Wangat lodge in NSW. Nice site (in both meanings of that word)

Looks like an interesting edition of Compass coming up on June 24 ... about 'Genetic research is giving parents unprecedented access to information about the likelihood of hereditary diseases or serious disabilities in their unborn children. But with knowledge can come pressure to terminate any foetus which is considered abnormal. So where do we draw the line? Are society's attitudes changing towards people who decide to give birth to a child who is "different"?' ...

Mum sent some photos of the aquarium trip ... must make a page of them at her site ... if I don't, feel perfectly free to send me an email ...

Hermit crabs make wonderful pets

Stretching online ... looks mainly to be a vehicle to sell the book but I have a copy and it's excellent ... I highly recommend it but it may infringe copyright if I scanned too many of the suggestions ... do yourslef a favour and check it out ... :)

This page has a brief bio and a free sample of 'stretchware' ...

Or try here for some yoga positions

Ooopsies ... I re-visited that links page and they HAVE indeed added world puja but have included my apology for yesterday's muckup ... :)

Click here to see what I mean ... scroll down to 'puja' ... I saved the oopsies version as I shall send them an email and it will probably change ...

Just had a closer look and it would seem ALL suggestions get recorded AS IS ... so 'Spiritweb' links to MY home page ... which could be seen as a bit of false advertisin! ... same goes for 'Articles for awakening' & 'Noosphere' ... maybe I actually need to email bravenet ... :)

... which looks an interesting 'provider' of webspace etc ... click

Here's what I sent ...

Mircea Eliade

I'm back from my TMS ... that's 'transcranial magnetic stimulation' to the uninitiated ...

It is a weird sensation to have this magnet on your head and it emits a pulse and your thumb twitches totally involuntarily ... you must try it sometime ... :)

Though it must be said that absolutely NOTHING compares with the involuntariness of the side-effects of Haloperidol back in 1983! I would not wish that on any living soul. Though it had a good effect in the end - it made the issue of medication absolutely NO chance. Apparently, these days the doses are WAY lower but NONE are absolutely free of side-effect ... let alone the other aspects of psychiatric drugs ...

The whole process got my cogs spinning on some old themes ... and to realise the way I (& a few others) view the experience of schizophrenia aint exactly something you would encounter everyday ... :)

{All of which 'ought' to make me question why I feel so sure the conventional view is so so far off the mark}

... yes, looking back at my journey and the very early days where (a) I never knew these experiences had a name and wracking my brains for a plausible explanation ... telepathic contact with advanced aliens ... and I STILL don't see that as impossible ... I mean human beings have been around how long? ... and just look at the leaps in the past century alone ... now, imagine a sentient species that is thousands or even millions of years ahead in their development ...

... and channeling or contact with spirit beings ... more than one? ... would explain the huge oscillations of mood for 'no apparent reason' ... let alone the content of the information ...

... biofeedback ... jokes about the brain and how little we understand about how it works ... (let alone who/what is 'behind' it) ...

... and reflecting on how I used to be and if you had tried to describe my current views & experiences to the 'me' of ten years ago (a) I would have barely been able to imagine it and (b) I would have laughed in your face at the suggestion I'd ever get into meditation and reading all this 'spiritual stuff' etc ... it's been SOME ride ...

... and how my anger was rarely 'personal' ... it was a rage against the state of the world and how lame most people's lives seem ... and how I was convinced I'd always feel that way and how astonishing I never acted on such rage apart from a few nasty words here & there when I felt people were bugging me (no pun intended) ...

... and how families rarely have even half a clue how to handle this 'stuff' ... and pretending to be 'normal' just so as to not embarass others ...

... and the question of being a 'bliss addict' ... I have to admit it is a fair question ...

... plus the possibility of a placebo effect with a (radically) new treatment for depression by stimulating the frontal lobe on a regular basis ...

A nice painting of Van Gogh on the wall I gazed at for the best part of an hour or more ... I remember it well but not its title ... :)

... part of the quetionnaire was the standard stuff about paranoia & delusions & hallucinations ... and whether you feel you have 'special' powers ... well, I do believe we ALL have them but they remain dormant ... if we stopped talking we'd develop telepathy ...

... and who/what is God ... feeling as if you are seeing the world though God's eyes at times ... and how I remain puzzled about it all ... I mean 'why me?' ... and I can fully understand those who have not had these consciousness-expanding experiences being dubious or dismissive ... plus my writing and 'lifestyle' ... you won't meet anyone with a less structured existence ...

... and how I am still completely flabbergasted at how that anger has dissolved ... I mean the world hasn't really changed (much) yet the anger is a distant memory - almost as if it happened to somebody else ...

... and how utterly naive I was back in '83 ... I did not believe 'they' could come to your house and on the basis of five or ten mins talking to me in my bed early in the morning when I was not in co-operative mood trundle me off to a psych ward ... I mean I was not in a nice place but whether I needed that kind of treatment is extremely debatable ... and yet, in the end, I have to very grateful to the existing mental health system, terribly flawed though it may be ... because it did provide me with the most astonishing seven-day experience anyone could even begin to imagine ... as well as placing me in contact with the most extraordinary individuals on the planet (unless you count the Tibetan lamas & other mystics)

... one question about whether you consider yourself one of God's messengers ... and the reluctance to proclaim yourself as such, when you look at what people have done to his previous envoys ... like nailing them to a cross ...

What is that quote about God being beyond ANY concept you may hold in your mind ... well, it tosses up some interesting search results

Van Gogh Gallery - I had NO idea he'd done quite this many paintings! ... still can't recall the title of the one I looked at ... :)

Waldorf salad ... kind of appropriate for a day like today ... :)

Today's mantra: "I am the learning. I am the burning. I am the mental telepathy of Jesus."

When you can walk on water, take the boat

An invite to MindFest ... I said I'd be there in spirit, so i better brush up on my astral travel skills in the meantime ...

Encyclopedia of Aboriginal Culture

[  June 23, 2001   '

Since that section is bare on the bravenet links page, I did a quick search of 'atheist spirituality' ... and it tosses up some interestin stuff ... :)

14,000 in fact! But it should be noted I did not search for the exact phrase. Though, one has to say that the top few results do tend to be those where the words are clustered closest together ...

When you look at it, I may be the 'worst' person to have found that sanctuary links page ... I mean I could more than double its size ... :)

... or just suggest Sites for sore minds as 'An eclectic collection of links. Many of which explore the various aspects of spirituality and the human experience. A little something for everyone. :)' and let people find my other pages if they do ...

... like Understanding Love or Buddhist quote of the moment or my book excerpts/reviews etc etc ...

Also Dharma the Cat, Bahai faith, Interlude, Lama Yeshe, Chopra Forum to name a few more ... :)

... or the 'best' links from this collection ...

Looking back on yesterday's questionnaire ... explaining proverbs ... glass houses ... judge a book by its cover ... a rolling stone ... and how are objects similar - chair & table - socks & shirt - bus & bike - poem & painting - air & water was one I dithered over - elements of planet earth - then it hit me that they are both essential ingredients for life on earth ...

Some of the others basically assume you think about life/reality/experiences in the conventional way. And by-and-large that would be a pretty fair assumption ... but when you're talking about the experience of schizophrenia, those assumptions become bit rubbery ... for instance, I honestly endeavour not to see things in terms of 'better or worse', such as the question about whether I see myself as 'better' or worse' than the 'average' person ... {I think I responded that my experiences are anything BUT average but whether you choose to see that as 'beter' or 'worse' is a personal interpretation }

... or whether I consider myself 'special' in any way ... :)

I did throw together a quick page of those aquarium photos ...

Stunning total eclipse in Africa on shortest day of year ... should find some links/photos ...

Here is an animation of the eclipse path ... and links to places such as Mr Eclipse

Today's mantra: "My little doctor want me to say things about my life"

ooops ... I did submit that link on Kuan Yin, Bertrand Russell and Why Atheist Spirituality is Not An Oxymoron ... but forgot to select 'atheist spirituality' as the category ... I can be such a duffer at times!

Speaking of suggestions ... I haven't really checked out the Conversations with God site in quite a while ...

More interestin emails ... remind me to tell you about them one of these days ... :)

... about ... if anyone on this planet knows what it's like to be down ... and I do mean WAY down ... I once described it as being at the bottom of a impossibly deep well with moss on the sides ... no rope long enough ... filling with water ... arms and or legs broken ... piranha or worse ... :) ... letting go of blame etc is so incredibly liberating ... image of forgiveness ... Jesus on cross ... and the sick doggie dilemma as mine departed just 4 months ago ... eclipse ... aquarium photos ... funny you should mention The Neurology of Spritual Experiences ... vangogh & describe ... more ... putting on a brave face ... I was never terribly good at it ... more to follow

... plus the fact that the 'cases' of schizophrenia you are likely to encounter in the public mental health system are a very unrepresentative sample of what the experience is like (a) because they are those individuals where something went sufficiently awry to bring that person's behaviour or situation to the attention of society's Thought Poilce & (b) the effects of the medications themselves ... not to mention the fact that often the person has the treatment imposed on them rather than ever requesting it ...

... yes, click here and scroll down to the phrase 'clinical schizophrenia, which is alienated, repressed' etc ... :(

... and 'Take care, buddy' versus 'No worries, mate' ... :)

"I've never been the sort of person who accepts the conventional wisdom on any matter. From where I'm standing, it's all highly questionable." ...

Getting back to those email themes ... yes, on the subject of letting go of blame, one of the most succint and powerful pieces of wisdom (for me anyway) is to realise that nobody is responsible for your feelings (and vice versa). Yet this is not the way MOST people see things. Statements like 'You made me angry' or 'She hurt my feelings' or 'That's annoying' etc etc ... are ultimately nonsense but until we truly see it that way, the tension makes people do some real crazy things ... {this needs work but you can catch my drift}

Interesting letter in the paper the other day ... {IF I remember to upload it, that is} ... yes, many would say politics is a bit of a joke but with an employment minister named Abbott & a treasurer named Costello, that's just too easy ... :)

click here - assuming I remember to upload ...

Listening to the news in bed this morning, a report about the latest culprit that 'may cause cancer' ... I'm living for the day when some doctor goes out on a limb and agrees with the sentiments in CWG about illness and says somethin like 'cancer is cause by negative emotions such as anger, jealousy, complaining, blaming & judging others etc.' ... that'll be the day ... :)

... insulting ... belittling ... criticising ... hating ... now THAT one is the killer ... 'It poisons the body and its effects are virtually irrevesible' ... and I used to do a heck of a LOT of it once-upon-a-time ...

And yet, one wonders even if you could conclusively demonstrate the harmful effects on the body of indulging in such activities ... how many would be ready, willing & able to change ...

suggest a link

Added 'I would like' by Lee Beavington to my list of sites, which may or may not be receiving more visitors ... :)

Received some emailfeedback on that poem 'Schizophrenia', which I sent to the Poem Kingdom site a while back ... could send some of my latest 'stuff' there ... :)

[  June 24, 2001   '

Glancing over a few of those photocopied pages of CWG ... and as I said to Di once, I then wonder why i bother writing. Okay, what I write is my slant based on my experiences but it's pretty hard to compete with God for inspiration in the written word and clarity about how things are ... for the curious among you, I was glancing at this page ... {Better check the link just in case - if it's awry, then go to your nearest copy of 'Conversations with God' and turn to page 38 & 39. Or better still, think of something or some question that's been on your mind and open the book at 'random' }

Watched some old film clips this morning as i struggled to wake up ... this one was excellent ... makes one wonder what his other lyrics are like ...

'companions on the road' - from this morning's 'songs of praise' ...

May as well send BuddhaNet as a suggested link

... and what about Gary ...

Toady's mantra: "I might like to believe in all the wednesdays of my life"

More emails - may trnscribe the hilites in here at some stage ... brains & magnets ... sunlight & moods ... dogs & owners ... plus doggie heaven ... psych wards and the wisdom of the ages ... and still trying to describe/explain/re-create those amazing seven days in Acacia in feb '99 ... :)

Goathland & some interesting photo links

Like Cloudmaker by some aussie chap ... :)

And the first I click on is an old favourite ...

His descrip of Mt Cloudmaker and the Gangerang made me curious ... looks a nice spot - should add it to my aussie sites/sights collection ...

http://www.dhios.demon.co.uk/

[  June 25, 2001   '

A real surge last couple of days ... I will eventually get to typing up all the 'stuff' I scribbled down ...

And a corresponding surge in energy ... so, I stayed up late and watched something about 'conclusive' proof of aliens among us and abductions etc ... Nothing too earth shattering but it did toss up some interestin questions ...

Such as, what exactly WOULD constitute sufficient evidence or proof to the complete skeptic ... because even if they were abducted personally and taken to another planet, they could still write it off as a delusional experience or an hallucination ... which raises profound questions about the nature of reality & human experience ... :)

Could toss the following into the Google search engine and see what emerges - ALIEN IMPLANT - X-RAY - PROJECT AQUARIUS - THE BLACK VAULT WEBSITE - ROSWELL ... they did say that apart from sex, UFO-related matters is the second most popular topic in cyberspace ... and if you talk about alien abductions and embryos I suppose you combine the two top topics ...

Okay, now to a few sheets of scribbles laying on the floor of the computer room at my place ...

www.bowwow.com.au ( or is it bowow ?)

More random dialogue that has popped into my head recently -

"Oh, I feel great compassion for all the normal people. They're so frightened. You'd have to be awfully scared to spend an entire lifetime in a self-made prison like normality and conformity."

"If you want me to be brutally honest, I'd have to say that MOST of what people call helping is anything but. It is generally one person imposing their opinion of what another person should be doing onto that other person. This always stems from great insecurity. And to be perfectly blunt, you seem as insecure as the next person. Deep down you haven't really decided if the universe is an arbitrary and scary place where terrible things happen for no good reason or whether everything happens for a reason. You can't have it both ways and until you make that decision, you'll continue to be about as insecure as the next person."

{Needs work but there's a good idea or two in there ... just screaming to get out}

"I reckon most of us haven't got a fuckin clue what love is, really. But you'll never here anyone admit it. THAT'S the problem."

"I am worth the binary education of mankind."

"THe only way to make any real progress in this life is to completely abandon everything anyone has ever taught you about reality."

"Men and women like to enjoy all the extra performances of the lifetimes"

"People give their normals and then they give their normals away."

"In our ordinary waking consciousness, we know so little about the way reality works that it would be extremely foolish to make ANY judgements. But that doesn't seem to stop us, most of the time."

"Nobody's life is ever wasted. You only label a life as ruined or wasted when you are operating from a very imperfect understanding of the way it all works. You haven't the faintest idea why their soul would choose to experience such a life. So, making any judgement about the matter is quite absurd."

Today's mantra: "My family doctor told me that I was never even mentioned in the Bible"

Sent a message to the 'Healing Normality' message board - must remember to supply a link ... or just click here and find whatever I sent around June 24 or 25 ...

Been reading over those photocopies from that book about William Ricketts. Especially 'William Ricketts' Disarmament' by Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati. I may actually transcribe it soon and link it to my other Ricketts pages ... {and I have actually done a bit of that by the end of the day - well worth a squiz, IMHO}

www.blackvault.com is the address of that site I mentioned earlier ...

Amongst those photocopies etc. was an article I haven't read in a while ... about reincarnation and how it works ... lemme see was it from spiritweb? ... click

Elqui Valley on Global Village this Wednesday? - click - sounds a lot like Sufi mystics and the whirling dervishes ...

Interesting search for the aforementioned guru ... no sign of a mention of William though.

A bit more Laing ... click and scroll down to '[It is not] a matter of laying blame at anyone's door' ...

Or here

School of conscious art - some mind-altering stuff ...

Search of 'imperatives and needs of the soul' ...

The 4th way

[  June 26, 2001   '

More random dialogue -

"I have to admit there are times when it really makes me sad to look at the state of the world and to realise that most parents manage to infect their children with their worry, their insecurity, their caution and their suspicion and mistrust of the universe. I often wonder how this could ever really be expected to change significantly, when just about everyone is a carrier of the infection."

"I can give you plenty of good reasons to let go of your judgements but I can't do the actual letting go. That's a choice you have to make for yourself ..."

"If people want to think of me as weird, that's fine. I don't have this neurotic attachment to the approval or idsapproval of others that mst human beings seem to suffer from."

Poem? ---> How deranged are we ---> We think we can take a pill for all that ails us ---> examples ... (popped into my head while passing a chemist shop advertising 'anti-stress' pills ... funny how we all love to complain about all the tension in the world at the moment, yet most of us carry on with the age-old activities which create the tension in the first place ... the biggest cause of tension would have to be our propensity to judge our neighbour rather than make any real attempt to love thy neighbour in the truest sense ... :(

[  June 27, 2001   '

A spot more surfing ...

Ralph Melish ... scroll down to 'simple soul' ... :)

Re-reading some of that ET 101 book ... it is amazing ... for instance, click ...

Updated those aquarium photos after receiving them in my email ...

Other emails - about how my thoughts/feeling about God have undergone enormous change & fluctuation within this brief lifetime ... when you look bac to my schooldays in an ultra-strict Catholic school ... then my extended period with the atheist/cynical crowd ... it's almost like you;re describing somebody else's life ... :)

Plus medication versus meditation for 'illnesses' such as schizophrenia & depression ... plus the CWG book being the one I'd nominate to read if marooned on a desert island ... and the goosebumps I frequently experienced while opening its pages ...

If I'm going to recomend Neale's site ... I may as well have a bit of a wander through it myself ...

One of his tope ten books is here - Diet for a new America

Plus some good advice for what to do if/when somebody brings some 'bad energy' into a group ... and you're keen to be nonjudgemental if possible ...

{That's IF I remember to save & upload it to the right location in cyberspace ... if not you could search for the following phrase I suppose:

'horror stories of study groups falling apart because of the energy brought into the space by someone'}

Today's: "I''m not even sure if I'm insane but I can tell you things that are going on in my brain. Tiny electrons financially altering their purpose."

Earth Save - Healthy People, Healthy Planet is a site from a search of John Robbins book title ... and one article where he is attacked ... by vegetarians? ... and responds ... worth a read ...

In fact, the site was started in direct response to his book ...

Federation Flash # 51 arrives in my email as well ... articles on evolutionary possibilities, fanaticism, 'A Better World?' and The Voyage of Inner Peace ... pleasant & stimulating reading, if you're up for it ...

From a couple of days ago, I must have scribbled this down on a spare scrap of paper - a further reflection on the 'Mental health system' and how the current rules are actually a barrier to true healing. Case in point, physical contact between workers and clients is not just discouraged but there are rules against it. I suppose one can see the reasons such a rule would exist to avoid exploitation of those who are vulnerable but still, a person in distress may be in need of that contact e.g. a genuine hug ... non-sexual ... I suppose we're so mistrustful of ourselves & others that ... {this needs work} ... and there's a rule prohibiting inpatients from comforting each other in physical ways too ... I mean to ban holding hands is ... insane ... visitors are allowed to though ... what we need is voluntary visitors for those who have nobody else to turn to ... and in Feb '99 when I was still on cloud nine I thought about seriously suggesting such a scheme ... and maybe some day ... who knows ... ironically in the kind of world that would relax such crazy rules, you may find people aren't being driven to such distress by those around them ... hmmm ...

Also decided to scan rather than transcribe 'real Meeting' for the 'The Everyday Meditator' excerpts ... click {assuming I remember to upload it}

Oh yes, the reason I did that was NOT laziness but rather for the photo which perfectly illustrates what the text is attempting to convey. Like they say, a picture is worth a thousand whatevers ... :)

[  June 28, 2001   '

"The trouble is that most of us are absolutely addicted to judging others. Oh sure, some of us are very cunning and subtle about it ... and we might callit by another name ..."

Check out local.abc.net.au/melbourne for computer tips & help with Charles Wright ... some good points this morning about installing software and NOT using Outlook for email because it''s the target for MANY viruses ... he recommended 'The Hat' or something like that ...

Here is the actual page ...

Excellent second episode of 'The Human Face', if anything it was more stimulating & thought-provokin than the first. Or maybe it was just me.

Yes, when you look at it - eyes, mouth, nose, ears, hair, teeth, ... and each is unique ... and individual ...

And in us humans, the sense of sight tends to dominate.

'Once upon a time there were no faces at all ...'

Plus why do we recognise a caricature more reliably & quickly than a more true-to-life drawing of a person's face ...

They spoke with a couple of people with specific brain damage who could no longer recognise the faces of their own family ... tough to imagine what that would be like ... for both sides ...

They also measured emotional responses to certain faces ... the Dalai Lama produced a very positive response ... he does have that kind of face ...

Shows once again how sensitive and finely-tuned an instrument resides inside our skulls ... which brings home how dodgy it is to be playing around with its functioning by various pills ...

Looks like the Dalai himself will be on Compass this week.

Random site ... :)

Plus playing around with my random links generator ... tossed up this place ... and the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh ...

Yes, in the past week or so, I could add quite a few sites to that 'random' list ...

And I discovered the 'elk in the river' page has moved or been wiped ... here ... pity! it was a fabulous photo ... and 400k ...

... try here instead? - click

Humorous image ... :)

And from one of Dan Rhema's ... did a bit of a search on soul fragments ...

Found a bit more of that author's stuff ... such as Healing from a tree ...

Plus more at The Edge site ...

... and at Spiritweb ... Quantum shaman

which has some interestin stuff ... http://www.quantumshaman.com/html/screamtext.htm ... and links ... mate ...

Today's: "I know my life is weird and I think my life is strange but wait for just a second and this view may change"

One of those soul retrieval results has an interview with guess who ... speaks of the importance of drinking enough water to assist the body's healing system - the filtration done by the kidneys ... {I'm sure a LOT of what we do to our bods aint healthy! That's why there's so many books ... let alone what we do to our minds & souls ...}

Irina signs someone's guest book ... here ... and quite a few URL mentioned as well ... :)

Discovering Shamanism

Yes, looking over the sites visited today and thinking of what I included in my Ideal day program ... it's hard not to stifle a silent scream at the actual state of mental health services ... :(

For some reason, my mind also casts itself back to that movie 'Equus' and the psychiatrist lamenting the 'instinctual truths' we lost touch with when we decided to become civilised ... and how he envies the 'disturbed' boy who is at least trying to 'ignite one single flame of original ecstasy in the vast wasteland around him' {or words to that effect - I must dig the video out someday, Richard Burton is mesmerising ...}

...

To top off a busy day ... a couple of emails, one raised the question of suicide and when you look back on what my experiences have been like ... why I never did ...

... yeah, as MUCH as I have written over the years, words are just so inadequate to truly covey ... I mean what comes to mind when you read the word 'agony' or despair or anger or rage ... we form a picture of an experience we have personally had or witnessed ...

... but it is an obvious question to ask ... how did I endure what I did endure ... I mean, at the time I was a total total atheist. So, I had absolutely ZERO reason to endure anything ... let alone the indescribable torment of psychosis at its nadir ...

... maybe I had such a negative attitude that I half-suspected there'd be something even worse on the 'other side' for those who suicide, even though at the time I felt suicide was not only justified but it represented the only honest action or statement a human being could take ...

... I mean, I used to ask that very question of those I used to see everyday ... I wondered how-on-earth anyone could endure lives that seeemed to be unrelenting dreariness or misery ... at least mine was chaotic and unpredcitable ...

So, it absolutely defies belief that I never actually did suicide, during any one of the frequent low points. In my mind, I did kill myself a million times. If suicide were possible by merely wishing it, I'd have been dead twenty years or more. I honestly can't explain it. But I can totally understand those who do take their own lives, especially given the curent state of the mental 'health' system.

Or ... maybe at some subliminal level I knew I was burning up a whole LOT of past karma. If so, I musta been a real arsehole in some of my previous lives. Psychosis, at its worst is utterly beyond description, as you may have observed in some of the people you've worked with.

Just to confuse you a little bit further with theories/possibilities ... maybe I have suicided many times in past lives and that was my task for this life. To reach that point and choose not to go through with it. Then again, I really wanted to do it, I ... argh ... mate ...

... maybe I had a guardian angel ... or a squadron of them ... then that raises the rather vexed question of what happened with those who actually do suicide in one of those moments of existential despair when you honestly don't feel there's anything anyone can do and things will never get better ... or never sufficiently better to be worth hanging around for ...

... a moment of Temporary Insanity, if you like ...

I also had this vague feeling that my experiences were part of some purification process ... though I would have described it in very different conceptual terms than nowadays ...

Note: if anyone reads the above section and understands it, please send me an email ...

Anyway, these days, it is as if all those experiences were in a book I read and never happened to me personally. Such is the impermanence and changeability of the human condition. I mean, can we even prove yesterday actually happened, let alone ten, fifteen, twenty years ago ...

Phew, after all that, you probably need something to cheer you up ...

click

[  June 29, 2001   '

Continuing recent themes ... there's a site actually called 'Soul retrieval' ... here ... and if you look at his list of 'conditions' which respond to shamanic healing ... I'd have to send just about everyone I have ever met along for treatment ... I'm not exactly kidding either! Just one category 'sense of something missing' ... um, you can diagnose that from looking into the eyes of a huge chunk of the ordinary population in a society like this one ... I hate to say it ...

Yes, I live for the day when I read the following words in a mainstream psychiatric textbook: "Solutions to illness are found in three different, non-ordinary realities. These realities can be accessed by skilled, trained individuals known as Shamans." How long a wait that may be is anyone's guess ... :)

That was high on the list of results from a search of another choice phrase ...

Who knows, maybe one day 'soul retrieval' will be a term more widely used than 'chemical imbalance'. Oh, Geoff, you are wicked. But I like you.

'running streams as transparent as crystal'

Ah yes, going over yesterday's sites visited in the 'history' folder ... this one has to be seen to be believed. It's a good job I'm now a practitioner of nonjudgement (well, most of the time) ... click ...

I mean I myself have been accused of being 'out there' at times ...

Speaking of which, a search for a phrase I jotted down from last week's 500 Nations produced some interesting 'hits', including crystal insight, which makes some good points about it not being essential to know HOW something works :) ... click ...

Did a spot of pruning which was long overdue ... yet, I felt a tad reluctant after re-reading William's words about trees being living things ... I mean I always knew they were in one sense ... :)

More random dialogue pops into my head as I walk around the Dandenong Plaza ...

"Oh, I'm quite sure nobody can really understand what goes on in my head ... precisely because it is going on in MY head and not in theirs"

{brief relapse?} - "Why don't you focus your attention on your own inadequacies and shortcomings rather than on the perceived defects in others. Anyone who devotes a substantial amount of time & energy to pointing out the flaws in other people is probably too afraid to turn that probing analysis to the face that is in the mirror each morning." {needs work ... I mean I have to laugh at times when people dismiss their own shortcomings as 'bad luck', which is fine in itself but somehow the flaws in others are seen in a different light ... I mean if you believe there's not a whole lot you can do about your own personality & tendencies then why aren't other people allowed the same latitude? This itself needs work but maybe you can catch the gist of what I'm tryin to say, so I'll leave it here anyway ... }

Should send those shaman links to the 'Heal Normality' crew ... I'm sure they'd like that!

Getting back to yesterday's themes, isn't there a kind of catch-22? In the sense that if you have that vague sense of something missing and/or the existential despair, you do tend to close your mind and thus wouldn't be likely to consider such alternative healing possibilities. And I know all about being closed off and I would once have absolutely scoffed and mocked anyone suggesting ... and I cannot begin to fathom ho I got from 'there' to 'here'. It's a huge mystery, that's for sure.

Today's mantra: "People talk to me about the regions"

Like I need more stuff at my site ... well, as i'm about to lend 'In Six Days' to Mum & Dad for their holiday in Qld ... I flicked through it and it's well worth transcribing some ... I haven't seen a book like it in terms of the number of contributors on such a subject ... enjoy ...

I mean the intro is food-4-thought on its own and I am busily tapping away at the keyboard as we speak. So, by the time I upload this day's journal to the web, the intro at least ought to be there - it's only two pages ... and more to follow ... if not, please feel perfectly free to send me an email, by clicking on the image below:

... that should keep me outta mischief for a while ... :)

[  June 30, 2001   '

Rent a Cave

TONS of links for 'In Six days' - authors, bibliography, arguments, etc ... see history ...

Hatter's Hideout

Included that cave image in a post to the Heal Normality crew ... :) here ...

Reading over those links ... in the end, it's the NON physical aspects of our nature that are the most persuasive arguments ... how does evolution by 'mere chance' and mutation arrive at creatures like us ... capable of love, sacrifice, contemplation. meditation, discovery, creativity, etc ... many of which are from a strict 'survival' point of view not overly 'advantageous' or even beneficial necessarily ... you know what I;m trying to say ... :)

Let alone a sense of 'right' and 'wrong' and 'fairness' ... even if we don''t always act on it ...

Not to mention forgiveness, imagination, enjoyment etc ...

Speaking of interesting questions, I watched a most interesting movie called 'Flowers for Algernon'. Raised some very thorny issues about intelligence, love, experimentation on humans, our attitudes to those who don't 'measure up' etc etc ... very thought-provokin ...

See the little comments I added to the links section of those excerpts from 'In Six Days'.

... and my mischievious little mind takes it a bit further ... if indeed it's all pure chance, then why do we NOT view our opinions & beliefs in that way! It would have to be mere chance that your brain is wired that way!

Yes, if I wasn't intending to lend it, I might not have taken a fresh look at its contents. :) One author makes the good point that whatever the origin of life on this planet, it was a unique historical event. So which way you lean on the question is a matter of trust or faith, since there were no scientific observers at the event (well, not human ones anyway :)

Actually, another contributor says he does consider Genesis to be an eyewitness account from those spirits/beings that were in fact present ...

Yes, the heat generated by such a debate raises some interesting questions in itself. As I've often asked, why should it bother you one iota, why expend one microwatt getting angry or irritated or sarcastic if/when somebody happens to believe something different from yourself ... :)

... and BOTH sides tend to fall into the stance of 'you shouldn't think the way you do about relaity, my way is MUCH better, believe me' at times ... let alone Deepak's advice on the amount of energy we all tend to expend to defend a point-of-view ... :)

[Especially if it allowed to degenerate on either side into 'You must be an imbecile to think the way you do']

As we have asked on a few recent themes, just what WOULD constitute sufficient convincing evidence? After all, a voice in your head could be God or there might be an alternate explanation. :)

When you look at creatures such as we, you'll observe a few features that, in strict survival terms, are absolutely DISadvantageous! ... hatred, anger, animosity, despair ...

Stephen Grocott articulates some of my thinking on the question ... nicely ... IMO ...

Flowers for algernon

ditto

Interesting site from one of today's excursions

All of which brings us, ina roundabout kind of way, to today's mantra: "I was born into the world with my own personal family medical expert"

Nearing the end of the day, I visit Grace watcher ... I like his advice: 'Read the entire site before writing me off as crazy' ... :)

... and he invites email ...

Leads me to The keys of Enoch

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