to point out that I am not the only person to experience excessive surges of strength.  This type of thing has been recorded in much more dramatic instances.  Many years ago a child somehow managed to get itself trapped under the wheel of a car.  The mother, standing nearby, rushed to the car and single-handedly lifted the car to free the child.  Admittedly I don’t know if this is an urban myth though.  What I do remember is seeing a documentary hosted by Paul Newman on the dangers of PCP otherwise known as Angel Dust.  This dangerous drug has been observed to cause bizar and dangerous behaviour as well as huge surges in physical strength.  During the documentary a policeman was interviewed. He had arrested a gentleman high on PCP and locked him in a cell.  The man had repeatedly pounded on the strong metal door of his cell with such strength that the door dented, as shown on camera.  The handcuffs used were also shown because he had managed to break them apart.  Both the denting of the door and the breaking of the handcuffs required exceptional physical strength way beyond the norm. 

I believe I heard about the story of the lady lifting the car when I did a college course in psychology.  During this course concepts of what is considered normal were challenged with examples and discussions on variants to the norm.  During the course we were taught how consciousness is a construct created by the brain from sensory imput.  Your senses perceive information while your brain conceives.  That is to say, you have a perceptions of the world around you that are picked up by your five or so senses. The brain processes this information a creates concepts from the information.  The concept the brain creates is what you and I know as reality.  The senses pick up far more information than we actually experience.  A great deal of editing and adjusting, coordinating and synchronizing of information goes on during the brains construction of  consciousness.  Irrelevant and unacceptable information is edited out or adjusted in the processing and construction of consciousness. 

Muscles contract because of electrical impulses coming from the  central nervous system.  The Efferent motor neurons are the nerves that leave the brain and travel down the spinal cord to the skeletal muscles.  The muscle is made up of a number of muscle fibre bundles that contract when stimulated by the nerve.  The nerve fibres can only contract completely or relax completely, they can not partially contract.  Relaxation of the muscle is because of  the absence of electrical impulses.   The strength of muscle contraction depends on how many nerve fibres are stimulated by the nerve.   muscular strength is controlled by the human brain and occurs in a coordinated fashion.  The muscles of the joints are found on opposite sides of each other.  When one of these muscles contract the other relaxes.  This causes movement of the limb associated with the joint.  Uncoordinated muscular contraction, such as during a grand mal seizure (epileptic fit) can cause joints to dislocate.  So, the brain also has to ensure not only co-ordination of muscle activity but also of muscle strength.  Stimulating a strong contraction of a muscle on one side of the joint while the other opposing muscle is completely relaxed can result in the joint dislocating. 

The point of my above explanation on the anatomy and physiology of muscles is simply to demonstrate that just like consciousness the brain controls muscular strength.  Just as the brain does not include all sensory input into consciousness, the brain does not allow maximum muscle strength to be used.  Using a maximum level of muscular strength can not only dislocate joints, but tear and rip tendons and the muscles themselves.  The brain prevents this from occurring by controlling and coordinating muscle strength.  However, as mentioned previously, either through the use of drugs, the presence of illness or exceptional circumstances, the muscles can be used at maximum strength with startling results. 

My conclusion is therefore that we are much more physically stronger than we realize.  Under normal circumstances we only use a limited amount of our strength.  Athletes learn to access and harness a greater degree of that strength.  But, normally, no one uses all of their muscular strength.  If we did we would be as strong as Superman!

THE ANCIENT GODS OF MODERN DAY

I believe our modern day astronauts who flew the Apollo missions and walked in space and on the moon were the ancient Gods depicted in, amongst other things, the cave art of ancient man. 

 

Erik von Däniken proposed in his book Chariots of the Gods that the Earth had been visited by ancient astronauts and  this is why you find so many ancient depictions on cave walls, ornaments and statues of something that looks remarkably similar to the modern day astronaut. These ancient artistic expressions can be found in South America, Africa and Asia.  The helmeted, bubble headed beings are depicted clearly floating, rather than standing, sitting or swimming.  Sometimes they have pack packs and tubes coming or going from their nose and mouth, sometimes they appear to be holding strange looking tools, while other times they are sitting in a small enclosed capsule in front of what looks like a panel of instruments. 

 

Psychologists, I suppose would say that we interpret what we see in the context of the culture we are most familiar with.  In other words,  we recognize the similarity between things we are familiar with and images or sounds that we have not encountered before.  The human brain is very good at identifying the world around it and when it comes across something new it draws on memory to see if there is anything similar to it.  In a similar way these strange  depictions do bare a resemblance with images of the modern day astronauts that we are so familiar with. 

 

Since the artists are long since dead by a couple of thousand years we can not say for sure what it is that they were trying to depict.  But, it does raise a question.  Where as we would recognise the image of an ancient astronaut in these images because of our familiarity with such images, where did the original artist get their inspiration from?  What inspired them to draw such strange looking figures?

 

I am a proponent of the idea that an ancient and highly sophisticated and technologically advanced civilization such as Atlantis once existed on Earth.  There certainly seems to be many enigmas, ignored by archaeologists that suggest a sophistication of academic and technical knowledge that existed way before our civilization came into existence.  I also believe it is likely that we have been visited by alien travellers long ago and may still be even to this day.  I tend to believe that these were some form of aquatic beings as described by the Dogon tribe of Somalia and other cultures.  The idea of intelligent fish visiting human beings in space ships and claiming they came from a distant star, in the case of the Dogon’s, Sirius B, is too ridiculous to make up.  But maybe I’m not giving enough credit to human imagination.  Whatever, I can understand why they would visit a planet covered with 75% water.  They must have been terribly disappoint when they found us!

 

Whether we were visited by ancient astronauts in the form of fish, lizards, tall grey men or what ever, is something  I am not sure about.  I believe we were visited rather than know.  What I am absolutely sure about however,  is that I on occasion get to see the future.  I have premonitions and have always had premonitions from the time I was a small child.  Most are so fleeting that I can’t take in what it is that I’m seeing and hearing, feeling, knowing etc.  But, many have been clear enough for me to realise exactly what I was seeing.  Even then, with out being in context, the premonition may not mean anything.  Yes, I am the one who had the premonition of Princess Diana’s funeral and wrote about it six years before it happened, and embarrassingly interpreted what I was seeing as a bizarre music video by Elton John.  However, when the actual event occurred the many who had read my description were able to recognize it easily.  Well, maybe I’m just a twat or not very good at interpreting things that are not in context.  So, have a little sympathy with me, I’M NOT PERFECT! and isn’t that obvious.

 

I do, however believe the ability to see the future is as old as the hills.  There are certainly enough legends going back through mans history from all over the world to suggest this ability was known by most human beings through out most of our history.   I tend to believe the ability was stronger or more developed in ancient people who worked closer with nature and had more time for the more subtle aspects of the world around them.  Where as most people today would not be able to tell you what stars are in the sky at Autumn or what is the first sign that Winter is coming to an end, our ancestors were very much more aware of their world.  However, because of the unknown nature of this ability it is easy to imagine our ancestors attributing it to God.  I think the old prophets of the Bible is a case of mistaken identity.  Premonitions were mistaken for prophecy’s given specifically by God. 

 

I think there is a possibility that ancient people had premonitions reaching far into the future.  It is not unthinkable to suggest that these people might have had visions or dreams about the Astronauts that manned the Apollo missions.  What would they have made of such images?  What would they have thought they were looking at.  These strange creatures with the faces of humans, bubble heads and strongly bulky bodies floated around or jumped incredible distances in strange looking places,  sat in small flying houses twiddling an odd array of objects in front of them.  They obviously couldn’t be humans, no humans looked like that.  The belief that premonitions and strange dreams are sent by God would therefore lead to the conclusion that these must be the images of Gods. 

 

Today, we are very matter of fact about the technology we have around us.  That man has travelled to the moon and even walked on it’s surface is something of history.  The astronauts, now long since retired from the space programme are some of the bravest and most adventurous  men in modern history, risking everything to go where no man has gone before.  They should be amongst the most respected and honoured of all the worlds citizens, yet, that is not the world we live in and many would rather meet the actors of fantasy films about space adventures rather than the thrill of meeting the real thing. 

It is however my postulation that, as ignored as they are today in our superficial society, once long ago Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Alan Shepherd and a dozen other brave men were worshiped by ancient cultures as Gods under many different names and depicted on the many cave walls, ornaments and statues riding their Chariot of the Gods.

Human Consciousness and the Human Brain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I once compared, perhaps unfairly, surgeons with car mechanics, relating the human body as a mechanism that can be adjusted and repaired by the surgeon.  However, as any Doctor would point out even with the human body there is so much more going on than the functioning of a complex machine.  No matter how cleverly the surgeons patch up the body, how thoroughly they redirect its functioning, how much time and effort they take, consciousness can be the determining factor of whether a patient lives or dies and for patients who think they are going to die there is little the Doctor’s can do to prevent their self determined fate.

Over the 20^th and into the 21^st Century we have seen enormous innovations and discoveries in science, technology, the environment and lifestyle.  We have been able to answer some fundamental questions such as “what is the surface of the moon like? “ and “why do we inherit physical characteristics?”.  We have also asked questions never before asked and been able to answer them, such as “how closely related are we to the apes?” and  “how did radiation and electromagnetism affect the evolution of life on Earth?”.   We have invented artificial intelligence in the form of computers; sent probes to mars and walked on the moon; saved billions of lives using genetically altered pathogens as vaccines, designer pharmaceutical products and significantly involved and complex procedures; we have even decoded the human genome and cloned a live animal through genetic manipulation. We are more educated, healthier and have longer life spans and more money than we have ever had before.  We have made great strides in improving the human state although at some expense to the rest of the planet. 

With all these innovations and discoveries it is perhaps somewhat of a surprise that we have yet to understand the very thing which has driven, caused and created all these incredible changes.  We have little real understanding of the underpinning nature of human consciousness.  We certainly have theories with–in the field of neuroscience, sociology and psychology but none that are able to give a comprehensive, practical working knowledge.  Where as medical science has made leaps and bounds in it’s treatment of diseases, psychology and psychiatry has been far less successful in treating illnesses of the mind.  You  can generally guarantee a prevention or cure with a physical illness, such as diet and exercise reducing your risk of developing heart disease.  Whereas you can not guarantee a prevention or cure for any mental health illnesses. That is of course only considering human beings.  When it comes to non-humans it is still debated in academia as to whether animals are truly conscious let alone understanding what the nature of their consciousness may be, if it exists. 

There are some obvious reasons why it is so difficult for science to pin point the nature of consciousness.  Firstly, we know that consciousness is not just a surface phenomena but exists at different levels from the conscious to the unconscious to the subconscious.  We may study the consciousness to some extent using tests and observing behaviour, but can not be sure of the interaction between the three levels of consciousness.  As a tool Hypnosis has to some degree given some insight into what lies beneath consciousness.  However, it is questionable how or why hypnosis works and may not be regarded by the rigours of scientific investigation as a valid tool of research. While it is known that under hypnosis a subject may recall events in thorough and exacting detail, subjects will also remember, under prompting, events that never actually occurred. As far as accounts of past lives in hypno-regression is concerned, with-out validation these could just as well be fantasies.

The problem is our science is empirical and takes a nuts and bolts approach to verify a fact.  A theory has to be substantiated by a thoroughly detailed experiment whose results have been predicted by the theory before it can be called a fact.  The nature of consciousness and the advancement of science does not at this time allow for such close and detailed study of consciousness.  Most of the innovation, discoveries and inventions of the 20^th century were extensions of things that could be experienced by the senses, examined and tested through the senses and instruments used by the senses.  Thermometers, weighing scales, pressure gauges, litmus paper and a plethora of highly sophisticated instruments measure changes in the world around us that scientist use to manipulate matter and energy and test their theories.  Aspects of consciousness such as thoughts, feeling and perceptions may be manipulated through the use of drugs or other means but these are expressions of functions of consciousness rather than consciousness itself.  Which brings up the question is consciousness a function or an object.  As a function consciousness is explained through what is understood of the workings of the brain.  This however is inadequate to explain the nature of consciousness.  If it exists as an entity then science has never been able to define its shape, form or origin.    

The innovations, discoveries and inventions of the 20^th century are based on the laws of physics.  The understanding of the human body is based in the sciences of biology and chemistry which include the laws of physics and physics itself.  For the most part, the physics I am referring to is Newtonian physics, the basis of which has been in existence since the 17^th century.  We, essentially live in a Newtonian world of industry and technology.  It is my belief that where as the functioning of the components that make up the human body and its many functions can be explain quite thoroughly though Newtonian physics, the nature of consciousness is such that it does not function according to Newtonian physics principles.  It would seem that with the advent of Quantum physics it is likely that human consciousness works more on a quantum level than anything else.  This would explain why after a hundred years of  innovations, discoveries and inventions we still are left asking what is consciousness, where does it reside and how does it function?  If consciousness works on the principles of Quantum physics then it is no surprise that we have not made much headway in understanding it in a world filled with technology and knowledge based on Newtonian physics.  A comparison can be drawn between a car and its driver.  Although one may have a thorough understanding of the mechanics of how a car works, the function and theory behind the combustion engine and the electrical components, you would be lost to explain how the drivers body works.  The driver plays an essential part in the operation and control of the car, determining how the car carries out its functions and for what purpose.  The driver and the car work together but are very different in their function and the understanding of one does not bring an understanding of the other.  Similarly one can think of the human body as the vehicle while consciousness is the passenger.  Both are intimately connected  yet both have very different functions and origins.  Although I have known a number of people who “lived for” and actually lived in their cars, no ones life is defined by being the driver of a car, not even those that do it as a living.  The racing car driver or long haul trucker will both agree there is life beyond the car.  When their careers come to an end and their cars a taken to the scrap heap there lives will still continue in meaningful ways and so it is when the human body  comes to an, the driver, the consciousness continues in a meaningful way.

With-Out a Care in the World

The role of the qualified or paid Nurse or Nursing Auxiliary is very different to the role of a family member caring for their relative. In many ways the family’s involvement is by far, more difficult than those that take on caring as a career.  It is true that the roles in some ways have many similarities but it is the nature of the word care that defines each persons role.   

Webster’s On-line Dictionary defines the word Care as a noun and a verb in the following way

Noun

1. The work of caring for or attending to someone or something; 2. Judiciousness in avoiding harm or danger; 3. An anxious feeling; 4. A cause for feeling concern; 5. Attention and management implying responsibility for safety; 6. Activity involved in maintaining something in good working order; “he wrote the manual on car care”.

Verb

1. Feel concern or interest; 2. Provide care for; 3. Prefer or wish to do something; 4. Be in charge of, act on, or dispose of; 5. Be concerned with;

Both as a noun and a verb it can be seen that the word care is either an action or an emotion.  The motivation for giving care and the quality of care given will depend on whether it is an action or an emotion. 

Nurses and Doctor’s provide care as an action in their professional role, while family and friends provide care as an emotional expression.  The motivation to provide care by those working in the care industry is to uphold professional standards and meet contractual requirements.  The motivation of a family is out of an emotionally driven sense of duty and concern.  The professional carer does not need to be emotionally or subjectively involved in the care they give.  The family would not give care if not emotionally or subjectively involved.  The professionals responsibility for caring is the obligation to meet the standards and requirements set forth by the employing body.  The family responsibility to care is a personal and emotional obligation.  It is therefore not surprising that families caring for a member find themselves physically, emotionally and psychologically exhausted.  It is equally not surprising that with-in the care sector many patients and families have complain about a lack of care. 

The priorities for the employed carer, professional or not is very different to the family carer.  A successful nurse will meet professional standards and the letter of her contract.  However, this may fall short of expectations the patient and their family have.  The patient and family view the provision of care in a nursing home or hospital in the same way they would provide care for a relative or friend. The care staff view the provision of care as a business and a job. As a business resources have to be allocated and staff shifts rotated  to provide cover through out the day. Health care is managed and provisions are made for it.  There is little room for personal, subjective involvement in the busy day.  The family of course, can not help but be subjective about the care they provide.

 

It does seem that caring as a profession is more of a verb, it’s something you do. Where as the involvement of a family carer is more of a noun.  It’s something they become and something that dominates their lives. It is therefore far more demanding on the family due to the intense level of involvement.

The demand on health care workers to meet the needs of all the patients in a subjective way is nigh impossible considering the huge number of people they look after during their careers.  An objective assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation by health care workers is the most efficient way of caring for large numbers of people.  It would seem caring with out feeling is although efficient not meeting the high standards that was once met. Maybe the detachment of emotions and objective approach does not provide emotional incentive. It is doing rather than feeling, meeting patients needs rather than empathising. Sadly however this is caring as a objective verb and in a way caring with-out caring.