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Mandy
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 1018
This was more than a little bit disturbing. A peculiar film, with some surreal and humorous moments, not critique-able with normal film standards, more a vehicle for the insanity of Nicholas Cage. Worthwhile, after the fashion of an entertaining nightmare, I'd give it a review of "Nicholas Cage turns it up to 11", and that about sums it up.
I should note that while I found it disturbing, for many people it's just another day in Middle America, and therein lies the horror...
Clinton Killed Epstein
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: WTF
- Hits: 1236
Now at the beginning it was looking a little suspicious...Jeffrey Epstein, notorious child sex trafficker, attempts suicide. He denies it and blames killer cellmate cop. Cop claims he "saved him". Later on, through a series of circumstances that beggar the mind and presume an incompetence beyond even what law enforcement is generally capable of, Epstein attempts to kill himself "again" and succeeds.
Now the catalog of errors here is beyond unbelievable, and I'm not conspiracy-minded, but there comes a time when it seems pretty obvious that you are either to accept a dozen far out explanations that lead to Epstein killing himself in inexplicable circumstance, or - simply - that he was killed and it was very poorly covered up and not at all investigated.
I'm thinking Clinton killed Epstein, and maybe Prince Andrew did too. But he sure as hell didn't do it himself.
Read the Wiki here and make up your own mind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jeffrey_Epstein
Evolutions in Thought
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 1272
Considering, (not surprising, given my reading), the evolution mankind has undergone in terms of his thinking. (I use the terms "his", "him", "man" etc. in a gender-indifferent fashion, please don't waste my time with any politically correct gender-fascism.)
First - there is language. "In the beginning was the word...". Nothing we have done before or since has come close. Language both defines ourselves, our world and our place within it. This beginning with the word, common not just to Christianity and Judaism but a thousand different creation myths across as many cultures - this is not an accident.
Think - there are tribes (some still in existence) - that cannot distinguish between green and blue, and have to be taught the difference gradually with colored cards, have to be taught that there is a difference and then to discriminate between them.
There are arguments that even as recently as a few thousand years ago humans didn't "see blue", or not certainly as we see it today. And think of how language has evolved - across different cultures, to reflect our current epoch. The evolution of language since the invention of the World Wide Web, even, a relatively short span, how many new phrases have come into vogue? First - uncommonly to describe things that were imagined, yet not in existence, and then again commonly to describe them when they had been brought into existence.
And there are other languages, of which most of us know nothing - the language of musicians, notes, keys, clefs, of painters, whose language must naturally encompass a richer vocabulary for hue and texture, whose eye must discriminate, the jargon of a thousand unrelated professions from Priest through doctor, computer programmer, lawyer, each with a common tongue, but each as well with his own unintelligible vocabulary that allows him communion with his peers.
Language - note - not written language - but oral traditions, folklore, is what defines us, changes us, Christianity an excellent example of a myth destroyed by writing it down, in it's innumerable translations having lost almost all of it's symbolism and meanings, lost - through history, distance, through a general inability of the written word to convey over time the breadth, magnitude and symbolism of living experience.
Math, which I had considered separately but reconsidered - it's own language - but language as well, Math, the invention of (was math discovered? Or invented?) which facilitated architecture - the building of the pyramids, of Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, of spaceflight and - if we should as a species live to see it - interstellar travel. And each addition to Math's language - for example the 0, Pi, then negative numbers, prime numbers, and a thousand other concepts beyond the scope of this post - each led on to countless new discoveries and achievements. And - marvel then, that each discovery or invention follows almost as a matter of necessity from the one before it.
"In the beginning was the word...", and if you are to believe it, this makes us Gods.
How, then, can we make it better? What changes in language will improve our lot?
Now, this is a good jumping off place, considering the different cultures across the world, and how their language shapes them, defines experiences that you can't have or recognize unless you speak their language, think of what is lost when a language goes extinct, and think of what we can add to ours to make the future a more interesting place...
Tulpa
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 1671
I came across this a long time ago when reading up on Tibetan Mysticism, and had need of the word a few weeks ago but couldn't remember or find it. But - no sooner do you put the question out there than the internet reflects the answer back to you...
Tulpas:
Any doubts I had were allayed by the fact they have their own website. And the "For Science" slogan in the upper left. Uh-huh. In any event you can't broach a topic like this without incurring a fair bit of "woo-woo", so you have to sift the "evidence" and "testimonials" with more than a grain of salt.
But seriously, this has some curious ideas embedded within it - as in, this voluntary creation of another personality in a way resembles multiple-personality disorder, only the one is the willful creation of someone the creator wishes (and presumably can get along with), the other is the involuntary creation of a personality that often isn't liked by the principal conscious inhabitant. And the idea of projecting it into the wider world around us, that it can assume it's own corporeal shape and grow independent of the creator, well, there's some serious food for thought.
Note: We do this otherwise, with people, children, technology, etc - but there is always the intermediary step of physical creation, with Tulpas there is not.
Related: Golem, Frankenstein's Monster, Shamanism, Spirit Guides, Psychopomps, Alexandra David-Neel oh, once you begin this one you can be led down a great many rabbit holes...
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