Category: Philosophy

Synchronicity Symposium Part 2 – reflections

 

I have just had three hours of collective listening to three very good speakers and I have just left the afternoon session 60% of the way through because my head is bursting with ideas and the text for today’s diary. Following on the statement made by Catherine of Genoa a few days ago I feel that I am a monist. Monism is a theory or doctrine that denies the existence of a distinction of duality in a particular sphere, just that between matter and mind, oh god and the world. Another way of saying it is monism is the philosophical idea that all things and existence are part of the same essential oneness or whole. Monism is opposed to dualism, which holds that there is a fundamental difference between the mental realm and the physical realm. Note that it’s says ‘opposed to’ which means that monists actively disagree with dualism.

I think back to some of my dear evangelical friends who beseech God to ‘come into their lives’ and ‘take action’ and ‘move’ when in fact this is a bit like taking coals to Newcastle as we say in the United Kingdom because God is already resident within us and we have the challenge of removing the impediments to our belief in the fact. In other words, if God made us or manufactured us if you like, then he and us are the same.Yeshua (Jesus) came to give us this same message. I find this egalitarian attitude much healthier than groveling to some invisible person and asking for things when as Jesus himself said, I know what you have need of before you ask.

I experienced a marked improvement of quality today in the preparation of the speakers particularly the second one, Bethany Butzer. She lives in Prague with her husband who is a street artist. She is an academic and very thorough in her examinations of things and this reflects in the images that you will see below.

If you look at yesterday’s rather rushed and sparse notes you will see how these differ from them. Informative, concise, and methodical

In the speech notes I saw that someone had indicated what turned out to be a remarkable website, watch documentaries.com which has hundreds of very high quality films one of which was called ‘inside the Milky Way’. I paused in my activity in writing this diary and as soon as I saw its quality I asked Francoise to come in and watch it. If you have one hour 35 minutes 43 seconds and one to watch the most mind blowing graphics then do visit this link. Would be very good if you could see it in a darkened room because it is so realistic. https://watchdocumentaries.com/inside-the-milky-way/

It’s certainly brings things like my dented car door into perspective. I went to the local garage this morning and they said they could dismantle the door and push out to the bumps. If I went the insurance company route and wanted to replace the door that would probably cost the best part of the value of the car except if I could find a breaker’s yard who just happened to have that corresponding door. It doesn’t have to look perfect, just halfway presentable and it is a 20 year old car after all.

Whilst on domestic things, to announce to the small minority who might be interested that my almost 20-year problem with Barrett’s esophagus seems to have been solved by some new medication offered by my doctor, Lansoprazole, which I guess is a cousin of Omaprazole which I have been taking for some time with very little effect. I guess the new medicine contains something which goes to the roots of the problem. Vomiting has for me being a daily occurrence but touch wood, and do need a very big piece of wood to touch, for the last week or so there has been no recurrence and my food is actually staying down. My doctor also wants me to take statins but so long is the list of side effects that I would rather have a natural alternative which comes in the form of something called Biocare, Bioplantarum plus Sterols. We shall see how we succeed with that one.

I’ve had a little time to reflect on my performance as a listener with regard to today’s symposium. Although I enjoy abstract ideas, I could almost say all sorts of ideas, I am not an academic. I have not been trained as an academic. I am more interested in the practice than the theory. Theoretical models as we know from Imperial College London are often wrong. My overall view is that we need the courage to look at the root and not the branches or leaves.

One of my memes is that you don’t know what you know until you tell somebody. I find that speaking my truth, or the truth that I see it at the time, is important for me and furthermore I need to do it with a real live person in front of me. Is all very well but I do miss the intimacy, the entanglement, which is more likely to happen if you have flesh and blood in front of you

The value of the symposium does not lie so much with absorbing wisdom from the speakers but in what is sparked off in the Minds of the listeners and I include some of the chat among 180 people to show what a stimulus a talk can be.

It is impossible to figure out what you will take away will be from a given talk. I have been to hugely boring talks in my time and that was a great incentive not to be boring myself when I write material. Another talk was given by someone who had no idea how to run a seminar. Was announced for 1:30 p.m. But she decided to hold a meeting with her colleague at that time and did not start the meeting until 10 past 2. There was not a word of apology. That made me determined to start all occasions on time. So, not been along to that display of bad Manners, I would not have learnt my lesson.

As for my readers, I don’t have that much feedback from you; an account of a shared experience would indeed add to the whole venture of writing this diary. I Grant you that people have shorter attention span and my average diary entry is about 1500 words so I will not be for everybody. I am aware of that but I will not compromise for that reason

Someone on ZOOM told us about an image of a hand. It is in fact a bridge in Vietnam which is the last place I would think of but what a wonderful picture it is.

So I’m just going to pick out a few items from the Q and A

another topic we might want to consider as the SMN is the role that synchronicity plays in scientific discovery itself.. e.g. Wallace and Darwin co-discovering natural selection at the same time.. or Leibniz and Newton co-discovering calculus

“I do know that co-creation is essentially a passive receptive vehicle-state.”…hmmm…interesting enough I think it’s the opposite, but probably it is that you take that position/role “passive receptive vehicle-state” when that happens; there is no right or wrong on that, it’s yin/yang so we all need our opposites to find completion, and that is also an act of co-creating -see Marj’s example yesterday to see a possible version/model

so Buddha and the Rishis of ancient India called these effects “SIDDHIS” – they are not to be pursued as an end in themselves, but merely as an epiphenomenon on the road to enlightenment.. so Bethany is correct in saying that meditation practice tends to increase their occurrence.. but as yet, research into this matter is somewhat lacking,.

So maybe this time, now, is the time for us to understand and accept what was once considered to be weird, is more like the ‘normal’ we’ve been ignoring as we were so focused on ‘bringing home the bacon’ and ‘paying our way’ etc

It seems to me that one of the ‘dangers’ of both asking for analysis or interpretation is the instantaneous diminution of the uniquely individual. The ‘meaning’ is individual and the timing is in the moment where that meaning will be different a moment later. All references to both symbolism or paradigms swerve away from the critical instant and the critical individual?

We saw that the audience has been provoked or stimulated and this  should be the way of a role model for all conversations even in the street or at the supermarket check-out.

So the summary of these two days at least so far as I’m concerned.

Hosts

# The inter-regnum period was still not addressed after yesterday’s vacuum and everyone’s microphone should have been enabled, and people encouraged to talk.
# I always think it is a good idea to ask people where they are from and put that information in the chat. With 180 people that would have made an interesting exercise and is a way of introducing people to each other

Observation of speakers

# Not all speakers are going to be equally gripping in their delivery.
# Some have natural gifts of delivery and I cite as an unexpected plus, the first speaker today who had his timing between sentences and phrases magnificently working for him so you were almost dying to hear what he was going to say next. Is what I call measured talking
# preparation really pays off in that the delivery is fresh and crisp.
# the speakers were given strict orders about how long to talk for and they were conscious of time
# with such a topic as synchronicity, it was almost protocol for them to validate themselves by starting with a personal testimony

Audience

# people still fall into the trap of telling their life Histories and not sticking to the convention about asking one question. The chairman had two hurry someone along because they were taking too long before getting to their question.
# people are finally getting the idea of unmuting themselves before speaking in other words getting collectively more familiar with ZOOM
# a really good chairman would keep an eye on the comments in the chat and refer to them as we go along in order for the audience to feel involved. It does require quite a high level of attention but the human being is capable of doing this

 

Reflections on 45 years of gardening

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Memories of 45 years of gardening

Today at 11:00 we trimmed a hedge for a local resident.  I always enjoy doing hedges if only to see the improvement of its appearance after my efforts.  For this we were paid £50.  I do not need the money but I need to be compensated from my effort. Why do I do gardening at all? I do it to keep fit. Power tools and their use are part of keeping the upper body responsive. I also do it to show myself that I am still capable of work. I know there are people who work until their 90s and I admire them. Farmers and so forth.

I have already reduced my workload considerably and know that one fine day I will say, ‘enough is enough’.  I first did gardening in my early 30s. That means 45 years of work, not consistently but when I needed to.  Most of my clients have been very content with my work. Only two people in the whole of my 45 years have not paid me. One was a gypsy family or gypsy related should I say. I would like to say that I have met a lot of interesting people.  This for the most part has not been true.  They were regular everyday people who wanted their gardens done.  I came, I did the job, I left. Occasionally I got offered a cup of tea but I did not mind if I did not.

Any outside occupation involves communion with nature and this is always a blessing. However for the last five years I have made it a rule not to work for people who are difficult or complaining. I find that in effect it becomes hard work just dealing with the customer never mind the work itself. I find that if I work for someone who is grateful and appreciative the burden is lighter and I end the day feeling refreshed and satisfied.  My rule is, if relations with the customer start badly it’s going to go on badly.

Overall, the work has kept me fit, hopefully improved the quality of life of some of my people  and enabled them to enjoy their gardens.    About charging rates, some people have no idea what is involved in self employed work.  They do not do so now but in previous decades they expected me to work for 10 pounds an hour. ‘ man with spade works for 10 pounds an hour’.  They do not exist any more.  We have to buy, service and maintain our own equipment and bear our own travel costs. If I worked for £10 an hour it would  be working for less than the national minimum wage and I would in fact be working out a loss.   20 pounds an hour is my minimum and more if the work is hard.

Failure of my internet connection

This may sound like a very nerdy thing but I have come to rely on my mobile phone in particular and the internet in general for so many flows of information such as my bank details, text messages from friends, deciding which of many applicants to employ, keeping up to date with my covid discussions not to mention the odd social media platform.

Last Sunday at about midday my mobile phone simply refused to connect to the internet. I’ve had this happen once before and I fell into the trap of thinking it was the fault of the phone.  It was in fact a local connectivity issues so when the same thing happened again I decided not to panic but wait and see.  Sunday night went. Nothing.  Should I call someone?  Who to call?  If it was a very local problem the company (Sky) probably wouldn’t know about it anyway. The point, I tell myself, is that in my area there must be other subscribers who have also been cut off so instead of engaging on yet another campaign and listening to endless music whilst waiting to be put through to some droid, I  assumed that the powers that be will eventually know that the system was not functioning, and other people will have telephoned to complain.

Sure enough the system came back today at about 3 o’clock. It is still stuttering with some apps but I guess ‘re-booting’ takes time to work through the system.

Fear

I’m shortly going to write a big article on fear. Everything is frequency, wavelengths and vibration as Nikola Tesla said.  Fear is  being forced on us as an idea 24/7.   I noticed they are even weaponizing the weather forecasts.
There’s a great storm threatened for this Wednesday,  storm Agnes

UK weather: Danger to life warnings issued by Met Office as 80mph winds set to batter Britons

I’m sick of reading these prognostications. They take the worst case scenario in other words the area which is most likely to be hit by a storm and then apply it to the whole country.   Believe it or not – and I don’t mind if you don’t believe it, The Powers That Be are trying to keep us in a state of fear which is very much like being tuned to a particular radio channel. If they can keep us on the channel then we’ll do what we are told.  So the reason – in a word – is CONTROL.

This is only one aspect of the topic so expect a  substantial article when I can get around to it, probably sooner rather than later. Ideas are boiling and they cannot be suppressed. If inspirations are ignored consistently they will go away to return another day, and return they will.

The value of hugging

Here is a small part of a discussion, which started on the topic of ‘community’ but reverted to hugging. Every Monday evening and other evenings the Scientific and Medical Network have ZOOM conversations. You are welcome to join that network.

Arthur Janov,  the founder of Primal Therapy said that ‘a twenty second hug was the equivalent of 5mg of valium’.

We discussed this topic at this evening’s meeting of the Scientific and Medical Network. The topic was the importance of the wider community introduced by the chair, Paul, but before you knew it the conversation turned to hugs. The theme of hugs returned repeatedly during the whole time.

A man gave a testimony that hugs run in his family and children regarded hugging as normal.

snippets:

there were some research that if you hold it for say a longer time like 20 seconds something happens. It’s not like just a squeeze it’s like you make a connection

when you’re hugging it’s a heart thing and you produce the hormone oxytocin

I live in Central America where touching is normal,  touching is seen hugging is seen as some part of life I know that covid stifled a lot but we are  slowly getting back into it

I guess I’d be called a natural hugger.  I hug everybody as much as I can as long as I can and I consider it energy sharing . When you are  hugging you are really sharing energy with one another and you know it’s just a wonderful thing to do and I do it all the time

It comes natural to me and I just think it’s a wonderful thing to do people need touch, people need touch. We don’t touch enough we don’t we really don’t and I think it’s important

The average length of a hug between two people is three seconds. researchers have discovered that when a hug lasts 20 seconds there is a therapeutic effect on the body of the mind and that hug will produce a hormones called ocytocin and also known as the love hormone so something to think about especially with my grandchildren and loved ones. If we can hold that hug for a little longer I think we get a special feeling from that

I’m a hugger but I am very discerning about hugging I think it’s really important that we deserve that we don’t rush into people and assume they would like a hug because as everybody has said touch is really important but it depends on who you’re touching and their history for instance if there’s a history of sexual abuse or anything like that that can be very threatening

I just wanted to mention about where maybe you know but the idea of meta as in say Buddhism so matter as in loving kindness and this is a practice that can be done through kind of meditation so it’s in the mental space so it’s not physical hugging

I’m out in the street I regard everyone as a friend that I haven’t yet met I promise you it transformed each and every day and when I go out I’m not lonely for one single second because I’m excited about the person I have yet to meet who could be around the next corner who knows and there’s no excuse for self-pity here ‘nobody loves me’. Well jolly will go out and demonstrate love to others. Stop whinging

The whole thing is about relationships. That’s why masking people was such a killer because the kids at their key age couldn’t see their mothers reaction and we have yet to see the full consequences of that.  I’m afraid they’re going to be stunted or they ARE stunted.

An example of a town with all the right community vibes is Bridport in Dorset and I recommend it to anyone. There’s a lot of art there, intelligent people, and you can virtually talk to anybody and get a meaningful response.

If after talking to someone you want to hug them it is okay to ask their permission for example do you mind if I give you a hug

Funny is the English language.   Consider the use of the word ‘touchy’ vs the word ‘touchy-feely’. Same word, two opposite meanings.

What does it mean to care?

Ominous Sky

To me this is a reflection of our times. The sun is shining but there are dark clouds on the horizon.  Possible lock downs to come. Not good.

Caring

Today I had a philosophical chat with my friend John. We were talking about understanding or should I say comprehension which is a slightly more sophisticated word but then we moved on to another topic – caring and love

I joked with John that one of my longest diary entries was on a day that I entitled ‘is it possible to do nothing?’. Nature abhors a vacuum.

Brian: trying to understand life on a material level is a bit like being familiar with two stories of a nine story building. You never get the full picture.

John: For example in medicine, they don’t do it holistically. They don’t realize that there’s a consciousness that is independent of these various mechanistic functions. That consciousness is capable of cleaning itself out if it wants to. The problem is that a vast number of people are unable to do this or be aware of it so they are on a slippery slope to becoming increasingly held by a molecular mechanism.

Brian: Even the thought of being healed has a power of its own. Fear leads to a false self imprisonment. I should be even more optimistic than I am at the moment

John – While we are still free we have the capability of doing anything

Brian- I want to talk about love. I think it’s more than emotions. It’s actually a presence of mind which is far deeper than any emotion you could have.

John – Emotions are the translation of the restricted interpretation of an overall caring function. It is restricted because separate emotions is like shining white light through a prism. You’re going to get a variety of different effects from the same thing. The overarching concept is caring.

The emotions are what happens when you shine it through all the prisms of life, into a brain format of feeling this way or that way and that. Caring is emotionless in its way although it’s a primary emotion; it is the concept which is a fundamental property of a living thing. Caring is an original function of what we call a soul.

Brian -so caring is the carrier wave.

John – Caring is the function that if everything comes from one thing caring is the gravity if you like, It’s not the same as gravity but it’s the glue that puts everything back together. Love itself is a larger concept not an individual perspective.

Brian – Caring is actually compassion in action and one of the effects is let us say an interference pattern which we would describe as the emotion of love.

John – We translate it into a personalized function because we’re individuals and therefore we’re using that function,  so caring in our perspective is an outward function. It is what you do to others. There is caring and of course (in the course of life) there is hating. Hating is when we try to restrict others. It’s a negative function.

Hatred or hate is an intense negative emotional response towards certain people, things or ideas, usually related to opposition or revulsion toward something. Hatred is often associated with intense feelings of anger, contempt, and disgust. Hatred is sometimes seen as the opposite of love

Brian – (about publishing these thoughts) My overall aim in these discussions and indeed all real live meetings is to provoke people into thinking, and considering,  in ways they would not normally do. Our task in these conversations is to help consciousness of the population rise in subtle ways. Plenty of people go on marches and attend demonstrations. This is not my style though maybe it is cowardliness.

Brian – Let’s talk about this other level of consciousness which means you can cancel out the effect of of entropy. We all know about eternal souls but if I’m to give practical advice to people who might benefit what do I say.

John – positive thought … people say that if they actually visualize the cancer in their mind they make it go away if they continuously think that they want the thing to go away, it often does. Mind over matter is a real effect. It’s claimed not to be by ‘the science’ but it is it’s very powerful thing and that’s one example of it.

The placebo effect is another.

Brian – I thought you were going to say cancer and sugar because isn’t is not sugar the main contributor to cancer.

John – it’s one possible cause. It makes it worse – defective mitochondria and therefore it’s only got glycolysis so it is a defective mitochondria which means you have glycolesis (the breakdown of glucose by enzymes, releasing energy and pyruvic acid) so it takes all the sugar out these system. So if you deprive the body of sugar it’s less able to grow so that’s not the only thing. What I was talking about is a positive attitude not molecular. This ‘attitude’ treatment IS thought. The key thing is to incorporate the dynamic of thought into our change paradigm plans.

Brian – When you are dead, you do not think, you are just thought. When you die, thoughts are the only thing you can take with you. You cannot change. It’s a bit like being in a river with no paddle.

Loneliness

Brian – As for loneliness, think there is a big element of laziness in this and people should just get on with things. That was a hymn somewhere that said ‘live each day as if thy last’ and I do try to do this, it keeps me buoyant.

This is a famous quote with many off-shoots.

Live each day as if it were the last day of your life because, so far, it is. Live each day as if it were your last. Learn as if you would live forever. Remind yourself of all the things you love about life, stay in touch with your loved ones and friends, and do what your own heart tells you to.

Reflections at the Recycle Centre

A philosophical point occurred to me when I was taking garden rubbish to the recycled centre here in Midsomer Norton. I am at an age now where people think I might need help with tipping a large bag over into the metal containers. A man asked me if I wanted help and I replied, ‘no thank you I am okay’. I was not just saying this out of politeness, I was saying it because the weight was not as bad as it looked and I need to do something to keep myself physically fit.

I am concerned that I may have put this good Samaritan off from asking other people because in his mind an offer of help has been linked with a rejection. Should I have accepted the help because it was given even though I did not need it.

I take the same view when I’m in London on the subway or tube as we call it. Actually I prefer to stand up but people want to offer their seats. The same principle applies. Am I putting people off volunteering to give up their seats because I say no.   Do comment in the comments section if you wish.

To Halfords

There is nothing like a forthcoming longer drive to stimulate a checking of my motor vehicle. Apart from filling up with oil, power steering and windscreen washing I had to replace a tyre that for reasons of bad tracking had worn on one side. Warning lights appeared on my dashboard so I had to go to Halfords to get some new bulbs. They have a scheme where the company will on demand replace small items like bulbs and fuses for a small amount of money, a fiver or so.

The closest to immortal life since the Morris 1000?

The sales person was having difficulty with the computer system. It took forever to work. He said it was the same system that was installed 25 years ago. This almost beggars belief but he was not the sort of person who would deceive me. We joked about Volvo’s being immortal and he said that his own Volvo was disposed of only when it reached 165,000 miles. My Volvo is at 82,000 miles so plenty to go. Fingers crossed of course. Once a Volvo driver, always a Volvo driver. Is it an addiction?

——VIDEO LIBRARY ——–

Why AMISH children have almost no disease or mental health problems. An eye opener from the Health Ranger Report.